WEEK THREE: Day 1 & 2 Continued

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.

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

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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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.

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.

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.

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.