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| This newsletter is about Math, Shakespeare, After-School Programs, Acting Classes, Reading, Lunchtime Activities and Late Night Gatherings. It’s almost as if we’re in high school again…so, who are you taking to the prom? |
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| Proof by David Auburn – April 11-26 |
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“My relief that David Auburn’s Proof is less about its ballyhooed higher mathematics than the fragility of life and love was matched by my delight in his fine and tender play. (…) Proof surprises us with its aliveness and intelligent modesty, and we have not met these characters before.” – John Heilpern, The New York Observer
Our last play of the season, Proof by David Auburn, is being readied for the stage as this newsletter is published. Under the direction of Sheldon Metz (Noche de los Muertos), the cast is busy preparing to bring you this Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play.
Jill Baker is making her Beowulf Alley debut but you’ve seen her at other Tucson theatres. She comes to Tucson from Chicago with a degree in Theatre Performance from Missouri State University and a year as an Artist in Residence at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Chris Farishon has been seen in several Tucson productions including two at Beowulf Alley (5th Planet and Other Plays, Arcadia). Jonathan Northover is a member of our Artistic Development Committee and has been an active volunteer/supporter of Beowulf’s for several years. You may remember that he directed Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and Actor’s Nightmare in our first season or his roles in The Birthday Party, Frozen, or Stones in His Pockets. And we’re also delighted to also welcome back to our stage Roberto “Sapo” Guajardo, recipient of the 2008 Tucson Pima Arts Council Lumie Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Tucson Weekly 2006 “Best of Tucson” Award — Best Performance by a Thespian — for his performance in the one-man play, Underneath the Lintel, at Beowulf Alley Theatre. You may also remember him in during our 2007-2008 season in The Woman in Black. Sapo is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and has performed in most theatres in Tucson as well as other cities around the country.
Please don’t miss seeing Proof. Our team is working hard to bring you an exciting evening of theatre to remember.
As part of our community commitment, we will be hosting a Benefit Performance and post-show Reception hosted by The Cup Cafe, Hotel Congress to celebrate mathematics and support the U of A Center for the Recruitment & Retention of Mathematics Teachers on Thursday, April 23—$30 ($10 is a donation for CCR). We hope you will attend this worthwhile event and help them raise funds to continue to help teachers help and inspire their students.
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| 2009-2010 Season Subscriptions on Sale March 23!! |
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The best performances come with a good script, a good director, strong actors and a full house with an engaged audience. This is always a challenge for a young theatre company like Beowulf Alley Theatre. Our Artistic Development volunteers are always working to improve our artistic quality while our Marketing and Education volunteers work to create awareness of who we are and what we have to offer our community. Do we always get it right for each patron? Maybe not, but we’re willing to take some risks, try some new things and we always listen and consider what you say when evaluating our future choices.
Our Early Bird Subscription campaign for our current season almost doubled our subscribers and generated additional audience members through the “Buy Two, Get Two Free Full Season Subscription” and the “Buy Two, Get One Free Flex Pass Subscription”. We saw the economic signs last year and know we’re in for more of the same so we want to make that same offer again.
Help us to build our young theatre. Many of you brought friends this year to see our plays and we thank you. We want your friends to come back for next season but this time, we want your friends to purchase their own season tickets and bring even more people who have never been to our theatre. For those of you who brought friends, we want you to invite some other friends who have never been to Beowulf Alley Theatre. And if you haven’t taken advantage of the special Early Bird pricing before, now is your chance to enjoy a deeply reduced discount that can be a gift to someone you love or fun nights out with your friends. Help us grow and expand. Tell your friends what a value this Early Bird Subscription is in a tough economy! Ask them to support their local businesses and organizations.
Beowulf Alley Theatre will celebrate its 5th producing season in our facility on 6th Avenue when we open the 2009-2010 Main Stage Season in September, 2009. We’ll be celebrating all year and our subscribers, donors and volunteers will receive some special treats and “insider” opportunities. You are our Ambassadors to our community and we thank you. Please help us continue to grow!
Early Bird Subscriptions will go on sale on March 23 at 10 a.m. and we invite you to take advantage of this special offer for free subscriptions that will end at midnight on June 30, 2009.
Throughout our Anniversary year we’ll be creating some fun activities and offering them to our subscribers for free or with special discounts. And when you do the math, you’ll agree that seeing a live theatre performance at Beowulf Alley is less than a trip to the movies! Seniors, students, and starving artists will benefit from these great prices, too! We’re all in this economy together. Click Here to learn more.
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| Your NAME on Our Wall of FAME |
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Our Spring Fundraising Campaign was launched just two weeks ago. We are seeking 2,500 donations of $25 each by June 30, 2009. While it seems to be acceptable for government agencies to “bail out” businesses who continue to offer big bonuses to executives who have not made the best choices for their shareholders, the arts are still considered “unimportant.” Just 1% of the Stimulus Package will be extended to the arts, even when the studies show that for every $1 invested in the arts, $7 is returned to the local economy.And when children are exposed to the arts, their academic achievements in Math, English, and Science improve dramatically.
Where do Beowulf Alley’s dollars go? Not for bonuses, for sure. Most of our productions just break even before our overhead costs. It takes an average of 46 paid tickets per night to cover the cost of producing a play at Beowulf Alley Theatre – before we pay the rent! Now, you might say, “Just raise your prices”. Well, we would…but many people cannot afford to pay $38 or $40 for a theatre ticket and we would not be meeting our mission to offer reasonably priced theatre to our entire community. Volunteers, many of them donors, staff every operation. We are careful with our resources. We recycle building materials, use every ounce of paint before we dispose of the can, and reuse the backside of copy paper as scratch pads or draft documents to name just a few ways we keep costs low (and practice environmentality).
Instead of investing in painting our facility this year, we want to decorate our hallway with existing paints in different colors. For a donation of $25, we will paint your name on our Wall of Fame to show how much we appreciate your support of Beowulf Alley Theatre.
Please Click Here to make your $25 fully tax-deductible donation now. We will use your gift sensibly toward our general operating costs! It’s not sexy or glitzy but certainly sustains the art form by giving us a place to showcase Tucson’s terrific talent — in our community, for our community. And you’ve invested in our community in a meaningful way.
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| ActingLab@the Alley: Unlocking Shakespeare… |
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| Philip Bennett, Dean of Adult Education |
Unlocking Shakespeare as a Second Language
Beowulf Alley Theatre Company’s ActingLab@the Alley presents the next stage in an ongoing series of educational Symposia: Unlocking Shakespeare as a Second Language© on Sunday, March 22, 2009, 4:00p-8:00p at the Theatre, 11 South 6th Avenue. A four hour workshop based on the techniques of the Royal Shakespeare’s Voice and Speech Coach, Cicely Berry, author of The Actor and the Text, conducted by Philip G. Bennett, Dean of Adult Education.
Unlocking Shakespeare… gets you “up-on-your-feet” immediately. The workshop will begin with extensive breathing exercises, vocal warm-ups and speech drills followed by enjoyable group physical exercises that address each of Shakespeare’s poetic devices.
You will learn how to create: A dynamic vocal instrument; Tools you can use right away; Confidence in speaking Shakespeare’s language with ease and understanding.
“Before long you will be speaking Shakespeare’s poetry as if it were a Second Language.” ©
$40 online (Click Here) or by phone at (520) 622-4460. Questions? E-mail Phil at philipbennett@yahoo.com.
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| Sign up Online! |
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| ActingLab@the Alley: Spring Acting Classes… |
A Professional Actor Training Program in Stanislavski’s Ultimate Technique
The Method of Physical Actions and Active AnalysisClass Size is Limited – Register HERE for the Spring Term.
8-Week Spring Course Begins Soon! Register now!
Wednesdays – Section B
April 8 – May 27, 2009
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
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Saturdays – Section A
April 11 – May 30, 2009
10:00am to 12:00 pm
A continuation of the practical introduction to the elements of stage action, improvisation, breath work, voice production and preparatory scene work. Fee: $350.00 – Less than $22 per hour! (Limited discounts; payment plans may be available)
Mr. Bennett is an award winning actor, director and instructor of the Stanislavski System of Acting. He is a founding member of the American Stanislavski Theatre (AST) in New York City and a protégé of Russian émigré teacher and director, Sonia Moore. Phil served as the Assistant Artistic Director of AST where he was both an actor and instructor. In 1976, he founded the San Francisco Theatre Academy at Fort Mason, and subsequently the Bennett Theatre Lab, an avant-garde actor training company. Internationally acknowledged for his expertise in both classical and contemporary theatre, he lectures and conducts workshops at prominent universities and conventions. Graduates appear regularly in films, on television and the professional stage.
For further information call: Philip Bennett at 520-495-5652 or
call Beowulf Alley at 520-622-4460.
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| Sign up Online! |
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| ActingKids@the Alley: Introduction to Theatre
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Sheldon Metz, Director of Youth Programs
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Ages 9-12 on Mondays, Apr. 20-May 18
Ages 13-16 on Tuesdays, Apr. 21—May 19
3:30-6:00 p.m., at the Theatre, 11 South 6th Ave.
A reception for each group of prospective students and their parents to introduce Sheldon Metz, tour the facility and learn more about the programs will be held at the theatre on Monday, April 13. For ages 9-12, the gathering is 5:15-6:45 p.m. and for ages 13-16, at 7:00-8:15 p.m.
These challenging and lively, 5-week introductory training programs are designed to teach the basics of theatre: positions of and movement on the stage, technical equipment, collaboration and courtesies of theatre, discipline and focus, breathing, voice and movement, vocal projection, self-confidence, and critical thinking in a fun and exciting atmosphere. Students learn how to unlock their imaginations and emotions, develop character through discovery and play. Students are on the stage most of the time with occasional visits from working theatre artists. Scenes are performed and constructive peer criticism techniques are learned.
Sheldon Metz has been active in theatre for over 56 years, in Chicago and Los Angeles, ever since playing Hansel at the age of six. He is an award-winning director and set designer as well as an actor and instructor of acting and directing.Gordon Davidson calls Sheldon his “go to guy.” Sheldon founded and served as Executive Director of A.C.C.T., The Association of Commercial and Community Theatres, the West Coast Theatre Conference (Los Angeles) and The Theatre Conference (New York). He also served as a Producing Director for the Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble (PKE), under the Artistic Direction of Dan Lauria.
$100 ages 9-12 and $150 ages 13-16
online HERE or by phone at (520) 622-4460
Questions? E-mail Beth Dell at theatre@beowulfalley.org
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Sign up Online!
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| And Out to Lunch Theatre, Reader’s Theatre and Late Night Theatre! |
| Out to Lunch Theatre, Reader’s Theatre, and Late Night Theatre Offer Options to the Main Stage Plays!Each Wednesday in April at 12:15 p.m., we will present Out to Lunch (OTL) Theatre, 30-minute plays for the noon-time crowd. Why not take a “culture” break from the routine of the office and have a bag lunch while watching a play? Get your mind off the stresses of the job. Give yourself a relaxing break in our theatre. We can arrange a bag lunch for you from Chris’ Cafe. $6 for the play and $6 for the bag lunch. We all need a little “afternoon delight”! Don’t be late!And the first Tuesday of each month, join us at 7:15 for Reader’s Theatre where we present a reading of a local playwright’s new play. We ask you to pay-what-you will to attend and you get to give the playwright feedback on his play: what you did or didn’t like; what you didn’t understand; suggestions for improvements. Come participate in fine-tuning some creative writing.And for the night owl’s, we offer you our newest program, Late Night (LNT) Theatre. This program is designed to offer the younger crowd a place to create and explore topics that they choose. It’s exciting and energetic. Check our website for the details on the April production – and it’s just $8 bucks!
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| 2009-2010 Season Audition Date is Set |
| Calling all actors, novice and experienced. Please mark your calendars for our 2009-2010 Season Audition schedule for April 25 from 2-6p. The auditions are open and no roles are pre-cast. We will be asking for two contrasting (drama/comedy, contemporary/classic) one minute monologues. More details will be coming on April 6 so please be sure to sign up here to receive the notice. |
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Donations are not tax deductible. But they will make the author smile. Thank you for your patronage.
