OUR VISION
To advance the level of theatre arts in Colorado.
OUR MISSION
To provide students and professional theatre artists with training rooted in graduate-level curriculum, taught by theatre professionals; and to integrate this training into the development of new inter-media performance work that focuses on the social and human issues of our time.
Season 16: A Note From Our Artistic Director
Each season we begin with something I have called The Certificate Program. This is a series of classes that emulate first and second year graduate study. We begin with a deep dive into the Five Questions, originally articulated and taught by Earle Gister at the Yale School of Drama from 1980-1999. Then we continue with Chekhov, Ibsen and Strindberg; three playwrights that revolutionized writing in the theatre and created a style of work that we have come to call “Realism”.
This year we will also be including a class and workshops that we now refer to as “Devised Work”. This kind of writing and creative process in theatre is parallel to documentary in film. Over the last few years we have researched, done interviews and eventually created a performance piece called American Addict, whose mission is to help remove the stigma of addiction. This season our first devised class and eventual performance work has a working title of The Grief Project. We will interview individuals and families who have lost loved ones in traumatic experiences and explore how we as a community and society process grief and death. We hope to collaborate with The Donor Alliance on this project.
Our final class this fall will be All The World: Solo Shakespeare Projects. After initial study and articulation of scansion, acting poetry, language, character and “articulated thought” each actor will create a one-person performance piece.
Over the past 16 years I have continued to teach graduate level acting while also developing adaptations of classical work and completely original performance pieces. The principles of my own training and experience continue to be the foundation of Visionbox and I personally care very much about supporting the artists in our community by helping them get better and go where they want to go. At the same time, I would like to focus more on completely original work that comes out of our training and rehearsal process.
Actors and theatre artists who train together have the ability to create a common language and a deeper connection that allows a more profound and detailed process. I will always focus on process over product. And it is through an authentic and high level process that a great product will come. We are living in a time of so much disconnection and isolation. Theatre is a way for us to find connection and come together. As we explore and celebrate our differences today we begin to find what makes us the same.
- Jennifer McCray Rincon
Season 16 Classes and Productions
Projects in development for Season 16 are:
- The Grief Project
- American Addict
- The Othello Project: An adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello including contemporary scenes of domestic violence
- A Gypsy Journey by El Javi and Jennifer Rincon: A Mexican Immigrant’s Story of coming to the US
- Seeking Charlie Russell by Bill Pullman
- The Wild Hunt by Bill Pullman
Chekhov/Ibsen/Strindberg
September 8 - October 8
Performance October 8
Taught by Jennifer McCray Rincón
Devised Work
October 12 - November 12
Performance on October 12
Taught by Jennifer McCray Rincón
All The World: Solo Shakespeare Projects
November 16 - December 3
Performance on December 3
Taught by Jennifer McCray Rincón
Meet Our Founding Artistic Director
Jennifer McCray Rincón received her BA in Theatre Studies from Yale University and an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama. She was recipient of an NEA Directing Fellowship at Playwright’s Horizons in NYC and a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship in Bogota, Colombia. After many years in New York, Ms. Rincón came to Denver as the Head of Acting at the National Theatre Conservatory, where she remained from 1991 through 2008. At the DCPA Ms. Rincón taught acting in the 3-year MFA Acting program and directed over 100 productions including Equus, Othello, The Laramie Project, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, The 365 Project, Monte Carlo, and Expedition 6 by Bill Pullman. Locally, Ms. Rincón has directed for El Centro Su Teatro, Shadow Theatre, The Historic Old Elitches Theatre, and was Founding Artistic Director of the Lizard Head Theatre Company in Telluride.
Since founding Visionbox Studio Theatre in 2010 Jennifer McCray Rincón has taught acting to Denver student and professional actors in five week sequences culminating in performances. She has also developed and directed a number of workshops and productions for Visionbox including: The Wild Hunt by Bill Pullman, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley, Lydie Breeze by John Guare, After the Fall by Arthur Miller, 2xTENN by Tennessee Williams, A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas with William Youmans, The Othello Project, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, My Two Sisters, an adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters, and Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams.
Take a moment to listen to this inspiring short message from Bill Pullman on his collaboration with Jennifer and the team at Visionbox Studio.
Bill Pullman has film credits that span ninety features including - Independence Day, Spaceballs, Lost Highway, Casper, Sleepless in Seattle, and more.
Please consider supporting us in our Vision for the Advancing the Level of Theatre Arts here in the Denver area, and supporting this most important work.
Message from Co-Founder & Resident Artist
Actor Bill Pullman
Why Theatre Training Matters
"Like most theatre artists I knew from a very young age that theatre was going to be my life. We talk a lot in theatre about how theatre is a ‘calling,’ and to me what this means is that most young emerging artists know from a pretty young age that this is what they want to do with their lives. Everyone and everything will fight against it, but real artists ultimately are not influenced by what other people think. It’s a strange paradox that as artists we..."
We All Want To Be Part Of Something Bigger Than Ourselves
Are you a fellow lover and supporter of the arts? There are many more ways in which you can become an integral part of the preservation of, and more so the elevation of the visions of so many talented artists in your local communities.
One such way is by Peer-To-Peer campaigns. A peer-to-peer campaign is a fundraising approach where individuals or supporters of a cause (that's you!) are empowered to create their own fundraising pages or campaigns on behalf of a nonprofit organization or cause they support (that's us!).
What does this mean to you? By creating your own fundraising page, you can encourage others to give to our cause and maximize the support of our mission.
Visionbox Studio Theatre is 501(c)3 non-profit and all donations are fully tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.