January 11, 2010
Democratization? Why? What's That?
Lauren Ferebee
At the RST, we've always prided ourselves on using the word democratization. After all, it's a big word. And we like the way it sounds when relating to theatre.
However, it also sounds like high-school debate word that we throw around to win points from critics and audience members. And we don't want that, because we do actually believe in the importance of democracy in theatre.
What does that mean to us? Well, let's put it this way. Television and film is a democratic medium by virtue of the ease of distribution (i.e. your little TV boxes that stream pixels of visual and aural information directly through your eyes to your brain). Thus its popularity: it creates an easily accessible popular culture that we can all relate to. Gossip Girl last night? We all know what happened, even in remote Appalachia (well, it depends on how remote).
Theatre is a trickier beast. In the great annals of theatrical history, obviously, we see evidence of a kind of democracy in a variety of respects. In Elizabethan England, for example. folks coming to the theatre already knew the details of the stories they were going to see. They knew the history of their own country (shocking, I know), so stories of the kings and their predecessors were proverbially old hat. And when that failed, most of the other plays relied on a cadre of stock characters seen in melodrama and commedia plays, characters the audience could identify from certain, well, characteristics. Famously, Shakespeare's theatre featured audience spots for groundlings, the rowdy common folk who came (and even THEY knew the history behind the plays).
Let's face it, though. The US is a big place . A big, big place. There are cultures within cultures. There is a huge, beautiful difference in landscape, lifestyle, background and even state history in this land of ours. The theatrical life of this country is similarly diverse. Regional theatre, community theatre, Shakespeare festivals...there is plenty of performance to see. However, there is a prevailing feeling that theatre is somehow not a medium for everyone - that there is a "culture" of theatre most people don't have access to for a variety of reasons.
And my question in this new year: Is that true? Do the performers, producers, casting director, agents etc. of the theatrical world believe that it's OK to run in the same circles, to ignore popular opinion, to stage the same plays in the same ways regardless of how they are received? To create self-referential work, and, more pressingly, to finance that self-referential work? To indulge ourselves in performance at the expense of our audience?
My answer is no, and here's why. I recently went to an evening of dance with a friend of mine who had never seen a dance piece. At the end of the piece he turned to me and said "I'm sure it was good to someone who understands dance." And the worst part was, he meant it. He didn't feel entitled to enjoy dance because he didn't have access to what he saw as the vocabulary of dance. So I started to ask myself, what do we do as artists? Isn't our aim to communicate? To create, through painting, dance, theatre, writing, a work that accesses the vastness of human emotion, knowledge, and experience for well, everyone?
So I say this. Theatre is story-telling. It is nothing more than the feeling you get at the bottom of your stomach when you as an audience member identify, really identify, with a human experience happening in front of you. And that feeling, while simple, is extraordinary. There is a kind of alchemy in great theatre: it translates a great text into a moment, a moment that exists only once, in all of time. And if we as artists are not striving for that, are no longer striving to reach every person who comes to see the show - most especially the person who questions Chekhov, who hates Shakespeare, who thinks that theatre is not for them, then we as artists are not doing our job.
The greatest compliment I have ever received was after a performance of Three Sisters, when a cast member's parent - who had no experience of Chekhov - came up to me and said "Thank you; this performance taught me to hope about life again."
And that compliment had absolutely nothing to do with props, or the costumes, or the acting, or the space itself - but it had everything to do with theatre.
December 29, 2009
The Year in Review
Lauren Ferebee
Well, it's not exactly the New York Times, but for our new viewers and old friends, here's a travel back through 2009 in the RST...
Winter 2009
Our year ended well, with producer Mike Roderick naming us one of the Top 10 "Moving and Shaking: Indie Companies to Watch in 2010...so watch! We will be announcing new shows and new delights soon...more Shakespeare for sure (we just can't get enough of The Bard) and we're in talks for another outdoor collaboration next summer... Top 10 Indie Companies to WatchFall/Winter 2009
After completing our first season in August of 2009, we settled in to cook up some new ideas and enjoy the new people we had met in our various collaborations. We've spent the last few months hosting the trial sessions of an RST Salon, a breeding ground for innovative and intelligent young playwrights and actors in NYC to try out work and stay connected to the pulse of live performance.Spring/Summer 2009
The RST spent several months creating its mammoth summer project: a trilogy of Henry IV and Henry V that performed in August 2009 in the little-used Music Pagoda in Prospect Park. Directed by Elyzabeth Gorman and Melisa Annis, our cast of 23 actors spent the summer creating unforgettable renditions of the larger-than-life characters that inhabit these plays. Check out our photo gallery page for a visual peek into the life of the project.Spring 2009
The RST premiered a new style of fundraising/reading event, called the Kitchen Table Readings. Six playwrights wrote 20-minute plays on the "site-specific" subject of dinner. We invited friends and colleagues to a three-course dinner (desserts donated by The Dessert Truck), and randomly assigned plays to everyone in the room. After our main course/rehearsal, desserts (donated by the Dessert Truck) were had to the tune of six tiny plays, performed with a mere half-hour of rehearsal. Delight and laughter were had by all.March 2009 also saw a re-staging of excerpts from our winter production of Three Sisters at Lefferts House. Lefferts House staff member Isak Mendes gave a tour of the house, pointing out those aspects relevant to the time period of the play. (Ed. note: We look forward to collaborating with Lefferts House in the future!)
SO THAT'S 2009, FOLKS
...and here we go into 2010. I think an unnamed national security strategist said it best that "We live in messy times, which don't lend themselves to easy doctrines." It's as true in the arts as it is anywhere else.
But we at the RST are proud to be, as playshakespeare.org puts it in their review of Henry IV, "fight[ing] the good fight of bringing arts to as wide an audience as possible."
July 27, 2009
HENRY IV/V Opens AUGUST 22
Lauren Ferebee
HENRY IV directed by Elyzabeth Gorman
HENRY V directed by Melisa Annis
HENRY IV opens August 22nd at 4:30pm
HENRY V opens August 23rd at 4:30pm
AUGUST 22nd - SEPTEMBER 6th, 2009
THE MUSIC PAGODA at PROSPECT PARK
ALL SHOWS BEGIN AT 4:30PM
FEATURING Tiffany Abercrombie, Bryn Boice,* Sutton Crawford, Tarik Davis, Drew de Jesus, Paul Frazee, Ben Friesen, Simone Harrison,* Jon Ledoux, Jonathan Levy, Joshua Luria, Kevin Mitchell, Nick Reinhardt, Ben Rezendes, Montgomery Sutton,* Eric Rice,* Adrien Saunders, Jesse Sells,* Steve Viola, Patrick Woodall *indicates member of AEA
Take the Q or B to Prospect Park and make your way to the Music Pagoda, next to the Audobon Center
July 24, 2009
Summer with the Rebellious Subjects
Patrick Woodall
We are ready for a spiritual revival in the theatre. Big tents and choirs; impassioned speeches and miracles. A good pot-luck picnic never hurt anyone either. At times of economic turmoil and uncertainy, of social reaction and revolution, the work of theatre artists is more essential than ever.
At such junctures, we could ask ourselves what will make money or attempt to anticipate to what demographic our work will appeal. Instead, we resolve to revisit all the reasons we fight to be theatre artists, why we continue commit ourselves to reviving and reimagining classical work.
So this summer we return to our Shakespearean roots for our biggest project yet: Henry IV and Henry V performed in the Prospect Park Music Pagoda.
We are thrilled to be working with veteran RST director Melisa Annis (Twelfth Night, Under Milk Wood) who will be directing Henry V, and to be bringing in a new talent, Elyzabeth Gorman, who will be directing a cut version of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2. Our cast consists of twenty classically trained actors, some RST favorites and some new blood.
As we reenact the war histories of Engalnd this summer, we ask our audiences to become a part of the dialogue on war - its necessity, its human impact, its devastation. But as much as the Henry's are plays about war, they are moreso plays about passion: what moves the human race to fight and laugh and love.
We hope that by the end of the summer, you will feel as deeply as we do the convictions brought about by the experience of this work.
March 26, 2009
Kitchen Table Readings
Ben Friesen
THE KITCHEN TABLE READINGS
presented by Rebellious Subjects Theatre
experience the cutting edge of dinner theatre.
April 16, 2009 7pm
LaSalle Academy (2nd Avenue at 2nd Street)
featuring plays written for the occasion by
Ryan Fogarty
Kristin Ferebee
Jesse Bernath
and others
WARNING: All dinner participants may be recruited for the reading of plays.
7pm: h'ors d'oeuvres Meet and mingle with other dinner attendees (playwrights, actors, directors, and theatre patrons)
7:30pm: dinner Find your place setting and meet your collaborators - You will have dinner to read, discuss, and work on a short play written for this event.
9pm: dessert Over dessert, each group will present an informal reading of their play for the general assembly.
And in these times, what does a three course dinner, play readings, and networking cost?
Why a mere $20 when it's sponsored by the RST.
Reservations can be made donate via PayPal. Email rebellioussubjects@gmail.com with any questions. SPACE IS LIMITED and reservations are required.
February 22, 2009
Rebellious Subjects former, present, and future!
Patrick Woodall
Happy new year! We at the RST are so grateful for all your past contributions, and we are excited about the opportunities that 2008 offers.
As some of you may know, we are working toward a company community and wanted to invite you especially - all or our collaborators- to the reading series we are beginning on Saturday, February 7th. This will not just be a reading - the reception following will be a time for us to gather ideas, talk about future potential projects, and set projects for our next few "speak/easy" events.
So we are asking you all to come and contribute, if you would, your ideas, your creativity, and your time. We would love to hear about what you are working on - especially any ideas you would like a forum to develop. We hope to not only foster dialogue about our piece for the evening, but start a bigger conversation about the kind of theatre the RST creates and how you can be a part of that.
The reading will be at the Irish Arts Center at 553 W. 51st Street between 10th and 11th. It will feature Apologies to Bob, a new work by Paul Frazee, who is co-authoring our adaptation of Alice. To RSVP, please email us at rebellioussubjects@gmail.com.
We would love to see you there. Please keep us updated on what you all are working on - we would love to hear from you.
Much Affection,
Lauren and Patrick and Ben
January 08, 2009
New Year Reflections and Chekhovian Considerations
Lauren Ferebee
After reading Brooklynometry's thoughtful review on our first crack at Chekhov, the Subjects took a brief holiday to ruminate on all that we have created in 2008 (a company! three shows!), all that we will be working on in 2009, and other matters of global import.
We pondered the recent closings on Broadway, the shifts in power happening in the new year, and what this whole economic recession meant to a burgeoning young theater company (questions we'll have to live with). The new year brings a slew of new projects, new faces, and great opportunity to the proverbial doorstep of the RST, an abundance of riches that we are anxious to share with our audiences and friends.
So we took the turn of the annual clock as an opportunity to re-visit the reasons we started this company: why we feel the work we do is important. 2009 is a perfect time to wonder all over again why we are artists - and why we (as people) often turn to and create important art in times of uncertainty.
There's a quote that Diane Arbus wrote about her photographic subjects that we like to apply to theatre. She writes in her journal, reflecting on her choice of portrait, that "there are singular people who appear like metaphors somewhere further out than we do, beckoned, not driven, invented by belief, author and hero of a real dream by which our own courage and cunning are tested and tried, so that we may wonder all over again what is veritable & inevitable & true & what it is to become whoever we may be."
Theater, or the RST's idea of theater, centers around this kind of character. We have been overwhelmed that the response to our production of Three Sisters was always very specific: each audience member found his or her entry into the show through a character and invested in the dream of that character, whether it be Irina's idealism, Tuzenbach's dedication to work, or Solyony's dream of becoming Lermontov.
In this brand new year we will strive to keep that theatrical experience alive - one that invites an audience into its world and invents, over and over, a world of ideas and people so strong in their own beliefs and dreams that they incite us to create and recreate our own.
