URBAN MACHINES
In the autumn of 2009, Machine Theatre launched a partenership with Urban Ministries, a non profit resource center offering essential services to Charlotte's homeless population. Offering regular workshops pointed at developing various performance skills, Machine Theatre is committed to engaging and empowering the imaginations of Charlotte's forgotten citizens.
For more info on Urban Ministries, check out
www.urbanministrycenter.org
For more info on Urban Ministries, check out
www.urbanministrycenter.org
Getting homeless people involved becomes their art. Machine Theatre reaches out to and engages those who are part of the community.
Posted: Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009 in THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
by Michael J. Solender
Eavesdrop on a cocktail party discussion about the theater scene in Charlotte, and you're not likely to hear much chatter about the city's homeless population.
But if Barney Baggett or Matt Cosper are in attendance, you may find yourself spellbound to hear of their experiences in bringing performance art and technique to a growing group of Charlotte neighbors whose temporary daytime address is the Urban Ministry Center, an agency in downtown Charlotte that helps the homeless.
Baggett and Cosper are founding members of a fledgling Charlotte theater company, Machine Theater, that was launched in July. With veteran Charlotte theater personnel Barbi Van Schaik, Robert Haulbrook and Carlisle Kellam, and musician Jon Lindsay, the two high school friends have developed a theater troupe that is committed to producing new, internally developed work. They also plan to provide better acting training in body and voice work, and to reach out to the community.
"We don't want to make our art in a void," Cosper said. "It is important to us to reach out and develop work that is reflective of the community where we share our work. Charlotte has many communities, from ethnically diverse neighborhoods and parts of town, to suburbanites, to people who are down on their luck and facing difficult situations.
"Charlotte certainly is a city with a bright future and many aspects to be proud of, (but) we also face very real challenges, such as homelessness, that should not be ignored or neglected in our art."
Steadfastly following their vision, Machine Theater has already put on two productions since July - including one written by Cosper - and has hosted a number of training sessions that provide training that is specific for the theater and serve as recruiting sessions for upcoming works.
To reach out to the community, Cosper connected with Penny Mann of the Urban Ministry Center this fall about how the group might be able to support the ministry and its CommunityWorks945 - a collection of programs that engage the homeless in athletic, artistic and horticultural programs.
Mann is the director of Artworks945, which enables homeless people to share their message through art while creating a community and a support structure that helps them overcome their challenges.
"We have pottery, poetry, photography and a number of visual arts involvement activities but had never had a performing arts component to what we do here," Mann said. "Matt, Barney and others from Machine Theater have been coming regularly and engaging the neighbors in a series of workshops that have opened up new worlds of possibilities for many."
Baggett had worked with a younger homeless population earlier in his career, when he was studying in California. He experienced some success with a hands-on approach to involving people with no formal theater training in learning body and voice control.
"We have a workshop called The Art of Play and Talking Bodies," Baggett said. "These are very physical and involve developing strategies of communication with your body, and helping participants gain awareness in how much they can say nonverbally. It has been very rewarding to see after just a few short sessions, some of the neighbors opening up, communicating more effectively and finding their voice."
According to Baggett, theater creates an instant community within the audience and among performers. Mann echoed the positives of the theater company's involvement with her program. "I see a sense of pride, increased feelings of self-worth and self-esteem in our participants after each session," said Mann.
That goes both ways, according to Cosper. He can see a day in the not-too-distant future in which a production that's written, performed and directed by the neighbors could be possible. "There are many different stories to tell in our community," Cosper said. "We should all have a voice."
But if Barney Baggett or Matt Cosper are in attendance, you may find yourself spellbound to hear of their experiences in bringing performance art and technique to a growing group of Charlotte neighbors whose temporary daytime address is the Urban Ministry Center, an agency in downtown Charlotte that helps the homeless.
Baggett and Cosper are founding members of a fledgling Charlotte theater company, Machine Theater, that was launched in July. With veteran Charlotte theater personnel Barbi Van Schaik, Robert Haulbrook and Carlisle Kellam, and musician Jon Lindsay, the two high school friends have developed a theater troupe that is committed to producing new, internally developed work. They also plan to provide better acting training in body and voice work, and to reach out to the community.
"We don't want to make our art in a void," Cosper said. "It is important to us to reach out and develop work that is reflective of the community where we share our work. Charlotte has many communities, from ethnically diverse neighborhoods and parts of town, to suburbanites, to people who are down on their luck and facing difficult situations.
"Charlotte certainly is a city with a bright future and many aspects to be proud of, (but) we also face very real challenges, such as homelessness, that should not be ignored or neglected in our art."
Steadfastly following their vision, Machine Theater has already put on two productions since July - including one written by Cosper - and has hosted a number of training sessions that provide training that is specific for the theater and serve as recruiting sessions for upcoming works.
To reach out to the community, Cosper connected with Penny Mann of the Urban Ministry Center this fall about how the group might be able to support the ministry and its CommunityWorks945 - a collection of programs that engage the homeless in athletic, artistic and horticultural programs.
Mann is the director of Artworks945, which enables homeless people to share their message through art while creating a community and a support structure that helps them overcome their challenges.
"We have pottery, poetry, photography and a number of visual arts involvement activities but had never had a performing arts component to what we do here," Mann said. "Matt, Barney and others from Machine Theater have been coming regularly and engaging the neighbors in a series of workshops that have opened up new worlds of possibilities for many."
Baggett had worked with a younger homeless population earlier in his career, when he was studying in California. He experienced some success with a hands-on approach to involving people with no formal theater training in learning body and voice control.
"We have a workshop called The Art of Play and Talking Bodies," Baggett said. "These are very physical and involve developing strategies of communication with your body, and helping participants gain awareness in how much they can say nonverbally. It has been very rewarding to see after just a few short sessions, some of the neighbors opening up, communicating more effectively and finding their voice."
According to Baggett, theater creates an instant community within the audience and among performers. Mann echoed the positives of the theater company's involvement with her program. "I see a sense of pride, increased feelings of self-worth and self-esteem in our participants after each session," said Mann.
That goes both ways, according to Cosper. He can see a day in the not-too-distant future in which a production that's written, performed and directed by the neighbors could be possible. "There are many different stories to tell in our community," Cosper said. "We should all have a voice."
Machine Theatre Act Two
"Last Tuesday we had our second meeting with Machine Theatre. The company members of Machine have teamed up and partnered with us to bring a new form of expression and yes, play, to the Neighbors here at Urban Ministry Center. Our first session consisted more of meeting each other and introducing this exciting project to the Neighbors. The second session proved to be much more active as you can see in the picture. Here, Luis and Carlisle meet head to head in the final round of Scorpion, a game used to help actors become more aware of the space and players around them.
The hope behind this new partnership is to help Neighbors at Urban Ministry Center rediscover their voice and self worth. Many individuals facing homelessness find themselves isolated and disconnected from themselves, as well as the society around them. When daily life is so focused on survival individuals tend to miss out on those little gifts of living... within these workshops and the relationships already forming, our Neighbors can breathe, play and once again hear the individual within them.
A huge thanks to Machine Theatre... this is going to be beautiful!"
From the ArtWorks945 blog. ArtWorks945 is a division of the Urban Ministry Center, an interfaith agency serving poor and homeless in Charlotte NC with love, compassion, and tangible help.
For more info on ArtWorks945 or the Urban Ministry Center, check out www.urbanministrycenter.org
The hope behind this new partnership is to help Neighbors at Urban Ministry Center rediscover their voice and self worth. Many individuals facing homelessness find themselves isolated and disconnected from themselves, as well as the society around them. When daily life is so focused on survival individuals tend to miss out on those little gifts of living... within these workshops and the relationships already forming, our Neighbors can breathe, play and once again hear the individual within them.
A huge thanks to Machine Theatre... this is going to be beautiful!"
From the ArtWorks945 blog. ArtWorks945 is a division of the Urban Ministry Center, an interfaith agency serving poor and homeless in Charlotte NC with love, compassion, and tangible help.
For more info on ArtWorks945 or the Urban Ministry Center, check out www.urbanministrycenter.org
ARTWORKS 945 BLOG...
...click here to visit our partner's blog at Urban Ministries' Artworks 945
Machine Theatre: A Company All About Community
AUTHOR: Michael Solender
charlotteviewpoint.org
In certain arts circles, people talk about the fledgling theater community in Charlotte in hushed tones and with despair. Discussion rages amongst a small cadre of enthusiasts about how to achieve vibrant and sustainable theater that engages audiences and stimulates discussion across the community. At times insular and narrowly focused, both producers and patrons of the performing arts in our city seem to gravitate to safe, carefully packaged products with broad audience appeal, following prescribed formulas for financial success.
Money, of course, is the lubricant and lifeblood of both traditional and experimental theater and tried, known, and commercial theater sells. Trouble is, at least in this town, there are only so many buyers of that product. One need only look around when the lights go up to see that it is a fairly homogenous (read; middle aged, middle class, white) crowd doing the buying.
Few conversations in Charlotte envision the theater as community. Charlotte is not a string of suburbs in search of a city like many American burghs of comparable size. We are a grouping of eclectic and diverse neighborhoods from NoDa, to Chantilly, First and Fourth Wards, Elizabeth, and beyond. Performance art that represents the diverse cultures and fabric of the growing region isn’t often found in touring Broadway productions or at Uptown’s larger venues.
Area residents will need to venture further afield than Trade and Tryon to find theater that explores Charlotte’s shining promise as well as our social challenges. One freshly launched theater company is doing just that. Machine Theater is taking the lead as a strong contender for those hungry for locally produced work that is truly reflective of the region. Machine currently operates out of the StorySlam space off Central Avenue in the Plaza-Midwood neighborhood.
Co-founded by former Farm Theater alumni and high school chums, Matt Cosper and Barney Baggett, Machine also boasts a core foundation of Queen City veterans whose names should be familiar to those in tune with Charlotte’s theater scene. Barbi Van Schaik (Innovative Theater, Charlotte Rep, Children’s Theater of Charlotte) and Robert Haulbrook (Children’s Theater of Charlotte) bring solid performing chops to the company, while Charlotte photographer Carlisle Kellam and musician Jon Lindsay lend design and a strong musical sensibility to Machine.
Barely six months old, Machine Theater is setting out to redefine the meaning of contemporary theater in Charlotte, a city that has seen many struggling theater companies come and mostly go. “We want to develop a company that doesn’t produce art in a void,” said Cosper. “It is important to us to be reflective of the whole community that we are part of.”
To that end, Machine Theater’s vision incorporates three distinctive elements. First, the company is committed to producing locally developed work. Next, they identify actor and ensemble training, specifically voice and body training for the stage, as an ongoing component of their raison d’être. Finally, the company wants to actively incorporate community outreach as part of their mission.
It is community outreach where Machine Theater is making unusually creative and exciting inroads in pushing theater’s traditional boundaries. The group has been working with the Urban Ministry Center of Charlotte, a service organization dedicating to providing support services to Charlotte’s poor and homeless. In 90 minute sessions held every other week since October, the company has been holding workshop training sessions with a group of Charlotte neighbors whose daytime address just happens to be the Urban Ministry Center.
“Our sessions are designed to break down physical barriers people have in communicating and involve a large element of play and movement,” said Baggett, who worked with disenfranchised youth in a similar program while studying theater in California. “We work with this group using the same techniques we use with theater professionals. It has been amazing watching people open up, become more trusting and confident in their own abilities.”
Penny Mann is the Director of Artworks945, the in-house project at Urban Ministry that invited Cosper and Baggett in to work with the neighbors. “Their ongoing commitment to working with us has been tremendous,” she said. “We now have people seeking these sessions out and attend on a routine basis. I’ve seen people blossom and find a voice that they weren’t aware they had.”
Cosper cited this work as one example of tapping into the tremendous level of talent and energy in the city. “Machine Theater is committed to Charlotte, we have talent and opportunity here on par with any of the major theater centers in the U.S. whether it be New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago,” he said. “There is no reason why in the future Charlotte can’t be seen as a destination for performing arts talent and patrons alike. One of the reasons training is part of our mission is to attract people to the work that we are doing and fill a void that exists in the region. Most all of the performance training held in this area is for film or TV. To our knowledge, we are the only actor training in and around Charlotte that focuses on performing for the stage.”
Cosper and Baggett both noted that they approach actor training focused on voice and body first, allowing the emotion and “cerebral” character development to flow naturally from the physical nature of the performance. “We want all our actors to be able to speak the same language and approach the work in the same way,” said Cosper. “Working in a physical style often allows for a deeper and more visceral portrayal to emerge.”
The company already has two separate performances under their belt in 2009 and ambitious plans for the 2010 season. While their inaugural performance of Ionesco’s absurdist classic The Bald Soprano was not home grown, it allowed the company to make a statement, generate buzz, and establish a following. The show ran four performances in July at Patchwerk Playhaus at Century Vintage and gained favorable notices.
Building on the momentum generated by their success, Cosper took his own work-in-progress play Thom Thom, and brought the first act to the Carolina Actors Studio for three performances in September. The production, a tragic-comic what if riff on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird, follows the two protagonists based upon Boo Radley and Scout Finch in their later lives. Billed as a metaphysical adventure, the Company has been invited to perform the play in its complete form at the Pristina International Theatre Festival in Kosovo in November of 2010. The festival is hosted by the National Theatre of Kosovo.
That represents pretty heady territory for a troupe without a full year under its belt or substantial reserve in its coffers. The company has filed for their non-profit 501c3 status which will allow them to pursue grant funding, tax free donations, and lend credibility to their status.
Machine Theater is planning two offerings in the first half of the New Year. Mum’s the Word, another Cosper written play, is a pitch black comedy. It features an affluent childless American couple who adopts an African child. When the baby they have been expecting turns out to be a Congolese child soldier, things fall apart. Cornelius and Bartholomew, written by Baggett, looks at two Victorian era scientists conducting an exhibition of their latest experiments. Hi-jinks and disaster ensue.
“We know that Charlotte as a community has a unique voice and perspective that embodies the diverse identity of the region,” said Baggett. “As a theater company we want to be able to provide a platform for work beyond the cultural homogenization that all too often exists and let unique perspectives be seen and heard.”
This company is taking the notion of community based theater and standing it on its head.Radical? When it is all about the community, maybe it’s not so radical after all.
Money, of course, is the lubricant and lifeblood of both traditional and experimental theater and tried, known, and commercial theater sells. Trouble is, at least in this town, there are only so many buyers of that product. One need only look around when the lights go up to see that it is a fairly homogenous (read; middle aged, middle class, white) crowd doing the buying.
Few conversations in Charlotte envision the theater as community. Charlotte is not a string of suburbs in search of a city like many American burghs of comparable size. We are a grouping of eclectic and diverse neighborhoods from NoDa, to Chantilly, First and Fourth Wards, Elizabeth, and beyond. Performance art that represents the diverse cultures and fabric of the growing region isn’t often found in touring Broadway productions or at Uptown’s larger venues.
Area residents will need to venture further afield than Trade and Tryon to find theater that explores Charlotte’s shining promise as well as our social challenges. One freshly launched theater company is doing just that. Machine Theater is taking the lead as a strong contender for those hungry for locally produced work that is truly reflective of the region. Machine currently operates out of the StorySlam space off Central Avenue in the Plaza-Midwood neighborhood.
Co-founded by former Farm Theater alumni and high school chums, Matt Cosper and Barney Baggett, Machine also boasts a core foundation of Queen City veterans whose names should be familiar to those in tune with Charlotte’s theater scene. Barbi Van Schaik (Innovative Theater, Charlotte Rep, Children’s Theater of Charlotte) and Robert Haulbrook (Children’s Theater of Charlotte) bring solid performing chops to the company, while Charlotte photographer Carlisle Kellam and musician Jon Lindsay lend design and a strong musical sensibility to Machine.
Barely six months old, Machine Theater is setting out to redefine the meaning of contemporary theater in Charlotte, a city that has seen many struggling theater companies come and mostly go. “We want to develop a company that doesn’t produce art in a void,” said Cosper. “It is important to us to be reflective of the whole community that we are part of.”
To that end, Machine Theater’s vision incorporates three distinctive elements. First, the company is committed to producing locally developed work. Next, they identify actor and ensemble training, specifically voice and body training for the stage, as an ongoing component of their raison d’être. Finally, the company wants to actively incorporate community outreach as part of their mission.
It is community outreach where Machine Theater is making unusually creative and exciting inroads in pushing theater’s traditional boundaries. The group has been working with the Urban Ministry Center of Charlotte, a service organization dedicating to providing support services to Charlotte’s poor and homeless. In 90 minute sessions held every other week since October, the company has been holding workshop training sessions with a group of Charlotte neighbors whose daytime address just happens to be the Urban Ministry Center.
“Our sessions are designed to break down physical barriers people have in communicating and involve a large element of play and movement,” said Baggett, who worked with disenfranchised youth in a similar program while studying theater in California. “We work with this group using the same techniques we use with theater professionals. It has been amazing watching people open up, become more trusting and confident in their own abilities.”
Penny Mann is the Director of Artworks945, the in-house project at Urban Ministry that invited Cosper and Baggett in to work with the neighbors. “Their ongoing commitment to working with us has been tremendous,” she said. “We now have people seeking these sessions out and attend on a routine basis. I’ve seen people blossom and find a voice that they weren’t aware they had.”
Cosper cited this work as one example of tapping into the tremendous level of talent and energy in the city. “Machine Theater is committed to Charlotte, we have talent and opportunity here on par with any of the major theater centers in the U.S. whether it be New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago,” he said. “There is no reason why in the future Charlotte can’t be seen as a destination for performing arts talent and patrons alike. One of the reasons training is part of our mission is to attract people to the work that we are doing and fill a void that exists in the region. Most all of the performance training held in this area is for film or TV. To our knowledge, we are the only actor training in and around Charlotte that focuses on performing for the stage.”
Cosper and Baggett both noted that they approach actor training focused on voice and body first, allowing the emotion and “cerebral” character development to flow naturally from the physical nature of the performance. “We want all our actors to be able to speak the same language and approach the work in the same way,” said Cosper. “Working in a physical style often allows for a deeper and more visceral portrayal to emerge.”
The company already has two separate performances under their belt in 2009 and ambitious plans for the 2010 season. While their inaugural performance of Ionesco’s absurdist classic The Bald Soprano was not home grown, it allowed the company to make a statement, generate buzz, and establish a following. The show ran four performances in July at Patchwerk Playhaus at Century Vintage and gained favorable notices.
Building on the momentum generated by their success, Cosper took his own work-in-progress play Thom Thom, and brought the first act to the Carolina Actors Studio for three performances in September. The production, a tragic-comic what if riff on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird, follows the two protagonists based upon Boo Radley and Scout Finch in their later lives. Billed as a metaphysical adventure, the Company has been invited to perform the play in its complete form at the Pristina International Theatre Festival in Kosovo in November of 2010. The festival is hosted by the National Theatre of Kosovo.
That represents pretty heady territory for a troupe without a full year under its belt or substantial reserve in its coffers. The company has filed for their non-profit 501c3 status which will allow them to pursue grant funding, tax free donations, and lend credibility to their status.
Machine Theater is planning two offerings in the first half of the New Year. Mum’s the Word, another Cosper written play, is a pitch black comedy. It features an affluent childless American couple who adopts an African child. When the baby they have been expecting turns out to be a Congolese child soldier, things fall apart. Cornelius and Bartholomew, written by Baggett, looks at two Victorian era scientists conducting an exhibition of their latest experiments. Hi-jinks and disaster ensue.
“We know that Charlotte as a community has a unique voice and perspective that embodies the diverse identity of the region,” said Baggett. “As a theater company we want to be able to provide a platform for work beyond the cultural homogenization that all too often exists and let unique perspectives be seen and heard.”
This company is taking the notion of community based theater and standing it on its head.Radical? When it is all about the community, maybe it’s not so radical after all.
