One of the main
goals for our Theatre Education Community is to help theatre students and
professionals from all over connect and identify with each other in order to
build resources and support the theatre education field. We shine a spotlight
on a different member every other week by conducting a simple interview.
Our latest
Spotlight Member is Michael Bergman, troupe director of Troupe 7639 at The
Potomac School in McLean, Virginia. Michael always has perfect show suggestions
for any situation, practical advice and thoughtful questions.
Photo via KFC
Ginny: Why do you
believe theatre is important?
Michael: Participation
in a theatre class offers opportunities for students to explore the world and
understand others in ways in which a traditional academic course could not. It
addresses so many of the “intelligences.” Physical engagement, emotional
engagement, intellectual engagement - all are built into the class structure as
a natural part of what theatre is about. The kinesthetic learner, for example,
experiences the class in a different way than the student who uses auditory and
linguistic skills. Inherently, a theatre class experience is one of personal
discovery. While there is certainly a lot of information that gets processed
(history, sociology, literature), it is filtered through a lens of personal
reflection and response.
Ginny: What is the
resource you recommend most to others in your profession?
Michael: I’ve
given out so many copies of “Improvisation for the Theatre” by Viola Spolin and
“Audition” by Michael Shurtleff that I should get a kickback from the
publishers. A creative teacher should be able to use these as the foundation
for a course and develop new activities based on the established ones. I’m also
a big fan of “The Year of the King” by Antony Sher. It’s one of the clearest
and most entertaining books about an actor’s job and journey.
Ginny: Do you have
any tips for new theatre teachers?
Michael: Be
flexible. Have an arsenal of skills and strategies that you can pull up at a
moment’s notice so that you’re not thrown by the unforeseen stuff that happens.
This can really help with managing a classroom, adapting to the students’
responses to an activity, shifting your curriculum to be more engaging and
responsive to the students’ needs. It can also be invaluable when the
inevitable surprise occurs - an actor missing a rehearsal, a snow day shifting
a schedule. Learning to adapt to challenges or respond to the unseen turns that
can occur gives a theatre teacher control over the process. And never let them
see you sweat!
Ginny: What is the
weirdest stage food you’ve ever made or eaten?
Michael: There’s
an important scene in She Loves Me
that involves a carton of vanilla ice cream. We had a couple of
challenges. There’s the melting factor - the song relating to it is about
ice cream, not soup- and we had an actress who was lactose intolerant. So we
used KFC mashed potatoes (KFC was her specific request). The stage manager made
a run to the local KFC and bought about a dozen containers of mashed potatoes
that we stored in the refrigerator. We had to take out the appropriate amount
for each performance, let it warm so that it was the right consistency, and
repack it into an “ice cream takeout container” that seemed to fit the show’s
1930’s time period. It was up to the actress to make it look like she was
eating ice cream instead of lukewarm potatoes.
Ginny: What was the
first play you ever saw?
Michael: We went
to the theatre all the time when I was a kid. The first productions that I saw
were college shows that my aunt was in, Gilbert & Sullivan stuff, some
children’s theatre productions, and Sophocles’ Electra. My first Broadway show was George M!, with Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters. The show was at
The Palace Theatre, and I remember sitting way up in the balcony. I was 12.
Ginny: What was the
first role you ever played?
Michael: I was
the narrator in a first grade production of The
Little Red Hen at P.S. 164 in Brooklyn.
Ginny: Everyone has
at least one good theatre story (a costume mishap, smoke alarms during
performances, malfunctioning set pieces, etc). What’s yours?
Michael: We were
doing Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures.
It was probably the most complicated musical that we’d undertaken. Everything
about it was a challenge - the style, the music, the story, the costumes and
make-up. Most of the company of 35 students played multiple roles that involved
costume and make-up changes, as well as wigs. There were men playing women,
women playing men. The set was tricky, with a walkway over a section of the
orchestra seating, from the back of the theatre to the stage. Lighting was
hard, as we were lighting sections of the house and trying not to blind the
audience in the process. And then the snows came. We lost 13 rehearsals
before tech week! Our tech week was snowed out! We did our final blocking
rehearsal on Thursday of tech week, piecemeal, in the basement of our music
director’s church, because the school campus was closed. On the Friday
afternoon of our opening performance, we ran just the bits of the show that
we’d never run onstage, leaving out all of the scenes that we felt were working
well. I spent the afternoon writing all of the lighting cues while our tech
director tweaked the lights. My wife, who is a make-up designer, set up a
system so that all of the students would be able to help one another with the
make-up and costume changes. Our musical director rehearsed the full band for
the first time. During warm-ups, I reassured the cast that, with focus and
ensemble work, they could do the show. Any questions? A freshman raised his
hand and, echoing the sentiment of several of the students, asked, “What’s this
show about?” We ran Pacific
Overtures for the first time in front of 350 people. My student co-director
and I sat in the house, in awe, as the production miraculously came together. I
probably lost 10 pounds and gained a lot of gray hairs that week.
Ginny: Name something
on your bucket list.
Michael: I want
to go to Bali and study the relationship between performance and culture.
Ginny: If you could
have a different career, what would you choose?
Michael: I would
be a puppet builder.
Ginny: What will you
miss the most after retiring?
Michael: I can’t
imagine days spent without interactions with high school students.
Ginny: What is your
proudest accomplishment?
Michael: A
25-year marriage and two quirky, smart, funny sons.
Ginny: What is
something we would be surprised to learn about you?
Michael: While I
did theatre in some form from the time I was very young, I only did one show in
high school (Oliver!) and majored in
Psychology and Philosophy as an undergraduate.
Ginny: What toy do
you most remember from your childhood?
Michael: I had an
“old-school” G.I. Joe. Not articulated (no “kung-fu grip”). But I used to
play with him in my backyard, building forts and staging battles with one
soldier. At some point, I grew out of this phase. I don’t know what happened to
him.
I always love
hearing a good theatre story, so between the mashed potato ice cream and a
first run through of Pacific Overtures in front
of a full audience, this interview was a great delight. His students
undoubtedly benefit from his knowledge and experience. If you enjoyed Michael’s
interview as much as I did, add him as a contact in the
Community!
Do you know someone who deserves a moment in the Spotlight? Tell me
their name and why at gbutsch@schooltheatre.org. Want to read more Community Spotlights? You can find them here.