Headline of Triangle Factory Fire

On April 14, The Theatre Lab will open its spring musical, Rags, by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked), Charles Strouse (Annie), and Joseph Stein (Fiddler on the Roof).  The show, written in 1986, focuses on the arrival of Jewish immigrants to New York City in the early part of the last century----an introduction to America that, for some, included work in the notorious sweatshops of the Lower East Side.

 

The Theatre Lab's production of this little-known musical coincides with the centenary of one of the pivotal events in U.S. labor history. March 25th will mark the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.  The fire was one of the deadliest industrial accidents in American history, causing the deaths of 146 workers, many of them Jewish immigrants, and drawing international attention to poor working conditions and inadequate safety measures in American factories.

 

Legislation following the incident required improvements in factory working conditions and spurred the growth of the organized labor movement.  The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, in particular, grew in numbers and in influence as a direct result of the fire.

 

In the musical Rags, 17-year-old Bella is killed in a fire at an unnamed sweatshop, where she is trapped by locked windows and doors.  Just as women began striking across the nation following the Triangle Factory fire, fellow garment workers in the musical lead a strike to protest their unsafe working conditions. 

 

The musical quotes directly from history with the song "Bread and Freedom," which references the words of one woman who protested in 1912, saying, "It is not only bread we give our children. . . . We live by freedom, and I will fight till I die to give it to my children."

 

Rich in dramatic and musical evocation of the period, including elements of ragtime and klezmer in addition to traditional musical theatre styles, Rags will appeal to lovers of Ragtime, Fiddler on the Roof, and other epic, historically accurate musicals that both celebrate and critique the societies in which they are set.

 

Rags is a production by The Theatre Lab's Creating a Musical Role class, in which theatre students and professionals combine their talents to produce fully realized musical theatre works of surprising complexity.  Performances will be April 14th through the 23rd, Thursdays through Saturdays at 733 8th Street NW, Washington, DC (no performance Friday, April 22nd. Special performance Wednesday, April 20th).  For tickets and information, contact 202-824-0449, or click here.

 

CAST

Kathleen Alvania

Alexandra Anderson

Cody Boehm

Colleen Brown

Susan Crane

Heath Dillard

Brittany Eul

Dan Felton (professional guest artist)

Richard Fiske

Evie Galvan

Lena Graber

Richard Hall

Paul Horan

Amy Jackson

Kashayna Johnson

Erin Jones

Leopold Medina

Terry Melo

Shawn Perry

Maggie Roos

Hannah Smallwood

Danni Stewart 

Oh, to be young and in love...with theatre!  If that describes you or someone you love, then check out all that we have in store for kids and teens this summer.

For those 10 and under, we've got two-week summer acting camps that provide a great mix of challenge and fun-incorporating training in improvisation, scene study, movement, and theatre traditions from around the world.  Each session has a different theme----from Shakespeare to Heroes and Villains to Animal Adventures and more----and ends with a public performance for family and friends.  Along the way, kids make their own costumes and scenery, play group games in our gym, and learn how to be part of a cooperative ensemble, in addition to developing their acting skills.

This year we have special new Acting and Musical Theatre Camps for Tweens (11-13 year-olds)! There are two-week sessions that focus on the actor's process, a month-long musical theatre camp that culminates in a full-scale production of the Disney musical 101 Dalmatians, and a two-week session at the end of the summer that takes on David Lindsay-Abaire's comic ghost tale, Snow Angel. As a special project, 11-15 year olds will be eligible to take part in Snow Angel. 

And no Theatre Lab summer would be complete without challenging four-week acting and musical theatre institutes that offer top-notch training in acting, voice, movement and auditioning while tackling plays and musicals that are not the usual fare for young artists.  This summer is no exception.  The Summer Acting Institute for Teens will take on Bertolt Brecht's epic Caucasian Chalk Circle, while the Musical Theatre Institutes for Teens will perform Leonard Bernstein's incomparable On the Town and the Ahrens and Flaherty contemporary classic, Ragtime.

There are no auditions for Kids and Tweens programs.  Admission is first-come, first served and they fill quickly! 

Admission to the teen programs is by application and audition. 
AUDITIONS:  Saturday, March 12, 2pm-5pm. Call 202-824-0449 to schedule an appointment.  

Each spring for the past six years, The Theatre Lab has organized major fundraising efforts to raise crucial scholarship dollars for disadvantaged youth in the DC metro area to attend our summer camp. This year, our commitment is just as strong----but instead of a big event, we will now focus on a more cost-effective fundraising effort: the Send a Kid to Theatre Camp Campaign. The Campaign will raise a large portion of the total $63,000 in scholarships that we will give out in 2011.

Our goal is to raise $49,000 in donations during the month of April----allowing us to send 70 kids, ages 5 -13, to our award-winning summer theatre camps. Our summer programs are incredibly popular, and classes are full by March. To ensure that any kid can attend our summer camp, we set aside one-third of our camp slots for scholarship students.

Here's how you can get involved:

Make a contribution!

Your entire donation goes straight to a child. Just $700 provides a needy child a full scholarship to The Theatre Lab's award-winning drama camps. Nearly 40% of the more than 300 kids attending our camps this summer will be scholarship students from DC's most underserved communities.  

Double your gift! The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation has given us a $5,000 challenge grant-matching dollar for dollar new and increased gifts. Donations must be received by May 15, 2011 to qualify for the matching grant.

To donate, call us at 202-824-0449, or donate online.

Attend a Benefit Performance of Rags!

The April 21, 2011 performance of Theatre Lab's musical Rags will be a benefit performance with a post-show dessert reception with the cast. Tickets are $50. Eight young people who participated in our 2010 summer camps are part of the Rags cast! 

To reserve your tickets, please call us at 202-824-0449 or purchase online.   

Get Into the Act!

Be one of our 30 top student fundraisers (minimum $100) and you can be an actor in our late-night "Send a Kid" Dramathon----where students will act alongside some of Washington's best-known theatre stars in an evening of new 10-minute plays.  Each play will have a professional director and be written by one of the area's top playwrights.  The fun takes place at Theater J on Friday night, May 20 from 11pm-1am!  It's a great way to introduce yourself to the DC theatre community, meet people who are passionate about arts education, and support a great cause. 

And we'll make it easy for you to raise the funds that will get you onto the stage! We'll give you online and print materials that describe the Send a Kid Campaign, and we'll set up a web portal that lets people sponsor you with an online donation as well as with checks and cash.  More info?  Contact Deb@theatrelab.org!

Thanks to our generous sponsors! 

The Theatre Lab's 2011 Send a Kid to Theatre Camp Campaign is sponsored by The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The Louise P. Zanar Fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, and The Sanford and Doris Slavin Foundation. We are so grateful for their support----and hope you'll join them and make a dramatic difference in the life of a child this summer.

So...if you missed Arena Stage's deservedly lauded production of Oklahoma this past fall, you're in luck.  Arena's bringing it back this summer, which is cause for celebration.  It does, however, mean that Oklahoma won't be part of The Theatre Lab's summer season this year as originally scheduled, so we've looked far and wide to find something that will offer similar joys and challenges.  And we think we've found it----in spades!
   

An all-time favorite of musical director Buzz Mauro, On the Town (like Oklahoma), is full of the virtues of old-fashioned musicals----beautiful music, funny character songs, a high-energy plot, a big singing chorus with lots of break-out roles, and even a bunch of dancing (for those who are into that). In addition, On the Town provides the opportunity to focus on a real musical comedy. Leonard Bernstein's music is as lush and Comden and Green's lyrics as inventive as anything Sondheim ever produced, but without the irony and angst. The show is fun from beginning to end.

 

The movie, by the way, pales in comparison to the stage show. Hollywood decided the wise thing to do was to trash all but three of the brilliant songs and write a bunch of dumb new ones. And there's not even a really first-class recording of the good stuff. The one that gives the best sense of the music is probably the one you can sample here: 

The problem with it is that a lot of the roles are sung by opera singers, which is just wrong.

 

So we're taking on a show that doesn't usually get proper treatment for some reason, and that's exactly what we're planning to give it. We're going to play up the fun of the famous and innovative musical pantomime sequences (aided by the fantastic choreographer Pauline Grossman----with real dance steps for those who are comfortable with them and plenty of movement-based storytelling for those who aren't). And we're going to provide the necessary training to let the singing and the acting and the dancing do their work without a lot of flashy distractions. That's a Theatre Lab specialty----focusing on what's really central in any given theatrical event----and On the Town is the kind of material we love to work with.  As icing on the cake, anyone cast in ensemble (non-lead) roles will get to work with the instructors on a solo to sing in a special cabaret-style performance.

 

AUDITIONS MARCH 12!  Click here for application and call for audition slot.

Many years ago I was asked by the Kennedy Center to teach a Saturday acting class for kids. Not teens, but kids - where acting means being a fence, a dog or a scooter. Yet I was hooked.

Years later I had my own acting school. Teaching hooked me again. I currently teach scientists, policy makers, politicians, ministers, and corporate executives. Hooked, hooked, hooked. I even wrote a book about scientific talks where the key message is to "teach" an audience rather than lecture at them. It seems that whatever I learn to acquire wealth and fame backfires and I end up instructing others instead.

But in truth, teaching suits my philosophy of life: help those who ask. Actors are particularly rewarding to coach because there is a great deal of misconception around the whole idea of acting. The craft is clearly not just about having talent, an extroverted personality and a loud voice. Acting at its core is a journey in self-discovery, and it pleases me greatly to know that the lessons persist long after acting class. And, of course, my clientele is widening: I am being certified in meditation so that kids with attention disorders (again with the kids) learn how to control their thoughts without medication. Hooked again. As my wife says, "Naciste para ense�ar" (You were born to teach).

 

Scott is a well-known actor who appears in many of the films of John Waters. He teaches Honors Voice, Advanced Scene Study and other popular classes at The Theatre Lab. 
 

Sam McMenamin came to The Theatre Lab last spring looking for a little preparation before the annual League of Washington Theatre auditions.  He currently is playing the principal role of Jerry Devine in Washington Shakespeare Company's acclaimed production of Juno and the Paycock.

 A graduate of the University of Maryland-College Park's theatre program, Sam had been pounding the pavement, but hadn't landed any roles. A newspaper ad for The Theatre Lab caught his eye, and he chose to enroll in the Acting in a Professional Production class, where students perform alongside theatre professionals in a series of staged readings.

Sam credits a lot of his recent success to his experience at The Theatre Lab which, he says, "offered a good transition from school to working with professional directors."  By having staged readings as a focus, The Acting in a Professional Production class also gave him experience in how to make bold choices quickly. 

And the structure of the class, in which students perform a reading under the guidance of a different director each week, allowed him to work with some of the DC area's top directors.  "Chris Henley (Artistic Director of the Washington Shakespeare Company) was one of the directors for the readings we did in class," Sam said. "I ran into him later on, and he remembered me.  A few days after that, I got an email asking me to audition for the show."

Sam believes that having the opportunity to work with Chris Henley in class definitely helped him land the audition.  He also got an audition at Round House Theatre through his connection with Jessica Burgess, who directed another staged reading in his class.

While the connections he made at The Theatre Lab have proven to be invaluable, Sam says it's best to "do the work you need to do and focus less on making the connection." His advice to current and future students is to simply absorb as much as you can, and observe the work of your fellow students to maximize your learning.

Overall, Sam regards his time at The Theatre Lab as a great opportunity to learn more and "get your feet wet in what professional theatre is like." For Sam, The Theatre Lab provided a safe and welcoming environment with a lot of positive energy that allowed him to try something new with his acting.

Congratulations, Sam!  We look forward to following your career. 

If you want to catch Sam in action, Juno and the Paycock runs until March 20 at Washington Shakespeare Company.  Saturday matinees are Pay What You Can.  For more information and tickets, visit www.washingtonshakespeare.org.

Look for Acting in a Professional Production this summer, when we'll be partnering with Theatre J.   

Here's what our busy students and alumni are up to these days:  Andrew Brownstein (Helen Hayes Award winner) can be seen in One Flea Spare thru March 12, 2011 at Round House Theatre. Sam McMenamin and Joe Palka are in Juno & the Paycok February 17th to March 20th in Artisphere at WSC. Carol Morgan played 4 roles in 11 performances of Julius Caesar through the new troupe, Capital City Players at the Capital Hill Workshop.  Ned Read is understudying the role of Mason in An Ideal Husband at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, March 8 - April 10. Jane Petkofsky (Honors '06) will be performing in Stage Door with The American Century Theater April 8 through May 7. Karin Rosnizeck (Honors '10) co-produced Factory 449's reading of Our Wide Wide Sea for the INTERSECTIONS FESTIVAL. Harlie Sponaugle (Honors '10) will be appearing in the Shakespeare Factory Players' production of The Winter's Tale, playing the roles of Camillo, Antigonus, and Emilia, running March 11 - 27. Colleen Sproull (Honors '10) is in Nunsense with the Vienna Theatre Company. Virginia Tucker recently signed with Osbrink Agency in LA.

 

You can find our illustrious faculty members at just about every major venue in town:
Jessica Burgess is producing Monkey Adored by Henry Murray at The Inkwell, February 26, and Showcase Readings by various playwrights at The Inkwell, March 4 and May 4. Vince Eisenson is in Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's production of Cymbeline  thru March 19  at Oliver's Carriage House in Ellicott City, MD.  Michael Gabel won two 2010 Peer Awards in the category of "On Camera Acting Dramatic Male:" the Silver for "Soul Searching" and the Gold for Last Call directed by Todd Shoemaker.  The premiere of the feature A Modest Suggestion, in which Michael was a lead, was held at The Charles Theatre in Baltimore in February. Donna Migliaccio is currently in rehearsal for the world premiere of Liberty Smith at Ford's Theatre where she's playing Betsy Ross, March 23-May 21. Paul Douglas Michnewicz is the INTERSECTIONS Festival Manager from February 25 - March 13 at the Atlas Center for the Performing Arts; he's also the Director for the VSA Young Soloists Concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in May. Dorothy Neumann will be directing a set of staged readings at Theatre J in April and a play, Night Sky, in July for the Fringe Festival. Tonya Beckman Ross is doing areading of Allyson Currin's new play, Caesar And Dada, March 11 at Theatre Alliance. Kim Schraf will perform in a reading of The Lady of Larkspur Lotion in the Tenn Cent Festival at Georgetown University, honoring the Centennial of Tennessee Williams, March 25 and 26. Michael Russotto is playing Yvan in Art at Signature Theatre March 29 - May 22. George Fulginiti-Shakar is at Imagination Stage working on Perseus Bayou and will return as musical director and conductor for Oklahoma at Arena Stage from July to October, 2011. Judy Simmons performed the Johnny Mercer cabaret, originally seen at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore, at Maggie's in DC with Howard Brietbart accompanying. Diedra Starnes is in 24, 7, 365 by Jennifer L. Nelson with Theater of the First Amendment, February 10-27 at Atlas Perfoming Arts Center, March 3-5 at Hylton Performing Arts Center, and March 10-13 at George Mason University.

And a number of Theatre Lab faculty and students are taking part in Arena Stage's Edward Albee Festival. Kim Schraf  will read All Over March 19-20 and Three Tall Women April 9-10. Tonya Beckman Ross is playing Alice in Tiny Alice March 25-26. Nia Medina (Honors '07) is in Albee's Lolita March 6 and 7 along with Jessica Burgess who is the Dramaturg and Associate Director. Jennifer Ayn Knight is in Everything in the Garden April 17 & 18^th.