A Note from the Academy DIrectors

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NEWS FROM THE ACADEMY • Volume 4 Issue 1 • Summer Academy 2014 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.

Jennifer AdamsEditor

Patrick G.H. SchleyGraphic Design

Want to get moreinvolved at First Stage?Join the Green Room Society, our Volunteer Group! Contact Heather at (812) 201-4285 or volunteer@firststage.org for info!

Imagination. Passion. Acceptance. Friendship. Love. Welcome to Summer Academy 2014! If you enjoy performing there is no better place to spend your summer than at First Stage. We do our best each day to ensure that every student gets the best group and individual experience possible. We encourage students to take creative risks, be leaders among their peers, conquer their fears, and to believe they are capable of anything. Our professional and caring teaching staff is always here to provide support, encouragement, and the best theater training around! Please let us know how we can help YOU have your best summer yet!

— Jennifer Adams and Katie Cummings

Top photo byLindsey Abendschein

InFOCUS

Young Performer Audi-tion appointments

now available!Young people ages 8-18 can audition for our 2014-15 season. Call (414) 267-2963 or visit FirstStage.org/auditions.

proud Cornerstonemember of

FIRST STAGETHEATER ACADEMYLife Skills Through Stage Skills

HALF-DAY K5-2ND GRADE STORY DRAMA

Bare Necessities with Lori Hartman-Keiser and Amy Bahr | Students will jump into “The Jungle Book” and go in-role as Mowgli, the jungle boy, always happy Ba-loo, the bear, and sneaky Shere Kahn, the tiger. We will create our own dialogue, experiment with animal movement, and even create our own “Bare Necessities Dance.”

Elephant, Piggie, and Me with Hayley Cotton and Amy Bahr | Gerald and Piggie (aka Elephant and Piggie) are best friends who face every day together whatever challenges arise. With their help we’ll go along for a few of their adventures and learn what it means to be a friend to someone else. Using character building, role play, movement work, and basic theater games we’ll explore what it means to try our best, to lend a helping hand, and to accept the differences in each other.

What’s going on in the classrooms?

Frozen in Summer with Jason Knop and Amy BahrAnna and Elsa’s adventure is well known by children of all ages. What would it be like to live in their world? Using the story we saw on the big screen, we will explore the characters and environments from the popular film. What would it be like to be a snowman in summer? Or a prince looking for his princess? Or an icy queen who can’t control her special powers?

Acting Up with Pete the Cat with Brenna Kempf and Amy Bahr | Pete the Cat, the character made popular by children’s author and illustrator James Dean, always finds himself in a new adventure. No matter what happens, good or bad, he learns to look on the bright side and stay positive! Our Story Drama class will develop and exercise our vocal and physical acting skills as we take a walk in Pete’s white shoes and follow his feline philosophies. We will use story analysis, teamwork, character building, and basic im-provisation/facilitated play to have a rockin’-and-rollin’ good time!

Frozen in Summer with Brenna Kempf and Jordan Horne | For the first time in forever, a beloved story is brought to life in our classroom as we explore and enhance the world of Disney’s Frozen. Students will start in Arendelle as royalty in the same family as Elsa and Anna. Together, we’ll meet and play with all of the other characters, endeavor to stop the Ice Queen’s curse, and learn what it takes to thaw a frozen heart. Our classroom will use story analysis, teamwork, and basic improvisation/facilitated play to physically and

vocally recreate the story. Just imagine how much cooler we’ll be in summer!!

Rockets and Robots with Liz Faraglia and Hannah Mitchell | Welcome to the land of Rockets and Ro-bots. Our Story Drama Class is going to be immersed in robot talk, the solar system and rocket ships! We will focus on using our creative thinking and problem solving skills to find the day’s hidden object and be-come and generate our very own space creatures and planets. Our voices and our bodies will be our tools to create and solve all of this week’s exciting endeavors. To infinity and beyond!

Rhythm and Rhyme with Jason Knop and Hannah Mitchell | Hip and Hop are two unlikely friends with something in common. They love to RAP. A tortoise and a hare rapping would be a fun sight for anyone to see. We will be exploring their world and the charac-ters in it that support or don’t support their friendship. We will be focusing on the themes of accepting dif-ference of those around us and finding the things we have in common.

Myth Adventures with Jason Knop and Hannah Mitchell | Going back in time to the age of the Greek Myths, we will read about the gods and goddesses of this time, their powers, and how they shared the responsibility of conflict in the world. The epic battles and mythical creatures will be the topic of our class. We will be using our imaginations to create and inter-act with these fantastical creatures.

FULL DAY 1ST-2ND GRADEPLAYMAKERS

Tree House Time Travelers with Liz Faraglia, Jor-dan Horne, and Latrece Beets | Playmakers are heading to the land of dinosaurs, medieval castles, outer space, and the deep blue sea! This session’s theme comes from the “Magic Tree House” series. Students will be exploring the elements of a story, what kinds of characters live in those stories, and then becoming those characters ourselves! We will chal-lenge ourselves by creating our own interpretations of a story and embodying the roles we want to tell our tale. Be ready to hear from dinosaurs, knights, aliens, and sea creatures!

In Focus

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What’s Going On in the Classrooms? (continued)Pirates and Mermaids with Mary Kelly, Jordan Horne, and Latrece Beets | This week in Playmak-ers, we will be exploring the theme of Pirates and Mermaids! We will create and become pirates and merpeople while we search for secret treasure, and try to save the merpeople from peril! Our focus this week is on unleashing our creativity, problem solving, and learning the importance of helping others. We will have the opportunity to create our own scenes out of this original exploration, and dive into the exciting art of translating ideas to paper.

School for Monsters with Julie Borouchoff, Jordan Horne, and Latrece Beets | What if monsters are just like us? They play, they sleep, they eat, and they go to school. What? They go to school? In this class WE are the monsters – we each develop a monster personal-ity and a monster life. We interact with lots of other monsters and we must learn how to get along despite our monster attitudes. Those humans have it easy! We will develop monster songs, learn how to move and dance like a monster, play monster games, make monster masks, and much more.

Mastering the Force with Hayley Cotton, Lillian Schley, and Stuart Mott | May the Force be with you! In one week we will go from Jedi Padawans to Jedi Knights and learn the ways of the Jedi Order. Using movement work, improvisational techniques, basic theater games, and role play we will explore the Star Wars universe in hopes of developing our own skills of focus, courage, self-discipline, and above all team-work. To this class, Yoda welcomes you.

Super Heroes with Brenna Kempf, Lillian Schley, and Stuart Mott | Have you ever wanted to strengthen your skills, conquer evil, and save the world? Now is the time! In Playmakers Super Heroes, we will use the three actor tools of voice, body, and imagination to create and develop our own super heroes and the world they live in. Our adventure will be based on the lives of heroes from Marvel and DC comics, and we may even meet some of them along the way! Through training and practice, we’ll learn how to use our pow-ers for the good of our community and its citizens.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road with Julie Borou-choff, Lillian Schley, and Stuart Mott | We will explore creative play by using the best resource we

have: our imagination. The adventure starts in a magi-cal world on a beautiful yellow brick road. We have met the usual cast of characters: Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion but there are many more. We will play games to discover who we are on our journey. We will use the art of storytelling to imag-ine and create the characters we will meet along the way. We will be team players and work together as we face tornados and wicked witches to get to our final destination.

Turtle Power with Brenna Kempf, Lillian Schley, and Stuart Mott | Cowabunga, dude! Students will start in the storm sewers of New York City, the set-ting where our anthropomorphic adventure begins. Playmakers Turtle Power will be centered around the theory of the three actor tools: voice, body, and imagi-nation. By activating these three skills, we will develop heroes in a half shell with powers and practices of our own! Sensei Splinter will guide us through a week of improvised play, where we will train, develop, practice, and execute our craft.

ONE- AND TWO-WEEK3RD-4TH GRADE CLASSES

Musical Theater with Chris Feiereisen and Elsa Scardino | Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of Musical Theater! In our time together we will ex-plore the art of storytelling through song, dance and physical characters. We will learn how to use our bod-ies and voices to morph into completely different crea-tures and beings other than ourselves and also give an answer to the great Musical Theater question of

Photo by Lindsey Abendschein

Photo by Lindsey Abendschein

“Why did my character all of sudden decide to sing?!” We will learn choreography and songs from some of the biggest musicals of Broadway past and present as well as create some tales of our own. There will be plenty of fun, creation and of course sweat!

Musical Theater with Alexandra Bonesho and Jes-se Stone | This summer we will discover the history and power of musical theater. We will work on proper vocal, breathing, and physical techniques while sing-ing and dancing. Our activities will prepare students for auditions and further their knowledge and ability to work as an ensemble. We will explore the music of URINETOWN, THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, BRAVE, and MEMPHIS to incorporate our theme of “Going Off The Beaten Path”. Each day, we will chal-lenge ourselves to bring life to characters, practice proper technique, and actively call on our creative skills to present a full musical number.

Scene Study with Karl Iglesias, David Stein, and McCormick Sweeney | In Scene Study, we will be bringing words from the page to the stage with the tools and craft we have learned as young actors. We will be exploring the many ways we can bring our characters and story to life. Storytelling, improv, and several movement techniques will give us numerous ways to bring text to life. We have the goal of discover-ing the possibilities of our scenes through the actor’s process in order to share our characters on the stage.

Scene Study with Samantha Martinson and Mc-Cormick Sweeney | Students will have a chance to build strong ensemble skills, develop characters, and see the world through the eyes of another while work-ing on scenes in class. By analyzing basic scenes, students will be able to use their knowledge in scene study to add to their work in voice and movement and musical theater. Through learning the principles of acting, students will explore connections to one another in scenes while maintaining a sense of play and discovery.

Voice and Movement with Marcella Kearns and Sasha Sigel | What’s it really like to walk in someone else’s shoes? 3rd and 4th grade students will practice taking physical and vocal characters to the extreme and sustaining them for the length of a scene or improvisation. From animals to people, to their own

fantastic creations, students will exercise full-body expression and full-hearted commitment to character!

Voice and Movement with Hope Parow and Nolen Borne | Students will focus on two of the performer’s most valuable tools: the voice and the body. Students will explore how to warm up and use their bodies for proper stage mechanics. Vocal exercises will help fine-tune speaking clarity and projection in order to improve performance and public speaking in a fun and active way.

TWO-WEEK 5TH-12TH GRADE CLASSES

Acting Theory with Gavin Lawrence, Emilie Thomas, Julie Shiely, and Latrece Beets | In Acting Theory class, the students will gain a clear under-standing of what acting requires—understanding your character, character wants and needs, and knowing the world of your play. Students will practice their abil-ity to function as an ensemble through scenework and other activities.

Acting Theory with Mitch Weindorf and Latrece Beets | The text is an actor’s greatest tool in mak-ing choices to create a character and effect scene partners. Students will explore scenes from multiple perspectives and discover various ways to utilize the text to make strong, supported choices that can create vastly different scenes with the same text. We will explore how multiple choices can work for the same scene and text, ways to discover and make bold choices, and boldly commit to actions.

In Focus

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What’s Going On in the Classrooms? (continued)Improvisation with Samantha Martinson and Di’Monte Henning | Students will expand their knowl-edge of improvisation while exploring the principles of acting through creating and exploring in new environ-ments, developing strong character choices, and de-fining specific relationships. Students will build social and presentational skills including listening, flexibility, spontaneity and creative thinking. Through short and long form games, students will be able to use impro-vised material to support and develop their script work for other forms of theater and connect the skills they develop to their own lives.

Improvisation with James Boland, Di’Monte Hen-ning, and David Stein | We are excited explore the wonderful world of improvisational theater with the students this summer. We will explore what it is like to be an improviser while working on skills to learn and grow together. Improvisation theater is about creating a sense of community and we are excited to help your child learn and grow.

Improvisation with Beth Lewinski and David Stein“Yes, and...” An important attitude toward life and theater, it’s also one of the key ideas of improvisation: the idea of positivity and possibility. Learning varied skills—such as listening, reacting, character creation, sharing the scene, working with their environment, and much more—students will have the opportunity to find and improve their existing strengths while gaining new skills, all in a fun, positive atmosphere that allows every student to contribute their unique gifts to the class.

Musical Theater with Kristen DiNinno, Jesse Stone, and Julie Shiely | Musical Theater will focus on rock/pop/jukebox musicals through exploring the history, vocal styles, and dance styles of the Golden Era musicals. Vocal instruction will include basic techniques in breathing and tension release. Funda-mentals will be set as a guide for students to use in future classes or productions. Students will learn basic dance steps and learn how to coordinate their body movement to the musical style and selection. Basic acting techniques will be introduced and students will learn to develop a character pertaining to their focus in class. Exercises in this class are planned to stimulate creativity, focus, coordination, teamwork, and growth.

Musical Theater with Amanda Satchell and Jesse Stone | Singing, dancing, and acting at the same time can be so much fun, but challenging! In Musi-cal Theater class, the students will be learning dance steps, vocal technique, and acting skills to apply to small scenes and songs. We will be using a lot of games, improvising, and fun to develop comfort and confidence in their performance abilities.

Shakespeare with Matt Wickey, Nolen Borne, and Elsa Scardino | In this two week course, students will have the opportunity to work and play with the texts of William Shakespeare. We will start by reviewing (or introducing) Shakespeare’s poetic form, his mas-terful use of literary devices, and gradually immerse ourselves into the playing of his texts. We will activate language, while we work to uncover how Shake-speare’s plays continually remain relevant throughout the ages. We will focus on Shakespearean mono-logues, sonnets, and scenes, while constantly striv-ing to practice commitment, honesty, and attention to detail in our work.

Shakespeare with Candice Milan and Elsa Scar-dino | Using a performance based approach, we will foster enthusiasm for theater and spark an interest in William Shakespeare’s life, times, and writing. We will teach through a text-based physical engagement with his words. The class will see how even looking at his sonnets like “mini-plays” adds to the enjoyment of his writing. We will include “Shakespeare Fast Facts” of

Photo by Lindsey Abendschein

Photo by Lindsey Abendschein

daily topics on what is known about William Shake-speare and his life and times that directly affects the enjoyment and understanding of his plays. We will focus on LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST and HAMLET.

THREE- AND FOUR-WEEK5TH-12TH GRADE CLASSES

Acting Theory with Samantha Montgomery, Lil-lian Schley, and Sasha Sigel | Students will examine multiple beliefs about what it means to be a good actor. They will investigate the influence their knowl-edge of themselves has on the character development process. Students will perform exercises that provide them with the opportunity to practice various concepts and strategies. Through their investigation and prac-tice, students will form their own belief about what is means to be a good actor. Improvisation with Kris Puddicombe, McCormick Sweeney, and Amy Bahr | Improvisation this session will focus on building scenes and stories as a team. This will involve making bold character choices, listen-ing to our scene partners and sharing the story with others in the group, which is fundamental to the “Yes, and...” philosophy of improvisation.

Musical Theater with Chris Gilbert, Jeff Schaetzke and Amanda Satchell | Students will focus on com-bining singing, dancing, and teamwork to create characters and tell a story. Our goal is to build each student’s confidence and comfort in their musical and movement abilities, enhance the use of the student’s physical and vocal tools, expand their musical theater vocabulary, and work as an ensemble to perform mu-sical theater scenes and songs.

Shakespeare with Jim Fletcher, Stuart Mott, and Di’Monte Henning | The goal of this Shakespeare class is to give the students the tools to tackle Shake-speare’s works with confidence. Heightened language can seem daunting to those who haven’t dealt with it before. This class will get the students up on their feet and speaking the words and deciphering the clues Shakespeare gave to his actors. For those students wishing to specifically focus on Shakespeare, our primary exercise will be to work on The Mousetrap scene from HAMLET, allowing the students to explore the different ways the scene could be presented, and

ultimately letting them decide which way works best.

COMPANY CLASSES

RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANETby Bob CarltonDirected by Angela Ianonne and Addy StoiberIn this rollicking starship musical, loosely based on THE TEMPEST, Mad Scientist Doctor Prospero is banished into hyperspace with his infant daughter Miranda and lands on the uncharted Planet D’Illyria. Featuring rock-and-roll hits of the 50s and 60s, a B-movie sci-fi setting, and dialogue borrowed from the greatest plays ever written, RETURN TO THE FOR-BIDDEN PLANET will have you dancing in your seat and laughing nonstop at this out-of-this-world produc-tion.Public Performances: July 11 and 12 at 7pm

BLOOD WEDDING by Frederico Garcia LorcaDirected by Chike Johnson and Samantha Mar-tinson | Love, simmering hate, jealousy and betrayal are all woven into the play BLOOD WEDDING. Set in a village community, the story is based on a news-paper fragment which told of a family vendetta and a bride who ran away with the son of the enemy family. BLOOD WEDDING will challenge the actors to delve deep into relationships to find their character’s truth.Public Performances: July 25 and 26 at 7pm

LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST by William ShakespeareDirected by Marcella Kearns and Grace DeWolffFour men swear an oath to scholarship, only to find that they are distracted by their affections for four ladies. Shakespeare’s comedic gem related the trials and tribulations of young romance and the obstacles one encounters on the path to true love.Public Performances: August 8 and 9 at 7pm

In Focus

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Volume 4 Issue 1

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Meet the Faculty & StaffVisit www.FirstStage.org to read more about all of our staff members!

Marcella Kearns Jason Knop, Lead Teacher

Jennifer Adams, Academy Director

Katie Cummings, Academy Director

Patrick Schley,Academy

Services Mgr.

Allie BoneshoAmy Bahr

Hayley CottonJulie Borouchoff

LoriHartman-Keiser

Karl Iglesias,Lead Teacher

Brenna Kempf

James Boland

Kristen DiNinno Liz Faraglia

Bridgette Jackson,Admin. Asst.

Mary Kelly

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

Latrece Beets Laura Bolling, Office Assistant

Nolen Borne

Mitch Bultman,Asst. Headmaster

Grace DeWolff

Chris Feiereisen Jim Fletcher Chris Gilbert Di’MonteHenning

Jordan Horne Angela Iannone

Chike Johnson

Gavin Lawrence Beth Lewinski SamanthaMartinson

Candice Milan Hannah Mitchell SamanthaMontgomery

Stuart Mott

Hope Parow Kris Puddicombe Amanda Satchell Elsa Scardino Jeff Schaetzke Lillian Schley

Photo by Lindsey Abendschein

In Focus Volume 4 Issue 1

Meet the Faculty & Staff (continued)

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Julie Shiely Jesse StoneSasha Sigel

Emilie Thomas

David Stein Addy Stoiber McCormickSweeney

Malkia Stampley, CommunityPartnership Coordinator

Tyne Turner,Voice & Speech

Specialist

Mitch Weindorf Matt WickeyChris Warren,Company Class

Tech

Ross Zentner,Company Class

Tech

Discover, Imagine and Explore

with the Entire Family at First Stage!Family Series Sherlock Holmes:

The Baker Street IrregularsOCT. 17 – NOV. 15, 2014

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical™

NOV. 28 – DEC. 28, 2014Stargirl

JAN. 16 – FEB. 15, 2015Big Nate: the Musical

FEB. 27 – MAR. 29, 2015Luchadora!

APRIL 10 – 26, 2015Big Fish

MAY 8 – 31, 2015

First Steps SeriesThe Three Little Pigs

NOVEMBER 1 – 23, 2014Goldilocks and the Three Bears

JAN. 31 – FEB. 22, 2015

Young CompanyOnce Upon a Mattress

DECEMBER 12 – 14, 2014Our Town

MARCH 13 – 15, 2015Hamlet

MAY 15 - 17, 2015 W W W . F I R S T S T A G E . O R G

FAMILY PACKAGES ON SALE NOW!2014-2015 SEASON

BUY A FAMILY PACKAGE AND RECEIVE $20 OFF ONE SCHOOL

YEAR ACADEMY CLASS!