well and truly done

Thank you, theater magic.

It's been a long, exhausting process. The drive is close to an hour each way. There have been actors missing rehearsals, actors missing lines, actors missing props.

Props missing.

Scenic elements unseen until literally the eleventh hour... well, not literally the eleventh hour because we were kicked out of the rehearsal space at the ninth hour, but you get the drift...

AND YET...

It happened. The actors hit their marks. The scenic elements not only set the stage but lifted the actors and supported the play.

The props functioned and gathered laughs of their own.

It worked.

Magic. Miracles.

I guess I'm still a believer.

:-)

The Good Person of Szechuan.

never enough time

We are around the corner from tech. Just a couple run throughs left.

Some things are starting to come together... little by little. But I still feel like we could use another couple of weeks.

This in spite of the fact that actually, for this play, we miraculously acquired a couple of "extra" weeks- because a performance two weeks before the actual run was canceled due to actions of another organization.

We are thrilled about the "found" weeks and have used them well.

Still, if we just had a couple more weeks... apparently, rehearsal periods are like purses. It doesn't matter what you have- you always fill it and wish for just a bit more (time/room).

artistry

     "And knowing, too, that this sort of artistry could not endure past the shaping moment, could only be spoken of after by those who recalled, or misrecalled, who had seen and half seen and not seen at all, distorted by memory and desire and ignorance, the achievement of it written as if on water or sand.
     "It mattered, terribly, and just now it didn't matter at all. Or could the fragility, the defining impermanence actually intensify the glory?" - Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay

I like this commentary on the ephemeral artistry of performance.

I hate this play (again)

It's that time again.

Actors are calling for "line!" right and left. Entrances are late. Props are forgotten.

I have given the same note to the same actor EIGHTEEN TIMES.

(Well, maybe only twelve. Okay, maybe only seven. BUT A LOT, OKAY?)

It looks like tech is just around the corner.

If I didn't know, from long experience, that this always happens, I would be more panicked than I am.

But, this always happens.

And, of course, I always panic.

I understand why it happens: We've pulled the play apart to work on individual moments, and now it feels like bits and pieces of something that will never come together.

It's hard to get the overall sweep of the play, when working the individual moments/scenes/details.

Especially with Brecht's deliberately episodic structure.

AND of course the actors are not confident of their lines...

So I panic.

I always do.

But- usually- somehow, through theater magic, it all comes together.

Here is hoping that theater magic is about to happen!

Directing Good People in Good Person

I am not one of those directors that sits down with the script and plans the entire

mise en scène. No. I am one of those directors that works with the living, breathing actors and discovers new possibilities at every rehearsal.

This is not to say that I don't have a plan. I have a plan- it's just quite open-ended.

The design of the set suggests some of the movements: This area will be where the gods appear to Wang; this area will be Shen Te's shop.

Then the movements grow out of the relationships that develop between the characters and the actors. Moments are discovered that must be private; moments are discovered that are overt conflict. These will mean turns or crosses away, or crosses toward, movements to pursue or escape.

While this form of blocking takes a bit longer, I believe it is easier for actors to remember. More than that, this form of blocking belongs to the actor- and the character- and is rooted in the internal as well as external action of each scene.

Madcap Melange

For this production of The Good Person of Szechuan, I am envisioning a madcap melange of ensemble excellence. The production will use a troupe of 14 actors, at least 2 puppet manipulators, masks and quick costume changes.

We are deliberately mixing and matching from many different styles, time periods and cultures.

It's a crazy mix.

Zany.

Hopefully hilarious.

research

I'm doing research for my upcoming directing gigs. I'm directing Good Person of Szechuan with a teen troupe.

Brecht's play is like a parable. We are playing with the idea of China or Szechuan. So my research has included images from Chinese fairy tales as well as images of costume and fashion of China in the late 1930s to early 1940s.

Brecht's play uses the grit of the down and out and the fantastic elements of visits from traveling gods and personal transformation. So my research has included posters selling cigarettes and hats in the 1930s, and images of Chinese gods in ceremonial robes.

We are playing with the unexpected and the making-strange and the theatrical. So my research has included the Marx brothers, traditional marriage in China and the Maoist marriage laws.

We are playing with marrying popular tunes with Brecht's song lyrics, as well as creating atmosphere with Chinese traditional music. So we are researching 1920s and 1930s ukulele tunes and contemporary hallelujahs and folk songs and drinking songs and Chinese music.

We are using masks and puppets so I have found images to share of masks in history and in actor training, and puppets being made and puppets being used.

I always learn even more than I imagined when I research a play.

The journey begins

Tomorrow is the day for the auditions/orientation for Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechuan presented by Full Impact Theater. I have "come out of retirement" to direct this show, long one of my favorites.

Tomorrow is the "beginning" although as the director, I've already been doing a lot of work. I've been researching the play, the era and place, and my particular tweaks on them. I have met with my production assistants. I've visited the two different stages on which this production will be performing.

So, maybe I began when I agreed to direct this play, some months ago.

Or maybe I began back in the 1990s, when I mused aloud how much I'd like to direct this play. Unbeknownst to me at the time, my troupe plotted behind my back to see if they could get together a group of alumni from my youth troupe to surprise me with a production-- but alas, too many had graduated and moved to diverse and distant destinations.

Or maybe I began in 1976, when I attended a summer intensive program at American University in D.C. In  one of our classes, we workshopped this play and I fell in love with its possibilities.

Bringing this play to life, beginning this particular production, who knows when it started?

Tomorrow, though, is a new step.

art vs. commerce

I need to come back to this. If you have thoughts, by all means share them.

I'm back!

I'm back! In more ways than one.

I'm back to this blog. I have quite a list of topics for this year. My friend LB is interested in doing Shakespeare in the park. I've done several different summers in different parks producing Shakespeare, so I told my friend I'd address this topic. I like talking Shakespeare. I do. I really do.

I'm back directing. I just directed a wonderful staged reading of Beth Kander's award winning play Scrambled in Flint. I am lined up to direct another of Beth's plays, Unshelved, in another state with my son's theater company (more details and links once this is official). So I am back to working theater with my kids!

AND I'm about to start directing The Good Person of Szechuan for Full Impact Theater, the teen theater company formerly known as Michigan Youth Theater-

in other words, I'm back with the company I founded more than a dozen years ago.

Stay tuned!