Imagination Stage Insider

Friday, February 5, 2010

A Duck’s Eye View of PETER & THE WOLF Tech Week

Actress Gia Mora shares thoughts on tech week for Peter & The Wolf:

An actor’s definition of technical rehearsals:

When the safety of the well lit, costume-free rehearsal hall atmosphere disappears, and the process of bringing a show to life leaves the actor’s grasp and is hurled forward in giant leaps by the seasoned hands of the artistic and technical staff of the theatre.

No wonder so many of us find this time terrifying!

Luckily for me this process of letting the other elements of Peter blossom offered ample opportunity for me to endow my puppet, Duck, with a soul.

Patty, as I call her, started as a cardboard mockup--light weight, footless, and blind as a... well, duck with no eyes. Thanks to our incredible puppets/prop mistress Dre, this creature morphed into a much heavier styrofoam and papier mache version of herself. Dre added waddling little legs, wings to help Patty fly, and wiggling feathers for Patty’s shakes and shimmies. Day by day she grew into the amazing hen we see today--eyelashes and all!

Having never worked with large puppets like this (I did a bit of puppeteering in The Araboolies of Liberty Street at Imagination Stage a couple of years ago), I had no idea what a work out I was in for! My shoulders, my hands, my knees. I was sore from top to bottom. This became especially true when Patty’s lighted pond appeared downstage left, hovering between the lip of the thrust... and the three steps leading into the house. After this show I think I will have quadriceps of steel!

It is always a pleasure to come play at Imagination Stage because the production values here are so high. The artistic, technical, and administrative staff, helmed by stage manager Kristen, ensure that every show exceeds the standard expectations of theatre for young audiences, from lights to sound to costumes. I’m sure the kids and parents will enjoy the show as much as I do!

--Gia Mora

Labels: 2009-2010Season, Actors, Peter and Wolf

Friday, January 29, 2010

Imagination Stage Receives 4 Helen Hayes Award Nominations!

On Monday, January 25 the nominees for the 26th Annual Helen Hayes Awards were announced. For those of you not familiar with the Awards, they are given in recognition of excellence in professional theatre in the Washington DC area (think the Tony Awards in DC).

While this is always an exciting event and many outstanding artists and productions are recognized, this year was just a little more exciting for us here at Imagination Stage. There is a brand new award: Outstanding Production, Theatre for Young Audiences. Productions in this category must be geared for children age 12 and under. Out of the five nominations, three of them were Imagination Stage shows!

· Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth (Written and Directed by Psalmayene 24)
· Heidi (Written by Martha King De Silva and Joan Cushing, Directed by Janet Stanford)
· Lyle the Crocodile (Written by Kevin Kling, Directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer)

Our three nominations are joined by The Kennedy Center’s production of Barrio Grrrl! and Synetic Theatre’s The Tale of the Fisherman and the Golden Fish.

Our fourth nomination was for the awesome Tara Giordano for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Resident Musical for her portrayal of Heidi!

These nominations are the result of the passion and hard work of a lot of talented and creative people over the past year. We couldn’t be more excited to have this hard work acknowledged.

The winners are announced at a ceremony on April 5. To read a full list of the nominees and to learn more about the great work that the Helen Hayes Awards organization does for the DC community, visit: www.helenhayes.org

Labels: 2009-2010Season, Actors, Zomo

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Theatre that is truly created for very young children

For many years, I have been disturbed by the pressure on Imagination Stage to open our productions to children under age four. While I recognize that parents and teachers are nobly seeking arts experiences for pre-school children, I worry that most small children will be overwhelmed by a 400-seat theatre with amplified actors and a 75 minute-long story. I’ve often observed small siblings brought along to one of our shows who are more interested in how the seat flips up and down or in the dangly earrings that a lady in the next seat is wearing. And quite right, too. When you are very small, your immediate world is also small: Mom and Dad and siblings and home are your universe. And you are fully and rightfully engaged in learning the routines of daily life, the rhythms of nature and your first words.

Happily, with a Theatre Communications Group grant funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Imagination Stage has recently been able to create a play for young children that is an age-appropriate introduction to theatre for children ages 2-4. In our 40-minute play, Wake Up, Brother Bear!, children and caregivers are welcomed into a cozy environment. They are greeted by Sister Bear, who gives each child a small bag with some simple toys inside. Sitting on the floor around a circular playing area, children watch as Brother and Sister Bear discover the seasons of the year, meet a butterfly and chase an elusive fish. Children are invited to join in the action throughout the show. In spring they help transform pieces of silk into a “waterfall;” in summer they use tiny flashlights to suggest “lightening bugs” under a night sky: in autumn they throw leaves into the “lake” and see them dance and so forth. All the action is accompanied by live cello. Themes of the cycle of the seasons, sibling relationships and the dreams we pursue underpin the story, which is funny at times, but also reflective, gentle and a delightful exploration of young imaginations.

--Janet Stanford

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Power of the Imagination

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Power of Magical Thinking” underscores the raison d’etre of Imagination Stage. The article notes that research shows the importance of imagination in children’s cognitive development:

“ for years, imagination was thought of as a way for children to escape from reality, and once they reached a certain age, it was believed they would push fantasy aside and deal with the real world. But, increasingly child-development experts are recognizing the importance of imagination and the role it plays in understanding reality. Imagination is necessary for learning about people and events we don’t directly experience, such as history or events on the other side of the world. For young kids, it allows them to ponder the future, such as what they want to do when they grow up.” [The Power of Magical Thinking, by Shirley S. Wang, the Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2009.]

When we created Imagination Stage (The Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts) 30 years ago, we didn’t know the psychological basis behind our innate understanding of the fact that a fully realized child needs continual and regular access to the three A’s: Academics, Athletics, Arts. That child will grow up to be the empowered, independent thinking, creative adult we need to manage our world – tomorrow.

Labels: arts education, Bonnie Fogel Executive Director/Founder

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Disney's Mulan opens!

Disney’s Mulan has opened to enthusiastic audience and critical response! Here are a couple of photos of the production and also one of our Opening Night party featuring a visiting Terra Cotta Warrior living statue, courtesy of National Geographic. We also have an interactive game on our website. Kids can design and print a Chinese paper lantern. Check it out!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Janet reports on rehearsals of DISNEY'S MULAN

We’re past the halfway mark in the rehearsal process for Disney’s Mulan which opens at Imagination Stage on Wednesday, November 25 –- less than two weeks from today. This is our biggest musical extravaganza since Seussical in ’05 and I am grateful every day to the terrific team of artists I’m collaborating with. A musical of this scale really requires the skill sets of many specialists. Beside me in the rehearsal hall are Scott Rink, a choreographer with Broadway, regional and national credits, and longtime friends of mine, musical director Keith Tittermary and fight choreographer Linden Tailor.

You could say that my job as Director is to make sure that Mulan’s story is told in the clearest and most compelling way. And that it’s Scott’s job to create beauty through movement; Keith’s job to make the actors sound glorious; and Linden’s job to add excitement. (Or maybe I should call it “fight-citement”! Disney’s Mulan is a story about a girl who goes to war, after all.) But as we work on this music-filled script, we find that there are no hard delineations between what each of the specialists does. Scott, whose genius for creating stage pictures and exciting movement astounds me, will turn to Linden for advice on Tai Chi moves, or a punch that occurs in the midst of a movement section. I turn to Scott for help with how the masks of Mulan’s ancestors float through a scene. Keith will have the guys sing a musical line in falsetto and ask us, “Is that too silly?” Several times it has happened that when we finish a scene, all four director “specialists” descend on the cast with acting, movement, fight and music notes. And, magically, we all seem to be seeing the same vision of where the scene should go. I’ll say something to an actor and he’ll reply, “Oh, Scott just told me that.” “Linden just made that change.” “Keith fixed it.”

This is one of the mysteries of the rehearsal room that I have experienced before and been humbled by: a cast of 11, and four directors all with a passion to tell a particular tale, somehow communicating through intuition rather than words. I am not superstitious but I do believe in a sixth sense that artists inhabit when we create. To quote Mulan, “Sometimes, what can’t be achieved with one’s muscles can be achieved by one’s mind.” In the best theatre, it’s not so much the intellect as the spirit and “one mind” is what the whole artistic team—from designers to performers to deck captains must share in order to move and amaze our audience.
--Janet Stanford

Friday, November 13, 2009

Inclusion Program Testimonial

Imagination Stage has long had a commitment to inclusion and access for children with physical and/or cognitive disabilities. In summer 2009, supported in part by a grant from the National Inclusion Project (www.inclusionproject.org), we provided inclusion support for 86 children so they could participate in our popular summer camps. These supports consisted of the following:
--Conducting intake meetings with students and their parent/caregiver
--Devising strategies for success
--Creating individualized inclusion summaries
--Working with staff and faculty to make adaptations to lessons and classroom environments
--Follow-up and observation of students in classes
--Modification and adjustments to inclusion supports

Below is a letter to Diane Nutting, Imagination Stage's Director of Access and Outreach, from the mother of a 14 year-old boy with Asperger Syndrome:

“Social interactions and group activities are very difficult for my son. Although enormously interested in a variety of topics…he has little opportunity to share his interests with others. He doesn’t really have friends. At Imagination Stage he got a taste of something different. At your suggestion, he took a class on a topic he know a lot about (Shakespeare), which gave him a sense of security. You provided him with a wonderful dedicated aide, who quietly guided him through any difficult situations that arose, coaching him toward more appropriate interactions…To see him play Feste in the final scene of Twelfth Night on the last day of camp, singing a song with half a dozen children dancing around him, was a dream come true. He breaks out in a grin whenever I remind him of the experience.

Saying people with disabilities are welcome is one thing, but making that commitment meaningful by putting substance behind it is another. What sets Imagination Stage apart, in my experience, is that you and your staff put so much intelligence, enthusiasm, creativity and STAFFING behind your words. From the first conversations I had with you, the questions I asked and the suggestions that were made reflected a real understanding of autism spectrum disorders and the strategies that work to support a student.”

We’ll post another parent letter next week.