Development of an Educational Theater Company

July 27, 2009 by Carrie Edel Isaacman 

This past year I was accepted to a program called TA 101 which was developed by Dr. Carol Fineberg, a researcher and frequent writer about arts education, and Master Teaching Artist Dale Davis, one of the founders who now serves as Executive Director of Association of Teaching Artists.   The course, for teaching artists relatively new to the field, was underwritten by grants from the Dana Foundation and New York Community Trust to the New York State Alliance for Arts Education.

Teaching Artist 101 Program

The program participants met every four weeks for four hours and explored a different topic each month.  We started with “Understanding School Culture” where we learned about schools and the various people that we would be working with in the school system.  We also learned about best ways to collaborate with the teachers in planning sessions.  We learned to develop curriculum, which was especially valuable.  Another important unit was the seminar on psychology and using what we know about in our work with schools.  We also learned about partnerships and grant writing.  Additionally, a unit that I especially loved was the seminar on different learning styles in the classroom.  As classrooms are more inclusive, this seminar was also very helpful.  TA 101 began in September of 2008 and concluded in March of 2009.  Participants were given ample time to feedback their responses to each session as well as the total experience. 

Reflection

I was very impressed by the other teaching artists in the room who were also invited participants.  Some of them had PhDs in Theater, some were already running their own theater companies, and others were already marketing their art to museums and schools.  I learned a lot from their questions to the speakers.  For each seminar, I became more organized and focused with information. I learned how to relate my lesson plans to the New York City DOE Blue Print and NYS Standards as well as various populations.  This was very empowering as I became organized and was more able to plan ahead for what it was that I wanted to do.   Most importantly, it got me to really think about partnerships that I could create.

Work Developed from TA 101 Sessions

I am using the lessons that I learned from TA 101 towards the development of an educational show that I hope to market to the NYC Public Schools.  To start, I am throwing a fundraiser.  

The fundraiser will be August 12th at 8: 30 pm at The Producers Club located at 358 West 44th Street. Tickets are $20.00 which include two drinks, raffle tickets for Coaching sessions, Shakespeare texts, gift bags and other goodies. We’ll have singing of Shakespeare songs by Kelly Nichols and Joe Crow Ryan’s folk singing.

Carrie Edel Isaacman is a regular guest blogger, look for her monthly posts to come out on the 27th of the month. She is currently working as an Adjunct Lecturer through CUNY and substitute teaching in the NYC Public Schools while she pursues her MS in Educational Theater at City College. She is also involved in TA 101 with New York State Alliance for Arts in Education.

————
If you like what you read please subscribe to either the RSS feed or by email.
Subscribe by RSS Feed
Subscribe by Email

Filed under: Teaching
Tagged:

Joan of Arc Video

July 25, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

“What could be better than hard working, talented actors, well directed in a gem of a production….but wait, there is more, in an outdoor setting that is perhaps one of the most beautiful in NYC. How could I not recommend Joan of Arc for a fun and inspiriting evening of outdoor theatre?”

Doug Leeds, Past President, The American Theatre Wing (founders of the Tony Awards®).

————
If you like what you read please subscribe to either the RSS feed or by email.
Subscribe by RSS Feed
Subscribe by Email

Filed under: Acting, New York, Theater/Theatre
Tagged:

Twitter is too expensive

July 22, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

————
If you like what you read please subscribe to either the RSS feed or by email.
Subscribe by RSS Feed
Subscribe by Email

Filed under: Social Media, Web 2.0
Tagged:

Less Money for Middle Class Actor

July 20, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

From NPR’s All Things Considered:

Beth Broderick is having a tough time making a living as an actress lately. That wasn’t always the case — and it’s not for lack of work.

She belongs to Hollywood’s middle class: actors and crew members who have worked on countless sit-coms, TV dramas and movies. She’s not an A-list celebrity, but she’s also not a waitress waiting for her first break.

Broderick plays Aunt Zelda on the TV series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Evangeline Lilly’s mother on the drama Lost. And she tells NPR’s Madeleine Brand that she feels “totally, truly, entirely blessed” for her 20 years in the business.

But over the past decade, the wages for the professional class have plummeted, Broderick says. She used to make $25,000 to $30,000 to guest star on an hourlong TV episode. Now she gets about $6,000, which comes out to $4,800 after commission.

“The studio heads still get paid enormous salaries. They still have huge golden parachutes,” Broderick notes. “Stars still make $20 million a picture, but the people right below them are making scale.”

She says, “It’s really going to have to come down to the leadership — from producers, directors and stars — who say, ‘You know what, thanks for the $20 million, I’m going to take $19 [million], and let’s divvy the rest up between the next 10 people on the call sheet so that those people I’m staring across from the camera at for the next eight weeks — I can feel good knowing that their kid can go to school.’”

Nobody wants to sit where I’m sitting and say, ‘Hey, this is the reality. I did two movies, six guest-star spots and I starred in a one-woman show, and I’m not making any money. I’m on TV every day in every country in the world, and I don’t make any money,’ ” Broderick says.

“Somebody’s got to say it. Nobody wants to take that risk, nobody wants to admit that or put that out there, but it’s true.”

————
If you like what you read please subscribe to either the RSS feed or by email.
Subscribe by RSS Feed
Subscribe by Email

Filed under: Acting, Los Angeles
Tagged:

Postive Audience Response to Gorilla Rep’s Joan of Arc

July 13, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

The first weekend of Joan of Arc went well. We have received great audience feedback and the crowds increased in number each night. Below is Elizabeth Lorris Ritter’s response, along with pictures she took:

Catch JOAN OF ARC, another high quality production by Gorilla Repertory Theatre Company Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun nights at 8pm through August 2nd (2009) in NYC’s Fort Tryon Park. Use the main pedestrian entrance for the Heather Garden, and head west, (to the left) to the Pine Grove. (To get to the park, take the A-train to 190th Street, or walk/bus to Margaret Corbin Circle, at the northern terminus of Fort Washington Ave., just above 190th Street.)

While the company has done many fine productions which dynamically engage the park as set, this play works particularly well as it was written especially for the space. The dialogue is poetic; the direction crisp; the acting true.

Bring a blanket (and a flashlight!), or just wear comfortable clothes and sit on the grass, but be prepared to move around the pine grove as the set changes with each scene. Not a lot of walking, but a fair amount of standing up, moving a few feet, and sitting back down again.

This priceless theatre is absolutely free, but you’ll want to bring some money (or a check) to drop in the hat that’s passed at the end of the show. Totally worthwhile, and tax-deductible, too!

Filed under: Acting, New York, Theater/Theatre
Tagged:

Joan of Arc in New York Daily News

July 11, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

“Gorilla Rep, a troupe known for highly energetic and involving work.” – New York Daily News

Filed under: Acting, New York, Theater/Theatre
Tagged:

Bartlett Sher’s Advice on Directing

July 8, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

Though he talks specifically about directing, I think this is good advice for all artists. It is interesting that Sher considers an artist not having debt “as a bit off the wall”. It says something of the state we are in that there is an assumption that after all the schooling an artist must go through, that it is a necessary evil that an artist will have a six-figure debt from their undergraduate and graduate studies.

Bartlett Sher American Theatre Wing“You have to see alot of stuff. You have to see everything, all over the world and all kinds of…dance and all kinds of things. Really learn about art and how people express themselves. You have to do alot obviously. It’s always really helpful to find some body who is a model for you. Even if you end up rejecting everything about them, somebody who inspires you greatly whether its in film or whatever else. And the last one is a little bit off the wall, but it’s, you know, stay out of debt. Its always a big one because debt is the one thing that can prevent you from having the freedom to stay in that place of being an artist as long as possible without having to go to the other side and ramped capitalism that we live in makes that extremely difficult because of all the other pressures about living.” – Bartlett Sher, Fluidity and Change: Directors 2009, American Theatre Wing

Filed under: Theater/Theatre
Tagged: