Vineyard theater tales

It's a given that the New York Times gives their fluffy material front and center coverage online late at night. It's usually the type of stuff I'm most interested in reading and writing. I was stunned to see a Vineyard-centric article on there last night though, a piece by Patrick Healy about the Vineyard Playhouse. Check it out here. Pretty neat -- one of the other This Week on MV interns, James, has been helping out with this theater. Wonder if he knows the Times was at his show this weekend.

Best bits pertaining specifically to MV:

“A lot of theaters set up shop in a community but don’t really involve or reflect the community,” [artistic director MJ Bruder Munafo] said. “Integrating the community into the playhouse has been an essential goal of mine.”

“There’s something special when your audience is not an anonymous crowd but instead your dentist, your kid’s soccer coach, the guy who built your house, other artists in the community,” [year-round Vineyard resident Jon Lipsky] said. “People talk about having a wonderful theater community in Boston, but that word is misused. A community is people who are different from one another and who come together, as we have at the playhouse — not a theater clique or a theater gang.”

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This is a double dose of theater writing, but I wrote a feature for the community programs page this week about an improv summer camp on the island. Check it out below. Story will first appear in This Week on Martha's Vineyard on July 16. Thanks to Mary for coming with me on the first day of her visit and spending two hours with these campers.

Summer camp onstage
Non-profit acting collective hosts sixth season of improvisational theater program
By Zach Dionne

A small, pony-tailed girl and a shaggy-haired boy twice her height are equally uninhibited during an improvisational theater game in the center of the Edgartown School’s gym.

“Make it bigger. Take it up a notch,” says Donna Swift, the director of IMP Theater Camp. The tall boy and the small girl are among a dozen others on the makeshift stage that is center court, walking in and out of the limelight in character, saying lines and mimicking each other. Another dozen children sit, watching. The ages range from six to 16.

“Very good job everyone. You just learned how to create characters,” says Swift, a 1990 theater arts graduate of Emerson College. The campers break for a snack.

In its sixth year, IMP Camp is a branch of the adult comedy improv troupe WIMP, a not-for-profit organization on Martha’s Vineyard. The summer program offers three one-week sessions and a pair of two-week sessions through August 21. IMP camp’s mission is to build confidence and theater skills with improv games and focused theater workshops. The philosophy is “no mistakes, only gifts.”

“They can’t mess up,” says staff member Ed Cisek, a 20-year-old Vineyarder studying theater in Chicago. He emphasizes the campers’ ability to take risks with improvisation and the way this lesson extends to taking chances in daily life. “We try to create a no-stress environment and really let them find their creative voice,” he says.

After the mid-morning break, the campers are divided into three age groups: 6 through 8, 9 through 12, and 12 through 16. In the youngest group, a blond girl climbs onto the gym stage and says, “Look, I’m a movie star!” They begin a game called “Interview,” creating characters, taking the spotlight and speaking about themselves. One young boy goes up and boldly creates a history: “My name is Phil, I’m from New Jersey and I work at Stop & Shop.” For these children, there’s a fine line between playing imaginary games at recess and practicing improvisational theater.

Another youngster is unsure who his character should be for this game. “Well then you make it up,” a staff member encourages. “We’re doing improv right now. It’s your own choice – no matter what you do, you’re not wrong.”

Cisek contends what the kids practice at IMP Camp is “not that far from going out in the back yard and playing house.”

“There is no difference except you have to point your toes toward the audience and be loud,” Swift adds.

Cisek says IMP Camp simply puts a little more structure to the fun. “Theater in general is sometimes easier for kids. It makes more sense to them; they don’t have the insecurities that you get in high school and beyond. They really have no problem being silly and committed and loud,” he says.

Cisek loves the progression he sees in campers, whether it’s across the summer or in a single day. Seeing an 8-year-old flawlessly perform a Shakespearian monologue is a favorite memory of Cisek’s.

In one Shakespearian performance at IMP Camp, Othello was 16 years old, his bride, Desdemona, was 6. “I like mixing the ages because they have a lot to offer each other,” Swift says. She treats the campers as actors rather than children, eliminating age as a restriction for talent or casting.

Some actors have attended the camp every summer for six years. This year, the first session has a large amount of new faces. “It’s mostly islanders, but we get a good amount of summer people,” Cisek says.

The program strives for a breadth of choices, offering campers full- and half-day options and themed sessions including Trust, Ensemble, Commitment and Inspiration. Experienced campers can become ‘IMPterns’ – they pay half the tuition and begin teaching and directing, with eventual opportunities to advance to junior and full staff positions.

Each week closes with the campers going to State Beach for the last half of the day and performing for each other. At the end of the two-week sessions, the campers perform a production of their choosing. “For a lot of kids, it’s their first show. They get to pick what they want to do,” Cisek says. Choices in the past have ranged from Shakespeare to camper-spun stories to technical theater. But even with options, Cisek says, “Improv is the through line to our whole philosophy with the shows here.”

Swift had borne witness to more dull and mechanical children’s theater than she cared to remember when she formed IMP Camp. “[Those kids] didn’t know what to bring to a role. Whereas if you say, ‘You’re making up the dialogue, you’re making up the character,’ they commit to it. It’s a lot more lively on stage. They have a lot more fun. It’s a little bit messier but you have to learn how to guide the mess,” Swift says.

In the middle age group on this second day of camp, the budding actors are taking turns reading a script in a neutral tone, then adding a motivation for the second time around. A girl named Penelope reads as if she has to pee while a boy named James reads like he wants to marry Penelope. Their peers crack up.

The oldest age group is playing a game called “Freeze,” where one actor enters the frozen fray and dictates what the scene must immediately morph into. Ironically, these teenagers play a kindergarten class impeccably. In ensuing scenarios, they employ accents, eccentric walks, defined characters and clever, impromptu gags.

Close to noon, all three age groups convene and create short plots together, culminating in performances of rapid-fire scenes integrating actors of all ages.

“Don’t try to be funny,” Swift tells the campers before they begin brainstorming. “Funny will happen. Go for truth. Make it honest. Make it a believable time, place, relationship. That’s your assignment.”

For more information on IMP Camp, visit troubledshores.com/Summer_Camp.html or e-mail info@troubledshores.com.