‘Grey Gardens’ Actor Credits the Program for Sparking his Love of Classical Theatre“I showed up there as a kid who was initially kind of shy, and I very quickly felt like I had found my tribe.”
That’s how acclaimed actor
Arye Gross (Grey Gardens/HBO) describes his time at the Teenage Drama Workshop (TADW) at California State University, Northridge (CSUN).
It was the summers of 1974 and 1975 when a young Gross rode his bicycle every day from West Los Angeles to Northridge and back, just to attend what he calls the “super engaging” Workshop. “I can still feel the ache of my
cold ears in the morning,” he says.
His time at TADW included roles in a 1975 production of “The Frog Princess”—appearing with the late
Wendie Jo Sperber—and in a 1974 production of “The Man in the Moon”.
Looking back, he sees that it was at TADW where his love of classical theatre took hold.
(Pictured: Arye Gross (left) and fellow student Victor Warren (aka Victor Stein) as “Pip & Pim” in a 1974 Teenage Drama Workshop production of “The Man in the Moon.”)
It was the late Maryellen Clemons, the beloved CSUN theatre professor and longtime TADW instructor, who introduced a young Arye Gross to the work of William Shakespeare.
“I had heard of Shakespeare when I started at the Teenage Drama Workshop, but I’d also heard of the atom bomb, and I had kind of an equal understanding of both of them,” Gross said. Clemons soon tested Gross and his fellow classmates, assigning them to read the “Seven Ages of Man” speech from As You Like It and to then perform it with no text or speaking, only
movement.
“As a 13-year-old kid, just out of junior high, you don’t want anyone to know you have a thought different from anyone else’s, and then there’s this teacher, who was totally intimidating yet completely enthralling, telling you to act out what it means to be an infant ‘mewling and puking’ in your nurse’s arms,” Gross said. “It was a powerful and engaging thing to
experience.”
Today, Gross shares his love of Shakespeare with students at Cleveland High School’s Humanities Magnet through his affiliation with
The Antaeus Company in North Hollywood, where he serves as Associate Artistic Director.
“As an adult and a professional actor and an artist, I find the things I experienced and was exposed to at the Teenage Drama Workshop do continue to resonate with me and are germane to the craft,” Gross said.
He says many of the exercises from TADW continue to serve him well. In particular, he recalls one teacher who had students listen to classical music and let their minds drift. The class would then share what they visualized.
“One got the sense that there was creative energy all around us and that our ideas and our creative impulses are not peculiar, but part of an unspoken thing shared with our fellow human beings,” Gross said. “That is a great thing for an actor to know—that their impulses will resonate with persons outside themselves.”
Gross also said TADW helped him improve academically. “In elementary and junior high school, I was an extremely poor student, but after TADW something changed in how I performed in high school academically,” he said. “It left me firing on all burners and I was able to see the reward.”
Gross says he still hears from his fellow TADW students. “It was a source of many lifelong friendships,” he adds.
In addition to his many appearances on television shows like “Ghost Whisperer,” “CSI” NY,” “Medium” and “The Riches,” Gross can be seen as Albert Maysles in the acclaimed HBO film
“Grey Gardens”. Additionally, he recently finished the world premiere of “Our Mother’s Brief Affair” at the South Coast Repertory. At present, he is developing the first full season for The Antaeus Company.
CSUN's Teenage Drama Workshop is now in its 52nd summer, with productions of "The Wiz" and "Pinocchio" opening this month. For tickets or information, visit http://www.csun.edu/tadw.
At this morning's Company Meeting of the 52nd Teenage Drama Workshop, Robert Bucker, Dean of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media and Communication at California State University, Northridge, came to visit with the students.
Today's dress-up day at the Teenage Drama Workshop brought out all the witches and wizards (and fans of Harry Potter!) We could not help noticing quite a few lightning-bolt scars appearing on foreheads around Nordhoff Hall!
In keeping with Teenage Drama Workshop tradition, the final dress rehearsal for "The Wiz" was open to all TADW students and alumni. ("The Wiz" opens tonight. Tickets are still available!) 
If a few of this summer's Assistant Stage Managers look familiar, it is because they are very recent alumni of the Teenage Drama Workshop. Pictured from left, Zach Graber, Becca Lasky, and William Coates were students in last summer's 51st Teenage Drama Workshop (and many workshops before that!). All three came back to work at TADW this summer. Graber, who is studying anthropology at CSUN, is the ASM for “The Wiz”. Lasky, who attends Pierce College, and Coates, who is studying English and history at CSUN, are ASMs for “Pinocchio.” Additionally, all three are directing student-written plays for the upcoming “10-Minute Play Festival.”
He's Owen Panno, the stage manager for the Teenage Drama Workshop's production of "The Wiz." She's Jacqueline Heimel, the stage manager for TADW's production of "Pinocchio." Panno, who attended TADW as a student for two years, will begin his junior year at CSUN in the fall. He is studying screenwriting. Heimel just graduated from CSUN, majoring in deaf studies and theatre. Want to know more about the duties of a stage manager? Read this.
‘Grey Gardens’ Actor Credits the Program for Sparking his Love of Classical Theatre
(Pictured: Arye Gross (left) and fellow student Victor Warren (aka Victor Stein) as “Pip & Pim” in a 1974 Teenage Drama Workshop production of “The Man in the Moon.”)
The cast and crew of the Teenage Drama Workshop's upcoming production of "Pinocchio" heads into tech week starting Thursday, July 16 in anticipation of opening night, Wednesday, July 22. During tech week, the cast and tech crew members will work with sound cues, scenery, props, full costumes and lighting to put the finishing touches on their comedic play. (Pictured: members of the "Pinocchio" cast in rehearsals.) For tickets, visit www.csun.edu/tadw.
Under the direction of Ed Archer and Candy Sherwin, students in the 52nd Teenage Drama Workshop's musical theatre elective are busy learning group and solo numbers from shows performed at New York City's famed Majestic Theater. Located at 245 W. 44th St. in the heart of the Broadway theatre district, the Majestic was built in 1927. Since 1988, it has been home to The Phantom of the Opera. Prior to that, it housed such shows as Grease, Music Man, Carousel, South Pacific, Anyone Can Whistle and Mack and Mabel. For a sampling of the great musicals performed at the Majestic, come to Munch and Crunch on Sunday, Aug. 2nd, starting at 10 a.m. in the Campus Theatre.
Here's another one of the great prizes coming in the Parent Advisory Committee's raffle to raise money for scholarships for the Teenage Drama Workshop. Donated by the office of Meredith Roberts & Jen Karafilis at Disney Toon Studios, the basket is chock full of Tinkerbell stuff worth approximately $200. Raffle tickets will be sold at TADW's evening and weekend performances. ($1 per ticket or 6 for $5.) All proceeds will benefit the TADW scholarship fund. Prizes will be drawn at Munch & Crunch Aug. 2. Winners need not be present.
