Reimagining ‘Summertime’
It was summertime, and the livin’ was easy. But maybe not the acting. “Let me see the inner conflict,” yelled Osh Ghanimah, a first-year student at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.)/MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training, addressing a group of eager, rambunctious students at the Boston Collegiate Charter School in Dorchester. Fish were jumping — well, one fish was jumping, played by Jordyn Paomer-Mattier, who bounced to great effect, before being “caught” by fellow fishermen/thespians, who cracked up as they wrestled the 15-year-old to the ground. “We’re not laughing. This is serious,” Ghanimah shouted, as intense as any Broadway director. “You’re going to feed your family for three weeks because of this fish. We don’t respect ourselves as actors by laughing.” Paomer-Mattier and about 40 of his classmates were reinterpreting the classic tune “Summertime” from George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess” as part of a two-day workshop on Sept. 12 and 13, conducted...