Virginia's Point of View: Smith's Lists

Hi! It's me again.

These are the things I did this week that weren't about Nebraska Rep:

1. Visited my Mom three times. (What a good kid!) She lives in assisted living here in Lincoln and is my most honest supporter. I hadn't told her I was stepping down, (I wanted to surprise her) but her friends found out and told her. (Now I'm in trouble.)

2. Cleaned the house, swept the patio, cooked dinner, and breakfast for out-of-town guests on their way to Denver. They'll be back for the Vanya opening.

3. Got the dogs groomed. It's too hot for fluffy poodles in Lincoln summers! They are now skinned and much happier.
4. Watered the gardens and ate the first ripe cherry tomato. Also have ripe peppers!

5. Talked to Doug everyday on Facetime, and welcomed him home after 3 weeks away in Wisconsin installing a museum exhibit.

6. Spend Friday in bed with a stomach ache and chills, underscored by a local armageddon courtesy of my patriot neighbors.



Here are some of the things I did that were Rep driven:

1. Had a lovely long visit with Jeff Korbelik. I'm sure you saw the Ground Zero.

2. Rehearsed Circle four days, watched and enjoyed two runs of Vanya. Attended production meetings for all three shows.

3. Met with John Himmelberger on lights and Jessie Parr on costumes for Circle.

4. Did the voice overs for Rep radio commercials at KFOR.

5. Hosted a small gathering on Saturday night.

6. Met with Steve Grair, TD, to work on the audience seating arrangement for Circle in the Studio Theatre.


Here are things I failed to do:

1. Think of something really good for this week's blog.


Here's the good news! Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike opens on Thursday and it will be awesome. Remember there is an opening party afterwards in the lobby open to all! I'll see you there!

NRT Excitement with Emma: Costumes Preview for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike!

Sometimes one of the most exciting things about seeing live theatre is the costumes! They have the power to set the tone for a show--a poorly costumed show can be detrimental to a production. Luckily, here at Nebraska Rep, we have an outstanding costume shop. Today, I'll give you a sneak peek of the costumes to be worn in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. I snuck down to the costume shop yesterday to give you all the first look!

As a costume designer, Janice Stauffer first designs the costumes first on paper, called renderings. Here are some of Janice's original renderings for the show.

Once the costumes have been rendered, they are brought to life with the help of the stitchers in the costume shop! In the play, the characters attend a costume party together. Masha decides that they ought all attend the party as characters from Disney's Snow White. 

Masha's "Snow White" Costume

Vanya's "Doc the Dwarf" Costume

Nina's "Dopey the Dwarf" Costume

Spike's "Prince Charming" Costume

Nina's Princess Costume

After the costumes take shape, the actors make an appointment with the shop for a costume fitting. From there, the designer and stitchers adjust their original measurements to ensure the best fit for the actor!

Actor Brenna Hill (Nina) getting fitted for her "Dopey" costume

Actor Kristie Berger (Masha) tries on her nearly completed "Snow White" costume

Actors Hayden Spaeth (Spike), Kristie Berger (Masha), and Lawrence MacGowan (Vanya) make quite the trio as Prince Charming, Snow White, and Doc!

 You won't want to miss these costumes in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. The production opens a week from today! Call the Lied Center Ticket Office now for tickets at 402.472.4747.

Humpday with Howard: Paul Slade Smith, the Man Behind the Farce

Hello! To wrap up my series of author bios, I'm going to talk about Paul Slade Smith, the playwright of the Nebraska Repertory Theatre's final show, Unnecessary Farce.


October of 2006, Paul Slade Smith's first play, Unnecessary Farce, premiered in Lansing, Michigan. Before the premiere of Farce, Smith's theatre work was all performance-based. He played Lefevre and understudied Andre in the national tour of Phantom of the Opera, along with Doctor Dillamond in the national tour of Wicked. He also performed regionally in a slew of musical comedies, Shakespearean

Actor and Playwright Paul Slade Smith,
Author of Unnecessary Farce

comedies, and farces. Smith's own Farce marked the start of his career as a playwright.

In a Skype interview with Smith, reviewer Dan St. Yves asked the playwright what sparked the desire to write. Smith replied "I just had a notion to set out to write a play...with the thought that 'let's see if I can write a play.'" Smith had no clue if his play would be successful, but he was optimistic. Flash-forward about seven years, and Unnecessary Farce has been so successful that by the end of last year, it reached its hundredth production.

Smith is currently preparing to perform in the world-premiere production of a musical adaptation of the film Finding Neverland and working on his second play, The Real Lulu, a comedy that deals with politics and how we mess it all up. Until then, NRT's production of Unnecessary Farce is more than enough to tickle your funny bone and get you your Paul Slade Smith fix. Buy your tickets today!

Stephanie's Weekly Spotlight: The Fantastic World of Farce

Yesterday marked the start of week two for the cast and crew of Unnecessary Farce, a hilarious slapstick comedy about a police sting set up in a cheap motel. With two cops, three crooks, eight doors, and an accountant who can't seem to keep her clothes on, chaos ensues as police try to expose the mayor's dishonest behavior via videotape.

Does this sound crazy? It is! As the title states, the play is a farce. Farce is a type of comedy that entertains the audience through highly exaggerated and extravagant situations. Plot twists galore, combined with lots of physical comedy keep audiences pleasantly confused and entertained. One quality that makes farce a unique genre is that audiences are actually encouraged to not follow the plot too closely, as to not confuse themselves further. The joy of watching a farce is being surprised with each turn the plot takes!

A 2011 production of Unnecessary Farce, presented by the Norris Community Theatre in Naples, FL

The term farce was first used in 15th century France, to describe the use of clowning, acrobatics, caricature, and indecency together in a single work of art. Farce quickly spread through Europe where it influenced famous playwrights, such as Shakespeare and Molière. The genre survived through the 19th and 20th centuries with plays such as Charlie's Aunt (1892), and entertainers including the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin. A more modern example is the classic television show I Love Lucy, which aired from 1951 to 1957. 

One of the most well-known episodes of I Love Lucy, "Job Switching", 1952.

You won't want to miss your chance at seeing this delightfully hilarious style played out on Howell Stage. Unnecessary Farce opens July 23rd. Get your tickets today!

Virginia's Point of View: Thespians, Stumble-Throughs, and Photoshoots, Oh My!

Last week the University of Nebraska-Lincoln hosted the International Thespian Festival for the twentieth year. This means 3,400 high school kids and their teachers and chaperones descended on The Lied Center, the Temple Building, Kimball Hall, the Student Union and every hotel and restaurant in the area, not to mention several dorms. It's an awesome event that includes multiple shows, workshops, competitions, parties, auditions, and hard work for lots of people. What it means for us is that personnel in the scene shop and electrics virtually stop working on our shows and get busy making all those festival productions and workshops possible. It also means we have a single rehearsal room to do all our rehearsals. Vanya rehearses there in the morning and Farce in the afternoon, which left Circle hunting for a home. We found it in St. Mark's On-Campus Episcopal Church, just steps from the Ross on Q Street. It has been a nice change as the room is flooded with sunlight and not a festival venue.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, being the first to open, is completely staged and off-book. I saw a run-through on Saturday morning and it's going to be delightful. All the real props are being used, selected costume pieces as well, and the music between scenes has been added. The highest priority next week will be getting the set out of the scene shop and on to the Howell stage. They have a little over a week in the rehearsal hall before technical rehearsals and the addition of all the other elements.

Alan Knoll arrived on Monday, so Unnecessary Farce rehearsals have begun. I can't sit in because my rehearsals for Circle are at exactly the same time. My spies say it's going well. Staging went very quickly so they had a stumble-through on Saturday. Alan says he is delighted that the actors are so willing to try anything! The crazy bits, sight gags, and all things farcical are popping up everywhere!

I'm working Circle Mirror Transformation scene-by-scene, asking the actors to be off-book as we tackle each, doing it multiple times to set lines, adjust staging and make decisions about the transitions between scenes. Megan, my stage manager, cues the actors by saying what will happen ultimately when we have lights and sound. "Black out." "Lights up." "Lights shift." "Music, music, music, music... out," is what we hear from her. We'll do another run-through on Thursday, and will add sound cues for that run.

Last Thursday was also the crazy day we call publicity day. It is the day the Journal Star comes to take the publicity photos they use in the newspaper. I look on this as the only opportunity to give our audiences a peek into each of the plays by showing some of the characters in costume in a situation from the play. Julie and I decide what story we want to tell with the shots and choose who is in each one. This year Vanya, Masha, and Spike represent their show in costumes they wear to a costume party dressed as Snow White, Prince Charming and a dwarf, Doc. This is action that happens offstage, but gives insight into some of the relationship in the play. Eric and Billie, the cops in Unnecessary Farce, are tied up with a phone cord and being threatened by one of the crooks. I don't think this actually happens in the play, but it sure could. For Circle Mirror Transformation, we show Theresa hooping (remember hula hoops?) while two of the other characters look on in admiration and envy. This moment happens in the play, and it represents how each central action is always reflected in how each character perceives it. On publicity day we also do a whole day of interviews for the podcasts we produce every year. Our podcasts are five three-four minute videos, one for each show, one for the Destinations, and one that summarizes all of the other four. They contain a synopsis of the play, shots of rehearsals and selected interviews with directors, designers and actors. The podcasts will soon be available on our web site, www.unl.edu/rep, to whet your appetite for the season. Shooting the podcasts is a scheduling nightmare, but Julie's staff of students is wonderful, and it came off without a hitch. (I was pooped.)

It was a great week. We accomplished everything we needed to and are ready to hit the ground running for week three!

Talk to you in a week!

Feature Friday: International Thespian Festival

This week, the Temple Building has been full of busy schedules, long checklists, and over 3500 high school thespians from across the globe. That's right, it's that time of year again: International Thespian Festival (ITF)!

For the past 20 years, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film have played host to thousands of high school students participating in the International Thespians Festival. In the span of just one week, students have the opportunity to participate in different workshops for straight theatre, musical theatre, technical theatre, and more; perform and watch main stage performances on the Temple Building and Lied Center stages; visit college representatives; and audition for different collegiate theatre programs.

One of those theatre programs is, of course, our own Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. Every day this week, many of our NRT student workers have also been doubling as college recruiters for International Thespian Festival. One even sat in on college auditions with Carson School Director Paul Steger! We would like to thank everyone who represented the Carson School so well over the week at ITF. Not only did you fulfill all of your NRT duties (including putting together and executing an entire publicity day), but you also served as great voices for all that our school has to offer! Thank you so much for your hard work.

International Thespian Festival is a time for high school theatre students to realize the potential they have to turn their passion into a career. The Nebraska Repertory Theatre and Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film are proud to support and host the bright young theatre artists of ITF and hopefully one day have them as fellow company members and students.

For more information on International Thespian Festival, click here.

NRT Excitement with Emma: The 411 on Theatre Games

In Annie Baker's 2009 play Circle Mirror Transformation, a group of people take an adult drama class together. Each has had an impactful event in their recent past which they attempt to overcome, with help from one another. The class, led by the eccentric Marty, plays various theatre games together to instill trust in each other and in themselves.

Theatre games are essential to an actor's training. Some games aim to build mental or physical stamina, while others center on focus and trust between yourself and your fellow actors. Others prove great warm-ups for the voice and the body! It's always a good idea to do a combination of games as a warm-up before a performance. You can pick and choose to include a vocal/physical warm up, a focus warm up for the mind, and perhaps another that forces you to put your trust in others.

Here's a guide to the theatre games featured in Marty's class!

1-10

All members lie on the ground with their eyes closed. They must count to ten together, but only one person may say one number at a time and there can be no rhythm, no pattern, no secret communication. For example, if two people say the number "seven" on top of each other, the entire group must start again!

Purposes: Trust, Energy, Focus

Huntington Theatre's Production of Circle Mirror Transformation
Playing 1-10

When I Go to India

One person starts this game by saying "When I go to India, I'm going to bring..." and lists one object-it could be anything. The next person says the same phrase, lists the previously stated object and then adds their own object. It continues and each person must list what the others have said as well as add their own item at the end.

Purposes: Memory, Improvisation, Living in the Moment

Explosion Tag

Similar to the classic playground game of tag, this version merely adds the factor that the person who is "it" must be exploding in some way until they tag another. This can be vocally, physically, or a combination of both.

Purposes: Vocality, Physicality, Releasing Inhibitions 

Recreating Places, Scenes, or Conversations

One member from the group decides to recreate a place or conversation from their past. If recreating a place, he or she may ask other members of the group to be items in the space, or they may use the available furniture in the room if they wish. If recreating a conversation, he or she will cast other members from the group to be those having the conversation from their past, and he or she will watch from the outside.

Purposes: Self-reflection, Emotional Recall

Seattle Repertory Theatre's Production of Circle Mirror Transformation
Recreating a Scene

Telling Stories As Another

In this exercise, a member from the group will tell a personal story from their past, or perhaps a collection of facts about themselves. Then another member must re-tell the story as the other person. The intent is to speak with the same speech patterns, intonation, gestures, and mannerisms as the original speaker.

Purposes: Trust, Listening, Noticing Detail 

Nonsense Conversations

This is a game for two people. Each person gets a silly word, or a nonsense phrase. That phrase is the only thing they are allowed to say to the other person, but they must communicate enough with the person that those watching the exercise can understand what the conversation is about. As an example from the play, one character can only say "Goulash" while the other can only say "Ak Mak."

Purposes: Communication, Vocality, Physicality   

One-Phrase Conversation 

Similar to Nonsense Conversations, in this exercise for two, each person gets one phrase or sentence that they are allowed to say to the other person. Typically these phrases contrast with each other, which creates clashing objectives that players can fight for. For example, one person’s phrase may be “I want to go,” while the other’s is “I need you to stay.”

Purposes: Vocality, Physicality, Fighting for Objectives

 Circle Mirror Transformation

Not only the title of the play, but also an excellent game! The group stands in a circle, with one person in the middle. That person begins an abstract movement, sound, or a combination of the two. Once they have created it, the group begins to mirror the person in the middle. Then a member from the outside circle steps in and transforms the motion/sound, swapping places with the person in the middle of the circle. The cycle repeats.

Purposes: Vocality, Physicality, Releasing Inhibitions

Playwright Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theatre's Production of Circle Mirror Transformation
Playing Circle Mirror Transformation

These are some of the games played in Marty's class in Circle Mirror Transformation, though there are so many other theatre games out there! Hopefully, this gives you an introduction to some of the more common games. Don't miss the opening of Circle Mirror Transformation on July 17!

Humpday With Howard: Playwright Annie Baker

Hello! This week, I'll be delving into the biographical background of Annie Baker, the playwright of our second show, Circle Mirror Transformation.

The New Yorker relates an excellent anecdote about Annie Baker's career as a playwright, and it deals with one of those moments that every theatre-maker has, so I'm going to share it with you. When she was twenty-four, Baker's physician asked her what her job was. She replied with "I write plays, but you can’t be a playwright, so I have a day job, and maybe I’ll end up teaching or something." The doctor explained that he had another patient who was a prominent playwright. Baker responded by saying "Yeah, but you can’t make a living as a playwright. You can’t, like, be a playwright." Her doctor gave her a funny look.

Flash-forward nine years to 2014, and Baker finds herself at Columbia University picking up the Pulitzer Prize she won for her play, The Flick. After that encounter with her physician, she realized that it was possible to make a living as a playwright, and she has been doing it successfully ever since.

Annie Baker receives the 2014 Pulitzer Prize Drama
from Lee C. Bollinger, President of Columbia University.

Baker was born in April, 1981, in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has her undergraduate degree (in dramatic-writing) from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating and before working full-time as a playwright, she held a slew of miscellaneous positions including assistant residence-hall director for the School of American Ballet, contestant wrangler for The Bachelor, and writer for the television show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? - first writing throws (pre-commercial sendoffs), and later as one of the show’s researchers.

Her 2009 play, Circle Mirror Transformation, won countless awards and, during the 2010-2011 theatre season, was the second most produced play in the United States. Her writing style has been likened to the naturalist and realist styles of Ibsen and Chekhov, but it inhabits an entirely different category from those late nineteenth-century playwrights. Her plays are immensely realistic and down to earth, yet also contain moments of suspended animation and transcendence where action is and characters are transfixed. The awkward pauses and strange silences that often play a role in day-to-day conversation find a place in her plays, and as The New Yorker so elegantly explains, "Her goal is to explore what’s left unsaid along the edges of conversation: it’s the principle of looking at familiar stars so that the galaxies that can’t be seen head on appear out of the corner of your eye." What you see and hear in her plays are snippets of conversation you would overhear on the subway, in a coffee shop, on line at the supermarket. And then you watch someone hula hooping for a minute. The juxtaposition of these two elements-of  reality and transcendence-characterize Baker's unique, touching, and entertaining style.

On another note, when asked who her heroes are, Baker replied "Chekhov. Chekhov. Chekhov. Chekhov." It seems Durang isn't the only playwright we're producing this season who's a fan of Anton's.

Be sure to check out our production of Circle Mirror Transformation, which opens July 17th and runs in repertory with Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and Unnecessary Farce until August 10th.

Stephanie's Weekly Spotlight: What's on the Menu?

Though it may feel like we are approaching the middle of summer, it officially began on Saturday. And nothing says summer like relaxing in your yard, at the lake, or even in the comfort of air-conditioned home with a good drink or snack. For my weekly spotlight, I selected a recipes inspired by the plots and characters of our three plays. For your next summer party or quiet night at home, try one of these delicious treats!

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Siblings Vanya and Sonia are living in their Pennsylvania family home, bemoaning their unfufilled potential. Enter movie star sister Masha, and her her boy-toy. Successful and sassy, Masha does little to help Vanya and Sonia's situation.

Mango Passion Fruit Smoothie (inspired by the character of Masha):

Ingredients:

2 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled mango 

2 cups crushed ice

5 tablespoons strained passion fruit juice (from about 8 passion fruit seeds)

1/4 cup coconut water

1 teaspoon 

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Divide between two glasses and serve.

Circle Mirror Transformation

A delightful comedy set in an adult creative drama class, where our characters explore their lives through the use of theatre games. 

Chocolate Peanut Protein Balls (a perfect on-the-go snack):

Ingredients: 

1 cup unsalted peanuts

1 1/3 cup tightly packed, pitted medjool dates

2 tablespoons raw cacao powder

2 scoops chocolate protein powder

Pinch of sea salt

1) Grind all ingredients in a food processor till they're evenly and finely ground. When you can take a small handful and squeeze it in your palm and it holds together well, you're ready to roll.

2) Roll the mixture into 1 or 1 1/2" balls.

Store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to two weeks.

Unnecessary Farce

In this hilarious slapstick comedy, a police sting takes place while the mayor meets with his accountant in the other room. But nothing goes right, amidst the confusion as to who's occupying which room, who's watching the video, who's taken the money, and who's hired a hit man. 

Cinnamon Carrot Chips with Yogurt Honey Dip (quirky but delicious!):

Ingredients:

2 large carrots, preferably organic

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Cooking oil spray

1/2 cup plain or plain greek yogurt

1 tablespoon pure honey

Arrange the oven racks in thirds. Preheat oven to 400°F.

Wash, scrub, and dry carrots. With a vegetable peeler, peel the carrots entirely into strips. Place the carrot strips into a bowl and toss with cinnamon and ginger.

Being careful not to overlap, lay carrot strips on two baking sheets that have been lightly sprayed with cooking oil spray. Place in the oven on the top and bottom racks and bake for 10 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Turn the oven off and crack the door. Allow to sit in the oven for 8 minutes. Keep an eye on it while the carrots are in the oven as oven temperatures vary and some ovens are hotter than others. Remove from the oven if they begin to brown. Carefully, transfer the carrots to a cooling rack or plate and allow to cool. The chips will crisp while they cool.

In a bowl, combine yogurt and honey; stir.

Once the chips have crisped up, serve the carrot chips with the dip and snack away.

Virginia's Point of View: A Director's Process

What a great week! It's hard to believe that the time has passed so quickly. The company got together to meet and greet on Monday, June 16th at Paul Steger and Sara Bucy's home. I'm sure there were over fifty people there, all interested in getting to know each other, excited about the process of all the collaboration to come, and happy to chow down on some great food!

I attended the first reading of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike on Monday and was pleased that the actors I had met all separately throughout the casting process actually looked and sounded great, and fit their parts. Doug Finlayson, the director, is pleased. In his second rehearsal on Tuesday, he started staging the play, or blocking, as some people call it. I call it staging because it is literally the process of putting the written play on the stage. It means putting down taped lines for walls in the rehearsal hall, adding furniture, and deciding how the characters move as they speak and act out the play. Doug works much the way I usually do. He plans the movements on a specific ground plan of the setting (in this case a room in a large home in Buck's County, PA) as a part of his preparation before rehearsals start. Then he works slowly through the play over several days of rehearsal communicating his ideas to the actors scene by scene. When that process is done, there will be a run-through, or what we more often call a "stumble-through" because usually no one is quite ready to run yet. For Vanya, that will happen today: one week after the first rehearsal. In the process of continuing to work on the play, all of the movements will be refined and often changed completely. It's like sewing pattern pieces together before fitting; so much still needs to be adjusted.

Circle Mirror Transformation takes place in a rehearsal hall with the characters going through the process of both learning to act and getting to know each other. There is nothing in the space but a big blue yoga ball and five people playing theatre games. I didn't think my usual process would work. So, we started by playing the games that the characters play in the script. This was really helpful. Playing these games teaches new actors about being in the present, focusing on each other, observing and listening closely to what is happening, establishing a safe space and learning how to express your emotions. They are also really fun and energizing, so it was a blast to spend time revisiting games each of the actors had played in the past with other groups. It is also a great way to build ensemble, something every show benefits from, but that we often skip for lack of time. For this play it's fundamental. So we played for a few hours, learned so much and developed trust and appreciation of each other as a bonus!

On to staging: the play takes place over six weeks, so it was logical to take each week as a section that we'd work over in one rehearsal. A week is also cut into more short sections, so we've been working each of those three or four times with me offering suggestions as I watch the actors play. By the end of a rehearsal we have staged that week (but loosely and with an improvisational feel). When we read it last Monday, we discovered that the play has so much movement that only parts of it actually are interesting to hear read while sitting at a table. Sometimes I will begin working on a play with several table readings. I'm not sure we really made it through one full read of this play. I also learned that one of the exciting things about staging is its relationship with the audience. (Don't worry, there is no audience participation!) But I'm finding it thrilling to be so close to what is happening. It's almost like I'm a member of the class, or maybe a curious observer watching through a curtain. We have two more days of staging before our first stumble-through Wednesday.

Have a great week!