A Second Chance at Glee

BRANCHBURG, N.J.-

 Valley Community College’s Glee Club slowly fell apart in Fall 2010, but Glee seems to be turning around in Spring 2011.

RVCC's Glee Club

Glee is a club where members sing and dance to popular songs. They put routines together and perform them during campus events. But last semester, Glee couldn’t get its act together in time to perform at any events.

“We had a difficult time setting up rules and dates,” said Justine Avila, President of Glee Club. “Nobody was showing up to practices.”

Avila slowly started noticing Glee was falling apart. “We would only have between four to eight students show up to practice on Monday and then four to eight different students on Friday,” said Avila. 


               “How could we put a routine together when students 
                      weren’t showing up to every practice?”

Confusion surrounding practice dates wasn’t the only issue; communication between members was another difficulty. “Some students used their student emails. Others used personal. Some students got their emails. Some never did.”

“We also lost our secretary,” said Avila, “who you would probably consider to be the bottom level, the base of the club's pyramid because right after she left everything just fell apart.”

To make matters worse, the secretary was also one of the choreographers, so dance pieces weren’t finished on time. Shortly after, the second choreographer left. 

“It was just becoming a waste of time,” said Avila. “Members lost interest and it was time to discontinue the club for the rest of the semester.”

Avila hopes that this semester will be different. “Students must show up to practices. If they miss more than one, they will no longer be a part of the team,” Avila said. 

            “We need members that are as committed to the team as I am.” 

Avila hopes that members will be performing at school events every week instead of once a semester to keep their interest and keep them coming to practices. Practices will be more enjoyable working towards a goal instead of sitting around singing.

High School Soccer Star Picks Up the Mic and Dancing Shoes

BRANCHBURG, N.J.-

Justine Avila’s intention was to recreate the popular TV series “Glee.” But the former high school soccer star found out her intentions were harder to achieve then she thought.

Avila, 19, played soccer all four years at Bridgewater High School. When she started Raritan Valley Community College in 2009, Avila wanted something different. 

“I wanted college to be a new beginning,” says Avila, “This was my chance to do that.”

Instead of signing up for soccer at RVCC, she wanted to join a club that involved singing and dancing. But nothing like that was available to her besides taking a class.

“I didn’t want the stress of worrying about a grade,” says Avila, “I wanted to just join a club to have fun without the stress and worries. Sort of like soccer.”

While on campus, Avila met people who wanted the same things she did; a place to have fun and perform. “After 10 minutes of talking about it, we decided to create the Glee Club,” says Avila.

So the Glee Club was born but like all new things, it had a hard time getting started. Avila soon realized that her intention of recreating “Glee” was more difficult than planned.

“Glee wasn’t strict enough for members to stick with it.” says Avila, “Members would come and go as they pleased, which made making a routine extremely difficult.”

Avila wasn’t the only one getting frustrated. Members of Glee were getting just as upset as she was.

“Justine has such good intentions with Glee,” says Ray Almirante, member of Glee. “But she’s so frustrated with how the members are acting and members, in return, are frustrated because Glee isn’t getting anywhere.”

“I just stopped showing up,” says Kym Cwiek, another member of Glee. “Once I showed up for practice and was welcomed to an empty room, I had to call it quits.”

Avila planned to have Glee perform a love song for Valentine’s Day in 2011 but with all the confusion of practice dates and lack of commitment from members, nothing was performed during the Valentine’s day event at RVCC.

Avila has her doubts about the success of Glee Club. While she attends RVCC, she’s going to continue to bring Glee back every semester. 

“After I transfer from RV, I think I’m going to pick up the soccer ball again.” says Avila.

'Ripples' Focuses On New Wave of Holocaust Education

On November 10th, 2010, The Second Generation.... Ripples from the Holocaust, premiered at the Simon Wiesenthal Tolerance Center in New York City.

The film was meant for a target audience of high school and college students, but anybody who wishes to purchase a copy of the film needs only to appear at the next screening.

            The film was created by RVCC's Director of Cultural Outreach, Peppy Margolis, who served as the executive producer,  directed and edited by Henry Hillard, and shot, under the guidance of Hillard, by RVCC film students, whom Hillard was priorly acquainted with, being a film professor at RVCC.

The film runs for approximately 30 minutes, containing interviews (mostly), real life historical footage described by Hillard as “Graphic” and a reenactment played by a 20 year old RVCC student. Unlike most holocaust education documentaries, The Second Generation....Ripples from the Holocaust focuses on just what the title suggests, rather than the holocaust itself.

Hillard explains that "Second generation are classified as those children born to survivors after the war". If you are "second generation", it means that your parents were holocaust survivors. Hillard also adds that "There hasn't been a film about the Second Generation that we were aware of, which was one of the reasons we wanted to do it .... It's new."

Executive Producer of the film, Peppy Margolis, is classified as second generation holocaust survivors as her parents, allegedly, were holocaust survivors. " Peppy has tremendous historical and personal knowledge" Hillard comments, "One of the goals that Peppy had for this piece was not only to have a voice for the second generation, but… one of the messages in this film, and this is important to her, important to the film itself, is that there are genocides going on still. Like Darfur, for instance."   

The film was shown once at RVCC before its premiere at the Simon Wiesenthal Tolerance Center in New York City and was screened two times at RVCC after the premiere. Further plans for distribution are in effect. Hillard claims that Peppy is being contacted by a Boston museum about a screening there.    

-Anthony Karlis

                                                                                                 

    

Fellows Follows his Dream in Film

Brian Fellows

RVCC- It’s not unusual to find Raritan Valley Community College student Brian Fellows with a camera in hand. Having taken film classes at Franklin High School, he’s gained enough experience to follow his dream of shooting videos for celebrities.

Now out of High school, Fellows continues his work in film. He currently owns two cameras and the editing program Final Cut Pro. He’s worked on small projects for friends and recently finished a co-produced video for a local rapper known as Lexx.

But he says he won't stop there.

Movie created at Franklin
high school. Fellows served
as technical support.

“When I'm out of school I tend to always think of videos I want to shoot to songs that run on my playlist constantly,” he said. “It keeps my mind running.”

He’s currently hashing out a few story lines for two local rappers and plans to begin shooting this June.

Fellows, 18, has experience in producing, camera work and editing. He says he always had an interest in the film class' he’d been taking, however, he didn’t fully bloom until his junior year. Now with three years under his belt, he has shot and/or edited around 60 videos, many outside of class.

At Franklin High, Fellows served as videographer/editor for the school’s live student morning broadcast. He was also part of the senior crew for a student reality film called “Void”.

Damoni Rackley, a peer of Fellows, said that he likes Fellows’ work behind the scenes because he’s so neat. “He edits well, his time line is organized, and he labels things good, which is needed when you’re working with big projects.”

 

Fellows received two awards sponsored by Micheal Pinnix, video aspects teacher, for his work. One award was for the school’s morning show, and another for helping out so much in the program. He spent a lot of his own time in the studio. The awards were given out at the annual Aspects of Video Awards(AVA's) ceremony held at Franklin High. 

Michael Pinnix describes Fellows as a team player. “He has what it takes,” he said. “The passion to pursue this as a career.”

Fellows said he looks at people from Franklin who are succeeding in film as encouragement, and sees his high school film teacher as his role model. 

RVCC JAMS!

RVCC-Electric, Frenetic, panicked, and creative were just a few words Bill Crosbie, site coordinator for the annual Global Game Jam(GGJ), could pull out to describe this event. And he’s not alone. Many students and faculty leave with plenty of mixed emotions from excited to completely exhausted.

Raritan Valley Community College hosted a site for the GGJ, Friday night, Jan. 28^th where people from all over the world put their technology talents together, and created about 1500 games.

A picture of one of the games created during the
Global Game Jam

The Global Game Jam started in 2009. RVCC joined in 2010, and hosted sites in 2010 and 2011. Crosbie said it spun out as an outgrowth of desire from members of the gaming community, particularly professionals, to work on something non-commercial, in a specific time limit.

Game Jams prior were only local until Susan Gold, founder and director of GGJ, decided it’d be great to have everyone worldwide participate in this event. The idea then became a project of the International Game Developers Association(IGDA).  

The rules of the game are as followed:

• 40 countries
• 6000 participants
• 48 hr time period

“It’s a lot of sleep deprivation,” Crosbie said. “And probably an over consumption of coffee. People are a little crazy towards the end.”

RVCC’s site consisted of 55 participants from RVCC, Mercer County College, Rutgers, Bloomfield College, and NJIT. Crosbie said RVCC had a rather diverse group of returning alumni and current students, pushing out 11 of the GGJ games.

One participating group of the GGJ from RVCC. They are the
creators of the game "Heat Death for the Microtouch" 

Games Included:

Adaptation

Heat Death

Heat Death for the Microtouch

Keep the Light

Meteor Rampage

Oinksteroids

Polli-Nation

PoPulus

Skitzo

The Royal Annihilation Society

Zero: Colony Conquest

On GGJ’s website, all of the games are published allowing viewers to play them. All creators receive credit for their efforts and some receive rewards for outstanding work. RVCC also allowed students to present their work at the NJ International Game Developers Association meeting.

Still no matter how crazy, this event is huge. So huge, that next year’s competition is already set to take place January 27-29 of 2012. With minor changes made for entrees, the Global Game Jam expects to have a major increase in the amount of participants, as well as games created.

-Kimberly Hill

Raritan Valley Community College Takes on "Jam Packed" Musical

BRANCHBURG, NJ: Rehearsals have begun at Raritan Valley Community College for the community’s March production of the rock opera “Rent”.

“Rent” is set in New York City in the late 1980s and tells the story of a group of struggling artists and musicians dealing with love, drugs and aids. Cast member Chris Boccard said, “No matter what year you are in the story is still relevant.”

The characters have relationships with each other that stage manager Heather Mussel said were “Unique enough to love them, relatable though that you love them for being a part of you.”

Though it is her first musical at RVCC, award winning director Gloria Trombley has directed over 80 musicals in the 30 years she has taught. Trombley is a Musical Theater professor at RVCC with a masters in Theater and Dance.

“Rent” was not Trombley’s first choice of musicals, so when “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” fell through, she went with “Rent”, though it had a larger cast and over 40 songs. Without the help of RVCC’s Music department and no Musical Theater program at the school, Trombley wasn’t sure this Rock Opera would be the right pick.

With help from Student Director Hillary Stein and Stage Manager Heather Mussel who both have experience in acting as well, Trombley has an extra set of eyes on stage as well as a person responsible for all the technical aspects of the production.

Though Stein is acting as a member of the ensemble as well, this is a good experience to watch and absorb all Trombley has to teach as she hopes to direct musicals later in her career.

As for Mussel, the responsibilities of stage managing are far more extensive than acting. “Making sure everyone is one time, has what they need and all props are in place,” Mussel says is one of the most important jobs.

Trombley’s one time student and long time friend, actor Chris Boccard, was cast as Mark, has auditioned for Broadway’s National Tour Production of “Rent” many times, receiving 38 final callbacks. Though he was skeptical of a community college putting on such a big production Boccard said, “the talent is pretty darn good.” Boccard is along side Chuck LaCorte cast as Roger. LaCorte, who before acting in RENT three times since February of 2010 has never acted before. LaCorte said, “Even though I’ve done it three times...I never get tired of the show.”

“This is probably the most talented cast I’ve worked with,” as well as, “the best set I’ve ever worked with,” LaCorte said, referring to the other productions he has acted in.

Musical Theater Teacher Directs First Musical at Raritan Valley Community College

BRANCHBURG, NJ: Walking through the lobby of the theater at Raritan Valley Community College, overwhelming rock music and anguished lyrics free the air. Above the music the director stops and starts the music over and over again.

Rehersals are underway for the rock opera “Rent” put on by students and members of the community as director Gloria Trombley is working hard to make sure everything is perfect for opening night. Trombley, who teaches musical theater, is taking on her first musical at the school.

Trombley has been teaching for 30 years and has directed more than 80 plays and musicals throughout California and New Jersey that have won her numerous awards.

Trombley’s whole life has been about theater. “My mother wrote and directed plays all my life!” Trombley said. Trombley acted and danced in plays all through her high school and college career but knew she wanted to direct from the start.

“Theater came in my late graduate work for dance so I did a second masters (CAS) in theatre with an emphasis in directing,” Trombley said. She studied at Weslyan University in Conneticutt.

In 2008, Trombley’s direction of The Will Rogers Follies with Equity Actors in California won her the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Award. “[winning the award] was a pretty big deal. We put on quite a performance,” Trombley said.

Once a student, and now a long time friend of Trombley’s, Chris Boccard, started out his 15 year acting run with Trombley in California. Though he was skeptical about a college taking on a big story, he is impressed with the talent and direction. “The talent is pretty darn good,” Boccard said.

Trombley is equipped with a masters degree in dance and theatre. It is not easy for Trombley to direct both the acting and the choreography in a musical with over 40 songs. Trombley has her student director, Hillary Stein, to help keep an eye on everything happening on stage.

“I am just watching and absorbing all Gloria does,” Stein says. Stein hopes to use this experience as training for when she directs musicals in the future.

With opening night just around the corner, Trombley works with the set designer and the musical director to put the finishing on the loft set, songs and characters.

After this bold rock opera, Trombley plans to continue taking on challenging musicals.