<![CDATA[Santa Paula Theater Center - SPTC Blog]]>Sun, 13 May 2012 21:16:41 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[You Appear to Have a Stage Growing out of Your Stage]]>Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:18:07 -0800http://www.santapaulatheatercenter.org/2/post/2011/04/you-appear-to-have-a-stage-growing-out-of-your-stage.htmlGreetings, theatergoers! It’s been much longer than I ever intended. You know how it is: you take on a couple of exciting projects, one turns out to be particularly engrossing and takes precedence over everything else, and before long you’ve lost the habit of keeping up the other stuff. When it comes to theater, especially, I get very passionate about my current projects. Which ties in nicely with what I want to discuss today.

We’ve got a new-ish (or perhaps I should say, semi-recently reborn) space at the Santa Paula Theater Center, one that serves as an exciting alternative to our already attractive Mainstage, and one that subsists on the sweat of those who get especially worked up about their theatrical endeavors. If you’re a regular, you already know what I’m talking about, as we’ve gotten much better about hyping it up both in our Mainstage curtain speeches and on Facebook. Yes, I refer to the increasingly popular and much spoken-of Backstage.
What exactly is the Backstage? The current incarnation is new enough that we’re still in the process of defining it in many ways! But I’ll start with the simple stuff. Physically, the Backstage is a performance space including a small stage, a semi-permanent set of walls establishing the skeleton of a trapezoidal box set, and risers onto which movable seats can be placed for an audience to occupy. We call it the Backstage because, in relation to the Mainstage, it fills up the primary backstage area of the theater. That partition in the Craftsman Pub that “authorized personnel” are always spiriting through during intermissions of Mainstage shows? Yeah, that partition separates the Pub from the Backstage. The stage itself backs right up to the wall at the back of the Mainstage space, so that the two stages abut each other but face opposite directions. The upside of all this is that we are now using just about every bit of space in our dear old building all the time. Actors hanging out backstage during a Mainstage production are essentially camping out in Backstage territory (and vice-versa, for that matter: during Backstage productions, actors use the Mainstage house as their main lounging area!)

In terms of use, some history might be informative. The Backstage is not, strictly speaking, new. Back when SPTC was being helmed by our original artistic directors, Dana Elcar and Bill Lucking conceived of the Backstage as being our alternative venue, just as you might find in an Equity theater in a big city somewhere. The Backstage was used, in those days, mainly to host edgier work or work with niche appeal, and which did not require the same material resources to stage as a Mainstage piece. The Backstage saw some use during the early years of SPTC’s tenure in the Ebell Club building, but at some point along the line, it fell by the wayside and was largely relegated to overflow storage (and of course serving as the backstage area for Mainstage productions). Eventually too, there were equipment issues. Even a smaller scale space with stripped-down production values needs lights and sound and operating boards, and we didn’t have the instrumentation and controls to cover both spaces for many years.

Starting around, I don’t know, 2005-ish or so if memory serves, I started hearing mutterings amongst various regular participants of someone maybe spearheading an operation to get the Backstage going again. At that point, it wasn’t clear how serious people were. Those of you with experience in big volunteer organizations will understand: it takes a lot of energy for people to build up the momentum necessary to institute a major change like that, especially when most of them are being paid little to nothing for it. I always threw my two cents in about projects I’d like to see done if it ever happened, though at the time I didn’t feel qualified to push anything too hard.

One proposed project from this time which was fairly seriously discussed for a bit was rather inventive: a novel take on the staging of Noises Off. For various reasons we never ended up securing the rights to the show, but had we done so, the first refurbishment of the Backstage might have been in support of this production. Typically N.O. is mounted with a rotating set so that the second-act backstage antics are shown after the whole set has been rotated. In managing director Fred Helsel’s proposed staging, the audience would have started in the Mainstage house for the first act, moved backstage for the second act, and returned to the main house for the third. Alas, it was not to be.

In 2008, a project finally came along which gathered the necessary momentum. Proposed and directed by Jill Dolan (assisted by Andrea Robles), and sporting a cast of mostly SPTC stalwarts including Kate English, Gloria Deleon, Jennifer Carnahan, Dolan again, and then-SPTC Board President Leslie Nichols, the show was a little-known gem called Playhouse Creatures. Jill gathered the cast, put them through months of reading, and inspired everyone into the position of taking ownership of their own show (a theme which has become central to the current vision of the Backstage). As a production, they pushed and got things done. The space was cleared, instruments were gathered, and summer of that year saw the rebirth of the Backstage, with a highly successful production operating on the tightest of budgets. Due to the seminal importance of Playhouse Creatures, subsequent SPTC productions on the Backstage have been referred to by convention as “Creature Company Productions.”

The Backstage has been re-imagined not just as a space for niche-appeal pieces, but as an opportunity for people with passion projects to put their money where their mouth is, and as a training ground for people looking to broaden their current skill set (especially, but not limited to, new lighting designers, producers, and directors).

In theory, just about anyone can propose a project to be staged. The SPTC Executive Board has an official position, the Backstage Coordinator, devoted to vetting these proposals. The position is currently held by longtime SPTC actor and Backstage-trained director John McKinley.

Of course, in practice, it takes more than just an idea and a proposal. It’ll help if you’ve attended Backstage pieces in the past, and you can gain credibility by looking for ways to help in previously-scheduled productions before proposing your own project. But if you’ve got the passion (and the thriftiness!) John is a remarkably open-minded fellow.

Getting back to the first paragraph, now, of this post, my own Backstage project was one of the main reasons I first lost sight of this Blog. (It turns out directing is a lot of work if you’re committed to doing it properly!) Here’s a bit of my recent Backstage tale, for the benefit of those wondering about the experience. I appeared in 2009’s production of Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane and immediately knew the Backstage was going to figure big in my subsequent involvement with SPTC. I started testing the waters about the possibility of learning to direct, and even soft-pitched a script to then-Backstage-coordinator Andrea Robles. Drea didn’t much care for the text I gave her, and I didn’t push it very hard, because I knew I needed to ground myself first. To gain credibility I took one of SPTC’s Organic Acting classes in the area of directing, and looked for ways to help out in a couple more Backstage productions. I then more carefully chose a script, and made sure to write a full proposal, including an analysis of cost issues, which I gave to John, who by now had taken over from Drea. Things turned out much better this time, and my life between late October 2010 and the end of January of this year was pretty much ruled by my attempts to realize the requirements of a quirky text called “Tales of the Lost Formicans.” I have never learned so much about theater in such a compressed timeframe in my life. I had to worry about set issues, staging issues, pacing issues, lighting issues (oh my GOODNESS the lighting issues)… but, much like Jill Dolan, and in fact every Backstage director to follow her, I had the good sense to inspire my team to take ownership of the material, and in the end, that’s what made the production fly.

Our Backstage isn’t just attracting wannabe directors like me; it’s attracting swarms of new actors, and even whole new segments of audience. And although I admit one of the main reasons I personally am compelled by the growth of the Backstage is due to my own interest in alternative or edgy texts, I don’t think that’s necessarily the case for everyone else. There’s a culture growing on the Backstage that says the pressure is off, that the Backstage is a space about learning craft, that it’s okay to dream big and risk failure. The husband of one of our most experienced stage managers appeared onstage for the first time ever in Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane. I’ve spoken to audience members who had never been to live theater before. In my blog post on auditioning back in October I tried to convey how SPTC’s culture generally is one of inclusion, which is true; with regard to the Backstage in particular I’d say it’s one of everyone giving their all to the team to give it their best shot, especially if you’re doing stuff you’ve never done before. I hope you find that as exciting as I do.

What can you do to get involved? Well of course, you can come be in the audience. We’re in the middle of our first full season of shows on the Backstage, with the final weekend of Bug by Tracy Letts about to get underway tonight, April 14. The next slot will see an original play by SPTC actor Michael Perlmutter entitled Directing Hamlet. The season will close with a suite of original one-act plays by local playwrights entitled, collectively, Quills and Keys. Audition opportunities will appear here on the Web site and on Facebook, and if you want to get involved in technical aspects, the audition period is a good time to say so. If you’ve got a project you want considered, I encourage you to get hold of John McKinley. Comment here and I’m sure we can set you up with his email. Also, also, also, if you’re a writer, now’s a great time to shoot us material for Quills and Keys! Check out the Quills and Keys page on this site for info about requirements and how to submit.

In any case, if you’ve any desire to expand your horizons as an artist or as a consumer of art, the Backstage is a great place to stretch your wings. We hope to see you there soon.

]]><![CDATA['Tis the Season...]]>Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:54:20 -0800http://www.santapaulatheatercenter.org/2/post/2010/10/tis-the-season.html…The 2011 SPTC Mainstage season, that is. We’re finally ready to announce next year’s programming, and it’s going to be another exciting, entertaining, educational, and provocative lineup. This gives me a good opportunity to explain something I think a lot of people don’t know much about: our season selection process. 

The first thing you have to understand about SPTC’s season programming, and something that differentiates us from some (though certainly not all) of our fellow community theaters in the area, is this: we’ve got an artistic director. I’ve spent time working in various segments of the Ventura County nonprofessional theater scene, and I well understand that the artistic director paradigm is not to everyone’s taste. But man, I’ve gotta say, it really seems to work for us. 
For the last fifteen-plus years, the position has been filled by David Ralphe, a veteran of stage and screen in both the domains of acting and theater management, with a resume that stretches for decades and encompasses both the New York and Los Angeles scenes. David is a striking figure, with a weathered face, a thick mane of white hair (which spent many years threaded into David’s signature ponytail, when such a style was more fashionable), eyes both probing and mischievous, and that voice. Years of life experience, theatrical training, and cigarette smoking (again, when such a thing was more fashionable), commingle in a voice both booming and gravelly, forceful and yielding. When David speaks, it is not uncommon to feel you are the only other person in the room, and that David is one of the most interesting people you are likely to meet. One day he may tell you the story of performing in the original cast of Nuts, and coming this close to being in the film, and another day he may regale you with the pros and cons of sharing an apartment with Edward Albee. This isn’t bluster – the richness of his experience is readily seen in the plays he directs, which unfailingly demonstrate grace, insight, and wit. 

So what, then, does David do for us? If you believe David himself at his most wry, one of his principle jobs is to say “no” a lot. (“Why do artistic directors get fired?” he asks, before answering his own question: “Because it’s their job to say ‘no,’ and after a while, when everyone’s pet project has been shot down three or four times, they start to say “to heck with him.”) The whole truth, of course, is very subtle. With substantial assistance and input from our tireless managing director, Frederick Helsel, David carefully assembles seasons that must be responsive to many variables. 

What are the costs of a given show? (This is not a simple issue. You’re dealing with royalties, set requirements, costume requirements, expected audience turnout based on name recognition and whether that offsets other costs, etc. etc.) What are the acting requirements? Can we get enough actors, can we get the right types, is it worth pulling an Equity Guest Artist Contract if we get just the right person? What’s the likelihood that a pro company in L.A. wants to do this or that show and will have the performance rights restricted in our area? Can the show fit, physically, onto our stage? 

Arguably the most important thing David strives for is to achieve seasons that are balanced, and that fit our general artistic mission. It’s worth talking about both of these issues in more depth. 

Balance is probably the more difficult issue to address, though the easier one to explain. What is the ratio of comedy to drama? Accessible pieces to challenging ones? Old works to new ones? Big casts to small ones? 

As far as SPTC’s artistic mission, I don’t know that anyone has it written down in so many words, but David has worked to craft a consistent message over the years, and I think our regular attendees understand it pretty well. We focus to near exclusivity on nonmusical theater. We concentrate on theater of the last 120 years or so. We do a mix of new work and classics (though again, most of our selections aren’t classical). We occasionally program larger-cast works but tend to focus on pieces of more restrained dimensions. We do a mix of comedy and drama. We ensure inclusion of a couple of very family-friendly works (with one guaranteed during summer and one guaranteed at Christmastime), but we likewise ensure at least one really adult, challenging piece a year (sometimes more). While we frequently draw material from the British Isles, continental Europe, and even Australia, we always focus on doing at least a couple of great American pieces. And we have some go-to playwrights to whom we oft return, including Agatha Christie and Connor McPherson. 

So how does the 2011 season hold up in light of all these issues? Really, really well, if you ask me. I’m beyond excited about the coming year. I suspect I’ll take time to address each selection in more depth in the future, but for now here’s the rundown with my own brief commentary and impressions. 

Amadeus by Peter Schaffer. A thousand times yes! I might be slightly giddy about this choice. Can I get an “amen” from the Schaffer fans in the house? On the slim chance you’re unfamiliar with the Oscar-winning film adaptation, Amadeus is the highly speculative, but utterly compelling re-imagining of the relationship between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his contemporary Antonio Salieri, court composer of Austria. 

Buried Child by Sam Shepard. David felt the time was finally right. Our audience is getting increasingly sophisticated, and we’ve given them some real challenges over the last couple of years. This season alone we gave them both Mamet (who we’d never before presented) and Albee (who hadn't figured in an SPTC season since our first show in 1985). Sam Shepard is another great American playwright with bite. 

Black Coffee by Agatha Christie. As I said above, we love her, and so, in our experience, does our audience. Black Coffee was the first work Christie wrote for the stage, and so represents a truly seminal moment in twentieth-century theater. 

The Seafarer by Connor McPherson. A relatively new work from the playwright of The Weir and Shining City, both of which were produced at SPTC with great success. The Seafarer continues McPherson’s philosophical explorations of modern Irish culture. 

Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kessering. Which needs no introduction. A tasty chestnut at Christmastime. Appropriate, no?

I think SPTC’s 26th year will be one of the best yet. See you in the House, I hope.
]]><![CDATA[Everyone Wants to Be an Actor]]>Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:47:23 -0800http://www.santapaulatheatercenter.org/2/post/2010/10/everyone-wants-to-be-an-actor.htmlIt is one of the clichés, if not truisms, of the theatrical world that most people working in it will be tempted to stride across the boards at some point or another, even those who have sworn to remain out of the limelight. My own father, a committed stage manager at SPTC, used to express frequent astonishment at my willingness to show my own vulnerabilities in front of an audience. He was thrilled to contribute to our art in his own way, but acting would never be in the cards. This he avowed. 

Then came the call from SPTC Artistic Director David Ralphe. A bit player was needed for the role of a movie theater manager in The Boys Next Door. My father was perfect, David assured him. It was only a handful of lines. It’d be a good learning experience. I watched Dad turn green and break into a cold sweat. But once the offer was there on the table, the future was written. Even Dad’s preemptive attack of stage fright couldn’t compete with the overriding lure of the stage. Within weeks we were having breathless conversations about the craft. He had never properly considered, he told me during one of these, the difficulty actors have in fine-tuning a performance without being able to see themselves from the outside. He constantly worried and fussed over his physicality, his vocal inflections, whether what he thought he was doing was what he was actually doing. It was only a handful of lines, but all the more reason it should be good. He had the bug. Sort of, at least.
 My father will never give himself wholly to acting, but he’s returned to it a couple of times, and may (who knows?) yet again. I suspect his naturally charming performance as the adorably slow Rainard Chisum in Christmas Belles will be legendary amongst the SPTC regulars for some time yet. 

My point is, even the shyest among us has had that fantasy of getting under the lights and strutting their stuff. When people ask me about getting involved at SPTC, at least half the time they want to know how to get onstage. (As an aside, asking other ways to get involved is always appreciated, and I do my best to steer people in that direction when I can. When everyone wants to be an actor, it’s hard to find technicians. Not to mention house managers! We’re always in short supply of those. But alas, that’s for another post.) 

If you’re a lucky skunk like my dad, maybe David Ralphe will call you out of the blue with the perfect part that’s only a few lines and a good learning experience. But usually, time spent waiting by the phone would be better used auditioning. 

So, how the heck does one even learn when we’re having auditions, right? I confess there was a time we communicated this less than effectively, especially before our organization awoke to the glorious power of the interwebs. There was a time that sourpuss types would complain SPTC was overly exclusive, that we gave auditions chiefly by invitation. The reality is much more mundane: we weren’t using our tools effectively. Now we’ve got it down, and we’re always looking for fresh meat. The first place you should be checking is this website you’re on right now. Notice the banner has a link for “Auditions.” Bookmark that page. Check back periodically. SPTC typically programs five Mainstage productions a year, and our Backstage seasons are gradually getting fuller. 

Are you SPTC’s friend on Facebook? You should be; we’re very friendly types around here. And we periodically give helpful status updates to our friends about things like…auditions! Also, the next time you come to a production, make sure you sign our email list. Lately we’ve been putting it out in the Craftsman Pub, that great warm room where you can get cookies before the show. Our email newsletter is yet another great way you can keep up with the goings-on of the theater, including being notified of upcoming auditions. 

So, now you know when to show up. What should you expect? First off, at SPTC we always audition using cold reads. (For that matter, pretty much all community theater auditions in Ventura County use cold reads; the monologue audition is not really in favor around here.) A cold read means that you go up onstage and read a section (or “side”) of the script for the play being produced. So it’s helpful to read the script beforehand if you can. It isn’t required! In fact, many directors will give you an opportunity to ask clarifying questions about the script before your audition. We try to keep our auditions accessible and low-pressure. But having a prior familiarity with the script will give you that much of a leg up on the situation. 

When you first arrive you will be asked to sign a sign-in sheet to verify order of arrival. You’ll also be given an information sheet to fill out with important info like conflicts in your schedule and previous theatrical experience. Don’t worry if you don’t have prior experience. Show up with enthusiasm and an open mind. Plenty of regular actors at SPTC started here with little to no prior experience—I’m one good example myself, and another is our webmaster Elixeo Flores—and many of them get roles pretty regularly now. Also, don’t worry too much about headshots or anything like that. I mean, yes, bring one if you have it, but no-one expects it from an interested newbie. Mostly, come willing to share yourself and willing to take a risk. That’s the most anyone can ask. 

You’ll be assigned a side or two and probably a couple scene partners as well. You’ll have some time to practice reading with your partners beforehand to get comfortable. And then, when your name is up, onto the stage you go! It’s perfectly okay to be nervous (and in fact, it’s perfectly fine to let the director and other auditors know you’re a novice, if applicable). Just remember to have fun. 

Some tips for the uninitiated audition-er to bear in mind: 

1. Don’t forget, it’s okay to ask the director for some clarity on the scene and the character relationships if you’re not overly familiar with the script. 

2. Though you’re reading off the page, try to read ahead a little if you can. This lets you get in some eye contact with your scene partners, and the chemistry between players is one thing the director is looking at. 

3. If the director gives you notes, it’s not a criticism. It’s a great opportunity. If they didn’t see potential at all, they wouldn’t have bothered giving them. Take them. The director wants to see that you are direct-able. 

4. Super-duper-simplified Acting 101: decide what you want in the scene and go after it. If nothing else, this is what will make your read successful. Most anything else is just ornamentation this early in the process. 

So! Now that you’re armed with the coaching you always wanted, keep your eyes peeled for some of our auditions! We just held our last Mainstage audition for the year, but I have it on good authority that we’ll be announcing our next Backstage audition very soon (it’ll probably happen the end of this month). And next season is right around the corner. Go ahead and try it. You know you’ve been wanting to. Maybe I’ll see you there.
]]><![CDATA[Lights Up]]>Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:34:28 -0800http://www.santapaulatheatercenter.org/2/post/2010/10/lights-up.htmlWelcome!

 Yes, friends, Santa Paula Theater Center has been working hard in recent times to catch up with the modern world. We’ve started putting out an email newsletter, launched a gorgeous new Website, started a Facebook page, and now, at long last, we bring you this, the official SPTC Blog. Welcome to the future, theater lovers. It is bright indeed. 

The blog gives us a less structured and more colorful means of reaching out from the Web and giving you the community the opportunity to know more about us. Of course our regular updates through all other above-mentioned channels will continue, but expect updates from this blog to give additional context and personality to the proceedings. There’ll be a whole host of articles coming down the pipeline very soon, but we also want to hear from you. This being a proper Web 2.0 weblog with comments, you have the ability to weigh in on the proceedings. Let us know what you think, what your experiences have been, and especially what you’d like to learn more about. We’ll be happy to make this blog responsive to your questions and interests. 

My name is Peter Krause, and for now at least I’ll be your guide around here. I’ve been involved with SPTC off and on since the summer of 1997, when I came on board to run lights for Laughter on the 23rd Floor. I went on to tech for several more productions, and eventually got onstage in 2000, appearing first in The Diary of Anne Frank. These days I also serve on the board. If you’re a long-time audience member, you’ve likely seen me at some point running up to the tech booth, appearing on the stage, or, in one of the rare instances that Leslie Nichols is actually watching a show at another theater, perhaps even giving one of our warm and welcoming preshow speeches. Also, I’m the guy freaking out in the picture gracing the top corner of this page (for context, my dear friend and fellow SPTC devotee Andrea Robles and I were improvising a scene set on a Ferris wheel as part of SPTC’s wildly successful 25th anniversary celebration). I hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other. Now give me a moment and I’ll go write some real content. 

Back in a jiff.

]]><![CDATA[Friends in The News!]]>Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:17:38 -0800http://www.santapaulatheatercenter.org/2/post/2010/08/first-post.html
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John Nichols is featured in an article in the Ventura Star.  Click the link to read the entire story:

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/aug/28/fertile-ground-for-creativity/
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