A New Brain
The Director’s Note:
First of all. thank you for coming to the show. because if you are reading this. you are most likely sitting in the audience. unless you just picked up a program from the floor outside the theater (in which case-thanks for picking up trashl) . But seriously your support is imperative for student theatre, and this production couldn’t exist without you .
From the beginning of this process. even before our proposal packet was completed, the production team knew that this was going to be a very different experience. and that was exactly what we were hoping for We agreed that, above all. we wanted this experience to be one of growth and experimentation. both for the actors and those of us who were working behind the scenes. We wanted to work on a production that was based on positivity on the freedom to take risks. and on constant dialogue between those involved. My greatest fear was that the actors would feel uncomfortable sharing their ideas about the staging, the songs, and the show in general. Thankfully our actors were not only talented, but incredibly wise. witty and insightful, and thus a constant discourse about character and theme occurred. They are the most understanding, forgiving people I have ever met. and because of this compassion. we were all able to do the most important thing that creators of theatre can do: play. This shared enjoyment allowed us to experiment with theatrical forms that were new to many of us: a peninsular stage, movement that is not based entirely on natural interaction, but instead blocking that reflects the themes of the songs and entire show, and ambiguity in time. place, and intention. Plus, not many shows feature brain tumors or giant frogs, so that was new.
I don’t want to use this space to tell you what to take away from the show. Songs, dances, emotions all have the ability to affect people in different ways and I have no desire to take the individuality out of interpretation. Furthermore, to simply come out and say what the show “means’ would render our intentionally ambiguous production pointless. My only hope is that you each take away something. I hope that. like our production team and actors, you too will be able to put aside for one night what you previously believed to be the definition of theatre . If you can open yourself up to strange scenarios, quirky characters. and optimism. I believe you will be affected by “A New Brain” And you already paid for the ticket so, I mean, what do you have to lose?
Enjoy the show
Emily KaplanA New Brain played during the Spring 2008 season in the Lerner Hall Black Box.
Playbill
[issuu width=420 height=325 backgroundColor=%23222222 documentId=121106232936-4ebf37bb68d4400c867eaebbd1b8d62e name=a-new-brain username=cmts tag=a%20new%20brain unit=px v=2]
Cast and Crew
Cast
Ross Ramone as Gordon Michael Schwinn
Giselle Gastell as A Homeless Lady
Danaya Almenares-Mesa as Rhoda
Lauren Schaffel as Waitress/Nancy D.
Kurt Kanazawa as Mr. Bungee
Gabe Miner as Dr. Jafar Berensteiner
Alex Harris-Hertel as The Minister
Jonathon Grant* as Roger Delli-Bovi
Olivia Whelan as Mimi Schwinn*Appeared courtesy of Actors Equity Association.
Creative Team
Director: Emily Kaplan (BC ’11)
Musical Director: Ricky Schweitzer
Producer: Rachel Karp (CC ’10)
Producer: Rachel Blatt
Choreographer: Claire Halberstadt (BC)
Art Director: Sasha StewartThe Production Team
Assistant Producer: Jenny Johnson
Stage Manager: Darcy Zacharias
Technical Director: Shaina Graboyes (SEAS ’09)The Band
Ricky Schweitzer on Piano
David Carl on Keyboard
Dan Miranda on DrumsThe Design Team
Set Designer: Casey Hayes
Lighting Design: Andrew Balmer (CC ’10)
Assistant Lighting Design: Olivia Tandon
Sound Design: Will Schuessler
Props Master: Cayle R. Pietras (CC ’09)
Costume Designer: Hilary Baboukis (CC ’11)
Assistant Costume Design: Naomi Schachner
Scenic Crew: C. Clara Patterson
Costume Crew: Marina Moskalenko
Press
As part of their Theaterhop series Bwog wrote a review of The New Brain. It can be found here.