M&T Continued:
(Somehow the blog published prior to me finishing!)
Ceiling fans: Patrick and I expressed the need for the fans to have a high/low speed control. Teddy expressed a question about a control capacity beyond on and off. We all agreed that a test needs to occur to find out the reality of the fan choreography.
A new issue was presented about our "crew" lighting operator in the space is not satisfying "crew" duty so it needs to be an actor. I need to address this in production meeting so a clearer picture of the duty will be understood. I must decide if this is worth fighting for.
Excitement around Carnegie Scenic - our set is being built and is so substantial that parts of it have to be stored in the hallway of Purnell. As people walk by, I hear them ooh and ah and ask WHAT SET IS THAT. We will definitely make a statement in the Rauh.
We will run Act I tonight with guests. Tomorrow we begin creating the womb that is Act II. It is of the utmost importance that no one be in the space in the beginning. I have ideas about the music that I need to discuss with Rob/Liv/Bob/Michael about how to make the music happen without the orchestra being in the space....
The work continues.
An MFA Thesis Production Directed by Marya Spring Cordes
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
WEEK Three, Day 1 & 2
M 9/28 & T 9/29
Going through Act I with a fine tooth comb. REALLY looking, listening and assessing what we have. It was important after roughing a great deal of material in quickly that we get into the nitty-gritty of the reality of the moments. What is the trajectory of each journey? We worked moment to moment, allowing each actor to do the work that will allow them to pursue what they need and find a variety of colors. As we did this work on Monday, the time flew by. I was pleased at my decision to not fight the clock and DO THE WORK that I knew we needed to do instead of being pressed into the scheduled Tuesday run-through. We needed to continue to work through Act One before the exercise of running. I seized the opportunity to change the run through date to Wednesday so that this good, detailed work could continue. (On a personal note, that felt like an accomplishment to me. I am in charge of this process. I set the schedule, I can assess it and I can change it. In the past, I would have forced the process into that box of a schedule due to avoiding "feeling behind" or "feeling guilty of inconveniencing others". ) The yield of these rehearsals was great leaps forward in the scenes that led into the songs - the songs became an extension of the story instead of our only story. This is actually very logical in our process due to the bulk of the first week was Music related. Up to this point, the actors have been more committed to the musical storytelling simply because THAT IS what we have been concentrating on. Monday and Tuesday the room made the commitment to the text outside of the realm of the music. It was a huge leap forward.
Other side notes:
Meetings on Monday and Tuesday to bring this to production were very fruitful:
Monitor meeting: The team and Buzz Miller met to discuss the placement and reality of available equipment for our monitor needs. The mounting hardware for placement under the booth seems to be the part in question. Teddy expressed a need for dousing the glow of the light that emnates from the monitors.
Teddy spoke about ceiling fans. Patrick and I have the desire for speed control. There are some
Prop meeting: Yun, Patrick, Kristi and I met to discuss How Do You Do It prop/easel images. I believe the ideas were clarified and simplified for greater impact! We discussed dressing the Press Machine to include vintage camera parts and recognizable communication machine parts from the era (printing press, etc.)
We now have a Sound Designer to build our sound cues
Going through Act I with a fine tooth comb. REALLY looking, listening and assessing what we have. It was important after roughing a great deal of material in quickly that we get into the nitty-gritty of the reality of the moments. What is the trajectory of each journey? We worked moment to moment, allowing each actor to do the work that will allow them to pursue what they need and find a variety of colors. As we did this work on Monday, the time flew by. I was pleased at my decision to not fight the clock and DO THE WORK that I knew we needed to do instead of being pressed into the scheduled Tuesday run-through. We needed to continue to work through Act One before the exercise of running. I seized the opportunity to change the run through date to Wednesday so that this good, detailed work could continue. (On a personal note, that felt like an accomplishment to me. I am in charge of this process. I set the schedule, I can assess it and I can change it. In the past, I would have forced the process into that box of a schedule due to avoiding "feeling behind" or "feeling guilty of inconveniencing others". ) The yield of these rehearsals was great leaps forward in the scenes that led into the songs - the songs became an extension of the story instead of our only story. This is actually very logical in our process due to the bulk of the first week was Music related. Up to this point, the actors have been more committed to the musical storytelling simply because THAT IS what we have been concentrating on. Monday and Tuesday the room made the commitment to the text outside of the realm of the music. It was a huge leap forward.
Other side notes:
Meetings on Monday and Tuesday to bring this to production were very fruitful:
Monitor meeting: The team and Buzz Miller met to discuss the placement and reality of available equipment for our monitor needs. The mounting hardware for placement under the booth seems to be the part in question. Teddy expressed a need for dousing the glow of the light that emnates from the monitors.
Teddy spoke about ceiling fans. Patrick and I have the desire for speed control. There are some
Prop meeting: Yun, Patrick, Kristi and I met to discuss How Do You Do It prop/easel images. I believe the ideas were clarified and simplified for greater impact! We discussed dressing the Press Machine to include vintage camera parts and recognizable communication machine parts from the era (printing press, etc.)
We now have a Sound Designer to build our sound cues
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
WEEK TWO: A Note from Christian Fleming, AD
The overall growth this week has allowed this show to really start to come to life. Akin to Marya's posts, the work every member of this team has put into creating Vanishing Point is apparent, stimulating, and exciting. At the start of this week, we were joined by the writers, Rob Hartmann and Liv Cummins. Their presence in the rehearsal room was both a form of motivation and comfort. Hearing the story of the germination of some dialogue and musical moments enriched the progress of this show's growth in terms of depth and understanding. Interestingly, during this week an idea stuck me. I discovered this show's connection to Freud's theories of the subconscious construct in relationship to the formation of an identity. We have three historical women who share common characteristics and a shared experience of "vanishing". Amelia functions like the ego, whereas Agatha and Aimee function like the superego and id, respectively. This is interesting because in the formation of identity, the superego and the id are said to be in conflict over the ego. Whether this "conflict" is apparent in the show is debatable, however, in Vanishing Point, all three women emerge in a transformation of identity. In order to achieve an authentic identity, a balance must occur between the forces of the id and superego. When Amelia successfully vanishes, this balance is obtained. Ultimately, these thoughts lead to a discussion about who is the character behind Vanishing Point's subconscious. As we continue to explore in the rehearsal process, I am interested about this question. I look forward to this next week of rehearsals and hope that we continue on our path of admirable accomplishment.
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Sunday, September 26, 2010
WEEK TWO, Day 5 & 6
TH 9/24 and FRI 9/25:
We completed roughing in Act I! That means we have actually staged 3/4 of the show. Each evening was 4 hours of pure character/scenework joy. We were fitting together the section of the show which is the journey of our iconic characters' fall from personal happiness. It is the most chaotic portion of the play and, subsequently, the most technical in the sense of changing characters and worlds in an instant! Four hours screamed by at an unusually rapid rate!!
I am happy to say that at the end of Saturday, we DID block through the end of Act I. Leave It Behind was a particularly satisfying and fitting way to finish the week. To watch the actor invest in the given circumstances of that moment when I said "GO" made me emotional and eager to watch the impact it should have when the throughline of action has been played out.
Monday and Tuesday will be crawling through and running Act I. We will have to devote much of the rehearsal time to specificity of delineation of character and press machine choreography. The schedule for the week is built to allow Staging Act II AND allowing some time day to day for Act I tuning. Act II's character is very song related and we have learned the music in Wk 1. Yes! So our work involves creating the world that is still with just the ladies helping each other and regaining agency of their world. I am excited to create what that means to the set and for our icons.
Friday, September 24, 2010
WEEK TWO, Day 4
9/23: Music Rehearsal - Every rehearsal yields large improvements in the ladies' retention of the music and concepts that we all have been building into the music. It is very inspirational to hear Dr. Page coach the ladies again. Staging: Picked up where we left off in right after "How Do You Do It Sequence. In the space, I need to relook at Lady Lindy reprise in relation to staging in the space. Sight lines might prohibit using it in vertical line. This is something to strongly consider restaging. As the staging progressed, we roughed through p 95.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
WEEK TWO, Day 3
9/22: What a day!
11:00 am Q&A with Rob Handel's MFA Dramatic Writing Class! 1:00 pm Lunch Meeting with Dr. Page 2:30 pm Director/Writers meeting/discussion of smaller character arcs 4:30 pm Production Mtg: Sound Designer info still not forthcoming
Now to being in the room together - 6:30 Rehearsal - How Do You Do It Sequence created. This is the first night where I threw the time constraints of my planned, packed schedule and allowed this sequence to take as much time as necessary to generate. It was an exciting time of feeling like one was in a flow state with the actors and crew coordinators. This is the sequence for which the Press Machine was created. It is a press, crowd frenzy surrounding Amelia's rise to fame! The sequence of small beats was illustrated in my head pictorially. The work of the night surrounded figuring out how to create those picture together and then how to connect the dots with movement and crew. It felt like we were in the flow state together---creating something we all made together. If any of the actors was different, the sequence would have been different! There are still moments to monkey with, but I am happy with what we came to last evenings. I am pondering whether or not I need Amelia's Advertisements represented on stage or not. Will it be visually distracting? Will it be cleaner without them?
The press machine will become very alive in this sequence! New questions - do I need PM so early in the show-in the beginning? Should I save it? Perhaps allow their presence, but keep it choreographically simple instead of the big dance number it is not. Revisit that sequence.
Now I need to strategize today's rehearsal and see if I can alter my schedule juggling with Janet Feindel to accommodate the missed pages or if I skip that section and pick it back up tomorrow.
11:00 am Q&A with Rob Handel's MFA Dramatic Writing Class! 1:00 pm Lunch Meeting with Dr. Page 2:30 pm Director/Writers meeting/discussion of smaller character arcs 4:30 pm Production Mtg: Sound Designer info still not forthcoming
Now to being in the room together - 6:30 Rehearsal - How Do You Do It Sequence created. This is the first night where I threw the time constraints of my planned, packed schedule and allowed this sequence to take as much time as necessary to generate. It was an exciting time of feeling like one was in a flow state with the actors and crew coordinators. This is the sequence for which the Press Machine was created. It is a press, crowd frenzy surrounding Amelia's rise to fame! The sequence of small beats was illustrated in my head pictorially. The work of the night surrounded figuring out how to create those picture together and then how to connect the dots with movement and crew. It felt like we were in the flow state together---creating something we all made together. If any of the actors was different, the sequence would have been different! There are still moments to monkey with, but I am happy with what we came to last evenings. I am pondering whether or not I need Amelia's Advertisements represented on stage or not. Will it be visually distracting? Will it be cleaner without them?
The press machine will become very alive in this sequence! New questions - do I need PM so early in the show-in the beginning? Should I save it? Perhaps allow their presence, but keep it choreographically simple instead of the big dance number it is not. Revisit that sequence.
Now I need to strategize today's rehearsal and see if I can alter my schedule juggling with Janet Feindel to accommodate the missed pages or if I skip that section and pick it back up tomorrow.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
WEEK TWO, Day 2
Tuesday, Sept. 21:
Aimee gets the spirit! Our staging work tonight surrounded Aimee's story. The scene of Minnie and Aimee in the church with Semple, getting to the heart of the Minnie/Aimee relationship. Then, the staging of The Heat, using the inspiration of the circular healing conversations that Rob, Liv and I have had during our work together. After The Heat, Minnie's return and Aimee's convincing mother to stay. Tess and Lee's commitment to the complicated relationship was compelling. I am excited to see where it grows from here.
We began the "How Do You Do It" sequence. The female, "cool cat", reporters gave a beautiful juxtoposition and foil to the uncomfortable boyish nature of Amelia. We will continue the press spinning chaos of Amelia's media frenzy tomorrow. I am enjoying playing with how many different ways and crew members can be in the crowd, keeping the press machine alive.
In the middle of staging p44-62 we held a Music Rehearsal for about an hour and 20 minutes to give the ladies reinforcement on some of the group numbers. The placement in the middle of rehearsal seems to be effective to give the women a chance to exercise their brains in a different way for a while.
Yun joined us to show fitting pictures of Amelia! How exciting. Of course Kaliegh looks just like Amelia. Wow. Patrick joined to see the joining of story and environment.
Great night of work - quite excited that we have stayed on track with the staging schedule. What an accomplishment.
Aimee gets the spirit! Our staging work tonight surrounded Aimee's story. The scene of Minnie and Aimee in the church with Semple, getting to the heart of the Minnie/Aimee relationship. Then, the staging of The Heat, using the inspiration of the circular healing conversations that Rob, Liv and I have had during our work together. After The Heat, Minnie's return and Aimee's convincing mother to stay. Tess and Lee's commitment to the complicated relationship was compelling. I am excited to see where it grows from here.
We began the "How Do You Do It" sequence. The female, "cool cat", reporters gave a beautiful juxtoposition and foil to the uncomfortable boyish nature of Amelia. We will continue the press spinning chaos of Amelia's media frenzy tomorrow. I am enjoying playing with how many different ways and crew members can be in the crowd, keeping the press machine alive.
In the middle of staging p44-62 we held a Music Rehearsal for about an hour and 20 minutes to give the ladies reinforcement on some of the group numbers. The placement in the middle of rehearsal seems to be effective to give the women a chance to exercise their brains in a different way for a while.
Yun joined us to show fitting pictures of Amelia! How exciting. Of course Kaliegh looks just like Amelia. Wow. Patrick joined to see the joining of story and environment.
Great night of work - quite excited that we have stayed on track with the staging schedule. What an accomplishment.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
WEEK TWO, Day 1
Monday, 9/20: The week started with a bang! Rob Hartmann and Liv Cummins joined the team in the room. We have the gift of them in our process for M-W - vanishing back to their lives on TH early.
I truly am a believer in "time to marinate". It was amazing to come back after a whole day off and see all of the discussions/explorations of Week 1 take shape. The ladies are on their way with the music AND with the gestural language of the icons. I must remember to continue to reinforce the nono-second that must exist for the audience to absorb each character as they enter the story in an ongoing basis.
It was a packed 4 hours. We staged 14-43 in three hours (p14-directly following the Opening to p43-after The Plot), divided by an hour or a music rehearsal in the middle. Particular attention was made today to talking through exact transitions. My goal is to give specific, rich details in the first pass to allow the ladies to assimilate this info into their beings and grow from here. Those details include what costume and prop pieces will be used in each scene so that the actor can get the sequence in the body memory.
Something to ponder and address: We glossed over the Press Machine version of Lady Lindy. I will have to revisit it and ask Judy Conte to come in and play with us. Kristi provided a new version of the mock up that gives a little more space for the actor to work. Finding a verbal language to articulate what I need to happen to bring the press machine to life is bringing me to a grinding halt at times. Inspiration will come. I need to get in a room with the Press Machine by myself and become one with it so that I can show my actors. Perhaps a picture's worth a thousand words in this case! I love the Press Machine. I want to use it in its full capacity for maximum impact! We need to go back and make a few changes to Adventure, Spectacle, Mystery. It was not in the plan for tonight, but we had a few minutes at the end and began that fine tuning.
Rob Hartmann and Liv Cummins and I spent time basking in the afterglow of rehearsal which was a pleasure. I cannot WAIT to be in the room with everyone again. The positive energy is palpable.
I truly am a believer in "time to marinate". It was amazing to come back after a whole day off and see all of the discussions/explorations of Week 1 take shape. The ladies are on their way with the music AND with the gestural language of the icons. I must remember to continue to reinforce the nono-second that must exist for the audience to absorb each character as they enter the story in an ongoing basis.
It was a packed 4 hours. We staged 14-43 in three hours (p14-directly following the Opening to p43-after The Plot), divided by an hour or a music rehearsal in the middle. Particular attention was made today to talking through exact transitions. My goal is to give specific, rich details in the first pass to allow the ladies to assimilate this info into their beings and grow from here. Those details include what costume and prop pieces will be used in each scene so that the actor can get the sequence in the body memory.
Something to ponder and address: We glossed over the Press Machine version of Lady Lindy. I will have to revisit it and ask Judy Conte to come in and play with us. Kristi provided a new version of the mock up that gives a little more space for the actor to work. Finding a verbal language to articulate what I need to happen to bring the press machine to life is bringing me to a grinding halt at times. Inspiration will come. I need to get in a room with the Press Machine by myself and become one with it so that I can show my actors. Perhaps a picture's worth a thousand words in this case! I love the Press Machine. I want to use it in its full capacity for maximum impact! We need to go back and make a few changes to Adventure, Spectacle, Mystery. It was not in the plan for tonight, but we had a few minutes at the end and began that fine tuning.
Rob Hartmann and Liv Cummins and I spent time basking in the afterglow of rehearsal which was a pleasure. I cannot WAIT to be in the room with everyone again. The positive energy is palpable.
Monday, September 20, 2010
WEEK ONE: A Note from Christian Fleming, AD
Week One: In concert with Marya's reflections on this past week of rehearsals, it is so wonderful to watch Vanishing Point come to life. From an assistant's point of view, our beginning process has been quite refreshing. Hearing the design and dramaturgy presentations was great. Even better was seeing the delight our work so far has brought those joining us now in the process. From a rehearsal standpoint, having the opportunity to observe the level of detail that is being paid to the learning and investigation of this show's score, is incredible. Stemming from a strict classical approach to music, Dr. Paige along with Marya have proven the effectiveness of starting by learning the score as written, then using the understanding and knowledge gained to shape and interpret. Because of this approach, I am confident that the music has been absorbed by the three actresses faster and more accurately than other methods. Having Dr. Paige in the room to assist with music will definitely benefit this production. He brings a great breadth of knowledge and experience, radiating his enthusiasm for both this piece, but importantly the genre of musical theatre. I cannot help but admire the passion to which Dr. Paige brings to the rehearsal room. It is truly infectious; inspiring others to be equally as passionate about the small nuances that are discreetly hidden within this score. Unlike many productions, this production has the pleasure of working in tandem with the creators. I look forward to our next week of rehearsals with both the lyricist and the composer present in the room. -- Christian R. Fleming Directing, School of Drama Carnegie Mellon University
Day 6: Last day of week 1!
Saturday, 9/18:
Dr. Page was with us this morning. It was a staggered call to give Kaleigh (10-11) and Lee (11-12) one-on-one time for their solo work. Strong diction and rhythmic work was accomplished. Dr. Page deals from a place of passion and excitement for the truth in the music that Rob Hartmann has written, pointing out to us all small things that are written in the music that lead for huge artistic storytelling.
During the 12-2 spot, Teddy Sosna (our lighting designer) joined us to record the show for the purposes of building his musical clues being sensitive to the musical changes in the piece. To this end, our goal was to read and sing to let the story unfold. Due to time constraints, we read/sang through half of Act I and then I had to make the executive decision to just sing the music so we would give Teddy everything he needed as accurately as possible. The ladies' blend is coming along. Someone out in the hallway during the sing-through praised the sound to me when they saw me later in the day. Although I would love for the show to be an amazing surprise, I was beaming. One cannot keep a light hidden. It must shine.
WEEK ONE WRAP UP: The excitement has been built. The acting/style concepts have been laid. The music has begun to take shape and is coming along. The press machine is evolving.
GOALS FOR WEEK 2: Stage Act I. Onward and Upward. (Rob Hartmann and Liv Cummins will be with us all week...what a gift!)
Dr. Page was with us this morning. It was a staggered call to give Kaleigh (10-11) and Lee (11-12) one-on-one time for their solo work. Strong diction and rhythmic work was accomplished. Dr. Page deals from a place of passion and excitement for the truth in the music that Rob Hartmann has written, pointing out to us all small things that are written in the music that lead for huge artistic storytelling.
During the 12-2 spot, Teddy Sosna (our lighting designer) joined us to record the show for the purposes of building his musical clues being sensitive to the musical changes in the piece. To this end, our goal was to read and sing to let the story unfold. Due to time constraints, we read/sang through half of Act I and then I had to make the executive decision to just sing the music so we would give Teddy everything he needed as accurately as possible. The ladies' blend is coming along. Someone out in the hallway during the sing-through praised the sound to me when they saw me later in the day. Although I would love for the show to be an amazing surprise, I was beaming. One cannot keep a light hidden. It must shine.
WEEK ONE WRAP UP: The excitement has been built. The acting/style concepts have been laid. The music has begun to take shape and is coming along. The press machine is evolving.
GOALS FOR WEEK 2: Stage Act I. Onward and Upward. (Rob Hartmann and Liv Cummins will be with us all week...what a gift!)
Day 5: Music, Gesture work, Adventure Spectacle and Mystery
Friday, 9/17:
Truly, this is the day that Tess had her one-on-one music work. I got ahead of myself in my last blog. On Thursday, we continued our group study of music with Dr. Page. Dancing the rhythms is a theme that he kept reinforcing and spoke to me as a great tool for us going forward. When each lady involved her whole body and EXPERIENCED the rhythm, any problems smoothed themselves out. Interesting correlation to my current study of Eurythmics.
GESTURAL WORK: For the audience - How to visually define character. For the actor - How to work outside in but fill the movement with the essence/quality that makes that movement/gesture unique and specific to that character. Since our characters were real people and full of life in our American history, I am interested not in impersonation for my actors, but embodying these women as fully as possible by using dramaturgical footage and pictures to inform gesture.
Academically, each actor selected 5 photos of their lady from a library of images cycled through on the wall during a rehearsal by dramaturgy. I used a combination of Michael Chekov's theory of Atmosphere and Psychological Gesture exercises to allow their bodies and mind to combine their own essence with the ladies' gesture to flow easily back and forth between each Quality/Gesture. These 5 Quality/Gesture is the physical language from which they will select every time they flow into their icon from another character. It will provide an anchoring quality for the actor to be fully involved in their icon as the scene begins and an identifying feature for the audience. Each character in the show will have an anchor. As we progress in the show into the "stock" characters, they will be developed in a more heightened/vaudevillian way.
ADVENTURE/SPECTACLE/MYSTERY: Directly following the Gestural Work, we developed the rough structure of the opening number where the audience's belief has to be suspended halfway through the number to go from "actor putting on a show" to "icon". We found that we don the icon by adding the last character costume accent (pearls, cross, scarf) on our appropriate lyric Adventure, Spectacle, Mystery and then grow into our selected Quality/Gesture on the last "Mystery" prior to the spoken explanation lines: "Mystery novelist, Agatha Christie vanishes........". We repeat that gesture at the end of the song for our final picture. It was magical to see them transform physically in an instant. Of course, the number has to be tweaked, but it was exciting to see that gestural work bring the icon to life.
Truly, this is the day that Tess had her one-on-one music work. I got ahead of myself in my last blog. On Thursday, we continued our group study of music with Dr. Page. Dancing the rhythms is a theme that he kept reinforcing and spoke to me as a great tool for us going forward. When each lady involved her whole body and EXPERIENCED the rhythm, any problems smoothed themselves out. Interesting correlation to my current study of Eurythmics.
GESTURAL WORK: For the audience - How to visually define character. For the actor - How to work outside in but fill the movement with the essence/quality that makes that movement/gesture unique and specific to that character. Since our characters were real people and full of life in our American history, I am interested not in impersonation for my actors, but embodying these women as fully as possible by using dramaturgical footage and pictures to inform gesture.
Academically, each actor selected 5 photos of their lady from a library of images cycled through on the wall during a rehearsal by dramaturgy. I used a combination of Michael Chekov's theory of Atmosphere and Psychological Gesture exercises to allow their bodies and mind to combine their own essence with the ladies' gesture to flow easily back and forth between each Quality/Gesture. These 5 Quality/Gesture is the physical language from which they will select every time they flow into their icon from another character. It will provide an anchoring quality for the actor to be fully involved in their icon as the scene begins and an identifying feature for the audience. Each character in the show will have an anchor. As we progress in the show into the "stock" characters, they will be developed in a more heightened/vaudevillian way.
ADVENTURE/SPECTACLE/MYSTERY: Directly following the Gestural Work, we developed the rough structure of the opening number where the audience's belief has to be suspended halfway through the number to go from "actor putting on a show" to "icon". We found that we don the icon by adding the last character costume accent (pearls, cross, scarf) on our appropriate lyric Adventure, Spectacle, Mystery and then grow into our selected Quality/Gesture on the last "Mystery" prior to the spoken explanation lines: "Mystery novelist, Agatha Christie vanishes........". We repeat that gesture at the end of the song for our final picture. It was magical to see them transform physically in an instant. Of course, the number has to be tweaked, but it was exciting to see that gestural work bring the icon to life.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Day 3 and 4 Finish first pass at Music and Press Machine Mock up!
9/15 and 9/16: Days 3 and 4!
9/16: Music Rehearsals are going well! We finished our first pass at all the music today, including the following that were left over on our list and others that were not!
Day 2: Finish from yesterday's list
Lady Lindy
Tell Us, Mrs. ChristieLady on the Lam-m119 on
How Do You Do It
Lady Lindy Reprise
Afternoon Tea
The Return
TH 9/17: This is the first time we had a staggered call. We wanted to work musically on each of the ladies' solos. So Tess Primack/Aimee came in and received some very spectacular one-on-one coaching from Dr. Page and myself. After that hour, we revisited group numbers in Act II.
Staging: I roughed out some choreography for the first PM entrance. GP "Lady Lindy" and PM echo of the same. I am satisfied with the staging where GP becomes press and then becomes Mrs. Earhart. Positionally, it works. Choreography of Press Machine needs to be revisited, my first stab doesn't give us the tone that we need. Challenge.....Hmm. Love it.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Day 2 - Getting off the ground
9/14 T- Rehearsal #2:
What was created:
Music Rehearsal.......Dr. Robert Page joined us today along with Rob Hartmann. Michael Van Camp, Stephanie Mao, and I tackled my very ambitious list of group numbers, teaching parts and discovering tempi together. Rob added the element of authenticity and checks and balances to the discovery process that Dr. Page, Michael and I did together in our meetings the week prior to rehearsals. It was a kick to hear Rob describe nuances in the music that allowed the ladies to smooth through some historically difficult transitions and sections in the piece.
What was created:
Music Rehearsal.......Dr. Robert Page joined us today along with Rob Hartmann. Michael Van Camp, Stephanie Mao, and I tackled my very ambitious list of group numbers, teaching parts and discovering tempi together. Rob added the element of authenticity and checks and balances to the discovery process that Dr. Page, Michael and I did together in our meetings the week prior to rehearsals. It was a kick to hear Rob describe nuances in the music that allowed the ladies to smooth through some historically difficult transitions and sections in the piece.
Since I was unsure how long each number would take to shape, I created a flexible list that prioritized all the group numbers and things Rob wanted to be a part of,with the understanding that what we would would flow into the next day. It is also has a scheduled 2 hour music rehearsal. Below is the list showing what we accomplished and what was left.
Material Learned
Point A
Leave It Behind
Red Herrings
Vanity and Gravity
Beginning of All Mothers Do
On the Way
___________________________________
Still on the list
Still on the list
Lady Lindy
Tell Us, Mrs. ChristieLady on the Lam-m119 on
How Do You Do It
Lady Lindy Reprise
Afternoon Tea
The Return
I felt accomplished that we got a good, thorough first pass at the trickier (and beautiful) pieces. It looks like less than half of the list, but the remaining, I anticipate, will take 1/2 the time due to the lesser difficulty. The music that we worked through was good, detailed work with dynamic nuances and acting impetus. My musical soul was satisfied.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
1st day addendum - Dramaturgy makes Big Buzz!
During presentations on the first day, Mary Margaret gave the biggest surprise to our ladies of the evening! She and her assistant, Dana, worked on taking historical information into a living experience. On top of the traditional actor packet given, each lady will go on a "passion trip". A field experience has been set up for each actor relating to the burning, driving passion of each lady. Tess/Aimee will visit with Pittsburgh female Evangelists, Lee/Agatha will visit with a Private Detective, and Kaleigh/Amelia will receive a beginning flying lesson.
In conference with MMK when she told me this plan, I decided to take the living experience idea into our props. Books are a big part of our story and appear onstage at various times. With the help of Jon Ward, we will bind the actual historical information into the books that the ladies will handle and look through on stage. This will hopefully take information that is historical and make it personal.
Day 1-The team assembled in one room - a creative feast!
I am writing this in the morning of day three- in retrospect. I have been attempting to reconcile my creative process (hand drawn scrawls in a journal, or diagrams on a half used napkin) with what seems to me as a utilitarian task of typing it out on a keyboard for all to see-------exposed. I came to realize that my process is not unlike Agatha's, in a way slightly haphazard and more than a little mysterious even to myself. Interestingly, this feeling of frightening transparency is integral to our frame. Therefore, my first blog experience, although much resisted, is surprisingly providing me with a deep psycho-physical connection to this incarnation of Vanishing Point.
9/13 - Rehearsal #1:
Impressions: an army of creative people that I have been working with individually finally got to reap the benefits of each other's work. Rob Hartmann also present. Emotionally overwhelming. Psychologically stimulating. Excitement palpable. Adding the actors to the soup provided the sherry and fresh herbs. Now we just need to simmer......salting to taste.
What happened:
Entering the room and introductions...Devorah's set up impeccable/ordered/comforting.
Design Presentations .....Patrick, Yun and Teddy showed work with clarity and excitement. It was gratifying for me to see the actors and Rob Hartmann enjoying their work.
Reading.....Placed actors in center of square table set up with stands facing each other. The goal of the reading was to read for sense so I wanted the ladies to be insulated as much as possible from all of the eyes in the room. This was effective. Of course, one can never remove the impetus to perform for an audience, but it was successful in giving the actor the experience of "availability of partner" first, panel second. Wonderful treat to hear the story the first time with the colors of the actor's voices.
Music Rehearsal.......Michael Van Camp, Stephanie Mao, Rob Hartmann and I navigated our way through our relationship in the room figuring out our specific roles during rehearsals. What a pleasure to have Michael's ear and sense of rhythm combining with my sense of dramatic action within the music to combine for a wholistic music/acting through song learning experience. Kaleigh, Lee and Tess have a magnificent sound together that was thrilling to experience the first time. Music taught - Opening: Adventure, Spectacle, Mystery, Finale, and roughed out All Mothers Do. We will have to review the harmonies in All Mothers Do as we moved through this very quickly. Rehearsal order worked well - I wanted the ladies to feel accomplished and excited. The opening and closing tell our story. All Mothers Do harmonies are beautiful and accessible. I was pleased that I had planned for about the right amount of musical material to be learned in an hour and a half. (It was an intuitive guess, but I will reflect on why I knew and what the criteria I used to come to that conclusion.)
When it was over, Rob and I spent some time together in the afterglow of the excitement of the first rehearsal.
9/13 - Rehearsal #1:
Impressions: an army of creative people that I have been working with individually finally got to reap the benefits of each other's work. Rob Hartmann also present. Emotionally overwhelming. Psychologically stimulating. Excitement palpable. Adding the actors to the soup provided the sherry and fresh herbs. Now we just need to simmer......salting to taste.
What happened:
Entering the room and introductions...Devorah's set up impeccable/ordered/comforting.
Design Presentations .....Patrick, Yun and Teddy showed work with clarity and excitement. It was gratifying for me to see the actors and Rob Hartmann enjoying their work.
Reading.....Placed actors in center of square table set up with stands facing each other. The goal of the reading was to read for sense so I wanted the ladies to be insulated as much as possible from all of the eyes in the room. This was effective. Of course, one can never remove the impetus to perform for an audience, but it was successful in giving the actor the experience of "availability of partner" first, panel second. Wonderful treat to hear the story the first time with the colors of the actor's voices.
Music Rehearsal.......Michael Van Camp, Stephanie Mao, Rob Hartmann and I navigated our way through our relationship in the room figuring out our specific roles during rehearsals. What a pleasure to have Michael's ear and sense of rhythm combining with my sense of dramatic action within the music to combine for a wholistic music/acting through song learning experience. Kaleigh, Lee and Tess have a magnificent sound together that was thrilling to experience the first time. Music taught - Opening: Adventure, Spectacle, Mystery, Finale, and roughed out All Mothers Do. We will have to review the harmonies in All Mothers Do as we moved through this very quickly. Rehearsal order worked well - I wanted the ladies to feel accomplished and excited. The opening and closing tell our story. All Mothers Do harmonies are beautiful and accessible. I was pleased that I had planned for about the right amount of musical material to be learned in an hour and a half. (It was an intuitive guess, but I will reflect on why I knew and what the criteria I used to come to that conclusion.)
When it was over, Rob and I spent some time together in the afterglow of the excitement of the first rehearsal.
Monday, September 13, 2010
9/13: First Rehearsal Day-as I awake!
Being in the room together for the first time! Unlimited possibilities! Overprepare and then throw it out the window-------the essence will remain on the canvas, but with the unique colors that each creative soul brings in the door with them!
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