brianpeccia

So, again - it's been too long since my last entry.

It's closing weekend of the Festival and 'Rumplstilskin', 'Love's Labors Lost', and 'Tartuffe' are finis.

'Tartuffe' was probably the best performance we had - at least it felt that way to me. It was certainly memorable...

For those of you that have never been to East Texas - there are a lot of bugs down here. Bugs of all shapes, sizes, and species. Crickets, in particular seem to be everywhere - and during this afternoon's 'Tartuffe' finale, there just happened to be one onstage during I.i. - he was apparently try to steal the show - and I couldn't let that happen.

The play began, and apparently (i heard after the fact) this little cricket had slowly crawled up the table cloth during Raymond Caldwell's curtain speech - and I didn't see it until about a minute into the action (i am seated at this small dining table for the first few minutes of the show). The little bugger had crawled onto a preset hard boiled egg that a character eats later in the next scene. I looked down and did a double take at this cricket - staring me in the face, chomping away at this little egg - what was I to do?!? Well, I did my best not to upstage the actress speaking - and I did what any normal person in that situation would do - I quickly flicked the little bugger off the egg and he landed Down Stage Center - right in view of everyone to see. This got a pretty big reaction from the audience - but i don't think most of the other actors onstage were aware of what happened - because most said that they hadn't seen the little bugger till he was already on the floor.

So, now we have a play about a cricket on our hands - luckily I had some time to think of a way to get rid of our little friend, as M. Parnelle is very long winded. Upon her exit, I tell Dorine the maid that I can't bear to hear Parnelle go on any longer - and I took that opportunity to quickly move downstage and stamp out the poor cricket's life on the button of one of my lines.

The audience cheered and applauded - and I bent down and gingerly wiped up the cricket's remains with my lace handkerchief, (which also got a laugh) and we continued on with the scene.

It was a wonderful memorable moment from a delightful finale, in which the audience was totally along for the ride we were taking them on.

Time to go to the Back Porch for the last time.

More. Later.

So, time just seems to slip away now that the shows are up and running - it's been about two weeks since the last update.

Opening weekend was a big success overall. All four shows were really well received, even though it was a very very tiring four days. It's was great to see Loves Labors Lost (the show I am not in) - they cut the script down considerably and added in old standards from the 30's, 40's and 50's - I was worried that the songs might slow the play down - but to the contrary, they all really helped inform what was going on in the play - it was a lovely show.

Aside from being exhausted, all the openings went smoothly - the exception was 'She Loves Me'. And of course the day of the show was aptly marked by threatening storm clouds/rain/thunder and lightning. The morning of the final dress, our director Stephen Terrell was assuring us that everything would come together - he cheerily chimed, in his southern boyish manner, "It's the day of The Show, yall!" several times throughout the arduous final few hours before the curtain was to go up. Many of us in the cast were nervous about having an audience - we hadn't been able to get in a full nonstop run of the show before opening. The technical elements are a beast in this show (there are several complicated scene changes that took a lot of time to figure out) - but somehow we made it through the entire show nearly without incident. The only problem that occurred was an unforeseeable electrical problem, in which the follow spot tripped a breaker and shut down the light board during one of the lead's solo songs, midway through Act I.

As a result, the house lights came up in the middle of the song and the theatrical lights went out. A nightmare! But the lovely Mary Candler (playing Amalia Balash) didn't miss a beat and continued through as if nothing had happened. The electricians scrambled to figure out and fix the problem, and everything was back to normal by the time the song was through. A crisis which could have indeed derailed the entire show - but the crew handled the problem beautifully.

The audience loved the show (they gave and enthusiastic standing ovation), and we were relieved to have made it through virtually unscathed. There were many congratulatory hugs and collective sighs of relief backstage after the curtain call.

I have to go ride horses now at a "Monday Event" so...
I'll have more on the following performances - later.

So, I haven't been to good about keeping up on this the past couple of weeks, as things have become much more busy and my down time has become more precious.

For the most part all things are still going along rather well. About a weeks ago I'd felt that I'd hit a sticking point in each show (for different reasons), but they all seem to have worked themselves out. I think it had a lot to do with my energy level - the first couple of weeks I was still on the emotional high of meeting people and embarking on the artistic explorations of these plays, but eventually that high plateaus and the whole process starts to feel more like work than play - which is normal - because it is work... and play. That's what makes it so wonderful.

Since then I've been committed to getting more rest and spending more time preparing for rehearsals, and I seem to have made it through the sticking points. I am not the only one who is dealing with energy issues - it seems as though the overall energy of the Festival has slowed a bit, as we began tech rehearsals this week. I don't think anyone here is surprised by this energy shift - especially those that have been here before.

All that said, I am still having a great time. So far we've teched R&J and Tartuffe (Loves Labors Lost is today) - both went very smoothly. The general breakdown of tech is: basically we get four rehearsal block in a row (an evening, morning, afternoon, and another evening) to set lighting and sound cues, do a run (or two) without costumes, and then run through with costumes - or have a "costume tech" which is a rehearsal designed to check that the actor's physical business doesn't conflict with the costumes.

The costumes for R&J and Tartuffe are amazing. Both show are almost entirely built from scratch, which a huge undertaking.

Here is my costume from Tartuffe - it's not quite finished at the moment, but you can get the general idea...





Steven Graver designed the costumes for Tartuffe - and I can't overstate how wonderfully extravagant the cast looks. It's transformative in many cases - I didn't know I could look so good in the Restoration Period... (laugh here)

I'll elaborate a bit on this sticking point for Tartuffe. If you read earlier sections of this blog, you'll remember that I was surprised by Cleante's everyman/audience connection - and that I was looking forward to exploring that. Well, over the past couple of weeks as rehearsals have progressed from stumble troughs to full on sprints (we did an "Italian Run" or "speed through" last week) I found that I had been letting myself get sucked into the zany, manic world of the rest of the play, and not - as I, the director and the vocal coach had intended - maintained that "voice of reason" quality that is needed in the play.

My struggle was partly one of selfishness and of habit. Frankly - for me, it's more fun to go off the deep end in a comedy, and to have loud, explosive outbursts and physical schtick all over the place - everyone else gets to do it - so why not me? Also - being the voice of reason can be difficult because it's hard to justify even being in the play! Why does Cleante need to stick around and help these insane people - even if they are family? And in terms of habit - well, I tend to go too far and to push, especially when I feel like I'm "doing nothing" or I (as Cleante) don't have a reason to be on stage - so I have to manufacture results. That just leads to less nuanced play acting - which serves no one, but my own "expressive artistic self" - and that's not something I am ultimately interested in.

I broke through this last week during a run through of the show, where before hand, I had consciously decided to TRY to do as little as possible. During the run, Seth (the director) gave me a thumbs up after my exit at the end of ACT I - and later told me that was exactly the direction he'd been talking about. I wasn't completely there (i am still not) but I am headed on the right path. I think as a result of trying to not push lead to some less specific choices and lack of pursuit of my objectives - but I've been steadily getting more and more specific and increasing the stakes each time we run through the show. I think we've got four more goes at it before we open (a week from tomorrow!!!) and the show will be more than ready for an audience!

More, Later - it's dinner time...

ROMEO & JULIET progress report:

So, instead of doing weekly journals for each show - I think the best way to do this is to just do general progress reports on how things are going.

I am sitting in the back of the rehearsal hall right now and we are at the midpoint of the first stumble through for R&J. The past couple of weeks have been a bit odd for this show because I have been called so sporadically - it’s been a bit difficult to feel like I am making any progress. Today was great for through line though, which I’ll cover in a bit.

The first rehearsals felt very out of joint for me - because we hadn’t staged the fights or learned the steps to the dance which happens in the party scene. So when it was time to block those scenes, the actors would be given their entrances, then say a couple lines, then the director would say - “okay and there’s a fight here” - and then we move on in the scene, finish it and exit. It’s very difficult to get any sort of momentum this way. But I know that setting up a skeleton for the scene is very important and necessary - it just makes it more difficult to keep energy up.

Upon finishing the first couple of rehearsals that I was called to (there weren’t many that first week), it became very clear that Tybalt seems to do pretty much the same thing in every scene:

ACT 1.i - he enters, says a few antagonizing words, fights, and leaves pissed off.
ACT III.i - he enters, dances, says a few antagonizing words, almost fights and leaves pissed off.
ACT III. iv - he enters, says a few antagonizing words, fights, and dies.

Not a lot of variance…

It’s a lot of fun though.

Once we began learning the fights (last week), I had more to focus on. It’s a lot to wrap my brain around - but I have been working diligently with Aaron White, the festival fight captain (also playing Mercutio), after rehearsals. Everything went pretty smoothly in the stumble through today. We are a bit cramped in the room because the director and stage manager’s table are right at the edged of the taped out stage floor - so we don’t have quite the same amount of room that we will have on the actual stage.

It has been a while since I have worked with swords - the last time was Macbeth at UOP, and even that was a bit different because those swords were shortened Japanese style kitanas - and these are swept hilt rapiers with epée blades, which require a loose wrist and light, relaxed fighting style which emphasizes speed over power. It took me a couple of days to start getting re-acclimated to the style, but it seems to be getting there now.

So much has happened over the last couple of weeks, that it is difficult to keep everything in order.

I did have a short conversation with Kevin Otos right after the first read through about Tybalt and the play in general. I mentioned to him some of my thoughts on Tybalt’s character body - I have been trying to figure out how I can incorporate some feline aspects into his movement (he is referred to as ’the Prince of Cats’ a lot). I am still struggling with this, because I don’t do much else but fight and dance when I’m onstage - and I need to get those steps and moves in my body concretely before I can incorporate them into Tybalt’s.

One of the things I mentioned to Kevin about Tybalt’s movement is an image of a gyroscope that I seem to connect to. There is a fluidity and smoothness to a gyroscope that I think goes well with Tybalt’s demeanor - and when he starts getting popped around by Mercutio, during the fight - Tybalt is thrown off track and he never seems to get back on track.

I might not be explaining this clearly here, but it makes sense to me, I promise.

In regard to the script as a whole, I did ask Kevin why he chose to cut the chorus speech at the top of the action.

He said that, to him, the chorus speech seems to diminish the immediacy of the story, as well as provide a layer of fate that he - as the director - isn’t particularly interested in exploring. He went on to qualify that by saying that there is something about a more contemporary, or modern sensibility that seems to not put much stock in fate. I certainly agree with him there. Taking the fate element out of the story, I think, does contextualize the story for a more modern sensibility - even though we are setting the play in the Renaissance.

I think that is a really interesting take, and I mentioned a couple of different ways that I have seen the chorus portrayed which I thought had worked, while avoiding the pitfall of distancing the audience from the play. At PCPA, director Patricia Troxel had Benvolio deliver the chorus in a manner that suggested he was speaking to someone about what had just occurred - as though the end of the play had just happened, the Prince had just said, “For never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo” - and here is Benvolio; a man who has just lost his two best friends in the span of a few days, telling the story to a jury, or as a confession of sorts.

*It has been a number of years since that production - so I can’t guarantee my exact accuracy of the Dr. Troxel’s concept - I just relay what I remember of it*

Anyhow, Kevin thought that was an interesting idea, and we talked over a few other things about the play. It was a good talk. I wrapped up by making sure that it was okay that I use some of his thoughts and words here in the blog - he was all for it, so long as I credit him for his ideas - which I think I have thus far.
They are in the Mantua scene right now in the stumble through:

“Then I defy you stars!”

I thought the first half went pretty well - it was nice to be able to get some momentum going for the first time. All of the fights went smoothly, and I died a gloriously gruesome death.

During the 10 minute break, Jennifer Burke, the voice coach for the festival, came up to me a mentioned a breathing technique to try out for being dead on stage. We are going to try it out and see if it works. The idea is to keep the ribs expanded, and to take slow and shallow breaths in through the mouth while being dead - this is to avoid a lot of obvious movement in the abdomen. It will be difficult to appear dead after exerting so much energy during the two previous fight sequences - but we’ll see how it goes.

Romeo is about to kill Paris.

There were no notes given at the end of the run, as we were at time. But notes will be incorporated over the next few rehearsals.

Thanks to Russell D. Cannon For this picture from an earlier rehearsal.

Rehearsal Notes from Week #1

“Tartuffe”

Skeletal blocking for the show is moving very swiftly. Seth Panitch talks fast, and knows what he’s after - but he’s also very elastic, and is happy to negotiate about a moment in the scene. On day one, Seth laid out a game plan for the next couple of weeks: we are going to get the play up on it’s feet and blocked ASAP, and then have time to go back and fine tune/dig deeper later.

As I sit here now at the rehearsal hall - about 10 days later - the entire show is blocked and we are doing a “stumble through” for the design team. So, we are right on target.

But back to weeks #1 -

During the first day of rehearsal I was really pleased to see that many of the other cast members were very close to off book - as was the case with myself - and that by the time we were running scenes that day, for the most part, scripts were out of our hands and discoveries were being made.
I made a particularly interesting discovery in that first rehearsal. I found that Cleante is more of an everyman than I had first thought. It is obvious from the text that he tires to be the voice of reason in the play, but I’ve found that it’s more interesting if he is more engaged with the audience’s experience of the action. It‘s as if he were a link between the audience and the rest of the mayhem onstage - and in order to accomplish this, I think he needs to be extremely warm and likable. A danger of any pontificating character can be to have him simply set up the soap box and spew forth words of wisdom - thereby boring the other characters and the audience.
It’s much more fun to explore this avenue for me, and I think it goes right in line with the work on ease that I’ve been struggling with recently. A very good exorcise.

Seth seems to be really interested in bringing universal meaning to all the work we’re doing. For example - there is a scene in Act IV where the family confronts Orgon about Tartuffe, and on the surface it comes off as being a very straight forward confrontation between two opposing ideas: the Family vs. Orgon. But Seth invited us to embrace the idea that Tartuffe is like a drug for Orgon, and in this scene, the breaking point is reached, and either the family is going to fall apart completely, or Orgon is going to kick his addiction - so, in essence the scene is a full on, knock down/drag out intervention - complete with some very un-funny domestic violence - a very sharp contrast from the rest of the play. I love this switch of tone, and I think it really gets deeper into the humanity of these people’s souls - which makes the comedy that comes after all the more funny and engaging - at least, I hope it does…

This idea of universality is something that I was introduced to earlier this year in the form of something called “UR-Text”. It is difficult to briefly explain UR-Text, but, basically it exists somewhere beneath the sub-text (the thoughts which motivate the words one speaks), the place where an actor often stops once he feels comfortable in a role. Delving for the UR-text requires that an actor expend more energy and ask more questions than he would by simply being satisfied with simple motivational elements of his actions. UR-text gets down into the marrow of a play and if it can be mined, and some how communicated to the audience - the results can be perspective shifting and even life altering. I don’t completely understand it - but Seth seems to be interested in digging toward it - whether he calls it that, or not - I don’t know - I haven’t had the chance to discuss this with him yet, but I am excited to explore the areas of this play that I hadn’t realized were there.

Otherwise, things are going well.
-I am continuing to grapple with the verse and explore what works and what doesn’t.
- Seth has coined the phrase: “Shtyle” - a blend of comedic shtick combined with affluent style.
- A great image Seth used: “this play is like a glass of fine Champaign”.
- And there may be a little something extra going on between Cleante and the maid (Dorine).

More - later.

Now onto Tartuffe - Design Presentation

Seth Panitch, our director got up first and said a few words - (please note that anything I refer to as having come from anyone else’s mouth is often paraphrased, and never as eloquently put as the person who I am quoting).

First, Seth mentioned that Tartuffe is a transitional play for Morliere, in that he seems to be pushing the traditional boundaries of the period’s traditional style. He referred to this as a “pushing against the mask” of sorts (Mask work was a part of the Comedia tradition that Moliere was so huge a part of in France). Since Moliere is pushing against the mask in the style of the play, we to as actors and director will push against the archetypes in order to bring a deeper sense of humanity to the characters, thereby making the comedy richer - that’s the goal, anyhow. He also sees this richly lavish world as being akin to multi-faceted gems - emeralds and diamonds were used in the Lighting Desinger’s research.

Steven Graver designed the costumes - and his renderings are wonderfully laid out - they works of art in and of themselves. Steven went through each of the character’s concepts and color palates, and gave brief explanations about why he made some of the choices he made. 1665 was apparently a transitional era in France, in terms of what people were wearing - but there is lots of lavishly rich texture and beautiful fabrics, as this is a play about aristocratic people.

The model for the set Jesse Dreikosen came up with is beautiful - there is a richly textured hard wood floor and elegant accentuating furniture. The entire play takes place in the same room is Orgon’s (pronounced: Or-gone - with a dark ‘o‘, as in own) - and the stage is set up nicely for some three door comedic shtick.

As I mentioned above, Tony Galaska’s lighting will have elements of diamonds and other jewel inspired vibrant colors. There will be a very crisp, light quality at the top of the action, and as the play progresses, the weight of the mounting problems will be reflected in the color tones in the lighting and colors will become more saturated and oppressive.

Onto the first read!

Seth, our director, began by explaining how he would like the process to go - we will very quickly move through the play in order to block out a skeletal frame work from which we can build on and tweak over the next four weeks. So much of the first few days will be moving fast and furiously in order to set ourselves up for being able to take the time to relax into things and make discoveries later on. He warned the company against a tendency toward two-dimensionality, and urged us all to do as much home work as possible to flesh out these people as we move along.

In terms of the rhyming verse (the play is entirely translated from French into English Rhyming Verse), Seth noted that the rhymes are there for a reason, and more often than not, a part of the argument a character is making - therefore, we shouldn’t shy away from them. The danger, he noted, is to get too sing songy with every couplet - which will result in the audience being induced into a coma.

In my own prep for rehearsals, I mentioned that the rhyming verse was a major focus for me, and all my attention to it seems to be right in line with what Seth wants. I attribute this to Dr. Joel Fink, the conservatory director at Roosevelt - in the short time he spent orienting our Grad Class with Pericles (the Shakespeare play we are doing this Fall), he really emphasized technique in verse speaking. He really believes that, generally there should be no pauses whatsoever in the actual verse line, but instead that a slight pause or catch breath can often be taken at the end of the line - even in the case of punctuation in the middle of a line - like a comma, for example.

My tendency, which I have been working on adjusting - is to break up the verse and make my acting choices priority over the structure. The problem with that, as best as I understand it, is that if I ignore the structure of the verse, then I might as well be speaking prose (non-verse speech). I am thereby, in a way, selling myself short, and not fully enlivening the text, and moving the action forward at a fervent pace.

So now, with the challenge of the rhyming couplets of Tartuffe, I have been extremely diligent about marking out the places to breathe and take slight pauses in the verse - and strangely enough - 98% (an arbitrary number) of my pauses/breaths are at the end of the verse line. Interestingly, I also found that this way of honoring the structure really keeps the momentum going from thought to thought - because these people think and talk a lot faster than I do, it is enough of a challenge to even keep up most of the time.

A bit of a tangent - but a valuable for me to iterate.

The music Seth is using to bookend the piece and play during transitions is from the classical French composer, Jean Baptiste Lully - who work directly with Moliere many times throughout their respective careers.

Seth then played a selection that will play at the top of the show - which was lovely, and should set the tone very well. And then we commenced on the read-through.

As with R&J, this was a very encouraging read - lots of choices and connections being made - the play is going to be extremely playful and a lot of fun to explore.

After the read, Seth made a few more points about the play before dismissing most of the cast for the afternoon. He pointed out a few elements to think about that I think are really important to note:

First, he said that there is never a moment of comfort in these people’s lives while the action of the play is progressing. It is important that we always be in a state of crisis on account of the family turmoil that threatens to essentially destroy these people’s lives.
I find it interesting that the play is so light and hilarious, despite the fact that these character’s very world is potentially coming down around them, and that danger needs to be very real for them - and that’s why it’s so dammed funny! This same basic plot could be used to make up a contemporary family drama that could just as easily been written by Tracy Letts or Sam Shepard - and that’s what I think is great about it.

He wrapped up by noting how he plans to bookend the play with a tableau that represents Orgon’s separation from and, ultimately his return to the family unit from which Tartuffe has seduced him. I will do my best not speak for others in this journal, but the cast, on the whole seemed really into this idea.

That’s it for “Tartuffe” 1st read and design.

The “She Loves Me” entry will be next, and it should be a bit less long winded than this and R&J. We’ve have a rehearsal or two for all the shows now - and this journal is time consuming, but I will do my best to stay fairly current. Things are still going swimmingly from my perspective.

Cheers.

So - The past few days have been great. A lot of creative energy is flowing all around the festival. In this entry I am going to focus of the Design Presentations and first rehearsal experiences from the past three days.

The designs for all four shows are really exciting. At the beginning of each shows presentation, the director would get up and say a few words about the world of each play.

Because I don’t want to sit at my computer for four hours typing one massive entry - I am going to post individual blogs which deal with each individual play’s design presentation and first rehearsal - so as to break things up a bit and not get too long winded…

Romeo & Juliet

Kevin Otos, the director made it clear that this will not be your parent’s Romeo & Juliet. He believes that Verona is a male dominated landscape (we are setting it in the Renaissance) that is a hot, violent, and dangerous place to live. He used some images which I thought really work for the play; he described it as a big flower - a flower of blood, fire, and steel. The color palates definitely support that idea.
He also talked a bit about the journey of the young lovers and how it is a progression - from infatuation to true love.

The scenic elements, as designed by Jesse Dreikosen, are large and masculine. There are several large arches, parts of which are sinking into the ground - which is a physicalization of the destructive and corruptive nature in which these people live their lives. It looks very cool. There is lots of texture and color accents of fire and steel.

The same holds true for Val Winleman’s costume designs - there is lots of texture and the fire/steel elements are represented in the palates of the Montague’s and Capulet’s - respectively. There is a heavier saturation of color in the clothing of the characters who are more dedicated to the ancient brawl/new mutiny element of the play (Old Montague and Capulet, Tybalt, etc.).

Tony Galaska’s lighting will be sharp, hard, and fast - with lots of vibrant colors. They are hopefully going be using some actually fire/torch elements throughout the play. The fire represents the uncontrollable nature of the civil unrest of the city of Verona.

It’s clear to me that a lot of really intelligent/talented people are really giving it their all for the festival. The presentations were sort of the first thing that made me go - “okay, this is really happening” or maybe a better way to put it, is that now the layout of the Summer now has a tangible feel to it that has really kicked things up a notch.

At this point, I was really ready to get into the first rehearsal.



1st Read Through-

I have to mention before I get into the actual read through that I have a very complicated past with this play.

I’ve worked on it twice previously - about 8 years ago, I understudied Lord Capulet when I was in Conservatory at PCPA. Before that, I played Romeo in 8th grade - but there is a catch: I was kicked out of the cast a week before opening on account of disciplinary reasons. I was devastated - I had some behavior issues when I was an adolescent, and even though the incident was completely unrelated to the play, the director - a teacher who interrupted an altercation between me and another student, felt it necessary to send a clear message to me about my behavior. I was dating the girl playing Juliet (how cliché) and after I was removed - we coincidently broke up, and the boy playing Tybalt, stepped into both my role as leading man (in both instances).

Again, I was devastated.

So, I’ve always had unresolved issues with Romeo, and I fear my Type will never again allow me to play the role - I have a special fondness for the role and the play, and I think Romeo often gets dismissed as being too whiney and bitchy. I think his variances and mood swings, falling in and out of love, are endemic of troubled youth - I know I identified greatly with much of what he goes through - even feeling suicidal for the sake of love - or infatuation. Ah, youth!

But now I am playing Tybalt, Romeo’s adversary, and I am really pleased with the way things are shaping up.

We began the read through with little introduction, and once we were off, the play really started clipping along. A lot of pre-production has been done by a lot of the company, and I was really pleased to see the seeds of sub-text and actions being explored. I do think it’s interesting that Kevin decided to go without the Chorus speeches, particularly the all too famous - “Two households, both alike in dignity - yaddah yaddah…”. I am interested, and will ask why at some point when time allows.

I was reminded during the read of how moving the story is. The two leads, Ben Charles and Mary Chandler both have very lovely presence, and the course of their love’s fruition, I think, will be something quite special. Ben, in particular has a very youthful and innocent energy that is endearing to watch. And to see how Romeo falls apart after Mercutio’s death and murders me (in a very brutal way) should be really heart wrenching.

At the end of the read, Kevin expounded on his statements from the designer’s presentation.

He did say that while he wants very much to discuss character relationships and back story elements outside of rehearsal - he will not approach the actors to do so - he feels that is an infringement of sorts on our personal processes - which I respect completely. Not everyone needs that sort of dialogue in order to get themselves into the play - I wouldn’t say that I need it, so much as want it. He mentioned that the play needs to be athletic and visceral - our hearts and lungs (as actors) must be fully engaged. He mentioned that this production will be worlds away from the Zeferelli film (which I abhor, by the way.)

That’s all for the moment - next will be Tartuffe - which is also going swimmingly.

Cheers.

Just finished the 1st company meeting for this year's Texas Shakespeare Festival. I'll get to that in a sec - but I first want to mention that I now have clothing and grooming supplies (thank christ). I spent a good amount of time this morning making phone calls to United Airlines and Fed Ex, attempting to find our where my luggage was and why I didn't have it. After a few phone calls, it looked as though I would not get my clothes until Wed. of this week (it's Sunday) - this was because of Memorial Day weekend and Fed Ex won't be back up and running until Tuesday. This wasn't a good sign - but after a few more tedious phone calls (I hate those automated answering things that I have to talk to in order to get a real person - especially after the 6th time I've had to give them my claim number and other info) I finally arranged to have my bag flown from DFW to the airport in nearby Longview. Raymond Caldwell, the extremely gernerous Artistic Director of the festival, offered to drive me to go pick up my luggage - to which I am grateful. And now I have clothes! Yea!

The fact that the people who run this company, John Dodd and Raymond Caldwell (among others), are so giving and accomodating, makes all the hicupps I've dealt with so far seem less of an issue than the could be. The festival seems to encourage a real sense of family and community - which probably explains the large amount of people in this year's company who are returning for a 5th, 10th, or even 20th season.

That seems like a good way to get into the meeting.

Raymond's introduction speech gave a brief background on his role as it has existed and evolved of the last 23 years of the festival - this is season 24. He introduced several of the company's senior members and highlighted their many various acheivements and services given to the festival.

Raymond said something which I thought was quite interesting in his welcome. When addressing us, he invited us to embrace the idea that we did not come down to Kilgore in order to work for the Texas Shakespeare Festival for it's 24h season for a 10 week contract - he put it, rather, that we ARE the Festival - it did not exist before, and it will no longer exist when we leave in August. The immediacy of that notion is a wonderful way to shift a collective consiouness into a heitened mode of community - it does go without saying - but acknowledging the fact that what is being done here, the art that is being conceptualized and constructed here, is happening NOW and it wasn't here before and will not be here after adds (for me) a sense of reverence and respect for the arduous journey the company is embarking on.

Meeting was then handed over to John Dodd for lots of boring rule and regulations talk - Mr. Dodd has an extremely dry sense of humor that kept things lively throughout.

A few things of note:
-There is no hospital/ER in Kilgore. It closed down not too long ago. So I guess getting seriously injured or contracting swine flu is a bad idea.

-The "Emergency Phone Number" list includes numbers for the FBI, Secret Service and Payer Hotline. But apparently the lady who did the prayer hotline passed away not too long ago. There's a prayer net at the church she used to go to...

- A very clever way to make sure everyone wears deodorant: Mr. Dodd made it very clear that Crystals and other methods for controlling BO do not work in East Texas, and since we all work long/hard hours, it is a necessity to wear deodorant. Having worked with a few folks who didn't wear deodorant, I can tell you, it is a terrible thing to have to be intimate with someone who doesn't observe good hygiene.

Otherwise, the rest of the meeting was business as usual - introductions galore - more rules and logistics. I had to go to the bathroom for most of the meeting and it seemed as though it would never end - but it did and I was the first to rush out of the room. is that too much information? maybe...

I was surprised, and pleased by how many actors are here from Chicago - I think there are at least 5. I am really looking forward to starting work on these shows. More to come later.

So, I arrived in Texas today via United Airlines - who fail grossly, by the way, at putting the proper baggage on the right plane. I have see it happen many times to other people, but I have never been the one who's bag doesn't pop up out the bowls of the baggage claim terminal - so, a first for me. Yay!

I am pretty much over it, though - I just hope the suit case gets here in the next day. Otherwise I'll start to smell. No one wants that. The costume shop here at TSF has offered to pull some clothes out of stock for me - that could be fun... use your imagination.

It is odd being back in Kilgore after seven years - it really hasn't changed at all. A Walmart expansion and the addition on a Walgreens is about it. I went on a walk from the dorm where I am staying to get some much needed various supplies, and got caught in a rain storm - my only jeans and t-shirt are still a bit damp (my walk was 6 hours ago).

I had to do quite a bit of tidying up to my room in order to make it suitable for a human to inhabit it - it made me think of my classmate, Josh, and his excursion to Africa later this Summer. What type of places will Kenya and Uganda offer to sleep and shower in? Could they possibly be in worse condition than my dorm shower was before I attacked it with Lysol? I will let you know...

I will stop thinking for now, and turn to less arduous matters - like watching 30 Rock.

G'night from freakin' Texas.

It's pretty late on the eve of my departure from my crappy overpriced glorified dorm apartment in downtown Chicago.

I wasn't able to get to text work today - there was too much cleaning and packing to do - which is a bummer. I probably sound like a total nerd when I say that I really like reading a text over and over and over until I'm sick of it and then reading it more till it becomes fun and interesting again. The great thing about this Summer is that I've got three scripts to pour over tirelessly. There is a lot of work I've yet to do before starting rehearsal. And once those shows are open, I've got Pericles (coming up in the Fall) @ Roosevelt to work on. I am playing three roles in Pericles: Antiohcus, Leonine, and Lysimichus (I may be misspelling one or more of those). I am excited about that show as well. The principal roles are all my fellow grads, and I feel as though we've all been cast well in regard to our individual needs as students.

I am in a very reflective place at the moment.

This has been a roller coaster of a year. Lots of highs and lows; physical and mental hurdles have threatened to derail me completely - but having stayed the course, and applied myself as completely as I know how has resulted in a lot of successes and worth while accomplishments.

All thanks to grad school I can do the following:

Juggle (3 ball/partner)
Acrobatics (including a front hand spring - there's a video on facebook)
Write my name (and yours) in IPA
Speak in the General American dialect
Have more ease and expressive nuance in my voice
Act and sing better

...and that's all I got.

One would think there'd be more stuff.

I kid. While those are all things I have learned this year - there are countless other skills I had acquired, and/or built on that really have no one specific name or simple definition. But as I come to understand these things, I will attempt to write about them in order to articulate what this whole experience means to me.

My next stop = DeKalb to stay with Angela for a few days before heading for the country of Texas.

"A Weekend in the country, how amusing, how delightfully droll!"

So hello,

This is my first attempt at blogging - so we'll see how it goes. My goal in keeping this blog is to stay current on all things that are going on with me and to write about them, hopefully resulting in some form of beneficial reflection.

It's almost 10am and I am having issues with getting out of bed - but hunger and the need for coffee are swiftly increasing the need to rise. I need to finalize the cleaning/packing of my apartment so i can be read for checkout tomorrow at 2pm. While I am looking forward to being rid of this glorified dorm situation, I am going to miss luxury of going for walks in the park and by the lake - luxuries which I have only recently become acquainted with since the semester ended.

I had a remarkable walk yesterday to a small beach that is just North of Navy Pier. The weather was perfect and I was able to catch some rays while studying up on some Tartuffe.

Speaking of Tartuffe, I am off-book on about half of my stuff, and still have a bit more than a week before I fly off to Texas Shakes. I have been very methodical about going through this text; marking out breaths, figures of speech, scanning out the verse, circling important words - underlining other important words. I have never worked on Moliere before and the rhyming verse is a challenging conceit - I will have to wait until rehearsals beginning before I will know how the director (Seth Pantich) will want the cast to attack the verse lines and rhyming. The challenge is to be believable in a highly contrived style and to not get too singsongy with the rhymes. On the other hand, I can't ignore the verse and rhyming completely - that too would be absurd - unless we are doing a hyper-realistic version of the play. So far from my limited correspondences with the director, my impression is that we are not doing that.

I am going to strive to keep a fairly regular progress report of sorts on the rehearsal/performance process this Summer. While on this journey toward an MFA, I am becoming more and more interested in how the art form is shifting - if it is at all - and how I can contribute to and better understand those shifts. A lofty goal, I know - but at the very least, I should gain a deeper understanding of my own process, how I work and develop a role throughout a production period.

But ah - now the pangs of hunger and need for caffeine have over powered my desire to stay in bed and keep writing - as intriguing as I know this is...

Till next time.