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COVER
STORY
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Still
Making Magic
After 50 years, The Magic Circle Theater
group's star shines brightly
by Mary Tamer
Photos by Rose
Lincoln
It has been several weeks since a group
of 11- to 15-year-olds first gathered in Balch Arena Theater
for the start of another summer of performances as part of the
arts group known as Magic Circle. Now, after learning their
lines, they’re ready for a dress rehearsal of The Frog
Prince.
Handmaidens costumed in heavy brocade dresses mill about and
whisper among themselves in the darkened audience, while in
the makeshift grotto on the stage beneath them (where the frog
prince resides) more players wait, dressed entirely in black,
distinguished only by the handsome frog puppets on their heads.
Although it is a steamy 95 degrees outside, the theater is chilly,
55 degrees at best, but the players don’t seem to mind.
They have bigger issues to worry about, such as making sure
bobby pins are keeping crowns and veils in place, and that costumes
still held together by safety pins remain where they should.
As the grotto dragon dons his own elaborate green costume that
outfits him head to toe, another player, already miked in the
theater’s technical booth, starts to sing the Barney theme
song as giggles and groans collectively erupt. “I love
you, you love me, we’re a happy family….”
A deafening screech emits from the wireless microphone, abruptly
ending the impromptu solo and sending the still-chuckling cast
grabbing for their ears. It’s just another day at the
Magic Circle.
Behind the Scenes
It’s hard not to be impressed by the free and playful
spirit of Magic Circle and maybe that’s why it’s
survived so long. Started in 1952, the Magic Circle Theater
is New England’s oldest dramatic arts group for children
and is counted among one of the oldest in the United States,
preceded only by a handful such as California’s prestigious
Palo Alto Children’s Theater and the San Diego Junior
Theatre (with 63 and 54 years of existence, respectively). It
is open to children in the Tufts community, as well as those
who live in the surrounding areas of Medford, Somerville and
Cambridge.
In its five decades of being, the Magic Circle summer program’s
philosophy has not strayed dramatically from its original intent:
to provide children with a six-week, well-rounded, all-encompassing
theater experience that, in the end, is not all about the performance,
but rather the path and process to getting there. Kids work
onstage and behind the scenes: acting in one play, making costumes
or sets for another; rehearsing The Frog Prince in the morning,
while operating lights and monitoring sounds for James and the
Giant Peach in the afternoon. This is theater from front to
back, and up and down, with the help from a handful of adults
who—like the kids—keep coming back for more.
“This is what I look forward to all year long,”
says Samantha Quest-Neubert, 15, a resident of Medford whose
older sister, Joanna, is a Magic Circle alumna. “In this
camp, you don’t have to worry about being someone else,
you’re just yourself.”
What you do have to worry about is getting in. According to
executive director Joanne Barnett, 65 children from ages 11
to 15 are selected for Magic Circle, taken from a pool of approximately
90 who must apply and audition for a slot in January. A younger
group, the 15-year-old Creative Arts/Jackson Troupe, picks 100
of the 200 applicants ages 8 to 11 for what could be described
as a prelude to Magic Circle. Of the six-week July to August
encounter, three shows are produced and played by the end of
the third week. It is an intense process of planning, preparation
and, ultimately, performance.
“We’re an empowerment camp focused around the arts,”
says Luke Jorgensen, G00, artistic director of the Tufts Children’s
Theater programs. “The goal is that these kids figure
out who they are. I’m hoping they can express themselves
here and gain confidence.”
“A lot of kids don’t get to tell their story,”
he says. “This is a place where they’re heard.”
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MAGIC
CIRCLE
1952–2002
What has changed...
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Participants
1952 25
2002 65 |
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Tuition
1952 $120
2002 $1000 |
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Ticket
prices
1952 $.50
2002 $10 |
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Jorgensen’s sentiments
are like echoes of comments made by theater director and producer
Viola Spolin in the 1963 tome, Improvisation for the Theater,
remarking on the important role that performance could
play in the life of a child. “There are few places outside
his own play where a child can contribute to the world in which
he finds himself. His world: dominated by adults who tell him
what to do and when to do it—benevolent tyrants who dispense
gifts to their ‘good’ subjects and punishment to
their ‘bad’ ones, who are amused at the ‘cleverness’
of children and annoyed by their ‘stupidities.’”
A harsh view, perhaps, but one that clearly portrays the world
in which our children live, in toto, with the troubling realities
they face. Problems at home? Not accepted by your peers? Having
a bad-hair day? All that typical teen strife and more can work
to your advantage on stage and behind the scenes. Jorgensen
says that Magic Circle celebrates the individualities of the
children accepted into the program each year, putting to good
use the “pressure cooker of impulses” that kids
this age have at their disposal.
The same could be said back when the program started in 1952,
when Karla Feinzig Ellenbogen, J61, G65—an aspiring 12-year-old
actress—was among the first 25 players accepted to Magic
Circle. “Getting up in front of an audience is good for
kids,” she says. “It strokes the ego when you hear
applause. It promotes self-esteem, it teaches you to project.
You took pride in what you did . . . and I made friendships
that have lasted a lifetime.”
So, though the world has changed immensely over the past 50
years—in school dress codes and curricula, in the amount
of stresses in our society, and in increasing crime and violence
at home and abroad—some things, like Magic Circle, have
remained, for the most part, unchanged.
“I think the goals are still valid goals,” says
Iris Fanger, G72, a former artistic director of Magic Circle
from 1965 to 1969 and 1972, as well as former dance critic for
the Boston Herald. “The goals are the same educational
goals of all children’s education. It’s a marvelous
summer of camaraderie, it’s an amazing bonding experience,
and it’s all a very democratic process. That feeling good
about yourself is very positive. Magic Circle is a creative
endeavor for children. It’s stretching your mind, proving
your abilities and having the sense of satisfaction when you
do a good job. The goals were valid then, and they’re
valid now. That hasn’t changed.”
“This camp,” says Jorgensen, “remains a safe
place.”
The Process
In
a theater group for the children and by the children, certain
traditions tend to fall by the wayside. As part of last summer’s
50th anniversary commemoration, Jorgensen selected Sleeping
Beauty—one of the three plays performed during that
first 1952 season—as one of the three for the summer of
2002.
Rest assured, this was not the version of Sleeping Beauty
that you may remember. Last year’s players decided that
it wasn’t only going to take a prince’s kiss to
break the evil witch’s spell on the long-sleeping princess,
but also a growing self-awareness about her own inner strength.
Magic Circle participants are encouraged to follow the framework
of a well-established play while subtly—or sometimes not
so subtly—making it all their own.
“There are not many chances these days to explore creativity,”
says Sherwood “Doc” Collins, who came to the Tufts
Theater Department in 1961, retiring in 1993 after 13 years
as its chairperson. “At Magic Circle, you explore the
inner person . . . you get that sense of creating something
from putting yourself on the line.”
“This is an extremely improvisational process, and the
kids build characters as they go along,” says Jorgensen.
“So much of the improvisational school is to get acting
back to a childlike, but not childish, stage.”
It is a process that works well for the kids involved. While some come to Magic Circle as an alternative choice from baseball or tennis camp, and others come out of a strong interest in theater, all say what brings them back, year after year, is the feeling of acceptance they receive and relish.
“The counselors know what they’re doing,” says 14-year-old Max Lopes. “I think you can learn something from everyone you meet here.”
For the parents, most of whom attend two or three of their children’s five scheduled performances, Magic Circle is a teen utopia nestled within the Tufts community, offering shelter, kinship and security during a typically rocky stage of development..
“I think the sense of community is the standout,” says Deidre Alessio, whose son Gabriel is a program alumnus. “There’s a feeling of tolerance . . . and the kids wildly support each other. It’s an incredibly nurturing, loving environment.”
“This whole program is such an empowering, creative program,”
says Steve Neubert, father of Samantha Quest-Neubert. “There’s
not a star system involved here, which makes it so strong. My
sense is all the way through, it’s been such a positive
social experience and it’s because they all feel connected.
The younger kids are embraced by the older kids.”
And while some of the current Magic Circle crop may choose to
follow in the now famous footsteps of those that came before
them—actors Ted Reinstein and Frank Langella, Boston television
political commentator Jon Keller, Broadway costume designer
Jesse Goldstein, writer and actor Richard Levine, and Shakespeare
& Company’s Jonathan Epstein—others will walk
away with an invigorated sense of self that is often hard to
come by at the age of 15.
“It takes an awful lot of ego to entertain people,”
says Doc Collins. ”Magic Circle builds the confidence
that you can do things.”
Herein lies the not-so-secret gift of Magic Circle, as prophetically
spoken by Max Lopes as Lord Chamberlain in last year’s
Sleeping Beauty.
“A gift to a child,” says Chamberlain, “is
always a pleasure.” |
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