Reprinted with permission by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Arts Education Department

Vice President: Sandra Bowie
Assistant Vice President: Sanaz Hojreh
Associate Director of Performance: Verushka Spirito
Writer: Arthur Wilson
Editor: Linda Fowler

P.Nokio, a hip-hop musical written and directed by Psalmayene 24 for Imagination Stage, is a clever nod to Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) and some of its original characters: the puppet of the title; Geppetto, a carpenter; the Fairy with Turquoise Hair; Fox and Cat; and the Innkeeper.

In P.Nokio, however, the boy puppet is a computer-generated figure come to life and G.Petto is a video game designer. The Graffiti Fairy’s magic is manifested by spray paint; Fox and Cat are disguised as muggers to defraud P.Nokio of his “street credits.”

P.Nokio is set in Hip-Hopia. The action begins with an audience call and response led by G.Petto to summon P.Nokio from a computer screen. (“He’ll be able to rhyme and dance … He’ll almost be real.”) When G.Petto realizes P.Nokio has jumped from the computer, his employment dilemma begins. The petulant Machine Master—G.Petto’s boss—arrives in a fanfare with his assistant, Crony, to view the design promised to bring him big cash!

Carrying a sacred “Book of Rhymes” presented to him by G.Petto, P.Nokio heads for The Old School to learn style, swagger and ways to help the community through hip-hop. In a series of comical raps, P.Nokio is pushed through a course of events that challenge his judgment, his ability to obey G.Petto, and his desire to stretch the truth. He plays hooky from The Old School and encounters a talking Fork in the road, whose alternate path tempts him toward Fun and the Land of Fools. As in the original story, when P.Nokio lies, his nose grows longer.

When G.Petto finds himself in danger of becoming Machine Master’s next profitable computer gimmick, P.Nokio learns about selflessness and forgiveness through a courageous act of sacrifice. This good deed, of a real boy, is accompanied by G.Petto’s words, “We all make mistakes … but it’s what we learn, and what we do after those mistakes, that count.”

P.Nokio: The result of rhyme and effort

As the playwright, director and actor in the title role of P.Nokio, Psalmayene 24 (a.k.a. Gregory Morrison) is a true triple-threat artist. Growing up in Brooklyn, he was immersed in hip-hop culture and was eager to combine it with his love of theater.

“Using a hip-hop aesthetic immediately makes the play relatable to the youth of today,” he says. “The rhythms and sounds of Hip-Hop reflect their pulse and energy.”

According to Psalmayene 24, there are three main lessons to P.Nokio. “A, you always have an opportunity to redeem yourself. We see this through P.Nokio’s journey in the play. B, unconditional love supports redemption. G.Petto exemplifies this as P.Nokio’s faithful father. And, C, when you are your authentic self, good things happen. When P.Nokio finally rhymes the truth in his heart, he is able to achieve transformation.”

P.Nokio is Psalmayene 24’s second premiere commissioned by Imagination Stage, a Maryland-based, nonprofit theatre arts organization that produces professional theater with an arts education focus. “My first project with Imagination Stage was Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth, an adaptation of a West African trickster tale,” he relates. “That experience, from conception to production to touring, was absolutely wonderful, so we decided to do another project together.”

A prominent figure in hip-hop theater, Psalmayene 24 (pronounced sal-may-any) performed at the first Hip-Hop Theater Festival in New York City. His solo play, Free Jujube Brown! appeared in the anthology Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy: Theater from the Hip-Hop Generation (Theatre Communications Group, 2009). “Psalm” was the co-writer and co-star of The Hip-Hop Nightmares of Jujube Brown and nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for his performance. His play Undiscovered Genius of the Concrete Jungle was commissioned by Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

Psalmayene 24 also is founder of the folk-hop band PS24, which has opened for Erykah Badu and has performed frequently throughout the East Coast.

Two of his collaborators from Zomo are on board for P.Nokio. Musician Nick Hernandez is the composer and sound designer. Paige Hernandez, the choreographer, also plays the Graffiti Fairy. She is an advocate for hip-hop education and helps teachers understand and incorporate hip-hop culture into their curriculums. Also on the creative team are Ethan Sinnott (sets), Kendra Rai (costumes) and Andrew Griffin (lighting design).

“A brilliant person once said, ‘It takes a village to raise a play,’” says Psalmayene 24. “I couldn’t agree more.”

The real-life adventures of Pinocchio

Pinocchio’s coming of age exploits are probably best remembered by Walt Disney’s legendary animated film of 1940, Pinocchio, which uplifted audiences with an Oscar winning score (“When You Wish Upon a Star”) and a benevolent plot line. As writer Rebecca West put it, “Disney followed adaptations (of Pinocchio) much more than the original—as he modified the sadism and violence in order to bring to the screen a lovable, cuddly Pinocchio.”

In the Disney version of Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), the large cast of characters is pared down to a few well-drawn protagonists and antagonists who interact in a morality tale of good triumphing over evil. Contrasting Disney with Collodi, essayist Derek White reasons that “Pinocchio is not nearly the moralistic tale that Disney paints it to be—for Collodi’s Pinocchio is far from innocent, but is more of a Huck Finn type, most of the time a mean-spirited brat … and Geppetto is not exactly the provincial model citizen but lives in poverty, on the fringes.”

This tendency to reinvent the original has solidified Pinocchio’s longevity—the character endures after more than a century of creative transformations—and the story’s substance continues to attract artists such as Hip-Hop theater’s Psalmayene 24. Adaptations of the Pinocchio tale have entertained generations of youngsters and the original book still ranks among the best-selling children’s classics.

Pinocchio has been portrayed as a comical character in the Shrek films (2001-2010), as well as on Broadway in Shrek the Musical (2008). Spanish illustrator Salvador Bartolozzi depicted him in a weekly children’s publication, Pinocchio, in 1925. In addition, The Adventures of Pinocchio has been adapted for television and made into dozens of English-language films. Countless other versions span the globe, in Italian (Roberto Benigni in the 2002 movie Pinocchio), French, Russian, German, and Japanese. Myriad philosophical and thematic differences evolved while moving this allegorical tale forward, but even in our age of quick-changing invention, a constant remains: Pinocchio’s nose grows as he stretches the truth.

P.Nokio flips the original story by dressing it in four elements of hip-hop culture: bboying (dancing), graffiti writing, MC-ing (rapping), and DJ-ing. The show abounds with these elements. Director-playwright Psalmayene 24 describes his P.Nokio as “a mischievous, hip, digitally-designed man-child with a heart of gold and a fantastic ability to rap and dance.”

To establish the puppet’s state of aliveness at the beginning of the musical, he has P.Nokio jump from the computer screen and hide from G.Petto by slapping a lampshade over his head. In comparison, Collodi’s Pinocchio assumes life even before being fully carved into a puppet and speaks as each of his extremities is whittled into shape.

Psalmayene 24 says he was attracted to the traditional story of Pinocchio because “at its core, it is a story about redemption.” He and his collaborators discarded Collodi’s tragic ending (Pinocchio is hanged), but maintain the heart of the fable about a misfit who wanders off the path, yet discovers self-awareness through education and personal sacrifice.

“Pinocchio goes astray many times before he finally matures and becomes a real boy,” says Psalmayene 24. “Redemption is the universal, timeless and ageless human impulse that runs through the story. That’s what motivated me as I wrote my adaptation.”

Arthur T. Wilson, a poet, playwright and co-publisher of Attitude magazine, has served as a residency artist at NJPAC from ground-breaking to the present. He holds master’s degrees from New York University and the University of London.

P.Nokio: a Hip-Hop Musical, February 1-March 11.
Tickets and Show Schedule.

I’d like to share a common theme in my conversations with Imagination Stage families, a theme which I relate to personally. I hear frequently from parents that being in an acting or dance class has had a positive impact on their child. Many parents talk of how it has brought their child out of his/her shell, helped develop empathy, provided more confidence, or even—as one parent shared—given her and her teenage daughter a common interest to talk about. When I hear these comments and watch our students grow their theatre skills, I remember how theatre has also changed my life.

Growing up in Baltimore, once upon a time and many years ago, we didn’t have access to the kinds of programs that Imagination Stage provides. There were no drama classes in my neighborhood, and I can count on one hand the number of plays I saw on school field trips. Elementary and middle school provided no outlet for a sensitive, theatrical, and arguably odd kid. But things changed when I reached high school. Within the first month, the school held auditions for a school play: Our Town. Excited for the new experience I auditioned and was cast as the choir director, Simon Stimson. Despite being a freshman and having absolutely no acting experience I got a role. I think my deep voice and height helped me land the role of this 40-something New Hampshire man. Through this role I began to discover for myself what it was to create a character, choose tactics, and how to play someone who was the opposite of who I was in nearly every way. While I had a very supportive high school director, he had a whole cast of teens vying for his coaching. I would have loved to have the more personal pedagogy and dedicated teaching staff of a place like Imagination Stage to help me understand and develop my craft.  Learning to act after you’ve been cast in your first show is a kind of trial by fire—not something I would recommend to anyone.

Since that first show, I have been in nearly 100 productions, including ones at my high school, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and a variety of community and professional plays. I feel that these numerous theatre experiences have led me to the best moments in my life. For two years I was able to tour America with a traveling Shakespeare company, many of my best friends have been made through theatre connections, and the woman of my dreams—who I married just last month—I met at a theatre benefit.

This weekend our Musical Theatre Conservatory Seniors will be presenting Into the Woods, Jr. as their final project. I think about all of the classes in acting, singing, and dance that have brought them to this special  capstone performance. They have begun to master acting and vocal techniques that it has taken me years to learn. These young performers are graduating from their conservatory this weekend, but more importantly they have found a community of friends with whom they have shared a journey of self discovery. Which, in my experience, is more important than memorizing your lines or hitting that high note.

So, for those of you already in our classes and camps, please keep your stories coming; they warm the hearts of my colleagues and myself and remind us why we come to work each day. And now, a quick plug (I do have marketing in my title after all): for those of you considering registering for class or camp, do it! Because, in our opinion, it’s not about growing up to be an actor, it’s about growing up.

- Scott McCormick, Education Marketing Manager

Into the Woods sends our beloved Grimm fairytales on a twisted, musical journey brimming with greed, bravery, and the agony of love.

How fitting that the themes for both plays selected for this year’s Conservatory Program graduation shows center around a journey, as the productions themselves mark the end of an amazing journey for all the actors involved. 

The Conservatory Program at Imagination Stage was created to provide a process where young actors could acquire a more advanced set of tools, and a vocabulary that would challenge and push their acting skills. Most theatre experiences for young people are generally individual performance opportunities: audition for a play, get cast, rehearse, and then perform. While this can certainly provide a fun experience, it doesn’t necessarily teach actors how to act. 

The craft of acting seems deceptively easy to do.  It’s just memorizing lines, right?  How difficult can that be?  As any trained actor will tell you, it involves a lot more than that, and the students who complete the Conservatory Program at Imagination Stage understand that as well.  For four semesters these students have been studying the techniques of acting and singing alongside the same group of students and instructors.  Over the course of the program they look at character development, physical strength and dexterity, vocal variation, and script analysis.  For their final semester, they are handed off to a professional director and design team to begin rehearsing their graduation production– an important opportunity to apply all the knowledge they have gained.

 Most of the students’ theatrical journeys did not begin with their first semester of Conservatory. Bronya Lechtman (8^th grade and in East of the Sun…) first took a Drama and Music class with Imagination Stage at the age of three, back when we were located at White Flint Mall, right around the same time as Michelle Schrier (9^th grader and in Into the Woods), who began when she was only two!  Most of their classmates also took a variety of classes and summer camps at Imagination Stage or their school before signing up to audition for the Conservatory Program.

So has the classroom work paid off?  I’m confident these productions will exceed your expectations of what young people can do, but what pleases me more is how the actors themselves view the difference in their work after their experience in Conservatory.  When I asked the students to compare this show to previous performances at their schools or other youth theatre companies, they almost all mentioned the degree of character building that has gone into the work. “With other shows I have been in,” says Teddy Sullivan (9^th grade and in Into the Woods), “it was all just staging, and learning dance steps.  However, with this rehearsal process, we are really developing deep characters and finding the subtext, making our show not just going through the motions, but giving us a reason to what we are saying.”  With shows that have large numbers of young actors, directors can easily get stuck in simply moving the performers around the stage.  Go there. Move that arm. Smile!!  It is a crucial element in our curriculum at Imagination Stage that we encourage our students to understand why their characters are moving around the stage.  As actors, we seek to motivate every action.  Every line we say is based on what our characters need.  Bronya loved that while her director helped guide her in the process, she was able to make her own decisions about her character and her character’s actions. She wasn’t merely a pawn being moved around the stage.

In addition to the students’ work in technique, Imagination Stage also seeks to replicate the professional experience of the production process by hiring directors who are both dedicated educators as well as working professionals in the field.  This adds another very different element to rehearsing a show here at Imagination Stage.  Annika Cowles, a 9^th grader in Into the Woods, remarks that “after each rehearsal of blocking and music learning, we had to go home and memorize it. The adults who worked with us didn’t ‘baby’ us. They told us their expectations and their vision for the show. They didn’t have time for us to not have things memorized or to be talking with our friends. We had to come in, put aside our personal problems, and be completely focused and ready to take blocking notes or stand in for someone who was practicing in another room.” 

 Being an actor requires a huge amount of vulnerability. Actors of all levels find it incredibly important to have the support of their fellow class or cast mates, and our conservatories are no different.  “I didn’t expect that I would make such amazing friends,” says Chewey Delaplaine (9^th grader, Into the Woods). “With each [Imagination Stage experience], I gain more and more great friends, I learn valuable lessons, and have so much fun.”  A sense of ensemble is such an important part of creating a piece of theatre.  The actors in a show need to have a connection with one another on stage. They need to move in sync, breath together, and trust each other.  Trust that they will have each other’s backs during the actual show, and that they will support each other in their journey to experiment and take risks with the work. While Teddy noticed the professional, business-like nature of the rehearsal process, he also has a deep appreciation for the fact that his class is like a family, “and that family-like atmosphere pushed us forward, making our performances better, and making us become better performers.”

I certainly hope you’ll come see the culminations of the two journeys these graduating Acting and Musical Theatre Conservatories have traveled!  We celebrate not just the work they have put into these specific shows, but also the work they have accomplished over the last two years; the dedication and commitment they have made to Imagination Stage, to each other, and to themselves as theatre artists.

 - Nikki Kaplan, Associate Director of Education 

East of the Sun and West of the Moon ~ Performed by the Acting Conservatory Senior Class, December 2-4

Into the Woods, JR ~ Performed by the Musical Theatre Conservatory Senior Class, December 16-18

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS 

Granted, we planned the party…so we could be a little biased.  But what really made this event great were the attendees—all of them 2011 Imagination Stage Summer Theatre Campus (STC) alumni.  These young people, ages 10 – 14 gathered together to attend a performance of Aladdin’s Luck at Imagination Stage, which was followed by a pizza party reunion—featuring music, games, and a teaser for STC 2012.

The first thing to be noted is the sheer energy that our campers bring into the building.  Let us be clear that these are students who love theatre; students who love the “family” that you gain when you work together on a production; and students who consider Imagination Stage their home.  For many of these young artists, Imagination Stage represents a place where they can be who they are (exuberant, crazy, and occasionally awkward teens, who sing and dance through the halls) without the fear of being judged. We have students from all backgrounds and abilities at Imagination Stage—many of whom hold different amounts of “social collateral” in their own school environments.  But as we watched these young people step across these social boundaries and greet each other at the front door with hugs, high fives, and excited screams, it helped us to reflect on our own “safe havens” growing up.  Both of us can fondly remember a place in our youth where we could simply let out our inner musical theatre “geek” (of course in the modern day era of show choirs, Glee, So You Think You Can Dance, and The Sing Off, we recognize that perhaps it might be a little easier in this day in age).

But what was even more impressive and exciting was to see that our young students had a vested interest in the type of work they wanted to be doing next summer.  These students clearly want to have a summer that will not only be a ton of fun, but one that will challenge them to grow as artists and individuals.  As we brainstorm titles, mention of shows like High School Musical and Camp Rock draw groans and eye-rolls.  Conversation centers on the classics (save for a couple jokes about “Star Wars the Musical…”), coupled with frank discussions between students about why we can’t stage Disney’s The Lion King, the new musicals currently being staged on Broadway, and the pros and cons of mounting shows like Oklahoma and The Music Man. 

Both of us count Summer Theatre Campus as one of our most beloved programs of the year.  Throughout the past several years, we have both served in the roles of Director, Teacher, and Camp Manager.  As educators, we love that the program is a balance of both process and product.  Our students have the chance to learn technique, which they can immediately apply to a performance situation.  Additionally, the program brings together 80 young people of all abilities who work together to create an amazing “artist colony” over a four-week period.  It is a thrill each summer to watch these students develop the camaraderie and respect that is vital to this type of process—and even more crucial as these young people grow into leaders within their world.   

We’re already looking forward to Summer Theatre Campus 2012, and we certainly hope that you will come add your voice to this amazing program!

-Diane Nutting, Director of Access and Inclusion, and Nikki Kaplan, Associate Director of Education

In my adult life, the most significant example of my parents’ party influence can be seen in an annual Halloween party that my husband and I throw. We are now in our 12^th iteration and the parties have grown from 30 people to 150+ people in our smallish house.

So, when I joined the staff at Imagination Stage in July of 2009, I was thrilled that part of my job would be creating unique community engagement events that reflect the creativity we have on staff, on stage, and in our classrooms (in 2010, I worked on both a 1979 Dance Party and the Pirate Treasure Hunt for our 30^th anniversary). I couldn’t ask for better collaborators. Imagination Stage has some of the most fun, hardworking, thoughtful, and creative people I have ever encountered. This is a group that knows how to have serious fun (not just a tagline…we walk the walk).

This year, we are kicking off the Imagination Stage season with a new style of open house on September 10, 2011: ImagiFest. The goal is to get people excited about both our education and theatrical offerings for the coming year. We created an interdepartmental team to make this the best open house ever. Lilly, Chad, Scott, McKenzie, David, and I have been working on this event for more than three months. We’ve had good ideas, bad ideas, funny ideas, etc. In the end, we think we have come up with something appropriately outrageous to kick off our 32^nd year.

Riffing on the themes in Dr. Dolittle, we decided we need to have a safari through the building that takes you to all the exciting worlds of our theatre season. Kids will get a passport for travel, and we will go from the desert in Aladdin’s Luck, to Hip-Hopia from P.Nokio, to a land far away in Rapunzel, and lastly to Narnia from The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. Each location will be an appropriately decorated for the environment (designed and fabricated by Jared Davis, local set-designer and my husband/party co-conspirator).

I have included a couple preliminary designs for the event. In addition to this safari, we have more traditional sample classes; previews of Aladdin’s Luck and a new early childhood piece, Mouse on the Move; a chalk art wall (inspired by the Graffiti Fairy in P.Nokio); behind-the-scenes tours; and more. If you would like to see a complete schedule, you can click HERE.

In my opinion, great events (for kids or adults) require a good balance between structure and free play.  I think we have struck that balance with ImagiFest and hope that this is an event we can, and will, repeat annually. Grab your pith helmet, binoculars, and imagination…an interactive adventure awaits you.

-Kate Taylor Davis, Director of External Relations

Educating Students and Parents: Growing New Educational Programming for Pre-K
-By Maggin Stailey, published by TYA Today

The recent domestic rise in interest to produce Theatre for the Very Young has issued a new challenge to corresponding arts education departments to offer programming for their new audience. Several theatres have accepted this challenge by integrating “kinderdrama,” widely defined as a class that a guardian and a young child take together as a pair, into their educational programming. Across the country, this expansion of programming is challenging teaching artists to adapt to a space where education and family collide.

In 2003 at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, MD, kinderdrama classes became a natural response to the issue of filling the theatre’s new space. “When we moved into this building we had a ton of empty space during the day […] and the logical idea was to program it with people who were home,” says Associate Artistic Director Kate Bryer. “And that age group is obviously babies, so that was the basic beginning of it,” Bryer says of their “mommy and me” program for children between 12 and 36 month old.

However, a grant to expand programming for the very young from the Theatre Communications Group, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Doris Duke Charitable Trust turned the theatre’s educational focus even more sharply toward their youngest audience. The grant allowed Imagination Stage to create their own original theatre pieces for the very young, which in turn built an audience looking for more classroom opportunities for that age group. “I think it’s important to the artistic and financial stability of the theatre, but it is also important to the community to find a way to engage these children at a really, really young age. And really I think, to me, it’s about engaging these families,” Bryer says.

Engaging the interplay between child and parent has also been the keystone for the creation of kinderdrama classes for Education Director Karen Sharp at Seattle Children’s Theatre (SCT) in Washington. In the spring of 2010, she experimented with a one-day Story Drama creative dramatics experience for parents and their children to take together. The program was so successful that it has been included in the summer offerings for 2011 at the SCT Drama School. Sharp notes that even in the one-day workshops, her main objective is to model creative play for the parent. “I know creative play is something that doesn’t come naturally to all parents,” she says. During the workshops, Sharp guides participants through working together, creative problem solving, team building, and sensory explorations in the hopes that parents can share these kinesthetic experiences with their students. “I want to give parents the tools to be able to use creative drama at home with their child, but also it’s important to experience creative play in a classroom setting – where an ensemble of students and parents work together to create something very special.”

Christina Dresser, acting program associate and producer of drama camps at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA, echoes those sentiments. “We have classes that we offer on Saturdays throughout the year in eight different sessions. They are typically six weeks, and our youngest age range is a ‘Parents and Tots” class,” Dresser says. “The class really focuses on teaching creative play skills to the parents so that it is not just something that is happening in the classroom, but they can go home, have story time together, and be able to play dramatically and understand how to do all of those things”, Dresser continues. “And of course the parents love having this outlet for their children. We’ve always had parents who are so excited that they can have something that they can do together in an environment that is supportive and understanding.”

Education directors overseeing kinderdrama classes recognize that finding the right formula is key. Sharp uses ritual with students in order to develop trust. “By creating those rituals you create a safe zone for the student to feel like they can use their imagination. The students know when they come in the room, they’re going to pound on the block this way, then you’re going to pound on a drum,” Sharp explains. “When the students feel safe and successful, they’re going to be able to use their imagination and make bolder choices.”

Sharp also emphasizes the dual importance of lesson planning and a sense of play. “My theory is when you’re teaching creative drama you know exactly where you are in your lesson plan and what’s going to happen next but the students should never feel any of that,” Sharp says. “They should feel like that experience is happening in the moment because they’re in the room.”

The kinderdrama classes at Imagination Stage focus primarily on sensory exploration. “When we use a story we tend not to tell it in a linear fashion,” Bryer explains. “We try to pull images from it and use those images to experience it through multidisciplinary experiences, though the use of music, movement, art, and theatre, using taste, smell, vision, touch, and sound – so that you explore [the story] through different sensory mediums.”

Percy (Tyler Herman) makes his way through the bayou in PERSEUS BAYOU at Imagination Stage

PERSEUS BAYOU, now playing at Imagination Stage, employs many fantastic magical effects.  Perseus uses one skate and a pole to suggest his movement down stream.  A soaring owl puppet sometimes represents the goddess Athena.  And a tennis ball tossed around the stage represents the one eyeball that is shared by three strange phantom ladies.  Perhaps, as you watch this play with your child, you may wonder, “how much of this is he really getting?”

The answer is “all of it!”  Results of a new study show that children as young as 5 are capable of understanding complex theatrical metaphors.  British PhD and childhood specialist Matthew Reason recently published a fascinating book about his research with young children at the Imaginate Theatre Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Reason devised a post-show drawing activity for about 100 children following their experience of seeing three very different theatre pieces that involved varying degrees of abstraction.  He asked the children to draw their favorite moments from each play and then he interviewed them about how they knew the various details that they put into their pictures.  Often he observed that children would draw legs on characters that had been shown as hand puppets.  When two actors in a play portrayed multiple characters, the children drew them all.  Sometimes, they also drew entire scenes that were only described but never seen on stage. In short, Reason concluded that young children quickly assimilate the means by which a story is being told and direct their attention at the story itself.   

This discovery is good news not only for theatre directors (who have suspected children’s high capability all along) but also for parents and educators.  The mental exercise of decoding a theatrical image relates directly to literacy: the child’s ability at first to understand that letters put in a particular order represent an object or idea, and then as they become more sophisticated, the ability to recognize symbols and appreciate metaphors.   Reason found in speaking to the children in his study that they enjoy the “aha” moment of realization—just as do adults—when they make a connection and meet the artists half way in an imaginative leap.  I encourage you to bring your family to PERSEUS BAYOU and to conduct an informal study of your own:

How is the gliding of a single skate like a boat?  How can a stuffed bird be the same character as the actress playing Athena and what does that mean that the goddess is shown in two different ways?  And, finally and most fun perhaps,  were the ghost ladies really blind when they were without the eye?  Did you believe that the tennis ball enabled them to see?

Let us know what you learn from your children!

-Janet Stanford, Artistic Director

KTD: I hear you’re a local boy. Where did you grow up? What were your stomping grounds?
TH: I grew up in Silver Spring, MD, and hung out in Bethesda all the time! I went to Woodlin Elementary and then Georgetown Day School (not prep).

KTD: Tell us a little about the show in which you star.
TH: Perseus Bayou will take you on a fantastic journey. It is funny, scary, heartbreaking, and exhilarating. Greek myths are timeless, and this show illuminates how there is humanity in every hero, and heroism in everyone.

KTD: When you were an ISI student (then BAPA), did you ever think you would be a lead on our professional stage?
TH: Oh, never! Though I was so young I think I did it mostly because it was fun…and an excuse to run around and make noise.

KTD: Do you identify with the character you play in Perseus Bayou?
TH: Oh, incredibly! He is precocious, got his head in the clouds, and always up for an adventure. I could talk your ear off with stories of my own adventures growing up. I also value my family very highly. So, family and home being the reason for Perseus’ journey resonates with me heavily — while snakes don’t scare me as much (I mean, they do as much as they do any normal person).

KTD: What is your favorite moment in the show?
TH: Oh wow,  there are so many cool things. It might be the final swordfight. It feels so EPIC!

KTD: What is the hardest thing you do in the show?
TH: Skating on one roller skate and making it look like I’m punting through a swamp. That is pretty tough…

KTD: At what age did you decide to become a professional actor?
TH: Can I still be deciding? Haha. When I got to college, I thought “I’m going to get a business degree or …uh…something useful.” The summer after freshman year, I was studying abroad, and a friend said “It seems like you’re really into this theatre thing” and I said “well…yeah…but you can’t make a living out of it.” I decided to major in Theatre at first because it was easiest to, and I knew I would do well. Gradually, by the time I was a Senior, I was double majoring in Theatre and Dance and minoring in Music. I knew I wanted to do this as a career and that I could make a living out of it. It’s what I live for. And voila, here I am!

KTD:  You’re a Cornell grad…that’s a really competitive school. Do you think that the arts made you a better candidate/student?
TH: Yes indeed, Cornell is quite competitive. Most artists I’ve encountered are passionate about their life and what they want to do (even if they’re not quite sure what it is). My own passion and drive helped me at Cornell for sure. I’ve never been surrounded by more driven, engaged people than I was at Cornell. Anyone in every field was looking for the “actor” in them, to bring their own interests to life and inspire others. For me, I was constantly amazed at how many different subjects people could love. I learned from others’ strengths and vice versa. Being able to stand my ground and speak my mind confidently aided me tremendously.

KTD:   Did anything you learn at Imagination Stage as a student stay with you in your adulthood?
TH: I think what sticks with me the most is to be proud of who I am and to not be afraid to put myself “out there.”

Jessica Levy in AFTER JULIET

In the first of a series of blog posts this year, Coordinator of Student Ensembles Nikki Kaplan,  shines a spotlight on an Imagination Stage Student.

How am I acting if I have no lines?

Working in Youth Theatre involves an ongoing conversation with parents and students regarding feelings after casting.  Young actors in particular get hung up on counting the number of lines they have in a play.  The higher the number, the better the experience will be, right?  The lower the line count must then be equated with having no talent.  What if you’re cast in a musical which is written specifically to include only a handful of speaking roles and a large dancing and singing chorus who don’t have any dialogue at all? “How is my child acting if they don’t have any lines?” parents often ask.  Underneath this sentiment: how are they going to be valued in the production if they do not speak on stage? 

Answering this question requires embracing the truth that acting is not synonymous with talking.  The root of the word actor is action.  Acting is doing.  As Director of Faculty, Madeleine Burke, often says, “they do not call us talkers, they call us actors!”  Visit a Synetic Theatre production and you’ll see full productions (many based on Shakespeare plays, no less!) with no dialogue whatsoever, yet still remain extremely rich in storytelling and very powerful works of theater.

Last year’s Acting Conservatory graduation performance was a play titled After Juliet by Sharman McDonald which, as the title suggests, takes place in Verona after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.  Student Jessica Levy was cast in a, mostly, non-speaking role.  Her task: to interpret an ambiguous “drummer” role in the show as the ghost of Juliet, pushing and pulling the dramatic action of the play.  After the casting decision was made, Jessica admits, she was upset.  “I thought that I must be a terrible actor if I had so few lines, and I was scared other people would think so too.  All I knew was that I had about 4 lines, that everyone else had many, many more, and  I disliked that.” 

She quickly realized, however, that despite her feelings, this role came with many challenges.  For one, she was on stage for every scene except one.  “It’s difficult to have to convey your emotions without any dialogue to help you express yourself.  Throughout the Conservatory program we had worked at developing these non-verbal skills.  However, it was extremely challenging to be forced to use only your physicality to not only convey emotion but also the motivation for all of Juliet’s actions.  The character was shaped by outside perspectives of her, with often these views being biased, and the majority of these views differed from how she was portrayed in Romeo and Juliet.  I was forced to create an extensive back-story in order to motivate all of Juliet’s actions. However, that was enjoyable as well as challenging.”

As rehearsals wore on, Jessica began to enjoy her role of Juliet more and more.  “It was fun to be able to use the skills I had worked hard to develop throughout the Acting Conservatory program.  David Markey and Alison Gee constantly were stressing the importance of your actions as well as your dialogue and taught us to have an increased awareness of our movement.  Moreover, I enjoyed the unique experience that it enabled me to have.  I was almost always a part of the scene we were working on, so I learned so much about the entire process of staging a play.  I got a chance to see the directors working with small groups, large groups, and different actors in order to successfully stage the show.  That aspect was amazing to experience, especially because I am interested in directing as well as acting.  Furthermore, the vast amount of choices, due to the few written directions provided, benefited me by receiving lots of individual attention devoted to helping me define my character.  Rachel Stevens, my assistant director, taught me so much about acting and helped me improve my skills through our struggle to create the perfect Juliet.”

So is the old adage of “no small parts” true?  Jessica thinks so.  “Everyone had always said not to judge a character based on how many lines he or she has, and I learned how true that statement really is.  When you have a role with so few lines, you realize how much more to acting there is than just speaking lines of dialogue.  You understand the significance of every movement you make, every expression your face displays, and every way you stand.  The real challenge in acting is being able to be constantly aware of your every action, and that aspect of this role made me appreciate acting in a whole new way.”

Jessica is currently a 9^th grader at Walt Whitman High School.

Janet Stanford, Imagination Stage Artistic Director

It is gratifying to see that The New York Times is devoting column inches to what is widely being hailed as the newest trend in theatre in the USA—theatre for the very young—and by that we really mean babies as young as 6 months, non-verbal toddlers, or big siblings up to the advanced age of 4!  It is natural for theatre artists and parents alike to wonder whether performances for this age group are “real theatre” and to question what, if anything, children are getting from these experiences.  As someone who has travelled to festivals across Europe and Canada and seen dozens of Baby Shows over the last decade, I can happily report that I have worked through these questions for myself and come to believe that Baby Theatre holds enormous promise not only for the immediate benefactors, its audience of children and parents, but also for shaping a more sophisticated teen and adult theatre-going public in the USA down the road.

At their best, plays for the very young—like all good theatre— tap into subject matter that is intriguing to its audience.  I have seen a full house of toddlers held rapt by a fifteen minute sequence of balloons simply being blown up and let go; by elaborate games of peek-a-boo; by a series of apple-like objects being dropped into a vat of water; by a puppet bird hatching from an egg; by a dancer’s feet spreading sand in patterns around the stage; by a blue cloth representing the sea; or a piece of origami that an actor transforms from a star into a tiny boat.  This may not be the thematic stuff of Shakespeare but it speaks directly to the preoccupations of small children: the physics of cause and effect, and curiosity about other babies, objects and indeed every person, place and thing that makes up their early universe.  Small children also bring to the theatre an attitude of total belief—something that even those of us who love the art can never completely recapture.   For them, the image of stars lighting a backdrop or a paper leaf dropping from a tree may indeed precede the real life experience of such natural events.  For the 4-year old, we know a connection is being made between the theatrical image and the thing it represents but for the baby it is more likely that the image attracts her attention simply because it is pleasing in and of itself.  Consider what a powerful moment it will be for this tiny theatre-goer when she first does see a sky-full of stars and connects their grandeur and beauty back to a memory from her first play!

 The opportunity that artists creating for the very young have is tremendous.   We can take huge subjects like the environment, the Law of Gravity, the cycle of life, parent-child or sibling relationships and portray them in simple childlike terms that respect the young audience’s specific stage of development.  We can capitalize on their willing belief since no “suspension of disbelief” is yet required.  We can create hands-on opportunities for the children to enter the action and participate in the creation of an illusion.  When the actors in The Lyngo Theatre’s EGG & SPOON invite children to place cotton balls of “snow” on their tree, the audience does so partly because it is fun and partly because they want to see the image of winter completed.  Led by the performers, these children are using their imaginations as well as their bodies, to tell a part of the story and to build a beautiful image which they can then step away from with pride and a sense of accomplishment.  As a fringe benefit, these children are also experiencing what it feels like to perform in front of others and to create a thing of beauty for themselves and everyone else to enjoy.

I heard a report on NPR today that by far the greatest users of Netflix new web-streaming device Roku are parents downloading cartoons and movies for their children to watch at home.  As a nation, we Americans have been training our children from an early age to sit passively on a couch, usually with juicy cup and Cheerios in hand, and take in hours of mass produced Disney and Nickolodeon re-runs.  I don’t think it requires a research study to demonstrate that an outing to a live theatre event with your Mom, Dad or Nanny can offer our little ones a vital antidote to the mindless media indoctrination they   get at home.  Just maybe, Baby Theatre can be the venue where the child’s natural desire to get in the act, play and be creative can be expressed.   And with nurturing and continued exposure to the arts, children can be encouraged to grow up as active and inquiring participants not only in the theatre but in their own educations, their schools and eventually adult society.

-Janet Stanford
Artistic Director
Imagination Stage