Performing Arts Company Lifts Off

Preparing the people of today to people the universities of tomorrow
 
Ray Proctor, PEOPLE-to-PEOPLE director, coaches a summer workshop student.
 

 PEOPLE-to-PEOPLE is a collective of middle school and high school students from traditionally excluded communities who aspire to uplift society through performance and act as a catalyst for understanding, acknowledgement and acceptance.

Our goal is to unite PEOPLE students and our communities through cultural exchange, creating professional-level performances that reflect the diversity of our communities.

Company members will be given professional training in music, dance and theatre and will be encouraged to challenge themselves in all aspects of the performing arts.

“All the world’s a stage.” is an oft-quoted line from William Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It.” The popular phrase is used to compare the stages of life to a play. One of those life stages — adolescence — is being played out through workshops and performances shaped by the unique experiences of PEOPLE students.

The new drama company, PEOPLE-to-PEOPLE, got off the ground in August of 2005. During weekly rehearsals, middle and high school students work alongside professional artists in music, dance and theater expressing their personal perspectives on life.

We caught up with company director Ray Proctor, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in Shakespearean criticism and says teens make great actors because “their imaginations still work.” 

When did your interest in theater begin?
I was a sophomore in high school in New Jersey. A theater company came and did production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” Everybody wore black pants and shirts. There was no set. It was just people on stage. And it was what they did with language and the telling of a story that I found fascinating. It was like weaving magic. People on stage showed emotion and it was all pretend, but I was caught up in the pretending. I left my regular high school and went to a performing arts high school. I wasn’t very good. Really, I wasn’t.

What did you enjoy most as a young actor?There’s a sense of power that comes with being the person in the room that all the other people in the room are listening to. It’s a lot of responsibility and you are carrying a story everybody in the room is waiting to hear.

Did anyone help you along the way?
I gave up for a while because I went on stage and I forgot all the lines in the show. At the end of the act, when my whole high school had laughed at me and there was nowhere else to hide, a woman named Danitra Vance took me out for ice cream. She said, ‘See how the cars keep going down the street? See how the lights keep coming on. The world is going to continue. Theater is a safe place because nothing is really real. All your friends will come to see you again.’

What is your career plan?I’m in my third year of a doctoral program in the UW Theatre Department with an emphasis in Shakespearean criticism. I’m looking at “Othello” and examining whether performances of the play over time have reinforced stereotypes about African American men. I’m trained to be a dramaturge [playwright]. And I love being an actor. But ultimately I’d like to teach at a university … in a warm climate.

How did PEOPLE-to-PEOPLE get started? Walter Lane wanted to offer the kids in PEOPLE an opportunity to express themselves artistically. So he gathered a group of university artists, singers, actors and musicians in late spring 2005. By August we were auditioning participants.

What do you hope to achieve?The performing arts is not something you can just wake up and do. It takes training. It takes time and it takes discipline. There aren’t very many opportunities for the minority youth of Madison to get the training or exposure required to compete or excel in the performing arts. It’s about putting out the stories that youth in the PEOPLE program find important. While the Madison community would like to be multicultural and diverse, programs like this often are the only way to include these voices.

How can students participate? No prior experience or talent are necessary, but you must be a current participant in PEOPLE. Rehearsals are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:30 to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 11a.m. to 3 p.m. Contact: Ray Proctor, 279-2055, jfproctor@wisc.edu

THE COLORED MUSEUM An undrestrained satire about African American life, culture and history will be exhibited during "The Colored Museum," George C. Wolfe's provactive drama to be performed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's PEOPLE program on May 6 at 8 p.m. and May 7 at 6 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater, 800 Langdon St.

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"The Colored Museum" by George C. Wolfe, May 6 & 7, 2006