Searching for Water <\/a>theatre group,\u00a0said work for the class has meant stepping out of her accustomed role as a designer.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s really helped me break out of my comfort zone,\u201d Firkser said. \u201cI decided to take some acting risks because it\u2019s something I should experience.\u201d (In fact, she is the only actor in her company\u2019s new work, \u201cPeace of Chocolate.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Firkser said the capstone class has helped expand her thinking about what it takes to produce original theatre.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had to be open about playing different roles,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about working together and being ready and willing to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Encouraging such willingness is one of the goals of the new course, said theatre department chair Daniel Kramer, who taught the capstone class this semester.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe subtext is learning to find the people you can work with and also making your own opportunities for doing work,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
While this fall\u2019s capstone class was designed as a pilot test, Kramer noted that the course will become a required part of the theatre major beginning in the fall of 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we talked as a faculty about the essential qualities of the theatre major at Smith, the ability to collaborate was seen as central\u2014both as a skill and an ethic,\u201d Kramer said. \u201cIn the arts, there is often this idea of the lone genius. We wanted to tell a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n
About three weeks into the semester, Kramer assigned students to teams charged with creating their own companies. While working on their mission statements\u2014and performance pieces reflecting those aims\u2014students also heard from expert guest speakers. Among them were members of CollaborationTown, a New York City-based theatre company that is devoted to new plays.<\/p>\n
Leonard Berkman, Anne Hesseltine Hoyt Professor of Theatre pointed out that while lessons on collaboration are woven into existing theatre classes at Smith, current offerings \u201cstop short of a culminating, semester-long, regroup of the entirety of our senior theatre majors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new class allows students to \u201cshare actively with each other their individual journeys in their major field through discussion and through embarking on their ultimate capstone classroom project,\u201d Berkman said.<\/p>\n
Such sharing was on display during a recent class session in the Green Room of Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts. As students finalized plans for the December 11 performances, the room filled with the sound of their overlapping conversations.<\/p>\n
Hannah Sachs \u201916, another member of Searching for Water, described how her group\u2019s creative mission emerged over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we wanted to do aesthetically compelling work with social justice themes,\u201d said Sachs, who has concentrated on directing during her time at Smith. \u201c’String Theory’ was the first name we chose for our group, but that seemed to put us on too much of an academic level.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of their research for \u201cPeace of Chocolate,\u201d company members interviewed workers at Ben & Bill\u2019s Chocolate Emporium downtown. Their finished piece is about \u201chow something as small as a piece of chocolate affects people around the world,\u201d Sachs said.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the main lesson she\u2019s learned from the capstone class?<\/p>\n
\u201cMy view has been expanded of how many different types of theatre companies there are,\u201d Sachs said. \u201cThere are so many ways to create exciting work.”<\/p>\n
Amelia Fitch \u201915, a member of The Hungry Soul company<\/a>, said she\u2019s enjoyed sharing responsibility for all aspects of her group\u2019s mission to provide a new take on dinner theatre.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re all used to a hierarchy, but here we don\u2019t have any set roles,\u201d said Fitch, who hopes to pursue a career in costume design. \u201cWe\u2019ve all been developing and learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow company member Pooja Somasundaram \u201916, who has focused on playwriting, said she also appreciates \u201chow applicable\u201d lessons about collaboration are to her goals for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis class is making me think more about my life after Smith,\u201d Somasundaram said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This semester, theatre major Rebecca Firkser \u201815 has been learning about collaboration with a capital “C.” Firkser, one of 11 students enrolled in a new \u201cCollaboration Capstone\u201d class, has spent the past few months launching a theatre company with a small team of classmates. Their work for one of three companies formed by the class […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12235","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12235"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12369,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12235\/revisions\/12369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}