High School Intern Dispatch! 1/23/15

During my time at the A.R.T. so far, I was transported to the Civil War, to experience the epic journey of a slave; to the future, to experience the love quadrilateral of a widow, bride, poet and doctor on a sinking island; and to the theater offices where I discovered how the A.R.T. made this possible. My name is Garrett Olitsky, I am a junior at Boston Collegiate Charter School in Dorchester, Massachusetts. From early on I was interested in becoming a writer/actor. I have a love for writing and have been composing poems and stories since 6th grade and will continue to write even if I do not achieve in making it my career. My love for acting is strong, unfortunately I have little experience in this practice and I am a very shy person at times. So, I wanted to pursue acting not just for my love of it but to hopefully weaken this barrier of shyness, by getting myself out there in performances. For the past three days I have been interning at the American Repertory Theater located in Harvard Square, an internship that I have had the fortune to experience thanks to the help of Brendan Shea and my English teacher Ms. Veeder. The purpose of this two-week experience is to help prepare me for the field of theatre and performing arts by witnessing the behind the scenes construction of their shows, as well as to experience working in other departments at the theater to get an in-depth look at how shows are made.

Currently I have a desk in the theatre’s marketing office, next to Brendan where I have been treated with the utmost courtesy by all staff members, who I have met. On my first day I shadowed a meeting discussing strategies to increase audience intrigue in the upcoming performance, Father Comes Home From The War. The members discussed what themes should the lobby have before the play, at intermission and at the plays end. From a teenager examining the behavior of full-grown adults I can definitely say that this was a safe environment where the creativity of the staff could thrive. An environment that I believe all businesses should strive for. In addition, I have had the pleasure to witness the practice of stage-combat, with actions such as; shoving, pushing, hair pulling, choking and tackling. For dramatic affect the actors improvised intense arguments often using profanity and mentions of the other person’s mother. Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway, it was very entertaining, yet highly informative. As one of the instructors explained, how actors are the storytellers and the fights that they act out are necessary when the story takes an intense turn.

An already eventful day, but it was only halfway over. I attended the technical rehearsal for other upcoming performance, Bride*Widow*Hag another entertaining yet all the more valuable experience, as I saw the actors, director, and tech staff craft the magic of the stage. A quote from the show that I had to write down was when one of the characters in the scene—a customer at a pub of sorts—proclaimed to the the widow as she transforms into a hag: “Let your misery deform you,” because I can most certainly relate to that. To end my second day, I met playwright of Father Comes Home From The War and Pulitzer prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks, whom I gave a hug. When I returned to the marketing office, Brendan, the staff, and I took part in a cupcake and ginger-ale filled hoorah to Georgia Young who was leaving that day, and who I saw very little but for what I did know of her she was a hard worker and a very kind person. This first week has been a blast.

Here is a glossary for the play Bride*Widow*Hag, to help you make some sense of this cool new play:

1. Cacophonic chorus – (n)  a group of performers with the purpose of depicting a harsh mixture of sounds from conversations.
2. Concerto – (n) a musical composition for a solo instrument or intruments occompanied by an orchestra
3. Posthumously- (adv) an adverb used to describe an action that occurs after someone’s death
4. Ominous – (adj) giving the impression that something bad or unpleasent is going to happen.

Check in next week for more posts from Garrett as he gets experience in several different departments at the theater, write on some windows, inventory computers, and all other manner of duties. Learn more about our Education programs on our website.