2012: So, What's Up Next?

 "Lord, we know what we are but know not what we may be." 

~ Ophelia, Hamlet IV.4

By now, everyone who is reading this is probably sick of reading “Looking Back and Looking Forward” posts, but since this is Up Next's first year as a non-profit, I thought it would be especially nice -- almost necessary, maybe -- to wrap things up with 2011 and introduce what's up for Up Next in 2012. Not only will this give all of you teens, theaters, and other arts supporters an idea of where we are and where we're headed, but it will also serve to hold ourselves accountable for the goals we set this year (because now that you've seen them, we can't pretend we never set them).

But first, you might be wondering -- who are "we", really? There are three of us behind the main Up Next operations (which consist of theater communications, organizing events and outreach, marketing, and more): Alona Bach, Saskia Levy-Sheon, and Kenya Granich. (You can read more about us here.) And if you know us, or know of us, or just read about us, you'll know this: we're all teens. Though we technically have several legal adults in our ranks, we have no adult-adults working with us. And we think this is important, at least for our first year -- because we don't want to be adults telling teens that they should think that theater is cool. We want to be teens telling our friends that we think theater is cool, so hey, chill with us at a show instead of a movie, because you might find it cool too. Yeah. Maybe not in those words. But that same idea.

So here's to the past year that got us up and running, and to the upcoming adventures in the new year -- because we know what we are, but know not what's up next.

Highlights of the past year...
- We became fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, and thus became an official non-profit.
- The wonderful Rob Dario designed our logo.
- Tim Bauer, a local playwright, wrote a lovely post about us on his blog.
- We made a splash at Cal Shakes' The Verona Project, where we numbered more than any other teen group that night -- and the show was awesome.
- We held a panel discussion on teens and theater-going, featuring teens Miguel Gamalinda and Naomi Zingman-Daniels, as well as Melissa Hillman (AD of Impact Theatre), Rachel Fink (Leader of Education programs at Berkeley Rep), and Simon Kaplan (theater teacher and Camp Director at Stagedoor Conservatory).

This coming year...
- In partnership with different theaters around the Bay, we'll be organizing a program called 8Rate, which will offer student rush tickets to card-carrying Up Next members for $8 (less than a movie ticket) -- more on this soon!
- Membership cards will be mailed out. (Want one? Go here!)
- In the works: a May Teen Theater Festival in a park, possibly?
- The fabulous Clio McConnell will switch over from her Teen Advisory Board position to the head of our Teen Reviewer program -- more on this soon.
- We'll sit down to write those press releases that seem so scary and send 'em off!
- We'll make a new website. A website that's more user friendly. And works in all browsers and on mobile devices. Which means that we need to...
- Seek out a web designer that can help us.
- You can now find us on Google+, though we're still primarily communicating through Facebook and Twitter.
- We'll figure out a better working model for the Focus Actor program -- our Teen Advisory Board selected two amazing Focus Actors (Reggie and Elena) for 2011-2012 season, but the program itself fell a bit to the wayside this past year while we focused on the more technical/legal aspects of running a non-profit. So we're going to get back on that horse, and hopefully get it in gear for the rest of this season!
- T-Shirts. Or sweatshirts. Or some other form of Up Next swag. It's coming.
- Perhaps some restructuring of our programs -- Next Night Outs seem to work, but not "Thumbs Up" events...hmmm.
- We hope to strengthen the Teen Advisory Board and make it a bigger part of our decision-making and development processes.
- Most importantly, we want to engage with the Bay Area teen community more, in person and online.

This past year, we focused on US -- how we could implement our own plans, how we could develop our own infrastructure. This coming year, we want to expand our focus more to YOU -- whether "you" means teens, arts administrators, teachers, or arts enthusiasts. We want to learn what fellow teens want in terms of theater-going, and then work on making those things happen. We want to hear your feedback.

Here are some of the questions we're facing as we move into a new year:
- How can we build up a strong infrastructure so that Up Next can function effectively? What should the role of the Teen Advisory Board be?
- What's the best way to structure the ticket-buying process? How can we find the right medium between advance reservations and wiggle-room (in case someone's homework load gets unexpectedly heavy)?
- How can we effectively engage and partner with schools?

And finally, we'd be remiss if we didn't thank lots of individuals and organizations who have helped get us on our feet this past year: Melissa Hillman, Jim Kleinmann, Erin Bregman, Jack Bauer, Valerie Weak, Laureen Mahler, Marilyn Langbehn, Tiffany Cothran, Michelle Dissel, Rob Dario, Simon Kaplan, Molly Aaronson-Gelb, Glenn Carroll, Sara Heitler, Focus Actors Elena Wright and Reggie White, Shotgun Players, Impact Theatre, Just Theater, Crowded Fire Theatre, and so many more -- not to mention adventurous teens. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We're looking forward to continuing to work with all of you in support of teen theater-going for many years to come.

- Alona Bach and the Up Next Team

Get in touch!
⦁ email us at info@upnextteens.org ⦁ comment on blog posts ⦁ tweet us ⦁ facebook us ⦁

A Teen's Perspective: Monday Night PlayGround

Monday Night PlayGround has to be one of my favorite Bay Area theater events. Ever. Luckily for me, it happens almost every month.

Here's how it works: at the beginning of each season, PlayGround selects a group of 36 local playwrights for their Writer's Pool. Each month, from October through March, the writers receive a phrase or word as a prompt (some of my favorites in the past have been topics like “It Gets Better”, Vaudeville, Kingdom of Number, and Origin Story). Then, the writers have less than five days to write an original 10-page play based on the prompt. And THEN, from all of the 10-page scripts submitted, six are chosen to be performed as staged readings (which basically means that, among other things, the actors will hold scripts as they act). On Monday of the performance, actors and directors gather with the playwrights at Berkeley Rep and have a mere 90 minutes to stage, rehearse, and tech their show. Crazy. But that's part of what makes it so exciting. (For a more in-depth description of the process, look here.)

After this whirlwind of a process, what we get to see as an audience is a very mixed bag of plays. You get funny ones, serious ones, deep ones, playful ones, political ones. Sometimes there's one play in particular that blows you away, and sometimes there are a few. And you never know what to expect...

This month's topic was “pipe dream”, in a partnership with the Eugene O'Neill Foundation, and it gave rise to a hugely diverse and thought-provoking group of plays. Here's a very brief overview of the six “pipe dream” plays:

You Eat What You Kill, by Cleavon Smith, was voted the People's Choice favorite of the night and can be read about here.

Siren, by Daniel Heath, was about a painter, his wife, a surfer...and a mermaid.

The Heartbreak Horse, by Lucia Jacobs, was based on the true story of a horse called Clever Hans.

My Time Has Come, by Jonathan Spector, started as a hilariously melodramatic play-within-a-play, but was then disrupted to reveal the true characters of the people on (and off) stage.

Wasting Away, by Mercedes Segesvary, was about the bleak life of three...er...“waste”-shovelers in the sewers.

The Occupants, by Ignacio Zulueta, was a play about (what else?) the Occupy movement.

And, in addition to the six plays based off of the “pipe dream” prompt, we got to see an excerpt from one of the plays that PlayGround commissioned this year – Drive Thru – Open till Midnite or Later, by Mandy Hodge Rizvi.

The Monday Night PlayGrounds are cast from the same actor pool each time, so you get to see a lot of familiar faces playing very different roles – sometimes even in the same night. Last Monday night, for example, actor Patrick Russell played a small-town teenage boy in Drive Thru – Open till Midnite or Later, and later played the horse, Clever Hans, in Lucia Jacob's The Heartbreak Horse. Mick Mize (who played one of the sewage-shovelers in Wasting Away) has also played a wide variety characters in past Monday Night PlayGrounds, not just limited to humans – I still remember his hilarious performance as an old lady's dog in Leah Halper's No More, Too Late, Adieu last November. And both of Up Next's Focus Actors, Elena Wright and Reggie White, are also part of the PlayGround actor pool and appear frequently in the Monday Night PlayGrounds (this past Monday Night, Reggie appeared as Jamie in Cleavon Smith's You Eat What You Kill, and Elena played Cassandra in Ignacio Zulueta's The Occupants).

Though the entire night was enjoyable, and all six plays (and the commission) well written, acted, and directed, the audience's favorite part? “Mick Mize's expression when his nose plug fell in the poo”.

Next Monday Night PlayGround is on Monday, December 19th, with a topic TBA. It costs $10 for students ($15 for general) and will take place at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Pre-show talk begins at 7:10pm; show begins at 8pm. More info at www.playground-sf.org

Like the PlayGround on Facebook and follow them on Twitter to hear more directly about their process and performances!

Focusing In on ELENA WRIGHT

Elena Wright

Introducing the second of our two 2011-2012 Focus Actors -- Elena Wright! Elena is a Bay Area actress and company member of PlayGround. You may have seen her as Thuria in The Verona Project at Cal Shakes or Athena in Salt Plays Parts I & II at Shotgun Players. We asked Elena a few questions about her experiences in the theater, and here's what she told us: 

NAME: birth name - Elana Wright, equity name - Elena Wright, it causes lots of confusion...

HOMETOWN: Wareham, MA

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE: playing Eve in a church play when i was 4. i still remember how much i loved having a part and getting to hold my favorite stuffed cat while onstage.

Elena in Salt Plays Part II: Of the Earth (photo by Pak Han)

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE: being in Oleanna in college. it was a two person show and the other cast member was my teacher. i learned so much by working with someone who was so committed and professional. The subject matter was incredibly intense, and every night the audience would audibly react to the ending. That was one of the first times I realized how powerful theatre could be, and that i could be a part of something that moves people.

BEST TEENAGE MEMORY: Meeting my best friend. Growing up, i had always felt a little out of place and unique, and it wasn't until freshman year of high school that i met someone who taught me that you don't have to be like everyone else, and in fact, being yourself is way more fun. 19 years later, she's still my best friend.

WHAT KIND OF THEATER EXCITES YOU? Good theatre. Of all kinds. Theatre that requires risk and passion, which can mean anything from new works to Shakespeare, contemporary dramas to farce, classic award winners to experimental physical theatre.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT FOR YOU? The season of Playground, where I'm a company member. And looking for the next gig, which is what a professional actor spends the majority of their time doing....

Elena as Una in Blackbird (photo by Pak Han)

CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE PROJECT YOU JUST FINISHED? I just closed Blackbird, which is another two-character play with an intense theme. What was interesting about it for me was realizing how much harder acting can get the more you do it and the more you know about how to do it well. When I did Oleanna, I was a very young and inexperienced actor. I used my intuition most of the time, and "felt" my way through it, but in Blackbird, I used equal amounts of skill and sensing. This actually turned out to be much harder, since sometimes, those two things cancel each other out, and are hard to do at the same time. It proved to me that the more you know, the more you have reason to stay humble.

To learn more about Up Next's Focus Actor program, visit our website: www.upnextteens.org

Focusing In on REGGIE WHITE

Introducing one of our two 2011-2012 Focus Actors -- Reggie White! Reggie is an actor, singer, and dancer around the Bay Area and a company member at Impact Theatre and PlayGround. We asked Reggie a few questions about his experiences in the theater, and here's what he told us:

NAME: Reggie D. White

HOMETOWN: Upland, CA

 

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE: A Christmas pageant at my school in 2nd grade. It was....interesting.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE: "Exit, Pursued By A Bear" at Crowded Fire Theatre Company in 2011. From the script to the production team, to the cast, everything about the whole experience was EXACTLY the reason that I got involved in theatre in the first place. We loved what we did, and the audience loved watching us do it.

BEST TEENAGE MEMORY: High School Graduation. I've always been a nerd, and accomplishing a huge goal like that, even though it was never really in doubt, was just a huge moment of pride. I knew that once I finished high school, even though I didn't know much about the world, or life, or myself, for that matter I somehow had a feeling  that I could make it as a grown-up in the world. 

WHAT KIND OF THEATER EXCITES YOU?: I love new works. It's so great to see plays that no one's seen/heard before. There's something very special about seeing something brand new. It's like getting a new toy for your birthday. 

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW? In addition to the scattered readings, here and there, I'm playing Rooster in a production of Annie at Berkeley Playhouse. I'm really excited about being the bad guy. They have all the fun sometimes :)

Andrea Snow, Reggie D. White, Erin Gilley, and Patrick Jones in
Exit, Pursued By A Bear (Photo by Dave Nowakowski)

To learn more about Up Next's Focus Actor program, visit our website: www.upnextteens.org