The Story Behind the Poster: Interview with Annya Uslontseva

We had a chance to sit down with graphic designer Annya Uslontseva who has been designing the posters for Freehold’s Engaged Theatre Tours since 2005. Read a little bit about the story behind the posters including Freehold’s “The Flower of England’s Face: William Shakespeare’s Henry IV” poster …

When you create the posters for Freehold’s Engaged Theatre Tours you actually paint the image and then photograph it. Can you talk about the process of creating the posters?

I came into the design from a painter’s background so it might just have been my way of processing information. When I first talked to Robin Lynn Smith (Freehold’s Artistic Director), I think they had an illustration that they had on the computer and at the time I was having a hard time working off that illustration so I thought “Well, I’ll just try to paint it.” So it was my trying to find another way to illustrate since I couldn’t do what the designer was doing. Since then we have painted every single poster.

Can you talk a little about your painting background?

I was always interested in painting ever since I was a kid. I grew up in the eastern part of Russia.  My mom was very creative and she would draw, play piano and she always encouraged us to try creative things. So I grew up learning to play the piano, painting and writing poetry.  I pretty much explored pretty much every way of expressing myself. I came from Russia to Seattle at 17 years old with my husband. I finished high school that May, got married in August and arrived in Seattle in September. It was strange for me because in Russia I was leaning more toward writing, but once we ended up in Seattle I just kind of lost my language. I didn’t know English well enough and I could feel my Russian slipping away.  So I was somehow, perhaps accidentally, turning to a visual language because I still wanted to communicate.  It was basically the only language from my childhood that hadn’t changed.  I could still say what I wanted to say and paint what I wanted to paint and be understood. This was why I ended up going into design. It was me looking for a voice.

For the first couple of years, I was just trying to figure out what I was going to do with work as I was learning English which it made it hard to go to school.  My husband is a software engineer and one day he saw me painting and said “Well maybe you should try design”. It made sense to me.  I went to design school and I loved it. It was that voice I found, a way of talking to people.  It was a way to speak and reach out.  Early on I realized I wanted part of my work to be with nonprofits.  I felt like that was something I had to do, a way to help and give back. I worked for a few corporate businesses early on which helped me to understand the underlying processes related to the design work. Over time I started freelancing more and more.  

We often hear from our community how much they love our Engaged Theatre posters. Can you talk a little bit more about the process of creating the Engaged Theatre posters?

Even though I don’t paint as much for myself anymore, it’s always interesting to work with Robin because she brings things out of me that I don’t think anyone else would be able to.   She really makes me think and she always has been supportive of what I do.  I think it’s interesting how no other illustration works in quite the same way compared to how we work doing the painting. For example, I do very little retouches.  We come up with an idea and we go from there.  It’s very hard for me to repaint what has already been repainted.  There is a lot of trust between us and Robin really makes me think.  I have learned to trust myself. Whenever I start working with Robin I’m terrified I won’t be able to come up with anything but then I’ll just sit there and let it wash over me and wash away.  After that I’ll find myself drawing and thinking.  I’ll do word associations, ask myself what colors I see, what images come up. I might also do a word map where Robin will give me a word and I’ll expand the words asking myself “what is the meaning of this and what would be the image for that word”.

I have to first get an idea of what I’m looking for. For example, I might think of the word “despair” and go online and see what associations/images are associated with that word. Part of it is that since English is my second language, I have to do this to be sure that I’m getting the meaning right. I notice that if I go straight to the web without doing my word associations first and figuring out what I’m looking for, I end up straying and losing direction. I notice in those cases the image won’t be as powerful because it won’t have a strong meaning behind it.  However if I put my work in first, then it goes faster because I know what I’m looking for and it makes sense.

You’ve done a number of images in the past for the Engaged Theatre posters.  Were there certain images that stand out for you?

The Merchant of Venice might be one of my favorites because we basically focused on creating an illustration.  I was taking a class on typography at the time and we created an illustration from just the letters.  It was satisfying to figure that out – that it could be satisfying just working with no other elements other than letters and making it into a powerful image.  

With each next poster I feel freer and freer in the work.  This Henry IV poster image might be the first time we actually had a figure because usually our figures are more abstract.  So I feel like I’m getting more comfortable that it will work out. I am learning to trust that all I have to do is to keep working on it and eventually something will happen, it will click and there it will be. It’s always interesting to me how the image finishes off – it feels a little other worldly.  You don’t really know where it is going and the more I try to control it, the worse it looks.  The more I let go and move the paint around it seems to come together.  Most of the paintings I paint I end up painting overnight. I might do a first layer and then the composition at night and then add more to it in the morning and finish it off by photographing it.  

You said you’re not really painting apart from doing the posters? Does it inspire your other creative work?

In my other creative work, I went into the 3 dimensional.  My gardening is part of my art but so is my clay work.  I am such a practical person so I like working with clay because I make things that I can use.  I stopped painting for myself partly because I had no where else to put them. Also, I was too attached to them to give them away. I enjoy clay – it doesn’t take up as much space – I can use it and can give it to others.  There is also something about taking a piece of clay I made and go into a garden I grew and collect food and feed it to my child, I feel so connected.  I think that’s what we want when we look into the world … we want to see ourselves and what we love.  I look into my world and what I love and what I do is everywhere.

Check out more about Annya at her website: AUA Design

http://www.auadesign.com
We hope to see you at The Flower of England's Face: William Shakespeare's HENRY IV is running July 12 - 20 (no performance July 15th) at University of Washington's Penthouse Theatre. Tickets are Pay What You Can.  For more information and to reserve your ticket:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/725720

Other past Freehold Engaged Theatre posters designed and painted by Annya Uslontseva:

 

My New Creative Home by Leslie Moulton Asplund

Taking Freehold's Film Directing class, taught by Robin Lynn Smith and John Jacobsen, was a life-changing experience for me.  For 13 years, starting in my late twenties, I worked as an Assistant Director in television and film.  At age 40 I arrived at a crossroads and decided to become a psychotherapist, a profession I’ve lived with and loved for the past 20 plus years.  So it was a surprise to discover, recently, that I had an unsatisfied hunger, one I’d buried deeply, to return to film making.   I had started out focusing on becoming a director and gradually gave that up in the tangle and exhaustion of film making in Hollywood.  But my hunger for creative expression hadn’t gone away, it was just buried under layers of fear and the stories we tell ourselves about the practicalities of life.

This class brought me to life.  For the first time I wasn’t overcome with worry about how I was doing or whether I was good enough.  I just wanted to learn ... to experience ... to grow.  John and Robin live that approach to their craft and they create a safe place for their students to live it as well. 

There was so much to learn, even though the 8 director-students knew a fair amount about film making already.  I felt both excited and nearly overwhelmed.  But Robin and John adjusted the course to fit our needs as we went along, making sure we got what we needed in order to build a foundation of competence and move progressively forward in developing our craft.

The final project, with its three iterations, was rich with learning.  I privately set goals for each time I shot this final scene, ensuring that I achieved one more skill each time.  I reached as high as I could, but reassured myself by setting what I knew to be a realistic goal for myself so I could feel the satisfaction of having achieved that private intention.  I think this is the first time I’ve found this kind of inner balance in being able to take on something this important to me, without panicking and getting distracted by worrying about what others were thinking of me. It was very freeing and so I was able to work hard AND enjoy the process!

The final screening, in an actual theater, before an audience, was a revelation!  I had no idea I would feel so thrilled, so emotional, so satisfied.  That screening became a beginning, not an ending, of a wonderful journey I’ve only just begun ... with new colleagues, brilliant mentors, and Freehold, my new creative home.

Upcoming Freehold Faculty Work

Geoffrey Alm, Christine Marie Brown, Reginald Andre Jackson, Andrew McGinn, Rhonda J. Soikowski will be performing in Freehold's Engaged Theatre production of "The Flower of England's Face: William Shakespeare's Henry IV.  Directed by Freehold Faculty Member and Artistic Director, Robin Lynn Smith and Adapted by Reginald Andre Jackson. The show is running June 30 at 6:30 pm at Luther Burbank Park (Mercer Island), July 12 - 20 at University of Washington's Penthouse Theatre (various times).  Pay What You Can but reserve your tickets ahead of time:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/725720

 

Susanna Burney will be reprising the solo Samual Beckett piece, Rockaby at West of Lenin August 14 - 20, as part of the citywide Beckett Festival.

Amy Thone will be in all-female Julius Caesar (17 WOMEN!!!!--Suzanne Bouchard, Therese Diekhans, Kate Witt, Terri Weagant, Macall Gordon, Nikki Visel, etcetera ...a great group), for Wooden O Shakespeare ...  Opens early July.  More info: http://www.woodeno.org 

Marya Sea Kaminski will be playing The Angel in Intiman's productions of Angels in America. More info: http://www.intiman.org/plays-events/2014festival/

Matt Smith's film "My Last Year with the Nuns" was chosen for SIFF's Best of Fest, and Matt was voted a runner up for Best Actor by festival goers. Matt said, "That's a lot of cousins stepping up". A lot of them were Freehold cousins! Here's a trailer to Matt Smith's new film, "My Last Year with the Nuns": http://vimeo.com/94929524

Matt’s also teaching his Improv Intensive at Freehold this summer in July at Freehold. More info on Matt's class:
https://www.freeholdtheatre.org/civicrm/event/info?id=284&reset=1

The Wonders of Personal Clown by Laura-Beth Straight

George Lewis’ Personal Clown class was the highlight of my summer two years ago.  I’d finished all five improv classes at Unexpected Productions in June and some of the seasoned improvisers had told me about George’s July class. They said very little about it -- it seemed like a secret and rather sacred experience -- but what they did say left me with the impression that the class would greatly improve my physical theater skills. I figured I had nothing to lose and I registered for the class.

As it turned out, Personal Clown led me through an intense learning process that in some ways changed my life.  I’d always found most meaningful those theater projects which offered me an opportunity to reflect upon my own life, transforming me in the process. Within a supportive community, Personal Clown did just that.  This kind of personal transformation would not have been possible without a leader who could build an

atmosphere of unconditional acceptance.  It’s impressive to see how George Lewis creates trust amongst participants and a safe, fun-loving, and authentic environment that allows people to share their vulnerabilities.   In the moments when I was quietly wiping tears away from my eyes as I felt the terror of being so emotionally exposed, I was able to trust my ability to connect with others and share in our common humanity together.  And then it was all play.  It became a game to play with exaggerated but truly felt expressions of sadness or anger and to feel how all parts of my body could express those emotions.  It became a game to accentuate and expand elements that seemed to "go wrong" in a scene. Throwing a temper tantrum with flailing arms and legs on the floor or getting kicked out of the classroom for “misbehaving” was so much more fun than when I was a child.  And the laughter and joy I felt in the discovery of my clown name, “Suzy” was amazing.

It was a very different experience from the Advanced Clown class I took last summer. 

While Personal Clown was more of an individual exploration, Advanced Clown placed more focus on duos and scene work.  Advanced Clown offered a greater exploration of the clowning self already identified through Personal Clown.  We explored the authentic physicality of specific improvisations and learned to trust one’s own creativity and the creativity of a scene partner in the moment.  Who knew following the flow of interaction with music, two suitcases and two umbrellas would offer so many rich and varied storylines or how much joy one could experience with multiple attempts to simply sit in a chair?

I’ve taken many improv and clowning classes in the Seattle community, however, I place tremendous value in my learning experiences with George Lewis.   His classes are a safe space to explore the very depth of what motivates me in my theatrical expression and sharing. Not only do I look forward to being reminded of all of the techniques of eye contact, discovery and stillness in scenes but also recognizing how much I’ve grown and developed in the confidence of my performance process over the course of the past year.  I’m grateful for George’s insight and wisdom and for the joy that George shares with his students. As long as George returns from Argentina to teach in July, I’ll be taking his Advanced Clown class. 

 

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More information on Freehold's Summer Quarter Classes including George Lewis' Clown classes can be found here:
http://www.freeholdtheatre.org/summer-quarter-acting-classes-seattle-are-now-open-registration

Photo: George Lewis

Our Road Trip to Freehold and Henry IV by Tony Pasqualini

Tony Pasqualini and Sarah Brooke will be performing in Freehold's Engaged Theatre Performance of  Henry IV. Tony was a founding partner of Freehold.  We are delighted to be hosting Sarah and Tony for the summer.

Here's a glimpse into their road trip back to Seattle ...

It's the morning of May 29th, Sarah and I have loaded up the car, said goodbye to the dogs (they know something highly unusual is afoot), and begun our 1200 mile drive from Los Angeles to Seattle. This trip has an interesting resonance with us, because thirty years ago, a few weeks after we were married, we embarked on a similar journey to Seattle -- that time from New York City, and that time with the idea of Seattle becoming our permanent home. Well, a lot of water has flowed under the proverbial bridge since. Robin Lynn Smith and I started a small acting studio above an aquarium dealer on Eastlake Avenue -- that small studio eventually grew into Freehold (where we are headed now). Sarah and I had two kids. Down the road we made another big-time life decision to move to LA. We've established ourselves in the south land now: been on a variety of TV shows, done a lot of theatre. I've become a playwright -- with five plays so far to my name. Sarah has developed two brilliant cabaret shows. Our kids are all grown up, and finding their respective ways in the world, and, well, a bunch of other stuff too numerous to mention.

But this morning we are leaving our home, our dogs, our well-entrenched life and are headed back to beautiful Seattle to participate in Freehold's Engaged Theatre tour (this year, a compilation of Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, adapted by Reggie Jackson). I've been up twice in the past several years -- playing King Lear in 2012 and Shylock a few years earlier, but this is Sarah's first extended time back to the Northwest since we left fifteen years ago.

When I get my almost yearly call from Robin Lynn Smith, usually in November, to ask if I'd like to come up next summer to work on her next Shakespeare project, I will (and Robin will attest to this) go through my usual hemming and hawing -- it's a long time to be away from home; there are opportunities in LA I'll have to forgo; various complications, etc, etc. But, alas, I'm an actor. The theatre is my first love. And how does an actor turn down playing Shylock, Lear, Henry IV? Well, generally you don't. And with the added incentive of Sarah being here playing Mistress Quickly and Westmoreland, this years tour proves irresistible.

I'm not much of a long distance driver, so we make a bit of a trip of it. Stop at Carmel-by-the-Sea -- pretty nice, I must admit, though a bit ostentatious. Next is Ashland. We catch the Shakespeare Festival  production of Cocoanuts. The first act is an hour and forty minutes which was plenty for us -- it had been a grueling drive that day. The next night we spend in Portland and get to see our old friend Jayne Taini play Meg in a wonderful production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Sunday we arrive in Seattle, settle into our digs and by 9am the next day we are in Belltown at Freehold getting to work.

Henry IV is to my mind one of Shakespeare's most resonant and accessible plays. The plot follows the history of rebellion against Henry by his former allies Worcester and Northumberland, led by Northumberland's warrior son, Hotspur, culminating in the battle of Shrewsbury, where Hotspur is soundly defeated. But the heart of the play centers around Hal, the Prince of Wales, Henry's son and next in line to the throne. Much to the consternation of his father, Hal has taken to spending his time at the Boar's-head Tavern in Eastcheap, carousing with a drunk and desultory knight, John Falstaff and various other unsavory characters. This tug-of-war for Hal's affections between his 'two fathers' embodies the true dramatic arc of the play. Shakespeare has created a searingly complex relationship between Prince Hal and his father. One that easily stands alongside Arthur Miller's classic father/son struggle in Death of a Salesman. And as both a father and son myself, I can attest to the emotional wounds this play so artfully and truthfully explores -- the great love that's felt but not shown; the deep and often irrational disappointment; the inability to live up to the each others expectations; the need to challenge and control; the sense of failure and loss; the fear that the gulf opened between you will never be bridged. Well, Shakespeare gives you all this. He does it in a few scenes. He does it with some of his most gorgeous and poignant poetry. And he does it with truth and specificity. I get to play these scenes with the amazing Reggie Jackson. An actor can't really ask for much more.

Tony Pasqualini and Sarah Brooke will be seen performing in The Flower of England's Face: William Shakespeare's HENRY IV on June 30th at 6:30 pm at Luther Burbank Park (Mercer Island), July 12 - 20 (no performance July 15th) at UW's Penthouse Theatre. Tickets are Pay What You Can.  For more information and to reserve your ticket:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/725720