Lulu Krause '12 is spending the summer interviewing performing artists, updating a blog, and filming a web-series promoting the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe in September.
Lulu Krause '12, an Anthropology major with a minor in Creative Writing, is spending the summer serving as an information management intern for the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, a sixteen day theater and dance festival held in September. Krause is one of the 20 Haverford students who received summer stipends from the Hurford '60 Humanities Center to pursue internships at local organizations.
The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival offers performances by cutting edge groups from around the world. The concurrent Philly Fringe is an opportunity for new and established artists to perform without entering into the selection process of the Live Arts Festival.
Krause, daughter of Paul Krause '72 and Sima Godfrey, is one of a long line of Fords who have worked at or performed in the festival over the years. Last year's event, for example, featured the Groundswell Players, made up of Scott Sheppard '06, and Ali King, Jack Meaney, Jesse Paulsen (all Class of '09). Pia Agrawal '05 currently serves as the festival's programming director, Kate Miller '06 has worked as an assistant director of development, and Mara Miller '10 and Ellen Freeman '11 previously served as information management interns.
In preparation for the 15th annual festival Krause and her fellow interns have been hard at work helping to write and edit the festival guide as well as conduct interviews for the Live Arts and Fringe Festival Blog, which provides a preview of the artists who will be performing, and reports on on-going events and arts groups in Philadelphia.
In an effort to enhance marketing and communications, Krause has started a new project for the blog in which she and another intern are producing a web-series of videos about some of the shows and performers in the festival. Her first episode is about the show Lady M, a modern interpretation of Shakespeare's Macbeth told from the perspective of the tale's witches. Krause's interview with play director Adrienne Mackey elaborates on the variety of artistic techniques used in the play, and highlights the use of the Roy Hart voice technique to emphasize the emotional gravity of Shakespeare's literature. Krause, herself a performing artist and a singer for the Haverford student band The Have-We-Mettes, experimented with the technique and discovered that she could make sounds that she didn't know were possible.
Krause has used the festival blog as an opportunity not just to hone her interview skills, but also to express her opinions, and explore her creative instincts. At one point during her internship, Krause's co-workers questioned the legitimacy of musical theater, one of her favorite forms of art. Krause responded with a blog post titled In Defense of Musical Theater: Sorry, Mr. McIlvain, in which she explores the wealth of influential American musical theater, ranging from West Side Story and Into The Woods, to Wicked and Spring Awakening.
Krause says that her co-workers were extremely supportive of her voicing her opinion, and added that since her internship began, she has“received nothing but support and encouragement to be creative.”
Krause's internship has allowed her to gain hands-on experience with some of her passions, including theater and design, and has helped her to develop her skills in movie making and creative writing.“I love to write, I love to design, I love to make movies,” says Krause.“I look forward going to work every day because I never know what I'll be doing. I think that getting to interact with participants of the festival has been most rewarding, but even when I am copy editing, I know I'm learning a lot.”
