Students Explore Theatre as a Collaborative Art in New Capstone Class

This semester, theatre major Rebecca Firkser ‘15 has been learning about collaboration with a capital “C.”

Firkser, one of 11 students enrolled in a new “Collaboration Capstone” 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 has involved developing a mission statement, planning an original performance and creating a website for promoting their work.

The final course assignment also centers on teamwork: Organizing a free public performance of works by all three capstone class companies. The “Just a Taste” event will be held on Thursday, Dec. 11, at 4:10 p.m. in the Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre.

Firkser, a member of the Searching for Water theatre group, said work for the class has meant stepping out of her accustomed role as a designer.

“It’s really helped me break out of my comfort zone,” Firkser said. “I decided to take some acting risks because it’s something I should experience.” (In fact, she is the only actor in her company’s new work, “Peace of Chocolate.”)

Firkser said the capstone class has helped expand her thinking about what it takes to produce original theatre.

“We’ve had to be open about playing different roles,” she said. “It’s about working together and being ready and willing to explore.”

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.

“The subtext is learning to find the people you can work with and also making your own opportunities for doing work,” he added.

While this fall’s 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.

“When we talked as a faculty about the essential qualities of the theatre major at Smith, the ability to collaborate was seen as central—both as a skill and an ethic,” Kramer said. “In the arts, there is often this idea of the lone genius. We wanted to tell a different story.”

About three weeks into the semester, Kramer assigned students to teams charged with creating their own companies. While working on their mission statements—and performance pieces reflecting those aims—students 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.

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 “stop short of a culminating, semester-long, regroup of the entirety of our senior theatre majors.”

The new class allows students to “share actively with each other their individual journeys in their major field through discussion and through embarking on their ultimate capstone classroom project,” Berkman said.

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.

Hannah Sachs ’16, another member of Searching for Water, described how her group’s creative mission emerged over time.

“We knew we wanted to do aesthetically compelling work with social justice themes,” said Sachs, who has concentrated on directing during her time at Smith. “’String Theory’ was the first name we chose for our group, but that seemed to put us on too much of an academic level.”

As part of their research for “Peace of Chocolate,” company members interviewed workers at Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium downtown. Their finished piece is about “how something as small as a piece of chocolate affects people around the world,” Sachs said.

What’s the main lesson she’s learned from the capstone class?

“My view has been expanded of how many different types of theatre companies there are,” Sachs said. “There are so many ways to create exciting work.”

Amelia Fitch ’15, a member of The Hungry Soul company, said she’s enjoyed sharing responsibility for all aspects of her group’s mission to provide a new take on dinner theatre.

“We’re all used to a hierarchy, but here we don’t have any set roles,” said Fitch, who hopes to pursue a career in costume design. “We’ve all been developing and learning.”

Fellow company member Pooja Somasundaram ’16, who has focused on playwriting, said she also appreciates “how applicable” lessons about collaboration are to her goals for the future.

“This class is making me think more about my life after Smith,” Somasundaram said.