Results tagged “Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival” from Drama Queen

Everyone's a Critic, but Only One Gets the Comp

So this is it. We've come to the end of our weeklong foray into the exciting world of theater journalism (which this week conveniently managed to get a bit more exciting than usual). Though all our students stretched their fledgling critiquing muscles, there's only one empty chair at the Kennedy Center waiting to be filled by a Region II critic, and one waiting in the wings for an alternate. Those seats are so tough to come by I'm not even invited, which, you know, kind of hurts my feelings, but whatever. I'm sure whomever I picked will have a great time, and maybe bring me back a snowglobe or something.

Without further ado, the winner is: Devin Dippold. Our alternate is Jessica Hinds-Bond. Coincidentally, both are grad students at Villanova University. Congratulations to them, and it was particularly gratifying, after agonizing over this choice for several hours, to see that you favored the same writers. Everyone who was kind enough to comment on the students' critiques should know their comments were seen and discussed by all involved.

And one more thing: it ain't easy to make a profession sound exciting and glamorous when it's fighting for its life. The reason I posted this event here is because I figured we might as well get online and get used to interacting with an audience as quickly as possible, since that's the journalistic world these writers will inhabit once they graduate. And while watching the old newsroom model fade into oblivion is depressing as hell, on the flipside, if you're just stepping out of the collegiate cocoon, well, it's a pretty exciting time to be a writer. I know the economy's against them right now, but when that's all over (heaven help us), these students will be free to make their own rules and redefine arts criticism any damn way they please.

The last time I taught at the University of the Arts, it was for a 'zine-making class. Remember those? DIY photocopied tracts you'd leave on the windowsill at coffeehouses? Like, not Starbucks, but dingy, poetry-reading-hosting independently-owned places that served espresso thick as mud? No? Then you're either too young or too old. There was a very narrow period when 'zines were all the rage, and when the internet appeared, they disappeared, and you're looking at what replaced them. The point is, with or without an established publication, writers will write, and the good ones will find an audience, and the scrappy ones will figure out a way to make it pay, too. Get enough scrappy ones together and you've got yourself a whole new arts journalism paradigm. It's our job as journalists and teachers to make sure the next generation doesn't flee from journalism, but instead leaves school ready to tear it free from its present bondage. I hope this year's Region II National Critics Institute has done its small part to feed this revolutionary spark.

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January 18, 2009 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Everyone's a Critic, Episode 3

Savannah Ganster, Tammy Bateman and Amy Martin quietly rain down the pain in their ledes. And also illustrate why that MTV Rolling Stone intern reality show didn't exactly make compelling television.

Here's the deal: the students saw two productions last night--Penn State Altoona's Big Love, by Charles Mee, and SUNY Oswego's Honor and the River, by Anton Dudley. They wrote full reviews, turned them in this morning and were either critiqued into submission or inspiration, and perhaps some combination of the two. So I'm not going to post those full reviews here.

Instead, have a look at these ledes for today's production of Love's Labour's Lost (brought to the festival by Albright College) and tell our critics whether they've made you want to read more or if you've seen all you need to see of either review or production.

Love's Labour's Ledes

Devin Dippold

Battle lines are drawn. On one side stands a wild forest, filled with lovers frolicking. On the other side stand three columns, atop which the busts of Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates look down upon all they "see." A man under their watchful eye partitions off these columns from the rest of the world. The Domino Players' production of Love's Labour's Lost prepares two sides for war, but does anyone really want to fight?

Jessica Hinds-Bond

A forest of lanky paper trees covered in cursive handwriting dots the stage. Three grown men hide unseen behind a narrow pillar, a skeletal podium, and a short bench. Women of radically different heights, dresses, and hair accessories don eye-masks and exchange scarves, fooling their lovers into proposing to the surrogate women. Sudden news of a parent's death spurs four betrothals and a happy ending. Only in Shakespeare are such things possible. In the Albright College Domino Players' production of Love"s Labour's Lost, they are not only possible but compelling and magical.

Shawn Arnold

Who wants to watch a boring old British play? Nothing is less entertaining to a contemporary audience than a stuffy portrayal of the classics. George Bernard Shaw, whose bulk of work is less than a century old, had the assistance of Lerner and Loewe to keep one of his plays fresh in the 50's. If Shaw is an issue, the Bard trumps them all. Too many productions of Shakespeare's works are often stilted and hackneyed. Albright College, however, does not follow down this boring path. The Domino Players Theatre Company of the college presents an uproariously flirtatious production of Bill's Love's Labour's Lost.

Savannah Ganster

The stage is set. Tall white trees shadowed with calligrapher's script create a poetic forest, which sets the mood for an elegant Shakespearian production, thanks to scenic design by Lisi Stoessel. Cue the classical music. Enter the characters dressed in their period costumes, courtesy of Paula Trimpey. As this show begins, so does the teeth gritting. Albright College Domino Players' presentation of Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare at the Merriam Theatre in Philadelphia makes for some laborious viewing.

Tammy Bateman

As The Domino Players of Albright College so wonderfully portrayed, Love's Labour's Lost is a hilarious comedy about friendship, knowledge, and love. Filled with misguided courtships to make even a modern day soap opera seem simple, William Shakespeare's comedy shows four Lords of Navarre together in their pursuit of the noble ladies of France. The solidarity displayed by the Domino Players' ensemble is not only necessary for such a production, but executed with believability and success.

P.S. Northrop

From the moment the burgundy, 19th century floral print program for Albright College's production of Love's Labour's Lost is placed in your hands, you just know you're in for a ridiculous and stylized experience. Indeed, the players and designers of that show make good on the program's promise--delivering an ostentatious performance that makes fun not only of itself, but of the world that it comes from. Even if you hate the showier side of Shakespeare, this interpretation brings a delightful touch of youthful immaturity that makes Love's Labour's Lost a worthwhile endeavor.

Amy Martin

The current production of William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, by William Shakespeare, at the Merrian Theater in Philadelphia, works to ensure that the language is not a hindrance for the cast. The Albright University production features strong voices and distinct faces that successfully carry the weighty language, but the production neglects to incorporate the actors onto the set, which causes the two separate levels to emerge. Director Julia Matthews' blocking creates a silhouette drama where the actors appear foreign to the space, as if their heads are detached from their bodies.

Next time on Everyone's a Critic

Tomorrow marks our last full day for classes and theatergoing, and Saturday is judgement day, though you wouldn't know it by the way this group encourages and gently critiques each other. It's all very un-Real World, and frankly, kind of disappointing, but UArts wouldn't give us a hot tub, so I guess that's that.

Friday I'll post the results of another short exercise, and Saturday the full reviews will be up so you can help decide who gets the comp. Our winner then heads to the Kennedy Center for its College Theater Festival, and the winner at that event--who will be judged on the review they've written here--heads up to New England for a sweet two-week getaway (that is, if your definition of "getaway" is "really hard work" ) at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Critics Institute. It's pretty astonishing that there are still students motivated enough by their love of the arts to want to buck the trend and spend their free time trying to master this craft in what may be the most difficult moment of its evolution. I hope you'll encourage them to continue exploring this uncertain--but certainly worthwhile--path.

Shawn Arnold. He's so our Suede. Ok, not really, but get a load of this crazy action shot!

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January 15, 2009 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Everyone's a Critic, Episode 2

Today was the first full day of the National Critics Institute meeting at Philadelphia's University of the Arts, and with it came a few new faces. Welcome is in order for Grove City College's Jennifer Ford, Penn State Berks County's Savannah Ganster, and SUNY Buffalo's Amy Martin. Madi Distefano (pictured here in a scene from her show Eye-95), a Philadelphia director/actor/playwright and founder of Brat Productions visited the class to talk about the effect of theater criticism on the theater community--not that I think it should guide the students, but certainly so that they may be aware of the heavy responsibility placed upon them as keepers of the cultural flame.

What also worked out nicely was that Distefano's main gripe (What's with all the plot description?) and main suggestion (If you're going to criticize something, make sure you back it up with evidence.) dovetailed neatly with what we'd been discussing before she arrived. So it's settled: critics and the critiqued both want the same things out of a review. Glad we can agree on something.

The students also saw two challenging productions, which they'll be reviewing tomorrow. Stay tuned for the results. In the meantime, though Savannah and Amy didn't get a chance to craft their query letters, here are two more for your consideration. Any interested editors out there?

Query 1

Dear (Editor),

As a senior English major, I believe that Shakespeare's characters are a treasure bestowed to anyone who speaks the language he helped invent. However, in the week prior to Grove City College's production of As You Like It, I kept hearing "Is the whole thing going to be in Old English?" in whiney, disinterested tones. I wanted to explain no, Shakespeare was not Anglo-Saxon and in fact wrote in modern English, but perhaps he just possessed a broader vocabulary than you? But I held my tongue.

Instead of responding directly to my peer's ignorant qualms, I'd like to write a 800 word article titled "Shakespeare-Induced Psychogogia." Psychogogia refers to the process of one's soul being drawn upward towards truth, which is exactly what I believe happens in a (good) Shakespeare production. This article will explore the process of approaching a Shakespeare text and will highlight different techniques that Grove City actors used to guide audience understanding in their recent production of As You Like It. I also want to write about the attractiveness of Shakespeare's plays and bemoan their suffering popularity in contrast to contemporary theater's "cutting edge" sexual-awakening themes.

To read a Shakespeare play is a rigorous but rewarding process, but then to transport his scripts onto the stage with the combination of dramatic lighting, exquisite costumes, and invigorating actors is to evoke a magical spirit. Throughout the production of As You Like It, I most enjoyed the rehearsals when I could hear new understanding in a voice or see new relish a face. Everyone contributed to breathe life into a text written in 1599, and the result was true beauty, realized on a stage.

Overall, this article will point to the purpose for theater criticism: to put our mouths out of taste for bad theater and to instead instruct us towards what we should be watching. The Grove City community should know that the college's production of As You Like It is accessible and hilarious. Even if Shakespeare is not within one's personal realm of taste, Grove City's As You Like It has the power to change a mind. I can have this article to you within five days of your consent.

Ardently,

Jennifer Ford

Query 2

Ms. Rosenfield,

Last year approximately fifty students participated in Elizabethtown College's Shorts Fest, a two-night event of short plays. This year, the college is increasing its student participation by having not only student performers, directors, and designers, but making the event a major display of all types of theatrical talent within the college. Billed as "The New Playwrights Festival," the collection of ten-minute plays of a widely varying nature has been written by the ten students in last semester's Playwriting class.

I would like to write an article titled "Etown Theatre: Room for Everyone," that praises the theatre department and their bold steps to encourage such a wide array of theatrical talent. In 1500 words I would like to cover the various forms of student participation for this event.

This piece will examine the extensive work done by the students in class with their drafting and revisions, as well as the creative process of selecting directors and casts for their plays. I will discuss this process and how it has aided in the education of these students to the real world of theatre. Another important aspect of this event is the production team, including stage and production management, box office, and front of house staff, as well as publicity committees. I want to cover the work of all the students involved in this endeavor. Lastly, I would like to include commentary from the faculty and students on their thoughts regarding this great opportunity.

As an active member of Elizabethtown College's Theatre and Dance Division, I am very dedicated and proud of this event. I was a member of the Playwriting course last semester, so I have been lucky enough to see this project from its earliest stages - a blank sheet of paper. As a first-time playwright, I feel strongly about this opportunity and the opportunity it presents to all the students' various interests in the theatre world. In 2005 & 2006 I was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer for my reviews for The Greater Philadelphia Cappies, demonstrating my strong passion for the world of theatre.

I hope that my passion for this event has piqued your interest and that you would like to hear more about this event. If you are interested, please let me know, and I can have an article to you within a week of your acceptance.

Thank you for your time,

Tammy Bateman

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January 14, 2009 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday Mack Attack, 1/9/09

This week I'm macking on: the brave, bold participants of Project Everyone's a Critic. These students will all be attending the Region II National Critics Institute of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival--and here, a monent of respect is due, because setting their sights on arts journalism at this particular historical/economic/technological/journalistic moment proves just how brave and bold they are. We may have more students signing up at the last minute, so stay tuned for the full cast credits. I will begin posting their writing on Wednesday, January 14 and hope to see you there.

Jessica Hinds-Bond is a second-year theatre M.A. student at Villanova University. While completing her undergraduate degree in theatre design at Auburn University in Alabama, she discovered a love for dramaturgy and theater research. She is the dramaturg for Cabaret, Villanova's final production of the 2008-2009 season. She has been a member of the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Literary Committee for the past three years, reading and responding to plays submitted by students to the annual Playwriting Festival.

Devin Dippold graduated with honors from McKendree College, where he directed, wrote, and starred in Chosen Reject, a one man show based on the writings of Kurt Cobain. He is currently a second year student in the M.A. program at Villanova University, where he recently dramaturged their production of Le Dindon by Georges Feydeau. He also stage managed last season's production of The Illusion. Acting credits include Gus in The Dumb Waiter, Tartuffe in Tartuffe: Born Again, and Ed in Defying Gravity. In his spare time, Devin plays guitar and is a martial arts instructor.

Shawn Arnold loves theater and love to analyze it. He is a Central Pennsylvania resident from Philipsburg. Shawn is currently attending Clarion University of Pennsylvania with a double major in both the BFA acting and secondary education social studies programs. In addition to his interest in theater, Shawn is also a lover of history and all things about the past. Shawn has also taken an active step to foster theater in his home town. He has been heavily involved in the creation of both a community and youth theater program in the area.

Peter Starr Northrop is a Memphis-born, Pennsylvania-based writer with poor fashion sense and an awkward sense of humor to match. He is currently a Sophomore at Elizabethtown College, where he is slowly dragging out a double-major in English and theater. There, he divides his time between working as a writer and editor for the school newspaper--The Etownian, pretending to run the newly founded sketch comedy group Sketch-E's writing department, and attending the occasional class. Peter's theater background is limited to only three years spent in a high-school improv troupe, having minor roles in a few college mainstage and one-act productions, and writing/performing for his aforementioned sketch comedy group. His other varying hobbies include cooking, hiking and most of all, discovering all sorts of things about the crazy world in which we live.

Justin Fitzpatrick is a freshman theatre major at Albright College. He avidly participates in theater in many ways such as performing, directing, choreographing, and vocal coaching. His passion lies with musicals. Past shows on which he has worked include: On Broadway: A Scene Study (Link Larkin), Footloose (Garvin), Oklahoma! (Will Parker), Bye, Bye Birdie (Co-Director), The Secret Garden (Lt. Wright), The Sound of Music (Rolf), Seussical: The Musical (Horton the Elephant/Vocal Coach), The Pirates of Penzance (Co-Director/Vocal Coach/Choreographer), High School Musical (Mongo), You Are Here* (Jimmie), Love's Labour's Lost (Forester/Mercade). Recently, Justin realized that he has a natural habit of critiquing every type of performance he sees, and has decided that being a part of the National Critics Institute at the KCACTF would be a beneficial experience.

Tammy Bateman is a junior at Elizabethtown College. A major in both Business Administration and Theatre Performance, Tammy enjoys all aspects of the theater world. She has been performing for the last seven years and served as a critic for the Greater Philadelphia Cappies program at Ridley High School. At Elizabethtown she currently serves as Vice President for the drama club, Sock and Buskin, and manages the Tempest Theatre Box Office. In her spare time she can be seen performing with the college's all-female a capella group, Melica. She is very excited to be a part of the National Critics Institute and competing as an Irene Ryan Nominee for Region II at this year's festival.

This week I'm hating on: The fact that not a month after Dance Dance Revolution closed, the Ohio Theatre--which housed it--is closing too. Not only that, as I'm getting ready to work on a piece about new play development, one of the plays I'm covering, Christina Ham's After Adam, was cut from Luna Stage's roster because of the theater's "survival" issues. Though Broadway's darkened doors get all the major press, I'm guessing that in the end, they'll be okay. The real theatrical victims of this economic iceberg are houses willing to take chances on exciting, experimental and ultimately galvanizing new work, because they're so much more vulnerable and once they're gone, their founder's often very particular aesthetic goes with them.

The good news? Hey, how about this: Even though these days newspapers are less about "all the news that's fit to print" and more about "whatever print still fits," the Inquirer is mulling over adding three new theaters to our reviewing circuit. Proof that at a time when theater critics are an endangered species, we're needed more than ever.

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January 9, 2009 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everyone's a Critic, but Only One Gets a Comp

At this remarkably glum moment for the arts and arts journalism (I'd link to some examples, but you're probably depressed enough already), I'm stepping into the Guest Critic position at the Region II National Critics Institute of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Next week, for five days, it will be my job to convince a half-dozen or so aspiring young writers that theater criticism is a worthy professional goal.

But I've got my game face on, and you know why? It's because the current crop of college-age kids are undoubtedly the ones who will transform arts criticism. They're not used to reading a pulp-and-ink newspaper, and they probably don't expect to get a job at one. But they're online ALL THE TIME, and whether they blog or use social networks to share information, they're not wringing their hands over the lack of "classically trained" online journalists. Though the nuts and bolts of good writing certainly don't change, that classical training is in dire need of the kind of overhaul that many journalism professors just aren't qualified to offer, at least not yet, while the dust is still stirring and no one knows quite how it will settle.

So here's what I'm thinking: I'm going to mix it up a little and run this Institute like a mini-Project Runway: welcome to Project Everyone's a Critic. From January 13-17, the students and I will attend shows, talk about them and write about them. At session's end, I will channel my inner Klum and choose one student to attend the national festival at the Kennedy Center this spring.

That's where you come in.

The students, all either college- or graduate-level, have agreed to let me post their writing here--reviews, ledes, whatever they've got--and in an effort to blend new media with old-school written critique, I'd appreciate it if you'd weigh in with your assistance, guidance, words of encouragement, and yes, some critique of your own (remember please, they're still aspiring critics). I'm not collecting votes or anything, but if you have a clear favorite, by all means, let me who it is and why. This is my attempt to give them a taste of what it's like to write as journalists for an audience of internet strangers who have the ability to talk back and aren't afraid to use it.

I'll post the participants' bios in tomorrow's Mack Attack. Until then, I dunno... What's my tagline? Maybe, "Exeunt, stage left."

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January 8, 2009 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It's All about the Blogging

Today I was invited to be the--let me get this right--Guest Critic at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival's Region II Festival in January of '09. (The invitation was accepted.) Region II includes college productions and aspiring critics from schools in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C. I mention this not because I love blowing my own horn (though I do), and not to convince anyone (okay, maybe myself) of my own legitimacy as a critic, but because of the reason I was chosen.

It's almost all about the blogging.

Each year, the festival picks a handful of students who express interest in reviewing theater, and after an intensive several days of playgoing and review-writing, submit a final critique to be judged by the guest critic (Me!). The winner attends the Kennedy Center's big national event, and hopefully, a new batch of arts writers is hooked.

However, with the future of print media a bit less rosy these days, the festival sought me out precisely because I work both online and on paper. Of course, "working" doesn't necessarily equal "getting paid." Though print, via the Philadelphia Inquirer, generously supplies my paycheck and ample opportunity to practice my favorite sport--reviewing theater--blogging supplies me with hope for the future.

Perhaps in that spirit, the guest critic spot is an unpaid honor (hey, at least they cover expenses), but one that may someday pay off in employment offers. In that future--and I'm guessing it will be the near future, if gas prices continue their heavenward trajectory, making home delivery a losing proposition--most media will go wholly online. It's anyone's guess whether information will arrive in specialized chunks through individual feeds, if there will still be room for centralized content providers (i.e., online versions of old-fashioned news organizations), if the most successful efforts will come from devoted individuals toiling away at home on their own sites, or some combination of the above. All I know for sure is willful ignorance of online journalism's free-form possibilities is anything but bliss, unless your version of bliss is monastic poverty and a Sysiphean sense of accomplishment.

You don't hear Perez Hilton complaining about the decline in Page Six readership. In fact, he's even starting to encroach on my territory by publicizing the recent Tricia Walsh-Smith YouTube freakshow and the Cubby Bernstein webisodes. Soon, he'll even be the subject of an off-Broadway musical. As a wise person once said, don't hate the player, hate the game.

Obviously, the guy's not doing extended features or reviews, or, well, anything resembling journalism, but he's sure making a living, which is, unfortunately, more than many of my brilliant, worthy, formerly full-time colleagues can say for themselves. All those readers who used to open their newspapers every morning over breakfast and coffee, are now carrying that coffee to their computers, logging on and looking for the same in-depth information. It's up to us as journalists to keep providing it or other, savvier, and perhaps lesser voices will be happy to fill in the gap.

Initiate podcasts, critics' roundtables, and multimedia stories at your paper. If your paper won't do it, get together with other critics and do it on your own, on a blog (hmmm... good idea...). It's not all that complicated and well worth the investment. The goal is to keep critiquing Willy Loman, not become him.

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June 10, 2008 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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