Berkeley Rep Blog
Category archive: Teen Council
Teens fill 24 hours with dramatic fundraising!
posted by School of Theatre on Fri, Jun 3, 2011
in Events , School of Theatre , Teen Council
by Ben Hanna, Community Programs Manager
In May, 18 teens from Teen Council gathered at the School of Theatre for a 24-hour fundraising "Dramathon." Yes, you read that right. Noon to noon, a nonstop theatre extravaganza! Here’s just a taste of this fundraising excursion of epic proportions:
Saturday, May 21
12pm - Teens sign up for play readings and warm up their bodies and voices in prep for 24 hours of performance.
1:15pm – Teens near the end of The Importance of Being Earnest, with a twist: a cross-gender cast!
3:11pm - Teen Council member Gideon Lazarus performs a monologue from Macbeth, sparking a series of monologue performances from the teens.
5:20pm – Participants delve into the world of one-acts, including works by playwrights Anton Chekhov, John Patrick Shanley, and David Ives.
6:47pm – Students scarf down a pizza dinner in prep for the Chicago sing-a-long. Peet’s coffee and tea are served, giving everyone a much-needed boost of energy.
9:07pm - Bay Area actress and School of Theatre teaching artist Elena Wright arrives as a special guest to read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard with the teens. In Elena's words, "One of the hardest reads I've ever done -- three hours of Stoppard cold from nine to midnight!"
Sunday, May 22
12:45am – Over 12 hours down, 12 to go. Students are clad in pajamas, and Christopher Durang’s The Idiots Karamazov has begun. Lots of hysterical laughter all around, perhaps due to the late-night giggles!
2:30am - Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” is blaring over our sound system, and a five-minute theatrical dance party ensues!
3:07am – Let’s do the time warp again! Eyes are drooping and the second round of Peet’s coffee is served! A cult classic is in order! Rocky Horror Picture Show is projected on our classroom wall for a read-through and sing-a-long!
6:45am - Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore has begun -- for those of you who saw it at Berkeley Rep, you can imagine the dramatic action all throughout the School!
9:03am - Improv games are played to wake-up the crowd. Education Fellows Candice McDowell and Allison Whorton pump up the energy, leading some intense “dance-offs.”
11:45am - The top three teen fundraisers for the Dramathon are announced and given great Berkeley Rep prizes in appreciation of their hard work!
Over the course of the evening, teens read 8 full-length plays, 10 one-acts, and 10 monologues as well as participated in 3 sing-a-longs and numerous improv games. Major kudos to these diehard theatre-lovers who raised over $3,500 for the Berkeley Rep Teen Council's programming next year.
Weren't able to sponsor a teen but want to help support Teen Council programming? Donate to the Teen Conference Fund and help send seven teens to represent the youth voice of American theatre at the TCG Conference this June.
Comments: 0 | Read comments
Teens changing the face of American theatre
posted by Chad Jones on Tue, Jul 20, 2010
in News , School of Theatre , Teen Council
In a previous post, we told you about how Berkeley Rep Teen Council members Ariele Scharff, Gareth Tidball, Taylor Greenthal, Matia Emsellem, Keisa Reynolds, and Christina Novakov-Ritchey (that's them above, from left to right, in downtown Chicago) were part of the first delegation of teens to attend the Theatre Communications Group Conference.
While at the Chicago conference, the teens took part in many sessions, including those that dealt with race and diversity in America, inclusion in the arts of people with disabilities, and, perhaps most notably, Fostering the Next Generation of American Theatre Audiences moderated by educators from Berkeley Rep, the Goodman Theatre , and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
We asked members of the Teen Council delegation to reflect on their experience in Chicago and describe what they took away from the TCG Conference.
Christina Novakov-Ritchey
Miramonte High School
Fall 2010: Freshman at the University of California, Davis
The chief reason we, as teenagers, went to the TCG Conference was to let people know that we exist, that we have a voice, and that arts education is vital to keeping the theatre alive and relevant. This is easier said than done. On our plane ride over my mind was racing with thoughts like, “Will everyone dismiss us?” “What are we even supposed to talk to people about?” and “I really really don’t want to mess up,” so I tried to prepare questions, topics of discussion, and brush up on my theatre knowledge. However, the funny thing is that none of that really mattered once I got there and started to attend sessions. Intuitively I knew if I agreed with what someone was saying or not, and how that related to me as a young person. Matia, Taylor, Keisa, Gareth, and Ariele seemed to have a similar reaction as I learned during our first late-night meeting, and I was impressed with their ability to articulate themselves clearly and engage in intelligent conversations with the other conference participants. We managed to get people thinking about our role in the theatre, and many people came to our side in defense of arts education, such as Brava! Artistic Director Raelle Myrick-Hodges and New York University’s Daniel Banks.
As we went to more and more sessions and continued to talk to people, a theme was becoming apparent in our answers: the best way to attract young people to theatre is to offer them an opportunity to see shows that speak to their emotions on a very fundamental level. Our recurring example of this was Berkeley Rep’s production of Girlfriend last season, which moved us all so much that we couldn’t get it out of our heads for months (I mean, we were singing its songs on the bus ride to the airport). People kept bringing up marketing strategies such as big fonts and bright colors as ways to get teenagers to buy tickets, but we couldn’t help but disagree and say that it’s the programming that matters. If you produce a show that is honest and easily relatable and make it accessible to a younger audience that has fewer financial resources than the average patron, you will create a lifelong theatregoer. Attending this conference certainly has raised more questions than it has answered, but it has left us all feeling much more confident about the importance of our voice in theatre as well as opening up doors for us to continue discussing the issue of arts education.
Comments: 7 | Read comments
Teens peer into — and create — theatre of the future
posted by Rachel Viola on Fri, Jul 2, 2010
in News , School of Theatre , Teen Council
June was a busy month for teens at Berkeley Rep. Two special occasions gave high-school students the chance to be part of local and national conversations about the future of theatre.
What happens when 35 teenagers, representing a range of 20 Bay Area high schools and interests, are given a venue and a platform to discuss the value of art in their own lives?
You might get something a little like the Teen Theatre Conference hosted by the Berkeley RepSchool of Theatre early in June. An energetic group of teens, many new not only to each other but also to Berkeley Rep, came together for a day of collaboration and dialogue, voicing their opinions about the issues they encounter as young artists, students of arts education, and theatregoers.
The Teen Theatre Conference had many exciting components, such as a Q & A panel with local theatre professionals, including Rachel Fink, director of the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre; Dave Maier, a fight choreographer and School of Theatre Outreach Coordinator; freelance director Rebecca Novick; actor Carson Elrod from Berkeley Rep’s recent production of In the Wake; and Raelle Myrick-Hodges, artistic director of San Francisco’s Brava! for Women in the Arts.
The conversations sparked by the panel continued with discussions led by teenage representatives of the School of Theatre. These sessions explored how young people share, define, and experience art. The day’s program commenced with a competition: six groups of teens were challenged to create and perform sketches inspired by various, topical prompts such as "Arts in the Year 2075" or "A World with No Arts." Videos of the first- and second-place winners are at the bottom of the post.
Comments: 6 | Read comments
Target® Teen Night: Yellowjackets
posted by Teen Council on Tue, Sep 9, 2008
in Teen Council
Well, Target® Teen Night for Yellowjackets was a huge success!
Before I start talking about how the night went, I'm going to tell you a little bit about Berkeley Rep's Teen Council and Target® Teen Nights! So Teen Council is a group of Bay Area high school students who are really passionate about all aspects of theatre, whether it be directing, playwriting, acting, being an audience member, or whatever else you can think of. We meet on the first Wednesday of every month at the School of Theatre at 5pm and we talk about upcoming theatre events, speak with theatre professionals, and more. We also host Target® Teen Nights for each of the Berkeley Rep shows. At these we have dinner, talk to a theatre professional, and go see the show for only $10!
Now let's get back to the event... So before the night started there was a little bit of chaos, because instead of our usual setting in the School of Theatre, the Target® Teen Night was held in the Roda! Before we even headed over there we were printing a million and one copies of contact forms and membership forms, probably killing a forest in the process. Then we brought all of our paperwork over and started setting up tables, and by the time we had only half finished putting drinks on the tables there were already people downstairs (and, mind you, this was 45 minutes before we had announced people needing to get there)! From then on we hustled to get everything ready and started checking people in.
Checking people in got a little hectic when the wait list kept growing and growing, but in the end it turned out just fine, and we had around 80 super excited high school students on our hands. So after most people had finished eating, everyone moved back downstairs and into the actual Roda Theatre. There we had a Q&A session with Jahmela Biggs (Tamika/Ms. Robbins in Yellowjackets) and Mina Morita (assistant director of Yellowjackets as well as this year's Bret C. Harte directing intern at Berkeley Rep). This was an amazing experience and from what I could see everyone really enjoyed it! When the session ended everyone ate some cookies before heading over to the Thrust to see the show.
The lines were super long outside of the Thrust, and because of our attendance numbers a huge portion of the line was made up of teens. As a high school student myself, I thought it was fabulous to see the youth so interested in theatre. The show started shortly thereafter, and it was truly amazing, and everyone else thought so too. When it ended, everyone I talked to wanted to see it another 50 times, as did I.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that the next Target® Teen Night, as well as all our other events, are as popular as this one! So thank you so much to everyone that came, you guys are great!
Be sure to come to the Teen Council meetings on October 1 and November 5, Target® Teen Night for Joe Turner's Come and Gone on November 7, and Target® Teen Night for The Arabian Nights on November 14. You can email [email protected] for more information.
Photo of the Yellowjackets cast courtesy of kevinberne.com.