Our fall play, Euripides’ The Trojan Women was written about three thousand years ago. Some might wonder why we still perform these classics that were written at the very dawn of the invention of Western Theatre- surely we could find something more recent that will capture the audiences’ imagination. Our answer is simple: Euripides’ writing stands the test of time. Sometimes an ancient piece of theatre can capture what it is to experience war just as effectively as a newspaper article or a documentary- and some might argue, even more than a traditional contemporary play.
The Trojan Women is epic on every scale imaginable. We consider it a famous and ancient story but it was famous and ancient at the writing of Euripides’ play. The story of the Trojan War has always been big and important. It deals with a mythical war, gods, and revered royalty. But Euripides’ telling comes from a very real moment in time. The play is a reaction to the events of that moment.
Last Thursday afternoon, The Trojan Women cast was treated to a visit by Amherst College professor, Dr. Eleonora Mattiacci, an expert in global crises analyses. She led the group in an engaging conversation about the root causes for contemporary global conflicts and the refugee crises that inevitably follow.
While The Trojan Women was written thousands of years ago, the topic of war never gets old. The women are refugees in their own country and are ultimately ripped from their homes after their culture is decimated. Sadly, this story is repeating itself in countless conflicts as I write this. When I decided to do The Trojan Women I knew there would be plenty of ways we could raise awareness about the plight of contemporary refugees, but I had no idea how timely the conversation would be. With refugees flooding Eastern Europe by the hundreds of thousands (many of them traveling through Greece and Turkey- where thy myth of the Trojan War originates), the responsibility we feel to use this play to raise awareness about their struggles has never been greater.
In response to Professor Mattiacci’s visit, the cast will create educational packets that will be included in the program for our production. In the packets audiences will find resources to help those suffering in the wake of war. We will also host talk-backs after each show to bring further awareness to our community and discuss the link between our production and the contemporary conflicts ravaging the globe. While we recognize these conversations are difficult to have we look forward to beginning them with you and doing our own small part to, as the famous Williston saying goes, “do good, well.”
Euripides’ The Trojan Womencomes to the Williston Theatre on October 15-17 and October 22-24 at 7:30 p.m. Reserve your tickets here.
With auditions under their belt and the cast list posted, The Trojan Women cast sat down yesterday for a read-through- often the first step in any rehearsal process. After getting schedules and scripts handed out, and exchanging contact information (facilitated by our stage manager, senior Khanh Pham), we were able to open the pages of Euripides’ play. It’s an emotional piece, one that deals with the ugliest side of war, but we made it through, excited to tell this important story.
Congratulations to the magnificent cast- be sure to look out for ticket sales later this month!
Cast List
(in order of appearance)
Poseidon: Henning Fischel ’17
Hecuba: Neha Nascimento ’17
A Chorus of Trojan Women: Emma Demerath ’19 and Anna Wilinsky ’17
Talthybius: Eric Chen ’16
Greek Soldiers and Guards: Logan Katz ’18 and AK Hafez ’16
Welcome Back! Students are arriving by the dozens and we in the theatre are ready!
First on the docket is 12th Grade Orientation on Sunday. It’s one of our favorite times of year. Every member of the senior class participates in a theatre workshop that helps them let loose, bond as a class, but most importantly reflect on what they want to get out of the year. Participating in exercises devised by Theatre for Social Change practitioner Michael Rohd, our seniors have the opportunity to create a vision of what their senior year will look like and how they want to contribute to our community. Seeing the senior class come together is the best way to start the year.
Then comes the first day of classes. This year seventh grade theatre meets first period. There is nothing like the explosive energy of Williston’s youngest class- and I couldn’t think of a better way to start the 2015-2016 school year than having their bustling, boisterous creativity take over the studio theatre! We’ll hit the ground running with some name games and then an always competitive round of ABC Relay, theatre style.
Before you know it, the afternoon program will roll around and the tech theatre students will gather to learn about the set for our fall production, Euripides’ The Trojan Women. With opening night less than five weeks away, I have no doubt technical theatre director Charles Raffetto will get them working straight away. For those who don’t know, we started transitioning to an LED lighting system which, besides being more environmentally sound than our old system, allows us to do more complex and intricate designs. Mr. Raffetto’s enthusiasm for our new lighting system cannot be matched.
To end the day we will hold auditions for the fall play. Our actors are in for a treat as they try their hand at moving and speaking one of the choral odes from Euripides’ play. It should prove to be a challenging and rewarding experience, which I’m convinced are the best experiences to be had.
Needless to say, we are hitting the ground running. Sunday can’t arrive soon enough!
An empty stage eagerly awaiting the characters that will inhabit the space and the stories that will be told here.
A husband and wife team, who explore the space between realism and the abstract, will open the Grubbs Gallery 2015-16 season. See Grubbs Gallery hours.
Agnes de Bethune and Thomas O’Flynn met in Boston in the 1970s and began traveling the country, refining their own styles: his in collage and sculptural assemblages, hers in the two-dimensional realm of oils, watercolors, and acrylics.
Although the art they create is distinct, Ms. de Bethune and Mr. O’Flynn have had a long history of mutual inspiration. Arguably one of the best examples of their playful collaboration is their annual holiday card, which can be assembled into a 3D art cube. Turn the cube one way and it becomes Ms. de Bethune’s hyper-realistic oils; turn it the other, and it’s suddenly Mr. O’Flynn’s assemblages.
Ms. de Bethune, a Massachusetts native who lives and works in Jersey City, received a Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She has worked as a graphic artist, as a teacher at Pratt Institute in New York City, and on museum exhibits. Her work been exhibited in New York City and elsewhere in New England and California. Prior to establishing her own studio, she attended Massachusetts College of Art.
In considering her work, she asks viewers to examine the small details, composition, the psychological content, and the so-called “Photoshop effect.”
What do teachers do over the summer? If you’re Director of Choirs Joshua Harper, you sing—and conduct, and learn from a world-renowned professor—all through Williston Northampton professional development funds. This week, Mr. Harper reports that he’s embarking on an exciting professional development opportunity at the Yale Summer School Festival at Norfolk.
Mr. Harper will be attending the Chamber Choir and Conducting Workshop from August 16-22 and will be studying with Professor Emeritus of Conducting Simon Carrington (founding member of The King’s Singers, an acclaimed ensemble from Kings College, Cambridge University). Mr. Harper received an Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship and professional development funds for tuition to the program.
According to the program’s website, the workshop is “divided into coaching, master classes, rehearsals and seminars for advanced singers and choral conductors. Repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to the 21st century and includes both choral and instrumental music.” At the end of the week, the Fellows of the Workshop hold a concert in the Music Shed in Norfolk, CT.
This year’s exhibitions in the Grubbs Gallery will focus on mixed media and bold style.
That’s particularly true with a series of artists who specialize in multi-dimensional work. The first exhibit features a husband and wife team (Agnes de Bethune and Thomas O’Flynn) who together combine painting and found-object sculptures. December’s artist, Linda Batchelor, features the unification of painting and collage, while Jessica Tam, whose exhibit is in January, uses such materials as acrylic, oil, etching ink, and spray paint on paper. I am hoping that these artists will inspire our students to push beyond using one medium in isolation and will make them want to experiment with combinations of materials in both their two-, and three-, dimensional work.
Several artists in this year’s lineup share a bold style. Artist Eric Wolf (February 2) uses india ink on paper primarily to depict abstracted and stylized Maine landscapes. Painter Dave Gloman (October 1) will return to the gallery after a recent spell on the road. He spoke in the gallery a few years ago as he was about to set off for a painting trip in the southwest in a modified studio-on-wheels truck (which he showed to our students). This year’s exhibit will feature paintings from that trip of southwestern landscapes and will be an excellent follow-up for some of our students who remember his first exhibit and gallery talk.
“Art in America” Agnes de Bethune Oil on canvas, 2014 64″ x 46″
Both Mr. Wolf and Mr. Gloman share a striking, graphic, and non-traditional approach to landscape painting—with very differing results. I anticipate that this will influence our students, who respond well to large, straightforward, and high-contrast work (as we all do).
In April, the gallery will feature the work of our Visual Arts faculty. We generally hold a faculty exhibit every few years because of the incredible energy and excitement it causes in our Arts Department (for both students and faculty) and throughout our community in general.
After the faculty show, we will have our first ever student-curated exhibit. This will give a student, or several, a chance to conceive of, and produce, a student show based on a theme they choose. In this way, students can experience the flip side of gallery management. This is the beginning of increased student involvement in the running of the gallery, which we hope to grow into an exciting and comprehensive program in the future.
Grubbs Gallery Shows 2015-16
“The Red Queen” Thomas O’Flynn Assemblage, 2015 40.5″ x 26.5″
September 9-29: Thomas O’Flynn and Agnes de Bethune Reception: Saturday, September 26 —cancelled
October 1-29: Dave Gloman
Reception: Saturday, October 10 from 1:00-3:30 p.m.
November 2-January 5: Linda Batchelor
Reception: Saturday, November 7 from 1:00-3:30 p.m.
January 6-28: Jessica Tam
Reception: Saturday, January 9 from 1:00-3:30 p.m.
February 1-March 18: Eric Wolf
Reception: Saturday, Feburary 20from 1:00-3:00 p.m.
March 21-April 29: Faculty Show
Reception: Saturday, April 23 from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Painting teacher Susanna White and a few students were up and out at 6:oo this morning. They could be found setting up their easels and attempting to capture the early morning light on the pond as Ms. White shared techniques for painting landscapes directly from observation. “Trimesters are sometimes too short to include instruction in painting en plein air, so I offer to do this with any interested painting students as an optional activity” Ms. White says.
With the close of As You Like It we had about three weeks of down time in the theatre (which wasn’t actually down time as many of our performers and technicians were hard at work on the Spring Dance Concert!) before we began gearing up for our year-end projects.
On Thursday evening the 8th Grade Shakespeare Project performs Romeo and Juliet. The performance is a culmination of over a trimester’s work. Nearly thirty members of the class of 2019 took on the responsibility of directing, designing, acting, and stage managing one of the most beloved stories of all time. Our rehearsal process looked a little like a three-ring circus- about a half a dozen things were happening at any given moment! Fight director Jeff Lord perfected one of three sword fights, assistant director Maddie Elsea ’19 and Karen Janocha ’19 blocked countless scenes while three stage managers took down notes. Costume designers flitted about the entire building- grabbing actors to measure, pulling shoes from giant bins in the costume collection, or designing intricate masks for the famous ball scene. Set designers worked on collages that were ultimately projected onto the set, layered paint on flats that became the world of the Montagues and Capulets, and used power tools to secure their pieces on the stage. The end result of all of this work will be on display tomorrow night for an audience of family, teachers, and friends.
Friday night is a uniquely special night when Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House, a senior project by Nick Dalzell ’15 and Matt Steinberg ’15, goes up. Matt and Nick took the helm of this project from start to finish, working tirelessly to tell Ruhl’s surrealist story of love and control. As they wrote in their directors’ note “We chose this play for the masterful way with which Sarah Ruhl blends in surrealism with comedy and drama. The lines and stage directions verge on poetry, and she gives us and the actors so much to work with.” The project, the most ambitious in at least seven years, is a culmination of their combined ten years of work in the Williston theatre program.
Both events are free. You can reserve tickets for the projects by visiting our ticket website.
Manuscripts are important. Manuscripts are valuable. From Shakespeare’s Folios to The Gutenberg Bible, there is nothing quite like the first printing, or an author’s manuscript copy. These originals give scholars and researchers further insight into an author or artist’s intent, among other benefits. Manuscripts are important.
Randall Thompson’s “Frostiana” was premiered at Amherst Regional High School in 1959. I gave a background on the piece’s history in my previous blog, and if you do not know the history of this piece and it’s relation to the Pioneer Valley, I invite you to check it out. Conductors usually have a lengthy bucket list of pieces they want to conduct in their life time, and the sad part is, there’s so much music that we may never finish crossing off our list of pieces. All seven movements of “Frostiana” have long been on my personal bucket list. Last summer when I was deciding on the choruses’ repertoire for the year, I realized that there was no better time to study and conduct these pieces than while I was living right here in the Valley! I hoped that, being in such a prime location, perhaps there could be some other connections that might arise with the piece and the area’s history.
Little did I know what I would stumble upon!
At lunch one day in the Birch Dining Commons, I was having a conversation with Williston’s Archivist and Librarian, Rick Teller. I mentioned to Rick that we were working on Frostiana, and would be performing it in its entirety with orchestra in May. Richard Gregory, long time conductr of the Caterwaulers would frequently program the two men’s chorus movements, as well as performed on their European Tour in 1968. Also in our conversation, Rick casually let slip that his father also had sung in the premier of the piece.
As in, the first time it was ever performed, in Amherst, in 1959.
This, of course, got me asking questions about his knowledge of the piece and its history. At the end of our discussion, Rick mentioned that he still had his father’s score that he used in the premier performance. Not only that, but it was signed by the composer, Randall Thompson, and the Amherst poet, himself, Robert Frost. I eagerly requested if he could find it and bring it into our classes to share with our students this extremely exciting score.
Henry Teller’s score is a copy of Randall Thompson’s manuscript, and has markings and scribbles that Teller (whom Teller Chorus is named after) wrote into the score during rehearsals. In the score, you can find wrong notes, misspelled words–all the common errors that pop up in a first draft. As a conductor, it is thrilling to compare this first score with my current modern day score. This is why manuscripts are so important!
The Williston Northampton School enjoys a rich history here in this valley. I had no idea something as cool as Henry Teller’s premier performance score would become available to our students and myself when I selected to do this piece, but I am all the more thankful I decided to program it more so now than I had been before.
I hope you will join us on Tuesday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m. In the Phillips Stevens Chapel on campus as we continue Frostiana’s legacy here at Williston Northampton.
Archivist Rick Teller shows The Widdigers Female Concert Choir his father’s score used at the premier of “Frostiana”.
