As I gather my thoughts and reflect on this year’s One Theatre World (OTW) event, I can feel my eyes refill with happy tears. Joyful, teary-eyed reunions, new connections, delightful performances and engaging, inspiring sessions filled my week. For fifteen hours a day for three days, I was surrounded by creative, passionate artists who both support and inspire my own creative development.
In line with this year’s conference theme, “Ignite creativity, collaboration and connection,” I decided to break down my highlights of this year’s One Theatre World in terms of this alliterative theme that perfectly encompasses both my OTW 2013 experience and TYA/USA as an organization.
CREATIVITY
I attended a session led by members of Trusty Sidekick theatre company, based in New York City who presented on their development process for Shadow Play, a theatre piece for audiences aged 2-5. Trusty Sidekick developed Shadow Play in collaboration with pre-K students through creative drama and process-drama inspired activities. This particularly excites me as a model for community engagement in new work development. During the session I was silently freaking out (in a good way) about how this project combines my love for working with this age group as a teaching artist and my recent experience as an actor/facilitator in theatre for the very young. Trusty Sidekick’s session truly ignited my creativity with a volume of new ideas cascading through my brain as I look forward to determining a thesis project.
COLLABORATION
In his closing keynote address, Finnegan Kruckemeyer hit home on a number of salient points. This incredible playwright and storyteller identified the essence of this conference with the simple sentence, “It’s nicer to work with nice people.” TYA contains a wealth of nice people. Nice people who are as creative, supportive and hard-working as they are kind. No matter what field you find yourself in, when you surround yourself with colleagues who are motivated by similar values, you do better work. The attention to learning and education that permeates our theatre-making in TYA came up in many of the discussions I had at OTW. Whether or not it is overtly named as a goal of an artistic process, this awareness of the educational value of the arts also drives us, the professional artists, to continue learning and refining our craft. We consciously seek out new ways to grow, and we support artistic growth in one another.
CONNECTION
The supportive bonds I found at OTW this year moved me to tears multiple times. Whether I was reuniting with former co-workers or simply taking in the energy and excitement that filled each space at PlayhouseSquare, significant connections were formed, deepened and sustained. At OTW 2011, I was floored when accomplished playwright, Laurie Brooks approached me and introduced herself when she could see that I was a new member of this community. This year, knowing more people in attendance created a different experience for me, but the connections were just as meaningful. OTW is not a race to collect the most business cards (or how many Minglebird connections you make- though that was a fun way to break the ice!). The artists who comprise the OTW community value making and sustaining connections because you never know where you’ll encounter future collaborators. We are invested in serving each other as resources as we continue to serve young audiences and families through the high quality arts experiences we create together.
CONFIDENCE
I’m going to add a new big word to the alliteration that I am taking away from this experience: confidence. At my first OTW in 2011, I soaked it all in like a human sponge. Attending this year’s conference as a graduate student and OTW apprentice gave me the confidence boost to introduce myself to artists and TYA leaders whose work I admire and engage in conversation about their work, my work and the field at large. A huge thank you to the TYA/USA board and the OTW 2013 planning committee for facilitating a high-quality conference experience full of creativity, collaboration and connection.
In short, OTW rocks.
One Theater World Interns
Meredyth Pederson is an MFA candidate in the Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities program at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds her undergraduate degree in theatre from American University in Washington, DC. She has worked as a teaching artist at Imagination Stage, Lexington Children’s Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Metro Theater Company and ZACH Theatre. Currently at UT, Meredyth is exploring the multiple intersections of teaching artistry and theatre-making in a variety of areas including arts integration, professional development, theatre for the very young and dramaturgy in TYA. She writes about her teaching artist adventures on her blog, ArtSmart: http://artsedblog.wordpress.com
A reflection on my experience at One Theatre World 2013 is impossible. I walked away inspired and excited and exhausted but mostly I walked away acutely aware of the questions in my head: Are we in need of classifications for Theatre for the Very Young? When is theatre a performance and when is it a workshop? Why do we call it Theatre for Youth when we could just call it theatre? So I took a little advice that I first heard from Patch Theatre’s Dave Brown: work within constraints. Given that, here are three thoughts from Pig Iron’s master class “Something from Nothing”:
1. It is easier to run together than to walk. Pig Iron asked us to find a partner, one standing behind the other. Bodies lightly touching we established a connection with our breath and began to walk through the space, pressing harder into each other as we struggled to maintain our breath. As the person slightly in front, I closed my eyes and we continued to move – taking one timid step after the other. Instructed to test what possibilities, we moved with more assurance, taking giant Laverne and Shirley steps. We stopped and started. Forward and backward. Haltingly. Slowly. Gracelessly. But then we began to run. With eyes closed I ran around a room perfectly in sync with my partner. We started and stopped. Forward and backward. Fluidly. Quickly. Beautifully.
It made me consider process and collaboration and creation. Beginning something is so hard. Those first fundamental things you do when welcoming a new ensemble; sitting down with a new collaborator; coaxing a new idea to life. But if we set the right foundation the things that seem as impossible as 20 people running in a confined space with their eyes closed and not colliding once become a reality that seems perfectly choreographed. Which leads me to my next thought:
2. Stop and take a breath. Ok ok. It wasn’t as easy and beautiful for everyone in that room. Some people never ran. Some people claimed their partner pinched and pulled and prodded them. And when it was my turn to lead my partner around the space I placed my hands on his shoulders, nuzzled the right half of my body against his back, took some deep, audible breaths and then we went absolutely nowhere. We were frozen. Which foot would we start on? What was our speed? Which direction? We stood in stillness for maybe 20 seconds. I could feel him asking all the same questions. And then we stumbled forward. Perhaps I pulled him. Perhaps he pulled me. We awkwardly entered the playing field taking horribly faltering steps. We stopped. We breathed. We tried again. Success! We did a little forward. We did a little backward. We started a little jog. I looked around at all the cool things other partners were doing and felt my partner tense as our gait fell out of rhythm. We stopped. We breathed. We tried again. This time we ran. We bobbed and weaved and stopped and jumped and started and crouched and stomped. And we would stumble. And stop. And breathe. And then we’d start again.
I am a long time yoga practitioner and have become very invested in my individual breath. I know that when I feel overwhelmed our out of control or like giving up my breath can push me forward. I can breathe out the negative, chaotic, and reactionary and breathe in the positive, calm and intuitive. I can choose when I want to breathe in and when I want to breathe out. Pig Iron reminded me that I am not the only one who can breathe.
The nature of collaboration dictates that it is neither your idea nor mine that propels us forward but truly a new idea ignited from the fact that we are together in this moment. My partner and I could only succeed when we were breathing together. And it is just the nature of the exercise (and of ourselves) that my eyes were open seeing something exciting over here and his ears were attuned hearing something exciting over there and we would lose our connection. It is such a comfort to know that all it takes is a moment to stop and breathe together. And in that moment we learn to be less precious about ourselves and more sensitive to the work. We take a moment to recommit to our shared goal. So finally:
3. We are the luckiest people in the world. As we ended an exercise I’ve done a million times I had a completely new reaction: profound sadness. I felt a rush of emotion for all the people in the world that don’t get to do our work. At OTW this year I got to play and get paid for it. I got to run across a circle and high five a person whose name I didn’t know while jumping and yelling “ho!” And they enthusiastically high fived me back while jumping and yelling “ho!” I got to very literally put myself in someone else’s hands and do the same for them. I got to grow wings and antennae and battle a lizard monster. I got to experience exercises and stories and people I’ve known in a completely new way. I got to fail. And I got to try again. How did I get to be so lucky?
My parents will never do this work. I don’t even think they know that this is part of what I do. And that makes me sad. I want this for everyone. We are so incredibly lucky because on a daily basis we get to leap and fall and get back up. We get to connect and illuminate and uplift. We get to be audacious and intimate and vulnerable. We get to lean into someone we’ve just met. We get to learn a stranger’s breath and heartbeat. We get to run with our eyes closed.
Ellie McKay is the Associate Education Director at ZACH Theatre creating program content, mentoring up-and-coming teaching artists, and providing professional development for local classroom teachers. She spent six years with Seattle Children’s Theatre in various positions including Education Program Manager, Teaching Artist and Literary Manager. In 2012, Ellie co-founded Austin Theatre Teaching Artists Collective, a group committed to strengthening teaching artistry in Austin. Ellie was honored to serve on the Seattle Arts Commission in 2010 and her artistic work has garnered a CityArtists grant, three Seattle Times’ Footlight Awards and a B. Iden Payne nomination for Best Director for Youth. She is a proud member of TYA/USA and is excited to be in development for her first Theatre for the Very Young piece, B.
Who is having an inspiring, exciting, incredible time at TYA/USA’s biggest event-One Theater World in conjunction with Cleveland’s Playhouse Square and their acclaimed International Children’s Festival this week? Who is crushed that you didn’t make it this year?
Well to learn more about the closing speaker (or make you even more jealous that you aren’t in Cleveland this week), David Kilpatrick and Alicia Lark Fuss interviewed the keynote speakers and master class facilitators. Excerpts from the interviews are in TYA Today. Here is the entire interview.
Finegan is the closing night speaker.
1) What is the first play you remember seeing that made an impression?
The Postman by Theatre Velo. I watched it soon after arriving in Australia when I was eight, and the unapologetic naughtiness of the postman, the wonders that unfolded from each appropriated parcel, and the way he made us willing co-conspirators, sticks firmly in the memory.
2) What upcoming project(s) are you most excited about in 2013?
The writing of this keynote for OTW is proving to be a great pleasure. I’m also writing a number of plays for commissioning companies, and a number more for myself. Stateside, La Jolla in San Diego has given me a lovely invitation to invent, and the Trusty Sidekick/SCT co-pro The Boy at the Edge of Everything will see a work that’s received New Visions, Cleveland Playhouse and New Victory support, finally throw open its curtain.
3) If you could have a coffee (or an adult beverage) with someone in or related to the field of TYA (living or deceased), who would it be and why?
I’d subvert the question by pluralizing it (sorry), and have the coffee with those unknown heroes both here and gone (Maurice Sendak, Shaun Tan, Roald Dahl, JK Rowling, Erich Kästner). And then the beer with those TYA colleagues already known and liked (many of whom will be at OTW) – those adult drinks are for sharing with friends.
4) What advice would you give to a graduating student seeking to enter this field?
If you find yourself making allowances for a child audience, acknowledge that these allowances represent not only what they can handle, but rather what you yourself can handle telling them. Then diligently work to explore where that fear in you comes from, and where you might be braver.
5) What are you most excited about regarding attending One Theatre World?
Seeing friends and colleagues who I’m usually separated from by a large ocean. Witnessing talks and performances that will no doubt inspire. And receiving the lovely impetus that this keynote provides, in pushing me to in some small way objectively distil thoughts on a subject that encompasses so much of my working life.
Finegan Kruckemeyer has had 57 commissioned plays performed on five continents, and was an inaugural recipient of the $160,000 Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship. This year 13 works (including eight premieres) perform worldwide, with seasons in five Australian states, and in China, England, Germany, Indonesia, and the United States. In Germany, he is represented by Rowohlt Agency.
To date, Finegan’s plays have had seasons in: 50 Australian and international festivals; five consecutive IPAY North American invited showcases; seven Australian states; five UK national tours; and at Australia’s Sydney Opera House (five works), Ireland’s Dublin Theatre Festival (two works, one at the Abbey Theatre), Scotland’s Imaginate Festival (two works), Shanghai’s Malan Flower Theatre, New York’s New Victory Theater (two works) and New York University, and DC’s Kennedy Center for the Arts (in the prestigious New Visions/New Voices programme).
So TYA/USA’s biggest event-One Theater World in conjunction with Cleveland’s Playhouse Square and their acclaimed International Children’s Festival is in full swing! Who is having a rockin time in Cleveland? Who is crushed that you can’t make it this year?
Well to whet your appetite , learn more about the speakers you heard or took classes from, (or to rub it in that you aren’t in Cleveland this week), David Kilpatrick and Alicia Lark Fuss interviewed the keynote speakers and master class facilitators. Excerpts from the interviews are in TYA Today. Here is the entire interview.
Daryl is teaching a master class at One Theater World.
1) What is the first play you remember seeing that made an impression?
One of the first shows that really made an impression on me, was Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco. It was the first time I’d seen a show that broke all form of the traditions of theatre that I’d become used to. Bizarre, funny, the use of imagery and metaphor blew my mind and started my teenage obsession with all things absurd!
2) What upcoming project(s) are you most excited about in 2013?
In 2013 Kazzum will be producing the final part of our Site-Specific trilogy for teenage audiences. a series of three site specific, promenade performances that evolve and become more ambitious, but with a central character that we meet at different stages of her life over a 6 year period. It began in 2008 with ‘HUNT’, then in 2011 with ‘The Girl Who..’ and now 2013 with ‘Waiting Game’! These shows do not fit the classic idea of “children’s theatre”, it’s fully-fledged “grown-up” theatre that deals with complex ideas and mature themes that are relevant to them, produced and delivered in a way that is accessible without being simplistic.
3) If you could have a coffee (or an adult beverage) with someone in or related to the field of TYA (living or deceased), who would it be and why?
Although only slightly related to the field of TYA I would love to have a coffee with Tim Burton. His views on young audiences and their intelligence has always chimed with mine. He never underestimates his audience and provides such a rich visual and quirky view of the world, life and death…. He doesn’t shy away from the ‘taboo’ and I respect that.
4) What advice would you give to a graduating student seeking to enter this field?
Don’t underestimate your audience, give it a go, take risks and listen to your audiences. Many people describe young audiences as the “audiences of tomorrow”. For me this is an insult to our work and the audiences. Our role is to provoke the imaginations of today’s young audiences, so their inspired and want to come back tomorrow.
5) What are you most excited about regarding attending One Theatre World?
I’m excited to be invited, it’s a great opportunity to see work, meet other theatre makers and explore different people’s approaches to making theatre for young audiences. A chance to look beyond the confines of your own country and feel a part of a One Theatre World.
Daryl Beeton is Artistic Director at Kazzum, a theatre company dedicated to producing fresh, relevant theatrical experiences for young audiences up to the age of 16. Kazzum produce outdoor family shows for children up to the age of eight, and more grown-up site specific shows for young people aged ten and upwards. Yet theatre isn’t theatre without an audience, so young people are crucial to what Kazzum do at every stage.
Kazzum is an inclusive company and works with Disabled and non-Disabled artists, audiences and participants. Kazzum don’t create work just to explore issues but, like all good theatre, intend to make young people think.
As recognition of his work in this field, Daryl was named as a cultural leader in 2010 as part of the Independent Streets Arts Network (ISAN) Outdoor Arts Leadership Network. The Network consists of 15 current leaders and innovators, creating and producing work in the outdoor arts sector.
A disabled director and performer, Daryl started his career at Central Television Drama Workshop, in Nottingham, where he performed in a variety of children’s TV shows. Working as an actor for many years, in theatre, radio, TV and film, allowed Daryl to explore and formulate his own approach.
Who is really excited about attending TYA/USA’s biggest event-One Theater World today in conjunction with Cleveland’s Playhouse Square and their acclaimed International Children’s Festival? Who is crushed that you can’t make it this year?
Well to whet your appetite (or to rub it in that you aren’t in Cleveland this week), David Kilpatrick and Alicia Lark Fuss interviewed the keynote speakers and master class facilitators. Excerpts from the interviews are in TYA Today. Here is the entire interview.
Pig Iron Theater is leading a Master Class
1) What is the first play you remember seeing that made an impression?
When I was a teenager we often traveled from the Bay Area to Ashland Oregon to visit to the Shakespeare Festival there. Year by year you saw the same actors transforming into wildly different roles in an incredible setting. I saw two productions that will stick with me forever and opened my eyes to the art of acting. The first was a production of Cyrano and the second was a production of THE ICEMAN COMETH. I entered into two worlds, was taken outside of myself for 3-5 hours and understood something about the beauty and pain of the human experience in both. The actors had presence, they were simple but iconic somehow. They could do very little and I leaned in to be near them, to let their pain be my pain. It was “immediate theatre” as Peter Brook would describe it. I think, subtly, I also began to formulate some ideas about ensemble work when seeing this company of actors working together. The ensemble in ICEMAN was extraordinary, like different players in a symphony.
2) What upcoming project(s) are you most excited about in 2013?
I am really intrigued to see The Elevator Repair Service’s ARGUENDO when it is finally ready for a full production. This company has such a strong sense of theatrical possibilities. They are playful and deeply intelligent at the same time. I have an artistic crush on them. I am also really excited to see Romeo Castellucci’s production, ON THE CONCEPT OF THE FACE, at PEAK Performance at Montclair State University. This will be the American premiere of this provocative Italian’s work. It is rare that his work is seen in America but he is regarded as one of the most important theatre artists in Europe at the moment. His work is difficult, sometimes hard to watch. But it sticks with you; the productions work on you over a long period of time after the curtain falls. For me this is what the ephemeral nature of theatre can do well; it can leave a mirage, a puzzle, for the audience to wrangle with well after you’ve left the space.
3) If you could have a coffee (or an adult beverage) with someone in or related to the field of TYA (living or deceased), who would it be and why?
I’d love to have coffee with Michael Sommers who lives in Minneapolis. He and Jeune Lune co-created an adaptation of THE JUNIPER TREE back in the 90′s that was one of the most magical pieces for young audiences I have seen. The kids (and adults) took their shoes off when entering the theatre and were led into the most imaginative journey with puppets and live actors. Sommers’ design was pitch-perfect; in no way did this production dumb things down for the audience. Rather, the production tapped into big mysteries and questions that engaged the kids far more than plays that simply entertain. When the children left, their shoes had been filled with small presents, a beautiful end to this engaging piece. I’d love to talk to Michael about his work and how he thinks about young and older audiences, what stories he is drawn to and how theatre can ask more questions than it answers, especially for young audiences who sense of wonder is still intact.
4) What advice would you give to a graduating student seeking to enter this field?
Make connections with folks who have carved out their path in this field in a manner that seems thrilling to you and whose work you deeply admire AND get yourself out there presenting YOUR work. In this field you learn by doing, by performing and listening to the audience. If you’re not getting cast, cast yourself! Break a few rules and you’ll begin to understand what rules are important and what rules only uphold the status quo. Make the theatre that you want to see. Be vigilant about making work of the highest quality. Find collaborators who you can play with, who can play with you, who challenge assumptions but can also understand how to create momentum in a rehearsal room rather than blocking momentum.
5) What are you most excited about regarding attending One Theatre World?
Seeing and hearing about work that I’m unfamiliar with and meeting fellow travelers who have optimism and passion about the evolution of this artform.
Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel is a co-founder and Co-Artistic Director of the OBIE Award-winning Pig Iron Theatre Company. Since 1995, Quinn and the company have created 25 original works of theatre, touring them to venues and festivals in Brazil, Germany, Scotland, England, Romania and Poland, among others. He has directed, designed and performed with the company since its inception. Quinn was a Henry Luce Fellow in Bali, Indonesia in 2000-2001 and was a Pew Fellow in Performance Art from 2002-2004. In 2007, he received one of 6 national Fox Foundation Actor Fellowships. He teaches at Swarthmore College, Princeton University and at the Headlong Performance Institute.
Since its founding in 1995, Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company has emerged as one of the most daring theatre ensembles in America. Under co-artistic directors Quinn Bauriedel, Dan Rothenberg, and Dito van Reigersberg, the company has created over 25 original works, spanning biography and dreams, neuroscience and the afterlife.
All of Pig Iron’s work is rooted in an ongoing study of character and a close attention to performers’ contact with the audience. Pig Iron begins each original work with focused improvisation and explorations of acting states; the characters and dramatic structure for each piece develop alongside a collaborative script-writing process. Despite exploring diverse themes and modes of expression, Pig Iron’s works share a deep investment in the technical and visual world of each piece, a highly-crafted physical performance style, and a trademark sense of humor.
The company has toured extensively in the U.S. and abroad, including performances at the Under the Radar Festival in New York, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Poland’s Theatre Confrontations Festival. Pig Iron has taught its unusual approach to performance and creation at theaters and universities in Europe, the U.S., and South America. In 2011, Pig Iron launched a two-year graduate program in physical, ensemble-created theater in their hometown of Philadelphia.
Pig Iron’s original creations have been the recipients of two OBIE Awards, a Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, six Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre (and 40 nominations), and a listing as one of the top 10 productions of the year in The New York Times. Pig Iron’s Quinn Bauriedel, Dan Rothenberg, and Dito van Reigersberg have been jointly awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts (2002) and a USA Knight Fellowship (2010).
Who is really excited about going to TYA/USA’s biggest event-One Theater World TOMORROW in conjunction with Cleveland’s Playhouse Square and their acclaimed International Children’s Festival? Who is crushed that you can’t make it this year?
Well to whet your appetite (or to rub it in that you aren’t in Cleveland this week), David Kilpatrick and Alicia Lark Fuss interviewed the keynote speakers and master class facilitators. Excerpts from the interviews are in TYA Today. Here is the entire interview.
Rosemary is a keynote speaker, is teaching a master class, and her company is performing at the festival!
1) What is the first play you remember seeing that made an impression?
I grew up in Melbourne and had an amazing drama teacher who took our whole class to the Adelaide International Festival for three weeks in my final year of high school. I saw three productions by seminal director Peter Brook. The plays were The Conference of the Birds, Ubu and The Ik. They were staged in a quarry and its fair to say they blew my 16-year-old mind.
2) What upcoming project(s) are you most excited about in 2013?
We just opened our production School Dance at the Sydney Festival, staged at the Sydney Theatre Company, which is on the harbour next to the bridge and looks across at the Opera House. With Cate Blanchett in attendance it is definitely the glamorous end of our work. We have also been working on an installation with young people from the remote Anangu Pitjantjajara community, as well as developing the third work in a trilogy especially created for teenagers called Girl Asleep, which is loosely based on the Sleeping Beauty story.
3) If you could have a coffee (or an adult beverage) with someone in or related to the field of TYA (living or deceased), who would it be and why?
I am very fascinated by the Italian company Societas Raffaelo Sanzio. They create a very “post dramatic” work but many of their early works were created for children and families. They sound quite amazing and include a version of Aesop’s Fables staged with three hundred animals, Donkeyskin where the theatre was excavated and filled with water and Thumbkin where the audience lies on individual beds for the duration of the show.
4) What advice would you give to a graduating student seeking to enter this field?
See as much theatre, music and visual art as possible. Never fall into a trap of attempting to second-guess your audience, especially when creating work for young people, as I think it leads to a patronising tone. Its important that artists are always creating work that genuinely excites them.
5) What are you most excited about regarding attending One Theatre World?
I find I get very quickly consumed with the day to day of Windmill Theatre, so I relish any opportunity to meet with peers, have great dialogue and really consider the bigger picture of the work we do. To do this internationally is really exciting and presenting at One World really pushes me to think about and articulate my practice – and that is always an intimidating but invaluable exercise.
Rosemary Myers is the Artistic Director of Windmill Theatre and directed Boom Bah, the six-times Helpmann nominated Wizard of Oz, Fugitive, School Dance (winner of the 2012 Ruby Award for Best Work) and Pinocchio for the company. Under Rose’s artistic leadership, Windmill creates and presents work that is inspired by the vibrancy, sophistication and inventiveness of young people and the exhilarating challenges they pose to creating theatre of genuine relevance in this modern time. In 2012 the Company won the prestigious Myer Award for Excellence – the first time this award has been made to a company creating work for families and young people.
Rosemary was also the Artistic Director of Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s Out of the Box Festival in 2010 and prior to Windmill, she was the Artistic Director of Arena Theatre Company. Under her direction, Arena won the International Association of Theatre for Young People Award for “inspiring and provocative ways of expressing a new theatrical language which genuinely engages young people in these contemporary times”. Her projects with Arena include Criminology, SKID 180, Game Girl, Play Dirty, Outlookers, Eat Your Young, Panacea, Schnorky the Wave Puncher, Oblong and Autopsy. Her independent work includes: ABC Television, Back to Back Theatre Company, Victorian College of the Arts, Queensland Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company and she was a Creative Director for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.
Who is really excited about going to TYA/USA’s biggest event-One Theater World THIS WEEK in conjunction with Cleveland’s Playhouse Square and their acclaimed International Children’s Festival? Who is crushed that you can’t make it this year?
Well to whet your appetite (or to rub it in that you aren’t in Cleveland this week), David Kilpatrick and Alicia Lark Fuss interviewed the keynote speakers and master class facilitators. Excerpts from the interviews are in TYA Today. Here is the entire interview.
Karen is the opening keynote speaker.
1) What is the first play you remember seeing that made an impression?
When I was very young, living in Mexico City, I saw “Anita la Huerfanita (Li’l Orphan Annie) ” in Spanish…and I remember thinking…this whole play is about a little girl and her world. That made a big impression…seeing an entire musical from a little girl’s perspective. When I was nine, I saw EVITA (also in Spanish) and I also realized theater’s power in showing the darker, grittier side of a story.
2) What upcoming project(s) are you most excited about in 2013?
I’m currently developing a large cast, multimedia play for the Denver Theater Center which follows the lives of four Latina high school students, and how immigration policy affects their prospects for a viable future. It’s based on a non-fiction book by Helen Thorpe called JUST LIKE US…and in many ways, it is an extension of my TYA work, bridging my work for adults and young people in a very palpable way.
3) If you could have a coffee (or an adult beverage) with someone in or related to the field of TYA (living or deceased), who would it be and why?
I would love to have a glass of wine with Marlo Thomas. I think her album “FREE TO BE YOU AND ME” was the first thing I heard as a kid that started recognizing the complexity of being a child. I loved it as a kid. I still love it as an adult. I would love to have coffee with Suzan Zeder, Laurie Brooks, and Jose Cruz Gonzales; they all have such interesting, textured careers, and have moved the field forward in leaps and bounds. They are a real inspiration.
4) What advice would you give to a graduating student seeking to enter this field?
Never forget why and for whom you are doing this work…
Karen is the playwright-in-residence at Arena Stage in Washington, DC and teaches playwriting at Georgetown University. She is the founder of the award-winning arts program Young Playwrights’ Theater which has served over 75,000 children in DC. Last year YPT was honored with an award from the White House and First Lady Michelle Obama as one of the most effective arts program in the USA.
Her plays have been produced at The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, The Goodman Theater, The Denver Center, Alliance Theater, Round House Theater, Imagination Stage, Berkshire Theater Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, The Arden, Cleveland Playhouse, San Jose Rep, The Berkshire Theater Festival, Oregon Children’s Theater, Childsplay, The Coterie, Nashville Children’s Theatre, Milagro Theatre, First Stage, and many more.
