COME TO NYC WITH BERKELEY REP TEEN COUNCIL! (2006/07) Teen Council is going to New York City and we want you to come along! Broadway!!! Backstage tours!!! Off-Broadway!!! Talk backs with theatre professionals!!! And all the excitement that is New York City!!! Spend a week touring the Big Apple with Bay Area teenagers who are as interested in theatre as you are. The Berkeley Rep Teen Council is organizing its third bi-annual theatre tour of New York City. Come to New York with the Berkeley Rep Teen Council from Tuesday, April 10 through Sunday, April 15, 2007. While in New York, we will attend many plays and musicals (both on and Off-Broadway), be a part of conversations with actors, take tours and soak in the bustling scene of the Big Apple. There will be many fundraising opportunities between now and the start of the trip, and if you intend to go, we will need your help in lowering the cost. As of now, the trip costs $1700 per person, with a $100 deposit upon signing up. If you are interested in coming on this fun and educational trip, please e-mail teencouncil@berkeleyrep.org, or call Rachel Fink, Director of the School of Theatre at 510.647.2971. How much fun did Teen Council have when we went to New York in 2004? Read below and find out! BERKELEY REP TEEN COUNCIL GOES TO NYC (2004/05) “’Twas two days after Christmas, when all through Oakland Airport, all the travelers were stirring, including thirteen bleary-eyed and excited members of the Berkeley Rep Teen Council…” “Okay, enough of trying to make this a poem.”—Genevieve Michel, New York Co-chair “Right.”—Leslie Ribovich, New York Co-chair When thirteen teenagers and three adult chaperones from the Berkeley Rep Teen Council and School of Theatre arrived at the Oakland Airport at 5AM on December 27, we were all still half-asleep. The trip we had spent eight months planning was finally upon us, but it was too early to be excited. The Berkeley Rep Teen Council, a theatre youth group at the prestigious, not-for-profit Berkeley Repertory Theatre, was embarking on its second trip to New York after months of fundraising and preparation. In order to make the trip accessible to anyone who wished to join us, we held many fundraising opportunities, including a garage sale, a raffle and a twenty-four hour play-reading event called the Dramathon to raise money for the 6-day trip. We started to perk up once we boarded our airplane and met our flight attendants: Joe, Jared and Charlene. Joe announced our group to the whole plane over the loudspeaker (though mistakenly calling us the Berkeley Teen Rep Choir), Jared made fun of Joe and Charlene waited on us hand and foot while we made cards for them and discussed theatre with Joe and Jared. A friendly start to our trip. The trip started for real once we arrived in New York. We stayed in the theatre district, on Eighth Avenue near Times Square, giving participants close proximity to many of the world’s greatest theatres. Over the next few days, Teen Council members would attend numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway performances, as well as a panel of theatrical professionals at Theatre Communications Group. The vastness of theatrical life in the city made the trip a wonderful opportunity for this group of young people involved in theatre in the Bay Area. After a good night sleep, we spent our first day touring the United Nations, Grand Central Station, Fifth Avenue and Rockefeller Center. At the U.N., we visited chambers where some of the most important international decisions are made. The tour also included viewings of each country’s gift to the U.N. Some countries donated pieces of art that represented the resources of their homelands, while other countries donated chairs and designs for the insides of the chambers. Once the tour was over, we saw the rustic interior of Grand Central Station. We even caught the last few minutes of the famous holiday light show which is projected on the ceiling of Grand Central. Then we took in a little shopping time on Fifth Avenue, particularly the store everyone was looking forward to: H&M. That evening we went to La Cage Aux Folles, and for many of us, it was our first Broadway experience. Then we ate dessert at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, a fifties-style restaurant where many Broadway-hopefuls sing their hearts out in order to pay the rent and pursue their dreams. The talent of these aspiring performers opened our eyes to the difficulty of success in New York. On Wednesday, we went on the NBC Studio Tour and later ate at two great restaurants, Emerald Planet and 2nd Avenue Deli. The entertaining tour was certainly a contrast from the previous day’s cultural visit to the U.N. We saw the sets of Saturday Night Live, The Nightly News with Brian Williams and Dateline NBC. The most surprising aspect of the tour was the small size of the sets. We all thought that they would be much larger because that is how they appear on television. That afternoon we went on a walking tour of downtown New York: Lower East Side, East Village, Soho, Chinatown and Canal Street. That evening we saw The Blue Man Group, a show that changed many of our lives. This cultish extravaganza was full of color, music and lots of blue paint. Its humor made us thirteen girls want to be blue men. Thursday was a hard-core theatre day. The morning began with an inspiring discussion with New York theatrical professionals at Theatre Communications Group’s headquarters. The panelists’ stories and advice reiterated the importance of theatre in life. After that, we saw a “little” show called Avenue Q. Many participants had already memorized the soundtrack to this Tony Award-winning musical, and were ecstatic that the show was as good as they had expected it to be. In contrast to Avenue Q’s provocative puppets, A Number, the new Caryl Churchill play we saw at New York Theatre Workshop that evening, was the most intellectual play we saw on our trip. Sam Shephard and Dallas Roberts’ performances were indescribable, leaving many of us speechless. Before we left for New York, Teen Council’s monthly play-reading group had studied A Number. The experience of learning the play’s background and analyzing the theme of “nature versus nurture” before attending the production helped us appreciate the play even more. The next day, which also happened to be New Year’s Eve Day, lasted over twenty-seven hours. First, we went out to brunch, where they served pickles with breakfast (?)—maybe it’s a New York thing. Then we headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we split into groups to view the wings of our choice. On the way back to our hotel, we discussed the art we had seen. At our hotel, we got ready to ring in the new year with dinner at a Greek restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen and a show. Forbidden Broadway parodied current Broadway musicals, including many we had seen during the week, and was performed by very gifted vocalists. After our evening out, we returned to the Days Hotel through the mobs of people heading to Times Square and we celebrated 2005 in our hotel rooms. The trip ended as it had begun: a group of noisy teenage girls quieted by exhaustion. However, this time we had the memory of an awesome week in New York City behind us! Genevieve Michel and Leslie Ribovich, New York Co-chairs BACK TO TOP