Production photos from "My Way"

"My Way: a Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra" opened at The Tower Theatre in Bend on Friday, and the audiences are falling in love all over again with the music that helped make Ol' Blue Eyes a star. Here are just a few photos from our outstanding production!







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My Way choreographer Barry McNabb will be teaching a one-day beginning Fosse Style Jazz Workshop on Sunday, June 14th from 6 to 8 pm.

This is a rare opportunity to learn from a master Fosse dancer and choreographer while he is here in Central Oregon -- so don't miss out! Visit our website at www.innovationtw.org for more information!



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The Craft of Acting

Driving Miss Daisy photo (c) 2008 by Tina M. Harris


"I go back to the (Actor's) Studio every chance I get. You never stop learning and you never stop needing to learn. And you can't learn in front of a camera. To grow, you need the stage." Robert De Niro on Inside the Actor's Studio

I don’t know Robert De Niro, but I do know a lot of actors like him. Excellent professional actors who have never stopped needing or desiring the opportunity to practice and study their craft. Perhaps, more than anything else, this is why these actors have built successful careers.

I have been lucky to have had several great experiences working with many of the terrific community actors here in Central Oregon and have nothing but respect and admiration for what they do. And they do what they do more for true love of theatre than for anything else. The community theatre is the backbone of theatre in America. It builds the audiences, keeps alive the great canon of theatrical literature and contributes to the training of theatre professionals to be. Chris and I believe ITW has an opportunity to add real value to the community theatre scene by providing access not only to our experience, but to the experience of other professionals in town and those that we bring in to work on our productions.

When I talk or work with the actors here in town, I am left with the impression that they all want to become better, more focused actors. Indeed, I am blessed to have developed a core of people who have been mainstays in the workshops I have offered. But that group is small and has not grown much since the very first workshop 2 years ago. And I wonder about that. I believe that you can never stop growing as a theatre artist, but I’m not sure others feel the same. ITW recently offered 4 workshops led by some very excellent professionals with much to give both in talent and experience, but we were forced to cancel them all for lack of enrollment. There are also other classes being offered by Film Oregon Alliance, COCC and elsewhere, but our understanding is that these others are most often populated by people who have not been prominent players in the community theatre world.

So we’d like to ask you -- what prevents you from taking a class? Please help us out by taking a moment to fill out the adjoining survey. Innovation Theatre Works is here to serve this community and we can best do that by applying our own expertise where it will do the most good.

Brad

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TheatreFace

Check out the latest issue of Stage Directions Magazine!

We were recently referred to a networking site called TheatreFace, specifically for theatre lovers and practitioners all over the country (Thanks Ellen!). We think this is a great way to stay connected to what is going on theatrically not only in our community and region, but across the nation as well. See what people are doing, what great new plays are out there and what revivals are enjoying new productions. Also see what issues actors and artists are dealing with whether in community or professional theatre. And, as a great extra perk, there is a link to Stage Directions Magazine that allows you to read this great theatre journal on line, apparently for free.

This is an invitation only group, so if you are interested in joining the site, send an e-mail to brad@innovationtw.org and I will invite you to join.


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Does the US Need a Secretary of the Arts?

Artist's rendering of the set for ITW's production of "Driving Miss Daisy" (c) 2008 by Set Designer Gary Lee Reed

A hot topic in the arts world at the moment seems to be Quincy Jones' plea to President Obama to create a new Cabinet-level position for a Secretary of the Arts. During a November interview on WNYC's "Soundcheck," Jones told interviewer John Schaefer that he was planning to urge our new president to create a position in his new Cabinet for a person to oversee the arts in this country. Here are links to just a few of the MANY articles one can find on the internet regarding this topic. (For more, you can simply type "Quincy Jones Petition" or "Secretary of the Arts" into your favorite search engine):

Rolling Stones "Rock & Roll Daily" Blog

Washington Post Article

NPR's Morning Edition Feature "Does the US Need a Culture Czar?"





Set of ITW's "Driving Miss Daisy" - photo (c) 2008 by Tina M. Harris


People have been weighing in on the subject in chat rooms, on various blogs, and on websites for newspapers and radio stations across the nation. We figure the arts must be important to you, too -- otherwise, why would you be interested in the theatre? -- so we have decided to ask you for your opinion.

What do you think? Should the U.S. have a Secretary of the Arts? Please feel free to post your comments below -- and be sure to take our online poll (featured up at the top of the page). We look forward to having you join in on the debate!

************************************

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Arts and the Economy

Waiting for the Show (c) 2008 by Tina M. Harris


We were fortunate to be able to attend an Economic Forecast event at the Tower Theatre this week. The presentation was excellent, the speakers thoughtful and knowledgeable and the information valuable…and depressing. Apparently we’re in for a rough ride, rougher than any of us might have expected and certainly of a longer duration than any of us hoped.

But one of the messages specific to Central Oregon was that of the many things we have an overabundance of, art and culture was near the top of the list. And we heard that repeated twice. Really!? An overabundance of art and culture!? In Central Oregon!?

Needless to say, we don’t agree. We believe that there has NEVER been an overabundance of art and culture anywhere in our nation. Traditionally these critical components of life are marginalized, under-funded and undervalued. Just look at any cash-strapped school system budget and see where the red lines fall.


And that is the point. Art has never been valued to the extent that it becomes untouchable in a bad economy. This time will be no different, therefore we must face the fact that we artists are in trouble. The signs are unmistakable. We’ve lost the Cascade Festival of Music, we nearly lost CTC, the Mirror Pond Gallery is forced to repurpose itself or close down. Just as we are all on restaurant death watch , so should we be with our cultural institutions. We must not let it happen.
Now, more than ever, we must steel ourselves against the dying of our light. Art and culture is the true expression of our hopes and dreams, the honest reflection of our better selves. To lose our art will be to lose ourselves and surrender to the dark.

We wanted to share with you the following article by Penelope Burk. And urge you to do all you can to keep the lights on.


********************


Can the Arts Survive the Economic Crisis?
January 12th, 2009 by Penelope Burk

I’ve read many articles lately on arts funding during this severe economic downturn. Some are awfully pessimistic; others offer hope. But none have come straight at the issue that is at the heart of all fundraising success, and which is especially important for the survival of the arts in this crisis economy.

It’s case. Even in the best of times, arts organizations have a difficult time articulating a competitive case. The arts are passionate, personal, and intensely human, but the pitch for selling the arts is too often clinical and businesslike, measured as the role of arts organizations in furthering other local businesses like restaurants, dress shops, taxis and hairdressers. I don’t want to get bogged down on the issue of whether anyone actually gets their hair done before going to the theatre these days (or buys a dress, for that matter.) But, don’t the arts merit more than an evaluation of their worth based on the surrounding local enterprises they prop up? Can’t the arts exist for their own sake?

... READ THE REST OF PENELOPE BURK'S ARTICLE here

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Arthur Miller's All My Sons opens at CTC

All My Sons at Cascade Theatrical Company
January 30th through February 15th

Be sure to visit Cascade Theatrical Company to see this classic piece of American theatre. Considered by many to be Arthur Miller's finest play, All My Sons was originally directed by Elia Kazan for the Broadway stage in 1947 when it won the Tony Award for Best Authored Play, as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

We are offering this additional information to help your enjoyment of the show. As always, we welcome your questions and comments.






















Arthur Miller. Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

About All My Sons

When the young playwright Arthur Miller began writing All My Sons, he was embarking on a project that would be either the beginning or the end of his career. His first and only play to be produced on Broadway, The Man Who Had All the Luck, was an unmitigated failure, lasting only four performances. A practical man who had lived through the depression, Miller decided to give himself one more chance. If he did not have success with his next play, then he would quit the business and find "another line of work."


In the meantime, Tennessee Williams had met great success with The Glass Menagerie in 1945, a very personal and psychological play with poetic overtones. Miller's plays, on the other hand, are public works, with straightforward (though not unpoetic) language, and which address issues of the individual's public persona and how people act. But he learned from Williams's success and set out to write a more commercial play, a drama that would "land" with audiences, in the language of the Broadway business. He also chose to write a play in a realistic style, a problem play in the manner of Henrik Ibsen, evoking a style he had not used in many years. The work of Ibsen influenced All My Sons structurally as well, for Ibsen had liberally applied the principle of Greek theater that stresses the influence of the past on the present.

When the play was finished after five years of work, Miller asked his agent to send it to the director Elia Kazan. A former member of the Communist Party, Kazan had directed Williams's The Glass Menagerie, and he would later direct the genre-redefining A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of a Salesman (and would win Academy Awards for Gentleman's Agreement and On the Waterfront). Kazan's career was tarnished in memory, however, and his relationship with Miller was permanently severed when he chose to name names for the House Un-American Activities Commission during the Red Scare. But at the time, as a successful director with a talent for eliciting monumental performances from his actors, and as someone who shared Miller's leftist politics, Kazan was the perfect choice for All My Sons. The cast included such rising stars as Ed Begley (as Keller, later of Inherit the Wind), Arthur Kennedy (as Chris, later creator of the roles of Biff Loman and John Proctor), and Karl Malden (as George, later of Streetcar, Tea and Sympathy, and On The Waterfront).

Luckily for Miller and for the American stage, All My Sons was a success. Opening at the Coronet Theatre on January 29, 1947, the first night's notices were mixed--with the crucial exception of the New York Times, whose Brooks Atkinson admired Miller as a genuine new talent. As usual, the Times review swayed all the others, and All My Sons ran for 328 performances (quite respectable at that time) and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle award for best play of 1947, beating out Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (which at the time had been coolly received and would only become a landmark of American drama in retrospect).

Miller's success gave him financial stability, confidence, and the confirmation of Miller's identity as a playwright. This success was necessary for him to take a risk with his next work, Death of a Salesman.

Related Links on All My Sons

The Arthur Miller Society - The Arthur Miller Society "is an incorporated, non-profit society whose primary aim is to promote the study of Arthur Miller and his work. Additional objectives include the promotion of productions of Miller's plays and the fostering of continued interest in Miller's work."

Brooks Atkinson's review - The original New York Times review of the 1947 production of All My Sons. (Free access with online signup.) "an honest, forceful drama ... a pitiless analysis of character."

Miller on the House Un-American Activities Committee, Kazan, and Monroe - An article Miller wrote for the Guardian in 2000 concerning the McCarthy era, the House Un-American Activities Committee, Elia Kazan, and Marilyn Monroe.

Reprinted Courtesy Gradesaver.com
Weinbloom, Elizabeth. "All My Sons Study Guide | Short Summary | GradeSaver." www.gradesaver.com. 23 January 2009. GradeSaver. 23 January 2009 .

For more Arthur Miller related material ...


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Innovation Announces Workshop Schedule

Innovation Theatre Works announces full slate of new acting workshops for the community.

"Theatre artists have the amazing job and privilege of being the people chosen by the larger tribe to tell the story of humanity – it’s our job to spend our lives studying what it means to be human." -- Bonnie Monte

Artistic Directors Brad Hills and Chris Rennolds announce a full slate of workshops as the next phase in their ongoing development of a consistent educational program for theatre artists and other members of the community. The workshops, covering a wide range of theatrical techniques for actors, will be held at the First Baptist Church in downtown Bend at the corner of Oregon and Irving streets commencing Tuesday, February 17th, Friday, February 20th and Saturday, February 21st.

For more information or TO REGISTER:
Call (541) 977-5677 or e-mail brad@innovationtw.org

Click below to see the full schedule of workshops.

CREATING CHARACTERS & SCENES THROUGH IMPROVISATION with Brad Hills
Friday evenings 6-8 PM over 6 weeks
at the First Baptist Church in downtown Bend.
Cost $120 - Begins Friday, February 20th
Class size limited to 12

This workshop will explore techniques for creating characters utilizing improvisation. Before improvisation was used as a pure performance vehicle, it existed as a prescribed set of exercises meant to address acting situations and problems.  Utilizing these methods we will add valuable components to the actors' bag of tools.

* * * *
GETTING THE JOB – Audition Basics with Chris Rennolds
Tuesday evenings 6-8 PM over 5 weeks
at the First Baptist Church in downtown Bend.
Cost $120 - Begins Tuesday, February 17th
Class size limited to 12

Auditions are the key to an acting career. First, you have to get the job. This class will focus on audition strategies and on the most common audition situations actors will face, including prepared monologues, cold readings, office auditions, commercials and auditions on tape. Determining an actor’s type and most marketable qualities will also be discussed.

* * * *
CHARACTER AND SCENE STUDY WORKSHOP FOR THE YOUNG ACTOR -- with Sandy Silver

Tuesday evenings 6-8 PM over 6 weeks
at the First Baptist Church in downtown Bend.
Cost $120 - Begins Tuesday, February 17th
Class size limited to 12 (Ages 15 – 23 only)

An in depth workshop for acting student's ages 15-23. Develop the skills needed to get into the mind of the character in order to present an honest and true characterization. Emphasis on knowing what you want and finding out how to get it. Each student will be working on a scene to be presented and evaluated at the conclusion of the workshop.

* * * *
ACTING 101 -- with Derek Sitter

Saturday mornings 10-12 AM over 8 weeks
at the First Baptist Church in downtown Bend.
Cost $150 - Begins Saturday, February 21st
Class size limited to 12

Using many methods students will learn the essence of the craft surrounding the art of acting. Through vocal, physical, intellectual, and observational exercises students will gain self-awareness and confidence. Improvisation, Scene Analysis, Character Development, Theatre Terminology, and Performance are all part of this stimulating course. "Being real in imaginary circumstances" is the basis of Derek's class. Students will be assigned scenes and learn how to break it down and develop a strong history of their character. This eight week intensive workshop will be the most rewarding Saturday mornings you will ever spend. In addition, you will have loads of fun.


* * * *
For more information or TO REGISTER:
Call (541) 977-5677 or e-mail brad@innovationtw.org

Recommended Reading ...


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Next Play Reading: Gingerbread Children by Michael Slade

Left Behind (c) 2008 by Tina M. Harris

The next play in our "New Innovations" series will be Gingerbread Children by veteran playwright, Michael Slade. Two of Slade's plays, And a Child Shall Lead and Garden Politics were recently produced here in Central Oregon, and we are excited to have this opportunity to present another example of this fine writer's work.

Gingerbread Children is a dark and disturbing play that weaves together four seemingly unrelated stories to explore multi-generational child abuse, and the ways in which society, through religion and folk tale tacitly condones it. As Sarah, an ancient woman, prays incessantly to various saints, we enter her mind to meet and follow a minister, his wife and daughter (the old woman’s younger self); two young brothers seeking a safe haven from their alcoholic father; Hansel and Gretel; and Lot and his daughters.

In the coming months we plan to suggest things -- reading materials, music, artwork, etcetera -- which we hope will deepen your appreciation and enjoyment of the works we present. Below you will find our first such list. As always, we welcome your questions, comments and suggestions!

Further Explorations ...

• The story of Hansel and Gretel can be found here.
  
• The story of Lot and his Daughters can be found in the Book of Genesis.
  
• Article: "Children's Books: Child Abuse and Happy Endings" by Jack Zipes The New York Times, 22 January 2009.

Innovation Theatre Works is a new not-for-profit theatre organization seeking to establish a world-class professional theatre in Central Oregon. It is a joint creation of theatre veterans Brad Hills and Chris Rennolds. Through a series of random events, happy accidents and a shared vision, they found each other and Central Oregon and are bringing their collective talent and experience to bear in the founding of ITW. Together they represent over 60 years of theatrical production experience in venues across the country.

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Something Good is Happening!

Welcome to the new Innovation Theatre Works Blog! Our plans for this blog are still evolving, but it is our hope that it will be a space for you, our audience, to connect with us -- and each other -- on a regular basis. We plan to post photos from our productions, classes and events; occasional articles of interest to theatre lovers; video clips from our New Innovations Play Reading Series; and much more. In conjunction with our website www.innovationtw.org, we hope that this blog will keep you up-to-date on what we are doing and where we hope to be heading in the days and months to come.

Welcome!
Brad Hills and Chris Rennolds


Photos from the Opening Night of Driving Miss Daisy









All photos (c) 2008 by Tina M. Harris

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