Follow up with Samantha Sheehan

This showcase was a great opportunity for me to reconnect with the Empty Chair community. There's nothing like an intense schedule to make a team! Artistically, this showcase helped me to pinpoint my weaknesses as an actor and have fun doing it. More importantly, as Elizabeth pointed out, with such a limited time to put something together we all realized how dependent we were on our fellow cast members to create a good show. The short process made for a lot of laughs and fun, but also a supportive ensemble. Our performance aside, I am proud of Caroline, Elizabeth, and the whole Miscalled Simplicity team for supporting Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Many thanks to those who came out and supported us!

Thank you

Thank you everyone who came out to Miscalled Simplicity! We had two good nights (Thursday was really packed) and with your help we were able to raise $500.00 to donate to Susan G Komen for the Cure. 

Rehearsal Photos

Our big event went over quite successfully! Thank you to everyone who came out to support us!

Keep Checking back for some wrap up comments from the cast and crew about the benefit. 

Here are a few behind the scenes rehearsal photos of the crew working Henry 6 and Twelfth Night: 

Map to the Lyon Park Community Center

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Location Reminder

Tonight's performance of "Miscalled Simplicity" takes place at the Lyon Park Community Center, 414 N. Fillmore St (the corner of Fillmore and Pershing) in Arlington. Come for good theatre and delicious (free!) baked goods.

PHOTOS !

Being Domestic- Making Cookies for the Showcase Performances 

Rehearsal photos, Sam, Elizabeth and Matt

Matt and Caroline rehearsing a scene from the Tempest

Matt as a patient log man. 

Rebecca, Caroline, Sam and Matt doing Text Work 

"Miscalled Simplicity" Opens Tonight!

We are so excited to see you all at the showcase tonight and tomorrow. Come out, help us celebrate women in the arts, and join in the fight against breast cancer.

Becca Weighs In on Day Three

Today was our last full day of rehearsal before opening tomorrow and needless to say it was an action packed and productive day.  My day began in a frenzy of baking several batches of cookies while scenes from “Taming of the Shrew,” “Twelfth Night” and “The Tempest” were rehearsed in the next room.  Then I had to quickly clean the cookie dough off of my hands and launch into rehearsal for my scene from Henry VI, part 1.  I have known our director Elizabeth and my scene partner, Matt Minnicino for five years now (wow).  So, while I’ve never acted with Matt and Elizabeth has never directed me, I have felt so comfortable in rehearsal these past three days.  Elizabeth knows me, and all my bad acting habits, so well that she is easily able point out what’s wrong and helps me fix it in a matter of minutes.

 Working on Miscalled Simplicity has felt a lot like coming home.  Yes, it’s been an opportunity for me to spend time with old friends, but I’ve also had the opportunity to work with several people I barely knew before now.  It’s been comforting to see this ensemble come together around a common goal and shared passion for Shakespeare.  I forget sometimes that this community is so strong and it’s always nice to be reminded  

Samantha's Take on Day Three

Today we had a cooking party! I walked into rehearsal and was greeted by the wonderful smell of baking chocolate chip cookies. We spent the day "being domestic" as Elizabeth put it and making delicious goodness for showcase guests. Some of them we have termed "crisps," as it is a more fitting label than "cookies," but we did take care of most of those to spare our attendees the crunch.

We began rehearsal today with a work-through of our opening scene (from Taming of the Shrew). Over the course of this rehearsal, which was all together too restrained at the outset, I was told to throw a temper tantrum, Mark was told to pick up Matt (but not like a princess, as was the original method), and Caroline was told to "act less." Ah, direction. All in all, it was an excellent time, and we actually had quite a bit more fun with that scene by the end of rehearsal than we had at the beginning.

Next came Twelfth Night: poetry, schmaltz, and guitar playing lulling melodies in the background. But with humor and invisible rose petals. After that, Adriana's monologue from The Comedy of Errors: Elizabeth and Becca worked on the extraordinarily rapid transition between Adriana vituperating her husband and pleading for his continued affection.

The Tempest scene was adorable. Elizabeth introduced us to the technical term for a theatrical illness: "the Disease of Pauses." She rapidly cured it and is sure to be known worldwide as a medical marvel within the coming decades.

We also picked our costumes today and did a stumble-through! The costumes took about fifteen minutes and were easy and colorful. The stumble-through also went amazingly smoothly, and we stopped only to plan entrances and exits. It took so little time that we were left with hours to figure out music to be used in the performance. Fiona Apple and others will be the basis for our serenades. :) Rehearsal ended on a musical and mellow note.

Day Two with Matt and Mark

MATT

I’m sharing today’s post with fellow Showcase-actor Mark Tucker.

I’m always fascinated by working with Elizabeth – this will be my third time and it’s always a great learning experience. Even for a process as short and as (comparatively) small-scale as this showcase, she insists on a high level of dedication to every line, movement, inflection, etc. while rehearsing. While working on a scene from The Tempest, Elizabeth goaded us (me and actress Caroline Brent, playing Ferdinand and Miranda respectively) to make honest discoveries about the characters and avoid the normal histrionics of Shakespeare. Elizabeth is always wary of actors working too much “in their heads,” which is something I think [and hope] any aspiring actor would appreciate. Rehearsal atmosphere with Elizabeth is always interesting and fun. By request, I won’t speak of some of the more amusing events of the day.

On a random personal note: it was strangely comforting to jump into a role I’d played before for Empty Chair (I was lucky enough to play Richard in Elizabeth’s Richard III in 2008). In the showcase scene from Henry VI, Part III, Richard is only a creepy bystander to the actual conflict of the moment, acted out brilliantly by Mark (as King Edward) and Lee Havlicek, but Elizabeth encouraged me to rehash the physicality she had dictated for the same character years ago, which was a way to instantly recreate the character. It was a nice stroll down memory lane.

 MARK

I’ll be finishing the second half of this wonderful shared blog post.  Today I worked on the Taming of the Shrew scene, with Samantha Sheahan and Caroline Brent.  We ran over it several times, really working on listening to each other.  As Matt already mentioned, we worked on the Henry VI, Part III and, despite me having an awful time listening to the simple direction of “walk here, now,” it went extremely well.  Lee, playing Lady Grey, was able to do some excellent scene work despite my bumbling around the space.  We also made decisions about four of Shakespeare’s beautiful sonnets, which we are incorporating into the Showcase.

While I wasn’t working on scenes, I had a wonderful time watching everyone act, direct, laugh, and occasionally cry (but only when the scene called for it.)  Every person working on this production loves the work we are doing, which makes watching everything come together, surprisingly quickly, an absolute treat. I’m sure everyone who gets the chance to come out to the Showcase will see all of the passion involved in the process appear on stage.

Women We Admire

Literary Associate Joan Cummins on the woman who inspires her: 

The woman who inspires me most right now in the theatre field is Monica Payne, a graduate student in directing here at UCLA. Intelligent, unafraid to stand up for herself, driven, and downright fiery, Monica makes me wish I had such steel in me. I really admire her ability to continue working until she gets what she needs, whether it's out of a curriculum that can be overly rigid, out of the production manager who insists there isn't space to do a pre-show warmup, or out of actors who are young and struggling. But within all that strength, there is a beautiful glowing heart, which leaves tendrils of light on those she connects to. She cares deeply for her actors, for her show, and for those around her. She offered to help me through difficulties I'm currently having with the curriculum, extending a hand of care and friendship which has been extremely valuable to my psyche, if nothing else.There is such grace within her, accompanied with such strength. She is also immeasurably talented as an artist, and I look up to her as a model for being a woman in the arts who can create, and do so successfully, with passion, confidence, and drive. Monica is the kind of woman that makes womanhood worth celebrating.

 

Some pages and some pillows: Day One in Showcaseland

Hi everyone! This is Katie Logan. I am the Director of Education for Empty Chair, and I'll be posting sporadically this week to give you an observer's perspective on all that's unfolding in rehearsals for the showcase. Here's a taste of today's rehearsals:

The proceedings would have startled any visitor to the rehearsal: actors with pillows in hand pummeling a couch. Wallops, whacks, and womps ensue for several minutes before the cast, breathing a bit more heavily, resumes its work on a scene from Henry VI, Part 1. 

The slumber party-reminiscent warm-up was not the only unusual part of today’s preparations for the Minds Wide Open showcase, opening on Thursday night. The cast doesn’t get into the space until a few hours before the first performance, so rehearsals spaces are more makeshift--the great outdoors (when it doesn’t rain), a cozy living room. Without a formal space or elaborate props, the rehearsal I watched today focused on the most important tools we have at our disposal as a young company of good friends--our curiosity about powerful pieces of text and our respect for one another’s talents. As Empty Chair has spent the last year dreaming and reaching bigger, today’s work, all the laughter and discussions, felt like a return to our roots. The energy bouncing off the walls (and off the couches in the form of fluffy pillows) bodes well for the rest of the week. 

Look for my posts later in the week!

KML

Day One, An Actor's Perspective

Company member Samantha Sheahan discusses her first morning of rehearsals for the showcase:
"Today began with rehearsal for The Taming of the Shrew. I'm playing Kate (Katharina), Mark is Petruchio, Caroline is Hortensio, and Matt is our Vincentio. After trying the scene for about two minutes, Elizabeth had me play one of her favorite "games," soon to be a feared activity for me. She had me hit the couch on her porch with a pillow, with all my strength, until I was "more on my breath." Well, I was definitely out of breath when I finished. Then we could actually start rehearsing. The scene we're doing, 4.5, is all about Kate learning to play Petruchio's twisted game of manipulating the world to fit his fancies-- but learning how to play it in a way that is fun for her, too. Petruchio has to learn how to deal with Kate's way of playing. We spent about an hour trying to strike the balance between power struggle and play, and I think we got something fun out of it by the end.
     Next, we rehearsed Twelfth Night 2.4, a scene in which Viola, disguised as a male servant, pines after the Duke Orsino, and Orsino pines after Olivia, confiding his musings in his lovesick servant. This scene went much more quickly. My favorite moment was probably when we were debating what to do with an invisible rose on stage: should Matt (Orsino) pluck it, or just twirl his finger through the air and watch it spiral to the ground? Needless to say, we talked somewhat about the schmaltz and poetry of the scene. But there's also a great element of awkwardness to it, which brings out the comedy in a more obvious way."
We'll hear more from Samantha later in the week!

Meet an Actor: Matthew Minnicino

Full name: Matthew Isaac Minnicino

Born: October 27, 1989

School: University of Virginia, Class of 2012

Have you ever been involved with Empty Chair before this event?
Joined Empty Chair Winter of 2007 (acting and editing the Winter Season production of The Taming of the Shrew)


What about this project excites you?
I'm excited for this project because I usually hate things like this -- Showcases -- but I know that a company like Empty Chair will make it a unique, cohesive, and enjoyable experience like no other. More than that, I'm really looking forward to bonding with a cast of incredibly talented people I've worked with before, but in a closer-knit setting. And this is the first time I've ever done a show for a charity.


What pieces are you working on for the show?
Vincentio; Gloucester; Orsino; Suffolk; Ferdinand


What do you love about theatre? What does it mean to you?

For me, theatre has always been about relationships. Art, at its core, is the relationship between artist and concept, between concept and audience, between audience and artist. Theatre, one of the few truly fluid, living art forms, is the purest expression of the bond between the spectator and the creator. I believe that theatre is one of the purest things in the art world if properly executed, able to use either humor or pathos to pull outsiders into a completely different world in a way that other art forms can only do in varying degrees. When I try my hand at creating theatre, I always work towards building new and powerful worlds with characters and staging, exciting, dangerous, or simply absurd. The beauty of theatre is how alive it is, how much of a risk it takes by its very nature. Onstage, I am a firm believer that every gift that can be given or accepted should be, and actors, directors, and audience members should embrace the wild variables of breathing art with open arms.



Tell us a little about you:

I was born and bred in Leesburg, Virginia, lucky enough to be brought up by two people who loved theatre and art with the same passion that I do now. I started working with Shakespeare (at parental encouragement) very early on, and was acting in it voraciously by middle school. I consider my participation the American Shakespeare Center’s Young Company a turning point in my artistic life—after performing in it from 2005 to 2008, I began a much more serious pursuit of theatre and literature. I am currently studying English Literature (with a Shakespeare/Early Modern focus) and Theatre Arts at the University of Virginia.



Career highlights:
Directing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), playing Richard in Empty Chair’s Richard III, playing Doctor Chasuble in a UVA student production of The Importance of Being Earnest, and a career-defining double-role as a female prostitute and a lecherous septuaginarian in the Young Company’s Henry IV, Part II, under direction of Benjamin Curns. I also enjoy long walks on the moonlit beach, with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a copy of “Troilus and Cressida.”

Sonnets

Outreach Director Caroline Brent on the Sonnets: 

When Elizabeth and I were first planning this showcase, we knew that we wanted it to be about strength. Most of our choices in sonnets focus on overcoming obstacles, Sonnet 66 especially. Sonnet 66 is an expression of the trials and tribulations one has to forge through in order to do what one loves. The line “And simple truth miscalled simplicity” has always stuck out to me because it carries so much weight. I think that there are plenty of simple truths out there that are incredibly complicated. Some of the simplest things, like telling someone you love them, are often the most complex and the most difficult to say. I think sometimes as a woman in the arts it is easy to be pigeonholed or compartmentalized, and we are always striving to break out of that. We need to show people all of the layers and facets that we as artists bring to our work.

 Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And guilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly doctor-like controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
   Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
   Save that, to die, I leave my love alone. 

Sonnet 140 really stood out to us because of its emphasis on teaching and learning and the blurred line between the two. The final line pulls everything together – you have to be strong and continue on while still carrying an awareness of the world around you, even if your path ends up being very narrow. We all face times when we feel that “this ill-wresting world is grown so bad”, but what is most important is that we do not forget all the spirit and joy that remains close by.

Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain;
Lest sorrow lend me words and words express
The manner of my pity-wanting pain.
If I might teach thee wit, better it were,
Though not to love, yet, love, to tell me so;
As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,
No news but health from their physicians know;
For if I should despair, I should grow mad,
And in my madness might speak ill of thee:
Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,
Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be,
That I may not be so, nor thou belied,
Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.

Poster Art

Lee Havlicek on the poster:

I took this photo a few months ago and it has been kicking around in my brain ever since. The poster is actually a crop of a larger photo. There's not any truly solid reason why I should like it as much as I do, but it's one of my favorites.  I really like her expression- particularly her eyes and how bright they are, as well as the patch of light on the wall behind her, which is a little harder to see in the poster because I played around with the image a bit. I also think a person's hands are one of the most interesting parts of their body- hands and eyes, really. So the fact that you can see both in this photo and that they say a lot about someone catches my attention. The light and the fact that there's something a little bit off about the photo- a little unpolished are what I like most in it. Those are really two things that I love about photography- catching moments of light and moments that are in-between- that aren't constructed or purposefully projected. Those are the photos that really mean something to me. I showed this poster and a few others that I created, some shot specifically for the show, to a bunch of people and nearly everyone I showed the different options to picked this particular one. Everyone saw something a little different in it. Didactic art is nearly as interesting or effecting, so to me, that's really important- even in a poster. 

Women We Admire

In addition to being a Fundraising Event for Susan G Komen, Miscalled Simplicity is also participating in a VA State Wide celebration called Mind's Wide Open which "honor[s] contributions by women to arts and culture." 

EC Company Members and Actors were asked to briefly respond to the following question: Who is a woman in the Arts who has or is an inspiration to you? 

Katie Logan, Empty Chair's Head of Education, was the first to respond: 

This year, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman in the Academy's 82-year lifespan to take home the Oscar for Best Director.  Sure, the media can spin her success in the most delectable of ways: "Female Director bests co-nominee and ex-husband to make Oscar history." The artist who took the stage to accept this honor, however, spoke poignantly about the film she had created. Rather than writing a storyline for herself, Bigelow focused on the story she and her team told in The Hurt Locker. Her unique treatment of war--a topic so often off-limits to women in the arts--quietly reminded us that conflict affects everyone, men and women on both sides of the fighting. The Hurt Locker's protagonists defuse bombs for the U.S. military; Bigelow nonetheless insists on portraying the Iraqis in the film as the humans they are. Spending months in Jordan with her production team, she took the time to understand how it feels to live a daily routine in the midst of violence. The ferocity and intensity of her finished product is matched only by its astute observations and almost lyrical storytelling. 

I admire Kathryn Bigelow for her willingness to let a single image say more than a page of words ever could. I admire her dedication to a project with a difficult shoot and a limited budget. And, perhaps most importantly, I admire her refusal to win and succeed simply as a "Female Director." She reminds us that "Storyteller" is a gender, age, and ethnicity-neutral profession.

Keep checking back for more on ladies that inspire us ! 

Meet and Actor: Patrick Barrett

We are pleased to Welcome Patrick! He's a new addition to TEAM MISCALLED SIMPLICITY ! 

Age: 23

Hometown: Falls Church, VA

Education: B.A. in History, Columbia University

Have you ever been involved with the company before?

No, but I've had the pleasure of working with some of Empty Chair's talented artists in other shows, and have come to see a number of Empty Chair productions.

What about this project excited you?

Shakespeare.  You can't do better than that.

What pieces are you working on for the show?

I'll be performing Clarence in Henry VI and Benedick in a scene from Much Ado.

Tell us a little about you:

The first role that got me into theater was Orsino in Twelfth Night, which I played (terribly, I'm sure) in the seventh grade.  Since then I've done a lot of work by more modern authors: from Stoppard and Pinter to Athol Fugard and work by emerging artists, but it's always good to come back to Shakespeare. To sort of drink from the well and be affirmed in your belief that the theater means something and is always worth the effort.

Favorite previous roles include: Javert in Les Miserables, Henry in The Real Thing, Hal in Proof, Brutus in Julius Caesar

Poster

Since we've posted one of the Susan G Komen posters, here is one of our own. 

Designed by cast member Lee Havlicek

Meet an Actor Samantha Sheahan

Samantha Sheahan
Age:19
Hometown: Arlington, VA
Education: pursuing a B.A. at Kenyon College

Have you been involved with the company before? If so, in what capacity? I performed in King Lear and Measure for Measure during Empty Chair's 2009 season: as Regan and a knight in King Lear, and as Escalus and ensemble in Measure for Measure.

What about this project excites you? I'm really interested in theater for social change, and thinking about studying abroad for it. To participate in a project that's going to use theater to create change is really exciting for me!

What pieces are you working on for the show? I will be performing in The Taming of the Shrew as Katarina, in Twelfth Night as Viola, and in Henry VI, Part 1 as Reignier.

Tell us a little about you:
I'm at a tiny school in the middle of some cow pastures right now studying psychology, drama, and cultural anthropology. I've lived most of the rest of my life in Arlington, VA. I took a gap year last year, during which I made a three-month service trip to Ghana. A couple years back, I got the chance to play Sarah in the Keegan Theatre's production of Translations, which received a Helen Hayes Awards nomination for Outstanding Ensemble. My favorite Shakespearean roles have been Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Baptista/Alice in The Taming of the Shrew. I attended HB-Woodlawn Secondary Program for high school, where I met Elizabeth. During the summers of those years, I got my ensemble training from Traveling Players Ensemble, a local outdoor theatre camp for teens. I'm excited to be working with Empty Chair once again!

Facts and a HOORAY!

The HOORAY first: Miscalled Simplicity has received its first Online DONATION!!!!

 I feel like we are officially moving toward achieving our goal of $2000 for the cure. 

Now Facts: 

While piddling around on the Susan G Komen website (like i do)

I found these great Facts about Breast Health and thought i would share them.

These are also available on the Susan G Komen website 

Best, 

Natasha