Irondale: Acting Out on The Hill
Posted on 25. Jan, 2010 by Emily Wasserman in Arts on The Hill
Jim Niesen, the Artistic Director of Irondale Ensemble, talks about walking to Fort Greene from his home in Boerum Hill. As soon as he arrives at the corner of Fulton and Lafayette, the intersection where the streets cross right past BAM, he can feel a certain pull. That intersection, for him, is like the “spokes of a wheel in motion.” He senses the momentum of the revolving energy of Fort Greene and, spinning on that trajectory, climbs the stairs to Irondale’s home to start his very vibrant day.
Irondale, a 27-year-old theatre company, moved to its permanent home in Fort Greene two years ago. The Irondale Center is now located in the Presbyterian Lafayette Avenue Church’s Sunday School annex, entrance on South Oxford Street just off Lafayette.
Irondale’s fantastic home, hidden up above the church, (and if only they would have a better sign!) has 28-foot ceilings, stained glass windows, gothic details, 4600 squarefeet of performance area, office space, and a 1700-square-foot balcony. It is as flexible as their methodology. Absent fixed seating, this space enables them to continually change and alter the audience’s point of view. Consistent with their mission, they welcome the community into the space in all kinds of ways. The current schedule offers yoga classes, open-mic nights, summer programs for kids, a “Big Box of Distractions” Saturday afternoon series, performances by other theatre companies, concerts, and benefits for community groups. They encourage people with no theatre experience to volunteer as ushers, techies or whatever else may be needed.
The Irondale Ensemble, founded by Jim Niesen, Terry Greiss and Barbara Mackenzie-Wood, currently has a troop of 10 full-time members, all schooled in the techniques developed by Viola Spolin, a theatre practitioner known for codifying a series of improvisational games and approaches to story-telling designed to “fool spontaneity in to being.” The method explores creativity as an approach to solving problems. Niesen explains their art as one of “documentary theatre,” wherein, through a series of theatrical “work-ups,” they seek a voice, a “group mind,” a perspective, and then add layers to the theme. Paralleling a composition of music, and using music, they establish a key that determines a dramatic structure. Irondale applies this artistry to both classic texts and original pieces. In their current big production of “Alice in Wonderland,” they have mounted three versions of Lewis Carroll’s famed opus, one of which particularly focuses on “Alice’s Journey.”
In addition to their in house productions, the members of the ensemble engage in social outreach. With a particular focus on youth, they have led workshops in numerous high schools, community centers and even prisons. Their AIDS/HIV adolescent prevention program reached over 10,000 at-risk teens. (Ensemble member Michael-David Gordon who conducted the AIDS/HIV workshops lived in Fort Greene in the 1980’s and is now extremely happy to be back working the neighborhood.) The company uses their skill set to enhance collaborative work among teens, improve confidence and provide information and context so that role-playing can serve as a catalyst for behavioral change. Scarlet Maressa Rivera, an accomplished songstress and a member of the ensemble, has been leading workshops at Benjamin Bannekar High School on Clinton Avenue and Park Avenue for four years. Twice a week, folded into English and ESL classes, she team-teaches theatre and improvisation. This work culminated in presentations of ten one- act plays written and performed by students at Irondale. Many of the plays included fictionalized versions of “characters” that the students deal with in their day-to-day lives. Angelique Bolus’ play “Skoolz Daze” included a “Boy Chaser” and a “Babymaker” while Christine Emmanuel’s “Sketches of My Life” had a role for a “Nosy Neighbor.”
Nolan Kennedy, Welland Hardwick, Scarlet Rivera
It makes sense that an improvisational theatre company dedicated to highlighting social causes through education and outreach would find anchor in such a space. After all, Fredrick Douglass spoke in the church below; the congregation provided shelter for runaway slaves; Charles Dickens visited; P.T. Barnum dropped by; and Alexander Graham Bell made his first phone call in Brooklyn from that very spot. The legacies of these socially progressive, literary, comical, technically advanced ghosts speak to the Irondale Ensemble and provide the company with constant motivation to create theatre as a social art.
Inspired by the neighborhood, this past summer the theatre company at Irondale mounted an improvisational series about Fort Greene, past and present, called “A People’s History of Fort Greene.” They spent six months doing research: their source material even included back issues of this publication. They also relied upon New Yorker articles from the 1930s about Fort Greene Park, one rant acerbically penned by H. L. Mencken, about the competing visions of the monument in Fort Greene Park: “is it a historical site with an umbrage of sacredness or a contemporary social space where people just want to play?” Another article referenced all the nannies in the park. Damen Scranton, who has been acting and directing with the company for 10 years, wryly notes that issues surrounding “gentrification” always provide the company with great source material. He was pleased to have found that “Little Anthony” of “Little Anthony and The Imperials” grew up in Fort Greene, so they prominently wove the hit song “Tears on my Pillow” into the piece. The members of the ensemble also interviewed old-timers and new-timers, did story circles at SNAP, and the Senior Citizens Center, visited the plethora of local blogs and kept up with all the noisy (not necessary accurate but often amusing) cyber-chatter. The more research they did the more they realized that rocks still had to be turned, and that these streets are soaked with the strides of innovative, accomplished and eccentric personalities. Keep you eyes out for another episode of “The People’s History of Fort Greene” in Irondale’s next season.
