A Note from the Academy

FYI...Celebrate 30 years

of theater you never outgrow!

Save up to 50% over single ticket prices when you purchase a Family Package by June 30th. Call (414) 267-2961 or

visit www.FirstStage.org.

NEWS FROM THE ACADEMY • Volume 6 Issue 1 • Summer Academy 2016 at MYAC

read more inside...

IN FOCUSis the newsletter of the

First Stage Theater Academy, published each session to

highlight the work of our staff and students.

Brandon BellEditor

Lindsey AbendscheinGraphic Design

Want to get more involved at First Stage? Join the Green Room Society, our volunteer group! If interested,

send an email to volunteer@firststage.org

for more info!

Welcome to First Stage Theater Academy!

Here at First Stage we believe passionately in theater’s power to transform the lives of young people. Our Summer Theater Academy is an experience like no other with students of all ages coming together every day to study the art of acting. Students are encouraged to make new friends, practice new skills and let their individuality shine! Our students are the reason we’re here, and supporting them to grow as confident, intelligent, creative and empathetic artists and people is our mission.

At First Stage our dedicated and professional faculty and staff work together to create a positive learning environment and strive to meet the unique needs of each student. Our goal is to impart life skills through stage skills, instill a love of learning and creating, and build a stronger community through engagement in the arts.

Our door is always open and we invite you to drop by often, as we are always happy to meet new families and strengthen our bonds with those we already have the pleasure to know.

We look forward to another great summer!

Academy Staff

All photos by Paul Ruffolo and Lindsey Abendschein

InFOCUS

Young Performer Audition Appointments

now available! Young people age 8-18

can audition for our 2016-17 season. Call

(414) 267-2963

FIRST STAGETHEATER ACADEMYLife Skills Through Stage Skills

Every Summer Academy session culminates in a presentation of classwork for family and friends. Reminders will be sent home prior to the presentation date.

The following classes will have presentations on the final day of class:• AM (morning gr. K5-2): 11:00–11:30am• PM (afternoon gr. K5-2): 2:30–3:00pm

• LM (full-day gr. 1-2): 2:45–3:15pm

• OM (one-week gr. 3-4): July 8, 22, August 5 at 2:15–2:45pmJuly 1, 15, 29, August 12 at 1:45–2:45pm

• TM (two-week gr. 3-4): 1:45–2:45pm• DM (two-week gr. 5 - 7): 2:00–3:00pm

• DM (two-week gr. 7-12): 3:15–4:15pm• HM (three-week gr. 5-6): 3:15–4:15pm

FM (four week gr. 6-12) presentations will be held on the final Thursday:• 6/20–7/15: July 14th 2:30–4:00pm

• 7/18–8/12: August 11th 2:30–4:00pm

Don’t forget about final presentations!

In Focus

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Volume 6 Issue 1

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Story Drama: We are excited to be a part of your child’s first experience in acting! We will be using familiar stories and characters to begin learning about acting skills. Students will get a chance to use their imaginations, voices, and bodies to bring characters to life. Students will build strength in self-confidence and also learn to work with their classmates to tell a story.

Playmakers: Students will explore the world of a pre-existing story while developing an actor’s vocabulary toolbox. Using theater skills of improvisation and playwriting, students will create their own characters and plot as we work together to devise a one-of-a kind play.

What’s Going On in the Classrooms?

Amy Shu

Lead teachers

Brenna Kempf,Resident

Teaching Artist

GRADE K5–2ND STORY DRAMA & PLAYMAKERS

Musical Theater: Students in Musical Theater will learn how to further a story with song and dance through performing pieces from MULAN, THE LITTLE MERMAID, THE LION KING and other Broadway shows. Students will develop the stage skills of maintaining character, identifying the anatomy used in vocal and dance training, and learning how to sing as an ensemble all while gaining life skills of focus, teamwork and confidence.

Scene Study: Students will be exploring the structure of a story arc and how to uncover information in the text through games and scene work. We’ll learn how to empower performances with discovery, importance, humor, and other tools from Michael Shurtleff’s Guideposts. Students will learn to identify “given circumstances” in a scene and how place, relationships, and sensory elements can activate text as practiced by the great acting teachers Stella Adler and Uta Hagen. Looking at Roald Dahl’s classic story THE BFG and the play JUNIE B. JONES IS NOT A CROOK, the class will be a fun, fast paced adventure into a land of imagination!

Voice and Movement: In this class we will be encouraging students to be creative thinkers and confident collaborators using their bodies and their voices! They will be exploring poems, literature, visual art, and sounds through movement and vocal-based expression.

GRADE 3–4 ONE-AND TWO-WEEK SESSIONS

Maggie Bridges, Voice and Movement

Amanda Satchell,

Musical Theater

Paula Tillen, Musical Theater

Gina Laurenzi, Musical Theater

Dean Drews, Musical Theater

Patricia Monroe, Musical Theater

Elyse Edelman, Scene Study

Julie Johnson, Musical Theater

Acting Theory: This two-week session of Acting Theory will prove to be exciting and transformative for both student and teacher. The theme for this session is I AM ACTOR. Our students will learn the techniques of Stanislavski (sense and emotional memory), Meisner (in the moment reaction with truth), and the work ethics of an artist, an Actor in particular. They will become conditioned to working as a collective to tell a story that transforms their audience.

Improvisation: In this class, we will be exploring the elements of improvisation, which are listening, quick thinking, teamwork, sharing, communication, and positivity. These components will help strengthen student’s stage skills as actors and their life skills as members of the community.

Musical Theater: Students will explore the history of this uniquely American art form by taking a look at various singing and dancing numbers from different musicals. By immersing in the music and movement of many styles, students will polish their singing, dancing, and acting skills and gaining knowledge of Musical Theater history, all while having a blast!

Shakespeare: Shakespeare wrote epic stories with complex plots and powerful characters. We will investigate this compact and rich language through group activities, games, and on-our-feet rhetorical work. Though our focus is on the words, we promise that this is not a sit-down class! By physically exploring the text of Shakespearean characters, we challenge and empower ourselves to inhabit these titanic, grounded, intention-driven and articulate people and practice our own abilities to affect and change others with the power of our words!

GRADE 5–12 TWO-WEEK SESSIONS

Shannon Sloan-Spice, Improvisation

Lead teachers

Lead teachers

Teddy Warren, Scene Study Allie Babich,

ShakespeareBeth Lewinski, Improvisation

Josh Pohja, Shakespeare

Kris Puddicombe, Improvisation

Allen Edge, Acting Theory

In Focus

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Volume 6 Issue 1

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What’s Going On in the Classrooms? (Continued)

Acting Theory: This class will be based in transformative characterization to create realistic action/reaction. The big question, of “given WHO, what do you DO” will be explored by applying the theories of Stanislavski, Hagen, and Shurtleff in scenes from First Stage’s 30th season.

Improvisation: Through Improv, young actors will understand how to build scenes, collaborate with friends, and make their own choices for their own successes. Games, classwork, independent workshops and mutual respect will guide this course to a summer of fun and learning!

Musical Theater: This summer the Musical Theater students will have an opportunity to perform and study songs from The Golden Age all the way to current Broadway shows. Students will be given the chance to work in a professional atmosphere while taking on different leadership roles. Activities will range from choreography rehearsals to creating personal songs as well as vocal master classes and dance workshops. Students will be given the tools and experience to nail that next audition or walk into the next conversation with confidence.

Shakespeare: In Shakespeare we will explore, investigate and embody the text of William Shakespeare. Imagination is our strongest muscle and here is where we flex it. By improving our understanding of the text, strengthening our vocal resonance and specifying external imagery we will learn to respect and demystify our fears of Shakespeare’s work.

GRADE 5–12 THREE AND FOUR-WEEK SESSIONS

Giana Blazquez

Teaching Apprentices

Joey Chelius LaDareon Copeland

Will EstyAllie Babich Christopher Gilbert

Megan Gray Audra Handschke Andrew Oppman Ashley PavlakKami Graham Katy Radiske

Ellen Sansone Kayla Tillisch

You can read more about our faculty and staff onlineat www.FirstStage.org!FYI

J.T. Backes, Improvisation

Marvette Andrews, Musical Theater

Josh Pohja, Shakespeare

Patrick Thompson, Musical Theater

Jim Fletcher, Shakespeare

Lead teachers

Jeremy Tardy, Acting Theory

Marcy Kearns, Acting Theory

WORKING 2012By Nina Faso, Stephen Schwartzwith additional contributions by Gordon Greenberg, including songs by James Taylor, Susan Birkenhead, Micki Grant, Craig Carnelia and Lin-Manuel MirandaPerformances July 16 and 16 at 7:00pm

Working 2012 is an updated version of the musical based on Studs Terkel’s best-selling book of interviews with American Workers, Working paints a vivid portrait of the men and women the world so often takes for granted: the schoolteacher, the phone operator, the waitress, the millworker, the mason, and the housewife, and many others. Working 2012 is a musical exploration of people from all walks of life. The strength of this show is in the core truths that transcend specific professions; the key is how people’s relationships to their work ultimately reveal key aspects of their humanity, regardless of the trappings of the job itself. The show, set in contemporary America, contains timeless truths.

LORD OF THE FLIESBy William GoldingPerformances July 29 and 30 at 7:00pm

A plane crashes on a deserted island. The only survivors are a group of school boys. They live in a land of bright exotic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are inhabited by a terrifying beast! William Golding’s first published novel is a modern classic. Years later he said that writing the book was “like lamenting the lost childhood of the world.” This play explores themes of individuality vs community, and how abandoning peace, morals and respect for others can lead to group and personal destruction.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICEBy William ShakespearePerformances August 12 and 13 at 7:00pm

What must one risk for love? For fortune? For friendship? And what is the cost of risking such things? Set in the highly polarized world of sixteenth century Venice, Shakespeare gives us no easy answers. How does one find justice in such a world where everyone is culpable? The questions Shakespeare posed four hundred years ago, are sadly ones we still face today.

In Focus

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Volume 6 Issue 1

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What’s Going On in the Classrooms? (Continued)COMPANY CLASSES

Company Classes are opportunities for high school students to work with professional directors for four-weeks to broaden performance skills, deepen knowledge of theater, and produce a show. Students take on the additional challenge of both class work and rehearsal while serving as a role model of teamwork and positive energy for all students.

Reva Fox, Director

Musical Directors

Jeff Schaetzke, Music Director

Niffer Clark, Music Director

Elyse Edelman, Director

Contemporary Directors

Kiaran Hartnett, Assistant Director

Jim Fletcher, Director

Classical Directors

Ro Spice-Kopischke, Assistant Director

Mitch Bultman, Headmaster

Our administrative team

Shaqita Crockett, Family

Partnership Coordinator

Katie Cummings, Academy Director

Clare Kuhnen, Office Assistant

Brandon Bell, Academy Office

Manager

Emilie Thomas, Assistant

Headmaster

Emily Zaffiro, Office Assistant

Samantha Montgomery,

Headmaster and Resident Teaching Artist

Contact the Academy Office at (414) 267-2970 or academy@firststage.org at any time with questions

about your student’s class!FYI

CHECK OUT OUR KID-TO-KID CABARET FUNDRAISER!Join us in supporting our students in their Kid-to-Kid endeavors! Kid-to-Kid is a student initiative to raise money for their peers who may not be able to afford classes at First Stage. First Stage prides itself at having never turned away a student due to financial concerns.

This summer, the teaching artists of the First Stage Academy are putting together a cabaret! Come for a night of singing, acting, dancing, improv and more!

WHERE: Milwaukee Youth Arts CenterWHEN: Tuesday, July 19, 2016 @ 6:00pm

COST: $5 suggested donation to Kid-to-Kid

Permission slips will be available for students who would like to stay at MYAC until the event. Questions? Contact the Academy office at academy@firststage.org

W W W . F I R S T S T A G E . O R G

theater you never outgrow.

2016–2017 season Family Packages ON SALE NOW!

Choose 3 or more plays and save up to 50% off single ticket prices!

Family SeriesGoosebumps the Musical:

Phantom of the AuditoriumRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer™: The MusicalWelcome to Bronzeville

Robin Hood Mockingbird

Junie B. Jones is Not a Crook

First Steps SeriesLois Ehlert’s Mole Hill Stories

Lovabye Dragon

Young CompanyComedy of Errors

Txt U L8rAnimal Farm