November is full of opportunities to see TMCC Theatre students live on stage at the Dandini Campus and in the community. And that’s just the way theatre student Alwin Pizana likes it.
Taking roles in two performance pieces at the same time, Pizana says: “I had to understand how much workload I was accepted first, and once I kind of understood, I then accepted the two productions. And then from there, it was just memorizing, prioritizing what I thought was important to memorize first. It was a lot of rehearsals, trying to pick away at the production, and seeing what we could improve on. But one at a time, it wasn't overlapping.”
“It's been a lot of time management,” said Pizana, who is a theatre major on track to graduate in Spring 2025. “I want to continue in film acting, that was my primary goal, and I think TMCC has helped me kind of understand where I want to be and where I want to go.”
RCO Presents Hamlet with Shostakovich
After working with TMCC graphic arts and visual arts students last year, the Reno Chamber Orchestra had another idea for collaboration: bringing in theatre students to perform parts of Shakespeare’s Hamlet between movements of Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Hamlet, Suite from the Theatre Music, op. 32a”. And so, a new opportunity was born, which will be taking the stage on Nov. 9-10 in Nightingale Hall at the University of Nevada, Reno.
“We go into these collaborations, and a lot of times, people have a very simple, stereotypical view of an orchestra,” said Amy Heald, Executive Director of the Reno Chamber Orchestra. “We at the RCO are very committed to challenging that view and rethinking what is the orchestra's role in the community, continuing to reach out and to bring people more into art making. Because the more people you have on stage, and the more people you have created with you, the better it is for everyone. It makes for a stronger community and a vibrant artistic scene.”
“The audience will have key pieces of the text, soliloquies, and side conversations that are integral to the plot of Hamlet,” said Shea King, Performing Arts Instructor. “They're relatively short, 1-2 minutes, helping to punctuate key moments of the story. They'll have big, orchestral musical moments, and then actors will come out to perform.”
Four TMCC students will be performing these key scenes with minimal costuming and props, including Pizana and fellow students Gabrielle Rodda, Isaias Torres, and Cody Prewett.
“At first, Shea chose how much of the actual play was cut down for time purposes,” Pizana explained. “Eventually, we received a more revised version from the conductor. It was a lot shorter still, so it's been cut down a lot, and we're just trying to tell the story as much as possible with as much context.”
“It's not only a unique experience for the students, but it's something I've never done professionally—I've never had the chance to collaborate with an orchestra in this way,” said King. “The experience of working with an orchestra is unique to opera or musical theatre. It's eye-opening to me and the four students in the production. To go through this with them, I'm grateful to Kelly Kuo and Amy Heald for inviting us to participate.”
“We have loved working with TMCC. Your students and faculty are so warm and also just so excited and willing to try something new,” said Heald.
Pizana agreed: “I'm ecstatic, I am. When I heard that I was performing the part of Hamlet, and we were performing with the Chamber Orchestra, I had to ask again to make sure that I was like hearing this, right? I could not believe that I was being part of this. And I'm extremely fortunate, and I'm very thankful for Shea for putting this all together.”
To purchase tickets to the RCO Twenty-Somethings concert on Nov. 9 or 10, please visit the Reno Chamber Orchestra website.
Nearly, Washington Presents World Premiere
Nearly, Washington will be produced Nov. 14-23 and includes… a little bit of everything.
As publicized on the TMCC Performing Arts Schedule, Nearly, Washington is a completely original, unique, and never-been-done-before play that takes place in a fictional town. Welcome to Nearly, Washington, a town somewhere north of Vancouver and south of Vancouver. At golden hour on a Thursday night in spring turned to summer, we explore the complex relationships of the people who make up Nearly. Nearly, Washington is a series of plays written about the lives of those who populate our little suburb. With bears, puppets, demons, and bee costumes, Nearly, Washington is a play about where we find ourselves in the middle of it all.
“I think Nearly, Washington is going to shock people,” Pizana continued. “We've been working extremely hard. We have a lot to prepare for the audience, visually and emotionally, for them to connect with, to laugh at, to cry at, maybe, and I hope people come to see it. We've worked very, very hard.”
Besides his role as a theatre instructor, Nearly, Washington Director Shea King also recognizes what a learning experience this production has been for the cast and crew. “I describe this show as if Twin Peaks was a funny, stylized comedy. Each pair of actors has their vignette, telling a story about the larger town.”
“This year, TMCC Theatre is expanding into new works, previously unproduced plays from authors in the Pacific Northwest and Nevada. We're doing 3 productions, and Nearly, Washington is the first in that series,” King explained. “To talk with a living playwright is very exciting – students have had access to talk with [playwright] J. Chavez on and off, having access to him is very cool.”
“[This show] includes our largest cast in the past 2 years,” said King. “There are 17 student actors and 8 technicians working behind the scenes. Another team of students is working on the construction of the production, which takes place in a rather small black-box theater.”
Comparing this production to the other four shows King has produced in his time at TMCC, he said: “This has been the most challenging play because each vignette has its own technical needs. Some of the scenes have puppetry, some have difficult stage combat, and some have stage intimacy. We have to learn to light the set on fire without really using fire. It's really exciting, to achieve a quality production but make sure students are having an educational experience, making them a part of that problem-solving process.”
“This is my first time doing stage combat, and so it was a lot different than I thought it would be,” Pizana shared. “It was difficult at first trying to get it all down, but now, our cast members in the stands, they love it. They think we're fighting, and that's what we were aiming for, and I'm excited to present this.”
You can purchase tickets to Nearly, Washington online, and contact TMCC Theatre to learn more.