Reflections on 2014
Monday, March 02, 2015 Filed in: Session Recaps | Voices from the Group
We close out our blog entries for BTG 2014 with a montage of voices. First up are some final thoughts from co-directors Sherry, Kevin and Tim followed by quotes from group members taken from our final reflection session.Sherry: Bridging the Gap 2014 satisfied me in many ways. First, I got to take risks and experiment with the balance between freedom and structure as I directed the five members of my “crew” scene group. My group enthusiastically developed two alternate endings and presented them to the whole ensemble for feedback. Second, I found it exciting when the ensemble accepted the challenge of an entirely new form: a place play. I had never used this form as a director, so it stretched my artistic muscles and took me into new territory. In addition, the ensemble embraced the device of dividing each scene into three parts and then weaving the parts together throughout the show. In past BTG shows, each scene
group performed their original material in one continuous scene and then exited. The new tri-part structure that we used made very high memory demands on all the participants, and everyone, young and old alike, rose to the challenge. Third, it was wonderful to welcome back Kevin Ray, one of BtG’s co-founders. Kevin and I know each other like the back of our hands since we have collaborated on so many projects over the course of the past four years. It’s fun to be in the room with someone who speaks the same short-hand and can communicate volumes with just a look. And who keeps me on my toes!
Finally, when BTG was still just a twinkle in the eyes of three master’s students in the CUNY-SPS Applied Theatre program, we fervently hoped that our theater project would help to build intergenerational LGBTQ relationships. To our immense satisfaction in 2014 – three years later – ensemble members started emailing each other and exchanging Facebook comments, as well as getting together in coffee shops and apartments outside of workshop time. We even recently attended a CAT Youth Theater performance together and went out afterwards to discuss the show and catch up!
Kevin: 2014 marked the fourth consecutive year for Bridging the Gap. I was excited to return to the creative team after being away for a year. At the same time a voice inside me was wondering, “Is this going to be the same old thing again?” As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one experiencing BTG ennui! During our early planning meetings, Sherry, Tim and I had exciting conversations about the ways in which we might approach this year’s round of BTG with new strategies to shake things up for ourselves as community-based artists.
One new approach stands out for me as exceptionally successful. In the past, we worked with the BTG group members to create a play based on a theme. This year, we decided to begin the playmaking process by starting with a place. We had no idea if this approach would be interesting to our group members so Sherry, Tim and I decided that we would try it out as an experiment, and if it sparked interest, we would follow through. As it turned out, the place idea was a hit. The initial brainstorming session was one of the liveliest BTG sessions ever! Since there was such a strong response, we followed the idea and began a search for underlying thematic content contained within the place. As a result, we created a very lively play aboard an LGBTQ cruise ship that explored themes of romance, family, inclusion and exclusion, and the value of tradition. As a community-based arts practitioner, this fresh take on the process of creating theater from a different starting point engaged my sense of play and helped me remember that one of the most important aspects of being an artist is to both carry over the great things that you have learned from the past and to also risk trying something new.
The other aspect of BTG 2014 that stands out in my mind is the vibrancy of this year’s group members. The 2014 cohort was the largest group Sherry, Tim and I have ever recruited. They were playful, spicy, thoughtful and most importantly, very interested in each other. Since we’ve enjoyed working with these folks so much this year, Sherry, Tim and I have come up with three “reunion” events to take place in 2015: attending a performance of an original theater piece devised by a youth company, attending a video viewing party at SAGE, and attending a Bingo session in April.
Tim: This being the fourth year of Bridging the Gap, Sherry, Kevin and I set out with the intention of wanting the experience for the participants and ourselves to be challenging artistically and to create a more exciting theatrical show. As with all things creative, we had no idea what the final ‘product’ would look like but we stepped into the BtG 2014 experience with excited anticipation. Upon reflection on the twelve-week adventure, all three of us were in agreement that we succeeded. The end result was a fully realized theatre piece where we set sail upon the Raging Queen. For the first time, we performed in a 99- seat theatre to a full house. Sherry, Kevin and I along with a majority of the participants felt we were successful. And the credit is as much to our original intentions as well as to the group of participants.
What sticks out most for me from this BtG incarnation is the make-up of the group that we assembled. Almost evenly split between the elder and younger generations, from week to week, I saw a group of courageous individuals that genuinely enjoyed each other’s company. As we moved from getting to know one another to diving into the process of making theatre, the level of trust, openness and commitment of the group with each other deepened. Their excitement was infectious. And we had a lot of laughs and a lot of challenges along the way, which is to be expected.
Theatre is a collaborative process that relies solely on the willingness of those assembled. Seeing this group’s willingness to say yes to a process that is not easily clear, watching them take care of each other moving through the twelve-week process and hearing the positive feedback from the audience is proof enough for me that we, Sherry, Kevin and I, exceeded our original intentions.
A Voice of their Own
We close this blog with the voice of our participants as they share their thoughts of the BTG 2014 experience.
Shatzi, 84: When I walked in for the very first time, there was a whole bunch of men and not a single woman and I thought, Oh God. I don’t know if I will be able to hang on here. Then we did the first exercise and I made some suggestions and I was the only woman in the group at that time and the men listened! And I thought, Ok, I can be here. It was totally wonderful because I expected that they would just ignore me. That I would be invisible. And I wasn’t.
Daniele, 20: I would just like to thank everybody because most people don’t understand trans issues very much. Or it’s not like a very common thing for most people. So I appreciate everyone being very open-minded and you too (indicating Kevin) for the discussions we had about my character. I appreciated it.
Jeremy, 19: This is the first time I have ever been in anything that’s an LGBT situation. Because as a young bisexual man, I’ve never really felt comfortable with myself or with that part of my identity. I’ve worked through a lot and I was surprised about how much I learned about accepting myself and being brave from everyone around me, especially the older people. Just seeing people who are so comfortable with themselves and willing to talk about everything made me feel much more brave. Especially when it came to you have to be in a romantic scene now and kiss a boy. I’m still getting used to all that. So it really was hard but it wasn’t hard because I had the support of everyone around me.
Rose, 90: I understand why you were at that TADA! place. Because you were able to have sound effects, which really fit. You were able to have lights, although I hated them, which you could tell. You made it like an off-off Broadway show.
Juan, 22: I’m proud of Daniele [who joined BtG this year] a lot. Not just because she’s my friend, but because and I will bluntly say this, she was skeptical about coming in because she was the only trans person. I told her from the jump, she needs to be part of groups like this. Because we’re LGBTQ and all we see are L’s and G’s and not BTQ. It all needs to be there.
Marvin, 70: For me, this had to be the highlight, or one of the highlights, of my life. Just being on stage […] Plus the fact that from the very beginning, the way you guys did it. One week it was just the older folks, the younger folks – and then we got together. It wasn’t immediate that we got together. And we got all the thoughts from the younger folk. Very good. Very, very good.
Tony, 69: I was away for a substantial amount of time and I was very happy to be included in the final product. I enjoyed last year so much. I was ready to do anything to be part of it. I would have moved around the scenery or prepared the costumes. Anything to be involved. And to be involved the way I was I was very pleased. Thank to the powers that be that included me.
Rachel, 18: When you’re doing self-devised pieces, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know the ending. You don’t have this beautiful plot line that you can mold and follow. You just go with it. And sometimes it’s so frustrating that you just want to rip your hair out. It’s so much more difficult than Just having a script and analyzing it and just going from there. It’s a bigger metaphor for in life, everything is ambiguous. You never know what’s going to happen to you from day to day. You have to live through it, push through it, to find the best stuff. Which is what I love so much about making our own work. It’s you. For the first time this is a completely new idea that you’re putting out into the universe
Barbara, 65: I think the idea of the first time that we were in a theater gave us more confidence and made us realize that we could do it in a theater […] I hope we do it again!
Finally, when BTG was still just a twinkle in the eyes of three master’s students in the CUNY-SPS Applied Theatre program, we fervently hoped that our theater project would help to build intergenerational LGBTQ relationships. To our immense satisfaction in 2014 – three years later – ensemble members started emailing each other and exchanging Facebook comments, as well as getting together in coffee shops and apartments outside of workshop time. We even recently attended a CAT Youth Theater performance together and went out afterwards to discuss the show and catch up!
Kevin: 2014 marked the fourth consecutive year for Bridging the Gap. I was excited to return to the creative team after being away for a year. At the same time a voice inside me was wondering, “Is this going to be the same old thing again?” As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one experiencing BTG ennui! During our early planning meetings, Sherry, Tim and I had exciting conversations about the ways in which we might approach this year’s round of BTG with new strategies to shake things up for ourselves as community-based artists.
One new approach stands out for me as exceptionally successful. In the past, we worked with the BTG group members to create a play based on a theme. This year, we decided to begin the playmaking process by starting with a place. We had no idea if this approach would be interesting to our group members so Sherry, Tim and I decided that we would try it out as an experiment, and if it sparked interest, we would follow through. As it turned out, the place idea was a hit. The initial brainstorming session was one of the liveliest BTG sessions ever! Since there was such a strong response, we followed the idea and began a search for underlying thematic content contained within the place. As a result, we created a very lively play aboard an LGBTQ cruise ship that explored themes of romance, family, inclusion and exclusion, and the value of tradition. As a community-based arts practitioner, this fresh take on the process of creating theater from a different starting point engaged my sense of play and helped me remember that one of the most important aspects of being an artist is to both carry over the great things that you have learned from the past and to also risk trying something new.
The other aspect of BTG 2014 that stands out in my mind is the vibrancy of this year’s group members. The 2014 cohort was the largest group Sherry, Tim and I have ever recruited. They were playful, spicy, thoughtful and most importantly, very interested in each other. Since we’ve enjoyed working with these folks so much this year, Sherry, Tim and I have come up with three “reunion” events to take place in 2015: attending a performance of an original theater piece devised by a youth company, attending a video viewing party at SAGE, and attending a Bingo session in April.
Tim: This being the fourth year of Bridging the Gap, Sherry, Kevin and I set out with the intention of wanting the experience for the participants and ourselves to be challenging artistically and to create a more exciting theatrical show. As with all things creative, we had no idea what the final ‘product’ would look like but we stepped into the BtG 2014 experience with excited anticipation. Upon reflection on the twelve-week adventure, all three of us were in agreement that we succeeded. The end result was a fully realized theatre piece where we set sail upon the Raging Queen. For the first time, we performed in a 99- seat theatre to a full house. Sherry, Kevin and I along with a majority of the participants felt we were successful. And the credit is as much to our original intentions as well as to the group of participants.
What sticks out most for me from this BtG incarnation is the make-up of the group that we assembled. Almost evenly split between the elder and younger generations, from week to week, I saw a group of courageous individuals that genuinely enjoyed each other’s company. As we moved from getting to know one another to diving into the process of making theatre, the level of trust, openness and commitment of the group with each other deepened. Their excitement was infectious. And we had a lot of laughs and a lot of challenges along the way, which is to be expected.
Theatre is a collaborative process that relies solely on the willingness of those assembled. Seeing this group’s willingness to say yes to a process that is not easily clear, watching them take care of each other moving through the twelve-week process and hearing the positive feedback from the audience is proof enough for me that we, Sherry, Kevin and I, exceeded our original intentions.
A Voice of their Own
We close this blog with the voice of our participants as they share their thoughts of the BTG 2014 experience.
Shatzi, 84: When I walked in for the very first time, there was a whole bunch of men and not a single woman and I thought, Oh God. I don’t know if I will be able to hang on here. Then we did the first exercise and I made some suggestions and I was the only woman in the group at that time and the men listened! And I thought, Ok, I can be here. It was totally wonderful because I expected that they would just ignore me. That I would be invisible. And I wasn’t.
Daniele, 20: I would just like to thank everybody because most people don’t understand trans issues very much. Or it’s not like a very common thing for most people. So I appreciate everyone being very open-minded and you too (indicating Kevin) for the discussions we had about my character. I appreciated it.
Jeremy, 19: This is the first time I have ever been in anything that’s an LGBT situation. Because as a young bisexual man, I’ve never really felt comfortable with myself or with that part of my identity. I’ve worked through a lot and I was surprised about how much I learned about accepting myself and being brave from everyone around me, especially the older people. Just seeing people who are so comfortable with themselves and willing to talk about everything made me feel much more brave. Especially when it came to you have to be in a romantic scene now and kiss a boy. I’m still getting used to all that. So it really was hard but it wasn’t hard because I had the support of everyone around me.
Rose, 90: I understand why you were at that TADA! place. Because you were able to have sound effects, which really fit. You were able to have lights, although I hated them, which you could tell. You made it like an off-off Broadway show.
Juan, 22: I’m proud of Daniele [who joined BtG this year] a lot. Not just because she’s my friend, but because and I will bluntly say this, she was skeptical about coming in because she was the only trans person. I told her from the jump, she needs to be part of groups like this. Because we’re LGBTQ and all we see are L’s and G’s and not BTQ. It all needs to be there.
Marvin, 70: For me, this had to be the highlight, or one of the highlights, of my life. Just being on stage […] Plus the fact that from the very beginning, the way you guys did it. One week it was just the older folks, the younger folks – and then we got together. It wasn’t immediate that we got together. And we got all the thoughts from the younger folk. Very good. Very, very good.
Tony, 69: I was away for a substantial amount of time and I was very happy to be included in the final product. I enjoyed last year so much. I was ready to do anything to be part of it. I would have moved around the scenery or prepared the costumes. Anything to be involved. And to be involved the way I was I was very pleased. Thank to the powers that be that included me.
Rachel, 18: When you’re doing self-devised pieces, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know the ending. You don’t have this beautiful plot line that you can mold and follow. You just go with it. And sometimes it’s so frustrating that you just want to rip your hair out. It’s so much more difficult than Just having a script and analyzing it and just going from there. It’s a bigger metaphor for in life, everything is ambiguous. You never know what’s going to happen to you from day to day. You have to live through it, push through it, to find the best stuff. Which is what I love so much about making our own work. It’s you. For the first time this is a completely new idea that you’re putting out into the universe
Barbara, 65: I think the idea of the first time that we were in a theater gave us more confidence and made us realize that we could do it in a theater […] I hope we do it again!
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