A Noise Within

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as a Street Performance at A Noise Within

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 18 February 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Beginning this Valentine’s Day through the 8th of May, A Noise Within (ANW) will be staging the greatest love story of all time – William Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet. 

Directed by Damaso Rodriguez, Artistic Director of Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland’s longest-running professional theatre company, this Romeo and Juliet will be a far departure from how Shakespeare’s work is traditionally presented: as a period piece, with lavish costumes and grand sets. Instead the play will be presented as a street performance, in a graffitied and littered alley with garbage bins scattered about.

The vision for this well-known play came about when Rodriguez visited Havana, Cuba and  met with artists who staged bare-bone productions for a few attendees in humble homes. He relates one memorable evening, “We walked through a courtyard overlooking balconies – it is a beautiful environment but all around you could see peeling plaster from 50 years of decay.  We entered a small house, with light bulbs in tomato cans for stage lighting, the actors wearing their own clothes. The audience was made up of 20 people who came that night. And they proceeded to tell their story. It was a Cuban play which, I think, was about their daily struggles for survival. While there was a language barrier, what united the performers with the audience was the art form. It was a truly transformative moment for me.”

“Theatre companies without much in the way of money put on plays using found objects for props and scenery, and in very low-tech, low-resource performance spaces. The plays with just the actors themselves having to rely on their skills were powerful and inspirational.  In this place where there are few resources, actors and audience link as a community with the compelling need to tell and hear stories joining them as one.”

“I wanted to bring this experience to Romeo and Juliet – costumes will be clothes that actors own, props are whatever they find in the street, and the setting urban. The play will exist in the telling rather than the trappings.” 

“It will be an unexpected environment that in no way resembles the characters’ wealth and class.   I hope that by stripping the play down to its most basic, it will focus on the language and clarify the intention of the characters,” Rodriguez discloses further.

ANW’s artistic director, Geoff Elliott reveals, “When we approached Damaso about directing for us this season, he responded by saying that he has wanted to do Romeo and Juliet because it deals with the most basic of human emotions – love, rashness, hate, fate – and tribalism, which drives just about anything we call news. Humans have passion, conduct war, and kill each other over a tribal conflict the origin of which no one can even remember. And I think that Damaso has found a direct and compelling way to tell this story.”

Rodriguez says, “I hope people who come to watch the play, after a few minutes just try to conceptualize these characters and see them as humans. I hope they see a clearer version of the story and realize the universal essence of Romeo and Juliet.”

“It is a raw and harsh environment, yet we have an optimistic view that their death has brought the conflict between these two families to an end. People will realize this tragedy happened because of two opposing rigid world views – that it took the death of these young characters to end hatred. Romeo and Juliet taught them to look at life differently,” Rodriguez adds.

“It’s arguably daunting to present such a classical material in an unexpected fashion because you could be working with actors who’ve done it before. People who love Shakespeare have certain expectations; also there are scholars who think Shakespeare has to be done a certain way. But in the end all I can do is forget about that. I have to believe that a director has to find an emotional connection and impulsive reaction to it, and share that with his collaborators,” Rodriguez states further.

“It’s quite liberating, actually, to not be restricted by expectations and standards. While A Noise Within has staged Romeo and Juliet twice, I didn’t necessarily set out to find a way to make it very different from what they did before. I didn’t burden myself with that concern; I am merely satisfying an urgent impulse. It’s hard enough to just unpack the language of Shakespeare. I simply want to make the storytelling as clear as he would have wanted for his audience,” concludes Rodriguez.              

During Shakespeare’s time some plays were presented outdoors. Theatregoers had to use their imagination – there were no backdrops, lighting, or props to speak of. Furthermore, his plays were not intended to be read but spoken aloud; the lack of background meant there was nothing to distract the audience from the actors’ words and movements.     

That ANW’s Romeo and Juliet would be staged as they were originally performed four hundred years ago is the perfect tribute to the Bard’s timeless work.  

‘A Christmas Carol’ at A Noise Within

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 26 November 2015 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

It has become an all-too common occurrence – hordes of buyers fighting over the last $99.00 BluRay disc player at a big box store the day after Thanksgiving, heralding the Christmas shopping season. But there was a time, before the Christmas spirit took on the guise of Black Friday doorbuster specials, when this season meant goodwill towards humankind.  

A Noise Within (ANW), a repertory theatre company in Pasadena, is bringing back the sentiments that this time of year should evoke. Beginning this Saturday, the 5th of December through Wednesday, the 23rd, San Gabriel Valley residents can come to enjoy its production of Charles Dickens’ timeless classic A Christmas Carol.

Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, ANW’s co-artistic director with her husband, Geoff Elliott, says this is the perfect antidote to the consumerism that has defined the Christmas season. She says, “A lot of people just want to break away from all the shopping during the holidays.”

This is the fourth year that ANW is mounting A Christmas Carol on their stage and Elliott and Rodriguez-Elliott are sharing directorial credits. This collaboration is hugely beneficial not just for the performers but for the audience as well. As Elliott succinctly puts it, “Co-directing makes sense; two heads are better than one.”

Being the more tech-minded director of the two, Rodriguez-Elliott concentrates on all the technical elements. She expands on this, “A director has to mind the lighting, costume, props and at the same time pay equal attention to the actors. When we co-direct, Geoff can give notes to the performers while I give feedback to the designers.”

“It isn’t that I don’t like the technical aspect of directing,” explains Elliott, “I have to say I enjoy it as well – though maybe not as much as Julia does – but I want to focus in greater detail  on the performers and the honesty of the moment.”

Rodriguez-Elliott, for her part, says “The more I do it, the more I appreciate the designers and what they bring – they can illuminate, elevate what you’re doing with the actors. A perfectly lit moment, or a visual scene done correctly, has an impact on the audience beyond what happens in the rehearsal room under fluorescent lights.”

This iteration of A Christmas Carol is Elliott’s 2000 adaptation from the original ANW production. He relates, “The original production was incredibly successful artistically but it was dark and bloody. When we decided to revisit it in 2000, we wanted to bring the light, the love between the Cratchits and other characters in the play. We needed a different take on it.”

The Cratchits | Courtesy Photo

A Noise Within’s move to its present home in Pasadena was the excellent time and opportunity to mount this ambitious endeavor. Explains Rodriguez-Elliott, “The Masonic Temple didn’t have enough seats so it didn’t make much sense production-wise. With a finite number of days we can play it based on our schedule and the holiday, we wouldn’t have enough performances.  In this venue, we can give this adaptation a full run.”

It is a fortunate outcome for many of us who remember reading Charles Dickens’ memorable work of fiction growing up. That it is performed – with actual people on stage – gives this novella much greater extent and meaning.      

“A Christmas Carol is the ultimate story of redemption and transformation ever written,” Elliott proclaims. “While we present the play every year, it is never stale because we always find something different to do. Even the performers who think they might want to take a break from it after having done it several times, come back to it because they realize it is a living, breathing fabric.”

Adds Rodriguez-Elliott, “I am seeing it fresh because I am in a different place from where I was a year ago. And as a director there’s always that feeling of ‘Gosh I’m not happy with this’. We have that opportunity to improve on it every year or make it better. And this is exactly what A Christmas Carol is all about – a tale of how even the most miserly curmudgeon on earth can change for the better.” 

“As scary as some children might think of Marley, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, they are there out of love,” Elliott expounds. “They are all benevolent ghosts who want to help Scrooge. This is the attraction of A Christmas Carol; it is why people come to see it. We all want a chance at redemption.”

At the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is overwhelmed with joy at the chance to redeem himself and is grateful for having returned to Christmas Day. He rushes out into the streets to share his newfound spirit. And from that day on, he celebrates the season by giving to the poor and treating others with generosity, kindness, and warmth.

How impressively mesmerizing it must be to behold this final scene as it unfolds before us! Maybe for longer than a few lingering moments, we wouldn’t equate Christmas with doorbuster specials. When Elliott pronounces that “live theatre is here to stay – it’s life changing,” this must be what he means. 

Geoff Elliott Directs a Powerful ‘All My Sons’

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 5 November 2015 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Geoff Elliott, co-artistic director (with his wife, Julia Rodriguez-Elliott) of famed Pasadena repertory company A Noise Within (ANW), and solo-directing this time, claims he is an actor first. This is most assuredly evident when you watch him on stage as he embodies the complex character, Joe Keller, paterfamilias in this 1947 Arthur Miller play, All My Sons.

Beacon’s Nathaniel Cayanan, in his review of ANW’s production, says, “Throughout the play, we’re put on a roller-coaster in which we’re at one point laughing at the liveliness and charm of Joe Keller, skillfully played by … Geoff Elliott, but at another point instantly entranced by the intense conflict boiling beneath the surface….”   

That Elliott is acting on stage while steering the course of the play is what makes his performance extraordinarily masterful.  He has wonderfully balanced his dual job of breathing life into Miller’s embattled Joe Keller and extracting the best work from his cast of talented actors.

As Elliott describes it, “…for actors, it’s very much about me and you, the two of us in the scene and what’s happening between us. The director, on the other hand, has a global perspective – he is thinking about the performances, and all other aspects of the production like the lighting, the sound, the set, the costumes.”

“Acting and directing are two very different experiences. But while the processes actors and directors go through are vastly different,” Elliott opines, “I think it’s healthy for all directors to have been actors at one point in their life, or at least to have trained because it’s really hard to know how vulnerable an actor is until you’ve done it yourself. I personally often find that there’s something missing when directors who have never acted try to articulate what it is they want to happen.”

Continues Elliott, “All actors bring something you’re not thinking of when you’re visualizing it.  It is when you get in the room with other artists that you begin to understand the play and where it needs to go. You have so many bright ideas before you go into the rehearsal room but you get in there and so much of what goes on is informed by those actors and what they’re bringing to it.  If you cast a production well you can trust they’re going to bring some really exciting stuff. I think a good director really pays attention to what the other artists are doing and helps them move along in that direction. You’re enlivened by the choices they’re making and that can make you think of something that enhances the play.”  

It is quite obvious then that Elliott has collaborated well with all the performers in ANW’s production of All My Sons. His passion for the play and his directorial choices made it a very realistic representation of life. As Cayanan further says in his review, “… However complex, this plot could have very easily been an overly melodramatic interpretation, but instead the play is well handled by a creative team that adeptly presents a very real and raw story of an American family of yesterday (and even today).”

Image of A Noise Within’s lobby taken from ANW website

All My Sons, Arthur Miller’s Tony Award-winning first hit play is the third offering in ANW’s 2015-2016 ‘Breaking and Entering’ season. Other cast members include Deborah Strang As Kate Keller, Rafael Goldstein as Chris Keller, Maegan McConnell as Ann Deever, Aaron Blakely as George Deever, Jeremy Rabb as Jim Bayliss, June Carryol as Sue Bayliss, E.K. Dangerfield as Frank Lubey, Natalie Reiko as Lydia Lubey, and Vega Pierce-English as Bert. The show opened on October 17, which was to have been Arthur Miller’s 100th birthday, and goes on stage through Saturday, November 21 with both a 2:00 pm matinee and evening performance at 8:00 pm.   

Asked if their iteration of this play is an homage to the late great playwright,  Elliott responds, “It may probably end up being such although I don’t know that we necessarily had that in mind.  But the greater reason for doing it is because of the fact that it’s an extraordinary masterpiece, and it’s so timely. This play could have been written yesterday. It will always be as timely as when he wrote it in 1947 – it’s true now as it was then.”  

Elliott elaborates on the play’s plot and his approach to it, “This play is about young love, and deep familial love. These are people who will sacrifice anything and everything to take care of their family and the ones who are precious to them. In the same vein, this is very much an ensemble piece, one that’s driven by performance, and it couldn’t be delivered without a magnificent company of actors, many of whom have been together for 20 years. This is among the most personally meaningful plays I have ever directed, and All My Sons is a wonderful introduction both to Arthur Miller and the work we do here at A Noise Within.”

“I hope people see themselves as they watch the play and understand that this is happening today. Decisions that hurt people are being made every day in America’s board rooms,”  Elliott concludes. He hopes people take home with them a lesson that Arthur Miller wanted to get through – past actions can come back to haunt us.

Under Elliott’s accomplished direction, A Noise Within’s All My Sons has created a memorable and soaring tribute to Arthur Miller’s legacy as a foremost American playwright. Elliott is proud of what they have produced and he hopes it proves to be an unforgettable theatre experience for many.  

Julia Rodriguez-Elliott’s Vision for ‘A Flea in her Ear’

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 24 September 2015 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Slamming doors, running feet, one revolving bed platform, screaming women, a gun-toting husband, a trysting place, and mistaken identities – all these are what make A Flea in her Ear such a fun and hilarious treat of a play.

Hailed as the greatest of French farces, Georges Feydeau’s timeless classic will debut on September 12 at A Noise Within in Pasadena. This new version, written by David Ives was commissioned by the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and is the first show in the repertory theatre company’s 2015-2016 Breaking and Entering season.

A Flea in her Ear tells the story of Victor Chandebise and his wife, Raymonde. After Victor’s brief bout of impotence, Raymonde suspects him of having a wandering eye. She asks her friend, Lucienne, to send him a letter luring him into a rendezvous with a mysterious lady at a hotel to see if he will show up. While this piques his curiosity, he takes the precaution of sending someone in his stead. The ensuing mishaps – a Victor look-alike bellboy and several miscommunications – all make for a madcap production.    

For Julia Rodriguez Elliott, who is directing A Flea in her Ear, it is the realization of a long-held dream. “I have long wanted to do this play,” says Rodriguez Elliott, “because I’ve loved it from the very first time I saw it. Frankly, there are funny shows – and then there’s A Flea in her Ear.  While it is a great source of naughty fun and every single element of farce is here in force, David Ives’ recent translation is available to us which makes it truly performable for our audience.”

As reimagined by Rodriguez Elliott, this Flea in her Ear, originally set in La Belle Epoque, takes place in 1950s Paris. She explains “… I wanted to take it out of the stuffy drawing room and set in the ‘50s – before the sexual revolution, when married people didn’t go to couples therapy and didn’t talk about intimate issues. It was a time period when gender roles were clearly defined.”

Rodriguez Elliott likens A Noise Within’s iteration of  Flea as reflective of the comedy in the 1950s era. She says, “The two female leads – Raymonde and Lucienne – crazy, scheming closest friends, are a bit reminiscent of Lucy and Ethel from I Love Lucy. Just as in that show, there are gender differences afoot – and they are somewhat ahead of their time in taking matters into their own hands. What breezes in as a minor misunderstanding blows into a comic whirlwind of gale force.”

That A Noise Within has a pool of resident actors has ensured a seamless production. Rodriguez-Elliott says, “While Ives has taken into account modern humor, he also knows that in great comedy the laughs come out of the essential humanity of the characters, and this has to be played along with a split-second timing. All of this is helped greatly by a sense of trust among the cast – 80 percent of the cast come from our repertory actors – that allows them to have a great safety with each other to perform the precise physical comedy of the piece…. This absolutely underscores the underlying premise of repertory theatre, and A Noise Within is proud to be among the few national companies that adhere to this time-honored, but increasingly rare theatrical concept.”

To prepare her actors for the demanding and grueling physical effort required for this play,  Rodriguez-Elliott had them throwing tennis balls at each other around in a circle. As soon as they were adept at that, she added layers of complexity like having two tennis balls going around at the same time, or changing the workout to a hot potato mode. The actors did this while committing their lines to memory – physical motions and spoken words became one effortless exercise.

Actors go through intense rehearsals for several weeks. During dress rehearsals, typically held about five days before preview week, actors don their costumes, props appear, and the lighting comes on. All the elements slowly come together as the play comes alive. As exciting as that sounds, Rodriguez-Elliott says, “The first day of dress rehearsal is usually a disaster!” All of a sudden actors realize they need to change parts of what they had practiced to allow for costume requirements. The clothes they’re wearing may be difficult to walk in, or the prop might be cumbersome to hold. This is when they need to make adjustments and integrate these to the flow of the play.

During playpreviews, Rodriguez-Elliott would be furiously making notes, determining what works and what needs tweaking. According to her, “… sometimes the play the audience sees on Opening Night is very different from what we started out with. If we find that there are things that are not working with audiences on several nights, we’ll make changes.” The Opening Night production of A Flea in her Ear will have been the culmination of rigorous rehearsals and various changes. The process gives true meaning to the phrase ‘work in progress.’

A Flea in her Ear reflects the theme of the 2015-2016 season at its most literal. Rodriguez-Elliott describes it as a show where “the characters are breaking conventions in terms of their sexuality but by the end of the play the couples enter a new phase of their life together.” 

But not before much mayhem occurs, to the delight of its audience. Rodriguez-Elliott laughingly refers to the massive confusion that unfolds before us, “… it is a beautiful chaos.”   

Students Spend Summer with Shakespeare at A Noise Within

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

 

Originally published on 18 June 2015 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Educational? Check! Enriching? Oh, yes. Peppered with a large dose of fun? Absolutely! At A Noise Within, a classical repertory theatre company founded by Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, summer camp is all of the above. But youngsters also gain a great deal of insight and experience about theatre in the duration of the program.

For five weeks starting June 15, students from ages 6 to 18 learn theatre craft from respected professionals in the field, culminating in a performance on stage on July 16 and 17. Trained actors, choreographers and designers introduce students to acting, improvisation, stage diction, text analysis, kinetic exercises, and stage combat in this intensive, conservatory-style program. 

 “We began Summer with Shakespeare in 1993 as a three-week acting camp,” says Alicia Green, A Noise Within’s Education Director.  “ It has been so successful that we decided to expand it to five weeks this year.  Students are assembled by age (6-9; 10-13; and 14-18). The younger kids can choose to join the entire five-week track or attend any configuration of time that fits their schedule. The oldest ones need to enroll for the entire five weeks because they will be putting on a full production of King Lear.  We have 105 students this summer, up from last year’s 45.”

Summer With Shakespeare covers the gamut of the Bard’s works. During their first week in camp, students learn about Shakespeare’s comedies – Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It. In their second week, they study the tragedies – Macbeth, King Lear.  In their third week, they absorb the histories and romances – Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V.

At 10 a.m. on a hot and muggy Tuesday in June, kids make their way into A Noise Within’s home on Foothill Blvd. They carefully set their lunch bags on steel carts, marked with three age groupings, parked against the wall in the large main entrance hall. They then proceed to their respective class, to start the day’s exciting lesson.

Jeff Block and Ryan Luevano, of Maestro & Magic Productions, are conducting charades with the 10- to 13-year-olds on the main hall.  The group is divided into two teams facing off this morning – Keepers of the Blood Pact, or the Red Team, and Totally Awesome Unicorns, or the Blue Team. Using every magician’s accoutrement (white handkerchief, top hat and wand) a volunteer from one division mimes a magic he or she learned from class and someone from the competing group will guess what trick was performed. A correct guess earns the answering team a point.  It’s a very tight race; the two opponents are head-to-head. The game ends in a tie and everyone is happily satisfied with that outcome.

Sitting in a far corner of the main hall is Audrey Halaas-Voorhees, their class assistant, who will be there all day to make sure the children are well-behaved and are following instructions from their teacher. Audrey is also the person who will be walking them from class to class.

Vega, a first time participant in the Summer With Shakespeare camp, got interested in the program because his older brother attended it for three years. When his brother decided not to go to the camp this year, Vega took the spot. His favorite lesson is movement – something vital to one of his interests, which is dance. He is able to apply what he’s learned during his two weeks here with the steps he has mastered from the Pasadena Dance Theatre. Vega likes ballet, contemporary and ballroom dancing.  

Upstairs, Alison Elliott, is leading a very lively class with the six to nine-year-olds. She has them fully engaged in an imaginary situation at a sports stadium. She calls on some students to   come to the front of the class and act out her instructions:  “Watch only with your hands … with your eyes …with your neck …with your knees.” The little kids perform the actions animatedly and vigorously using only the body parts Alison calls for. And then she asks the ‘audience’ what sport the kids are watching and everyone shouts out ‘SOCCER!’

Meanwhile, their teacher’s assistant, Tomas Dakan, watches quietly and intently from his chair a few feet away. A student at Occidental College, Dakan himself is no stranger to the craft. He enjoys performing and has been involved with the Taproot Theatre Company, a professional, non-profit theatre company in Seattle, Washington.

Olivia is a standout in the six to nine-year-old class even when this is her first time here. She is passionate about the performing arts – she sings and dances, and does gymnastics at her school.  She is thrilled at the chance to learn acting and hopes to one day star in a musical. Olivia is also an avid reader and counts The Tail of Emily Windsnap and The Hunger Games as favorites. 

In the theatre, instructor Carolyn Marie Wright is on the stage with the 14- to 18-year-olds reading lines to King Lear, while teacher’s assistant Kenyon Meleney follows the lesson and gives cues to the students. This group has already finished creating the backdrop for the play and they are now in rehearsal. Their work and talent will be on display at the end of the five-week camp when they stage a full production of King Lear for an audience of family and friends.  

Kayla, who has been selected to play the lead role, is on her second year at Summer With Shakespeare. She says attending this camp has greatly improved her acting. She now knows what looks good on stage, and has learned how to reach her audience conceptually and emotionally.   Highly ambitious and industrious, Kayla has been music training for a year and sings in the school choir. She already has plans for college and a post-graduate degree in musicology.

Watching from high up in the bleachers is Megan Farber, another assistant teacher, who helps out with make-up and special effects. Farber, who is 26 years old, interned at A Noise Within in 2012. This is her first time TA-ing, as she gains some experience in the educational aspect of theatre. She hopes to one day teach in this field.

A Noise Within bustles! It is a-brim with energy and sparkle – from the teachers and professionals sharing their knowledge with the acting campers; the students exuberantly participating in class; the staff of the theatre company going about their daily business. There’s something happening everywhere.

For Green, every day is filled with momentous occasions to educate about and celebrate the wondrous world of theatre with children of all ages. Surely this is what the Bard has intended for his works to endure and be enjoyed, by theatre professional, emerging actor, and for-the-fun-of-it camper alike.        

                                                           

A Noise Within Brings the Arts Into the Lives of Young People

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 11 June 2015 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

A Noise Within, a classical repertory company in Pasadena founded in 1991 by Geoff and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, aims to produce world-class performances of great works of drama, to educate and inspire the public through programs that foster an understanding and appreciation of notable playwrights, and to train the next generation of classical theatre artists.

Its mission to educate is what led to the creation of the Outreach Program. According to Alicia Green, Education Director, teachers in 19 Los Angeles-area school districts align their curriculum to the theatre company’s scheduled season performances. Students then have the opportunity to experience what they learned in the classroom during the student matinee performance at the theatre, and participate in a post-show conversation with performers. 

Green said, “We care deeply about bringing the arts into the lives of every young person and strive to do so at every opportunity.”  

While it would seem that today’s youth prefers to communicate solely through texting, the reverse is what actually happens once students come in to the theatre. As Elliott put it, “What we found is that young people crave the experience to be part of a live performance. We saw a strange phenomenon – as actors walked by the audience to get to the stage, students reached out to them. They weren’t being disruptive or naughty – they wanted to know that these actors were real, breathing individuals. For some students this is a life-changing event.”

That young people need a sense of belonging and community is evidenced by the exponential growth of their Education Outreach Program since they started bringing them in during their 1993-1994 season.  According to Rodriguez-Elliott, there are now about 12,000 students from 130 different schools, from as far away as Ojai and Victorville, participating in it.

Adults are the typical theatregoers, but A Noise Within’s audience spans generations. Asked how they attract teenagers who grew up reading fantasy books, Elliott said, “Shakespeare is the original fantasy dramatist; he created the most fantastical situations on stage. Students learn his plays in 7th or 8th grade but found them dull and difficult to understand. But his works are not meant to be read, they are meant to be performed. When they are well-done and well-directed, the audience can feel what Shakespeare intended them to feel.”   

Rodriguez-Elliott added, “We have a multigenerational audience – at any given time, about 20 percent of our audience is made up of kids. And kids usually are the ones who have the ability to give themselves into the material, while adults get hung up on words they could not understand.”  

For some students, watching a play is a novel experience. Echoing Elliott’s remarks about the theatre experience as being transformational for kids, Green said, “Many of our students have never been to a theatre before, or seen a live performance. Seeing a page come to life is huge. They can relate to the material in a new, potentially more engaging way. Having the opportunity to interact with the text through on-their-feet study guide activities or in an in-class workshop and then see the show live, followed by a conversation with actors from the show creates an excitement that reading the book in class cannot.”

The 2015-2016 season’s theme of Breaking and Entering, A Noise Within’s 24th, features  protagonists who break down walls, enter unknown realms and search for the truth. As Elliott explained it, “In the context of our new season, breaking and entering can mean getting behind the walls of ignorance, even fear, and summoning the personal courage to step away from old notions in favor of a clear-eyed embrace of a new truth.”

That connecting thread links the six plays: A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau; Antigone by Jean Anouilh; All My Sons by Arthur Miller; Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare; You Never CanTell, by George Bernard Shaw; and Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello;  and entering its fourth season, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted by Elliott.  

A Noise Within is a true classical rotating repertory theatre which, according to Elliott, is unique in L.A. Three different plays can be on stage so someone can experience three very different and diverse performances within a week to a week-and-a-half period. Having a three-quarter stage so that the audience is closer to the performers and becomes part of what’s happening adds to the theatre experience.  

This brainchild of co-Artistic Directors, Elliott and Rodriguez-Elliott, has seen tremendous success since its inception and Pasadena has fully embraced it as part of its flourishing theatre community. Elliott said, “It has been a fabulous journey and it seems the universe is conspiring to make things happen … to make things right. And we will continue the same mission of ensuring access to a diverse audience. What will change is that we will be better at it. We are now embarking on a Five-Year Plan where we hope to improve our infrastructure and increase seating capacity to make it happen.”

For the thousands of students whose lives will change through exposure to theatre, it’s certainly not much ado about nothing.