Urban Arts Master Classes

The 2011 Montblanc Young Writers Project

25 Oct 2011, 5:31 PM by frank

On October 23rd, seven former Urban Arts Partnership playwriting students came together in the spirit of friendly competition to participate in the 2011 Montblanc Young Writers Contest, the winner of which becomes the sixth writer for The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway on November 14th. The students met at the new Urban Arts office early Sunday morning and had a quick discussion and pep talk with acclaimed playwright Lucy Thurber, where she explained her career and inspirations, as well as what the writers will be faced with in the upcoming day.

Once the seven alumni settled in with the task of writing a 5-7 minute play in the next 6 hours, Academy playwriting teacher and working New York City playwright Zac Kline was on hand for mentoring and overseeing the new drafts coming through. After a long day of writing, deleting, revising and finalizing, seven new short plays were printed to paper:

-The Warning by Diogenes Martinez featured a sister attempting to sabotage her sibling’s date when she realizes that she will be going out with her ex.

-Anuradha Golder wrote Domino, a play about two activists attempting to sway a friend for one of their causes.

-Dial ‘M’ for Crazy had two mental patients; one a grown woman who acts out like a 10 year old and another who fears the letter ‘M’, being counseled by a new therapist. Written by Maynor Alas.

-Audasia Glenn’s play about three sorority sisters attempting to escape from a cabin in the woods was titled Sadistic Sophistication.

-Three ‘criminals’ doing community service discuss their crimes and what they can do to improve their lives in Emmanuel Minaya’s Everybody’s Dirty Laundry.

-Stuck in the Middle With You placed two strangers with a mutual friends at odds with one another until they discover they have crossed paths before. By Clevins Browne.

-A Devil's Contract brought a lovesick man to hell in order to retrieve his soul from the devil and her hype man. Written by Anthony Naranjo.

Monday afternoon brought the writers, actors and directors together at The National Arts Club for a brief 2-hour rehearsal before the final reading. Lake Bell, Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rusuk of How To Make It In America lent their time and talent to read for two of the plays, and Michael Kenneth Williams of The Wire and Boardwalk Empire gave his talent to two others.

After all the impressive, hilarious and touching plays were read, the 12-person panel (which included Montblanc North America CEO Jan-Patrick Schmitz and last years Young Writers Project winner Elizabeth Cruz Cortes) retreated for a difficult decision. After a tough vote, Anthony Naranjo and his play A Devil's Contract were selected, and this November Anthony will be making his Broadway debut at the 10th Annual The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway.  Congratulations!

 

This week, we were pleased to welcome photographer Jan-Patrick Schmitz, CEO of Montblanc North America, into our new partner school, Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology, for a Master Class on portrait photography with students in the after school photo program with teaching artist Laurie Krupp. 

 

Jan-Patrick shared examples of his work and the techniques he used to achieve certain effects.

Students and Jan-Patrick discuss principles of light and strategies for shooting in both natural light and studio settings.

The students' work was uploaded for viewing and reflection toward the end of the class to discuss what tools they used to capture their subjects in different ways.  Examples of students' work from the shoot can be seen below: 

"We turned the room into a photo studio.  We used paper backgrounds to shoot portraits.  Lighting can show the details in people's faces, and I learned not to shine too much light into someone's face.  It can be a little bit hard.  I like taking pictures and talking about other people's work that's awesome and unique." - Danissa, 9th grade

"I was shooting portraits of a friend of mine.  Sometimes I shot them from different angles with different framing.  I tried some with natural lighting and some with hot lights.  My favorite part was taking pictures and manipulating the light to my advantage." - Kylan, 9th grade

"We were learning how to bend light to the best angel that suits our frame.  My favorite part was learning how to manipulate natural light to capture the moment.  I like how photography shows the common factors between different people.  I love the class." - Venitia, 9th grade

 

 

Friday September 30th was a great day for the Peapod Academy and Montblanc and the attendees of the Black Eyed Peas concert in Central Park to raise money for programs that alleviate poverty. The day started early with us four representatives of the Peapod Academy’s Media Lab, me (Lorenzo Jackson), Genesis Urena, Petra Wilmer, and Ihor Grynthestiky. We met at 11:30 and discussed the goal for the day, which was to make a short documentary on the concert and our own experiences revolving around how the Peapod Academy is helping us to rise above the astounding poverty rates in New York City. 1.8 million people in New York live under the poverty line, and the concert is to benefit Robin Hood’s contribution to programs, like Urban Arts Partnership, that assist in lowering the risk of poverty.

 

We met with the staff members of the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus near Central Park. Everyone spoke about their journeys in life and their professions. The students and the staff headed over to the John Lennon Bus and were given their passes for the concert. The students were then given an exploration of the amazing 3 in 1 studio bus. The beginning part of the bus is an audio and video production room; the center studio is for recording and mixing, leaving the end part of the bus a green screen room.                                                                                                                            

We were given the opportunity to interview Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, and as we waited we prepared questions and set up for the task. Genesis and Petra were the interviewers, Igor ran the sound and I ran the camera. When Taboo arrived it was lights, camera, action and the interview gave us insight into why Taboo and the Black Eyed Peas felt so strongly about fighting poverty. Taboo spoke about growing up, how arts are important, and the meaning of the concert. The rest of the time we spent collecting footage from around Central Park, even getting to go backstage and film the 60,000 people in attendance as they waited for the concert to start. We went the whole day interviewing people, getting footage of the fans and concert and taking pictures of the very unique Black Eyed Peas themselves. With help from the staff members Hans Tanner, Kyle Baudour, and Ryan L’Esperance the documentary footage was a success.                                              

As the day was ending everyone met back up at the bus to have individual interviews on how the day went and the meaning of the concert to us, the students. I feel taking arts out of school is killing diversity and imagination. If you were look into the crowd every ethnicity was there, and everyone was enjoying themselves, all for good cause. Overall the day was amazing, all the students were great in spirits and we are very thankful to Montblanc and the John Lennon Education Tour Bus.                                                                                                                                               

This marks the 4th summer of implementing The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway at the end of the Life Stories academic year and beginning of the summer intensive, so that the year-long students are able to showcase their creativity, professionalism, and the skills they have learned during their residency and to welcome and assimilate new students into the ensemble.

The creative process for The 24 Hours Plays Off-Broadway began at 10am on Saturday, July 9 when a group of 4 writers (former UAP playwriting students), 17 actors (new & longstanding members), assistant directors & education professionals gathered at Theater Row.

The program kicked off with an orientation -each participant brought a prop, a costume element and shared their special skills sets, their stage dreams and inspired ideas to help inform the writing process.  After a collaborative character generating workshop, each writer was tasked with composing a 10-minute play by the end of the day with the guidance of professional playwrights. The acting students finished the day by engaging in acting games, ensemble building exercises and a 24 Hour Play Improvisation workshop.

Sunday morning, the guest directors joined the cast and crew at 10 AM. Over the next nine hours, the plays were blocked, staged and rehearsed. Our poet, UAP graduate Clevins Browne, arrived at 5pm to watch the rehearsals and pen 4 original poems to introduce each of the plays. At 7pm families and friends packed The Studio theater in Theater Row to see the culmination of all of the students hard work!

CAST & CREW

STARVED FOR FAME
Written by Audasia Glenn
Directed by Sarah Bisman & April Hernandez-Castillo

Maxine Batchler…………………………………………………Anna
Anthony Naranjo………………………………………………….Jeremy
Hannah Turner…………………………………………………..Jayne
Sydney White………………………………………………………Lauren

THE GREAT NINJA STEFFY
Written and Assistant Directed by Emmanuel Minaya
Directed by Paul Calderon

Vincent Castillo…………………………………………….……Tak
Lorenzo Jackson……………………………………………….…. Ryan
Petra Wimer …………………………………..……………….….Lu Lu
Genesis Urena……………………………………………………. Steffy

RETIRED SUPERHEROES
Written and Assistant Directed by Elizabeth Cruz-Cortes
Directed by Marie Masters

Mercedes Alvarez………………………………….……………….Isabel
Stephanie Diaz………………………………………………..……Jewels
Jorge Garzon…………………………………………..…………Hugo
Kayla Robinson……………………………………………………….Red Head
Haskiri Valazquez……………………………..………………..Bay

THE BALLAD DEL JINGO
Written by Maynor Alas
Directed by Chris Eigeman
Assistant Director Frank Turiano

Stanley Mercedes.…………………………………………………Santos
Devin Mojica………………………………………………………Francis
Dio Martinez…………………………………………………..Alejandro(AFR)
Isaiah Alicea………………………………………………………Dan Longhorns

****Poetry by Clevins Browne****

PRODUCTION CREW
Playwriting Teacher/Dramaturge…………………………………………….Zac Kline
Technical Director………………………………………………………….....Matthew Klein
New Group Associate Artistic Director………….………………………...…Ian Morgan
New Group Development ……………………………………………………James Gittins
Life Stories Teaching Artist/Director………………………………………...Julia Grob
Life Stories Associate Director………………………………………………..Frank Turiano
Urban Arts Partnership Artistic Board Chair…………………………………Rosie Perez
Urban Arts Partnership Special Projects Director…….……………………..Anna Strout

Special Thanks: Sarah Bisman, Philip Courtney, Tina Fallon, Jan-Patrick Schmitz, Atissa Tadjadod
 

For three days, from May 25th-27th, three groups of New Design High School students had the opportunity to write, record and create a music video based on their original songs aboard the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a state of the art mobile audio and HD video recording and production facility. The students spent the days learning techniques and tools of the trade from professional staff and were afforded special visits by top selling recording artist Miguel and President and CEO of Montblanc North America, Jan-Patrick Schmitz who provided feedback.

We were excited to partner with another one of Montblanc’s arts education beneficiaries to bring student work to new levels and broader audiences. See the result of their work in the music video below, and check out what else the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is up to at http://www.lennonbus.org/

 

See the music video "Midnight Sun' by the Bangaas!!! 

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