Thursday, October 22, 2009
Students Will Shadow Their Teachers in Dual Roles of Follies in Philly
Playbill News: "Students and faculty from the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia will appear in a Philadelphia concert presentation of Follies, the musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman, Oct. 23-24 at Prince Music Theater."
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6 comments:
I'm not sure how i feel with the faculty playing what seems to be a large number of roles. On the one hand, people are going to the school to get roles to expand their repetoire, and faculty taking these roles limits this. On the other hand, never in the real world would a 22 year old be cast as a 65 year old. So its also beneficial to work with their faculty in this manner.
I am slightly conserned though that it is a school for the arts, and it seems as though all managerial work is being done by faculty. I'm not very familiar with the school, but are there no management majors? if there are, then this would be a problem. Its just a different environment to work in. Hopefully, the faculty is not taking roles from its students
I think it is very interesting for the faculty to perform along side their students. I know here a lot of the design student get to see their teachers at work in outside theaters, I don't know if this is the same for the acting students. I also know that seeing my teachers in action has been helpful and inspirational. Having actors actually have a show experience with the people who are teaching them to act sounds like an amazing opportunity. If the teachers actually practice what they preach it could give them a lot of credibility with students. And it will also be interesting to see how teachers acting react to their colleagues or even students directing or managing them. I would love to see the environment that is created by this special type of cast.
While I understand Ariel's concern that the faculty is filling a large number of roles that for pedagogical reasons should be filled by students I think this is a situations in which it seems like the students will benefit from the experience.
It will be very beneficial for the students to work with a cast that is not composed only of their peers but of other older people with more experience.
In addition it gives them a chance to play their younger characters using their own experiences while observing the older characters play the older characters.
I love the fact that the faculty can perform with the students. however, this raises the question of who did they not give a role in order to provide on for the faculty members. However, it definitely can help make the students feel more empowered yet humbled at the same time for being on the same "level" as the faculty.
I agree with Isabella that, while the students might be cast in the roles for instructional reasons or to simply allow people to act. No where in the real world would an artistic director cast a 21-year-old as a 50-year-old. London Cuckolds was a similar situation in which the students were acting alongside their instructors and I believe that all would agree that they learned a lot from the experience. There is a difference in working with someone that you hang out with than someone you know only casually. This gives the actors in the school an opprotunity to see their instructors in action and learn from doing.
What a fascinating experiment. I'm not sure if I would be more excited or intimidated to work on a project like this with my teachers. Not only would I be constantly watching them, but I would also be comparing my skill and style to that of my teacher. I think this project could either end up being very cool and satisfying, or it could blow up in their faces.
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