All the World's a Stage, Including Central Park for this Acting Class

Howard Meyer loves a challenge. His readiness to tackle difficult issues of social and psychological import is like a high-voltage current that runs through the 20 full-length and one-act plays that the veteran playwright and acting teacher has produced over the past 20 years. It has earned him plaudits from theater icons such as Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss), Athol Fugard (Master Harold and the Boys) and John Leonard Pilmeier (Agnes of God).

Now Meyer, a resident of Woodstock (N.Y.), who runs his own acting school in Westchester County (Howard Meyer Acting; hmacting.org), and commutes to Manhattan weekly to teach an acting class at the famed Michael Howard Studios, is embracing a different sort of theater challenge: finding a Covid-safe place -- beyond the confines of a Zoom screen -- to put Michael Howard conservatory students through their paces.

And he has found that performance space in the au naturel theatricality of Central Park.

On Sept. 17-19, at 5 p.m., that's where his students will perform in a workshop of six Meyer-authored theater pieces directed by him and Emma Denson. (Rain dates are Sept. 24-27.)

The theme that runs through the short pieces in Meyer's student workshop, which he has titled "Where the Light Gets In," is "Human relationships that in some way have a fissure in the past, or a present secret. It's about people trying to work out whether they reconnect or not, and on what level."

Meyer's 10 students in the advanced acting program, who form the Central Park cast, range in age from 20s to late 30s, and hail from all over the world -- including Singapore, England, and Germany, as well as California, Canada, the South, Westchester and Brooklyn.

Meyer himself was an acting student of the late Michael Howard, in the early 1990s. "Michael was an old theater warhorse," says Meyer. "He was the first artistic director at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, was an acting teacher at Yale, and took roles as an actor in several movies."

Michael Howard's eponymous acting school has been owned the past 15 or so years by Gabrielle Berberich, who brought with her a rich resume in the Los Angeles world of film, TV and commercials.

Out of respect (and appreciation) for Meyer's alumnus status at the school, Berberich offered him valuable rehearsal space for his recent project, Paint Made Flesh, and the two summarily hit it off. That led to her asking Meyer to teach acting and scene study at her school.

Meyer admires greatly what Berberich has done to enlarge and enliven Michael Howard Studios, which now features multi-disciplinary classes in film, TV, stand-up comedy, voiceover, scripting, and more.

"It's the first time I saw a New York-based person with a studio really helping students have a career after their studies," Meyer says. "Not only is the training top-notch. But there's also this connection to the school long after people graduate. Many of them have gotten jobs."

Meyer says the biggest challenges to staging al fresco plays, where there's no stage other than the native habitat, include dealing with natural light, weather, and ambient noise that could impinge on the actors' speaking volume, making vocal projection even more a critical consideration than normal.

"All of us have gotten comfortable in our theaters, with all their bells and whistles, and lighting and chairs." says Meyer, "This is taking us out of our comfort zone, asking us to be inventive. Just to be back in person doing theater again feels like such a gift after being on computers for a year or more.

"Lots of theater groups are using this moment to retool," he continues. "This is a wonderful bridge to keep it going until it can be resumed with more normalcy."

Michael Howard Studios' nine-month "hybrid conservatory" that Meyer currently is teaching began March 2021 on Zoom and in May added in-person sessions (hence the "hybrid" designation).

For the upcoming workshop, Meyer scoped out a parcel of land in Central Park on the upper west side, near 81st Street, that lends itself to this form of theater. He calls it an "interesting portion of lawn surrounded by walkways, with levels of rocks and low ground. We'll perform in different parts of the area so audience will have to move to follow the action."

The seasoned dramatist and instructor sounds as excited as a kid in a sandbox when he talks about the Central Park event. "I love that we're doing this in a non-traditional way. It's reviving the guerilla spirit. Getting back to our roots."

After his Central Park project, Howard Meyer will continue his explorations in returning to theater's historical roots. He's directing a show in Woodstock that will be performed in the back of a pickup truck, which will roll into farmers markets and put on a blend of sketches, music, and jokes, not unlike the minstrels of yore. "It feels like the origins of Western theater," Meyer notes, "where players arrive in town and set up in the town square and perform."

Like the Bard said, from parks to pickup trucks, "All the world's a stage."

Here is the lineup of Howard Meyer theater works to be performed by his students from Michael Howard Studios on Sept. 17-19 at 5 p.m. in Central Park near West 81st Street. For further details, contact info@michaelhowardstudios.com.

Where the Light Gets In (workshop title)
by Howard Meyer

Ten (one act)

An hour before Gail and Stephen's 10-year wedding anniversary celebration, Gail's estranged sister Karen unexpectedly arrives to reveal a secret that she is hoping will heal the decade-long wound between them.

Featuring Morgan Fears, Eve Cuccaro and Tom Ryan

Three (one act)

In this dramedy, Karl and Stacey meet at their favorite bar to discuss the possibility of getting back together. Hanging in the balance is the question of having a child.
Featuring Eve Cuccaro, Mats Ahlvik and Morgan Fears

Raising The Ground, Lowering The Sky (excerpt) premiere (never performed before)

The marriage of two young soulmates is put under severe pressure when a diagnosis of mental illness intrudes upon their lives.

Featuring Emma Denson and Michael M. Alva

Paint Made Flesh (excerpt)

Dylan, an uber-successful performance artist, comes down to Washington, D.C. to reclaim Willa, who has fled the artistic pressures of New York City and Dylan's hugely successful career.

Featuring Violet Majendie and Allegra Venturi

Maybe Never Fell (excerpt)

Max, a middle-age Jewish man, falls in love with young German Mattie on a romantic adventure in Nepal. An unexpected pregnancy forces the couple to grapple with the German/Jewish legacy jeapordizing their future.

Featuring Malena Hager and Tom Ryan

Capture (excerpt)

Impacted by their father's high-profile literary life and his blacklisting during the McCarthy era, Malcolm and Sara are forced to face the demons of their individual and familial pasts.

Featuring Marisa Lowe and Mats Ahlvik