Athletic and theatre summer camps available at Randolph College

Randolph College has numerous day camps available for local families looking for ways to enrich the summer months for their children and teens.

Sports Camps

Beginning June 2, the College will hold several athletics camps throughout the summer allowing participants to sharpen their skills in basketball, lacrosse, tennis, and horseback riding.

The season begins and ends with equestrian camps at the Randolph College Riding Center. The first begins June 2 is designed for ages 6 and up. There will be other equestrian camps for specific age groups throughout the summer.

Basketball and tennis clinics for boys and girls and a lacrosse camp  for boys will take place on the Randolph College campus beginning in July.

For a full schedule and more information on athletic camps, visit http://www.randolphwildcats.com/information/summer_camps

Theatre Camp

The two-week WildCat Theatre Conservatory from July 28 through August 9 will help participants develop creativity, confidence, and communication while learning about theatre, too. Professional performers will teach classes in acting, musical theatre, improvisation, production, and the creation of original theatre. The camp is open to students in grades K-12.

For more information and registration for WildCat Theatre Conservatory, visit http://www.wildcattheatreconservatory.org

Randolph produces “The Great American Trailer Park Musical”

UPDATE: After inclement weather caused the cancellation of the final showing of The Great American Trailer Park Musical, another performance has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m.

The newest production from the Randolph College theatre department invites audiences to come laugh along with the residents of Armadillo Acres in what Talkin’ Broadway called a “wheel-spinning, mud-splattering good time of a show.”

The Great American Trailer Park Musical opens in Thoresen Theatre on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., with shows each evening through Monday. The comedy tells a story of perseverance as the main characters deal with challenges in their lives.

Brooke Edwards, the Randolph theatre professor directing the show, said the show is entirely comedic and not to be taken seriously. “It’s about keeping on keeping on. It is pure entertainment,” she said. “It has a lot of fun music and really ridiculous characters. We have had a really good time.”

She could not even recite a sentence summarizing the plot without breaking into laughter. “An agoraphobic wife and her toll collector husband face challenges in their marriage when a stripper, who is running from her crazy ex-boyfriend, moves into their trailer park.”

The show centers on Jeannie (Marianne Virnelson ’17) and Norbert Garstecki (Kirk Mortensen). Jennie’s fears have confined her to her trailer for 20 years ever since their son was kidnapped, but she hopes to prepare herself to go out for the couple’s upcoming anniversary—if their marriage survives the arrival of Pippi (Claudia Troyer ’14), who has moved to town in hopes of starting over. The story is narrated by a trailer park trio of Betty (Emma Bartholomew ’14), Linoleum “Lin” (Emily Sirney ’14), and Donna “Pickles” (Grace Cummins ’16). Bentley Kennedy-Stone ’16 rounds out the cast as Duke, Pippi’s angry ex-boyfriend.

The show proceeds through hilarious events and ends with the reuniting of the Garsteckis with each other—and their long lost son.

The 90-minute show includes musical styles such as 1940s swing, 1950s rockabilly, ’70s disco, and ’80s rock. Edwards said Kelly Malone Dudley ’95 infused the choreography with dance moves that accompany those musical genres.

The set, the costumes, and the acting were planned to emphasize the over-the-top nature of the show so the audience can enjoy it as the spectacle it is and laugh with, rather than at, the cast. “I just hope everybody has a good laugh and that they feel good when they leave,” Edwards said.

Summer Research project plays in film festival this weekend

This weekend, independent film lovers in Oregon will watch a film made at Randolph College.

Beholder, which was created as part of the Randolph College Summer Research Program this year, was accepted in the Mt. Hood Independent Film Festival in Hood River, Oregon. Beholder will be screened at 10 a.m. Saturday, November 9.

“Being accepted to the Mt. Hood Film Festival was both incredibly exciting and validating,” said Ashley Peisher ’15, one of the students who worked on the film. “It’s easy to fall in love with something you pour your time and abilities into, so it was fantastic to hear that it was valued by others on such a level. It felt like we had done the message justice.”

Beholder tells the story of a man who carries his ailing father into the mountains in hopes that his father will learn to see the beauty in the world. Jim Peterson, a Randolph English professor who retired this year, wrote it as a play. Peisher worked with Sonja Cirilo ’15, former Randolph theatre professor Mace Archer, Randolph videographer Skip Wallace, and others to turn the play into a short film. They recorded it on a nearby mountainside in June.

As part of the Summer Research Program, they explored the techniques used in adapting a play for the screen. The experience helped the students learn about everything from storyboarding to post-production editing. “I’ve tried to branch out as much as I can within our theatre department, so it was a truly beautiful experience to dip my toes into film,” Peisher said. “It has given me a new perspective on the difference between the two crafts.”

"Our Town" 75th anniversary performance comes to Randolph College

Randolph College will mark the 75th anniversary of Our Town with two weekends of performances of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

Emily Sirney ’15 performs the role of the stage manager in a recent Our Town rehearsal.

First produced in 1938, Our Town tells the story of everyday life in Grover’s Corners, a fictional small town in New Hampshire. Performed on a sparse set where actors pantomime many of their actions, it focuses on the everyday life of the town’s residents. However, it has a much deeper meaning.

“It’s not just a play about a sleepy little town where people fall in love and die,” said Brooke Edwards, a Randolph theatre professor and director of the play. “It’s about the eternal nature of human beings. It is about quality of life and what is the important part of life.

“There is beauty and art to be found in everyday living, but do we take time to appreciate that? We don’t,” Edwards added. “Everything is so fast, we just miss it all. I think the world is revisiting this play because it really hits on that.”

Edwards chose to produce Our Town because, in addition to having an anniversary this year, it also has become a standard “rite of passage” for those working in theatre. Performed on a sparse set—Randolph’s production will use only four chairs and a ghost light—it challenges actors to grow and invites audiences to use their imaginations to explore the world of Grover’s Corners.

The cast includes 15 people, including Randolph students and members of the Lynchburg community. “Everyone has been cast and put into a position where they are going to feel the best about their ability and feel the best about what they are doing,” Edwards said.

Our Town will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 4, 5, 6, 11, and 12 in the lab theatre, room 203 in the Leggett Building. General admission is $10, $8 for the Randolph community and for adults over 60, $5 for all students. Visit www.LynchburgTickets.com for tickets and information.

Christine Gnieski ’13 shares love of theatre on summer tour

This summer, children in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Florida are developing a love and talent for theatre with the help of Christine Gnieski ’13.

Christine Gnieski ’13, right, has been touring with Missoula Children's Theatre.

Gnieski is on tour with Missoula Children’s Theatre (MCT), a company that sends theatre professionals to communities to teach musicals to children and teenagers. Each Sunday, Gnieski and another actor drive to a new town to produce a musical rendition of the Pinocchio story. They hold auditions, select actors and assistant directors, and perform the show twice on the weekend. Then they drive to a new location and start again.

Randolph theatre professor Mace Archer introduced Gnieski to MCT’s artistic director during a theatre conference this spring. Gnieski interviewed for a position and was quickly hired.

Gnieski was well known for her acting career at Randolph, performing in plays such as The Rocky Horror Show, Spring Awakening, Avenue Q, and Uncle Vanya. Her long-term goal is to act on Broadway. MCT is the perfect place to start because it allows her to tour and is helping her gain the experience she needs to try her hand at larger venues. “Also, it’s hard to find a professional actor who has never done children’s theatre,” she said.

“This is a great job to jump-start my acting career because, not only am I teaching younger generations to have a love for theatre, but I'm also really solidifying my love and respect for theatre as well,” she said. “If you can teach sixty 5- to 17-year-olds a one hour musical in five days, what can’t you do?”

Randolph composer-in-residence recognized in national newspaper

Randolph's Hiawatha Johnson was recently featured in a New York Times movie review on Judd Ehrlich's documentary, "Magic Camp." The review, published June 27, gives high praise to the movie, which it calls a "spry and revealing examination of Tannen's Magic Camp, an annual week-long July assembly of aspiring illusionists at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania."

Johnson, a composer-in-residence for Randolph also serves as an instructor for the program.

To read the review, please see:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/movies/tannens-magic-camp-is-the-subject-of-a-new-documentary.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

Students make film for Summer Research

On a warm summer day, as the late afternoon sun beat down on a mountain in Amherst County, Virginia, Sonja Cirilo ’15 applied a thin layer of makeup to make Bill Bodine’s face look paler and older. A few feet away, theatre professor Mace Archer looked out over a valley and ran through a script in his head.

When the camera began rolling a few minutes later, Archer portrayed Bobby, a man carrying his aged father on a miles-long hike into the mountain wilderness. “Ain’t got a name, far as I know,” he said. “Besides, you don’t need to know where it is.”

Sonja Cirilo ’15 makes notes during the filming of a scene in Beholder.

Archer and students have worked together this summer to produce a film adaptation of Beholder, a one-act play written by retiring Randolph English professor Jim Peterson. Students took on roles ranging from storyboarding to post-production, giving them insight and hands on experience in the art of filmmaking.

“It was much more tedious than I anticipated. It took a long time, but it was a good experience,” said Ashley Peisher ’15.

In Beholder, Bobby realizes that his father, “Pop,”  likely will die soon. He carries Pop into a mountain where he hopes to reconcile their flawed relationship and help his father open his eyes. After discussing the phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Bobby implores, “You got to learn to be a beholder, Pop!”

“They do have a lot of conflict between each other. They have a big secret that has torn them apart,” Peisher said. “It is really about trying to give his father this enlightenment before he dies.”

Archer directed and acted in Beholder more than 10 years ago when he and Peterson each taught at Montana State University – Billings. After Peterson came to teach at Randolph, Archer produced several more of Peterson’s plays in Montana.

Mace Archer talks with Skip Wallace and Bill Bodine about Beholder.

Cirilo and Peisher each helped Archer in a Summer Research project last year when they produced a play in a local motel as an experiment in environmental theatre. He invited both of them to participate in this new project this year. “I thought that the opportunity to shoot a film and give students the opportunity to see that process would be really exciting,” Archer said.

Because of Peisher’s design talent, Archer asked her to produce the storyboards—sketches that demonstrate the basic look of each scene and camera shot. He assigned Cirilo to oversee continuity—making sure that costumes, lighting, and props remain consistent from one scene to the next. He also wanted Cirilo, who hopes to act on television someday, to see how acting in front of a camera is different from acting on stage.

“I thought it was a really cool idea, and I wanted to get on board with it,” Cirilo said.

Skip Wallace, Randolph’s video producer, filmed the show and taught the students how to edit it using modern editing software.

The production crew recorded Beholder on a mountain over a period of several evenings in the past two weeks. This week, they are going through a painstaking editing process. The students hope to have the video ready to show by July 5, when Summer Research students will present the results of their projects. Then they will submit the video to several film festivals.

Peisher hopes that people will see the film and “I hope you will look around you and acknowledge the beauty of things around you, and really take in your surroundings, and be a beholder of beauty,” she said.

Lynchburg athletic and theatre summer camps available at Randolph College

Looking for enriching activities for your children this summer? Do you want your children to have lots of fun and learn a lot in these programs? Randolph College has several options, including athletic camps and a theatre program over the next few months.


Athletic Camps

Randolph’s coaches are running several camps to help children and youth to develop their skills. Camps are available for tennis, basketball (including one co-ed camp and one for girls only), horseback riding, and volleyball. Find the details, including registration information, here.

“Our goal for the week is to give each camper plenty of individual instruction in all areas of the game,” said Allison Nichols, head women’s basketball coach who leads the girls basketball summer camp. “Each day will be filled with fundamental work, competitions, games, prizes, and plenty of fun.”

Theatre Camp

WildCat Theatre Conservatory is returning to Randolph for the second year. This all-day theatre camp for K-12 students teaches a variety of acting skills ranging from musical theatre to improvisation, but it also helps build creativity and life lessons.

“I saw some kids who came into the program really shy. They opened up and were more confident by the end of the program,” said Ashley Peisher ’15, a Randolph student who helped run WildCat Theatre Conservatory and will work there again this summer. “It really gave the students an opportunity to grow and to help others grow. It was really cool to seem them work together.”

“It provided an arena for them to expand on their creativity,” said Sonja Cirilo ’15, another Randolph student helping with the conservatory for the second year.

Professional actors and theatre educators teach WildCat Theatre Conservatory classes on improvisation, musical theatre, acting, movement, and other skills. One of Peisher’s fondest memories was seeing high school students who improved their talent for improvisation. “They were doing some really genuine scenes that you would have thought were scripted,” she said.

The theatre camp is expanding to offer two different two-week sessions. One runs from July 15 to July 27 and the second will be July 29 to August 11. Get more information here, connect with the Theatre Conservatory on Facebook, or download the registration form here.

Randolph brings classic Chekov play to Lynchburg stage

Despite the fact that Anton Chekov ranks as one of the most important playwrights in history, it has been years since a Lynchburg stage showed his work. WildCat Theatre will change that this weekend as Randolph students and faculty perform Chekov’s Uncle Vanya.

The performance will unlock the comedic aspects and humanity of the play, making it accessible to a modern audience. “There are a lot of bad Chekov productions out there, but our actors are doing well,” said director Mace Archer. “The acting will be far more sophisticated than people have seen before.”

Uncle Vanya

by Anton Chekov

Presented by Randolph College
Thoresen Theatre, Randolph College
Nov. 15–19, 7:30 p.m.

Buy Tickets

Uncle Vanya tells the story of a Russian family and the staff that cares for the family’s rural estate as one family member proposes to sell the property. “It is more or less a familial squabble about what's going to happen to the family estate,” Archer said. “Some want to continue this way of life that they’ve known forever, and others are willing to sell it all off and start afresh.” It represents Russia’s change from a rural society to a more modern society during Chekov’s time.

Internationally-known theatre designer Marina Raytchinova designed the
set for Uncle Vanya and has been helping students build the set this week.

The story also includes interwoven and conflicting love stories. “Everybody in this house is in love with everybody else, but nobody can be with who they want to be with,” Archer said. “The thing that makes it fun is all the interpersonal dynamics in the house.”

The play features a set designed by Bulgarian designer Marina Raytchinova who, before this play, had designed every Chekov play other than Uncle Vanya. Although most Chekov productions have “hyper-realistic” sets depicting the details of Russian architecture, Raytchinova opted for a more simple setting that will allow the audience to focus more on the characters and the story. That will make the play more enjoyable for the audience, Archer said. “The way it will be staged will be different than anyone else would do it.”

The performance also will draw on the humorous subtexts and events in the play, which are often dropped. “Chekov always said that his plays were comedies. But when they’re produced, they don’t seem very funny,” Archer said. “I think ours will be highly entertaining. Some very funny things will happen.”

Archer decided to bring Uncle Vanya to the Thoresen Theatre stage because Chekov’s plays are classics— second only to Shakespeare in Archer’s opinion. The plays are not produced often because of a perception that they are thematically heavy: the characters are driven by a subtext, they don’t always say what they mean, and an audience can get lost unless the actors capture those nuances. But the Randolph cast is proving it can make Chekov interesting and enjoyable. “It’s been fun to watch the students really begin to understand how Chekov works and how deep they need to go to make the characters seem believable and real,” Archer said.

Theatre students finish year of strong performances, prepare for Avenue Q and other shows

From skill-building stage shows to a summer theatre camp for youth, Randolph’s theatre program is providing many opportunities for students.

This year has required acting and theatre design students at Randolph College to step up to demanding work on stage and behind the scenes. Next year’s shows—including Avenue Q and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf—will continue to offer new challenges.

“Everything we’re selecting presents real challenges to our actors and designers that are going to make them better,” said Mace Archer, a theatre professor. “There’s nothing easy next season.”

Want to get to know the Randolph College theatre program? Listen to Marian van Noppen '12, one of the stars from Randolph's productions of Spring Awakening, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Sonja Cirilo '15, a star from Reasons to be Pretty and Extremities, talk about how their experiences here have helped them develop talent for working on stage and behind the scenes in this video.

This season, students tackled two large shows—the rock-n-roll musical Spring Awakening and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream set during Brazilian carnival—and two plays with four-person casts—Extremities and Reasons to be Pretty. These plays gave opportunities to all theatre students, Archer said.

“The designers have learned the process of starting with nothing, going into design meetings with directors, evolving their ideas, and getting their work done,” Archer said. “Our actors have taken great strides in terms of the difficulty of the roles that they were tackling this year. The roles in these plays are really ambitious.”

Archer said the experiences students gain in these shows are already paying off. Two students graduating this year have secured summer jobs in well-known theatres. Emily Perry ’12 will work in Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre and Rebekah Baumgartner will work in the Olney Theatre near Washington, D.C.

Next year’s theatre season kicks off with The Scene by Theresa Rebeck, followed by Anton Checkhov’s Uncle Vanya. In the spring, the College will present Avenue Q, a hit musical in which some characters are played by puppets. The season will wrap up with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Several students will be on campus this summer working on a variety of theatre projects. During the Summer Research Program, Brooke McKelvey ’14 and Babatunde Ajao ’15 will work with Ken Parks, another theatre professor, to design a puppet control system for Avenue Q; Ashley Peisher ’15, Emily Sirney ’14, and Sonja Cirilo ’15 will help Archer produce the play Bug to experiment with environmental theatre, performing the play in the setting of a motel room.

Some students will help Archer and a group of professional actors conduct a two-week summer theatre camp for youth. Dubbed WildCat Theatre Conservatory, the camp will run from July 30–Aug. 11 with theatre instruction and activities for students from kindergarten to 12th grade. (Registration is now open!) Experience teaching theatre to children will give students more opportunities in the future, Archer said.

Shakespeare meets Carnival in WildCat Theatre production of A Midsummer Night's Dream

Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream has made its rounds through the Lynchburg area, but this weekend Randolph College students will present production that promises a new spin on the classic tale.

Randolph College presents

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Feb. 23-27, 2012
7:30 p.m. (2 p.m. on Feb. 26)
Tickets: $10 general admission, $8 faculty/staff/seniors, $5 students

“Our version will be markedly different. It is inspired by Brazilian Carnival,” said Mace Archer, a Randolph theatre professor directing the show. “It's set during the festival during our production.” It takes place aboard a Carnival float with samba dancers and other celebrators. “It’s like you’re watching Carnival,” Archer said.

The fairy royalty Oberon (portrayed by Matt Cornpropst ’14) and Titania (Marian van Noppen ’12) become the king and queen of the Carnival festival. Puck (Emily Perry ’12) is more of a snappy, snazzy Vegas showgirl than the natural woodsprite of most Midsummer productions, but she plays the same tricks that cause mayhem and disrupt the course of the young lovers who have left the nearby city.

Student actors rehearse a scene from A Midsummer Night's
Dream on the Thoresen Theatre stage in early February.

Other leading cast members include Brian Yarger ’15 as Lysander, Anne Morris ’12 as Hermia, Erin Sudol ’12 as Helena, Tory Brown ’13 as Demetrius, and Robert Santmyer ’15 as Bottom. The cast consists of 30 students, including about 10 from the Randolph College Dance program. Isabelle Dom ’12 choreographed the dances for the show.

“We have all the right actors to fit the parts of this play,” Archer said. “The energy they bring to it is phenomenal. This is the third time I've worked on Midsummer, and it’s the most energetic.”

Emily Perry '12, right, portrays the role of Puck in
an original way, combining Shakespeare with Carnival.

This is also the third time A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been performed in Lynchburg in the past year, after having a round of several performances two years ago. But the story will not be old, partly because of the Carnival setting, and partly because of the fun versatility of the story. “You could do Midsummer every year, because there are so many different ways you can do it," Archer said.

The language and storyline of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is also very accessible, allowing actors and audience members to enjoy the humor. “It’s getting really funny,” Archer said.

Producing a play in a short time period while also keeping up with demanding academic programs at the College is no easy feat, but Archer said it is preparing students for careers on stage. “Figuring out how you can do really good quality work in a compressed amount of time is part of the profession now,” he said. “They’re learning how to do that.”

Cast Announced for Fall Production of "Reckless"

Mace Archer, new assistant professor of theatre, has hit the ground running as he directs WildCat Theatre's fall production of Craig Lucas' "Reckless".

This dark comedy has been described as "one of the wildest theatrical rides your likely to take, full of twists and turns, reversals and obstacles, and finally, pathos and discovery. Christmas will never be the same."

Congratulations to the following students who have been cast in the production.

• Rachel -- Christine Gnieski '13


• Tom – T.J. Story '13


• Lloyd – Matthew Cornpropst '14


• Pooty – Marian Van Noppen '12


• Roy – Chad Ramey '13


• Trish – Kate Allen '11


• Doctor 1-5 – Rebekah Baumgartner '12


• Doctor 6 – Emily Perry '12


• Tim Timko – Chad Ramey '13


• TV Reporter – Khanh Hong '14


• Talk Show Host – Nia King '14


• Sue – Kate Allen '11


• Man in Ski Mask -- Chad Ramey '13


• Woman Patient – Khanh Hong '14


• Receptionist – Nia King '14


• Tom Jr. – T.J. Story '13

Performances will take place October 29-31 and November 4-6, 2010.

Learn more at the WildCat Theatre site...

RISE Grant Helps Senior Attend National Design Competion

Senior theatre major Melissa Gilbert was nominated for a national design award for her costumes (see note below) from a campus production of “The Rocky Horror Show,” but to present her designs in competition this February, she must finance travel costs to Tennessee.

Instead of footing the bill herself, Gilbert tapped into a new grant program at Randolph College called RISE — Randolph’s Innovative Student Experience — which awards up to $2,000 to fund scholarship, research and creative pursuits to students during their junior or senior years. After submitting a proposal, she was awarded $300 to cover travel expenses to the conference.

“It made it a lot more accessible for me, because otherwise it would have been a real big stretch,” she said.

“I think that the school getting behind the students and helping them apply what they learn is fantastic. Often times it is difficult to do that extra research or travel to that conference because of finances.”

Read the rest of this story in the Lynchburg News & Advance > > >

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Melissa Gilbert was nominated for a Barbizon Costume Design Award for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival: Region IV in recognition of her costumes for the fall 2009 Randolph College production of The Rocky Horror Show. Gilbert is pursuing a bachelor of fine arts degree in theatre and British literature and will graduate in spring 2010. You can view her design portfolio at her website.