Shakespeare returns to the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport for the first time since 2006

By Wendy Killeen                                          
February 19, 2012

THE BARD IS BACK: Shakespeare is returning to the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport for the first time
since 2006.                                                                                                        

A $1,180 grant from the New England States Touring Program of the New England Foundation for the Arts is helping to underwrite the cost of presenting a performance of “Hamlet’’ by Shakesperience Productions on March 23.

Shakesperience Productions also will present two in-school workshops at Newburyport High School.
It will work with a local theater company, Anna Smulowitz Productions in Newburyport, to prepare young actors to present “A Midsummer Night’s Dream’’ May 24 to June 3 at the Firehouse.

Shakesperience, a nonprofit based in Waterbury, Conn., was founded in 1996 by Emily Mattina and Jeffrey Lapham to educate and inspire students, families, and theater professionals through the arts.
Under Mattina, the artistic director, and Lapham, executive director, Shakesperience has annually presented about 650 workshops and performances for approximately 70,000 students in some 70 Connecticut communities and elsewhere.

Visit firehouse.org or shakesperienceproductions.org.

Catching up with Proof director Suzanne Bryan

Suzanne Bryan is directing Proof an award-winning play by David Auburn at the Firehouse in March. Bryan began her directorial debut at the Firehouse with GB Shaw’s Saint Joan for Darkhorse Productions. She then went on to found Persephone Theatre and directed Amadeus, Arcadia, Master Harold and the boys, Wit and Fully Committed. Bryan also directed Our Town for the Firehouse. Her greatest joys were at Newburyport High School where she taught and directed fourteen productions including Noises Off, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest, On the Razzle, The Laramie Project, and the first Shakespearean productions at NHS -- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night. Last summer she directed the very popular Forbidden Newburyport here at the Firehouse. We caught up with Suzanne during rehearsals to get a few of her thoughts about directing Proof.

FH:  How did you happen to decide to direct this particular play at the Firehouse? 
SB:  I saw Proof in October 2001, a few weeks after 9/11. My then 15 year old daughter Lexie and I wanted to pay tribute to New York City and to honor Ground Zero.  So off we went to NYC and we saw four plays including Proof.  We were both riveted by the show—its exquisite writing, its thought-provoking yet universal themes, and of course the honest portrayal of its characters.  We laughed, we cried, we gasped; I remember we held hands as we sat on the edges of our seats. And since that time, I have wanted to bring this intelligent theater to Newburyport

FH:  As you go through the directing process how do you put your own personal stamp on the production?
SB:  As with all plays I direct, each rehearsal is devoted to finding all the kernels of truth that reside within each actor, within each character and within the text.  I usually just ask lots of questions and this helps guide the actors to finding their own truth themselves. We gradually peel back layer after layer; we talk and we understand more at each rehearsal; we understand more about the script, about the characters, and about each other.  If we are not honest, nothing will resonate with the audience; and our reason for being there is to resonate with the audience. Why is this so important?  Well it is why we do theater. So we connect in ways that bring us together with the audience-and ultimately, so we don’t feel so alone in the world. I have a dream cast!

FH:  How would you sum up the storyline of Proof?
SB:  The play deals with many intertwined themes of fathers and daughters, sisters, a tentative romance, of love, loss and yes, mental illness and genius.  But mostly it is about relationships.  As one astute reviewer stated: “proof is mostly about human relationships, suggesting that developing trust and love can be as difficult and just as uncertain, as establishing the truth of a mathematical proof.”

FH:  What has been your biggest challenge so far with this particular production?
SB:  Biggest challenges—well mostly technical. The set is large and complex and I am so grateful to firehouse usher and retired theater set designer/scenic painter, David Stawasz, who has designed a beauty; and to local carpenter Fred LaRouche for taking on this building challenge; to James Atkins for his wondrous artistic sense for lighting the show and to the amazing Bonnie Lake for costuming under impossible conditions—costume changes in the wink of an eye.  To be able to place my trust in these talented folk has been a huge relief. Dramatists Play Service has granted us the rights to use the gorgeous music as designed by John Gromada for the original Broadway production

FH:  Any final thoughts about how this play speaks to you personally?
SB:  Another challenge for me -- I have 50 years experience living with four siblings with mental illness.  So I have to restrain myself somewhat from interjecting my reality (onto cast members) too much.  A certain familiarity with a play’s theme can help—but it could become overbearing so I have to hold my tongue sometimes.  The actors have to find their own way through the text, through themselves-with some guidance.

FH:  Thank you Suzanne! This promises to be a very special Firehouse production. Because you have a great cast – we hope you break a leg… or two.

Proof stars:

Elizabeth Pasarilla (Beverly) – Catherine
Paul Wann (Newbury) – Robert
Jason Novak (Newburyport) – Hal
Mara Flynn (S. Berwick, ME) - Claire

Set Design: David Stawasz
Poster Design: Tim Hiltabiddle/Milestone Marketing

Proof by David Auburn will be at the Firehouse Center for the Arts March 8-18 (Thurs-Sat @ 8pm and Sundays @ 3p).  Tickets are on sale now ($22 Adults • $20 Students/Seniors • $19 Members) and may be purchased in person at the Box Office (Wed-Sun 12N - 5P), by calling 978/462-7336 or online at www.firehouse.org.
Group prices available – please visit the website for details.

Opening night special:  All tickets $13

Interview with Blown Away's Stacey April Fix

Good grief! She’s ‘Blown Away’ by ‘Peanuts’
by Rosemary Herbert, Newburyport Current / February 3, 2012

 Newburyport — Stacey April Fix is the writer and director of the Theater Workshop production of “Blown Away,” a musical based on Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic strip. Performed by an all-kids cast, the show runs Feb. 10-12 at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport. We caught up with Fix to ask her about her love of the “Peanuts” characters, why she adores working with children and more.

How did you personally develop a love of the Peanuts comic strip?

Like so many Americans, I grew up with the “Peanuts” comics and characters. I remember my brother had a Snoopy-themed birthday party when he turned 10. He had a Snoopy centerpiece that included Woodstock and Snoopy's doghouse. The comic strip has always had a presence in my life and I believe in most American lives. “Peanuts” shared my growing up years. The Charles Schulz book “Happiness Is....” was one that I would read over and over again. I saw the “Peanuts” characters; on TV, on special occasion cards, as ornaments on the tree. I feel honored to direct “Blown Away” as a tribute to the work of Charles Schulz. I have tried to stay very true to his point of view.

How did the title come about for your play, "Blown Away"?

Linus is faced with a dilemma. Lucy has made a kite out of his blanket and it has blown away.

Why do "Peanuts" characters have such enduring appeal?

It is easy to identify a part of yourself in every character. There is an element of truth that makes them all relatable and memorable.

Why do you like to see children play the roles of these characters?

All the Peanuts characters live in a world where we never hear from the adults. This is the way the characters exist in the comics; they are children.

What do you most enjoy about working with young actors?

I love directing young actors because I love to teach. I am excited by the director's opportunity and challenge to develop student talent, encourage confidence and respect for all that is acting and theater.

What do you find most exciting about staging a production in Newburyport?

The Firehouse Center for the Arts is where community comes together to share the joys of laughter, music and storytelling. It's a perfect venue for Theater Workshop because we specialize in producing the best possible shows for family theater.

Read the entire interview and more here!



© Copyright 2012 Newburyport Current.                 

Video of 10th Annual New Works Festival

The Firehouse Center for the Arts New Works Festival showcases works submitted by playwrights from all over the New England area which are selected by a panel of five judges, all well-known theater professionals, who participate in a blind judging-process.  In 2012 the festival celebrated its 10th anniversary thanks to the gifted playwrights, directors, and actors from the New England area who have contributed their talents each and every year. It is because of the dedication and accomplishments of the New England theatrical community that the Firehouse is able to celebrate such a notable mark in the Festival’s history  — it is not without hard work, creative participants and a Committee who continually has strived year after year to present an event that is fair and maintains high standards. Year after year the Festival continues to grow and has now become a respected venue for the nurturing of new theatrical works. 

Thanks to the Institution for Savings and Newburyport Today we are able to share with all of you this video made by Neal Ernstrom.  Since 2002 The Firehouse Center for the Arts and the New Works Festival have fostered the development of New England writers, directors, and actors. Providing insight on the play-writing process from conception to presentation, this festival allows us to share with the community a rare and special look at the abundant talent that surrounds us. Submitted plays are judged by an independent panel of theater professionals in blind readings. This year's panel consisted of five members of the theatrical community.

Artist finds her inspiration in a close call long ago

Paintings recall feeling of serenity after the rip tide
By Joel Brown Globe Correspondent / January 29, 2012

When the shouts and the screams faded away and she was alone out on the water where the rip current had carried her, Cheryl Dyment thought back to what she’d been taught in swimming lessons years earlier. The teenager lay on her back and floated.

The sun made the water sparkle like diamonds, and she could see the curvature of the earth. “I can smile when I think about it. [Floating] was a beautiful thing. I never felt scared; I never felt panicked. I was just appreciating being in the moment, I guess.’’

At least until an arm came out of nowhere and tried to grab her. The arm belonged to a lifeguard, who helped her back to shore with the aid of a tow rope and probably saved her life. According to Dyment’s recollection, several other people were also caught in the current on that sunny day in August 1969 at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, and one drowned. But she shook it off and went on with her life.

It wasn’t until 2009 that she realized how profound her experience alone on the ocean had been. A successful landscape painter in oils, she was used to beginning her paintings on scene, “en plein air.’’ But she changed track one day in her home studio in Middleton and decided to paint from memory a floater’s-eye-view image of sky and water.

That painting, “Regression (or the Day I Didn’t Drown),’’ was quickly followed by more. Now they make up the bulk of her exhibition, “The Importance of Floating and Other Lessons,’’ which opens at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport on Wednesday and runs through March 11.

The Good Harbor experience, she said, is “like this place that I can go back to, like a well, and just pull stuff out.’’

Told that the ripples at the center of “Regression’’ make it appear that she has, indeed, gone under, Dyment, who is 61, shrugged and smiled. “I was supported by the water,’’ she said, “but I felt like I was of the water.’’

Dyment grew up in Melrose. She and her friend, Mary Garden, then both 19, figured they could enjoy a warm Saturday at their favorite beach. Dyment brought along her 10-year-old sister, Beverly. Mary, who drove, brought her brother, Eddie, also 10. Eventually they left the kids to play on the sand and headed into the water.

Dyment soon felt the current pulling her away from shore. Remembering a safety lesson, she tried to swim parallel to it, but kept getting pulled away. She heard Mary getting pulled under, but what really scared her was when some “grown men’’ nearby began screaming for rescue as well.

“It seemed like an eternity,’’ she said, although she guesses she was in the water for a half-hour. “I went into a whole other place mentally.’’

She struggled at first when the lifeguard took her by surprise, she said. It was not easy to get back to shore, even with his help. She passed out briefly when she finally reached the beach. “I remember waking up and there were all these people looking at me.’’

But there were no further medical consequences, and Dyment was full of the resilience of youth. It wasn’t until the next morning, waking up in her own bed, that the significance of what had happened hit her: “Oh, my God, I almost drowned yesterday.’’

She went on to college that fall, then career and family. She married, had two boys, was active in her Danvers community. A little over a decade ago, remarried and her sons getting older, she decided it was time to jump into her dream of painting and signed up for classes at Montserrat College of Art. Eventually she and her husband bought the 1705 Deacon Edward Putnam Jr. House in Middleton and had a large, airy studio built on the top floor of the barn.

She still loves the water and Good Harbor Beach, and has gone back throughout her life.

There are a dozen paintings of water and sky in the “Floating’’ series now, some large and some small, and she is finishing three for the Newburyport show. Some have already been seen, including in a show at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. She’s had more than a handful of people want to tell her their own near-drowning stories.

“I think the work absolutely stands alone without the story, but when you know the story it becomes even more powerful,’’ said Firehouse gallery director Judy Hallberg.

Hallberg grew up along Lake Erie and “had great pleasure in pushing a log out as far as I could go, so I could barely see people on shore. It terrified my mother. And there was this great sense of being alone in the middle of nothing. I absolutely loved it.’’ She finds that same peaceful solitude in Dyment’s paintings.

Dyment’s sister Beverly has a less peaceful memory of that day. She saw the first painting by chance on a random visit to Cheryl’s website and told her in an e-mail that she almost fell off her chair with shock when she saw it:

“I should paint one with people lined on the beach in total disarray. I had the feeling of complete helplessness and the fear of losing my big sister . . . just crying and screaming for them to get you back safely. . . . I’m sitting at my desk in work with tears in my eyes, just thinking back to one of the worst days of my life. I’m sure way worse for you, but still very traumatic. Love Bev PS: I love the painting.’’

Joel Brown can be reached at jbnbpt@gmail.com.                    

© Copyright 2012 Globe Newspaper Company.