There's no time in NYC for a girl to blog!

Catch up time!

Saturday was spent walking to Lincoln Center, Central Park and figuring out where the BTW's would be.  It was a huge treat to be alone, explore the city and plan out my week.

I spent a great two hours in the Library for Film and Theatre looking in the archives. Saw a collection of director's notes and sketches for the 1956 production of Waiting for Godot (Herbert Bergdorf) and checking out the Musical Theatre resources.

At my 3:00 pm appointment the nice film man set me up at a computer to view the December 18, 2008 production of Gypsy with Patti Lupone and Boyd Gaines.  I discovered that it was a Juniper Street Production (my alumni!). The show was great-performances were amazing.  The filming was wonderful and I spent most of the show watching the actor's choices, the seamless flow of the sets and excellent pacing. I wanted to be locked in when the library closed at 6:00 to watch shows all night. Sadly, they watch us like a hawk so I didn't try to stay.

Dinner with DJ Gray followed Gypsy.  DJ and I talked about how I might go about setting up workshops for next summer, what guest artists would expect and some ideas on marketing and designing  workshops. It was very helpful that she had spent the day in a dance workshop and is taking her second MT workshop with Betty Buckley, so she will take notes on the "business" end of workshops.

I woke up Sunday with the day ahead of me and no one to disagree with me choices.  I took a 45 minute walk to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and spent four hours wondering from room to room and making decisions about what to see based on what was around the corner. By far the highlight was the Alexander McQueen exhibit. Well worth the one hour wait it is a true work of theatre.  Exquisite clothes, brilliant designs and all of beautifully curated made it as theatrical as any show I've ever seen.  I got so many ideas about how to use color, texture and the use of video. projections, special effects and music. Who knew my next set ideas would come from a museum?

Sunday evening I met up with my friend Carolyn Greer, Kentucky State Thespian Director. Carolyn and I have been to many conferences and workshops and decided we needed to see a show.  Since we had both spent most of the last two days walking we were looking for some light entertainment and we purchased last minute tickets to Pricilla, Queen of the Desert.

Pricilla was a visual treat.  More costumes than twenty shows combined this was a loud, fun salute to the '80s.  Flying singers, a giant bus that lights up and dozens of 30 second costume changes. In spite of the glitz, drag queens and glitter it had a story at it's core which is what good theatre must have.

Monday morning brought the long awaited BTW. The Jazz studios at Lincoln Center is a great place to hold class.  We started the morning in a share session using the questions the teachers had posted online in the weeks leading up to the workshops.  The last one the facilitator asked was "What 21st Century Skills can we teacher through Musical Theatres?" Hmmm. Wonder who sent that in?  Some of the answers were: non verbal communication, people skills (in this Facebook, texting world), enunciation, pronunciation, public speaking, audition skills=interview skills, improv skills.

My second session was with the brilliant prop designer Jenny Marino. Jenny has designed the props for Phantom of the Opera, Young Frankenstein, and The Producers.  She took us through the steps of Time, Talent and Budget as well as Research and Material Gathering.  She is a great resource in that she can design on a Broadway budget, but still works with community theatres who have a $300.00 budget.  I took three pages of notes and came away with at least twenty new products, tips and ideas. Her best advice was to give prop design over to students to see what they can create-with visuals and guidance.

The next workshop was the incredible John Tartaglia. John has been involved with puppets since he was seven and is a Tony nominee for Avenue Q.  He has been a puppeteer on Sesame Street and Shrek.  Although I have limited experience with Bunraku puppetry in IB Theatre John encouraged us to use puppets with our special needs kids, kids who have trouble expressing themselves and for team building. We all received a set of Peepers (puppet eyes) to practice.  The highlight is when John pulled out Princeton (from Avenue Q) for a Q & A and photos.

Our last workshop of the day was using the Viewpoints Directing Process.  My IB seniors had introduced me to Anne Bogarts Viewpoints last year, and this workshop spent time with us using space, shape, time, emotion, movement and story.  Many of the techniques can be used in directing large musical theatre scenes where the student actors must be aware of where they are, how to look at their space, access, adjust and tell a story without a director giving them every tiny movement.

After the last workshop we attended Hair. Truthfully, it's not one of my favorite shows so I went in with no expectations.  The music, energy and performers were wonderful. The ensemble work was a highlight-especially after the Viewpoints workshop).  This was the second show in a row where the audience was brought onstage.  The end of Hair has the entire Orchestra section dancing on stage with the actors-great connections there.

Following the show the BTW teachers had a great Q & A with most of the principles and cast. Great questions were asked and the actors talked to us until their Stage Manager made them stop. They were so excited to talk to us and talk about how the show has evolved from the tour to it's present form. They shared director notes from as recently as this afternoon and the two dance captains discussed how closely the choreography and movement must stick to what was taught, yet feel and look improvised moment to moment.  The best question was how they could relate to a topic (the Vietnam War) when those actors weren't born until after the event. Their response was that Hair is about every generation protesting what they believe in-an unjust war, gay marriage or a government system. This way the show can connect with all ages and generations.