This Spring, the Theatre Arts Drama Program has completed a six week residency with Jersey City Theatre Center. The students took various workshops in Playwrighting, Dance/ Movement, Voice, Acting, Spoken Word with JCTC Resident Playwright Artists Amanda Lacson, Choreographer and Dancer Mai Rojas (Los Escultores del Aire), Singer and Composer Giselle Bellas, and Jersey City Poet Laureate and Spoken Word Performer, Rashaad Wright. The students wrote their own poetry, monologues, scenes, songs and movement pieces which were directed by renowned director Albert Rudnitsky and performed on April 23rd, in the Black Box Theatre. During the residency, the students were introduced to the basics of Devised Theatre, and learned tools that enabled them to create their own pieces of theatre.
As part of the Voices International Festival, the students also hosted the Armenian Traditional Dance Program brought by the Youth Cultural Exchange Program. The students watched the live musical and dance performance, learned about Armenian history and contribution to world heritage and then, participated in a workshop with the artists, learned steps from the Kochari Armenian dance, one of Unesco’s non-tangential heritage masterpiece and learned about the canon, a traditional Armenian instrument,
Finally the students were invited to watch Nil Bosca’s Euphrate, at L’alliance in NYC. Nil is a touring French-Turkish artist, who has written, acted, danced and sang in a vibrant and vulnerable story of identity and self-discovery. The students saw an example of a successful devised piece of theatre that shares themes of identity and personal struggles with cultures from all over the world.
