A.R.T. and Boston Collegiate Charter School

This week, the A.R.T. led a two-day workshop session with 42 sophomores at Boston Collegiate Charter School.  Seven groups of students invented their own theatrical reimagining of the Porgy and Bess song, “Summertime.”

The first day started with a mini-lesson on the history of Porgy and Bess and its many incarnations over the years; we played a medley of “Summertime” to express the myriad of ways that one song can be explored (we heard Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Janis Joplin and Fantasia Barrino).  We broke up into groups.

Then, we danced a little bit.

THEN, it was on to the main event:  working from a proscribed “recipe,” each group had to create a short perfomance inspired by “Summertime.”  It had to include:

A moment of music
Two lyrics from the original song
Two NEW lyrics created by your group
Five seconds of unison movement
Five seconds of unison voice
Movement, voice or an object representing either “water,” “thunder” or “community.”
Everyone in the group must participate!

The BCCS sophs rose to the challenge and created seven awesome performances, incorporating everything from rap battles to dance breaks to air guitar to climbing part of the school building (it made sense in context).  Each interpretation was unique, personal, and unmistakably “Summertime.”  One group explored the concept of community, so important to the production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, in a very touching scene.

Cast member Nathaniel Stampley (Robbins) joined us on day two to provide some much-needed special effects support for one group’s performance.  Nathaniel also hosted a Q&A session with the students at the end of the day; he talked about how he got started as an actor, and encouraged the students to “read everything” (I think their English teachers, Ms. Manganiello and Ms. Veeder, appreciated that) and keep working hard in order to succeed.

We couldn’t have pulled off this workshop without the support of the A.R.T. Institute– first-year actors Osh Ghanimah and Amen Igbinosun and second-year dramaturgs Jenna Clark Embrey and Tyler Monroe all were inspiring leaders in each of their groups.  The incredible Sarah Patrick, who has been helping us with  Education Experience/Community Connections since the beginning, also led a group.  Finally, we’re fortunate to be working with the generous and community-minded cast of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (thanks, Nate!) and look forward to the rest of our workshop series.  This week, we have our first session at Mssng Lnks; next week, we travel to Revere High School and Cambridge Rindge & Latin School.

Check out the pics from BCCS below.  We’ll upload a video soon!