{"id":488,"date":"2011-05-03T10:10:33","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T14:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/studying-abroad\/?p=488"},"modified":"2011-05-03T10:10:33","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T14:10:33","slug":"ny-art-program-provides-intense-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/2011\/05\/03\/ny-art-program-provides-intense-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Art Program Provides Intense Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kristijonas Paltanavicius ’12<\/em> – This past semester has been one of the most intensive learning experiences in my life. I, as a theatre major, had done some work at the Vanity Theater, the Theater Department and professional theatres in Lithuania. All of that led me to do an internship with the New York Arts Program. The program gave me an opportunity to intern at The New Group Theatre located in the heart of New York City.<\/p>\n

Read about Kris’ summer internship in Lithuania here<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The internship at The New Group gives me a better understanding of how a professional theatre in New York functions. When I first came to the city I had a chance to intern for the production called \u201cBlood from a Stone.\u201d Theatre and film stars such as Ethan Hawke, Natasha Lyonne and Daphne Rubin-Vega starred in the show. It was amazing to watch them prepare for every performance, assist with pre-setting the show and do scene change work during the performance. Working as a production assistant gave me an understanding how different parts of the professional crew worked to make each show a success.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kris, far right, with actors in "Marie & Bruce"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the very first day at The New Group, I was struck by the friendliness of the New York theatre people. I felt like \u2018a part of the family\u2019 from the very first day which made the learning experience even richer. Towards the end of the series of \u201cBlood from a Stone\u201d performances we started rehearsing a new show \u201cMarie and Bruce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMarie and Bruce<\/a>\u201d officially opened on Monday and already got a great review in the New York Times. Wallace Shawn\u2014the author of the play\u2014is always at the theatre discussing different aspects of the staging of his masterpiece with the actors. It is very inspiring for me to be around the humble Mr. Shawn\u2014an artist I admire so much\u2014everyday and observing his work with actors and the director. Scott Elliott\u2014the Tony-Award-winning director of \u201cMarie and Bruce\u201d\u2014is extremely encouraging to me, as an aspiring theatre director. It means a lot to me to be able to see him work because I am very fond of his genius directorial choices.<\/p>\n

Originally \u201cMarie and Bruce\u201d was a film in which Marie\u2019s role was developed by Julianne Moore. In The New Group\u2019s version of Wallace Shawn\u2019s play, Marie\u2019s part flourishes in the Academy-Award-winning Marisa Tomei\u2019s hands. She is an extraordinary actress, and I feel extremely lucky to have an opportunity to observe her develop her character. The fact that all of these accomplished artists are very friendly with me makes it all even more special. Seeing so many acclaimed theatres professionals collaborate on \u201cMarie and Bruce\u201d gave me an immeasurable amount of knowledge in production and other aspects of the theatre business.<\/p>\n

Honestly, this whole experience of being in New York feels a bit like a movie. The more time I spend here, the more I realize that it is the best place for a young artist to evolve, stay constantly inspired and achieve whatever goals he\/she has. I feel like I belong in this city and have already forgotten that I am not from here originally. I am working very hard to develop professional and social networks and am involved in a number of projects.<\/p>\n

The most important part of my semester in NYC is the lessons that I learnt about myself. I have had a chance to test my own abilities and find out about the facets of me that I was not aware of before. Most importantly, I am surrounded by people whom I look up to, and it is crucial when you are young and are trying to define the career path you want to follow. So far, I feel like I fit right into the city and am trying to make the best out of every day I spend in the \u2018capital of everything\u2019!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kristijonas Paltanavicius ’12 – This past semester has been one of the most intensive learning experiences in my life. I, as a theatre major, had done some work at the Vanity Theater, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-study-abroad"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/05\/Kris-Russel-Jones.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}