Watch TV, you'll see Penn!!!

Alumnus Penn Rosen and the Beelzebubs are on The Sing-Off !!! The Tufts
group will be on NBC this week at 8pm. It's gonna be wild - a cappella
style. It premiered tonight and it was magical.

Watch the boys from Boston save the network with their tight harmonies
and killer choreography . There will be sweater vests, bow ties, and
beatboxing. Just sayin'.

Forward the message to any family and friends! Get out the word!

Read more/see pictures/watch videos here:
Meet the Contestants of NBC's Sing Off!

Kara on the Wheel

Kara Manson ('04) will be on Wheel of Fortune tonight!

"On August 4th, I received an invitation to audition for Wheel of Fortune. On August 12th, I tried out to be a contestant. On September 3rd, I was spinning the wheel with Pat and Vanna at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. On November 3rd, you can watch me on television!"

Click here to see the Preview!!!

Letter to Alumni

Hello Everyone
I hope you are all well and doing what makes you happy! I am loving
seeing the VT leaves change this spectacular fall weekend.
NEYT hired me this month to begin doing publicity and marketing for
them, which is really fun and wonderful and creative and such a
blessing, but it also gets me into the office to advocate for Alumni
events etc.

ORGANIZING
I have heard there were whispers this summer of officially organizing
the NEYT alumni association and I am so down with that and will do
whatever I can to help facilitate it. I would love for us to all get
together this winter between x-mas and when people go away again, so
we can chat about actually organizing our group, what might come over
the summer, and if there are other things we'd like to do as alumni -
like offer a college chat for current NEYTers (formal or informal) or
maybe offer a weekend of workshops to share the new skills we've
picked up in the big wide world.

DIRECTING
I want to say something about the alumni show this coming summer too -
we have 3 weekends if we want them - all in June and 2 during the
camps! but, I really want to encourage all of you fresh new alumni to
seriously think about directing. Alex, Nick, Kara, Sam, Ben, Me and
probably others that I've forgotten to mention, got our start
directing over the summers at NEYT - either our peers or NEYT students
when there weren't enough peers to be cast! Dont be shy, if you have
an idea but you've never directed before, don't worry! There are
plenty of people who are more than willing to mentor and guide you
along through the process.

GET-TOGEHTER
So, if any of you would like to organize a winter gathering - at NEYT
or at your house - let me know!

BLOGGING
Also, if you have new news about what you're doing, I'd love to post
it on the NEYT Alumni Blog, so send links to things like news articles
of what you've been in and I will post it to the blog!

MISSING
If I have not sent this to someone who needs it, please forward it
along and CC me so I can have their address or their NEW address.

Ok, I suppose that's all.
Take care!
Jess

Your Thoughts

I would like to invite anyone who sees the show to post their comments here -

did you love it or hate it?
did it make you think?
did it make you laugh?
did it make you cry?
are you glad you saw it?
what do you want to see next year from the alumni?

Please share your thoughts!

Opening

We had a generous audience last night - they gave a lot to the actors, who in turn gave them a great first show. I'd love to share a few things that were said last night:
"It's such a challenging piece - we've never had anything like it at the Youth Theatre before."
"I get it! its about censorship!"
"I get it... it isn't really sad, it's about joy!"
"What a great story!"
I want to address the fact that this is "a challenging piece." Challenging, it is - for actors hungry for roles full of flavor and variation, and for audiences ready to think and feel. The title betrays the darkness of the play - you may come to see "Red Noses" expecting jollies, but what really is striking about this play is its emotional roller coaster - there is joy and clowning, but also quite a bit of tragedy. Admittedly at times we portray the tragedy lightly, creating laughter that makes you think, wait why am I laughing... There are also deep dark moments that we dive wholly into - they are shocking, and will keep you on your toes, or even just slightly off balance, not knowing what to expect.
Have no fear, though. The Spirit Overcomes!

Big Week: Tonight We Open!

My eyes are itchy and struggling to stay open. I only got 6 hours of very interrupted sleep last night. We ended rehearsal at 11 (or so) last night. When there are still things to do it is so hard to let go and say, Ok, let's go home. I believe it is the plight of the artist never to be completely satisfied. I think that is what makes being an artist so consuming - there is always something more. 10 hours to go and so many little details to touch. I am confident though, that with the life an audience brings to a show, this one will be stellar.

Be sure you DO NOT miss this show! It plays for one weekend only.

(Tonight) Thursday 7:30
Friday 7:30
Saturday 7:30
Sunday 3:00

On the New England Youth Theatre stage, 100 Flat St., Brattleboro, VT.

Get your tickets ($12/$9) online at www.neyt.org or at the door.

For Free Tickets sign up as an usher/concession sales person, we are still seeking a few! E-mail me at jcallahan.84@gmail.com.

Big Week: Day 3

The show is beautiful. You must come see it. That is all I have to say after 2 nights of tech slogging

Big Week: Day 2

Last night I had a wonderful conversation with Jon Potter from the Brattleboro Reformer, the local newspaper. The questions he asked really got me to verbalize some of the thoughts that I had about the play, but not yet expressed, particularly about the religious themes that imbue the text and my personal connection to them.

The story of Red Noses has parallels to the story of Christ. Those that I am hi-lighting are the theme of revolution and change to established religious and societal practices, the importance of love and joy, and the necessity of brotherhood and companionship in strengthening the meaning in an individual's life.

It is said that Jesus was a revolutionary. The preachings and teachings he expounded were unique in the Jewish faith - primarily Jesus had no interest in the multitudes of societal laws set forth in Jewish holy texts. and held quite dear by the Jewish community at the time. The first form of Christianity was not bounden to any laws proscribed by God for eating, socializing, dressing, bathing, etc. In "Red Noses," God speaks to Father Flote and reveals that the things that are truly important to him are laughter, beauty and joy. In a climate of famine, pestilential despair, with flagellating penitents, and forgiveness-selling clergy this idea of bringing joy and laughter is quite revolutionary.
In essence, Jesus's prechings were based on love and forgiveness. In my favorite new testament passage, part of John's letter to the Corinthians, a text quoted often at wedding ceremonies, he repeats again and again the singular importance of love, If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. Father Flote is constantly reminding his companions and preaching to non-believers that the relationship to god must be something more than fear, more than obedience and more than suffering for each others' sakes. If that is life, I want no part of it. But God is more, and man is more, he says.
Jesus gathered his apostles around him, revealing his theories on theology to them, creating a bond between the men (and possibly Mary Magdelene). They were the first Christian Brotherhood. Jesus charged his apostles - once fishermen, tax collectors, and the like - went all over the world preaching, converting, spreading the "word of love" with no belongings carried with them, and no shoes on their feet. Their strong and passionate dedication to their beliefs, and their lifetime relationships with each other, enabled them to do incredible things and face such adversity. The "Floties" from Red Noses sing a finale to their first performance, and immediately, in costume "Ripple and Spread" in all directions dissemminating the message of joy. They had begun as an even more rag-tag group - mercenaries, men and women pledged to solemn service to God, a blind juggler, a stuttering stand-up, (well you get the picture). It is the moments that these characters come together, that really shows how they pull their strength from each others friendship and passion for their cause. A few characters in particular change dramatically throughout the course of the play due to the love within this brotherhood of clowns. From just worrying about food and money to really dedicating themselves to their cause, the Floties gain the spirit, desire, and confidence to ripple and spread their joyful message.

The Big Week: Day 1

I walked in to the theatre last night, and was struck by the utter transformation of the space.

Up to this point we have had to rehearse on a stage set and ready for other shows - old time melodramas, Shakespeare's As You Like It, and a children's Circus. Now the stage is ours.

Elements of the world have come in from the storage stables, from the craftiness of our designers, from our builders, from our painters, and from the world of our play. Represented on stage in one gloomy mess we have filth, disease, darkness, the church, god, and the theatre all there, all present, all working together to create this world of Red Noses. Under the eerie glow of the stage lights, this set beckons me into the world the actors have been inhabiting for the past month in their minds,. It is now an outward physical reality. I cannot wait to see action on this stage.

The Passion of the Actor

It has been two weeks since I last wrote. In these two weeks it has just been incredible to see the show progress from actors buried in scripts mumbling around the stage with their bodies to a hilarious, moving, (relatively) smooth-flowing story on stage. It all has come out of these alum's hard work, dedication, and talent - and I guess the theater process too. We have the acting almost ready to show to the public, and that is amazing one whole week before opening!
It is always so refreshing to see how it is possible to coax a story and such humanity from a group of actors in an unadorned rehearsal room. They come in with their cell phones, flip-flops, and jeans chatting, joking, eating food from the Co-Op. As rehearsal begins they all transform into pitiful plague victims, arrogant aristocrats, conniving clergy and riotous Red Noses! As we work through scenes I look around and notice Kario Periera Bailey practicing his recorder (a skillhe is learning for the show), Nick Bombicino juggling against the backstage wall (one of three new skills he has had to acquire for this show), and Noah Smith listening to the music in his head and jotting notes furiously on his compositions. Moments like this I get all warm and fuzzy feeling inside. The passion that each NEYT actor has for each production they are in is so evidently strong in these rehearsals.
It's that passion that connects us to the material of this particular play. Red Noses is about revolutionaries, extraordiarily passionate about their missions. They are passionately fighting to overcome the misery of life during the black plague, the preceeding famine, the corruption in the center of their spiritual world, and the inhumanity of an unreasonable class system.

The Spirit Overcomes!

I chose to direct Red Noses this year because I liked the premise - a monk, with inspiration from God, cheers the hearts of a plague ridden downcast society with clowning, dancing and music, gathering a close-knit group of followers to put on red noses and join him. There is truly something beautiful about curing societies ills with laughter.
In putting this play together, however, I am realizing that there is quite a bit of darkness in the plot, and in the world that they inhabit. It is not all frivolity and joy. The play is set during the Black Death - plague of 1348 - when almost 50% of Europe's population was obliterated by this intensely horrible pandemic. Not only was the plague the cause of many deaths, but the anarchy and demolition of society that ensued during the pandemic caused chaos and death as well. And as it follows, not all 36 characters that appear on stage survive to the final curtain. As a director I am constantly balancing the light and frivolous with the dark and somber.

And these two forces - light and dark - pull at the characters as well. The divinely inspired monk, Marcel Flote, raises spirits and impassions his followers to spread that beautiful lightness of joy and love, although everyone has been touched by the darkness of the black death, poverty, opression, and corruption. Even Flote, who lost his family to the plague, occasionally feels himself sinking down into darkness, burdened with the heaviness of greif or helplessness - but he remembers his passion, his mission - then he picks himself up even from the darkest depths with a light-footed dance across the stage.

The integrity of these characters is awe inspiring as they stand by their passions and beliefs even at the last. More than a play about how laughter helps us overcome things, Red Noses shows us the power of personal integrity and passion and the beauty and courage that it takes to remain loyal to your dreams.

"We lived the vision, rolled back the stony heart a little and the glory is measureless. Nothing to lament, lets pierce the circumference of Hell and dance!" - Red Noses, Peter Barnes

Viewpoints

This weekend was a full onslaught of blocking this mammoth show. In 10 hours we almost made it all the way through (short 20 pages), with some Viewpoints work to start each rehearsal.
Each time I return to Viewpoints work I am astounded by the power of bodies moving in space and the stories that are created not through conscious effort, but through physical relationships.

Viewpoints as defined by Anne Bogart include:

• Tempo - the speed at which one moves. I like to take it as a scale from 1 - 10
• Duration - how long something lasts - a gesture, shape, etc.
• Kinesthetic Response - the body's response to any kind of stimulus, external or internal.
• Shape - shapes are made of lines and curves and are either stationary or move through space.
• Gesture - there are behavioral (learned/indicative) gestures and expressive (metaphorical/impulsive) gestures
• Repetition
• Spatial Relationship - the distance between things. We like to say no "Polite" distances, lets go to the extreme.
• Architecture - the set, stage, audience, or otherwise space in which we are working
• and Topography - levels, and the shapes our feet follow on the floor

And I've added the following to think about to this lovely list:

• Direction
• Starts and Stops
• Direct and Indirect

We took these a few at a time over the course of three rehearsals and incorporated them into our "milling and seething" - where we walk filling the empty spaces with our bodies. As we finished this part of our rehearsal on Sunday, we sat down to reflect on what had just happened in the room. Many of the comments addressed how at first it was overwhelming, everyone settled into a sort of groove. This came about because the actors began listening and reacting with their bodies instead of planning and calculating and deciding with their brains. My favorite comment came from Noah, whom I can only paraphrase: "It was incredible to see how I affected other people. I haven't really experienced that as an actor - I'm generally focused on what is happening to me and reacting to that, but seeing how I could start things, or how we could start things as a group, was really amazing." Or something Shoshi said: "I did things with my body that you can't just plan. I had no intention of lying in the middle of the stage in a straight line, but I did it... because that's just what my body had to do."
This process is really informing how the actors move on stage, and I am so glad that I decided to incorporate it. When I say "make a shape in the architecture!" they know what I mean! This really has given us the opportunity to create some beautiful stage pictures and moments.

First Rehearsal!

Red Noses begins!

We had a beautiful, and lengthy read through of the play last night (there are still so many cuts to be made). But still, it was wonderful to have everyone together - in the same room, almost magical! And delicious. We had a potluck dinner with curry, cake, caprese salad, hummus, bean salad, chips, and brownies! Yum.

Shoshi Bass led us in a spectacular warm up where we got to move all together as a group - milling and seething, stretching, and all of that wonderful stuff. The climax of the warm-up was "Me!" - an activity where while everyone is moving around the room, one person shouts "Me!" and forms an angular shape. The rest of the group rushes to them, finds a point on their body to lift, and raises the "Me!-er" into the air. It was beautiful!

Congrats to the Grads!

I would like to welcome a few new folks into the growing group of NEYT Alumni - Rosa Palmeri, Allie Bliss, Riley Goodemote, and Shannon Ward. These four have really taken on great challenges at the NEYT and have brought a lot to the theatre with their work as mentors and leaders in the community. Two of them, Rosa and Shannon, will be joining other alums in a production of "Red Noses" this summer.

Follow this link to see photos of Rosa as Laura in the "Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams

Click here to see photos of Allie and Riley in "Its a Wonderful Life"

Here are photos of Shannon performing her one woman tour de force about Emily Dickenson

And here are photos of the much celebrated 2-woman "Twelfth Night"

There is quite a bit of talent coming out of this little corner of Vermont! I just want to celebrate the beautiful people graduating this month in this post! Congratulations Rosa, Riley, Allie and Shannon!

Gearing Up

I think I have written at least 10 e-mails today just about Red Noses (the play, not the foamy clown accessories). I am spending all my free time reading reading reading about Anne Bogart's Viewpoints as a refresher, and "The Great Mortality" - a book about the Black Death in Europe (an incredibly easy read and full to bursting with all the gory details). Our first read through is on Wednesday night, and I can't wait!
I feel absolutely blessed that the magnificent Kristen Loughry is a part of the NEYT team this summer. She is a student at Ithica College, originally from MA, and she is taking on the thankless task of Stage Manager for our production. (I just wanted to make sure she was acknowledged at least once during this process.) I am excited that she is approaching this task so professionally using equity rules as a guide, and really being on top of all the minutia that a Stage Manager has to deal with.
As I sit at my desk I am surrounded with piiles of research, images, and copies of this script. Can I dig my way out by opening? Yes! I am optimistic and excited and not drowning yet. This play is full of complex issues and challenges for a relatively green director (6 years of off and on experience), but I feel over prepared and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Jump and I will catch you!

The New England Youth Theatre of Brattleboro, VT is 10 years old! About the same age as many of NEYT's "green" participants. It seems like, just like a child, NEYT has grown exponentially in the last 10 years. A ten year old child is at least 10 times as heavy and at least two times longer than he or she was when he or she came into this world. NEYT at 10 years has 10 times more students and faculty, and way more space and stuff than it did at "birth" - sans theatre, sans office, sans anything beyond Uncle Stevie's dream.
Founded on the idea that kids could run their own show - take charge and delve into all the arts involved in putting on a play - NEYT began to gather a following. Stephen Stearns has often been compared to the Pied Piper, singing his songs about angels while entranced young people follow dreamily. But he has been more, much more! The motto of the Youth Theatre has always been "Leap and the Net will Appear!" Alumni have taken that challenge constantly in their lives by following dreams and taking positive risks.
For the 10 year anniversary celebration last weekend this "motto" was playfully spoofed by Nick Bombicino and Carolyn Wesley in their original musical in celebration of the 10 year anniversary:

"Jump and I will catch you,
Leap you will not fall,
I am here to catch you,
Clowning through it all.

"And there will always be a net,
And there will always be a red nose
No matter whatever we'll love you for you..."

(Stay tuned for this on You Tube, it will rock your socks if you haven't seen it.)

While NEYT began as an intimite group of youngsters, it has grown and grown, but we are still connected as alumni - we still have a home there, and are welcomed back every time. It is too true that NEYT loves us for who we were, are, and who we have yet to become. I hope that through providing opportuinites for alums to return to perform, direct and teach NEYT will continue to be a supportive artistic outlet for youth, those young in body and those in heart.

Please stay tuned for what is next: Red Noses - howzit going?