What made you to decide to start writing plays? Had you always wanted to do so, or did the inclination come after your prowess as a musician?

I identified myself as a writer from a rather young age, writing poetry primarily at first.  (“Fewer words,” as Mrs. Woolsey says in the play.)  But I was attracted to the play form early on, as my family was heavily involved in a community theatre in my home town — acting, building sets, etc.  I “ran lines” with my mother as she learned roles (something my own son is doing with my wife Megan downstairs as I write this), which acquainted me with the conventions of dramatic writing so that it was a very familiar form by the time I started writing short plays as a teenager.

How does being a musician inform your writing?

I think my sense of plays as an interplay of voices is enhanced by my experiences playing chamber music; I believe plays should be aurally satisfying even if you don’t understand the language.  Musicians also study form more rigorously than theatre artists do: What’s a concerto?  What’s a symphony?  What’s a tone poem?  What’s a sonata?  What’s a cantata?  What’s a song cycle?  There are models for all of these forms across the centuries, and, in my experience, musicians — composers in particular — tend to be more aware of the constraints and possibilities inherent in each.  Consequently, I’m very interested in the form of each play, its structure, sequence of “movements,” how the various characters, like instruments in an ensemble, are brought in or out to produce a certain effect.  Studying viola seriously also helped me acquire greater detachment in the revision process.  When you practice a difficult passage over and over, you can’t waste time beating yourself up about a clumsy shift or flat note.  You just have to observe carefully and do it again and again, striving to get closer each time.  This taught me a certain discipline with regard to revision — a combination of rigor and patience.

What was the inspiration for Ghost-Writer?

A few years ago I ran across an anecdote about Henry James and his secretary, who typed as he dictated his novels and stories over the course of years.   According to the anecdote, when James died the secretary claimed to continue receiving dictation from her late employer.  My mother had died shortly before I encountered this story, and, through conversations with my father, I began thinking about “the presence of absence” — that is, the power that a departed loved one holds over us, and how we negotiate the space left by that person.  As the play continued to develop, I also found myself looking at the nature of creative process itself, that mysterious combination of craft and what most people would call inspiration.

By Bobby Bangert, Development Assistant and APA Class 16

At the Arden, nothing heralds the beginning of another season like the arrival of the new class of Arden Professional Apprentices.  As a proud member of APA Class 16 (2008-09), seeing the new crop of apprentices (Class 18!) start on Monday brought back lots of memories, but it also reminded me of the tremendous affect this program has, not only on the individual apprentices it produces, but on our entire community.

The Arden has truly outstanding education programs, including our apprentice program.  It is completely unique in that its participants work in every aspect of the company, and after ten months they can work in every department with proficiency in a variety of tasks.  It is appropriate that the beginning of each new apprentice class coincides with the Live Arts and Philly Fringe, a time when our city is literally bursting with theatre in every possible space.  Former apprentices are now theatre professionals working in Philadelphia and all over the country applying the skills they learned at the Arden to create, produce, market, and manage their own shows, and at no time is that more apparent than during Fringe time.

The list of former APAs producing in the Fringe is impressive, and below is a sampling of the former APAs whose work you can see in the festival this year:

Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Paranormal and Quantum Entanglement is being produced by the Philadelphia Joke Initiative, which is headed by Class 15’s Alexis Simpson.  Alexis is also featured in The Real Housewives of Philadelphia’s Main Line-O-Mania.

Fugue State stars Class 17’s Meredith Sonnen.

APA Class 16 at the opening of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE.

How to Solve a Bear is directed by Class 13’s Meg Walsh, and stars Class 15’s Scott Sheppard.

Kid Out of Nowhere is a new play, and the inaugural production of the newly formed Act Normal Theatre Company, which is directed by yours truly, Class 16’s Bobby Bangert, starring fellow Class 16 alums Hillary Rea and Richard Sonne, as well as the costumes of Class 16’s Katherine Fritz.

Thomas Choinacky (Class 15) is busy performing in two shows, Marisol, and Portmanteau, which he co-created.

In addition to producing for the Fringe, former APAs are working with more established companies with Live Arts shows.  Mark Kennedy of Class 17 is the Sound Operator for Pig Iron’s Live Arts show, Cankerblossom.  New Paradise Laboratories’ Freedom Club stars Class 5’s McKenna Kerrigan, and is Assistant Stage Managed by Class 16’s Katherine Fritz.

While we’re out getting ready for the Fringe to begin this weekend, Class 18 is just getting oriented.  The next time you’re at the Arden, keep an eye out for the apprentices (they will probably be Assistant Stage Managing the show you’re seeing, printing your tickets in the box office, or cleaning the lobby you’re standing in).  Right now they’re learning the ropes here, but this time next year I can’t wait to see what Class 18 will be doing out there in the community.

Here is the full list of our nominations:
• Outstanding Overall Production of a Play – The History Boys
• Outstanding Overall Production of a Play – If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical – Sunday in the Park with George
• Outstanding Direction of a Play – James J. Christy – Rabbit Hole
• Outstanding Direction of a Play – Walter Dallas – Blue Door
• Outstanding Music Direction – Eric Ebbenga – Sunday in the Park with George
• Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play – Steve Pacek as Mouse – If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play – Grace Gonglewski as Becca – Rabbit Hole
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play – Kes Khemnu as Simon, Rex, Jesse – Blue Door
• Outstanding Set Design – David P. Gordon – If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Outstanding Lighting Design – Thom Weaver – Blue Door
• Outstanding Costume Design – Rosemarie E. McKelvey – Sunday in the Park with George
• Outstanding Sound Design – Jorge Cousineau – The History Boys
• Outstanding Original Music – Christopher Colucci – Rabbit Hole
• Outstanding Original Music – Robert Kaplowitz – Blue Door
• Outstanding Ensemble in a Play – The History Boys

Congratulations to all the artists that made our 2009-10 Season such a success!

Who do you think will take home a Barrymore Award on October 4?

Here’s a video with highlights from the camp show and photos from throughout the week.

There are three more weeks of summer camp for both Kids’ Crew and Teen Company, and spaces are filling fast! Check back for more photos, blogs and videos from these upcoming sessions!

Here are some photos of our fabulous bikers!

We hope to schedule Bike to Theatre Nights for future productions, so stay tuned for more information!

We invited anyone to come into the Arden’s lobby to “Create Your Own Sunday,” inspired by Georges Seurats’ Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Using paint, chalk and pencils, over 200 visitors drew depictions of their own Sunday afternoons.

Guests also enjoyed complimentary desserts from Sugar Philly, a scrumptious dessert truck who parked on Filbert Street to sell their treats, and beer from Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Here are some pictures from the evening!

We hope you’ll visit us for a future First Friday!

Here are some pictures from the pre-show reception.

Be on the lookout for future Arts Administrator nights in the 2010/11 Season!

June 30^th is the end of the fiscal year here at Arden Theatre Company, and the development department is in the midst of a mini-phone campaign to encourage former supporters to renew their contributions in time for us to make goal for the season.  As an added incentive, any increase they make over last year’s gift counts towards the Hamilton Family Foundation Challenge (audiences who have seen Sunday in the Park are already familiar with this challenge, as it’s mentioned nightly in a post-show speech by Jeff Coon).  If we raise $50,000 in new or increased gifts by June 30th, the Foundation will match that with an additional $50,000 for Children’s Theatre and our outreach program, Arden for All.

One of the questions I get asked the most by audience members when I talk about donations is why, after they already spent money on tickets, they need to contribute to the theatre as well?  And of course, the answer is – they don’t.  But if they can, by gum, they should!  Right?  As a theatre-maker reared mainly on Broadway shows, I struggle with this issue a lot.  After all, on Broadway, when a show doesn’t sell, it closes.  And if we think of the theatre as a business, than the idea that we should have to buy tickets and be asked to make donations does seem silly.

But perhaps the theatre is something else.  True.  It has many of the same qualities as a business – it employs a variety of highly trained craftsmen; those craftsmen create a product; that product is sold to the community.  And yet, by virtue of the transformative potential of what we produce – transformative for us and our audiences – we theatre-makers are by and large not in it for the profits.  But if theatre’s not just a business, what else is it?

When William Penn wrote his plan for the layout of Philadelphia, he insisted upon five public squares that would be open to everyone.   As far as he was concerned, we all had a right to spend time in these “havens of respite in a busy world.”  And if we’re all allowed to sit on a bench in Rittenhouse Square, throw pennies in the fountain at Logan Circle, or cut through the City Hall courtyard on our way to Market or Broad – shouldn’t we all be able to see Sunday in the Park at the Arden?  Is that show not also a haven of respite in our busy world – a world even busier, I might add, than the one Billy Penn was talking about?

Theatre is a commodity, but it is also every citizen’s right.  And until more people in our field start to position it that way, the argument that those who can afford to ought to both buy their tickets and contribute will not hold very much water.  At least, that’s what I think.

We did boffo business this season at the Arden.  We’re humbled by the thought that 100,000 ticket-holders passed through our doors.   If one third of those people contributed $10 on top of admission, we would already be above our individual giving goal for the season.

I put this argument forth not to be contrary or to make anyone who might have bought but not contributed feel guilty.  I’m merely a professional fundraiser who constantly calls in to question the need for my services.   Because, you see, a part of me still thinks theatre is just a business.  Even when I know it’s as essential to my life as relaxing in a park on…er…Sunday.

This is a complicated issue.  And I’m only talking about individuals.  I could write a whole treatise on whether or not the country’s government ought to be supporting the work of its artists.  But if summer is a time for reflection, I can’t think of a better topic theatre-wise to reflect upon.  So by all means, tell us what you think.  I’m sure there is more to be said here.

On July 2, ride your bike to the Arden, enjoy valet bike parking, and see Sunday in the Park with George at a discount!

For bicyclers only, we’re offering a Tandem Discount! Tickets are 2 for 1! And if your bicycle is just for one, tickets are ½ priced!

Please call 215.922.1122 to reserve tickets! Valet parking stub must be shown at the Arden box office to redeem tickets on the night of the performance. Performance begins at 8pm.

And remember, July 2 is First Friday in Old City so there will be fun festivities at the Arden and throughout the neighborhood.

Arden Theatre Company is located in Old City at 40 North 2nd Street
215.922.1122
www.ardentheatre.org

About the play: Inspired by Georges Seurat’s impressionist masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Sunday in the Park with George celebrates the power of artistic creation and the journey through a changing landscape. It’s also about:  bumbling adulterers, demanding bosses, competitive colleagues, nagging mothers, and catty shop girls all enjoying a pleasant Sunday in the park. And that’s just the first act! As for the second, there are 9 video projectors creating stunning visual effects.

About our Event Sponsor: Valet bike parking is provided by event sponsor Neighborhood Bike Works. Neighborhood Bike Works is a nonprofit educational organization in Philadelphia that seeks to increase opportunities for urban youth through bicycling, and promotes cycling as an environmentally-friendly means of transportation. In 1996, the organization began as Youth Cycle & Recycle, a program of The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. They organized as a separate non-profit in July 1999. Today, they hold classes at three permanent shops, satellite locations in Chester and Norristown, PA, and in several public schools and community centers.

Neighborhood Bike Works
www.neighborhoodbikeworks.org
215.386.0316