"Sam Cooke plays to full house and receives standing ovation in Rosendale May 22, 2010!"
A Hot Night in Rosendale
ROSENDALE, NY--By the end of Michael Monasterial's one-act musical drama Sam Cooke—Where You Been Baby?, the audience was up on its feet and “Twistin' the Night Away” to a wailing sax and an exhorting vocalist. It was theater as church revival—a punctuation to the career of a preacher's son turned R&B legend.
But oh, what a winding road to get there.
This past Saturday, Passing the Torch Through the Arts offered Sam Cooke, directed by Gordon W. Brown and a 30 minute excerpt from The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, directed by Ron Morehead at Rosendale Theatre. An unlikely pairing, but one held together by fine acting throughout.
Monasterial starred as Cooke, with a cadre of Candi Sterling, Steven Jones and Evelyn Clarke playing a multitude of roles. The play begins with Cooke's death at the hands of a manager of a seedy Hollywood hotel and works its way back to Cooke's humble beginnings as a minister's son, sneaking out of Church choir to dream of a more exciting life. Cooke's platitude spouting grandmother (Evelyn Clarke) joins him and the audience for the narrative ride, acting as his conscience in an apron. Along the way Cooke comes up against his father's judgment, an ill-fated marriage to his childhood sweetheart and the threat of Motown Records, the closest thing there was to mafia to aspiring black artists in the early sixties. He also faces his own destructive behavior.
But there is also success, mostly in the form of performances of Cooke's hits by Monasterial. In the music seemed to be all the joy of the man, and Monasterial captures that essence well. In well-choreographed numbers by Abby Lappen, he performs “You Send Me”, “Chain Gang”, “Wonderful World” and a host of others with a showman's flair. Monasterial's portrait of the man is sympathetic. Cooke comes across as a well-meaning, somewhat innocent dreamer. His grandmother's line, “By the time you know what this world is about, you'll wish you didn't” seems apt. There is another side to this man that is grazed upon in his dealings with Berry Gordy of Motown—Monasterial shows a man in full, capable and strong and willing to defend himself. But even when he abashedly explains his scandalous murder to his Nanna in a touching scene, you see the results of his demons and not the demons themselves.
Evelyn Clarke as Nanna was a crowd favorite as the voice of experience in Cooke's life. Her touching mixture of tenderness and rebuke fit the part wonderfully and gave the play most of its soul. Candi Sterling, playing everything from Cooke's wife to his prostitute, ably fit every character she tackled. Her portrayal of the wife's arc, from wide-eyed country girlfriend to scared, wounded spouse was particularly riveting. Dennis Washington added his wonderful voice to the proceedings, leading the choir as a gospel counterpoint to Cooke's pop songs. Bruce Berky added that great sax and handled sound, while Clarke and Esther Taylor-Evans shared a co-writing credit.
Some of the show's best acting was provided by Stephen Jones. As Cooke's unforgiving father he had the gravity of a man bent on pointing his son toward the straight and narrow, as Gordy he was all smiling malevolence, and as a gushing teenage fan dancing along to Cooke's music he almost stole the show. Whatever Jones portrayed, he committed to it and pulled it off with dignity.
Gordon W. Brown's direction of the show was tight, moving the action along nicely and revealing character along the way. One bit, where Cooke's then-girlfriend grabs money out of his hand before accepting his proposal, got a round of applause from the audience—that's about as effective as direction gets! Monasterial wrote Cooke talking directly to the audience to set up scenes, which is less effective, since many of the scenes would stand on their own without introduction. There was also a looseness to the performance that in its best moments led to a direct connection with the audience, and at its worst indicated that another week of rehearsal was warranted. Some of the key moments in the play just miss because of this lack of precision. However, on the whole the play comes across as both heartfelt tribute and cautionary tale, and there was no denying how much the audience enjoyed it.
The Vagina Monologues, staged simply with three actresses sitting in chairs facing the audience, was a wonderful blend of terrific acting and subtle direction by Ron Morehead. Johanna Tacadena, Dana Lockhart and Laurie Dichiara each performed one of the monologues, and their passion and talent was beautiful balanced. Tacadena's sweet, soulful performance of an inexperienced woman was offset by Dichiara's venerable, yet wounded portrayal of an older lady whose time has passed. Lockhart strikes the chord in her direct, no-nonsense brush with a sexist, controlling husband in “Hair”. This show will be reprised at Arts Society of Kingston in June, and if the sneak peek is any indication it should not be missed.
Brian Petti 5/25/10
SCHOOL BULLYING PROGRAM
A New Drama therapy program to stop the violence in schools:
To be implemented with OLWESUS program or as a stand alone classroom presentation and utilizing Theater to stop bullying.
“Who’s running things?”
Stop the Cycle of Violence through responsibility
written by Michael Monasterial
Passing the Torch Through the Arts is a multi-cultural, professional theater company, dedicated to education and social change. Our program is designed to serve At-Risk-Youth in innovative and completely interactive theater projects. This short piece of drama is intended to draw the youth into the Bullying program through identification and participation rather than traditional passive classroom teaching. It will begin the Kick off event that initiates the week long nationally recognized OLWESUS bullying program of education and a reward system. We engage the students by selecting our cast from the student body, and perform in our short drama entitled, “Who’s running things?” Or it can be used as a stand alone in class presentation with one of our board certified teachers as the group leader. The goal is to identify and understand the Cycle of harmful behavior, in this case, bullying and other school violence, but the same theory applies to drug use and racial prejudice for example. By actively engaging our Middle school audience by seeing their peers act out the drama, children they are familiar with and can relate to, and the lesson becomes exponentially more effective. |
Here’s exactly how it works:
First, our team introduces themselves and what we do and why we are here. Then, with the help of the teachers familiar with the programming, select 6 students to play the various roles. We cast the play based on the types of actors we need and who we feel, by a quick assessment, can effectively portray the roles. This process can be accomplished within one classroom period.
(Note: Any alert student who can read at or around their grade level will do well. The roles are very simple and written in conversational language. We are just looking for individuals that will not be too embarrassed in front of an audience or not take the production seriously. If the wrong individual is chosen the effectiveness of the play might be lost due to ‘clowning’ and important dialogue drowned out by his/her friends’ laughter.)
Second, we take the 6 students to another quiet room and rehearse the script. We go over lines, who their characters are and who the are to each other, blocking and then perform a couple of brief rehearsals of the entire play. This process can be accomplished within two classroom periods. The students are allowed to paraphrase the dialogue and use index cards so they don’t feel intimidated by the amount of words. Also the dialogue is well balanced and conversational, so there are no long monologues to memorize.
(Note: any school selected will have a script beforehand, so they can set up the casting and rehearsal place ahead of time and are more than welcome to observe the entire process. We also video the entire event from meeting the teachers to the final product for our archives and so the schools can reproduce the program as many times as it wishes.)
Third, we have a narrator, (a student) who sets up the scenes for the student body and introduces the cast. This excites the imagination. The actors introduce themselves and who they portray. Then the narrator announces the title and begins the production. The drama unfolds and then resolves itself, right before the students eyes so they can better absorb its lesson.
Fourth, our team asks questions and that draw students attention to the definition and concept of Cycles and Responsibility, in simple and basic terms of course. Then the team gives all the actors a big applause and they take their bows.
The team then turns the assembly over to the school team selected to finish the OLWESUS of rules and reinforcement. This concluding our participation in the program. Or in case this is a stand alone event the team will begin the final phase of the program in a Q and A that runs something like this.
(Note: typical questions after the program are: Have you even been bullied, or bullied anyone? A member of the team raises their hands so that the students can identify and feel comfortable about being honest. How did it make you feel? Does doing bad things like bullying make us bad people or can we change? What is a cycle? Lets talk about some other things that hurt people that are in cycles. We can’t change everyone from doing bad things to other people, or taking drugs or hating people for the color of their skin or religion, but if we take responsibility…by not doing it ourselves…just us…just one person… because if everyone just changed that one person… just changed themselves…just took responsibility for themselves…then we could change the world.)
The Bully‘s question: “Who‘s do you think is running things around here?” The line is repeated three times in the script once by the Bully, once by his father, and once by the bullying victim, who then becomes a bully himself. The question is posed to the assembly. The entire assembly responds…I am.
Who’s running things…(each student replies) I am.
Who can change things…(each student replies) I can.
Once you know that then no one can Bully you.
Who’s running things?
The cast of Characters include:
The students put their names in the place of the characters which are:
The bully’s big brother
The boy that is being bullied sister
The boy being bullied
The bully
The second bully victim
The Narrator
The play begins
The Narrator addresses the audience. He/she takes position downstage right and remains there for the entire play.
Narrator
Good afternoon, and welcome to our school production of “Who’s running things?” The time is Present.
The setting is outside the school yard after school. Scene 1.
This is what happened… Here is (Give the girl students name), and she is walking with her brother (give the boy students name) and they are heading home after school, hoping to stop buy the deli and buy some candy or a cake on the way home.
The two actors are walking across the stage. (These names are just samples, any students name can be used.)
Deqwan
Wanda, did I tell you who I like now?
Wanda
You don’t have to tell me I already know.
Deqwan
You think your smart right? You just know everything right? Who is it then?
Wanda
Its Lisa. Lisa McRae!
Deqwan
(He is shocked!) How did you know?
Wanda
Everybody knows.
Deqwan
They do? Everybody?
Wanda
Deqwan give me a dollar. Daddy gave you two so we can buy something good after school. Let me have my dollar, I don’t want to go to that store we always go to.
Stephen appears.
Stephen
Hey Deqwan.
Deqwan
He Stephen.
Stephen
Hey Wanda.
Wanda doesn’t speak.
Stephen
Your Sister doesn’t like me does she Deqwan? That’s OK, what we have to talk about has got nothing to do with her anyway.
Stephen stands very close to Deqwan and puts his arm around him. Deqwan looks scared.
Stephen
You know. I am awful hungry and you want to share whatever you get from the deli with me, don‘t you?
Wanda
No Stephen he doesn’t because half that money is mine, besides you are not even Deqwans’ friend.
Stephen
Nobody is even talking to you Wanda. Deqwan is going to share with me because he knows better. He knows who’s running things around here! Right punk?
He pushes Deqwan on the floor and Deqwan starts to cry.
Wanda
You better get out of here Stephen or I’m gonna tell the teacher on you.
Stephan
No you won’t, because then everybody will know that Deqwans’ sister fights his battles for him.
Wanda
Oh yeah!
Deqwan
Stop Wanda.
Stephen
That’s right, stop Wanda. I’ll see you when you come out of the deli Deqwan.
Narrator
Scene 2. Two Days later. Wanda and Deqwan are outside Stephens house.
Wanda
I don’t think we should be here Deqwan. Every time he sees you he pushes you around.
Stephen
I don’t care Wanda. I have to make him stop. I’ll pay him off or beg him, or even fight him, but I am tired of being scared everyday.
Narrator
Just then Stephen and his big brother walk outside of the house and Wanda and Deqwan duck down out of sight.
Stephens’ Big brother
What did I tell you to do when I left?
He pushes Stephen.
Did I tell you to mow the lawn?
Stephen
I thought Mamma told you to do that.
Stephens big brother slaps him.
Big brother
Yeah, but I told you to do it. And give me your lunch money, I wanna a beer.
Stephen
What am I gonna have? I get hungry.
Big brother
Get it from someone else. Now I said give it to me…Don’t forget who’s running things around here. Now go to school…punk.
Stephens big brother pushes Stephen to the ground and Stephen starts to cry.
Wanda and Deqwan look at each other for a moment walk to school quietly.
Narrator
Scene 3. That afternoon after school, back at the school yard. Deqwan sees another boy counting his change and is about to cross the street going to the deli.
Deqwan walks up to the Boy and puts his arm around him.
Deqwan
Hey Andre.
Andre
Hey Deqwan.
Deqwan
You going to the store?
Andre
(He is scared) Yeah, I guess.
Deqwan
(Threatening) Well I am going with you.
Wanda enters and joins them.
Wanda
Deqwan? What are you doing?!?
Andre runs away.
Deqwan
What Wanda? Mind your business.
Wanda
Look at What your doing? Stephens big brother bullied him and then he bullied you and now you’re a bully! Didn’t you learn anything?
Deqwan
Yeah, I learned that big guys take from little guys and it feels good. Now I’m running things! So go home Wanda.
Hey Andre come over here!
Narrator
That is the end of our play … or is it?