THEA435

So this is my final project for Ideas In Performance.  I’m incredibly proud of the work I did on it.  Especially since I lost it all and had to rebuild the project.  My deepest deepest thanks goes to the IT staff (especially Mike and Jim), Gregg, Jon, and Ms. Desi in Financial Aide.  I hope you enjoy it! You should comment if you watch it.  CLICK TO PLAY  Click to Play This is a better resolution than the other one.  This video was originally shared on blip.tv by dwebe8pl with a No license (All rights reserved) license.

I just had the most amazing interview with Christopher McEleron of The Classical Theatre of Harlem. However most of the time, I was cursing not borrowing a recording device or remembering to check with Sully if she could come. Chris is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Classical Theatre of Harlem. I wanted the meeting to last for forever but I was running out of questions to ask (which seems to be my problem at the moment judging by both of my interview today). Chris founded his company 10 years ago and is still running it. It grew from having a budget of $8,000 to 1 million over the last ten years. Started out of a class he taught with Alfred Preisser at the Harlem School Of The Arts, CTH was founded in 1999. Listening to him talk about CTH reminded me of a parent talking about their child. I aksed Chris why he felt this was an important theatre to have and he responded back very simply because we serve the community. Many of the people that go to performances at CTH are not the people that normally go to theatre productions. During its first year 95% of patrons were from Harlem and now people come up from downtown to see productions. He always came back the mission of the theatre during our meeting. The mission of CTH verbatim from their website is

The Mission of CTH is:

• To maintain a professional theatre company dedicated to returning the “classics” to the stages of Harlem;

• To create employment and educational outreach opportunities in the theatre arts;

• To create and nurture a new, young, and culturally diverse audience for the “classics”; and

• To heighten the awareness of theatre and of great art in Harlem

He told me of how when CTH was in its infancy, they would knock on doors telling people about their production and asking the resident to come to it. People came simply because they were asked to. I asked him how he finds the motivation to run such a large operation with only four core people and he said because this is the only thing I want to do. Recently, the company went to New Orleans and performed Waiting for Godot. Over 10,000 people showed to see the production and only 6,000 able to see it. When they left the area, they donated $5,000 to help Katrina victims. Also all of the productions have educational programs that run with them. For example when they produced Romeo and Juliet, they had programs for students on stage combat and other such things. It was such an amazing conversation that I really, really wish I had recorded.

Also, I really, really, really, really wish I would have discovered 520 8^th Avenue before Thursday. This building is filled with offices of not-for-profit theatres. FILLED with them.

It was in “Seventeen” magazine on a Bongo Jeans ad my sophomore year of high school. The five words that would quickly become my motto for the rest of my life.

Avoid strangers by introducing yourself.

I love meeting people and have come to the conclusion that the childhood slogan of

is not for me. I want meet everyone I can and experience as much as I can.

Chutzpah is Yiddish for courage bordering on arrogance, roughly equivalent to “nerve.” It’s one of my favorite words and also a lovely personality trait of mine. Sometimes it gets me in trouble — I can never say no to a dare. However it has made me quite successful.

In less than 12 hours, we will be on a bus to the city. I’m looking forward to this adventure. I come with no expectations. I’m jumping in, head-first without thinking twice.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
-George Bernard Shaw

            “What makes this something that deserves our attention?”  It’s a question that needs to be asked.  What makes something so worthy of attention that one stops their busy life to take a look? 

There’s the mundane answer of: Someone put their life into this project that we should respect it and pay attention. 

            However this isn’t a good enough answer.  In the This American Life podcast “Tough Room” in Act 3, there’s a segment on Mormon missionaries in New York City. They have so much other competition in trying to get peoples’ attention that people rarely stop.  The people on the street are already bombarded with flyers for the latest club or hair salon that religion doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to stop.  These men give up dedicate two years of their lives to spreading the word of the Book of Mormon.  However how many people really stop to listen?  From what the podcast states, an average of three to four people will come to church each week because of talking to the missionaries.
Three to Four. 
If only three to four people can be convinced of paying attention to someone trying to save their soul, how does one convince a person to spend two hours in a dark theatre watching who knows what on the stage?

            How does one get a person in the seat and more importantly, how does one get that person to come back?  This question fascinates me.  How does one convince a person to spend the money to see a production when the American economy is going into a recession?  Are people becoming more frugal with their spending?  How does one convince someone that this production is worthy of their attention?  Even more so how does one convince a family of four, a student grazing the bulk food section of the supermarket, or anyone different than the “typical” theatre patron to come to a production.

Society craves the familiar.  This is why there are so many sequels, adaptations, and reruns on cable.  Seasons of television shows are available in nifty boxed sets for your viewing convince.  How then, does a theatre sell tickets to a production that is not by Disney or seen on TV?  How does one capture societies’ attention and convince them to make the time to watch?  How will this question be translated in the future since the majority of the next generation of adults is indifferent to the issues that don’t concern cell phones, video games or the latest celebrity scandal.

February 17th will be a year. Kim told me this week to think about where I what to be when that day roles around. I think its a simlar question to the “Where Are You?” question. Tomorrow I’ll go tell her what I’ve thought of and that scares perplexes ______ me. I don’t know how to put into words or a digital story the thoughts inside my head right now.

I feel I’m in an upswing in my life. I’m realizing more and more exactly what I want to do. Wow thats a big idea “What Do I Want To Do?” What do I really want out of life. More so…where am I in this journey we call life.
I love Theatre. Its what I want to make my career out of.  I’m at the stage in my life where I want to see the big picture.  I want to make a life out of theatre.  I don’t want to spend my life in rehearsals.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  Its just not where I see myself in 5 years.  I want adore talking to people and working with patrons and selling tickets and decided what a season will be.  Okay that was a lot of ands.  AND I haven’t answered the question…..
This project is due in three days and I cannot figure out how to answer this question.
Where Am I?

My first digital story! I was playing with different 2.0 technologies

I don’t think I’ll use this one for my 2 minute or my final one (it doesn’t let you use text and a lot of the features aren’t userfriendly.) but I made one!

So to Boston, Mary Jane and Me.

FDR once said “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

As much as FDR is my favorite president sometimes I wonder if he remembered life before the real world kicked in. I say this partly in jest. I know FDR was discussing far bigger issues than life after college or even life in a course in college.

^{Image Credit: Time, Inc.}

When Gregg asked us what we were afraid of (in context of Ideas in Performance) I had so many answers and wanted to contribute but as all of us saw by the time he hit me I was being repetitive. I kept thinking about it after class and came to these conclusions.
My Fears
1. Money, Money, Money- Currently I’m broke. Seriously. I can’t call you because Verizon won’t let me call out any more. Mom is helping me but for the rest of this week I am phoneless. There is a point, I promise. I’m definitely rocking this semester on a shoestring budget. New York and research on a shoestring budget is going to be difficult. Doable but difficult. I’m so nervous that everyone is going to want to go do something and I’m not going to be able to afford it and then what happens?

2. The City- Okay I’ve been in cities by myself or with just one or two other people.  I have wandered the streets of Atlanta, Boston, DC, Baltimore, etc. I, however, have been to New York twice in my life both times on very structured class trips.  I’m not worried about sharing a room (I’ve never not had a roomate and I have 2 sisters I’m used to sharing), I’m not worried about having to go to an interview by myself or take public transport.  I’m more worried about A) being overwhelmed by everything new and B) getting lost.

3. People Meeting- I adore meeting people. I love talking to people. SETC was amazing getting to interview with so many different people but what if I don’t make the right contacts? What if I don’t know the right people to ask? What happens when you’re too nervous to ask for help?

4. Finding The Right Technology - Dealing with Bob Weber caused me to learn very quickly about computers and how they work. I’m a very quick learner when it comes to new technologies (anecdote- the day I started at GA Shakes, I was trained on the computer system in the morning and by the afternoon I had familiarized myself with it to be able to answer the phones). But what happens if I can’t find the right program to tell my story with?

5. The Unknown- I don’t like not having a plan. I don’t like not completely knowing what I should be doing. I can’t quite put a finger on my research topic. I keep feeling that it will come to me and I still can’t quite figure out what I want to do. Plus once I figure out what my research will be how exactly will it intertwines with my digital story?

so many questions. so little time.
Donna