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THE RECORD ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT MAY 4TH, 2018
Faculty by day, artists by night: exploring arts beyond school Eliza Poster Staff Writer For some faculty members, ambition extends beyond their school days to a pursuit of the arts in their free time. Lower Division teacher Jean Eifert can often be found in her classroom tending to the mathematical woes of her first-grade students, but by night, she is a leading lady at the City Island Theater Group.
Since becoming involved with community theater, Eifert has played countless roles as not only a performer, but also as a costume designer, director, playwright, and set designer, she said “I think acting, right now, is my primary passion because I really get to use my creativity on stage, and it’s nice for my friends and family to be able to participate in that, in being members of the audience,” Eifert said.
Courtesy of Mr. Ennis Smith
ON THE WRITE TRACK Mr. Smith reads his work at the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in Woodstock, NY during a writing residency.
Currently, she stars in ‘Suite Surrender,’ a comedy chronicling two feuding divas trapped in the same hotel room during the World War II era. For Eifert, who tends to act in dramas, this role was a change of pace, as she has to sing and portray a very “flamboyant” character, she said. Prior to coming to the school, Administrative Assistant to the Grade Deans Ennis Smith acted for 25 years and now focuses his creative energy primarily on writing, he said Smith explored blogging, was a features writer for a dance publication, and most recently has been working arduously on a memoir, he said. “There’s something about [creativity] that I require,” Smith said, “I probably sprang from the womb, not as an actor or as a writer, but as somebody who is looking for creative solutions.” For Film, Video, and Photography Teacher Jordan Rathus, this creative impulse has been pervasive throughout her entire life. She explores the performing arts through music, performance-based photography, and drawing, but mainly focuses on experimental film and video as creative platforms, she said. “When I was trying to figure out what to do with all my interests, I realized that film could actually combine all of them,” she said. Her film ‘That’s Why I’m Here’ is a 35-minute semi-fictional documentary which stars Rathus as a hopeless student on a journey of self-discovery and a search for an alternative lifestyle, she said. In the film, Rathus immerses herself in the cultures of Norway, Iceland, and the Hudson Valley,
Courtesy of Jean Eifert
TEACHER TURNED DIVA Jean Eifert poses with co-star Thomas Losito in the City Island Theater’s current production, “Suite Surrender.” visits naturally heated lakes, and sports traditional Nordic attire in an attempt to learn to be a Viking, she said. “I’m interested in making fun of the American perspective on foreign nations,” Rathus said. She chose to focus on Vikings because they are “the stereotypical cultural archetype for Scandinavia.” Visual Arts Department Chair Kim Do is mainly a landscape and portrait artist, whose work is displayed in the faculty dining room and will be exhibited in Art on 16 Gallery in Marion, Virginia later this year, he said To teach students art, teachers
must be practicing artists themselves to better understand the challenges presented by the creative process, he said. Similarly, for Theatre Arts, Dance, and Film Studies Teacher Alexis Dahl, partaking in playwriting along with her students enables her to empathize with them, she said. Dahl is currently collaboratively writing a play as an Associate Artist with ‘Daughters of Troy,’ a theater and visual arts company focused on the promotion of women in the theater industry, she said. Creating art is both an outlet and inlet, as it inspires her with new techniques to teach, Dahl said.
One Act, One Class, One Performance Mayanka Dhingra Staff Writer Excited whispers and nervous murmurs from aspiring playwrights filled the air of the Black Box Theatre until student and faculty volunteers began reading the student written “plays in one act.” All at once there was an attentive silence, followed shortly by an eruption of laughter and creativity energy. The one-act plays, written by students in the Upper Division
Playwriting and Production class taught by Middle and Upper Division theatre arts teacher Alexis Dahl, were read by volunteer actors for the first time on Monday after school. A play in one act may have multiple scenes, but it has one narrative arc, one central conflict, and one resolution of that conflict, Priyanka Voruganti (10), who is writing a thriller rooted in feminist ideals, said. The students wrote a series of
PLAY BY PLAY Play writing class discusses plays after reading student written works.
plays leading up to the performance, which helped them prepare for the reading, Ben Rosenbaum (11), a student in the class, said. Notebooks in hand, the students were eager to hear feedback from the audience. “My hope is that the students become more confident in what they have written,” Dahl said. From an artistic standpoint, the reading gives the writers the chance to truly hear what moments resonate with the audience versus those that still need more work, she said.
Jake Shapiro/Staff Photographer
An individual can cultivate any scenario in his or her mind, but a playwright must reflect his or her message in the text, Eliza Bender (10) a student writing a play on Soundcloud rappers, said. Administrative Assistant to the Grade Deans and one of the volunteer readers, Ennis Smith was on the edge of his seat throughout the whole reading, fascinated by the writer’s raw ideas, he said. Smith believes readings are crucial exercises that give writers the opportunity to pin down and refine their initial ideas, he said. It was an honor to be a part of that process, Smith said. “It’s one thing to read the work on the page, but it’s another thing to hear it being said out loud by another actual person,” Rosenbaum said. After all the plays had been read, the circle opened up for a discussion about the writers’ plays. Dahl asked the playwrights to consider specific questions intended to probe further into the text. Afterwards, audience members were welcome to respond in any way that speaks to what the writer is seeking, she said. The plays dealt with a broad range of ideas that included both comedic and serious storylines. Dahl gives the students creative leeway to write about what they are interested in – “there are no hard and fast rules,” she said. For Dahl, hearing the plays read aloud was a proud moment, she said. “Do you know that gratifying feeling when you experience something you
Juli Moriera/ Staff Artist
find so moving and you look around and see the experience was shared? That’s what it felt like,” Dahl said. As for the future of the plays, the Student Written One-Act Festival is held every other year. Students this year will be able to submit their plays in two years to be produced at the festival, Voruganti said. Dahl, who feels that she has been too close to the writing process as the class’ teacher to evaluate the plays, asked three published playwrights to read the plays without giving them the authors’ names, she said. After reading the plays, the professional playwrights will send feedback and rank the plays for production, Dahl said. Sometimes alumni come back to direct the production of their work, she said. Volunteer reader, Daniel Wolf (10), who played an aspiring Soundcloud rapper in Bender’s play, is excited to see the playwrights’ vision realized in the near future. “I hoped that I would be able to play Jeff in a proper production of the play and be a part of that satire,” Wolf said.