Going home

Today is Sunday, June 30th. I am so excited to get back to my family. I've been gone for 14 complete days, and I'm sitting in the tiny airport in Lincoln, Nebraska. I am actually flying back through Chicago in order to get home.

After this entire trip I have seen over 40 hours worth of theatre in 17+ productions. I've also been a part of over 50 hours worth of workshops on everything from teaching, improv, writing to the use of Indian dance terms in the creation of a character.

I've never in my life seen this much theatre in such a short period of time. I was rather inundated with musicals this last week at the International Thespian Festival, and although I haven't been much of a fan of that genre, I've found myself really getting engaged with the musical again. I haven't really enjoyed them since the age of 16-18 yrs. old (20 yrs. ago) and it was nice to get great exposure to them this week. The musicals and the comedy I have seen really help remind me that life doesn't need to be taken so seriously. The dramas I have seen helped remind me that a powerful onstage drama can really affect someone's thought processes and initiate change in society.

The workshops have given me more information in two weeks than I could have gained in weeks of professional development at the local level. I have studied with people from all over the world, from all walks of life.

The work involved in the fellowship has been grueling and at times overwhelming, but I could have never asked for a better way to spend two weeks of my summer. I will continue to seek out grants from Fund For Teachers, as well as many other avenues that will allow me to study in the summer. The rewards are limitless and will pay dividends to the students I teach for years to come. Although my body is exhausted and my mind is crammed with information that will take weeks to sort out, I am rejuvenated and refreshed and excited to share my experiences with my students.

I am also very glad I have completed this blog throughout my trip. It made for some late nights when I might have preferred going to bed, but I now have a permanent document to refer back to anytime I want to reflect on my adventure. It also serves as a teaching tool and will help show my students all the things that are offered at the Thespian Festival. Next year I hope to at least bring 2-3 students to Nebraska. I am signing off now and I thank you for following along on my two week adventure to Chicago and Lincoln, Nebraska.

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The Final Full (6th) Day of Festival, Saturday, June 29, 2013

Today started with about a 90 minute presentation of some of the strongest Individual Events (IEs) of the festival being presented in the giant Lied theatre for the masses. Individual Events are performances by one performer and could be a song or a monologue. The IEs were interesting and the performances were fun to watch. Their performances were broken up by a long series of awards for volunteers, teachers, programs and students across the country. The EdTA has given over $100,000 worth of scholarships this school year, including many thousands of dollars worth of scholarships this morning alone. I also received news that one of the students from the school I'm registered under, from Alabama, had a student that was elected as chair of the International Thespian Officers. There are students that are elected at the school level and the state level and this young lady was elected at the national level. What that means is that this young lady from Huntsville, AL, will be flown to festivals all across the country, about one each month for the next school year. All of her expenses will be paid for by EdTA, what an adventure for a high school senior.

I also had another great workshop from a teacher that has been teaching for 49 yrs. She has written several books on theatre and is a great motivator. She is from California and her name is Gai Jones. She led the class in lots of ensemble activities, many of which I have done, but it was a fun workshop regardless. Here is a picture of the instructor and I.

I then moved on to a workshop on rasaboxes which was led by an instructor from the Alley Theatre in Houston. It was based on movements that were created for Indian dance and allows students to assign different 'rasas' (emotions) to different pieces of scenes/monologues/etc. The workshop is difficult to explain, so I won't attempt it. The instructor assured the teachers she would email us her notes and so once I get them I can understand all of the different rasas with more clarity. This workshop took place in the Temple building. In the front of the Temple building is a large picture of Johnny Carson because he was one of the most famous University of Nebraska alums. He made a huge donation to the university in 2004 to help ensure that many other students will benefit from the educational opportunities in Nebraska. Here is a picture that references Mr. Carson and his gift to the university.

Here is a picture of me in front of the Mueller Tower, the university bell tower.

The festival concluded with a great performance of the musical Shrek by a troupe from Wisconsin. The musical is based on the famous children's animated movie and followed the same plot line closely. The script and lyrics were written by David Lindsay-Abaire (Pulitzer Prize winning playwright of Rabbit Hole). The play was uplifting and left the entire audience singing along after a standing ovation. The young man playing Lord Farquar walked on his knees the entire show (his short legs were drawn or sewn onto the front of his pants) and his legs from the knees down were disguised by a cape. The musical's setting theme was that of a garbage dumpster. The dumpster nearly filled the entire stage, but was on wheels and had different doors on various sides of the dumpster that would open at various times. The dumpster would also spin to reveal a new set. The musical also featured an enormous singing dragon. The actress singing for the dragon served as the puppet master that operated the mouth as she sang. The dragon was also controlled by four other actors (one for each wing, one for the main body, one for the tail). The dragon's eyes & mouth moved and it was really incredible seeing the entire body & wings of the dragon be controlled by a total of 5 actors. The swamp (in this version) was actually the dumpster. It was an interesting take on the story's theme, but I believed that it worked. The show was a great way to end the festival. It was followed up by a final adult social that also had a Shrek theme. Each night the festival had the adult socials (our 4th meal) which featured great food, desserts, bottled water & punch. They would usually go from about 11 PM until around 12 or 12:15 AM The socials were extensively decorated (similar to that of a theatre set) and the food was delicious. I think that the folks at the University of Nebraska are glad the festival is over as well because many of their cafe workers were busy until late night providing the food & clean upfor the late night socials.

 

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Pure and Utter Exhaustion

I wanted to do a brief post about the exhaustion that is setting in on me. I have been working on this fellowship for 13 days now. I knew when I left that I would have fun but it was been surprising how much INTENSE work this has been. I have stayed up late almost every night to post on my blog and it has been a great experience. I feel lucky and blessed to have been a part of this all and I will continue to seek out grants and fellowships for the rest of my career because I don't think I have learned this much in such a short period of time EVER in my life. I've seen more shows than I usually see in a few years in the last 2 weeks. I've learned more from my workshops than I know what to do with, and it will take me some time to sort through it all and organize it into cohesive lesson plans during the rest of the summer. I'm so lucky that I get to rest when I get home and not go straight back to work, because I really need some rest right now. I've met folks from all over the country and we've shared all sorts of ideas.

I've met teachers that operate with little to no financial support (similar to my program) and I've also met people with enormous budgets and huge community support. I met one teacher from South Carolina, it is his first year teaching and he just did Les Miserables and they had a $200,000 budget! For ONE show! Now that is support. It is his first year teaching and he is not the primary theatre teacher, but one of 3 at his school. They have supporters from Canada who fly down each year and stay in the community for one week just to see their shows.

When I wake up in the morning my eyes are heavy, but I know I have to get up and have breakfast and get to the workshops and shows so I don't miss out on any learning and absorbing of information. My body is starting to ache and sitting in the uncomfortable seats of a theatre reminds me that it is my DUTY to produce compelling work for my audiences. If I do NOT do that, why would they want to come and sit in the uncomfortable chairs of our intimate black box theatre, or even worse, why would they want to come and sit on high school lunchroom table chairs to see our kids perform? If they are coming to see us, spending money and their time, we better be knocking out of the park.

Seeing all these talented students from across the country has been super inspiring. It also makes me know that getting at least 4-5 of my students to this festival next year will become a priority. I hope that we can somehow afford to get them here. Fundraising is not going to do it, because all of our fundraising must go towards our program, but somehow we are going to get some kids here because it is the educational opportunity of a lifetime for these high schoolers.

It's also a great learning tool for educators because all we have to do is network and reach out a little bit and we suddenly have someone that is in our shoes, in another state or even another country, that we can reach out to when we have issues. There is no one else like me at my high school, I'm the only theatre teacher, so this allows me to build up that database of information necessary to grow my program in ways unfathomable by myself.

The travel and the long hour work days are wearing me down, but I've only got one more full day to tackle and then I will return home to my family and loved ones. I'm looking forward to getting home Sunday, but I'm also looking forward to one more day of education. I cannot thank the people at Fund For Teachers enough. Fund For Teachers is the organization that paid for all my travel expenses and my entire week of learning in Chicago. I also owe a great deal of thanks to the folks at the Alabama Thespian State Festival who helped me secure my theatre director's scholarship to attend this conference and learn so much valuable information.

It goes to show that although the work is non-stop, the payoff will be incredible and students will benefit from this education that I'm gaining for years to come.

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5th Day of Festival, Friday, June 28, 2013

Today I saw another great musical called [title of show]. The show was about 2 guys trying to write a musical. The script was absolutely genius. There were 4 characters, plus a piano player. The show was jam packed with laughs and truly an intelligent script that poked fun of many different aspects of musical theatre. Normal conversations were converted into dialogue and the way the script moved just felt natural and (at the same time) original. The stage was set simply with 4 chairs of different colors, lined up in a row center, each under a spotlight. The two chairs on the end of the row both had wheels. There was a keyboard on a stand (and a pianist) & some monitors, just up left of the chairs and also a small end table that held an answering machine down right. Everything about the script just really blew me away. At one point a character said he was going to the park and then he simply dragged his chair on wheels over to the SL side of the stage. The character that was already SL said, "You said you were going to the park and then you just dragged your chair over here." There were so many moments throughout the play where the play was aware of itself in the midst of creation and it just really made the script so much more interesting than anything I've seen at the festival. At one point a character said, "You've been so quiet." and the other character responded by saying, "I haven't had a line until now." The process of creating a musical was difficult and they addressed all the issues they were encountering throughout the musical like: the title of the show was [title of show], they only had 4 cast members + a piano & pianist onstage, their set was only 4 chairs, infighting between the cast members during the writing process, jobs where the actors/writers worked while they were trying to produce a hit musical. Everything just seemed so fresh and new and it was a great pleasure to watch it from the perspective of the audience. It also seemed like a small enough cast and a simple enough set, so that we might be able to do the show at my high school as a 'starter' type of musical with 2 males and 2 females.

Today I also attended a workshop on the Meisner technique. If you are unfamiliar with the process of acting, Sanford (Sandy) Meisner was a great innovator in a new(ish) type of acting process where actors dig deeply to get to the heart of the matter in plays/scene work/monologues. Meisner's goal was to help get the 'mind' of the actor out of the way of the 'impulse' of the actor. The exercise that was demonstrated was the repetition exercise where two actors sit face to face and one makes a neutral observation about the other and then they simply repeat. This can go on for a long time. The goal is to react and observe your partner's behavior, but only while stating the same statements. For example: 'You're wearing a watch' and then 'I'm wearing a watch' and this goes on and on. It is an interesting exercise but it is only the very first step in Meisner's work. When I have allowed students to do this exercise it doesn't always, work but this exercise helped me understand the exercise on a deeper level. At any point the instructor can stop the repetition and ask one of the actors, what are you getting from the other actor and then you must be able to state where they are emotionally. If you don't know what is happening, then you are doing the exercise correctly. You get your 'mind' out of the way, 'react' to your partner, and pursue whatever you want from your partner as the repetition exercise continues. These are one of those types of exercises that you must be present for in order to understand, but it IS quite helpful if you really turn yourself over to the exercise.

The second workshop I attended was taught by Stephen Gregg, a professional playwright out of LA. I took a workshop with him at the Alabama State Thespian Festival in 2012 in Troy, AL. I really enjoyed it so I decided to take another one here at the International Festival. This was called Dramatic Writing: Playwriting 2. It actually built off of the information that I was presented with about 18 months ago in his original Playwriting session. His workshop covered the different types of relationships that can be happening with only 2 characters onstage. There are four different options when 2 characters are onstage. Character A can like character B and character B can like A. OR, Character A doesn't like B, but character B likes A. OR, Character B doesn't like A, but character A likes B. Or both A and B do not like each other. He went on to explain that if you add just ONE more character to the mix and have 3 characters, there becomes 64 different options of character relationships. He continued on to explain that if you can write a play with 2 characters or even 3 characters, you can write any play imaginable. He also spoke about the genius the Anton Chekhov used when he was writing because he could have approximately 8 (or more) characters onstage and they could all be pursuing someone or something different and it all remained subtle. Here is a picture with Mr. Gregg and I.

He also presented us with a test that would measure our aptitude to be a good playwright. I took this test very seriously. The test had 7 questions and he stated that people rarely EVER got all 7 questions correct. He even offered $10 to anyone that answered them all correctly. I was in a room with around 20 students and one other teacher. I was sure that I had answered all questions correctly. We went over the answers one at a time. Each question presented us with a scenario and we were to choose (from 2 options) the option of the scenario that could result in the most interesting scene, based on the setup. Here is an example.

A teacher is trying to convince her principal not to fire her. The teacher is

A) two years from retirement

B) in her second year. She's still trying to decide if teaching is the career for her.

So which option (A or B) would give us a stronger starting point for a play or a scene?

The correct answer is A, if you chose B, then the teacher gets fired, who cares, they go and find another job. If you chose A, the teacher is close to being retired and not being worried for work for the rest of her life, there are greater STAKES in that scene and that is all that matters from a dramatic perspective.

I answered the first 6 correct and so did the other teacher. None of the students had gotten the first 6 correct, so it was down to the other adult in the room or myself. I missed the last one and the other teacher won the $10.

In the end he laughed and said that the test was irrelevant. He said in the end that he did think that the answers he selected were the stronger choices, but that the test didn't really measure playwriting aptitude. It was just a test he created. He also reminded us that we were in class with him for 1 1/2 hours and then we'd probably never see him again, but that we all took it very seriously because of the stakes he set up for us (saying no one ever got them all right, saying it could tell us if we were a playwright, offering money to the winner, and also telling us that people who scored 3/7 or below would be forced to go stand in the 'corner of shame'.

It was all an example to help illustrate that STAKES are the most important part of a scene or a play. If the stakes are there, no one in the audience is going to care.

Finally, the real highlight of the day was the production of Peter Pan by Faith Lutheran Theatre Company from Las Vegas, Nevada. At this point I have seen 15 productions in 13 days during my fellowship, including lots of professional theatre shows in Chicago. This production was definitely one of the best that I've seen. The technical theatre elements were astounding, the actors were great, the story was uplifting and the music selected for the play was incredible. There were 4 actors flying (literally) around the stage at one point of the show. This was not the musical version, but the play version and it was unbelievable. I could not believe I was watching a high school show. Granted, this was a school that must receive great financial support, because the production value was that of a show similar to Broadway. The costumes were magnificent and the sets were mind-boggling. When Peter Pan made his first leap into the air, I couldn't believe it. I never once saw the wires, my seat is near the top of the house, but I couldn't see them at all. 'The Savages' came out and did a dance number that was absolutely flawless to some great upbeat dance music. 'The Pirates' were bumbling and foolish and served as great comic relief. Capt. Hook commanded the stage and used his voice a powerful element, but also knew how to hold and play for laughter. 'The Lost Boys' did a great job at their roles along with all the members of the family. The show was directed Emily Ball and the technical direction and adaptation of the script was done by her husband. There was a fight Choreography, a puppeteer coach, a flying effects crew & a choreographer. There were 32 cast members and 2 understudies. There were 55 people involved in the technical roles for this show. It really goes to show that NO GREAT SHOW can be done without enormous support from the technical theatre participants. I wish I could have taken pictures, but that is against the rules in live theatre and I will not break that rule. That is the beauty of live theatre, you actually have to be there in order to enjoy it. .

I am a director of a one-man theatre program. One day, hopefully there will be someone else there to help me manage the ENORMOUS amounts of volunteers, students and parents that it will take to mount a production like this. The technical aspects of a show on this scale are overwhelming and knowing that there were at least 6 other adults working full time on this show gives me some relief because I know that we are simply not there yet. One day we will be, and we might get there sooner if I can get some students and parents to attend this festival with me next year.

One of the most touching moments came after Tinkerbell was killed and Peter Pan rallied the 2,000 seat theatre to scream, "I do, I do, I do believe in fairies; I do, I do, I do believe in fairies; I do, I do, I do believe in fairies!!", until finally Tinkerbell came back to life. I saw grown men and women crying during this rally of hope. You have never in your life been in the presence of so much love and support as I was tonight in a theatre of 2,000 young actors rooting on their fellow young actors in a celebration of art and culture. It was something to believe in and I've never witnessed so much unity in a theatre. The theatre was chanting it all in unison and I was truly moved.

Tomorrow we will see the musical Shrek that came down from Wisconsin and I'm sure it will be great as well.

 

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4th day of 'Festival', Thursday, June 27, 2013

Today I saw a play named, 13, with music by Jason Robert Brown. It was a musical about a young man who is about to turn 13 and the difficulty of adolescence. As soon as he mentioned he was preparing for his Bar Mitzvah, I wondered if the musical would be loaded with a bunch of Jewish references that I wouldn't understand. Fortunately, it wasn't, but the few Jewish jokes it did have, I understood completely.

Here is a shot from where I was sitting. I'm in the second row from the top. Not sure why my seat is so high up, but I'm happy to be in the house at all. This was before the show when they were introducing troupes that won the 'Send a Troupe to Festival' contest. The EdTA raised enough money to send two different trips to Festival this year which was approximately $10,000 per troupe.

Back to the musical. 13 dealt with the angst of being a young teenager, getting your first french kiss, the awkwardness of puberty and the cruelty of young people. It was really a fun adventure about adolescence told through song and dialogue and I just truly enjoyed it. It was perfect for this age group audience. It also dealt with popularity, disability, lying, deception, image, climbing the social ladder & being true to yourself. I also really enjoyed the simplicity of their set that consisted of one major backdrop with a crossword puzzle and throughout the play different words were highlighted that were being referenced in a song. I also really enjoyed the songs and found the script to be particularly funny for the teenage crowd.

Today I also attended two workshops. The were both for teachers only and they both proved to be incredibly helpful. In the first workshop 'Imagination Central: Creativity in the Theatre Curriculum' we were provided resources from a teacher who had worked in the classroom for 40 yrs. who gave us different pointers on how to develop our program. He also agreed to send me (and others) all the documents he had at home from this workshop and another workshop he taught yesterday entitled 'How to Develop Your Theatre Program'.

The second workshop was the best workshop I've attended at 'Festival'. It was called 'Best Practices for Your Theatre Group' and was also for teachers only. We brainstormed and created 5 imaginary classes that we wish we had before we stepped into the theatre classroom. Then the instructor helped facilitate a forum where all the teachers in the workshop shared different ideas from their program that proved to be successful for their students/community. I was typing so much information down it was hard to keep up. To simply allow a group of 15 or so theatre teachers from all across the country to share ideas with one another is a great way to exchange meaningful information. We discussed APPS that work for our smartphones/iPads, we discussed ways to get people in our seats, we discussed fundraising ideas, we discussed ways to find costumes, we exchanged information with other teachers and we simply got a ton of information in a very short period of time. The lady next to me was from Texas and by this evening she had emailed me their Theatre Handbook that is signed by parents and students at the beginning of the year so they all understand expectations.

Lots of great information today and once again too much food. After our 3 meals each day, they have an adult social where we can continue networking and tonight they had another huge spread of food and desserts. I'm not sure why I'm eating four meals a day, including one at 11 PM each night, but that seems to be what everyone here is doing.

 

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3rd Day of Festival, Wednesday June 26, 2013

Today I saw Legally Blonde, The Musical. It was cuter than I anticipated. I assumed that I would be miserable through it, but it wasn't bad. The lead female character did a great job with her songs and the storyline was pretty interesting. There were 14 teenage girls, clad in all white and the majority of them in high heels, that served as her Greek Chorus and I thought that was an interesting twist to the plot. There was also a character named Kyle who worked for UPS and he helped propel a subplot line and served as a love interest for the main character's friend. All of the high school girls were screaming like they were at a Kings of Leon show when he arrived in the hair salon and bent over the package he was delivering to the stylist. The stylist, of course, fell for him immediately. I thought it was so funny because I have a brother who worked for UPS for many years. His name is Kyle. The musical was produced by a Texas high school and they had multiple sets which included a courtroom, a graduation ceremony, the hair salon, a dorm room, a real golf cart, a house, another house (both homes featured full stair cases), Harvard, along with a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting. The story is about Elle Woods and her pursuit of her college sweetheart from UCLA, all the way to Boston. Elle enrolls in law school at Harvard and against all odds gets in, shortly after she is dumped by her boyfriend. The story is about Elle proving to him that she isn't just a pretty face, but is in fact very intelligent and smart enough to pursue the same career that he is chasing. The play also featured two 'real' dogs that both seemed to get the most applause from the teenagers when they came onstage. This play had a few minor body mic issues, but nothing near the amount of the show the night before.

This red bike was another great part of my day. I rented it from the UNL outdoor recreation facility. I had noticed that a number of 'festival' students were riding around on them and I was super jealous. I asked one of them where he got it last night and he instructed me on where to secure some wheels for the remainder of my festival. These wheels allowed me to get about 20 blocks in around 8 minutes. It would have taken me much longer to walk this distance and I would have arrived at the Region III celebration dinner for troupe sponsors embarrassingly late after completing my two part Long Form Improv Workshops this afternoon.

The Long Form Improv Workshops were quite interesting and were taught by a gentleman from LA. He had created his on improv group in Madison, Wisconsin, where they performed sold out shows for approximately 4 years. He then migrated with his improv group to NYC and currently resides in LA where he works for E! entertainment television and NBC. He taught an enormous group of high school students the basics of long form improv and provided some great pointers. I was in the workshop with only one other teacher and towards the end of the 3+ hour workshop, I was once again reminded of the importance of deodorant for teenagers. These poor teenagers just don't know how to apply enough deodorant so that they can not reek to high heaven when in an enclosed space for long periods of time.

Tonight at our Region III dinner, one of the directors of EdTA was reminding us how much our volunteer work was appreciated. She emphasized those volunteers that worked the dance(s) because of the incredibly strong smell of body odor that radiated from the young people after they danced for a couple of hours. Oh, the young people and their sweaty ways. That was another reason I was so thrilled to rent a bike for the next couple of days. I don't mind the walking, it's just the incredible sweating that drips down the back of your shirt and down your legs after you have walked around 20 blocks in stifling heat and humidity. The bicycle allows me to move through the campus and the downtown area with a constant breeze. Here is a picture of the Nebraska state Capital I took while cruising a few blocks this afternoon.

This was a really neat used record/CD/tape store that I found as I pedaled around downtown Lincoln. For any fan of music, these little places are just like used bookstores for the book lover.

Generally they are rather dusty and you have to get after it if you want to find something, but they usually have an interesting man or a woman working at them with loads of information about music. This gentleman had been running his used music store for over 20 years. His hours were from 1:30 PM to 9 PM. I guess he wasn't a morning person, but he was a very cool guy. This type of establishment is the antithesis of your big box store like Wal-Mart, Target or Best Buy. However, his selection was much more vast with a focus on vinyl. Gentleman like this are great studies of character and that is why dropping in and talking with him for 30 minutes about music helps me become a better artist and actor. The more people you meet, the more you soak in, the better characters you can create when it comes time.

 

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Quick apology

Sorry, just realized the video I shot that is posted on the Tuesday page was upside down. I'm still figuring out this iPad thing, so bear with me. I'm not changing it, you get the idea.

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