There is no better place in the world to explore the intersection of art and science than in the heart of Italy. The region of Umbria, known colloquially as the “green heart of Italy,” is the ideal place to examine the convergence of two aspects of the human experience that are often mistakenly considered contradictory. Students will come to understand the harmony between the arts and sciences. By examining what cognitive neuroscience has revealed about the workings of the adolescent brain, we will work to develop the means to share our own stories. Through a series of games and exercises used in the creation of new theatrical work, we will explore the intersection of psychology and performance by collaborating with local professionals in theatre and neuroscience.
Day 1, Travel:
The intricate differences between how teenagers and adults travel and why it is important to acknowledge that both have value.
Sam's Perspective: It’s become very clear to me these past few days, that the adults in my life care so much, about everything, and I absolutely do not care except to do the bare minimum of things which will take me from Point A to Point B.
This may be telling of my character in particular, but ignoring that, I also think it speaks to how teenagers and adults relate to other people differently— or, at least the adults I’m surrounded with.
But here’s a vague and unsubstantiated theory: my parents sent me upwards of nine articles on how to dress in Italy, and how cultural expectations differ, which was very kind and loving of them, and I did not read a single one. My teachers are informed of the things that our wardrobes need to be capable of doing in Italy. My logic is, it’s not exactly like I have to seem like a respectable individual anyway. I’m 19, but I’m not doing anything here. If the car breaks down and we have to beg for gasoline on the side of the road, well, I’m probably not going to be the one out there trying to flag someone down, am I? I don’t put much thought into the pathos (so to say) of how I present myself, because it doesn’t truly matter in these circumstances. It doesn’t feel like it does, at least.
If someone were relying on me I’d probably feel obligated to assume the role of someone that I think would be more likely to be listened to and taken seriously, by both the terrible, terrible American children I’m taking care of and by locals. Or even if I was traveling solo, I’d be more inclined to act as a representative of myself instead of just as myself. Well, I don’t know how my teachers or parents feel, but really the only place I need to belong with here is with other students. Anyway, that’s all I have to say, I guess.
MC's Perspective: The best thing about reading Sam's reaction to this prompt is that Mx. E-K and I successfully managed to convince the students that we had everything under control. While months of planning went into this trip, the night before we left I spent playing through the million possible things that could go wrong. And, while we do want the trip to be fun, informative, and inspiring for our students, most of all we want to get them to Italy and back safely. Maintaining your cool when you hit a snag and there is a problem with your rental car situation or when a student innocently heads off to the restroom without telling anyone, is very tough. The students don't necessarily understand that while you are thrilled they are excited to be in Italy, you sure do wish you hadn't missed your exit because your assigned student navigator was belting Mama Mia. So, yeah, it's great that Sam's perception was that Mx. E-K had everything under control because, frankly, traveling with teenagers is stressful. I look forward to examining the ways in which we differ over the course of the next week and maybe, just maybe, gaining a new perspective about the adults with whom I interacted when I was a teenager.
Day 2, Stretching Ourselves:
What is devising? What insights can we gain about adolescent cognition to create authentic teen characters on stage? How do we acquire those insights?
Emily’s Perspective:
Today in the studio, we worked through several activities that helped us observe our own authentic expression. MC introduced us to a movement-based exercise in which we tried to craft a narrative by creating and filling negative space. Later with Valentina, we practiced self-observation by paying attention to how we respond to stimuli, such as a friend calling our name. This work of trying to better understand ourselves and our peers will inform the way we create and act teenage characters, knowing what an authentic reaction looks like for ourselves, and understanding that no two people (or characters) will be exactly the same in the way we respond to various situations.
Mx. E-K’s Perspective:
The process of ‘generative’ work or ‘devising’ a piece for performance often begins by looking inward and bringing one’s experience to the surface for others to connect with. I was inspired today by the collective effort put forth by our students. They fearlessly jumped into physical exercises and discussed their various viewpoints with one another, regarding empathy, humanity, and their relationships with the world. It’s exciting to see this creative process blossom on such fruitful ground. Between the idyllic countryside the villa is housed in, the magical light filtering through the studio windows, and the electric Italian weather (one moment the birds are singing and the next a rolling thunderstorm shifts the energy), it feels like the beginnings of a truly memorable collaborative experience. Students are writing, photographing, moving, and speaking their truths openly, and I’m excited to see what they will produce.
Highlights of the Day:
-We worked in the beautiful studio on the site of the villa where we are staying. The weather was crazy as the sun in the morning quickly transitioned to a big thunderstorm and then back to sun.
-Mr. Cahoon, Mx. E-K, and our local expert Valentina led workshops on various aspects of theatre creation and applied those techniques to our everyday lives.
-Ashley and Alycia made lunch for the group bringing the time-honored New Hampton School tradition of grilled cheese day to the Italian countryside.
-After lunch we watched a Ted Talk by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, the cognitive neuroscientist who worked with Company Three to develop the playscript for Brainstorm. After discussing our reactions to that talk, Ashley performed a beautiful monologue from the play.
-Our plans to go to Cascata Marmore (a large waterfall nearby) were dashed by the wet and cold weather so we decided to head to the largest city in Umbria, Perguia.
-Perugia is a beautiful and very old city with roots in the Etruscan period. We saw parts of the Etruscan wall and beautiful architecture. We did some shopping and had a fabulous dinner of Umbrian specialties.
-During the ride back to the villa a riotous 2010’s dance party broke out in the back of our van!
Day 3, flow:
Describe living with your collaborators. What is the work process? What strategies can be employed in theater to unlock empathy and understanding through an exploration of the adolescent brain?
Moriah’s Perspective: Living with the collaborators on this trip has been a new experience for everyone. For those of us who usually spend hours a day together in the theater, it gives us time to get to know other aspects of each other outside of the creative space. Activities like morning stretching and the tired crazy post dinner car parties give very drastic pieces of each person’s character. As we find ourselves in the middle of the trip, my room, made up of Emily H, Ashley H, Laura L, is made up of a group of students you would usually find together. However, the thin walls of our villa make the conversations through walls to other rooms a funny way to connect with students we may not have known before.
The collaboration out of the creative space helps us to feel more comfortable working with others in the space, overall enhancing the engagement. The work process of collaborating was expressed today with our workshop of letting the energy fields of people exist and see where different pairings of people led our emotions and how we acted, helping us further understand how exactly to best portray similar relationships when acting. When exploring the teenage brain and how it works, we’ve used multiple activities and strategies to understand more. Yesterday we worked both independently and collaboratively by getting in touch with our own emotions and how to channel certain aspects of the world around us to enhance them. We collaborated on a writing activity that involved writing out statements that were about ourselves and traded them and used each other’s experiences and thoughts to create new stories and emotions.
Today we focused on collaborating in the space and allowing our bodies to react authentically without the bias of our prior knowledge of people, a good skill for actors to have. After working in the space, we went out to lunch and took a trip to Cascata delle Marmore, a human made waterfall. These experiences help us to gain empathy and understanding of fellow teenagers while allowing outside contributors to analyze these behaviors for study and understanding. Overall, this week we have learned how collaborating in a creative space and outside a creative space changes the way we interact with those each other, whether we knew them prior to this trip or not.
MC’s Perspective: The first time I came to Spoleto was in 2013 when I received a grant to attend the International Symposium of Directors at La MaMa Umbria. While there, I met a group of theatre artists from around the world and we lived and worked together for multiple weeks in an idyllic Italian villa. When designing this project with Mx. E-K, I hoped to reproduce some of the magic I felt the last time I was living and training here in Spoleto. That is part of why I wanted to invite my dear friend and collaborator, Valentina Lattuada, to come work with our students. Seeing them benefit from her amazing work while also getting to experience all the beauty and majesty of this part of the world has been an amazing experience for me.
As a theatre artist, I was so inspired by today’s work. We spent the morning talking about how the four elements exist within our bodies and how we can tap into those elements when it comes to building characters for the stage. Doing that work in the studio and then going to Cascata delle Marmore to see and experience the elements out in the natural world built fabulous connections in my brain. Climbing the 600 stairs to the top of that huge waterfall provided an authentic encounter with the elements: feeling the spray of the falls, feeling the heat rise in me as my heart pounded, feeling my feet press into the earth on the ascent, and then mercifully and gloriously feeling the air fill my lungs as we reached the summit and stood level with an amazing rainbow. Truthfully, the day at the falls provided the full group with a tremendous sense of accomplishment and formed bonds through this once-in-a-lifetime shared experience.
Day 4, Activation:
How can we translate the findings of cognitive neuroscience into compelling theatre performances, from synaptic processes to scenes? What methods of generative work can be employed to cultivate or reflect genuine teenage experiences on stage?
Laura's perspective: We can translate the findings of cognitive neuroscience into compelling performances through observing the most basic of instincts and processes within the brain and transferring them onto an actors body language. For example, within the studio on Wednesday, we watched what happens when a person hears their name called from behind them. In this observation, we saw numerous tiny movements and changes in breath all within the span of a few brief moments. The movements observed illustrate the mental activity during a reaction to a stimulus, and without them the acting is not nearly as compelling. We used these findings to add to our acting and make it as realistic as possible. It’s all in the observation and transfer of information, and this spreads to teenage brains as well. Through observing the processes and reactions to stimuli of teenagers, we can effectively create teenage experiences as compelling scenes on the stage.
Mx. E-K's perspective: I am frequently surprised and delighted by the way my students brains find connections. Laughing over dinner at puns while telling each other the story of our names is one such occasion. A simple act of storytelling becomes a saga of personality and before we know it, all involved are crying with laughter, clutching their chests, declaring this evening to be the best evening of their lives. Wishes in Trevi Fountain become reality as they all plan their next adventures under the shadow of the moonlit Colosseum.
Real teenagers are joyful, messy, brilliant stars filled with infectious energy. You can’t help but laugh along and forget, for just a moment, how much your feet, lower back, and hips hurt from the ancient cobblestone of the Eternal City.
The answer lies in just getting them to talk to one another. Whatever trick or game employed to get them to forget for a second that they are outside their comfort zones, the answer is always conversation. They seek to understand, to know, to share. And I’m just so happy to have the immense privilege to walk beside them as they giggle in fits, pontificate, and confide in one another.
Day 5, Community and Connection:
How can we bridge the gap between science and art? What is one moment of connection that you formed during this trip? What made an impact on you? On others? How has this project ignited your curiosity?
Ashley’s Perspective: Last night, we visited the Museo Leonardo da Vinci Experience, which was basically an interactive Leonardo da Vinci museum. In my opinion, the best part was trying to understand exactly how a man from so long ago was able to create inventions (such as the ball bearing) that have become so integral to our modern technology, but also how this same man made some of the most famous paintings in the world. As a physics student and an artist, finding the intersection between the two was one of the highlights of the experience.
On Friday, Mx. E-K, Ariela, and I went to a poke bowl restaurant. The amount of salt we needed to add to our food was, oddly enough, a bonding experience for us. We talked about psychology, mental health (and how it is treated in Mexico), and why salt in food is delicious.
Mr. Cahoon’s perspective: For several years now, I have researched, written, and practiced experiential learning, but I don’t think I knew its real power until this trip. Seeing a group of students in the crucible that is international travel was incredibly inspiring to me as an educator. In experiential learning we ask that students apply skills in real world settings and then reflect on how they performed. For the past week, I have watched students navigate major airports, exchange currency, communicate with non-English speakers, traverse a large foreign city, juggle interpersonal dynamics under stressful conditions, and so much more. And all of that before even working on our actual project. The opportunities for reflection were ever present as we shared meals, car rides, or long walks through Rome. While we often struggle with how best to reinforce the importance of global citizenship (one of New Hampton’s chosen universal skills), without question international travel during project week provides our students with invaluable skills that will make them more confident travelers, more competent communicators, and more empathetic humans. I am so proud of the 12 students (and my partner in crime, Mx. E-K) with whom I have spent the past week. We all faced moments of discomfort and we all pushed ourselves to learn and grow. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
What was your moment of connection?
Cole: Although there is not a singular specific moment that I can pull out, there were literally probably a hundred small ones which were special, such as for example me meeting new people and making my new friends.
Keya: I got much closer with my advisory. I also met a whole new set of people who I have seen around school but never bother speaking to.
Moriah: A moment of connection I had during the trip was when we were out in Rome walking and laughing and getting to know the people on the trip I didn't know, and letting
Laura: It was cool to see dynamic changes over the course of the trip. For example, Sam and I got to be good friends during this week, and previously we hadn’t talked all that much. The Colosseum had a huge impact on me. I cried. It’s truly a marvel of engineering and a great example of what people can accomplish.
3 Days Later...
Last night the first "I miss Italy" text came in from one of the students who went on the trip. It read simply, "Oh how I would kill for some gelato right now, this is awful." While the sorrow over not being able to pop out at 10pm for an amazing Italian dessert will fade, I know that many parts of our experience together will endure. While in Italy, one of the students said to me, "the best part of school trips is when you stay up late in your hotel room talking." I laughed and wondered aloud why one would have to go 4000 miles to have a sleepover with friends from school, but after I thought about it, I understood that the magic of those conversations in the dark after a long day trekking around Rome really came from the fact that this group was experiencing something together for the first time. They found themselves outside their comfort zones and that made them treasure more their relationships with the familiar. I hope that our trip engendered in at least some of these students a lifelong thirst for international adventure, but even more than that, I hope that they learned the value of simple moments with each other: a stifled laugh after lights out, the face a friend makes when she tries a new food for the first time, hugs slightly tighter than before because of this shared experience, and so on and so on. Maybe the best way to carry ourselves as global citizens is to acknowledge the universality of the human experience. Not by getting on a plane, train, or boat, but by being authentically ourselves in the presence of others. That's what resonates with me today as I reflect on our time together last week. -MC