We’re in the news! Check out the front page of the Kennedy Center’s volunteer newsletter:
Get ready to participate in a fun National Volunteer Week co-production hosted by the Friends Outreach Committee, Double Nickels and Friends, Creating Reminiscent Theater Through Staging Conversations, on April 22 in the Terrace Gallery. The event will be the staging of a wedding reception, with Friends’ memories of weddings and receptions an integral part. Some Friends may even act in the production!
Two years ago, and tying in to Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser’s vision for international programming and festivals, our goal for an All Volunteer Week was to celebrate our cultural differences. Last year, we took it a bit further, celebrating our generational differences as well. The goal for these weeks was to help Friends come together – regardless of our age, creed, or heritage – through our love of the performing arts. Now, what better way to continue to understand each other through our shared love of the performing arts than to stage a common event that we have all experienced, though perhaps radically differently – a wedding reception.
This event was chosen because it is one we all
1) experience according to our culturaland religious backgrounds (a Hinduwedding being different than a Christian one, for instance) and
2) have experienced differently as we move through our lives (from perhaps being a flower girl or a ring bearer as children, to becoming the bride or groom, to parents or grandparents of the wedding couple).
To get the project going, your shift chairs have been given a questionnaire to distribute to help spark your memories of stories. Please turn in your completed questionnaire by March 15. The Friends video grapher Miguel Lopez will next come around and capture Friends telling our stories. Some of these stories will be incorporated into the April 22 event, shown on large video screens between scenes of live acting. Don’t worry if you’re camera shy, though. We still need your input. Double Nickels founder and leader Antoinette Ford is looking for our written memories as well, as she and our Double Nickels colleagues work to write a script. Here’s to hoping that all Friends enjoy ‘taking the plunge’ in April!
Below is the link to the entire newsletter:
FriendScript
March 14, 2010 at 2:09 am
This collaboration between the Double Nickels and Friends of the Kennedy Center is more than a one-hit wonder outreach. Over several months, the two groups have and will continue to come together to learn more about the theatre in acting and other workshops; contribute to the Reminiscence Theatre performance on April 22; and bond around a common interest in theatre, volunteerism, and the importance of remembering and telling stories. In an Acting Workshop in January, for instance, while we worked in mixed teams to complete exercises, light-hearted getting-to-know-you conversation contributed to a sense of unity. (The instructor had to playfully reprimand a few of the truly incorrigible students who were just having too much fun for it to be a learning experience. Just too much fun!) And, it was difficult to tell who was with the Double Nickels and who was a Friend of the Kennedy Center.
This joint venture requires a substantial commitment of time and effort. We are working hard, learning a lot, remembering almost lost memories, and stretching our production-volunteer-performance muscles. From my vantage point, the hard work aspect is offset by the fun and we’re-really-doing-this aspect. A nice trade-off! I’m loving it all—the process and the anticipation of a wonderful production that will bring tears and laughter, just as every wedding does.
March 22, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Pua is very proud to be involved in this event and with Double Nickels in general. This is a wonderful article. Congratulations to all of the Double Nickels for all your hard work!