Fee information! (and a sneak peek of Twelfth Night)

Hey everyone,

I am condensing my blog this week because I am headed to the Big Apple!

It is that time of year to talk about the Student Center Operations fee. Each year the student center appeals to the Fee Review Committee about any fee increases that will take place in future years. These fees are the main source of funding for ARTS NC State. They operate University Theatre including programming and staffing. Our budget comes from the Student Center Operations Fee and we ask you to support this fee if you feel you are able.

What we are asking of you is simple. On October 1, 2010 keep an eye out for the "Services Satisfaction Survey" that will be posted online. Please take a moment to answer this survey. It is short and sweet and should only take a minutes of your time. The UT staff will try to send out a reminder once it goes live.

This fee benefits the campus community and especially those who participate with ARTS NC State in any capacity.
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Twelfth Night

Knowing that I was going to be out during the run of Twelfth Night, I utilized by best sleuthing skills to get a sneak peek of it all coming together (plus, I got to see it in action last night: beautiful and lots of laughs).

Here's some of what I found:

Command stations

DraftsProps

looks like some music is going to be involved...
the set

costumes
call board!

Here's to next week...

Jason Cooper is a Junior in Interpersonal Communication/Public Relations. His most current role is Feste/Fool/Clown in Twelfth Night.

Soon after auditions, the cast of Twelfth Night had the opportunity to participate in a Shakespeare workshop with Patrick Tansor of Children's Theatre of Charlotte. Jason gives his account of the workshop:

“THE RICHER THE LANGUAGE, THE RICHER THE YOU!”

-Patrick Tansor, Actor & Teacher

While many other college students were out spending their Friday night with friends at the movie theater, cookout, nightclub, or friend’s house- the cast of Twelfth Night was learning more about Shakespeare!

A three hour workshop at Thompson Theater on Friday night was led by Patrick Tansor, a Carnegie Mellon colleague of Allison Bergman (UT’s Assistant Director) He first began by complementing University Theater on the “conservatory” space that is provided to the students. “Guys, you have a state-of-the-art teaching, performance, & rehearsal space that is pretty much a conservatory for your theater program!” said Patrick Tansor. What an honor to have someone that knows the theater world so well & is even a member of the Actors Equity Association to appreciate our “home”!

Currently a theater teacher at a Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Patrick has been in a myriad of Shakespeare works throughout his acting career. Oddly enough, Patrick has never worked on Twelfth Night. I’m sure you are now wondering why Patrick is giving a workshop to us! Patrick’s purpose was to not direct the show, but to help us understand how to better understand & read Shakespeare material. He shared with us an awesome quote that one of his greatest mentors, Lori Orion, said to him once: “I don’t care what you ‘think’ you should sound like…I want to hear who you are”. When people think Shakespeare, they suddenly begin speaking in a British accent & start sounding really proper. The problem is that this language is not spoken these days & many actors fear to touch Shakespeare. Patrick was there to help us see that every character has his own story & that character can be completely different from any other person that has ever played that role. Shakespeare “ain’t easy”, but he was so glad to see that we are tackling it!

Patrick brought so many materials to share with us from books on Shakespeare to packets of information that he had prepared himself. We did not even touch the scripts during the first hour; we instead went back to the basics of hearing & speaking Shakespeare. We learned rhythms, meanings of punctuations in a line, short lines, split lines, quarks, what is in a verse, dramatic pauses & so much more. When an actor knows that a comma means a drop in or a colon means you are listing something, it truly helps the actor’s line read.

We then got up on our feet to do a series of exercises that the cast found to be a lot of fun! These exercises helped us control our breathing and learn to really listen to one another on stage. It is funny how just by listening to your scene partner you will know how to reply. I was able to witness scenes that sounded like people had no idea what they were saying, turn into something that could potentially be seen by an audience! Some of us did not have much time to analyze our scripts prior to the workshop, but we realized listening is the key to making a scene work.

The cast of Twelfth Night & I truly benefited from Patrick’s workshop. He helped UT take this show to another level. This workshop helped us all see something that we all ‘thought’ we were doing, listening to each other. Not only can we use these lessons in this show, but we can take the things we learned into every other show we do.

Thanks to NCSU University Theater, I am proud to say that I have a totally new respect for Shakespeare!

The quality of the resources that we have here at NCSU are unlike many others. Some theater schools do not even get the type of training & experiences that we have! I have grown so much from working with everyone here! The thing I love most about UT is that we are not a bunch of theater kids whose lives ARE theater. We all have plenty of other things that we could be doing, but theater is something that we all enjoy & carry within us. We come here to get away from that long day in the classroom. We come here to have fun! Here, you do not have to be afraid to make a fool of yourself & be judged. Here, you do not have to be in a show to be a part of the program. Here, you will explore yourself & all the aspects of the theater world! JOIN US!

I encourage all of you to come out & enjoy our Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night!

Performances:

September 30 - October 3 @ 7:30pm

October 3 & 4 @ 2:30pm

919.515.1100 for tickets or ncsu.edu/ticketcentral

Holy Blogosphere, Batman!

The staff is working toward getting Twelfth Night up and running and we're already moving forward on A Piece of my Heart. Stay posted, by the way, on A Piece of my Heart. The author will be in town for the first week of the run and you will want to make sure to come out for that!

As I was perusing my hundreds of Google Reader updates (OK, so I don't check through it everyday...) I was finding very little that really captured my attention. If you look back at the blogs that I have recommended in the past you will see that there are a ton of theatre opportunities in the state. Everyone's seasons are in full swing. There are also opportunities to take action if you are into advocacy.

However, I was hoping for something more entertaining to catch my eye. I couldn't seem to escape the smattering of LiLo (Lindsay Lohan, just in case.) gossip but I did find one fun link you may also appreciate.

I took it and got 50 percent correct. Hey, we can't all be winners. Can you beat my score?

This week in pictures - Sept. 11- 17

Saturday was the APO brother's luncheon and inductions...

A more subdued shot.

"Only one doughnut RUSSELL!"

Fittings are in full swing for Twelfth Night!

Here's to next week...

Student Spotlight - Rob Steinberg

Rob is a junior is Business Administration, a member of APO and regular on the University Theatre stage. Rob recounts his experiences this summer acting with Raleigh Little Theatre, the Cary Players and University Theatre.

Being an actor in college is fantastic. You have a large university filled with auditions all throughout the school year giving constant work to try and do. However, the summer tends to be something different. I learned that this year, trying my best to branch out to other theatres. Towards the end of last year, about the same time as Into the Woods closed, I was a part of “Songs for a New World” at Raleigh Little theatre. It was a musical unlike any I had done before. I still remember when I got in. Before my first rehearsal Casey Watkins said “Be good and remember what we taught you”. At the time I thought nothing of it but when the show got started I realized how much University Theatre really had helped me fit in. This was my first time acting with people who weren’t students. NC State students are lucky that UT strives to run as much like a professional theatre as possible.

I was surprised to learn that a lot of the things that we do at UT are understood at theatres everywhere. For example, I thought the “thank you 5” response to the Stage Manager (when they notify the cast when to be ready) was something we just did. Call it ignorance but it totally caught me off guard when I found myself saying it at RLT, too.




“Songs for a New World” went fairly well. Later on in the summer I was looking for a show to do when I got a call from a good friend, Andrew Payne. He suffered a terrible accident to his leg and was unable to perform in his role during UT’s TheatreFest production of “Murder on the Nile”. It wasn’t hard for me to say yes to help him out. He was a friend after all and it was a UT production. Doing a show at UT is like playing a sport on home turf for me. UT is my home field. Anyway, this was my first chance to work with actors who would consider themselves professionals and I have to say I ate that up.

After TheatreFest I wanted to squeeze in one more show. Get something on the resume with a theatre that I hadn’t worked with. I decided to go and audition for a friend of mine from “Songs for a New World.” He is a director for Cary Players, a local group of playwrights and actors based out of Cary. They were putting on a show written by a local playwright called “Ruby Red.” Going into that audition I noticed I was once again the youngest person in the cast like the two shows prior. However it was an entirely different feel. This time I got a chance to work with the writer. I mean I actually got to sit and watch a scene with the writer of the play sitting next to me. It was unbelievable. I always remember John McIlwee saying things like “we will never know what the writer was thinking when he wrote this.” Well for this show I knew. It was a lot of pressure really, being the first to perform the writer’s words and not wanting to let him down. However, the show went well and I made a whole new set of friends and had the ability to rub elbows with some of the other directors in Cary.

I continue to come back to University Theatre because I love it. I love being around everyone there, and the professionalism that it presents. I love that I get the ability to play roles that at some of these other theatres I wouldn’t be able to. At UT I CAN play a 60 year old man, whereas another theatre would just get a 60 year old man. UT provides a constant set of auditions and shows so I know I can always try and keep something on my plate. Not to mention through the web of staff and students at NC State, I am always learning something new to hone my craft and make me a better actor. I could never ask more than that.

This week in pictures - Sept. 6 - 10

With a brief respite Monday for Labor Day, the University Theatre staff and student hit the ground running this week!

Our Stagecraft students working hard propping and painting! I know who to call when I need things done around my house...

Auditions for A Piece of My Heart were Tuesday and Wednesday.

The marketing team (ie: our amazing student, Jarrett) was busy assembling promotional items to mail.

Cast list for A Piece of My Heart is up! You can find it here as well.

APO pledges are out and about!

Ask them about their Shakespeare (I'm too nice to do it).

The year is blazing by and University Theatre always has exciting things happening!

Here's to next week...

Meet our new office/marketing assistant!

Jarrett is a Sophomore in Biology and recently started working with University Theatre. You will most likely see him around Thompson Hall or Talley MWF mornings. Stop by and introduce yourself!

What's your major?
Currently, I am majoring in biology although I would like to add psychology before the end of this semester.

What would you like to do once you graduate?
I plan on getting my PhD in psychology one day, so I may start that once I graduate in 2013. Or perhaps, I will go to medical school at either Duke or UNC (unfortunately). Either way, I want to use the knowledge that I have gained and help others.

Why were you interested in working with University Theatre?
I wanted to get a different kind of work experience, something that does not require me to be in a lab all day.

What are you looking forward to most about working with University Theatre?
I am looking forward to learning as much as I can from the people that work here, also I believe that working closely with the theater will give me a new perspective on the arts community here at NC State. And with this new perspective, I will go out and tell everyone that I know about the theater and all of the things that it has to offer our community.

What do you like to do when you aren't working or going to class?
I like to relax! Depending on how I’m feeling, “relax” can have a variety of reading. But, I usually try to do something that is productive or educational in some way.

-Jarrett Clifton

This week in pictures - Aug. 30 - Sept. 3

Busy week at University Theatre, as usual!

I spent part of my day Monday researching blogs from my Google reader... with plenty of coffee of course!
The Crafts Center filled our lobby display cases with examples of what you can do at the Crafts Center. Intrigued? Check out more here.

Perks of working in a theatre: gaff tape cures all ailments, including when your shoe breaks.

Did you know we have an announcement board with TONS of information about what arts activities are available on campus and in the community? Well, we do! It is right next to the elevator. Check it out.

Our new Costume Technician, Laura, started Friday. Yay!


Here's to next week...