Turning “Three Quarters” on April 2nd reminded me of the world I was born into and grew up in. So here are a few reflections and wide-ranging observations on the seismic changes that have happened over those years.
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Each production of a play is different. There are different actors in different spaces with different lights, sounds, and sets. You may think that the variations stop there, but they don’t. “The words are the words, so how can there be variations?” As the stage manager, I get to see thousands of different versions of a play before it gets to opening night. Being able to witness all of the versions of the play in rehearsal, the stage manager truly has the best seat in the house. I get to see the first time that the cast sits down and reads the play together, giving the play the first signs of life. Then I get to watch the cast stand up and move about the space, saying the words, reading the stage directions, and putting it all together for the first time. After this, I get to watch the best part, playing and taking direction. When you have a good group working together (and boy, do we have a good group), the director is able to give the actors one word, one feeling, one adjustment and the run of the scene is something completely new and different than before - changing the way the actors and director understand the play as a whole.
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“We will drive the bus while putting wheels on it”; this is one of the Room Agreements in our creative space as we work on OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD.
This project is unlike any other project I have worked on before with its duration and authentic commitment to process. There have been many unknowns and uncertainties along the way, and as we are nearing the next phase of this project, I am feeling the value in driving forward even when things seem uncertain. This crystallized earlier this month when the company was in residence at The Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium (GLMCC).
How do you combine everything into a cohesive look that has everything you want as a designer, everything the director wants, doesn't ruin the life of the lighting designer and takes into account sight lines and the overall budget? Everyone has their own methods. Some sketch like crazy, some talk it out, some make vision boards. In this case, I found myself doing all three. Looking at what I first sketched out versus what we are landing on, I see two different beasts, but some initial work still holds true.
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before. I was given a script, a sort of treasure map if you will. I was put in a room with other creative minds and the goal was to come together as one vessel and figure out, not only what routes we would take to find the treasure, but decide on what that treasure would be. And then, share it with others.
Eight or nine months later in our excursion, as we go into the more “traditional” rehearsal process for the show, I revisited my journals, sketches and post its and decided to highlight (in no particular order) what I've learned or experienced so far in this amazing journey with some of the most creative and courageous souls I know.
As you may have seen, Seat of the Pants has finally been able to announce the sale of tickets for our year long project, Our Country’s Good. These past few weeks, we have officially began our rehearsals and production meetings in full and proper swing. I am so excited to finally be in what feels like the final phase of this adventure as we are just a few more steps away from being able to show you all what a year of hard work and dedication to honing our art can bring. Getting to work with such talented and dedicated people has always been rewarding to me but the level of collaboration I have experienced since the fall of last year has been on another level entirely.
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For this blog entry, I had plans to explain my process of selecting music and creating and finding sound effects, but I’m not yet able to put it into words that would make sense to most people, especially since I’m trying something very new this time around, soliciting input from the actors about what type of music elicits what emotions from them as I attempt to create the “soundscape” of this world.
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For a number months, we have been building. We have been flying and diving into our work, forcing our way through the mud with passionate fiery hope: each step, making invisible discoveries, transient by nature, evolving with time, to the point of seeking balance. Where are the traditions and approaches that I have clung to for so long, do I even have this, am I doing the work right? I want to feel the work beneath my feet; I want to find my repetition; I want to feel the whole. It’s been a long process. Something I have always wanted: an opportunity for the new, the ideal, for something different. But like most things that we want, when we get there we cannot see it or appreciate it, because there is always more. I was starting to seek the comfortable. I was starting to fear what came next. But life has a way of showing you what you need as long as you are open to it.
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What is theatre without an audience? Frankly, it’s nothing. The audience is always the last piece of the puzzle.
The Our Country’s Good family has been working on and off now for about eight months. We met twice a month and worked on technique, creating a common vocabulary, and earning each other’s trust. But we haven’t had an audience.