Hell week: day 1

We open one week from yesterday.

Yesterday was the start of hell week for me.

It's Comedy of Errors- sometimes literally!- Shakespeare in the Park, with teen theater troupe. TWO complete casts: one traditionally cast, one all female- except for Dr. Pinch, who is a guy in drag.

The last week of July. A heat wave.

Yesterday was the first day the actors were not allowed to call for line.

Oh, how I dread that long, painful day in the rehearsal process. Doubly dreadful this time, two run throughs, one for each cast.

And, to add to the delight, a storm.

I arrived at the amphitheater to find the storage rooms had flooded. The cement space in front of the stage (we plan to use it for seating) was flooded- three or more inches deep in places.

Joy.

NOT.

We unloaded additional collected props, set up for rehearsal, pulled out what had been soaked to dry.

I set up my director's chair and opened my notebook- and my umbrella.

And, as predicted, it was awful.

But... I actually laughed out loud - at the *play*- in a few places.

There is hope!

tech week

I am about to enter hell.

Tech week is called "hell week" by many, many theater folk. It's when in bringing it all together, it all falls apart- and, with luck, prayer, hard work and theater magic, it all comes together.

On Sunday, teens and adult mentors are gathering for a one-day marathon creating our set. The challenge this year is a new bandshell amphitheater - yea!- with a CEMENT FLOOR- boo! Fortunately, our design concept is Western cardboard cut out facade with bright primary colors and Southwestern rose and tan and taupe for neutrals- so it actually fits in with our concept if the audience can see braces and supports.

At least, I will tell everyone that it's an artistic choice!

Monday we bring in the rented lights and the rented microphones. We bring in the costumes and the props. We add the sound track.

Tuesday we add make up and hair.

Wednesday: final dress tech rehearsal. As close to show conditions as possible.

Thursday: OPENING #1!

Friday: OPENING #2!

(Oh, did I forget to mention that on each of those days I am doing everything TWICE? Once for each of two casts?)

Double hell.

thanks, Anthony and Karen

You made me laugh. There is hope.

costumes and designs and props oh my!

Looking forward to a fun day on Monday of props and costumes to try on and play with as we sort things out for the costume parade.

I hate this play

Even though I have directed and produced and performed enough plays to know that this happens almost every time, I still don't like this place where I have explained and explored and expounded and the actors still don't get it and it will never be funny and Shakespeare is STUPID and doesn't know how to write.

Past experience reminds me that it will get better, in fact it will most likely get great but right at this moment I hate this play and I don't want to go to rehearsal.

I would really rather stay home and read trashy novels and eat cookies.

But, instead, I am going to get up, get going, and do battle with teens and Shakespeare once more.

It doesn't help that yesterday I saw one of "my" kids who has opted not to do this last show with me, and this reminded me of several other absences of those I had thought/hoped would join me for this last adventure of this phase of my life.

Why do theatre?

I believe that theatre has the power to transform lives. It certainly transformed my life. Theatre's power comes from its immediacy and its vital human connection. There is intimacy and relevancy in sharing the human story through theatre.

In my research as I teach and learn, I found this wonderful video that captures much of what I believe theatre can do. The video can be found at http://www.ted.com/talks/patsy_rodenburg_why_i_do_theater.html

How I write plays

There are many different ways to write plays, and sometimes I think I’ve tried them all. Some of the ways that I have started plays are adapting classics to modern relevance; writing parodies of current fads; and taking real people, relationships or events and adapting and fictionalizing them. I have also tried “now for something completely different” and gone for something original and outside my experience.

In The Faust Project, I led a group of teens in exploring Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and Goethe’s Faust. The Faust legend is the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil for all knowledge and power. Our group analyzed the plot and characters of the two plays, then researched what we thought would be forbidden knowledge today. Then we wrote a play with similar characters and plot but set in today’s world.

In creating the interactive play Julia, I took the plot and characters from Julius Caesar, and adapted those characters into the modern day in an urban teen girl gang. In Shakespeare’s play, Brutus is led by Cassius to betray his friend Julius Caesar, for Caesar, in becoming emperor, has challenged the very meaning of the Roman republic. Brutus is torn by conflicting loyalties: loyalty to friends, loyalty to Rome (his country/community), loyalty to his own ideals. In Julia, Julius Caesar became Julia Sierra, who is capturing media attention and trying to bring her gang “legit”, threatening the relationships and community of their world. Brutus became Ruth, Cassius became Cassie.

In each of the above cases, I took an established play, borrowed the plot and the characters to fit the needs of the new play I was creating. It is important to note that I didn’t just take a play and change the names; the characters changed to fit the new setting and the new conflicts in the new play.

I had lots of fun in writing Nightlight: Vampires Afraid of the Dork, a parody of the Twilight series. Again, using the characters and storyline from an established work, I twisted and tweaked for humorous effect- real groaners, I am not kidding. For instance, Bella Swan became Smella Duck, and her father, Charlie the police chief, carried donuts and Dunkin Donuts coffee with him everywhere. Jacob Black, member of the tribe, became Jacob Schwartz, who commented that he was not related to Sitting Bull, although they were both Sioux (pronounced “Sue”), Sitting Bull was a member of the Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux, while Jacob was a member of the Yo Mama, She Gotta Sue.

CHEESY. Yes, but it got a laugh. In writing a parody, you are making fun of what you are satirizing by exaggerating and twisting out of shape.

Another great source, because you know it so well, is your own life and relationships. Ruth and Naomi is a play I am writing that started with examining the relationship that I had with my mother-in-law (of blessed memory). Our relationship started out as a difficult one; we came from very different backgrounds, and I was marrying her youngest son, her baby. Over time, we came to have a great relationship built on mutual respect. The beginning, however, was undoubtedly rocky. And I thought: what if? What if a mother-daughter-in-law relationship had that same rocky start- but the son/husband died? And what if the women were still tied together by an unborn child? So my play Ruth and Naomi got its start.

The play Ruth and Naomi also uses another technique: your own take on Biblical or mythical tales. In the Book of Ruth in the Bible, Ruth loves her mother-in-law so much that Ruth leaves her own homeland to follow Naomi. In my play Ruth and Naomi, the two women dislike and distrust one another, but each has an investment that keeps them bound together even after the death of the man they shared.

Finally, there are the works that are completely original. In my play Hootchy Kootchy Coo, a group of strippers discover that one of their troupe is pregnant. She is determined to keep the baby, but she really needs the job. The unlikely group become friends as they band together to hide the pregnancy and “cover” her stripping acts until the baby comes and transforms them all. In this play, I am interested in exploring the concept of women as sexy and women as mothers: two roles that in our society seem opposed and irreconcilable.

An idea can come from anywhere. It might be a childhood story, a family incident, a scrap of conversation overheard at a coffee shop. In your mind, a story begins. Write it down. Challenge your characters with obstacles to overcome in achieving their heart’s desires. Soon, you will have a play!