Second Stage
Content updated 3/3/09.
Second Stage gives a voice to young artists who have questioning minds, and a desire to explore and respond to issues that touch their lives through theatre. Is that you?
Since its inception, whether innovatively staging classic works like Much Ado About Nothing, creating student-written works like Summer Shorts, or commissioning new works like Pandora’s Box, Second Stage brings young artists fully into the creative process with accomplished professionals, involving them not only as performers, but as individuals whose personal ideas and insights are woven into the final product. Students come away from the experience with a better understanding of the power and relevance that art can have in shaping society, and in their own potential as artists. This is an exciting chance to work with dramatic literature, typically otherwise unavailable to high school students.
In addition to actors, the Second Stage ensemble will include a student crew, which will work with a professional production designer to produce the show’s design elements and run technical aspects of the production.
Second Stage seeks to provide new challenges for student performers by bringing contemporary plays to the stage. These productions take a variety of forms, from student-developed short pieces to award-winning full-length plays.
Scripts may provide artistic challenges, like the rhythmic “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread” from All in the Timing (2004), creating mosquitoes for “Bite Me” in Summer Shorts (2005), or the video-centric “Merge” from Autobahn (2006).
Scripts can also provide thematic challenges for both audiences and performers, providing insights into issues in the lives of young people today, such as the exploration of drug culture and our legal system in last year’s Good ‘N’ Plenty.
TPAS is proud to continue its collaboration with Theatre B, one of Fargo’s finest theatre companies. Theatre B is dedicated to bringing socially relevant issues to the stage through thought-provoking, character-driven theatre—a perfect match with TPAS’s Second Stage.
SECOND STAGE 2009: Playwrights, Center New Plays on Campus Usually reserved for colleges and universities, the Playwrights’ Center is extending the New Plays on Campus program to Trollwood’s Second Stage. The company of Second Stage students will work with director David Wintersteen and a professional playwright to bring to life a brand new play. Core artists at the Playwrights’ Center include Jeffrey Hatcher (who wrote last year’s Good ‘N’ Plenty), Vincent Delaney (Kuwait), and Melanie Marnich (Quake). More information will be available this Spring!
Second Stage Important Notes
Open to students who have completed grades 8-12.
Program Dates: June 4-July 19
Auditions: Sunday, May 31 and Monday, June 1, 7:00-9:00 pm, The Main Avenue Theatre, 716 Main Ave, Fargo.
Call backs: Tuesday, June 2, 7:00-9:00 pm.
Cast list:
Second Stage PATTY Cast List.pdf
Audition Instructions: Students may prepare a one-minute monologue, or plan to do cold readings from the script. Students will also audition in pairs, reading scenes from the play. Sign up for an audition session at the TPAS Information Session or call (218) 477-6500.
Jump Start Event: Thursday, June 4, 6:00-9:00 pm, Trollwood’s South Moorhead Campus
Location/Rehearsals: Trollwood’s South Moorhead Campus and Main Avenue Theatre, 716 Main Avenue, Fargo
Location/Performances: The Main Avenue Theatre, 716 Main Ave, Fargo
Rehearsals: June 5, 6-9 pm; June 8-July 3, Monday-Friday, 4:20-9:00 pm (tentative) with dinner break, possibly some Saturdays.
Construction/Tech Rehearsals: July 3, Time TBA; July 5-8, 1:00-5:00 pm & 6:00-9:00 pm.
Performances: July 9-11 and 15-18 at 7:30 pm, Main Avenue Theatre.
Strike & Celebration Party: Sunday, July 19, 1:00-5:00 pm.
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, May 27. Registration remains open after this deadline. However, a $25 late fee will be assessed.