Fine Arts Center Theatre

Metamorphoses, Turkey, and Happy Holidays!

noreply@blogger.com (Teri) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:35:00 +0000

Wow, what a show! Thank you to everyone who was able to come to any of the Metamorphoses shows this week!! Be sure to stay tuned to see what we have coming up next.
We'd love to send out a huge thank you as well to Shannon Robert, who directed us and really helped us to create a cohesive, ensemble strong show. :)
Photos will be coming soon, so stay tuned into our blog!

I seem to be forgetting something...AH! Yes. Today is Thanksgiving! So go and spend time with your friends, your family, and food and be thankful for who you have to spend the holidays with, because not everyone can go home to their families (which may or may not be a good thing for some people). If I might be so candid, I'd like to say how thankful I am for the theatre friends I've created through the Fine Arts Center. Lots of love going out to the students of the AM and PM Theatre classes. Happy Turkey/Tofurkey Day!!

-Erika W.

The Metamorphoses Poster

noreply@blogger.com (Teri) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:08:00 +0000

Credit to Carrie Ann Culbertson for poster design.

Have you decided how to spend your Saturday or Sunday yet? No? Come see our show! Like it? Come see it AGAIN! Tickets are free, but donations are accepted gratefully. We'd love to have you if you will join us, and be sure to get there early!

Get Ready for The Metamorphoses!

noreply@blogger.com (Teri) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:43:00 +0000

The Fine Arts Center
Afternoon Theatre Class presents

Scenes from
The Metamorphoses
by Mary Zimmerman

Saturday November 22, 7:00 P.M.
Sunday November 23, 3:00 P.M.

Are you ready? I don't think you're ready. Sometimes I wonder if we're ready. But we are going to have a fantastic performance next Saturday and Sunday. For those who don't know, the Afternoon Theatre II, III, and IV students will be performing scenes from The Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman!

The Metamorphoses is based on Ovid's narrative poem of the same name. It encompasses retelling of myths such as Midas, Phaeton, Erysichthon, Orpheus and Eurydice, and more! The scenes have been written in a more contemporary fashion liguistically, but the text itself is open to interpretation.

The play is based around an interesting and unique set piece: a pool. Led by our awesome Technical Theatre Teacher Dirk Holleman, the students have managed to bring that same integral set piece to our own little black box theatre. While it is not at all the scale that the original show used, it has still been a challenge to recreate the idea. In addition to figuring out how to build and move it, we have had to worry about holes in our pool lining. Even though we had a suspiciously-possibly-fingernail-shaped puncture in all three layers of the lining which led to a very wet masonite floor. Hooray. Dirk however, saved the day by teaching us how to overcome our setbacks: lots and lots of waterproofing. Every crack of the pool was caulked and the pool frame itself was sealed.

Rehearsing this show has not exactly been easy-sailing either (har-har, bad water-related pun for you). It was originally blocked without the pool or the water, but when we did get to use the pool, we discovered that the equation of "running + water = slippery and awkward." Our guest director Shannon Robert, who has been so amazing to work with thus far, immediately began to right this. It's been a gift to be directed by her and really amazing to be able to make our own decisions acting-wise, and see how the entire play is a cohesive piece. I encourage everyone to come and see how we have taken our Suzuki and voice work and used it to help with a Greek-based show. Teri will be so proud!

This show is sure to be a wonderful evening (or afternoon!) performance that will definitely make you see how we push the limits on what we as an ensemble can do in our technical as well as acting aspects. Remember, you can give an actor a fish and feed him for a day or teach him how to fish and he'll probably use the fishing pole in an improvised, interpretive dance using pantomime after which he promptly begins to recite the three-hundred and twenty-ninth unpublished lost Shakespearean sonnet about herring while doing the Suzuki Sitting Statues exercise.

Thank you for reading, and our class is eager to see you next weekend!
-Erika

A.M. Greek Show: Agamemnon Scenes

noreply@blogger.com (Teri) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:09:00 +0000

Congratulations to the Morning Class on a wonderful performance of a Greek scene from Agamemnon on October 14, 2008. Three groups of 4 students were given the same scene to stage and interpret themselves, but weren't allowed to work with the other groups.

Group 1
Clytemnestra - Meghan Wallace
Leader - Mitchell Smith
Cassandra - Rachel White
Chorus - Travis Ware

Group 2
Clytemnestra - Talley Hite
Leader - Jack Tillman
Cassandra - Emily Kiser
Chorus - Aaron Davis

Group 3
Clytemnestra - Madelene Tetsch
Leader - Bryce McClendon
Cassandra - Miriam LeCourse
Chorus - Chaz Kirby

Technical Crew
Sam Ballenger Luke Mosley
Karson Childers David Quakenbusch
Andrew Mulkey, crew chief
Jenn Reddick, crew chief

About Agamemnon and the House of Atreus...

Cassandra, who has the power of prohpecy (a seer in Ancient Greece), fortells her own murder and the murder of King Agamemnon by his wife, Queen Clytemnestra. Cassandra cries out for mercy to Apollo who was taken by her beauty and granted her the gift of prophecy. He cursed her so that no one would ever believe her predictions after she defied him and didn't return his love. Her gift became an endless source of pain and frustration. Her lover, King Agamemnon (of the cursed house of Atreus) had four children with Clytemnestra: Orestes, Iphegenia, Electra, and Chryothemis. His house fell to ruin and is the subject of many great Greek plays.

It was really inspiring to see many different interpretations of the same section of text. The different costumes, and sets helped to add to wonderful blocking and vocal work. Congrats on an awesome first performance guys and sorry it's taken so long to get this up!

-Erika

Back on Track Again

noreply@blogger.com (Teri) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:20:00 +0000

Today marked the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year! We're very pleased to be back at the Fine Arts Center and we learned about the many projects and pieces we'll have planned for everyone to come see.
We are also excited for Ms. Soon-To-Be-Mama Teri Parker-Lewis, who will be out on maternity leave in 2-4 weeks for about 2 months. Shannon Robert will be subbing in for her and we will be working on monologues and a play with her as well as the more technical side of things.

Just a taste of what's to come:
- "Informances" Performances designed to inform!
- A piece directed by our substitute teacher Shannon Robert
- A variety show
- The end of the year projects from our theatre 3 and 4s

Please check back to our blog for updates, pictures, and the occasional video. :)
-Erika

Contemporary and Original Scene Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Teri) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:52:00 +0000

Please join the theatre students May 4th at 6 p.m. for Theatre 3 projects and scenes from the morning class!

There will be a performance piece directed and conceptualized by Leslie Miller, a reading of an original play by Tyler French, and a presentation from Chelsea Sanders.

The show is free but donations will be accepted and greatly appreciated.

Can't wait to see you there!

Late Update: Jeffrey Week

noreply@blogger.com (Teri) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:55:00 +0000

The week of January 28 through February 1st, the Theatre classes were lucky to work with Jeffrey Frace, an accomplished director and performer who has traveled all over doing both. He is an associate artist with the Saratoga International Theatre Institute (SITI) as well as owning Point B Productions, his own production company. While he is a director, he also acts, writes, and dances.
This is the second year he has been a guest director with our class, and taught both the morning and afternoon classes about Suzuki and Viewpoints last year. This year, he taught the morning class Suzuki and Viewpoints, and the afternoon class Clowning and Melodrama.
Our performance was on February 1st, 2008 at 7:00 P.M.

For the afternoon students, the week began with a one day class on clowning, and each of us were to bring in a costume that exaggerated or changed our proportions. We worked with clown noses, and learned how to fail with confidence.

Throughout the week, we were taught different games that we could apply in our acting. One example is the chair game, where the goal was to get to the empty seat when the chairwatcher winked at you. But you had to avoid having the person whose chair you were in tag you before you got there. We could apply this feeling of freedom or escape to our acting whenever we first appeared on stage so we always had a lively, believable beginning.

On Thursday Jeffrey gave us very short melodramatic scenes that we were to perform for everyone the NEXT DAY. Talk about working under pressure, but this was a wonderful fats-paced way of working and everyone got something out of it. Each of the pieces performed were incredibly detailed and accurate for having such a short time to rehearse them.

All in all, both classes learned a lot of valuable acting tools that can be applied to our own styles in a very short period of time.
Some of the rehearsals and work with Jeffrey can also be viewed online here and our Theatre photo album can be viewed here!

FAC Theatre blog begins

noreply@blogger.com (Teri) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 03:46:00 +0000

Hello, and welcome to the post for the Fine Arts Center's Blog for Theatre!

Currently the theatre classes are begining work with Commedia dell'arte, a form of improvisational acting that developed from Greek and Roman theatre and became popular in Europe, specifically Italy. This style is all about character development, ans characters' motivations and movements.

We also have the honor of working with the great Jeffrey Frace, a director/actor/writer from the SITI company who will be directing us the last week of January. On the first of February at 7:oo we will perform what we have worked on that week.

Later, our advanced acting class will be attending the South-Eastern Theatre Conference in Chattanooga, TN at the beginning of March. We will be attending workshops, and our Junior-year students will have the chance to take part in a cattle-call audition.

Stay tuned to our blog for information, updates, and entertainment!