Middle and high school students are invited to explore the disability experience—in their own life, the lives of others, or by creating a fictional character—through the art of scriptwriting. Young writers with and without disabilities are encouraged to submit a one-act script for stage or screen. Entries may be the work of an individual student or a collaboration by a group of up to five students.

Application Deadline: June 1, 2013

The Westside Experiment is a teen acting laboratory that pairs students with IRT’s resident artists to learn about their craft and create an original piece of theater together. This year’s artists include Improbable Stage Company and Zack Fine.

DETAILS:
For Grades 6-12
Session 1: July 8-21, 2013 (Mon-Fri)
Session 2: July 22-Aug.4, 2013 (Mon-Fri)
Time: 9am-3pm
Performances: Sun. July 21, 2013 and Sun. Aug. 4, 2013
Tuition: $600 per session (payable in cash or check)
Tuition assistance available for qualified applicants.

Check should be sent to: IRT Theater 154
Christopher st. 3B NY, NY 10014
Credit Card price: $621.99
Contact IRT: 212-206-6875
we@irttheater.org

Lead instructor
Kourtney Rutherford is a member of Big Dance Theater, and enjoyed performing in a recent critically acclaimed production of Sibyl Kempson’s Ich, Kurbisgeist, in addition to rave reviews in their Bessie Award winning production of Comme Toujours Here I Stand, which has appeared in throughout France and in New York at The Kitchen, CUNY, The New Museum, and New York Live Arts in May of 2012. Kourtney also works with the groups Witness Relocation, Radiohole, and Half Straddle. As a theater educator, she has taught at Playwright Horizons Theater School, Edward R. Murrow High School, and served as a teaching artist at University Settlement. Kourtney currently teaches English and theater arts at The High School for Arts, Imagination, and Inquiry, which is in partnership with Lincoln Center Institute.

Teaching Artists
SESSION 1
Stacy A. Donovan: An artist and teacher, Stacy has spent her career collaborating with artists of all generations, in many different areas of the country, professional and non-professional, & it is this collaboration that inspired the Improbable Stage Company, of which she is the founder and artistic director. In 2012, Stacy and her company were selected to plan and implement the theatre curriculum for a new public high school in Union Square, The Harvest School. Improbable Stage’s original works BOX (2010) and Listen . . .(2011) were developed in residency at IRT Theater. Stacy holds a BA in Theatre and an MA in English with a concentration in Dramatic Literature and Shakespeare, both from Columbia University.

SESSION 2
Zachary Fine: Has taught at the Public Theater’s Shakespeare Lab Jr., The Acting Company, Guthrie Theater, The 52nd Street Project and many festivals and theaters around the country. He was apprenticed for two years with Master Teacher Christopher Bayes, studying Clown and Commedia, and has substitute taught at Yale School of Drama and the Julliard School. He also taught Clown workshops around the country for The Acting Company and for the graduate Acting programs at The University of Tennessee and the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. His solo clown show, Walled In, ran for a month long residency at IRT Theater in the fall of 2011.

MIND THE GAP is an intergenerational (Elders 70+ and teenagers 14-18) playwriting workshop that focuses on bringing a young person and an elder together, to inspire each other, to write a play based on another’s life story. No theatre experience necessary.

When: Tuesdays and Thursdays 4-6pm, July 9- Aug. 8
Where: New York Theatre Workshop, 83 E. 4th St. NYC

How to apply: online application

Questions? mindthegap@nytw.org, ask for Katie Palmer

I entered the John Golden Theatre knowing Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike was funny but full of Chekov references. [Uh oh…] I hoped the play wouldn’t require me to know Chekov in order to follow the story. As I took my seat, I noticed the set was an old fashioned looking house and some trees; [Boring!] the play must take place somewhere in the past. Right when I was getting kind of turned off by the whole play, the lights dimmed and the opening scene… waylaid my worries.

Middle aged siblings, Vanya and Sonia (David Hyde Pierce and Kristine Nielsen), share a home in the middle of nowhere, Bucks County, PA, with nothing to distract them from the drabness of their lives. [Bam!] In comes Masha, their sister (Sigourney Weaver), an energetic and attractive movie star with her hot, but brainless, young boyfriend Spike (Billy Magnussen), threatening to sell the house she’s been making payments on for her siblings.

There were some show-stealers. Vanya’s (Pierce) powerful and charming monologue about changing times was impossible to keep a straight face during. After speaking about the small pleasures of the past, from the Ed Sullivan Show to mailing letters, Pierce sticks his fist in the air and bellows, “I licked postage stamps!” to thunderous applause. When Sonia (Nielsen), usually a dumpy and depressed woman, swaggers on stage clad in a stunning blue sequined dress for a Halloween party, finally upstaging her larger-than-life sister who is in a Snow White outfit, her description of her costume (done in Maggie Smith’s accent) had me rolling in my seat. [And...] Spike’s willingness to take off his clothes and reveal his remarkable abs, I did not mind at all.

- Gemma L.

The Royal Shakespeare Company and Google Creative Labs have teamed up to translate Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a one-off digital theatre project (called Midsummer Night’s Dreaming) that will be performed in real-time online (follow on Google+ for updates) June 21-23.

PXP likes. Much. We will be following their progress, and you should too.

Other places to check listings where there are usually cheap finds [like CultureBot...] ]]> http://pxp.tdf.org/index.php/2013/04/24/always-affordable/feed/ 0 http://pxp.tdf.org/index.php/2013/04/24/ushering/ http://pxp.tdf.org/index.php/2013/04/24/ushering/#comments Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:26:51 +0000 admin http://pxp.tdf.org/?p=4599 http://pxp.tdf.org/index.php/2013/04/24/ushering/feed/ 0 http://pxp.tdf.org/index.php/2013/04/24/rush-tickets/ http://pxp.tdf.org/index.php/2013/04/24/rush-tickets/#comments Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:24:32 +0000 admin http://pxp.tdf.org/?p=4597 If you’re looking for a last-minute deal and you’re willing to gamble, rush tickets are a great option.