Dr. Adam Zucker, with his brown hair and long beard, is often mistaken for William Shakespeare himself. This is fitting, as he is Associate Professor in the English Department at UMass Amherst with a focus on Elizabethan Theatre.  We were lucky enough to host Dr. Zucker in the Williston Theatre on Wednesday to discuss The Comedy of Errors with the cast of our production.

He shared some fascinating scholarship with us, most notably that even in this most light-hearted of Shakespeare’s plays, the Bard still manages to ask deep, philosophical questions about belonging and family. Dr. Zucker began by reading his favorite lines from the play, Antipholus of Syracuse’s speech in Act I, Scene II:

I to the world am like a drop of water

That in the ocean seeks another drop,

Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,

Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:

So I, to find a mother and a brother,

In quest of them, unhappy lose myself. Continue reading →

The Comedy of Errors was long thought to be Shakespeare’s first play. It is by far his shortest play with what, at first glance, seems like a very simple plot. All the evidence pointed to the fact that he was a new playwright who hadn’t developed fully as writer. However, scholars have since discovered that Comedy was first performed around 1594 (still early on in his career) at the hall of Gray’s Inn likely during Christmastime for an audience of nobleman and royalty.  The play’s brevity is due to the fact that it was an after piece– a short, boisterous comedy that completed a night of fun and merry-making typical of the Elizabethan holiday season.

The play was inspired by the great Italian Comedy of the Renaissance (commedia dell’arte) and the Roman comedies of Plautus. Anyone who has spent any time in the Williston Theatre knows that I love commedia dell’arte, the professional theatre troupes that grew out of the Renaissance. Almost all of the comedy we see today is derived, in one way or another, from commedia. These troupes were well-organized and often had women in charge (something that, even now, is a rarity in professional theatre). They roamed the countryside of Europe, creatively subverting the status quo by using improvisation, familiar stock characters, gibberish and broad comedy. Like today’s best stand-up comedians and sketch comedy artists, commedia poked fun at all of the things that were wrong with society. Audiences loved it, the government and the Catholic church did not.

Because commedia is the basis for all Western comedy (especially Shakespeare’s comedies, which were heavily influenced by commedia), I invited local commedia expert Brianna Sloane to lead a physical comedy workshop with the cast of The Comedy of Errors. Ms. Sloane is the artistic director of Theatre Truck, which crafts “mobile and site-specific  theatre sustainably and playfully.” Her current piece, The Water Project, is an interactive and immersive piece about the  communities that were flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir and will be performed at the Swift RIver Historical society later this month. She has studied commedia dell’arte at the Accedemia dell’Arte in Florence, Italy and holds an MFA in Directing from UMass Amherst. Her vibrant energy kept our actors engaged for the duration of the two-hour workshop!

After a terrific warm-up that involved lots of moving and shouting (like any good theatre warm up!), our actors got a chance to explore the major stock characters of commedia one at a time. Starting with the Zanni (the lowest of the servants who are struggling for basic survival) and all the way up  to the Lovers, the  cast could make connections between their characters and their commedia counterparts. The Comedy of Errors is incredibly physical. Without a basis to create the bodies of our characters, we would end up with a play that is  boring and doesn’t stay true to Shakespeare’s intentions. We look forward to applying all of the wonderful and wacky things we learned in our workshop to the rehearsal process as we bring the show to life. When you come see the play, try and see which commedia character influenced each actor! See below to learn more about some of the stock characters of commedia.

ARLECHINO

COLUMBINA

 

PANTALONE

IL DOTTORE

 

CAPITANO

 

INNAMORATI (THE LOVERS)

 

To learn more about Theatre Truck visit http://www.thetheatretruck.com/

Tickets for The Comedy of Errors will go on sale in early October. Visit http://williston.com/theater for more information.

 

School is back in session and the theatre building is already teeming with life. Lots of students, old and new, have excitedly found their way back to the studio theatre inquiring about auditions for the fall play (which are TONIGHT– we waste no time here!). It seems fitting then, for us to announce the season to a broader audience so you can get as excited as we are. Without further ado, here are the plays for the 2016-2017 school year!

 

FALL PLAY:  THE COMEDY OF ERRORS by William Shakespeare

To celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Williston is producing one of the Bard’s most outlandish and ridiculous works. The Comedy of Errors is a raucous and hilarious play that follows two sets of twins who were separated at birth in a sea-storm. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, arrive in Ephesus, which turns out to be the home of their long-lost twin brothers, Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusans encounter the friends and families of their twins, a series of wild mishaps based on mistaken identities leads to a near-seduction, arrests, and accusations of infidelity, theft, madness, and demonic possession. Inspired by both the Roman humorist Plautus, and commedia dell’arte of the Italian Renaissance, The Comedy of Errors is truly comedy at its best. In light of this, we are planning special collaborations with our Latin and AP European History students, so stay tuned for more info about that!

October at 27 and 29^th at 7:30pm, October at 28^th at 8pm. Join us for a talk-back after the show on Thursday October 27^th. The performance on October 28th is free for Williston Families.

WINTER THEATRE LAB

Have you ever wondered what happens when you ask a bunch of theatre students to collaborate on a series of one-act plays? Well, it’s pretty fabulous and we call that THEATRE LAB. Students direct, act, design, and stage manage four short plays which gives them a 360 degree look at what goes into theatre-making. Look out for an exciting new twist this year and the names of our four directors!

February 23-25 at 7:30pm.

SPRING PLAY: PETER AND THE STARCATCHER. Written By Rick Elice. Based on the Novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Music by Wayne Barker

Based on the popular novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and the Starcatcher follows the adventures of a nameless orphan and his new-found friend Molly Aster as they keep a secret treasure safe and out of the hands of the pirate-villain Black Stache. Set on the high seas and a remote island, Peter and the Starcatcher takes its audiences on a magical adventure as we meet lords, orphans, mermaids, sea creatures, and pirates. The story, which serves as a prequel to J.M. Barrie’s novel Peter and Wendy, is theatre magic at its best and guaranteed to touch the hearts of audiences ages 9-99.

April 27-29 and May 4-6 at 7:30pm. Please join us for a talk-back with our cast and crew on Friday April 28^th. That evening’s performance is also free for Williston Families.

 

 

For ticket information for these productions visit www.williston.com/theater. Tickets will go on sale approximately four weeks before opening.

At this morning’s assembly Archivist Rick Teller explained the word “commencement.” It’s a strange word, considering it is, in fact, the ceremony that marks the end of ones school career. But, as he said, it also marks the beginning of the rest of the graduates’ lives. Our graduates are about to embark on new, uncharted territory and have thrilling new adventures. They are curious to see what the future holds. Theater students will get a glimpse of what that this future might look when two alums visit campus this Thursday.

If you happened to set foot in the Williston Theatre between 2011 and 2014 the names Oliver and Ben will be familiar to you. Both graduates of the Williston class of  2014, Ben Sarat and Oliver Demers  delighted audiences onstage in plays like Rumors, The Servant of Two Masters, and Urinetown. Both skilled comedians, their senior project, a combination of live improv and filmed sketch-comedy, played to a sold-out house. Ben and Oliver were more than skilled performers. Like many of our theatre students, Ben and Oliver were role models. Our younger actors and designers (now seniors themselves!) wanted to be just like them. From Ben and Oliver these younger students learned about the dedication it takes to do theatre and how critical it is to set up a welcoming and safe environment for everyone.

 

It is no surprise that Ben and Oliver went off to do some pretty exciting stuff at college.  Both rising college juniors now studying theatre, Oliver has already performed off-off Broadway and Ben’s college improv team, The Dimple Divers, won the top prize at ImprovBoston’s College Comedy Festival.  They’ve both studied at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade and other legendary comedy institutions. You can imagine my delight when they expressed interest in coming back to share what they’ve learned with current Williston students. It’s safe to say that their expertise has now outpaced mine!

The two will be returning to campus tomorrow, Thursday May 26th from 3-4  in the Studio Theatre, to lead an improv masterclass with our current students. We invite anyone who has taken a theatre class at Williston to join us for an afternoon of true hilarity. Be prepared to try some new improv games and learn new tricks of the comedy game. I can’t wait to see what Ben and Oliver have up their sleeves. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at editkovski@williston.com.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of In the Heights, used people in his own life as inspiration for the characters in his play. (In fact, Nina is based on his sister; Vanessa, his sister’s best friend.) As we discovered while talking with members of the original Broadway cast back in January, the experiences of the characters from In the Heights felt very real to the lives of the cast members’ families and loved ones. Part of our responsibility in producing In the Heights is to educate our community about the struggles of traditionally under served, immigrant communities like the one we see in the play. So, without further ado we introduce you to the characters from In the Heights. Be sure to check out the links below for more information about the community and people of Washington Heights.

THE COMMUNITY

Mr. Miranda writes the ensemble into nearly every song in his play– songs that would normally be solos like BREATHE and PACIENCIA Y FE have the entire ensemble  bring the song to life. This is not an accident. Mr. Miranda wants the audience to feel the presence of the community in Washington Heights. When they sing “Mira, alli esta nuestra estrella!” (Look, there is our star!) during Breathe we feel their faith for Nina and what her accomplishments mean to them. When they sing “You better learn Ingles” with Abuela Claudia, we feel the pressures that immigrants, past and present, have faced and continue to face today. It’s unusual for a musical to have the ensemble woven in to the story like this, but thankfully Mr. Miranda gives us the gift of these characters who enrich the play.  Without them the community wouldn’t feel like home, and the end of the play (no spoilers– come see the show!) would make little sense. Read this article to learn more about Washington Heights.

PIRAGUA GUY and GRAFFITI PETE

Piragua Guy is a beloved character from In the Heights. Played on Broadway by Eliseo Roman (who we had the honor of meeting on our trip to New York in January), Piragua Guy’s character grew in the development of the show because Mr. Roman brought so much depth to the role.  Anyone who has spent any time in New York City in the summer has probably seen a Piraguero– Spanish for Piragua Guy.  More than just giving New Yorkers relief on those humid summer days piragua, Puerto Rican snow cones, provide a link back to the islands and gives locals a taste of home. Piraguero’s are typically recent immigrants. They do what they can to survive, often sending money back home, while speaking very little English.  Watch this YouTube video about Piragua. Try not to let your mouth water too much, though!

While Unsavi calls Graffiti Pete “this little punk I gotta chase away,” Graffiti Pete saves the day. To learn more about graffiti read this blog post about our work with Wane COD, a graffiti writer from the Bronx.

DANIELA  AND CARLA

Daniela and Carla are brash and fun. Daniela owns the salon next to Usnavi’s bodega. They both love to spend their days gossiping about what’s going on in the neighborhood. Despite their love of a good piece of juicy gossip, Daniela and Carla’s support for their friends runs deep. After years in business, Daniela is closing the doors of her salon and moving to the Bronx because she can no longer pay the skyrocketing rents in Washington Heights. This is an all-too real conflict for mom and pop shops in communities all over New York City.  Read this article  from December 2015 to find out more about the current state of gentrification in Washington Heights.

THE ROSARIOS

Kevin and Camila Rosario immigrated from Puerto Rico when they were eighteen. They worked and saved for years before they were able to open a car service in Washington Heights. Taxi cabs are a way of life for wealthy New Yorkers, but many taxis won’t take passengers to low-income communities.  In response, local, mostly family-owned, car services provide the transportation yellow cabs refuse to. The Rosarios have done everything they can so their daughter, Nina can truly live the American Dream. They represent the voices of hundreds of thousands of immigrants to the U.S. and the sacrifices they must make in order to make a better life.

BENNY AND NINA

Benny has worked at Kevin’s dispatch booth since he was a kid. He has big dreams of going to business school and opening his own dispatch one day. Nina Rosario comes home after her first year at Stanford University. Nina was the star of her neighborhood. She defied the odds and got a full scholarship to Stanford– the first in her family to go to college. The challenges of transitioning from an underserved neighborhood to an Ivy League college proved to be greater than she’d imagined and she returns home after dropping out of school. The phenomenon of high-achieving first-generation college students struggling when they leave home is all too real. Listen to this story from This American Life, which Julia Wise used as character research, to learn more. It’s about an hour, but worth every minute.

ABUELA CLAUDIA AND SONNY

Abuela immigrated to Washington Heights from Cuba in the 1940’s. While Abuela means grandmother in Spanish, as Usnavi says “She’s not really my “abuela,” She practically raised me. This corner is her escuela (school).”  Abuela Claudia is the caretaker on the block. She looks after the neighborhood kids whose parents are working and makes sure they all stay on the right track. Through her song “Paciencia Y Fe” we see the correlation between the immigrant experience in 1943 and now. Sadly, not much has changed.

Sonny is the youngest character in the play. He works with his cousin Usnavi in the bodega but he has big dreams of becoming a community organizer. With his rap in 96,000 we get a glimpse into the changes he wants to bring to the neighborhood, and the world. See this list of community organizations working to empower the residents of Washington Heights.

USNAVI AND NINA

Usnavi, born in the Dominican Republic but raised in Washington Heights by Abuela Claudia, is a bodega owner. Bodega’s are a way of life in New York City (see a brief definition in this article from the Gothamist) and the owners are the caretakers of the block (a skill Usnavi undoubtedly learned from Claudia). They know what everyone orders for breakfast in the morning and exactly how they take their coffee. Usnavi dreams of returning to D.R. one day and opening a small bar near his parents’ hometown. He harbors a long-time crush on Vanessa, who has big dreams of her own. Growing up with a dysfunctional mother, Vanessa has worked at Daniela’s salon with hopes of saving enough money to move out of Washington Heights. Sadly, she lacks the good credit necessary to get an apartment in downtown Manhattan.

To learn more or to purchase tickets to the show visit our ticket website.  Seats are going fast so make your reservations soon.

On closing night of In the Heights, which ran for over twelve-hundred performances, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s creator, composer, and star gave an impassioned speech. Freestyling in rhyme for almost eleven minutes, Mr. Miranda thanked everyone who helped bring the show to life. (The speech is on YouTube but– be warned– it contains some pretty colorful language!) He closed by assuring fans of the show that In the Heights would not end with its close on Broadway– it would have a second life in high schools all over the country. High school was, after all, where Mr. Miranda discovered his passion for musical theatre. He hoped In the Heights would, amongst other things, “teach kids in Ohio what a Puerto Rican flag looks like.”

In the Heights brings to life stories that typically don’t get told on the Broadway stage. The actors involved in the original Broadway production, most of whom were first or second generation, were able to play characters that reflected the experiences of their families—something that is, sadly, incredibly rare in the entertainment industry. How then, does a school like Williston take on a production like In the Heights? If Mr. Miranda had not explicitly urged high schools all over the U.S. to produce the show with actors who, likely, did not share the cultural background of the characters they would be portraying, we would not be doing the show. With a widespread practice of white actors playing non-white characters on the stage and screen (which still occurs at a disturbingly frequent rate) the voices of actors, directors, and writers of color have been systematically excluded from mainstream media. We see this continue today in the hashtag #oscarssowhite. But Mr. Miranda, the child of Puerto Rican immigrants, asks non-Latino communities to do his play. More than that he asks us learn about the immigrant community of Washington Heights. I took Miranda’s message to heart– not only because he asks us to, but because it brought back memories from one of the best times of my life.

In September of 2002 I started teaching theatre to seventh graders at IS 90,  a middle school on 168^th and Jumel Place, the southeast corner of Washington Heights.  All but two of my students spoke Spanish as their first language and many hopped between the Dominican Republic and New York frequently.  My students’ drive to connect was fierce and their positivity was overwhelming. Do you guys want to do a talent show? Yes! Do you want to go downtown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Yes! Do you want to see a commedia play at Julliard? Yes! Families with whom I could barely communicate did their best to connect with me and I learned as much Spanish as I could.  Life was not perfect by any means. Outside of their neighborhood my students felt invisible. They wondered how they would survive past high school and help support their families back in Puerto Rico and D.R. But the closeness of the community made life’s challenges more bearable. I was only in my second year of teaching when I started at I.S. 90 but it was the relationships with students and families there that set me on a path as an educator.  It is no surprise then, that I have always wanted to direct In the Heights– I see the stories of my former students onstage in Mr. Miranda’s play.

My connection to Washington Heights made it even more important to follow Mr. Miranda’s directive.  Luckily, the production team of Williston’s In the Heights was on board. (In fact, without Debra and Aaron Vega we would not have had half of the amazing experiences we had!).  Heshima Moja, an international recording artist, came on board as dialect coach. Moja not only taught us the difference between how Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans might say “Por Favor,” he taught us the cultural significance of each Spanish phrase and brought to life the exhaustion of trying to communicate in a language you do not speak. Knowing that the neighborhood is as much a character in the play as any of the people on the stage, we brought the cast to Washington Heights. We walked past I.S. 90 and the bodega where my students used to buy soda and lollipops after school. We saw Caridad (the Dominican restaurant Kevin Rosario refers to in Act I). We heard Spanish being spoken on the street and, sadly, witnessed first-hand the gentrification Usnavi warns about at the end of the play. (To read more about our trip to New York read this blog post from January.)

We came back to Easthampton armed with enough research to start building our characters—almost. That’s when our panel of Dominican and Puerto Rican community leaders from Holyoke came to visit. Sharing stories of what it feels like to constantly feel pulled between to homes, two cultures, two languages, it almost felt like Sonny, Vanessa, Nina, and Usnavi were in the room with us. All of these experiences deepened our connection to the characters in the play, but more than that they taught us about the contemporary immigrant experience.

We invite you to come talk with us about what we’ve learned. Share your family’s story with us, or about the time you discovered the true meaning of home. Hopefully this will make the reach of our research a little larger and open the door to make lasting change where all voices and experiences are heard with equal weight.

In the Heights is a play about the power of community, and this production would not have been possible without the thoughtful contribution of members of our own community. We are very grateful to those who have given their support along the way, especially the following:  the Academic Dean and Dean of Students’ office who approved our New York trip, athletic coaches who let their players out of games or practices to attend the trip, Williston parents who drove their children to school at the crack of dawn so we could get the most out of our time in New York, Debra and Aaron Vega who graciously invited their friends to contribute our panels and discussions, Priscilla Kane Hellweg at Enchanted Circle Theater who connected us with Heshima Moja, and Austin Sarat and Stephanie Sandler’s whose donation to the theatre program helped fund our trip to New York.

IN THE HEIGHTS runs April 28-30 and May 5-7. For tickets and more information visit our ticket website.