Performance Hightlight: The Wiz!
During a recent BAE event with Tony-winner J Harrison Ghee, they wisely remarked that all theater is community theater. Whether or not it is a Tony award winning Broadway show or a church basement production, there is no theater without community. Those words could not be more applicable to the recent production of The Wiz that Broadway for Arts Education recently had the honor to support at the Connelly Theater in the East Village of Manhattan.
After the tremendous success of the Wicked Broadway Workshop fundraiser in January, Broadway for Arts Education used the funds to lead a 2-week long camp with students and graduates from the Cornelia Connelly Center and Grand Street Settlement in the Lower East Side, teaching a team of interns the the basics (and not-so-basics) of sound design and engineering, lighting design and engineering (including helping to hang and wire a theater full of lights!), stage management, and more. Our camp “counselors,” Zach Pizza and Joshua Kobak, were blown away by how quickly the students picked up new skills: making environments out of sounds to enhance the scenes; troubleshooting a finicky wireless microphone system; creating systems of organization to keep the show running smoothly; climbing up scaffolding to focus, and refocus, and then refocus, and then refocus again the lighting grid; learning how to use new technology like sound and light boards, QLab, and Garageband.
Beyond the camp and the technical skill development, what struck me most was the incredible community of the Connelly Center and the warmth with which we were welcomed in. An incredible team of adults, led by Kelly Ortiz directing her 10th show, were involved in the choreography, music direction, costumes, hair, make up, building sets and props, consoling children when they cried, and encouraging children when they were afraid. They created an environment with the perfect balance of safety and high expectations. Our team was continually shocked at the high level of focus, memorization, and confidence possessed by mostly middle school-aged performers. All in all, there were more than 60 young people and 20 adults who came together to the 4 sold-out performances to life. The performances and production may not be Tony-award eligible, but the strong and loving family of actors and technicians thriving within that theater was a beautiful reminder of what theater is all about: community!
