Sunday in the Park with Reading Theater Project

by George Hatza, Reading Theater Project

As any artist will tell you, ideas for projects can pop into your mind in the most unexpected ways. For example, Vicki Haller Graff, artistic director of Reading Theater Project, came up with the concept for an outdoor arts event while walking with her son and their dog in the park surrounding the Reading Public Museum during the early weeks of the pandemic.

If people couldn’t go inside a theater to see a performance, perhaps they could do so outside. And not just on chairs or bleachers.

“As we were walking, I found myself daydreaming about dancers, actors, musicians performing in various areas of the park,” Graff said. “I could see it. So I reached out to the museum, and they seemed receptive and curious. After some discussions, we reached an agreement, and the first performance took place in the summer of 2021.”

The fourth performance of this midsummer event, under the banner of “In Nature’s Studio,” will take place in the Arboretum on the grounds surrounding the Reading Public Museum on Sunday, July 21, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., rain or shine.

“We don’t speak of the ‘R’ word,” Graff said, only half-joking. “I never get tired of coming up with new things for the company. I have a great team of artists working with me, so it’s not all on me.”

Graff compared “In Nature’s Studio” to the kind of performances audiences have seen during RTP’s annual Fringe Festival every February. The company connects the elements of the outdoor show with the current exhibitions inside the museum, at the moment “The Lost World of Dragons” and “Scales of Gold, Wings of Jade: The Dragon in Art.” Therefore, several artists have set their pieces in the medieval era.

Audiences are encouraged to visit the museum in the afternoon prior to the start of “In Nature’s Studio” to see the exhibits, and then when the museum closes at 4, come out and stroll through 12 acts, each with more than one person performing, to see how different artists responded to the event’s overriding theme.

On the RTP website at www.readingtheaterproject.org, potential audience members can reserve spots for the 90-minute show. Tickets for “In Nature’s Studio” are free, but donations are encouraged, Graff said, noting the event’s two sponsors, the United Way and Reading Musical Foundation.

Those interested in attending can experience the acts several ways: join one of two guided tours, beginning at 4 p.m. and 4:15 p.m., respectively; or they can choose to stroll through the park on their own and catch whatever shows are about to perform; or they can choose specific performances. The guided tours, which have space for 20 people each, are the best ways to see all the acts.

Graff encourages interested audiences to reserve online so that they can be contacted if any unexpected developments should arise, such as weather issues, for example.

“In Nature’s Studio” will feature music, dance, theater (monologues, poetry, and short plays), and plein air artists representing the Art Plus Gallery in West Reading who will be painting in the Arboretum. Actress Megan Rose will present work based on the writings of the world’s first female playwright, Hrotsvitha Von Gandersheim, a 10^th-century secular canoness (935-973 A.D.), whose creations include comedies, drama, and Christian poetry.

Jazz musician and saxophonist Chris Heslop has devised a thematically connected brass performance with musicians stationed along a creek, each one playing a piece 30 minutes apart during breaks in the other shows. Heslop also will perform works with opera singer Tammy Black and pianist/accordionist Lars Potteiger with whom he has collaborated previously.

Black founded Berks Opera Workshop with her mother, conductor, and musician Francine Black in 2008, one year after the ensemble’s first performance. The name was later changed to Berks Opera Company, which Tammy Black said more accurately reflects the group’s professional aspirations. The company performed two productions a year until the pandemic.

“We’re still recovering from that,” said Black, a full-time instructor of music at Albright College and the school’s director of applied music. “We’re doing one a year for now. Our next production will be (German composer) Engelbert Humperdinck’s ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ which will be staged in the Miller Center in November. Berks Opera is collaborating with Albright College on that opera.”

This is the first time Reading residents Black and Potteiger will be part of “In Nature’s Studio.” Black earned a bachelor-of-music degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., and she also holds a master-of-music degree from Temple University. Potteiger holds a bachelor’s degree in jazz studies and studio music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He performs with his own trio (piano, bass, and drums) throughout Pennsylvania and is the music director at the Church of the Apostles U.C.C. in Rohrerstown, Lancaster County.

Heslop, Black said, suggested the three artists unite accordion (Potteiger), voice (Black), and clarinet (Heslop) for “In Nature’s Studio.”

“We had to dig deep to find something related to dragons,” Black confided. “So, we’re doing the song ‘Candle on the Water’ from the Disney film ‘Pete’s Dragon’ and a 1961 song, ‘The Armadillo,’ by Flanders and Swann.”

Potteiger said it was impossible to bring a piano outdoors for this performance, so he thought an accordion would add “a folksy vibe, sort of a French cabaret tone” to the act.

Graff, who is directing “In Nature’s Studio,” said audiences will have an opportunity to participate in an improvisation devised by actors Rob Weidman and Erick Goldsmith entitled “Arboretum and Dragons,” inspired by the game Dungeons and Dragons.

“Rob thought the outdoor space was conducive to an interactive micro-game, and it gave him the idea to create this concept based on the museum exhibit,” Graff said. “I’m always impressed by the places artists discover their inspirations and where they take them.”

Nearly 40 artists are involved in writing for or performing in “In Nature’s Studio,” in addition to Graff and stage manager Kayla Laucks. The company’s theme this season is “Wonder.” The new season, with a new theme, will begin in the fall.

George Hatza is a director and writer and the former Entertainment Editor of the Reading Eagle. He is retired and living in Exeter Township.

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Source: bctv