People are arriving!!!!

The 2010 Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival officially kicks off with the arrivals of interns, actors and directors!!!! Here are a few snapshots of our impromptu grill-out gathering!

Continued HAMLET thoughts

These last few weeks I have continued my work on HAMLET. This has included some Civil War research, some text work, and discussions with members of the cast. It has been an interesting and exciting challenge to explore the circumstances of HAMLET through the Civil War South.

Hamlet has gone through so many incarnations over the many years since Shakespeare wrote the play. The original Richard Burbage that we can only speculate about. The brooding intellectual that Sir Lawrence Olivier brought us, the unpredictable Hamlet that Mel Gibson brought us, the masculine and yet comical Hamlet that Richard Burton performed, to today's interpretations by Jude Law and David Tenet.

As we approach our HAMLET there are some very important things I want to instill with our production team and cast. Number 1: Their versions of their characters must be their own. Walter will create Walter's Hamlet. Melora will create her Gertrude. All of our actors must bring themselves to the roles they play. Number 2: Our HAMLET will tell a story about Civil War Virginia rather than simply pasting the story of HAMLET into Civil War Virginia circumstances. That is what makes the Ethan Hawke version (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171359/) so awful. They simply pasted "corporation" onto the story. It didn't tell us about corporate America, it simply used corporate America to modernize HAMLET (and quite poorly. The "to be or not to be" in the Blockbuster Video is about as bad as it gets).

In looking at the Civil War there are some really rich circumstances for us to play with. One is the idea of war and death. The Civil War was a bloody war and one that is rife with moral conflict. Hamlet struggles with the idea of death and the idea of honor. In our production Hamlet has not gone off to war but Horatio has. Horatio is returning home at the start of our production wounded and limp. Laertes has been to war and returns at the top of the show. He is going to "Richmond" and not to "Paris." Laertes takes action in opposition to Hamlet's inaction. This idea of manhood and duty play a large part in our Hamlet's struggle. He also debates the nature of this particular war.


The state of the farm and the shift of culture also plays a big part in our character's lives. The farm is in disarray. The effects of the war, the loss of slave labor, and the loss of community has hit the farm. The irony is that the characters want to continue on as usual. The past is slipping away. The present is barreling forward. They want to stay in the past but it is impossible. Their lack of change and ability to adjust ultimately destroys them.

We are also shifting some of the circumstance to help us tell our version of the story. Ours is an adaptation of the story of Hamlet in many ways. Hamlet is sent off to war rather then being sent to England. We meld a lot of characters into Marcellus and Bernardo who serve as farm hands and our players are one traveling musician.


Krista and I just went to the barn (our performance venue) this morning and began plans for the performance prep. A lot needs to be done to make the barn both ready for performers and the audience. As is the case with our outdoor work, there is a lot of unusual production prep to be done. It is always exciting to perform outside of a theatre, but it also brings with it a lot of new challenges. Audience comfort, parking, bathrooms, ect. We are excited for the challenge though.

I will continue to update the status of rehearsals as we move forward.

More soon.

Geoffrey Kershner
Artistic Director

Rehearsal VLOG

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Process....Process....

We are continuing to move at a lighting fast pace. In addition to the continued rehearsals for Complete Wkrs, we are finalizing preparations as we begin to turn our attention to the rest of the festival which will kick off this coming weekend. Before we know it interns, designers, actors, etc... will all descend on campus and we will be in full swing!!

However, we still have elements that we are working into the current show in rehearsal. Although the guys (Walter, Derek, and Michael) have been working with their props and a few costume pieces, they got a very special treat this past Sunday when Sally arrived with rack loads of costumes pieces for them to choose from for the different characters they play in the show.

Let me just tell you....this lady.....this lady here is a GEM!!!!

Sally, in addition to all of the other plates she has spinning, made time to search out and collect the needed costumes for this show. Even though she is not building any new costumes for this production, some pieces that she has built from scratch in the past will be making an appearance.

Sally brought in the costume pieces and spent a lot of time with the actors going through the show person by person and figuring out exactly what they were going to wear and when they were going to wear it.

The guys really enjoyed being able to be part of this process as they got to have input on what they preferred and literally pick the outfits from head to toe.

Sally is pretty great when it comes to that aspect, as she takes the time to listen to the actors and does amazing job of blending her design concept, the script, and the actor's ideas, and creating some neat outfits. The guys even got to pick what color tights they get to wear.....yes...they are wearing tights in this show :)

Of course we don't want to give too much away, you will have to come out to the show to see the results of Sally's hard work.

So.....I will leave you with a pic of Walter's best "model pose", which resulted after some coaching by Michael and Derek.


till next time....

Cheers,

MAH
Company Manager

INITIATIVE 2010

PLAYWRIGHTS' INITIATIVE 2010 is here.

It is the second annual Initiative for Endstation Theatre Company and over the course of the last nine months, we have accepted submissions from emerging playwrights across the country. In only a year's time, the quantity (and quality) of playwrights submitting for the festival has increased exponentially and I believe we have found three literary artists of immeasurable talent and skill. To those of you new to our Initiative at the festival, we have built a two-week, comprehensive, retreat program for working playwrights. It is an opportunity to leave the chaos of the city; a rural hiatus meant to foster the creative development of the theatre's most invaluable asset: the playwright.

These artists arrive from Chicago and New York City on July 11th and will remain with us through the completion of the festival on July 26th. With the support of Endstation Theatre Company and our residency at Sweet Briar College, the playwrights are provided housing, a subsidized meal plan, and the opportunity to write... write... write. (On a utopian college campus consistently ranked by the Princeton Review as the most beautiful in the country.) Throughout the two weeks, they will meet every other day with our administrative playwright (Joshua Mikel, My Brother's Knife BRSTF '09) and myself (Michael Stablein, Jr - Head of Initiative) for closed readings, criticism, and rapport. This Initiative also offers an inestimable opportunity for networking. At Sweet Briar, they are not only working amongst their fellow playwrights but professional, resident artists in association with Endstation and in close proximity to the nationally-recognized VCCA (Virginia Center for the Creative Arts).

The Initiative comes to a close with a series of public readings as a part of the Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival Season.

Now, without further ado...

-THE PLAYWRIGHTS' INITIATIVE 2010-

Dan Caffrey (Chicago) - Artistic Director of the Tympanic Theatre Company

Daniel Caffrey is a Chicago-based playwright and the Artistic Director of The Tympanic Theatre Company. He has written and directed for a number of Chicago companies, including Tympanic, ARFTCO, Chicago Dramatists, Dramatis Personae, Dream Theatre, Hobo Junction, iO, The Rough House, The Ruckus, The Side Project, and WildClaw. Occasionally an actor, he has performed in And Then It Burst and Splintered Crosses (both with Tympanic), SKALD 10 (WNEP), The Feats Of Strength (Dramatis Personae), and Slipping (The Side Project – in both Chicago and Dublin). His one-act play, Dark Horse, will be produced by Tympanic at The Side Project this July. Mr. Caffrey holds BA Degrees in Theatre and Creative Writing from Florida State University and is a graduate of the Training Center at iO.

Lindsey Ferrentino (NYC) - With 3-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee.

Lindsey Ferrentino is an emerging young playwright currently working in New York. She is one of the 2009-2010 recipients of The Edward Albee Foundation's Playwriting Fellowship and Residency. Her plays have been performed at the Kennedy Center Theater Lab (Washington, D.C.), The Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, England), the Manhattan Repertory Theater (New York), the Three Legged Dog Art and Technical Center (New York), and Surfside Playhouse (Cocoa Beach, Florida). She is the winner of The Cappies International Playwriting Contest, Winterfest Playwriting Competition, The Florida Today Playwriting Competition, and she was a finalist for the 2008 New York Writers' Summit. She has studied with The Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and The Writers' Guild of Great Britain. Ms. Ferrentino holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Mary Laws (NYC) - Literary Associate for Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Mary Laws is a New York-based playwright currently acting as Literary Associate for Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Her collected plays include Blue Mug, Untitled One, Old Records, Sights and Sounds at Fingal’s Cave, and Us. Her plays have been produced at The Secret Theatre in New York and received readings at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Richmond Shepard Theater, New World Stages, The Cherry Lane, Le Pavé d'Orsay in Paris, and the Horton Foote American Playwrights Festival. The Ampersand Review recently published Sights and Sounds at Fingal's Cave for their annual journal. She was the recipient of the 2008 UR/SA Grant in Playwriting and a finalist in the Alley Theatre’s HYPE - Houston Young Playwrights' Exchange. Originally from Houston, Ms. Laws holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre Performance from Baylor University.

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I am incredibly proud of our Initiative selections this year. Be sure not to miss our professional reading series at the end of the summer; all readings are open and free to the public and will conclude with Q&A sessions between playwright, actor, and audience.

m.

Complete Works Video!

Well, the first week of Complete Works rehearsals is over! Here's a video covering the week's proceedings...

Walter Kmiec

Actor

Artistic Director Vlog: #1

Geoffrey Kershner

Artistic Director