4.17.12 - Post Show

This will be my last post on this blog.  We had three wonderful shows this past weekend and audience members seemed to really love the show.  I was very pleased with the quality of the show and the reaction to the show.

Thank you again to all the people who helped make this show possible and to everyone who came to see the show.

Here's a link to some great photos taken by Alec Jacobson of our final dress rehearsal last week:

PHOTOS!

4.14.12 - Performance # 3

Closing Night!  Thanks for coming to the show!

If you have anything you'd like to say about tonight's performance, please comment here.

4.13.12 - Performance # 2

Comment here if you have any thoughts about the second performance.

Thanks for coming!

4.12.12 - Performance # 1

Thanks for coming to the show!

Please comment on this post with any responses to the play.

4.11.12 - Rehearsal 27

Last night of rehearsal!  We worked a few scenes, then did a full run through, and then worked some problematic technical transitions.  There were a few people in the audience and it was nice to finally have some people responding to the play.  Opening night is tomorrow!

4.10.12 - Rehearsal 26

We spent the first hour working a few scenes and then did two full run throughs will all technical elements.  Jasia did a really great job calling all the light, sound, and set cues after just learning them the day before.  All of us actors made some mistakes in the first run through since we hadn’t done some of the scenes in a week and hadn’t run through the play in many days.  The second run through felt more comfortable. 

Amherst’s Center for Community Engagement (CCE) has been a huge help in the development of this play.  Jenny Morgan, a staff writer for the CCE, wrote an article about the play.  Check it out!

CCE Article

4.9.12 - Rehearsal 25

Not a whole not to say about tonight’s rehearsal even thought we did a lot.  We worked on a few specific scenes for a hour and then spent the next four hours finishing the tech elements of the show.  Here's a link to the promotional video for the show:

Promo Video

4.8.12 - Rehearsal 24

Today we had six hours of technical rehearsal.  We met the stage crew who will be helping us backstage and the light and sound board operators who will be helping us in the booth.  Today’s rehearsal was all about them and all about getting Jasia comfortable with calling the show.  The stage manager is the one who actually orchestrates the performances; she tells people when to do everything.  So the way this rehearsal worked is Jasia was in the audience with Andy, Brooke, Stephanie, and Kathy and they figured out when she had to tell people when to do things.  We would start and stop as we worked through the play chronologically until the timing was right.  There are a lot of technical elements in this show, so we only got through half of the show today, but the half we did get through looks and sounds wonderful.  We will pick up where we left off tomorrow.  Here are two more rehearsal pictures courtesy of Kate Berry to get you excited for the show.

4.6.12 - Dry Tech

We almost got through the whole show figuring out where lights and sound and set changes go.  The show looks and sounds great!  I took a few pictures, but I don’t want to give away the beautiful set.  So here’s a picture from Thursday’s run through as a teaser.  Kate Berry took this picture.  She also took the picture at the top of the blog from our January workshop.  Her credit is long overdue.

4.5.12 - Rehearsal 23

We spent the first half of rehearsal working on specific scenes.  Then we did another run through of the show.  Sam’s family was there to see the show, as well as Andy’s wife, and a friend of mine who was taking pictures.  We had a little audience.  Andy finished rehearsal by giving some notes.  Two days off of rehearsal for us actors to go over lines, blocking, and acting choices.  Tomorrow Andy, Jasia, Brooke, and Kathy will do a “dry” tech.  That means we will go through the technical elements of the show without any actors on stage or crew people to help out.  This is so we can get a head start on adding technical elements (sound, lights, costume, scene changes, props, etc.) before we do all of it starting Sunday.  It is also so Andy can make comments on Kathy’s lighting design so she has time to made adjustments.

4.4.12 - Rehearsal 22

Another packed rehearsal.  We finished choreographing the musical number and then did a run through of the show.  Andy said that this run through was all about us, the actors.  He wanted us to focus on the character work and scene work we had been doing earlier in the week.  Josh came in to film stuff for the promotional video.  The floor is painted and the set is close to bring done.  Kathy was on the light board playing around with some lights.  We also used costumes.  All the elements are coming together.  It’s quite exciting! 

4.3.12 - Rehearsal 21

Our last night rehearsing in Holden.  We started off by quickly working the LA Times scene.  Then, we did some more character work with new characters.  It’s wonderful how focused we get after the character work.  It’s also great to see how much people find by just walking around and playing around, feeding off each other.  Andy wanted us to go bigger with our physicality and exaggerate more.  We worked the first part of the musical number.  Then we jumped around and did scene work.

4.2.12 - Rehearsal 20

Rehearsing in a new space last night because they are painting Kirby.  Andy started off the rehearsal by saying that we were just going to play, try out new things, unexpected things.  He said that our play was “experimenting for information.”  I really like that phrase because it provides structure to an open process.  We experiment, which means that anything can happen and we are open to all the possibilities.  But we experiment with a purpose: to mine for information for the project at hand.  That means that you try out a bunch of crazy things, but select the information that is relevant to the project.  We spent the first hour of rehearsal walking in a grid.  Andy brought our attention to different things: the space around us, the air around us, how we move through space, the specificities of how we move.  We then turned into a king, then a fallen king, then that fallen king as an animal.  Then we started creating a specific physicality for our first character.  Then we added noise.  Then words.  By the end of that hour we had begun to inhabit our characters.  Andy said this was only the beginning, that we need to keep making big choices.  We then spent the other two hours working through scenes.

4.1.12 - Rehearsal 19

We met in Kirby for a five hour rehearsal today.  We started rehearsal with a “costume parade.”  That’s where we went actor by actor, character by character and put on our costumes so that Andy and Brooke could see how they look on us and in relation to other characters.  Then we worked the first few moments of the play.  That’s where we start and stop a scene lots of times to clarify the actor choices and get as specific as we can.  Stephanie came in and taught us the big musical number in the show.  We sang and danced for a bit and it was really fun.  This idea came from a silly moment Esmé did a while back and we have developed it and found a place for it in the show.  Stephanie has made this wild idea into something great.  Then we did a full run through of the show.  Jasia also printed out a final script for all cast and designers.  This script reflects all the editing we did last week.  We will continue to make small changes up until the performance.  Yesterday, Jenney did a primer coat on the stage floor.  Gina and her will be painting the floor Monday and Tuesday, so we will be rehearsing in the other theater space, Holden, so the paint can dry.

3.28.12-3.30.12 – Rehearsal 16, 17, and 18

Today we finished staging the play and did a full run through of the play.  Very exciting stuff.  This is the way these past rehearsals have worked: we would all convene in the theater, we would work through some moments in order, and then we would run the moments in sequence without stopping.  Andy would end the rehearsal by giving the actors some notes.  Andy and I would meet after rehearsal ended to go over any script editing or rewriting we needed to do before the next rehearsal.  What I mean by “work through” is Andy would give us actors our general movements on stage and then he would ask us some questions about our character: what do we want in the scene, how are we getting what we want, what are the logical steps of the argument we are advancing.  While these characters are based on real people, they are and are not those people.  By that I mean that when you put a real person on stage you flatten them out by not including a lot of the complexities of a real human being, but you also exaggerate certain aspects of who they are so they can conflict with other characters.  As the person who did all the interviews and knows these people (to varying degrees) in real life, it has been interesting and entertaining to see when the onstage character the actor is creating differs from the person in real life and when there are similarities.  We have a much needed day off tomorrow and then jump into our last week of rehearsals before we add all the technical elements to the show. Andy and I will make final edits to the script and on Sunday, we will distribute a final full copy of the script to all actors and designers.  Next week we will go deeper into the physicality of our characters and get more specific about the choices we make as actors in each moment.

3.27.12 - Rehearsal 15

We worked through Act 1 and then ran it all the way through.  We’ve gotten to the point where each moment has lots of elements layered on top of each other.  It’s not that the moments are overly busy, but that they are full.  This means that all six of us are always doing things: acting, moving tables, bringing the curtain up, changing costumes.  We finished up rehearsal by working through the first moment of Act 2.  We keep chugging along, staging more moments, refining older moments, and always making small changes to text and movements.  It keeps everyone on their toes.

3.26.12 - Rehearsal 14

We finished working moments in “Act 1.”  There are not multiple acts in the play, but we have sectioned off the play into three “acts” to break it up into workable chunks.  There are also three parts to the larger story.  After working the last few moments, we sat down and talk through the script changes that Andy and I had made earlier today.  Then we started at the top of the show and tried to run things in order.  We paused to deal with issues when they arose.  I have also been working on the poster for the show.  Here it is:

3.25.12 - Rehearsal 13

Another five hour rehearsal today.  We picked up where we left off yesterday working moments in the order in chronological order.  We are setting some details and leaving others for the next time we work through moments.  Generally, we are working moments to see how they work in order and hear them out loud, up on their feet, and on the stage.  It was energizing to see things from the September workshops, the January workshops, and previous rehearsals still present in the moments we are working on.  We really have built a common theatrical language.  Because of this common language, we are staging at a pretty good pace.  While we are still thinking about elements and theatrical storytelling, we have also moved into more traditional rehearsal vocabulary.  We are discussing what characters want, how they get what they want, breaking down character’s arguments, what words to emphasize, where to stand, and what movements to make on stage.  We make little changes to the script here and there.  After dinner, we had a cast and designer dinner at Andy’s on campus apartment.  It was fun to socialize with this group.  For a bit we talked about the term “political theater,” its definition, its implications, and how that might relate (or not relate) to telling personal, human stories on stage.

3.24.12 - Rehearsal 12

After a week off, we all came back to Kirby to play for five hours.  We acquainted ourselves with the new set and costume stuff on stage.  Then we passed out copies of a first full draft of the play that Andy and I had worked very hard on this past week.  We did a full read through and then worked the first four moments of the play in a more traditional manner – you move there, you drop this at this moment, etc.  It was great for me to hear all these words out loud, together and to experience these moment puzzle pieces in an order that formed a story.  The other actors seemed excited as well.

3.21.12 - Script Development

It’s been a few days since I have blogged, so I want to update the millions of people who are not reading this blog on the many things that have happened since our showing last Thursday.

I forgot to mention something important Andy said before we began the showing.  He said to put as much effort and focus into moving a chair or walking across stage as you put into the lines you say.  This is the product of Moment Work because all theatrical elements are equally expressive.  The text you say can be as important as the light you shine on someone or the set piece you move.

Friday morning Andy and I had a meeting to take stock of where we are.  We talked about the things we liked from the showing.  I decided I wanted the play to focus on teachers – teachers was our way into the larger conversations.  So we decided I would act as narrator character and then each of the other five actors would have a main teacher character that we would follow throughout the play.  Of course, we will all be playing multiple smaller characters.  These five teachers would be the people we invest in, we feel for, we get to know.  After the meeting I started working on character arcs.  In other words, finding text that would tell a dramatic story for each of the teachers.  After Andy and I met, we also met with Brooke to talk more specifics about costumes.

On Monday, Andy and I talked again to discuss the character arcs I had sent him.  He told me that each moment in a character arc needs to talk about one thing, otherwise the audience gets confused and can’t follow the story you are leading them through.  He also said that each moment in a character arc needs to have an entrance and exit point.  The entrance point tell us what is to come in the moment, gets us interested.  The exit point makes us want to hear what happens next.  The goal of this kind of writing is to craft an interesting story that gets the audience emotionally invested.  In this way, moment writing isn’t that different from “traditional” playwriting.

I’ve been having a hard time with all this playwriting because I don’t consider myself a playwright, nor do I have any skills at it.  Taking the job of head writer for this play has been challenging, but in the end, I’m sure it will have been a great learning experience.  Tuesday, I had a productive meeting with Ron and he basically said, “You need to write the script this week.”  That doesn’t mean that things won’t change as we start to rehearse the piece, but we have mostly been working with moments in isolation.  It’s now time to think about the big story we are telling and see how moments fit next to each other.  So, that’s my task for the rest of the week.  As you can see from the pictures below, I am writing visually.  Each moment is a puzzle piece and I am trying to fit them together.  I’m trying to think of what moments can be juxtaposed and what moments can support each other.  I hope to have a draft of the complete script by our rehearsal on Saturday.

3.15.12 - Rehearsal 11

For the first three hours of rehearsal, we worked out the logistics of the showing.  We had about 12 moments layered and sequenced with some transition moments in between.  We had to figure out who did what when and where.  The six of us had to do everything on stage: act, move set pieces, change costumes, bring in the curtain, bring in the scrim, etc.  Madison was on lights and, with the help of Kathy, expertly wrote some cues to make things look good up on stage.  The last hour we performed the little piece for Kathy, Jenney, Brooke, and Andy.

While I didn’t see it, the showing felt great.  I don’t know how the piece we performed will fit into the larger play, but it was successful for what it was.  I was surprised by how quickly we were able to put it all together, but then realized that we were able to do it quickly because of the snowball effect of Moment Work.  We have been developing a similar language and working on what would end up in the showing little by little for a few weeks now.  As we have worked, we have all picked up small things along the way and we work well together and we are all working in the same world.  The process allowed us to relatively quickly throw something together and have it be something worthwhile.

We now take a week break from rehearsals because of Spring Break.  But Andy and I will be working a lot on the script, the narrative, the vision of the piece; and the actors will be memorizing text that we already know will be end up in the final piece in some fashion.  We will be writing new moments and strengthening old ones; we will be making character arcs; we will be thinking about what we have and what holes we have; we will be thinking more about how characters talk to each other and the message we want to say with the play.

3.14.12 - Rehearsal 10

Tonight we saw a few new moments, but spent most of rehearsal fine tuning our favorite moments.  Andy and I worked on an order for the showing tomorrow.  Andy had the great idea to have the character of Elias come to the fictional school where the play is set and ask to hear people’s stories.  Elias would spend the school day talking to people and occasionally the audience would see and hear one of those interviews take place on stage.  I thought it was a inventive yet not forced way of getting my interview process into the play.  I had to leave in the middle part of the rehearsal, but it was a good, productive rehearsal.

3.13.12 - Rehearsal 9

We have moments, which are units of theatrical time.  We also have forms, which are things we can put a variety of other things on.  For example, an actor center stage playing with blocks is a form because it is not a moment with a beginning, middle, and end and because we could put a variety of text on top of that form and/or we could put another movement on top of that form.  Now we are working on two tracks.  One, we are continuing to generate more new forms and moments.  Two, we are starting to layer and sequence moments.  Layering is when you put two moments on top of one another, do them at the same time.  Sequencing is when you do moments in a certain order, one after another.  This is all in the effort to see how moments speak to each other, how they interact, what they say when put before or after or on top of something else.  More complex theatrical information.  So that’s what we started to do in rehearsal tonight.  Sam was absent doing his one man show at a local theater festival.  We are working towards a short informal performance of a series of moments Thursday night.  This will give us a lot of information about where we stand and where the narrative is going.

Before rehearsal I was a little stressed about the openness of this whole process.  As I thought about the time we have left and all the work that needs to get done, I wanted fewer things to be up in the air.  But, for better or worse that is not how this process works.  During rehearsal I forgot about my worries and tried to focus on the work at hand.  After rehearsal, I felt decidedly better.  Still stressed, but better.  Andy said that in his mind we have three questions to focus on in the near future.  One, what is the container of the evening?  What are we using to frame the play?  Two, how does my story fit into the play?  Three, what characters arcs will be our focus?

3.12.12 - Rehearsal 8

Tonight felt like a productive rehearsal.  Things were happening; elements were coming together.  People were working together and in the specific roles.  It also helped that I was finally not sick.  Stephanie, Jenney, and Kathy joined us.  The cast showed some moments and Andy and I had some moments we wanted to see.  The general rhythm of the night: someone prepped their moment, we did it, then people responded to it, and we would make a few variations changing an element to see how that influenced the greater moment.  Esmé brought in a moment where she did a song a dance about high stakes testing.  She then taught it to the rest of the ensemble.  We then did a six person song and dance moment.  The crazy idea of doing a musical number about standardized testing originated a few rehearsals ago as just that, a crazy idea.  It has stayed in our minds and has evolved.  This is how an idea is birthed from Moment Work and kept alive and bettered through Moment Work.  The idea comes from theatrical elements put together to make a moment.  Many times the idea is a small image or gesture or “Oh, that makes me think of this other thing” within a moment.  Many times the idea comes from a moment we thought was a “bad” moment.  Well, there is no such thing as a “bad” moment because it is all theatrical information.  After the idea originates it may pop back up in other moments and get morphed by the new elements with which it comes into contact.  We don’t know what this musical moment will look like in the play, but I bet you there will be one.

I wanted to say a few words about all the work that happens between the rehearsal work.  Besides the cast generating moments to show in rehearsal, there is a lot that happens between rehearsals in a creative model such as the one we are using to create Going Public.  When moments use text, numerous copies are made and are organized into three binders, one for the script wrangler, one for Andy, and one for me.  Andy and I are also writing new moments we want to hear and see in rehearsal and organizing the interview text.  The task is simple, but tough: choose the best text and say what you want to say with it.  When making text moments I find it hard to remember that text is just one of many theatrical elements.  That is why Andy calls text a “tyrant,” because it dominates our creative thinking.  In a moment you can say something, many times more powerfully, with light than with text.  Andy said today that we want to throw text at existing forms that we have created in rehearsal and throw text at new forms.  This process is basically trial and error and that is one of the reasons it is so time consuming and can be somewhat chaotic.

3.8.12 - Rehearsal 7

I still wasn’t feeling well in rehearsal tonight, but I thought we had a productive rehearsal.  We are starting to get the timing right in between moments so that someone is always setting up and we are thinking ahead so we can work on as many moments as we can.  We all help each other out and because of that the transitions are getting smoother.

We started with Morning Announcements and then moved on to our prepared moments.  Sam’s testing moment had me with a big cardstock white oval for a head.  We’re getting six white ones and six grey ones made and might do a standardized testing dance number.  Anything is possible.  My moment had text about a high school metal class where I built a metal grate for an organization whose grate was broken.  I also had someone on a ladder dropping ovals on someone else in a desk taking a test.  One of the cast members felt the moment was paternalistic.  While I disagreed, Andy made a good point that the stuff we are talking about in this play is so politically charged.  Audience members will be coming to the theater will very strong opinions and we need to be aware of that, but being aware doesn’t mean shying away from controversial issues.  Meesh had a lovely moment where she was a burlesque-ish clown that filled in an oval on one chalkboard and painted on another to some fun Italian music.  One of my favorite parts was the first time she painted; it was a total surprise.  Without thinking about it, I was clapping enthusiastically – a theater magic moment.  We worked a bit with discovering the physicality of the LA Times reporters: how to make them a team.  We finished rehearsal by working on some text moments that Andy had brought in.

3.6.12 - Rehearsal 6

I wasn’t feeling well, so I had to take it easy at rehearsal.  We started off by showing each other more prepared moments.  Everyone had a personal moment that was inspired by a new questionnaire that Andy had given us.  Sam and I had an extra moment inspired by the characters we were cast to play.  My character moment was a story about a student who never wanted to do any work and then one day performed a wonderful poem in front of a bunch of people.  The moment prompted a short discussion about the dramatic centers of moments – what do we want to dramatize in each moment?  Those are hard questions to answer, but they are necessary to make the play entertaining and meaningful.  A few days ago Andy made preliminary casting decisions so that we could become familiar with the main characters we would be playing.  In between showing moments we did an improv activity called “Morning Announcements.”  We did a few rounds where we were students who were giving an announcement at a school-wide assembly.  One round we talked about an important event we were planning, another round we introduced ourselves.  Andy said that we would begin each rehearsal with a set of these morning announcements.

Towards the end of the night we did more Viewpoints with the classroom chair set up.  Brooke put out some blazers and we changed back and forth between students and newspaper reporters.  A classroom is quite similar to a newsroom.  It was really fun to make these quick character changes with just a costume piece and our bodies.  I could feel the energy of the room change each time we switched characters.  I can imagine it being fun to watch.

3.4.12 - Rehearsal 5

We had a long (5 hour) rehearsal.  It began with some excitement.  The first prepared moment we saw was Jeffrey’s and Esmé wanted to do a variation.  Jeffrey fell over in his chair and cut himself pretty badly.  He had to go to the hospital and get stitches.  Like the trooper he is, he came back and finished rehearsal.  After regrouping, we kept showing moments and making variations.  From my moment, we discovered that the play needs a moment where things go right: students learn, they are having fun, the teacher is happy.  From Esmé’s moment, we learned that one narrative line could be her creatively analyzing a poem throughout the play and then at the end being told that wasn’t the right way to analyze the poem.  After going through our prepared moments, Andy had us work on two moments with text that he had thought of.  One was called “Sal Si Puedes” and the other was called “Community.”  It was great to see things we had been working on in pieces all week come together in a more polished moment.

We have a day off tomorrow.  Andy and I are working more on the narrative arc and polishing text that we will bring into rehearsal and play with.  Starting next week we are in Kirby!

It’s been about a week since rehearsals started and things have been going really well, but I wanted to share a few of my fears so far.  Devising theater can be stressful because there are so many moving parts.  When you are working in a more traditional way, you have a script that anchors you.  In the devised theater model, everything is in flux until the very end and that instability can be worrisome.  Right now I am worried about the development of the script and giving actors enough time to memorize their lines.  I am also wondering how we are going to talk about so many big, important issues in a subtle way.  It’s easy to do something that hits you over the head with an issue, but that is not interesting to watch.  I am also a little worried about not having enough humor in the show.  Without humor, audience members might not be open to the more poignant moments.  But when I get worried, I remind myself to trust the process and my collaborators.  And I do trust.

3.3.12 - Rehearsal 4

When I prepare a moment I think about a story I want to tell; usually it’s a simple story, a minute or two from life, or a feeling from life.  Then I think about the elements that I could play with to tell that story.  Again, I try to keep it simple: light, a prop, a movement.  Ideally, I could play with my idea and my elements in the space before I show the moment to discover what both do when they are in conversation with each other, but that can’t happen all the time.  Many times I am presenting a rough idea of the moment and it’s the first time I will have put it up on its feet.  But that’s okay in Moment Work and it’s one of the things I love about this way of working.  Andy said today in rehearsal that there is actually no way to mess up a moment because moments are just theatrical information and the more information, the better.  This really lowers the stress level when presenting moments, and usually makes the moments better because you are not second-guessing yourself.

We spent most of rehearsal today showing more personal moments we had prepared.  One of Jeffrey’s moment was about waiting for the school day to end (2:58 and the clock doesn’t seem to be moving) and that information led us to really want to include a moment like that in the piece.  Had Jeffrey not come into rehearsal with this, we might have never thought of that.  I don’t think the moment Jeffrey presented in rehearsal will end up in the piece as is, but I bet there will be a moment whose origins you can trace back to today’s rehearsal.  Realizing that is energizing.  Esmé, in her moment, looked like she was swimming in a desk and that opened up the possibility of using desks in a variety of new ways (as clothes, a limbs, as creatures).  We spent a good portion of rehearsal playing with the school desks in the room and it was really fun.  Everyone was listening to each other, open, focused, and playing.  Because of that we generated a new vocabulary with the desks that hadn’t been there at the beginning of rehearsal.

Before rehearsal, Andy and I met in the rehearsal room and charted out some of the narrative arc of the play on butcher paper.  Part of the play deals with The LA Times publishing ranking of public school teachers based on their student’s standardized test scores and a statistical method called value added.  We went through this story and verbalized the smaller events that make up the story.  We asked ourselves, What does the audience need to know in order to understand this story?  The next step is to chart out the other events of the play that go before and after the LA Times story.

3.2.12 - Rehearsal 3

This morning we had a design meeting Andy, Jasia, myself, the set, costumes, and lighting designers, the shop director, and the technical director were all there.  Jenney showed up her set plans and we talk about some of the possible visual elements of the show: projections, things falling from the sky, plexi glass, a scrim.  Afterwards Andy and I talked about the main characters in the play and possible narrative arcs.

We started rehearsal by doing more Viewpoints with the desks in rows.  We added our gestures of doubt, trust, and betrayal.  We worked with tempo; then we added short lines that answered the question, “What is the goal of education?”  As a performer, it was great to have so many elements build on top of each other because they all started interacting in different ways.  When you didn’t know what to do, you had many layers of elements to focus your attention on.  The cast was playing with each other, listening to each other, and some very cool things were added.  Then we did a variation with Jeffrey telling a story at a podium down right while we did Viewpoints.  Even though I was in it, it seemed great.  It’s very satisfying to have days of work build on each other and all come into play in a complex moment.  For the rest of rehearsal we showed each other new moments we have prepared and made variations.  One of the things I love about Moment Work is that the moments give you the information you need.  From Sam’s moment, we learned it would be great to have bleachers integrated in the set.  From Madeline’s moment, we learned we should use the story of her favorite teacher having to leave because of mold.  We did a very funny improv, where the three guys and the three girls sat on stairs and were teenagers bitching about their teachers.

3.2.12 - Background

One thing I forgot to mention about last night's rehearsal:

During Meesh's discovery moment, she blew into the hole in the middle of the wooden paper towel holder and a feather came out.  It surprised everyone and it was a delightful moment on stage.  No one expected it and it got everyone instantly interested in what was going on.  That is what we are trying to do.

I realized today that I have assumed you know what I know about the development of this project.  While rehearsals have started this week, I have been working on this project for a while.  Like I said before, it started with interviews in the summer.  In September, Andy came up to Amherst for a weekend to lead an intensive workshop introducing us to Moment Work.  This was open to all five-college students who signed up (there were about 14 who participated) and open to any Pioneer Valley community members who wanted to come and watch.  During the Fall semester, I was in a Theater and Dance class called “Performance Project,” where I created a short piece using public documents as text and using Moment Work.  During Interterm, Andy came back up for a weeklong intensive in the next level of Moment Work.  This was also open to five college student participants and community member observers.  During the week, we learned more about finding narrative in this way of working and more about using text.  All throughout this time I have been building my team of collaborators.  I have also been getting interviews transcribed, organizing text, and talking with Andy about the direction of the play.  It has been important to have all this time because each time we got into a rehearsal room with other people we learned something new.  It has been constructive to have time in between these active sessions to reflect on what we have discovered and generate a plan to go forward.