College Arts Events to Benefit Food Pantry Starting Nov. 16 with the Play Pterodactyls

Admission is free, but please do bring a Food Pantry donation!

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Washington College departments of Drama and Music, together with the student-led Music Collegium, will feed both body and soul with a Festival of the Arts series of performances that will collect donations for the Kent County Food Pantry.

Leading off the Festival events is the drama production “Pterodactyls,” a dark comedy by Nicky Silver. The Music Department follows on December 2 with a joint concert by the Symphonic Band and the new Washington College Chorus, and closes the series two days later with a String Ensemble performance.  

“The events are are free,” notes Assistant Professor of Music Jon McCollum. “All we request is that you bring either a non-perishable food item or a cash donation to the food pantry. The faculty and students involved in the arts here at Washington College wanted to start a tradition of giving back to the community, to have the arts help provide for those in need.”

Donated items should be healthful, non-perishable foods un-opened and in their original non-breakable packaging (no glass).  Please check expiration dates before donating.  Among the most-requested items at the Food Pantry are canned meats such as tuna, stew and chili; canned vegetables, pasta and pasta sauce, beans, healthy cereals, peanut butter and jelly.

Following is a brief description of each event in the series:

Pterodactyls by Nicky  Silver

Directed by Nina Sharp ’13.

Friday, Nov. 16, and Saturday, Nov. 17

8 p.m., in Tawes Theatre

Playwright Nicky Silver.

First performed in 1993, Pterodactyls has been described as an “absurdist tragicomedy” for mature audiences. Human failings in extreme doses bring down members of the dysfunctional Duncan family in ways that seem to foretell the demise of the human species, itself.  TheaterWeek described the play as “clever, sharp, witty — it’s a play that takes aim at the main-streamed, moneyed, conventional American family and buries it under one satiric jibe after another.”

Nina Sharp, a senior from Centreville, Md. who won the 2012 Mary Martin Drama Scholarship, is directing Pterodactyls as her senior thesis.  The self-described “theater geek” has been involved in all levels of theater in the area, from early roles at Centreville Middle School to acting and directing in productions at Church Hill Theatre and Washington College.  

WC Chorus music
director Doug Byerly.

Washington College Symphonic Band/Chorus Concert

Sunday, Dec. 2

6:30 p.m., Decker Theatre

A mix of holiday favorites and classical music will be performed by the student musicians in the Washington College Concert Band, conducted by Keith Wharton, and the more than 50 voices of the campus chorus, led by 
Douglas Byerly.

Washington College String Ensemble

Tuesday, Dec. 4

8 p.m., Hotchkiss Recital Hall

 Kimberly McCollum.

The seventeen students in the Washington College String Ensemble will perform a variety of selections, including arrangements of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, “Greensleeves” by Ralph Vaughan-Williams, “Palladio” (“Diamond Music”) by Karl Jenkins, and “Three English Dances” by Joshua Missal.  In addition, student violinist Elizabeth Ransom will perform the first movement of the Concerto in A minor by J.S. Bach, and faculty members Grace Kim (piano) and Kimberly McCollum (violin) will perform Mozart’s Sonata in G Major, KV 301.

For more information on the Arts Festival, contact Dr. McCollum at jmccollum2@washcoll.edu.

Drama Department’s "War Stories" Brings Variety of Military Voices to Life October 26-28

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Washington College Drama Department will premier “War Stories,” an original play adapted from the modern anthology of wartime writings, Operation Homecoming, the weekend of October 26-28.

          The performances, scripted and directed by drama professor Dale Daigle, will take place in Decker Theatre, Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts, with two evening showings, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and a Sunday matinee at 1 p.m.

            Daigle, who had been searching for a piece that dealt with the issues of war, was immediately drawn to “Operation Homecoming,” which was published by Random House in 2006 and later made into a documentary film. “Within ten minutes I was blown away by these people’s stories,” he says. “They were powerful and compelling in very simple ways.”

            “Operation Homecoming,” edited by “War Letters” author Andrew Carroll, was the result of a program launched by the National Endowment for the Arts to encourage U.S. Marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and their families to write about their experiences with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The final product is a collection ranging from eyewitness accounts and letters to poems and private journal entries, each offering a different perspective on the effects of war. 

            “The book was full of stories from people of all walks of life, and all sides of war, and I thought, ‘what a great place to start a piece,’” says Daigle of his source material.  This variety of perspectives carried over into the adaptation of the script, he adds.  “Unlike a normal play where you’re always aware of the playwright’s voice, the voices here are infinitely different.”

            The play has been a collaborative effort. Daigle has been discussing its development with juniors Harris Allgeier, Kristin Hammond, Zach Weidner, and Phaedra Scott since last June, and the play has continued to evolve with input from others in the 11-member cast. Daigle hopes the play will prompt discussion of the stakes of war and “remind us of its impact.”

            Daigle’s most recent directorial work was the world premiere of All Blues by Robert Earl Price, a lecturer in creative writing and drama at the College.  That play debuted at Washington College in the fall of 2011 and then traveled to 7 Stages Theatre in Atlanta, Ga.  In addition to Washington College plays, Daigle has directed productions in Maine, Hawaii, Scotland, Kyoto, Samoa, Denver, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

            Tickets are priced at $5, or $3 for students and seniors, and proceeds will go to the NEA to help fund future Operation Homecoming projects. For ticket reservations, call 410-778-7835 or send an email to drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.  

Centreville's Nina Sharp Receives Mary Martin Drama Scholarship at Washington College

Nina Sharp as Philia in a 2010 production
of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way
 to the Forum at Washington College.

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Washington College Department of Drama has named Nina Sharp, a rising senior from Centreville, Md., as the recipient of the 2012 Mary Martin Drama Scholarship. Established in 1992 by Matthew Weir ’90 in honor of his grandmother, the great actress Mary Martin, the scholarship is awarded each year to a student majoring in Drama who demonstrates great dedication to any area of the theater arts. The 2012 scholarship award is expected to be approximately $16,000.

Sharp, a drama major with a minor in English, has been a self-described “theater geek” since she took on her first roles at Centreville Middle School, roles that included the same character, Peter Pan, that Mary Martin played to great acclaim. Sharp has since played the title role of Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank, Abigail Williams in The Crucible,  Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and, most recently, Jill in a production of Equus at Church Hill Theatre.  

Aside from acting, Nina also has a passion for the technical side of theater, and has excelled in directing, stage-managing, costuming, set constructing, and much more. She has spent countless hours rehearsing, working, learning and playing in Washington College's cutting-edge Gibson Center for the Arts, and will be directing her thesis there in November of 2012.

Nina has worked as a part-time stagehand at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, and this summer she is interning at Church Hill Theatre as an assistant director for the Green Room Gang Theatre Group. She has worked for five years at Chestertown Natural Foods and served as a dormitory Resident Assistant on campus her junior year. She has earned a spot on the Dean’s List each semester of her college career.

“Nina is one of those students that we all love to work with, both in and out of the classroom,” says Dr. Michele Volansky, an associate professor of drama and chair of the Drama Department.  “She is a stand-out citizen of the department as well as a natural leader who sets the bar high for her peers.”

Mary Martin with grandson Matt Weir '90

Volansky says Sharp shares with the famous Mary Martin the ability to take a part and make it her own. For theater people, the mention of Martin’s name brings to mind a particularly vivid set of images: Ensign Nellie Forbush washing that man right outa her hair, Dolly Winslow—whose heart belongs to Daddy—shedding her furs, and Peter Pan teaching the Darling children to fly and to crow. Working on stage, screen and radio, Martin brought to life a formidable range of other characters, including Maria in The Sound of Music, for which she won the Tony Award in 1960. Martin also garnered Tony Awards for her work as Peter Pan (1955) and as Annie Oakley in the touring company of Annie Get Your Gun (1948).  She toured the United States and the world as Dolly Levi in the international touring company of Hello, Dolly!, which included engagements in Okinawa, Korea, Japan, South Vietnam, and London.

For more information on the Drama Department and the Mary Martin Scholarship, please visit:  http://drama.washcoll.edu.

Department of Drama Presents Romantic Comedy The Voice of the Turtle, April 12-14

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Washington College Department of Drama breathes new life into a provocative romantic comedy from the 1940s with its staging of The Voice of the Turtle, John Van Druten’s long-running Broadway hit. Directed by drama professor Jason Rubin, the play will unfold on Decker Theatre April 12, 13 and 14 at 8 p.m. Tickets, at $5 general admission and $3 for students and seniors, are available at the door.

The play’s heroine, a New York actress named Sally, is not really that experienced with men and sex. But she still worries that she may be promiscuous because she has had two affairs. Sally has sworn off sex for the time being. At the top of the play, she is memorizing Juliet’s lines from Romeo and Juliet—perhaps in an attempt to romanticize her sexual urges, or maybe just to have a monologue under her belt in case she gets an audition. Then she meets Bill Page and is torn about whether or not to sleep with him. Meanwhile, her best friend, Olive, is trying to juggle two affairs at once.

Although war-time Manhattan was filled with real-life love stories like Sally’s, The Voice of the Turtle adds another element: the theme of rebirth that we associate with spring, says director Rubin, who also designed the set. “Sally and Bill’s lives are reborn like the flowers that fill her apartment.”

The title of the play comes from the erotic Song of Solomon poetry in the Old Testament’s Song of Songs: “The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” “What could be more enticing than a romance inspired by the Bible?” adds Rubin about the play, which was written in 1943.

Three talented seniors are making their farewell appearances on the Decker stage in this production: Samantha Simpson as Sally, Mike Zurawski as Bill, and Alyssa Velazquez as Olive. Sophomore Amanda Boyer is assistant set designer, sophomore Lauren Tucker designed the lighting, and junior Aileen Gray is stage manager.

Decker Theatre is located in the Gibson Center for the Arts on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown. For more information: http://drama.washcoll.edu/.

Photo, by Brigid Lally: Seniors Mike Zurawski and Samantha Simpson play the lead characters in Washington College's production of The Voice of the Turtle.

Hollywood Filmmaker Robert Bella Leads Workshops for WC Theater Students

By Harris Allgeier

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Washington College Drama department hosted veteran Hollywood production manager Robert Bella on campus for a week in April to lead acting workshops with students. The first session, on Tuesday, April 3, focused on the acting philosophies of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet, whom Bella studied with for several years. In a Thursday night session on Acting for the Camera, Bella shared strategies and techniques for film and television acting.

Bella is a founding member of Mamet’s much acclaimed Atlantic Theater Company. For the past six years he has worked in Los Angeles as a post-production supervisor, overseeing the process of turning the raw footage accumulated during months of shooting into the finished products that hit the silver screen. In L.A., he’s a known commodity. Just this year, three of the movies he worked on saw Oscar nominations (The Help, War Horse and Real Steel).

The workshop that Bella conducted on Tuesday focused on Mamet’s “Practical Aesthetics” acting method. Bella explained to the room of roughly a dozen students what drew him to Mamet and his ideas on acting. “My frustration as I was studying acting at NYU,” he said, “was that I was told time and time again to believe I was a character and to control my emotions. Which, if you think about it, is really impossible for anyone to do consistently. Acting needs to be rooted in the tangible, something that’s physically capable of being done. If you pursue a physical objective, your emotional life will take care of itself.”

Bella led several students through a set of exercises with energetic aplomb. The actors were encouraged to remove the burden of pushing a scene forward from themselves and to “live in the moment” by focusing on and responding to everything their partner did. The activity onstage gradually grew in scope, beginning with students making simple observations of physical truths about one another and culminating in several dramatic interpretations of the Trayvon Martin story currently in the headlines. (Martin is the black youth shot and killed by neighborhood-watch member George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida.)

Bella was quick to caution students against trying to “get it right.” “We live in a superficial world where there’s supposed to be only one way that’s the right way,” he said. “We let ourselves be defined by external pressures. Don’t. There are as many ways as there are people. Or conversely, there’s only one way, and that’s yours.” 

“Acting for the Camera” focused on not only the basic differences between performing for the camera versus a live audience, but also on specifics tricks of the trade seasoned professionals use to enhance their screen presence.

Bella repeatedly emphasized the importance of being aware of the camera. “In theater your audience is all around you,” he said. “In film that audience is wherever the camera is.” He gave tips on how to alter the same performance for differing camera angles and focus. “Understanding the frame is part of your job as an actor, and to be successful you should learn to be aware of the shot and how to modulate yourself for it.”

For the workshop, a single camera was hooked up to a large T.V. screen. Students performed in pairs, one sitting in front of the camera and the other off camera as a stand-in for the performing student to deliver lines to. In between takes, Bella offered advice. “Most film acting takes place in the face, specifically with the eyes. You’d be amazed at what you can communicate with a simple downward glance. On film, even the act of blinking becomes a powerful choice.”

Bella also discussed the importance of acting efficiently. “In Hollywood, shooting can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 a minute. Unless you’re Harrison Ford, the people behind the cameras want you to get on and nail it on take one so they can do 20 with Mr. Ford,” Bella explained. “There’s no greater compliment in the industry than going on for one take and being told you’re done. The director loves you for saving time, the producers love you for saving money, and the crew loves you because you let them get home a little earlier.”

Bella concluded the workshop with advice from David Mamet “As you get better and better at this you make the difficult easy, and the easy habitual, and at some point your habits will be beautiful.” His visit was made possible by the Visiting Artist Endowment established by Edward Maxcy, an arts supporter and former administrator at the College.

Harris Allgeier ’14 is a double major in English and drama who participated in the Robert Bella workshops.  Photo of Robert Bella by Ronald Butler.