Muhlenberg Theatre & Dance

The Red Door Play Festival has finally arrived. The hard work has finally paid off! Of Voices, Of Choices premiered Sunday night, March 24, and closes tonight, March 25 at 7:45 p.m. The cast is very excited to be sharing this original piece of work with Muhlenberg College students and family!

The events leading up to this moment have been great! The journey of really discovering our characters with the other actors and our director, Jenna, has helped the play to come alive. Our last dress rehearsal was among the most sentimental and real experiences of the process. We all really became our characters and connected to the messages in the piece. We all choose how we tell our story, but how will you tell it? This is the key idea that drives the piece forward. It really helped us to learn about ourselves and human nature in general. We all have our own stories and continue on our own life path, and sometimes we overlap and become connected, and sometimes we never meet again. I think the show will help the audience to arrive at a certain truth: we all have the ability to make a choice and raise our voice, but who will actually do it, and where will it lead?

The script really got the cast thinking in a new way. It brought us all very close together. We may never have met at Muhlenberg, but this play about people coming together and crossing paths allowed this cast to come together and make a bond over this beautiful piece of art.

Working in the actual space in the Red Door this past week was also a new and challenging experience. We finally got to feel what the show is going to actually be like with costumes, lights, and props. We learned to project into the space and were able to start to get a feel for the room. It was a very interesting experience finally seeing all the rehearsals come together in to a cohesive show. We began to get very excited to perform this for an audience. We are so excited to get this chance to perform this original play for people and get our director’s vision out there so that her voice can be heard. As actors, we have been given a great opportunity.

This is the great thing about Muhlenberg. There are constant opportunities to perform, create, and meet new people in fun, creative learning environments. You just have to make the choice to get involved.  What will you choose? Of course! The choice to come to the festival this weekend and support this creative environment at Muhlenberg is the only choice! Come to the Red Door down the stairs in Seegers Union tonight to be a part of something very special and unique to the Muhlenberg community: The Red Door Play Festival! Make the choice! You will not regret it!

Here’s a sneak peek!

Make sure you get yours today!

Iphigenia: http://bit.ly/XBpGPH

Mental Landscapes: http://bit.ly/15eB8pZ

Or call the box office at 484-664-3333

Hey everyone!  I’m currently in the midst of tech for The Man Who Turned Into a Stick.  It is certainly is a handful, but not in a bad way. I think that’s the nature of theatre.  To go back a bit, we had a week off from rehearsals over spring break, so coming back I wasn’t quite sure exactly what to expect.  Before spring break the cast was working hard and they were doing a great job refining their characters and making certain moments in the show very specific along the lines of what we’re looking for in the final performance.    

When we returned from break there wasn’t much time before we had our first on-stage rehearsal and went into tech.  After the actors got the show back into their bodies on the Sunday night we returned, we had only three more rehearsals until our first on-stage last Thursday, March 14.  We continued to experiment and give the show one last metaphorical shock, instilling it with energy before we had our first on-stage (which went very well!).  It was refreshing and exciting to have the show in the actual space where it will be performed, and new life was breathed into it.  We made some slight adjustments, but the cast did an amazing job with such little time, only one hour, to accomplish what we needed to in the Studio Theater.  

We had one more rehearsal Friday before we went into cue-to-cue run on Saturday.  Friday’s rehearsal allowed us to solidify what we learned and worked with in the space the night before, and on Saturday we were able to add in 95% of the lighting and sound cues. Sunday, we added costumes and had a full run of all three shows in Mental Landscapes consecutively.  To add to the excitement of costumes, my cast and I were able to see the other two plays for the first time, which was really a treat.  Everyone was impressed with each other’s work, and it was great to have the three shows finally come together for a run, which has been in the making for over two months.  I’m excited for the final dress rehearsal tonight, in which we’ll make our final adjustments, and then open tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!  I’ll check back in with everyone soon!

justanotherherostory:

YAY!

muhlenbergcollege:

Our students in Dance Max performed a piece outlining insects, growth and beauty at Lehigh Parkway elementary this morning. The kids loved it!

The first few weeks of rehearsal are over and done, and boy has it been an amazing experience. Working on an original piece where the writer, Jenna ‘14, is also the director, is opening up a world of exploration. The play “Of Voices, Of Choices” is a nonlinear, abstract, and poetic piece based around the theme that we are all connected. The play teaches us that the choices we make through the words we choose, and actions we perform can create or destroy us and those around us. I am playing the character Harper, a bank worker by day, writing teacher by night. But what would the story be without a plot twist and a few big secrets? Oooh juicy, right? Well, I can’t give too much away, so I guess you will have to choose to come to the Red Door Play Festival on March 23 and 24!

But…let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves! The process of working on this play has been amazing but there are still two weeks and many rehearsals before opening night! A lot has happened in the last few weeks and I want to give you a little insight into our first few weeks of rehearsal:

At our first rehearsal we read through the script and got familiar with our characters. We used chairs and walking patterns to add purpose to the words. If we felt it, we could interact with other characters and direct lines towards them. The purpose of adding the movement and words separately was to get the words into our physicality and into our bodies. Another choice by the director was to divulge the script slowly and only to certain characters so that we would discover our characters as we rehearsed instead of having a pre-determined destination. Jenna made three actors go out into the hallway and she told the other two actors pieces of the plot that would motivate them to act a certain way. This choice created mystery among the actors.

Within the past couple of weeks, Jenna has tried many other helpful directing techniques. She has emphasized using a range of emotions, saying, “I believe that in dramatic scenes there is range to be explored in upset. Don’t make quick huge decisions, don’t go from 3 to 9, instead use your range.” This taught us all to take a look at certain moments and, instead of playing sad or angry, play the range. Try not to show the emotion and eventually this will allow the raw emotion to shine through. There is a certain depth in the calmness we gain from this method that allows the words to speak and communicate the core theme of the play.

Our cast and wonderful director:  Danielle ‘16, Emma ‘15, Sarah E. ‘16, Emily ‘16, Jenna ‘14, Elissa ‘16. Just missing our stage manager Sarah K. ‘16

Before moving on to discussing rehearsals, I want to take a moment to fondly reflect on audition weekend for the Red Door Play Festival. Though the dramatic readings of “Rocket Man” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” brought us much appreciated comic relief, I don’t think anything can top the mock audition of “The Confrontation” from Les Mis (yes, that’s a bag of flour)…

Moving on:

The rehearsal process for This Property is Condemned has been moving at an enjoyable trot. We’ve had one meeting and three rehearsals thus far, and I’m consistently impressed with the adaptability, buoyancy, and sheer talent of my actors.

Our first rehearsal was pretty character work intensive. We discussed the characters’ family histories, dispositions, and prior circumstances, and also did a lot of movement work. Some other exercises included Seeing/Being Seen, where you can’t break eye contact for several minutes; Value, where each character builds a mental shelf and selects the items of most significance to them for display; and snapping from their physical selves into their characters’ physicality and back. These basic exercises helped to lay the groundwork for their motivations and interactions within the play.

The following two rehearsals boasted many read-throughs and runs, trying out different beats and blocking while gaining character depth. We also took a “field trip” to Red Door —the space where the play will be performed. Below are a few snaps from our most recent rehearsal. 20 days until opening, and the show is looking very promising!

MBC-TV spotlight on Bartholomew Fair, opening tonight. Props to Lauren Zipkin ‘14 for the excellent coverage. Check it out and get your tickets!

484-664-3333 or Online

Hey there, blogosphere! Emma Adams here. I’m stoked to be back blogging for Muhlenberg Theatre & Dance this semester.

After co-directing Why Cupid Came to Earl’s Court for the Red Door Play Festival (RDPF) in the fall, I’m flying solo, directing Tennessee Williams’ This Property is Condemned for the RDPF this spring. I’m also stoked to be directing senior Jeremy Russial’s play Restroom Rehearsal for the New Play Reading Series (NPRS).

This past weekend was filled with many hours of watching many extremely talented people audition for NPRS, and the weekend before was spent doing the same for RDPF. Though you might not think it, I’m finding that auditions are by far the most stressful part of a production process for directors. There were five of us who’ll be directing for both, and we bonded over lack of sleep, five-minute meals, and difficult decisions… But I wouldn’t have changed a minute of it. Finally, eight days later, all the shows are cast, schedules are coming together, and rehearsals are commencing.

My first cast meeting/mini-rehearsal took place this evening, with my two-person Condemned cast and stage manager. After introducing relevant music from the time period (1940s) and giving each of the actors a pile of printed resources on character development, we had a discussion and quick read-through of the play. Honestly, it was one of the best first readings I’ve ever heard and I think the show is bursting with potential. I’m greatly anticipating our first real rehearsal on Wednesday!

For me, other artistic endeavors this semester include acting as Mary McDonald in Joe Caracappa’s James Potter and the Prequel Parody film series, participating as a Phantom in this semester’s Rocky Horror Picture Show live screening, developing pieces for my performance ensemble in my First-Year Seminar: Finding Your Muse, and editing film for the course On-Camera Acting. I’m looking forward to a semester jam-packed with creative exploration!

Thanks for reading my blog! Stay tuned!