Seussical Study Guide

Coming to see Seussical? Check out our study guide that we created for our field trip groups - but here's a hint: it's full of fun activities and interesting info for everyone in our audience!

Catching Up with Ralph Redpath

Ralph Redpath has a career in the theatre that spans decades. Over the years at ACT, he’s directed everything from Inherit the Wind to Miss Evers’ Boys; most recently, he directed the acclaimed production of To Kill a Mockingbird. He has appeared in or directed over 100 shows during his 44 year history as a member of the acting/directing company at Flat Rock Playhouse. Ralph holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where he trained alongside Meryl Streep. Up next at ACT, he’ll direct Not Now, Darling which opens in August 2015.

Ralph is also teaching our Adult Acting Class this spring, and we caught up with him to talk characters, collaboration, and critique.

ACT: What can students expect to work on in the class? 

RR: We do monologues and scene studies, with the scenes usually between two people. We work on character development. Usually, I will pick something for each student, but we also have people bring things in that they’d like to work on, that they’d like feedback on. In my class, everyone participates in honest and respectful critique. It’s very collaborative in that sense.

ACT: What do you want people to know about your class?

RR: It’s a kind class. No one yells, no one screams. It’s a safe space to experiment and to try new things. Trying something new is so important, and in this class, the pressure is off so that you can. It’s a great way to learn, to get help, and also to really increase your self-awareness and get to know yourself.

At the same time, there’s outside work that you have to do. You do have to learn your lines. That’s expected.

ACT: What’s most exciting for you as a teacher?

RR: You get to watch people open, watch people as they find parts of themselves. And if you’re a theatre junkie like I am, it’s pretty exciting to spend time exploring the text. I love hearing students’ interpretations of a script and thinking, “I’ve never thought of it that way before!”

I had a student last year whose native language was not English and she had never taken an acting class before. She did a scene from The Glass Menagerie; she was totally unfamiliar with the script or with the characters. The innocence and the openness she brought to the scene were just beautiful.

I also love to see someone really surprise themselves. Someone will have a comedic scene, someone who’s never really done comedy before, and they’ll do the scene and get a laugh, and they are totally not expecting it. That’s wonderful to see.

ACT: Why should someone take this class?

RR: Dancers practice. Musicians practice. You want to get better at something, you practice. Taking an acting class is keeping the gears going. Plus, you get to walk away with experience that you can take with you into an audition.

* * *

Many thanks to Ralph for spending a great afternoon with us! Now it's your turn! Want to take Ralph's class? Click here to register!

Study Guide: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Busloads of students are joining us on Tuesday, December 16 for our student matinees of A Charlie Brown Christmas. We love giving students and teachers a little more information before they come - and also things to do after the show! Feel free to download our study guide!

This Weekend: "Charlotte's Web"

This weekend, our Youth Production Class presents Charlotte's Web, a play based on the book that the Children’s Literature Association named “the best American children’s book of the past two hundred years."

One of our favorite parts of presenting shows that star 6-9 year olds is reading the actor bios. We are positively swept away by the amazing-ness of these young actors - and just in case you're not able to make it to one of the shows (and thus receive a playbill), we thought we'd share a few examples.

Elizabeth (Edith Zuckerman/Spider #1) is 7 years old and in the 2nd grade at Evergreen. Last summer, Liz drew on her dad’s face and thought it was really funny until he woke up. She also went to Soak City and rode H2O. Her favorite color is purple and her favorite animal is a zebra.

Elijah (Homer Zuckerman) is in the 5th grade at Isaac Dickson. If he had a super power, he would not want to be Aquaman because he would want to have both the ability to breathe underwater and shoot lightning. Once while doing a backflip, he fell in the mud and found a $50 bill. He likes pepperoni pizza.

Cora (Avery Arable/Spider #3) is 7 and is the oldest child in her family. She enjoys watching movies with her family because her baby brother laughs really hard. Once when she was vacationing on Hunting Island, she found a dead baby shark on the beach. Her favorite animal is a horse and she loves mushrooms.

We're so excited to see the whole cast onstage this weekend! Break legs and webs!

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: Study Guide

We have two matinee performances during the run of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever that are for school groups only.  For those performances, we provide a study guide that we send to teachers in advance of the field trip.  But guess what? The study guide is great for any young audience member - whether they're attending a school performance or not!

 

"Annie Get Your Gun" Study Guide

We are trying to up our game in the study guide department - and we're getting closer to where we'd like to be! We're sending this one out to about 700 students who will be joining us for Annie Get Your Gun over the next few weeks. Let us know what you think!

 

Cinderella Kids: Bio Excerpts

There is a lot of awesomeness in this weekend's performances of Disney's Cinderella Kids.  And it will start with the contents of the playbill.  Yep, that's right.  The playbill.

In addition to thanking parents and cast mates and listing schools attended, previous shows performed and hobbies when not at the theatre, many in the cast shared a little extra about themselves. Here are a few excerpts from the bios:

Sydney (age 10) has "3 dogs, a cat, a snake, a hawk, and 2 siblings."

Annabelle (age 6) is "excited to be a mouse in Cinderella because she likes to scurry about."

Erin (age 7 1/2) is "fascinated by dolphins."

Kate (age 9) has "a major interest in polar bears."

Henry's (4th grade) "best friend is Holden Dewey."

Gracelyn (5th grade) "would love to be a newscaster ... but that may change."

Break a leg, all you fabulous actors!

Disney's Cinderella Kids - Full Cast!

How cute are these guys and gals?  We are so super proud of this cast of talented students!  And you know what's even better?  Hearing them SING!

They're on the Mainstage right now, rehearsing for their performances March 23-25.  The musical director is none other than the incredible Aaron Price - so you know the music is top notch!

Just wanted to share.

And say - yay!  Kids doing theatre!

What I Love About Coming to Work

Actually, it's a lot of different things. This morning, it was getting to talk with Tamara, our business manager, before anyone else had arrived.  Then, it was hearing the syncopated rhythms of Tina and Jacob's feet (our choreographer and dance captain for Chicago) as they worked through a new bit. And then it was having lunch with Waylon, one of my dearest friends, who I met when he wandered in to volunteer.

Junior Prom by Mary Charles Griffin. Oil on canvas. 6 panels. 108 x 96

But the first thing that struck me this morning, this beautiful, sunny, non-February-in-the-mountains morning, was the artwork that's currently hanging in our lobby.

Excuse my photo, because it doesn't do justice to the incredible blast of vividity that is this painting. The painting is 9 feet tall and 8 feet wide - 72 square feet of pulsating color (and, incidentally, the approximate size of my 2 bathrooms put together).

The artist is Mary Charles Griffin, called "Charlie" by most everyone who knows her.  Her studio is based in the River Arts District, and I am profoundly grateful to have a job where I am greeted by 10 of her gorgeous paintings. This show will be up through the end of March. And then I will be lucky enough to be greeted by a new show featuring the work of a local painter, or photographer, or jewelry maker.  Who knows?

Sara LeDonne does.  A long-time volunteer at ACT, she curates the Lobby Gallery (she also builds and paints sets, designs and decorates for fundraising events, creates frames and shadowboxes for displaying theatre memories, runs light boards and sound boards, and gives out kooky socks for Christmas).  She is dedicated to featuring the work of Asheville-based artists, sharing and showcasing their work with patrons who buy tickets at our Box Office, with parents dropping their children off for after-school classes, with casts who rehearse in the lobby while the stage is being painted.

She shares this work with me. And I am thankful!

The Power of Theatre

You may have seen this photo floating around on Facebook - it was originally posted by Ron Darling (with Seattle Children's Theatre and their production of Harold and the Purple Crayon.) It's a photo of a performance report, issued by the stage manager, after a performance of that show yesterday (Feb. 1).

This photo tells me that theatre is meaningful and important and life-changing in two ways. First, and obviously, the powerful story in the "Performance Notes." That this story, this performance, this moment when the lights went down made a very personal and profound connection to a 5 year old student who sat in the dark, talking and commenting to his teacher, communicating in a way he hadn't before. And second, that as of this moment, approximately 20 hours after Ron Darling posted it, this photo has been shared 3,180 times. That's huge. That's viral. That tells me that thousands of other people believe that theatre isn't just fun (even though it is a lot of fun) and that it isn't just a hobby (even though it's a great one) but that it is an agent for good and change in our communities. In every community.

And they're right.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!

Let loose your inner royalty!

We're looking for princesses, princes, footmen, stepsisters, and fairy godmothers between the ages of 6-11 to wear awesome costumes, learn songs like "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," and then wear that costume while singing that song on stage for an audience!

Our Youth Production Classes at Asheville Community Theatre take students through a production from start to finish, complete with a public performance at the end (just like a recital).  Students work with a director, musical director and choreographer as well as with design professionals to create an entire production, from the first rehearsal to the final curtain.  It really is enchanting to be a part of the magic of theatre!

Fun fun fun!