I have just finished reading my thesis script, Dark of the Moon by Howard Richardson & William Berney again. It seems like every time I read it there is something new that comes out of it - a change that needs to happen, a realization about one or more of the characters, a new image that speaks to me about the show. There are some basic changes that I think need to happen in my original set design to help facilitate the story. 1. There really needs to be a large log that sits next to the house for the wood chopping scene. It really should live about center stage and run diagonally UL to DR. 2. The Rock where the Conjur Man & Conjur Woman live needs to be revamped. It needs clearer platform-like levels (I am thinking circular) that need to step up to the main platform with the cave. This will facilitate the look that I think is necessary for the end scene with Barbara laying on the rock, dead, at the end of the show.
There are some basic things that I know, however, that I do NOT want to change:
1. I want the show to be seen through the eyes of John. His world needs to be the one that is "normal" for us, the audience. It is his choices and his changes that drive our feelings for the rest of the town and the other characters (specifically Barbra) in the show. John and the witches need to be in their own little world that is normal for them - flying on eagles and playing in the fog, the magic, etc. all need to feel like that is what SHOULD be happening; however, the town needs to feel very foreign to John. The things that they do, the way they treat each other and outsiders, etc. needs to feel like it is very out of place in John's life.
2. The Conjur Man & Woman are the only ones that should seem like they are a part of both worlds. They need to seem like they could live in both worlds simultaneously, but if they were to live in just one world they would be out of place.
3. There has to be something that draws John to Barbra Allen and visa versa. I, at this point, am not sure what that something is, but it needs to be there.
4. EVERYONE in the show messes up at some point during the story. There is a point for those characters that are a part of John's personal life that feel remorse, regret, pain, suffering, or sorrow. It is what those characters do at that critical time of change that defines for us (the audience) who they are and how we should feel about them. The only characters that do not really feel that sorrow or regret are the townspeople. Their bigoted fanaticism, coupled with their closed-minded stubbornness make them impervious to the effects of such REAL emotion which, in turn, makes us unable to empathize with them at all during the course of the play.
5. I am toying around with the idea of leaving Barbara dead at the end of the show. She would effectively stay in the dead position on stage throughout the curtain call (she would not get one). I like the idea that the consequences of people's actions are going to affect those around them. This is no different. Dead is dead. She is not going to come back to life and I do not want the audience to have that option be available to them as they leave - if Barbara STAYS dead when they leave then she will STAY dead for them later.
Painful realizations...
I am sitting in my auditorium cringing during a choir concert wondering - "where did I go wrong...?" and then realizing that I have not taken control of my technical staff the way I should have at the beginning of the year. I have let bad habits and cocky/controlling students run all over me. As a consequence, I have come to the painful realization that more than half of my crew does not know how to propperly set up & run a microphone or patch and write a basic cue in the light board... *(sheesh...)*
I can tell that it is now going to be a really hard thing to take control and remedy the issues that are currently plaguing me. I can also bet that I am going to get a lot of backlash from those students that I have let go this long that think they know everything there is to know. I am not sure how to approach the whole situation either... Do I go in and strongarm compliance out of them, or do I go in and tell them that major changes need to take place because of the things I have observed or what?! I was planning on making some pretty drastic changes next year as I lose the techs that have been here since before I got to my school leave (who happen to be the root of my issues at the moment...); but, the poor quality of all of their work and technical skill recently makes me think I need to nip it in the bud here and now. Some of the kids know a few things, but if we were to have a major issue we would be in major trouble. Most of my kids cannot even troubleshoot a simple mic on the fly...
So now I have to figure out how to take care of the issue and fix the festering sore that has become my tech crew...
Help...!
I can tell that it is now going to be a really hard thing to take control and remedy the issues that are currently plaguing me. I can also bet that I am going to get a lot of backlash from those students that I have let go this long that think they know everything there is to know. I am not sure how to approach the whole situation either... Do I go in and strongarm compliance out of them, or do I go in and tell them that major changes need to take place because of the things I have observed or what?! I was planning on making some pretty drastic changes next year as I lose the techs that have been here since before I got to my school leave (who happen to be the root of my issues at the moment...); but, the poor quality of all of their work and technical skill recently makes me think I need to nip it in the bud here and now. Some of the kids know a few things, but if we were to have a major issue we would be in major trouble. Most of my kids cannot even troubleshoot a simple mic on the fly...
So now I have to figure out how to take care of the issue and fix the festering sore that has become my tech crew...
Help...!
Costume Design Process Starts...
I have finally started thinking about the specifics for the designs for the characters in Dark of the Moon. I did not expect to find this much difficulty in finding design ideas for the characters here since I have been thinking about this show for so long (I have been planning on doing the show since I STARTED my course work for grad school at CWU). My biggest issue is with the witches. I cannot find a balance between something I like and something that is appropriate/workable for the audience and students that will be in the show.
I want the audience to see the show through the eyes of John, the witch boy. For that reason, I want the witches to feel like they are the norm - that the people in the town need to be the one's that feel out of place. The only people that can seem at all "normal" in the sight of John should be Barbra and the Conjur Man & Woman. Barbra because she is the one that John loves; and the Conjur Man & Woman because they are the only characters that cross both planes and can feel semi-normal in both worlds.
The problem that I am having is that (especially with the witches) all of my research leads me back to witches that are more than half-naked. The historical plates and drawings that I come across are all of witches performing ceremonies in the full nude - particularly for the back-woods southern feel that I beleive that the show requires. I have seen a few production shots from other showings of Dark of the Moon, mostly college productions, that have witches in pretty much nothing but a unitard and some tulle - showing everything that they have (and in some cases accentuating those items). I need to find a way to combine the elements that I like while at the same time making it comfortable for my actors and accessible to my audiences. We are already doing a show that is going to push some boundaries and buttons, but I still want the show's message and themes to be accessible to my audiences and the students that participate.
I will just have to keep playing with some renderings and drawings until I find something that I like. I think I am going to try to get a hold of an Undergrad friend of mine that is a costume designer in Houston. I have talked with her about the show before (she loves it) and perhaps I can bounce some ideas off of her to see what we can come up with.
I want the audience to see the show through the eyes of John, the witch boy. For that reason, I want the witches to feel like they are the norm - that the people in the town need to be the one's that feel out of place. The only people that can seem at all "normal" in the sight of John should be Barbra and the Conjur Man & Woman. Barbra because she is the one that John loves; and the Conjur Man & Woman because they are the only characters that cross both planes and can feel semi-normal in both worlds.
The problem that I am having is that (especially with the witches) all of my research leads me back to witches that are more than half-naked. The historical plates and drawings that I come across are all of witches performing ceremonies in the full nude - particularly for the back-woods southern feel that I beleive that the show requires. I have seen a few production shots from other showings of Dark of the Moon, mostly college productions, that have witches in pretty much nothing but a unitard and some tulle - showing everything that they have (and in some cases accentuating those items). I need to find a way to combine the elements that I like while at the same time making it comfortable for my actors and accessible to my audiences. We are already doing a show that is going to push some boundaries and buttons, but I still want the show's message and themes to be accessible to my audiences and the students that participate.
I will just have to keep playing with some renderings and drawings until I find something that I like. I think I am going to try to get a hold of an Undergrad friend of mine that is a costume designer in Houston. I have talked with her about the show before (she loves it) and perhaps I can bounce some ideas off of her to see what we can come up with.
Work paying off
We have opened and had a very successful run of The Diary of Anne Frank this past week! The show has been such a success (we literally have sold out EVERY night we have had) that we have had to hold the run over and add an additional performance for Monday!
I have never had to hold a show over due to popular demand, but since I have had a standby line at the door to the theatre every night it has just made sense to hold it over. All the kids are really excited that this is happening. No one can tell me the last time that they have had a show do this well in terms of audience response at Skyline. It is great to have this kind of response!
I have never had to hold a show over due to popular demand, but since I have had a standby line at the door to the theatre every night it has just made sense to hold it over. All the kids are really excited that this is happening. No one can tell me the last time that they have had a show do this well in terms of audience response at Skyline. It is great to have this kind of response!
Faster than expected...
By tomorrow we will have blocked the entire show AND have the main structure of the set completed. I was totally not expecting to be at this point this soon! It will be really great to be able to focus on the details of the show rather than the basic concepts and needs of the production. Most of the time it feels like I never get a chance to work on the specific acting and design items that I would like to. At some point, it always seems like I am scrambling to finish one or the other.
I am very excited to actually have a moment to work with the actors on their listening and responding to impulses. Being able to work at a level that I do not get to very often will be really great! I just hope my actors can handle being able to focus for long enough for it to do any good... Up to this point they have been doing well, but the material is really kind of heavy for anyone to have to focus on for a long time. If they can manage to do that, I think that this show has the potential to really knock people's socks off! (Now to just convince my technicians that if they can focus and do good work...)
I am very excited to actually have a moment to work with the actors on their listening and responding to impulses. Being able to work at a level that I do not get to very often will be really great! I just hope my actors can handle being able to focus for long enough for it to do any good... Up to this point they have been doing well, but the material is really kind of heavy for anyone to have to focus on for a long time. If they can manage to do that, I think that this show has the potential to really knock people's socks off! (Now to just convince my technicians that if they can focus and do good work...)
Anne Frank - Just getting started is the hard part...
We have been in rehearsal for The Diary of Anne Frank for about 2 weeks now and I have run into a pretty major snag. . . My Otto Frank (the father) told me that he has taken a role in a hockey movie and will no longer be able to do the show. I have now had to shuffle the cast around and have a couple of different kids take roles that they were not originally assigned. I even tried to give one role to a new student in order to minimize the impact of the change, but the student turned down the role (which is fine). So now I have moved an actor from a minor role to a major role with a lot of lines. I hope that making these changes will not slow everything down like crazy.
The set is coming along very well. My crew has done quite well with getting the main platforming finished for the show. It will be really nice to have the set all the way finished for most of the blocking process. The blocking process is proving to be rather difficult in such a tight space. I am having a tougher time getting people to focus and actually get what we need to done. I wonder if it is because of the tight quarters that the set provides... that or the content may end up being a little heavy for them. I want them to be able to keep the whole thing light, but I do not want them to make light of the whole situation.
It will interesting to see how things turn out once the new cast members settle in and everyone gets comfortable with the new changes.
The set is coming along very well. My crew has done quite well with getting the main platforming finished for the show. It will be really nice to have the set all the way finished for most of the blocking process. The blocking process is proving to be rather difficult in such a tight space. I am having a tougher time getting people to focus and actually get what we need to done. I wonder if it is because of the tight quarters that the set provides... that or the content may end up being a little heavy for them. I want them to be able to keep the whole thing light, but I do not want them to make light of the whole situation.
It will interesting to see how things turn out once the new cast members settle in and everyone gets comfortable with the new changes.
Thesis Production Journal Musings
For the next little while I will be posting some entries from my progress on my thesis project for my Masters in Theatre Production. I will be doing a production of Dark of the Moon by Howard Richardson & William Berney. I will be producing the show in the Spring of 2011 and will have a bunch of entries for my production journal that will be a part of the thesis paperwork that I will post here for everyone to follow my progress.
Here is the first one!
It happened! I received approval for my thesis show to be produced today!! I gave my principal a copy of the script of Dark of the Moon at the beginning of the year to read and give me some feedback. Well, I finally was able to get her to read it and have a meeting with me in order to determine whether or not it would be ok to do for my thesis show in 2011. When I met with her I had totally expected to get a rather negative response since the show is about witches, they burn a witch baby, and there is a rape staged in the show. I had prepared myself with a bunch of answers to those issues, but when I met with her I ran into no such issues. She actually seemed to be quite excited about the show. There were no issues that she could find with the script that would keep me from doing it. So she brought in her secretary to dictate a note to in order to provide me with documentation that it was alright for me to do the show. As she explained the show to her secretary and what needed to be in the note both the principal and I could tell that the secretary was questioning the decision... As a result, we decided that it would be a good idea to present the show to the school’s Community Council which was made up of parents and teachers from the community in order to get a response from them and see how they might perceive the show.
Here is the first one!
It happened! I received approval for my thesis show to be produced today!! I gave my principal a copy of the script of Dark of the Moon at the beginning of the year to read and give me some feedback. Well, I finally was able to get her to read it and have a meeting with me in order to determine whether or not it would be ok to do for my thesis show in 2011. When I met with her I had totally expected to get a rather negative response since the show is about witches, they burn a witch baby, and there is a rape staged in the show. I had prepared myself with a bunch of answers to those issues, but when I met with her I ran into no such issues. She actually seemed to be quite excited about the show. There were no issues that she could find with the script that would keep me from doing it. So she brought in her secretary to dictate a note to in order to provide me with documentation that it was alright for me to do the show. As she explained the show to her secretary and what needed to be in the note both the principal and I could tell that the secretary was questioning the decision... As a result, we decided that it would be a good idea to present the show to the school’s Community Council which was made up of parents and teachers from the community in order to get a response from them and see how they might perceive the show.
The next night I went to the Council meeting and presented the show – gave them the synopsis of the play and asked for their response and questions that they may have to the play. Initially, I did not get any feedback (which was really quite intimidating…). I presented the plot and the major things that I could see that might be issues and the council sat, straight faced, without any kind of a reaction or a response. Thank heavens I had a couple of teachers that were in attendance that were batting for me! They started the discussion and asked some really relevant questions regarding how I would present things like the rape and the baby witch being burned. After I had finished my presentation, I was asked to leave and told by the principal that she would let me know the results of their decision the following day.
The next day she showed up in the middle of one of my classes and informed me that the Council was very enthusiastic about the show. They had voted unanimously in favor of the show being produced. One parent said, “It is about time that Skyline do a show with some meat to it.” The principal informed me that the council was excited to have a show that would prompt and promote discussion on some of the issues that the show would address.
This was my biggest concern – that the community would not receive the show well. Now that I have the approval of my administration AND the community behind me, I think that this show will be very beneficial for the kids and the community to experience. I was so worried that it would not be received well and that I would have to choose another show, but YAY no need – Dark of the Moon in Spring 2011!!!