Tuesday, May 7, 2013

My Accomplishments for the Academic Year of 2012 - 2013


 So I was asked by the chair of the Theatre department at Carver Center (where I currently work) to write down my accomplishments for my end of the year evaluation this upcoming Friday.  I went overboard with detail...not to impress my bosses, or to curry favor, but to evaluate just what the hell I did this year.  Also, I'm curious why I'm so damn tired and exhausted lately.  As the list grew and grew it has become clear
 
This is the list.  Still, this only includes the stuff I remember doing, and doesn't include lost, or (temporarily) abandoned projects.  It doesn't include the things I tried to do and just fell apart before my eyes.  I tried to just focus on the positive. 
 
- MK

 
·         Teaching - Developed a new class (Acting I), which incorporated exercises and projects based on the work of several theatre theorists (Stanislavski, Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Michael Chekhov, etc.).  Also, collaborated with Joseph Ritsch on merging this group with the Directing class throughout the year in order to provide directing students with actors in scene work, and actors an opportunity to implement acting theory work with peer directors.
·         Professional Development –Prior to the school year (Summer 2012), taught in the Shakespeare Summer Camp program for the Tony Award winning Shakespeare Theatre Company.  Taught primarily students of ages 10-12 in an early summer (late June to early July) session that culminated in a “mini-production” of Much Ado About Nothing, which I co-directed.  Also, was invited to work with older students (15-18 years old) in the Advanced Camp as a substitute for a colleague, and was asked to help block/choreograph difficult large ensemble scenes in their culminating production of Love’s Labours Lost.
·         Professional Development – From September to November, rehearsed and performed in a critically acclaimed production of Our Class by Tadeusz Slobodzianek at Washington DC’s Theater J.  During the course of the production I was also able to receive direct personal feedback from the playwright, Polish ambassador to the United States, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg about the artistic, cultural, international, and historical significance of not just the text, but our production in particular.  The production was chosen by The Washingtonian as one of its “Top 12 Plays of 2012” and was also nominated for Best Resident Production Award at The Helen Hayes Awards.  An interview about my personal history and its connection to the piece was conducted with The Washington Post (http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-10-16/lifestyle/35500464_1_krawczyk-labor-camps-poland).  Also, provided the script and dramaturgical research material to Katelyn Shanklin in order to aid her in developing a new lesson plan for material related to Elie Wiesel’s Night.  We are also planning a collaborative lesson in which I will visit her class to talk to students about how we approached the text as actors.  Finally, one of my students (to my knowledge) was able to attend the production, and I was able to speak to him, and his parents, about their reactions/thoughts after the show.
·         Professional Development – Performed extra/background film acting work for an independent film called Jamesy Boy, sometime in early December. 
·         Professional Development – Was approached to become the Executive Director and to help develop the Mission Statement, and the legal/financial foundations for a new Montgomery County based arts group called “M.Y. Actors Society” (aka – Montgomery County Young Actors Society).  The group focuses on introducing young people of Montgomery County to productions and the realities of working in the acting profession in both film/TV and theatre.
·         Professional Development – Was asked to submit materials by a colleague, Dara Weinberg, for a possible theatre grant project titled End of The Line, which is about personal experiences of people of Polish or Jewish heritage in relation to a grandparent.  I submitted written material which became large chunks of the script that is currently being performed by Polish actors in theatres in Poland and Hungary.
·         Professional Development – Was part of a theatre field trip with the theatre students to see Double Edge Theatre’s The Grand Parade and was able to talk to my students about the process of creating new work.  Also, took part in a weekend workshop with the theatre company in order to further immerse myself in their devised theatre process.
·         Community Outreach – The work in Our Class led me to take part in a project with a soup kitchen in Washington DC called “Miriam’s Kitchen.”  Initially I was simply one of two cast members invited to take part in a conversation with several homeless people who frequent the soup kitchen (and Theater J) and are members of its arts group to talk about the difficulties in developing a production that spans around 80 years of history.  However, the majority of the conversation ended up focusing on the difficulty of “being a part of on-stage trauma night after night…” (which can be found documented in the following link: http://www.theatrewashington.org/content/because-we-matter).  Because of this talk, one of the participants from the group personally requested that I read his written work in public for a projects called Stories from The Kitchen, a one-night only event during which some of the homeless people from the group, as a means of art therapy, have their work read aloud/performed by a professional actor on the stage at Theater J.  This event took place on December 19th, 2012 and I read a piece titled, “Oh Canada.”    
·         Professional Development – Co-produced, rehearsed, and remounted/performed a critically acclaimed production of Ivan Vyrypaev’s play Oxygen with Taffety Punk theatre company, located at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop in the Eastern Market area of Washington DC.  The production was originally developed over a  6 month period in 2012, and received another 6 month rehearsal/re-contextualization period from January to late March 2013 for a 4 week performance run. Also, the show featured new music, composed and performed exclusively for our show in the style of late 90s/early 2000s “east European electronica”, by DC based bands The Caribbean, E.D. Sedgwick, Electric Blanketland, The Gena Rowlands Band, The Inexhaustible Chalice, and Jupiter Rex.  The production was chosen to be archived on video by the Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive (WAPAVA) for its cultural/artistic significance.  Also, participated in an audience talkback with a Russian cultural group to talk about the cultural significance of the text, and the process of contextualizing it for an American audience.  Several of my students were also able to attend the performance and talk to me about their reactions.
·         Guest Speakers – Was able to have several guest speakers come in to work with the students in our program.  Emma Jaster (an international and DC area choreographer/actor) and Joe Isenberg (a Helen Hayes Award winning fight choreographer) came in to work with Freshman acting students on a movement workshop that incorporated both basic dance and fight choreography, and those two also gave professional evaluations and feedback to the Audition Seminar students.  Also, Paul Diem (former Fellow and now a current member of the Single Carrot Theatre Company Acting Ensemble) came in on two separate occasions to work with the Freshman ensemble and the Audition Seminar students.  Once was on basic monologue performance evaluations.  Another time he worked with the Freshman on ensemble work generation and with the Audition Seminar students he led a workshop on the realities of working in the Los Angeles acting community.
·         Directing – Directed a production of Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour.   Developed a concept that didn’t change the text, but allowed for dramatically increasing the stage time of all student actors playing even minor characters, which increased their overall involvement in the collaborative process.  Also, empowered two students to take on significant leadership roles within the company during the rehearsal process.  J.A. (Junior - Theatre) was brought on to be Assistant Director and took on significant responsibilities involving staging large scenes, and working individual moments with other actors while other work was being done with the rest of the company with the Director.  Also, I cast M.R. (Sophomore - Music) who plays Lois Fischer.  M.R. was given the given the task of being Music Director and coordinating the harmonies sung by the actors playing the young students in the production.  Also, incorporated elements from the exhibition of Robert Miller’s work into the overall color scheme for the costumes of the adult characters in the play, and used several visuals as inspiration for different aesthetic choices in the production.  Personally, I’m really proud of the fact that several students who have viewed the production feel compelled to come multiple times, or have already seen it twice.  This includes both theatre and non-theatre students.
·         Coaching – Coached several acting students outside of class in order to prepare them for college auditions.  Several of the students I helped coach, along with other acting teachers, were accepted to schools such as Hofstra, Pace, Rutgers Mason Gross, Howard, Bowling Green, UMBC, Nazareth University, and Towson University (among others).  Also, independently coached several other students in order to prepare them for theatre auditions in the Baltimore area theatre community several of whom were cast in local productions.
·         Carver Community – Gave my time to several business and literary students who wanted to do interviews for the various publications/writing projects being done here at Carver Center.  K.Y. (Business) interviewed me for two different articles.  One was on the effect of theatre and film on the populace in terms of views of homosexuals, and the other was a profile on C.G. (Theatre).  T.H. (Literary) interviewed me for an article on The Children’s Hour process.  D.S.M. (Literary) interviewed me for a literary profile project.  R.A.(Literary) asked me to answer an email questionnaire on another teacher.
·         Prime-Time Day – Successfully ran two devised theatre workshops for Dance students from the Freshman and Sophomore classes.  The workshop was one I run with my Freshman students in order to develop FSE pieces, but this workshop was slightly reworked in order to 1) engage the dance students in showing them their ability to create independent theatre pieces with their dance training, and 2) engaging them in a feedback session of what the workshop meant to them as dancers.  Received particularly moving and enlightening feedback from the Sophomore group that their work rarely engaged them in a way that asked for their personal input, or emotional experience and that this workshop truly helped them engage in their work in the creative process in a new way.
·         Auditions – Helped administer incoming Freshman auditions for the 2013-2014 year on the initial day of auditions, as well as several makeup days for students who either missed the initial audition, or appealed the results of the initial audition.
·         Teaching Assistant – Was able to empower I.C. as T.A. for my Audition Seminar class to give enriching and necessary feedback to her peers/colleagues, as well as lead two entire classes as instructor on how to audition for the camera in both close-up and wide-angle shots.
·         IN TOTAL – I might be wrong about this, but some students might have either learned something about acting and theatre, and some might actually like it more, or at all, now.  I’m going to assume that happened with at least a few kids.