Untitled Document

Ruhala Theatre
2012 Season

(please click on show for details)

Goofball Improv

Passion

Just Clownin' Improv

The Enquiry

Willy Wonka

Composed by the multiple Tony Award winning composer Stephen Sondheim and with book by Tony Award winning James Lapine, Passion won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1994 and for Best Original Score.

Acting Ensemble

in

The Enquiry

a play by Charlotte Hastings

Directed by Celina Ruhala

Saturday April 21 @ 8pm

Sunday April 22 @ 4pm

Jr. Ensemble

in

Willy Wonka

Lyrics by: Anthony Newley

Music by: Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse

Adapted for the stage by Leslie Bricusse and Tim McDonald

Based on the book Charlie and The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Directed by: Mark Ruhala

Musical Direction by: Jeff English

Roald Dahl’s timeless story of the world-famous candy man and his quest to find an heir comes to life in this stage adaptation of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, which features the songs from the classic family film Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.

Saturday May 5 @ 7pm

Sunday May 6 @ 2pm & 6pm

Box Office: 517-337-0464

(Ruhala Center Office)

The highly acclaimed Ruhala Performance Ensembles produce Winter/Spring seasons of signature performances. These ensembles come together in the Fall and spend months honing their skills in intensive work as a company. The director then chooses a production that fits the ensemble members. Rehearsals commence and a final production is performed for the public, usually at the RPAC studio theatre.

The Artistic Director’s guiding principles are to present fresh takes on classic Broadway musicals and dramas, stage new works of integrity and artistic quality, and to always keep the shows relevant. After three decades in the theatre Mr. Ruhala has developed his own approach to theatre which, like other choices in his life, is organic and sustainable and moving further in that direction evermore.

Organic theatre is like healthy gardening. Planting seeds and letting them be, with simple water, light, and love. The seeds are in the text and through “letting the script do you” and letting the characters and story organically evolve and make them known through non-action, non-decision making, and non-judgment, truthful impulses emerge through bodyful wisdom that underscores all mindful reasoning. Heady decision making has no part in this process. The old idea that “90% of what we rehearse is to be thrown away” gets turned on its head – in this organic process everything that gets discovered stays because it is found and based in truth.

Sustainable theatre aims to keep performers healthy and sustainable in rigorous and long processes of performing. Through proper use of acting, vocal, and movement techniques along with Yoga and Brain Gym techniques and an emphasis in holistic health, performers can sustain the demands of performing. The body is our instrument and it must remain vital and fully alive to achieve optimal performance and longevity.

RPAC Theatre is a vehicle for personal development and transformation, be it through the act of performing or the experience as an audience member. Theatre is a vessel that can contain the secret places we fear, the dark forces of our natures, and the heights of human potential and realization, and can assist us in knowing ourselves and others. Good theatre changes us through the experience. Good performing is good living, on stage. These qualities of honesty, generosity, authentic listening, genuine responding, spontaneous living, tuning into and following one’s gut impulses and heart intuitions also shape the character of a person off stage.

Be a part of this radically healthy way of approaching theatre. Experience the joy and the work, the camaraderie, and the rush of adrenaline!

Preparation each and every day – the best way to increase your chance to succeed

Enthusiasm (even in the tedium) – stay in touch with your joy and feel the energy

Honesty – sacrifice polite, nice, people pleasing actions with respectful truth

Fear facing – when fears appear, the sooner one can confront them they diminish

Actions aligned with goals – use this as a guide, ask yourself are you aligned

Please remember THE FACE YOU BRING IS THE FACE YOU GET BACK. We are state-bound – the state of mind must be aligned with the activity. If you are to perform, you must be in your performing self. Be your student at school, your child or wife or daughter at home, your employee or employer at work, your relationship when in that relationship, your competitor in competition, and your artist in your arts work.

SUBJECTIVITY: Casting for the stage is a subjective choice, just as choosing one’s first string squad and team in sports. Like the coach, a director has many criteria and priorities to sift through while contemplating casting for a show. The coach’s first priority and main goal is to create a winning team (we are only speaking here of real competition, not the arena of youthful sports where winning is not the main goal – interesting that we only create this non-competitive environment of competition for young people, adults would find it most ridiculous). The director’s main goal is also to create a winning performance which includes a winning cast, a cast that can create the winning performance of the director’s vision.

QUALITIES: The qualities we desire in our cast are: strong work ethic, commitment, dedication, cooperation, expressiveness, humbleness, open-heartedness, open-mindedness, spontaneity, teamwork, truthfulness, self motivation, self sustaining maturity, quick study, imaginative thinking, enthusiasm, bold decision making, risk taking, passion, skill sets, and talent.

ENSEMBLE WORK: Ensemble work is team work – where the whole is more important that the individual parts. This requires unselfishness and team ambition over individual ambition. “Stars” are not made in ensembles, yet, anyone can emerge as a star in an ensemble production. The true star of ensemble work is the ensemble. In Ruhala Center Ensemble Training we have months of classes that inform our decisions so that the audition itself is only a small portion of the decision making, say twenty-five percent.

AUDITIONS: In the audition it is impossible to ruin your chance of casting because of a poor audition, as we already know what one is capable of from the earlier work. However, one can certainly gain an edge with a splendid and surprisingly new audition! Remember the goal at an audition is to convince the casting director that you are THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE ROLE!

prior attendance - poor attendance of a gifted and talented performer deems this performer useless – we look for one-hundred percent attendance ideally

attitude – no one wants to work with a sour puss or an inconsistent attitude, everyone wants to work with a reliably enthusiastic and open attitude

ability to take notes – very important quality of intelligence, a secure personality, and unselfishness

quickness in assimilating direction – rehearsals are a drudge when a cast member is not getting it and requires repeated instruction, on the other hand a quick study who does the homework makes rehearsals a joy

ability to sing, act, and dance the part – FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION – for without this ability one is not considered for this part

team work – any performer who has difficulty being a part of the team, a role player, will first be cast in a chorus role to develop this prerequisite to ensemble work – nothing is more destructive to ensemble work than a selfish attitude

chemistry – this is a very challenging part of casting – how will these parts work together? Some roles require strong partnerships with other roles and the chemistry on stage is mandatory. This is often like putting together a puzzle.

previous casting and performances: when we have already worked with a performer in an earlier show, we consider what attitude the performer had, the work ethic, attendance, rehearsal etiquette, and how successfully did they perform the role

seniority – those who have been committed to our work and have shown loyalty to the long-term process of training have an advantage

age and maturity – generally (not always) the older actors have an advantage because they have more life experience and performing experience as well

career desires – we have an extra responsibility to those who are career training with us – we must prepare them to be fit for the real world of show business. In so doing, we consider this in casting.

development of the performer – as we are a training center and part of our goal is to assist young performers in developing themselves, we ask what is the best way to help in the development of the performer when we are casting

The age old adage “there are no small parts” must be understood for success

Disappointment in casting is natural at times – sitting in the disappointment is destructive. Feeling and expressing the disappointment is important for a day and the next day is time to get back in the ring and fight for what you want. Learning how not to be disappointed is strongly advised and one learns this from experience and understanding the subjective reality of casting.

Asking the director what one can do to better improve chances for casting is constructive. Complaining and righteously questioning the director will not serve your goals. Good actors are made from hard work, no matter how much natural ability one has. Great actors are made from even harder work!

One good casting role does not mean more are coming - every audition is a new process of starting over.

Casting at the Ruhala Center comes from the attitude that every class is an audition – work hard in every class, be prompt, prepared, and in full attendance with open hearted/mindedness and you will secure a definite advantage. Heightening intensity only at audition time is a path toward disappointment – understanding that learning and development is a process, and the beauty and joy are inherently a part of it, is crucial to experiencing free and meaningful stage work.

In June, Artistic Director Mark Ruhala sent a letter the editor of the Lansing City Pulse newspaper regarding their front page story. The publisher, Berle Schwartz, decided not to publish the letter. After Mr. Ruhala contacted Mr. Schwartz asking him why the Ruhala Center is not included in the Pulsar Theater Awards, Mr. Schwartz stated that they don't do schools in the Pulsars. Then he quickly retracted that email saying they do cover schools, MSU and LCC, and stated the reason is that the judges don't want to. Then followed up with "I don't know what else to tell you". Mr. Ruhala also contacted the Arts and Entertainment editor of the City Pulse, James Sanford, - he did not respond at all.

The letter was also sent to Jane Zussman asking her to send it to her unofficial theater list called G.L.U.T. (Greater Lansing Ubiquitous Theater) of which Mr. Ruhala, RPAC, and all other area theaters subscribe to. Ms. Zussman also declined to publish the letter thinking it would do more harm than good. Ms. Zussman thinks that RPAC is worthy of inclusion in the Pulsars. She is also a judge for the Thespie Awards (theater awards of the Lansing State Journal) and says we are considered for their awards. Yet the fact is the judges cannot consider our shows as they do not come see our shows. Jane comes once in a while, and we appreciate that, but she is the only one.

Meanwhile recently a Facebook exchange from area local actors bashed Mr. Ruhala for his annual ritual of pointing out RPAC's exclusion. Part of the discussion was Doak Bloss who also said last year at the Renegade Theatre Festival that RPAC should be included.

Below is the letter in full. The Ruhala Center is consistently left out of the theater coverage of the two local papers as was evident in both paper's coverage of the June awards. Already persons have written to the papers to ask them to reverse their policy and give RPAC the same treatment as the other theaters covered in the local awards. If you feel so inclined any help you can offer us would be welcomed. We are at a loss of how to penetrate the wall that exists between RPAC and the local theater community, which has existed for some inexplicable reason since opening in 2004.

The May 26 cover of the Lansing City Pulse newspaper asks the question “Who are be this year’s Pulsar superstars”? I will not attempt to answer that question but I can tell you actor’s who won’t be, who won’t even be considered for Pulsar superstardom, because of their affiliation with my theatre production company. No, on the contrary, these actors will be discriminated against for their choosing to perform with the Ruhala Performing Arts Center. Here is a sample:

Carmen Zavala, MSU Junior BFA in Acting, for her role as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd

Lisa Buch, 2008 MSU graduate in Psychology, for her role in And The World Goes Round

Valerie diLorenzo, New York City cabaret singer/actor for her role in Two By Two

Caitlin Kane, 2010 MSU graduate in Theater, for her role as Mona in Come Back To the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

Guinevere Hovey, 2011 MSU graduate in Theater, for her role as Sissy in Come Back To the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

Kye Manion, Lansing area Technical Director, for his work on Sweeney Todd, Jimmy Dean, World Goes Round

Bill Lemon, Lansing area builder, for his set design for Sweeney Todd & Jimmy Dean

Jeff English, Lansing are Musical Director, for his work in Sweeney Todd or Two By Two

Jeff, like others before him, has been nominated for a Pulsar this year as Musical Director, yet he couldn’t be nominated for his work at RPAC because of the exclusionary discrimination.

We have never been given a straight answer to our question “why are we excluded”. The answers the City Pulse has given us are obviously contradictory and hypocritical. In short it goes like this:

RPAC is a school where actors learn and study and therefore not applicable – but so are LCC and MSU.

RPAC works with children under age – but the above list shows otherwise and underage children get included in the Pulsars in many other theater’s shows including the talented Ari Helgesen this year (she also has performed and studied with RPAC but would have been excluded for the same role here at RPAC)

We have asked many times before and we ask again for support from the theater community to help get us included in the thriving theatre scene in Lansing. Please ask the City Pulse to explain why RPAC is excluded and discriminated against.

If the local theater community will not support a vital link to professional quality theater training and productions by including it in the local theater awards there is little to deduct but something that goes perhaps like this: RPAC is not wanted here, others are intimidated by something, or jealous of something, or simply don’t care enough to make a statement.

The silence from both the City Pulse and the theater community is deafeningly clear.

Funny thing is, while I believe that competitions are antithetical to the arts, I am fighting to be included in the competitions for two reasons – these actors deserve better from the community from which and for which they perform, and for the RPAC business to grow it would benefit equally as well as the other included theaters by inclusion.

“A true renegade doesn’t belong here”, the last line of An Artist’s Nightmare spoken to the sister who has been persuaded thusly due to the intense conventionality of the small town and the provincial mentality, has truth to it and yet limits the missing protagonist with an inevitable choice to leave or betray that truth. But what if the renegade buttressing up against the staid ways of the small town desires instead to stay and manifest change? What if the protagonist really loves this town stemming from his deep rootedness of family, community, and the personal development of his early years here?

What were striking about the audience responses to An Artist’s Nightmare were the easy falsehoods presented with cavalier attitudes of righteousness and utter disregard for truth.

Also striking was the absence of many persons who were mentioned in the story (granted that some were working in the festival). Some did show up, clearly ready to defend, armed with gathered information or paper to write notes, or positions to stand unmoved. Jane Zussman asks in her email why names were not mentioned, “to protect the accused”? I guess she missed my opening statement that explained that I wrote without names to keep the script universal and the focus on the ubiquitousness of the story. I made it clear that people would know who was being talked about if they knew the theater folks in town, and others wouldn’t have a clue. Odd was that each anonymous person mentioned in the script was so compelled to let the audience know they were the one in the script. What could have remained anonymous was brought up by the people who wanted their anonymity. What could have been a civilized discussion about the issues the script brings up instead dove headfirst into the subjective personal reactions that I asked not to bring forward. Obviously pertinent issues were raised in the script, as was clear from the buttons that got pushed in some people. Unfortunately those issues were never extrapolated on as the scratching and biting of defense ensued.

Two questions so clearly stated in the program were desired to be answered through the event – how did the Ruhala Center become so discriminated against and how can we get in the game? While some answers to the first question can be gleaned and inferred through the dialogues that followed the performance, the second question pretty much went unaddressed, save for Doak Bloss’ statement “I think you should be covered Mark”. Perhaps Doak can persuade others to his viewpoint and perhaps we may finally be blessed with his presence in our theater - for the first time I believe. Jane Zussman and others including Bridgette Redman deflected our issue by keeping the focus on the fact that all the local theaters want more coverage. While this is true, and while I agree that all the performing arts in the community ought to have more coverage because it would benefit our community in a multitude of ways, it is not our point. We are asking to get in the game – the others are already in the game.

What we want here at the Ruhala Center is to be included in the theater community in the same way all other community theaters are. That means two things: 1. inclusion in the Pulsar and Thespie local theater awards, and 2. fair coverage of our theater events from the media, i.e. same coverage as other community theaters get (this is easy to surmise by looking back at the coverage of all local theaters in comparison.) While we cannot get local theater people to attend our shows, which we also desire, these above changes would perhaps drive more theater people to see what we do. Again it is interesting that many theatre folks who never show up at our shows came out to this one show because it included them. And even more interesting is that the City Pulse who refuses to review our shows, actually showed up and reviewed our show. And proceeded to rip it apart from a defensive standpoint that did not take up the issues raised.

We still do not have any further insight as to why we are excluded from the local awards, after an epic five year struggle. Bridgette Redman, a judge at the Lansing State Journal, did not address this question in her responses and no one from the City Pulse addressed it either. The line from the show “no one really cares” seemed to ring even truer. Jane Zussman said in her email that perhaps we are perceived as a school/studio and not a theater. To our point, if we had been covered fairly from the press from our beginnings there would be no question as to the fact that we are a theater that produces theater year round. Here is a question worth pondering: how is it that after six years of producing theater in a small town, people do not know we are a theater?

We did however gain some insight into why we have been treated at arm’s length from the community, although a full answer was not forthcoming. Jane made clear that some think that I came into town six years ago with “a chip on my shoulder”. When I asked her why people think that she had no answer, so gossip was stated without substance. When I pointed out that upon returning to town I reached out to all the theater folks in the community to come see our shows offering them complimentary tickets, to collaborate with me, and to build partnerships, and that not one person responded, she had nothing to say. It seemed clear that the chip was presented to me in the folks who had criticized my work without even seeing it or knowing me, as was presented in the script. The only logical and sensible conclusion to come to at this point is that my experience threatened certain people and they would rather I go away. Even Mr. Bloss said I portray myself as better than others. Yet all I have ever done is to ask to be acknowledged for my experience. I do not even consider whether I am better than others or not, that is not relevant. I do consider that I have professional experience that others do not have. I do know that I am good at what I do. I do not have any desire to compare my talents with others. As I have stated many times over, the arts are for everyone and are based in individual expression and are not to be judged or compared. The ubiquitous question I was hoping to get explored is what happens to communities when they exclude the most experienced professionals?

When I consider the falsehoods in the audience responses I am at a loss of how to make sense of it. Jim Fordyce said he never reviews shows with the majority of cast members minors. He also stated that he did not review my production of Into The Woods. At this website address you will see these statements are not true: http://www.mientertainment.us/TheaterArchives.html

I suppose deflecting the issues by telling falsehoods is one way to sway a conversation. Needless to say the audience did not get to hear the real story as it was manipulated by these untruths.

Bridgette Redman said she never reviews in her blog. When I asked her what about all the reviews on the side of her blog she said they are old and that she no longer does reviews. Yet if you visit her site at http:www.//frontrowlansing.blogspot.com/ - you will find that she has reviews of only months ago.

Doak Bloss wanted to criticize this show script because it did not have a protagonist in the story; the protaganist was missing and was just talked about by the sisters. When I stated that that was an academic idea of theater and that plays do not need a protagonist or a central conflict, he told me I was wrong. For an insightful read about plays without a protagonist or central conflict visit this site: http://www.lvwa.info/LVLR_Iexcerpt.html.

In the end, my desire, and all of ours at the Ruhala Center is to be a part of the whole community of theater. It was clear that the Ruhala Center had many supporters in the audience, some making articulate arguments as to the responsibility of the professional journalists in town to put aside their personal beliefs about our work and me and cover it for the community. We are a part of a community here in town, a community that we have built in spite of the obstacles put in front of us by the community at large. But why should we remain cliquish and insular? Why can’t we all come together and make theater and all the arts the most exciting aspect of a rejuvenated Lansing? This town has resources and talents to make it a hot spot for the arts which would revitalize our economy and help build a reputation of urban cool. We can certainly continue to explore all the good things that are happening from building better festivals to further planning of cultural strategies to bring the arts to the fore. But I would argue that what we need we already have and that all we really need is the desire and will to build it with what we already have and the teamwork to do so.

I ask anyone who wants to be a part of our work to contact me at the center. I ask anyone who thinks I have a chip on my shoulder to come have coffee with me and get to know who I really am. I ask anyone who wants to see a show here to contact me for comp tickets. I ask anyone who wants me to work for their organization to contact me and I will work for free. I would love nothing more than to repair this fissure and to move onto the next stage of inclusion of all ideas and all people. Let us transform through love.