Berkeley Rep Blog
A New York Times piece mirrors Black n Blue Boys
posted by Karen McKevitt on Fri, Jun 8, 2012
in Our shows
Dael Orlandersmith's Black n Blue Boys / Broken Men, which plays until June 24, centers on a rarely discussed topic: men and boys who have been abused, often by women. The subject matter is tough, but it's also a moving, poignant, and ultimtely incredibly important show.
The Berkeley Rep staff decided to expand our post-show talkback program especially for Black n Blue Boys. We're now offering talkbacks after every performance, moderated by staff, so audience members can stay and discuss what they've seen.
Today, the New York Times published an opinion piece about abused men that mirrors so much of the themes in Black n Blue Boys. Here are some excerpts:
"...men spend years putting their emotions in a deep freeze or masking post-traumatic reactions with self-defeating behaviors like compulsive gambling and substance abuse. Eventually, they are forced by internal or external events to find treatment."
"Even in 2012, we are socialized to think that 'real men' should be resilient, and certainly not victims. For a man to acknowledge sexual victimhood, even to himself, is to say he is not really male."
If you've seen Black n Blue Boys -- or even if you haven't -- what are your thoughts?
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Making graffiti
posted by Karen McKevitt on Wed, Jun 6, 2012
in Our shows , Scene shop
By Lisa Lazar, charge scenic artist
Greetings from the Berkeley Rep Scenic Art studio!
Today we answer the question: How might one paint a graffiti-covered corrugated roll-up door for Emotional Creature? How might one paint this on a non-corrugated floor?
The image is drawn on a huge sheet of paper and then transferred to the flooring material. Drawing on the paper allows the artists to work out the drawing without damaging the actual scenery.
Once the image is transferred, the artists start painting. All the colors are custom-mixed to match the designer’s specifications. In the above photo, Scenic Art Fellow Anya Kazimierski is painting with a color she mixed to match the designer’s scale rendering. You can see a blue crescent on a white board at the top of the photograph. That is what the artists are working to replicate.
Once the graffiti portion of the painting is completed, the next step is to add the illusion of corrugation. Here, Anya is marking the lines that will become the next layer of this painting.
All of the lines are airbrushed on with a spray gun made for painting automobiles. The spray gun gives a smooth, photographic quality to the painting, but because there is the risk of unwanted “over-spray,” this technique requires extensive masking.
And here you have it! One custom-shaped handpainted graffiti-coved roll-up door…on the floor.
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12 teens, 15 plays, 24 hours…
posted by School of Theatre on Tue, Jun 5, 2012
in School of Theatre , Teen Council
By Hannah Lennett, Education Fellow
This past weekend, the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre hosted a 24-hour play-reading fundraiser extravaganza from noon on June 2 until noon on June 3. In celebration of the School of Theatre’s 10th anniversary, the teens chose to read plays from past Berkeley Rep seasons, including Teen One-Acts Festival winners.
Throughout the event, the 12 teens were joined by special guests from the Berkeley Rep family. These generous performers include Sarita Ocon (Ghost Light, School of Theatre teaching artist), Ben Freeman (Yellowjackets), Amaya Alonso Halifax (Yellowjackets), Rachel Lee (Teen Council alum) and Rethink, Marilet Martinez (School of Theatre teaching artist), members of the cast of Emotional Creature, Reggie White (School of Theatre teaching artist), Marissa Keltie (Bay Area actress), Beryl Baker (Berkeley Rep development associate), Katie Gucik (Berkeley Rep company management fellow), Anya Kazimierski (Berkeley Rep scenic paint fellow), and Taylor Edelhart (Teen Council alum).
Participants raised over $1,200 for Teen Council programming. Top fundraisers received Berkeley Rep gift bags, tickets to next year’s Teen Night, gift certificates to local businesses, and free lessons from Berkeley Rep School of Theatre staff.
To read a blow-by-blow account of the event, check out our Storify account of the live-tweeting.
Also, be sure to check out the blog post written by our visitors from Emotional Creature.
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Critics praise Black n Blue Boys
posted by Karen McKevitt on Mon, Jun 4, 2012
in Our shows
Dael Orlandersmith. Photo by kevinberne.com
Dael Orlandersmith delivered a stunning opening-night performance of her uncompromising Black n Blue Boys / Broken Men that had audiences on their feet -- some were even whistling. Truly, she is an amazing force of nature onstage.
Here's what the critics say:
“Mesmerizing... Incisively written and masterfully performed... Fierce, uncompromising and alive with sharply observed, humanizing detail... [Orlandersmith] is a riveting performer with an urgent tale to tell.” —SF Chronicle
“Orlandersmith, who riveted audiences with the Pulitzer-nominated Yellowman, lends this play such a piercing sense of honesty that it’s hard to believe it’s not documentary theater... There’s no shaking the intensity of the experience.” —San Jose Mercury News
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Emily's Emotional Creature blog: Inspiring empowered girls
posted by Karen McKevitt on Sat, Jun 2, 2012
in Backstage buzz , Our shows
The cast of Emotional Creature is blogging about their experience preparing for the world premiere of Eve Ensler's new play here at Berkeley Rep -- we knew these gals would embrace social media! These will be co-posted by Berkeley Rep and V-Girls.
Here's a post by ensemble member Emily S. Grosland:
Eve asked each of us to bring in a story about an incredible girl who is an inspiration for us. We are going to collect stories about the incredible women who have changed history, overcome adversity, or simply loved and supported us. This incredible community of emotional creatures will serve to inspire us every night on stage and hopefully we will be able to harness their strength and share it with all the young girls in the audience.
My story for today was about two incredible young women that I do not know personally, but their story inspired me greatly. Elizabeth Van Meter is a young actress in NYC (Her similarity to me and my fellow actors in this show is why I find her story so inspiring). Thao is a young woman in Vietnam who was born with severe life threatening birth defects as a result of Agent Orange. Despite the obstacles that life has given her, she has maintained an incredible joy about her. Elizabeth decided to fulfill Thao’s greatest wish (the build a library for her village) even though she did not have a large amount of money or resources for herself. In fact, I believe she was unemployed at the time. But in doing so, she found her own great joy for life.
There is a Vietnamese saying that goes, “The good leaves shall cover the torn ones, and the torn leaves shall cover the shreaded leaves.” For Elizabeth and Thao this means that those of us who are lucky enough to live safe, comfortable lives have a responsibility to help those who have it a little rougher than us. And those who have it a little rough are then responsible to help out those who have it worse than them.
You can learn about the whole story and watch a short documentary about these two wonderful women at:
http://www.thepurposeprojectfilm.com/home
Check it out…it’s truly inspiring!
Love,
Emily
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Molly's Emotional Creature blog: I dance to be here!
posted by Karen McKevitt on Fri, Jun 1, 2012
in Backstage buzz , Our shows
The cast of Emotional Creature is blogging about their experience preparing for the world premiere of Eve Ensler's new play here at Berkeley Rep -- we knew these gals would embrace social media! These will be co-posted by Berkeley Rep and V-Girls.
Here's a post by ensemble member Molly Carden:
Luam the fabulous choreographer is finally here! We started the morning off going over our group songs and some dances and then Luam arrived (we all applauded and hugged her) and jumped right in, fine-tuning and spicing up the basic structure we already have in place thanks to Jo, our amazing director. Luam encouraged us all to take our movement to the next level. Because I’m not a dancer, I was nervous and probably a bit tentative at the beginning of the day, but by the end of it the energy in the room was infectious and I’m psyched to jump in tomorrow and see what more is in store. I feel like our group energy is really starting to grow. We ended the day singing through “Emotional Creature” (the song that ends the show) and even though we were all a little shaky with some of the words because we just learned it, I felt an incredible sense of gratitude to be standing up there with these 5 amazing women singing this beautiful song written by the extraordinary Eve Ensler. Eve was there all day today. It’s always such a privilege to have her in that room. Tomorrow we’re going to start a ritual of sharing the stories of women who inspire us or who we want to inspire. I think that’s a great idea. Gratitude. I feel so full of it right now. Eve says that true joy comes from gratitude. I think she is right. I’d say week two is off to a good start.
–Molly
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Joaquina's Emotional Creature blog: First week of rehearsal completed!
posted by Karen McKevitt on Thu, May 31, 2012
in Backstage buzz , Our shows
The cast of Emotional Creature is blogging about their experience preparing for the world premiere of Eve Ensler's new play here at Berkeley Rep -- we knew these gals would embrace social media! These will be co-posted by Berkeley Rep and V-Girls.
Here's a post by ensemble member Joaquina Kalukango:
First official week of rehearsal completed! We started the day off with dialects, and realized we know a lot more than we give ourselves credit for. Thank God for our dialect coach Lynne who has an incredible ear and wonderful spirit! There are so many rhythms and beats in our heads, I can’t wait to see how it all comes together. We also celebrated Eve’s second birthday with a chocolate covered fruit arrangement.
Quote of the day:” I dance biology” (Atlanta accent)
–Joaquina
Eve's birthday bouquet:
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Olivia's Emotional Creature blog: Dance, dialects, and altars
posted by Karen McKevitt on Wed, May 30, 2012
in Backstage buzz , Our shows
The cast of Emotional Creature is blogging about their experience preparing for the world premiere of Eve Ensler's new play here at Berkeley Rep -- we knew these gals would embrace social media! These will be co-posted by Berkeley Rep and V-Girls.
Here's a post by ensemble member Olivia Oguma:
Hello Emotional Creatures!! Today was a stomp-tastic day!! We learned a few of the dances that involved very structured clapping and stomping combinations in preparation for our choreographer Luam who is coming Tuesday morning to work with us and fine tune all our moves! We watched some videos of the stomp dances from the workshop production of Emotional Creature and then Charl, our musical director, and Jo, our director, helped us get them down. When she arrives she will fine tune the dances. We have watched some videos of her choreography and she is amazing! We also got the chance to work individually with our spectacular dialect coach Lynne who is helping us with all the dialects we have in the show. Some of the dialects we are doing range from Congolese to British to Chinese to Bulgarian. We have a lot on our plate, but Lynne makes it simple and gives us helpful hints and tricks that make it easy for us! I cant believe we have only been in rehearsal for 10 days-- We have become such a tight knit group of Emo-Creatures! The energy in the room is infectious and amazing –- can’t wait for all the V-GIRLS out there to see this awesome show!
Love, Olivia
P.S. We also were encouraged by Eve to make an altar in our rehearsal room ! Here is our awesome altar …everyone brought something special to us..I brought a small doll, Emily made paper cranes, Eve put some flowers she got for her birthday on the altar as well. It’s so beautiful!
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Sade's Emotional Creature blog: Every day is a chance to listen and learn
posted by Karen McKevitt on Mon, May 28, 2012
in Backstage buzz , Our shows
The cast of Emotional Creature is blogging about their experience preparing for the world premiere of Eve Ensler's new play here at Berkeley Rep -- we knew these gals would embrace social media! These will be co-posted by Berkeley Rep and V-Girls.
Here's the very first post by ensemble member Sade Namei:
Today, we started our music rehearsals with with Charl (pronounced, Shawl). Singing, dancing, clapping–no child play, I assure you…Ok, maybe a little. And we’ve learned that it’s hard to talk and walk at the same time!!! Anybody? Ok… just me. Thank God for humor! Lesson learned: Have a sense of humor and you can get through anything…Anybody? Just me? Ok. Everyday, we learn something wonderful from each other. Every day is a chance to listen, learn, pause, check-in and keep learning. It’s pretty incredible being here. The challenge is enormous but the stakes to not overcome them are even higher…
Hope to see you soon. off to memorization. Keep reading.
–Sade
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Introducing Black n Blue Boys
posted by Karen McKevitt on Fri, May 25, 2012
in Our shows
The amazing Dael Orlandersmith begins previews tonight for her fierce new play, Black n Blue Boys / Broken Men.
So this is the perfect opportunity to check out her introduction to the play in this video, which was taken at our staff meet-and-greet. These interviews are usually reserved for staff, creative team, and producers -- but this time we're sharing this interview with you!