FOLLOWSPOT

FALL 2014

2015 Artistic Review

Information Inside!

From Page to Stage

Many actors know that putting on a hat or dress can suddenly bring a character to life; that a stage set can transport a cast

and audience deep into the world of a play. From costumes and sets to lighting

and sound, behind every theatrical production there's a cavalry of designers

working long before rehearsals begin.

There’s also an army of production and stage managers that secure rights, hire

directors, consult designers, manage budgets, run rehearsals, monitor scenic

and costume building, and supervise front of house and box office operations.

Each group harnesses their skill and imagination to create designs and

procedures that bring the playwright’s words from the page to the stage, where

the story takes flight.

For a look at the costume and scenic design process for Tisch Drama

StageWorks’ recent production of Troilus and Cressida, go to page two.

Creating a World in Conflict

During initial design discussions for Troilus and Cressida, I appreciated the idea that the Trojan War is the primitive example of all conflicts to follow. My objective was to create an abstract space that would represent such a nondescript world, while focusing on a rock-like surface that stood for the impenetrable Trojan wall.

The director, Tea Alagic, and I first looked at storyboards of each scene of the play. They’re illustrated in the photos below. Those images revealed how different levels could spatially separate the Trojan and Greek camps that are at war in Troilus and Cressida.

With the space defined, a final model was made to render the scenery in color and three dimensions. This allowed the production team and the cast to see a version of the final product while they worked in rehearsals and before they had a chance to perform with scenery in the theater.

Connor Munion, Scenic Designer

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Dressing an Ancient Warrior

Regardless of the budget, cast size, genre, or directing style, the steps that designers take to costume a show are often the same: research, sketch, find, buy, or build the costumes, and fit them to the actors. 

Of course, there are all kinds of meetings—design, production, shop, additional fittings, redesigns, cuts, edits, and changes—and all sorts of curve balls thrown into the mix that challenge and inspire us. Hence the design “process.”

For Troilus and Cressida, my research focused on ancient, tribal societies with prevalent female warriors. From there, as the photos show, we amalgamated the design of a soldier’s costume, sketched it, found some creative materials, and built it.  Liz McGlone, Costume Designer

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DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA CELEBRATING

40

YEARS OF PRODUCTION POSTER ART AT THE

NYU TISCH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

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Summer Fun with the Production and Design Studio

If you’re a high school student who loves to make theatre off stage, Tisch Drama has a new program just for you. In July 2015, the Production and Design Studio is introducing a summer course for young theatre artists who are passionate about design and production management.

In class, during four weeks living on the NYU campus, design students will explore skills like drafting, painting, scenery/props and costume construction, electrics and sound. Management classes will cover the principles of stage and production management.

Participants will attend Broadway and Off-Broadway shows and visit design shops of professionals working in New York City’s incomparable performing arts industry. The workshop will conclude with a presentation of an original theatre piece that draws on the skills learned over the summer.   

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A Message from the Chair

We’ve had a busy fall at NYU/Tisch Drama, with a host of productions on our main stage and in our ten professional training studio programs.

Some of the greatest excitement was generated by performances open to, or specifically for, new students. Our Twenty-Four Hour Play Festival featured over 200 Drama students in forty-three, ten-minute plays—all written, rehearsed, and performed in a twenty-four hour period. Our first ever New Student Open-Mic demonstrated that not only did we recruit a great crop of actors, singers, and dancers, but some terrific magicians and stand-up comedians.

It wasn’t just new students who joined our ranks. The department welcomed new faculty member Sebastián Calderón Bentin, an expert in Latin American Theatre and Baroque performance. In addition, the Tisch School of the Arts seated a new Dean, Allyson Green, who has had a long career as a choreographer, visual artist, curator, and arts educator.

With all the musicals, comedies, and dramas currently in rehearsal, it’s clear the winter will be just as jam-packed.

Edward Ziter Chair, Department of Drama

Be yourself!

Tisch Drama’s Director of Admissions offers some advice

So, you wanna be in Drama…

A couple of steps will get you there.

First, apply to NYU. Then, schedule an artistic review with the Department of Drama and let us get to know you!

Through the artistic review process, our goal is to learn where you are in your own artistic development. Is our program one in which you can grow and thrive and achieve your artistic goals?

When I think about the Department of Drama, I envision it as a very dense forest—an enchanted forest perhaps—with many different pathways through it. As a Drama student, you will wend your way through, experiencing a rich selection of training styles and techniques along the way, without knowing where you’ll land when you emerge. You will encounter all sorts of creatures along the way—painter-poets, actor-musicians, designers who write and directors who sing, and, of course, cute little gnomes and unicorns. Your forest rangers will be scholars who teach and artists who produce—all creatures who illuminate our minds, engage our passions, and create the world in which we live.

The excitement of the unknown and the thrill of allowing life to lead you through it to the known will keep you buzzing right along. If this electrifies and exhilarates you, we invite you to join our Drama community.

Check out the Web sites of both NYU Admissions and the Department of Drama. Forage for information. Plan a visit. Pop into a general information session and hop on a campus tour. Enhance your visit by including a departmental info session, too.

While you explore the enchanted forest of Drama, speak to the creatures you stumble upon. We call them “current students” and they won’t bite. It’s a friendly wood. Ask them how they are enjoying their own journey through. What advice might they have for you?

As one of your guides, I have a little advice for you. Each year, we have the privilege of meeting emerging young artists like you and hope to invite them to join us at Tisch for an exploration of the world through art. It is during the artistic review process that we discover just where they are in their artistic journeys. We’d like to understand your journey, too! And the best way for us to do that is for you to be yourself. We are looking for YOU.  Don't try to guess whom we might be looking for.  We want to get to know you the artist and you the person and determine if you are a good fit for the Department of Drama. Will you give us that opportunity?

We’ve asked some of our evaluators to offer advice for our applicants on how to be successful in their artistic reviews. I suspect their wisdom extends beyond our NYU Tisch Drama artistic reviews. If you, your family, or your teachers would like even more advice, we’d be glad to hear from you. Give us a ring at 212-998-1850 or drop us a line at tisch.drama.ug@nyu.edu. 

Here’s to you! 

Chris Andersson Director of Admissions

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Directing

Directing candidates sometimes worry that they don’t have enough experience to qualify for the program.  In fact, directing experience is of secondary importance; far more important is the candidate’s interest in all art forms. The best applicants often like to read (and write) fiction, or paint, or are musicians. Many are film buffs as well as avid theatre goers. It is the desire and interest to make art that we will be interested in talking to you about in your interview.   

Fritz Ertl, Senior Faculty, Directing, Playwrights Horizons Theater School

Singing

The most important thing to remember is that we want to see you. We want to get to know you through the music. Pick songs that you love to sing. Make sure they show your vocal range and are appropriate for your age. 

As you work on your material, explore these points: Why would I say these words? Who am I talking to and what do I want? We’re interested in your unique perspective and how you engage the material.  

Michael McElroy, Head of Vocal Performance, New Studio on Broadway

Production and Design           

What should you put in your portfolio? Include three or four projects that you are proud to present and that showcase your talents. Try to show us the arc of your overall experience—from initial ideas to research to sketches to photographs of the show. If you’ve done other work—Haunted Houses, lighting a friend's band, producing a fashion show, ceramics—put it in! Your portfolio represents the work you have done so far. We'll use that material as a jumping off point for fun conversation.

Chris Jaehnig Director, Production and Design Studio

Acting

When you walk into the room we know you are excited and nervous and in the zone. 

We know you want us to like you, to believe you are special and worthy and potentially Meryl Streep or John Tuturro. We know this because we have lived this too:  My first professional audition went very well. When I was through, however, intending to exit gracefully, I walked into a closet door. Right smack into it. I got the part but I spent a week re-living the horror of that moment.  

We know you have good and bad days and we are right with you, hoping this is one of your good days. We are trained to see beyond what you are able to do, good day or not. No matter how you think it went, once you leave that space, it is out of your hands. You did the best you could do on that day in that moment.  

Vicki Hart Director, Meisner Studio

Putting it Together

FollowSpot asked five evaluators for their advice about the Artistic Review process. A common tip: Breathe!

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Dance

Use your time wisely. While you wait to come into the studio, get your body ready to move. Do stretches, plies, even jumping jacks. Deep breathing exercises can help calm and focus. We will be looking at your ability to pick up and retain choreography but most importantly, how you celebrate movement. Come have a great time. Regardless of where you are in your training, show us that you love to dance and are not afraid of focused, hard work!

Byron Easley, Head of Dance for Music Theater, New Studio on Broadway

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TROILUSAND

CRESSIDABY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE DIRECTED BY TEA ALAGIC

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FollowSpot is published two times a year, Fall and Spring, by the Department of Drama of NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. The

newsletter is edited by Joe McGowan and designed by Andy Yanni. We welcome your comments and suggestions at

tisch.drama.ug@nyu.edu.

Department of Drama Tisch School of the Arts

New York University 721 Broadway, 3rd Floor South

New York, NY 10003

A Long, Strange Trip

There's no clear path from the Department of Drama’s Experimental Theatre Wing to the set of a daytime talk show. I could never have imagined that gyrating in various states of undress on the second floor of 721 Broadway would—somehow—be preparation for telling a midwestern housewife that she'd just won A NEW CAR! on The Price is Right.

My career has been a series of unpredictable spasms in unexpected directions. Among other jobs, I've created original stage works with New York City theatre legends and then hosted unspeakably bad reality TV shows. I've performed in theme parks, casinos, regional theaters, the wilds of Alaska, and the Australian Outback. I've also run a non-profit theatre company, picked up an MFA in writing, and mastered the art of reading a teleprompter.

It has, by any measure, been an interesting twenty years. During my time at NYU, no one could have told me the kind of wildly diverse career I was training for. Which, I guess, is for the best. Knowing would have taken all the fun out of the adventure.

JD Roberto NYU/Tisch Drama, 1992

How I Got My First Job

In October 2013, I auditioned for the Broadway production of The Book of Mormon. The show’s casting team had seen me perform in Ragtime at Tisch Drama and they called me in. After my audition, I didn’t hear from anyone so I was convinced I bombed.

Fast forward to April 2014, when I received an email from The Book of Mormon casting director asking if I’d like to come back. They were looking for an immediate replacement. I was like, “huh,” and gladly went to the callback. There were about sixteen people in the room—associate directors, producers, and the entire casting team. It was quite overwhelming.

A week and a half later, I received an official phone call from the company manager. I got the job! It was an awesome feeling. After only two weeks of rehearsal, I made my Broadway debut—on the night of my graduation from NYU/Tisch. It was such a whirlwind!

Dimitri Moïse NYU/Tisch Drama, 2014

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