Photography Work by Elle Augarten.
Fight Scene from the May 2000 Serious Play! Production of "Hamlet-Asalto a la Inocencia"
began in 1992, in Northampton, MA. as a two week summer program. From hours of actor training in the studio at Smith College, to presenting improvisation on downtown streets, to showing stylized drama on the steps of City Hall, we have been committed to offering rigorous and experimental performance techniques, in an atmosphere dedicated to ensemble acting.
In June 1995 the newely formed Serious Play! Theater Ensemble premiered Reality Check. In 1996 we presented The Folktale Project; Crossing the Border, and Un-Tethered. Reunion, based on Greek Myth and modern life, came next in 1997. For First Night in Northampton we adapted The Fable by Jean-Claude van Itallie.
Our 1998 season included a collaborative production of Titus Andronicus with Jonathan Croy of Shakespeare & Company and Sheryl Stoodley. Atistic director of Serious Play!, and an original investigation of community entitled, Table of Comtent, which toured to City Stage in Springfield.
Tales of the Last Formicians, by Constance Congdon was presented in April 1999. On the year 2000 the ensemble went to Greece where they performed “Hamlet-Asalto a la Inocencia” at the 5th International Women Playwrights Conference on October 4th and 5th.
The goal of Serious Play! Intensive Theater Training is to ground young adults in the process discipline and art of theater.
Using a variety of experimental and traditional theater techniques, students are challenged and supported to exploring their individual history, and creativity in the context of an Ensemble working toward total physical expressiveness on stage.
We maintain a commitment to diversity and to each other’s experience. By creating a supporting and respectful atmosphere, we allow each other to take the risk of being honest and to grow as an ensemble, as performers, and as people.
After performing in Greece in the fall of 2000, we hope to enrich our work with ibternational youth theater exchanges and residencies.
Our Next Performance Season:
I began my theater work with adolescents at the Drama Studio in Springfield, with the TEAM Players project in residence in area high schools and with a youthreach project at StageWest. Many of the adolescent artists whom I encountered in these projects wanted to further explore in-depth the art of theater. Their desire for a more rigorous actor training program led to the creation of Serious Play! Intensive Theater Training which began in 1992 as a summer workshop on the Smith College campus. In 1993, I was pleased to be accepted into the Event and Residency Program of the Mass. Cultural Council continuing my long standing relationship with the Council through my non-profit arts organization, Cultural Images Group Inc, Northampton. In 1995, Serious Play! Adolescent Theater Ensemble was formed and we were invited to establish year-round residence in the Third Floor Artspace, Thornes Marketplace, Northampton. Her we could process and produce our new theater work.
Under construction; please come back
Serious Play! Intensive Theater Training
April 26-28
May 3-5
in Northampton
Ever since my graduation from Smith College in 1989 with my M.A. in Theater, the ending of the funding of my theater-writing residencies with women in Massachusetts prisons, and the last performance of the tour of the original script created with female inmates; "Ain't No Man Dragged that Moon Down Yet", I have been developing my theater process with a focuss on adolescents 16-23 years old. It was the women I workrd with so closely in Massachusetts prisons, who urged me to work with young adults. These inmates felt that theatricall self expression could help save lives.
