All of the Broadway Teacher's Workshops were held at Jazz at Lincoln Center, found in Columbus Circle.
Connect and Share: I had the opportunity to connect with Drama teachers/directors from all over the world. We had a wonderful session of sharing shows that worked well within middle schools/high schools, and what brand new musicals were being released through Music Theatre International
First Workshop:
Creating Choreography: Telling Story through Movement-
Taught by Michele Lynch who worked on several Tony award winning musicals including: Hairspray and Urinetown, this workshop was a blast. All of the participants were split into groups and using a modern Pop song by Adele as a challenge, we were to come up with group choreography based off of adjectives and responsible for making the movements look great for everyone. By the end, we had a full dance number after we combined forces with the other groups.
Lunch:
Freddy and Pepper's Pizza
I was open minded in trying some genuine New York pizza, but yes it's true, Chicago still reigns for having the best pizza.
Workshop 2:
Puppetry with Tony Award nominee John Tartaglia
I am a huge fan of the musical Avenue Q which won multiple Tony's a few years ago. (People compare Avenue Q to Sesame Street for Adults). John, to me, is such a talent with puppetry and humor that I just simply had to sit as close as possible for this workshop. We worked with a product called Puppet Peepers to learn how to make puppets talk, breath, and sing. John also gave us a run down on his past and how he began working on Sesame Street at the age of 16!
This is a puppet peeper. Simply place on a finger and talk away!
John and I!
Rod and I- Rod is a puppet from Avenue Q which John let us pose with for pictures.
Click on the video below to watch some of John's presentation!
Workshop 3:
Viewpoints Directing Technique-
Taught by Dan Safer who studied with Viewpoints creator, Mary Overlie, this workshop was a great introduction to the Viewpoints technique of taking directing back to basics of time, space, motiviation, etc. One of the exercises was to move in slow motion for ten minutes, get ready Advanced Theatre, you too will be trying this out!
Show:
Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark
This was the show that had everyone talking from the accidents, to the concept, to the dismissal of Julie Taymor as director, etc. I had no idea what to expect, but I will admit that I have read the original Spider-Man comic and can safely say that this show was geared towards U2 fans and younger Spider-man fans. There were sections that were beautiful and you could see had Julie Taymor's touch, such as the myth of the spider from Greek Mythology and the Aerial acrobatics; which were nail biting but relieving once you saw the actor safely land.
Otherwise, I would take a pass on this one. There doesn't seem to be a solid plot line, and unfortunately I was present on a night where their Chrysler building set piece came crashing into the stage right before the actors were to take their bows. Then as the curtain dropped to cover up the set piece, the curtain then got caught on the set piece so the actors had to awkwardly come to the front. Cursed some may say? Maybe, but otherwise, I give this one ** stars.
Of course, I was able to capture the set flaw during our talk back..
Food: Ditch Plains
Did Ms. Macholl conquer two hot dogs covered in white cheddar mac and cheese and sloppy joe? Almost. These are amazing and should not be missed!
