Berkeley Rep Blog
Collaboration and creation at Summer Theatre Intensive
posted by School of Theatre on Thu, Mar 10, 2011
in School of Theatre
By Allison Whorton
Education Fellow
Berkeley Rep School of Theatre’s Summer Theatre Intensive is entering its 10th year. Over the last decade, middle- and high-school students have spent their summers at our School, and from June to August our building is abuzz with lots of learning, creating, and laughing. But why not hear it from the source? I talked with some Summer Theatre Intensive experts (a.k.a. the teens themselves) and here is what they had to say:
“Spending my summers at Berkeley Rep helped me realize how amazing it can feel to spend my entire day getting to do something I love surrounded by people who feel exactly the same way. You get the opportunity to spend all day building almost every aspect of your acting skills, and then create a play that demonstrates how much everyone, regardless of skill level, has learned. There’s a tremendous amount of community building involved, and two days in everyone could swear they’ve been friends forever.” -- Sierra Baggins, a junior at Berkeley High School
“My favorite part about the Summer Theatre Intensive is creating and performing the final group production, but also getting to watch the other groups perform. Everyone’s show is always so diverse and creative.” -- Bowen Bethards, a sophomore at Albany High School
Here are some of the words that the teens said “first came to mind” when they thought about their Berkeley Rep summer experience:
Creation
Dramatic
Fun
Learning
Friendship
Amazing
Our expert Bowen says it best: “you just need to take it once, and then you will want to come back next year.”
If you know a teen looking for a fun-filled theatre experience this summer, send them to www.berkeleyrep.org/summerintensive. Financial aid is available.
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The troublous columbite-tantalite
posted by Kate Vangeloff on Thu, Mar 10, 2011
in Our shows
Mama Nadi: “Six months ago it was just more black dirt. I don’t get why everyone’s crawling over each other for it.”
Mr. Harari: “Well, my darling, in this damnable age of the mobile phone it’s become quite the precious ore, no? And for whatever reason God has seen fit to bless your backward country with an abundance of it.”
From Ruined by Lynn Nottage, now playing through April 10.
So just what is coltan? What sort of substance could possibly instigate so much violence and conflict? Could something as simple and seemingly innocuous as a mineral really be at the heart of a civil war?
The answer, unfortunately, is yes.
Coltan is a black, metallic mineral found mainly in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is mined by digging craters into river basins and sifting through the mud to find settled ore. This work is all done by hand. Coltan’s unique ability to store an electrical charge and withstand high
levels of heat makes it an indispensible ingredient in the production of electronic capacitors, which, in turn, are vital to the production of first-world, consumer products such as cell phones, DVD players, video game systems, and computers. In other words, no coltan means no electronics. The exportation of coltan has been cited as a main source of financing for the civil war in the Congo, which has claimed the lives of over 5.4 million people.
It appears that the plight of the Chinese workers at Shenzhen depicted in Mike Daisey’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs doesn’t represent the only “blood between the keys” found in our beloved electronic devices.
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Announcing our 2011-12 season
posted by Karen McKevitt on Wed, Mar 9, 2011
in News
What has three world premieres, some Rita Moreno and some Moliere, and is topped off with Red? Why, Berkeley Rep’s 2011-12 Main Season! Yep, we officially announced it this morning, and here’s the skinny:
Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup
World premiere
Written by Tony Taccone
Directed by David Galligan
September 2 – October 30, 2011
How to Write a New Book for the Bible
World premiere
Written by Bill Cain
Directed by Kent Nicholson
October 7 – November 20, 2011
Ghost Light
World-premiere production
Conceived and developed by Jonathan Moscone and Tony Taccone
Written by Tony Taccone
Directed by Jonathan Moscone
January 6 – February 19, 2012
A Doctor in Spite of Himself
Written by Molière
Adapted by Christopher Bayes and Steven Epp
Directed by Christopher Bayes
February 10 – March 25, 2012
Red
Written by John Logan
Directed by Les Waters
March 16 – April 29, 2012
And, we have two Limited Season plays that we’ll be announcing soon!
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What actors really drink onstage
posted by Karen McKevitt on Wed, Mar 9, 2011
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz , Our shows
After reading Megan Wygant’s post on the microwave haiku, Production Assistant Megan McClintock was inspired to delve a little further on what it takes backstage to accommodate a “food show” like Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, or the show currently cooking in our Roda kitchen, Ruined. Here’s what she says:
Though there is solid food in Ruined (peanut, anyone?), most of the preparation time for this show is beverage related -- the cast consumes more than 40 glasses of beverages and opens 28 bottles of beer and 8 bottles of Fanta onstage during each show. The drinks referred to in the script include whiskey, beer, Fanta, and Palm wine. Mama Nadi (the lead character in the play and operator of the bar in which Ruined is set) also serves an African homebrew, rum and gin. At least, that’s what the audience thinks the cast is drinking, if we have done our jobs right. In reality, nothing is as it seems.
My favorite of the drinks served onstage is the homebrew, which Mama Nadi serves from a five-gallon bucket with a ladle. It’s based on an African drink made from fermented corn, and director Liesl Tommy reports from personal experience that the homebrew served in the Congo looks white and foamy. To replicate that look for the stage we opted for a mixture of vanilla ice cream and Diet 7-Up, something of an ice cream soda. The preparation process includes a lot of foam!
There are four whiskey bottles onstage, all of which are a mixture of a strong brewed tea and water. Each bottle gets refilled daily using a funnel; we pour the tea through a coffee filter to make sure there are no stray leaves.
Though a simple recipe, the beer process is one of the longest. Since we are using brown bottles, the “beer” is just water, and the bottles are re-used nightly. The Berkeley Rep prop shop has provided us with over 60 bottles with Primus labels; we fill and cap almost 30 bottles per show, starting with rinsing and sanitizing each bottle. The dishwasher rack provides drying space till we get around to re-filling.
The process for the Fanta is similar, and Fanta is the only drink onstage that is at least mostly what it seems. The Fanta is one-half Fanta and one-half water, since drinking very sweet beverages onstage can be hard on an actor’s voice. Like the beer, we bottle it ourselves. We buy Fanta in two-liter plastic bottles, cut it with water, then pour it into our special glass Fanta bottles, which can’t be purchased at your average grocery. Fanta and beer caps get labeled with the date, so we can keep the stock rotated in the crates onstage, keeping everything nice and fresh for the actors.
There are a few other liquor bottles at the bar. The crew gets a break with the gin and rum bottles -- clear liquors that “are on tap in the kitchen sink,” as we refer to it. The script calls for Palm wine, which is also mostly water with some soy milk added to give it the appropriate opacity onstage. That about rounds out the liquid libations of Mama Nadi’s, where the worst buzz you will get is an ice cream headache. Tune in next time for info on other concoctions in Ruined, from the Fufu Mama serves for dinner to the “mud” on the miner’s feet and hands, and come see our creations in action onstage nightly!
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Special events with human rights orgs
posted by Karen McKevitt on Tue, Mar 8, 2011
in News , Our shows
Guest blogger and Berkeley Rep Fellow Jennifer Wills offers this post today, International Women's Day:
As the 2010-11 Bret C. Harte Directing Fellow, I came to Berkeley Rep looking for proof to my belief that theatre really does have an impact, that maybe it can make a difference. What I’m learning is that while creating or watching theatre does not usually change the world directly, it does have the potential to change people’s perceptions of the world, and that could change a lot.
Today is International Women’s Day, a global day when women and men all over the world celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present and future. Here at Berkeley Rep we are celebrating today with our production of Ruined, Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play that gives voice to women of the Congo. In sharing their stories she also gives voice to women around the world who find themselves as victims and survivors of rape, war, and abuse.
As artist-activists, Berkeley Rep is teaming with several human rights groups in the Northern California area and beyond to offer you more opportunities to learn. Tonight, we are hosting a pre-show discussion with Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch who spends a lot of time on the ground with women like those in Ruined. Or come to one of our many other events this month and next:
- March 17: post-show discussion with our staff or speak to representatives from Women for Women International who will be in our lobby to answer your questions
- March 22: post-show discussion with International Medical Corps
- April 4: our free Page to Stage series featuring a panel on human rights with speakers from Human Rights Watch, Global Fund for Women, Cal Human Rights Center and International Medical Corps
- April 6: post-show discussion with International Rescue Committee
Find more information about these events on our site.
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Congratulations Daniel, Eric, and Ed!
posted by Kate Vangeloff on Tue, Mar 8, 2011
in News
Who are these people, you ask? Why, they're our survey winners from the Mike Daisey post-show surveys of course! I have composed a limerick in their collective honor.
ahem.
Survey-winners three: Daniel, Eric, and Ed
Told us their thoughts, left nothing unsaid
We picked them at random
Gave them tickets in tandem
Next time you could win them instead!
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Rhapsodizing about Ruined
posted by Karen McKevitt on Mon, Mar 7, 2011
in News , Our shows
Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about resilient women in the war-torn Congo opened last Wednesday and earned rave reviews from our local critics. In fact, this production has been wowing audiences and critics around the country, and tickets here in the Bay Area are going fast, so don't miss this brutal yet beautiful play.
Here are some choice excerpts:
“Nottage finds hope for us all in the resilience of a few… Ruined seethes with the brute energy of combat and soars with hard-won compassion and love… Nottage's Pulitzer Prize winner and a dynamic cast make the drama as engrossing as it is thought-provoking… More remarkably, Nottage finds a ray of hope, even joy, for the women and men trapped in this ongoing nightmare. The pain and the glory make an indelible impression in director Liesl Tommy's richly textured staging.” – San Francisco Chronicle
“Undeniable… Randy Duncan's choreography is explosive. The cast is uniformly riveting. Each actress sensitively delivers her own aria of suffering [and] for her part, Patano captures Mama's gentleness as well as her steel. She's tough enough to suggest a diamond hardened under pressure but soft enough so that the play's rare moments of uplift ring true. Sophie's singing has a transcendent quality that suggests the healing power of art. Christian's mockery of the butchers that plague the land is unexpectedly funny. And an unexpected romance has tearful charm.” – San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Emotionally gripping… The wonder of Ruined emerges in moments of beauty – whether in a song performed by Sophie (backed by musicians Adesoji Odukogbe and Alvin Terry), an athletic dance performed by the male patrons of Mama Nadi’s (choreographed by Randy Duncan) or a flash of brave compassion from a surprising source. In the face of mankind at its worst, there can be sparks of beauty and enlightenment, of fleeting joy amid horror. Those sparks – much like extraordinary pieces of theater – are what we aim for.” – Chad Jones’ Theater Dogs.Net
Photo of Oberon K.A. Adjepong (left) and Tonye Patano in Ruined courtesy of kevinberne.com
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Backstage haiku
posted by Megan Wygant on Thu, Mar 3, 2011
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz
Found on the backstage kitchen microwave:
For those who don't have super-vision, the post-it reads:
I stand on a chair
Melt, melt that cheese, microwave
Scene shift coming up.
It's dated December 2008, which a quick flip through the theatre's timeline tells us was right in the middle of Joe Turner's Come and Gone. JT, as we call it internally, was a "food" show -- one that has lots of scenes with characters eating.
All the food you see actors eat onstage is, of necessity, prepared backstage. There's a fully functional kitchen offstage, house right, where food is made, stored, and then reheated in the moments before it has to arrive onstage for the actors to consume in front of you (what that food is could be a blog post all of its own -- modern-day allergies, dietary restrictions, and other considerations mean that the "chicken-n-biscuits, with gravy" called for by the script can probably be none of those things).
Clearly, the mystery writer was working under a deadline. I can only assume they made it.
Melt, melt that cheese, microwave!
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Ruined opens, Wozniak cries, and more news
posted by Karen McKevitt on Wed, Mar 2, 2011
in News , Our shows
The highly anticipated production of Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ruined opens tonight! It's already played to critical acclaim, awards, and enthusiastic audiences at La Jolla Playhouse and the Huntington Theatre in Boston -- where people even braved the blizzards to see it! So, we hope to see you at our Roda Theatre.
On Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an interview with Lynn Nottage conducted by theatre critic Robert Hurwitt. The topics in Ruined have really inspired Berkeley Rep's staff to hook up with local human rights organizations to put together post-show discussions, panels, and more. We even put together a resource list for all of you who would like to help those surviving the war in the Congo. And keep watching this blog for more posts about these organizations and more inspired by the play.
Berkeley Rep has been in the news quite a bit over the last few days. The Chronicle ran a feature profile on Managing Director Susan Medak, who celebrates 20 years here. And, if you haven't been on Facebook lately (or aren't a friend, or haven't liked us, or whatever), you've missed news that Steve Wozniak came to Mike Daisey's The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs -- and cried. And now the Woz is talking about trying to affect change.
Between Ruined and The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, we're heartened to see that theatre really can shine a light on issues happening around the globe, issues that are now directly affecting us -- and we're affecting them.
Photo of Carla Duren and Pascale Armand in Ruined by kevinberne.com
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How did Mike make out?
posted by Karen McKevitt on Tue, Mar 1, 2011
in Our shows
Judging by Facebook and Twitter, a lot of people who saw The Last Cargo Cult are dying to know how Mike Daisey made out. We not only kept track of Mike’s “financial experiment,” but also jotted down amusing audience reactions -- and some surprising things we found in the bowl.
Drum roll, please! Mike ended the run with a $1,169 and half cent profit. Yes, someone contributed half a penny on closing night.
Here are some choice audience reactions as they entered the theatre:
“Oh my God, I got a dollar!”
“Ten bucks? Dad, I got ten bucks!”
"No thanks. I don't need it."
“Cool. Now I can get a cookie.”
“Oh. Did I drop this?”
“I get $5 and he gets $1? I like this!”
“How do I have to humiliate myself to keep this?”
“There’s a small hole in this dollar. I bet that’s significant.”
When handed a $10, a confused woman kept repeating, “But parking was only $5.”
A wife got $100 while her husband got $1. She said, “Relax, it isn’t real.”
A woman who received $100 spent preshow examining it for flaws.
A woman stood her ground until the moneyhandler gave her $5 instead of $1.
When a wife got a $1 and her husband got a $5, she said, “I am not giving this back! This is blatantly unfair.”
“Why don’t I just give it to the homeless man outside?” (She refused the money and went into the theatre slightly peeved.)
And more than once, some $100 bills were used at the concessions counter. Hmmm.
And, some amusing objects made their way into the bowl as well:
$1s in shreds, ripped, and folded.
A $2 bill.
A $5 folded into an intricate swan.
Two women left their phone numbers for Mike.
Two Metro cards for the New York City subway.
A business card for a stand-up comedienne.
A business card for a store called Strange Cargo with the motto “Loot and booty.”
Thanks to everyone who saw The Last Cargo Cult! Especially if you saw The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs as well. (Hey, did you know Wozniak came to see the show? Well, that’s a different blog post….)
Photo of Mike Daisey by kevinberne.com