Transformed by "Circle Mirror"

Honorary Producer Dee Higby and director Sam Gold.

On Friday, January 14, First Night of Circle Mirror Transformation, the Julianne Argyros Stage was filled with subscribers and their guests, who watched mesmerized as five extraordinary actors portrayed ordinary students in an adult acting class.

Set in a smalltown community center, Annie Baker’s OBIE Award-winning play takes the students through a six-week class as they participate in a series of theatre games—exercises to help them grow as actors. In the process, they learn more than they bargained for about each other—and themselves.

After the show, Honorary Producers Larry and Dee Higby, together with First Nighters and their guests, gathered at Scott’s Restaurant and Bar to celebrate the production. Their glowing reviews anticipated the critical raves that appeared in the next few days:

“Delightful…pitch-perfect production…first-rate ensemble." – Los Angeles Times 
“Quirky, sensitive, touching and funny.” – Long Beach Press Telegram
“A tautly structured, macroscopic poem about the trajectories of ordinary lives.” – LA Weekly
“Absolutely fresh and original.” – StageSceneLA

See photos and read more about the Cast Party honoring the Higbys and the five actors who bring Circle Mirror Transformation to life.

SCR Welcomes Familiar and Fresh Faces to ‘Dream’

South Coast Repertory has become a home to countless actors who’ve returned to perform here again and again over the years. Mark Rucker’s imaginative production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream brings a number of them together again—including two Founding Artists and a member of the Resident Company as three of the hilarious Rude Mechanicals.

Founding Artist Richard Doyle appeared in SCR’s third production, Volpone, in 1965. Earlier this season he was seen playing Lord Summerhays in Martin Benson’s re-staging of Misalliance. In Midsummer, he plays Robin Starveling.

Fellow Founding Artist Hal Landon Jr. is probably best known for portraying Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. His history with SCR runs even deeper, to 1967 and Playboy of the Western World. His last non-holiday appearance at SCR was in You, Nero. In Midsummer, he plays Peter Quince.

Another Christmas Carol stalwart, Resident Company member John-David Keller, made his SCR acting debut in 1975 in Lanford Wilson’s The Hot l Baltimore, though by then he’d already made his directing debut with Godspell. In Midsummer, he plays Snug.

Patrick Kerr first appeared at SCR in 1997 in The Triumph of Love as Dimas, also directed by Mark Rucker. He last appeared onstage here in the 2008 musical An Italian Straw Hat as Uncle Fez/Viscount. In Midsummer, he plays Nick Bottom.

Susannah Schulman made her debut at SCR as Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew in 1996. Her most recent performance was Ashley Kohl in Man From Nebraska in 2006. In Midsummer, she plays Titania and Hippolyta.

William Francis McGuire first appeared at SCR in the very first play SCR ever performed—but not the first time we ever performed it: Tartuffe. He was in the 1999 production. He’s played Fred in A Christmas Carol for the last two years, and also appeared in last season’s A Wrinkle in Time. In Midsummer, he plays Snout/Egeus.






Two relatively new faces who both appeared recently on the Julianne Argyros stage will make their debut performance on the Segerstrom in Midsummer:

Kathleen Early recently starred as the romantically frustrated Catherine Givings in this season’s In the Next Room or the vibrator play. In Midsummer, she plays Hermia.

Nick Gabriel appeared in the West Coast premiere of the musical Ordinary Days as a young artist looking for a friend. In Midsummer, he plays Lysander.









SCR also welcomes these actors, all making their SCR debuts: Elijah Alexander (Oberon/Theseus), Rob Campbell (Puck), Dana Green (Hermia), Michael Manuel (Mechanical) and Tobie Windham (Demetrius), along with a number of young actors working in the Ensemble.

PHOTO CREDITS
From top to bottom: Richard Doyle as the Judge (center) with the cast of Volpone. Peter Ostling (standing) and Hal Landon Jr. as Shawn Keogh in Playboy of the Western World. The cast of The Hot L Baltimore with John-David Keller as Mr. Morse (far right). Colette Kilroy, Patrick Kerr and Tom Beckett in The Triumph of Love. Susannah Schulman as Bianca (left) and Cindy Katz in The Taming of the Shrew.  William Francis McGuire (left, center) and the cast of Tartuffe. Rebecca Mozo and Kathleen Early (right) as Catherine in In the Next room or the vibrator play.  Nick Gabriel (left) and David Burnham in Ordinary Days.

Introducing…SCR’s Rewards Card

What’s better than live theatre?  A free ticket to see more live theatre!  With the new SCR Rewards card, any patron who buys five South Coast Repertory tickets before June 17, 2012, will receive a sixth ticket free.

On your next visit to SCR, be sure to stop by the box office and request your own SCR Rewards card.  Each time you purchase a ticket valued at $20 or more, your ticket services representative will stamp your card.  For each ticket you buy, you’ll receive one stamp.  Once it has been stamped five times, bring the card to the box office and collect your free ticket.

There are some restrictions.  Subscription purchases don’t qualify, but subscribers can collect stamps when they purchase additional single tickets.  Also, tickets for the Theatre for Young Audiences season, as well as any special events—like the upcoming engagement of the Martha Graham Dance Company—do not qualify.  Visit the SCR Rewards Card FAQs page for complete guidelines and limitations.

And if you’re interested in bigger rewards—in the form of larger discounts and exclusive benefits—check out the SCR Subscriptions web page.

Acting for the Camera: A Former Casting Director’s Approach

Jill Newton teaching a class.

SCR Acting for the Camera instructor Jill Newton has 16 years experience—in casting.  That’s not the usual credential for an acting teacher, but having spent five days a week, eight hours a day choosing actors for roles on daytime television, Jill bring a unique point of view to her class.

“I like to take the ‘scary’ out of the casting process by placing the students in a postion of casting a part themselves,” Jill said.  “Through this process, they can observe how each actor sees the role differently and why some stand out from the others.”

The main focus of Jill’s class is to put the students on camera in various circumstances so they can see how their nerves and reactions are projected on screen. “Even though my class takes place in a fun and safe environment, no one is entirely comfortable the first time the camera rolls, but by the end of the class, they can’t wait for their turn to shine.”

So that students come away with a better understanding of the business of acting, Jill’s first class is dedicated to the basics—resumes, pictures, agents, unions, building the experience.  The final classes are devoted to actually shooting scenes, which gives the students a sense of what is expected on the film or television set.

And it’s that set that is so different from the stage: “The camera is an intruder in your intimate world of conversation and especially your thoughts,” Jill said.  “The stage requires you to project your performance to the audience.”

And then there is rehearsal.  “Stage performances are a culmination of many hours perfecting roles.  In film and television, there’s much less rehearsal time, and in daytime TV, there is literally none—that’s right, none, except for a rushed camera blocking!”

In television and film, the actor needs to make choices and bring 100 percent to the first performance.  So Jill throws her students into the fire!  “But, again, we’re in a friendly and safe environment—a good place to prepare students for situations they may eventually face on real sets.”

Jill enjoys sharing her experiences with the students, helping them understand the process and getting them on the road to their passion.  “Whatever their degree of experience when they walk into class, we support each student at his or her personal level.”

At the end of nine weeks, they leave the class with a sense of accomplishment—and a copy of their on-camera scenes, edited by Jill and set to music.

‘Turkey Boy’ Grows Up

At age 11, Jordan Bellow thought he knew everything about acting.  After all, he had taken acting classes. He was good at memorizing.  And he’d learned how to block scenes.  So when Jordan entered SCR’s Summer Acting Workshop it was with a single goal:

Jordan Bellow in The Beloved Dearly (2004).

“I wanted to be famous.”

One day he and his classmates performed a seemingly simple exercise called sound/movement circle.  He never had done anything like it and began to think maybe there was more to acting than just reciting lines and standing in the right place.  So he joined the year-round program for kids and teens.

Every day he learned something new, and it stuck with him, especially another exercise that didn’t seem to have anything to do with acting—looking at a picture and imagining the story behind it.  Jordan and the others in his group began to bounce ideas off each other about what had happened to the people in the picture and what might happen next, surprising themselves as they came up with fascinating possibilities.

“It was more fun than anything I’d ever done in an acting class, and I finally realized I’d been excited for the right reason—it was all about story.  In the past, it had been about performing onstage with people watching.  At SCR I threw away that other actor guy and started fresh.”

He also thought directors just told you what to do and you did it.  “I didn’t know you could have conversations with them.  In my first Players show, Scouting Reality, I was part of an ensemble with the director (Hisa Takakuwa) and the cast.  It was a real collaboration, and I loved it!”

And it was a lead role.  Not so the Players production of Snow Angel.  “I almost never spoke … well, at least not in the show,” added the admittedly talkative Jordan.  “When I started studying the person I played and the reasons why he didn’t talk much, he became really interesting to me.  It was all about understanding character.”

Hal Landon Jr and Jordan Bellow
in  A Christmas Carol.
Photo by Henry DiRocco.

When he moved out of his comfort zone as the sidekick-comic-guy, other roles, big and small, followed until—the summer after his freshman year of college—Jordan was accepted into SCR’s Professional Acting Program.  At first, he was skeptical.

“In Players, there was an environment that I can only describe as magical.  I still don’t know how they created it, but I could be my complete self all the time—with the director and all the other actors, who are still the closest friends I have.  I was sure they couldn’t create that environment in the professional program, in just eight weeks.  But by the second week, everyone was making the same comments I used to get in Players as a kid—we all just loved being at SCR and being ourselves.”

Now a sophomore in the BFA theatre performance program at Chapman University, Jordan recently appeared in If All the Sky Were Paper, and last year, he played Lövborg in Hedda Gabler—the only freshman in the cast.

“I owe that one to Hisa and our monologue classwork.  I’d chosen a speech from The Seagull and had worked on it since high school.  So I just put that in my back pocket and pulled it out for the Hedda audition!”

Now he is onstage with one of his favorite Professional Acting Program teachers—Hal Landon Jr.—playing Thomas Shelley in A Christmas Carol.  “It’s a long way from my 13-year-old ‘Turkey Boy’ role, but I’m just as excited as I was then because I’ll be onstage at SCR, where I learned what acting was all about.”