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.