RANDOLPH — A theater group founded by students at Randolph Central School back in 1997 is making a comeback to bring accessible arts to youth and their community.
Members of the Randolph Melioristic Theatre (RMT) are inviting as many students as possible to join their group and create their own version of Shakespeare’s sonnets via ZOOM. Students age 6 to 21 from the Randolph, Salamanca, Little Valley and Cattaraugus areas are welcome.
Spokesperson Brandi Remington is keeping the production organized online. Director of Communication and Engagement for United Way of Tompkins County, she said RMT was a completely student run and led drama club that lasted through a handful of generations.
Remington said they were in high school and then college at the time, and no adults were ever really involved.
“They were all four or five years older than me. As they got older, their siblings and ‘rag-tag’ friends kind of took over,” she said of the original members. “I was part of that second wave about 2001.”
According to the RMT Facebook page, the theater group was founded by students who were looking for more theater opportunities. The local Arts and Crafts Festival had dance and music performances, but no theater. So they went to the planners, made their pitch and were given a performance slot on a stretch of street. They gathered up a cohort of eight students, some makeshift props, a pile of tights and set about rehearsing.
On the morning of June 7, they hauled some platforms into the street and put on a production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” To their surprise, some people even sat to watch it. Some actually asked when they were performing again and they figured they should do it again. They started working on a production of “Hamlet” for later that summer.
Over the next 10 years, the group produced plays every summer, mostly Shakespeare. They performed anywhere that would have them and even took their shows on the road to Jamestown and Rochester. Members cycled in and out, but the spirit remained the same — a theater group run by young people and committed to bringing accessible arts to their community.
MORE THAN 20 years later, members of RMT have reunited to try inspiring a new generation of young artists to explore their passion, foster trust and creativity and build a better community.
The group has created a YouTube channel, a Facebook page and is currently creating short “webisodes” of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Remington said the idea occurred fairly recently when a former member posted a picture on Facebook of their last performance from around 2006 and commented on how much fun those days were.
When she saw the post, Remington said she reached out saying, “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to do something virtual since ZOOM is a thing now and we are all using it? We could actually get together online and to try to produce something.” She didn’t think anyone would be really interested but everyone said it was a great idea.
“Because we are all adults now, we don’t know how to play anymore, so it was one of those things. We needed something fun for ourselves,” she said. “A lot of us are parents now and, with coronavirus, it’s been stressful. We wanted to do something for ourselves and kind of reconnect and have some fun.”
Remington said they also wanted to give back to the community where they grew up. RMT was important to their lives as kids and coming into young adulthood discovering who they were, she said.
“We started thinking about how we could give back and it came down to why don’t we just try to reestablish RMT for the community, and try to bring it to life for the next generation,” she said.
Remington said the group is set to launch their first set of Facebook webisodes April 23, which is Shakespeare’s birthday, to introduce people to what we are doing. She said it’s called “Sonnet Remix” because they’ve taken the sonnets and turned them into short scenes with two or three actors.
“That’s what we would like to do with the students in the next phase,” she said. “They get to choose the sonnet and break it down however they want to break it down to create their own scene from it. We will be there to support and mentor them as much as they need, but Randolph Melioristic Theatre has always been about youth just doing it without adults. If they don’t need us, they don’t need us, but we can help produce it and get it up for them for viewing.”
Remington said the first wave is performed by former members of RMT, and they already have a second wave of webisodes created. They’re hoping to have new videos to share on Facebook every two to three months. She said both the rehearsals and productions will be done virtually online via ZOOM and posted on facebook.com/RandolphMelioristic.
There is no need to audition. Any student who is interested can reach out to RMT on Facebook or email them at randolphmelioristic@gmail.com.
RMT also wants to provide financial support that will allow youth living in the Randolph area to actively take part in the arts. The group is accepting donations and has set up the Randolph Melioristic Theatre’s Young Artist Fund through Patreon at patreon.com/randolphmelioristic.
(Contact press reporter Deb Everts at salpressdeb@gmail.com)
