Artists Rep & Isinglass Partner to Host Summer Theatre Leadership Academy for High School Students

Artists Repertory Theatre is partnering with local arts advocacy non-profit Isinglass to offer Egg, the organization's three year-old summer theatre leadership academy. Egg is an intensive seven-week program that teaches high school students the art and business of producing their own theatrical production. This summer 2017 program concludes with a week-long planning session for students to develop theatre and arts advocacy projects which they implement in their own schools during the following school year.

Egg was launched by Isinglass in 2014 as a pilot program to recruit and train teenaged artistic leaders to bring more theatre education opportunities to their classmates at their respective schools. It's an innovative approach to protecting the arts in our schools that harnesses the one resource none of them lack: passionate, engaged and creative young people. Since 2014, 18 local students have graduated from the program from seven different schools. Those students' advocacy and artistic work has positively impacted the theatre education of hundreds of teenagers in the Portland area, and even across the state through self-production and play-development workshops taught by Egg graduates at the Oregon State Thespian Festival.

Artists Rep has contracted with Isinglass to conduct the program at Artists Rep for the Summer of 2017. The partnership, a new way of providing impactful educational programming for established arts organizations, will be the first of its kind in Portland.

"We're excited to bring the kids into such an artistically-rigorous and community-focused organization," says Isinglass Executive Director John Zajac. "Artists Rep is a great example of a theatre organization focused on the future of their art form: producing memorable, entertaining work while remaining wholly engaged with the citizens of Portland and the city's community of artists. They live the lessons we're teaching our students."

ABOUT THE EGG PROGRAM
Egg is a seven-week summer program that teaches the art and business of theatre to high school students entering their sophomore, junior, or senior year in the fall. Class is five days a week from 9am to 4:30pm Participants see up to 10 professional productions and as a group produce 12 performances of their own.

The curriculum includes college- and professional-level instruction on every aspect of theatre-making, including stage direction, devised performance, stage management, play analysis, theatre history, stage combat, and design disciplines including set, lighting, sound and costume design. In addition to artistic skills, students are taught the operational and business considerations required to produce theatre, including leadership techniques, conflict resolution, marketing and communications, fundraising, budgeting and resourcing. The final week of Egg, students work with arts advocates, educators and professional artists from the Portland area to develop and plan innovative advocacy projects designed to enrich the theatre education of their classmates when they return to school in the fall.

Students are taught by a core faculty teaching the key disciplines of stage direction, devised performance, stage management, design and theatre history, and by more than 30 guest instructors affiliated with local arts organizations such as Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Third Rail Repertory Theatre, the Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, Action/Adventure Theatre, CoHo Productions, Portland Playhouse, Portland Actor's Conservatory, Shaking the Tree Theatre, Revenge Arts and more.

EGG GRADUATES

Each graduate has impacted hundreds of their fellow students through their art and advocacy work. Egg graduates have implemented advocacy programs and provided theatre opportunities in their schools to enrich the arts education of their peers. Projects implemented by young leaders trained by the program include:

43-minute Shakespeare (2014-15 school year)

Class-length cuts of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, created by an Egg graduate working with professors from Reed College. The 43-minute performances toured freshman English classes, bringing life to their studies of R+J.

"Shut up! You can't tell me what you do you're not my real dad" (2015-16 school year)

Student-produced and -written micro-play festival at Wilson High in its second year.

Cleveland HS Design Collective (2016-17 school year)

An initiative that empowers students to teach theatre design at Cleveland high school, as well as help provide more design opportunities to students, both on mainstage productions and student-driven work.

North Clackamas Technical Group (2016-17 school year)

Student-led group that teaches design and technical theatre skills to 9th and 10th graders in an effort to break the cycle of brain drain when key, highly-knowledgeable students graduate.

A COMMITMENT TO EQUITY AND ACCESS

Artists Rep and Isinglass are committed to promoting equity in and access to theatre education in our schools. To that end, tuition at Egg is charged on a sliding scale based on family income and admissions decisions are made without access to any student financial information.

2017 FACULTY

Linda Apperson (Egg Stage Management Faculty 2016-present) has stage managed more than 3,000 performances of dramas, operas and musicals. Her credits include Angels in America (Millennium Approaches), Our Town, The Elephant Man, Scapino, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Der Fliegende Hollander, Gianni Schicchi, Pagliacci, Faust, Candide, The Robber Bridegroom, Peter Pan, The Pirates of Penzance, Into the Woods, West Side Story, Cats, Sweet Charity, Les Miserables, and Sweeney Todd. She has stage managed dance and music festivals at Island Gardens in London, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Linda was a lecturer and production stage manager for the Stanford University Department of Theater and Performance Studies for seven years and has guest lectured at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing and the Shanghai Theatre Academy. She is the author of "Stage Managing and Theatre Etiquette." She has served on Isinglass' board since 2016.

Nate Cohen (Isinglass Program Director, 2015-present; Egg History and Theory Faculty, 2014-present) is a local director, producer, teacher and activist. He is currently a Company Member at Theatre Vertigo, sits on the board of the Portland Area Theatre Alliance, is Associate Producer of the internationally touring production of EM Lewis' The Gun Show, and serves as a junior casting associate at Artists Rep. Nate has worked all around town, including at Artist's Repertory Theatre, Theatre Vertigo, CoHo Productions, Third Rail Repertory Theatre, the Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, the Portland Civic Theatre Guild, Action/Adventure Theatre, and more. This spring he is directing Rob Handel's A Maze at Theatre Vertigo. Nate is a graduate of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR and has taught at numerous children's theatres and throughout the Portland Public School system.

Alexandra Kuechler Caffall (Egg Directing Faculty 2014 and 2017) is a director and artist based in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Recent work includes HAMLET (2016), CHOP YOUR OWN WOOD (2015), and WHAT'S YOUR NAME DEAR? (2015) in New York City. Described as 'festive' and 'aggressively female', her work includes both extant texts and original pieces that celebrate femininity, pop-culture and technological dissonance. Her work has appeared at The Duke on 42nd, Baryshnikov Arts Center, NY International Fringe, Curtis Institute, Walker Arts Center and The Public Theater. In 2015 she co-founded Bonneville Theater Company with her husband Tyler Caffall and playwright/actress Lindsey Trout Hughes. Prior to her time in New York, she worked as a resident designer at Artists Repertory Theater in Portland. Alexandra holds a MFA in Directing from The New School for Drama in New York City.

Megan Wilkerson (Egg Design Faculty 2014-present) is a professional Scenic Designer based here in Portland, and a Resident Artist at Artists Repertory Theatre (X-Mas Unplugged, Exiles, Cuba Libre, The Skin of Our Teeth, American Hero, Feathers & Teeth and The Importance of Being Earnest). In addition to her involvement at Artists Rep Megan is a member of the women's theatre company The Rivendell Theatre Ensemble in Chicago, a founding member of the artistic collective Bad Soviet Habits and the Resident Scenic Designer for Bag&Baggage Productions in Hillsboro. Since arriving in Portland Megan has had the pleasure of working with local companies including Profile Theatre (The Call, The Blue Door), Third Rail (The Realistic Joneses), Teatro Milagro (Opcion Multiple, American Night), Portland Center Stage (Assistant Designer - Clybourne Park), deFunkt (The Children's Hour, Betty's Summer Vacation), Theatre Vertigo (Jekyll & Hyde, The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents), Northwest Classical Theatre (Wait Until Dark, Mary Stuart) and Bag&Baggage Productions (The Crucible, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Moby Dick). Prior to Portland Megan spent 10 years in the Midwest where she worked with the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Next Act Theatre, The Skylight Opera, First Stage Children's Theatre, Michigan Opera Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre and the Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. As a Design Assistant Megan spent two seasons at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (American Night, The Music Man, Ruined) and has long-running relationships with designers Marjorie Bradley Kellogg and Michael Ganio that have led to work on such diverse national projects as Kenny Leon's production of the modern opera Margret Garner to Bill Rauch's Pirates of Penzance here in Portland. As an educator Megan has taught locally for Lewis & Clark College and Portland State. She was on the Graduate Faculty at Michigan State University and designed and implemented an undergraduate program at St. Norbert College in WI. Megan is a proud member of United Scenic Artist Local 829. Her portfolio can be found online at www.meganwilkerson.com.

Cristi Miles (Egg Devised Performance Faculty 2016-Present) is a native of El Paso, Texas. Portland credits include: Enter THE NIGHT, The Three Sisters, Song of the Dodo and R3 with PETE; Midsummer (a play with songs) with Third Rail Rep, Mr. Burns: A Post Electric Play,Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Dying City (Drammy award) with Portland Playhouse; As you Like it with Portland Shakespeare Project; El Grito Del Bronx with Miracle Theatre and various staged readings. Regional credits include; As You Like it at San Jose Rep; The Clean House, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, at New Repertory Theatre. Marisol with the Orfeo Group, Buried Child with the Nora Theatre, The Winter's Tale with Actors Shakespeare Project. Prior to living in beautiful Portland, OR she lived in Boston where she was a co-founder of Orfeo Group, an Elliot Norton Award winning company. Cristi has directed and taught at the Berkshire Theatre Festival and with numerous regional theaters nationwide including The Portland Actors Conservatory, Portland Playhouse, The Stoneham Theatre, The Huntington Theatre, New Repertory Theatre and The Boston Conservatory. As an actor she has worked regionally at: San Jose Rep, New Repertory Theatre, The Nora Theatre, Actors' Shakespeare Project, The Stoneham Theatre, The Huntington Theatre, Profile Theatre, Coho Theatre, The Portland Civic Theatre Guild, and New Rep on Tour. She has trained with Anne Bogart and the Siti Company, Double Edge Theatre Company, The Roy HArt Theatre company and The Oregon Center for Alexander Technique. Cristi holds an MFA from Brandeis University and is a proud member of Actors' Equity. Cristi teaches Acting at George Fox University in Portland.

ABOUT ISINGLASS

Isinglass is a nonprofit arts advocacy organization with the mission of creating a thriving, sustainable arts ecosystem in Portland, OR.

At Isinglass, we believe that a city's performing arts form an ecosystem, with each organization, artist, and school completely interdependent on every other organization, artist, and school. The health of that ecosystem relies on there being big dance troupes, thriving small theatre groups, chamber operas and everything in between. It depends on there being kids who will point to performance as a defining part of their childhood and who want it to be a part of their children's experience. It requires programming and services that have evolved to meet the demands and needs of rising digital- and mobile-native generations, and artists, administrators, and community leaders who realize that we rise and fall together as an industry and an art form.

Isinglass conceptualizes, develops, and implements programs focused around arts education, audience development, and digital integration. By examining the problems facing performing arts ecosystems and identifying creative solutions to them, we can make the arts more relevant and more accessible.

Education

Isinglass' education work spans a variety of areas, from advocacy and thought leadership to hands on instruction. Currently, our flagship education program Egg is producing a new generation of student leaders and advocates. Plans are in the works to expand the program to multiple other metros in the next few years. We also work closely with public school teachers, helping to bridge the gaps between public school arts education and professional practitioners, as well as managing our innovative funding program designed to allow the community at large to help to fund arts education programs in their schools. Ensuring a safe and secure future for the arts in the 21st century begins with securing it's place as a a critical element of our education system.

Community

Isinglass believes that strengthening an ecosystem requires engagement and buy-in from organizations and stake-holders on every level. Our community programs seek to create new ways for the arts to engage with society at large. Isinglass labs are guided brainstorming sessions where small groups of experts from diverse backgrounds and experiences are brought together to help incubate and develop new and profound solutions to the myriad problems facing the arts in this day and age.

Business

Isinglass develops curricula that fuse the training and expertise of theatre artists with the cultural, managerial and process needs of businesses to create value and spur innovation. The benefits of incorporating theatrical disciplines into business practices and operations goes far beyond performance and presentation. Essential soft skills like collaboration, curiosity, persistence and ingenuity, traits that can often mean the difference between success and failure, are a core element of the training of choreographers, stage directors and production managers. At Isinglass, part of our mission is to unlock the relationship between art and business, and to reveal the mutual benefits that can come from a partnership between the masters of storytelling and the companies that need it to thrive.

Performance

At Isinglass we are constantly challenging the limits of the art forms we work to preserve, pushing boundaries and redefining the terms by which art is experienced and perceived. Social Shakespeare is the engine that powers that effort. By designing productions of classical texts to be performed and presented via social media networks, we synthesize art and technology in a new way, allowing engagement with entirely new populations and audiences. Our past production of Much Ado About Nothing on Facebook attracted over 10,000 participants, and we are currently in development for a production of Othello to be presented primarily over Instagram and Twitter.

ABOUT ARTISTS REPERTORY THEATRE

Artists Repertory Theatre's mission is to produce intimate, provocative theatre and provide a home for artists of varied backgrounds to take creative risks. Artists Rep is Portland's premiere mid-size regional theatre company and is led by Artistic Director Dámaso Rodríguez and Managing Director Sarah Horton. Founded in 1982, Artists Repertory Theatre is the longest-running professional theatre company in Portland. Artist Rep became the 72nd member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) in 2016 and is an Associate Member of the National New Play Network (NNPN). Artists Rep's 35th season is announced, the 2017/18 play selections can be found here.

Artists Rep has become a significant presence in American regional theatre with a legacy of world, national and regional premieres of provocative new work with the highest standards of stagecraft. The organization is committed to local artists and features a company of Resident Artists, professionals of varied theatre disciplines, who are a driving force behind Artists Rep's creative output and identity.

Artists Rep is committed to developing new work through its new play development program Table|Room|Stage. With T|R|S, Artists Rep strives to empower and support Oregon-based playwrights while also creating a Portland home for writers from around the country to develop their work. Additionally, this program strives to make a meaningful impact on diversity, equity and inclusion in the theatre field by mandating opportunities for women writers and writers of color, and cultivating the next generation of theatre- goers by creating work specifically for young people (13 and up). Artists Rep makes a vital impact on the Portland arts community with its ArtsHub, creating space and offering a home to 10 multidisciplinary arts organizations within its facility.

The 2016/17 Artists Repertory Theatre season is presented by sponsors Ronni Lacroute/WillaKenzie Estate and David & Christine Vernier and the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz and Renaissance Foundations. Other season support comes from the Collins Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, Theatre Communication Group and the Regional Arts and Culture Council and Work for Art.

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