The New Brunswick Theater Festival- Keeping the Ball in the Air

6/15 The Home Stretch

2011-06-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

Hello again.

This week marks the end of both of our 2011 spring residencies. New Brunswick High goes into exam mode next week, so we went easy on them, focusing on the prologue to Henry V. It's well known as the speech beginning with "O for a muse of fire...". We strayed away from A Midsummer Night's Dream with a purpose. If these students learn nothing else, I hope they

come to understand the healing magic that live theatre can do in the world, and that all it takes to make theatre happen... all it has ever taken... is a group of people coming together and agreeing to the play. We are all conjurers. We are all, at times, an eager audience. We are all capable of so much more than we know.

On that strangely serious note, it is with pleasure that I announce the culmination of this year's after-school program in Perth Amboy.

The Perth Amboy Department of Recreation and the New Brunswick Theater Festival present:

The Story of Us

A theatrical event imagined, written and performed by local students

Thursday, June 16th @ 7pm

Perth Amboy YMCA

We have two more rehearsals. Oh boy.

Cheers,

Jen

6/9

2011-06-09T11:41:00.001-07:00

This week's flown by!
Our last few classes at New Brunswick High have focused on Shakespeare's verse. This is about as academic as we get. It's easy to forget that most high school students don't find scanning lines of iambic pentameter nearly as thrilling as we do now.

Though we spent several hours in front of the dry erase board this week, we started this unit by asking the students to find their pulses. One of my favorite things is watching somebody who "hates Shakespeare" realize for the first time that the rhythm of Shakespeare's verse is the rhythm of a human heartbeat. This simple discovery tends to open people up to hearing a lot more of themselves in the plays.

In Perth Amboy we're gearing up for our final week. The performance has been scheduled. The space has been booked. The script will be finished tonight. These students have worked hard on developing complex characters, and John, Ashley, Josh and I have really tried to make sure that the words they'll be speaking are their own. We have three more sessions with them to put it all together into a show. Details will be posted about the performance soon.

-Jen

Wednesday

2011-06-02T13:30:00.001-07:00

6/1

After a successful morning working on some of the lovers' scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Performance Ensemble class, I headed into the afternoon class in Perth Amboy in a pretty good mood. NBTF company member Ashley Everage joined me for class for the second time today, taking over in John's absence. The Perth Amboy project is challenging because we're leading a group of high schoolers through both writing and performing their own material. Ashley was an enormous help as we sat in a circle and listened to each student read the monologue he or she is developing. We both had lots of questions to ask each of them. Where is your character? Have you ever said anything like this to anyone before? What's your point of view of the person or people you're addressing? The students have really put a tremendous amount of work into getting inside of another person the way an actor must, but we still have a long way to go. We did manage to get on our feet a bit and do some physical exploration of the characters. More of that will happen once the scripts are finished. I'm looking forward to playwright Josh Levine's return visit to the class on Monday. Hopefully we'll be able to put the finishing touches on the texts and begin to really play around and rehearse these things. It's nice to have a deep roster of talented folks to call for back up.

NBTF executive committee tonight. Summer plans are heating up. Check back here for details.

Cheers,

Jen Ring

NBTF Director of Education

Tuesday

2011-05-31T09:01:00.001-07:00

5/31

Today we began working on scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream with the larger NBHS class. We began class with a quick warm-up involving stretches and tongue twisters that the students seemed reluctant to do, but it definitely helped bring everyone (teachers included) back from the long weekend. The class broke into groups to attack three different scenes, and the work of the first read-through commenced. It was wonderful to see students get increasingly excited about deciphering difficult language and finding the meaning of each line as their characters' circumstances became clearer to them. We'll keep working on these for at least the next week, really delving into acting and staging for the first time next class.

John and I are off to rehearse for an unusual acting gig. We are performing a play as part of a training session with the school of nursing at Rutgers. Should be an adventure. More tomorrow.

-jen

John's Check-In #4 & #5

2011-05-30T20:30:00.001-07:00

5/3/11

We started talking this week with our classes about our upcoming summer production of Midsummer Nights Dream and the opportunity for them to Apprentice. One of our big goals this year is the expansion of the Apprentice Company to not just include acting but also design, stage management and production opportunities. New Brunswick High School students will be working alongside our production staff on the main-stage show giving them working experience in set, costume, and makeup design, marketing and production management.

5/10/11

One of the most beneficial things in teaching a new topic or concept is finding ways to present the material in as many creative ways as possible. This concept is not of course a new one, but is consistently a challenging one. Jen and I are always playfully kidding each other because we have different teaching techniques. I love visuals. I love writing things out and creating maps and charts and illustrating things on the board. Jen loves auditory learning. She likes discussion and telling the story with metaphor and context. We have found an interesting dynamic when we teach and because of our own preferences we seem to cover a topic with a 360 view. Mr. Thornburg affectionately calls it the Jen and John Show and our students seem to get a kick out of the animation we bring to our plot descriptions.

We started working on midsummer nights this week with our students in preparation for our production this summer. We covered the entire plot line and characters so everyone in the class was able to start with the same foundation. I had a full color coordinated character flow chart on the dry erase board while Jen talked about why characters behaved and talked in certain ways. I focused on the complexity of the plot and Jen talked about the poetry of the language.

The next day our students came back and recounted for us the previous days lesson. It was fascinating watching and listening to them as they brought the play to life for us. One student remembered the complexity of the lovers’ pairings because of the how it was outlined on the board. Another student recalled the argument between Oberon and Titania because of the powerful descriptions of the natural world at war had stuck with her.

John's Check-In #3

2011-05-30T20:29:00.001-07:00

5/4/11

The Theater Techniques class played the patterned ball game today. In this game each person throws a tennis ball to one other person in the circle and so on until everyone has received the ball once. They must repeat this pattern while we slowly keep adding additional tennis balls. The game begins simple but requires intense focus as it becomes slowly more complicated. They really came to life. This group springs to life when they are involved in very focused high-energy activity.

John's Check-In #2

2011-05-30T20:26:00.000-07:00

5/2/11

The Theater Techniques class is now at about 30 students. Any teacher who finds themselves in front of a group of high school students that size would probably break out in a cold sweat. I will certainly admit that this group keeps us on our toes but we are having a lot of fun with them. They are a little more timid than our Performance Ensemble class in that they hesitate to jump up and participate but I think it has more to do with fear of embarrassment rather than any kind of lack of interest. Once we get the ball rolling I find them to be energetic and creative. We have started splitting up the group for our ball game warm-ups every morning and it is a chance for Jen and I to get to know them better and keep their energy focused.

John's Check-In #1

2011-05-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

4/28/11

The New Brunswick High School Program is off to a great start! Jen and I are teaching two sections with Mr. Thornburg the head of the New Brunswick Theater Department. The classes range in ages and experience levels. The first class we teach is a Performance Ensemble class of students who have opted to take a more advanced acting performance class. The other class is a Theater Techniques class that is geared more towards the general introduction of all theater forms from design and management to performance. Jen and I having fun with these two groups and we while we do similar work in both classes it is interesting to see how we adjust depending on the group in front of us.

A message from Artistic Director John P. Keller

2011-05-29T04:32:00.000-07:00

Hello New Brunswick Theater Festival (NBTF) and Collaborative Arts Followers. It was a long and very cold winter but I am happy to say that because of the dedication to many individuals we emerged this spring even stronger. The success of last-years educational outreach and our inaugural main-stage show, Romeo and Juliet paved the way for us to kick off this year with even more resources. Along with my fellow Artistic Director Dan Swern and Collaborative Arts and NBTF company members, we have spent the winter months preparing curriculum and production concepts, writing major grants, planning fundraisers, and putting in place a permanent company of actors, designers, directors, and writers who are dedicated to teaching and pursuing professional artistic careers.

I’m happy to be returning with Jen Ring this year to both New Brunswick and Perth Amboy school districts. As the core-teaching faculty for NBTF, Jen and I have been busy working with both cities in scheduling and planning this springs theater residencies. Thanks once again to Mr. Jim DeWorken in the New Brunswick Superintendents Office; we are back, teaching in New Brunswick High School with the fantastic Steven Thornburg and his students in the Theater Department. We have been working with two different groups this year: an introductory theater class and a senior level performance ensemble class. Building on last years physical theater work we are once again cultivating students to become apprentices for this years summer production.

In addition to the New Brunswick program, Jen and I have returned to work with Liz Mery Ramirez in the Perth Amboy Recreation Department. Last winter we presented a 10-week Shakespeare workshop that culminated in a final production of an abridged version of A Midsummer Nights Dream presented to a theater full of parents, friends, and Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz in the beautiful new Perth Amboy YMCA Theater. This year we are trying something a little different, working with High School students on the writing and performance of their own original work.

In addition to all of the work on NBTF, Collaborative Arts has been very busy growing and re-organizing. Thanks to our board of directors and an expanded leadership we are in the process of using a Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage grant to completely re-vamp our website which will launch late spring.

Best,

John Keller

Collaborative Arts Leadership

Artistic Director New Brunswick Theater Festival

The Joy of a Well-Made Play

2011-04-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

Well, we're officially two sessions into our program in Perth Amboy, and I'm just tickled turquoise.

To begin I should tell you that the project we've decided to tackle during this residency is right up this teacher's personal alley. Over the course of eight weeks we are going to work with 16 students to develop an original performance, based on characters in their lives. I'm asking these teenagers to take on ALL of what it takes to make a piece of theatre, and so far they seem to be digging it.

We met for the first time last Wednesday afternoon and I was immediately impressed by the positive energy this group exudes. When presented with the often-frustrating task of batting a Koosh ball around in a circle for the first time, these guys and gals stayed calm, laughed off the failures and didn't waste any time assigning blame to one another. The speed with which they improved at playing the simple game was astonishing, as was the seeming ease with which they silently transformed the gymnasium into a recognizable pirate ship in under a minute.

Today, a current Rutgers MFA playwright graced us with his presence and his expertise. Josh Levine loaded us all up with tools for combatting writer's block, a condition which he swears does not exist. Warm, fuzzy feelings washed over me as Josh described to the class one of my very favorite things: a well-made play.

Today, for the first time, I considered the merits of introducing a class to dramatic structure before attempting to teach them anything about acting. While Josh asked the students to consider what Dorothy's objective in The Wizard of Oz might have been, it occurred to me that there might be enormous value in being able to refer to things like inciting-incidents, objectives and obstacles. After all, these are the things that determine actions and tactics and all those other words by which actors eventually come to live.

The more I think about it, the more I like the lesson we all attended this afternoon. Most of these students took this class because they want to be actors. As an actor, I think it can be easy to forget that making a play takes skill and developing a skill requires practice. Heck, it can be easy to forget what it's like to be in a play (tv show/movie etc) with jobs so hard to come by. So many factors go into the casting process and we get caught up in crediting/blaming our looks and our luck for the roles we land and the opportunities that come our way. There's a lot we can't control, but what we can do is make plays of our own and make them as well as we can... and learn.

The students are writing their first short scenes and bringing them in to start to read through as actors this Wednesday. We shall see.

Happy Tuesday.

-Jen Ring

Director of Education

Learn more about NBTF

2011-04-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it, here's some of the press we got during our first season:

Peter Filichia's Star Ledger Review of Romeo and Juliet

and

A nice article on last year's Shakespeare residency with middle school students in Perth Amboy

We're Back!

2011-04-24T16:55:00.000-07:00

Actually, we never really went away.

Not really.

Here's a quick recap of what we've been up to since Romeo and Juliet closed in August:

-We celebrated Halloween by commissioning a six-pack of original radio plays based on New Brunswick ghost stories, getting a fabulous group of Mason Gross actors together and performing them with foley in front of a live audience. The event was so much fun for everyone involved that we plan on making it an annual tradition. Cross your fingers for next year's radio plays to be broadcast over local air waves!

-In January we had the opportunity, courtesy of our good friends at the New York One-Minute play Festival, to host the first ever New Jersey One-Minute Plays. The event took place over the course of two nights and theater artists from all over the state got involved. The show was fantastic, attendance was great and we even raised some money! If you've never heard of One-Minute Plays, you're missing out. Check them out as curator Dominic D'Andrea takes the country by storm: http://oneminuteplays.wordpress.com/

-We've chosen a show for our second summer production! The announcement will be made very soon:)

-Educational residencies have resumed in New Brunswick High School and through the Department of Recreation in Perth Amboy. The focus at NBHS will once again be Shakespeare in preparation for our summer festivities (there's a nice hint as to what we'll be doing for you), and this year our focus in Perth Amboy will be working with high school students twice a week after school to create an original piece of theatre about their lives and their community. I am happy to announce that the marvelously handsome and talented playwright, Josh Levine, will be joining our teaching staff for this endeavor.

In addition to these accomplishments each individual member of NBTF has been extremely busy acting, directing, producing, teaching, designing, and adventuring in other ways on his or her own. You'll hear more about us soon, but for now... We're thrilled to be back on the radar and gearing up for our sophomore season.

Stay tuned.

-Jen Ring

Director of Education

Here's to bad days

2010-08-18T13:49:00.000-07:00

Artistic Director/Producer John Keller sent this along for me to post a while ago. I've been slow to do so because other tasks associated with this production and my day jobs have had to take precedence over blogging. We're in the final hours now, and John's message struck me upon a second reading as something worth sharing.

"I found myself in rehearsal the other day after a long week of survival jobs, fundraising emails, production meetings, and miles of NBTF errands. It was a hot muggy day as so many of our days this summer have been and I was for the first time not looking forward to coming to rehearsal. Everyone I encountered was telling me how "tired" I looked and I was more ready for a nap then four hours in a dark hot studio. But I knew the Apprentice Company was going to be there and we can't afford a single missed rehearsal, so off I went. The Apprentice Company came and we began doing some warm-ups. They were as hot and tired as I was. Our productivity was minimal at best and we all seemed to know it. I wondered if it wouldn't be better for all of us to just call it a day and go home.

Then Jen arrived. Her work schedule that day required her to be a little late. She took one look at this sad group of human beings and immediately took charge. I suggested we sit and do some speech work as Jen is far more capable and articulate in that area. We sat around a table as a group of artists and worked our way through the script. We went back to the text and talked about what our story was and why where telling it. Jen lead the Apprentice's through some articulation exercises and gave individualized notes on clarity. The students began opening up about fears and concerns they had about the roles they were playing. We were all so tired and worn out that no one had any energy to put up any defensive walls. The apprentice's started opening up about what they felt were their weaknesses as performers. Language was a big issue. English not being a first language for some caused anxiety about English text and vice versa for the other actors. They were genuinely scared. I was a little surprised. They had been fearless up to this point. They had been charging full speed into rehearsals. It seemed to be a day where everyone was suddenly coming to the realization of how much was being asked of us by our fellow company members and how much we where asking of ourselves.

I forgot for a moment during that day what it meant to be a performer and what it takes to accept the challenge of walking on stage. I have taken a step back from that part of production in order to get much of the behind the scenes work done required of a project this size. The vulnerability of performance never really changes at any age level or experience level. We just learn, hopefully, how to rely on our hard work to get us through.

I had a huge grin on my face by the end of the rehearsal. We were all having a bad day. And in that bad day we learned more than a week of good days. The size of the project we are about to mount scared us a little. I had a huge grin on my face because of how wonderful that is. In spite of the possibility of failure we are doing the work. Even when we have bad days we show up. We come prepared, knowing that while failure is always a possibility we are going to do everything we can to succeed. Both for ourselves and for everyone who is relying on us. All the while ask ourselves: What can I do better? Where do I fit? What do I have to offer?

Here's to more bad days,

John"

R&J opens Friday, August 19th.

Two days and counting down.

-Jen

Meet the Apprentices: Part 2

2010-08-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

This post comes to us from AC Elsie Sierra (aka Luisa):

"Hey Everyone! (Theatre Festival company members and the world) ,

It is an extreme pleasure to participate in such an event as this one. It is not everyday one is given the opportunity to participate in such things and get to meet new people and be part of an extraordinary play as this one. I’ve always looked forward to performing with people I’ve never met because I always wanted to learn how that experience would be. I’m getting that experience now, and it’s AMAZING! But I’m glad to have the company of my friends there as well.

Although it may seem that I’m always an extremely loud and outgoing person I also have my shy/timid moments, such as when I meet new people. At first, I will be completely honest, I felt as if I was not going to belong in this cast. Like I wouldn’t be able to catch up with everything everyone else has done and know the right things to say and not. Yet with this cast I’m glad to say, that went away very quickly. Everyone made me feel welcomed with open arms. And it was great to know they were just as anxious as I was to meet them. I’ve never felt so excited to meet new cast-mates as I did.

Being that all my previous play experiences were in High School, its great to feel the change in environment. The whole, ‘NEW’ feeling of acting. Its nothing like high school. It’s a fresh new glass of water and I’m taking it all in. Learning the theatre ‘lingo’ and how it feels to actually practice late nights. Knowing that EVERYONE taking part in this production is determined and taking this play as seriously as I am. It’s not a joke to anyone and everyone puts in 100% in everything they do. Not one person is just getting by or missing out on anything. Everyone shows that this play is an important part of his/her life.

I most definitely have to thank John Keller (Alejandro) and Jen Ring (Rabbit). Both are very inspiring people whom I admire very much! They have not let me down… not once…. or made me feel as if I did not belong. They have not only become an inspiration to me but also my great friends. They have taught me so many things that I would have never thought of having to learn in order to become a better actress. All their techniques and skills have taken me a long way from where I have started. We are always able to relate and talk to one another comfortably without the feeling of being judged and it makes me proud to know they are reliable to come to with anything.

In conclusion, every moment I’m spending in this production will always be remembered and cherished in my heart. I’m doing something I LOVE with others who love the same thing I do. Everyday is an unforgettable day, and will always take a major role in my life. With moments that help me grow and bring me a step closer to my dreams!

Well that’s about it for now. Take care.

-xoxox

Sincerely yours,

Elsie M. Sierra"

Elsie is also a recent graduate of New Brunswick High School. She'll start her first semester at Middlesex shortly after Romeo and Juliet closes. As she hints in her post, Elsie is a delightfully energetic individual. Her work in rehearsal is always refreshing.

Happy Wednesday, Friends.

-Jen

Meet the Apprentices: Part 1

2010-08-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

Lenny and Gabriela Barria:

Lenny recently graduated from New Brunswick High School and is preparing to attend college in the fall.

Her sister, Gabriela, is a rising sophomore at NBHS.

I feel very fortunate to be working with both of them.

-Jen

"Strong reasons make strong actions." King John

2010-07-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist this title and can only hope to be forgiven.

Straying for the moment from strict Apprentice Company business, here is a message about the birth and the mission of NBTF from one of its two Artistic Directors, John P. Keller:

"Friends of Culture,

It is hard for me to express what it means to be writing this blog entry. I have been keeping tabs on the amazing work that Jen Ring, our Director of Education, has been doing to get this blog up and running and her gentle if not firm suggestion that we all share more about what we are about has inspired me to write this long overdue introduction. It is so easy to get swept up in all of the hours upon hours of behind the scenes work required to get this kind of project off the ground, but it's so important to stop every once in a while and remind ourselves of why we do this kind of work in the first place and how we got started.

My name is John Keller and I one of the madmen behind this project. About a year ago fellow Artistic Director Dan Swern and I were having one of our midnight, caffeine induced brainstorming sessions for Collaborative Arts and we started talking about an idea that eventually became the New Brunswick Theater Festival. As much as the idea has evolved and grown, little has changed since that first conversation in relation to what we wanted this company to be. We wanted it to be three main things: 1) Inspired by and reflective of of the New Brunswick community. 2) Equal parts professional production and educational outreach. 3) To draw upon the artistic talent that lives, works, and trains in New Brunswick. So why the obsession with New Brunswick? I am a New Brunswick native. I was born in St. Peter's hospital. I went to St. Peter's Elementary and High School (the fourth generation of my family to do so), and I am recent a graduate of the M.F.A Acting program at Rutgers - Mason Gross School of the Arts. My classmates at Rutgers call me the New Brunswick tour guide and I can't tell you how many late night phone calls I have received from conservatory students asking for the number for late night Chinese food or the name of a good dentist. I have seen this city change from an after hours ghost town to an urban arts, buisiness, and educational center that has a life at all hours. I have seen George Street evolve from the neighborhood playhouse to a major regional theater. I remember attending school shows at the State when it first re-opened and the interior was a very vivid turquoise. When I was a kid, New Brunswick was for many a place to be avoided. Now it is a place that sparks curiosity. Growing up I couldn't wait to go off and see exotic locations. Now that I have moved back I find my home town is a place where people choose to live, work, and play. I have also discovered I have something to contribute both personally and professionally to the continued growth and constant re-birth of this urban hub.

The whole Mason Gross thing. When I was a kid I heard of Mason Gross. I will, however, shamefully admit I never once stepped foot on the campus. I didn't even really know where it was. Three years ago I decided that after a stint of traveling and working with regional theaters it was time to go back to grad school for Acting. I applied to several schools, among them the mysterious Mason Gross School of the Arts. By some twist of fate I found a perfect fit at a world class arts conservatory...a block away from my childhood home. So here I am. A few weeks out of grad school and (almost) 30 years of New Brunswick life experience. Along with the hundreds/thousands who have gone before me I have two choices. 1) Move to NYC, live in 20x20 windowless overpriced box of an apartment and get an underpaid service job. All the while killing myself looking for artistic employment while trying to maintain the previous two things. OR 2). Keep living in my much more reasonably priced apartment only a 50 minute train ride from NYC, and work on developing quality, professional, grass-roots artistic projects with local arts organizations, Rutgers family, and New Brunswick natives.

So here WE are. It turns out I am not the only person who feels this way. As Collaborative Arts grows we see that New Brunswick is hungry for the kind of arts organization that puts so much emphasis on nuturing young artists. It is my firm belief that the best way to build an organization is to have projects that are ambitious and demanding of both the artists, the administration, and the donor base. So here we go. Head and heart first into a summer and beyond that is going to test our abilities in so many ways. I hope you will join us for the ride.

Best,

John Keller

New Brunswick Theater Festival, Artistic Director

Collaborative Arts"

As always, keep checking in.

And if you're in the New Brunswick area and looking for something to do tonight: TONIGHT! (Friday, July 23rd)

"Adopt an Artist" Collaborative Arts fundraiser
PJ's in Highland Park. 7pm to 10pm $20 at the door = open bar, food, live jazz and good company.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit NBTF.

-Jen

"...you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection..." Julius Caesar

2010-07-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Ashley N. Everage, a third year MFA candidate in the acting program at Rutgers, a beautiful actor, generous teacher, and for the purposes of Romeo y Julieta, Juliet's Nurse. Many thanks to her for taking the time to share her thoughts on working with our Apprentices.

"When I was first told that there would be an Apprentice Company joining the production that was comprised of high school students and recent high school grads I thought "oh, this should be interesting." We met over pizza and I was highly entertained and immediately brought back in time, in the best possible way. The inside jokes they share, their nicknames they had for one another and carefree natures they possess sent me to a simpler time. Oh, but don't get me wrong, these are not sheltered children.

They are hilarious, honest, opinionated and call a moment like they see it. When an 18 year old tells you, your Spanish is alright but it needs a lot of work because you sound French, you take that as truth and get down to business. And when they tell you that you are really great to watch and they really like your character, you thank them and your lucky stars and get back down to business. As I have worked with this group of individuals I see a group of young adults who need to be treated as such and I see a group of young Professionals who need to be respected as such.

John Keller and Jen Ring have provided a safe space for these young artists to trust themselves and each other as they stepped outside of their comfort zones and began to tackle this beast we call Shakespeare. I am having a great time with such a dedicated group of young people. And to be completely honest their acting ain't half bad either There is an enormous amount of raw talent within this group, so whether this artform becomes a hobby and a creative outlet or a career choice I have no doubt that coupled with hard work the possibilities are endless and wish them all the best of luck in the future. "

~Ashley N. Everage
NBTF Professional Company

Stay tuned for more of my thoughts, check-ins from other PCs and to meet the ACs in their own words (as soon as I figure out my video editing software.)

-Jen

"Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie." - All's Well That End Well

2010-07-15T21:21:00.001-07:00

Good evening!
Well... perhaps I really should say "good morning," as we have already ventured into the wee hours as I begin to compose this post. I'm sitting beside our fabulous Production Stage Manager, John Nehlich, who is still up finishing paperwork and finalizing tomorrow's schedule. He has been sleeping on our couch on the nights we rehearse to cut down on travel time and the expense of NJ Transit tickets out here from his place in the city. Stage managing a show the size of Romeo and Juliet that utilizes texts in two languages, multiple translations, and a hodgepodge of actors ranging from Equity members to high school apprentices is more than a full time job. John, like the rest of us, is donating his time and his talents because he believes in what we're doing, and I must say that he is proving to be an uncommonly delightful house guest.

There's too much to say about how rehearsals are going and too little time before I start passing out at the keyboard, so I'll try to take you on a brisk walk through our woods as opposed to a leisurely stroll. Our second Apprentice Company rehearsal with Dan and the rest of the cast was our first on our feet. The ACs have yet to visit the real performance space (we're rehearsing in a studio for now), so the session began with a description of the church and an explanation of the tape lines on the floor that represent stairs/set pieces etc. Dan worked with us on staging or " blocking" the opening exchanges and the very end of the play, two scenes in which the AC will play vital roles. The confidence the younger actors gained over the course of the two hour session was stunning. One of our more reluctant actors, a young lady who signed up for the project because of her talent for working behind the scenes, started out the night nearly whispering her lines. After some coaxing from Dan and myself and not a small amount of ribbing from her older sister, she ended rehearsal smiling, having landed some great zingers on her cast-mates.

The biggest problem we faced last night was with our Spanish translation of the scene at the top of the play between Sampson and Gregory. It's quite funny in English, but the Spanish version we've been working with is dry and not exactly actor-friendly. The ACs have found a fun sense of play speaking the English version, but as we've worked their lines in Spanish, their performances have flattened out. John Keller and I haven't had any real way to address this due to linguistic limitations. Fortunately our Lord Capulet, Claudio Mir, heard the need for a more dynamic translation and found us a new one by this morning. The AC's say it'll be much more fun to act this version, and they don't seem even slightly annoyed by having to start memorizing another script.

Things are definitely moving forward. We did a lot of stretching and movement work tonight. The ACs resent me a little, I think, for asking them to perform such super-human feats as forward bends, lunges and child's pose. I'll have to console myself with the fact that they do seem to enjoy doing the exercises we lead them through in spite of their claims of fatigue. Last night we began to introduce some of the basic principals of Michael Chekhov movement technique in order to give them some physical tools to bring more life into their scenes. We'll continue with this and the stretching so that they're better prepared for the real tasking physical stuff we ask them to do when our fight choreographer arrives.

Stay tuned. You'll be hearing more from us soon.
Happy Friday, friends of culture.

-Jen

"When you do dance, I wish you a wave of the sea..."

2010-07-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

Have I kept you all waiting long enough?

I thought so.

I had hoped to conjure some deeper voices in this second entry by giving our company members the opportunity to tell you a little bit about themselves, but everyone, myself included, is extraordinarily busy balancing multiple day jobs, life’s little disasters and wake up calls, and family commitments galore as all of us must, in addition to the not exactly cake-easy work of fundraising and putting up the very first production of a not-for-profit theater company. Their entries will come, and very soon I hope to post excerpts from the journals some of our apprentices are keeping of their experience so far. But for now, you’ve got me. *

I’m very happy to tell you that we have finally assembled all of our apprentices and worked out everyone’s schedules, transportation and individual goals. We’ve spent about a week’s worth of evenings sharing some of our tools for deciphering the clues hidden in Shakespeare’s texts for actors, working on speech and movement, playing theater games and learning to work as an ensemble. The enthusiasm with which this group has attacked the work is inspiring. Speaking very personally, it’s a real gift to come out of an intensive three-year masters program and be immediately surrounded by so much curiosity and so many refreshing, unique perspectives on the work we theater makers do, and more importantly, why we do it.

Last night marked the Apprentice Company’s first official rehearsal with the Professional Company. We met early last week for pizza and introductions, but this was our first working session together. It’s been fun to listen to the ACs come back from breaks exclaiming “I just saw Juliet!” and “Did you see Tybalt’s car?! It’s perfect for his character!” The fact that we’ve been working in the same building with the PCs has added an element of excitement and intrigue to the process so far. That said, the prospect of actually approaching their roles for the first time at the table with our director, Dan Swern, was daunting for some of them. I’ll admit to being a little bit nervous myself. It’s rarely easy to mesh two ensembles at first, and that is effectively what we began doing last night.

The work John Keller and I have done with the ACs on text has been mostly oriented toward getting them comfortable with iambic pentameter, introducing them to some of the things that can be learned from the way lines are punctuated, and helping those for whom classical text appears on the page the same mocking way any sort of complex mathematical equation does to me. They're learning to take deep breaths, dive in and start speaking. Last night, Dan began delving into circumstance with them. That is to say, he started asking them to imagine what it would mean to actually be the characters they’re playing. The ACs will be opening the play as the local youths who get into a brawl because of the feud between their “houses,” which in this production represent the ethnic division of New Brunswick. It’s tough to ask a high school student to imagine the truth of fighting to kill or seeing a friend’s body laid out and seeking revenge, but that’s some of what they’ll be asked to do in order to tell this story. They’ll get to imagine themselves in happy circumstances as well, but Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy and last night was the first night the weight of that sank in for them. It’s one thing to sit in a room and talk through the circumstances of the play, and it is another to see it acted out in front of you. Before last night, when we talked about the fights there was a lot of giggling and “I’m going to kick your @$$” talk thrown around, but with the professional actors in the room the story of Romeo and Juliet began to come alive in a way it never could in an English class. Not that I have anything against English classes. Believe me.

I hope you’ll hear more from the individuals themselves because I don’t like speaking for them, but I should tell you that some of our ACs are pretty insistent about only wanting to act in Spanish. This is something many of them will have the opportunity to do in our show, but it’s almost certain that each of them will have to speak at least a few lines in English in group scenes where they are communicating with a mixed crowd. Speaking up in a first rehearsal when you’re not entirely sure you know what you’re doing yet and having to do some of that speaking in a language other than your first can be very scary. Our ACs behaved professionally and met the challenge head on, taking adjustments from Dan and asking questions when they needed help with things. As we go deeper into the process I think it will be great for them to see how this is what all actors do and that having questions about circumstances and language is a good thing. They’ll get to see that they aren’t expected to know how to do everything right when they walk in the door. That’s why there’s a rehearsal process. It’s one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn as an actor and I’m still learning it. It’s all too easy to shut down and be hard on yourself and make no choices in rehearsal because you’re afraid of making the wrong ones, but as so many brilliant teachers have told me, you have to make those wrong choices in order to find the right ones. Nothing comes of nothing. As Deborah Hedwall would say, you have to jump. So far the ACs are jumping. I can only hope they’ll keep asking themselves to jump farther.

The language issue is kind of fun. I’m experiencing a taste of healthy discomfort myself in that my character will be speaking some lines in Spanish in this production. Despite having grown up in Miami, I speak no Spanish. I understand some. I’ve watched my share of Sabado Gigante. I speak none. French, un petit peu, Spanish, not at all. It’s great. We spend a couple of hours working on the ACs' roles and then I say “Ok. Now you guys have to help me.” According to them, I still sound French. But I’ll get there. They believe in me.

On a sadder note, this week marked the passing of an extraordinary mentor and director, whom many of the members of our company will sorely miss. He implored his students to be “friends of culture.” I am very grateful to have known him.

Israel Hicks.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15436162?source=sb-facebook

*Please forgive the grammar. I like to start sentences with “ands” and “buts” sometimes for emphasis. If any of my beloved English professors are reading this, I know. I’m sorry. I can’t help myself. I like to think Shakespeare would approve.

Jen

"What's past is prologue..."

2010-06-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hello to our New Brunswick readers and to all of our friends elsewhere in the world! In this, the first official post of our first official season, I am happy to report that rehearsals for NBTF's inaugural production, Romeo and Juliet, began on the first of June. Countless hours of hard work put forth by an outstanding team of artists and the miraculous energetic-support of the New Brunswick community have gotten us far in the months and years leading up to this, and the production is shaping up to be something very special.

Our first two meetings with the Professional Company have been electrically charged. The Apprentice Company, comprised of students we met during our residency at New Brunswick High School this spring, will join us soon. They will without a doubt give us even more of a jolt in the coming weeks.

My name is Jennifer Ring. I am an actor and teaching artist with NBTF as well as a graduate of the MFA program at Rutgers University, and it will be my immense pleasure to introduce you in this blog to the other individuals who populate our festival. I think it is safe to speak for the group and say that we are all very excited to meet you.

Welcome!

Jen