new semester, new projects

Another new semester in the department and lots is going on (as the usual). As for myself, I’m starting my second semester of Voice and Movement and the classes are getting really exciting. We’re going to get started working on voice as well and our professor, Terry Beck, has finally announced what our final is going to be—an hour-long movement theatre performance which we will create and show! Along with another joyride through Acting Lab and whatever surprises that Scene Study and Dance Improv will hold for me, I’m practically skipping with glee.
Some other events to look forward to: first, we will be holding another Twenty-Four Hour Project (last semester’s Spontaneous Productions)! Last time, I was an actor and I loved every minute of the 1440 minutes spent but maybe this time, I’ll try writing one of the ten minute plays? Since I’m moving on with my writing minor, maybe I should put my fiction class to good use and try writing under pressure and under twelve hours.

 

Speaking of pressure: another semester in the department means another semester of theatre practice. Technically, I started working as ASM for Stage Door last semester, taking notes through-out all of all production meetings but next month, we start rehearsals. This is going to be huge; we have a large cast (plus a dog?) and honestly, this is going to end up being the biggest challenge I’ve taken on, I think. Except for one other big challenge…

While I was on break, I met with a local (Potsdam local) playwright, Elaine Kuracina. I saw the premiere production of one of her plays a few years back and I loved American Muse since then. Young Audrey Munson has been at the top of my list of roles I need to play. I met with Elaine and we talked about the show, the original production, a subsequent production, how she’s changed it into a musical since I saw it—then she gave me the script, music and her blessing to do a workshop production as I please.
So that’s the plan: I intend to put on that workshop production of American Muse—not this semester, not possibly with Stage Door as my priority, but I want to start the planning to get a production underway for fall 2012 and I need people who are interested in getting involved. I’ll be putting up a notice for an interest meeting in the commons soon.
And in the meantime, if my roommate puts up a missing persons notice, try looking for me in RAC first!
-Shelby

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one art (it’s new year’s eve!)

The semester’s finished and in a few hours we can all say happy new year 2012! Hooray! I figured this blog might be a good as place as any to do an end-of-year/end-of-semester reflection.

I haven’t found a good word to describe the year, but perhaps, a poem:

 

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

–Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

~“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop

 

This might possibly be my absolute favorite poem. It inspired my portfolio I put together this semester for Creative Writing. It, I think, says most everything I need to about 2011.

It’s been a mixed-emotions about the year. I went to funerals, unfortunately too many funerals. I struggled with my family a lot. I’ve lost friends. I didn’t find a job (and I’m still searching); I’m not in a great financial situation either. Still without a driver’s license too. I still have yet to finish writing a play or direct one. I haven’t been cast in very much since I started college.

 

This poem reminds me that it’s okay. There are worse things I could lose out on or not have tangibly anymore but so long as I have the experience. Maybe I won’t accomplish everything I wanted to achieve but I tried and that’s why I didn’t really lose this year.

In fact, when you think about what I’ve gained instead, then I have something better to remember 2011 by.

WHAT I’M MOST PROUD OF DOING THIS YEAR

  • Finishing my freshman year
  • Are you a BA?
  • Being an Assistant Stage Manager—moving on to ASMing Stage Door in the spring.
  • Film: I learned how things work in front of and behind the camera, shooting a student film, a music video and commercials.
  • Capitano Cocodrillo’s Commandos: Dr. Ivey asked me to play one of his commandos in his one-man commedia show that we took out on the road this semester.
  • My Creative Writing minor; I started taking my minor classes this past semester. My portfolio (inspired by Elizabeth Bishop’s poem too) had some nice material. The rest I can use to revise for Fiction I next semester.
  • Movement and dance. I started taking my first dance class spring 2011, took Modern I in the fall and joined the Voice and Movement class. I am by no means a dancer, but my technique is improving(!) and I’m excited to continue on with V+ M and to take Dance Improvisational.

So that’s 2011! Almost the new year and already I have some things to look forward to in 2012: Stage Door, turning twenty, Voice and Movement, Fiction I, The Vagina Monologues, whatever the summer holds for me…

-Shelby

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Are you a BA?

“Are you a BA?” No, I am not. I am not a BA, I am getting a B.A.

You hear the question “Are you a BA or a BFA?” a lot when you first come here and people don’t know you yet. It’s usually the second thing they ask you, after “what’s your name?” and before “where did you come from?”

I was one of those high school seniors who auditioned for the B.F.A. program and didn’t get accepted. But Fredonia was where I wanted, needed to go and so I came to join the department and get my B.A. in Theatre Arts. I figured then that I would suck up my wounded ego and re-audition, and meanwhile get some training that I wouldn’t have gotten back home. Yet, I am a year and half into the program and I still haven’t done so.

Because I love it. I love everything I’ve learned, even the things I’m not good at, like wood measurements, and being in the acting lab, to walking into the commons and find it full of people, full of friends. There’s more to theatre than just acting and musicals—I’m not just an actor and I’m not a BA—I’m a Theatre Arts major, a theatre artist! I want to create theatre, by writing, directing shows, acting in them too. Sometimes, yes, I even wish I could do juries with the BFAs and get feedback on how I’m improving, if this is a good monologue choice for me, what I need to work on now. I have all the freedom that the BFAs wish they had, but it’s got the other side of the coin too:

I’ll hear people say things like “BAs shouldn’t be allowed to do that—”, or have them tell me that “BFAs get casting priority over BAs, that the director will see it’s a BA and will automatically rule them out” I refuse to believe it. Or I try not to believe it, but only four BAs were cast in last year’s mainstage shows. I’m not naïve, I hear from the upperclassmen that it used to be much worse. It’s just that I don’t understand the word “no”. I spent two years trying to get in my first show, fighting to keep doing theatre after that, to major in theatre…I came home this Thanksgiving and some of my family told me that I should major in something else (among other things I should do with my life). A lot, a lot of the friends I made that first semester, all B.A.s because we were in the same classes, they switched their major, they transferred, they left. This wasn’t the right place for them; they decided theatre wasn’t the best major for them or that it shouldn’t be in this department. I think that I made the best decision of my life when I decided to come here and do theatre, I’d really like to think so. But this blog post is nothing new, it’s actually been building up for me in the last year and a half.

I am one of those infamous BAs who joined the BFA classes. I’m taking Voice and Movement this year and I plan on taking Stage Combat, hopefully with rapier and dagger. I’ve loved stage combat since I took a workshop in high school and I joined TCA, which is a dead club now. “I shouldn’t be in those classes, they are for the BFAs, they had to audition for this!” Yes, I admit that. I wasn’t accepted into the BFA program. But if I’m not in this class, what else will I do? Credit-wise, a musical theatre BFA needs to take about eight-nine credits for their major—a BA only has forty-one. Less than half. In fact, we have to double-major or minor! I love my minor, but when I first heard that, I was shocked. What, don’t you have more for me that I need to learn, that I can do? I came to college, to major in theatre, because I wanted to learn. My school didn’t have a theatre department or anything aside from a yearly (slowly dying) musical; we couldn’t afford private dance/vocal lessons. I wanted to be a better actor, I want to learn dance, I’d like to write plays and know how to direct. You’re going to tell me I can’t take Stage Combat? The odds of me needing to know it are just as good as any of yours, so why not? If there was a BA Stage Combat, or Voice and Movement, or whatever equivalent class, sure, I’d take it, but there isn’t.

 

We’re all artists, and as artists, we’re supposed to move past prejudices, past boundaries, to never stop growing and learning and that’s what I’m doing. I’m growing and creating and you’re going to tell me “No”? Let it be Modern Dance, Theatre Practice, Acting Lab or Voice and Movement: this isn’t just classwork to me, this is what I want to do, same as everyone else.

 

I’m not saying I want to do a B.F.A.. Even if I do re-audition, I’m staying in my major because I’m happy to be where I am, to be a Theatre Arts major. I have concepts for shows I want to direct, I have a script in front of me I’m working on right now, not to mention countless others that likewise deserve my attention; characters I want to play (Nora Helmer, Audrey Munson, Laura Wingfield…), a backwards roll I want to do for Modern Dance I next week! Just let me keep learning, so then I can do it.

-Shelby

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all I have to be thankful for

Happy Thanksgiving! Admittedly, one of my least favorite holidays. It’s almost a practice run for Christmas to me. And when Starbucks started handing out the red holiday cups before Halloween was even over…Thanksgiving was doomed from the start.

But last night, I had a dream. A good dream: it was summer (outside my window, there’s a foot of snow now) and the entire department was in my backyard having a party. We had a buffet table set up with chips and fruit, a volleyball game going, a karaoke machine (I had no idea my lawn was this big!)…some people were washing the car. There were professors there, people who had already graduated, the freshmen were there too. It was a PAC-nic in my own backyard!

So, thank you, Fredonia. For everyone I’ve met. Or learned from. For everyone I’ve worked with and who’s stayed up till midnight with me for the cast list to go up. Thanks to Tom Loughlin, who signs every paper I bring to him; thanks to my classmates who let me squeeze myself into their class; major thanks to my roommate Kearsten, for keeping me sane this semester. Thanks to my parents, for letting me major in theatre in the first place. Thank you, Fredonia, for letting me know I have a home and family here too.

 

And thanks to the inventor of fuzzy socks for keeping my feet warm (I forgot how cold my house. I will never, ever complain that the dorms are overheated again) and thanks to Dudley, my fish, for putting up with the cold with me (hang in there, little guy, a few more days…just keep swimming!).

-Shelby

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Back to Basics

“To become a true dancer mean to bring to ideal balance the physical incompatibilities of your stubborn imperfect body with the possibilities of your soul which, as you move through life, is continually renewing itself and demanding knew expression.” – Natalie Makarova 

A conversation I had with a dear friend inspired this post and I thank him so much for really getting me out of a rut and putting things back into perspective for me.

I have been dancing now for three years and can without fear of judgement say that I have progressed a great deal in three years than most people do in ten.  I don’t say this to come off as smug or full of myself but just to show that I am not blind to what I have accomplished. That being said it is never enough. No matter how technically strong I become or no matter how engaging I may be as a performer there is always more that I can do, always somewhere else to push towards. There can always be more range in my hips, arch in my foot, feeling behind my eyes.  It is this push that I and anyone else who is involved in the performing arts must never forget. Complacency is death when it comes to this line of work and I refuse to die.

I’ve recently hit a snag in my training. For whatever reason for about a week or so nothing I did seemed to work. I approached my dancing in every way I knew how but there was no change and it frustrated me to no end. It got to the point to where it started to interfere with my courses and my friends/teachers took notice. It was at this point I had to think back to why I started this journey.

I first started dancing as a means to better my chances of getting cast in the world of musical theatre. I didn’t think anything more or anything less of it. After my first ballet class I was hooked and immediately threw myself into taking class five times a week on top of rehearsals for upcoming competitions and concerts. That was when I first started playing catch up to everyone else. I understood instantly that dance would take a huge tole on my body and that I didn’t have as much time to enjoy it as I would have had I been just a vocalist or just an actor. I knew that if I wanted to be great I would need devour everything I could about dance.

It wasn’t until my senior solo that same year that I really realized why I danced. To this day I can’t remember the choreography for the piece nor can I tell you what I was thinking. All I remember is looking up from my bow and seeing a sea of faces all looking at me, thanking me for what I had just given them.

I do this for the audience. Not for myself, or my teachers, or my friends, but for the audience. All the tears, long hours, frustration, anger, and love is for them and I think as performers we forget that. It is no more about a sense of release than it is for being the best. The audience doesn’t care if you’re the best or not because even if you are “the best” they know when you’re not there for them.  We get to caught up in the introspective aspect of performance forgetting that at it’s core a performance wouldn’t be a performance unless there was someone else around to watch and appreciate it.

I forgot about this and it was of my own doing. I was pushing myself to be the best because I didn’t want to peak in college. I didn’t want to look back on my life and have my glory days be before I got a taste of the real world. I was approaching the situation all wrong even though my intentions were in the right place. I work as hard as I do so that I can give the performance of a life time.

The balance between being happy with myself and constantly trying better myself was what I lost and I think that by going back to where I was when I first started, when dance was new and intriguing and fun, I can begin find that balance again.

This clip is from The Royal Ballet and their production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It’s an original ballet that they commissioned that is now being performed by the Canadian National Ballet. Hope you enjoy it =]

 

 

 

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Jam-Packed Weekend #2

This weekend we have two shows running simultaneously. MacBeth continues its final run this weekend, with performances this Thursday-Saturday Nov. 10-12 at 8PM in the Alice E. Bartlett Theatre. Opening its run of four performances this Thursday is the Hillman Opera production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, a rollicking comic opera featuring the talents of the vocal performers and orchestra of the School of Music. It runs Thursday-Saturday at 8PM and Sunday at 2PM in the Robert W. Marvel Theatre. Tickets for both events are still available at the box office.

The local paper, The Observer, carried a review of MacBeth in a recent edition. Here is the review in its entirety:

REVIEW OF MACBETH

                During the Cuban Missile Crisis, my high school English class was studying Macbeth.  At the height of the crisis, we were scheduled to have a test on the play, and I remember a group of us urging the teacher to postpone the test because if the world was really going to blow up, there was not much point in our studying for a test on Macbeth.  He didn’t buy that argument—though I still find it convincing– but since then, whether because of the test or because the play had apocalyptic overtones for me, it has been one of my least favorite of Shakespeare’s plays.  So, if I say good things about the production of Macbeth currently on view at the Bartlett Theatre on the Fredonia State campus, you know I must mean them.

                And I will, in fact, say good things, because once again the college’s Theatre Department has come up with a winner.  One of the stars of the show has to be the combination of stage setting and lighting, both of which are striking from the outset.  The only thing that does not work as effectively as it might is the projection of words on the floor.  They move a little too quickly, in the wrong direction, and are not always visible.  Otherwise, the extraordinarily simple but attractive set works very well, and the lighting adds immeasurably to the atmosphere of the play.  The sensible costuming, even for the Weird Sisters, also contributes to the mood.

                Macbeth is a notably gory play, not at the level of Titus Andronicus, of course, but it has its moments.  Those moments are handled appropriately in director Paul Mockovak’s production.  There is no gore for the sake of gore, but it’s there when it’s needed.  The many fight scenes are wonderfully choreographed by Adam Rath, including a very striking opening scene.

                And then there is the acting.  Once again the students of Fredonia State do an impressive job.  Shakespeare is difficult to perform.   Actors must strike the right balance between natural speech and Shakespearean verse, which is enough of a challenge.  They must also speak distinctly and loudly enough so that they can be heard and understood.  (One wonders how much Shakespeare’s original audiences could actually hear and understand in Elizabethan theatres.)  By and large, the actors succeed in their endeavors, though occasionally they seem to be talking more to each other than to the audience.  Particularly when they are facing outward from the round platform that serves as a stage, they can be heard on the side of the theatre that they are facing, but not so well on the other side.  Also, at the beginning of the second half, it does not help that the characters who are speaking are also rolling rocks across the stage.

                Nevertheless, their performances are overwhelmingly good.  Particularly notable are Briana Kelly, Lisa Michaels, and Samantha Sayers as the Weird Sisters.  Their movements and chanting, combined with the lighting, make them seem eerie indeed.  James I, for whom the play was presumably written and who believed in witches, would have been pleased.  Daniel Astacio is an effective Macduff.  His demeanor stands in marked contrast to Jacob Kahn’s Macbeth in their effective last scene. 

                Kahn is terrific as Macbeth.  His Macbeth begins as a weak, easily manipulated thane who gradually goes mad, a process that Kahn captures perfectly.  Macbeth’s lovely wife, Lady Macbeth, is just as effectively portrayed by Kathleen Grace Fiori, who also shows a well-modulated descent into madness.  Shannon Mann, as Banquo and the doctor, performs well, though I am not certain why so many male roles are given to women.  While gender equality is certainly important, it is difficult to think of the medieval Scottish nobility as women.

                The rest of the cast is equally proficient.  So even though Macbeth may not be my favorite, I thoroughly enjoyed this production, and I urge you to see it, even if it means going out in thunder, lightning, and in rain.  Performances are on November 4-6 and 10-12.

Theodore L. Steinberg, Department of English, SUNY Fredonia

 

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A Jam-Packed Weekend!

This week saw the opening of MacBeth in the Bartlett Theatre, and MacBeth continues this coming weekend Thursday-Saturday Nov. 10-12 at 8:00 PM each night. If you haven’t already bought tickets you should avail yourself of the opportunity to see this unique and striking production of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.

But not only is MacBeth continuing this weekend – joining in the festivities is the Hillman Opera production of The Merry Wives of Windsor (Die Lusitgen Weiber von Windsor), written by Otto Nicholai, and sung in German with English supertitles. The Hillman Opera is an annual event produced jointly by Theatre and Dance and the School of Music. SUNY Fredonia is one of only a handful of undergraduate schools in the nation that produced fully-mounted operas on a regular basis.

Here is a promo video produced by the Rockefeller Arts Center  as well as a Campus News article to give you some background to the opera. See you in the theatre this weekend!

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Close One, Open Another

Right on the heels of the successful run of The 25th Annual Putnam County SPelling Bee comes something completely different. From light musical comedy to deep dramatic tragedy, the Department of Theatre and Dance opens its production of William Shakespeare’s MacBeth. A dark tragedy of blood, horror, witchcraft and violence, MacBeth

Rendering by Gregory Kaye of "MacBeth"

tells the story of how power corrupts, and corrupts absolutely. Spurred on by his wife and by supernatural forces, MacBeth assassinates his king in order to capture the throne of Scotland, all to the bitter ruination of himself, his wife, and his country.

This production has a modern, sleek look to it. To the left you can see a rendering created by Prof. Greg Kaye. The production is in the round and playing in the Bartlett Theatre, providing an intimate immersion into the atmosphere of the production. The show opens this Friday Nov. 4th, and runs Nov. 4-5, 10-12 @ 8PM and Nov. 6 @ 2PM. Tickets can be purchased at the box office 716-673-3501.

Below is our usual interview with two of the cast members of MacBeth, Jacob Kahn and Kathleen Grace Fiori, who are playing the title roles of MacBeth and Lady MacBeth. We hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a unique theatrical experience.


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Spelling Bee Review

The first weekend of Spelling Bee is over and audiences have been having a GREAT time in the theatre with this show. In case you have been sitting on the fence, deciding whether or not to attend, perhaps the review from the Dunkirk/Fredonia Observer will convince you to take a trip out and buy tickets for this show.

Here are some key quotes:

This year’s presentation of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” shines throughout and promises to be a humorous, touching, and entertaining experience for almost all audiences.

As each character entered the stage and introduced themselves, each unique and quirky personality was brought to life by the student actors; while everyone created believable performances, special kudos to Mary Ryan, Steven Russell, Madison Osgood, and Raphael Santos for especially strong performances.

The two primary pillars of a musical comedy are the stage direction and the musical direction. Both of these pillars are well tended by director Jessica Hillman-McCord and music director Paula Holcomb. Hillman-McCord’s decisions have given the production an effective balance between a sparse, direct narrative and dreamy, surreal flashbacks. Paula Holcomb has put together a talented pit and does a good job of balancing the instruments with the singers.

Warning – Some parents may find that not all material in this show is suitable for younger children.

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Spelling Bee Interview

Tonight Oct. 21st is opening night for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Below is an interview with two of the student cast members: Mary Ryan (BFA Musical Theatre ’11) and Alex Grayson (BFA Musical Theatre ’12). They offer their insights on the show and their roles in the show. We hope you can join us for a performance of this fun little show – it’s a delightful and entertaining night in the theatre.

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