Roz & Craig Blog

The HURT VILLAGE

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I wanted to sob at least 3 times. But I wouldn't let me because I was in the front frow. I GOT IT. I love ALL my family. Katori Hall Is the bravest artist I know. Anointed. Do Jesus. Tell the truth and shame the devil. BRILLIANT performances across the boards ( Marsha Stephanie Blake Tonya Pinkins (raw) Saycon Sengbloh . SEE it if you dare. Krystal Farris SEE IT. SEE IT please. Just when I was missing the Mountaintop. HURT VILLIAGE. I feel you. 

Okay. And Seriously @patricia mcgregor that play was in the right hands.Such care and love.I recognized my people all up and through there. I know this is crazy this but it even made me think of Whitney. 

(MY)Influential theater professor passes away

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Bruce Katzman

By Akbar Ahmed, Natasha Thondavadi Staff Reporters

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Earle Gister, an influential Yale theater professor who pioneered a new method for training actors, passed away in his sleep Sunday at his New Haven home. He was 77.

A charismatic educator, Gister was among the most prominent leaders of conservatory acting training in the late 20th century. He helped coordinate previously disparate drama programs nationwide under the League of Professional Theatre Training Programs, which he co-founded in 1972, and pushed for acting students to be held to more rigorous standards.

“Earle had a very large educational impact on the country,” said J. Michael Miller, director of The Actors’ Center in New York and co-founder of the League, which disbanded in 1987. “If there was one man who made a significant difference in professional theater training, it was him.”

Over a more than 40-year career in the world of theater, Gister mentored some of today’s most celebrated actors, directed the entire canon of Anton Chekhov at the Yale Repertory Theatre and earned a reputation as one of the nation’s most respected theater professors. His reforms to theater education changed the prevalent attitude that “training actors was like training mechanics,” Miller said, and encouraged the development of hundreds of Master of Fine Arts programs in acting across the country.

Gister came to the Yale School of Drama in 1979 as associate dean of the school and chair of the Acting Department — positions he held until his retirement in 1999. Gister had previously taught at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he served as chairman of the drama department.

At Yale, Gister established a reputation as one of the preeminent faculty members at the School of Drama. He was also instrumental in managing the school during the 1980s as then-Dean Lloyd Richards focused

on program expansion at the Yale Rep, Miller said.

Ron Van Lieu, current chair of the Acting Department, said the values Gister upheld remain at the heart of the program today. Lieu said when he began his teaching career at New York University, he looked to Gister as a role model.

“I knew then that if I ever wanted to be considered a really good acting teacher, I had to be capable of playing in the same league as Earle Gister at Yale,” Lieu said in a Wednesday email. “I actually met Earle only a few times, but I was always aware of what he stood for in the classroom: rigorous technique, generosity of spirit, deep respect for the writer, desire to serve, grace and humor.”

Evan Yionoulis ’82 DRA ’85, former chair of the acting program, said in a Tuesday email that students would remember Gister for his “wry sense of humor, his depth of love for the craft of acting and his unwavering commitment.”

Gister attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., where he met Robert Corrigan, the drama professor who would serve as his mentor, his son Carey Gister said. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history, Earle Gister traveled with Corrigan to Tulane University in New Orleans, La., and earned an MFA in drama.

Miller said Gister viewed his time at Yale as the “pinnacle” of his career, during which he worked with some of the nation’s most talented young actors and shared his passion for Chekhov’s works. Gister inspired students to pursue their dreams in a tough industry with low job prospects, his son said.

Stephanie Nash DRA ’88, a former student of Gister, said he was a professor who genuinely cared about his students and wanted to make sure they were both honing their skills and having a good time.

“He’s more than a teacher, he’s a mentor,” Nash said. “I remember one time I knew I had given a wonderful performance and he said to me after, ‘Are you having fun?... I can’t help you more technically, but I want you to be having more fun.’”

More than 350 of Gister’s former students had reminisced about him, expressed their grief and planned memorial services around the country, on a Facebook group as of Wednesday night.

Gister balanced his dedication to teaching with a commitment to his family, his son said. Carey Gister recalled how his father would constantly teach his three children about literature and the arts, and once spent hours coaching him for a high school acting audition.

“Growing up in my father’s house was like a world-class education in the humanities,” Carey Gister said.

Though laryngeal cancer forced Gister to have his vocal cords removed in late 1988, he continued to teach at Yale and spoke at the School of Drama’s commencement ceremony six months after undergoing surgery, his son said.

He is survived by a sister, a brother, three children and two grandchildren.

© 2012 Yale Daily News All Rights Reserved

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New Photo Shoot

Crystal Blake shot us the whole Red Wall Team yesterday in our efforts to grow the company we wanted to present power fun images of who we are and where we are going.  The photo shoot was a blast.  We can't wait to share the photos.  Now we have a few behind the scene shots.  Vanessa Thorpe shot the behind the scenes.  And by the way we are producing her short film developed right here at RWPS.  

On TV



SPRING/FALL  HBO (Pilot)
NURSE JACKIE Showtime
WHITE COLLAR USA
MERCY NBC (Pilot)
NEW AMSTERDAM FOX
KIDNAPPED (Recurring) NBC
LAW & ORDER: CI NBC/Jim McKay
LAW & ORDER: SVU NBC/Michael Zinberg
DEADLINE NBC
OZ HBO/Alex Zakrewski
D.C WB/Dick Wolf
THE PIANO LESSON Lloyd Richards/Hallmark Hall of Fame
AS THE WORLD TURNS CBS
ONE LIFE TO LIVE ABC
THE DITCHDIGGER'S DAUGHTERS               Johnny Jensen/Family Channel
NYPD BLUE ABC
AFRICANS IN AMERICA PBS


On Film

Features

IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
TWELVE Joel Schumacher
FRANKIE & ALICE (w/ Halle Berry) Geoffrey Sax
BROOKLYN’S FINEST Antwoine Fuqua
INDELIBLE Randall Dottin
BROWN SUGAR (w/ Taye Diggs) Rick Famuyiwa
VANILLA SKY (w/ Tom Cruise) Cameron Crowe
OUR SONG (w/ Kerry Washington) Jim McKay
MUSIC OF THE HEART (w/ Meryl Streep) Wes Craven/Miramax
THE TALK MAN Gene Gallerano
PERSONALS Mike Sargent
THE OPPORTUNISTS (w/ Christopher Walken) Myles Connell/Jonathan Demme
EVERYONE'S DEPRESSED Yanna Kroyt Brandt
SKIRTY WINNER Jeffery M. Bair
Shorts  
THE TOMBS Jerry LaMothe
FATHER'S DAY Dave Coleman
THE FEELING YOU GET Michael Brown
A LONG ROAD Nyle Cavazos Garcia
ONLY JOKING Michael Patrick Kelly
UNFAMILIAR PAINTINGS Ernest Alexis
WHAT WE BECAME James Arlen
HUNG OVER AND OUT Birgit Rudel

Always feel sad today....

Hard not to.  But the spin on it is this is  was the lesson of a lifetime, and for that I am grateful. I decided that if I had to be taken all of a sudden, I want it to be in the middle of doing the things I love, creating, helping others to create, in love, and being loved and that I wanted people to say my life made a differnce to them.  So today I turn toward love and away from fear, roll up my sleaves and do my work because making meaning of this time we have is my mission, and my duty. I love you all and am thakful for my life. 

Next Up For Red Wall is ....A Web Series.

The is very funny. It confirms that the we are making the right decision to make a very well written (stars and new talent mixed) web series.  We are all ready to go.  Short and funny. I can't wait to start.  There is inspiration all around me. The goal is to release it on November 17, 2011.

ROZ