Session 8 Recap: Full Steam Ahead!
CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT OUR 2014 FUNDRAISER
All hands were on deck at our latest Bridging the Gap rehearsal. The 22 member LGBTQ intergenerational cast continued to develop scenes for our original show: Aboard the Raging Queen.
First the company welcomed a new member. They introduced themselves to him by working in groups to create frozen images inspired by the word “welcome,” followed by words and phrases that described the essence of our group and our playbuilding process. You can see one of the frozen images in the picture above!
After our welcoming activity, everyone broke into scene groups and continued developing the four original scenes we have been devising over the past weeks. With the support of co-directors Timothy Connell, Kevin Ray and Sherry Teitelbaum, group members focused their rehearsals on refining ideas generated in earlier sessions by improvising dialogue, writing original monologues, experimenting with props and costumes, and creating an original song! These techniques were used to highlight the underlying thematic content of each scene through the colorful characters aboard the fictional LGBTQ cruise ship, The Raging Queen.
Following our small group work, the entire ensemble came back together to perform their revised scenes for each other. It was thrilling to watch the variety of ways each group revised their scenes to bring into focus explorations of themes such as invisibility, privilege, tradition, family, and romance.
When the scenes were over, we pulled our seats into a circle and the ensemble gave each other feedback about the aspects of each scene that excited them. Near the end of our discussion, one group member expressed how delighted she was to be creating original theater inspired by her ideas She stated,
Another group member who has been in Bridging the Gap since its inception in 2011 told the rest of the group,“I am enjoying this process so much. I feel like we are creating the play rather than working with someone else’s lines.”
“This year it feels different. Somehow the process feels longer. And there is a feeling of warmth that has never been there before.”
We’re only a few rehearsals away from our December 7th performance but by all indications, Aboard the Raging Queen is sailing on smooth waters! Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.
To read more about our show, Aboard the Raging Queen, click here.
To visit our Facebook event page, click here.
To make a contribution to keep this program free to our participants, click here.
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Announcing Our 2014 Production and Fundraiser
We are very excited to announce the title of our 2014 production: Aboard the Raging Queen. We are also excited to announce our 2014 crowdfunding campaign. Click here to make a contribution today!Professional theater artists and community-based practitioners Tim Connell, Kevin Ray, and Sherry Teitelbaum are co-directing a devised play using the sights, sounds, and colorful characters we might see onboard a cruise ship as the point of inspiration.
Bridging the Gap, now in its fourth year, is a twelve-week intergenerational LGBTQ theater project, offered free to participants. During the course of weekly workshops held in Chelsea, group members collaborate to create an original 45-minute play through improvisation, group reflection, and revision. The show presents issues and ideas that matter to our participants. Group members also build theater skills, celebrate difference, challenge their assumptions about age and have fun!
PLEASE MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO OUR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN TODAY
Bridging the Gap offers a platform to amplify voices from within the LGBTQ population that are frequently ignored/not considered, from both ends of the age spectrum. This year our LGBTQ group members range in age from 18 to 90 years old! Their alternate perspectives are not the dominant voices we normally hear in LGBTQ discourse. For this reason we believe it is urgent to keep both our weekly workshops and our performance accessible by removing economic barriers to participation. In order for these programs to remain free, we need your support. Without it, we cannot pay for artists’ fees for the three co-directors, theater rental, costumes, props, sets and transportation. We need $4,600 to bring this project to the stage.You can help subsidize this vital community-based theater project by making your donation now. Read More...
Sal on the Intergenerational Experience
I'm an actor and playwright. I'm very happy to be involved with Bridging the Gap for the second consecutive year. It's one of the few intergenerational multicultural theatre communities that I know. It feels GREAT to be a part of an environment that offers a rich tapestry of life experiences and creative know-how.
Upon participating this second year, I was THRILLED to learn that my young friend-- who played the title role of Marvin in "Marvin's Fetish" (in my play reading at SAGE), --- had learned about Bridging The Gap and had actually become a member! There is legal justice, there is poetic justice and then there's DeAngelo Justice--who has just won a major role in my friend Alan Baxter's new amazing play, "Juan and Emmett”. DeAngelo is one of many young, talented and stimulating people who I look forward to working with week after week. I also very much enjoy interacting with "slightly" mature members such as myself--all of whom I've come to treasure. (Many members--by sheer coincidence--are faithful members of SAGE'S Monday night acting class.)
Everyone who attends Bridging The Gap--regardless of age--constantly offer thought-provoking comments, suggestions and keen observations. Each Saturday I look forward to participating in stimulating exercises, fun and original games and improvisational sketches. Tim Connell, Sherry Teitelbaum and Kevin Ray are AWESOME! They're encouraging, inventive and totally supportive of EACH ONE OF US--and of ONE ANOTHER. If you're interested in a safe, creative, fun, exciting, informative, friendly way to learn about theatre, check out www.bridgingthegap.nyc. I'm glad I did!
Read More...Amethyst on Session 2
This week was the first time the seniors and younger participants came together. Since I am one of the senior participants, I was very eager to meet and greet the younger members of our theatre group. Of the younger members who attended, some had been part of Bridging The Gap before, and some were brand new members. It was very good to see people I had interacted with in prior Bridging The Gap workshops; but it was also great to meet new people as well.
Read More...Our First Session(s)
On September 27th, older LGBTQ adults aged 60 and up and younger LGBTQ adults between the ages of 19 and 27 convened during two different first sessions. It’s a tradition to hold separate, age-defined sessions during the first day of Bridging the Gap to give people from each generation an opportunity to meet each other, begin to form relationships, and air perceptions about the other generation in a safe space before both generations come together for our second session. This year’s first session was a wonderful mix of fresh-faced new members and familiar friends from the past. The sessions were led by facilitators Timothy Connell, Kevin Ray and Sherry Teitelbaum.
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