Do What You Will: ASC Theatre Camp Talent Show

Karl Dickey and Liam Rowland

             Once every session, the campers get a chance to showcase their diverse talents to theirpeers during an ASC Theatre Camp event called “What You Will .” As the name might suggest, the campers can perform whatever they feel personally accomplished at or want to do. What You Will is a break from our standard rehearsal schedule that allows the campers to perform a wide variety of pieces, some quirky, most hilarious, all engaging, to their fellow campers.

            While not every What You Will has MCs, Karl Dickey and Liam Rowland volunteered for the task as part of their talent. Clad in uniform dinner jackets and bowties, sporting sunglasses and fancy hats, this hysterical pair introduced each of the twenty-seven pieces put on during What You Will. Both Karl and Liam are talented musicians, so they frequently introduced their peers in song. For example, before Noël Grisanti and Maggie Doyle performed the famous unpinning scene from Shakespeare’s Othello, Liam and Karl threw out a couple jokes and performed the “Othello Rap” from the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Our MCs flew by the seat of their pants, providing hilarious, often improvised, introductions for their peers.

Hugh Raup “hypnotizes” Counselors into Contortion

            As previously mentioned in this blog, our campers this session are a particularly musical bunch, but it has never been so apparent as at What You Will. Be it performing original songs, covering well known favorites, or mashing up popular songs to create something new, our campers wowed us with their  creative, instrumental, and vocal prowess. In addition to musical abilities, many campers revealed their varied dance abilities. While we saw some magnificent traditional pieces, such as Caroline Cromwell’s ballet, some were refreshingly less conventional. Cyler Winnie did a modern robot dance fluidly, while Elise Ammondson did her own soft shoe/ hard shoe mashup Irish jig take on “Cotton-eye Joe.” Some of our campers decided to doff conventional talents in favor of physical feats. Hugh Raup decided to amaze his fellow campers by doing a series of contortions that culminated in the “hypnotization” of four counselors for a group number.

Carmen Paddock Performs a Monologue

            Some of the scenes that were being performed were original pieces written by our very own campers. Elizabeth Williams, Annalise Kiser, and Rachel Poulter-Martinez each wrote different pieces. Annalise chose to read her own work aloud while Elizabeth and Rachel  had given scenes to their peers and asked them to perform staged readings of them. Both Rachel and Elizabeth acted as directors for their scenes, and took the time before the show to gather props to bring them to life. In performance, the pieces were thoughtful, dramatic, and dark, and they well harnessed the talents of their peers. It was lovely to see this facet of our campers’ talents on display. It was interesting to see the fruits of the directorial positions that some of the campers took.

            The strong group energy that resonates during each camp activity has been remarkable. During many of the different musical pieces, the audience members would often chime in by clapping, snapping, or even stomping to the beat. Always respectful of the onstage performer, they got involved only they were encouraged to, always adding to and not detracting from the piece. This sense of group camaraderie was particularly tangible during Hugh Raup’s performance of “Mariner’s Revenge” by The Decembrists. He sang it with no instrumental accompaniment, so, taking the lead of counselor Dan Stevens, the campers beat out a percussive line to add to the song.

What You Will has consistently been a lovely night where all of the members of camp get together to watch and support each other’s abilities. What You Will is voluntary, so everyone who performed wanted to showcase and share their accomplishments with the camp. It is a beautiful evening of support, humor, creativity, and appreciation, and it demonstrates what a large pool of talent our directors at their disposal to incorporate into our upcoming productions. Though What You Will was a private, camp-only event, our performances of Shakespeare’s 1 Henry VI and Much Ado About Nothing as well as Beaumont and Fletcher’s A King and No King premier on Sunday, August 5th for a free and open to the public one day event. Please join us to see more of what our talented campers can do!

 –Madeleine M. Oulevey

It’s "Something Fantastic" to Collaborate with Bob Jones

Camp Director Symmonie Preston teasingly titled Bob Jones’ second lecture “Something Fantastic,” and of course he did not disappoint. This time, Bob focused on the concept of collaboration and the importance of collaboration in the playwriting process. The three plays that the campers will perform on August 5th were written using some form of collaboration, and this lecture served as a valuable enhancement to the campers’ understanding of the productions they’re working on. All three were written during England’s “huge thrust” for new plays. This era of popular demand called for single companies to putt on ten to twenty plays a month. This output rate surpassed the ability of a single playwright, whose writing hours were truncated by the sunrise and sunset. Therefore, collaborating with other playwrights and various sources helped to increase output immensely. Collaboration as a concept is fairly simple but occurs in many forms and places. Bob asked the campers to brainstorm in helping him to compile several lists.

Different modes of collaboration between playwrights:
1) Simultaneous partnered collaboration – when two or more playwrights write a play by constantly exchanging ideas so that each scene is the product of multiple authors.

2) Plot and dialogue – when one playwright would come up with the concept for the play and write the basic plott or platt and the other playwright would then write the dialogue for specific scenes.

3) Scene by scene collaboration – when once the plot is agreed upon, two or more playwrights alternate the scenes they write.

Scholars speculate that Beaumont and Fletcher wrote A King and No King in a mixture of the second and third mode. Fletcher wrote the plot and a few scenes, while Beaumont wrote the majority of the dialogue. But these three modes only cover collaboration between playwrights, when there are many more abstract sources of collaborations that a playwright would make use of.

1) Actors – playwrights would base characters off of the actors that would be performing the play
2) Classical Sources – allusions to Greek mythology
3) Historical chronicles
4) Poems/ballads
5) Travelogues – descriptions of foreign lands
6) Stock characters from old plays
7) Recent and current plays – Shakespeare drew from plays running concurrently with his own, and even drew from his other plays, reusing scenarios and certain lines.

After compiling this list of resources for collaboration, Bob presented the campers with the ultimate challenge: to write a nine scene play collaborating with each other and drawing from A King and No King, Henry VI Part I, and Much Ado about Nothing as source texts. The campers started by outlining the main action for each scene. Then they broke into groups of four to write each scene, where they defined the motivations behind the main action. Once the campers wrote their scenes, each group exchanged and edited a different group’s scene. By modifying this new scene to support their authored scene, the campers used this step to make the play more cohesive.

In the end, the play was a hilarious mash-up featuring the protagonists Beadick and Benetrice (a jumble of Much Ado’s Beatrice and Benedick). A King and No King’s clown Bessus joined Much Ado’s Dogberry to wage a war against France led by Don Talbot (fusion of Much Ado’s Don John and Henry’s John Talbot). Much Ado’s Hero acted as a Mulan-type by disguising herself as a man and running off to fight in the war. Not all of the scenes connected well, and there were plenty of character inconsistencies, but the campers learned that those are two side effects of scene-by-scene collaboration. Although the groups weren’t technically supposed to communicate with one another, somehow a random dancing Spaniard appeared in every scene, creating suspicion that some conversation had occurred. This exercise not only taught the campers the struggles and benefits of collaboration and gave them a chance to hone their playwriting skills, but the cold reading of the play also brought campers near to tears from laughing so hard . Everyone could agree that with the guidance of Bob they had indeed created “Something Fantastic”.

–Emma Lo

Session 2 Auditions: Beatboxing and Knock-Knock Jokes

On the very first day of camp, auditions occur, the event that determines how the campers will be focusing their energies for the next three weeks. This exciting procedure took place in the black box, under the guidance of the counselors and the directors for this session, Daniel Kennedy (Much Ado about Nothing), Jeremy West (Henry VI Part 1), and Riley Steiner (A King and No King).
The counselors began auditions by teaching the campers a song. The song used the text of first verse from Shakespeare’s Cuckoo’s Song set to an Ingrid Michaelson melody.

When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight

After using a call and response technique and once the campers had the song memorized, the counselors led everyone in a round. The campers then divided into groups of three and made the song their own by choreographing dance moves, overlapping voices, and using acrobatics. Several groups funkified the song with beatboxing and rap. This was a way for the auditionees to show their music skills, abilities to work with others, and spontaneous creativity.

Next, the campers divided into three large groups of twelve to create a series of tableaux. Each group had a set of lines from one of the plays to act out. For each line, the group would form a different stage picture, using contrasting levels, stances, and facial expressions to enhance the text. The groups also had special rules that they had to incorporate into their tableaux. For example, on a certain line, everyone has to faint. On another, everyone is surprised except for one individual, and there must be a passionate relationship. As campers called out ideas for these stage pictures, the counselors reminded them to “Yes, and” each other, meaning to stay positive about others’ choices and to build on those choices.

Before Session 2 began, the campers were to select and prepare a ten line monologue from one of the three plays. In performing a monologue, the camper gets to showcase his or her individual talent. The campers took turns performing their pieces to the directors and their fellow campers. It was wonderful to see how supportive these campers already are of each other, even though they are technically in competition with one another during the auditions. At the end of each monologue there was an explosion of clapping and cheers for the auditioning camper.

Auditions are tough, which makes Day 1 arguably the most stressful and nerve-wracking day of the session. The directors recognized this and tried to reassure the campers throughout the auditions, telling them not to hold anything back and to have fun. Daniel Kennedy provided a final stress-reliever to culminate auditions by asking the campers to share a joke with everyone. Tension began to leave the room as campers ecstatically ran to the front of the room, eager to make their peers laugh. The audition process is now over and the shows are cast, but the talent, energy, and excitement the campers displayed at auditions are here to stay. Whether in the dorm, in rehearsal, or at workshops, these campers of ASC Theatre Camp Session 2 are full of life and a passion for theater!

–Emma Lo

Introducing the 2012 American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp

It’s very nearly that time again! The American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp starts up this Sunday with Session 1. This program offers summer Shakespeare intensives for ages 13-18 (residential or day camp). In each three-week session, campers participate in performance master classes (stage combat, dance, music, acrobatics); attend academic classes (theatre history, scansion/rhetoric, source study); visit the Blackfriars Playhouse to watch the professional Resident and Touring Troupe actors rehearse and perform in our summer season of plays; and they finish the experience off by performing in an hour-long version of a Shakespeare play on the stage of the Blackfriars Playhouse.

2011 Campers performing Christopher Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage

This year, the camp moves to Mary Baldwin College, taking advantage of the wealth of opportunities there. Participants in ASC Theatre Camp are taught by ASC Education staff, graduate students from MBC’s MLitt/MFA in Shakespeare in Performance Program, and professional artists and educators from our acting troupes. Our vibrant community of Shakespeare enthusiasts welcomes campers to a wonderful world of intense play – we hope you can join us to celebrate their hard work during their showcases on July 8th and August 5th! The shows for this year are:

Session 1: June 17 – July 8, 2012

• Twelfth Night is a cross-dressing romp with hidden depths of emotion. Finding herself stranded after a shipwreck, Viola disguises herself as a boy to serve the Count Orsino, with whom she falls in love. Unfortunately, Orsino is in love with the Lady Olivia, who then falls for Viola in her guise as Cesario. Their romantic entanglements are further complicated by the antics of Olivia’s household, who convince her steward, Malvolio, to make a fool out of himself, and by the reappearance of Viola’s lost twin, Sebastian. Love letters, poor swordsmanship, joyful reunions, and yellow stockings ensue.
  Director: Amanda McRaven was the director of YCTC from 2001-2004. She is SO EXCITED to return this summer. Since leaving ASC, she earned an MFA in Directing and a Fulbright in Community-based Performance in New Zealand. She works with all kinds of actors and all kinds of theater, but Shakespeare with teenagers is still and always will be the truest thing she does.
• Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare’s most famous tale of love gone wrong, where comedy and tragedy collide. Two teenagers defy their families to be together, but the tangle of rivalries, feuds, and hot tempers leads to a bloody chain reaction of revenge. Romeo and Juliet features some of Shakespeare’s most beautiful and romantic verse, but it’s also packed with rollicking comedy, from witty Mercutio to the dryly disapproving Friar Laurence, from the effusive Nurse to the rowdy servants. Vows of love, vicious duels, larks, tombs, and passions ensue.
  Director: Sara Holdren is a director, actor, and designer whose love affair with Shakespeare started early and blazed into life at YCTC (now ASCTC) when she was fifteen. She has trained at RADA and received her BA in Theater Studies from Yale University. This fall she will begin an MFA in Directing at Yale School of Drama. She has directed Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Richard III, Henry IV, and As You Like It, as well as Red Noses by Peter Barnes and He Who Gets Slapped by Leonid Andreyev.
• Gallathea by John Lyly is a doubling of mistaken-identity confusion. When the god Neptune demands that a town sacrifice their most beautiful maiden to a sea monster, two fathers disguise their daughters as boys and pack them off into the wilderness — where they promptly fall in love with each other, each thinking the other is actually a boy. Meanwhile, Cupid tricks a flock of Diana’s nymphs into falling madly in love, despite their vows of chastity, and a trio of apprentices try out every occupation they can think of in search of their destinies. Failed sacrifices, love-knots, alchemy, and general hilarity ensue.
  Director: Chelsea Phillips is a graduate of the MFA program in Shakespeare and Performance at Mary Baldwin College. She is currently a third-year PhD student at Ohio State University, where she has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company to introduce their Stand Up for Shakespeare program into local K-12 classrooms. 
  

  2011 Campers performing William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale

Session 2: July 15 – August 5, 2012

• Much Ado about Nothing is a witty comedy about finding love and growing up. The young Count Claudio wins the hand of the beautiful heiress Hero. Hero’s cousin Beatrice and Claudio’s friend Benedick can never meet without verbally sparring, so their friends and family conspire to trick them into falling in love with each other. The tale turns dark when Claudio spurns Hero, falsely believing her to have been unfaithful. With Hero seeming dead and Claudio unrepentant, Beatrice must convince Benedick to prove himself worthy of her love by standing up for what’s right. Deceptions, redemptions, bumbling constables, and some of the best quips in Shakespeare ensue.
  Director: Daniel Kennedy has worked as an actor, writer, director and teacher in his 19 years as a theatre professional. Daniel has worked internationally with Australian street performance group CHROME, LIVING SCULPTURES in The Netherlands and Les Ballet C de la B in Belgium.  Daniel is also the founder and artistic director of The Wooden Spoon Theatre Company, whose mission is to obliterate mundanity through random acts of chaotic joy.  As a long time actor with the ASC, Daniel has always enjoyed the playful innovation of the ASCTC and is looking forward to being a part of it.
• Henry VI, Part 1 kicks off Shakespeare’s first tetralogy, which will end with the machinations of Richard III. With a child-king on the English throne, the nobles of England must scramble to keep from losing everything that Henry V won. Their task is complicated by the emergence of Joan of Arc, who rallies the French to unexpected victories — but is Joan a holy visionary, or a fraudulent sorceress? One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, Henry VI, Part 1 shows the young playwright beginning to experiment with his use of language. Battles, scheming, sieges, and demon-summoning ensue.
  Director: Jeremy West: This summer marks Jeremy’s 5th show as a Director for ASCTC as well as his 6th teaching the stage combat class.  Jeremy is a veteran of the ASC having worked with the company, off and on, since 2004 as:   Actor, Assistant Director, Fight Director, and Fight Captain.  He holds an MFA from the University of Exeter, England, and has recognized fight training, and awards, from the Society of American Fight Directors and the British Academy of Dramatic Combat, as well as over 10 years experience teaching and choreographing for the stage. His other credits include stage and film work from:  Virginia Shakespeare Festival; Shakespeare Theatre, D.C.; Virginia Stage Company; Vanguard Theatre Company, and others.
• A King and No King by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher is a powerful Jacobean tragicomedy, blending boisterous humor with political drama. King Arbaces, returning from war, not only discovers that his mother tried to overthrow him in his absence, but also begins to suffer an inconvenient passion for his sister, Panthea; so too does the captured king Tigranes, whose current lover doesn’t think much of his changing opinion. Arbaces eventually determines to deal with the problem by killing everyone involved, including himself, when fate intervenes to make all well. Elaborate hoaxes, amorous verse, moral quandaries, and royal successions ensue.
  Director: Riley Steiner has been an actor, director and playwright for longer than she cares to admit. She decided to grow up and go back to school to pursue her MFA in Shakespeare here at Mary Baldwin College. She is thrilled to be back this summer for more ASC Theatre Camp.

From the Session 2 Finale, 2011

 We’re looking forward to a great summer — Follow this blog for further updates!