Discoveries

At Story Theater Company, “making discoveries” has always been a constant phrase I’ve heard, no matter what production is in process. Our director, Kivan Kirk, often asks us what kinds of discoveries we’ve made lately, or if anyone had a discovery during an activity, or how many discoveries we found while reading through the script. Further along in the process, he’ll even ask us what discoveries we’d made on stage during our second performance of opening weekend. Whether they’re small discoveries, or huge ones, we’re always encouraged to share with everyone in the cast. More often than not, bringing up a discovery you’ve had can lead to a full blown discussion, with everyone tossing in their thoughts and relations to their own findings.

“This week has helped me slow down during my scenes and speak clearer. I’m naturally a very fast speaker, and though this is fine in normal conversations, it can be hard to understand onstage. During rehearsal for the prologue, Kivan reminded me multiple times to slow down and think slower. Doing this helped me to think more like my character, who is very much in his head. Slowing down also allowed me to better process what was going on around me in scene.” - Zander Reed

“A specific discovery that I’ve made during this process is how important emotional readiness is. My first impression of my character, Jimmy, was just sad. It didn’t really get any deeper than that, but when diving into the process, I was forced to see deeper into him. We noticed that he’s not just sad, he’s lonely because all of his family moved away, his pet died, he hasn’t had a relationship since the last one with Sandrine, which ended horribly. He’s just alone.” - Ryan Weber

Jayna Wanamaker, Kivan Kirk, Maria Werner Anderson

Being a teen show, we have a handful of teens who have a great deal of authority and responsibility, taking charge of massive aspects of the production. Allyson Goodman is one of the teens with such duties. She leads props on her own, delegating tasks to her three helpers. As of now, by her incredible headway, nearly all of her props have been located and put in a corner of the workshop, waiting for a later deadline when we’ll bring them out for use. But she touches base on an important aspect of being a production team leader.

“The hardest thing about being a leader in this production is that your entire team is all relatively the same age as you. Sometimes it’s hard to actively remember your position, because it is all too easy to become just another member of the group. However, the second you forget your role, time gets wasted and it becomes difficult to regain the control that is needed to successively get tasks done.” - Goodman

This may be a concern of hers, but so far she’s doing a pretty knock up job of keeping everything in control. Kudos, Allyson.

“Each of us does our own job. Coming into this, I thought we would independently work with just our own groups. I then found out that each team needs each other. For instance, if a prop needs to look a certain way, we refer to another team. Or we might need a prop to match a costume so we ask the costume people.” - Travis Cooper.

“This has been a new challenge for me as Set Designer given the nature of the play and the vignette form. So far it's been really fun to see how they can all work together in one space without big bulky transitions.” - Zoey Lazere

“I've had a lot of experience in the past with STC, helping out with plays, but working on set for Almost, Maine has been a different experience. I've never worked directly on set, other than helping with some painting on the kids’ plays. The Teen Plays are so much fun, and I'm learning a lot about being a leader and a lot more about set. Zoey Lazere has taught me a lot about building sets, and we have come up with amazing ideas.” - Clove Woodworth

This year, with the specific way Kirk is approaching the scenes, there have been millions of discoveries about acting and (I know I’ve had discoveries about) human emotional circumstances. If you’ve read from the previous posts, you’ll have an idea of how we’re going about the scenes this show. No lines have been memorized, and blocking only commenced a few days ago. So far, we’ve been coming in and having a base idea of our scene, and running through the situation, relationship, and story, and then investing in the emotions that result from these facts.

“My favorite thing to watch these past few weeks was how honest and sincere the actors were, or became, through the rehearsal process. Their dedication to the emotions in each scene is incredible.” - Maria Werner Anderson

Ben Sulzberger, Lena Menefee-Cook

“Reading it, it felt like [Gayle] was overreacting, but then acting it out with another person made it feel a lot more true. I feel that not memorizing lines and not working with a script allowed me to discover the emotions rather than keeping her dramatic.” - Elizabeth Cowley

“I’ve been working on my lines before bed or after homework, which means I can relax and retain what I’m memorizing for the next morning. It’s incredibly useful. One problem I’ve had in the past was getting into a rhythm of lines and saying them in certain ways. At first I thought this was counterproductive, but I’ve been learning to memorize in a monotone way, with little emotion. So when the time comes for the scene, I can try out new ideas without getting into the same rhythm over and over.” - Jayna Wanamaker

“Working together really helped us understand new perspectives on our parts. I really enjoyed the different perspectives on my part.” - Madison Ogg

“This week's rehearsal was with the large group/cast. We each got with our partner and reviewed the pivotal points or sections in each of our scenes. From then we improved, or really, lived the scenes without worrying about lines or blocking. I loved getting feedback from the large group and hearing all of their different perspectives. I was able to incorporate the knowledge/understanding I built last week with the internal and real anger and try to work it into our section. I loved this, beyond words, because everything felt so real. I love this and have never done it before, but it made everything feel so much more genuine, and that is what captures the audience and leaves them with the lesson/story and touches them in the core of their hearts, and back of their minds.” - Ben Teske

And of course, outside of acting, we’re making personal discoveries as well. Discoveries from working together in dependant groups, and trusting one another to be the leg we can lean on as we’re trying to support someone else on our back.

“This week I learned the importance of relationships within the production. Just throughout the first few weeks of the rehearsal process, I’ve formed closer relationships with many people. I think that the environment we have is a great one because we do get to have fun and get to know each other, but we also get a lot of work done. This makes rehearsals and work days really exciting. I get to do things I really enjoy doing around people I enjoy being around. It makes the space more relaxed and it’s easier to leave everything else outside the door and focus on what we are trying to accomplish.” - Anna Suski

Jayna Wanamaker, Anna Suski

One last interesting thing I’ve discovered, myself, is how much we’re learning about our own community by listening to the comments from the new faces in Almost, Maine.

“The wound of losing Almost, Maine to a matinee curtain call in November of 2014 was still fresh when I auditioned for STC’s production. I came, not in the hopes of reliving nostalgic moments from a year ago, but rather in the pursuit of improvement.” - Ali Sandler

“I am not used to Story Theater Company’s way of learning. I have met many new friends in this production, but what really surprised me was the fact that everyone, no matter what, supported me.” - Drew Wilson

“What blows my mind about this production  - and what distinguishes it from our past teen shows  - is the personal investment of each individual. Everyday when I walk into the rehearsal hall, I walk into a room of collaborators. Not just students. Not just actors waiting for direction. But I walk into a group of people as equally interested as I am in finding the best version of these stories.

And nothing gives me more joy. I don’t feel isolated on the outside, or like I’m being used as just another set of eyes. There is this amazing conversation that has opened up and we’re working together. ” - Kivan Kirk

Mabel McIntosh
Publicist

As I Sat, Watching

 January 14th, 2016

"I want you to walk through the scene and tell me what the most important parts of it are."

I sat in for one of the rehearsals, and listened to this conversation Kivan Kirk had with Ryan Weber and Madison Ogg. As requested, they walked through the scene and told him what the important parts were. The highlights. The turning points. The main topics.

While listening silently in the corner to all of the big moments of their scene, I couldn't help but wonder what the point of the activity was. They'd read their scene, so obviously they knew what the important moments were. I started to worry that Kirk was going to spend the entire rehearsal hitting the major beats of the scene, and making sure they were perfect.

I decided (a personal epiphany, really, because I'm all about those mind-blowing discoveries) that the big moments weren't important. In fact, they were rendered useless every moment and line and beat in between was taken seriously and understood completely and considered just as important as "THE" important moment. And from there, the big moments would flow seamlessly and be that much more important.

The entire rehearsal was spent working the first three lines of the scene, discussing the relationship between the two characters at their points in time, and working through how the feel of the atmosphere would be. Jimmy, sad and alone at the bar, drinking away his worries; and Sandrine, at her bachelorette party.

This took up more time than you would think. My fears of them rushing over the "smaller" moments were put to rest immediately; of course Kirk knew what he was doing.

Kivan Kirk (Director), Madison Ogg, Ryan Weber

Kivan Kirk (Director), Drew Wilson, Elizabeth Cowley

"Elizabeth, take the pillows and throw them down over there. Drew, pick them back up and put them back in their original place."

This ended with both of them running across the room in a rage, trying to win the pillow pile battle. The lines "What are you doing?" (Drew Wilson) and "What am I doing?" (Elizabeth Cowley) were the only things allowed to be spoken.

Performing is, of course, a natural instinct for an actor. The real challenge is being vulnerable enough to open up your entire being to the staged happenings around you and let them take their toll. Instead of performing the action of throwing a pillow from one side to the other, the ultimate goal is to forget that you have a task at all, and be so enthralled in what you're doing that you forget where you are, forget that you're acting, and it becomes as true to your heart as if you'd invented the entire pillow situation on your own accord.

-----

"Ali, I want you to clutch this pillow. Ben, I want you to take it from her."

The honesty of their scene, after forcing themselves to be in the moment, and feel the desperation, was phenomenal.

It's very easy to read the lines and say them dramatically and take every word written on the page and somehow try to string a bit of heart into it. The separation needs to be between the words and the character. We as humans are not our words. Our words express our thoughts and help us voice who we are. But we're living beings - unique with a mind full of thoughts. When reading a character, there needs to be the character, and then the lines on top, helping you voice what the character is doing.

I think once you decipher between those two things, acting becomes incredibly more real. Human. Relatable. Honest.  That's something I see happening at rehearsal right now. The director slowly breaking the barrier between the two.

Objectives. A way for actors to find the connection between their characters and themselves, the intent of their actions and the honest reasons for the character's actions. In pursuing objectives, we escape the risk of being young actors on stage performing lines, and we become people truly living on stage with one another. Unforced emotions and inflections flood the stage rather than cheesy words, unbelievable facial expressions, and loud, pointed jokes.

Ben Sulzberger, Ali Sandler

We move from the situation of Ali Sandler holding a pillow away from Ben Sulzberger, and it beautifully transforms into Glory desperately trying to keep her broken heart safe from East, who would stop the world if it meant fixing her heart.

Mabel McIntosh

Welcome to Almost, Maine. Population: 23.

January 9th, 2014

Rehearsal has begun! Auditions, two days of waiting for callbacks, the official cast and crew list, a quick read through, one informative production meeting, a long winter break, and finally the show is standing up again.

The casting process was a unique one, one I'd never experienced before. Callbacks were completely dependent upon how you worked with another person in any given scene. A certain percentage of personal talent was disregarded and replaced by the need for chemistry. Going into a show made of vignettes about relationships, I don't know why this surprised me at first. Of course the casting was going to be mainly about chemistry. During callbacks, in a way, you knew who everyone would be cast with as we saw more and more cold readings - each taking a new turn judging on who was reading with whom. At the same time, some decisions were unexpected, and I'm intrigued to see how they play out as we go further into the rehearsal process.

This year, the position of Publicity Production Head was introduced, and thus you have me, reporting through the week with inside stories and backstage information to let you see into the process of Story Theater Company's teen shows.

We have Kivan Kirk, our talented director. Hannah Rublaitus, our dedicated producer. Mat Wymore and Megan Hensen, stepping in as our two technical directors.

And the teens: Zoey Lazere, in charge of set. Allyson Goodman, taking over properties. Elizabeth Coleman and Ali Sandler splitting the head position for costumes. Jayna Wanamaker, leading dramaturgy. Maria Werner-Anderson, the stage manager. And myself, Mabel McIntosh, handling publicity.

If you're unfamiliar with how the STC teen shows normally go, let me tell you: it's a really unique experience. The entire cast is divided into production teams, falling under the authority of one of the team leaders listed above. Through the entirety of the show, the team leaders imagine everything stage wise, and (on Saturdays - our work days) the cast helps them carry out their ideas and bring everything into existence in our workshop. Meanwhile, during week rehearsals, the cast focuses on the script and their roles and scenes.

By the end of February, after two months of working, not only will we as a cast be ready for five performances, but we'll be able to stand proudly on the stage and claim responsibility for every chair, cup, scarf, door, shoe, painting, backdrop, t-shirt, suitcase - literally everything seen on the stage.

So having said that, I think this particular show is going to be a challenge for all of us. From what I picked up on in our first production meeting, each team has its own foreseen roadblocks. None impossible (though Props needs to figure out a way to make it snow on stage. That should be interesting...), but not so easy as to be put off until the last few weeks of February.

And not only are there technical challenges for the production team leaders, but also for the actors. For a show about romance put on by teenagers (some of us young teenagers), there are definitely a lot of things in the script that many of us haven't experienced personally. There are certain emotional pulls and jerks that are hard to imagine. Lendall, for example, proposing to Gayle. Personally, I don't know what it feels like to accept a marriage proposal, and (I mean, I'm just assuming that) Elizabeth Cowley doesn't either. My own scene, Marci and Phil, coming to a point in their marriage where divorce is a very pliable possibility.

Emotional pulls and jerks. In every scene. Technical challenges. In every scene. I'm excited for every single one of them.

And I'm here to get you excited for them, too.

Mabel McIntosh