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Arts Smarts bootcamps are underway! High school Musical came and went like a bright, shining star.  Now we’re darkening and spookifying the stage for We Are Monsters kids to perform this Friday night at 7, Saturday at 3, and Saturday again at 7.

Have you ever been to a children’s summer theatre boot camp?

Chaos. Pure chaos.

We have nearly 50 kids right now rehearsing for We Are Monsters. They spend 3 hours a day (in the afternoon heat) working on songs, choreography, characterization, lines, backstage etiquette, makeup, costumes, mic changes… oh, it’s madness all right.

And it’s magic, too. If you take a minute to stop and listen, you’ll be amazed by what else is going on.

 

“I have my big solo in the next scene.”

I overheard this yesterday in the green room (where performers rest when not on stage.)

The words came from a 6-year-old girl, sitting on the edge of her seat, knees hugged to her chest.   I couldn’t tell from her tone of voice exactly how she felt about her statement. It was a neutral announcement, to no one in particular.

She was staring into space, focusing on something in her imagination. I watched as a small, crooked smile crept across her face. Her chin lifted ever so slightly.

And that’s theatre for you. Courage and pride and nerves and self-talk. It tickles me pink knowing that children as young as 4 years old can encounter such personal growth.

My 7 year old son has been in many plays, but this is the first production in which he can easily read his own lines.  I’m pretty sure that all the highlighted scripts he’s held in his hands over the past couple years have motivated him more than anything to practice reading.

And then there’s the teamwork aspect.  Last weekend was the final showing of High School Musical, but I hear that cast members are still hanging out and singing along to the movie.   This was our older group of performers: 10 and up.  I wasn’t there for rehearsals, but in the first performance something happened which illustrates the confidence and skill of our theatre students:

Kara Scott, playing Gabriella Montez, and Connor McMaster, playing Troy Bolton, were on stage and about to sing a duet from opposite corners of the stage.

Their music didn’t start. Tech problems always happen; it’s inevitable. At some point you have to decide whether to stall awkwardly, attempt to improvise some dialogue, or go on with the show. Kara went for it, acapella. Connor joined in.

The hush in the theater, pierced by their sweet voices….

Chills, people. Bonafide chills. That’s how many life skills right there?

Thinking on your feet..

Trusting your partner…

Overcoming nerves…

Doing the job without complaint (imagine if they’d broken character to glare at the sound booth and yell “Cue music!”)

And that’s not to mention the hours of practice behind this moment. These kids have endurance, patience, and a glowing work ethic.

Chaos?  Yes. But take a seat, dim the lights.   You’ll see there’s method to our madness (ahem… magic.)

Want to witness the results of our monsters’ hard work?  Purchase tickets here for this weekend!

2016-06-23 11:08:56

Auditions are coming up next week (July 19) for Arsenic and Old Lace.  If you’re still on the fence about auditioning, check out this article by Rick Kellogg, a theatre newbie who turned out to be a natural.  He was absolutely hilarious on stage, and I look forward to watching him again!

If you are saying to yourself, “I’d like to try out for a play sometime,” I would simply say, first: stop talking to yourself; people will think you’re odd.

And second, go for it. It is completely worth it. There are several unexpected benefits.  Where else can you get that instant feedback from an audience who is laughing at the hilarious lines you may deliver or applauding a well-performed dance number?

Where else can you collaborate and click with other creative cast members as you try to make a script come alive and uncover new comical nuances of your character?

And it’s a great way to form friendships with all the cast, crew, directors and the scores of people who make the theater work–a fun-loving, energetic crew of slightly off-kilter folks who are united in producing something great and making sure the audiences are entertained.

Performing in a theatrical production is not without its challenges. There is a significant time commitment to do well in your role. There are lots of rehearsals, and some of them seem to last all night. You may have to memorize a good deal of dialogue, which gets tougher to do at my age–and your family members may get tired of hearing your dialogue around the house.

If you are in a musical–and this was a shock to me–you may actually have to sing and dance. I tried to get out of any dance number I could, and the one finale number was tough for me to memorize the steps, but it all went well, eventually.

I wasn’t nervous to be on the stage in front of an audience–perhaps a career of public speaking inoculated me from that concern. But if you are worried about being in front of a crowd, don’t be. The stage lights are so bright that you can’t see the audience anyway. And you are hidden in a costume and a character that gives you carte blanche to be as silly or zany or outrageous as you like.

I didn’t mind putting on the ridiculous golf outfit with the purple pom-pom and the too-tight sweater. It wasn’t me out there, being laughed at. It was J.B. Biggley. (At least, I hope it was.)

I commented several times to fellow cast members that I felt like I had joined some sort of theatrical cult. Most everyone in the cast had been in (multiple) productions before.

They have a language and rituals that are all their own.

They pass around the energy ball.

They chop bananas.

They offer and decline imaginary plates of spaghetti.

They recite, “The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the articulatory tools.”

They talk about decrescendo and fortissimo. All of these things may seem foreign and strange to the uninitiated. Just go with it. It all makes sense eventually.

The great thing about community theater is the sense of community. Once you are there, you belong–even if it’s your first time ever backstage. The cast, crew, directors, costumers, set designers, choreographers–everyone comes from very distinct backgrounds and has plenty of other things going on in their lives.

Yet they all come together and devote an impressive amount of time, talent and energy into creating something that will hopefully entertain a few dozen people for a couple of hours one Friday night. And everyone is invested in making sure that each other member succeeds, so that the entire show can be a success.

If you’re thinking about dipping your toe in the theatrical waters, by all means, do so. I thought about it for years. After closing my first play, I can only wonder: what took me so long?

Thanks, Rick!  We can’t wait to see what your next stage adventure will be.  Don’t forget, sign up to audition here on July 19!

This is a guest post written by Heather Moss, a TVT regular since 2006.   I love how she describes her journey as an actress in Curious Savage.  I witnessed her transformation, so Heather asked me to weigh in.  The bulk of the words are Heather’s, and the interjected blue comments are mine (in honor of my character, Mrs. Savage’s, hair.)  I hope you have a cup of tea and a cozy spot, folks, because this is a bit of a long post!

I consider myself a very positive person. I try to be optimistic in everything that I do. (Also very even-tempered.  Which is probably even more important in her job working with kids.)

So I’m sure that it was because of how well the director knew my personality that I was cast in a role that was completely opposite than how I am in real life.  (In real life, Heather is the lady that dresses up as Elsa on Valentine’s Day, and asks the parents in her hometown if any children would like a visit from a princess.  No cost.  Just wanting to spread some love.  That’s Heather.)

Mrs. Paddy only had four lines in the show, but she packed quite a bit in each of those lines. I think in total, she says over 100 things that she HATES. Since her lines were lists rather than responses to questions, I recorded myself saying each line so I could listen to each set over and over. I finally managed to recite all four lines without looking at my script, but I said them in a monotone because I thought that was how she would say them.  (Yeah, it was really monotone.  Like she was reciting a grocery list.)

There was a point during one of the runs of the first scene when the director told me I needed to be angrier. We stopped, went back, and I repeated my lines. We kept going but I still felt like I wasn’t angry enough. (Nope.  Still groceries.)

That night, I went home and tried to think of a way to bring out any anger I had in my life. At that point, I didn’t have anything to make me mad. So I reminisced back to all the times that I had been wronged by friends, ex-boyfriends, and even occasionally family members. There are plenty of instances in my past that get me extremely riled up. And I have never allowed myself to fully release that anger in a verbal way.

I still remember how our next rehearsal went. I was so excited to “unleash the beast” because quite honestly, I didn’t know how it was going to go. I had gone over it in my head multiple times, but I had never just let go and opened Pandora’s Box so to speak.

So we started the scene and it was coming up on my line. I closed my eyes for a moment and thought, “Ok, let out all that anger that you’ve had stored up for all these months and years. Let it ALL out!”

So I did. I was no longer Heather. I was a fed up, misunderstood woman who had been wronged by someone she loved dearly.

I don’t think the rest of the cast or the directors had any idea of what I was going to do at rehearsal that night because they all just kind of stopped for a moment after my first rant without going on with the scene. I had never really brought out any real anger in my delivery before, so I can only imagine what was going through their heads.  (Shock.  Fear. Confusion.  And then… the slow clap.  YES!)

The next level of Mrs. Paddy was her look. Costume and makeup does a lot to help an actor really encompass the role.  Mrs. Paddy’s wig and her aged makeup was the finishing touch of my transformation.  (Shout out to the amazing Becky Thorpe for working her magic!)

We would run a scene and my cast members would get creeped out just by looking at me when I was in character on stage. It was a total blast.  (I joined in the creeping out.  We are both like 29 in real life in this photo…)

You might think the transformation would end when we started running the show. Not at all. That was Mrs. Paddy’s next layer revealed. The very last thing Mrs. Paddy says is a huge stepping stone for her because she not only says a full sentence, she tells Mrs. Savage that she loves her and wishes she wouldn’t leave the facility.  Mrs. Paddy has not been able to do that since her husband told her to shut up, so it was a very big moment for Mrs. Savage, Jeff, and Mrs. Paddy to share.  (I’ll admit, it gave me chills every performance to be on the receiving end of Mrs. Paddy’s unexpected love.)

Up until opening night, I had just smushed all of her last lines together and run offstage. But then I realized before the first time doing the last scene in front of an audience that she needed to be visibly conflicted more than I had done before when saying goodbye to Mrs. Savage. So I slowed down my line a bit and broke my voice with emotion.

It went very well.

By our last performance, I had a lot of people feeling for Mrs. Paddy. Almost every night, someone would tell me afterwards that I made them cry, which I consider to be a sign of success as a performer.  (It took a lot of skill to make a convincing transformation in such few choice lines.  Once Heather figured out how to pour emotion into Mrs. Paddy, she completely owned that character!)

The very last scene when Mrs. Savage is leaving is one of my favorite scenes because I got to let Heather (me) into Mrs. Paddy and help her show happiness through her painting, smiling, and showing her contentment with life.  (That’s actually a good point.  For most of the play, Heather is on stage silently fuming as Mrs. Paddy.  She has to keep up the crankiness in the background of everything.  Which is why the final happy scene was probably such a fun relief for Heather!)

Mrs. Paddy was a huge experience for me. I’ve never allowed myself to express anger because I don’t like being angry. But playing Mrs. Paddy gave me the outlet to get all that emotion out without obviously directing it at any particular person.

It was extremely therapeutic for me to play her. I will always be grateful for this unique opportunity to be someone who is so visibly conflicted.

Thanks for sharing, Heather!  What an excellent case study of theatre as a healthy release for pent up emotion.  We’ll let you get back to your gorgeous smile!

2016-06-30 22:23:40

Emily Metcalf, TVT board member and blog manager,  weighs in on the cohesive relationship between theatre and introversion.

It’s more common than you’d think: the elderly woman next door, happy in her garden… the friend who hides in a corner at parties… the girl who never answers her phone, but always texts back readily…

Put them on stage, and who knows what alter ego might emerge!  The stage does not demand a life-of-the party personality; it simply requires that you have a range of human emotions at your disposal.

 

Introverts fit quite seamlessly into the theatrical world. Consider the following:

• Introverts spend more time observing than participating in social situations, which makes them experts on conversational pauses, intricate expressions, and subtle body language. As long as they have the courage to put into practice what they have unintentionally studied their entire lives, introverts can flourish in front of an audience.

  

• Portraying a character, done right, has little to do with the actor or actress. In the end, after studying lines, pondering your character’s backstory and motivation, and eventually completing the transformation with hair and makeup, you are no longer you! If you’ve ever wished you could step outside your inhibitions for a moment, and just be– no matter who’s watching– playing a character is as close as it gets.

• Most introverts avoid large crowds (like…. say…. an audience) because large groups of people drain their energy. However, as an actor, you aren’t concerned with what people are thinking of you, because these mannerisms and quirks belong to the character. You are simply the storytelling instrument. And, many people don’t realize until they’ve actually performed, for the most part, you can’t see the audience. Stage lighting combined with a darkened theater gives the front row a hazy blur, and beyond that, you can barely see outlines of heads. It’s not nearly as unnerving as you may fear. Many directors will tell you to imagine the audience as simply one person included in an intimate conversation, which is right up an introvert’s alley.

  

• According to the Myers-Briggs Foundation, introverts prefer to spend their time in the company of ideas and images, whereas extroverts prefer to spend their time in the world of people and things. Theatre just happens to be the perfect marriage of these realms: ideas and images made substantial in the world of people and things.

• Theatre creates a safe space. Truly. When the director does his or her job, the rehearsal space is a friendly environment in which the actors can blossom and connect. Shedding your shell is inevitable in the busy-ness of working toward a common goal. Perhaps it’s a little awkward at first, having to fall in love with someone you’ve just met, or faking best friend chemistry with someone you hardly like, but magic happens over time.  Theatre makes comrades of us all.

  

Of course, many talented theatre folk work behind the scenes. There is a whole world beyond the stage, comprised of people who never see the spotlight. (Except the guy actually operating it.)   Without them, there would be no production. Here is a group teeming with introverts, too, because there’s so much work to be done and expertise to apply, that one hardly has time to think of oneself. Designing lights, operating the sound table, adjusting and managing microphones, creating the overall color scheme and feel to the production, and making sure the costumes, hair, makeup, and set design all adhere to it. There’s so much work to be done! Come out here and help!

Marlis Nielsen, who has worked with TVT both behind the stage designing lights and helping with tech, as well as excelling on stage,  says, “I love being onstage because you get to create characters with different quirks, create chemistry within a cast, and it’s such a great feeling to take an audience into a story with you! I love being backstage because it’s us that makes the actors look good. We are the magic behind the story: making sure everything is working at all times and becoming professional problem-solvers if something goes wrong.”

Never deny yourself, or someone else, the joy of theatre. Don’t write it off as the job for extroverts, because, just like in the real world, the stage takes all types. Audition!

Even if you find there’s no part for you on stage for a specific production, backstage is calling your name.   Besides, it never hurts to have a little applause in your life!

Enjoy TVT’s next Arts Smarts production, High School Musical Jr., playing June 10, 11, 17 and 18.  Tomorrow is opening night!  Purchase tickets here.

 

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Julie Doud, a community theatre actress and TVT veteran, wrote this post right after closing night of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”  We can only sympathize with her despair, as the bittersweet moment of closing night is inevitable.  We can only look forward to the next audition, though!  (Which, in our case, happens to be July 19^th and 20^th, for “Arsenic and Old Lace.”)

 

Play Withdrawal.  The symptoms?  It’s generally characterized by an aching emptiness and lack of purpose and direction in your life as well as a persistent need to express yourself through song, though no one cares to listen. It sometimes presents with a pathetic lack of one-liners, side-conversations, and random song snatches in your day-to-day living.  You may find you have no more need for glue-on eyelashes, tights or heels.  Most likely you will encounter a pile of useless props and costumes sitting in your car waiting to be sadly unpacked and re-shelved, never to live again in the way they have so recently been animated.  Never before have golf clubs or a stuffed animal chipmunk seemed so depressing.  One day you are a creator, a performer, a risk-taker and the next you are no more… you are a civilian… a housewife, a businessman, a high school student, perhaps…. but actor no more.  We in the industry call it play withdrawal.

Theatre is by its nature ethereal… a delicate, evanescent thing… lovely and gone too soon.  Individuals venture from their places of comfort and gather together to CREATE.  They pour their hearts, minds, bodies, energies and time into the endeavor.  They develop a sense of team and a sense of place and a thousand different intertwining connections between their characters and between their real selves.  They think deep thoughts about identity and human connection.  They create a home for themselves as a group at the theatre.  They tell a story.  They breathe life into words, and they do it night after night until the world they’ve created suddenly comes crashing to a close.

Minutes later the theatre looks like a ghost town, depleted of all the myriad things that have accumulated through the recent weeks of play-making… you may see a crumpled program tumbleweed blowing across the carpeted green room floor until a helpful crew member deposits it in a trash bin.  The show that was so full of life the hour before is no more.  It has been dismantled and can’t be put back together.  Though expected, it still constitutes a deeply felt tragedy of sorts.  Truly there’s nothing for our wounds, though time does seem to lessen the aching.  Other shows on the horizon help… but we know it’s not the same.  The world will never be the same.  Those relationships we’ve made are memories now – they will never truly exist the same way again.  Irreparable.

Of course, we’ll embrace those we have learned to love in the course of the play when we see them at the theatre again… and we’ll hope in our secret hearts the bonds we formed were real.  We know, of course, new memories and connections will be created next time… and from the barren theatre will arise new life, new worlds, new stories.  It will be glorious!  And yet we bitterly remember, those future shows will have their closings too…

 

2016-05-25 11:17:33

Timpanogos Valley Theatre is growing!  Abundant participation in our children’s programs and community productions has prompted a rebranding of our logo and website.  The physical space is slowly but surely undergoing an organizational makeover.  TVT’s board has transitioned its members, engaging growth and holding onto some of its longest standing supporters.

As a nonprofit organization in the Heber Valley, TVT is thrilled by the changes our community has helped to prompt.   We will continue to grow our name and presence, so that no one is sitting at home on a Saturday night, unaware that the age-old art of storytelling and performance is on display by this very community.

We encourage any and all to try their hand at the variety of tasks required to put on a show: from designing and building set, sewing costumes, donating props, choreographing, directing music, designing sound or lights, to acting your part on stage.  Many of our leading parts are given to novices: people who have never set foot on stage before!

Community theater is one of those magical experiences, where the value in contribution is reciprocated in participation.  TVT is grateful for everyone’s involvement!  We look forward to continually enriching lives in the Heber Valley community.

Board member Emily Metcalf will manage our blog, with occasional guest posts from the community and other members of the TVT family.

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