My journey into theatre was like Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole: slowly then all at once. It started with my attraction to visual storytelling; when reading, words peeled off the page and became images, transforming words into reality. This is not unlike to a designers’ job in theatre, turning plays into tangible spaces, even when they take place in a distant galaxy or down the rabbit hole. Upon visiting New York University’s design department, I saw the student’s work their attention to detail and the impressive still working faculty they had at hand. NYU students also have the advantage of having New York City as their background, an additional resource that allows them to grow as designers. Unlike others, my exposure to design was …show more content…
Due to the experimental nature of the company I was working in, I’ve been making an effort to observe more immersive works, as non-traditional forms of design, fascinate me. Where else can one enjoy this kind of exposure? Not only watching live theatre from various sources but I enjoy keeping up with news from other designers and theatres that do unique work, such as Es Devlin, and Christine Jones, who designed Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and current faculty member. I enjoy discovering brand new writers and designers as a theatre-maker. In addition to their working faculty, NYU, as informed from my visit to the Design department, collaborates with Columbia’s directing program. A program unlike any other, helping students to create connections from outside. NYU understands the importance of directors and designers teaming up, from early on, such as Rufus Norris, currently the artistic director of the National Theatre with Susan Hilferty, a faculty member and a designer in Salome, and Angels in America. How could one not want to go to NYU? With its high caliber professors, as well as their goal to transform their students not only into artists but gives us tools to go out into the world, shown through their final year course, transitioning into the
The specialization and individualized professions in the field of Technical Theatre are relatively new to the stage in comparison to the period of time in which the art of Theatre has grown. Aiding in the development of concentrated professions such as scenic design has been a plethora of talented, skillful, intelligent and highly driven individuals. Among these influential fountains of creativity have been John Lee Beatty, Eugene Lee, Boris Aronson, Ming Cho Lee, Jo Mielziner, Tony Walton, Robin Wager, John Napier, Santo Loquasto, Heidi Landesman, and Julie Taymor along with many more.
Over the course of my academic career, I have grown accustomed to viewing stories that follow a specific plot structure. Gao Xing Jian’s The Other Shore and Toshiki Okada’s The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise have shown me that I should look at theatre from different angles, instead of the one I have grown used to. Even though I found these two plays challenging to read, they offered me a unique perspective that I do not usually see in theatre.
Miss Gee is a professional artist/theatre designer recently turned secondary Visual Arts and Drama teacher. She has worked in theatre, film and television designing both wardrobe and scenery. She holds a Bachelor of Performing Arts and Advanced Diploma of Production Design, both from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). After studying the performing arts and experiencing the industry, she took 6 months off to travel America to teach art and design to young people. This experience abroad ignited a newfound passion in her to pursue teaching. Thereafter, Miss Gee set into motion a career change, undertaking a Post Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) degree at Edith Cowan University (ECU) to make teaching
In a sense, the audience becomes the actor upon “his” stage as the ,“...work does not exist without the viewer there to actually take part”(http://www.aestheticamagazine.com). If I were ever able to visit the installation, I can just imagine myself getting lost in my own thoughts and let the illusion consume my mind. Doug Wheeler captivates his viewers within an artwork, which I find innovative and unique in the art world. By creating an interactive installation it really allows the viewer to alter their own reality and let one's mind to experience infinite
In the context of this essay I will be thinking from the perspective of the director in order to explore a breadth of design choices the director of a company has the privilege of making. This would be a primarily text-free interpretation of Angels in America and a highly physical-theatre driven work. The title of t...
Lazarus, Joan. "On the Verge of Change: New Directions in Secondary Theatre Education." Applied Theatre Research 3.2 (July 2015): 149-161. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1386/atr.3.2.149_1.
I’ve always loved music and singing, even as a kid. It has always been my passion. Performing on stage is what actually broke me out of my shell. Going into highschool I was very awkward and shy, but music helped me conquer my social awkwardness. Music has helped me give back to my community in ways I never thought of, seeing the smiles on people’s faces when I sing is one of the greatest feelings ever and I cherish it, and the applause when I’m done makes me feel all warm inside. Performing and helping others perform is something I love to do and it helped me find my place in the world. Learning a new song is fantastic experience as well.
Director Adam Burke was born and raised from Green Bay, Wisconsin. He went on to get his Bachelors of Fine Art from the University and Arizona and his Masters of Fine Arts from Northwestern University in Theater Directing. Adam was the founding artistic director at Chicago Theatre for Young Audiences. In addition, he received a national Theatre Communications Group New Generations Fellowship; with this fellowship he spent two more years as an artistic associate at a local professional theater—Childsplay. Adam Burke had been living in San Antonio for the past five years until his move to Charlotte last June. He worked as an assistant professor in the theater department at St. Mary’s University. Additionally, he is the artistic director of the Scioto Society, which produces the drama “Tecumseh,” in Chillicothe, Ohio. Burke is currently working as the artistic director at the Charlotte Children’s Theater. Recently, our class had the tremendous opportunity to interview Mr. Burke with questions relating to his process in directing.
I began my collegiate theater studies, at Reed College, wanting to be an actor, and, in fact, adverse to the idea of directing. I had considered directors little more than acting coaches and blockers, but in my first year, I worked with a director, Stepan Simek, who significantly shifted my understanding of directing as an art form. The production was Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, which was staged on a pair of raked platforms that served as chalkboards. The set pieces in each scene were drawn on the platforms by...
“The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation,” says Stella Adler. Theater is unique and intriguing because it blends literary and visual arts to tell a story. Throughout the course, I have learned that understanding aesthetics and sociopolitical history is essential for appreciating and applying theater in the real world. Brechtian and musical theatre styles, such as applying musical theatre in RENT, are effective methods to convey crucial historical and social messages, utilizing theater as a platform outside of the arts and for a greater purpose of positive social change.
Organizations continue to create themselves around the importance of educational theatre while playwrights and playhouses are forging progress through dedicated leaders. “...They look forward to a time when the best they have now will be multiplied and made available in all its diversities to the children of every
The concept of interactive, participatory theatre as immersive theatre experiences, promenade theatre and site-specific performances has had a massive rise in popularity the last decade. PunchDrunk, an immersive and site-sensitive company founded in 2000, is frequently mentioned when immersive theatre is discussed. They are self-proclaimed pioneers of a “game changing form of theatre in which roaming audience experience epic storytelling inside sensory theatrical worlds”(PunchDrunk, 2015).
“The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation,” says Stella Adler. Theater is unique and intriguing because it blends literary and visual arts to tell a story. Before Theater 10, I viewed theater on the surface level: cheesy plot lines with dramatic scenarios for entertainment purposes. Throughout the course, I have learned what it means to appreciate theater, such as understanding Brechtian and Chinese theatre; however, I believe understanding theater’s ability to convey crucial historical and social messages, such as in the production of RENT, is more relevant and important for theater appreciation.
Nevertheless, the question at hand is whether theatre will have a role in the society of the future, where cinema, digital television, and computers will continue to expand and grow. The answer to this question is yes. Heading into the 21st century, theatre will only be a fraction in a solid media industry. However, despite all the excitement technology brings with it, they will never replace theatre because it has something that can not be recreated or offered anywhere else. The cinema and its larger than life world appeals as an affordable alternative. Digital television provides digital interaction between the viewer and the producer. Theatre on the other hand, and its contents may take on a larger dimension, but we receive it directly in flesh and blood – one to one. The magical atmosphere between an actor and spectator who are constantly aware of each other and the theatre’s level of engagement is fundamentally more human and far more intimate.
A mere mention of the term theatre acts as a relief to many people. It is in this place that a m...