FREEHOLD FORUM MARCH 2008 ISSUE

This month we are pleased to share the following:

• Freehold has a new great home! Check out the specifics below.

• Keira McDonald. Get to know Keira McDonald and find out what excites her about clown work and solo performance pieces.

• Gary Schwartz. Read Gary's perspective about what it really means to improvise.

• Justin Tracy. Justin gives us the low down on what it takes to choreograph danger.

• Spring class registration is now open! The 5% early class registration discount has been extended through this coming Monday, March 17th.

• 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.

Keira McDonald is an actor and teaching artist based in Seattle. She trained with Thomas Prattki at The London International School of Performing Arts and holds an M.F.A. in Lecoq-based actor created theatre. Her personal clown "Flossy" was last seen in Annex Theatre's PSUEDO OMEGA. She has trained with Giovanni Fusetti in personal clown. Her original one woman shows have been seen at Theatre Off Jackson, Re-bar, Frontera Fest (voted best in fest,) Manhattan Theatre Source's Estrogenius festival, The Mae West Fest, CHAC and have won critical acclaim and toured to sold-out houses across the Canadian Fringe Circuit. She is the Founder and Festival Director of Theatre Off Jackson's Annual Solo Performance Festival (SPF.) She teaches movement for actors at Cornish College of the Arts, has been on the faculty of Seattle Children's Theatre Drama School since 1997 and is teaching Personal Clown at Freehold this spring quarter.

Keira, can you describe how you got involved in acting as a career? Do you have an earliest memory of when you thought "this is what I want to be doing?"

I really never thought about the future. I just remember thinking this is what I want to do now. I was on the speech and debate team in high school in Texas where I grew up. You could "perform" ten minute cuttings of plays where you played all the characters and you would compete against other kids in cafeterias and classrooms on the weekends. I became absolutle addicted to this. I was obsessed with it. I read all kinds of plays and worked to cut them and play the characters who were totally inappropriate for me.

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FREEHOLD HAS A NEW HOME!

Freehold Theatre is ecstatic to announce our NEW location!

Freehold Theatre will be moving at the end of March from Odd Fellow's Hall to the Belltown area in the previously housed Speakeasy Networks office located at 2222 2nd Avenue, Second Floor. Our new location has a beloved history having been a former fringe-theatre space set in the heart of the vibrant Belltown neighborhood currently anchored by numerous coffee shops, restaurants and art galleries. Our new space will house two large studios (which includes a 49 seat performance space), a writing room, and administrative offices. Macha Monkey (www.machamonkey.org), also a former Odd Fellows' Hall tenant, will be sharing space with Freehold at our new location. We are excited at the prospect of providing a community gathering space where artists can train, collaborate with fellow artists and develop and present new work.

Please join us in hosting all of you (and meet our new neighbors!) at our upcoming Spring Open House, set for Wednesday, April 2nd from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. This event will be an ideal time for us to celebrate, explore our new digs, chat with our talented faculty and indulge in some beer and pizza. To see our exact new location, go to www.maps.google.com

We have been heartened and inspired by the incredible positive support we have received from the community upon hearing of our impending move. With the dedication of our exceptional faculty, staff and other community members, we are moving forward with renewed energy. We are committed to continuing our mission to engage artists of all levels of training, to deliver an Engaged Theatre Program that brings theatre to underserved populations including prisons, hospitals, low income communities and the general public as well as in developing our lab work and providing opportunities to share our work with others.

Thank you to all for your past and future support!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR MOVE

We are very much in need of some volunteers to help us as we move into our new space. In particular, we are in urgent need of help this week and in following weeks (through the end of March) to assist us with some renovation tasks in our new space. In addition, we also will need help with our upcoming move from Odd Fellows' Hall. The detailed schedule for tasks is attached to this email. Please check it out and see where you might be able to pitch in. We will be happily providing drinks and food! We hope to hear from you! (206) 323-7499 or email us at info@freeholdtheatre.org. Thanks in advance!

OPEN HOUSE AT FREEHOLD

SAVE THE DATE - Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Open House at Freehold's NEW Space
2222 2nd Avenue, 2nd Floor
7:00-9:00 pm
Help us Celebrate!

SPRING QUARTER IS NOW OPEN!

Freehold's Spring Classes are now open and the 5% discount for early registration has been extended to this coming Monday, March 17th. Go to our website, www.freeholdtheatre.org to look at our extensive and diverse spring offerings.

Improv Students in Matt Smith's winter Improv class at Freehold Theatre

UPCOMING FREEHOLD EVENTS

Come Attend our Spring Showcases - Here are two opportunities to check out the great work being done in Freehold classes:

Solo Performance Showcase - Under the direction of Marya Sea Kaminski, solo performance students have been working on crafting their solo performance work and it is now ready to be unveiled. Come check out their inspired pieces: Sunday, March 16th at 3:00 p.m. at Freehold, Free.

Spoken Word and Performance Poetry - If you are a fan of spoken word or have wanted to check it out, here is your chance. Daemond Arrindell, producer of the Seattle Poetry Slam and Freehold faculty member, has been assisting spoken word students in developing their spoken word talents. Come be amazed! Tuesday, March 25th at 7:30 p.m. at Freehold, Free.

PERFORMANCE AT THE WASHINGTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITY FOR WOMEN

You are invited to attend an extraordinary performance by the women from the Washington Correctional Facility for Women as part of Freehold Theatre's Engaged Theatre Prison Residency Program.

Freehold's commitment to bringing about extraordinary communion between audience and performer is at the core of Freehold's mission and was the inspiration behind the theatre prison residency program, which was created in 2003 at the Washington Correctional Center for Women.

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Gary Schwartz is a former student and associate of Viola Spolin - known as the Mother of the Improvisational movement. He is founder and director of The Spolin Games Players, a group of established actors performing Spolin Games in Los Angeles since 1988. Gary has pursued a dramatic acting career, highlighted by his performance in the award winning film, QUEST FOR FIRE as well as THE WIZARD OF SPEED AND TIME, MY BRUNCH WITH. On television, Gary has a co-starring role to Ben Vareen on ZOOBILEE. He has been a featured guest in two editions of FAERIE TALE THEATRE; a writer and series regular on The Disney Channel's YOU AND ME, KID; and his face may be recognized from TV guest appearances and commercials. Gary's other activities include looping for film and TV, including providing various background voices for Star Trek the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager as well as hundreds of other TV and film projects. Gary will be teaching Advanced Improvisation at Freehold this spring quarter.

"Creativity is not the clever rearranging of the known." - Viola Spolin

Improvisation produces an environment where the player can enter, happily into a state of play where the unknown event, situation, or relationship can be explored and discovered simultaneously by player and audience. Not knowing what will happen next is the essence of improvisation. An audience comes to the theater seeking the thrill and joy of being surprised; put off-balance momentarily to watch the twists and turns of players wending their way through the onstage playing. The appeal is the same for (or should be) the improvisational actor. Going forth into the unknown area, handling situations with unexpected grace, wit and joy. Playing full out - that is what makes improvising so much fun. Surprise is the gift that playing produces. In improv, ideally, the audience and player come upon the surprise together.

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Justin likes to run with scissors. He worked as fight choreography for Eclectic Theatre's Hamlet and played Laertes, Bernardo, and the Player King in said production. Some other acting stuff includes THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH at INTIMAN and the feature film "London Underground." He now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Knife fights are bad: people bleed and then they die. In Eclectic Theatre's recent production of Hamlet, directed by Cara Anderson-Aherns, staring Rik Deskin as Ham-the-man, we wanted a gritty, fast, and flashy way to end Shakespeare's greatest play. A knife duel is all that and more: relatively safe, intimate, comprehensible, and the perfect choice when space is tight. My chum saw a real one on a bus not too long ago; within seconds both men were bleeding. According to Michael J. Johnson, Certified Teacher, Fight Director and developer of the Society of American Fight Director's Knife syllabus and certification exam, a person goes into shock thirty seconds after getting cut, essentially rendering the victim helpless. The Boy Scouts call the radius of the arm and the blade combined the Blood Circle. Lesson 1: don't be there; that's where you die.

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FREEHOLD FACULTY NEWS

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 just returned from a run of Craig Wright's Lady in Houston TX. Tim Hyland will next direct Spokesong at Seattle Public Theatre opening May 16, for more information www.seattlepublictheater.org Tim will also appear in "A Streetcar Named Desire" at INTIMAN in July, 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.

Marya Sea Kaminski will be seen in the Washington Ensemble Theatre's production of Mr. Marmalade, written by Noah Haidle and directed by Katjana Vadeboncoeur, February 22 - March 16, Thursday - Monday at 8 p.m., (added late nite shows Friday 3/14 & Saturday 3/15 @ 10:30 p.m.; no show Monday 3/3). For more information, go to www.washingtonensemble.org.

Keira McDonald is the founder and director of SPF:2-Sweat Proof is Seattle's second annual solo performance theatre festival, and is dedicated to presenting fearless, cutting-edge, diverse performances by solo theatre artists. From February 29 to March 15th, 2008 SPF will host seven original solo plays by local and international theatre artists, as well as an evening of short solo performances presented by Seattle's Unicycle Collective. Each night's ticket is $15 and covers all performances, with the exception of Giant Invisible Robot at 10 p.m. on Saturday March 15. For full show descriptions and performer bios, please visit the Theatre Off Jackson website, www.theatreoffjackson.org.

Paul Mullin will be directing Pam Carter's new play Rondo in the LiveGirls Bakery Reading Series, 2pm April 5, go to: www.livegirlstheater.org. Washington Ensemble Theatre will be premiering his play The Ten Thousand Things in May. The world premiere of his play The Don Juan Cult Concertos at North Seattle Community College closed on March 9.

Shelley Reynolds will be seen in The Highest Tide, at Book-It Repertory Theatre, for more information, www.book-it.org.

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 will be 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.

FREEHOLD STUDENT/ALUM NEWS

Susan Bradford will be directing and producing with cast members Tim Parr, Ian Gerrard, Tom Spangenberg Waiting for Godot by Samuell Beckett, www.balagantheatre.org, March 27th - April 20, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8:00, two matinees: 13 April and 20 (talk back). Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.org.

Linda Chen will be playing Kafka in Words, Words, Words as part of "All in the Timing," by David Ives seven one-act comedies, Fridays and Saturdays from March 14 to April 5th, performance starts at 8 p.m., Microsoft Theater Troupe, location: Microsoft campus, building 31 cafeteria, Redmond, admission: $ 15. For more information, www.mstheater.org.

Ben Cournoyer will be in The Fantasticks at Seattle Musical Theatre presented by Civic Light Opera. It's playing March 14-30, with a free preview March 13 at 8pm. People can check out this website for more info: www.seattlemusicaltheatre.com.

Holly Eckert, artist/choreographer/director, along with composer, Amy Denio, writer, LA Heberlein, and painter, Brian Smith, as well as many of Seattle's fine actors, singers, dancers and musicians will be telling the story of an American exile's efforts to rebuild a life after prison in The Exile Project. The Exile Project blends music, dance and dialogue into an entertaining and engaging look at the multi-faceted nature of imprisonment - both as a stark reality and as a potent metaphor in our culture. Location: The Theatre, 3000 California Avenue SW, March 7, 8, 14, 15 at 8pm and March 9, 16 at 2pm. Tickets are $15 general, $12 students and seniors or Pay What You Can.

Evan Gackstatter is part of Dr. G and the funky recovery. For more information about the band, go to www.famecast.com/drgandthefunkyrecovery.

Richard Hesik will be appearing in Prelude to a Kiss at Theatre Off Jackson from March 27-April 20th, for more information: www.theatreoffjackson.org.

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.

Dorothy Lemoult will be seen on Wednesday March 19th at TOST in Seattle, 8:00pm as part of the Annual Rosie the Riveter Slam. The 3rd Annual Rosie Slam is open to Women Only in honor of National Women's History Month. For more information, go to: www.seattlepoetryslam.org.

Carol Maki performing stand-up comedy, Wednesday, March 26th and March 27th 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewelbox Theatre. Rendezvous--Jewelbox Theatre, 2322 2nd Ave, in Belltown, for more information: www.jewelboxtheater.com, cover: $10.

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!

 

	Yahoo Your Way to Help Freehold Using www.goodsearch.com!
Here is a free, quick and painless way to contribute financially to Freehold using Goodsearch.com! GoodSearch is a search engine (www.goodsearch.com) which donates 50-percent of its revenue to the charities and schools designated by its users. It's a simple and compelling concept. You use GoodSearch exactly as you would any other search engine. Because it's powered by Yahoo!, you get proven search results. The money GoodSearch donates to your cause comes from its advertisers - the users and the organizations do not spend a dime! To support Freehold, on the "Who do you search the web for?" type in Freehold and search away! Every time you do a search, money gets added to Freehold's account. Make "goodsearch.com" your home page and encourage your friends to do the same by going to: http://www.goodsearch.com/MakeHomepage.aspx. Thank you for your continued support!     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 in the Oddfellows Bulding on Capitol Hill comprises of four rehearsal and performance studios, including a fully equipped 92-seat black box theatre. The facilities and equipment are available for rent at very reasonable rates. 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, 1525 10th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122. back to top       Getting to Know Keira McDonald Our teacher was bad and gave us nothing. We just did it on our own and begged our parents to let us drive to Rockwall or Plano or Flower Mound, wherever we could go to meet the misfits like us and do these 10 minute shows. I LOVED it! When it came time to go to college I went to a big state school out in the middle of nowhere in Lubbock, Texas. I decided to study theatre. I knew nothing. I had never auditioned. Never been in a play. Did not know any of the lingo. Never taken an acting class. You did not have to audition to get in, you just had to show up. I had second thoughts. I had an acting teacher who slowly but surely BLEW MY MIND. I remember thinking "I have no idea what you are talking about" but that I wanted to learn. He would be yelling at me and coaxing me and I was a deer in the headlights wondering why he was behaving so oddly. I try to remember that when students look at me that way when I am flying around the room trying to get my students to make new choices and realize failure is their greatest ally. I don't consider myself an actor. I like to say I am on the acting spectrum. I consider myself to be a theatre artist because acting is only one of the things that I do. What was your experience training in Lecoq-based actor created theatre? How has it informed your work as a performer and as a teacher? Lecoq-based actor created theatre is a new term created by Naropa University so that they could charge a ridiculous amount of money to students who will never go to their campus. In exchange the students (me) get to go to London for two years and immerse themselves in a European trade school whose pedagogy was taken from a man named Jacques Lecoq who ran a school of mime and movement in Paris from the 50's until the day he died in 1999. My teacher Thomas Prattki was the pedagogical director of the school in France after Lecoq died. He then decided to open his own school in London. He is a master teacher and an amazing man. He is the best mask teacher alive today. The two year journey is very similar to the one in Paris today except it is in English. At it's core it is a school of creation often misunderstood and mis-characterized. It generally gets lumped in "Physical Theatre" category but most scholars and practitioners feel that this term is outdated and not accurate. While it does use the body and you are expected to do light acrobatics and learn precise movements, I feel that that is only a part of the pedagogy. Because the students of that school have gone on to be very important to the evolution of theatre and have gone on to become teachers and master theatre practitioners and have followed their own path and have taken different roads, it is hard to define. I will say this: It is NOT a method. It is not a technique. It is a pedogogy. As a performer, I am way less in my head about everything and I do not care if I fail. All I care about is first and foremost being present. If it is solo work, before anything can occur I have to stay present with myself and with the audience. If it is scene work, my first priority is being present for my scene partner. It kinda forces you in a very painful way to just do it. You are set up to fail constantly. It is a theatre of failure. Your work is bad for a long time before it gets good but it comes from a new place. A place of relentless choice making. It is not based on pleasing the teacher or trying to give someone what they want. You are knocked upside down looking for air bubbles and swimming with sharks but before you know it -- You get really present -- and because you have felt the sting of failure so many times the fear of failure does not get in your way you just fearlessly pursue your objective with a fierce presence. There is no room for the actor's ego, the actor's drama or any defensiveness. Nope. It is not about you. It is about being present in this moment and getting out of the way of the character who uses the actor's voice, body and imagination to emerge. What precipitated your interest in founding the Annual Solo Performance Festival? What excites you about the upcoming festival? I did the UNO Solo Festival in Victoria back in 2001 with my show "Showerhead." It was a juried festival and they flew me in on a float plane and housed me in a hotel and I got a gift basket. I had always done shabby gritty fringe . . . Gift basket? WOW? And then the festival itself was so much fun. All these performers from everywhere spinning their yarns and finding their style. I remember thinking "There are so many actor/creators in Seattle we should have one." At that time we still had a fringe festival so the actor/creators usually used that as a vehicle to get their work seen. Fast forward to 2005 when I came back from London and Patti West was figuring out what to do with Theatre Off Jackson. I pitched her the idea and she loved it. So we began to figure it out. The first year was really successful so we decided to go up to bat for the second time. I am really excited about all of the shows. I have never been more proud. All of the shows are so different and so honest and so brave. I have laughed until I have cried and I am constantly amazed at the boundaries that are being pushed. I am also inspired by the audiences. Sometimes I watch the shows and sometimes I watch the audiences. There is a great risk in being an audience member. Now, I am stealing this from performer James Judd who did his show "7 Sins" at this year's festival: He comes out on stage and speaks directly to the audience before the show starts: "Thank you for coming. You are taking a great risk in being here. There are so many what if's. What if it's bad and you are trapped here? What if I take off my clothes and dance about in a unitard? What if I force you on stage and weigh you and shout out your weight to the audience? Thanks for taking the risk. I would never do it. You are all better people than I am." Then he sits down and starts his show and risks his ass off all over the stage and he never dances in a unitard or weighs people. He tells one of the best and well crafted stories I have ever heard. I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair. What do you enjoy about teaching Personal Clown? The moments where they let go. It's like holding a restless baby who will not sleep. Struggle, struggle, restless fitful struggle and then you feel their weight return and you know they have just given up. Surrendering to the inevitable. This is when the good stuff comes out. But the struggle is really important too. Personal Clown is the ultimate reveal. In other work we are holding the mirror up so the audience sees themselves or society at large -- with clown work the red nose becomes a microscope and a magnifier. It will only be honest if the actor is willing to reveal the deep dark dank fluffy puffy stuff that makes them who they are. You get to be you. But an exaggerated character of you. That is why clown is so hard. You have to own all that shit. You cannot fight it. No matter how much you do not like it -- you have to own it or the red nose will not play. The red nose is like a lie detector. Maybe you don't like the fact that you are a control freak, pothead, have anger management issues, are kinda thick, hate your body, are in love with someone innappropriate, whatever -- you gotta own it or the red nose will "out" you. You can admit it and struggle with it, you just cannot try to hide it or it will become more visible. Keira will be teaching Personal Clown spring quarter at Freehold Theatre. For more information, go to www.freeholdtheatre.org or call the office at (206) 323-7499. To find out more information about the Solo Performance Festival, go to: www.theatreoffjackson.org. back to top       Performance at the Washington Correctional Center for Women Over a five-month period, a group of artists including actors, a playwright and Freehold's Artistic Director work with the inmates to create an original play based on the writing of the women. This year's public performance will be on Monday, April 7th at 6:30 p.m. The play's theme involves the subject of time travel reflecting on how, over time, women have lost and reclaimed their power. The impact of the women's participation in the program and their hard won completed play is consistently transformative both for them, in the process of developing their work, as well as for the audience members who witness the liberating results. George McGrath Callan, Ph.D. attended a previous performance at Purdy and noted that: The word transformation has been bandied about until it has very little meaning. It found its true tenor in the gym at Purdy last night. What hit the stage was a talented and vibrant troupe ... bringing into the light, the gold of the stories once hidden in the darkness of repression, repudiation, and shame. I have never seen anything like it. We hope you will be able to attend what promises to be a very moving event. Date: Monday, April 7, 2008, 6:30 pm Location: Washington Correctional Center for Women, Purdy, 9601 Bujacich Road NW, Gig Harbor, WA. Tickets: Free event but invited attendees MUST provide clearance information by March 14th in order to attend. For information about the clearance process for attendees, please contact Kate Gavigan at kate@freeholdtheatre.org or (206) 323-7499 by the deadline date of FRIDAY, MARCH 14th. back to top       What It Means to Improvise? by Gary Schwartz Creativity: A state that allows the unknown to reach into the phenomenal world. The unknown is a territory that holds all possibilities, until it is revealed. The act of revealing - that is creativity. Unknown areas are full of lure, yet, like deepest, darkest Africa once upon a time, it appears to us as a fearful place; a place of mystery, full of danger, mythologized into a place where one is destroyed, devoured and never heard from again. Many fear the unknown. Ah, but once opened up to the light of day and fully explored, Africa is a wondrous, exotic place and part of the known world. Bravo to the brave explorers. Are you among them? Dr. Livingston, I presume? Off-Balance: The doorway to creativity. When we are off-balance, we naturally tend to want to right ourselves, pulling back from the precipice of not knowing what will happen next. That moment of off-balance holds thrill, fear, joy, and anticipation - everything is possible. It is why we watch sports, go to the theater or wonder about death (the great unknown), it is in fact what gives joy to life. We want to see the unfolding of the unknown and watch it become part of the known world. We don't watch a team sport because we know who will win. We go to find out who will win! Not knowing is the big attraction. We don't go to the theater to see a story we already know, or if we do know it, then we go to be held in the present (the art of the actor) as we watch the unfolding of that story. Fear of the unknown causes us to prepare for the worst. For the player, fear of not coming up with the goods, of not having the wit or presence of mind to be able to give the audience this gift causes the us to prepare for the inevitable, the failure to thrill the audience. As if making a wrong turn in the jungle forces the explorer to halt the expedition, consult a map and retreat to the comfort of some nice hotel. Fear of failing in front of an audience causes the cautious or timid actor to collect a 'bag of tricks' -- sure-fire techniques, lines and old behaviors that have been rehearsed and proven effective in many situations in order to give an audience a nice surprise. Well, that's something, at least, but it's not improvising. It is comedy poorly rehearsed. Performing in this manner becomes the domain of the fast, the clever and quickest wits. For they are the only ones who can retrieve this type of information easily, thus appearing to an audience as brilliant and talented. Talented, yes; the talent being, the clever rearranging of the known (old, tried and true bits of information) to fit into the fluid, fast moving events onstage, simulating spontaneity. This is not improvising. This is someone cleverly using rehearsed material able to quickly apply these known "bits". This is indeed a great skill and there are many talented actor/comedians who are marvelous to behold when performing in this manner, but it does not have the electrifying power of true spontaneity. True spontaneity is achieved when player and audience are both present to the unfolding of an unknown event/outcome during the playing. The player is so involved in the pursuit of the game that he comes to that off-balance moment, not really knowing what will happen in the next moment and passes into a truly spontaneous state where the possibility of something new can occur -- Something unexpected for both player and audience. This is the creative act being born onstage - improvisation. Yet the off-balance moment can be very unsettling. It is a moment filled with dramatic tension. 'What will happen next? - Oh, my god, I don't know!' The urge to diffuse this moment with a joke is very enticing. A joke may break the tension and everyone laughs and the doorway is shut - the excitement gone. Many think of that as improvisation. It is not. It is, instead a cop-out from the scene. Now the door has to be reopened and may be many times in one scene, if the game is truly being played. The laughs one gets from making jokes at the off-balance moment cheat both player and audience from finding laughter in the thrill that comes when we lift-off from our known world and discover new things. To shrink from the risk of nothing occurring in this state (a possibility - for we are bound to run into blind alleys and then must rely on the known to lead us back to where we may try again) we are left to rely on old information (jokes and common references), known behaviors (mugging, funny physical mannerisms) and other tried and true rehearsed bits. These may be new to an audience, or maybe not, but it will provoke a laugh or two. Maybe just from the fact that the audience is made comfortable seeing familiar scenes (and therefore not alone). But nothing will have changed for audience or player and the vitality of theater is omitted. Result? Pedestrian Comedy Theater posing as improvisation. In the opinion of this writer, the proliferation of this type of theater is condemning improvisation to be misconstrued and developed into a training ground for quick wits and clever minds: Two elements that aid in the pursuit of real improvisation, but are by no means the real currency of improv. By only using quick wits and cleverness, the doorway to the unknown, uncharted land remains closed. As audience players, we go to see the unfolding of a game, event or theater piece because it lifts us out of the predictable state of our circumstances. It holds us in present time and reveals the vast potentialities that exist within every moment -- The field of all possibilities. It is only in the present where hope can be born and we realize that life is continually in a state of becoming. We stand in awe at all that is possible. We go forth without judgment and are open to all life's possibilities. This is why we marvel at great sports figures and great artists. We see the courage it takes to go into this area and applaud them for this. Yet, is it courage? Ask many of these people and they will tell you what a joy it is to be in this state. We witness their journey and are brought into the present with them. We get a taste of the present moment when we go to see a great play, painting, sporting event or other performance. It is the entire premise on which improvisation was founded. Viola Spolin created some 300 doorways, in the form of Theater Games to allow for this most ephemeral, but essential experience -- The experience of present time where true creativity is possible. My advice to the improviser: Be brave, go forth and have fun exploring. It's the creative thing to do. back to top       Choreographing DANGER! by Justin Tracy To avoid serving Ham during rehearsal we used rubber knives I bought for a couple bucks from Seattle Martial Arts Supply at 658 S. King Street. The rubber was nice - comfortable and safe. Once tech hit it was onto the "real" thing. We borrowed several aluminum and chrome-plated knives from the Seattle Opera to use in performance. These allowed for an important moment at the beginning of the Act V Hamlet and Laertes duel. By ceremoniously clinking the knives together we grounded the action: these knives are metal. I don't think many thought they were sharp, but if they want that they should've gone to www.youtube.com/ginzu. We used a pretty wide range of techniques: Aikido-inspired throws and rolls, Wing Tsun kicks, and Ultimate Fighting Championship style ground and pound in addition to good 'ol thrusts and hack-and-slash knife work. We spent a long time on each element, making sure that everything was safe, comfortable and fun. The real goal of this duel is to ramp the action to the climax when Hamlet kills Claudius. At the top of the fight the characters size each other up, then move to feints, slashes and dodges, a kick and a fall, and a surprise counter attack, giving Hamlet the first point. Though he is unanimously considered the underdog, he scores both the first and second points. Having the hero win early is quite uncommon in dramatic literature; the hero (or heroine) usually gets whooped real bad before getting the eye of the tiger - just look at the six Rocky movies. In Hamlet, however, the stakes are too high to dally: Laertes' dagger is poisoned - just one scratch and Hammy's a gonner. The audience is in on the subterfuge, creating megaton tension; so much even Laertes' fighting style is influenced. Though he starts out somewhat at ease, it soon evaporates, leaving only desperation and a thirst for murder. No Tybalt-ly grace here. But in the other corner Hamlet's looking at the whole thing like it's a game - a very important game with a great deal of respect and honor at stake, but still just a game. In fact, it's Hamlet's playful (and prideful) goading that gives Laertes the final push to disregard his conscience and go for the kill. Perhaps rapiers could have achieved the same raw, gritty, nasty, filthy, knockdown drag-out sorta fight we was looking for, but daggers are so close and seem so dangerous, even though, in my humble opinion, they're safer. After all, there's a lot less steel to get stuck in your eye! Daggers also work well for rolling one the floor and huge jumping slashes. Having less inertia, daggers are also easier to control mid-swing, The intimacy of the space would have made rapiers tough. The audience likes getting hit even less than the actors. The best self-defense against a knife is to never have one pulled on you. Anyone who fights with a knife is a criminal - they are deadly weapons. Even using one in self-defense is a very, very poor choice. If some jerk attacks you and you whip out your Gerber, now what? Are you really willing to open him up? What if your attacker takes it from you? Since everyone has so much experience with knives (preparing food, whittling, picking one's teeth) everyone should be considered an expert. If you get in a fight with someone who's got a knife, you will almost certainly get cut. I don't care what color your belt is - blood's still red when it hits the concrete. If you want to experience and speak Shakespeare yourself, Judith Shahn, faculty at the University of Washington's Professional Actors Training Program and at Freehold Theatre, will be teaching Shakespeare: Speaking the Verse this spring quarter at Freehold. For more information, go to www.freeholdtheatre.org or call us at (206) 323-7499. back to top