#flynnspace

Spring Awakening

by Christina Weakland, Education Director See FlynnArts' "Carrie, the Musical" in FlynnSpace from July 17-20, 2014. GET TICKETS. When Carrie, the Musical first premiered on Broadway in 1988, it quickly gained notoriety as one of the biggest flops in the history of musical theater, closing after only 16 performances, even earning pride of place in the title of a book about Broadway flops: “Not Since Carrie…” by Ken Mandelbaum. Since then the authors put a moratorium on performance rights – nobody could produce this show, presumably because it was so broken. Why did the ’88 production fail? Maybe it was the sexy chorus girls looking closer to 35 than 16, maybe it was their miniature togas (a miscommunication between authors and costumers – they were supposed to be inspired by Grease, not Greece!) Or maybe it was the fact that the physical production never quite found the heart of the story. Yes, Carrie is traumatized at school and at home, and yes telekinesis yields a fascinating and horrific revenge. But revenge is not what this story is about. It’s about kids, and why they do the hurtful, derisive things they do to one another…and how it’s possible to get beyond the need to fit in, and really see the commonality, really see each other. (As Sue Snell puts it in the show, “Once you see, you can’t unsee.” The lyric refers not to the horror of Carrie covered in blood on prom night, but to the fact that once our eyes are opened to injustice, once we recognize our unity with others, regardless of surface differences, we can’t go back to thoughtless victimization.) Enter Stafford Arima, NYC director who posed a reconceived version of the tale to the show’s original creators. They liked his vision, signed on, and re-wrote the bulk of the show to achieve new ends. It became darker, more serious. The “kids” were more clearly drawn as normal young adults, wrestling with the same insecurities and united in their desire to belong. We see the whole drama through the eyes of the one teen who survived (Sue Snell) and take her emotional journey from thoughtlessly unkind to regretful, to reparative, to horror-stricken, to grieving, to reflective.  The revival, produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, received rave reviews. Carrie was rescued from oblivion, and is now, finally, available to be produced by companies around the world. Our production is the Vermont premiere, and we are so excited to bring this important story to the Vermont community. Even more, we’re thrilled that Mr. Arima himself is coming up to Vermont to watch a rehearsal and work with our young actors on their approach to the piece. Carrie’s story, while complicated by the telekinesis factor, is sadly very relevant to today’s young people. Humiliation and ridicule are all too common elements of growing up in our society, and the implications can range from damaged self-esteem that impacts lifelong relationship patterns, to full-scale horror, like the massacres at Columbine and Newtown. School shootings have, in fact, become a norm in America; there have been over 74 instances in the past 18 months alone. Harassment and bullying are linked to 7 out of 10 of these violent events, and then of course there are those who turn their pain inward instead of outward, making suicide the second leading cause of death for middle and high school students. In our cast, more than one student has lost a classmate/close friend to suicide in the past year. The perils of adolescence are indeed high-stakes. Furthermore, today’s kids bully each other in ways that we could never have dreamed. Since the revival of Carrie is set in the present, we have decided to incorporate web and social media use as the tools of torture they can so easily become. A young person’s entire world closes in around them terrifyingly fast when Facebook and Snapchat deliver instantaneous public humiliation. When the derision of her peers starts to build up for Carrie, the social media landscape will explode around her, via projection. The tampon-attack will be filmed and streamed to YouTube. Queen Bee Chris Hargensen’s party will be promoted on Facebook but will be clearly (and publicly) only open to the cool crowd. Depressing stuff, huh? But I think what audiences will take from this production is the inspiration to do better, to affirm their humanity, to respect the dignity in each soul. I know that some of our youth actors are already making changes in their actions have come clean to one another about times they’ve behaved less than kindly, are recognizing their impact upon one another, and seeing their potential anew. I am hopeful that our students AND our audiences will take away that serving our own ends by hurting others, no matter how powerful those ends seem (belonging, eternal redemption), is never the right choice. I am hopeful that we all have room to grow in kindness. As Sue so pointedly asks, “What does it cost to be kind?” The FlynnArts Summer Youth Theater Program is a hidden gem. Drawing top talent from schools around the state, our students are so eager to grow, not just as people but also as artists, and their hunger is inspiring. Consequently, we teach them not just the music and the steps but also how to analyze the text, how to assess the stakes, how to pursue objectives with varied strategies and moment to moment tactics, etc. We are graduating seniors every year who are going on to the best musical theater and classical voice programs in the country, and although our program is young, I have no doubt that in a few years we will have some big stars to invite back to share their successes and tips with the next crop of young actors. In addition we want our physical productions to support the strong, authentic, acting work our young performers are demonstrating onstage. Artistry and innovation and challenge are important to our team; our productions are usually re-imagined reinventions of chamber musicals; last year’s Into the Woods was set in an attic, framed as a young child’s effort to come to terms with her mother’s death. Carrie will be no exception to our efforts not to merely replicate the original productions, but to find our own approach, and teach our young people about what it means to have something to say as an artist. Quality aside, what I love most about the program is the community these young people have built. Often theater kids can be the odd ones out in their own schools, but here they have found their people and have learned how to eschew jealousy of each other’s skills, to instead support one another with joyful mutual admiration. The impact on their self-esteem is enormous. It gives me incredible pleasure to see them travel sometimes as far as two hours away to see one another’s high school shows during the school year, and I chuckled with delight when I found that the boys had created a facebook group entitled “Show Bros.” We as a team choose to work with young people because we have great respect for the perils of adolescence (as Carrie so viscerally demonstrates) and we foster community because we know it makes a huge difference. We know that the powerful bonds formed in youth theater programs help young people to weather their own personal storms as they journey toward self-acceptance, self-confidence, and self-actualization. We invite you to join us this summer, and see what we mean!

FlynnArts provides this age advisory for CARRIE, THE MUSICAL: Although bloody, Carrie is not actually gory. (The blood is a cruel prank meant to humiliate Carrie about the onset of her period.) Overall this is a tale of bullying and supernatural revenge (which will take an abstract form in this production - no gruesome violence.) Carrie's mother also demonstrates an abusive parenting style that some children (and adults!) might find disturbing to experience in close proximity. That said, we think most youth aged 11+ can handle the content with a parent or guardian present to field questions, and the ultimate anti-bullying message of the piece is a vital one for middle- and high-schoolers to grasp.

by John Killacky, Executive Director The Flynn has a long-standing commitment to access and inclusion. In 2011, we received our second award from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and the METLife Foundation for our work in accessibility and inclusivity for artists and audiences with disabilities. This year, the Surdna Foundation gave the Flynn a three-year grant to continue this kind of programming and outreach. The grant is augmented by support from The Gibney Family Foundation and Courtney and Victoria Buffum Family Foundation, as well as generous local foundations and individuals. Marcus Roberts & The Modern Jazz Generation (MainStage, October 24)Preeminent jazz pianist Marcus Roberts is in residence at the Flynn from October 20-24, which culminates in two performances with his 12-piece band, one for students and one for the general public. While in residence, Roberts visits multiple communities including Burlington’s Integrated Arts Academy and the University of Vermont Big Band. In addition to being a jazz genius, Roberts, blind since age five, has made extraordinary breakthroughs in the development of adaptive technology that enables blind composers to write complicated musical scores. The Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired is one of the Flynn’s community partners for the residency. Large Braille programs and audio descriptions are available at both the student and evening performances and an online study guide is available for teachers, parents, and homeschoolers. Thodos Dance Chicago (Thursday, February 5)As part of our Student Matinee Series, Thodos Dance Chicago performs its beautiful A Light in the Dark based on the lives of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. The Flynn is excited to give students a new way to look at The Miracle Worker—as a dance piece rather than a theater piece—and open lines of understanding about differently-abled populations and art-making. Planned residency activities include an onstage “touch tour” of the sets, props, and costumes for the visually impaired. Pre-show workshops are devised in collaboration with VSA Vermont and the UVM Deaf/Blind Project (part of the Vermont Sensory Access Project at the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion), to give audiences a stronger line into understanding both contemporary dance and the experience of having impaired sight and hearing. The performance is audio-described for the blind and visually impaired and interpreted in ASL for the deaf and hearing impaired. An online study guide is available as well. “Schoolhouse Rock Live!” (Sunday, February 15)This adaptation of the Emmy-winning ‘70s Saturday morning cartoon series is presented as an autism-friendly performance: the content remains the same,teacher nervous about his first day relaxes by watching TV, characters appear and show him how to win over his students using imagination and music. The Flynn worked with the artists in the touring company and the National Autism Theatre Initiative of Theatre Development Fund to learn how to create a supportive environment for audience members diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder or other sensory issues. We also convened a local advisory group that chose this particular performance, and will work with us to spread the word statewide. This is an inclusive performance to which all family audiences are invited. In FlynnSpace Mat Fraser & Julie Atlas Muz: “The Freak and the Showgirl” (New date: Thursday, January 8)Mat Fraser and his wife Julie Atlas Muz bring their provocative, adults only, burlesque spectacle The Freak and the Showgirl, asking us to leave political correctness at the door as they challenge perceptions on disability and the body. Born with a thalidomide syndrome of shortened limbs, Mat has long been a disability activist on stage and in film as an actor and musician. Their cabaret extravaganzas have been seen in London, Seattle, Holland, Portugal, Baltimore, Adelaide, Leeds, Liverpool, New York, and Key West. Terry Galloway: “You Are My Sunshine” (Saturday, April 11)Terry Galloway brings her autobiographical one-woman show, You Are My Sunshine, about her transition from deafness to suddenly being able to hear after receiving a cochlear implant. For decades, Galloway has been deaf activist and her performance art has been produced internationally. You Are My Sunshine explores the struggles and revelations of a person thrust into a new world of sound after 40 years of deafness. In addition to her performance, informal community gatherings are planned with the LGBT and deaf communities, and Galloway will do a reading from her bitingly humorous memoir Mean Little Deaf Queer. In the Amy E. Tarrant GalleryIn association with the GRACE Gallery in Hardwick, next June the Flynn exhibits the work of artist and autism advocate Larry Bissonnette. A high fever at the age of two damaged his nervous system and he was institutionalized as a child, but now lives with his sister. Bissonnette has been drawing prolifically since the age of five. His work is exhibited nationally and internationally and is in the permanent collection of the Musée de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland and in many private collections. He has been a featured presenter at many educational conferences and has written and spoken on the topics of autism, communication, and art. Three disability related films on the work of Larry Bissonnette, Mark Utter, and Gayleen Aiken will also be screened. Universal Design for LearningThis season, the Flynn continues its work with VSA Vermont and Burlington City Arts providing professional development for teachers and teaching artists’ residencies at the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington. A component of this training focuses on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in relation to arts-integrated curriculum. UDL is a set of curriculum development principles that considers multiple learning styles in order to give all individuals equal opportunity to access learning in intentional and meaningful ways. These are particularly relevant for students with physical and cognitive disabilities.

by Barbara Williams Sheperd, Burlington Writers Workshop Soovin Kim & Fred Child join Alexi Kenney, Yoo Jin Jang, Steven Laraia, and Jin Lee in FlynnSpace on Saturday, September 27 at 8 pm. Get tickets at www.flynntix.org. The words “young artist” caught my attention as I scrolled through the Flynn Theatre’s impressive Calendar of Events recently. Working thirty years in Vermont schools, most of them as a high school counselor, I’ve been delightedly entertained by thousands of talented and aspiring young people. I sat through decades of concerts and recitals, and even was the guest of one remarkable young man when he won the Jon Borowicz Memorial Scholarship and played a violin concerto at the Barre Opera House with the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra. I often remark to friends that if one wants to see the development of a soul, one only needs to watch the freshmen in any high school performing group and see their confidence grow in the next two to three years. But, with all the raw talent around us, few have the motivation and self-discipline to put in the time, practice, and become really great. My own daughter, Sarah, did me proud. She graduated from high school, and to the surprise of both of us, went off to college and was discovered to have a talent for singing opera. She morphed into a very credible young opera mezzo and sang for ten years on the big stages throughout the country, and even in London. So, I’ve been in some grand halls and heard some beautiful music, which in no way qualifies me to say anything about a musical genius like Soovin Kim. At the risk of sounding naïve and un-informed, I admit that I first became aware of Souvin Kim this past summer when I came across a schedule for the Champlain Chamber Music Festival at the Ellie Long Center. Mr. Kim’s nine day program for instrumentalists, vocalists and composers, saturates Burlington with high quality chamber music and shines a spotlight on young performers. I made a few inquiries of artistic acquaintances in the Burlington area, and it turns out that Mr. Kim and I have mutual friends. I am told that he grew up in Plattsburgh, NY, and played with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. One friend remarked that Mr. Kim is a very nice person, a talented, humble man. Surely, using his talent to lift the careers of others speaks to the purity of his character. Soovin Kim and his colleagues, along with Fred Child from VPR, are at the Flynn on Saturday, September 27 at 8 pm. It’s sure to be an unforgettable evening.

by Barbara Williams Sheperd, Burlington Writers Workshop Review of Soovin Kim and Fred Child with Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival musicians on September 27, 2014. I made the long drive into Burlington on Saturday to attend the Souvin Kim concert at the Flynn. It was a warm, balmy evening—unusual, but welcome weather for late September. It’s been a long time since I was on Church Street on a Saturday night. The streets were jammed. People were dining at outside tables or just milling about visiting with acquaintances. Music from several different cafes competed for attention. The windows in the clubs along Main Street near the Flynn were open to the street and happy celebrants, probably mostly college kids, filled the area with an energy that only the young truly understand. As I waited for the box office to open, I shared a stoop with a young man who had an alternative look but a good heart. Sitting there, I noticed how dirty the sidewalks appeared and wondered if the city ever asks the fire department to hose them down during the night. I had thought I was going to the Flynn theater, but found the concert instead at FlynnSpace next door, a level down and having the characteristics of a black box theater. I’ll admit that when the two young women from the quartet arrived in beautiful ball gowns, I wished to transport all of us to a lovely old opera house or cathedral, something like the Haskel Opera House in Derby Line. But what the black box lacked in ambiance it made up for in community. The space filled quickly, and the chairs were close together for the sold-out venue. Waiting for the concert to begin, people were chatting happily. There was a great sense of camaraderie and enjoyment in the air. This doesn’t often happen in a big hall. I am not qualified to critique the concert, and I won’t even try. I will say that from the moment Soovin Kim took the stage to introduce the young artists until the last note was sounded, I found the music exquisite, delightful, truly amazing. Fred Child opened his remarks with this quote, taken from a letter Mendelssohn wrote to Marc-Andre Souchay: People often complain that music is so ambiguous, and that what they are supposed to think when they hear it is so unclear, whereas words would be understood by everybody. But for me it is exactly the opposite, and not just with whole discourses, but also with individual words, which seem to me so ambiguous, so unclear, so liable to misunderstanding in comparison with good music, which fills the soul with a thousand things better than words. On this matter, I agree with Mendelssohn. Fully satisfied, I made the long journey home to Derby.

by Erin Duffee Slovenian dancer Jurij Konjar performs Steve Paxton's Bound in FlynnSpace on Thursday, November 6 at 7: 30 pm. Get tickets at www.flynntix.org. This Thursday evening, Steve Paxton and Jurij Konar will present a re-staging of Bound, a solo dance originally choreographed and performed by Paxton in 1983. The piece combines improvisation with set dance sequences, performed within a theatrical framework. “Bound,” is an exploration of the dancing body and the cultural perspectives that strive to define it. The desire to transcend the confines of artifice in performance has been a long-running theme of Paxton’s work. For those who are unfamiliar with him, this performance will be an excellent introduction. Steve Paxton was a pioneer of the post-modern dance movement of the 1970s. As both a solo artist and a founding member of Judson Dance Theater in NYC, Paxton explored the dimensions of experimental movement and performance with great dedication. His interest in the principles of physics and motion inspired much of his early work, including the development of Contact Improvisation. Contact Improvisation is a “movement dialogue” between two or more people, initiated by a shared point of contact, which traverses the body, leading to various exchanges of weight. The expression of this form can be quite subtle or rigorously acrobatic depending on the dancers involved. Paxton’s interest in every day movement mechanics also generated a new appreciation for “pedestrian” influence in modern dance choreography.  His movement vocabulary often included fragments of natural, every day movement and the popularity of his work opened up a world of possibilities for dancers and choreographers at the individual level. Paxton’s contributions to the development of modern dance are immensely significant and the opportunity to see his work in a theater as intimate as the FlynnSpace is very unique. For more information regarding Paxton and his past works, visit the Flynn’s Amy E. Tarrant Gallery before the show, where you can view a photo installation of his work at Bennington College and enjoy a pre-show talk with local choreographer Polly Motley, and Steve Paxton himself (Thursday, November 6 at 6 pm).

by Sharyl Green Review of Congo and Mozambique dancers Faustin Linyekula and Panaibra Gabriel Canda in Look Back, Dance Forward: Tales of Home in FlynnSpace on Friday & Saturday, October 31 & November 1. The beauty I experienced emanating from Faustin Linyekula’s body as he danced and spoke last night propelled me to his workshop this afternoon. Every muscle in his face, the engaged eyes, the richness of his voice, I leaned forward in my seat to get closer to him. I did not want him to leave us. At the Q and A he turned the questions back to us – what did we see? One woman suggested the top speed motion, every muscle in his body dancing simultaneously reminded her the older she gets, the more time seems to speed up. A man was reminded of being six and fishing with his father. Faustin mentioned his own father often in this piece.  I wanted to spend more time in his presence. Faustin’s workshop began with the circle of our names and Faustin’s deliberate work to learn them before we began to move. Our name was connected to a light gaze toward each of us. We moved through a sequence of massaging our own hands without looking at them, then arms and shoulders, adding some expression there as we worked. In partners we stood one behind the other to massage temples in turn, practice a drop and rise forward with the weight of our heads lofted, carried in a new way – “marionette-like” - able to stay up from many points. Moving again we swept an arm up the back of our heads to encourage this lofted feeling, then practiced opening the space between our neck and shoulders as we danced. Next came thinking about the space our arms were moving into as a rich extended place. Back with our partner we helped with a torso shift that complimented our lofted heads and soon we were moving with a new sense of height and direction from the breastbone. Our feet stayed soft, and we shifted direction as we moved through the room with all this new information. Faustin described improvisation as person-specific, dancers are not interchangeable. Next we thought about how we could be communicating with our dance – figuring out something for ourselves, moving with someone else in our minds, relating to other dancers on the floor with us, and finally communicating with an audience. Singly we danced for the others in the class – up close, midway into the space, then as far away as the space allowed, so we as dancers could think about that, and also as audience we felt the difference. We thought about how we chose to enter the space, transition in the space, and leave the space. Then we thought about our intention in the dance, did we mean what we were dancing, and the practice there was with our eyes, our gaze.  Three choices - gesture and the eyes followed, cast a gaze and the gesture followed the eyes, or do them simultaneously. With each layer of added information, Faustin danced to demonstrate and we saw all his beauty emerging, sometimes he danced with us, sometimes he was watching. There was never any judging, no comment about how we took to the new direction, the added, nuanced awareness. He simply worked and reflected about how he could get us to increase our movement expression. He was present with us every moment of those two hours. It was a beautiful gift he gave to us. And tonight when I watched Panaibra Gabriel Canda dance I could see all that I had learned with Faustin. Panaibra’s eyes were so alive and worked to lead and to follow gestures and sometimes the eyes and the gesture were simultaneous. Each had strength to offer. He was ever present, directing his movements with a strong head and chest – always lofted and the arm gestures were so deliberate and varied. I saw arms moving in ways I never have before. His movement determination was fierce and centered and ever-changing with each new vignette. The interaction musically, rhythmically, sometimes simultaneous, sometimes sparky - between Jorge and Panaibra - was fresh and inventive. The spoken word ignited the dance as well. As Faustin said in the workshop, in performance you first establish where you are, make your connection with the audience, then you can take them to the moon, and be sure to leave them with a wrap of some kind – maybe set them down gently, I’d say. And they each did that so beautifully. Tonight, after Panaibra and Jorge, we leapt to our feet, clapping madly, a spontaneous, heart-felt response to their successful effort to show us how one looks humanity square on, nothing held back. Thank you to Steve MacQueen and Madeline Bell of the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts for bringing them to us. I am richer for the dance wisdom of Faustin and Panaibra.