| Miss Bipolar
Ensemble Acting and Writing Workshops
Sponsored by Our Own Voice Theatre Troupe
Combining their experiences as actor, writer, director and workshop leader, Claire Rutkauskas and Valentine Leonard will co-lead workshops that integrate acting games and creative writing exercises to allow an ensemble of non-professional actors/writers to generate the script for Our Own Voice's new original play.
Miss Bipolar will be a performance piece that centers around a pageant in which the contestants have all been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It will show at Theatreworks on June 5-7 and 12-14, 2009.
Workshop Dates:
Saturdays, 3-5:30 p.m. on 1/24, 1/31, 2/28, 3/28 & 4/4.
Contact info/questions: valentineleonard@mac.com (901-239-9919) OR rutkauskas.claire@gmail.com (704-497-6935).
No prior acting or writing experience is required—only the desire and commitment to participate in this production, either as an actor, or a writer, or both.
For those of you who are familiar with OOV, there will be the usual rehearsal-production schedule starting after the auditions, on April 18 and 19, so you can still be part of the project if you do not participate in these workshops!
Peace! | comments: Leave a comment   |
| Our Own Voice Theatre Troupe's Oct. 17th season opener at TheatreWorks is Bill Baker’s musical, "Everyone," a musical allegory about the meaning of life’s journey. Performances are at 8 p.m. on Oct. 17-19 and Oct. 24-25, plus a matinee performance at 3 p.m. on Oct. 26.
An update on the classic 15thcentury morality play, "Everyman," "Everyone" is the story of a musician (Everyone) on his way from Memphis to New Orleans to see an old friend and mentor who is dying. Along the way, he gains insight into what makes life really worth living.
"Everyone" will feature familiar songs as well as original music by "Everyone"'s musical director, Jarad Bingham, former front man of the indie rock band La Paloma and current pastor of Shady Grove Presbyterian Church.
"Everyone" will also feature performances by singer/songwriter Michael Joyner in the title role, with guest appearances by Pam Pinkall, Scout Anglin, Davy Ray Bennett of the New Davy Ray Trio, Katherine Dohan of Scandaliz Vandalistz, Joe Murphy of the Flying Monkey Man Band and Marvin Stockwell of punk institution Pezz.
For Baker, "Everyone" completes a kind of trilogy, which includes 1993’s "Miracle Play" and 1998’s "Mystery Play." Baker said he is drawn to the theatre of the Middle Ages because it was truly a community theatre that was "a vital expression of the values and mores of society."
"What we want is a theatre that is rooted in the ancient traditions of the art form while being specifically relevant to the audience it finds, here and now, in Memphis , in 2008," Baker said.
General admission is $10 and $8 for students and seniors. The Sunday matinee is a special pay-what-you-can show. For more reservations call 274-1000. Visit www.ourownvoice.org for more information.
Created in 1991, the Our Own Voice Theatre Troupe is a non-profit organization working to empower people marginalized by mental illness, and striving to engage our community in dialogue about mental health. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Ensemble Playmaking Workshop
Instructors: John Rutkauskas, Pam Pinkall, Claire Rutkauskas
Class Description: Come play with us as we use a variety of techniques to build a new play called Seeing Eyes which will premiere in June 2007.
Background: Seeing Eyes will be a fictionalized dramatic presentation based on John and Pam¹s actual experiences. Pam was blind since birth and only recently received vision for the first time through corneal transplants. Pam did not know what seeing was or how it would feel. Vision proved to be a nightmare part of the time and a joy part of the time. Together they developed a program of color recognition test and vision field trips to help Pam understand and use her vision.
Purpose: Promote awareness of what it means and how it feels to be blind or partially sighted. Record experiences of the participants for developing the Seeing Eyes script. Utilizing simulation exercises and play to explore:
How a blind person gets information without eyesight
How blind people move independently
How a person can use the other senses to see without eyesight
How a person who has never experienced color learns to recognize it
Sunday, November 19, at Shady Grove Presbyterian Church, 5530 Shady Grove Rd., from 4-6pm.
FREE to all participants! Please bring something that can be used as a blindfold. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| The Our Own Voice Theatre Troupe will open its Sixteenth season this year with "Who is Kelly Green?", Oct. 27 through Nov. 5 at Theatreworks.
This original production presents the culture of contemporary high school from a high school student’s perspective. The play is being written and directed by Morgan Stewart and Eileen Townsend, both Juniors at White Station High School, and features a number of their contemporaries joining the troupe to create for our audience a critical look at the high school experience as they know it.
Our Own Voice has from its founding been dedicated to examining our social institutions by empowering people to use the theatre to articulate their experiences of them. Giving students a voice to express their experience of our educational system is certainly in keeping with the troupe’s mission. Morgan Stewart and Eileen Townsend have both been active with the company for a number of years and were both featured in last year’s updating of a Greek tragedy, Ann Tigony. With "Who is Kelly Green?", they evaluate the separate cultures that develop in schools where students are divided between “optional” and “traditional” curriculums, and how the segregation of these two cultures affects students experience of themselves and others. In keeping with Our Own Voice traditions, the audience will be immersed in a high school environment from the moment they enter the theatre, and hopefully will emerge with new insight into what it feels like to be a student in our public school system.
"Who is Kelly Green?" will be presented Friday,Saturday and Sundayevenings, Oct. 27-29, Nov. 3 and 4 at 8:00pm, and Sunday afternoon, Nov. 5 at 3:00 pm, at Theatreworks, 2085 Monroe. Admission will be $10.00 general admission and $8:00 for students and senior citizens. The Sunday matinee is a special "Pay-what-you- can" show. For reservations or more information, contact Our Own Voice at 274-1000. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Auditions will be held for Who Is Kelly Green? , a new play by Eileen Townsend and Morgan Stewart, on Saturday, September 2, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m., and Sunday, September 3, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m., at TheatreWorks, 2085 Monroe, Memphis, TN. Call (901) 274-1000 for more information.
No previous theatrical experience is required. Come play with us! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
ourownvoice