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Ambling, Some Call It
Apr. 21st, 2006 12:38 pmNothing much new. But I'm trying to update this with whatever art/craft work is happening.
Second full week of Caveman Robot started last night. Slightly wonky performance, as happens sometimes when you come back after 4 days off, having spent almost every day the last few weeks prior intensely working on the piece. Herky-jerky rhythms. I was actually fairly happy with my work, however. I felt loose and relaxed in just the right ways. Got good laughs, including on some of my favorite subtle lines where I don't always get them. The two sides of Ape Lincoln (Big Mean Gorilla and Abraham Lincoln) feel more connected now, and mad scientist Dr. Edison Park has found a good balance between disdainful nerdiness and actual psychotic evil. Another 8 shows to keep working it better.
Got the schedule for That's What We're Here For from The Brick, and it works out just fine, though there have been some changes this morning as it was realized that several actors would have a killer marathon day of shows on June 25, so the schedule was adjusted with a little more downtime for the people with back-to-back performances (Gyda and Bryan, who are in my show and Robert Honeywell's musical Greed, and Robert himself, who is in his own show and Michael Gardner's King Lear). In all the worry about conflicts between my show and Robert's and Jeff's, we neglected to think about Alyssa Simon, in my show and Lisa Ferber's, so there are a couple of rehearsal conflicts, but we'll just have to live with them.
I made nine very basic scene sketches for That's What We're Here For while on the subway to the show yesterday, and they helped coalesce a few things in my mind. I'm going to have to use more than a few practicals here -- among them, my favorites: hanging bare light bulbs that can be pushed to swing slowly. Don't know if the strobes will be appropriate or not. I may need to get a new bulb for that cheesy, sound-activated, moving "disco light" I have in the storage cage. Might be effectively awful for the "Youthquake"/"Utica Club" teenage, non-alcoholic club scene.
Sketching the scenes made me realize how important projections are going to be for the show -- slides AND video. Good to know this early. I need clean copies of the short educational/industrial films A Date with Your Family, Century 21 Calling, Around and Around, Design for Dreaming, and Once Upon a Honeymoon, at the very least. I'll be playing bits of those on the big screen with onstage counterpoint/editorializing. Need period photos of walls of file cabinets and telephone circuitry as well for the slides. I'm sure I have that handy somewhere, or can find it online. If not, at the Library.
Berit wants to do a production meeting soon so we can start work on the props/set pieces, but of course, I won't have any idea what I need until I'm in rehearsal on this one. There's a few things I know -- the horrible racist "Jap" caricature masks for the WWII number, the telephone tables with the built in fluorescent light and plexiglas switchboard -- but the rest is still up in the air. Berit was assuming I'd need the Shinto costumes/props for the big finale, but I'm still not sure that's actually going to happen. It probably will. If I commit to some of these props/sets now, then I'll just have to commit to the image/scene now as well . . . which may not be such a bad thing. Fait accompli -- no waffling, the scene is in, and it's up to me to make it work. Berit also suggested that the two telephone tables be constructed to become all of the other tables/desks we need in the show, which is a good idea. Have to lay those out and start building. And of course the whole show has to be put together so it can be broken down and packed in the back of my minivan between performances. That's easy enough.
Sunday we start at 10.00 am. Great. Well, except we're having a late night at The Brick after the show, watching the new Criterion Collection "comprehensive cut" of Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin on the big big screen. Oh, well. I'll live.
I have to mixdown the podcast material for Martin Denton today, too, if I can. Mustn't forget.
Second full week of Caveman Robot started last night. Slightly wonky performance, as happens sometimes when you come back after 4 days off, having spent almost every day the last few weeks prior intensely working on the piece. Herky-jerky rhythms. I was actually fairly happy with my work, however. I felt loose and relaxed in just the right ways. Got good laughs, including on some of my favorite subtle lines where I don't always get them. The two sides of Ape Lincoln (Big Mean Gorilla and Abraham Lincoln) feel more connected now, and mad scientist Dr. Edison Park has found a good balance between disdainful nerdiness and actual psychotic evil. Another 8 shows to keep working it better.
Got the schedule for That's What We're Here For from The Brick, and it works out just fine, though there have been some changes this morning as it was realized that several actors would have a killer marathon day of shows on June 25, so the schedule was adjusted with a little more downtime for the people with back-to-back performances (Gyda and Bryan, who are in my show and Robert Honeywell's musical Greed, and Robert himself, who is in his own show and Michael Gardner's King Lear). In all the worry about conflicts between my show and Robert's and Jeff's, we neglected to think about Alyssa Simon, in my show and Lisa Ferber's, so there are a couple of rehearsal conflicts, but we'll just have to live with them.
I made nine very basic scene sketches for That's What We're Here For while on the subway to the show yesterday, and they helped coalesce a few things in my mind. I'm going to have to use more than a few practicals here -- among them, my favorites: hanging bare light bulbs that can be pushed to swing slowly. Don't know if the strobes will be appropriate or not. I may need to get a new bulb for that cheesy, sound-activated, moving "disco light" I have in the storage cage. Might be effectively awful for the "Youthquake"/"Utica Club" teenage, non-alcoholic club scene.
Sketching the scenes made me realize how important projections are going to be for the show -- slides AND video. Good to know this early. I need clean copies of the short educational/industrial films A Date with Your Family, Century 21 Calling, Around and Around, Design for Dreaming, and Once Upon a Honeymoon, at the very least. I'll be playing bits of those on the big screen with onstage counterpoint/editorializing. Need period photos of walls of file cabinets and telephone circuitry as well for the slides. I'm sure I have that handy somewhere, or can find it online. If not, at the Library.
Berit wants to do a production meeting soon so we can start work on the props/set pieces, but of course, I won't have any idea what I need until I'm in rehearsal on this one. There's a few things I know -- the horrible racist "Jap" caricature masks for the WWII number, the telephone tables with the built in fluorescent light and plexiglas switchboard -- but the rest is still up in the air. Berit was assuming I'd need the Shinto costumes/props for the big finale, but I'm still not sure that's actually going to happen. It probably will. If I commit to some of these props/sets now, then I'll just have to commit to the image/scene now as well . . . which may not be such a bad thing. Fait accompli -- no waffling, the scene is in, and it's up to me to make it work. Berit also suggested that the two telephone tables be constructed to become all of the other tables/desks we need in the show, which is a good idea. Have to lay those out and start building. And of course the whole show has to be put together so it can be broken down and packed in the back of my minivan between performances. That's easy enough.
Sunday we start at 10.00 am. Great. Well, except we're having a late night at The Brick after the show, watching the new Criterion Collection "comprehensive cut" of Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin on the big big screen. Oh, well. I'll live.
I have to mixdown the podcast material for Martin Denton today, too, if I can. Mustn't forget.
