FREEHOLD FORUM APRIL 2008 ISSUE
This month we are pleased to share the following: Annette Toutonghi. Discover the inspiration behind Annette Toutonghi's new work entitled "Pants" at the upcoming On the Boards NW New Works Festival. Lucia Neare. Read about Lucia Neare's not-to-be-missed interactive site specific theatrical marvels. Freehold's Artistic Director Robin Lynn Smith is the 2008 recipient of the Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award! Read more in this issue. Student Spotlight: Linda Chen. Find out what Linda learned in her recent work in a Microsoft Theatre Troupe production. Freehold News. Hear about the latest Freehold news and upcoming events. Freehold Faculty and Student News/Shows. See the great work being done by faculty and current students and alums of Freehold. We always appreciate your input. Please feel free to contact us at (206) 323-7499 x14 or kate@freeholdtheatre.org.

 

	A New Work by Annette Toutonghi
Performer Charlotte Francesca Thone - "Pants". Photo: Tim Summers, 2008. Annette Toutonghi has been living, teaching and performing in the Northwest, on stage and in film, for the last 15 years. Annette will be performing at On the Boards as part of their NW New Works Festival and was seen last year in the ACT's production of The Women. She also has performed with Megan Murphy and Company for the Theatre De La Villette at the National Center for Dance in Paris. Annette is teaching Intro to Acting and Acting with Text at Freehold this Spring Quarter. Annette, I understand that you have been developing a piece that will be showing at On the Boards for their NW New Works Festival (May 10-11 at 8:00 pm). Can you share what the focus of the piece is? Yes, the piece is called Pants and we're very excited about it. It's not a piece based in linear story-telling. It's more of a collage. We're working with music, film, text and movement. Focus? I guess you could say personal anxieties, fear of intimacy and the texture of the space they create between people. What inspired you to develop the upcoming work? There were several picture books I found unsettling and completely compelling when I was young. I wouldn't say I liked them; it was more that I was disturbed by them and drawn to them. One of them was P.D. Eastman's "Are You My Mother" and another was Dr. Seuss' "What Was I Afraid Of." The latter is a book about this guy who goes out to run an errand and runs into a pair of disembodied pants. It's very unsettling for him. In the story, he's alone and terrified and for some reason finds it necessary to run one absurd errand after another--and each time he ventures out he encounters these pants. more ...

 

	FREEHOLD NEWS
Photo credit: Luigi Scorcia. Robin Lynn Smith - Recipient of the 2008 Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award Freehold Theatre's Artistic Director, Robin Lynn Smith is the recipient of the 2008 Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award, presented by Theatre Puget Sound (TPS). This award honors an individual who has devoted time, energy and talent to Seattle's theatre community, and whose career has had an influence on theatre locally and beyond. TPS will honor Robin at a reception on Monday, May 19, 2008 in the Alki Room, Seattle Center. The public is invited to attend. Admission is $35 per person and reservations can be made by calling (206) 770-0370. Additional information on Greg Falls and the Falls Award is available at www.tpsonline.org. This year, TPS celebrates the 11th anniversary of the Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award, as well as its 10th anniversary year as the region's premier arts service organization. The award was initiated in 1997 through a generous donation by Jean Falls to honor the memory of Seattle theatre visionary Gregory Falls, a former chair of the UW School of Drama who is credited with creating Seattle's vibrant theater scene. More than any other individual, Falls was "most responsible for the theater boom in this town," says Arne Zaslove, former artistic director of the Bathhouse Theatre at Green Lake. "He was the impresario of bringing it all together." Falls founded one of Seattle's mainstays, ACT - A Contemporary Theatre, more than three decades ago. He was ACT's artistic director for 23 years until his retirement in 1987. Theatre Puget Sound in its press release noted that it was proud to honor the legacy of Mr. Falls through the nomination of Robin Lynn Smith. The Falls nomination committee, composed of Jean Falls, past award recipients and TPS Board members, felt compelled to recognize the lifetime achievement of director and educator, Robin Lynn Smith. They noted that Robin's work creating and sustaining community honors the collaborative nature of theatre and its impact on the Seattle arts scene. more ...

 
FREEHOLD HAS MOVED INTO OUR NEW HOME!

Freehold Theatre is ecstatic to announce we have moved into our fabulous NEW Belltown location! In case you haven't been by yet, we are located on a lively block that houses other incredible businesses such as Mama's Mexican Kitchen, the Lava Lounge and Tula's (to name just a few).

Our new location is at 2nd and Bell at 2222 2nd Avenue, Suite 200, Seattle, 98121. Our new space has two large studios (which includes a 49 seat performance space), a writing room and library, and administrative offices. Macha Monkey (www.machamonkey.org), also a former Odd Fellows' Hall tenant, is sharing space with Freehold at our new location. A big thank you goes out to all those who helped with the move. We couldn't have done it without you!

If you weren't able to volunteer and want to make a contribution to Freehold, we are gratefully accepting donations to help fund our move.

Thank you all!

SPRING QUARTER IS NOW OPEN!

Freehold's Spring Classes are now open! For more information about our classes, go to our website, www.freeholdtheatre.org to look at our extensive and diverse spring offerings.

	Lucia Neare's Theatrical Marvels
Lucia Neare in Ooo La La! Photo: John Small, graphic by Sam Elias Design. Lucia Neare is a classical singer, theater artist, sculptor, performer, and teacher. She has taught voice in Seattle for the past 10 years and specializes in applying the Alexander Technique to the study of voice. As a vocal artist Lucia is unique in that she has trained extensively and performed both in western classical music (opera) and the south Indian Karnatic classical vocal tradition. Currently, she is Artistic Director of Lucia Neare Productions and specializes in the creation of interactive site specific theatrical marvels. Lucia teaches Alexander and Singing at Freehold Theatre. Lucia, what inspires you to create the work you do? I approach art making as a mystic; my theatrical work derives from images gleaned from visionary experiences, which are the guiding force of my art making and deeply inform my aesthetic. I create free, large-scale site-specific theatrical wonders that inspire play and dreaming in audiences, awakening in them a spirit of endless possibility and the recognition of the beauty and mystery of being. I hope that my work fosters psychophysical wholeness and awakens the ability to imagine more fully and creatively. We live in an age where our ability to imagine is diminishing, I think largely because of all the time we're spending looking into smaller and smaller boxes. We see a lot of visions of violence in these tiny boxes -- not so many visions of love. And even when we do see images that inspire love and good will, they're so small that it's challenging to imagine them happening in a world that's life sized and three dimensional. I believe the emergent and very real problems in the world are at heart a crisis of the imagination. I believe that if we could think more creatively and constructively, we could do much to resolve many of these issues. more ...

 

	Student Spotlight: Linda Chen
All In The Timing, Linda Chen, far right. Photo: Aleks Barbour. Linda, what was your experience performing in Microsoft Theatre Troupe's latest play "All in the Timing"? Swallowing a banana within thirty seconds while talking was one of the many new tricks I picked up from performing in All in the Timing play by David Ives. I was thrilled to participate in this latest Microsoft Theater Troupe play after taking Intensive Acting I and II, Scene Study and Alexander Technique at Freehold. All in the Timing was performed at Microsoft from March 14 to April 5 on Friday and Saturday evenings. It was the first full length play I have ever performed. My experience only confirmed how much I enjoy acting, and am looking to do more. I played Kafka, a talking typing chimp locked up in a lab cage, in one of the comedy acts. I was new to playing a comedy role since the roles I had done in classes have always been more dramatic and tragic. I was still able to use many techniques taught by Freehold to act out my character. I also learned a great deal working with actors who had done many more plays than I have. One of my fellow actors and I went to the zoo to observe monkeys and gorillas. We watched many online chimp videos to imitate their movements. This role required me to push my limits and comfort zone on my body movements. Since we were not dressed in chimp suits, we really had to be in character and get the audience to register that we were chimps quickly through our movements. I kept wondering if the audience was able to understand I was a chimp. This was my toughest obstacle in acting this role. What exactly is the Microsoft Theater Troupe? The Microsoft Theater Troupe was founded in 1995 to provide a venue for the performing arts at Microsoft. The Troupe has performed 16 full-length productions and has raised over $50,000 for charity. What did you appreciate about working with your director and colleagues? Our Director, Arwen Morton, was very good at letting the actors interpret the lines on their own. At the same time, she was really strict about us committing to our actions and sticking to what we rehearsed. The cast was big, which made the experience diverse and fun. I always admire the crew's dedication to a show when most of the time it feels like a thankless job. I cannot imagine actors trying to build and manage the stage and run the lights and sound. We would be so tired and confused, not to mention making a mess. Rehearsing 3-4 hours after each full day of work for two months could be tedious at times, but the audience's laughter and their appraisals made all the hard labor worthwhile. I noticed that how well we played on a given night was affected by how much the audience was engaging with us. The final weekend was full of excitement and sadness. Every cast member gave their best shot one more time. The audience was great. Friday show had almost 100 people, and the whole place felt like one big party. We all wanted to do more runs, but I guess all good things have to come to an end. I ended up with a great life milestone experience, many new friends and wonderful memories. I definitely came out as a better actor from the show.     Freehold Faculty/Alum Shows and News   FREEHOLD FACULTY NEWS Daemond Arrindell. Poetry Writing Workshop, Saturday April 26th - 2:00-4:30 pm, at Richard Hugo House facilitated by Rachel McKibbens $5 youth, $10 adults http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/31998 . Sunday April 27th - Seattle Poetry Slam's Grand Slam, 7:00 pm @ Chop Suey tickets at www.ticketweb.com. The top eight performance poets from this season throw down one final time to determine who will make the team that will rep Seattle at the National Poetry Slam. Featured poet Rachel McKibbens has featured twice on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, is the Slammaster for NYC's Louder Arts Project, and the Urban Word mentor teaching poetry through The Healing Arts Program at Bellevue Hospital. In her first year of slamming, Rachel helped her team win the 2001 West Coast Regional Poetry Slam with a perfect score. As of 2007, she has performed on the finals stage at the National Poetry Slam more than 3 times. Rachel McKibbens is the REAL DEAL - a powerhouse writer AND performer. The Seattle Poetry Slam Family is ecstatic to finally be bringing her out to share with our community. She will also be leading the writing workshop on Saturday, April 26th. More info at www.seattlepoetryslam.org Daemond Arrindell Every Wednesday night at ToST in Fremont, The Seattle Poetry Slam hosts a spoken word extravaganza. 8 p.m., $5 cover, 21 & over IC required, go to www.seattlepoetryslam.org. Tim Hyland is directing Revival at CHAC May 3-24, and Spokesong at Seattle Public Theater, www.seattlepublictheater.org at The Bathhouse May 16-June 8. He will perform in A Streetcar Named Desire at Intiman opening July 9. For more information: www.intiman.org. John Jacobsen just completed his screenplay adaptation of E. Nesbitt's "House of Arden" for a Los Angeles production company and is starting research for a studio feature, a film based on the infamous WWII battle in Huertgen Forest. He is also scheduled to start production in '08 on "Sweat", a PBS documentary on the history of the famous saunas and spas around the world. Jessica Jobaris is teaming up with composer/animator Luke Allen for their debut duet "Imagine that everything I'm doing is exactly how I want it to be," a multimedia dance-theater performance. From animals courting to Guns n' Roses to blood baths, Imagine... opens May 28, 29,30 and June 5th and 6th 8:30pm, Sand Point Naval Base/Workshop 30. Come check it out! For more information, go to www.corpuscorpus.org. Marya Sea Kaminski will be performing in the world premiere of Paul Mullin's play The Ten Thousand Things, directed by Braden Abraham at the Washington Ensemble Theatre running from May 23 - June 16. For more information, go to www.washingtonensemble.org. Paul Mullin's play The Ten Thousand Things will be premiering at Washington Ensemble Theatre in May. For more information, go to www.washingtonensemble.org. Lucia Neare will be performing in and producing Ooo La La on May 1st from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Harbor Steps and Occidental Park in downtown Seattle. For more information, go to www.lucianeare.org. Shelley Reynolds can be seen in The Highest Tide, at Book-It Repertory Theatre running through May 10th, for more information, www.book-it.org. Gary Schwartz is producing the Ha-Ha Sisterhood - Stand-up Comedy with Amy Alpine, Bryley Hull, Robin Fairbanks, and Jeanann O'Brien at Valley Center Stage in North Bend, www.valleycenterstage.org and will be a presenter at the Applied Improv Network conference in Trondheim, Norway June 5-8. Matt Smith can be seen in the recently nationally released feature film "Outsourced" produced by local film company Shadowcatcher. For more information, go to www.outsourcedthemovie.com. Amy Thone is playing Mrs. Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank at Intiman, for more information, www.intiman.org. Annette Toutonghi will be seen in On the Boards' upcoming Northwest New Works Festival running May 9-11. For more information, go to: www.ontheboards.org. Kate Wisniewski will be seen in Autobahn, a cycle of one acts by Neil Labute at the Rebar running Thursday through Saturday until May 10, www.rebarseattle.com. FREEHOLD STUDENT/ALUM NEWS Evan Gackstatter is part of Dr. G and the funky recovery. For more information about the band, go to www.famecast.com/drgandthefunkyrecovery. David Kubiczky will be in The Ten Thousand Things by Paul Mullin at the Washington Ensemble Theatre beginning in May. For more information, go to www.washingtonensemble.org. Jenn Ruzumna, William Hamer, Lisa Every, Karl Keff, Randall Foss, Bryan Thomas, Sara Rucker Thiessen are performing in The Community Theatre's Spring Production of Harold Pinter's Other Places opening May 8 through May 31 at The Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West Seattle. For more information about the show and to purchase tickets, go to www.thecommunitytheatre.org. Andy Tribolini has been cast as "Baron" in a feature film called "A/V" produced by Pale Cherry productions which will begin shooting in April. Andy will also be appearing as Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady at Centerstage (in Federal Way) opening May 9th, for more information: www.centerstagetheatre.com.     Freehold Theatre Guild   Freehold Theatre Guild The Theatre Guild is composed of a group of Freehold students and alumni who have shared in the unique Freehold experience. Freehold Theatre Guild's (FTG's) stated mission is "To help members of the Freehold Theatre Guild make the transition from student to active participant in the greater theater community". For those interested in joining Freehold's Theatre Guild, email Andy Tribolini at atribolini@hotmail.com with your desire to join. You will receive confirmation of membership by receiving notices about monthly meetings and activities in which you are strongly encouraged to participate. The Theatre Guild would love to have you be a part of the group!         About Freehold   A group of artists, who after years of professional work felt that the full potential of the theatrical event had yet to be realized, founded Freehold Theatre in the summer of 1991 when two prominent actor studios-the Pasqualini-Smith Studio (est. 1985) and the Mark Jenkins Actors' Workshop (est. 1985) joined forces. The founders, Robin Lynn Smith, Mark Jenkins and George Lewis, among others, are professional actors and directors whose credentials include recognized work on and off Broadway, as well as in major films, television, and regional theatre. They formulated the following mission: Freehold engages artists of all levels in training and experimentation so that they may become more innovative and heartfelt in generating theatre that has a lasting impact on the community we serve. As a center for the development and practice of theatre, Freehold Theatre is committed to art that embraces the full range of human experience and that inspires performers and audience to connect more deeply to themselves and to each other. We move toward this goal in four ways: Our Studio provides a place for actors, from inspired novices to working professionals, to train. Our Theatre Lab provides a forum for mature artists to research and develop new work and to re-interpret classics. Our Engaged Theatre Program reaches out to culturally under-served communities. Our rehearsal and performance facilities located in Belltown comprises of three rehearsal and performance studios, including a fully equipped 49-seat black box theatre. Here we strive to provide our artists with the tools necessary to make a deep and lasting impact on the community based on organic esthetics. Freehold has become an integral part of Seattle's thriving theatre community, having gained a reputation as the place for serious young artists to train and take the leap into performing and creating original work. In 2003 we developed an Engaged Theatre program in which we reach out to culturally under-served communities. The program comprises an annual tour to organizations that represent culturally under-served populations and a four-month residency at Washington Corrections Center for Women, in which the women create, rehearse and perform a theatre production. This year for the first time, George Lewis has developed a similar pilot program at the Monroe Correctional Center for Men. For more information about our programs and services see our website: www.freeholdtheatre.org.     What is the Freehold Forum?   The Freehold Forum E-Newsletter was born out of our desire to respond to requests from you, our Freehold community, to hear about the innovative and powerful work being done at Freehold Theatre by our incredibly talented and diverse faculty and alumni. The Forum will provide you with a wealth of information that will serve you in your work as an artist. The monthly Freehold Forum will include insightful interviews with talented actors, directors and playwrights, compelling articles on a wide array of topics to assist you in your artistic growth, cutting edge news on upcoming Freehold Faculty and alumni performances, highly newsworthy articles by Freehold's Theatre Guild and Freehold Calendar Highlights showcasing upcoming must-see Freehold Calendar events.     Become A Part of the Freehold Community!   Freehold is always looking for people interested in joining our team of committed and enthusiastic volunteers. Whether you have time, wisdom, strength, money, a desire to be involved in your community, or any combination thereof, we would love to have you join in our efforts. Here are some ways you can participate in our work at Freehold: Volunteer Opportunities Volunteers are highly treasured at Freehold!! We rely on and appreciate the invaluable and diverse skills our volunteers contribute which enable us to further our mission. We are currently seeking volunteers to help us with our administrative functions, staff performances and fundraising events!! If you have the desire to be part of a committed group of staff and other volunteers, please give us a call at 206-323-7499. Donations Freehold is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We rely on philanthropic donations from the community to help us continue to be a part of the theatre community and to keep the cost of our classes affordable. Donations may be sent to: Freehold Theatre, 2222 2nd Floor, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98121. back to top       A New Work by Annette Toutonghi In terms of process, I was also inspired by working with Megan Murphy on The Rich Grandeur of Boxing. We worked on it for several years. She's a very generous artist, bursting with images and ideas, and creates work that really honors the artists that she works with. You're working with some incredibly talented performers. What has the process been like for you over the past few months as you worked on the program? Yes! Jose Gonzales, Peter Dylan O'Connor, Margaret Savas and Charlotte Francesca Thone. I'm thrilled to be working with this particular group of artists. In addition to these performers, we've had Kaleo Quenzer and Hans Altwies working on film, Sarah Harlett collaborating on costumes and Juliet Waller Pruzan choreographing. It's been really delightful-working with them all. It's definitely a dream team. How did the piece evolve and change as you rehearsed the work? Well, we started with a couple of images and a question-so, it's evolved completely out of our rehearsals. I wanted the piece we created to arrive organically and to be directly related to the people involved. We planned to work, bit by bit, over a long period of time. One of the challenges was figuring out how to keep us, people with active careers, together for an extended period of time with very little budget. And in fact, we recently lost one performer because of a schedule conflict. Peter jumped in, right around the time when we were starting to find the form of the piece. We had just a month or so left to work. He's a terrific artist, and it was important to us to allow the piece to be influenced by who he is. With a shorter time frame than we expected, we had a new challenge. There has been a balancing act between bringing the piece into focus and continuing to keep it open enough so that we can still discover what we might have to say with this new ensemble. We also wanted the music to be as much of a part of the fabric of the piece as the dance and text would be - not something added for transitions or mood. I think we were pretty successful with that and I'd love to go even farther in that direction if we do another incarnation. I learned so much working with Jose and I'd love for music to be an even greater generative force in the work. What are you looking forward to most as you come up to the performance dates? I'm looking forward to incorporating our technical choices and to see how the transitions play in the piece. Being able to work with our projections full scale will be great. And of course putting it all on its' feet for an audience for the first time is going to be exciting and informative! What are you hoping to work on/develop next? Well, I'm interested in developing this piece further and/or working on a new piece, which would be inspired by something unusual and wonderful that happened around my grandfather's death. And here are the details! Our show goes up at On the Boards. It will be part of NW New Works Festival's Merril showcase on the 10th and 11th, along with Cabeen|Harrell Projects, Northwest Dance Syndrome and Hocolmbe Waller. (The pieces are all under 20 minutes in length-so you get to see a few shows with each bill.) The festival runs the next weekend too. It's exciting, an explosion of new work. There are four shows in the Studio and Mainstage each night and an installation each weekend as well. This year's line-up is terrific -- "Awesome", Juliet Waller Pruzan and Stephen Hando, Waxie Moon, The Half-Brothers and much more. I love it and I'd recommend that people check it out. You can find out more about it at www.ontheboards.org. back to top       Robin Lynn Smith Recipient of the 2008 Gregory A. Falls Award Robin Lynn Smith is a Founding Partner and Artistic Director for Freehold Studio/Theatre Lab in Seattle. She has worked for the past 25 years acting, directing and teaching in Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and New York. She has directed Off Broadway - Curse of the Starving Class at the Promenade Theatre, in Regional Theatres, and is presently directing Freehold's Engaged Theatre Program which tours Shakespeare productions to prisons, projects, and tent cities. She served as an Artist in Residence with Dan Sullivan at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, where she directed several productions including Marvin's Room, Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire De Lune, City of Gold, and the developmental workshop of Elizabeth Heffon's New Patagonia. She has also directed in Seattle at The Empty Space, New City Theatre, On The Boards, ACT, Seattle Children's Theatre, and she is presently an Affiliate Artist with Bartlett Sher at Intiman Theatre. At Freehold she directed the award winning Laboratory Investigation of The Seagull, as well as An Altered Life, by Elizabeth Heffron, and classics like Chekhov's Three Sisters, as well as The Winter's Tale, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, and Cymbeline. She is the director of Freehold's annual residency in the development of new work with the inmates of Washington State Women's Penitentiary. Robin has been a guest director and instructor at New York University's Graduate Acting Program, the University of Washington's Professional Actor Training Program, and is presently on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts. She holds an MFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and a BFA from Boston University. Robin is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Past Falls Award Recipients: 1998 - Marjorie Nelson 1999 - Mac Perkins 2000 - Clayton & Susan Corzatte 2001 - Linda Hartzell 2002 - Melissa Hines 2003 - Rex Carleton 2004 - Susan Trapnell & Kurt Beattie 2005 - Jim Ragland 2006 - Todd Jefferson Moore 2007 - Karen Gjelsteen & Ruben Van Kempen We hope to see many of our Freehold community at the ceremony on Monday, May 19th! back to top       Lucia Neare's Theatrical Marvels This is why I'm so passionate about creating living, breathing experiences for audiences that offer vivid infusions of whimsy. I hope my work fosters simple things, like the assumption of friendliness. Here in the Northwest we tend (maybe because of the weather) to pull away from each other. I really love our city and wish it was a friendlier place, a place where it would be okay to smile at each other when walking down the street. The idea is that what we see we imitate (humans are beautiful imitators), and when we consistently view models of fear and violence, this is what plays out. I'm really interested in offering something completely different, something so whimsical it inspires wonder -- that magic can happen on the streets, that it is possible to fill the air with love through the power of our intent. I believe our world needs more of this. In the broad scheme of things the things my artistic team and I are doing are really small, but I believe they're really important to do. You have three upcoming artistic works in production. Can you talk about what audience members have to look forward to? I'm really excited by our three upcoming pieces, Ooo La La, Geistbrucke, and Lullaby Carriage. Ooo La La is a free public performance spectacular on May 1 from 6 to 8 pm at both Occidental Park and the Harbor Steps in downtown Seattle. This May Day confection is inspired by art deco and the surrealist tendencies of the Jazz Age. It celebrates sweets, romantic love, and the act of wishing. Coinciding with Seattle's First Thursday Art Walk, our festival of delights creates a grand corridor of whimsy throughout downtown and includes a 1920s dance orchestra, bubblegum-snapping Brooklyn bellboys, lovesick maids, dancing cakes, French waiters with a secret, and many other surprises presented by the cast of almost 200 of Seattle's sweetest actors, dancers, and musicians. Follow the parade from Occidental Park, or "board" the Queen May on the Harbor Steps at 6 pm as she sets sail to Whimsy. Ooo La La draws audience members into a world of elegance and whimsy. It invites them to let go of the mundane and to pass through the veil of the imagination into the sublime world of the dream. The two-hour performance is unabashedly celebratory, evocative of the embarkation of a grand ocean liner of the early 20th century. The atmosphere is fun and free. Audience members can enter the world at any point during the evening, have a full, sweeping experience of surprise and delight, and dance the night away. This piece was inspired by the May Day celebration of fertility and renewal. I got to thinking about love, how sweet our hearts are, and how it's possible that a person we're interacting with, maybe even a person we're taking for granted in some way, is totally and deeply in love. I love the idea of celebrating love, and this led me to wonder: "Just for a couple of hours, what would it be like to live in a city where there was love in the air?" The second piece, Geistbrucke (German for "Spirit Bridge") is an evening concert and installation that takes place in a cemetery. In the spirit of the Mexican Dio de las Muertos, Geistbrucke celebrates the beauty and mystery of life and death. Our concert lasts about an hour and infuses the air with reverence and wonder, exploring themes of love, the afterlife, and the beauty of the universe. Audience members are invited to wander as they like. They may come into the performance at any time, move close or sit in the distance, bring flowers, meditate, visit gravestones, or participate in any other quiet way. Geistbrucke invites individuals to choose their own meaningful reflection in a place that may be highly personal to them. At the same time, the piece is an opportunity for community to meet around questions of remembrance. For me, cemeteries are geographic reminders of the preciousness of life. Often forgotten places or spaces where joyous events seldom occur, they also can be peaceful, comforting, and timeless. Through art, Geistbrucke makes palpable their power of place. By combining sound, light, and atmosphere, Geistbrucke transforms the experience of a cemetery, inspiring and enriching contemplation of life and death for all. We will offer Geistbrucke in Novelty Cemetery in Duvall this summer. Our third offering is Lullaby Carriage, an outdoor mobile interdisciplinary performance celebrating the night. The piece will take place on two evenings this October in Magnuson Park. Inspired by iconic images of the horse and chariot and the mythology of the night sky, the piece offers audience members of all ages passage in four horse-drawn canopy beds. Two beds are accompanied by three mothers, female actors in white performing traditional bedtime activities, such as telling stories and singing lullabies, while two beds carry a choir of snorers, sleepy male performers who yawn well-worn melodies and engage audience members. The carriages circuit continuously, stopping at tents along the way for riders to enter and exit. The audience is encouraged to lie back, breathe in the summer evening, and dream. Lullaby Carriage draws upon the vocabulary of bedtime to wonder about the nature of memory, dream, and all that we hold innocent. The piece offers large-scale yet soothing and whimsical experiences to a world besieged by images of violence. It invites all into a land where dreams become real. I'm really lucky to get to work with incredibly talented and sweet people: Cathy Madden is directing all three performances, Matt Goodrich is the musical director, and David Verkade, the technical director. They are all long-time friends and collaborators of mine. This year I started working with the wonderful Jessica Jobaris, who is choreographing Ooo La La, and am so happy and grateful to know and work with Stacey Hansen and Linet Henry, both of whom are supporting the production end of Ooo La La. I also have an amazing group of visual artist friends who consistently bless me with their talents, including Rob D'Arc, Sam Elias, John Small, Patrick Rogers, Barbara Fugate, and Linda Kokanovich. You teach the Alexander Technique and Singing at Freehold and also teach privately. Can you describe how the Alexander Technique has informed your life and work? The Alexander Technique looks at how we do what we do. It starts with our thinking and directly enhances human coordination, which for a performer is so incredibly necessary since humans are such amazing imitators. When an audience is viewing a performer on stage, the audience literally imitates what a performer is doing. If a performer is tight or scrunched, then the audience's experience of the performance isn't all that satisfying, because they get tight too. One of the reasons we like to watch great athletes is because we imitate them -- we may not be doing the movements -- but we get to experience their artistry on a certain level. For performers, actors, and singers and dancers to move well is a gift to the audience and creates instant presence. The Alexander Technique not only helps people move more easily, but it also it enables the performer to reliably carry out their artistic intentions. We are lucky to have some great teachers of the Alexander Technique in the area. All of my work in the Alexander Technique is based on the work of my teacher, Cathy Madden, who studied with Marjorie Barstow, the first graduate of F. M. Alexander's training program. What Alexander discovered was that the quality of the relationship between the skull and spine is the main determining factor in our coordination, our ability to do what we want to do in the way we conceive it. His other discovery is that we have a choice in the quality in this relationship. We can ask our system to make a change, and use constructive thinking to ask for this change. How we think we are made is how we move, and for a performer, this is huge. If I am on stage and overly tight, the audience probably won't want to watch me. I use the Alexander Technique when I am doing activities I care about, where the quality of my coordination matters: singing, performing, teaching, creating my large scale works, meeting people -- any time I care about the quality of my communication. For me, the Alexander Technique has been a huge benefit in understanding what my whole self is and having a psychophysically whole conception of myself. Ultimately, I would say that it's enabled me to be more fully myself. I am very grateful that I get to teach Alexander Technique and Voice at Freehold with Lynne Compton and Matt Goodrich. Both are amazing teachers, performers and friends. There's a marked synergy that happens when we're in the studio together -- it's a lot of fun, and students seem to make huge strides in coordination having three teachers in the room. By teaching the Alexander Technique, my own understanding continues to grow, which is a great experience and rare privilege. For more information about Lucia's upcoming productions, go to www.lucianeare.org. back to top