Drumroll Please...

And the season is:

ROTATION 1:

• Kiddstuff: "The Kid Who Talked to Penguins," by Ed Monk. Directed by Adam Immerwahr.
• Wedge: "Rat's Mass" by Adrienne Kennedy. Directed by Lydia Fort.
• Wedge: "Lulu" by Franz Wedekind. Directed by Lauren Keating.

ROTATION 2:

• Kiddstuff: "Pinnochio" by Blanche Marvin. Directed by Lydia Fort.
• Wedge: "The Possibilities" by Howard Barker. Directed by Adam Immerwahr.
• Wedge: "Leonce and Lena" by Georg Buchner. Directed by Corey Atkins.

ROTATION 3:

• Kiddstuff: "Reeling" by Barry Kornhauser. Directed by Corey Atkins.
• Wedge: "The Thing About Air Travel" by Max Posner. Directed by Adam Immerwahr.
• Wedge: "Learning Russian" by Michael Mitnick. Directed by Lauren Keating.

ROTATION 4:

• Kiddstuff: "Charlotte's Web" by E. B. White, adapted by Joseph Robinette. Directed by Lauren Keating.
• Wedge: "Mrs. Henderson's Cat" by Lia Romero. Directed by Corey Atkins.
• Wedge: "Tell It Underwater" by Sarah Hammond. Directed by Lydia Fort.

Hope to see you at the theater!!

Designers Arrive

So we picked our season on Wednesday night, and finalized it with Bob Moss--the interim artistic director--last night. I can't tell you what it is yet, because it's a big secret. But it's going to be awesome. Picking the season was surprisingly painless. Each of us directs one "Kidstuff" production (theater for young audiences), one play by one of the playwrights in residence this summer and one play that we brought with us (we each brought some options, so that we'd have flexibility for cast-sizes, tone, etc.). We did the whole season planning process with post-it notes.

The other news is that the designers have arrived! We invited them into our apartment last night for a late night welcome, and got to look at their portfolios and talk about their work a bit. This afternoon, they got their design assignments and they're reading the plays right now. The design meetings for Rotation #1 (there are 4 rotations over the course of the summer, each with three plays) start tomorrow night. So this is a short blog entry, cause I gotta go re-read my Rotation #1 play about a gamillion more times. Aack.

Oh yeah, and tonight we ate dinner at the Moosewood Restaurant (of the Moosewood cookbooks)!!

WonderDays (...and weeks and months and years...)

As Adam and Lauren said, we've now arrived at our housing in bucolic Dryden, NY for our summer at Ithaca's Hangar Theatre. I've sufficiently nested enough to make our new home feel homey (thanks, Target!), and the bustle of our former lodgings on Union Square has given way to farmland and a little (dorm) room to reflect.

Not being much of a blogger, I was trying to think of how to make this entry more than just a list of the incredible events that made up WonderDays. Five shows, from A(lbee) to X(anadu); conversations with two of those shows' directors, DL alumna Pam McKinnon (Albee's Occupant) and Anne Kauffman (God's Ear), as well as alum Carl Forsman (Artistic Dir., Keen Company and Dorset Theatre Fest.); playwright Jenny Schwartz (God's Ear, and a Hangar Lab alum!), and scenic designer David Korins (Passing Strange); Liz Frankel, Lit. Assoc. at The Public; Dani Super at Super/Capes Casting; Peter Flynn, Molly Kramer and Barbara Pasternack at TheatreWorks USA; Laura Penn and Gretchen Michelfeld at SSDC (Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers); and Sharon Jensen and her amazing staff at Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. --Not to mention helping out at the 74th Annual Drama League Awards, which meant coming in direct contact with the likes of S. Epatha Merkerson, Frances McDormand, Deanne Dunnigan, Patrick Stewart, Martha Plimpton, Bobby Cannavale, Lauren Ambrose, Julie White and MANY more amazing artists, all without having to lurk behind bushes or peek in windows! That in itself would be a plenty impressive blog, I'd say.

But in thinking about all of these phenomenal experiences, it struck me that WonderDays really was 'more than the sum of its parts.' In truth, the experiences of WonderDays were all about one thing for me: possibility. After getting my MFA a year ago, I'm finally moving in to The City at the end of the summer, and while I've worked at regional theatres across the country, I know NYC is a whole new ball game. But in every meeting and conversation, every one we spoke with opened doors and windows onto this new landscape for me. Each had a unique perspective to offer--their personal career path, their individual goals and opinions and passions--all of which made the sense of the possible palpable. Pam and Anne spoke about their processes on individual productions, as well as the path that led them to the place they are in their careers; Carl talked about his directing work, growing Keen Company and the challenges of taking over another company; David gave us the dual perspective of a scenic designer who had an incredible collaboration with his director and lighting designer on Passing Strange, as well as co-Artistic Director of Edge Theatre Co.; Dani Super shed light on the business of art...and on and on... The enormous amount of information gleaned in those 5 days was revelatory, and these artists' candor and encouragement let me see my potential, gave me a context in which to place myself and my goals for my career in the coming weeks...and months...and years....

So--working as a director in NYC: Overwhelming? Yes. Kinda Frightening? Youbetcha. Possible? Eminently.

(P.S. All of the above could describe the upcoming months as co-Artistic Director of the Hangar's Lab Season, too... We just finalized the season and assignments this afternoon... But more on that next week...  It's called a cliffhanger, people.)

-CA

Wonder(ful) Days

The Overwhelming is not only the title of the Hangar Theater's first main stage production this season, but is also my new title for the first two weeks (oh, wait...it's only been one?!?) of the Drama League Summer Directors Project.

Adam has already given you some of idea of the volume of meetings and productions we had during Wonder Days. MaryBeth, our exceptional tour guide, filled up every ounce of our time with someone/something really valuable. Every single person we spoke to gave me something new to think about and opened my perspective. Since our arrival in Ithaca, the amount of information we have to take in every day has only increased. I am trying to make my whole body into a sponge - absorbing names, faces, details, dates, ideas. I am so inspired by the excitement and genuine joy of all the artists, board members, staffers and even townies that we have met. They all have great pride in the Hangar Theater, love the Drama League program and can't wait to see what we do with the amazing Wedge.

This has been my first time observing the inner workings of a Board of Directors and meeting board members of major institutions. The board members of the Drama League that we met last week were informed and inspired. And, even more than that, they were welcoming. They were so warm and enthusiastic - engaging us about our art, sharing their own experiences, introducing us to their families, welcoming us into their homes. I have joined a community that is committed to each other - and committed to me. I feel a real responsibility to honor that commitment.
Similarly, our first official stop in Ithaca on Monday night was the Hangar Theater Board Meeting. After a long, winding (we got lost just a few times...) drive, throwing our things into our new apartment, driving into town (and getting lost once more), we finally straggled into the meeting room. And, we were greeted with rousing applause! What better way to arrive?? The enthusiastic smiles of the board, their questions, their declaration that they are "Wedgies" and their promise that they will be at every Wedge show is the kind of welcome that I could not have imagined. I wanted to get started making a kick ass show for them right away!

Thank you to all those great board members of the Hangar and the Drama League who give not just their time but their heart to this program.

Wonders and Wedges

So we made it to the Hangar Theatre. Phew. After several very busy "Wonder Days," jam-packed with meetings, shows and running around, it is a great relief to be settled down in the delightfully rural Ithaca area (we're in the town of Dryden). Last night, as we were unpacking, we saw some deer walking by our back window. And we're blogging. For a change.

Wonder Days was (were?--is it plural?) lovely. We met with tons of theater-makers from across the disciplines (casting directors, designers, producers, actors, etc) and got to see five shows in NYC (Passing Strange, The 39 Steps, God's Ear, Xanadu and The Occupant). Oh yeah, and we got to attend the Drama League Awards, which was super-happy-making.

One of my favorite meetings was with the staff of the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. If you don't know their work, you should. Formerly the "Non-Traditional Casting Project", the Alliance serves dual missions to advocate for and educate about issues of diversity (both for artists of color and artists with disabilities) in the performing arts. It is incredible how atrocious a job the arts (still) do of representing the wonderful diversity of our world; and it is vitally important that this changes. By virtue of their intrinsically public nature, the performing arts are in an extraordinary position to serve as a model for best-practices in inclusion. Additionally, since the performing arts are constantly painting a picture of our world, lack of inclusion in the arts can skew that image unrealistically, leaving some populations over-represented and others voiceless. The Alliance promotes discussion of these complex topics, and the conversation we had--about ourselves as artists as well as the issues of inclusion in the arts--was honest, vulnerable and wonderful. I found myself continuing the never-ending project of confronting my own assumptions, ignorances and biases, while also getting to know my fellow directing fellows on a much deeper and richer level than we had previously reached. Moral of the story: check out the website of the Alliance--they're doing really important work.

Eventually, we made it to the Hangar Theatre. Word of advice: if you ever decide to visit the Hangar (and we hope you do, preferably this summer), make sure that you navigate with a GPS. Oh, and make sure you've entered the right address into the GPS. As a backup, you'll probably want to send someone before you to lay down a trail of breadcrumbs. I can't imagine how we could have gotten more lost, more times, or in more ways.

Corey and Lauren in The Wedge.

I'll leave you with a picture of my fellow fellows Corey and Lauren, standing in our beautiful, grungy, flexible, extraordinary, energizing, triangular, tiny, huge, dark, mysterious, one-of-a-kind, indescribable and absolutely perfect space--The Wedge. I fell in love at first sight. After having seen it, we've all retreated to our bedrooms (which look suspiciously like my freshman dorm room...) to re-consider all the plays we brought with us. Tomorrow we're going to (try to) pick our season!!! Wish us luck!

Welcome!

The Drama League's Summer Directing Project is a very competitive program. Each year there are at least eighty applicants. From those that apply under twenty are chosen for an interview, and of those twenty only four directors become Drama League fellows.
This blog is an opportunity for them to share their experiences in their own words.