RIP MCA

It is with a heavy heart we say goodbye to Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch of The Beastie Boys, who passed away today. Adam and the Beastie Boys have been a great influence on CEO Michael Swift for 20 years and a big reason he moved to New York. In Michael’s customized scripts for the upcoming ‘You Can’t Take it With You’in Hell’s Kitchen, Michael took a Beastie Boys record and turned it into a binder to hold a script in, as part of the visual world of the play. In the picture is Rosie reading her part Alice, holding her script which is fashioned in ‘License to Ill’, the first Beastie Boys Album.

Thank you Adam for all the joy and inspiration you brought into the world.

Finding Beauty

Today I brought in these spools of clothe to use for our set in my new production at the home in Hell’s Kitchen. We perform our shows in the in the dining room, so we have to move the tables and chairs and set up and strike, all between meals. This means my sets have to be extremely mobile. My idea with this clothe is to drape it over the brown dining room chairs to bring some color to the room, and also make them feel like upholstered living room chairs you would have in a home, which where the play takes place.

As soon as I unveiled the material the whole room gasp. Rosie exclaimed, ‘Oh it’s beautiful.’ Larry followed, “Look at those bright colors.’ ‘Those would make beautiful curtains’ added Ruth. The whole class went one about the beauty of the material, men and women alike.

It struck me that the appreciation of beauty is a life-long process. As you get older, I think your ability to recognize beauty is greaty and your capacity for being affected by beauty is deeper than that of a younger person. With this in mind, I am going to continue to develop the visual aesthetic for the plays I do with the seniors, bring another avenue of beauty to the senior actors and audiences alike!

-MS

Video from Dottie’s Shorts!

Enjoy these clips from our show last week Dottie’s Shorts, a series of short plays based on Dorothy Parker short stories. These are taken from a piece called Sentiment about an overdramatic woman, played by Kitty, who takes an emotional trip down memory lane in a cab past all the locations of her past when she realizes that maybe she took the wrong street! The driver is played by Randi, who is mostly blind. I chose this piece because she wanted to be in the play and it is our policy to figure out a way to use everyone’s talents. I directed her to improvise her lines and Kitty to play along. It worked like gang busters!

Dottie’s Shorts!

The seniors in the Upper West Side home performed Dottie’s Shorts today to a full house. It was a series a short plays that I adapted from Dorothy Parker stories. Check out these post show pictures of everyone in their roaring 20’s costumes! Stay tuned for a video.

Happy Birthday Betty!

Happy 90th Birthday Betty White! The students in Hell’s Kitchen today were all abuzz about Betty White’s 90th today. Many watched the special last night. Kirk talked about how beautiful she is and why she is such a great comedienne. Larry said his 90th birthday bash was the best day of his life. She is certainly an inspiration to us, and we wish her all the success in the world. She would make a great guest speaker, don’tcha think?

In case you missed the special, here’s the opening number:

[VIDEO] Betty White’s 90th Birthday Special — Opening Musical Number

We’ve moved into Queens!

Swift Dramatics is starting classes at a home in Queens today, our first in New York’s most diverse borrough!

 

Shaina

We have a student, Shaina, at our home in Hell’s Kitchen, who had just suffered a stroke who had a very hard time talking without slurring and was very disruptive in class, calling out, interupting, getting frustrated. Often times, when a senior can’t communicate their basic thoughts and feelings they get very testy. Sometimes others around them assume that they are not cognitant and that is further frustration for them. We train our teachers to recognize the signs of a stroke victim and those that are very hard of hearing and be sensitive to their circumstances. A little kindness goes a long way. The need to communicate is paramount. When they can’t hear, they tend to talk more.

It is important patient with the time it takes for them to make their point and encourage the other students to be patient as well. Making each senior’s pace part of the class rhythm makes for interesting theatrical experience and more importantly allows people of varying abilities to participate.

Employing these techniques turned Shaina into a regular in our class and I am excited to see what we can do together!