EbzB Workshop: United Arts Council Arts Integration Institute

EbzB Productions will present Advanced Workshops for the United Arts Council's Arts Integration Institute.



When                               June 20-24, 2011, 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Where                              Cary Community Arts Center, Cary, NC
Fees                                  $350 for each school team
Participant stipends          Up to $100, based on attendance
Teacher Renewal Credit   Up to 3.0 credits


www.unitedarts.org/artsed/aii/application/aii-2011brochure.pdf

EbzB Arts In Education: Jones County Senior High School, NC

https://picasaweb.google.com/ebzbebzb/EbzBJonesCountySeniorHighSchool?feat=directlink

EbzB Arts In Education Residency - Chatham Central High School, Bear Creek, NC

EbzB Teaching Artist, Serena Ebhardt guides Chatham Central High School students as they create a play about their community. Students are taught the tools of the Actor (Breath, Body, Eyes, Face, Voice and Gesture).  These tools are applied to text created from interviews with older generations of Chatham County.  The interview questions, "What brought you to Chatham County?" and "What did you bring to Chatham County?" are designed to seek information from older citizens about their history, migration, and contributions to the community.

Guided by writer Mimi Herman, students will also contribute their own creative writing and poetry to enhance the final script.  The bluegrass band,  Chatham County Line has given permission for recordings of their music to be used in the final production. This project will culminate in a public performance by the students for their peers and community.

EbzB Productions (ebzb) on Twitter

EbzB Productions (ebzb) on Twitter

EbzB Tours Gates County, NC with Gates County Senior High School AP History Class in Preparation For Local Drama.

Click Here To View EbzB's Tour of Gates County, NC

EbzB: Arts In Education. Gates County High School Residency.

Gates County, NC - Serena Ebhardt and David zum Brunnen of EbzB Productions teach students from Gates County Senior High School the tools of an actor.

Gates County Senior High School received a Level I Artist Residency grant from the NC Arts Council.  The grant to bring in EbzB Productions, will help students create a drama based on oral histories from Gates County, NC.

EbzB asked students to interview older citizens from Gates County  and transcribe the interviews to create a script.  The script will be staged in the Old Gates County Courthouse for a public performance on May 12, 2011.

 

The AP History class and the Drama class have combined for this project. In addition to learning about Theatre Arts, the students are also learning about Gates County History.  The students are serving as community builders and consensus builders for Gates County. By interviewing older citizens for the project, students are bridging generation and communication gaps in the county.

Drama Teacher Barbara Best Toti says, "These kids are having experiences and meeting people through this project that they wouldn't have otherwise." Everyone is talking to each other -- and listening.

The students are being asked to listen and record the reflections of older citizens. They are learning about the history, condition, conflicts and beauty of Gates County, North Carolina in an interactive way.

 For more information about Gates County, NC, visit: http://www.gatescounty.govoffice2.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={9FA438DA-A6A9-48BA-B015-DBA6C392FF0D}

EbzB Productions is the recipient of the North Carolina Theatre Conference's Constance Welsh Theatre For Youth Award for providing quality entertainment and educational opportunities through theater to North Carolina's youth.  EbzB Productions is recognized by the North Carolina Arts Council Touring Artist Directory and in the South Carolina Arts Commission AIE Roster of Approved Artists.  Additionally, EbzB Teaching Artists have been trained by The Lincoln Center Institute and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to teach Arts In Education Workshops. 

Thank You: The Wrights of Passage, Olympia, Washington

Serena,

Thanks for sharing your talents for the benefit of our children, for all the extra work customizing a "Pacific NW verson" of the show, and your pleasant manner.

Wishing you safe travels,

Kris Bartruff
Olympia Junior Programs
Olympia, WA

David zum Brunnen and Stephen Wall in
"The Wrights of Passage" by Serena Ebhardt

The Legacy of Paul Green — North Carolina Public Radio WUNC

The Legacy of Paul Green — North Carolina Public Radio WUNC

The Legacy of Paul Green

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW! WUNC-Radio Podcast

Thursday, March 17 2011 by Amber Nimocks and Frank Stasio
The Legacy of Paul Green

www.paulgreen.org

You may recognize the name Paul Green as that of the playwright who penned the long-running outdoor drama "The Lost Colony" or gave his name to the theater that houses the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Playmakers Repertory Company. Green's legacy is actually much greater. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, wrote screenplays for Hollywood and fought for decades in his home state of North Carolina for progressive causes and social justice. As part of our North Carolina Literary Lights series, host Frank Stasio explores the legacy of Paul Green with Laurence Avery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor emeritus of English and author of "A Paul Green Reader" (UNC Press/1998); Marsha Warren, executive director of the Paul Green Foundation; and actors Serena Ebhardt and Steven Roten.

Harsh Ground, Holy Ground

Dear David and Serena,

Enclosed please find a copy of the recently completed film, Harsh Ground, Holy Ground.  It comes with our gratitude for the important roles you played to bring these stories to life. The response has been extremely positive because of the historical soundness, and visually engaging images of the film.  Thank You!

Arliffe Mumford, EdD
Director, School of Ministry Episcopal Diocese of NC
http://www.episdioncschool.org/


Minnow Media
http://www.minnowmedia.net/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Minnow-Media/72439846953

EbzB Productions: In One Era Backstory

In One Era and Out The Other
Herstory: September 11, 2001
by Serena Ebhardt

IN ONE ERA AND OUT THE OTHER : http://www.ebzb.org/era.shtml

My husband and I were in the doctor’s office at 8:45 a.m. on September 11, 2001, hoping. We’d been trying, for three years, to get pregnant. As a juvenile diabetic, I was told I might not live past the age of 25 and certainly wouldn’t be able to have children. This was hope against hope.

As our OBGYN came to speak to us, her cell-phone rang. She checked caller ID, apologized to us, and took the call. It was a friend asking if the doctor’s husband, a commercial airline pilot, was flying his usual route from Raleigh, North Carolina to New York.

“No. Why?”

Her friend informed her that a plane had just hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

We assumed an accident and went on anxiously hoping.

As our doctor broke the joyous news that finally, we were expecting, her phone rang again. She checked caller ID, apologized, and took the call. This time it was her husband.

A second plane had hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center. As a member of an FAA investigation team, her husband was called to duty. He called to say goodbye as he began his drive to New York. (The airport had been shut down.) Now we knew it was more than an accident. I was indeed pregnant. Confirmation. In the confusion, we continued to focus and hope.

A few minutes later, I was in the lab. As I was having blood drawn, the radio blared the breaking news. A third plane had hit the Pentagon. The air buzzed with speculation, confusion, and fear. Yet I sat amongst it all filled with my own private joy and hope.

While driving from the OBGYN’s office to my Diabetes doctor’s office, we heard more reports. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

The mix of feelings was overpowering. Surrealism. Enthusiasm. Confusion. Joy. Fear. Wonder. Isolation. Excitement. Anxiety. Hope. America’s despair was in a head-on collision with my hope for the future.

“I don’t know what kind of world you’ll be bringing this child into,” said the second doctor as he cautiously walked the emotional middle ground.

“Don’t worry, “ I replied in what must have seemed a Pollyanna tone. “My son is going to be one of the good guys.”

It wasn’t naiveté. I know first-hand that this world is full of disaster, disease, distress, and death. Now, when my son asks me why bad things happen, I tell him that I believe it is so that we may have an opportunity to create good from them. The juxtaposition allows us to fully appreciate the peace of the mundane. History helps confirm that, through the eras, the human-spirit prevails.

History connects us.  Events, tragic or momentous, have a way of uniting us in the most authentic way.  Every American remembers where they were when they heard the news of V –Day, Kennedy’s assassination, Neil Armstrong’s moon landing, September 11, 2001.  These events galvanize and connect us.  They prompt us to tell our own oral histories and enlighten the common journey of the human spirit.

As an observer, you will be tempted to find meaning in the words and images presented to you during this performance.  As in life, the meaning that emerges for you is one of your own making— based on education, emotion and experience. Regardless of the propaganda presented here, the only meaning truly intended is that “America is what YOU make of it.”

As with all EbzB Productions, it is my hope that this performance will celebrate the triumph of the human spirit; and inspire ongoing discussions that connect and unify us.  United We Stand!

- Serena Ebhardt

Olympia Junior Programs: The Wrights of Passage

Stephen Wall and David zum Brunnen in EbzB's THE WRIGHTS OF PASSAGE. Olympia, Washington.

Wrights of Passage in Olympia, WA