Master Class at MS 258 led by Life Stories Students

28 Jan 2011, 12:00 PM by keith, Middle School

Three high school students from the Life Stories program visited MS 258's after school theater program this week to lead a master class.  They performed a scene they have been working on from "Ordinary People" followed by a Q&A session about the scene and their process as actors.  The students from 258 were led through a series of theater exercises and games to help build the ensemble's skills for vocal volume, focus and responding to your fellow actors.  The students from MS 258 also staged a reading of an original play they have been working on with UAP teaching artist Brendan Boland about the events of the Salem witch trials.  It was an exciting session for everyone, and we look forward to more master classes led by Life Stories students in the near future.

Students' responses to the master class:

"I thought it was really awesome.  Today changed my mind about acting and made me want to do more.  Everything was helpful for us for play we are working on." - Anayess (MS 258)

"It was fun.  I liked the energy they brought and when we talked about character intentions." - Qsavan (MS 258)

"I really liked everything.  My favorite part was when they did their scene.  It showed how good acting can be." - Christian (MS 258)

"I thought it was really fun.  It was great to see how advanced we are as actors to be able to teach others." - Anthony (Life Stories)

"I'm thankful for the experience and I learned a lot from being able to teach kids younger than me." - Isaiah (Life Stories)

Life Stories Open Class and Semester Round Up!

18 Jan 2011, 10:51 AM by Juliagrob, Life Stories

        Life Stories has rocked the past semester after a stellar finish over last summer. We return with some new cast members, some returning faces and more vigor than ever to one-up the past year and continue the study of acting!

        This year the main focus is using the students to portray stories of their generation. While in the past Life Stories has been about the study of individuals and the performance of those real people in students lives, we have been overlooking their expert knowledge of their own experiences and lives that we see through their hard work and performances, but not through their voices. This year their study is concentrated on extracting that expertise.

       This past semester has been spent ensemble building and using exercises that, while fun, get to the root of what our students desire and want in their lives. As we built up this understanding, we shifted to working with existing scripts about young people. We used master works She Like Girls by Chisa Hutchinson and Ordinary People by Judith Guest to workshop student performances and make the connections between the young people in the play and our own burgeoning actors.

        After several classes of script reading, students were assigned two person scenes from either play and given a single session and the rest of the week to practice it leading up to the open class this past week. Though this was just a showcase of the work we've done so far, the students went all out and performed intimate, personal and well realized scenes that conveyed the power of their voices and the skill they have honed over the years. 

       Moving forward, we begin our character building and start to build for our show in the Spring. We have some surprises, more exciting developments and great performances to come this year, so check out the photos below of this past weekends work and stay posted for more updates!

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.
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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.
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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 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).



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!

Life Stories presents...AMERICANA @Theater Row (April 25-26)

06 May 2010, 2:15 PM by Juliagrob, Life Stories

On April 25th, the Life Stories Youth Ensemble premiered AMERICANA, 5 Short Plays exploring the American Dream to a sold out audience at The Acorn Theater at Theater Row.  The talented ensemble brought the house down with their brilliant performances. 

As one audience member put it,

"Ever since I left the theater, I’ve been a bit dizzy and emotional as a result of power of the ensemble’s truly courageous and life-changing work. Each and every cast took bold risks, made brave choices and allowed us to be witness to it."

Check out pictures from the world-premier performance of AMERICANA.

Cyndia, Shakeyva and Juanise star in Dominique Morisseau's "Love.Lies.Liberation."

Maxine tempts Devantae and Taylor in "American Dream Rehab" by Natalia Naman.

Chris tells Petra "I just don't do relationships," in Josh Koenigsberg's "Locked Up."

Sydney, Eric, and Lerone duel it out in Harrison Rivers' "The Truth About Marsupials."

 Josh and Isaiah taunt Diogenes in "How to Learned to Sing," by Jon Kern.

 Brittany sings, "I'm a mess right now," in "How to Learn to Sing."

Our packed house looks on!

Students speak about the process with playwrights during Q&A session.