The Saint Michael's College Drama Club Presents The Actor's Nightmare

The Actor's Nightmare by Christopher Durang opens April 29th-- tomorrow!!--at the Essex High School black box theater, the first play fully produced by the Saint Michael's College Drama Club in years! Check out my photos here. Directed by Rory Fitzgerald as his senior exhibition project, Nightmare has been in rehearsal since January and with a tightly bonded cast of 5 has taken off. With lighting design by UVM's own Danielle Varcasia, sound by Matt Fitzgerald of SMC, and costume design by first-years Natalie Budnyk and Marla Caram, Nightmare has been a collaborative project that brought many students together, with much help from senior Josh Bardier and graduate student Emily Benway, as well as the advice of the SMC theater department faculty.

Starring Jayden Choquette as the bemused George Spelvin, Nightmare takes you in and out of reality with scenes from Noel Coward, Shakespeare, and Beckett, not to mention the famous Man for All Seasons to wrap up this hilarious play. Jayden goes from a regular joe who wanders into the playing space to a confused Elyot, from a stuttering Hamlet to a beaten Willie and a panicked Thomas More, pleading and reasoning with the audience and fellow actors all the while.

Also starring Liz Levenson as the buxom beauty Sarah Siddons, an actress bursting with personality who takes us on a glamorous, dramatic, and sometimes downright creepy road;

Molly Ziegler as the sharp-tongued (yet sweet!) Ellen Terry, looking fantastic as the slighted Sybil in the Coward segment as well as Winne (or is it Nell?) from Beckett, and playing a beautiful if somewhat bipolar, funky babe throughout;

Mike McKinney as New York actor Henry Irving, who plays a manly Horatio as well as a terrifying suprise role at the end;

and Catie Robertson as the world's perfect Meg the Stage Manager, complete with maid disguise, armed with script and feather duster, who George calls for many a time with a desperate "Line?"

Vans will be transporting students to and from Essex High both the 29th and 30th for 7pm curtain. Admission is free! The thing that I find truly amazing about this play- and am truly thankful for- is that the play itself is short and sweet and easy for me. There are few cues and the actors handle all the props themselves. It's incredible to me that the play itself is less work for me than working with the administration at Essex High. With miscommunications galore and the fact that their black box space is completely misused, it's been a heck of a time. It's a great feeling to relax when focusing before the play itself! Don't miss this fun show that blurs the lines of reality and dreams!

Spring Planning

Today marks exactly one week from the opening of my last SMC play as a sophomore! Next week The Actor's Nightmare by Christopher Durang opens April 29th at the Essex High School black box theater, the first play fully produced by the Saint Michael's College Drama Club in years! Directed by Rory Fitzgerald as his senior exhibition project, Nightmare has been in rehearsal since January and with a tightly bonded cast of 5 has taken off. Starring Jayden Choquette as the bemused George Spelvin, Nightmare takes you in and out reality with scenes from Noel Coward, Shakespeare, and Beckett, not to mention the famous Man for All Seasons to wrap up this hilarious play. Also starring Liz Levenson as the buxom beauty Sarah Siddons; Molly Ziegler as the sharp-tongued (yet sweet!) Ellen Terry; Mike McKinney as New York actor Henry Irving; and Catie Robertson as the world's perfect Meg the Stage Manager. Vans will be transporting students to and from Essex High both the 29th and 30th for 7pm curtain.

Other than Actor's Nightmare, the semester is coming to a close as usual. It is very strange to know that I will be a junior in college soon! If only there were a way to slow down time. I barely have time to ponder this momentuous passing between things, however: the Drama Club is not only wrapping up the end-of-year picnic (May 3rd before the Singing for the Actor performance!) and budgeting; we have already started planning for next year! With budget approved for four Drama Club shows, 2 huge workshops, and the traditional events such as the 24-hour play festival, ACTF, the New York trip, and socials, things are booming. My hope is to work on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog next fall, whether it be directing or production managing (finding a space to perform, working out details...most of what I am doing for Nightmare, only as its own entity given the complications Rory and I have been working out this semester!) It has been recently staged at UCONN and again at Ithaca College, and I think it would be fun for Saint Mike's to do as well.

Besides trying to keep up with classes and the Drama Club, I have a lot on my mind in terms of planning for the future! After school ends, I will be working on two dance shows at the Barre Opera House as well as one in Waterbury. At the end of May I truck back up to SMC to start an internship at the Saint Michael's Playhouse. For students interested in Saint Mike's for theater, this opportunity is a sticking point. Students apply for professional internships in their area of interest (for example, last summer I was a stage management intern, and am continuing with that position this summer) and get to work alongside professionals in a summer stock atmosphere: that means two weeks of building and rehearsing a full-sized show, performing that play or musical for two weeks while working on the next one during the day, and then changing over everything within 72 hours for the next one to open. The first show closes late Saturday night; we open the next play Tuesday night. It is an intense learning environment, and by far one of the best experiences I have ever had in the world of theater.

Also coming up for me is a potential study abroad next spring semester in Granada, Spain. I applied a few weeks ago to both the SMC study abroad department and to my program, API, and am simply waiting to hear back. There I will study art, architecture, and Spanish, and though it will be a break from theater, I fully intend (at this point) to continue my theater career. One thing I learned from John Devlin, our technical expert here at SMC, during a scenic design class last semester was this: Life is like a bucket of water. Every experience you have is a new drop added. Unlike sand, water droplets merge and affect one another instead of remaining their own separate being. This is also how life and memories work, and I can't wait to see how a new culture will change my point of view in the world as well as how my take on theater and scene design change. I have never been farther away from home than Florida; never overseas, either, and so this would be an adventure to blog about :)

As a Virgo, I guess I will never stop thinking ahead and planning and plotting. Beyond next spring, looking into my senior year, I am thinking about my own senior project already. My brother Andy introduced me to a band called The Decemberists some years ago, and more recently to their album The Hazards of Love.

This album was originally written as a rock opera and is an original British-style fairy tale that would be fantastical onstage. Already interest is growing within the theater students of my year and the classes below us; a musical will always be popular both with people working on it and with audiences. The story is dark and the music is pretty intense; I feel that it is like nothing SMC has ever seen before. I have a meeting with Cathy Hurst, one of the department's directors and acting/directing professor, next week to make a proposal. Wish me luck!

Worlds of Meaning

Saint Michael's College had a rainy weekend, but that isn't to say it was a bad one! Almost, Maine is finally over and with just one more play this school year, I finally have a chance to relax (just in time for finals!) I have to say, there is nowhere I'd rather be than here. Despite the thin walls of the dorm rooms, crappy class selection process, and food that is "mehh" at best, I know this is where I belong. Where else in the world could I feel safe, feel close to nature, as I was raised, and yet feel close to the city? And yes, Burlington is a pretty big city by my book :) I always feel that once my weekends free up from all these shows, there is so much to do with friends and family and my boyfriend here. We could walk to the waterfront; window shop on Church Street; go bowling; go to Pizza Putt; go to the movies; go see a show... But we don't have to. My thought for Saint Mike's right now, as my sophomore year comes to an end, is that every experience is what you make it.

Take, for example, my Christianity class. Yes, the liberal studies requirements at SMC include two religious classes, and yes, they are Christianity classes. Most people try to finish them up as early as possible, thinking since it is a Catholic college, priests will be teaching about sin and reading from the Bible. I was pleasantly suprised to find a class called Christianity, Past & Present, where we spent half the semester studying the history and myth presented in the Bible, and then departed from the Bible to study how Christianity has evolved into what it is today. Right now we're looking at what, exactly, Christianity is today with a book by Marcus Borg called The Heart of Christianity. Writing a reflection last night from Borg's theories about how the world looks at God, I realized I was really into it and enjoying the concepts presented about panentheism vs. a supernaturaltheism in what many people call God.

It's all about your personal journey, whether it be spiritual growth while volunteering with MOVE, academic changes of mind as the liberal studies requirements force you to open up to new subjects, or a whole new way of looking the world through the SMC lense. I love Saint Mike's for making me think, even when I don't necessarily want to. I love it because anything is possible.

Selections from Almost, Maine presented at Saint Michael's College

Part of being a theater major here at Saint Mike's includes presenting a senior exhibition project, a culmination of your time and experience here. It can be directing a show, acting, designing, or even (I recently discovered) writing a paper. The usual way of things is for seniors to act in a mainstage or to put on their own play. Last year there were three senior seminar plays: A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Henry V, and Reason and the Sword. This year, however, the guidelines for the exhibition projects have changed and the senior projects are no longer funded by the drama club; in fact, if they are not part of a department mainstage, they have no budget at all. They now have to be about an hour long, no more, and have to be very light tech-wise, which is frustrating for me because I would love to have more freedom with my senior project two years from now.

Almost all of the seniors this year, in lieu of the normal small plays produced, acted in a mainstage production with the theater department. The only senior who continued planning her show without hesitation was Laura Michelle, who was introduced to Almost, Maine by John Cariani several years ago with the Saint Michael's Playhouse production, has dreamed of acting in this play ever since.

This weekend, Laura's dream is finally coming true. Directed by sophomore extraordinaires Liz Levenson and Molly Ziegler, these four scenes from Almost, Maine are a satisfying blend of humor and heartwarmth. Each scene is set at 9pm on a single night in a little town called Almost, in northern Maine, with couples falling in or out of love. The vignettes are sweet, quirky, fun, and often touching. This production will be a vehicle to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Starring Laura Michelle, Josh Bardier, Mike McKinney, Jenn Robbins, Zach Pratt, and Dave Ingalls, these vignettes are something you won't want to miss.

This play is also my first time designing lights entirely by myself (with LOADS of help from Reeni Bishay and lots of advice from John Devlin, Peter Monahan, and Rory Fitzgerald). I can't thank these people enough :) Now that the meaty chunk of tech rehearsals is over with, I am relaxed and pleased with how Almost, Maine looks. Two scenes take place indoors and have a bright, warm look; the other two, along with the Prologue, Interlogue, and Epilogue, take place outdoors on this cold night, and are lit with a combination of stars, Northern Lights, and moonlight. I am truly proud of how my first design has turned out.

In addition, Josh Bardier designed the costumes (while acting in the play and starring in last week's production of The Notebook of Trigorin) and they transform the student actors into real live residents of northern Maine. Laura Michelle worked on sets and props, and while simple and straightforward, they add spice and life to each scene. Matt Fitzgerald is our sound man. Big thank you to Marla Caram, on the sound board; Anthony Bassignani on the light board; again, Reeni Bishay, my ALD; and to Mary Jo and the rest of the crew. They make things happen and are  fantastic volunteers!

Of course, Third Eye Blind is coming to Saint Mike's on Friday the 16th; and Almost, Maine will be performing at 6:30 on Friday to accomodate that. Saturday's performance will start at 8pm. The show is only about an hour, and definitely worth coming to see!

Moving into Changeover

Tonight is the last night to see The Notebook of Trigorin! With Family Day weekend going on and Accepted Student day (welcome class of 2014!!!!!!), there's lots to do around campus! My parents are coming up for the first time ever for Family Day weekend, because of the Dean's List reception. While tomorrow most people will be spending time with their families and saying good-bye, my day will be spent in the theater.

After every play, the set needs to be taken down (called strike). It's always amazing to see weeks and sometimes months of hard, careful work dismantled in the course of a few hours! Tomorrow is also my first load-in as a lighting designer. I've been working on this design for some time: the initial months of the rehearsal process was, for me, a visualization process and incubation (as John Devlin would say) of ideas. Now in the week before tech I'm gathering paperwork and wrestling with the Trigorin plot to find the easiest way to change things over to my plot for Almost, Maine. One thing I learned working at the Barre Opera House is to make instrument schedule sheets: they show every instrument, where it is and what it is used for. I can already tell this will be imperative in the tech rehearsal process!

Almost, Maine is a student-produced selection of scenes that will run April 16th-17th, AKA Friday and Saturday of this upcoming week! This production will be a vehicle to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Laura Michelle, senior at Saint Michael's, dreamed of performing this play for years and is finally realizing that goal as her senior exhibition project. Also starring Mike McKinney, Jenn Robbins, Dave Ingalls, Josh Bardier, and Zach Pratt, this production of Almost, Maine is a selection of scenes from the original play by John Cariani. Each scene is set at 9pm on a single night in a little town called Almost, in northern Maine, with couples falling in or out of love. The vignettes are sweet, quirky, fun, and often touching.

Of course, Third Eye Blind is coming to Saint Mike's on Friday the 16th; and Almost, Maine will be performing at 6:30 on Friday to accomodate that. Saturday's performance will start at 8pm. The show is only about an hour, and definitely worth coming to see!

Saint Michael's College Theatre Department Presents: The Notebook of Trigorin

The SMC theatre department's spring mainstage is The Notebook of Trigorin, Tennessee William's adaptation of Anton Chekov's play The Seagull. Tonight is opening night! Doors open in McCarthy at 7pm for a 7:30 performance, and admission is free. Directed by Professor Cathy Hurst, with scenic and lighting design by John Devlin and costumes by Peter Harrigan. This bohemian estate could tell some tales about love, lust, and sex, if only walls could speak. When actress Irina Arkadina returns to her country estate to relax with her lover, Boris Trigorin, the world of her son Constantine and young Nina is turned upside down in this intrigue of scandal, power, and love.

Additionally, this show has been in rehearsal for 7 months. Being my first time acting (I play the Cook, a tiny but fun part) and probably one of the few times I will be acting, it was quite the play to work on. Cathy held auditions in September, which is unusually early for a mainstage, and we have been meeting to develop characters and the arc of the story ever since. It is set in contemporary times and the themes of sex, deceit, and domination have been built up to play the story at its extreme, and powerful, meaning.

About Me

Hi there! My name is Keelia Liptak, and I'm a sophomore at Saint Michael's College in Vermont.

You might ask, why would a theatre person go to college in Vermont instead of pursuing the big city life? The truth is, I was accepted at Fordham in NYC, but being a Vermont girl my whole life I chose to stay in the less crowded, more laid-back lifestyle that I'm used to. Oh, and the finanical aid factor didn't hurt, either :)

So I'm from Moretown, Vermont, a little town in the Mad River Valley near Montpelier and Waterbury. I live behind a mountain, surrounded by woods, and grew up without TV or internet, which in reflection I've come to realize is a fantastic way to grow up. Imagine reading books and climbing trees, except ALL the time!

As I mentioned, I'm a theater major here at Saint Mike's, and I also recently picked up a Spanish minor. I've worked professionally in theater across Vermont at the Barre Opera House, the Waterbury Festival Playhouse, the Skinner Barn in Waitsfield, and last summer, here at the Saint Michael's Playhouse, all behind the scenes. This spring will be my first time onstage in Saint Michael's spring mainstage, The Notebook of Trigorin.

Otherwise, my time is spent studying Spanish, since I am applying to study abroad in Spain next spring. I enjoy reading, watching movies with friends, spending time at home with my dog, and hanging out with my boyfriend John, also at St. Mike's. I have two older brothers, who have influenced me greatly; Dan, who will be graduating from the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, CT, this spring and also getting married this summer (!!!!!) and Andy, graduate of Norwich University in VT and writer, blogger, and sci-fi fan. I have to say, my taste has been affected by both of them, both in music and the arts, and also in books and movies; I can call myself a science fiction and fantasy fan, and fully appreciate various forms of music.

That's all for today! Thanks for reading! :)