After ten performances, with a total audience exceeding 200, Readers Theater has ended its 2023 Short Play Festival. We can proudly state that we brought smiles and laughter to all who attended. Our final performance was at the Scotts Valley library and we were delighted to have a full house with over forty attendees.
All the plays were short -a couple just five minutes or so, and the others running from ten minutes to seventeen minutes. We had a cast of sixteen, allowing some folks new to NextStage and to acting, to tip their toes into this form of drama. As their director, it has been an absolute delight to see everyone flourish and hone their skills. By the end of the run, most everyone knew their scripts and were delivering polished, professional work. I am so proud of them and grateful to the authors who have the talent to write great comedies suitable for those of “a certain age!”
-Sally Bookman
Spotlight on Kevin Karplus
I'm not sure how I found NextStage in August 2022—probably through online searches for community theater groups. I was considering taking up acting as a social outlet after retirement from being an engineering professor at UCSC, because of how well that worked for my son (who started acting at age 5 and has kept it up as a major hobby for 22 years). I needed a group who would be accepting of someone starting out as a complete newbie in his late 60s, but a group that also had high enough standards that I could learn from them.
When Sally Bookman sent out a call for tryouts for Readers' Theater, I thought that it would be a good starting point for me—I was not sure of my ability to memorize lines (memory work has never been one of strong suits). I knew I could project my voice loud enough to be heard clearly, but I had no idea whether I had any of the other skills an actor needed. Having a script available while performing seemed to be one way to reduce the barrier for entry.
At the tryouts, we were very short on male actors, so I was practically guaranteed a part. As it turned out, Sally cast me in two plays: as John in Mary Miller's Ferris Wheel and as Rollo in Nina Shengold's Emotional Baggage.
It was fun converting the scanned scripts into editable files, learning the lines, rehearsing with others, and putting together costumes and props for the plays. I made fake cigarettes and a box for them for Ferris Wheel, and I made luggage tags and a couple of monogram necklaces for Emotional Baggage. Rollo required clothes rather different from my normal attire, so I ended up buying a canvas jacket, aviator glasses, a beanie, and a Bob Marley T-shirt for that costume (the worn-out pants, shoes, and fingerless gloves I already had).
At the very first performance of Ferris Wheel, I forgot to change which glasses I was wearing, and I could not see the script at all, so I had to do the performance entirely from memory, which I had never practiced. I was a bit slow on some of my cues, but I got through the play without any major mishaps. This reassured me that I can memorize the lines for a 15-minute two-hander, so I won't necessarily be limited to Readers' Theater and other staged readings.
Kevin Karplus and Marigold Fine in Mary Miller's Ferris Wheel
Since joining NextStage I've also started getting other acting training: mainly workshops through Actors' Theatre and drop-in improv classes with the Fun Institute, and I've signed up for acting classes at Cabrillo College in the Fall.
I hope to work with Readers' Theater again next year, and I'm open for other acting opportunities (as long as they do not involve singing—I am completely hopeless at carrying a tune).
More NextStage photos are on Kevin's website:
https://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus/theater/.
Kevin also has a blog (https://gastationwithoutpumps.wordpress.com) which has some recent posts about theater.
Dive into something new!
Remember the exhilaration of jumping off the high dive into a pool of water? Was that exhilaration fear, joy, freedom, or release?
Oh, to feel free to experience that feeling again! YOU CAN!
NextStage Productions’ newest project starting June 15 is rehearsal/instruction, play and performance.Your Life Storytelling with Brad Roades will entice you to TAKE THE DIVE and tell the story of your dreams, your experience, your life. And what a thrill it will be for our audience. We love a good story.
To help you get your performance mojo going, sign up for BodyWise with Marcia Heath. This class will help you loosen up and release into a new pool of expression.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU AT THE NSP POOL.
Check out the dates below and on the website, www.nextstagesantacruz.org
- Kathryn Adkins
NextStage and EASE PD in the News!
Santa Cruz Sentinel's May 11 online and paper editions carried a wonderful article about Santa Cruz County's Parkinson's Group, SC EASE PD, and featured photographs by Shmuel Thaler, their award winning photojournalist, of NextStage Health & Wellness leaders Ellen Mazaika and Risa Lower.
Read the full article
NextStage offers ongoing drumming classes, as well as speech and movement zoom sessions for people with Parkinson's. Contact Risa Lower for information about upcoming classes: risa@nextstagesantacruz.org
Santa Cruz County Parkinson's Group, SC EASE PD, offers monthly educational meetings, peer support groups for those with Parkinson's and their care partners, community-based exercise programs and classes tailored to those with Parkinson’s, and the monthly Movers & Shakers newsletter which includes times and locations of activities, and articles about Parkinson’s. For information about the group, visit easepd.org.
The energy of Spring
My garden is growing. The seeds pushed through the muddy soil and are now reaching for the sun. With a little extra food and drink, there is no stopping those little spouts.
NextStage Productions is doing the same. This past month our focus has been on rejuvenating the Board and membership. We’ve updated our By Laws and Job descriptions and are planting seeds for new Board members and Committee heads. And it’s beginning to show. Colleen Stobbe is an exceptional new Secretary. Welcome, welcome!!!!
We held a Cinco de Mayo information meeting and met amazing new folk with great performance and teaching experience. I can’t wait for you to meet them. And we now have three potential directors of shows, two with original scripts. All we need is worker bees to make our projects grow and spread energy to our community.
I love the sound of bees pollinating. Let’s keep that buzz going for NextStage Productions.
- Kathryn Adkins