Students at Centrum's Summer High School Arts Camp rehearse in Erwin Thomas' theater class.
Photo courtesy Kathie Meyer.
This Friday, June 26 there is a presentation of all the student work beginning at 7 p.m. in the JFK building at Fort Worden State Park. Friends and family are invited to see the results of a weeklong immersion in filmmaking, creative writing, sculpture and theater.
This year as actor Erwin Thomas has kept me informed about his work in theater, I have been amazed at the variety of projects he takes on. Erwin lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Last August 2008, Thomas directed “Roots, Rhythm & Revolution, A One Person Exploration of Past, Present and Purpose” written and performed by Wema Harris.
That was followed in September, by his work in a ground-breaking play at Performance Space 122. Thomas Bradshaw's “Southern Promises,” directed by Jose Zayas made the theater world in New York stand up and take notice. It was reviewed in both the New York Times and the New Yorker. The play didn’t mince words/situations. It tackled uncomfortable issues head on.
Late September found Thomas at the Historic St. Paul Community Baptist Church with a performance of a piece he wrote called “Quiet Violence of Dreams.” The play was directed by Jesse Wooden Jr. and performed by Thomas and Evan Flory-Barns. It was part of St. Paul’s “Commemoration of the MAAFA.” MAAFA is a Kisawahili term that refers to the catastrophic experience formerly known as the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade that resulted in the kidnap, torture, and enslavement of millions of African People.
October brought a reading of a new play by Shontina Vernon. Erwin was in the cast of “A Lovely Malfunction" at New Federal Theatre's “Theatre 80” on St. Marks Place and 1st Ave.
As the year turned to 2009, I received a message from Erwin noting a tangible feeling of growth and rebirth in the air. Thomas was in a staged reading of “The Children of Children Keep Coming...An Epic Griot Song,” based on the recent Simon & Schuster release of the lyrical novel of the same name by Russell L. Goings. The reading was presented by Columbia University & Schomberg Center for Research in Black culture.
Then Thomas got to wield some swords, muskets and "play well tuned anvils with a sledge hammer" in a classic opera on a legendary stage. He was in Verdi’s “Il Travatore” at the Metropolitan Opera.
Erwin is finishing the spring by doing some teaching: a middle school poetry class and a high school playwriting class.
And he begins the summer of 2009 here at Centrum, teaching theater in the Summer High School Arts Camp. If you are an aspiring actor, don’t miss this opportunity to learn from this dynamic artist.
At the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM, the de la Torre Brothers are exhibiting Meso-Americhanics (Maneuvering Mestizaje) de la Torre Brothers and Border Baroque through August 16, 2009. (Follow the live links to read about their exhibit.)
The brothers are glass blowers and installation artists, born in Mexico and living and working in both the United States and Mexico.
Pictured here is an example of their sculpture using glass and other materials:
Baja Kali
by Einar and Jamex de la Torre
2001
Blown glass, mix media,
87" x 45" x 17".
Collection of the artists.
Photo courtesy of the artists.
While at Centrum working with high school students during the Summer High School Arts Camp, (June 21-27, 2009) the de la Torres will be using mixed media. They plan to drive to Centrum, stopping along the way at thrift stores and other places where "good stuff" is abundant, and arrive with a collection of materials for artmaking. Students are encouraged to bring their own treasures and finds to combine with what they find at Centrum. They'll be asked to examine "identity" and how ideas about who they are, what culture they live in, and what that says about them as individuals. How does identity inform the creative process? Is it revealed through the objects chosen to create sculpture?
Coming soon to Centrum, Lila Kitaeff and Lane Stroud teach filmmaking at Centrum's Summer High School Arts Camp. Learn the basics of how to create a movie from beginning to end. Write a script, create a story board, learn how to opeate a camera and how to edit your footage into a short film.
June 21-27, Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend becomes your movie set and soundstage.
On May 30, check out the work of the students who worked with Reel Grrls at the Variety Pack Show at the Vera Project in Seattle (Republican & Warren Ave. N).
At the Summer High School Arts Camp in June, Stephanie Lenox will teach “Wordplay”, one seriously fun week in which you will trace the use of humor, both funny strange and funny ha-ha, in writing classic and contemporary.
Investigate how literary oddballs tinker with tradition and technology to create hilarious and thought-provoking work, and then give it a whirl. There’s no need to be a stand-up comedian for this workshop, just a writer ready to stand up and try something new.
Lenox adds the following:
About my teaching style:
As the promotions director for a children’s museum, I’m surrounded by kids prodding, poking, and investigating new ideas. Positioned between two interactive stations on magnetism, my office doorknob receives regular jiggling as the kids move from one station to the next. On the days I forget to set my lock, I’m one more discovery, a startled thirty-something woman looking up from her computer screen. Working in that kind of environment reminds me of the importance of experimentation, testing the door to see if it opens, rattling whoever sits too comfortably inside.
For me, writing requires playfulness, an attitude I embrace in the classroom as well. As a genius of doubt, I’ve had to come up with clever ways to sneak behind the back of my internal critic and get the work on the page. I believe that doubt can be an extremely useful tool in writing, and I use it to push me beyond what I know into strange and unexplored territory. Using prompts, experiments, collaborations and exercises that take me out of my routine, I find ways to escape the same-old, same-old that stifles original expression. My ideal writing classroom is one that allows time for purposeful play, reflection, and partnership with fellow creatives.
About my work: People always say write about what you know. Phooey. I write about what I want to know. I want to know what it’s like after having the world’s largest tumor removed from my body or to walk around with the world’s largest feet or to be able to lift the heaviest weight with just my ear (136 lbs!). For me, writing is about connection, an attempt to find the familiar within the strange or the strange within the familiar. Sample poems by Stephanie Lenox:
The Heart That Lies Outside the Body
Christopher Wall (USA) born on Aug. 19, 1975, is the longest known survivor of the condition known as ectopia cordis.… The mortality rate is high, with most patients not living beyond 48 hours.
— Guinness World Records
I know people want to touch it,
like I’m some pregnant woman
or one of those cut-open cows
with a porthole in its side.
As soon as I could talk, I said
aorta, pulmonary artery, vena cava.
These words hold my life in place.
I learned how to have fun with it,
dress it up like a ventriloquist’s dummy,
throw my voice into the fleshy lump.
I memorized “The Tell-Tale Heart”
and chased my cousins around the yard
shouting, “It grew quicker and quicker
and louder and louder every instant!”
I’ve had to explain myself so often,
ectopia cordis, ectopia cordis,
ectopia cordis, ectopia cordis,
that once I totally lost it and hit a man
for asking. And, of course, considering
my condition, he forgave me.
Now people don’t bother to ask,
or if they do, I say it feels
just fine. In fact, I’ve lived
so long the doctors say I’ll die
like everyone else. I have dreams
that it fills with air, floats away.
I don’t know what that means.
Longest Sneezing Fit, Day 977
Donna Griffiths (UK) started sneezing on Jan. 13, 1981 at the age of 12. … She achieved her first sneeze-free day on Sept. 16, 1983 — the 978th day.
— Guinness World Records
It’s not
that I don’t want
to stop
the raucous riot
in my lungs,
but what would life be
if not
this exclamation
point?
My body wants to be
beside itself,
released
into a world of
innumerable deeds.
Something escapes me
every time
I sneeze.
So this just goes to show
how much a body can break
in two,
in two,
until …
It’s not my choice
to live this way, each
moment raw
to the prodigious
need to announce itself.
I can tell you that it hurts
to keep going,
that nothing matters
more than a quiet,
average life.
But if I did stop,
who would count
each ordinary breath?
Who would bless me?
