A tradition of classes and A Christmas Carol

Henry Ficcadenti’s family has had a long history with South Coast Repertory’s acting classes: “My older brothers and sister all took acting classes, so when my 14-year-old brother signed up, I just followed. Seeing them all take classes made me interested in it.”

Now in his fourth year of acting classes, Henry is part of the Junior Players and will be performing in a full-length show in April

“I like these classes because I’m not being set aside from anyone else,” he said. “We work together in a group and function as an ensemble.”

At age 12, Henry is the sixth Ficcadenti sibling to take classes in SCR’s Kids and Teen Conservatory. Will his youngest sister Violetta sign up, too?

“I don’t know. We’ll have to see if it’s something she’s interested in.”

The Ficcadenti family has more than one SCR tradition: “We always go see A Christmas Carol together on Christmas Eve.”

But it’s not just about watching the show—it’s about performing in it. Four of Henry’s siblings have performed in A Christmas Carol, so naturally he auditioned as well.

“It looked like it was a cool thing to be in. And for the same reason I joined SCR as a whole, it just looked like a lot of fun.”

The acting classes must have helped, because after auditioning three times he finally landed the role of Young Ebenezer Scrooge, the same role his brothers Connor and Alex once played. “My dad has seen everyone else do it multiple times, so they’re really happy to see me do it, too.”

Your kids can follow Henry and his siblings’ example by enrolling in classes in January, or catch his début performance as Young Eb in A Christmas Carol, playing now through Dec. 26.

More info about kids and teens acting classes here

More info about A Christmas Carol here

'Christmas Carol' Memories

South Coast Repertory’s production of A Christmas Carol is 31 this year—the same age as Charles Dickens when he wrote the beloved novel. After so many years, the actors and artists associated with the production have collected many memories. Here are a few:

Jerry Patch (Adaptor): I remember getting up at 4:30 a.m. in Huntington Beach during the summer of 1980 to write the adaptation SCR first presented that Christmas.  The sun was up early, blazing across my desk, while I tried to put myself in London in December.  It wasn’t that hard—Dickens overpowered life at the beach almost every morning.

John-David Keller and Martha McFarland.

John-David Keller (Director and Actor): Many of my favorite memories revolve around the children in the cast. I always insist that they not have their own dressing room but share with the adults, so they can really experience what it is like to be part of a production. Of course, the children are given instruction in rules of behavior that the adults are not. I remember one time asking a father about how his child was enjoying being a part of the show, and the father replied, “He’s having the time of his life, and his vocabulary has become quite colorful.”

Howard Shangraw and Hisa Takakuwa.

Speaking of which…

Hisa Takakuwa (Assistant Director, Former Actress: Sally/Toy Lady/Scavenger): One year the actress who played Mrs. Cratchit (who shall remain nameless) missed her first entrance with the Cratchit children. I was sitting next to her in the dressing room when she heard the entrance music and the voices of the Cratchit kids and realized she’d missed her entrance.

Let’s say she spouted some very colorful and un-Mrs. Cratchit like phrases and ran to get on stage.  The kids had to start the scene alone by improvising and did a fine and very professional job.  I doubt anyone in the audience even knew.  Later, the girl playing Belinda said, “No problem.  I loved saving the scene!”

Daniel Blinkoff, the Cratchit children and (far right) Jennifer Parsons and
Hal Landon Jr.

Daniel Blinkoff (Actor, Bob Cratchit): A few years ago, on Christmas Eve—our last show for that year—I’m waiting backstage for the scene where we glimpse into Tiny Tim’s future. I feel a tug on my sleeve, and it’s Tiny Tim. He says, “Don’t go on.” I ask him why, and he says, “If you go on, that means it will all be over soon.”

This was a kid with a lot of initial anxiety, but through the course of the production he really fell in love with the show and became a real actor. I went out on stage with the kids and we were all in tears. It was one of the most magical moments I’d ever felt as an actor, with these kids who just gave their heart and souls to this scene. The moment was amazing, with a sense of the fleeting, but what makes the job of an actor so special.

One Degree of Separation

Octavio Solis and Adam Gwon.

ONE DEGREE OF SEPARATION

• Octavio Solis and South Coast Repertory met in 1989 when Octavio’s play Man of the Flesh was read during the Hispanic Playwrights Project.  The following year, Man of the Flesh was produced on SCR’s Second Stage.
  
• Octavio and Adam Gwon met in 2005, at the New Dramatists’ Composer/Lyricist Studio in New York, where they wrote a song together.  Octavio suggested they collaborate on a musical someday.  He promised to call.
  
• SCR commissioned Octavio for a new play in 2008.  He told Artistic Director John Glore he had a song that could be the basis for a play.  John asked if it might be a musical.  Octavio called Adam!
  
• Once the possibility of commissioning a musical became real, John had coffee with Adam in New York to talk about it.  Before he left, Adam gave John a CD of another musical he was working on at Roundabout Theatre Company, called Ordinary Days.
• John took the CD back to Costa Mesa. Ordinary Days had its West Coast Premiere last season on the Argyros Stage.
  
• And now, Octavio and Adam are here at SCR, working on their commissioned musical, Cloud Lands, which will be presented during an in-house workshop for the artistic staff on December 10.
  
• Will SCR audiences get to see this work someday? Stay tuned.

From Mind to Mainstage

When designer Dan Ostling started working on the set for Becky Shaw’s first scene, he had exactly one sentence to guide him: “Act 1 Scene 1. A room at a mid-range hotel in New York City.”

So how did he get from that sentence to the picture below?

Brian Avers, Tessa Auberjonois and Barbara Tarbuck in Becky Shaw.

“I’m not thinking about it as a set first,” he explained, “but asking myself why the playwright chose this location and what does it say about the characters?”

For example, the script tells us that Max is well off but has chosen a three-star hotel (which one character calls a two-star hotel) for his adoptive mother and sister, suggesting he might be a little cheap when he’s paying for someone else.

“This is where I start to understand the playwright’s intention,” Dan said.

Next comes the research phase. That means finding photos of rooms in three-star New York-area hotels, like these:

Dan’s paying attention to the composition of the room—its size and shape and how the objects in it are arranged. A chair placed closed to a bed, for instance, suggests a small room.

He’s also paying attention to specifics such as air vents, door handles and coat racks—the details that make a set feel authentic.

Once Dan feels he has gathered enough research, he starts sketching: “Sketching is a quick way to get ideas out of your head.”

As different bits of research meld with his concepts, it gets hard to separate which parts came from photos and which came from his own ideas. “Some research you just love and you just keep it in your head and you sketch and you model, but when you see the research again, it is different from what you remember.”

In addition to the sketch, he also creates a ground plan from a bird’s-eye view. And from these two pieces, he creates a model made from all sort of supplies, including art board, paint, printed pieces, wood and wire. He buys some of the furniture and hand-makes others.

Still, he’s not done. He continues to make changes to the model and the sketch all the way up to the time the set is actually built.

“You go back and forth, revising as you go along, which raises the quality as everything becomes a little more detailed.”

In this case, the final details included not just the air vent and door handles, but an old-fashioned sprinkler head, a smoke alarm and a “Do Not Disturb” hanger.

The result, Dan has decided, “is sort of fantastic.”

Check out the final performances of Becky Shaw, playing until Nov. 21, to see this and the other six sets Dan designed for the show in real life.

Some photos from fielding.ca and boardingarea.com

First Nighters Cheer "Becky Shaw"

Angela Goethals and Brian Avers in Becky Shaw

Becky Shaw Playwright Gina Gionfriddo also writes smart crime drama for television, like “Law and Order,” so it’s no surprise to find an element of mystery—as well as an unscheduled visit to the police station—in her new hit play.  The comedy about a blind date gone wrong had the audience buzzing on First Night, Friday, October 29.

And then had critics buzzing Monday morning:

• “Briskly entertaining comedy…A scream come true.” – LA Times
• “Causes the audence’s breath to volley between being held in anticipation and bursting forth in laughter. – OC Reader
• “Will make you laugh.” – OC Register   

For more enthusiastic reaction to Becky Shaw—and a few First Nighter blind dates stories, read all about the Cast Party, complete with photos, here.