Last week I was beautifully reminded how talented Middlebury Students are. I was invited to a benefit concert for an amazing organization, “Opening Act”, a non-profit who’s aim is to bring theatre arts to some of the poorest public schools of New York City and the Boroughs surrounding. Through a guided process, these students create a piece about what they want to discuss to be performed on a large main-stage theatre right in the city. Their work is so wonderful, bringing students a sense of self-confidence through this creative outlet.
Be sure to check out their website: www.openingactnewyork.org
My best friend Leah was the one who put this evening of entertainment together. In being a Midd Kid herself, she brought many of our mutual friends to the event to perform in as well as support this cause. Three of my good friends sang, each bringing me straight back to the hills of Vermont. Tim Shepherd sang with guitar on his knee both covers and original work, rocking his rasp and runs out of the park, chilling the audience into absolute awe. Judith Dry came to sing her own original songs in front of a live audience for the first ever time, and of course in Judith style nailed them with confidence, wit, heart, ingenuity, and her Dry humor. Emily Kron rocked out soulfully on covers with her singing/guitar-playing friend Peter Albrink with a connection any stage duo would kill for; it was beautiful to experience.
Among these three, many other friends from Middlebury came to support our Midd performers. It was a lovely reunion, sending me back to so many wonderful memories. I was definitely nostalgic and I relished in it as long as I could. It made me realize how much I miss the ability to be around so many talented, smart, driven people 24/7. I do hope this quick meeting will lead to more get-togethers amidst all of our busy city schedules.
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My parents and I every Christmas treat ourselves to a Broadway show. This past year we ended up waiting till this past weekend to see our show of choice, “War Horse” at Lincoln Center. When I was in London a couple of summers ago, this show was just getting huge, but I never had a chance to see it. When I heard that it was coming to New York, I knew we had to see it. Luckily, Santa read my list, checked it twice, and left an envelope with tickets to “War Horse” amidst the ornaments of our tree for Christmas morning.
This was the most magical production I have ever seen on stage. Hands down. Everything from the use of projections, to the minimalist set, to people morphing from darkness into the light, and of course the puppetry was amazing. I’ve seen “The Lion King” on Broadway twice and absolutely love it and was thinking it was going to be quite similar with both using these elaborate, life-like puppets. In reality though, they are so different. While Disney pulls out all the stops and fills every moment with stimulating business and creativity, the production of “War Horse” was specific, purposed, focused in its work. Every set piece, every costume bit, every light, every projection, every part of the puppet had its purpose on that stage and meant something for the story. A door frame that was to symbolize the house meant more than just that. I saw how a door can create a separation, a barrier, and an opening all at the same time. Projections of dates, images, animation, and abstraction were blown up onto a meaningful shaped screen adding other options for the audience to collectively follow the story along with. The bare stage with simple abstract graveled streaks of paint formed the basis of a canvas from which the action of the actors and puppets jumped off of and into audiences’ minds.
Then there were the puppets. I have never seen such beauty in my life. The technicians that worked those creations were geniuses. Having grown up with horses, you learn how to read them by their body movements and their sounds. Sitting in that audience, I thought I was watching a real-life horse up on that stage. Every single movement the three people collectively made in creating each of those horses was spot on from where the movement truly comes from in response to the horses’ natural instinct. Whether is was a kick, a shiver of the withers, a tail flick, or gait, those puppeteers had it down. And they never stopped moving! Even when the horse wasn’t being referenced in the scene, if it was onstage, it was alive and breathing. How all three men were able to become that one creature in motion as well as in sound astounded me. It was ingenious how the multiple puppeteers would often make the one sound of the horse. If you listen to a horse neigh, you can hear multiple tones at once, and that was exactly what these puppeteers did in perfect harmonic unison.
Now, because my family and I have a connection with horses, we were loving it. During intermission, I overheard the lady next to me talk with another lady she came with about how she didn’t understand what the big hype was about. I was flabbergasted and immediately asked her why. I think she was stunned, but responded saying, “If I wanted to see a puppet show I would have gone to the circus.” I almost fell out of my seat explaining to her that this was probably the most magical thing I have seen on stage. We proceeded to have a conversation, this lady and her friend along with my mother and I about the show and theatre. While her friend was loving it, this lady said that she likes a show that dives deep into characters minds, where there is turmoil and grit within the human existence. She self-processed to liking theatre to be black and white.
I agreed with her in liking that depth that theatre can show us of a character and that this show didn’t really have much of that as far as character and storyline goes. Overall, those aspects of character development and storyline were basic, BUT welcomingly relatable amidst all of the other stimulation the stage was providing. In response to her “black and white” comment, I rebutted saying that it is - and should always be - theatre’s job to bring us into the gray to learn more; black and white is actually quite boring and doesn’t bring us anywhere in our existence. I also explained to her about how life-like these horses actually were, how special that was for me to see with my connection to horses. I urged her to go home and watch videos of a horse or even just see a horse in New York City, inspect them, and remember how this show portrayed them and see all the similarities they were able to express with materials and humans. We talked the entire intermission, and as the house lights were dimming for the second act, she leaned over and said, “I’m definitely watching the rest of this with a new eye.” That’s all I could ask for. (At the end of the show, she told me she liked the second half much better after our conversation.)
I don’t cry in theatre often, but I do. The last time I cried in a show was during the opening montage of the recent revival of “Ragtime” on Broadway. I was crying twice in this show. For me, it was because of the memories the scenes brought up from my own soul’s experiences.
The first was when the boy was saying goodbye to his horse who was being taken to the cavalry lines. Immediately I was brought back to the days when I had leased my horse, Liberty, from my camp out in Colorado my sophomore year of high school. After 10 months in Guilford and having to send her back to Buena Vista, I had asked camp to tell me when she was going to be retired (it was going to be soon as she was getting older and continually harder to keep weight on her thoroughbred frame) and I would see if there was anyway to bring her back home to me.
In the year between my Counselor in Training summer and my first summer on staff, she had been retired, given to an adoption agency, and adopted out, all without me knowing. I was heartbroken. I did everything I could to find her, to see how she was, to hear about where she was, but all my leads brought me nothing. I had lost my Liberty. Now watching this scene, I saw this boy saying goodbye to his horse and all of the times they had had together and was thrown back into those years of connection and love with my own horse, and knew exactly how he felt about losing this bond.
The second would ruin the story, so I won’t give specifics. But immediately I thought of all the horses at A/U that have stood out in my life for me, Dorsey, Rita Girl, Rockie, and Liberty, and wished that I could see them all just once again. There’s something about this connection that I attain when riding and learning with a horse. My mom always said that when she watched me ride in my lessons growing up, I morphed into this other being. I was focused and at one with this creature beneath me. I really can’t explain it completely, but it’s amazing how much a simple weight change can affect your relationship with your horse. Even just a look or a breath changes the alliance between you and your horse. Everything is a conversation when working with horses, and I am constantly learning because of that.
I miss riding so much. My Artist Way experience has me bringing up horseback riding a lot and I’m thinking it must be a sign. Even if I can’t ride, I would love to just be around horses again. Maybe when I’m home in Guilford I’ll make an effort to go see some horses that aren’t clomping the pavement of New York City.
So, if you have a chance to see “War Horse”, GO! It’s a theatre experience unlike any other, and it really is something to be a part of.
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A lot of actors are out of work right now, and are getting frustrated. Many of my new friends from the theatre world are in this predicament right now and it sucks. One of my friends feels that without a role, without a stage, he has no voice, no leverage to go and make a change for the World. My immediate response to that, which came out in my Morning Pages this morning was this: “I say make the stage and people will hear you even louder than before.”
My art allows me to create, not only perform, and that is what I plan to do. Even if people will not cast me, I have reason to create along with ideas to produce, and no one will stop me from doing just that. Because of that, I am happy and excited.
It’s hard to stay positive in this business. I know I am young and naive, that a lot of the World’s rejections and criticisms haven’t chewed away too much of me yet. But I’m holding firmly to what I want to do, what I want to create from, in, and for this World. I will do that. I will create that work to start conversations, to bring change, to make people think and question.
That alone brings me happiness, and I can’t ask for anything more.
But... playing Hannah in “La Cage Aux Folles” would be nice too... :-)
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