Home for the Holidays

The cast and crew of Antigone (plus a few friends of the theater) assembled to help Alumna Charlotte '12 on a international scavenger hunt. The challenge was to have at least 15 people play a game of Twister at the same time - and every contestant had to wear a different color. How did they do? Check out the previous post!

Buildings have a life of their own. When we were building the Copeland Donahue, we knew what it would look like, what facilities it would have and how big it would be. But we had no idea how it would feel. During construction, it was impossible to know the effect it would have on those working, engaging and performing in the space.

I remember my first walk-through in July of 2008. The impact of the lofty ceiling, the dramatic wood doors and the views of oak and pine trees were both evocative and inspiring. Suddenly there was so much possibility - the building promised so much more than we could have possibly conceptualized as we were designing it.


It influenced and enriched my classroom teaching in ways I never imagined. It created an alternative performance space that allowed us to try unusual and unorthodox pieces. And most importantly, it gave Webb's actors and theater technicians a place to call their own.

Charlotte '12 and John '11 chill out before rehearsal.

One of my greatest Webb moments was the 2012 WSC graduation. I was in my seat, waiting for the ceremony to begin, when I looked over the Alamo lawn to see theater Alums (from as far back as 2008) chatting with the recently recently and not-yet graduated theater kids, who were introducing them to the new batch of actors and stage crew. It was a joyous sight, for at that moment I realized that the theater department wasn't just an "afternoon activity" or a clique. We had become a family. A family with traditions, a history and a home. 

One of the greatest things about having a home is the homecomings.

Charlotte '12 returns to visit Mallory '13 and Jack '13 on the opening night of Antigone

Tyler '11 meets Marcus '16 on a recent visit

Sabrina '09 shares stage manager tips with Alicia '14

It's fun to see familiar faces return to the Copeland Donahue throughout the year, but it's extra-special during the holiday season. 

Diana '12 and Dakota '11 return from the East Coast to catch up with Vicky '14 and Jack '13. 

3 Generations of Lady Techies: Sabrina '09 (in red) was our first student stage manager and was instrumental in developing our current technical theater program. Her legacy carries on in the capable hands of Storm '14 (shop foreperson), Brooklyn '15 (sound and lighting) and Michelle '15 (stage manager). Back in 2008, Sabrina built that lamppost for our production of Les Miserables. 

The Old Guard: Jack, Diana, Dakota,Vicky enjoy a reunion while newbies Marcus '16, Brooklyn '15, Amelia '16, Rena '15, Keely '16 and Karina '15 hang around and get to know them.

We took a few of our Alums (along with the cast and crew of The 39 Steps) to have one last look at Mudd. Having spent so many hours there during their time at Webb, they wanted to take a piece of it with them.  Foreman Kenny obliged us by removing the letters from the building. (Photo by Scott Nichols)

Tim '13, Ella '12 and Mallory '13 prepare to grab a few memories (Photo by Scott Nichols)

Letter Perfect: Mallory ('13)  and Ella ('12) hold onto a bit of Webb theater history (Photo by Scott Nichols)

Sabrina claims the "M"
(Photo by Scott Nichols)

I got the "U" - because that's what I managed to pry off the wall
(Photo by Scott Nichols)

Varsity Letters (finally!): Cast and crew - past and present - hold their bit of history.  
          Marcus, Ella, Tinnie '13, Storm, Vicky, Mallory, Tim, Sabrina, Landen '13, Jack, Rena and Brooklyn.

As the song says, there's no place like home for the holidays. We wrapped up the year by holding our annual "Secret Santa" exchange - a tradition started by stage manager Ellie Rudolph '11.

Tech Director Alex and his pal Robbie top our tree as only theater dudes can - with a lighting wrench!

2012 has been fantastic - but now the (much needed) break is here! So...from our home to yours, we wish you a joyous, festive (and yes, FABULOUS) holiday season. See you in 2013!

Strike the Harp and Join the Chorus

The Candlelight concerts are one of the most beautiful holiday celebrations at Webb. Under the glow of the Chapel's candle chandelier, our singers and instrumentalists gather to perform and share their music with the community. Led by instrumental music teachers Linda Silva and Kyle Champion, this year's program included the Bach Double Violin Concerto, an Elizabethan Suite for woodwinds and the first movement of Beethoven's 1st symphony.  Under the baton of Dr. Nina Gilbert, the girls of the Chamber Singers performed "This Little Babe" by Britten, and the boys sang Biebl's "Ave Maria." The entire group of singers and instrumentalists then joined forces to perform Mozart's "Ave verum corpus." The ensembles performed during both the WSC and VWS chapel, with an extended program for friends and family on Sunday afternoon. After the Sunday show, our generous team of parents provided a celebratory buffet for the performers and audience members. 

Director of Instrumental Music Linda Silva conducts the orchestra.

The Chamber Singers fill the chapel with a glorious sound.

Nina Gilbert  acknowledges the applause for our talented musicians

The boys and girls of the Choir and the Chamber Singers perform a piece by Mozart

The vibrant woodwind section gives the program a festive feel. 

The musicians are now resting up after their very busy week and are looking forward to a well-earned break (peppered with a little bit of practice, too - fingers crossed!) When they return in January, they'll start to learn music for the next concert.  Happy holidays, everybody - may the season be filled with music, joy and cheer!

All photos by Scott Nichols.

Remember November?

November 2nd - Opening Night: Instead of resting before the show, the entire cast and crew of Antigone decide to play a massive game of Twister. Slightly crazy, yes, but for a good cause. More about this in the next post. Meanwhile...

Antigone has come and gone, but we haven't been resting on our laurels. The Arts Department has been up to all kinds of good stuff this month!

Mrs Silva, Ms. Hamlyn and Mrs. Sprague took a group downtown to the Ahmanson to see Jeff Goldblum in Seminar - a fantastic new play fresh from Broadway!

After attending Seminar, we walked to First Street to have a post-show discussion and feast at Pitfire Pizza.

Visiting artist Michelle Tellier, who plays the recorder with the world-class baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants, came to speak with the orchestral students about her life as a professional musician. She played a few pieces and then worked with some lucky instrumentalists. 

Prince Wang and Lauren Carpio warm up before their session with Mme. Tellier

Mr. Standlea's class grilled some sliders, took photographs, and are now in the process of sculpting replicas of them. Actually, it's a miracle that any of the actual sliders survived long enough to get photographed - they were delicious.

Looking good enough to eat!

Wood-n't you like to know what this is for?

Antigone closed on a Sunday night, and by Monday afternoon we had already started building the set for the next show, The 39 Steps. Fun Fact: Theme week is the only time during the academic year that the Copeland Donahue Theater is "dark" - meaning we don't have any rehearsals in the afternoon or performances at night. (Classes, of course, continue during the day as usual.) So with just one clear week, we had to work fast! The week Antigone opened, Alex and I finalized the design, measured the space and ordered the lumber. Our awesome carpenter, Ray Skinner, cut the pieces during performance week so he was ready to start building on Monday.

Ray builds a 2-story structure for The 39 Steps, which will also be used for the upcoming musical, Little Shop of Horrors. He got the entire set completed in 5 days - incredible! The tech crew can't wait to start painting it.

After theme week we held auditions for The 39 Steps. If you're not familiar with the play, please have a look at some of the videos! http://www.39stepsny.com/media.html A massive hit in both London and on Broadway, it's a funny, fast-paced show that requires a lot of physical and vocal dexterity. The actors must be able to switch accents as quickly and seamlessly as they change costumes, so we did an accent workshop via Skype with dialect coach Adam Michael Rose.

The cast assembles for their first accent workshop: Landen (clown) Mallory (Annabella/Margaret/Mrs. Jordan) Marcus (clown) Vicky (Pamela) and Tinnie (clown) say hello to Adam. The clowns will be playing 4-10 characters each (that's a lot of accents!) Jack Gilliat, who plays Richard Hannay, sadly wasn't able to attend this rehearsal. Considering he's an Englishman who will be playing an Englishman, we figured it was ok for him to miss it. 

The Rain in Spain: Landen, Mallory, Marcus, Vicky and Tinnie will speaking in a variety of accents during the show, including three different English accents (received pronunciation, Posh and Cockney) Scottish, German and  French.

The Cast work on dropping their jaws in order to sound plummy and posh. 

Los Angeles-based dialect and accent coach Adam Michael Rose is currently working in NYC, so he offered to work with our actors via Skype. Yay technology!

In the following clip Mallory, Marcus, Vicky and Tinnie get to work on their Scottish accents. Why is the word "pudding" so funny?

But perhaps the most exciting development was this:

So long and good riddance. The unforgiving wooden seats of Mudd are carted away.

The campus is alive with the sound of jackhammers! Great piles of stuff are being tipped into dumpsters and taken away from what was Mudd auditorium. Alex and I had the opportunity to go into the building the other day, and I'm happy to report that it's gutted! Onwards and upwards with the Susan A. Nelson Performing Arts Center.

December is always a very busy time at Webb, especially for our musicians. The orchestra and choirs are busy preparing for the Candlelight Chapel concerts in just a few weeks. More on that festive tradition in the next post!

Putting It Together

I'm often asked how a show is put together - I'm assuming that's what people mean when they ask,"what do you guys do in there all afternoon?"As we rush towards the opening of Antigone on November 2nd, I thought this would be a good opportunity to show you how we make it all happen.

Before rehearsals begin, I work closely with the text: establishing facts, asking and answering questions that arise and familiarizing myself with when and where the action takes place and researching the performance history. Once the background work is done, I design the set and decide upon the "look" of the show, which incorporates everything from sets to costumes to lighting. At this point I have a series of meetings with our technical director Alex Valdez to discuss production requirements.

After casting the show, we usually begin with a silent group exercise. This gives the actors the opportunity to work with each other through creativity and play. It also is a good way for me to see how they function as a group. In this case, an actor had to put a chair into the center of the space and walk away. The next person added their chair to the scene. Once that was done, they had to incorporate themselves into the sculpture in a way that would enhance the overall image and provide a narrative. This was the result:

Day One and the cast is working nicely together. Appropriately, Mallory (Antigone) is at the helm

Every rehearsal begins with a series of warm up exercises, lead by veteran members of the company. We do a physical and vocal warm up, then concentrate on skills and characterization. The exercises we do are chosen to support and inform the scenes we'll be working on later in the rehearsal.

Jack leads the physical warm up  

Mallory leads the company in a series of character explorations

Meanwhile, outside on the patio...
Keely and Alessandra get to work on the only set piece in Antigone: a very, very long table. Due to it's abstract and minimilist nature, Greek tragedy is notoriously difficult to perform. With "no tables and no telephones" (as a famous British actor once sniffed) the performer has to rely solely on the body and the voice to convey meaning. There is (literally) very little else to lean on.

Due to the Mudd renovation, our scene shop is unavailable. So the tech team make do and build a table on the patio.

Rehearsals begin with the bare-bones of the production, just the script, a concept and an outline of the set. As we work through the scenes we roughly block the show. Blocking (how and when the actors move around the set) is an essential part of telling the story. It can inform the audience how a character is feeling, what they're doing and thinking, and what their relationship is with others. It is vital that the blocking makes sense; so in rehearsal we spend a fair amount of time working on it. It's a process, so it will often change as we discover new things about the characters and the play. In the photo below, you can see Stage Manager Alicia "on book." It's her responsibility to read along throughout each scene. If an actor forgets a line, they can say "line" and Alicia will read it out to them. She also writes down the blocking for future reference.

Antigone (Mallory) addresses members of the Chorus (Amelia, Jaclyn and Tim) while Vicky (Ismene) waits for her cue.  Due to the extreme heat, Storm and Keely had to move the table indoors during varnishing day.

Ismene  bravely faces interrogation and avoids the tech crew (left) while chorus member Alexis looks justifiably concerned as Creon (Jack) questions Antigone. 

Once the show is blocked, Tech Director Alex Valdez starts to work on the light plot. The plot shows what kinds of lights and colors are required in order to achieve the look we're after, and where they should be hung. He also must determine what dimmers they are plugged into so that he can coordinate them on the light board.

Meanwhile, during freeblocks and weekends, I scour Goodwill, thrift shops, sales racks and the internet for costumes. The color, texture and style of the clothing says an extraordinary amount about a character in a very subtle way, so it's important to get it right!

Royalty mingles with the common folk and the otherworldly. Can you tell which is which?

Between lights, sound, props, costumes, sound effects, lighting effects, tech crew, actors, production requirements and starting work on the next show, Alex and I make a lot of lists!

Since the Tech crew can't hang lights or work on the set during rehearsal, they usually have a "work day" on the weekend to get the big stuff done: hanging and focusing lights, dropping gels (gels are colored plastic sheets that change the color of the lights) The colors are mixed - a warm tone in one lamp combined with a cool tone in another - to create a natural effect. Once the lights are hung, the patch the light board. I understand there is also a fair amount of dancing and pizza eating, too.

In the Heights: Alessandra and Keely get ready to hang some lights!

After weeks of rehearsal, building and costume fitting - it's time for a tech and dress rehearsal. This is the first opportunity the actors have to put on their make-up and costumes and work with all their props. It's also the first time we have the opportunity to incorporate sound and lighting effects.

Without Mudd we are without dressing rooms and make up lights. So we've improvised and set up mirrors on the table under the show lights. The performers will be putting on their make up before we open the house for the audience, then going to our makeshift dressing room in the Digital Media Lab. Photo by Nina Gilbert.

Stage manager Alicia (also playing Eurydice) makes sure the Chorus sets their props before showtime.

I'm happy to report that the dress rehearsal went off without a hitch! We are primed and ready for opening night. Thanks to Webb photographer Scott Nichols and yearbook photographers Joyce Xu and Max Popov, we can give you a sneak preview of some of the scenes:

Antigone shares a secret with Ismene

Creon gives his son Haemon some unsolicited advice

Chorus leader Anni-Ming and chorus member Vincent consider the tasks before them. 

Our rented seating risers arrive two days before we open. Jack and Landen (who isn't even in the show this season) gave up their lunch and a free block to help Alex assemble them. 

Who says theater isn't physical? These suckers are heavy!

Ready for an audience: Landen, Jack and Alex get the risers up it time for our final dress rehearsal.

Fun with Random Objects: Landen decides to get a head start on his audition for "The 39 Steps"

Less than 24 hours until opening - and there's still so much to do! Finish the program, send out a million emails about audience logistics, work on costume repairs,  and finish this blog.  It's been a wonderful show to put together for both cast and crew, and we look forward to welcoming you to the Copeland Donahue this weekend for an evening of exceptional entertainment. For those of you who can't make it - please join us for the live stream on Saturday night, November 3rd at www.webb.org See you at the show! 

Stefanie Hamlyn

Many thanks to Nina Gilbert, Max Popov,  Joyce Xu and Scott Nichols for the excellent photographs. All rubbishy photos were taken by me, on my iphone.