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.

Flowery feature

Just finished my story on "The Kings" -- the Morning Sentinel was nice enough to let me do a first-person account of the filming. They're always great to work with. Also finished a cover letter to GQ in hopes of a possible internship in New York in the fall (also waiting to hear back from Entertainment Weekly). After this post I'll be working on some fiction and going to review a restaurant at 5. Pretty writerly day, eh?

Below is one of three articles I wrote for Martha's Vineyard Wedding magazine. It's the one I'm proudest of, the most readable and interesting, a feature on a Vineyard florist. This one goes out to Claire, the floweriest, plantiest person I know.

Flower girl on the Vineyard

By Zach Dionne

For Martha’s Vineyard Wedding magazine, July 2009

As a young girl, Louise Sweet didn’t like florists. At all.

“I never thought of becoming one. In those days, everything was very stiff and manufactured looking – nothing I would ever do with a flower,” says the woman behind Flowers on the Vineyard. It would end up being her own passion for flora, rather than the dull scenes in flower shop windows, from which her signature style and successful business would blossom in the years to come. “Growing up in Pennsylvania, I loved nature and flowers. I used to pick flowers and make things all the time.”

Then Louise Sweet came to Martha’s Vineyard for a summer in the early 1970s and ended up marooning herself on the island, learning to call it home.

“I started selling flowers out of buckets. We wouldn’t arrange them, we would just put flowers out for sale,” Ms. Sweet says. “It became my life. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Her business began on Beach Road in Vineyard Haven, dubbed Tellurian, Greek for “of, pertaining to, or inhabiting the earth.” The establishment evolved from a general flower store, selling by the stem, to its current multifaceted presence as Flowers on the Vineyard.

The drive to Ms. Sweet’s business and home winds down bumpy dirt roads, scenic rock walls and serene, bucolic estates. She speaks fondly of her formative days as a Vineyard flower seller, when large shipments would come on the ferry and boatloads – literally – of flowers would be unloaded on the dock.

Ms. Sweet’s home and headquarters for Flowers on the Vineyard is situated cozily atop a hill in West Tisbury, surrounded by gardens, a chunk of the house hidden in greenery and flowers. No vista around the property is without eye-catching landscaping – even the noisy, metal compressor box to her flower cooler’s compressor is adorned with attractive vegetation.

“This is my workshop, my studio,” Ms. Sweet says of a formerly unfinished basement, the third space she has designed and developed for her work. It’s also her favorite.

Inside, a wall of timeless-looking stoneware vases makes a right angle to shelves of distressed silver vessels. A chalkboard is littered with marker-written reminders, a sunflower postcard and magnetic letters, one batch spelling “crazy.” A weather-worn wooden flower cart Ms. Sweet has toted around the island through the years sits just outside the door. But no aspect is more noticeable than the immediately striking, fresh, well … flowery, fragrance.

“We have our own aromatherapy here,” Ms. Sweet says, laughing and dealing casually with a bride for the upcoming weekend. They interact like old friends. “I’m glad I found you,” the bride says, here to pick up her flowers – dazzling Massachusetts-grown peonies Ms. Sweet fawns over amorously.

“It’s not just about the flowers, it’s what you present them in and what that feeling evokes. There are subtle nuances,” Ms. Sweet says. She utilizes her time-amassed collection of vases, free of charge to clients, to “complete and put the little twist on the overall look.”

Different sections of Martha’s Vineyard call for diverse decorative approaches; silver or glass containers suit Edgartown, up-island “just begs” for stoneware and vintage pieces, Ms. Sweet says.

“It is truly a unique and beautiful place to be,” she says of the Vineyard, unsurprised at its destination wedding status. She calls weddings a central part of her business. “I love to work with each bride. Each job is a custom piece. I’ve never done the same wedding twice. I just sit down with them and get a really good sense of what it is they are trying to convey.”

From each meeting, a detailed proposal arises, full of options, suggestions and price ranges. “We fine-tune it until we get the budget the client is comfortable with. I’ve never done any proposal only once; they evolve and grow with time. It’s a collaboration,” she says.

Ms. Sweet assures that Flowers on the Vineyard doesn’t necessarily mean an armada of floral elegance. “I’m also happy to do just the bride and groom standing on the beach with one boutonniere and one bouquet,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be a huge production.”

Speculating that she may have passed the 1,000 mark without knowing it, Ms. Sweet has worked with hundreds of events and weddings in her career – including her own. After a divorce and her two sons moving to college, Ms. Sweet married her high school sweetheart, James. She orchestrated the flowers for her remarriage – white tulips for a winter wedding in her hometown, near Philadelphia.

Flowers on the Vineyard goes beyond flora to offer staging and styling services for homes and events. Ms. Sweet’s repertoire includes various décor for weddings; she can supply antiques, pillows, tabletop items, any type of bric-a-brac to tie together an event, to paint the blank canvas of a wedding. “You create this entire physical space from nothing. We have a million ideas and we love to share them,” Ms. Sweet says. But flowers are the mainstay. “Everything started with the flowers. All the other pieces followed.”

In a long chat about Ms. Sweet’s business and her history, the conversation continually returns to flowers. She is irrefutably in love with her work.

“Our style is very unique. It’s not something you’re going to see in corporate U.S.A. at all. It’s a look I’ve developed over the years and really strived for. It’s seasonal, indigenous, and within that there’s so much flexibility for people’s individual tastes,” she says.

Ms. Sweet meets with clients and works on proposals year-round, occasionally working on winter weddings. She spends part of the colder months in California. She loves traveling, but flowers remain in the back of her mind no matter where she roams. “I love to get new ideas. I always bring them back here with what works here.”

She rattles off her favorite flowers instinctively: tulips, peonies, hydrangeas – “They drive me wild. I have to have them.” She quickly revises her favorites to include lilacs, and there’s a sense she could continue adding until the entire phylum of flowers comprised the list. Her favorite weddings aren’t as easy to cite. “I give each wedding, really, my full attention. So a favorite is really hard to say.”

Ms. Sweet is happy to report “almost nil” negative feedback; she cherishes baskets of handwritten thank-you notes. She’s worked with clients from all over the world – Italy, New Zealand, China, Switzerland, London come to mind.

“I’ve gotten to work with incredible people on the island – if you heard about a dignitary visiting here, I got to meet them and I got to do flowers for them. It’s another bonus to the business,” Ms. Sweet says. She prefers to go on the strength of her work and reputation than to namedrop celebrity clientele. A breeze through her shop, however, reveals two framed letters of appreciation from Bill Clinton and Martha Stewart nestled in bunches of flowers on a preparation table.

Working with weddings, it becomes easy to get jaded to the importance of the day – but it’s also easy to step back and remember how momentous the journey is for each couple. “You really come into their lives a little bit,” Ms. Sweet says.

Write stuff

“No matter how much rejection I faced, I kept writing and recording because I had some unspeakable need to do it. I just kept doing it, even if no one was ever going to hear it, I loved doing it.”
-Mark Oliver Everett, aka E of Eels, “Things the Grandchildren Should Know”

I might not be facing the same adversity ol' E did for quite a while trying to become a noteworthy musician in L.A., but I feel his unspeakable need to write, his love for it. I'm planning to write and read every day for the four months I live on this island. With the all-consuming stress of simultaneously being a senior in college and an editor at a twice-weekly newspaper behind me, I've got renewed energy to read for fun and write anything I want. Doing something you love for an education or a living -- whether it's enjoying literature, making art or music, or writing -- can sap your creative juice so by the time you're done your work, you have no energy to write or read what you'd really like to.

Part of the great thing about being a journalist is that you don't need any kind of license, certification, or really any education. You could be a Russian major and write for the New York Times doing standard news stories or a first-year journalism student learning more at a newspaper than in your classes. Still, with a degree and an internship at a newspaper, I feel more like a professional writer than ever, and it's great -- and I still have a ton of ambition to write for pleasure. I love it -- this is what I was made to do. Here's a scribble from my notebook that may illustrate this all better than I have up to this point. I wrote this at a cafe yesterday.

Write write write. Write something -- or think or something, write nothing. Crack knuckles, click pen, close eyes, open eyes. Is this writing or a sketch, a doodle, a scribble? Something about writing by hand I forgot somewhere along the way. Good to have remembered. Longhand just works. Whether this scrawl is worthwhile or a waste, it's fun. Pen on paper reminds me why I love this, why I was made to do this. News, a short story, an e-mail, a song, a note, a letter, a blog, a text message, a nothing-scribble filling a page in one of many notebooks -- it's all writing, and it's all energizing. Can't wait to do this for the rest of my life.

Not sure if it's living in this new place, my new post-college circumstances, the new love I'm reveling in (Mary's at home, in Orono, but we Skyped last night and saw each other's faces and are doing well) or a swirling combination of things, but I en't arguin'. I'm going to ride this muse while it lasts and keep on scrawlin' on.

In keeping with my promise of staying brief, I'm wrapping this up here. I'll post another notebook scribble in the comments section if you're down for more. It's what I wrote on my first time on a beach in MV.



Stay tuned. Another post coming later today.