Sunday, March 25, 2007
"29"
Last night, Peter and i went downtown to The Provincetown Playhouse to see another Steinhardt student production, this time of a new piece from NYU Grad Writing Program writers...it's called "29" (the quotation marks are mine, not the writers), and the cast consisted of a few Seniors and several 2nd year Grad students as well...all uniformly gifted , well-trained and, consequently, ready to show what they have to offer in this valuable showcase of a show. They should be proud, all of them, of how they do show!
John Simpkins, one of the busiest men in the Steinhardt School, once again directed both the students and show to best possible advantage, and again I was moved by what he is able to accomplish within what i know to be his time, budget, and talent pool constraints: John knows how to creatively, ingeniously (and with integrity) direct and produce shows that Steinhardt can be thoroughly proud of...Bill Wesbrooks does the same...and this is no small task. I would take anyone to anything produced by Steinahrdt School...and the more shows i see there, the more i know this to be true. Part of the reason for this is the amazingly good music staff the directors have to support them: James Cunningham among them!
Once again, as he did with Simpkins' URINETOWN company, James C. rocked the room! He is a disciplined man...I know this from the classes we teach together...and he will settle for no less than the best of what the student actors can give him, which I know can be hard on the actors sometimes, but oh so worth it! The good thing about James is that he plays so many voice lessons for the Schools best vocal teachers, that he knows how to get what he's listenig for, and often can speak the actor's language in getting it. The actors can understand him, from both the singing and the acting points of view because James has inculcated what he hears in all the rooms he assists in....this is an invaluable amalgam of practical knowledge.
"29" sounded great last night, both vocally and instrumentally. The show was, untypically, totally mic-ed and whoever ran the sound board knew what they were doing, for the most part...a couple of the mics were a bit feathey, perhaps placed on the actors' bodies in ways that rubbed against clothing too often, but these things were minor and corrected within the show...it mostly sounded exciting.
Which leads me to the students themselves: I learned so much from watching them, not the least of which was: give these classically trained students a chance to "rock out" and they do -wonderfully and truly . They served the show terrifically, and the writers may never get voices this good , this flexible and versatile, doing this material again: it was impressive.
Especially whent he voices came together to give the show its signature company sound...yummy. Again, bravo James. And John S. for understanding what a true grounding this became for the piece itself.
Dayna , Matt, Stephaine, Lauren, Kevin, Michael, Jared: congratulations! You did good! Really wonderfully good. The audience adored each and every one of you, and their response should have told you that by the end of the show! Enjoy! And keep learning!
The Provincetown was packed, and felt so warm and welcoming, not in small part due to those ingenious hanging lights, colorful and festive, that turned the place into a party from the moment the doors opened.. .... all in all,we were invited in. And felt good about accepting the invitation. Every time i walk into the Provincetown Playhouse, I am reminded of and feel part of the vast theatrical hustory of the place: Eugene O'Neill and the Provincetown Players, the entire Harold Clurman-Fervent Years- story of the place...whenever I teach a class there, I make my students become students of the history of the place itself to give them the respect and perspective such a place should teach: that they are an important part of theater history.
"29" became that, too, last night...I hope the writers appreciate that, because we in the audience certainly did, on the most basic of levels: young people passed something on to us, around the warm and glowing campfire of stories they ably told.
John Simpkins, one of the busiest men in the Steinhardt School, once again directed both the students and show to best possible advantage, and again I was moved by what he is able to accomplish within what i know to be his time, budget, and talent pool constraints: John knows how to creatively, ingeniously (and with integrity) direct and produce shows that Steinhardt can be thoroughly proud of...Bill Wesbrooks does the same...and this is no small task. I would take anyone to anything produced by Steinahrdt School...and the more shows i see there, the more i know this to be true. Part of the reason for this is the amazingly good music staff the directors have to support them: James Cunningham among them!
Once again, as he did with Simpkins' URINETOWN company, James C. rocked the room! He is a disciplined man...I know this from the classes we teach together...and he will settle for no less than the best of what the student actors can give him, which I know can be hard on the actors sometimes, but oh so worth it! The good thing about James is that he plays so many voice lessons for the Schools best vocal teachers, that he knows how to get what he's listenig for, and often can speak the actor's language in getting it. The actors can understand him, from both the singing and the acting points of view because James has inculcated what he hears in all the rooms he assists in....this is an invaluable amalgam of practical knowledge.
"29" sounded great last night, both vocally and instrumentally. The show was, untypically, totally mic-ed and whoever ran the sound board knew what they were doing, for the most part...a couple of the mics were a bit feathey, perhaps placed on the actors' bodies in ways that rubbed against clothing too often, but these things were minor and corrected within the show...it mostly sounded exciting.
Which leads me to the students themselves: I learned so much from watching them, not the least of which was: give these classically trained students a chance to "rock out" and they do -wonderfully and truly . They served the show terrifically, and the writers may never get voices this good , this flexible and versatile, doing this material again: it was impressive.
Especially whent he voices came together to give the show its signature company sound...yummy. Again, bravo James. And John S. for understanding what a true grounding this became for the piece itself.
Dayna , Matt, Stephaine, Lauren, Kevin, Michael, Jared: congratulations! You did good! Really wonderfully good. The audience adored each and every one of you, and their response should have told you that by the end of the show! Enjoy! And keep learning!
The Provincetown was packed, and felt so warm and welcoming, not in small part due to those ingenious hanging lights, colorful and festive, that turned the place into a party from the moment the doors opened.. .... all in all,we were invited in. And felt good about accepting the invitation. Every time i walk into the Provincetown Playhouse, I am reminded of and feel part of the vast theatrical hustory of the place: Eugene O'Neill and the Provincetown Players, the entire Harold Clurman-Fervent Years- story of the place...whenever I teach a class there, I make my students become students of the history of the place itself to give them the respect and perspective such a place should teach: that they are an important part of theater history.
"29" became that, too, last night...I hope the writers appreciate that, because we in the audience certainly did, on the most basic of levels: young people passed something on to us, around the warm and glowing campfire of stories they ably told.
Labels: NYU/Steinhardt
Monday, March 05, 2007
The Balcony Scene
....from WEST SIDE STORY is an example of the kind of scene we are wokring on in my Musical Scene Study Class every Monday and Wednesday morning from 9:30 -12 noon.
It's that glorious scene that takes place in the alley behind Maria's apartment , filled with climbing fire escapes and garbage cans, where Tony is found wandering in his attempt to find this wondrous new girl he just met at the Dance at the gymnasium...he is in need of this deep love that has begun inside him and he is at that wonderful point where it feels like his life depends on finding her...it is only out of such passionate need that a song like TONIGHT can grow, and this scene, filled with yearning, takes place between two of the most thrilling protagonists in theater history (based on those two others: Romeo and Juliet)...they must earn that song. So, the work of the scene, the brief scene preceding the song, is to establish the obstacles that make earning the song a labor of deep love, so that when they finally burst forth in song, we are as relieved as they are that they do so.
This morning , we worked on this scene in class. Because they are singers by nature, the two wonderful students found their way beautifully through the song, and sounded great doing it, but what they needed to learn, and what the coaching became about, is HOW TO EARN THE RIGHT TO SING IT! And, I have to say, it was terrific fun watching them have that dawn of understanding that takes place when good students are hearing what they need to hear to acquire a new tool. To bring home the point about obstacles, I actually had other students build an obstacle course (while Tony was out of the room)that became Maria's alley way, down which Tony had to traverse in order to get to his love...and i made Maria build more specifically the apartment she emrged from in order to come out onto the balcony...THEN: once i drove the lesson home that building the "pre -moment, the moment before" is a vital thing to understand and create, I introduced the notion of "forbidden love", impossible dreams and unquenchable longing for that thing or person you simply cannot have! I forbade them to easily satisfy their need to touch...to make it entirely impossible to so do...well....what happened then, as it became harder and harder for them to get to each other, as each time Tony got near, he was forced by a voice from inside the apartment to hide again...what happened was that when they finally had that first kiss, it was such a relief! So I left them with that dilemma to contemplate and continue building the scene on....it was so cool! The lovely girl playing Maria actually blushed and admitted she was beginning to really feel something
for Tony...and it showed! It was like watching lots of lightbulbs going off to see them get the point....
NOW: if I can only make sure that the truly educational point is being made in a way that they remember from now on the importance of what they learned this morning...and so, we talked about the specifics of it. And I made them struggle through the event of actually putting it into words....and language they can use and understand. It totally connects to all they have read and learned from reading Uta Hagen's books in earlier acting classes....it totally connects to all they have learned in Song Analysis classes: find the conflict, intensify it to the point where singing becomes inevitable....etc.
There was also a pretty productive coaching of the MATCHMAKER scene from FIDDLER...
the three girls had obviously worked on it and that was gratifying....that made working with one actress in particular okay then, as she is one I am fond enough of to want to continue to break of certain habits I know she wants to break...and from her improvement comes the enegy for the entire scene and song...so, some progress was made there.
There you have, in short, a bit of what this class is like....and some insight into why I love it so much. Sometimes it feels like I was sent into these classrooms for the express purpose of teaching these young actors what they need to know right now...at least at times it feels that immediate to me. Purposeful. Purposeful is good. And, for a short while, I believe in theater
again, live, interesting, human theater, where wonderful stories are told and sung. ANd people want to hear them.
It's that glorious scene that takes place in the alley behind Maria's apartment , filled with climbing fire escapes and garbage cans, where Tony is found wandering in his attempt to find this wondrous new girl he just met at the Dance at the gymnasium...he is in need of this deep love that has begun inside him and he is at that wonderful point where it feels like his life depends on finding her...it is only out of such passionate need that a song like TONIGHT can grow, and this scene, filled with yearning, takes place between two of the most thrilling protagonists in theater history (based on those two others: Romeo and Juliet)...they must earn that song. So, the work of the scene, the brief scene preceding the song, is to establish the obstacles that make earning the song a labor of deep love, so that when they finally burst forth in song, we are as relieved as they are that they do so.
This morning , we worked on this scene in class. Because they are singers by nature, the two wonderful students found their way beautifully through the song, and sounded great doing it, but what they needed to learn, and what the coaching became about, is HOW TO EARN THE RIGHT TO SING IT! And, I have to say, it was terrific fun watching them have that dawn of understanding that takes place when good students are hearing what they need to hear to acquire a new tool. To bring home the point about obstacles, I actually had other students build an obstacle course (while Tony was out of the room)that became Maria's alley way, down which Tony had to traverse in order to get to his love...and i made Maria build more specifically the apartment she emrged from in order to come out onto the balcony...THEN: once i drove the lesson home that building the "pre -moment, the moment before" is a vital thing to understand and create, I introduced the notion of "forbidden love", impossible dreams and unquenchable longing for that thing or person you simply cannot have! I forbade them to easily satisfy their need to touch...to make it entirely impossible to so do...well....what happened then, as it became harder and harder for them to get to each other, as each time Tony got near, he was forced by a voice from inside the apartment to hide again...what happened was that when they finally had that first kiss, it was such a relief! So I left them with that dilemma to contemplate and continue building the scene on....it was so cool! The lovely girl playing Maria actually blushed and admitted she was beginning to really feel something
for Tony...and it showed! It was like watching lots of lightbulbs going off to see them get the point....
NOW: if I can only make sure that the truly educational point is being made in a way that they remember from now on the importance of what they learned this morning...and so, we talked about the specifics of it. And I made them struggle through the event of actually putting it into words....and language they can use and understand. It totally connects to all they have read and learned from reading Uta Hagen's books in earlier acting classes....it totally connects to all they have learned in Song Analysis classes: find the conflict, intensify it to the point where singing becomes inevitable....etc.
There was also a pretty productive coaching of the MATCHMAKER scene from FIDDLER...
the three girls had obviously worked on it and that was gratifying....that made working with one actress in particular okay then, as she is one I am fond enough of to want to continue to break of certain habits I know she wants to break...and from her improvement comes the enegy for the entire scene and song...so, some progress was made there.
There you have, in short, a bit of what this class is like....and some insight into why I love it so much. Sometimes it feels like I was sent into these classrooms for the express purpose of teaching these young actors what they need to know right now...at least at times it feels that immediate to me. Purposeful. Purposeful is good. And, for a short while, I believe in theater
again, live, interesting, human theater, where wonderful stories are told and sung. ANd people want to hear them.
Labels: NYU/Steinhardt
