TABC’s Drama Club is no longer working with Black Box Studios and has instead teamed up with Envision Theater, run by a very ambitious Rebecca Lopkin, for the upcoming school year.
TABC, like many schools of its nature, offers its students many extracurricular activities, clubs, and teams, which, according to the their website, serve as a way to “Provide a valuable opportunity for each student to discover his passions and uncover hidden talents while also learning how to successfully work as part of a larger team,” . Included in the multitude of clubs is the drama club, for aspiring actors. The drama club has been working with Black Box Studios, a Teaneck based theater company. This year, however, the drama club will not be working with Black Box and will instead be teaming up with Envision Theater, founded and run by Rebecca Lopkin.
The BBS-TABC team was initiated by Rabbi Kahn, former Dean of Student Life at TABC, with Matt Okin, artistic director and founder of Black Box Studios. The Drama Club was very successful while working with Black Box, performing numerous shows, some of which have been featured in The Jewish Link. Black Box provided the club with professional directors, most recently Frank Avellino who directed all shows from Fall 2014-Spring 2016. BBS also provided necessary props, costume pieces, lighting and sound equipment, and brilliant sets, most notably, in my opinion, the red convertible from “The Holy Ghostly” (performed in the fall semester of 2014-15 school year). As the collaboration was initiated by Rabbi Kahn, his leaving TABC is probably related to the end of the BBS companionship
The Envision Theater, an “Educational Theater Company whose goal is to provide quality, original and interactive theater workshops and productions for children of all ages,” is taking over the role of managing the theater department at TABC. Rebecca Lopkin, according to the mini biography on the website is a professional theater arts educator for over 17 years. She is also the co-founder of the ‘Envision Shakespeare’ competitions with TABC’s own Mrs. Edelman. Envision Shakespeare is a yearly competition, designed for Yeshivah High Schools in the tri-state area, in which participating schools compete in performances of select Shakespeare plays. TABC has won awards in numerous categories while participating in this competition.
Ms. Lopkin was in school on Thursday, September 16th to talk to students about joining the club for both acting and non-acting positions. I asked her, after signing up for an acting role, if she knew why TABC had switched from Black Box to Envision Theater, her company. She replied that it was because “We’re Better.” Choosing my words carefully, I told her that that was quite confident. She responded, very assertively, by telling me that “I’m a confident person.” Having a high self esteem is certainly a positive trait but this was quite extreme. She claimed she was superior to Black Box, a surprising statement considering she starred in Black Box’s musical production of Into the Woods as the Witch, several years ago.
This isn’t the only indication of the ambition of Lopkin and the new company. This year, advertising for the club was increased with numerous emails, announcements over the PA system and after davening every morning, a booth at lunch to lure people to join, and, perhaps most effectively, giving out donuts to those who signed up. Additionally, Lopkin was offering and promulgating non-acting positions, including stage managers, and people to assist with lighting, sound, costumes, ushers, etc. While working with BBS, such positions were always available and both TABC and BBS would have loved for our students to fill those roles. However, these available roles were not always as heavily advertised and were thus usually filled with BBS staff, who dutifully enhanced the plays.
Aside from the two plays a year (one each semester), Lopkin plans on initiating several new components to the drama club. For this year she plans on adding an “educational component” to the fall show- performing for middle schoolers with a talk-back to the actors afterwards. Additionally Lopkin wants to take the drama club on theater field trips and charter a TABC chapter of the International Theater Society (ITS), a worldwide drama society founded in 1929 which recognizes the theatrical achievements of students. The plans for next school year (2017-18) are even more ambitious and include establishment of an improv club, creation of a travelling troupe of actors to perform in local middle school, libraries, community centers and retirement homes, a night of One-Acts directed by students, possibly as a fundraiser and other club offerings including (but not limited to): Playwriting, broadcast journalism, and a theater tech course.
These plans are certainly nice in theory but in practice they may be overly ambitious. The Drama Club has a relatively low popularity amongst the student body and is one of the smallest clubs offered by TABC. There will most likely not be enough students participating in the program for these new proposals to achieve success. The new ideas, to be introduced this year and next year, will mostly likely not work out. Long time drama club members can tell of students leaving the club mere weeks before performances, for a number of reasons. It's already a small club and with a participant level that, for the past several years, has dwindled as the year goes on, expanding will not be easy.
This lack of interest in theater is unfortunate because theater has been proven to improve reading comprehension, communication skills, human understanding, and empathy. Additionally, drama has academic benefits with student involved in theater outscoring non-arts students on the 2005 SAT by an average of 65 points on verbal components and 34 points on the math section. Also a 2005 Harris Poll revealed that 93% of the public believes that arts, including theatre, are vital to a well-rounded education.
The theatrical arts need boosting and hopefully Ms. Lopkin can provide that, but one must be careful for her plans may be too zealous. On the other hand, the enthusiasm probably won’t hurt the club, even if it may be in vain.