MDC News

New World School of the Arts high school theatre students take to the stage with Adam Szymkowicz’s poignant play, Kodachrome, under the direction of NWSA Dean of Theater, Alan Patrick Kenny. In Colchester, a small town where everybody knows each other and the pace of life allows the pursuit of love to take up as much space as it needs. The tour guide is Suzanne, the town photographer, who lets the audience peek into her neighbors’ lives to catch glimpses of romance in all its stages of development. This life-affirming play is a story of love, community, nostalgia, the seasons, and how we learn to say goodbye.
 
The 2024-2025 NWSA theatre mainstage season honoree for contributions to the South Florida theatre scene will be Bari Newport, Producing Artistic Director of GableStage. Newport joined GableStage in April 2021. She came to Miami from the Penobscot Theatre Company in Bangor, Maine, where she served as artistic director for nine seasons. Previously, she was artistic associate at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, artistic associate/literary manager at the Pasadena Playhouse, associate producer at Horizon Theatre and associate director of Florida Repertory Theatre. As a producer, Newport has been responsible for the creation and stabilization of a wide range of artistic initiatives, including extensive work in new play development, education and community engagement.
 
In his Director’s Notes, Kenny explains Szymkowicz’ riff on Thornton Wilder’s seminal classic play Our Town. “In his tale, Szymkowicz adds a lens filter, and centers a photographer character – a seer, an interpreter, a person whose role in the community is to capture and frame moments of life, to give the story a specific perspective that enlarges its emotional power. When we can no longer do, we watch others do, and by caring and living vicariously through others doing, we can end up experiencing all their feels, as well as our own. ‘Does anyone ever realize life while they live it…every, every minute?’ (Wilder).”
 
Several of the 15-cast members set to bring Kodachrome to the stage, discuss the director’s perspective and goals as it refers to this play: “APK [Alan Patrick Kenny] really helps us find the lighter moments of this play, and he’s pushing us to go to these great emotional depths. He really helps us to think of it in our reality, like he helps us to translate it from the play to our lives, so we understand what’s going on,” says Celia Voges, high school senior in musical theatre.
 
Miranda Souki, also a high school senior in musical theatre, highlights, “Kodachrome is a collection of scenes from the most significant moments in people’s lives, told by someone who will never experience one of those moments. He [Kenny] is bit by bit creating a safe space where all the cast members are held to a specific standard with text work and preparation while embracing humor. Every day I feel more comfortable in the space and in the play. I think he’s been very open and vulnerable and professional with us, and that means I feel I have a safe space where I can do things. I think this role and preparation for this role taught me two things: first, it’s never about you; it’s always about the work and about the people you’re on stage with. Second, you have to spend so much time by yourself and being by yourself because the artist grows in solitude.”
 
Meanwhile, Andre Cardona, a high school senior in acting explains, “as a student playing the gravedigger, it’s okay to not act how I’m expected to act because I’ve been put in a box. I feel like this character is so far away from me in some ways. I have to learn how to be comfortable with someone who’s my polar opposite and trust that it’s going to be fine. I think he [Kenny] wants to create a piece of art that’s relatable and moves the audience. His direction, notes, and choice stem from that meaning to connect and tell a story that is human and universal. To learn that we must know how to put ourselves through hard situations that we haven’t experienced, like my character of 44 or 45 years, which is not in my age range, and he’s lived a whole life. So, I think what APK wants to do is teach us how to have that intrinsic empathy as actors and put ourselves in those different circumstances.”
 
Acting and musical theatre students at NWSA hone their craft through acting technique, movement, and speech classes, focusing on fundamentals of physical and emotional preparation. With performance at its core, training is based on the classical texts and the principles of drama as well as practical incursions into the contemporary and experimental edges of theatre. Consequently, alumni are found performing onstage nationally and internationally and their talent and vision are recognized and highly regarded in the industry. 2024-2025 Theatre Season Scheduled Events.
 
New World School of the Arts was created by the Florida Legislature as a center of excellence in the performing and visual arts. It is an educational partnership of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami Dade College, and the University of Florida.
 
For information about New World School of the Arts please call 305-237-3541.
 
Photo ID: Miranda Souki as the photographer, with the cast of Kodachrome. 
Photo credit: Nashalie Delacruz