Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Journal.

We are using our journals to write down our own dreams.

Work goes on!

A snack break.
Working on the script.Our company tee shirts!

Doing a warm-up exercise. Part of our film crew.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Second Workshop



We completed our second workshop this past Monday. We were joined by the Coxsackie-Athens school and had 78 student actors. Director David Little began with some warm-up exercises along with associate director Tina Ghubril and then split the company into groups to do some creative writing. Each student actor was provided with a personal notebook-journal where they keep their thoughts, images, and ideas for the show. They then were encouraged to dramatize what they had written and present it to the rest of the group. We saw some terrific work and its truly great to see the interaction regardless of age or which school they come from.
 We also appeared on Flo Hale's radio program "Arts Alive" with four students , Dr. Farrell, and producer Casey Biggs where we talked about how the project came to be and the students discussed how they felt about participating in the creation of River of Dreams. All the while we were being filmed for the documentary on the making of the show.
Next week we will be hearing some of the songs the composer Frank Cuthbert has written for the show!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Work Starts



Director David Little and associate director Christina Ghubril discuss the next theater game they will be leading the students through during the first workshop of River of Dreams.
The cast is looking forward to the next workshop when they will be joined by students from the Coxsackie- Athens school.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Designers


Emmy Award winning Rita and John Carver have been involved in the Performing Arts since the late 1970’s. They have worked in all facets of the industry including design, production, sales and management. They have worked extensively in the United States, and around the globe, doing Theater, Dance, Events, Opera, Concerts, Television, Film and more. John and Rita have worked in virtually every type of venue imaginable from outdoor theaters and barns to Broadway to major television networks.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

First Workshop


We completed our fist workshop on Monday at the Catskill middle school.
It was a great success! 52 students participated from the Cairo -Durham school as well as Catskill Middle and elementary schools.
We are expecting students from Coxsackie-Athens in our next workshop as well.
After getting everyone checked in with a personal River of Dreams photo ID David Little and Tina Ghubril worked on some theater games that are designed to break down barriers and get to know the actors. It was all great fun as well as useful performance work. A picture game was played where groups chose a story and had to create five snap shots from the story and present it to the rest of the group. Then the group had to guess which story it was from.
They guessed right every time. The group also did some writing inspired by a line from the song "River of Dreams" that has been written for the show. There were some fantastic thoughts that the students shared from the writing.
We had some parents and teachers observing and all were impressed at the level of involvement and imagination that was on the stage. 
Our next workshop will be on Monday February 23 at Catskill Middle School at 2:30.
We will post some photo's soon!