Backstage and Onstage

One of the things that is most unique about the teen show is the opportunity to expand and learn new skills. Not only can you act on stage and learn theater skills in a professional atmosphere, you also get hands on experience of building the show in all aspects. The opportunities offered are things such as set, props, costume, hair and makeup, lighting, dramaturgy,  and stage managing. I started the teen show experience with Almost, Maine. I was an actor and a member of the props team. The next year, during Our Antigone, I was an actor and lead set designer. This year, I am an actor and lead set designer yet again.

I find that once you become familiar onstage, it is a whole new experience working offstage. Working with props taught me problem solving skills and creativity. Becoming a team leader was a totally different experience for me. Not only did I learn set, I learned budget, time management, and cooperation with other teams. You never stop learning with the teen shows. Different shows require very different things from each team. The Antigone set was very different from the Twelve Angry Jurors set. Though most of the time, the set is listed out in stage description, there is always room for creativity with the help of my amazing set team.

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Set Waffles minus Gerrit. From Left to right: James, Madison, Sarah, Travis

The thing I am excited for this year that is different from other shows is the simplicity of this set. We are working in the 50’s era, so technology and such isn’t nearly as advanced. The black box theater also adds an up-close and personal atmosphere so that the audience can pay attention to minute details in set, props, costumes, etc. The simplicity of this set allows for attention to detail. This is a simple jury room. It has simple things such as a working water cooler, a clock, a table, 12 chairs, and an opening window. Oh, and you can’t forget the trash can.

A bonus I have is being a part of the rehearsal process as an actor. I get to see what each character is going to be doing with the set, I get to see problems that might occur, and I get to fix them. The teen show is an altogether amazing learning experience.

Travis Cooper

Juror 2/Set Designer

Finishing the Set

We are nearing the end of our regular rehearsals. It has been so fun and has all gone so fast. We are about to tech week already. We have one more Saturday work day. I have a lot to get done this Saturday still. My crew has been working really hard to get this set done. We have almost all of the platforms made and painted. We still have to do wood graining and make one more pillar and make it look all pretty. We have one more platform and a ramp to make. But the good news is that we can stay late next Saturday to get stuff done. You can see how much we have been doing by this picture.

The set waffles making our pillars!- Anika, Gerrit, and James

We also get pretty messy. We paint, but luckily we have drop cloths.  This styrofoam was all over the place. We got it stuck to our clothes, all over the floor, and everywhere else. The best part of being a part of the process is that as you make the set, you get to see it in action during the week. As we make the set, they use it, which gives us a chance to problem solve. We had to add the ramp because the step down from the top platform was too big of a step. We had some creaky platforms, which we tried to solve as best we could, but it’s not easy to make it silent.

I am so excited to get the set done this Saturday and start tech week. We have been working really hard on this show, and I am really excited for everybody to see it! This has been such a fun experience for me.

-Travis Cooper

Hameon/Eddie/Lead Set Designer

Actor's Choice

This week, we have been working on running the show memorized. We have gotten to the end, but we are definitely not done. I learn more and more every time I run my scene. I realize that Haemon is trying to get his dad, Creon, to spare his fiance, but I wondered if Hameon was just trying to save his fiance, or if he really agreed with Antigone. He had just found out and came to argue with his dad. I asked Vivian, and she said it's actors choice.
Actors get choices like this. We think about the circumstances, and sometimes, when we don’t know what the tactic is, we have to make one up, but once we make that choice, we have to stick with it 100%. I had a little trouble with lines the first time I ran my scene memorized, but that was okay because we had Maria and Ben on book for us. Once I got the blocking put with the words, it went pretty easily.

We talk about it a little bit in the script that at a Greek tragedy, the audience is supposed to leave renewed. Like a good cry. It makes feel exhausted, but it's needed. I didn’t think much of that line until we ran my scene, and I argue with my father and have so clear objectives, and I left and I felt that exact thing. I felt so renewed. I love it when all the circumstances are clear and the have obvious objectives.  It makes the acting so; I want to say easy, but I think the word is driven. When the character is driven, you feel that as you are acting it. It just makes you happy as an actor.

Travis Cooper

Hameon/Eddie/Lead Set designer

Working With My Character

This week, we have been working more on putting together the lines and blocking of the play. I don’t come in until the second half of the play, and we didn’t get to that scene the other night, so I took that time to further myself. In the past week with no rehearsal, I worked on memorizing, and I am still in the middle of reading Oedipus at Colonus. I also got to look at my character. Vivian taught us about body centers and how everybody has a center. The centers are head, chest, stomach, and hips. I think that my character, Hameon, is a mainly a head center but with a second of a chest center.

We don’t get to see a lot of how Hameon acts. We only get to see how he reacts to Creon’s words. Creon has just sentences his fiancee to death. He is smart by not barging in there mad. You can tell he has thought through his words before he talks to his father, making sure to tell him that he is above all reasonable and that no wife could give Hameon better council that he, then subtle saying that Antigone may deserve honor rather than death. He is very careful as to what he said to his father because he knows his father is a king with a temper. Vivian has also told me that the relationship between father and son was different back then. It is not like the relationships we have today. He is thinking of Creon as the king, and not the father.

It is a lot like the scene between Creon and the Messenger. He knows that he can be killed or put in jail for lies. In a way, I am trying to get Creon to change his mind without upsetting him. If I upset him, he could just kill Antigone, put me in jail, banish me, or maybe even kill me. Creon has been known to lose his temper from time to time.

We ran the scene where Creon finds out about my death. It started a discussion. Should we feel bad for him? His wife and only son just killed themselves, but he had it coming. He sentenced Antigone to death, who is not only his niece, but his son’s fiancee. There are a lot of discussions to be held in these plays.

-Travis Cooper

Haemon/Eddie and Head Set Designer

Blocking to Memorizing

This week we finished our blocking, which was a lot of fun. Blocking means that we went through and put down actions into our words. We write out where we are moving and with what lines. It does more than that though. Blocking is really helpful because it gives a chance to run the scenes with our scripts to give us a chance to look at it before we have to go off memorizing our lines.

In teen shows, or pretty much Story Theater Company production, the kids get to pick the blocking with the director. We get to help suggest things, we get to be the naysayer, and we get to question what Vivian is doing. Though most of the time Vivian has it right on the nose, we sometimes don’t feel it works and we want to change something, we have the opportunity.

On top of the blocking, the next step is memorization and that is one of the hardest parts. There are so many different ways to memorize. The best way that I have found is repetition. You read through it and say what you know, and when you get stuck, you look back at the script and keep going.

We didn’t have rehearsal this week, so I have taken this time to look over the other plays and to memorize. I have a big scene where I stand up to my father Creon because he sentenced my fiance to death. I have a big monologue. The thing I need to do most right now is to go over it with Josh. I can memorize the monologue pretty easily, but it’s harder to memorize a conversation where lines go back and forth. We are on our way to having this play in the bag.

-Travis Cooper

Haemon/Eddie, Lead Set Designer

Adventures of the Set Waffles

For this play, I am not only acting, but I am also the lead set designer. In teen shows, everybody is put into a group and it is primarily teen lead. Vivian directs of course and we have adult supervision to make sure we are being safe, but other than that, the teens are pretty much running the show. We have teens doing set, costumes, makeup, and dramaturgy. Each one of these are crucial to the production. Last year, I was in the teen show Almost Maine and that was not only my first teen show, that was my first show. I was with the props crew on that show and I had a lot of fun, so I decided I would lead a group this year, and I got put on set.

I have some experience with tools and things like that because I work with my dad a  lot in the garage.  Last year I was on props, but all the groups connect. I realized this a little bit last year, but this year, being a lead designer, I realize just how much collaboration is needed between the groups. Colors on the set need to match the colors of the costumes. We talked a lot. I have the set already designed and part of it is made. We made a ground plane on the first day because Vivian needed to know what she was working with during blocking. It looks like this:

Vivian requested a lot of levels, so that’s exactly what I gave her. We have essentially a big set of platforms that rise in height as they go back against the wall. It is like a big staircase with little staircases coming off the sides. One of the challenges was that the script calls for two rose colored pillars. I included them, but now the trick will be to get Styrofoam and make shape it and paint it to look real. Sarah also knows a lot more about these thing than I do, so I am lucky to have her and my crew Asher, Gerrit, James, and Anika. We call ourselves the Set waffles and our catch phrase is “Bruh digity”. We are also working on giving each other nicknames. You can tell how close we are and that we all have a good time while being productive. I am very grateful for my team. They always help and get things done fast and efficient. I am so excited to see the whole set in its full beauty and I hope you all enjoy it as well.

-Travis Cooper

Hameon/ Eddie/ Lead set designer

My Mind Baby

This first couple weeks of rehearsal have been very informative for me. I learned more about Greek Theater than I have in any of the Greek Theater camps I have been in. Greek theater is such a complex thing because it all connects. The first week, we weren’t working on my scene, so I took that rehearsal time to read the first play in the series of three. ANTIGONE is just the third play in a trilogy. I was interested because, in this play, it talks a lot about characters and past experiences that aren’t in the play. I wondered who they were, so I read the first play, and I realized that a mass majority of these characters are all in one family. So, to help me understand who is who, I made a family tree. It looks similar to this one.

I was confused, because according to the play, I am engaged to my cousin. So, I took my question to Vivian, and she has done a lot more research than I will even begin to do. This is just a little bit that I did to understand it, because I am not on dramaturgy, but I feel everybody should understand how their characters connect and relate to one another. Anyway, Vivian told me, that for the greeks, it was not unusual for cousins to marry each other. I did some research and it told me that they did this because they wanted to keep the royal blood in the family, but cousins were as close as they went (accept for the case of Oedipus, but that’s a different story) and this was usually an arranged marriage by the guardians. Each city had their own laws about marriage.

I think this story adaptation relates to me a lot. I think it would relate to any high school or jr. high student. The adaptation that was written I think specifically for STC kids. It covers everything from homeschoolers, to grades, to not understanding a script, and pizza. These are all things that STC kids deal with. We have homeschooled kids, we all have had our troubles with scripts, we all like pizza. There are  many other similarities in this, but you have to come see the show to see it. I hope you enjoy the show.

Travis Cooper

Hameon / Eddie / Lead set designer

The Story Behind 'The Story Of Hope'

This week we worked on the Story Of Hope. I think this scene, done right, can make everybody's heart drop as does mine every time we practice it. I think that there are a few main things that make this scene very sentimental and beautiful.

The “thing” is that the situations of these characters are not fun for either of them, and bring back painful memories. This scene can take your breath away. I personally love the scene, but am finding it difficult to act in it.

Working with Morgan has been amazing. She comes into every scene already in a full emotional state every time. She speaks so much, yet she still keeps every line honest. If I were reading that many lines, I would find myself without any expression. Even when I don’t speak in our scene, I am struggling to find the honesty that she brings to the table.

A big part for our scene, too, is listening. Most of our scene is spent listening to one another, and throughout the whole process of listening to everything, the character’s emotion changes over and over and over.

But Morgan and I get along very and well and Kivan has helped us come as far as we have. I am very excited for this scene.

Travis Cooper

Dave

The First Read Through

The cast of “Almost Maine” did a read through, which means we literally just read through the play to familiarize ourselves with both the play and our co-stars.

Before we started, we talked about the play to see what everyone thought and what we were afraid that might or might not happen. The biggest concern for me was that all of these characters are in love somehow. They all need to express it, and they all do that in different ways. This makes the characters vulnerable to being sappy and possibly even unrealistic. Sometimes actors will over-act and make it seem unrealistic. We want to avoid that, because if it is not realistic the audience will not enjoy it.

We then read through all the scenes of the play.  Before the read through there was no preparation by the actors. The only thing we had done was to read through the play when we were first told we were cast. Even with no preparation, we found out that we, in the moment, really got into it. We just became our characters.

My outlook on this play before the read through was that it would be almost all comedy. There is a lot of comedy and humor in this play. For example, when I read one scene, the characters are falling over from becoming weak in the knees in love. I thought that was comedy but it actually turns out to be a touching and scary moment for both of them. After the read through I realized that almost every scene was touching and romantic, along with being funny. A lot of people were touched as we did the read through by the scenes, and by the actors who were so good at being the characters. We all kind of awed each other. We took our characters and put ourselves in those shoes. 

Afterwords we all talked about it and told what we saw in the play. We all realized that there is no doubt that these characters will not be phony and sappy. These characters touched all of our hearts. They are in tough and romantic situations, but they pull through and just find love in their hearts, and I hope they touch yours as well.

­Travis Cooper

Randy and Man