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.

Tuesday 7/12 BTW-afternoon session

Tuesday afternoon-The Frank Loesser Legacy with Jo Loesser, Sal Viviano and Liz Larsen

In many ways this was my favorite workshop. Jo Loesser is an amazingly spunky lady (about 75ish) who spends most of her time touring and sharing stories about her late husband Frank Loesser and promoting and protecting his legacy in Musical Theatre history.  Frank is best known as the author of  Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella and How to Succeed in Business without really trying.

Jo is a legitimate performer in her own right having starring in The Most Happy Fella  and The ThreePenny Opera.  In recent years she has overseen several Frank Loesser revivals.

Much of what she shared with us was her late husband’s process as a writer, his successful, and unsuccessful, partnerships and how Broadway musicals came together in the ‘50s and ‘60s. An interesting fact was that Frank wrote the songs for both Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed before the book was written.  In the case of Guys and Dolls the original book was thrown out and the new book was written to fit his songs.

Jo sang two numbers for us. One was her personal favorite-Someone to be Needed- that Frank wrote and threw out of  a show.

Two singers came along with Jo-Sal Viviano and Liz Larsen. They are a husband/wife duo who have at least ten BW shows between them.  Liz sang Adelaide’s Lament from G & D and Frank sang Joey from MHF. They performed the duet Baby It’s Cold Outside.

Adelaide’s Lament/Joey from MHF. Baby It’s Cold Outside from Neptune’s Daughter which won Frank Loesser the Academy Award for Best Song.

Jo also shared the years where Frank went to Hollywood and wrote for musicals. He considered it something he did for money, but enjoyed some of the collaborations on the West Coast.

One of  fun facts of the afternoon was finding out that Liz Larsen originated the role of Eleanor/Bizarbara in Starmites on Broadway. This is how she met her husband (who also was cast in the show and turned it down).  After the session I introduced myself and told her I had just taken a production of SM to the International Thespian Festival.  She asked lots of questions and we talked about the show, it’s history and my upcoming lunch with Barry Keating (writer of Starmites).  I have some great photos of the two of us.

Tuesday night we all saw Spiderman as part of the BTW package.  It’s hard to explain SM. Since my brother in law is a long time collaborator with Julie Taymor I’ve heard stories about the production since it’s inception.  I also knew some backstage stories from my student, Ana Rose Greene, and her exploits with building the theatre.  My fun fact about SM was a phone call interrupting our Thanksgiving ’10 dinner so that Robert Elhai could answer some pressing questions about music (apparently, most of the creative team was at the theatre that day-more on that later).

The show was visually spectacular. The comic book “look” was a complete package-set, costumes, lights etc).  I loved the pop up/pop open sets and the unforgettable Chrysler building as it jutted out into the audience and opened to the rafters.  I was very happy that I had my workshop with Rob Bessenger before I attended the show so I knew the design concepts and what technology had been designed specifically for the show.  I spent a great deal of time looking at the five LED filled legs that could move towards the center of the stage, tilt towards center and tilt towards the wings. The technology was amazing!

I thought there were some distinct Julie Taymor moments of the show-the weaving ballet and the Arachne and Peter duet were two that stood out. 

The actual flying of the Spiderman (five actors-we learned during the Q & A) and the other characters was great-especially as they landed often in the balcony.  Since my seat was in the orchestra I actually felt like a missed some nice moments since I couldn’t see the actors land up there. 

In spite of the great technology I am sad to report that the show has a very weak book and no memorable songs.  How sad-the show has potential, but outside of the tech it has little substance. It will probably run for years.

The Q & A after the show brought out the real “A” team of cast and crew.  We learned tons about the running of the show, the choreography of the set changes

and how many Stage Managers it takes to run the show.  Reeve Carney, who plays Peter Parker, as well as most of the leads and several of the actors who fly spent over 45 minutes with us answering all of our questions. Many of the questions had to do with the two versions of the show and learning how the cast transitioned from one to the next. The actors/crew were joined by Kim Grigsby, the musical director and conductor. Kim had been one of the guest workshop teachers in our program (a workshop running while I was with Rob Bessenger) and she wanted to know what we thought and answered questions about where she conducts (barefoot it turns out) backstage.

Broadway Teacher Workshop Day 2

Couldn’t get the blog to work on 7/12/11 so I wrote it up in a Word Document to upload later.

Tuesday morning-

Rob Bissenger- Associate Set Designer with Spiderman. Rob has been with the show since 2005. He brought ground plans, models and renderings of Spiderman.  Gave background about the show and how he became involved as a designer. 

Since the theatre had not been selected at the beginning of the designer process the designers started with the concept that there would be set pieces that would jut out into the audience. His assignment from the designer was to pinpoint all of the sight lines and figure out where everyone in the theatre could see the house since the designers knew he would have the sets come into the house.

So they’re first task was to figure, based on sight lines, exactly what part of the house the entire audience (balcony too) could be seen from everyone. This was the basis for where the Chrysler building unfolded and came out into the house.

But Rob didn’t want to spend the entire time talking about Spiderman so he wanted to talk to us about the design process from beginning to end.

Pre Visualization

Concept- need to come up with a concept. Conceptualizing the idea. Used his work on View from a Bridge as an example.

Concept-what do I want it to feel like?  Pre visualize on a small scale.

Start with a figure

Think about the space-how the characters move through the space. Use programs that you may already know (Auto Cad) or free design program

Like Google Sketch up.

Continue the plan and follow through with the production.

A question came up from the teachers about the preparations for Designers vrs Technicians= two different paths.

Designers need to be great storytellers. See good movies, good plays, good books. Rob felt like the college major isn’t as important as surrounding yourself with quality books, plays, stories, literature. He really stressed the fact that majoring in theatre-or art-or design isn't as important as getting a strong well rounded education.

His proudest contribution to SM was the globe lab. This was the one set piece that he was responsible for designing and came to be used in it’s original form. He is  most proud of the collaboration it took to design the six moving legs since this took all of the design team and was the result of completely new theatre technology that has never been used before.

Tuesday am-second session

Patrick Goodwin-Casting Director and Julia Murney-actress-one of the last Elphaba’s on BW.

They started their workshop with an example of a poor audition.  Julia walked through the door and went all the through an audition with poor choices.  Patrick shared that many NY actors actually have many of the bad habits we witnessed, and that at this level most of the actors he sees are all great, but how they conduct themselves in an audition is often the key to getting the role.

Many great audition stories were told in this workshop-hard to believe that professionals conduct themselves so poorly.

 I took a full page of notes. Most of them are exactly what DJ Gray teaches to my Musical Theatre students in her Audition workshop. 

Patrick also discussed stunt casting and he defended it. Talked about shows like Chicago and Adams Family bringing in celebrities, often people who aren’t BW trained, who are cast in roles in order to keep ticket sales going.

 Patrick explained how this stunt casting can prolong a show’s life, enabling 100+ people to be employed longer. Never thought about it that way. Still don’t like it, but I understand it better.

He also shared how certain shows-The Lion King, Phantom of the Opera-where the show is the star so it doesn’t need a star to bring in an audience like weaker scripts (Adams Family).  Book of Mormon came up and Matt explained that in that case the creators are the stars-not the actors or show-so it doesn’t need a name actor to sell tickets.

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.

Hello old friend

It probably seems like I've forgotten the blog world, but I've been keeping it all in my head while I've been planning my CTG experience. An update:

Graduation was on June 9th-the earliest in 28 years of teaching. A bit bittersweet as my number 2 and 3 daughters graduated from HS. The fun part is that I got to give them their diploma.

Two days after graduation our production of Starmites moved back into Bridges Auditorium for a ridiculously difficult rebuild/two performance/prep to take 45 kids, 8 adults, and the entire show to the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln NB. The challenge was closing Forty-Second Street one week and opening Starmites again for the first time since February. I also brought in a TD who helped us redesign the show for a 2800 seat road house and an 800 seat Theatre with no fly space. We rehearsed the show, the build (we had 90 minutes in Nebraska), the strike and the truck load.

The kids had two great shows on June 15 & 17 and we finished loading the truck at 1:00 am. It drove off with an amazing dad behind the wheel and the rest of us left in shifts over the next few days.

The entire week I spend a lot of time really looking at the show and all of the skills the kids were learning. How did I teach them? What worked? What didn't? What could be taught differently in a classroom without the "A" team and have a similar outcome?

One of the reasons for our success is that I continue to bring theatre artists and technical professionals who bring a lifetime of experiences different than mine to share with the students. I think many of my tech students learned four years of work in two weeks.

I also learned about the importance of reaching out to a playwright and what an amazing impact that can have on students. Barry Keating (author of Starmites) had left a message on our Theatre Facebook page in the spring. I contacted him to help us secure royalty free performances at the festival and he sent me his cell phone and many messages of  encouragement. More on that later.

Fast forward to Nebraska. The low points: Family emergency with our Musical Director and she never arrived. The entire cast, our principal and most of the adults having an emergency landing in Denver. The high points: Watching the five kids I took a day early meet with the entire tech staff of the theatre and, based on their preparation and questions, impress the technicians and get approved to run the show without adult assistance. Seeing my students perform on a Friday in one theatre and Saturday night in another and act as if they had been doing it their entire lives.

The best moment was when the VP of Samuel French Inc gathered the students around her to show them a video Barry Keating made for them to congratulate them on their selection to perform at the festival. It was amazing! It's on YouTube under Barry Keating/Claremont HS/Starmites. After seeing the show the reps from Samuel French asked if our dept would be willing to workshop musicals for them-very cool! As of result of the Barry Keating connection many of the students are in contact with him and learning how much a project can still mean to a writer 25 years after it is written. This isn't something I have ever taught or talked about in class (except for our experiences with Sister Helen Prejean and Dead Man Walking) but I will certainly suggest to kids in the future that they consider making a connection with a playwright.

So what does Starmites have to do with my project? I used the week in production and in Nebraska to really look at what 21st Century skills are and spent many a late night reception with Jim Palmerini (Educational Theatre Association) and Anita Grant (a colleague on a Arts Task Force) talking about my project and what I need to do to prepare students.

Sooooo in the 1 1/2 weeks I was home I looked over some materials on 21st Century Skills, how to create and prepare workshops and making lots of plans.

Here I sit in my hotel room in Manhattan (just arrived four hours ago) and this is what I have set up so far:

Tomorrow I am meeting with Barry Keating to give him a scrapbook my students made for him. He would like to talk about doing a project together. Tomorrow afternoon I have an appointment at the NY Library for Film and Theatre to look at their archives and see a screening of the Patti Lupone version of Gypsy. Tomorrow night I will meet with DJ Gray, CHS alumni, to talk over my long range plan and brainstorm with her what I need to look for while in my workshops. She and I have worked together since 1994 and she knows the CHS students and our program very well so she is the perfect sounding board. In addition, she lives in NYC and is a Broadway choreographer (Xanadu, Spelling Bee) so she knows what skills are needed in professional theatre.

My Broadway Teacher Workshops are Monday-Wednesday. I'm fortunate to have two friends, also Thespian State Directors, who are attending so I can have some ongoing conversations with teachers I know as the workshops progress.

On Friday I will spend the day with alumni Ana Rose Greene as she readies Million Dollar Quartet for the road, has a Spiderman rehearsal and loads in Follies from DC. Ana Rose co founded Juniper Street Productions which has had as many as seven shows running on Broadway at one time. Not bad for someone who graduated in 2001!

On Saturday I will be meeting our one of my favorite alumni John Lee Beatty. John has been nominated for 14 Tonys (won two) for his set designs. He will be a great resource as someone who has had a long career in the arts and how learning and technology has changed what he has done since he began in the early '70's.

I am also meeting with Michael Alden (CHS-'74 who won his Tony for Grey Gardens) as he prepares to leave for London to produce The King's Speech for the stage. Michael will have a unique prospective because he is the only alumni I am meeting with who did not attend college. I look forward to hearing some insights on this from him.

Lastly, I am seeing Eli Bolin (my first Thespian President at CHS) who is the co creator of The Story Pirates (which is now bi-coastal) as well as being a composer on Sesame Street.

Somewhere in there I get to visit Joe Norton (Broadway Cares/EFA VP of Education) for an office tour and chat, as well as a couple of other unscheduled stops.

In the beginning of this process I wondered how I was going to fill my time. Now I am finding myself frantically trying to figure out how I am going to see everyone and still sleep enough so I don't snore during the shows I'm seeing.

Stay tuned!

Confirmation for my Workshop!!

It's official. I will be attending the Broadway Teacher's Workshop. Just received the email. It's been a busy week at the Elhai household in the theatre education department. The twins decided on schools (Hofstra and Carnegie Mellon) and Lindsey received word that she will have an Internship at Baron Hats this summer. Now mom is going back to classes too!

Next step is booking hotel and beginning to pin down all of the CHS Theatre alumni so I can meet with them and plan the BW style Workshops for summer 2012. So far, I will be working with DJ Gray (BW choreographer-Xanadu and Spelling Bee) on a broad plan for my workshops. Will also spend two days with Ana Rose Greene (Juniper Street Productions) as she re mounts Spiderman and gets Million Dollar Quartet and Billy Elliot ready for national tours. Need to pin down Eli Bolin (Story Pirates, Sesame Street Composer) on days. Waiting to hear from  John Lee Beatty (12 time Tony nominated Set Designer) and Michael Alden (Tony winning producer). Michael is currently working on opening The King's Speech in London.  So far I'm covering just about every area of theatre. Where are the CHS Theatre alumni in costumes?

Also working on the 21st Century Arts Skills Map and what these crazy kids need to learn and how I can better incorporate it into my theatre classes. This will be my spring homework.

The Night before Festival

Tomorrow 1000 HS Theatre students descend on the Ontario Convention Center for the CA State Thespian Festival. This is a great chance to connect with several of my alumni who are bringing their own troupes and get them up to speed on my fellowship plan and sign them up to be guest artists.

I had an alumni who was in town  from NYC  come into a class last week to teach Improv-this is what she is doing for a living. She had a kick meeting the kids and giving them some insight into her training, the different types of Improv she does and how she continues to take classes and workshops herself. I'm looking forward to spending a day with her this July while I'm in the city.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday-spring break for me. This means time to book my Broadway Teacher Workshop and assorted plans.

Free tomorrow-Sunday? Come out to Ontario OCC and see what 1000 Thespians (and their dedicated teachers) are doing. Workshops, Improvs, Scholarship auditions, Individual Events, Tech Challenge and more!