Dog Days of Summer

School bells are ringing as I write this note. Where did the summer go?!

What this means for NextStage Productions is an active end of summer, early fall performance line up: In Your Life Storytelling and Taiko Drumming Benefit (SEE CALENDAR BELOW) and also planning for the holiday season.

Do you want to sing? Do you want to bring joy to our less-mobile seniors living in residences? Let’s put on a show and take it on the road! If you are interested in performing or just joining the fun call us at 831 688-4337 and leave a message by August 29.

Let’s make this our best holiday season yet!

- Kathryn Adkins

Spotlight on Coty Catlin

Interview by Kathryn Adkins

If you haven’t already seen Coty Catlin at NextStage Production Open Mics or at last year’s holiday show, then you must put the August 13 benefit date on your calendar. Coty will be performing in two groups, showing her musical versatility on instruments and in musical styles from Celtic with the duo Siamsa to Americana with the new to NSP group, Friends and Neighbors.

I’ve known Coty for years and sang Renaissance music as she accompanied on recorders and other early music instruments. So much fun. I asked her to tell us a bit about herself. Here is what she said.

“My former life included: being a medical assistant, a teacher of the MGM (mentally gifted minors), extracurricular program for the Pajaro school district teaching guitar, recorder, banjo, mandolin, mountain dulcimer and general music.”

In working with her husband, Dr. John Catlin, Coty traveled to Africa, China, Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, the Amazon- basically, around the world doing medical service. “Going into the villages allowed me to learn a bigger musical language with people so willing to share their culture through music. My world music instrument collection grew beyond expectations.”

What drew you to NSP?

I was introduced to everyone at NextStage when I attended an Appreciation Happy Hour at Chaminade as a guest of Matt Walker. A whole new group of people are now in my life. It was exactly what I needed at that moment. A perfect timing.

What have you appreciated the most about the NSP activities?

The opportunity to perform again in the community. I had not been doing that for several years as I was living in Murphy. Getting involved with NSP has reacquainted me with teaching and performing in Santa Cruz.

What have you discovered about yourself through working with NSP?

That I am intensively obsessive about music and playing instruments, at least 2 new instruments per year. It fills the void and has helped me heal after the passing of my husband of 40 years.

What would you tell someone who is curious and/or thinking about joining NSP?

Go to the performances and see how much fun the performers are having. They enjoy what they do, the people they perform with and the joy it brings to the audience. It’s a joyful experience.

Readers Theater Recap

After ten performances, with a total audience exceeding 200, Readers Theater has ended its 2023 Short Play Festival. We can proudly state that we brought smiles and laughter to all who attended.  Our final performance was at the Scotts Valley library and we were delighted to have a full house with over forty attendees.

All the plays were short -a couple just five minutes or so, and the others running from ten minutes to seventeen minutes. We had a cast of sixteen, allowing some folks new to NextStage and to acting, to tip their toes into this form of drama. As their director, it has been an absolute delight to see everyone flourish and hone their skills.  By the end of the run, most everyone knew their scripts and were delivering polished, professional work.  I am so proud of them and grateful to the authors who have the talent to write great comedies suitable for those of “a certain age!”

-Sally Bookman

Spotlight on Kevin Karplus

I'm not sure how I found NextStage in August 2022—probably through online searches for community theater groups. I was considering taking up acting as a social outlet after retirement from being an engineering professor at UCSC, because of how well that worked for my son (who started acting at age 5 and has kept it up as a major hobby for 22 years).  I needed a group who would be accepting of someone starting out as a complete newbie in his late 60s, but a group that also had high enough standards that I could learn from them.

When Sally Bookman sent out a call for tryouts for Readers' Theater, I thought that it would be a good starting point for me—I was not sure of my ability to memorize lines (memory work has never been one of strong suits).  I knew I could project my voice loud enough to be heard clearly, but I had no idea whether I had any of the other skills an actor needed.  Having a script available while performing seemed to be one way to reduce the barrier for entry.

At the tryouts, we were very short on male actors, so I was practically guaranteed a part.  As it turned out,  Sally cast me in two plays: as John in Mary Miller's Ferris Wheel and as Rollo in Nina Shengold's Emotional Baggage.

It was fun converting the scanned scripts into editable files, learning the lines, rehearsing with others, and putting together costumes and props for the plays. I made fake cigarettes and a box for them for Ferris Wheel, and I made luggage tags and a couple of monogram necklaces for Emotional Baggage. Rollo required clothes rather different from my normal attire, so I ended up buying a canvas jacket, aviator glasses, a beanie, and a Bob Marley T-shirt for that costume (the worn-out pants, shoes, and fingerless gloves I already had).

At the very first performance of Ferris Wheel, I forgot to change which glasses I was wearing, and I could not see the script at all, so I had to do the performance entirely from memory, which I had never practiced.  I was a bit slow on some of my cues, but I got through the play without any major mishaps.  This reassured me that I can memorize the lines for a 15-minute two-hander, so I won't necessarily be limited to Readers' Theater and other staged readings.
 

Kevin Karplus and Marigold Fine in Mary Miller's Ferris Wheel

Since joining NextStage I've also started getting other acting training: mainly workshops through Actors' Theatre and drop-in improv classes with the Fun Institute, and I've signed up for acting classes at Cabrillo College in the Fall.

I hope to work with Readers' Theater again next year, and I'm open for other acting opportunities (as long as they do not involve singing—I am completely hopeless at carrying a tune).

More NextStage photos are on Kevin's website: 
https://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus/theater/.
Kevin also has a blog (https://gastationwithoutpumps.wordpress.com) which has some recent posts about theater.

Dive into something new!

Remember the exhilaration of jumping off the high dive into a pool of water? Was that exhilaration fear, joy, freedom, or release?
Oh, to feel free to experience that feeling again! YOU CAN!

NextStage Productions’ newest project starting June 15 is rehearsal/instruction, play and performance.Your Life Storytelling with Brad Roades will entice you to TAKE THE DIVE and tell the story of your dreams, your experience, your life. And what a thrill it will be for our audience. We love a good story.

To help you get your performance mojo going, sign up for BodyWise with Marcia Heath. This class will help you loosen up and release into a new pool of expression.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU AT THE NSP POOL.

Check out the dates below and on the website, www.nextstagesantacruz.org

- Kathryn Adkins