Tuesday

5/31

Today we began working on scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream with the larger NBHS class. We began class with a quick warm-up involving stretches and tongue twisters that the students seemed reluctant to do, but it definitely helped bring everyone (teachers included) back from the long weekend. The class broke into groups to attack three different scenes, and the work of the first read-through commenced. It was wonderful to see students get increasingly excited about deciphering difficult language and finding the meaning of each line as their characters' circumstances became clearer to them. We'll keep working on these for at least the next week, really delving into acting and staging for the first time next class.

John and I are off to rehearse for an unusual acting gig. We are performing a play as part of a training session with the school of nursing at Rutgers. Should be an adventure. More tomorrow.

-jen

John's Check-In #4 & #5

5/3/11

We started talking this week with our classes about our upcoming summer production of Midsummer Nights Dream and the opportunity for them to Apprentice. One of our big goals this year is the expansion of the Apprentice Company to not just include acting but also design, stage management and production opportunities. New Brunswick High School students will be working alongside our production staff on the main-stage show giving them working experience in set, costume, and makeup design, marketing and production management.

5/10/11

One of the most beneficial things in teaching a new topic or concept is finding ways to present the material in as many creative ways as possible. This concept is not of course a new one, but is consistently a challenging one. Jen and I are always playfully kidding each other because we have different teaching techniques. I love visuals. I love writing things out and creating maps and charts and illustrating things on the board. Jen loves auditory learning. She likes discussion and telling the story with metaphor and context. We have found an interesting dynamic when we teach and because of our own preferences we seem to cover a topic with a 360 view. Mr. Thornburg affectionately calls it the Jen and John Show and our students seem to get a kick out of the animation we bring to our plot descriptions.

We started working on midsummer nights this week with our students in preparation for our production this summer. We covered the entire plot line and characters so everyone in the class was able to start with the same foundation. I had a full color coordinated character flow chart on the dry erase board while Jen talked about why characters behaved and talked in certain ways. I focused on the complexity of the plot and Jen talked about the poetry of the language.

The next day our students came back and recounted for us the previous days lesson. It was fascinating watching and listening to them as they brought the play to life for us. One student remembered the complexity of the lovers’ pairings because of the how it was outlined on the board. Another student recalled the argument between Oberon and Titania because of the powerful descriptions of the natural world at war had stuck with her.

John's Check-In #3

5/4/11

The Theater Techniques class played the patterned ball game today. In this game each person throws a tennis ball to one other person in the circle and so on until everyone has received the ball once. They must repeat this pattern while we slowly keep adding additional tennis balls. The game begins simple but requires intense focus as it becomes slowly more complicated. They really came to life. This group springs to life when they are involved in very focused high-energy activity.

John's Check-In #2

5/2/11

The Theater Techniques class is now at about 30 students. Any teacher who finds themselves in front of a group of high school students that size would probably break out in a cold sweat. I will certainly admit that this group keeps us on our toes but we are having a lot of fun with them. They are a little more timid than our Performance Ensemble class in that they hesitate to jump up and participate but I think it has more to do with fear of embarrassment rather than any kind of lack of interest. Once we get the ball rolling I find them to be energetic and creative. We have started splitting up the group for our ball game warm-ups every morning and it is a chance for Jen and I to get to know them better and keep their energy focused.

John's Check-In #1

4/28/11

The New Brunswick High School Program is off to a great start! Jen and I are teaching two sections with Mr. Thornburg the head of the New Brunswick Theater Department. The classes range in ages and experience levels. The first class we teach is a Performance Ensemble class of students who have opted to take a more advanced acting performance class. The other class is a Theater Techniques class that is geared more towards the general introduction of all theater forms from design and management to performance. Jen and I having fun with these two groups and we while we do similar work in both classes it is interesting to see how we adjust depending on the group in front of us.

A message from Artistic Director John P. Keller

Hello New Brunswick Theater Festival (NBTF) and Collaborative Arts Followers. It was a long and very cold winter but I am happy to say that because of the dedication to many individuals we emerged this spring even stronger. The success of last-years educational outreach and our inaugural main-stage show, Romeo and Juliet paved the way for us to kick off this year with even more resources. Along with my fellow Artistic Director Dan Swern and Collaborative Arts and NBTF company members, we have spent the winter months preparing curriculum and production concepts, writing major grants, planning fundraisers, and putting in place a permanent company of actors, designers, directors, and writers who are dedicated to teaching and pursuing professional artistic careers.

I’m happy to be returning with Jen Ring this year to both New Brunswick and Perth Amboy school districts. As the core-teaching faculty for NBTF, Jen and I have been busy working with both cities in scheduling and planning this springs theater residencies. Thanks once again to Mr. Jim DeWorken in the New Brunswick Superintendents Office; we are back, teaching in New Brunswick High School with the fantastic Steven Thornburg and his students in the Theater Department. We have been working with two different groups this year: an introductory theater class and a senior level performance ensemble class. Building on last years physical theater work we are once again cultivating students to become apprentices for this years summer production.

In addition to the New Brunswick program, Jen and I have returned to work with Liz Mery Ramirez in the Perth Amboy Recreation Department. Last winter we presented a 10-week Shakespeare workshop that culminated in a final production of an abridged version of A Midsummer Nights Dream presented to a theater full of parents, friends, and Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz in the beautiful new Perth Amboy YMCA Theater. This year we are trying something a little different, working with High School students on the writing and performance of their own original work.

In addition to all of the work on NBTF, Collaborative Arts has been very busy growing and re-organizing. Thanks to our board of directors and an expanded leadership we are in the process of using a Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage grant to completely re-vamp our website which will launch late spring.

Best,

John Keller

Collaborative Arts Leadership

Artistic Director New Brunswick Theater Festival