The Sound of Education

Posted by Bruce Miller
Chase Kniffen (director and choreographer of The Sound of Music [TSOM]), Brian Barker (set designer, TSOM), Janine Serresseque (Barksdale's liaison with Richmond Public Schools [RPS]), and I had the wonderful opportunity of conducting an after-school Educator Training Workshop last week with a dozen or so teachers from RPS. The workshop was organized and facilitated by Susan Damron, theatre resource teacher in the RPS Arts & Humanities Center.

For the last eleven years, Theatre IV and RPS have partnered as Central Virginia's only affiliate of the Kennedy Center's prestigious Performing Arts Centers and Schools program. Through this national arts-in-education initiative, we present workshops that train teachers how to use the arts to enhance instruction across the curriculum at all grade levels. Teachers receive continuing education credits for their participation.

About half of the workshops involve master educators from the Kennedy Center's roster of the nation's best arts-in-education specialists. These days, about half of the workshops are developed here in Richmond by Susan Damron and various artists and educators from Theatre IV.

Earlier this year, we created a workshop entitled Beyond the Wiz. In response to teacher requests, the goal was to enable educators with no expertise in theatre--with the exception of George Wythe, RPS middle and high schools have no drama teachers--to learn where and how to look for plays that feature African American casts and themes but have little name recognition among the general public.

We assembled a panel comprised of Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates from VCU (director, The Grapes of Wrath), April Jones - guest theatre artist at the University of Richmond, Derome Scott Smith - Artistic Director, African American Repertory Theatre (director, Black Nativity), and me. Together we discussed the history of African American theatre in the United States, and explored a large number of plays that have had successful revivals with African American casts even if they were not originally written from an African American perspective.

Each participating teacher left with a new appreciation for the wealth of material out there, an expanded knowledge of where to search for new titles, and an understanding of how to obtain reading copies of less well known scripts.

The subject of last week's workshop was Creating the Team Needed to Produce a Musical. Using The Sound of Music as our case study, I spoke about assembling the lead artists, Chase talked about how the director works with the stage manager and designers to move the process forward, Janine (who works overhire in our costume department) spoke about the various steps followed to create the costumes for a show, and Brian dazzled the crowd with his models and computer work, ably revealing how a designer in 2010 can use technology to more effectively communicate with the rest of the production team.

Throughout the entire workshop, we provided tips on how to create a musical on a budget--a subject near and dear to the educators' hearts and pocketbooks.

This afternoon, I will be accompanying the teachers on a tour of the Holocaust Museum. Again we will use TSOM as our case study, and discuss how to use theatre to enhance instruction across the curriculum by showing how TSOM is being used throughout Greater Richmond's school systems to teach the history of WWII.

This Friday evening, the teachers who have been participating in this workshop series will all come to see The Sound of Music, and take a behind-the-scenes tour after the show.

For decades, education has been at the heart of our work at Theatre IV and Barksdale. As early winners of the Excellence in Arts Instruction Award from the Virginia Dept of Education and the Virginia Commission for the Arts, we're proud to be a valued partner with public and private school systems throughout the Commonwealth.

Hope to see you (and the students in your life) at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

Video - The Grapes of Wrath - Interview with the Director

The Grapes of Wrath - Now through March 21, 2010 at Willow Lawn - Interview with the director - Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates

The Grapes of Wrath performance schedule More information about the play

Coffee & Conversation Audio - "Intimate Apparel"

As a courtesy to our patrons who are not able to attend our wildly popular Coffee & Conversations series, sponsored by Rostov Coffee & Tea, we will begin providing links to audio recordings of highlights from these intriguing dialogues, recorded live from the lobby stage of Barksdale Willow Lawn.

Here's your chance to learn the backstage story of every onstage performance, and finally hear the answers to the questions you’ve been eager to ask. Join us on the second Tuesday of each month (with a few exceptions) for informal, moderated discussions with Barksdale’s leading actors, directors, and designers.

This first installment includes actors from the cast of Intimate Apparel - Adanma Onyedike, Chris Lindsay, and Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, moderated by Joy Corbin.



Click here to listen to the Coffee & Conversations audio

*Audio edited and recorded by Chase Kniffen

To hear the next full discussion and meet the actors and other theatre professionals join us Tuesday, May 8, 2007 for Sidekicks & Second Bananas: Your Favorite Supporting Actors from the Season Discuss their Work--Jan Guarino, moderator.



Barksdale Willow Lawn
9:30 - 10:30 AM
Admission is FREE
Free Coffee, Tea, & Pastries Provided

*All dates and topics are subject to change. For confirmation of programs, please call the Box Office at 282-2620 on the Friday prior to the discussion.

-Russell Rowland

"Intimate" Earns Rave in Times-Dispatch

The first Intimate Apparel review is in, and everything’s coming up roses. Susan Haubenstock’s assessment appears in this morning’s Times-Dispatch (Sunday, April 15), and it begins as follows: “What an excellent synergy of writing, acting, directing and design is Barksdale’s Intimate Apparel, the Lynn Nottage drama that played off-Broadway in 2004 and won the 2004 Outer Critics Circle Award. With director Steve Perigard at the helm, Nottage’s carefully plotted tale is realized with perfectly tuned sensibility.”

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know how excited we at Barksdale are about Intimate Apparel. We’re excited because Intimate Apparel is a beautiful new play by Lynn Nottage, a playwright who is now establishing her place in the top tier of favorite playwright lists all around the country. This production is a Central Virginia premiere, and the latest product of the Women’s Theatre Project we kicked off in 2001. Through this project, we commit to the production of at least one work by a woman playwright each season. Intimate Apparel is beautifully plotted and written with a real reverence for character and language. It has been a delight to produce.

We’re excited because we have been able to recruit an exceptional cast. “Adanma Onyedike’s Esther is beautifully realized, lacking in self-possession at first but growing through her difficulties to become very much herself,” says Haubenstock. “There are wonderful discoveries in the performances of Tawnya Pettiford-Wates as Mrs. Dickson, Jennifer Massey as Mrs. Van Buren, and Katrinah Carol Lewis as Mayme. Andy Nagraj is touching as Mr. Marks, and every move of Chris Lindsay’s George is charged with feeling.”

We’re excited to have the chance to again experience the organic power of Steve Perigard’s sensitive direction, the full-flavored beauty of Kim Parkin’s handsome scenic design, the magnificent period costumes created by Sue Griffin, and the spellbinding lighting of Lynne Hartman. Paul Deiss has written a wonderful rag that is performed by Katrinah and Ida (the name by which everyone knows Adanma). It sounds like Scott Joplin reborn. And, as always, Amanda Durst has created an entire world with her dialect direction.

We’re trying to live up to the standard we have set for ourselves, a standard that is appropriate for Central Virginia’s leading professional theatre. I think Intimate Apparel is representative of the artistic growth we seek. I’m proud of our production.















For the full review go to: Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Intimate" Opening Wins Hearts and Minds

I just returned from the great Opening Night of Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage. Joining in the warm reception awarded the show were past and present Board leaders Ric and Rhona Arenstein, Roy Burgess, Phyllis and Paul Galanti, and Charlotte and Andy McCutcheon; Bifocals stalwarts Carlene and Tom Bass, Vaughan Gary, Lyde Longacre and Tom McGranahan; and audience member extraordinaire Essie Simms (a painful bout of sciatica was not about to keep her away from an Opening Night).

Also making merry were beloved volunteers Bob Boyd, Jean Hartley and Elizabeth Prevatt; loyal staff members Ford Flannagan, Jackie Gann, Lucas Hall, Russell Rowland, Wendy Vandergrift, Jennings Whiteway and Ginnie Willard; and alumna of our recent London/Paris trip Anne Ayer.

As always, several of our treasured actors were at the head of the line to welcome this terrific show to its new life in Richmond, including Robin Arthur, Tony Foley, Scott Melton, Robyn O’Neill, Stacey Reardon, Jill Bari Steinberg, Eddie Tavares, Erin Thomas and Robert Throckmorton. To whomever I’m leaving out, please forgive me. It’s late.

Director Steve Perigard, Stage Manager Chase Kniffen, Lighting Designer Lynne Hartman, and Light Op Lynwood Guyton all graciously accepted kudos as the audience waited for the actors to emerge from the dressing rooms and join the party. When they finally appeared, the six actors who comprise our remarkable cast (Adanma Onyedike [Ida to her friends], Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Jennifer Massey, Andy Nagraj, Katrinah Lewis and Chris Lindsay) were showered with justly deserved praise and affection.

I will leave it to others to critique the show, but suffice it to say that Phil Whiteway and I are very proud of the production and all of the talented artists involved. We’re looking forward to a long and glorious run of this beautiful and important new play. If you enjoy great theatre, this is one you won’t want to miss.

Meet the Cast of "Intimate Apparel"

During a recent focus group that was a part of our marketing research, I was surprised to hear a Broadway Under the Stars subscriber say that she always went to BUTS (that’s the acronym, sorry) and never to Barksdale because she liked knowing that “all the BUTS actors were on Broadway last week, and the Barksdale actors are local amateurs.” Her comment, of course, could not be further from the truth. Many of the BUTS tours featured not a single Broadway actor; many of them were non-Equity tours produced in Maryland. On the other hand, Barksdale’s Signature Season features many of our nation’s top professional talents, veterans of Broadway, Hollywood and America’s leading regional theatres.

The acting company of Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage is a perfect example. This wonderful show is up next in our Signature Season at Willow Lawn, and it features an amazingly talented cast of professional actors working at the top of their game. We’re proud to include each of them in our Barksdale family. Intimate Apparel is written by Lynn Nottage, one of the most popular playwrights working in our country today. It's the latest show in our Women's Theatre Project. Richmond theatre lovers of both genders would be crazy to miss it.

Adanma Onyedike plays the leading role of Esther. She last appeared at Barksdale in To Kill a Mockingbird. She is a brilliant actor at the beginning of her professional career; her performance in Intimate Apparel will uplift your heart. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the U.S.A. Adanma’s other stage credits include Luminosity at UVA, The Tempest with the Richmond Shakespeare Festival, Northstar Light with the Carpenter Science Theatre, and Tribute 9/11 with Sycamore Rouge. Adanma is now an MFA Theatre Pedagogy candidate at VCU, where she teaches Black Theatre. She also teaches at the Henrico High School Center for the Arts.

Chris Lindsay plays her love interest, George. Chris is making his Barksdale debut after just starring in the national tour of I Have a Dream – The Life and Times of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., produced by Theatre IV. Chris is also a member of AEA. Based in Florida, Chris played Valentine in Twelfth Night, the Apothecary in The Imaginary Invalid, and Shere Khan in The Jungle Book—all for the Orlando Shakespeare Festival.

Tawnya Pettiford-Wates is also making her Barksdale debut as Mrs. Dickson, but she brings to our stage the wealth of experience she has gained during a stellar international career. Dr. T, as she is known by her students, is the Head of Performance on the faculty of the VCU Theatre Department. She appeared on Broadway in For Colored Girls … before moving to the West Coast to appear on stage at Seattle Rep, the Intiman Theatre, and ACT, and on film in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, Life or Something Like It with Angelina Jolie, and Under One Roof with James Earl Jones.

Jennifer Massey returns to Barksdale in the role of Mrs. Van Buren, after starring with us previously in Fifth of July and Light Up the Sky. Jennifer’s other regional stage credits include performances with The Alliance Theatre (Atlanta), Flat Rock Playhouse (NC), and for the new playwright’s project at Arena Stage (Washington D. C.). In Los Angeles, she appeared in numerous productions with the acclaimed Deaf West Theatre. Her extensive film and TV credits include The Wedding Crashers, One Tree Hill, The Practice, 7th Heaven, and Melrose Place. Since moving to Richmond, she has also appeared with the Firehouse Theatre Project in Dinner with Friends and The Secret of Madame Bonnard’s Bath.

Andy Nagraj is pleased to be playing the Jewish fabric merchant, Mr. Marks. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Professional School in Chicago, Andy has performed in concert in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and, most recently, Spain. Previous Virginia credits include one of the titular roles in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Theatre IV, Forever Plaid at Swift Creek Mill, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Virginia Shakespeare Festival in Williamsburg.

Last in this cast listing, but near and dear to our hearts, Katrinah Carol Lewis returns to Barksdale after starring as the Girl in our smash hit production of Crowns. A BFA performance grad from VCU, Katrinah also studied at the Levine School of Music in Washington, D. C. She was a featured soloist at the opening of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain with the Children of the Gospel Mass Choir. With the same group, she sang at the Kennedy Center and at the Inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton. This summer, she will be singing with Barksdale again in Into the Woods.

In an upcoming blog entry, I’ll discuss the non-actor members of our award-winning company of Intimate Apparel. Please support Barksdale Theatre and our wonderfully talented professional cast by buying your tickets today. You’ll be glad you did.