Tech's Jessa Berkner with CalShakes' Jonathan Moscone at the kickoff of CalShakes' collaboration with the Tech Drama Department
Oakland Tech has been getting great publicity around their production of “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain”!
Playwright Naomi Iizuka wrote to Tech director Jessa Berkner: “I wanted to say how honored I am and happy that you’re directing HAMLET BLOOD IN THE BRAIN, and that it’s been a good process. I wish I could see it and meet everyone in person to thank and congratulate them. In the meantime, please know that I’m sending good thoughts to you and everyone working on the production.”
The San Francisco Chronicle, announcing “Oakland Takes Bard to Britain,” publicized our performance at the California Shakespeare Theater.
Read the Oakland Tribune’s online article about how the Tech Drama Department came to win the American High School Theater Festival and what it means for Tech to have the opportunity to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
We had a front-page article in the Montclarion after our performance at Piedmont High School.
Segments have run on National Public Radio and local Channel 27 (KDOL) ran a videotape of the entire “Hamlet” production, plus interviews with actors and Director Jessa Berkner, several times!
See what California Shakespeare Theater director Jonathan Moscone has to say about CalShakes’ collaboration with Tech’s Advanced Drama Department and Tech’s performance of “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain.”
Read the OaklandNorth review of “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain” and Oakland North’s article on the efforts to bring “Hamlet” to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Tech’s Class of 1961, our grand piano has been restored! This Steinway concert grand piano is a world-class instrument which was badly in need of TLC – which it received, thanks to Tech alumna Camille Reed and the Piano Committee.
On Saturday, September 17, 2011, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m., we will have a concert and Piano Dedication event for the newly restored grand piano. Please join us in the Auditorium and join in celebration!
Read the Oakland Tribune article about the piano and the generous efforts of Ms. Reed and her class.
Guests at the inauguration of Jean Quan as Oakland’s Mayor on Monday, January 3, 2011 were treated to the fabulous music of Tech’s jazz band. At a party the evening before the inauguration, a string quartet from Tech joined musicians from Edna Brewer, Skyline, Westlake, and Bret Harte, as well as the Big-O Band, an ensemble of music teachers throughout the Oakland Unified School District.
Congratulations to Tech’s student musicians for receiving this honor!
OakTechRep at their performance venue, the Church Hill Theater
The public has spoken, and the critics have spoken, and OakTechRep is a big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!
Three Weeks, the Fringe Festival’s main publication, says “Come feel the love at the Church Hill Theatre as this dynamic, awardwinning troupe of high school students presents Hamlet: Blood in the Brain,” in a feature article (type Oakland into the search box in the middle of the top of the page).
The students were interviewed – and rapped – on a Scottish radio show. Unfortunately, we don’t have audio for you …
And they’re packing the house. The tradition at the Fringe is for the actors to stand on street corners handing out flyers for their plays, and the students and teachers report that everyone wants to come, from fellow American High School Theater Festival winners (who could get in free but are paying to make sure they get seats!) to drag queen passersby who think the show sounds amazing. Which it is! People are asking the students for their autographs and photos … they are stars!
Who says there’s no good news in Oakland? KTVU-TV (Channel 2) presented a fantastic, upbeat story about the Advanced Drama Department’s production of “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain” and the students’ plans to present the play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2010.
See the KTVU video
Find out more about the Advanced Drama Department’s plans to go to the Fringe Festival
The Oakland Tribune featured the Tech Advanced Drama Department’s production of “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain” in a terrific online article by Sean Maher on March 30. The article discusses the performance at Piedmont High School, Tech’s triumph at the American High School Theater Festival, and the efforts to bring the performance, and the Advanced Drama students, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2010.
