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Freehold's Gala Auction - Bring Your Fire
Donations Are Still Being Accepted!
We hope you all are saving Saturday, June 21st at 8:00 pm for the Freehold Auction. This year we are thrilled to be holding the event
at the beautiful Lee Center
for the Arts on Seattle University's
campus. It will be great to see you all there!
If you have not had a chance to donate items to the auction, there is still time to do so! Auction items can range from services (i.e. gardening, house
cleaning, teaching dance, et ctr.) to providing a vacation home getaway, tickets, jewelry, donations from your employer,
art or perhaps hard to get or unusual items. If you would like to
donate or know someone who would, please contact Mark Chandler at markc6275@gmail.com. Donations to the auction help keep Freehold classes
affordable, funds the Engaged Theatre Program at prisons and tent cities, allows us to acquire specific hardware needed for classes and productions,
funds the Diversity Scholarship Program, and provides a great sense of community. We are also in need of volunteers to help with the event. If you are
interested in volunteering, contact Louise Penberthy at louisep@mindspring.com. Thank you to all who have already contributed!
Spring Class Showcases at Freehold
Have you been wanting to find out what goes on in some of Freehold's classes? Here is your chance to check out the work of some of our
students:
June 5th at 6:00 through 11:00 pm - Playwriting III Showcase Marathon (students taught by Elizabeth Heffron)
June 23rd at 8:00 pm - Advanced Scene Study Showcase (students taught by Brennan Murphy)
June 26th at 7:00 pm - Meisner Showcase (students taught by Robin Lynn Smith)
The showcases are free and will be held at Freehold Theatre, 2222 Second Avenue, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98121. If you have questions, contact us
at (206) 323-7499 or info@freeholdtheatre.org
Freehold's New Space
In case you haven't had a chance to come by our new space, here is a glimpse of our new home!
Freehold Registrar Jenny Schmidt
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Freehold's New Theatre Space
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Freehold's Lobby
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Freehold's New Acting Studio
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Freehold's Library
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Save the Date for Freehold's Engaged Theatre's Production of Othello
We are excited to announce Freehold's upcoming Lab of Shakespeare's Othello which is being produced as part of our Engaged Theatre Program.
This year's production will include the outstanding talent of actors Annette Toutonghi, Reggie Jackson, Sylvester Kamara, Lauren Herrick, Mariah Cane
Ware, Ryan Brantley, Jieun Kim, Gino Yevdjevich, Chris Bell, Bart Smith and led by
Freehold's Artistic Director Robin Lynn Smith. This year's production will include several open rehearsal showings and post rehearsal discussions
at Freehold on July 2nd and 3rd, at the Women's Correctional Facility in Purdy on July 1st and at the Lee Center on July 6th and 7th with the goal
of producing the full play in January 2008. Save the dates and be a part of the exploration and telling of one of Shakespeare's most compelling works.
Summer Quarter is Now Open for Registration!
Whether you want to take an Introductory Acting class, an Acting for the Camera class, an Intensive Improv class or a New Play Lab ... we have it all this
summer for you! For more information about our exciting array of classes, call us at (206) 323-7499 or go to our website,
www.freeholdtheatre.org to look at our extensive and diverse spring offerings. There is a 5% discount for
registering before June 9th!
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The Diversity Scholarship Pushed Me To Act by Donella Perez-Barbarus
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I have always wanted to act. As a child my favorite Disney cartoon was "The Rescuers." I would prance around the house holding
onto the record sleeve of the "follow along" book and record set I got for Christmas one year. My mom likes to tell the story of
how I could recite all the lines from the movie/recording-and I mean all the lines. I played every character, from Miss Bianca,
to Penny, to Madame Medusa. I would switch accents accordingly; after all, Miss Bianca's voice in the cartoon was portrayed by Eva Gabor.
more ...
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Freehold Spotlight: Annya Uslontseva
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Annya Uslontseva has been an integral part of Freehold's community for many years providing the images for most of our postcards and brochures. In addition
to being an incredibly talented graphic designer, Annya is also a painter and incorporates her art into her design work.
How did you first get involved working with Freehold?
I believe the first poster I did for Freehold was in the summer of 2005, it was for William's Shakespeare Winter's Tale.
But first I did some work for George Lewis. He was the one who introduced me to Freehold.
How did you become interested in studying graphic design?
I think moving to the states had a lot to do with it. When I lived in Russia, I was in love with the Russian language. I felt it.
I wanted to become a journalist and be able to communicate and inspire thousands of people. But when I moved to Seattle I kind of lost that.
I did learn English rather quickly, but was never able to develop the same connection with it.
However, in the process, I did discover a new language, a more universal language. A visual one - called Graphic Design.
It gave me a way to communicate with people across the borders ... pretty cool if you ask me. Oil painting is what I started out doing.
But pretty soon I knew painting for a living was not for me. There is a lot of solitude in being a painter and I like people to much.
more ...
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Freehold Faculty/Alum Shows and News
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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.
Elizabeth Heffron playwright for Foxy Populi, the piece she did for Annex's show Keep The
Light On is going to be published in the next edition of KNOCK Literary Journal.
Tim Hyland is directing 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.
"Imagine that everything I'm doing is exactly how I want it to be" Jessica Jobaris and Luke Allen.
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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 8:30 pm,
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.
Darragh Kennan will be doing a season with American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, appearing in
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry IV Parts One and Two, and The Belle's Strategem.
Cyrus Khambatta, Artistic Director of Phffft! Phffft! will be rolling, sliding, bouncing and dancing around the sound
(WA and OR) with several new pieces - Body of Water, a commission using HUGE rubber balls for the Bellevue Crossroads
Waterpark Opening - Mass Movement which will take over Kent Station Mall by surprise (you have to be there to find out)
as well as for the 2nd edition of Artopia in Georgetown, and much more. June 2, Performance, Body of Water, Crossroads Water Park Opening
Ceremony, 16000 NE 10th St., Bellevue, WA, Admission is Free, info: 425-452-6881. For more information about the other
performances around town, go to: www.PHFFFT.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. In addition, there is a
special event on Saturday, May 31st from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm hosted by Millennium Ten Productions. Join Stewart Brand, Richard Rhodes and
Paul Mullin as Millennium Ten Productions proudly presents "What Is Deep Time and Why Should You Care?" a panel discussion and gala
event promoting long term thinking in association with Washington Ensemble Theatre's world premiere production of The Ten Thousand Things
Stewart Brand will kick off the event with a presentation on the work of The Long Now Foundation, which provides
counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set by promoting "slower/better" thinking and creatively fostering respon sibility
in the framework of the next 10,000 years. The Foundation's flagship project is the design and construction of The Clock of the Long Now,
which will keep time for 10,000 years. Brand is well known for founding, editing and publishing the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG (1968-85).
Following Stewart's talk will be a brief excerpt from Paul Mullin's The Ten Thousand Things.
The event will culminate with a panel discussion open to the audience hosted by Brand, Mullin and Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer
Prize-Winning author of THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB. Rhodes is currently working on a post-Cold War history,
THE TWILIGHT OF THE BOMBS; and a documentary film about past and present efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons.
There will be opportunities for informal mingling before, during and after the presentations. Beverages and
hors d'oeuvres will be offered. The string ensemble Bella Trio will provide musical diversion during a silent auction.
Admission is open, but a suggested donation of $15 will be requested, proceeds from which, along with the silent auction,
will go to efforts to bring the play to new venues, firstly in San Francisco, then to deep time significant places across
the globe, including the site of the Clock's construction in Eastern Nevada, Stonehenge, China's Great Wall,
the Buddhist Complex at Borobudur, the Great Pyramids and Machu Picchu. This event will be held at ACT - The Bullitt Cabaret
700 Union Street, Seattle, WA 98101 US. For more information: 206-679-5947.
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.
FREEHOLD STUDENT/ALUM NEWS
Irwin Galan just completed a TV commercial for Credit Union of Washington and will be playing Eilif in Mother Courage
with EDGE Theatre Ensemble in July and in September will be in LA MAriposa with Book-It All Over.
Lee Ann Hittenberger adapted and directed Charlotte's Web with Edmonds Community College. She is also playing Essie Miller in
Ah, Wilderness with Edmonds Community College which opens in their black box theater May 29-31, 7:30 pm and June 1st at 2 pm and June 5-7,
7:30 pm. She was also hired by Bainbridge Performing Arts as a movement coach and to choreograph
fights in Macbeth.
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.
Stephanie Rouge is performing in The Rocky Horror Show playing in Olympia at Harlequin Productions-State Theater,
opening June 5th. Here is the link, www.harlequinproductions.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 and John Paulson can be seen in a film called Visioneers playing as part of SIFF June 12th and 14th.
Trailer: www.visioneersthemovie.com.
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Freehold Theatre Guild
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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!
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About Freehold
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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.
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What is the Freehold Forum?
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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.
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Become A Part of the Freehold Community!
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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.
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Cymbeline Poster by Annya Uslontseva
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Freehold Spotlight: Annya Uslontseva
I was always more interested in the meaning of art, than the technique. Painting for painting sake felt egocentric to me.
When I paint I create a reflection of me; but when I design I create a reflection of a person or organization I work for.
It is just more challenging, and more interesting, and more honest.
One of the things that keeps me going is that as a designer you are constantly learning ... and not just new software, but lots of new stuff.
You have to understand a subject in order to make others understand it. So when you are hired to design a poster for a
Shakespeare play, you have to read the play then read everything that was written about the play and find out what the social
and political atmosphere was like when the play was written. It is fascinating, and I know that I am a better person because of this.
We have been lucky to have you not only design our postcards but also as the painter behind much of the art seen in our postcards and brochures. What compelled you to combine both your artist work as well as your design work?
As a freelancer, I try to provide the most value I can to my clients. So if illustration or photography is needed,
and I believe I am capable of delivering it, then I will. I mostly do it to save time and money to the client. But I do enjoy it.
This is the narcissistic part of design, creating something beautiful from scratch and being able to claim it as yours.
To have the control of all the aspects of design: from the idea to illustration to delivery of the final print.
Think about it this way - the idea is like a baby, you don't trust anybody with it, you want to raise it yourself and make sure
it turns out exactly as you plan. In real life you cannot do that, but in design you sometimes can.
Do you primarily work with arts organizations and if not, how does the work you do with Freehold compare with your other client work?
To be perfectly honest, I will work for anyone who can pay. But working with art organizations (Freehold in particular is "soul saving" for me)
is personal. You, Freehold, have an important message, and I am honored to help you bring that message out.
To me, design is about communication. My job is to help you communicate. It is so much more enjoyable for me to do my job when
I believe in the message. Plus, I get to meet most incredible people. This is the best thing about working with art organizations - people.
What are your future goals or aspirations with regard to your career?
I want to design. Forever.
Where can our readers see your work?
You can visit my website www.auadesign.com. I do need to update it. I am fighting a never ending battle of staying current.
If there is something in particular that the readers are interested in, they are welcome to write to me at anna@dwall.org.
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