CSC's Marketing and Outreach Director visits NextGen!

Monday October 21st marked the third meeting for this season's NextGen students. At this weeks meeting students met with MEGHAN BALCOM, the Marketing and Outreach Director at CSC. 

This week's meeting gave the students the chance to get a taste for a career in theatre that may take place off the stage, but certainly involves a strong artistic ability. Meghan talked with the students about being able to create a visual brand that captures the essence of CSC and it's vision, while also being able to keep the brand consistent. 

The students were extremely interested in this area of theatre that many had not considered before, and had a lot of questions about marketing, outreach, and were especially interested in how a theatre company reaches out to young people, like themselves. This sparked an interesting discussion where the NextGen students began to brainstorm different ways they believed marketing could be effective to their age group. They brought up different social media outlets and marketing tactics that they thought would entice them or their friends to see a show at CSC. 

The meeting ended with the students discussing their marketing ideas for the NextGen program, and different ways that they thought CSC could get even more high school students all over NYC to be interested in the program. 

COMING SOON!
Meghan will report back to NextGen and show them how their ideas influenced her design for the NextGen marketing campaign!

ROMEO & JULIET workshop with NextGen!

Anthony Michael Martinez (Prince) sits down with NextGen students

Monday (October 7th) was the SECOND meeting of NextGen at CSC this season. This week the NextGen students were given the opportunity to participate in a workshop for ROMEO & JULIET, (the current show here at CSC) taught by Anthony Michael Martinez, who plays the Prince in R&J, and Dave Klasko, a teaching artist for CSC.

After being introduced to Anthony and Dave, the students were guided in exercises that would help them both physically and mentally prepare to take on the famous tragedy. Shortly after there was a brief discussion about what they already knew about the play, and then they were ready to jump in. 

Anthony and Dave quickly assigned the students each a role in ROMEO & JULIET, with the instruction that when your character was onstage, you would act as them while Anthony read a brief ten minute plot synopsis of the play. The students got really into the extreme emotions of the play, and into their fast-paced retelling of R&J, complete with quick and dramatic scene changes and sound effects.

After their performance the students talked about what they had learned from acting the play out, and from looking at the play from the perspective of their character. This opened up a bigger discussion on acting and more specifically on acting Shakespeare. Dave said that he compares acting Shakespeare to being a part of the "storytelling olympics" and Anthony said that even as a professional Shakespeare actor there is still so much research and work to be done before taking on a new role. The students talked about their difficulty with Shakespeare's text, but seemed to agree that while it is complicated, the emotions are so strong that it helps break down the meaning of the play. In regards to performance, Carla summed it up nicely when she said “I used to think that acting was about becoming a different person, but after playing Desdemona I realized that acting isn't about becoming a different person, its knowing that we all share the same experiences.”

That, and the realization that the NextGen students are the same age as Romeo and Juliet, ends our second meeting.

NextGen's KICK OFF and FIRST MEETING!

The second year of CSC's NextGen program started on August 27th-28th with a screening of Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" in honor of the current production of R+J opening at Classic Stage next week. While the NextGen students had mixed reviews about the movie, they had great reviews about their first event as the NextGen Class of 2014. They had a chance to bring their families and friends and get excited about their first meeting on September 23rd!

The meeting gave the students a chance to meet with CSC Staff members and learn more about the different departments and programs that CSC has to offer. They also learned about CSC's mission statement, and were given a brief intro to the inner-workings of a non-profit Off-Broadway theater such as CSC.

The NextGen students were then given the opportunity to play a few acting games,explore center stage and receive the official CSC backstage tour.

At the end of the meeting students had a chance to answer a few questions, here's a taste of what they had to say...

"What are you hoping to gain from your experience at NextGen?"

“To see how theatre comes together.”-Dyandra

“Understanding what really goes into preparing for a show.”-Shivani

“Solidifying my plans for a theatrical career.”-Melissa

“Find out more about backstage stuff.”-Victor

“Gain experience and meet new people.”-Asia

“An experience that is different from what I am used to.”-Angkur

“Learn more about theatre and what goes on behind the scenes.”-Caitlin

“Share this love of theatre with others.”-Dennis 

“Gain more theatrical experience, become a better actress and improve as I explore more within the CSC program.”-Loylia

What was your most memorable theatrical experience?

“Seeing a picture of Al Pacino (my hero) in Julius Caesar.”- Kathia

“Winning the first ShakeSmack competition with my friends.”-Dennis

“Learning from the young company last year.”-Angkur

“Meeting my acting role model after seeing them perform live. We spent 30 minutes discussing acting and theatre and he helped me break my boundaries.”-Melissa  

“Playing a man in Moliere’s ‘Tartuffe.’ (I played Tartuffe.)”- Asia

“After watching ‘Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike’ and meeting Sigourney Weaver backstage.”-Victor

“I loved seeing ‘Macbeth’ at CSC, the harlem shake was awesome! Can’t wait for a fun learning experience as a NextGen member.”

“Seeing ‘Macbeth’ at CSC. It was amazing!”- Dyandra 

“In the second grade I had one line in the play ‘Annie.’ Back then I was so shy, however that moment inspired me.”- Caitlin