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#RollerDisco

So a group of friends met me at Skate World in Linda Vista.  The event? Roller Disco (or #RollerDisco as we call it in the age of Twit).  The reason?  To have fun.

And have fun we (for the most part) did.  There were some bruised knees, my bottom hurt for a few days and one lucky unfortunate twisted a knee exiting the hard wood rink floor.  Good news? The carpet landing was at least a little softer.

See the photos here... and you can watch the video below.  Maybe the next time you are invited to an event called Roller Disco, you'll go...

The Making of Golden Hill Farmer's Market

If you lived Kevin Six's film Golden Hill Farmer's Market, you're going to love The Making of Golden Hill Farmer's Market even more.

 

Golden Hill Farmer's Market

Doushey Basket productions

presents

a film by Kevin Six

This time the Trees (the r and the e are silent) go to the Golden Hill Farmer's Market and meet all kinds of wonderful people.  But of course they are superior to all of them.  This is because they drive a Smart Car, film with a GoPro iHero and carry their free-trade produce in a sustainable (doushey) basket.

  

“No Child…” is worth the drive

Theatre Review By Kevin Six

 

(from left) Marc Amial Caro, John Rogers, Robert Malave, Lynae DePriest, Dempsey Davis, Bianca Ostojich, and Rebekah Ensley in InnerMission and Mesa College Theatre's production of "No Child...". Photo: Paul Savage

When you produce a play about teaching artists trying to make sense of arts and education, set in a school, and performed at a community college – with student actors yet – you’re asking a lot of an audience.  This much was asked of me tonight and, after my disclaimer that I am married to a member of the cast, I must say Mesa College and InnerMission Productions’ “No Child…” It’s worth the drive to Kearney Mesa. 

 

The play itself is short – less than an hour – but every second of it brings something new, touching and uplifting.  The story is real and often acted solo by the author, by Nilaja Sun.  Some day, I’d like to see her do this because the rapid-fire exchange of dialogue is an amazing feat and this cast of 16 was working overtime as it was. 

The play is narrated by Janitor Barron, in an extremely human and wizened portrayal by Rhys Green.  Barron paints the picture of a school and a class full of kids who have already been left behind when the national No Child Left Behind brings its show to Brooklyn.  Ms. Sun has been hired, through a department of education grant, to teach the worst of the worst kids a play.  Lynae DePriest pretty much lives the pain, and pathos of this poor artist with an impossible task, and manages to instill hope.  Another stand out in the cast is Justine Hince as the overwhelmed and finally consumed Ms. Tam.  Watching her go from hopeful to disenchanted, to giving up is worth the price of admission.

It is at this point that a reviewer would explain that this production was an educational collaboration with actual students playing the actual students and professionals playing the adults in a way to soften the blow that the kids were blown away by the pros.  But not so.  These kids are possessed of so much energy, talent and emotion (and so much control over them all) that it is hard to understand that they are just beginning their careers as actors.  The ensemble as a whole is even, competent and surefooted.

Standouts among the kids are Brandon Kelly as the angry young Jerome, Bianca Ostojich whose Shondrika can kill with a look, and Rebekah Ensley whose Cocoa puts hope into a much-too-common end to her high school studies.

The production team is also a combination of students and professionals and by-and-large they pull it off with nary a hitch.  Directors Carla Nell and Kym Pappas have managed to create a strong, powerful cast that is surprisingly even, even as the emotions trickle, flow and sometimes gush. The only thing wanting is more sound design.  There was too little musical accompaniment to follow up an excellent opening.

So what, you will think, wiping away tears, as the lights fade on an excellently-wrought “No Child…”  After all, as Janitor Barron says, “sometimes the most talented ones just slip through the cracks.”  All in all Mesa and InnerMission created an excellent production with an excellent use of student and professional actors, staff and technicians – and an excellent way to spend an evening.  Just give yourself time to find the college, the parking lot and the theatre – watch this video for information on where to park.

InnerMission Productions and Mesa College present “No Child” by Nilaja Sun at Mesa College’s A Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. through May 20.  Tickets range from $10-15 and are available at InnerMissionProductions.org or Mesa College’s Apolliad Theater, 7250 Mesa College Dr., San Diego, CA, 92111.  Building C-100 on this map.

Giving my nonprofit arts education organization up for adoption

In 1999, I became the executive director of an arts education organization called San Diego Dance Institute. The organization began as the education outreach of a defunct dance presenting prganization.  I took the organization, re-branded it (as City Moves!), developed the board and raised a ton of money.  This was before No Child Left Behind, Energy Deregulation and the Tech Bubble burst.

After five years in the business, I was ready to quit.  A lot had happened, a lot of good had been done but the winds of change were coming and it was time to pilot the ship into a safe harbor and run for the hills.

This was just before whatever you want to call the economy we're in hit.  It was during No Child Left Behind and I was bringing after school dance programs to the kids who needed it most.  The problem with No Child Left Behind was that it meant that no child was left untested.  In the early 2000s there was money to burn.

Individuals, corporations, foundations and government agencies had more than they knew what to do with.  The California Arts Council had so much money that, during the year I sat on the funding panel, it gave every grant recipient exactly what it had asked for.  Before that time, arts organizations would be happy to receive a third of their government request.  And there were a lot of art programs for children.

The first funding problem I encountered was Energy Deregulation. California thought competition was good for the market and SDG&E thought that brown-outs, killing competition and raising rates was better.  High electricity rates killed business and the taxes that fund government grants. The California Arts Council went from funding 100% of requests to, well, they pretty much didn't exist when I got out of the arts education business in 2004.

So there went government money.  After that, the tech bubble burst and markets, which relied on over-inflated tech stocks started to weaken.  So there went foundation support (foundations are stock speculators who give away their capital gains and there wasn't much of that.  

The writing was on the wall and I was looking for a career change.  But I couldn't let the kids down.  In grant requests, I had told some true, touching stories about kids who found their power through after school dance programs; teachers who started to respect kids who had heretofore been troublemakers; kids who chose to be better citizens so as to be able to participate in their classes instead of doing detention, at least on Tuesdays.

So I put it out there that City Moves! was courting.  I needed a good family to adopt my organization.  I told my board of directors that I wanted a divorce, my management team that it wasn't their fault and put a group together to meet people and organizations.  I had trained a few remarkable (and more resilient) arts administrators so I went to them first.

After several first dates and a few seconds we met the organization that would marry the needs of my nonprofit with theirs.  Young Audiences.  The organization was intelligently and caringly run; it supported artists in school residencies and assemblies; and was looking to expand into the after school market.  After a great first date, we got our board members together.

It was really like meeting the parents.  Two board members from each organization met with the executive directors.  We hit it off. City Moves! went back to being an outreach program.  Young Audiences took my assistant on as the program director, our board joind their board, City Moves! dissolved, my name is mud in nonprofit arts fundraising circles but the kids still had something to look forward to after school on tuesdays.

My second career as a trapeze catcher and circus school administrator didn't work out (but the midlife crisis went off like gangbusters!). I became an actor and hooked up with InnerMission Productions.  They are producing No Child... a play about arts education in schools during No Child Left Behind and they're partnering eith Young Audiences to get the word out.  And I'm doing marketing.  Full circle.

See No Child...

"No Child..." Information

from Dramaturge Tiffany Tang

No Child… Playwright: Nilaja Sun

Biographical
Lower East Side, NYC native
Born 1975 (ish) - 37 this year
African/Puerto Rican American, raised by Italian stepfather
Catholic school educated ("I didn't know I was black until I went to college.")
BA in Theatre from Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster PA
Theatre training at La MaMa Performing Arts Program, NYC
First solo NY performance La Nubia Latina (1996)
Idolizes Robin Williams
Has a dog
Lost her grandmother in 2004, whose name was "Villodas," a name synonymous with "teacher" in her grandmother's hometown of Guayama, Puerto Rico
In 2006: "I think it's really important to find some part of you that has faith.  I'm at a real high point right now, and I've been in really low points. It's so important to believe in something to stay centered, balanced and sane."

On becoming a teaching artist
Teaching Artist since 1998 - something she was "drawn to" -- "I wanted to serve humanity in some way."  Felt that "something was missing" in her odd jobs waiting tables and clowning at parties.
Started as a Teaching Artist with the National Shakespeare Theatre at suggestion of friends doing one-hour performances of Romeo and Juliet in NYC public schools, then worked with Epic Theatre Ensemble and others.

"I saw how things were around the schools.  It was shocking, the attitude and the discipline problems.  It made me want to wait tables again." One of her colleagues notes that her primary teaching tactic is to "mirror students back to themselves" even when the portrayal is unflattering. Doesn't want to stop teaching, even with success of No Child...

"I want to be [in the classroom] every Tuesday.  I want to remember the kids.  I want to remember their spirit and their energy.  I want to be reminding myself what it is to be a Teaching Artist while I'm showing the world what a Teaching Artist is.  Also, I always associate acting with being honest.  If you walk into a classroom, you have got to be honest.  You can't lie to yourself."

"The people who don't have access to theatre need it the most."  ie, schools, students
Teaching Artist as shaman:  "The kids go on a journey, and the TA helps them follow it through."  6-week conduit between students and teacher.

On No Child…
Seventh solo performance creation, although originally written for multiple actors
Semi-autobiographical
One-hour format, Sun attributes to the fact that she was "raised on television" and values brevity in storytelling
Doesn't recall writing the play - "it emerged"
Director Hal Brooks helped her to clarify characters through physical (finger snapping, hands on hips, crotch grabbing, hyperactive shirt tugging) and verbal (wheezing, lisping, sucking teeth) cues and tics.
"Wanted to have fun - to tell a story that desperately needs telling, but to make the battle cry in a jocular, optimistic voice."
"I wanted to create a funny piece to really show the sense of humor of our kids, but I wanted to also make it very truthful."

Students:  Notes that groups of teenagers are feared, and not seen as individuals.  Hopes that her show will help them to be seen as unique people, as characters from the play.
Teachers:  Wants show to be a point of recognition for teachers as well, for their work.  "You're a teacher and you feel like no one is listening to you or understands what you are going through...A breather for teachers to feel good about the work they are doing."
Janitor:  "The [janitor, crossing guard, lunch ladies] can tell you the history of the school.  They never give up.  When the janitor passes away, his soul is still in the building.  So this is a love letter to those who have never quit on our kids."
"A magnifying glass is pointed towards the teachers and the administrators all of the time, and not at the community.  They need to understand how having schools that fail affects all of us."

Details of original production
Commissioned by Epic Theatre Ensemble in 2006.  Sun was one of the original members of Epic, which had its first "business day" on 9/11 and has an extensive educational outreach program in NYC
Melissa Friedman, Artistic Director: "I think the show empowers voices, which is part of Epic's mission statement."

Another interesting quote from MF:  "I believe a healthy democracy encourages multiple points of view, encourages debate.  Nilaja has all of these constituencies communicating on the central issue of education...Democracy is about voices, and I don't think it was an accident that democracy and drama were born in the same moment in western culture."  (Note from TT:  not sure if the "drama" reference is to something specific?  Not clarified in that article but I thought it was a great soundbite anyway.)
Ran April 29 – June 18, 2006: World Premiere at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street

Winner of 2007 Drama Desk Award, 2007 Outer Critics Circle Award, 2007 Lucille Lortel Award, 2007 Theatre World Award, 2007 OBIE Award for original production.

"No Child… is an insightful and hilarious look into the New York City Public Education system by acclaimed actor and teaching artist, Nilaja Sun. Ms. Sun transforms into the teachers, students, parents, administrators, janitors, and security guards who inhabit our schools every day and are shaping the future of America. Commissioned in association with the New York State Council on the Arts and presented with additional support from John J. Sharkey"
Sets: Narelle Sissons; Costumes: Jessica Gaffney; Lights: Mark Barton; Sound: Ron Russell; Production Stage Manager: Tom Taylor; Production Manager: Jee S. Han; Publicity: O&M Co.

Honors
For her creation and performance of No Child... and its subsequent national tour, Nilaja Sun garnered 17 awards including: an Obie Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards including the John Gassner playwriting award for Outstanding New American Play, a Theatre World Award, the Helen Hayes Award, and an LA Ovation Award and was named the Best One-Person Show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival,  2008 Joseph Jefferson Award for Solo Performance at the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois.

Princess Grace Award Recipient 2005 (playwrighting) - enabled her to "live life as an artist" sans day jobs.  At a United Federation of Teachers Conference in 2007, president Randi Weingarten said, "Nilaja Sun is doing more for our cause than anyone has in years."

All you ever wanted to know about InnerMission's "No Child..."

InnerMission Productions, in collaboration with the Mesa College Drama Department, is proud to present the San Diego Premiere of No Child… by Nilaja Sun May 12-20, 2012.  No Child... can be seen at the Apolliad Theater at San Diego Mesa College 7250 Mesa College Dr., San Diego, CA, 92111

“What you are about to see is a story about a play within a play within a play”

Nilaja Sun spent six weeks teaching/directing a play during No Child Left Behind.   The play she directed was Our Country’s Good, which is about a group of Australian royal marines and convicts putting on a production of The Recruiting Officer. But that's not what No Child... is about, really.

Sun takes this six-week experience and tells a very compelling story about what it’s like being an outsider in a system that is troubled; with kids who are troubled and a project that never had a chance.  She gets it all pretty much right.  It is a bold and insightful piece of theatre that doesn’t preach, doesn’t name names.  It just shows one powerful experience.

And it leaves no one behind.

The playwright performs No Child… as a one-woman show and licenses it out for theatrical productions.  Mesa College acting students work alongside professional actors for this San Diego premiere.

Performance Dates/Times:

8:00 p.m. Saturday, May 12; 2:00 p.m. Sunday, May 13; 8:00 p.m. Thursday, May 17; 8:00 p.m. Friday, May 18; 2:00 p.m. Saturday, May 19; 8:00 p.m. Saturday, May 19; 2:00 p.m. Sunday, May 20, 2012

Cast:

Janitor Baron- Rhys Green; Ms. Sun- Lynae DePriest; Ms. Tam- Justine Hince; Coca- Rebekah Ensley; Jerome- Brandon Kelly; Brian- Robert Malave; Shondrika- Bianca Ostojich; Xiomara- Dempsey Davis; Jose- Carlos Angel-Barajas; Chris- John Rogers; Mrs. Kennedy- Delia Knight; Security Guard- Kent Gandola; Phillip- Marc Amial Caro; Mrs. Projensky- JennieOlson-Six; Mr. Johnson- Patrick Mayuyu; Doña Guzman- Olivia Ruiz Marrujo

About the Collaboration:

Each spring the Mesa College Theatre Department invites a local production company to take up residency in the Apolliad Theatre.  This affords students the opportunity to work along-side experienced artists while learning their craft, and gain professional credit as well.  It also provides a temporary venue for a “homeless” theatre company including access to scenic shop, costume shop, rehearsal spaces, and other production facilities.  This year we are proud to announce a partnership with respected InnerMission Productions headed up by Carla Nell, and Kym Pappas.  This marks the third time Mesa College Theatre has collaborated with outside groups.  Previous ventures involved the San Diego Asian American Theatre, and Common Ground Theatre.

About InnerMission Productions:

InnerMission Productions is Carla Nell and Kym Pappas. InnerMission Productions strives to provide artists and audiences with a safe place for exploration and transformation. We are on a mission to produce theatre in San Diego that inspires our community.

 Production Company:

Directors: Carla Nell, Kym Pappas

Playwright: Nilaja Sun

Mesa College Administrators: Kris Clark & George Ye

Stage Manager: Ashleigh Bodie

Scenic Design: Kasey Snowder

Lighting Design: Mark Butterfuss

Costume Design:  Jessie Monteiro

Sound Design: Kym Pappas & Carla Nell

Props Master: Wendy Savage

Dramaturg: Tiffany Tang

Marketing and Publicity: Kevin Six, Joe Fejeran, Lisa Davis

Mesa College Dramatic Arts Mission:

It is the mission of the Dramatic Arts Program to provide a comprehensive lower division curriculum that provides training, mentoring, and experience in all aspects of the Dramatic Arts. Students prepare for success either in the transfer process or in seeking employment within the industry, an industry that is prevalent in the San Diego and Southern California areas. The program embraces diversity in all of our course work and co-curricular activities. We also provide a strong connection to the community through outreach and production activities.

Mesa College offers an intensive four semester Associate Arts Degree in theatre studies.  Students take classes in acting, movement, voice, scenic design, lighting design, costume construction, make-up, production marketing, and production management.  In addition to course work all students are assigned main stage roles, appointed designer and department heads. What makes this program extremely unique is the immediate hands-on training you receive.  The company emphasizes theatre production as a collaborative art

form where mutual respect for all disciplines enhances process and production standards.

“No Child, the one woman show written and performed by Nilaja Sun, is a tour-de-force exploration of the New York City public school system, in which Sun fearlessly transforms with rapid-fire precision into the teachers, students, parents, janitors, security guards, and administrators who inhabit these schools.”

-Hannah Bronfman, The Huffington Post

How to get to the Apolliad Theatre at Mesa College to see No Child...

Have you ever wondered how to get to the Apolliad Theatre at Mesa College? There's a great play,No Child... there in May and I want to see it. So I went there.

See directions and a map here, or follow me...

 

and you thought you had a bad Monday at work...

 

No Child... San Diego Premiere

Here is a play that I'm working on with InnerMission Productions.  I'm quite proud of this theatre group, their new residence at San Diego Mesa College and the cast they put together for No Child...