Betina Hershey is a native New Yorker born to a Broadway musician and a painter. She loves working for NYCCT, encouraging others to express themselves through writing, music and theater. She is also the head and director of a local theatre company called “Garden Players," located in Forest Hills, Queens. The program works with kids from elementary school to the 8th grade, teaching them a variety of acting, musical and vocal courses, as well as preparation for auditions to performing arts high schools in New York.
Email: betina@gardenplayers.com
Instagram: @gardenplayerstheater
How’s your family?
I have twins, they’re ten and I think they actually really LIKE this whole situation because my husband and I have always been very busy- my husband, Nick, is a full time musician, so he’d always be leaving the house for gigs at night, and running around like crazy, and I myself am usually out of the house as well, running classes. So when everything shut down, they were really sad to not see their friends, but kinda happy to see us more. It seems like they’re kinda at the right age where they can be on computers and do school, but they also really wanna see us. I mean if this had happened when they were little, like REALLY little, then I can’t even imagine...we probably would’ve had to move in with one of our relatives.
Back in March when COVID came to the United States, and we went into lockdown mode, how did you have to adapt your studio? I’m assuming you guys don’t go there anymore.
Yeah, so the church is closed to all outside groups- and it has been closed- they’re only doing online church services as well. I was lucky because I had Garden Players grads like you, because right before everything shut down we [names of GP grads], got together and sat down outside of the church and told me “You need Google Classroom, you need to do Google Meets or Zoom”, and we kinda sat there and brainstormed. So, this happened right before shutdown so we went and video-tapped all of the songs that the kids had to be rehearsing, and we did it as a group moving around, and singing, performing the choreography and did the pianist, so when we first switched to online we could share all of these videos of the songs for the musical. Because at that point we thought we might be able to have a show, that things would just be closed for a while and it would be delayed, and then eventually we figured out y’know what: it’s not working, rehearsing the scenes, because the scenes are all meant for BIG groups.
Yeah, I remember these were massive scenes.
Exactly, so instead we had each student create this character description, and then create monologues based off all of their characters’ descriptions.
And that worked as a substitute for the show (musical)?
Yep, so everybody recorded a video of themselves performing their monologue of their character from the show, and then everyone sang the songs from the show, and I created these very complicated videos of all the people that sent me their video, and I mixed them together with the tracks. It took a lot of time creating these crazy videos that ended up going up on YouTube.
Are you considering doing a musical for this school year, or sticking with the monologue videos?
All of our classes are online again, and this semester we always work on well known musicals, so we’re working on scenes and songs from them. Next semester, we’re going to start doing a new original musical. Right now actually (I write my musicals with Denver, who works at a publishing company Beat-By-Beat Press, where a bunch of my musicals have been published, and he himself has written 3 musicals that are meant to be performed online) I’m deciding whether to use one of Denver's musicals, but I want to write the musical myself so that’s most likely what I’ll end up doing.
When I was still doing this program, the classes were split up by certain ages and certain times and certain days to determine when to come to the studio. Everything is online now, so how have your classes been rescheduled?
So we are still broken down by age brackets, in former years we had like 25 kids in an age bracket, but this year there’s 8 kids, which is actually really fun because we get to spend more time with each kid, and they get more of a say on what we get to work on. Actually, I’ve been teaching two outdoor backyard classes, and in one of those classes I wrote a script with those students, which was composed of a 3-scene short play, which was a lot of fun, because the kids got really excited about the characters they had chosen. If we have 8 kids in the class, it’s more possible for me to sit down with them, and write many different short musicals, instead of just having one big show.
So you’re thinking instead of big musicals instead working on smaller, shorter scenes in an online show?
Yeah, maybe a 3-scene musical with one main song or (depending on some of the classes, because some classes are more motivated to sing) maybe they each have a solo song, I get to have a lot of fun with the creative aspect of building for each of these individual kids because it’s so small again.
Are you gaining new members, or is it mostly older students signing up and if so on what terms are they coming back?
It’s funny, so a bunch of people switched to private lessons. I’m teaching a lot of private lessons this year, and I usually don’t have time for that, but because I have smaller classes now I can make time for those private lessons. I have a lot of private students, which is really fun to go back to one on one instruction, I’m teaching guitar, piano, acting, songwriting, all for private lessons. For Garden Players, I added a songwriting class, which has been really fun getting them to write and then splice together with them singing it online. Some kids are taking more than one class during the week, maybe a combination of both Garden Players classes and private lessons even, which works really well especially with the really dedicated students. And we surprisingly had a lot of new recruits, because with the smaller classes the kids would tell their friends about it, and so over time those smaller classes started getting bigger with newer students. And then there’s a whole section of Garden Player students who’ve said “Of course I’ll come back … when it’s in person again!”
There used to be a Winter Showcase during December for some classes to showcase what they worked on that semester leading up the musical. Is that happening this year?
Yup, at the end of this semester we will have a Sharing Day. We’re not going to do it now in December, I pushed it to the end of January because we definitely won’t be having the winter concert then, which would normally take place during that time. We’ll probably each have them record their voices for one song, and I’ll mix them together. They’ll also record the scenes and monologues they’ve been rehearsing, and they’ll present acting-improv games so we have to come up with a way to invite the parents, or just record the whole thing or just share it on YouTube.
I recently joined an acting group as a teacher called C4C (Crafters-For-Creativity), and classes we offer involve lots of movement, which was harder than anticipated because of space issues and things like that. How are you teaching more movement oriented classes?
First off, congratulations! A lot of our classes will start with them exploring the screen of the zoom, and get close to the camera, and “sneak offstage” and sneak back on stage, really utilizing the camera’s frames alone. I also have them stand up and do plies, and stretches and things like that. But in general, because they’re smaller classes and because my kids aren’t so young anymore- actually what age range do you teach?
For the acting class I taught about ages 9 to 13, and the improv class was about 11 to 14.
And they were having trouble with the movements?
Not exactly, the kids that weren’t having trouble were the more dedicated students, so you can see they were really trying to meet our accommodations, but other students may have encountered things like space issues, family members, it may be loud, etc. Things like that.
Well I definitely spend time having them explore that space and a lot of times it starts out with them showing only their chest, or the top of their head, so I spend time reminding them to make sure that you can be seen, because this is a zoom theater experience: this is your stage. In real life, on a stage you have to turn out to face the audience when you say your lines. When you’re on zoom you gotta remember to stay in the middle of your square. So yeah it does take time to spend with them, just being aware of that space.
So far, the main barrier I’ve come across as a teacher and as a student, is motivating myself and others to be productive and active in class. Do you have any methods or tips for motivating, especially during class?
I really think the best way to keep them engaged is have them explore their space and the zoom’s camera lens. To get their eyes super close to the camera, and look really surprised, have them sneak off, things like that. As soon as you get silly with the space, your body and your emotions, they really wake up. At least for my crowd, that instantly gets them excited and warmed up! Also, I find and share these really great clips from acting or improv that I think will inspire them, and then I’ll compare them to what we’re doing and say okay now go off and create your own scene using those tricks. I try to use clips from the Broadway show called “The Play Gone Wrong”, I’m pretty sure it’s a TV show now called “The Show Gone Wrong”. The physical humor really takes them out of their seat so they can remind themselves to move around a bit since everyone is predominantly sitting down during class.
Final question: are there any fond memories you have from teaching these classes during the last few months that couldn’t have happened if COVID hadn’t happened?
Y’know actually, there are some really cool things about teaching online. I have loved being able to see their writing and be able to edit it online, especially with the monologue work because I love being able to work closely with them on that. It’s also been really fun teaching them how to self-tape, that whole process is new to most of them, and it’s really a good skill to have. The biggest thing might’ve been working with kids who are really shy, and were really quiet during in-person class, but now are writing these long, detailed, funny monologues, and then would perform them on video and send them. It made me realize wow, so some of you really enjoy this happening online. It allows them to work at their own pace and it’s been amazing to watch.
Thanks for the interview Ms. Betina, it was really nice to hear from you again and I’ll definitely be using some of these tips!
Good to hear from you too, hopefully we can call again soon, and good luck with this year!
This was my first interaction with Ms. Betina over Zoom since the pandemic began- I’ve only ever talked to her over the phone- so it was really good to see her again, even if it was not in person. Without quarantine, around this time of year and in the spring, I’d be over at the Garden Players Theatre, helping the students with the productions that would be happening there. The productions are always extremely lively and unique for the cast and crew, and although it's unfortunate that it won't be happening this coming spring, something new and creative will take its place. It's inspiring to see because it just reaffirms my belief that although the talent industry as a whole is suffering right now, we'll adapt and continue to put art into the world one way or another.