November Newsletter
Hello PHAME Community!
PHAME students and staff at our recent Halloween-themed Student Cabaret.
Thursday marks the final day of our Fall Term, and the end of 2020 is in sight. 2020 has been challenging, but it has also been a year of ambition, generosity, and perseverance. We wouldn’t be here without all of you. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we want to express our gratitude: to our students, friends, community partners, staff, and board—you make PHAME the creative and resilient organization it is. Thank you.
Our newsletter is one of the ways we share glimpses into what’s happening at PHAME, and this newsletter does just that. We have an interview with a new PHAME student, a look at a Radio Drama class, some stellar student art, and information about some upcoming (super fun) PHAME events. We hope you enjoy it!
Jenny with PHAME students Jim and Austin at a past Get PHAMEous event.
A Message from Executive Director Jenny Stadler
As winter approaches, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to build connection and community in the months to come. I’m sure many of you are feeling as I do—unsure of what the winter will bring and striving to enrich each day until the sun returns.
At PHAME, we’ve created an ambitious Winter Term that we hope will keep our students connected and engaged at a deeper level during these darker months. While there have been many bright spots at PHAME in an otherwise challenging time, one thing has truly stood out—PHAME students are creating art more independently and rigorously than ever before. We’ve seen our students working more independently, practicing at home more frequently, and performing or sharing art (online) more willingly.
We’ve built our upcoming Winter Term in direct response to our students’ engagement. We’re doubling down on skill-building with our new project labs: smaller, multi-term courses that focus deeply on one specific skill. This winter we’re launching a Video Production Lab, a Mixed Ensemble Lab, and a Playwright’s lab. We’ve added an “open-mic” class so students can continue to develop solo-performance skills. We’ll continue offering Cabarets, so students can have regular opportunities to share their work and perform. Alongside these offerings, we’ve also added more movement classes this winter, so that students can stay active while remaining safely at home. We’ll be posting the full Winter Term class lineup early next week.
If you’ve not joined us for one of our online events, please do consider yourself most welcome. We’d love to see you at our Winter Concert on December 9th, or at our Gala in March (more details below). And when we all emerge, someday, from our bubbles, I know you’ll be blow away by the art PHAME students are creating by joining us in-person for a concert or show. What a lovely, sunny day that will be.
Stay safe, stay healthy, stay creative. Have a warm and wonderful winter.
Sincerely,
Jenny
Interview with PHAME Student Crystal
“Dog Meets Fly,” a video made by Crystal.
Crystal Kralian joined PHAME for the first time this summer, and over these last two terms she has taken a deep dive into developing her hand drawn animation skills. If you joined us for our Video Release Party this September, you saw many of her marvelous animations firsthand. We wanted to know more about her experience at PHAME so far, so we met up with Crystal for a video interview. Here are some excerpts from our conversation.
On Joining PHAME
[Joining PHAME has] definitely brought out the artist in me that I didn’t know was there. I’ve done art before, but it’s been a surprise to see how much has come out of me. From my cartoon drawings to my animation—I’ve never done that before. I’m surprising myself left and right and I think it’s because of PHAME. I think it’s the people and it’s the community... and I feel like [my art] has been pouring out since I started coming to PHAME.
On Working on the Summer Video Project
It was a ton of hard work but I enjoyed all of it, and at the same time, I was learning so much. I’m really good at making things complicated, so I had to learn to not make something take several hours, but narrow it down to a couple hours. I also learned and researched stuff like “how do you make a person walk across a street on the screen?” So I studied, and I would watch myself walk across the mirror to figure out my steps and what am I doing. [And I watched] tons of YouTube videos and tutorials. I kept surprising myself, I kept thinking oh my God I can’t wait until [the animation team] sees it. I also loved seeing what they were doing. And I love learning from Jason and seeing things on Final Cut Pro, I was like WHOA I wanna learn that, too!
On Taking Online Classes
I feel for me on a personal level, dealing with anxiety or sensory issues, [taking classes online] helps a lot to do it from home where I’m avoiding a lot of extra outsideness. Like, if I’m in person and I need a break, I can’t turn down the volume. I think this has been a good experience because at home I can control my environment. The lights are at my level, the sounds are at my level.
The fact that I never did [in-person PHAME classes] means I don’t really how to compare it or what I may be missing out on. It seems like some people learn better [online] so I don’t know how to compare it, but I am comfortable with this.
Thank you, Crystal!
Spotlight on Radio Drama
When in-person classes came to a halt last spring, PHAME teachers were tasked with transferring existing PHAME classes into an online format. But we also had the opportunity to design some new classes specifically crafted for the online classroom. One of our favorites is Radio Drama, where students work together to create an audio story replete with voice acting, music, and creative sounds.
This fall’s Radio Drama class is taught by PHAME Teaching Artists Laura Loy and Stephanie Scelza, and students in the class are working on an abridged and re-imagined version of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. We asked the class to share a few minutes of a recent run through—we hope you enjoy it!
Winter Concert Tickets
We’re gearing up for a Winter Concert like no other! This year’s event will take place December 9 from 7-8 PM over Zoom, and in addition to performances by PHAME’s Choir and Rock Ensemble the event will also feature a curated group of performance videos created by PHAME students.
There’s no charge for tickets this year, but if you’re not a PHAME student, you will need to reserve your ticket before the event.
We hope to see you there!
Save the Date for PHAMEtastic!
PHAMEtastic
March 18, 2021
6:30 PM Preshow, 7:00 PM Program
This year's virtual gala is PHAMEtastic like never before!
Join us for a fabulous party celebrating one hit wonders, with outstanding PHAME performances, PHAME-style bingo, and of course, costumes. Dress like your favorite performers who never had more than 15 minutes of PHAME.
Mark your calendar and watch for ticket information coming soon. We can't wait to party with you!
Student Art Slideshow
Check out these lovely drawings from our Visual Art students.
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