We are busy getting ready for Season 33. Each year we receive applications from high school students interested in joining our TheatreWings High School Apprentice Program. This free education program is a pre-professional look at all aspects of live theatre. The selection process begins after a week long summer training. I wrote to several WINGS alumni to ask them what they learned in the WINGS program. Below are some responses.

“All of the staff at Charleston Stage demand professionalism of their actors and also of the WINGS kids and this is also something that I am grateful to have learned there.  Colleges and future employers want to see they are going to hire a confident and professional person, and when the staff is treating you like an adult they are truly preparing you for future jobs.  I believe above all else that Charleston Stage is a family and you are the babies.  All of the staff love and appreciate what you are doing for the company and want to encourage you and see you succeed.”  Bessie Edwards

“Wings gave me confidence in my shy self.  I talk now.  A lot.  I don’t have to know everything in order to do a job well;  I’m not afraid of asking for help and working in a team, because it ultimately makes me stronger.”  Caroline O’Connor

“I don’t think of the ‘theatre skills’ when I think of the ways that participating in the WINGS program helped me in my life.  What I remember is the responsibilities that were placed on our shoulders, and the trust that we would get the job done.  I feel like we did so many things, and worked so hard, without any question that we couldn’t.”  Ben Neuhaus

“WINGS was not just an after school program it became a second home for me.  Thanks to WINGS I am now one of the top undergraduate stage managers at Brandeis.  Next year I will be the only undergraduate stage managing a production for the Brandeis Theatre Company.”  Alex Corsaro

During a week long Wings summer camp, students create oversized vegetables for Charleston Stage's production of BUNNICULA (Oct. 15-16, 2010).

Also during the Wings summer camp, students learn sound design and editing for Charleston Stage's production of ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S THE 39 STEPS (Oct. 29 - Nov. 7, 2010).

To learn more about our TheatreWings Program, click here.

Yesterday, I received an Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award from the South Carolina Arts Commission.  This award was for my work as an individual artist but in the theatre, there really is no such thing.  Theatre is a collaborative art.  While I’m honored that my work as a director, scenic designer, and playwright are being recognized, I know that none of my work would ever have seen the light of day without the contributions of hundreds of theatre artists who have made up Charleston Stage’s staffs and production teams over the years.

I was honored to know Elizabeth O’Neill Verner in the twilight of her life.  Mrs. Verner, like many Charleston artists of her generation, was in the final years of her long and distinguished career.  In addition to Mrs. Verner, Charleston’s luminaries at the time included Milby Burton of the Charleston Museum, artists William Halsey and Corrie McCallum, Lucien de Groote of the Charleston Symphony, as well as my mentor, the multi-talented Emmett Robinson of the Footlight Players.  These creative artists and their brilliance lit up Charleston’s cultural scene for a generation.   Mrs. Verner’s daughter, Betty Hamilton, was also a mentor of mine.  I was one the many struggling literary and visual artists whom Mrs. Hamilton championed.  Her Tradd Street Press published my one and only children’s book, The Tradd Street Follies, in 1978, the same year I founded Charleston Stage. I owe an enormous debt to that great generation of Charleston artists who preceded me, many whom were members of the famed 1930’s Charleston Renaissance.  There is no doubt that my work is built upon the artistic foundations they laid.

Legendary folksinger Pete Seeger once said that “there is an eternity and we are it.”  We are the living bridge that links one artistic generation to the next.  As I accepted my Verner award yesterday, I was reminded of those Charleston artists who paved the way for me, many of whom personally championed my dream of what would become Charleston Stage.  While I am proud of the great productions and many original plays and musicals we’ve produced at Charleston Stage in the Historic Dock Street Theatre and elsewhere over the past 32 years, I am most proud of the fact that Charleston Stage continues to provide opportunities for the next generation of Charleston’s actors, singers, dancers, and scenic artists to try their artistic wings.  Only with the never-ending support of my remarkable colleagues and generous contributions from the Charleston community, would this be possible.  While yesterday I was one of the ones who got to stand in the spotlight, I know the recognition I received was only made possible by the many who all too often are backstage, hidden in the shadows.

I am reminded of a scene from one of my first plays, The Boy Who Stole the Stars, first produced at Piccolo Spoleto in 1981.  It too spoke of the passing of the torch from one generation to the next.  In the final scene, a little boy, mourning the loss of his grandfather, muses:

I think I see my grandfather in me sometimes:

in the way I stand or hold my head or in something I’ve said.

And sometimes I think I see everyone I’ve ever known;

everything that ever was—

walking in my shadow.

I know that the shadow I’ve cast, in my artistic life here in Charleston, has been illuminated by the light of those who’ve supported my work and the work of Charleston Stage all these years.  To them I say “take a bow, this award is for you too”.

2010 Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Award Recipients from left to right: Pat Conroy (Lifetime Achievement), Larry Barnfield (Arts in Education), Julian Wiles (Individual Artist), Jonathan Green (Lifetime Achievement), Robert E. Howard (Individual), and the City of Rock Hill (Government).

Charleston Stage staff were present to see Julian receive his Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Award.

by Director’s Marybeth Clark and Justin Tyler Lewis

      Readers and audiences around the world know Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends – Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, and all the others – from a huge variety of sources.  Originally published in 1926, A.A. Milne’s stories have been interpreted and reinterpreted in so many ways and for so many generations that keeping all of the versions straight is sometimes difficult.  The common thread through the various adaptations, however, is the idea of friendship and the tie that is shared between friends.  What brings the Hundred Acre Wood to life is Christopher Robin’s relationship with his toys and their connection to each other.  This theme of the unbreakable bond of friendship drives our production of Winnie-the-Pooh.

      The challenge with any classic, familiar tale is how to breathe new life into characters that every audience member has seen in multiple forms.  Can you imagine imitating Winnie’s laugh or Owl’s sonorous voice?  And, in fact, those standards may not serve our production, our cast, our theatre, or our audience.  To address this challenge, we have looked at the Hundred Acre Wood and its inhabitants through the eyes of a child.  Pooh Bear’s world is the world that Christopher Robin has created for him; and it’s the world that we have all created at some point in our own imaginations.

      Creating this world has been a tremendous challenge and an enlivening learning experience.  For everyone from the all-student cast to the assistant director to the stage management staff and even the veteran director, putting the elements of the Hundred Acre Wood and those memorable characters on the stage has been a wonderful way to say goodbye to our 32nd season here at Charleston Stage.

From left to right: Sarah Moser as Piglet, Rachel Hunsinger as Owl, Tom Hill as Winnie-the-Pooh, Timothy Shaw as Rabbit, and Jeb Hines as Eeyore.

Featured front from left to right: Tom Hill as Winnie-the-Pooh and Ben McCoy as Christopher Robin.

Q:  What is it like to watch your child grow and mature within the side lines of Charleston Stage?

A:  I’m Tom Hill’s mother Maribeth (the other Marybeth).  Tom has been acting with Charleston Stage since he was 5 years old and every year and every performance is nothing like the last.  Miss Marybeth (as he calls her) is just incredible.  If she says it, its the law. To watch him mature and have the self confidence is so rewarding.  He is so excited to be Winnie-the-Pooh.  He is the perfect person to have captured that carefree…no bother…always thinking attitude.  The picture of him says a thousand words.  Even as a young toddler he was a pooh fan.  Tom, you are the Winnie-the-Pooh that everyone wants on their heart!

Charleston Stage's Performance Troupe Member Tom Hill as Winnie-the-Pooh.

Infant Tom Hill and his pal Winnie-the-Pooh.

by Jan Gilbert, Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret

In the original production of Cabaret the legendary Austrian actress and singer, Lotte Lenya played my part.  Lenya was the wife of Kurt Weil and had appeared in his classic Three Penny Opera, winning a Tony Award when it was later presented on Broadway.  Since many of Fraulein Schneider’s songs sound very much like the music of Kurt Weil, it was an appropriate choice.  Weil had made a name for himself with his dark and brooding musicals and indeed the songs I have in this show are not traditional fluffy showtunes—far from it, they are hard hitting, passionate and often dark and brooding.  In many ways Weil’s influence on American Musicals (he was a refugee himself from Nazi Germany) was enormous bringing realism and naturalism to this traditional American form.  There’s no doubt that Kander and Ebb were influenced by Weil and gave Fraulein Schneider some of the most haunting moments and music in the show.

Demetre Homer as Herr Schultz and Jan Gilbert as Fraulein Schneider.

by Michael Christensen, Charleston Stage Property Master 

Part of the fun of being a Property Master is looking for just the right prop for a show.  The Kit Kat nightclub described in Cabaret had telephones on each table so that customers could dial up the cute guy or gal and invite them to join them at their table.  We could have just gone into our prop closet and found some phones to use, but because the phones were such an important element in the design, we decided to research German and European phones and we came across this stunning period design from Sweden—not exactly Berlin, but close enough.  Not only is the design of this phone elegant and unusual, it is tall which will make it stand out on the cabaret tables.  And so I went to work to reproduce this look in our scene shop and the result you’ll see in the second photo below—which I hope when you see the show, you will agree, is the perfect prop for this scene.

Photo of a 1920’s Stockholm telephone.

Prop phone created in Charleston Stage's Scene Shop for the Kit Kat Klub.

by Brian J. Porter, Emcee in Cabaret

With Joel Grey and most recently Alan Cummings fingerprints all over the iconic role of the Emcee in Cabaret I had my hands full in creating my own take on this landmark role.  Oddly I am front and center for most of the musical numbers but never really interact with the main characters—it’s clear my role is symbolic representing the decadence of Berlin Café society but one can’t play a symbol.   I’m a showman in a very decadent era and since there was a lot of decadence in the air I’m sure the MC had to really work hard to be more outrageous than anyone else.  Before there was such a thing he was a performance artist (think Lady Gaga) and sought to shock with outrageous costumes, makeup (on a man!), cross dressing, even dancing with a guerilla at one point. Knowing he was prepared to break a lot of boundaries allowed me (with guidance from my director of course) to be boundless in my performances as well.

Brian J. Porter as the Emcee

by Associate Artistic Director Marybeth Clark

      When someone mentions the musical Cabaret, their first response is usually, “Oh, Liza Minnelli right?”  I have to admit I was not that familiar with the show myself when I first saw it several years ago.

      A young actor, who was in Charleston Stage’s production of Glass Menagerie, was cast in a touring production of Cabaret at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center.  It was a Tuesday night and I had been working on a series of school shows in the morning and classes all afternoon.  By the time I arrived at the theatre, I was thinking I might sneak away after Act One.  That didn’t happen.  After the final scene of Act One, I was sitting stunned in the audience thinking, “What just happened?!” and “Why don’t I know about this show?”

      In preparing for this production, I wanted to learn even more about the stories and the era that molded this remarkable script.  Cabaret is based on the 1951 play I Am a Camera by John van Druten inspired by Christopher Isherwood’s book The Berlin Stories.  Reading Isherwood’s stories reminded me a bit of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  At age 24, Isherwood, who had attended British prep schools and Cambridge, set out to teach English for a short time in Berlin.  He stayed several years.  Through his stories, the reader travels ‘through the looking glass’ along with Isherwood to the decadence of the waning Weimar Republic Berlin.  The sexual freedom, glittering parties and scintillating adventures he experiences are far from Isherwood’s pastoral childhood as the son of a British army officer.

      A theme that became very important to me in creating Charleston Stage’s Cabaret was the idea that the cabaret performers manufacture their own reality in the midst of political unrest.  Throughout the show, there are characters that understand what is happening politically and those who simply refuse to believe anything will really change.  At one point Cliff says to Sally, “Some day, I’ve got to sit you down and read you a newspaper.  You’ll be amazed at what’s going on.”  Sally’s response is dismissive, “You mean—politics? But what has that to do with us?”

      Eventually, of course the Nazi party’s rise to power becomes impossible to ignore and everyone is forced to deal with it.  I hope Cabaret offers you a glimpse into a different world in a different time that was not so very long ago. 

From left to right: Charleston Stage Resident Actor Christopher M. Diaz as Kit Kat Dancer, Brian J. Porter as Emcee, and Jacqueline Kirchhoff as Kit Kat Dancer.

STAGE’S ‘CABARET’ DAZZLING!”

By Carol Furtwangler, Post and Courier Reviewer, Friday April 9, 2010

“Brilliantly Directed . . . Not a Character was less than ideally realized . . .not a voice less than outstanding . . .”

When a theater company attempts a show as familiar and popular as  ’Cabaret’ that company had better make a Big Splash.

That is exactly what Marybeth Clark did, brilliantly directing a dozen multitalented dancers and a leading cast of six of the most effective performers ever seen in Charleston.

Charleston Stage’s latest singin’ and dancin’ extravaganza proved a showcase for every element of stagecraft. Barbara Young’s glitzy and funky costumes, Julian Wiles’ lighting,  and Stefanie Christensen’s scenic design all caught the spirit of 1930’s Berlin, degenerate, decadent, its populace indulging in all manner of sin, as the Weimar Republic faded and the Nazi party rose to power.

Not a character was less than ideally realized, and not a voice was other than outstanding.  Musical director Amanda Wansa and her six-piece orchestra were consummate professionals. Brian J. Porter made the Emcee’s role his own, sashaying about in purple leather pants and oh, the shoes.  Justin Tyler Lewis made an endearing Cliff, while Sarah Claire Smith’s rendition of Sally Bowles was spot-on. Kyle Barnett played a friendly  turned-menacing-Ernst, while Jan Gilbert as Fraulein Schneider showed her excellent grasp of comedy and drama.  Demetre Homer as Herr Schultz evidenced the calm of the Jews before the horror of the Final Solution.

Charleston Stage’s last Mainstage production at the Sottile is well worth your support.

Kit Kat Klub dancers in Cabaret.

Justin Tyler Lewis, Cliff in Cabaret

It’s not often in a musical one gets to play a character based on a real person but there’s little doubt that Cliff is really Christopher Isherwood - the real life author who went to sample the decadence of Berlin nightlife in the 1920’s.  His Berlin Stories captured not just the story of a young author but an entire age when, as he says, “the world was coming to an end.”  Thanks to Isherwood we see how people turned their heads not seeing  – or not wanting to see - the nightmare unfolding before them.  In one of his stories Cliff says of himself, “I am a camera,” and one of the challenges is to play Cliff as a young man who doesn’t know how the dream (or nightmare) will end. And one who is eager to explore the freewheeling sexual world of Berlin nightlife in the 1920’s—a world that excites and repulses him at the same time. 

We’re taught as actors to “be in the moment” – to discover things as if they’re happening for the first time.  Because we, the performers, know how this story turns out, playing each moment is key to making it real and alive each night onstage.  When Cliff meets Sally for the first time, he doesn’t know where their interaction and relationship is leading.  Moreover, Sarah Claire and I have to play it as if there are many possibilities of where it might lead.  And that’s the fun of it.  Few people live their lives in a constant, general wash of woe, misery, or tragedy.  Few interesting people, at least.  Rather, people live their lives from one tiny moment of joy to the next.  Cliff, therefore, lives for the jolts of happiness that punctuate the sometimes tragic and often shocking events that take place in 1920s Berlin.  Ultimately, that punctuation marks Cliff as both interesting and memorable and makes his story worth telling.

Charleston Stage Resident Actor Justin Tyler Lewis as Cliff in Cabaret.

From left to right: Charleston Stage Resident Actor Justin Tyler Lewis as Cliff and former Charleston Stage Resident Actor Sarah Claire Smith as Sally Bowles.