Eight Days A Week: KCACTF: Region One

Last week, the Saint Michael's Drama Club sent 16 people to the Kennedy Center's American College Theater Festival at Fitchburg, MA, a convention featuring workshops, acting competitions, design and stage management competitions, the best shows from our region performing, devised theater and short play activities, and more.

We sent 3 Irene Ryan competitors (the acting competition award is known as the Irene Ryan) that were chosen by ACTF reviewers who came to see and evaluate our largest shows; their acting partners; Heather Lessard to compete for stage management after she was nominated for Romeo & Juliet which performed last spring; and the rest of us mainly to attend workshops and support our fellow students. Marla Caram tried out for and participated in one of the short plays, and Heather also stage managed for the director/choreographer competition. I went as a tech intern, which was an amazing experience.

As a tech intern, I was assigned to Jim Dougherty's crew at the Dukakis theater, around a 1100 seat house at a local high school with a fairly new weight loft/catwalk and grid system, though not without some challenges. Wednesday-Friday I went there each morning to assist with the load-in of whatever show was coming in each night. Then I went to workshops or other shows for the afternoon, before returning to see the performance and strike it. Each school that was chosen to come perform at the festival brought set and some lights and a crew (or actors who could help), all set up, tech'ed, performed, and struck within 16 hours or so.

Sweeney Todd load-in

On Wednesday, we worked with Western Connecticut State University on Sweeney Todd, which was fun. That afternoon I went to a stage photography workshop given by William Kenyon, which was awesome. I hope the notes I took will help me practice taking better pictures of my work-- stage lights change the exposure and so we looked at settings for that. I also saw Spelling Bee by Emmanuel College that afternoon, which is always a fun experience. I returned to see Sweeney that evening, and for a college production it was pretty good! The music and singing was amazing, lots of talent there. We got to help a lot more at the strike than we did during the load-in; as the house crew, we didn't know their set as well as they did and were really on hand to answer questions. Loading out is easier than loading in, however, and after a big performance and long day they could really use the extra hands!

William Kenyon at the Stage Photography Workshop

Thursday dawned bright and early with a 6:45am call to help LeMoyne College load in Rhinoceros, an absurdist social commentary piece. I knew a few people from LeMoyne already, so it was kind of nice to be able to say hi. Because they had a smaller crew, the interns were able to help out a little bit more, especially with lighting and rigging stuff. They had a pretty cool set of metal scaffolding covered by paper walls, with windows and flower-boxes all drawn on, which during the show the actors ripped right through when they needed to look out the window or come through a door. That was fun! That afternoon I went to a Vectorworks drafting workshop, which all agreed needed to be tackled differently next year because of various levels of advancement with the program. The performance of Rhinoceros was a lot different than I expected, but I really enjoyed it-- the beginning was funny, and the second half and ending were thought-provoking. I think I worked on rigging and weight loading for most of the strike, which I am really coming to enjoy.

St. Mike's represent!!

Thursday also featured a show from Boston University, who always has shows worth seeing, called Our Lady. This was a one-man written and acted by James Fluhr show about his experiences growing up homosexual and the effect the recent suicides had on his life-- including the suicide of his boyfriend. It was incredibly moving, and had its light points and dark points, and culminated with a transformation and growth of the boy overcoming his fears and accepting himself in the world. Given the past year's events at Saint Michael's, the piece touched many people. Absolutely unforgettable.

Our Lady pre-show

On Friday we came in for the load-in of The Icarus Project, an original devised piece from Suffolk County Community College about the legend of Daedalus and Icarus. I also already had a friend among this crew, a carpenter from Gateway last summer. The crew was huge, and despite the large amount of lights, truss, equipment, and a few scenery pieces they brought in, we weren't really needed. I could tell a few things could have been done differently to be safer, like some of the weight loading and flying things for the round truss that hung over the stage, but they managed it in the end. The lighting crew was nice enough to tolerate me observing some of what they did-- with an ion board and moving lights, this community college was way beyond the level of technology St. Mike's has to offer.

Stargate in the sky? It could work

I was thinking about staying for the tech rehearsal because they had such interesting stuff, but Jim and my friend Paige encouraged me to go to a workshop, and I'm glad I did. Friday afternoon I attended Rafael Jaen's Digital Design/Tech Portfolios workshop. Rafael is the head of the design/tech/management program at ACTF and works at Emerson College in Boston as costume designer. He had some great advice and ideas for young (or any!) professionals hoping to get their name noticed and trying to keep up with modern marketing. His book Showcase has a similar theme. Because of this workshop, I've been working this week on reformatting my resume, creating a website for myself, and pushing to connect this blog and my other online resources. He covered paper portfolios and basic interview tips, as well. It was a really great workshop to go to!

That evening was Icarus performance...which absolutely blew me away! The costumes and lighting reminded me of Avatar. There was little speaking, but lots of movement and physical telling of the story. The children were played by puppets, which their students had the opportunity to use and learn how to control. Daedalus had a light-up jacket and helmet (the helmet, of course, representing knowledge). The lighting was as if for dance, with sidelight and saturated colors; the props and set were rustic and provided contrast. The king and queen were huge puppets, and the bull and minotaur were awesome. There were some breathtaking moments for sure. It was hard to believe a college was producing this, though some moments (from each day of the trip!) reminded me that we're all still learning, always. The strike went all right; I was put on the task of inventory for the ALPS rental stuff the house had from the beginning of the week, which presented some wracking moments between the Icarus crew and myself. They made it out just fine though, and I worked with the rest of the interns to load our own truck with the rental equipment. That was it for the Dukakis center!

the bull head

Saturday was a more relaxed day. I saw my friends among the interns often, between tech olympics, the job/college fair, and the dance that evening (during which the electricity went out and we were called on to help keep things calm). Sunday's drive home was exhausting, but our mammoth SMC vans made it just fine.

I had a great week! It was a good blend of workshops, learning, and working, which I love. I'd rather be busy in the theater. The people I met were incredible-- my supervisor, Jim, who works at Middlebury College was fantastic and I'm hoping to see some of their shows this semester; my friend Paige who lives in NYC and works primarily with props, we have a lot of things in common; friends from Johnson Stage College among the tech interns and stage managers; Fitchburg State students who were interns as well; people on the crew from each of the schools who came in.... Thanks to all for making it a great week! Keep in touch!