PROFESSORS ADAM AND CARRIE SIMPSON
Bringing the Best in Drama to Lynn University
By Marla E. Schwartz
“Innovative, energetic, kind, influential, intelligent” and the word “brilliant” also comes to mind when describing the husband and wife team of Adam and Carrie Simpson, assistant professors in the Lynn University’s Eugene M. and Christine E. Lynn College of International Communication Drama Program based in Boca Raton, FL. Adam also happens to be the Chair of the Drama Program.
Adam walks the-walk as a drama teacher, as his students know they have a bonified actor on their hands. Not that working in the “fame” track is his aspiration, but South Florida does have opportunities and his talent has enabled him to enlarge his sphere as a professional actor. For example, he was a featured actor on a segment of America’s Most Wanted and last February appeared in an episode of Burn Notice that films in Miami. He and Carrie feel it’s important to not only teach their students about the field of acting, but to work in the industry, as well.
These roles models have done something more important than dare I say running just another drama department in this country, as their unique vision has helped to shape Lynn’s Drama Program into a one-of-a-kind experience merely by their experiential style of teaching.
“We believe you learn by doing, not by talking about doing,” Adam said.
A year ago they began a new curriculum within the department that they hope will take place every three years by taking their students to perform Off-Broadway in New York City. The process begins by putting out a call for script submissions and then choosing the scripts they feel will be a nice fit for their students. In fact, some of the scripts presented in Boca were changed up a bit, and this allowed Adam and Carrie to not only direct their students, but perform with them, as well. Audience members thoroughly enjoyed themselves at both productions.
Adam was born in Evansville, Indiana and raised in this area since he was a little boy, and Carrie was born and raised in Harrisburg, PA, attended the University of Pittsburgh and then attended Florida Atlantic University’s graduate school.
“And the rest is fate,” Adam said.
“We met at FAU, I was in graduate school and he was an undergrad. That’s Adam’s favorite part about the story, doing productions together,” Carrie laughed. “We became best friends and we were together a lot and then – well, we didn’t necessarily have a formal first date, because we were on set and always together.”
“In fact, and we were just on a cruise recently and where some couples were contestants on the shipboard version of THE DATING GAME,” she explained. “There were three couples on stage. One couple had been married 57-years, another couple had dated for years before getting married and another couple that was together 20-years. They were asked to recall their first date was and every single couple got it right. And we sat there and we were laughing because neither of us could figure out what was our exact first date. We can figure out significant moments, but it wasn’t necessarily when the first date happened. I mean, the couple that had been married 57-years remembered where they went, what they wore, what they ate, and even how much they spent.”
There’s no doubt that this loving couple has a good thing going. Hmmm. Since it’s near Valentine’s Day, do you think they believe in soul mates? Do they believe that they are each other’s soul mates?
“Yes, of course,” Carrie said.
“Absolutely,” is Adam’s response.
But so much for that lovely-dovey thing they got going on, they’re busy college professors!
The first weekend in February they will host Lynn’s third annual 24-Hour Theatre Project, where students, write, produce, direct and perform original plays in one 24-hour period. This year local playwrights were invited to participate in this successful event.
Basically on Friday, February 5, the actors, directors and playwrights will meet. Adam and Carrie will provide a selection of titles that nobody will have seen (except for them) ahead of time and then original plays will be created based on these titles. A pow-wow takes place, the playwright writes the script. The next morning everyone gets back together and the actors and directors have the entire day to memorize and rehearse the scripts. These plays will then be produced when the curtain rises at 7 PM on Saturday, February 6 in the Lynn Student Center Auditorium.
In the field of acting, “you cannot only bring half of your energy or half of your life to your work. It doesn’t work. You won’t work again if you do that,” Adam explained. “The 24-hour theater project helps the students learn how this is accomplished. It teaches them to be motivated, to try really, really hard, and to think on their feet, to be forcefully creative. It’s a tough business that requires you to go from zero to 60 in a heartbeat.”
“It’s free … just come by and have some fun,” Adam said. “Each play will be about ten minutes tops, no more – and it can’t be more then ten-minutes because there’s no way anybody could remember all those lines. The number of plays range anywhere between six and nine plays.”
If you haven’t been to Lynn before – the directions are easy:
Interstate 95 (from the North)
- Exit I-95 on Yamato Road.
- Turn right (West) on Yamato Road.
- Turn left (South) on Military Trail.
- Campus is on right after first traffic light.
Interstate 95 (from the South)
- Exit I-95 on Palmetto Park Road.
- Turn left (West) on Palmetto Park Road.
- Turn right (North) on Military Trail.
- Campus is on the left, approximately 2-1/2 miles.
Florida Turnpike
- Exit Turnpike on Glades Road, Boca Raton exit.
- Turn left (East) on Glades Road
- Turn left (North) on Butts Road.
- Turn left (North) on Military Trail.
- Campus is on left after second traffic light.
“The 24-Hour Theatre Project is an event that institutions across the country do, places such as schools, professional theatre companies, community theaters do it. The Naked Stage, down in Miami does it,” Adam explained. “And Carrie has been doing it since she was an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh – it’s something that has been going on for a long time across the country and essentially it’s one day where we create brand new theatre and present it to the community. It’ll be a collection of shorts. It’s always a blast and has about 70 people involved, including, actors, playwrights, directors, crew members, it’s a load of fun and a great time to come out and celebrate the creativity of the people in the Lynn community.”
It was a fun experience as a college student and it’s something different, you’re not in rehearsals for a long time, you get to meet a lot of people, and just work under the gun in a slightly stressful but fun environment,” Carrie pointed out. “It’s very creative and exciting so when I got down here and I said to Adam, we should do it. And then one year we finally did. The students look forward to doing it again the next year, some want to come back and direct, and then they can’t decide what’s more fun to be the actor or the director, because they kinda like both ends. This year we may invite students who have already graduated and live in the area to come back and participate in it this year.”
Adam and Carrie have created something very special for the Lynn Community and have been at it five years now and they show no signs ever wanting their dreams jobs to end. They’re always busy guiding their students into the next project at hand.
“Right now we’re working on creating short films with the students. There are three groups of students and they’ve been making short films based on the scripts they wrote in the fall,” Carrie explained. “These movies premiered on Wednesday, January 20. It was the first time for many of them to be involved in making films and it has been fun. They were out on location shooting and attended a premiere gala event where all the students got dressed up. We rolled out the red carpet and had fake paparazzi, so they felt like movie stars. Hopefully, at some point these films will be posted online.”
And there’s no breather.
“After that, we’re continuing our Play Reading Series that’s run out of Jan McArt’s office, where we produce four plays in this series each year, mostly by local playwrights. Mark Della Ventura, who is also writing for the 24-Hour Theatre Project, has his play Is There a Chance slotted to be read next in the series, on February 3 at 7:30 PM,” Adam said.
The next play in the series, Marriage Counselor, by David Sirois will be read on March 10, 2010. The readings take place in the Amarnick-Goldstein Concert Hall and the tickets are $10 each, benefiting the university drama program. Tickets for groups of 20 or more are $7 each. Jan McArt’s Theatre Arts Guild members are free, but must make reservations in advance. To purchase tickets, call the theatre box office at 561-237-9000.
“Then we have a student directed production that we’re going to produce that students are submitting for approval right now and that’ll take place in mid-March,” Adam pointed out. “And then we’re doing a play called ‘Project Nuremberg’ which is a new project that we’re writing right now, basically – many months ago, we discovered in our library we have the original transcripts from the Nuremberg Trials. The University got together with a whole bunch of different organizations; local Temples, Rabbis, and we decided to put on a big function based on these transcripts. There are lots of different aspects to it. And our participation involvement in the presentation is to create a play based on the trials. We begin production on it the first week of February and the show will have a private premiere and then it’ll open on Wednesday, April 21 – 24th.”
The semester ends the first week of May. ‘Project Nuremberg’ will end one week before final exams and then after the final exams the kids go home. But the funny thing is – the students in Lynn’s Drama Program, they don’t want to go home, they really want to stay. No wonder … look who is leading them into their professional lives – Adam and Carrie Simpson. Any student would be lucky to have them as mentors. And any parent, grateful to them for their mentorship.
Ah-hah. Wait just a moment. “We do teach acting classes in the summer,” Adam said. “But we don’t have any productions.”
In fact, Adam and Carrie begin planning their agenda for the following year in March. They always have something clever up their sleeves. Just you wait and see. “Right now we’re waiting for more details to come out about the new black box theatre and then we’ll start planning our season around that bit of information.”
As always, look for more unique programming from this admirable couple!
For more information, go to: www.lynn.edu.
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A native of Toledo, OH and a graduate of Kent State, Marla E. Schwartz has been a professional journalist since her teenage years and is a Senior Writer for Miami Living Magazine, and a freelance writer for CRAVINGS South Florida in Aventura, as well as Around Wellington Magazine, Lighthouse Point Magazine, and Pandora. An avid photographer, her images have appeared in numerous Ohio publications, as well as in Miami Living, The Miami Herald, The Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and The Palm Beach Post. She has had numerous plays published and produced around the country. Her short play, America’s Working? was originally read at First Stage in Los Angeles and in the same city produced at the Lone Star Ensemble. It was then produced at Lynn University in Boca Raton, FL and then taken to an Off-Broadway playhouse by its producers Adam and Carrie Simpson. Her piece, The Lunch Time Café, was a finalist for the Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville. Feel free to contact her at: [email protected].