Life Stories Exchange with High Meadow Arts!

04 Aug 2010, 1:48 PM by UrbanArtsAdmin, Life Stories


We are excited to report on Life Stories’ first Exchange experience with High Meadow Arts’ Youth Ensemble Theater!
 
Founder of Urban Arts Partnership, Amy Poux, now lives in Stone Ridge, NY where she developed and runs High Meadow Arts, Inc.
 
The idea for both companies to join forces, provide students with new performance opportunities, and initiate an Exchange was born.

"Summer Shorts" was the culmination of the year long development of the actors and playwrights in the Life Stories program. Starting in the fall of '09 with the beginning of the acting and playwriting classes, students worked through to the next year studying theater as actors and refining original scripts as playwrights. Julia Grob and Zac Kline taught the classes all the way through to the spring '10, when the actors and plays were handed over to New Group Associate Director Ian Morgan, who directed "Summer Shorts."


“Rectify” was developed by High Meadow Arts’ Youth Ensemble Theater in Stone Ridge, NY.  Using an improvisational process, this ensemble worked together tirelessly over two weeks to develop this play about the terms of friendship and what it means to be human.
--------------------
Life Stories met up early Saturday morning and boarded a yellow 'cheese' bus to take all 23 members of the cast and crew upstate on the two and a half hour drive.

The young group (Y.E.T.) that makes up the Youth Ensemble Theater greeted us with open arms at the High Meadow Performing Arts Center. After taking in the fresh country air and the beautiful surroundings, both groups came together to engage in some ice-breaker and warm-up games.

 
Then it was time to get down to working: the groups rehearsed and tooks turns teching in the new space--a converted red barn!



 
We had a full house for the first full performance of both our shows. We wish we could have stayed longer, but Life Stories had to jump back on the cheese bus for the return journey to prepare for the next day’s hosting duties and show.
----------------------------
Even after a long Saturday, Life Stories was up and ready to go on Sunday at the 52nd Street Projects 5 Angels Theater. Students immediately began a tech run in the new space.


 
We were eager to greet our new High Meadow Arts’ friends who arrived from their journey and  began teching their show. 

The final performance of the combined shows was powerful! The packed house gave us a standing ovation!


 


 

We then celebrated the Exchange’s success with a Reception—where New Yorkers from Stone Ridge and the city mingled and spoke with us about our process and our plays.

The Life Stories 24 Hour Plays!

30 Jul 2010, 5:09 PM by UrbanArtsAdmin, Life Stories

Life Stories kicked off its summer program with The 24 Hour Plays at the
Studio Theater. 20 students, six directors, four writers and educational professionals met up on July
10th at the Studio Theater at Theater Row and prepared for the madness that
would be the following two days of creation and rehearsal. First order of
business was Orientation: a prop and costume piece was presented by all the
participants, as well as their secret talents and onstage desires. After the
eclectic props, (including a gas mask, boxing gloves, chinchilla fur coat
and Uno cards) were set aside and talents revealed, the actors were split
into their casts.  The playwrights (all Life Stories alum) worked with their
casts to develop characters and story lines, informed by what was shared
during Orientation.



The writers work with the mountain of props as their inspiration

The writers worked separately in the New Group office for the rest of the
day on their scripts while the actors received a Technical Theater Workshop
taught by 24 Hour Plays Technical Director, Philip Naude. After the class
was over, the actors left to rest up for the day ahead while the writers
honed their scripts to 24 Hour Plays perfection (the last one out by 9pm).

Philip Naude Teaches a technical theater class

On the morning of the 11th, the actors received their scripts:

Pop Some Pills, by Audasia Glenn, featured a cast of mental patients waiting
for a therapy session while revealing the reasons they are in the psych
ward, ranging from alien abduction paranoia to random fainting spells.


"We Don't Have to Talk About That." by Elizabeth Cruz-Cortez had the brother
and friends of demanding, leg-broken girl attempt to figure out whether she
was actually injured or not. Her demands ranged from, "Thomas, soda. NOW",
"Feed me popcorn!" and "Fan me now!"



The Five of Us by Manny Minaya chronicles the money troubles of five
roommates attempting to decide who was short on rent. Accusations fly as the
money spent is tallied up from gas masks, dresses and feline funerals.


The Alexandrite Diamond by Maynor Alas situated an oil tycoon with stakes in
Russia courting a mysterious Russian woman, only to be thwarted by upcoming
rap star "Ty-K47" and former child star "Lindsay Spears" and their wild
celebrity behavior.



Guest Directors: Hilarie Burton, Sarah Bisman, Tina Fallon (24 Hour Company
founder), Diane Neal, Helene Taylor and Lucas Steele all donated their time
and talents to work with students to rehearse and stage their plays


The mad rush from studio to theater, from rehearsal to tech and from
memorization to performance kept everyone on their toes until the 7pm
curtain, where all four plays were flawlessly performed and applauded.


Shout out to Clevins Browne who delivered poetry interludes commenting on
each of the plays that he conceived hours before curtain.

Special Thanks to our sponsor Montblanc for making this program possible!

MediaLab Update: The Final Week

27 Jul 2010, 2:52 PM by Elizabeth Rodd, Urban Arts MediaLab

 

Story by Jemima Asante

Photographs by Monae Blackwell and Darius Marte

Hey all, my name is Jemima Asante but people just call me Jem for short.  I’m a 17-year-old junior approaching my senior year, and this is my first time participating in an Urban Arts production.  I learned about Urban Arts through my school, but this year I really got involved with the organization when my teaching artist, Elliot Montague, recommended I sign up for MediaLab.  
 
My job for our documentary Type Cast is to create the titles and credits.  I have to put together the names of everybody who participated in and contributed to the making of the film.  I also have to add the educational statistics that our audience will read during the film.
 
While this has been a great experience for me I will admit that in the beginning I wasn’t too crazy about all the things that were going on.  Since it was my first time in a program with people who have been participating for years and already know each other, I often found myself feeling like I wasn’t contributing enough.  To top it off, I am an extremely shy and reserved person.  Because of this I stopped coming to the program for a week, but after I discussed it with my visual arts teacher, Monique Shubert, they got me a job I came to enjoy.  When I met up with Elliot to start creating the titles and credits I was very excited and happy about all the ideas we came up with. This experience has taught me that instead of backing away from situations I should include myself in them confidently.
 
 
Right now my crew mates and I are in post-production.  I’d say this is my favorite part because this is when we get to really put the film together and come up with refining ideas.  At the All-Crew Meeting my crewmates discussed what we could do to make the movie a learning and relatable experience for our audience.  
 
 
I hope that you guys enjoy the documentary and learn more about diabetes and how it’s affecting our neighborhoods.  I’d recommend it to anybody young or old, but I feel that young people will benefit especially.
 
I feel proud that I am contributing to spreading the message of diabetes prevention. I hope the film informs and teaches our audience to take care of their bodies and not just become a Type Cast.

On Mon, Aug 09, 2010 at 11:52 PM, Math Man wrote:
I am glad you stuck with it Jem. I am really looking forward to seeing the film (and reading the credits).
VIEW ALL COMMENTS

 

Story by Viandra McCarthy, Producer
Photographs by Courtney Gayle and Eduardo Luna
Hi, my name is Viandra McCarthy, and I am a new producer in the MediaLab program. As a producer I oversee my colleagues, research information and prepare everyone for the day or week. Producing is a big but rewarding task. My focus for week three of the Type Cast production is to continue collecting research, make sure interviews with our subjects are on point, and organize what we’ve captured so far to figure out what’s missing.
 
One accomplishment I’m really proud of is the interview fellow producer Kenya Zeigler and I did with student actor and poet Joshua Ramos. The interview ran smoothly and it was our first studio set-up. I was really moved by how open Joshua was about his personal life and struggles living with Type I diabetes. I’m not sure if I would have had the courage and strength to let everyone see the skeletons in my closet. Joshua was a very good interviewee because he was realistic, down to earth and relatable. 
 
Viandra McCarthy and Kenya Zeigler conduct internet research.
I’ve learned through my own research and through interviews with doctors at the Naomi Berrie Research Center that Type 2 diabetes, the adult onset version of the disease, is totally preventable and that sometimes our health is related to the neighborhoods we live in. For instance, in lower income neighborhoods there are a lot more fast food restaurants and cheap unhealthy substitutions for fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
 
Teaching Artist Elliot Montague leads All-Crew Meeting 
Being a part of the Type Cast production I’ve learned how to take the lead a little, and I’ve become more outgoing and confident in my work. This was a huge step for me because I am a reserved person. I’ve also learned skills that could help me in the media world—skills that I might not have learned until college. Best of all, I’ve made some really good friends.
 
That's all for now.  Next week we move into post-production. Keep checking back for more updates on Type Cast!

 

 

Story by Kenya Zeigler, Producer
Photographs by Courtney Gayle and Eduardo Luna
 Producers Kenya Zeigler and Viandra McCarthy

My name is Kenya Zeigler, and this is my first summer in MediaLab. I’m having a great time, learning lots of new things and getting a lot done.  I joined MediaLab because I want to pursue a career in journalism, and I feel this program is the perfect place to sharpen my media production skills. Currently I am one of four fantastic producers.
 

During week two of the program we began the production phase for Type Cast, a documentary about diabetes. Our objective was to capture footage to illustrate our concerns about the diabetes epidemic, so we spent the week focusing on first-hand accounts from people either living with or treating patients with the disease.


 Mentor Cristina Guerra leads the set design.

Early in the week while our set designers worked on the backdrop for our interview with Joshua Ramos, a teenager with Type 1 diabetes, the producing team developed interview questions for both Joshua and his doctor. First we focused on becoming experts on the topic. We did tons of research online and even took a trip downtown to the Bodies Exhibit with volunteers from Virgin Mobile USA.  There we had the opportunity to examine the human body up close and learn about body systems that are affected by the disease.

 

The Sprint Prepaid team enjoyed working with the MediaLab students on their nutrition projects, and we talked in detail about the impact of a healthy lifestyle on different biological processes and organs.  They are very well-informed about complex biology and chemistry!

 

Our triumph of the week was a visit to the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, located in New York’s very own Washington Heights. The Center is committed to helping youth cope medically and emotionally with having diabetes. Our film crew captured some amazing establishing shots of the Center, b-roll of Joshua, and an interview with Dr. Ileana Vargas.


 Joshua Ramos at the Naomi Berrie Research Center.

We had twenty minutes for the sit-down with Dr. Vargas, so the producers had to pick out only those questions that seemed most vital. This was no problem: we made content decisions on-the-spot, asking only the most important questions and listening attentively to detect whether Dr. Vargas had already answered questions on our list. Thankfully, the doctor was incredibly open. She shared with us her extensive knowledge of diabetes and gave us some background on her work with Joshua.
 

I am enjoying my time in MediaLab, but I still want to learn more about the camera and go deeper into my role as producer.  
 

That's all for now. . . . Stay tuned for more updates from our producers.

 

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Website design by Hudson Union