the stage age
text // DANIEL JONES photo // Q LAM
S
tarting a new theatre company can be risky business even for professionals. But this year, two new companies headed by full-time Emerson students are finding success in Boston.
A Sunday night at the GoetheInstitut Boston has standing room only for the latest Israeli Stage production. Across town, the basement of the Church of St. John the Evangelist fills on a Friday night, not for an unscheduled mass, but to view the latest new play produced by Atomic Age Theatre Company. Although pioneered by Emerson students, both of these new theatrical organizations are not trying to add to Emerson’s theatre repertoire by becoming recognized by the student government. Instead, they hope to create an image all their own. Guy Ben-Aharon, a senior BA Theatre Studies major, began Israeli Stage in fall 2010 as a special side project when he didn’t feel fully challenged within the walls of the college. He began pulling together his first staged reading of A. B. Yehoshua’s “Possessions.” “Everyone told me, ‘There’s no
“it’s
To the End of the Land by David Grossman; Social Media coordinator Rebecca Schneebaum, Producing Artistic Director Guy Ben-Aharon, actress Sheila Stasack and Elliot Norton Award and IRNE Award winning actor Jeremiah Kissel.
existence. One of them he labels selfish, hoping to bring a taste of his homeland to Boston. But on a larger scale, he recognized a lack of representation for Israeli culture in the States. “I saw that people always associated Israel with war, and I don’t think I can change that, but I do think that I can offer another association for them,” he says. One woman he spoke to after his third production described attending Israeli Stage shows as being “the first time she had a personal connec-
more of a process of learning how to navigate
this non-profit world because i don’t think we’re going out on this limb knowing what we’re doing.”
-MICHELLE ROGINSKY (co founder of atomic age theatre company) way you’ll get more than 30 or 40 people there. People don’t go to staged readings,’” Ben-Aharon recalls. But he took on the challenge and filled every chair at the first production. The turnout caused him to think about something more long term. “I realized this really should be something bigger, not just project-based,” he says. “This should be a company with a season.” Ben-Aharon, a native Israeli, says there are multiple reasons for bringing Israeli Stage into 14
EM MAGAZINE - WINTER 2012
tion to Israel.” Audience reactions like this are what Ben-Aharon hopes to get more of at future Israeli Stage productions. He describes the current crowd as sophisticated, cultured, and mostly Jewish. Yet, he has noticed an increased interest from non-Jewish audience members as well as students, a group he is targeting in his 2011-2012 season by having one production at Harvard University and one at Emerson College. Wherever audience members
may come from, Ben-Aharon hopes they are “open to a peaceful dialogue” about Israeli culture. Jeff Freeman and Michelle Roginsky, founders of Atomic Age Theatre Company, are also in search of a fresh audience and a new dialogue. Both BA Theatre Studies majors at Emerson, the two first worked together as a directing team in spring 2011 for Neil Labute’s “Bash.” A few months later, they reunited to direct Freeman’s original play “Emanations,” which laid the foundation for Atomic Age. “There was a company feel to it, so we thought—let’s take the next step and make a company with these people,” Freeman says. The two uncovered a unique dynamic as they continued to work with each other. “Michelle has a style of working which very much contrasted mine, but at the same time complemented it. I do a lot of text work with the actors, whereas Michelle is physical and will get people into their body in a way that’s wonderful,” Freeman says. “We had a repertoire going and a common language, so we wanted to do more.” The pair also hopes to learn the rules of running a non-profit theatre company while they lead Atomic Age. Since more than two-thirds of the company’s in-
come comes from ticket sales and donations, they’re considered a non-profit. Roginsky notes the benefits of trying out the nonprofit theatre group model while in school. “It’s more of a process of learning how to navigate this non-profit world because I don’t think we’re going out on this limb knowing what we’re doing,” she says. Freeman agrees, hoping they can both learn the ins and outs of the process while still in the safety zone of college. Roginsky and Freeman describe past audiences composed mainly of friends, teachers, and the theatre crowd. “We’re trying to get a little bit outside the theatre crowd,” says Freeman. A principal way they’re doing this is by ensuring that at least half of the company’s executive board is non-theatre majors. Their hope is for people who are not normally theater-goers to come to their shows. “People who are like, ‘Theatre sucks because it’s boring,’ should be coming to see [shows like] ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Jesus’ because, for me at least, it’s so far out of sitting in a proscenium theater and watching people act,” Roginsky says. For both Atomic Age and Israeli Stage, the future is uncertain, but the dreams are big. “I hope that we can be a stage where all kinds of [Israeli] art and culture are featured,” Ben-Aharon says. “Israel has never had a cultural institute like the Goethe,” he hints, calling running an Israeli cultural center a “big boy dream.” Freeman and Roginsky don’t seem to have such elaborate plans in the works, but value every moment of the experiences they are having now. “It’s wonderful that we work with people that I know I will want to work with in the future,” says Freeman. Roginsky gets excited thinking about the future, knowing great things are in store. She says, “The way I see Atomic Age going—whether Jeff takes it over or I become the tyrant—I think my dream would be that whatever it becomes can follow us wherever we go.”