Arts Initiative: Tell us a little bit about yourselves. Shannon, how did you end up at Columbia? Meaghan, how did you become involved with this production?

 Shannon: I moved to New York right after undergrad, which was at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. When I got here, I worked in the city – freelance directed, was on the staff at New York Theatre Workshop for three years doing mostly administrative work. But I knew I wanted to be a director, so I applied all over the country. But I fell in love with Columbia, mostly for two reasons that I can narrow it down to. The first is Anne Bogart, who is more than anyone could ever want in a mentor. She pushes you, and then she leaves you alone, and then you have to figure it out. In all the best kinds of ways. The second thing was the fact that we are in New York, and after having been here already, I didn’t want to lose this resource. Because that’s what it is, particularly in this program, where we don’t have any setup with the acting program where we work with them on a consistent basis. We can work with them, but we also use New York actors in all of our productions and classwork. So over the past two and a half years, I’ve really grown a company of actors together – who are now also my friends, and not just actors. And that’s how I met Meghan.

Meaghan: So Shannon and I have worked together twice before – this will be the third time. I also assistant directed for her on a production of Three Sisters (by Anton Chekhov). I did my acting training at Muhlenberg College in Allentown Pennsylvania, and I came to New York about four years ago and have been working in theatre and film since. One of the things I’m really excited about with As You Like It is that, because it’s an educational environment you get to explore things, like questions and artistic choices that when you are doing this in the real world there isn’t time or the luxury of delving into what lives behind all these characters and stories. And that’s also what excites me about Shannon, because Shannon always does that, and I think that she will always do that, no matter what happens in the professional world, which is exciting, because it’s really an artistic experience in addition to actually creating something for the audience to experience. We are all developing something together.

AI: Tell us about the rehearsal process for this show. How will you start off tackling this play?

Shannon: I like to work with people who are really collaborative, particularly actors. I feel like it’s necessary with designers, but not all directors like to work with collaborative actors and I do. I like to bring in questions into the room instead of answers and make them think a little bit. And I think that’s what Meaghan is talking about. I have some tools that I bring into the room and some ideas of spatial relationships, but really delving into the text is a group effort.

We’re rehearsing the regular four weeks because that is what is allowed under the showcase code. Which is actually wonderful because that is something that Columbia is particular about is we do get a real New York showcase code. We’re considered a real production. So we’re rehearsing the real four weeks but I’m doing a series of readings beforehand with the actors so that we can work on the script together. But it’s not that much longer of a process than it would be, but I think the people that I put together, they put in the effort that they need to.

AI: How did you go about choosing a script for your thesis production? What brought you to choosing this play?

Shannon: Well, the way I came to As You Like It was from a couple different directions. I knew I had to pick a thesis, so I sat down with Becca Schneider, who is also part of this project. She is the assistant director, the dramaturg, and she plays Celia. She’s my right hand girl right now. But she and I sat down and I made a list of all the things I wanted in a thesis. Things like an ensemble cast, things like a world that has a little bit of hope in it. And a couple of other things. I wanted to make sure there was music in it, because that is a big part of what I do. And I wanted it to be a script that was pretty well done. I had just finished adapting something at the end of last semester, and while I love doing that kind of work, I knew that for the thesis there would be a lot of other stuff to worry about, so I wanted a script that was done. So Becca and I sat down and we made a list of all the things we could think of that fit that criteria. We narrowed it down to about four, but I was really strongly drawn to As You Like It, when we thought of it. I was a little hesitant because I had spent a lot of my teenage and college years working on Shakespeare. I went to summer workshops all throughout high school and really delved into it at a young age. And then in college, I threw it aside in favor of experimental theatre. So coming back to Shakespeare after taking five, six years off, felt both a little exciting and a little obvious.

Then I sent my short list to Anne, and she immediately responded to As You Like It as well, and said, “I don’t know why you’re hesitating, just do it.” So I sat down with the script and it just felt right. And it feels right for the time period too. There is a lot in it about massive disparities in wealth and power, and people getting exiled from their homes and looking for a sense of community. I am not the type of director that usually seeks the political in plays, but it’s there. It exists. There are parts of this play that are just about love but there are also part of this play that are about people who have absolutely nothing, living in this forest under a tent and trying to find each other so that they can come back up in the world.

AI: Meaghan, how did you get involved with As You Like It? Were you always going to be a part of Shannon’s thesis, no matter what it was?

Meaghan: I think in our hearts we knew I was always going to be a part of it no matter what that meant, weather it was taking notes during run-throughs or being an actor or helping with costumes or whatever, just because I get Shannon’s perspective and I love working that way. But then, to Shannon’s credit, she courageously decided to have a regular audition process, despite the fact that we all do know each other, and she does know what we’re capable of. But this piece is so about the relationships between the characters onstage that it was really important I think that she got the right chemistry and the right pairs, which is not easy to intuit, even when you know people. So we went through a traditional audition process and then we had call backs, and that’s when Shannon asked me to play Rosalinde.

AI: What draws you to the play As You Like It and to the role of Rosalinde specifically?

Meaghan: I really love Shakespeare and I love classical texts, and Rosalinde is really interesting because she is a very powerful figure, I think, in the theatre in general. I think a lot of people think of like Rosalinde or Lady MacBeth as these big female characters. And it’s so complicated because she’s a man for most of the play, or almost all of the play actually, and so that fascinates me, to ride those lines of asking, how does power live in our beings, as people? Is it because of our gender or is it because we know how to get someone’s attention because we know how to perform a different gender? So, in other words, when I am dressed like a man, can I also attract women and men the same way as I can when I’m a woman? I’m always drawn to the exploration of power, and I think that is something theatre is a great tool for.

And the thing I love about As You Like It on the whole is that it’s a comedy. I think stories about hope and love and things coming together as opposed to things being broken apart, I think that’s what people are really craving. And what we, as artists are really craving to tell those stories. That’s what I’m interested in putting my energy behind. I think that’s the power behind comedy, is that everything resolves.

AI: What is the central concept behind this particular production of As You Like It?

Shannon: Well, the play begins inside, in a palace, and then they go to the Forest of Arden. And there have been hundreds of variations on the forest, but you cannot escape that it is the Forest of Arden. The designers and I, who are an amazing team, we have gone through a couple of different incarnations. I started out by just trying to set a time period that we could bounce from. So going off the little bit of politics that I had initially found in the play, we decided to set it in America in the 1930’s. Although very little of that will be seen onstage. It’s more about the interactions between the characters. And there’s a couple of top hats, but that’s as far as it goes in that sense.

Other than that, I’ve always been interested in puppetry, and the fact that a puppet is almost like the memory or the imagination of a figure, it’s not trying to be the figure itself. We’re not saying, ‘here’s a real person’, we’re saying ‘attach your ideas to this person’. And also, with a puppet, every gesture has so much importance, because you’re deciding it. It doesn’t just happen. And the designers and I talked a lot about that. So what we have come up with is what could be considered the puppet of a forest. Everything is very flat. Everything is very white. So that everything we put onto it has intense meaning. The gestures that are attached to the forest become more alive.

AI: What are you looking forward to the most after you have finished school? What are you the most scared of?

Shannon: I’m most looking forward to moving forward with a lot of the ideas that I already have. We are blessed in the Columbia program by doing things every week, and every month. We always have a new project, another new project. So we end up really honing our craft. But you come up with a lot of ideas during that time that you never really get to delve into. So I have three or four productions up my sleeve that I’m just really excited to go back and work on. I’ve made a lot of good friends in the playwriting program, colleagues that I am excited to work with. I love working on new plays. I love to work with playwrights in the room. Like actors who collaborate, playwrights who collaborate are fantastic.

The last project I did in my second year, so last May, was I adapted Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and the team which Meaghan was part of, we actually want to give it a little run in the city. So if there’s something coming up next that we would work on it would be that. We were all very sad to leave it behind, although this is really exciting.

AI: How has your time at Columbia changed you as a Director and a theatre artist?

Shannon: The biggest thing that Columbia has taught me it’s to keep digging into the details. I feel like if you come into this program with exciting, great ideas about theatre, you will leave with those same ideas, you’ll just know the tools to dig in a little harder. I’m the kind of person that get’s so excited when something is working out at all, that before I got to Columbia, we’d get to 90% and I’d say, ‘that is so good, that I’m happy’. And Anne and the program have really taught me to keep going, to get to 100% and get everything to be the way that it could be. And find the right team that will do that as well, that won’t say, ‘well, that was good enough’. It’s just to keep searching. Because that’s what theatre is, that’s why we do it every night. To find something a little bit more, a little bit new and different.

Meaghan: And I can say, having witnessed her development, that’s actually really true. You can see, in Shannon’s work, the trust she has in the whole thing. She’s not just ramping up toward the end and then saying ‘alright guys, see ya!’, because that is a really scary part of the process, to get to the end.

Shannon: It’s a fine line to tell people in that last week, that they are doing a great job, but that they could still work harder, without knocking someone’s spirit down. And the master of that is Anne Bogart. Because she can tell you, ‘that run was awful!’ or ‘that run was amazing!’ and both ways, you just want to work harder.

As You Like It runs January 25-28th at the Theatre at Riverside Church. Tickets are FREE with a CUID. More info: columbiastages.org.

- Meropi Peponides, Theatre MFA, 2013

In this production at the Japan Society, Hideki Noda explores innovative and economical uses of space and bodies through a seamless collaboration between director, set designer & costume designer, not to mention incredibly skilled actors. We see a cast of four actors portray a myriad of characters, often within the same scene, switching modes at the drop of a hat. The moves were all so skillfully orchestrated that at no point did the audience ever question which character an actor was inhabiting. Simple, but identifiable costume changes came swiftly with a complete shift in physical mannerisms and vocal intonation. It was astonishingly easy to follow an actor as they played several characters within the same scene.

One dynamic in particular that I found especially fascinating is the relationship between Mr. Ido and the wife of his family’s captor. When face to face with her, he inflicts a significant amount of abuse her way, in retaliation for the abuse his family has already been put through. The mirroring of Ido’s life with the life of the man who took away Ido’s family is uncanny, but what’s even more interesting is the way the roles were written/cast. The captor’s wife is played by a male actor, while Mr. Ido, himself, is played by acclaimed British actress Kathryn Hunter. Seeing a female actor in a male role, inflicting physical and sexual abuse upon a male actor in a female role completely turns the typical dynamic of sexual violence on its head. The unison of seeing that gender dynamic take place while the plot of the story simultaneously deals with the victim (Mr. Ido) venomously attacking his original aggressor was a brilliant implementation of form and structure that supports its content in unexpected ways.

After much success at the Soho Theatre in London, The Bee is running at the Japan Society until January 15th. I would definitely recommend getting tickets while you still can!

Michael Montalbano

Columbia University Arts Initiative

His face is like that of a newborn infant,
and cystic acne rages from his hairline to his boy nipples;
he has no eyebrows.”

from “Boy” by P.J. Sauerteig

****

“Clouds crawl in, sapphire blue and haloed in gold. We all look to the sky in hope. The night before, there were clouds and flashes of orange and pink lightning casting the baobab trees into sharp relief, and the sun set in whorls of pink and impossible blue, but no storm materialized. Perhaps now is our chance.”
from “Reflections on South Africa” by Julia Pilowsky

****

“My grandma has lived in the same house for over sixty years. When I stay there, I sleep in the bed my great grandmother died in.”
from “Untitled”3 by Jennifer Knox

****

The little-known but much-adored literary magazine of the Philolexian Society, Surgam, was published last Friday, and will soon be available to pick up in many of the buildings around the main CU campus.  Surgam is published twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring, and we also produce one winter edition that contains the winners of our Alfred Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest.  For the past fourteen weeks my editors and I have been forcefully soliciting submissions everywhere we could:  during Philolexian Society meetings, in our creative writing classes, with our friends, or from our out-of-state family members.  All this work definitely paid off, and I am incredibly proud of the magazine we put together.

We chose the pieces sitting around an orange table in the Diana Center.  All four of us were periodically distracted from the submissions by the singing-related reality show on the television behind us.  I like to think this made the magazine even better — we only chose the pieces that swept us away from the loud, bright screen into another world, one without Simon Cowell.  Out of around thirty-five individual submissions, we eventually chose fourteen, ranging from memoir to verse, from short story to painting, as well as one piece of glass-and-wire art from a Philolexian alumna.  The magazine comes from many places and hopefully can take you to many places as well.

Look for copies of Surgam in the publication distribution bins around campus if you want to pick up a copy!

- MC Allen, CC 2013

1. Do your research. What type of organization do you want to work for? A gallery, an after-school arts program, the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Make a list of the companies and industries you would like to intern in and start Googling.  Many companies post internship opportunities right on their websites. Others are posted through LionSHARE (CCE’s job board), the Arts Initiative’s own jobs and internships webpage, and external job sites like these. Set up a job agent in LionSHARE to receive emails with all new internships that match your search criteria. Even if you’re not ready to start applying, it will help you to get familiar with what’s out there. Get started with your research through the resources on the CCE website.
2. Read.  If you’re passionate about something, you’ll naturally be curious about it, right? Once you’ve honed in on your interests and potential internship fields, read up on them. Read the blogs of industry experts. Sign up to receive daily or weekly newsletters from relevant trade publications (they’re usually free).  Read the news to stay on top of industry trends and the companies that you’re interested in working for. This will help to give you a deeper perspective on the industries you’re interested in, will prepare you for interviews and will help you to improve your writing skills.
3. Use Social Media for professional purposes.  LinkedIn is a great way to get connected to professionals in your industries of interest, and employers use it to find potential candidates. Here is a great article on how to use it. You can also follow industry experts on Twitter to get their insights on the field and oftentimes, be the first to hear about new opportunities (many employers tweet when they have openings).
4. Network in person. Reach out to the contacts in your network- it’s probably larger than you realize. Professors, friends of the family, relatives, parents’ coworkers, etc. are all contacts who may have connections to the industries in which you would like to intern. Ask them if you could speak with them about the industry and career advice- you’d be surprised how many people can spare ten minutes to talk to you about your career and potentially refer you to opportunities.  Also take advantage of more formal networking opportunities such as the CCE’s Fashion Industry Showcase, Spring Career Fair and Media Networking Night.
5. Come see us. Our counselors can help you think about what types of internships are a match for your skills, interests and career goals and guide you in your search. They can help perfect your resume, cover letter, and interviewing skills.  No matter which point you are in your search- if you have no idea where to start looking or need help reviewing an offer letter- we’re here for you at each step of the way. Ten minute walk-in appointments are available from 1-4pm on weekdays, and you can schedule a longer appointment by calling 212-854-5609.

One aspect of the story in particular that I found notable was that the character of Max often spoke in a dialect of improvised gibberish, loosely related to the romance languages, but less structurally rigid. This phenomenon stems back to his youth, where he would confuse the school bullies by spouting long streams of Latin at them. It seems that he developed a similar defense mechanism here. Speaking his own language serves as a protective barrier. After all the war, death and heartache in his life, it’s no wonder he retreated into the safe zone of his own made-up language.

It is through this language, though, that we find Max expressing himself most freely. It was a treat and an honor to get to witness Broadway royalty Marc Kudisch perform in these moments. Yes, there were supertitles projected onto the set when he would slip into this alternate language, and from time to time, certain characters would serve as interpreters, but you honestly didn’t need these crutches. Kudisch’s elocution was so specific and emphatic that even when he was speaking gibberish, the audience knew exactly what he was saying. This was only one of the many ways these performers proved themselves supremely talented over the course of the evening. All the actors were incredibly expressive and refined in their interpretations of the text.

Marc Kudisch

This dichotomy of clarity in gibberish is actually applicable to the entire songwriting style of the piece, though. The lyrics, while actually in English, are much less direct, and much more poetic than those of many musicals today. Often, modern musicals include songs written in the conversational vernacular of the piece. Two characters can be having an argument that suddenly begins to add pitches and harmonies, though their words are still conversational. Here, many of the lyrics were in broader brush strokes, speaking in metaphor and other less direct speech. This poetic language could have made the piece a lot harder to understand in the moment, but due to Max’s language affliction, the audience was already primed. We knew we weren’t going to understand every single word, so we learned to listen to the bigger picture of what was being said. When words were back in English again, we were able to keep that same perspective when vocabulary was used that could be considered less-than-accessible. It was a delightful new way in which the form of the musical was integrated with the content.

Teal Wicks

To me, though, something that stood out even more than all that, however, was the incredibly skilled singing. I admit, as a self-proclaimed vocal technique nerd, I’m a bit biased towards the singing, but I was really blown away. Marc Kudisch, Sebastian Arcelus, & Meghan McGeary each proved themselves to be incredible vocalists, in their own rights. I’ll spare you all the details of the intricacies of their approaches to singing, but their vocal performances were truly spectacular for me to witness. I have to say, though, as far as singing goes, Teal Wicks absolutely stole the show with this virtuosic performance. Overall, head voice, chest voice & mix are each beautifully developed in Ms. Wicks, but the truly impressive part is how effortlessly she weaves back and forth between them. Sometimes I heard elements of all three registrations at different points within the same word. She has truly mastered the many facets of her voice, and it is that facility that allows her to be as expressive as she is. With an instrument as refined and capable as hers, she can fully embody musical phrases with all the subtext and emotion of the composer & lyricist’s intentions. She has a myriad of vocal tools at her disposal and is a true virtuoso with each one. It is not every day that I see singers with such versatility and mastery of the subtleties of the human voice. I’m certain we can expect many more great things from Ms. Wicks in the future.

Stephen Schwartz

The Blue Flower is a compelling tale of people with their lives torn apart and tossed about by the two world wars, and the political climates surrounding them. It finds new methods of integrating form with content, and is headed up by some of Broadway’s most incredible and talented performers. It’s playing now at Second Stage (a company notorious for producing fantastic cutting-edge new musicals), and it was produced last year at the American Repertory Theater by Stephen Schwartz–it was the first show he ever produced. This is Stephen Schwartz, people! If you don’t listen to me, listen to him. He knows his musicals, and if he’s backing it, we can safely assume it’s worth our consideration. Go see it!

Michael Montalbano

Columbia Arts Initiative

Cloud 9 runs Nov 16 – 19 at Riverside Theatre. Click here for more info.

- Meropi Peponides, Theatre MFA, 2013

Arts Initiative: Tell us a bit about the origins of Bard Hall Players.

Michael Ayers: Bard Hall Players, as far as far as we know, is the oldest and one of the only theatre producers for medical students in the United States. It’s been around for 46 years. There’s some fondness that you’ll sense when you speak with physicians that have graduated from the Physicians and Surgeon’s program (P&S) of Bard Hall Players as one of the many rites of passage as you graduate through P&S.

AI: So is it mostly physicians and surgeons that are in this show? Or do you also have students from other schools?

Hayley Born: The majority of the actors and musicians and everybody who’s involved are P&S, but we try to draw from every school, and I’m pretty sure we have almost every school [from the medical center campus] in this show.  We always have representatives from the Nursing School, and the Dental School, OT, PT, Public Health, Nurse Practitioner School. The cast and crew combined is about 70 people. That includes a pit orchestra, tech and lights and all that stuff.

MA: We also sometimes have faculty members involved with the show, although we don’t have one this time around. But they really enjoy getting involved. A lot of them participated in these activities when they were students here.

AI: Were you friends before you decided to produce this show together?

 HB:  So what our role actually is, is presidents of the Bard Hall Players. Essentially, the role that we end up taking in the shows is producing, but we sort of fill in any gaps that are left. And then we do the advertising, the program, getting the rights to the show, buying the scripts, choosing a director, all the logistical aspects of the show. We’ve actually been doing this since January, so we had two shows in the spring, and this is our third show as presidents.

MA: Hayley and I did Crazy For You last fall together, and the departing presidents sort of roped…nudged…coerced us into being presidents of the group.

Joseph Villarin: And then Mike proudly continued the tradition of roping, coercing and nudging.

MA: Yes, when Joe did Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale this past winter, I sort of informed Joe that he was a new president.

AI: Do you have performing backgrounds in addition to your interest in medicine? Have you performed elsewhere besides with the Bard Hall Players?

JV: I guess I’ll start because I have the least background, which is to say I have no background. And that’s basically it! The first show I was involved with was Winter’s Tale back this past February, and that was really my only acting experience. And it was a great springboard.

HB: And I have very little experience. I did a lot in high school, but as far as college I did one show as sort of a random extracurricular senior year because I felt like I had to do it before I graduated. But Michael is our experienced actor and director.

MA: So I was a theatre major, and then I spent my three years before I came to school here doing mostly musicals. So I got my equity card right out of school at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento, and then I worked at the Goodman with Jeff Daniels in a show called Turn of the Century and then I did High School Musical on tour and then I did Curtains in Chicago, so I did just a handful of musicals before starting with these guys here just three years after graduating.

AI: What led to you going into medicine? Did you always kind of know that would happen?

MA:  I was a theatre major, but I finished all the pre-med requirements in school and I always had a deep-seated inkling that this would be where I ended up, but I just took a bit of a detour.

HB: We actually have quite a few people that either have never ever done any theatre – acting, singing, dancing, anything – and then we have other people that have been acting for many, many years, who were theatre majors.

JV: And not just acting either. We have opera singers, conductors and professional musicians.

MA: That’s sort of one of the blessings slash challenges slash enriching factors of doing this show is that you have this enormous group of people with a lot of experience, and then you have people like Joe who had never acted before, but he ended up playing the supporting lead in our winter show, and he was great! He just walked in, and we’re like, “who is this guy?”

AI: What about the crew? Do you have a lot of people with technical or design background?

HB: Our current technical director had actually never done tech for a show and learned it sort of, on the job on our winter show. The lighting director that we pulled in for this show is actually a first year medical student who has done a ton of lighting design work, and she’s been great! She will be our new Technical Director of Bard Hall Players starting next semester. So we’ve already sort of tapped our new leadership.

MA: It’s also really nice that when the third and fourth years come back from the wards, they will circulate back into the program. So our first show which was A Winter’s Tale there were three or four former Bard Hall presidents directing, stage managing and acting in the show. So that really eases the transition, because we always have questions. And we will basically disappear in January. We are almost completely out of contact because of our hours and our schedules.

AI: So tell us about how you manage your workload in the medical school along with the responsibilities of producing three shows a year!

HB: Yes, tell us Joe!

JV: It can be challenging at times. They’re looking at me because I’m the only one who is not acting in this show. So I’ve picked up the responsibilities that are maybe a little bit too much for people to tackle while they are trying to learn their lines and choreography and all that stuff. And this is something that we’ve traded off on throughout the shows.

It can be challenging, definitely. It’s the same challenge as when you’re acting and having to memorize lines, except you’re having to say, “ok, what are my criteria for surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma?” It’s the same sort of deal. And I’ll admit, sometimes you make sacrifices in some areas, you know, like you skip class in the morning to go print the programs and stuff like that. It happens, but it’s just part of the give and take.

 AI: Where’s your production facility?

 MA: We are very lucky to have Alumni Auditorium, which has a great grid to hang lights from, it’s available to us almost every evening, so we’re very blessed to have that space.

We used to perform, as Bard Hall Players, in what is now essentially the dining hall downstairs, which is in the basement. But when Alumni was built, our Alumni Association wrote in the bylaws of this building that Bard Hall Players have first dibs on the space when there are no classes happening in it. So when there’s not class, other people come to us and ask for permission to use the space, which is kind of neat. It’s really reflective of how much the Alumni Association appreciates Bard Hall Players and how much it’s integrated into the world of the P&S school.

AI: How do you fund your shows?

HB: We do have a fall fundraising appeal to the Alumni for all the P&S student organizations, and they can choose to designate their gift to Bard Hall Players, so we get some support from that. Most of our production costs actually comes from selling ads to community organizations and different departments in the hospital for our theatre program. It’s filled with ads from all sorts of companies that want to support our group and get the word out about whatever it is they’re doing. And then ticket sales – we have that as well.

MA: Whenever I lead the alumni tours, there’s always a plethora of questions about what Bard Hall Players is doing and what’s coming up. They’re very interested.

AI: How do you pick the shows? Do you decide as a group what will be in the upcoming season or do you reach out to the community and ask them what they want to see?

MA: Our president regime, so to speak, took the stance that having a director that’s interested in a show is more valuable than picking a show that’s the right fit for the cast and crew size we want and then finding a director. So we really lucked out in that for all three shows we did, there was a director that came to us and said, “I’ve got some directing experience, this is the show I want to do.” And it was a good fit for Bard Hall Players.

HB: Or they came with a few options and said “What do you think would be best?” and we got to choose. We need a variable chorus size because everyone who tries out for Bard Hall Players gets in. So we have to find a space for everybody. But it was very easy for us, because we had amazing people that wanted to be involved and that had good ideas.

MA: We recently had a meeting with the group of incoming presidents for next year and one of the question the had was, “What do you do when there’s a disagreement?” And we sort of looked at each other and said,  “There hasn’t really been any!” We’re almost always in consensus with what to do.  Or one person will feel really strongly about something and the other two just go along with it.

HB: For this show we were choosing between Damn Yankees and Forum and it came down to the question of how many boys we thought we could get and what does the pit director want to do? Because he’s got to direct the music ultimately and what instruments does he have that he needs to fit in? Because we want to get all the violinists involved with the show and if there’s no string section, that becomes very difficult.

AI: How much connection do you have with the Morningside Campus? Do you go down there for arts related events?

JV: Well, I went to Columbia College for undergrad, and one of the things that was a huge inspiration to me when I was there was the Kings Crown Shakespeare Troupe. They always do amazing stuff and I’d have a great time going to see their shows. They often do their shows outdoors and make great use of the environment that is the Columbia campus. It was great to see Julius Caesar against the backdrop of Butler Library. Additionally, we recruited a trumpet player who is a freshman at Columbia College to play in the orchestra for this show, because we were short. And in the future, I know that one of the goals of the incoming presidents is to build stronger ties with the Morningside campus, so I think they will be tapping more folks from the orchestra to come and play in our shows!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum runs November 3 – 5^th at Alumni Auditorium, 650 West 168th Street.

Click here for more info on Bard Hall Players.

- Meropi Peponides, MFA Theatre ’13

The first play I saw at Next Wave 2011 was Robert Wilson’s production of The Threepenny Opera with the world famous Berliner Ensemble. Probably the hottest ticket of BAM’s season, this would qualify as one of the shows that involves a “modern master.” Not only is the production under the helm of one of the most famous living theatre directors in the world, it also features the Berliner Ensemble, who have not performed in the United States in years. Berliner Ensemble taking on The Threepenny Opera is also a special event to witness, as the revolutionary playwright who penned the play, Bertolt Brecht,  was also the founder of the Ensemble back in 1949. The ensemble seeks to perform political plays and is well seasoned at performing their famous founder’s work.

To simply experience this fantastic event was a thrill, though Wilson’s interpretation was not without its flaws. His visual style is unique and enthralling; each and every stage picture he creates is an absolute work of art. That said, Wilson likes to draw out and slow down moments and actions in his work to an extreme degree. This stylistic decision came in the way of the play at times though, which was quite frustrating. The three-act play also only one intermission, in between its second and third act. The two act and thus over two hour first segment seemed to drag even though all of the things happening on stage were compelling and beautiful; many audience members decided to leave at intermission. This was unfortunate too, because the second segment (the third act) was much shorter and exciting the whole way through. All of these flaws could not dampen what was likely a once in a life time experience for me though, seeing a master helm a production with master actors attuned particularly to do the work of the playwright they were performing. The show dragged at moments, but when I walked away after the three hours I spent at least another three that night thinking and talking about it.

The next play I saw fell on the other side of the festivals goals; it showcased a new play from Kuwait written and directed by playwright, Sulayman Al-Bassam. I had no idea of what to expect from this play and, having seen Threepenny just the day before, I was sort of dreading traveling down to Brooklyn to see yet another subtitled production. I am so glad I made the trek. The play,  The Speaker’s Progress, was one of the most exciting plays I have seen in New York this year. An adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, it calls to attention the relationship of art and censorship in the Middle East. The dark comedy offers up some truly laugh inducing scenarios, as well as dark, thought-provoking commentary. In the end I actually enjoyed this experience even better than Threepenny. (I must note that I was sitting in the balcony for The Speaker’s Progress, while I was on the side in the orchestra for The Threepenny Opera. I would highly recommend the balcony for supertitled productions as it allows you to take in the words and the action taking place on the stage much more easily without having to look back and forth between them.)

If anything, the festival reminds you that art always offers up a once in a lifetime experience, whether you are seeing seasoned artists or fresh new talent. While I have not seen any of the dance or visual arts work BAM is featuring as part of the Next Wave Festival, I would encourage Columbia students to check out any of the material from it that interests them. Both of my trips to BAM were completely worth the travel time.

Tickets for Cries and Whispers, part of the Next Wave Festival, are still available from the TIC for just $30. The performance is tomorrow night, Oct. 29 at 7:30 PM.

- Cody Holliday Haefner, CC’12

What was it about the program at Columbia that appealed to you as an artist?  

The biggest selling point for me for Columbia School of the Arts for acting specifically was that it’s such a collaborative program. One professor doesn’t teach one thing in spite of another professor. Everything is part of a conglomerate of discipline. They recommend that you take everything in, and then whatever is useful, that becomes your method. For that, you have to take initiative. You have to own your own work. They’re trying to get you to understand what you need to become a better artist.

What was your experience working on this show? Can you explain the process of playing multiple roles in the actors’ thesis process?

It’s crazy because we’re essentially doing four shows with the same 18 people. In La Ronde, which we just closed last week, it was double cast, so the people who were playing the 10 leads in one show would be the ensemble in another. With Midsummer it’s a little bit different because there’s so many different people. In this show we are playing the Mechanicals, for instance, and then Titania and Oberon. I play Titania in one show and then in the other show I play Snug the joiner. Snug has a lisp. That contrast is kind of nice. But there’s the difference between worlds that we get to play with. So it feeds off of the idea, in Midsummer especially, of the different worlds that are intersecting – the fairy world and the people’s world.

What was it like to form this repertory company with your class of actors? How is it different than a traditional rehearsal process? 

Well, it’s a love/hate relationship. The best and worst part of this process is that you’re working with the same 17 people that you’ve been going to school with for the last two and a half years. So, because they know you, they know all your tricks, they know all your bad habits, they know all your “go to’s” and all your bullshit. Sometimes, you’re working and you’re coming up with new stuff and it’s amazing. But on the flipside, there are those moments where it’s like, “No, you’ve done that before. Don’t do that ever again. It’s not good.” And it’s good because it makes you become better. It’s not like stepping into a room of new people you don’t know and being able to be the freshest, but not really. You’re hiding behind your tricks.

What’s been really cool about creating a company with people that you know is that you have to be better than what you’ve been. You have to constantly be searching for the honesty and the truth in portraying these characters.

How does this work sum up your time at Columbia?

It’s been uplifting in a way because it takes it beyond the point of just, “We’re putting on a show”, and into a place of, “What are we doing for ourselves? How are we becoming better artists as we do this? How are we making each other better?”

What was the most rewarding aspect of your role in this show?

What’s been interesting about the double casting is that you can watch your other character onstage as an audience member and understand what you don’t understand. Figure out what wasn’t clear, and then look into what exactly it is you’re saying. Because it’s not just for theatre people we’re doing this for. We’re trying to make it accessible and digestible for anybody who comes to see it.

What’s been really cool about this repertory type style in terms of our thesis is being able to dig deeper. Looking into each other’s work and seeing it from different angles from the person who does it to the person who’s watching. So basically, it’s iron sharpens iron.

How do you feel like your time at Columbia has changed you as an actor and theatre artist?

I think my personal breakthrough role in terms of where I was as an artist and how I continued to grow exponentially was taking a role in Medea. I played Medea for Kristin Linklater’s production. And going into that role and realizing that every single character has the same amount of passion, fire, drive, loathing, hate, disgust, bitterness that Medea does. Each and every single person has the capacity to kill their children. And that sounds crazy, but what I’m really trying to say is that every single character has drive. No matter how subverted, no matter how beneath the surface, every single human being has that.

Because of that, it gave me the impetus to start to see every character a little bit bigger. It made me realize that every character is a little city of emotions and trajectories and choices and decisions. And my job…my pleasure, is to chart those, and to find those. That role, combined with all the great mentors I’ve had, has created this drive in me to continue searching.

Do you have any projects coming up? If so, tell us about them.

We are touring A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Germany! It’s part of a theatre festival there. Five other schools from around the world are all doing Midsummer. And then the whole festival ends with a collaborative, international Midsummer, with everyone from all the productions doing a part of each of their role. So it’s going to be insane! But I’m really looking forward to it. We leave Saturday, and none of us has done our laundry.

What do you look forward to now that you will no longer be in school?

I am in the process of doing research for my written thesis and I’m really excited to get all my thoughts on paper. I’m writing about the way the brain processes language and emotion and whether or not it benefits an actor or performer to understand that process, to be better aware of how their brain does and how to stimulate that. To be a better judge of technique.

I love being able to perform and to be able to actively apply what I’ve learned into a piece of theatre. But what I also find really exciting, being a Political Science major in undergrad, is writing. Being able to see what science that I can find that supports this work. I look forward to digging deeper into all that stuff as soon as I get back from Europe!

A Midsummer Night’s Dream performs Oct. 25 – 29^th at the Riverside Theatre. Click here for more info!

- Meropi Peponides, Theatre MFA ’13

Which is why I get just a bit annoyed when a sophisticated European dramaturg walks into one of our classrooms and says, “Let me tell you what it’s like in my country.”

From De Veenfabriek's production of "Kokoschka Live!"

Paul Slangen, a Dutch dramaturg and head of De Veenfabriek, a groundbreaking ensemble theater company in Leiden, Holland, said exactly that as he began his presentation at the School of Theatre on Wednesday, October 19th. And yes, he told us all about the joys of government funding for the arts in his socially democratic nation. But also, in an incredibly dynamic and humorous way, managed to sum up his culture and society through a lens that allowed us to actually understand what his theater company is and why their work exists. This, my friends, is dramaturgy at its best.

I have had professors tell me that dramaturgy is the intersection point between theater and the rest of the world. Sounds cool, right? But what do we do, exactly, in order to be that?!? Well, the answer is, of course, no one thing. But Slangen gave me a pretty good idea of how I and many of my colleagues could keep busy for most of our professional lives.

Slangen’s company, De Veenfabriek, is a music theater company, which believes in equal collaboration between musicians and theater artists to create a performance work. Compared to the American theatre world, that’s already a bit radical. In the great American tradition of Musical Theater, the book writer, composer, and lyricist all have distinct roles that come together to create a completed work. But it is rare for any one of these people to comment on the work holistically, leaving that primarily to the director. And musical theater is traditionally one of the most collaborative theatrical endeavors in the US.

But interdisciplinary collaboration is just the beginning for Slangen. De Veenfabriek’s work is site specific, which means they rarely perform in actual theaters. Instead, they travel throughout the northern Dutch countryside, performing for people who do not normally go to the theatre and, if not for companies like this one, have very little access to the arts. As one of the pioneers of site specific performance around the world, De Veenfabriek has performed in old factories, greenhouses, and other industrial spaces that have often been abandoned. Sometimes they even refurbish the space that they are performing in and leave behind a theater for the community and other touring companies to use.

So as a dramaturg, Slangen is responsible for creating his own company, pioneering an exciting new style of theater, performing it in places where theatre has never been done before and leaving a newly created theater in its wake, in a unique style of community service and activism. Fellow Columbia dramaturgs, I think we’ve got our work cut out for us.

One of the most fascinating projects De Veenfabriek has been able to pull off is a site specific performance inside a retail superstore located in one of the biggest malls in Holland. Not only were they able to perform while the store was open during regular business hours, but the store actually paid for additional security so that the audience could stay 45 minutes past the store’s closing time to watch the conclusion of the piece. As someone who has produced site specific theatre here in the US, this seems like a nearly impossible achievement.

Oh, and what was the piece about, you ask? Why, it was all about the obsessive detachment of consumerism. A pastiche of scenes featuring nameless people all attempting to create their own perfect reality. In the middle of a mall. Meanwhile, we have authorities losing their minds over some folks talking about politics and the economy in the middle of Zuccotti park.

So as far as I can tell, it’s up to dramaturgs to figure out what theatre has the potential to be, and then do our best to nudge the work in that direction. Rather than the most obscure aspect of the theatrical profession, perhaps I would do better to call us the trendsetters. Originators of ideas. Maybe even pioneers in the field.

Of course, when asked what a dramaturg’s job is, Slangen has it most eloquently encapsulated. “It is the dramaturg’s job to imagine a play that he could never direct or write, and then find the people who can bring that story to life,” he bestows on us. Sounds like a pretty great job to me.

- Meropi Peponides, Theatre MFA ’13