PEP | Performers Exchange Project

Developing Original Material for Performance: A workshop for actors. An opportunity for interested Charlottesville area performers to participate in some of the elements used by PEP in their process of developing original performance. Participants will develop their own etudes (short scores of physical action). Depending on interests of Performer and PEP, participants could be invited to join the Ann Sisters cast as a part of the Live Arts run of the show. This workshop will be a three day intensive running Nov 17, 18 and 19 from 7pm till 9pm. This event is free and open to anyone 18 years or older. Participants must register with Ronda Hewitt at Live Arts (434-977-4177 x 100) by Nov 9nd. If you have any questions please contact Sian Richards at pepcville@gmail.com

Pressing forward into the world of text development, we PEPsters began staging the skeleton of Part II during our last rehearsal weekend. Part II focuses on the dilemma of artist vs. wife and centers on Sophia Peabody and Nathaniel Hawthorne with appearances from Frida Kahlo and Phyllis Diller – our American and Central American “Ann Sisters”.

Martha asked us to create a new etude for Part II, which literally had Sian tied up in knots. The etude also reclaimed some material/ideas about wacky medicinal techniques from the nineteenth century that we discussed much earlier in the rehearsal process. It’s interesting how ideas from conversations discussed over a year ago are finding their way into the world of play. Sometimes it feels like an idea crops up in the moment, only to be discovered that it was actually a notion from our early rehearsals – the product of a yearlong rehearsal (or sketchy memory).

In other news, our designers are also moving forward with the set and costumes – and notions of the Victorian-era-meets-the-modern-age theme are developing throughout the architecture and clothing. As Sian said in the last blog, it’s exciting to collaborate with designers on this project, and especially interesting to hear them articulate their ideas based on reading the script and listening to our description of characters and action. Yet another layer to add to the mix…

Doreen

After a brief summer hiatus, we Pepsters got back in the water in August. We had in our hot little hands the text for act one, and we set out to put together our physical material and text for the first act over the course of our working weekend. Martha took bits and pieces from etudes we had made and edited them together. We applied the text to this material and poof! We had an outline of the scenes in Part One. After over a year of work, it felt good to have the bones of the first section of the show in place. There is much to add to what we have done and a lot more show for us to put together but we have a hint now of where we are heading. It seems to involve some talking wild life. That’s all I will say about that.

In other news, Martha, Sian, Doreen, John Paul, and Mark S. all got together for a production meeting. It was the first opportunity for our designers to get in the same place and talk over all the ideas floating around about the set and lights. This is an exciting experience for PEP. We have certainly made set and lights happen before, but we have never collaborated at this level, in fact we have never had a costume designer at all, other than ourselves. I think we are now in a moment of inhale. Starting this month things pick up and we will start running faster and faster towards our performances at Live Arts.

S.

Well, we’ve made it.  Exactly one year ago, Kara, Doreen, Sian, Jennifer, Kay and I sat down in Sian’s teeny little apartment and decided to take a risk — to experiment with the longest development process I’ve ever engaged in and create an original performance based on the lives of Americans who were a part of the 19th century movement in literature, thought and religion called:  The Newness.  Newness for real!

As the work has developed, we’ve narrowed our source material down a bit from The Newness.  We’re investigating the lives and loves of the Peabody sisters, three women whose contributions to American education, literature and women’s suffrage movement lasted nearly the whole of the 19th century.  Along the way, we’ve mixed in an interest in some female icons from our own youth – Phyllis Diller, Frida Kahlo and the ubiquitous Brady sisters.  It’s PEP’s collage approach to creating theatre!  When we come back together to work in August, Our American Ann Sisters will continue to mix it up– developing moments of stand-up/sketch comedy routines and a smorgasbord of dance/ vocal musical numbers – a vaudeville extravaganza!  Now if we just had a sword swallower to stir into the pot…

As for rehearsals, we’ll be on summer hiatus until the middle of August, but until then you can plot your  very own strategy for infiltrating and influencing our process!  We are encouraging, daring and soliciting any and all interested parties to help us write our script….Are we shameless or what?!  Please check out the past blog entries for more information on participating.  Or, if writing isn’t your bag, join us in the Fall for our Directors’ Roundtable or participate in our Performers Workshop.  You could even find yourself onstage as a member of the Ann Sisters ensemble, so brush up your magic tricks!  All of these community events are being offered FREE of CHARGE and are open to the general public.  Contact company member Sian Richards (siancookie at gmail dot com) for more details or use this form.

It’s a funny thing I notice about creating theatre.  No matter how short or long the process itself is, those moments in time that mark the end of one phase of work and the beginning of the next are always very clear.  Right now, as we conclude a full year of development of material and source research, the playmaking gremlins that live in my head are screaming out for a script.  And they’re pretty loud.  So, help us please!  Write something! If the assignments that we have posted don’t cry out to you, contact Jennifer and get yourself a different one…Only don’t tell her that I told you to.

Stay tuned…

Martha

The original play we are working on, Our American Ann Sisters, is an exciting experiment in community collaboration. Our script, which we’re writing in parallel with the development of the actors’ physical score, is part of this experiment. Some of the text for the script has been written by PEP members, some has been stolen from other dead and living writers (under Fair Use, of course) and some will come from YOU. This month, we are commissioning original material from the writing public at large and through Live Arts’ Playwrights Lab to include in our script.

On Monday, June 15, at the Playwrights Lab at Live Arts (6:30-10:00), anyone can come and in three hours write a scene for our show based on an assignment we’ll give out.

I’VE HEARD ALL I NEED TO KNOW… SHOW ME THE DETAILS!

The performers started by their usual warm-ups, and then reviewed the dances. Lest rehearsal grind to a halt so early, Martha named Doreen as Dance Captain since Katharine was not here to lead them and my videos from last rehearsal weren’t working and certain areas were, um, spotty.

Martha combined the performers’ individual chair etudes into one, putting them all on the floor together, with Kay as teacher and the others as students in their chairs.  This work continued throughout the weekend, with Martha introducing different dynamics and the performers working on their own material but sharing the space with the others and letting that information influence them. I do believe a scene is forming…

Doreen played on the swing but isn’t content with the rigging yet and her grip yet; Kay creeped us out wonderfully with her Big Bad Wolf/Mother material; Sian and Jennifer worked on combining Sian’s fan material with Jennifer’s striptease etude. I am finding us the right shoes.

The group did table work where we reviewed the structure of the piece and ideas for what text we are using where.

And finally, note to self: never send funny YouTube videos to Martha if you don’t want to see them in our play!  Martha had them choose and learn a few steps from the groovy Gwen Verdon number “Mexican Breakfast” and from the contortionist trio The Ross Sisters (”Solid Potato Salad”). Genius, is the group consensus.

-Kara

In April, the Ann Sisters gang continued their work refining the dances that Katharine taught them (upper left photo). Currently there are 3 dances: one square dance-like number, one ballet-like number and one that involves marching. The square dance is very fast, but the gals kept at it until they had it cold. As with all the material created at this point in the process, we have no idea exactly how it will be used in the piece. (well, Martha might but she’s not telling).

The performers also worked on their individual etudes, exploring opposing dynamics suggested by Martha.(lower left photo)

See our Media page for video samples of this work.

Kara

 All the PEPsters were together again for our March working weekend. Martha joined us from down South and we spent all day Saturday and Sunday together (like we do) working on our show.  We made some headway on some of the administrative aspects of making theatre and had a good table work session on Sunday, and spent some time revisiting the material we have made so far, but the majority of our time was spent with the fabulous Katharine Birdsall. She is helping us with some dance aspects for the show. We spent most of Sat and Sun counting “one and two and three and…” and trying not to drive Katharine crazy. We did a little folk dancing and we did a little ballet and much like our 4 year old ballet counterparts spent more time than we should plotting our future ballet outfits! Let’s learn the stuff first, shall we?

All in all a good couple of days and a very interesting and educational experience. It is fascinating to navigate collaboration and communication with someone whose vocabulary is similar but just a bit different and we are looking forward to the rest of our work together with Katharine. We will be getting some Alexander schooling from her as well.

Sian

PEPster Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell will participate on the panel of the upcoming Charlottesville-Albemarle Community Foundation (CACF) Donors Roundtable on March 12th. This focus of this Roundtable will be a panel discussion titled, “Perspectives on the Charlottesville Area Nonprofit Arts Sector: Challenges, Needs, and Opportunities” and will include the following panelists:

· Maggie Guggenheimer, Director of Piedmont Council of the Arts

· George Sampson, UVa Lecturer in Arts Administration

· Jennifer Tidwell, co-founder of the Performers Exchange Project

· John Gibson, Director of Live Arts

We are proud to announce that Performers Exchange Project was just selected as a major recipient of the 2009 SHEA Collaborative grant funds for our project Our American Ann Sisters.

The SHEA Collaborative promotes innovative collaboration in the Charlottesville area among groups, organizations and individuals active in the areas of Service, Humanities, Education and the Arts and encourages the development of events and programs that engage underserved communities.