Bye Bye New York

Sunday July 17

When I made my reservations to depart New York I had two choices. Leave at 7:00 am or leave at 9:00 pm.  I’ve done that crazy 7:00 am flight before and I end up ruining the night before because I have to get up at 3:00 am in order to catch the shuttle.  So I decided to bank on the fact that the hotel would give me a late check out, (after all I was a long term customer), and have one more day in the city. So my great late check out ended up being for an extra hour-how generous of them-so I stowed my bags and went off on my last few hours of exploration.

One of the wacky things I did in NYC was to take photos of every Chase logo, sign or bank I saw.  My friends thought I was crazy, but it kept reminding me that I was spending someone else’s money and I had an obligation to make wise decisions.  So on Sunday I found a few more Chase signs to shoot.

That Sunday was the hottest day of my trip so I limited my walking to the NY Public Library, explored some more buildings, did last minute shopping and ended up in Bryant Park.  This was a great location to sit and reflect on my amazing ten days and figure out what I needed to do next.   I did more thinking than planning but I did manage to review my time, flesh out some notes and catch up with a few people who I couldn’t fit into my schedule.  Eli Bolin, one of the students I had really wanted to catch up with (Sesame Street composer and one of the founders of The Story Pirates) had spent the last few weeks battling walking pneumonia and bronchitis.  The good news is that he is spending two weeks in Claremont in August so we have a plan to meet at that time. 

After a quick shuttle to JFK I had more time in the airport to work.   Since my blog went haywire sometime during the week (the entire thing was only in the Wingding font and I couldn’t get anything to work so I could read it or post) I made more notes and continued to type my blog into a Word document.  I hate not having teenagers to help solve my computer dilemmas. 

I think it will take many weeks, if not months, to digest my experiences in New York. Sharing the workshops with other theatre director friends has given us the opportunity to bounce ideas for our classes off of one another during our other conferences this summer, and .  I also found that as I blogged about my experiences it gave me the time to reflect and review the workshops, shows and meetings.  A huge side benefit was that I kept researching facts, people, dates and shows as I typed to make sure I was getting everything correct.  Each time I would research one thing it took me to something else and I ended up learning even more about events, people and the history of the different shows.

At this point I know that this experience has given me a renewed energy as a director, teacher and theatre educator.  I’m guessing that this year I will win the “what I did with my summer vacation” contest with my colleagues.  Sadly, there is no prize for this contest.  Truthfully, I already won the prize.  The good news is that what I did this summer in New York will have a life long effect on both myself and my students.   

John Lee Beatty, DJ Gray & Joey (the War Horse)

Saturday July 16

My time in New York was quickly coming to an end but I had a great weekend full of amazing theatre, conversation and reflection ahead of me.

On Saturday I confirmed my lunch with alumni John Lee Beatty.  He made a plan for us to meet at the Red Eye Grill (across from Carnegie Hall), one of the restaurants in Manhattan he designed.

I decided to start out several hours early and make a big loop around mid town to look at several of the sights I hadn’t seen.  I headed towards Rockefeller Center, went to the Met store and continued down 5^th Avenue.  As I walked down the street I started taking more photos of all the interesting buildings.  I’ve designed my share of sets (always with someone else making the renderings) and I continue to be intrigued by the architecture of the buildings and what I can use for a future set designs or just as inspiration for an upcoming set. 

I saw a great building and starting snapping away and finally realized it was St Patrick’s Cathedral.  I spent quite a bit of time inside, amazed that photography was allowed, and took many beautiful shots of the different aspects of the church's interior.

As I continued down 5^th Avenue I snapped photos of the clever Louis Vuitton window display of ostriches with luggage, the front of the Plaza Hotel, the Eloise window displays, Central Park, FAO Schwartz and the seemingly always under construction Carnegie Hall.

Meeting John Beatty was one of the events I was most looking forward to.  John was a legend at Claremont HS having done some amazing set designs while still in HS.  Don Fruechte, our theatre instructor, had also pushed John into doing costume design while in HS, and John is also a talented costume designer.

After CHS John attended Brown for his undergrad and the Yale School of Drama. He has been nominated for 13 Tony Awards (winning one) and has won five Drama Desk awards.  Some of John’s notable sets designs on Broadway include: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Talley’s Folly, Fifth of July, Crimes of the Heart, Baby, Burn This, The Most Happy Fella, The Sisters Rosensweig, The Heiress, Chicago, Once Upon a Mattress, Footloose, Proof, Morning’s at Seven, Master Harold…and the boys, Wonderful Town, Doubt, The Color Purple, Rabbit Hole, The Royal Family, A View from the Bridge, Lend Me a Tenor, Driving Miss Daisy and Born Yesterday. Not too shabby.

Although we have corresponded over the years this was our first in person meeting.  When I first starting teaching at Claremont HS John’s mother  Caroline used to come to my shows, give me lots of encouragement and fill me in on his latest projects.

During lunch we talked about CHS Theatre, my CTG project, 21^st Century Skills and his latest projects.  He had just returned from the Stratford Festival where he is designing The Misanthrope, he will soon open a production of Merrily We Roll Along, and will be in LA to design Poor Behavior at the Taper in the fall.  John asked me my opinion about every show I had seen, and wanted to hear about the other alumni I had met with.  Although he knew Michael Alden, (both of them had flown out Don Fruechte to attend the Tony Awards as few years ago when they were both nominated), he had worked with DJ Gray and Ana Rose several times, but had no idea they were also CHS alums.  He agreed that a data base of alumni would be a good idea, especially for those who end up in New York. 

John had lots of great stories about his journey from CHS to Broadway, and marveled at the changes in our department in the years since he had attended CHS.  We both lamented over the sad fact that we still don’t have a fly loft and he quickly sketched out on the table (on the paper overlay) a great idea he learned in summer stock for drops when there are no flies.  I’ve already shared it with my ROP Stage Technology Teacher and we hope to use it this season in either Winnie the Pooh or All Shook Up.

If his schedule allows John will bring his portfolio with him this fall and come speak to some of my theatre students while he is in Los Angeles.  In the meantime, he is continuing to support our Theatre Renovation Project and hopes to get updates about the program.

I managed to squeeze in a super quick trip to the Empire State Building.  Spending a short amount of time there (all I had) was hard since I can look at and photograph anything Art Deco for hours but I was scheduled to meet DJ Gray for dinner.

Book ending my NY trip with visits with DJ was the perfect plan.  She and I have worked together for 18 years at CHS.  She always brought a different perspective to our program from her years of performing, tours, choreography and directing. A few years ago she moved to New York, yet continued to come back and choreograph our shows.  Her run as a performer in The Producers, Associate Choreography credits in Xanadu and Putnam County Spelling Bee, her projects with Stephen Sondheim and many TV choreography credits make her the perfect person to give the students an up to the minute experience about theatre’s professional side.  She is amazing with young people and will give them a lifetime of experience in short time.

DJ is one of the only people who knows me and my program well enough to discuss the best way to proceed with all of the information and experiences I have over the ten days.  She was a great sounding board and encouraged me to take the program to the next level, and challenged me to raise the bar with both my students, colleague and myself.   She also volunteered to help develop the workshops.  She still travels back to California for many projects so having her do an after school or weekend workshop is in the schedule in the near future.

A few quick steps from dinner and I arrived at Lincoln Center for War Horse.

I purposely bought my War Horse tickets for the last night I was in New York.  I really didn’t think anything else would live up to it, and I didn’t want to end my experience on a down note.  The show definitely didn’t disappoint.  War Horse is a simple story, but the ensemble production, along with amazing puppetry, makes it more than worthy of the Tony Award.

My experience of puppetry is limited. I had the Rogue Theatre Ensemble (founded by some CHS theatre alums) come into my IB class last year and do workshops on Bunruku puppetry with my students. They took the kids through the process of building the puppets and how to make them come alive in front of an audience.  A key to the believability of the puppets is the breathing and the way the puppeteers need to bend the legs and show their breath.

I remember the first time I saw The Lion King.  It was a new way of looking at theatre, performances and the marriage of actor and puppet. When the first actors came onstage I kept looking back and forth between the actor and puppet.  After a few short minutes the entire audience loses sight of the two separate units and we saw them as one unified character.

When the horse comes onto the stage the audience notices the actors within the body and the one manipulating the head.  However, the actors quickly disappear into the background as we get caught up in the ears, flicking of the tail, breathing and horse sounds coming from the animal. 

I spent 8+ years sitting at a horse ranch while one of my daughters rode horses.  Although not a rider myself (I didn’t get the “horse gene”) I observed the animals close up and got to know their personalities, traits and mannerisms.  As a worried parent I wanted to know what that horse was thinking and how to predict when Dylan might get thrown from the horse-an event that took us to the emergency room at least twice over the years.

So I was surprised to find myself watching War Horse and tensing up as the horses were in battle, charging and going down when wounded.  Why was I tense? Because I believed those animals were real, feeling pain and dying.  That investment I had in the characters is what makes great theatre. 

I was also amazed at the nuances of the tail and the realistic horse sounds.  Those three puppeteers had to be so in sync with each other to bring the animal to life and do it without any verbal communication.  This was true ensemble work.

In addition to the amazing horses I really enjoyed the simplicity of set design.  The projections were period sketches that detailed where the scene was set and moved as the show changed locations.  Simple, but effective.

The puppets shouldn’t overshadow the outstanding ensemble work of the actors.  Most of the cast plays multiple roles and the staging, pace and energy combined with the horses, sets and story made for an inspiring evening of theatre.

Leaving War Horse and walking back to my hotel gave me the opportunity to think about how I could use some of the work I saw in my classroom.  Looking back at the BTW puppet work with John Tartaglia made me brainstorm some ideas for my IB students to take those Bunraku workshops from last fall, and make some animal puppets which could combine research, movement, ensemble work, problem solving and performance. How IB! And how 21^st Century Skills.

The day I learned so much my brain almost exploded

Friday July 15 

This was the day I was scheduled to spend with Ana Rose Greene.  Ana Rose was one of my most talented and hard working technicians who went to Boston U after graduation to major in Technical Theatre.  She spent her summers doing theatrical internships, and had the opportunity to leave school and go to work before getting her degree.  She ended up finishing at BU and joined the company Juniper Street Productions where she is a partner with three other BU grads.

In a short number of years (since 2000) Juniper Street has served as the Production Company or Technical Supervisors for shows such as The Producers, Medea, Lestat, All Shook Up, Grey Gardens, Xanadu, Gypsy, Thurgood, 33 Variations, Oleanna, Billy Elliot, Chicago, Memphis, Lend Me a Tenor, Million Dollar Quartet, Promises, Promises, How to Succeed, Spiderman and many more.

We started the day in Ana Rose’s Times Square office where she was giving a summer intern a days worth of assignments.  She packed a big bag of paperwork and off we went.  First stop was to New World Stages so she could check on the transfer of Million Dollar Quartet from Broadway.  It appears to be a new trend with BW shows to move to an Off  BW location. Apparently the thought is that as a show is slowing down it can move to a smaller, cheaper location and keep running for an indefinite time. This worked with Avenue Q and The 39 Steps, so MDQ is the next production to move in order to lengthen it’s run.  I meet members of the crew who had just finished cutting down the set in order to fit into a smaller space. I love that they just picked up the Sawzall and actually cut it down.  The show was about two weeks away from opening and she quickly checked with the Master Electrician, Carpenters, and rep from her office that was in charge of the load in.  All was going smoothly and ahead of schedule, so we went out for lunch.

Over lunch I asked her tons of questions. Most of them were about the process of  how her company got a show and what their responsibilities are once they are hired.  It seems that the company took off very quickly and immediately became one of the most sought after Production Company’s in New York.  They contract out their set work to a couple of scenic houses and have a roster of favorite Electricians, Carpenters, and Technicians who often work many of their shows.  Usually they take a show from its inception until opening night. At that point they usually check on a show once a week for a while and then once a month throughout the run.  Their pay is based is directly tied to when a show is actually performing. Getting a show ready to go out on tour is a separate project.

We spent a great deal of the day talking about Spiderman.  This project has consumed Ana Rose’s life for the last four years.  Originally she was only involved in the production aspects of the show. However, when the construction foreman in charge of re building the Foxwoods Theatre was taken ill she became the person in charge of the theatre rebuild. 

The other interesting information was that when her partner negotiated the Spiderman contract she specified that Juniper Street would get paid every week, regardless of the show running or not.  This particular clause kept their company from going under during the months that Spiderman went dark and re worked the show. Since the show went into previews, closed and was re mounted they (Juniper Street) refers to it as Spiderman 1.0 and 2.0.  This became very important when the show was performing 1.0 at night and rehearsing 2.0 during the day.  Ana Rose talked about the difficulty of the Stage Management team (there are many of them) being able to call one show at night but having to learn a new one during the day and keeping it all straight for many months.

Our next stop was the Foxwoods Theatre so Ana Rose could have a quick meeting and check on some rehearsals. Fridays are typically the day where understudies are worked into a show.  While she was having a meeting I got to sit in the house and watch one of the five actors who flies as Spiderman have a fly rehearsal.  The young man was going into the show in the next few days and the SM was working with him on his flights.  Since I had seen the show I was able to understand where the flights were in the action of the show. I was also able to sit in the front few rows and see the landing in the balcony and listen to the meticulous safety precautions being taken.

At this point I got a detailed, bottom to top tour of the entire theatre. Since Ana Rose had been there from the beginning she was able to give me the complete history of the build.  The original proscenium plaster was removed and is in storage until the show closes.  At that point it must be re installed.  We literally stood on a five foot plank overlooking the basement so I could see where they dug down so far they hit the bedrock of Manhattan, and removed the firewall of the theatre so there would be room for the motors needed to operate the effects.  A new firewall was built (a large chunk of change there).

At the stage level several huge traps were built so that many of the sets stored in the basement could be stored and come up through the floor. Every square inch of the basement was full of sets, props and items from the show.

In the wings more of the sets are stored in hammocks that hang at various levels.  I saw this in several of the Broadway houses. The wings are ridiculously small and this is a space saving solution.

We moved up through the levels of the theatre looking at the two rooms (on two different floors) where Kim Grigsby and her orchestra conduct the show using monitors.  Costumes hung on the walls of the hallways ready for that night's show and there was a great deal of actor/crew activity everywhere.

After a climb to the rafters I got to see the incredibly complicated workings of  a motor and winch system that flies the actors and sets.  This show is so dependent on this technology that when one motor recently went out the show went dark for a night.  Since most of the technology was developed for this show when a piece of equipment goes down they can only problem solve internally and go to the manufacturer for help. 

I also learned about the safety measures that were put into place from the beginning of the show and how the production is even more regulated since all of the show’s accidents. Clips attaching to the actors are checked by two technicians and radioed back to the SM.  There is an elaborate check system to ensure actor safety.

After my theatre tour I got to watch more rehearsals involving the weaving of the web (one of my favorite scenes) as they worked an understudy into the scene.  I also watched some scene work and musical rehearsals for the Peter Parker understudy who is preparing to take over for Reeve Carney when he goes on vacation in August. One of my favorite moments is when the MD had to call out the actors for screwing around and get them to settle down and rehearse. It sounded a bit like a Claremont HS rehearsal.

There was so much that I saw and learned at the theatre, but I can’t write forever so I’ve just covered the highlights.

Our next stop was at the Marquis Theatre to check on the progress of the Follies move in.  This production was moving up from the Kennedy Center and was slated to open in late August.  The only work being done at this point was the electrician staff.  Their Master Electrician is a man who has worked on many of their shows so I learned a lot about his role in the process of the move in.

During an Iced Tea break we continued to talk about the role of Juniper Street Productions in the Broadway World.  Ana Rose talked very honestly about their experiences working on Spiderman.  At one point for about a year and a half all four partners of the company were working full time on this show.  Their fear was that once the show re opened and didn’t need their day to day attention no one would know they were still in business and think to call them for a show. Luckily, the Million Dollar Quartet and Follies gigs came up and they are working on the Billy Elliot tour this summer.

Her life revolves around a great deal of work.  She usually works 7 days a week and moved closer to the city because she was usually working so late that the trains didn’t run to where she lived late at night.  Other than some work related trips to Vegas, she hasn’t been West in quite a while.  Work is so consuming that she (and the cast/crew) had Thanksgiving dinner in the lobby of the Foxwoods Theatre last year. It was during this rehearsal in NY that my brother in law was getting phone calls during our Thanksgiving with updates about the production.

We talked a lot about what the CHS Theatre prepared her for in terms of what she does now.  She said that at college no other student had worked the amount of shows she had, and the opportunities she had at CHS included a great deal of  leading other students, working out complex problems, design, solving technical dilemmas and being given a great deal of responsibility. I think Ana Rose gave CHS too much credit. She comes from a family with a wealth of theatre experiences and having a father who runs the Hyperion Theatre at California Adventure certainly puts the Technical Theatre gene in her DNA.

We talked about the idea of connecting the CHS Theatre alumni in the NY theatre world. She was excited about this idea and volunteered to mentor younger CHS students.

This was a great day. I couldn’t have written a better script in order to take a look at what skills a theatre department needs to teach students in order to prepare them for the real world-especially the world of Professional Theatre.

I think most teachers go their entire career without seeing the “fruits of their labor.”  I can’t express how appreciative I was during the day I spent with Ana Rose as she kept introducing me as her HS Theatre teacher and the reason she was doing what she is doing.  How cool is that?

I knew that after the day I had with Ana Rose whatever I did that evening would be a let down.  I snagged a ticket to Anything Goes and just went to watch a good show with some great performances.  Leave it to Sutton Foster to deliver. Joel Grey was fun, but not as electric as his performance in Cabaret (not really a fair comparison).  The show was fast paced, great dancing, costumes, sets and just plain fun.  Besides, I  love a good tap show. 

Being a Tourist and hearing more stories-July 14

Thursday July 14

This day turned into a bit of a tourist/family day in NYC. By pure coincidence one of my twin daughters, Taylor, was in NY for her college orientation at Hofstra. While she was in Long Island at school my husband Phil came up to the city so we could do a morning of sight seeing.  We took a quick trip out to the Statue of Liberty and made an even shorter stop at Ellis Island. 

My lunch date for Thursday had been set up for weeks and was one of those great opportunities to connect with a theatre professional.  This past February I had directed a production of Starmites.  We had the show adjudicated by the Educational Theatre Association for the International Thespian Festival.  In March we found out we’re taking the show to the U of Nebraska to perform.

I had received several messages from Barry Keating, the author, wishing us well on our show. During the remount of the production in mid June, to ready the show for Nebraska, I had contacted Barry to help out with a royalty dispute with Samuel French.  He sent me advice and offered to help out however needed. 

After returning from the ITS Festival my students were so touched by the video Barry made for them (and sent to festival for them to see just before their show opened) they sat down and made a beautiful scrapbook for him detailing “The Road to Nebraska.” The kids spent a week printing out photos, designing pages, using quotes from the show and labeling all of the cast, crew, staff and chaperones who helped get the show on the road.  It was my job to carry the scrapbook to New York and give it to Barry.

Our lunch was full of conversation and sharing.  What a treat to hear the history of a production from the first germ of an idea, through the writing process, to casting, off Broadway, Tony nominations and to the writing of the additional versions created in recent years-all told by the author himself.  I was able to ask him anything-his inspirations, why he made a particular choice, his creative process and so much more. Basically, no question was off limits.  I’ve through my friendship with Barry Keating that authors are very attached to their work.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise to me. I’m often sad to see a particular show close, but I am primarily a director, producer and theatre educator. I don’t write plays and have never wanted to, but the attachment Barry Keating has to his work was remarkable to me.  He follows many of the Starmites productions around the country and he is genuinely interested in how our production went, the choices made and how the kids reacted to the material.

Barry was also a wealth of information about the New York theatre scene during the last thirty-five years. He has had directed several productions, including the rock opera that launched Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell album and Penn & Teller’s first stage show. He has been very involved with puppetry and has done extensive work with Jim Henson’s Muppets. He is very involved in the Theatre World Awards, an award for newcomers to the Off and Broadway stages, as well as being on their board of directors.

Barry also offered to come to Claremont HS and do some workshops with my students in the future. One of my favorite pictures (of the 1200+ I took in NY) is of Barry looking at the scrapbook my students made for him.

Immediately after my lunch I hustled over to Times Square for a meeting with Michael Alden.  Michael is an alumni who has spent most of his career producing on the two coasts. His work has appeared at La Jolla Playhouse, the Falcon in Burbank, on tour, and on Broadway.  One of his latest projects was producing Grey Gardens, which earned him a Tony nomination.  Currently he is working on casting the stage version of The King’s Speech, which is set to open in London this January.  I got to hear about the challenges of casting the show and how many highly regarded British actors had turned down the lead roles-so far.

Lots of our conversation focused on all of the opportunities we both had as students in the CHS Theatre program.  The challenging shows and curriculum was only part of it.  Michael stressed that what set up a part from many of our peers was being expected to problem solve, work with many adults, work with students of all abilities, advanced problem solving and working as a group of diverse students to rehearse, build and perform our shows.

Michael is a gold mine of information and ideas.  As we talked about which alumni I was seeing he brought to my attention what all the alumni were saying-many of them had worked together but few of them knew they had come from the same department. He also shared a great story about Charles Nelson Reilly taking him to Sardis to hear Rod Gilfry, the opera singer, perform.  Afterward Rod and Michael were chatting about where they were from and discovered that they had both spent a year at Claremont HS together. Their paths had never really crossed in HS since Michael graduated during Rod’s first year and Rod didn’t get involved in theatre until his sophomore year when he started performing in many of our shows.

Besides being a great resource it was important for me to hear Michael’s perspective since he was the only alumni I’m meeting with who went straight from HS to work, and does not have a college degree.  We talked about what that meant and how it had impacted his professional life.  Michael explained that most of us-whether in the theatre or business world-made connections in college that we use as our contacts-or “posse”-as Michael calls them.  Since he never had the college experience his posse are his classmates from the CHS Theatre.  As a result of our conversation he is very interested in me (and hopefully my student Thespian officers) getting a database of our alumni involved in theatre organized and out to everyone.  Michael is also interested in mentoring younger theatre professionals and says he can’t do this if he doesn’t know who they are.  This project puts another big job on the TO DO list for summer.

Another of Michael’s great ideas is to look into some financial backing for my Alumni workshops-he has a grand plan to film and copyright them and perhaps have them seen nationwide. While I think this would be a huge resource for theatre teachers and students who don’t have the opportunity to have guest artists in person, it is a daunting charge.  However, I do think it is a viable project for future summers. 

At this point I’m beginning to wonder if I have enough summers to get all of my projects started, much less completed.

Hard to believe it was still Thursday. 

My dinner date was the only non CHS Alumni I was seeing, but it was still a treat to meet with Laura Daniel.  Laura was one of my first alumni from Hemet HS and she has spent the last 23 years as a working actress in New York.  Laura has done a lot of workshop productions of musicals, and new works projects.  I heard all about the ups and downs of her career, as well as how she kept a positive attitude when she wasn’t performing.  By far the most inspirational message I got from Laura is that she never stops being a student.  She is constantly taking classes, learning, watching shows, and keeping her performing muscles limber as she works on her craft learning new skills. 

Thursday night gave me the opportunity to take Taylor, back in the city from her orientation, to her first Broadway show.  I choose Billy Elliot since I had seen it last fall and thought it would be a winner.  She loved the show and we (Phil too) went for Juniors after for some cheesecake and show discussion.  This was also a celebration since Taylor had declared her major that afternoon-theatre! She became the fifth member of our family five to become a theatre major.  

Post Workshop Reflections on 21st Century Skills

Even though I haven’t blogged much about the 21^st Century Skills (key to my project) they have been on my mind most of the time I’ve been in my workshops. Every time I looked at what skills are learned through the study of Musical Theatre  I actually couldn’t think of many that ARE’NT taught through MT.   Any one who has taught theatre for two weeks knows that we are constantly teaching, and students are continuously learning, 21^st Century Skills. But in this age of testing and accountability simply saying we teach them is not enough.

The 21^st Century Skills Map shows a few of the ways that students acquire 21^st Century Learning Skills through arts study. It is crucial that we prepare our students to be creative, curious, communicative, learn how to understand and evaluate data, information, media and technology, be flexible, and understand the perspectives of others. Wow-what a charge!

The 21^st Century Skills Map lays them out in an easy to understand document.  It lists the skill, a definition of that skill, an Interdisciplinary Theme, and Sample Student Outcomes/Examples. The map is broken up into the following areas: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Innovation, Information Literacy, Media Literacy, Information/Communication/Technology Literacy, Flexibility and Adaptability, Initiative and Self Direction, Social and Cross Cultural Skills, Productivity and Accountability, Leadership and Responsibility.

As I look over the Map I keep seeing key words: interconnections, analyze, synthesize, articulate, flexibility, collaborative, diverse perspectives, demonstrate, communicate, evaluate, adapt, work effectively, prioritize, cultural differences, work ethic and community.

These words could be a road map for preparing any student to move into the next phase of their life.  Truthfully, these words could apply to me as I spend the next three years creating workshops for my students. Heck, I know lots of adults who could use these words to more successfully navigate their own futures.

So, what are some specific examples of how the study of MT can prepare a student for the 21^st Century world?

How about:

•  improvisation during an onstage or offstage moment gone wrong,

• thinking quickly in a stressful situation

• following directions from a director, TD, MD, Conductor, dance captain and more

• audition skills

• non verbal communication including reading cues from others around you

• social skills and getting along with others

• researching a time period/composer, theatre style, construction or design technique        

• spatial relationships in a large group on stage

• working outside one’s comfort zone

• analyzing a character

• time management when balancing school, activities, family and a production schedule

• being on time

• taking initiative

• leadership skills

• working with a group for a common goal

• learning initiative with regard to on stage and backstage choices

• technology in theatre design, lighting, audio, special effects, and rigging

• public speaking including pronunciation and enunciation

The Arts are a powerful preparation for college, career and what life has in store for any student.

It is in this transition from Workshops to my meetings with the Alumni Theatre Professionals that I am beginning to focus on what skills they learned as a student in the CHS Theatre that they are using today and what skills they wished they had acquired knowing where their life has taken them. 

Actually, these are the two questions I am going to be asking.

Broadway Teacher Workshop-last two shows/Broadway Cares visit

We all left our last workshop with Stephen Sondheim with our head full of information and feeling very immersed in our craft.  There wasn’t much time to process it all since we  needed to be at the theatre for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying by 2:00 pm.  I like this show a lot and was looking forward to seeing what the revival (of a revival of a revival) looked like, especially after hearing about the history of the show from Jo Loesser.

I don’t think I’ve ever approached a theatre and been physically blocked by hundreds of day campers (in matching T shirts) squealing with excitement over seeing Harry Potter in a show. I suppose this is where I need to confess a dirty, personal secret that only my family knows: I have never seen or read any of the HP books or movies.  I think I was the only person in the theatre who was able to take Daniel Radcliffe at face value-I had nothing to compare him to.

So far, this is the best show I’ve seen. It was well directed, quick pace, terrific design elements (especially costumes and sets) and took what can be a dated show and made it fresh and fun.  It is definitely not a show for ten year old campers as the director really played up many sexual elements that aren’t in the script, but they worked great for the rest of us.

The creative team made some great new choices in adding the ensemble to the fight song, the love duet at the end of Act One, and worked in more dancing to Coffee Break. It was all so well done that I had to ask friends who had directed it since my last production (1996ish)

if those additions were in the script and I had just forgotten about them.

An added bonus of the show was seeing that it is another production of Juniper Street Productions so I would be able to ask Ana Rose some technical questions later in the week.

The cast was a full of seasoned pros. John Larroquette  was a riot, as was Tammy Blanchard as Hedy and the great character work of the head secretary Daniel Radcliffe did a good job. He held his own vocally, was a strong actor and is a heck of dancer for a performer with little dance background.  At the Q & A after the show all of the leads gave a shout out to Daniel who spent two weeks learning choreography before he came to any rehearsals. They also mentioned that he came to the first rehearsal knowing the name of every cast and crew member and has been an excellent ensemble member of the company.

Between the theatre and a quick dinner (because we had another show) Carolyn Greer, one of her alumni, Heath, and I went for a quick visit with our good friend Joe Norton.  Joe is the Associate Director of Education and Outreach at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA).   I met him years ago at an Educational Theatre Association conference, and have been lucky enough to have him attend and guest direct at the CA State Thespian Festival. Broadway Cares is the charity that The International Thespian Society has adopted and both Carolyn (with Kentucky Thespians) and I (with CA Thespians), and The International Thespian Festival has raised over $678,000.00 since 1999 for BC/EFA. 

It was great for us to meet so many of the staff members who we had heard about, read about and corresponded with over the years.  What a friendly group of people-especially since it was Broadway Barks Week and the day before their huge Fire Island Fundraiser. How cool that Joe’s office window looks out over Times Square.  We heard great insight from Joe about the theatre community’s response to AIDS education and the power of young theatre students and their volunteer efforts. As a matter of fact the young Thespian with us, Heath, had volunteered for BC/EFA when he first moved to NY.  Most of the staff recognized him and talked about the IMPACT project he spearheaded.

One of the items Joe shared with us is that whenever a resume comes into the office and it is from a Thespian that paperwork goes to the top of their pile.  Thespians + BC/EFA has been an amazing partnership that continues to teach students the importance of volunteering and community activism.

That quick dinner gave me an opportunity to watch Carolyn and Heath catch up.  What a great teacher she is to have produced a young man who is taking the daring path of founding a Theatre Company in New York.

From dinner we went on to our last BTW show-Sister Act.  After the underwhelming Pasadena Playhouse world premiere a few years ago I wasn’t too excited about seeing the BW show. I love the movie and didn’t want to see the story butchered in front of me.

So I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised.  It was a nice adaptation with a fairly tight story.  I always love Fred Applegate and the nun’s ensemble was full of veteran character actresses.  Victoria Clark was amazing as the Mother Superior, and brought more humor to the role than I remembered from the movie role.

I spent a great deal of time looking at the sets and lighting.  This show had huge sets-and was surprisingly high tech (didn’t expect that).  The turntables with the church arches on it enabled four to six units to move in different combinations in order to create the various church interior locations-very cool and innovative.  The best part was the rafter high statue of the Virgin Mary. It was on stage a great deal and, when the nuns, church and walls got a makeover at the end, Mary turned into a disco mirror ball covered statue. I have photos-taken during the Q & A of the two statues. 

After the show we enjoyed meeting Fred Applegate, Victoria Clark and many members of the cast and crew. Their Stage Manager is a former dancer who discussed her transition from performer to SM.  She neglected to mention that she had done 15+ Broadway shows (Fred told us that), and she was a wealth of information about the history of the show. Victoria Clark (Tony winner for The Light in the Piazza) gave us her bio and talked about performing, teaching and raising a kid as well as the Broadway work.   She also talked about how she was still learning how to structure her day, how much sleep she needed and the process of performing in 8 shows a week.  They premiered in April and she is still figuring out what she should eat when and how much in order to have the most energy for the show.

Following the performance we had a BTW reception at Sardi’s. What a great choice for theatre teachers. Luckily, I had spent lots of time there looking at the caricatures on the wall last September during the EdTA Hall of Fame, so I got to spend time visiting and saying my good byes. I left relatively early since the next few days were going to be crammed with lunches, meetings and visits with alumni.

MTI workshop and STEPHEN SONDHEIM!

7/12/11-afternoon-Music Theatre International Workshop

MTI came in and talked about all of what they have for theatre teachers. They gave many of the new teachers some insight into licensing rules and restrictions and let them ask many questions. They gave an update on their canned music accompaniment and Virtual Stage Manager (I use VSM and it is a terrific tool). One of MTI’s goals is to put together an Advisory group of theatre teachers from around the country to give them some input from a HS perspective. I am in contact with Jason Cocovinis so I can be considered for this group.

7/13/11 –We had been scheduled to hear from the USA Today Theatre critic, but she had a last minute emergency and instead they brought back Kate Grant to conduct a workshop on The Herold a long form version of Improv.  What could have been a real bust turned into a fun workshop with some great ideas.  The explanation was a little sketchy but I pulled out my ipad and looked the rules and origination of the improv and was able to figure out how I can make it work in the ensemble building improv work that I do in class. One of the best ideas was taking an improv and moving the characters ten-and then twenty years in the future and continue with the same characters moving into a new situation but building upon the original character relationships from the first section of the improv.

Late Wednesday morning brought us the crown jewel of the workshop-Stephen Sondheim. Up until this point all of the workshop guests were friendly, approachable, encouraged us to take photos and interact as much as possible. At the end of every workshop all of the presenters stayed for a great deal of time, talked with everyone and really seemed to enjoy answering our questions.  Mr Sondheim wasn’t so friendly. No photos, no video, absolute quiet and at the end we were all to stay seated until he had left. What a diva!

However, in spite of these restrictions, he was a gold mine of information.  Since we were all teachers he spent a lot of time sharing about the influential teachers he had at Williams who were his professors of art and music. He was interviewed by a playwright who he met many years ago when he won one of the playwrighting contests Stephen is involved with. They were both very hard to hear-even with mics-and I’m glad I was just a few feet away.

Nuggets from SS:

• He had many stories about the different types of collaborators he has worked with.  Some very laid back (James Lapine) and others who were very structured.

• Became involved in the Young Playwright’s Festival and continues to mentor the students who win the contest.

• Considers Theatre a Practical Art. In his early writings he didn’t have to pay attention to the size of the cast (Merrily We Roll Along).  Now he must write for casts of about 12.

• Discussed his inspiration for Sweeney Todd-a melodrama he saw at a pub in London.

• Assassins is the show that is the closest to what he and his collaborator envisioned.  Favorite show is A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (which, we learned the day before from Jo Loesser, he played in it’s entirety at a party at her house in the ‘50’s.)

• He has approval on casting. He wants the best performance for the role, not for his music.

• Pacific Overtures background. Brought to him by a friend’s son.  Hal Prince suggested it could be a musical. At Leonard Bernstein’s house a harpsichord inspired the music. He went home and put string and thumbtacks on his piano to create the sound he wanted in order to compose the music.

• How he got West Side Story- He went to an after party for a musical he didn’t attend and arrived early. Arthur Laurents told him that Comden and Greene might not be able to get out of a movie contract and would he be interested in working on the show. They didn’t and he did got the show by simply being in the right place at the right time.

• His only autobiographical song is Opening Door.

• He is influenced by Harmonic language, Arlen, Ravel and Stravinsky.

• During West Side Story Arthur Laurents wanted him to see the instruments he worked with and took him to the Actor’s Studio. Talked to him about subtext and how to think like a playwright.

• He doesn’t know a lot about vocals and wished he had sung in a choir.

• Funny story about casting the role of Tony-very few men can hit the high C’s.

• Discussed the vocal challenges of the role of Anne in A Little Night Music.

• Wrote the movie The Last of Sheila with his friend Anthony Perkins-about his love of puzzles and whodunits.

• Has enjoyed his many collaborations with orchestrator Jonathan Tunick-thinks those shows are his best. How they work is Stephen tapes his songs and Jonathon thinks about the make up of the orchestra then asks Stephen to describe the score. Stephen will say “perfume” and Jonathan says “strings”. Then they see the staging and talk about dynamics/color of each arc.

• Continually talked about the influence of Oscar Hammerstein on his life. I believe Hammerstein means more to him than either of his parents did.

• Cried three times when he talked about his mentors, Oscar Hammerstein and other important influences in his life.

In spite of all of the restrictions Mr. Sondheim put on he was an amazing wealth of information and inspiration.  I never felt like he held back and no question was off limits. He took questions for at least one hour. He did think a couple of the questions were stupid-and told the person who asked them  what he thought of the question. This is not a man who keeps his opinions to himself.  

After my workshop with him I spent some time online researching some of the stories he told. Obviously we only heard a fraction of his background and collaborations but my research certainly filled in many of his early years and the shows he didn't talk about.  He memory, facts and stories were spot on based on my research. I also found that Oscar Hammerstein was much more of a father figure-and someone he knew from very early in his life.