• 2009 Summer Journalism Workshop
Television producer describes her career, offers advice after students see preview of ‘The Good Wife’
Brooke Kennedy is the producer of the CBS tv show 'The Good Wife' and has produced such hits such as 'My So Called Life' and 'Fringe'. Photo/Rebecca Castillo
by Carolyn Lipp
Producing television shows can be risky, but according to Brooke Kennedy, the process has tremendous rewards.
Kennedy, the executive producer of shows including “Pushing Daisies” and “Fringe,” presented a preview of her newest series, “The Good Wife,” and talked with students Thursday,June 25, the last evening of the workshop.
“The Good Wife” stars Julianna Margulis as a wife and mother who assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband’s political and sex scandal lands him in jail, according to a release from CBS.
Margulies plays Alicia Florrick, who starts over by pursuing her original career as a defense attorney. She works in a Chicago law firm where she finds that she can prove herself.
Kennedy’s other television shows have covered subjects ranging from the lives of teen-agers in “My So-Called Life” to FBI members in “Fringe.”
‘Everybody has a story.’
“Everybody has a story,” she said, addressing students in the workshop. “A lot of the joy is getting to the other side.”
Kennedy covered topics ranging from writing procedurals to throwing people out of windows—safely, of course.
Born and brought up in Manhattan, Kennedy said she always knew that she wanted to be in the television business, yet unlike most of her fellow producers she did not attend college.
“For me, it was a good decision,” she said. “Had I known what I know now, maybe I would have tried.”
Brooke Kennedy, producer of CBS' tv show 'The Good Wife' speaks to student delegates of the 2009 Summer Journalism Workshop. Photo/Rebecca Castillo
‘You have to listen to your inner voice.’
“You have to listen to your inner voice, not just a whim,” she said.
Kennedy’s decision proved to suit her needs. After high school, she became a photographer for Disco magazine.
But she said her eyes were still on film. Her first opportunity happened with the 1979 movie, “Kramer vs. Kramer.”
Opportunities continued to arise as Kennedy gradually rose through the ranks.
“I kept badgering people,” she said. “If you are good, you will not believe how quickly it opens up to you.”
Kennedy said she still feels the thrill of the production process.
“Eighty people show up every day and somehow know what to do,” she said. “It’s like walking into a room that has nothing and at the end of the day you have a television show.”
Yet being a producer has its own stresses and constraints.
‘You have to be creative but also pragmatic.’
“To work in the television industry, you have to be very creative but also pragmatic and economically practical,” she said.
Kennedy said the recession has placed tighter financial constraints on her television shows.
“I’ve taken a pay cut,” she said.
But she said that the “journey keeps going, and it’s been a lot of fun.”
Carolyn Lipp is the editor in chief of Science Survey, the newspaper of the Bronx High School of Science in Bronx, N.Y.
Cast members from the Broadway show 'In the Heights' answer questions from delegates from the 2009 Summer Journalism Workshop. Photo/Rebecca Castillo
News conference follows performance of In the Heights
CSPA Summer Workshop members wrote about the insights they gained from seeing a Broadway musical and talking with cast members at the Richard Rodgers Theatre right after the Tuesday evening, June 23 performance.
Live musical theatre presents reportorial challenges
by Lucy Cobbs
Because of the transient nature of live musical theatre, reporting on a show like In the Heights is extremely useful to school journalists.
Primarily, the reporting poses the challenge of harnessing the energy and emotion from a brief show and putting them into coherent, knowledgeable prose.
Reviewing a musical tests a school journalist’s preparation and willingness to dive into a subject.
To successfully review a musical, a reporter must understand its context and all the factors, seen and unseen, that contribute to the production. The reporter must become, in effect, an expert.
The reporter should know the show’s genre, the background of the script, who wrote the script and the kind of a show it aims to be.
Also, although covering musical theatre is clearly different from covering news and sports, they share some important qualities.
A school journalist should interview people with all different contributing roles, from techie to lead actor, stats keeper to high-scorer.
Also, it is crucial to monitor the reactions of the audience and the spectators.
For both theatre and sports, a reporter should take copious notes and make an effort to talk to key actors or players. In fact, plays and games actually share a good deal. One has a cast, the other has a team, and both are results of much behind-the-scenes effort and practice.
In writing about In the Heights, CSPA reporters experienced a true journalistic challenge.
Lucy Cobb is an editor of The Scroll at Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Mass.
Why a school newspaper journalist can especially appreciate In the Heights
by Joseph Yagoda
At the end of their performance, actors from In the Heights came back on stage to thunderous applause and bowed to an amazed crowd.
As I looked around me, I saw stunned faces. I turned around for a brief moment and saw a familiar look on the face of the woman sitting behind me.
She had clearly been affected by the production, and I realized that I had seen the same type of expression before. The look is present after anyone feels touched by a production, and the last time I saw that exact look was after a classmate read an editorial that outlined problems in a school.
Just as musicals include high notes and set pieces to stir emotional reaction from their audiences, newspapers try to achieve a similar result.
I began to think about the similarities between newspapers and musicals.
Communication that affects lives
What a newspaper covers is often dictated by the situations present in the community.
News articles tell the readers of information that is crucial to their lives. Editorials deal with problems the readership is facing.
In a school, topics such as grades and stress stir emotional reaction because readers are very familiar with the problems.
While newspapers include non-fictional coverage of issues, musicals may use facts within fictional pieces to elucidate experiences in their creators’ communities.
In the Heights, for example, is set against the increasing rents and subsequent cultural loss present in Washington Heights. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who conceived the show and wrote the music and lyrics, attempts to reflect the immigrant experience, which is quite universal.
Credibility
For a production to get its message across, writers need to demonstrate their knowledge about the subject matter.
In newspapers, writers use facts to show their credibility. The best logical arguments result from thorough reporting. In a musical, songs that reflect the culture on which the musical is based add to the complete experience.
According to Christopher Jackson, who plays Benny, “If you walk up to Washington Heights today, you will hear literally every version of music in this show.”
Also, while musicals do not include photography, set pieces can help create a somewhat realistic portrayal of an area. The subway stop on the stage gave viewers an immediate context for Miranda’s writing.
Training that leads to proficiency
Further, members of both newspaper staffs and musicals go through training to become proficient.
Editors have writers do new drafts and correct their own errors so that they can eventually learn the proper way to cover stories. This practice leads to a set of experienced, capable writers who can cover the most important stories. When readers see the stories, however, they do not see all of the edits that had to be done and the lessons the writers have learned.
A director works with actors as well to ensure that they portray the characters in accord with the director’s vision. Acting classes, singing lessons and years of theatre school often go into producing a great actor.
Jackson explained that replacements for the role of Usnavi were “groomed” by the original actor to conform to the proper way of performing the role.
No one in the applauding crowd at the Richard Rogers Theatre saw all the work the actors had done to remember their lines and all the changes made to those lines in later rehearsals. In both the newspaper and musicals the audience sees only the finished product.
Effective dialogue is necessary in newspapers and musicals. For a news publication, articles containing dialogue offer the reader a firsthand account of information.
Effective dialogue
Members of the cast from the Broadway show 'In the Heights answer questions from participants of CSPA's Summer Journalism Workshop in 2009. Photo/Rebecca Castillo
In musicals, dialogue plays a slightly different role. Dialogue is not used to inform as much as it is used to help develop characters and setting.
Characters in In the Heights speak in both Spanish and English to show the mix between two cultures. The believability of the dialogue adds to the universality of the message and helps the audience connect with the actors onstage.
After the applause ended, I thought about all the parts that go into making a musical and I realized that I only gave direct recognition to a small piece of the entire production.
There were stage managers, make-up artists, writers, producers, promoters and set designers whose work was essential to my enjoyment of the production. Yet rarely do these people get credit for their work from the audiences.
I realized that this sad fact is true for the newspapers. Like the actors who seem to get all the applause, the featured writers are the ones who get the buzz in the halls.
While you always hear, “Did you read her article?” you never hear “Did you see that news layout? It was amazing!”
People forget that those behind the scenes often do the most work to create the final product.
At least all of us can smile knowing that the recognition of others was not possible without our assistance.
Joseph Yagoda is editor in chief of The Southerner, Great Neck South’s newspaper, located in Great Neck, N.Y.
Cast members say they relate to show’s themes
by Susannah Griffee
Christopher Jackson said he identifies with his character, Benny the car company employee.
“This is the first show that I’ve ever heard, done, been a part of that I felt I could literally be myself walking in off the street,” Jackson said.
The power of the play’s punch stems not from theatrics but from realism in the exuberance emanating from the stage and the universal reaction to the play’s themes of community and progress.
In fact, Jackson said, “If you go up to Washington Heights on a hot summer day, you are going to hear every version of music that you heard today within five minutes just from every passing car.”
Jackson said the play holds a personal truth for every member of the audience.
‘Everybody comes from somewhere’
“Everybody comes from somewhere in this country, especially in New York,” he said. “Everybody comes from somewhere, and everyone has to adjust and sacrifice.”
CSPA Summer Workshop students from states spanning from Connecticut and across to California found that the play’s depiction of a community striving for the progress of future generations is a universal experience.
Commenting on the amount of energy it takes to portray a vibrant community night after night, Jackson said the audience fuels his performance.
Community plays a large role as well, said Rick Negron, who plays the role of an industrious immigrant father.
Sense of family and community pervasive
“The sense of family and community that are pervasive in the piece itself is really pervasive in backstage and in the cast,” he said.
Although Negron said the actors represent 27 ethnicities, he said that “those of us from Puerto Rico have an almost cellular connection with the music and some of the characters.”
This “cellular connection” of music invigorates the play, but community defines it and portrays the profound interactions of everyday life with moving realism.
As Luis Salgado, a dancer, said, “The music comes first and then the story is the second punch that gives you a knockout.”
The force behind In the Heights ultimately emerged when one student asked how the actors adjusted to the play’s narrative.
Salgado responded, “I feel like we just wanted to dive into a story like this.”
Susannah Griffee is editor of the Tatler, the newspaper of St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Memphis, Tenn.
Visual effects establish moods of production
by Clemence Kim
Slowly, the stage lightened in an orange tungsten that set the mood of the neighborhood at dawn.
Graffiti Pete (Seth Stewart) danced onto the street of Washington Heights.
The lighting gradually changed as the sun came up. The George Washington Bridge appeared in the background.
There were more vibrant, lively colors that woke the morning, bringing the people out to the streets.
The lighting effects darkened to create gloomy settings, but there were also cool and light colors to create a sense of hope.
Changes of lighting set the mood for each scene and seemed to affect the voices and the emotions of the actors.
According to Jon Rua, who played Usnavi, “The lighting definitely helps you set your emotions. You can feel the lighting and the color in the same way. It definitely increases your expression in the play.”
Throughout the show, the set did not change as much as one would expect in a Broadway musical. However, subtle changes added to the visual effects as the colors changed, changing the reflection of the lighting upon the buildings.
The most interesting visual effects were during the club scene, which was full of hatred and jealousy after agonizing events. The scene was full of red, which expressed strong emotions. But a blackout cleared all colors as the theatre turned pitch black.
Both the lighting and the set focused attention on the community and helped add meaning to the show.
Clemence Kim is the editor in chief of The Messenger, the newspaper of Crean Lutheran South High School, in Irvine, Calif.