Open Wide

Well... we've opened.  It was a crazy week (which explains my blogging absence), filled with all manner of frustration and discovery... and what we're left with, is easily one of the most beautiful shows I have ever done.  The show is a perfect dance of light, sound, projection, text, performance, and direction.  I am so incredibly proud of it, and I can honestly say I have never seen another show like it... it is utterly unique.  This show raises the bar for the use of projections in a theatre piece, Jacob has done some incredibly beautiful work.  Diana, Sharon, Jacob and I have captured a perfect storm of a show, and hopefully, audiences will find their way to us in the midst of a theatre scene bursting at the seams.

Please, join us.  Be part of the experience.  You'll be glad you did.

Prepare For the Great Bird!!!

It's been a really intense, exhilarating, and frustrating week.  I don't want to talk too much about specifics, because I want you to be surprised when you come and see the show, but much has been accomplished.  We've set stuff up, we've torn stuff down... we've smudged, we've laughed, we've stared blankly at each other in frustration, we've argued, and we've persevered.  The Click and The Whir are in place (hello boys), and they look amazing... we have our Great Bird.  Rehearsals have been going very well, and Diana seems very pleased (despite her growing frustration concerning my resistance face looking identical to my processing face... for the record, this is the number one complaint about me from my directors.... they don't know whether I'm fighting them or taking it in).

(Between you and me, I am usually taking it in).


From hereon, things really start to accelerate... we're introducing Jacob's projections tomorrow, and Sharon's lights are arriving Monday.  It's going to be dizzying change after dizzying change, the show is going to grow in leaps and bounds.  Sharon has warned me that our tech days (Tuesday and Wednesday), are going to be the longest most tedious days of my entire life.  I have never teched a show like this before... it's going to be an experience, that's for sure. 

We open in six days.  Yikes.

I was in the bathroom the other day, I looked in the mirror at my exhausted face, and I had to smile.  Here we are, the four of us... working with money raised through fundraisers, grant writing, and personal investment... and instead of going to Paris or paying off debt, or even buying a PS3 (sigh), we're doing what we we're moved to do.  In times like these it's a daring act... and the simple truth of the matter is... there's nowhere else any of us would rather be.  It's a powerful realization, and kind of exhilarating.

We make a great team, Diana, Sharon, Jacob, and me... this ragtag Wingéd foursome... and I am so proud of everything we have done, everything we are doing, and everything we are going to do.  I am so proud of our courage and our integrity.  It takes the sting of the most frustrating day completely away.

Clutch. Hip. Hum.

Sometimes, I wonder about the wisdom about blogging during a rehearsal period, because not only are rehearsals exhausting, but fraught with self-doubt and anxiety.  The last thing I need to be doing is chronicling my freak outs and showcasing my neuroses... or perhaps that would help. Something to think about.

The week of full time rehearsals ended with a modestly successful run, some minor text adjustments (ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!), and a production meeting which puts us in good stead for this week.  We bid adieu to the rehearsal studio, and tomorrow, we get to load into the gallery which is very exciting.

This week, we'll start to deal with concretes in terms of space and staging; all our approximations will be boiled down into a heady stew of absolutes.  The visual language Jacob is creating for the projections are very exciting, his ideas are inspiring and a perfect compliment to the text and performance.  Sharon's lighting design is also solidifying, but we won't actually get to play with the lights in the space until next week, when they arrive.  Diana has apparently been building wardrobe all weekend, and tickets have started to sell.

The boys are dancing with me every day, hanging out with me most of the time.  I am ready for the final consumption, to lose myself utterly in the work, until I come through the other side.  I will say this... I have been working very hard, despite my underlying feelings that I haven't been making any progress.  It feels good to work this hard.  It feels good to feel this tired.  It feels good to be working with who I am working with. Perhaps I will just leave it at that.

Mantra Prescription

Repeat as necessary to alleviate symptoms:

I disappear my fear.
I resurrect my audacity.

By The Pricking?

Full time rehearsals.  Diana is being driven mad by production duties, Sharon is scouring the city for scaffolding, Jacob's laptop is down for the count, and I am terrified that I have no idea what I am doing.

In other words, everything is as it should be. 

I was sitting there today on lunch, looking at the sky, and I realized despite everything, it's still so exciting.  It's a short rehearsal period and a short run... every moment needs to be savored, because who knows when I'll get the chance to do Wingéd again?  So, no matter what the complaints, I am trying to enjoy every second... which admittedly is challenging when Diana is driving me crazy with her direction (we're getting down the the nitpicking in some places, and today I had to obey the Rule of the Leg.  Who knows what insanely frustrating  rule tomorrow will bring?).

The words are in my head.  Abandonment and Trust are being called for; both onstage and behind the scenes.  We're calling in favours where we need to, and we're slowly making progress. 

That's about all I have for you at this moment... aside from this ---> if you happen to have some scaffolding in your backyard, you should seriously call me.

Simplicity and Idea Keys

The exciting thing about ideas is that they can change... like the map I drew (see below).  It took about an hour of fussing and working through things with Diana before we realized the staging idea looked pretty enough on paper and was sound in concept... but it just wasn't going to work.  In a heavily ironic flash of brilliance, it hit us both... there was no need to reinvent the wheel.  The existing staging ideas from the production of Sunstroke: Icarus Speaks we did at the Rhubarb Festival were simple, beautiful, and served the piece.  The second we tried it, everything fell immediately into place.  There were so many spectacular possibilities about doing the piece in a new space... but when you find yourself in a new ballgame, I suppose it's easy to get distracted by possibility instead of building on what you have... lesson learned.

I am happy to say some amazing discoveries come out of the epicycles exercise, as they often do... sometimes, the best ideas are cleverly disguised keys to open doors to other places.

Speaking of other places, here is the article about the play in Xtra... it's always a little terrifying to read an article someone else wrote about your show when you're a control freak... but it's great (thank you, Serafin).  The posters are out in the world, I'm handing out postcards like a madman, the show is definitely starting to pierce the social consciousness.  It's a very satisfying thing to have people you haven't talked to in a while ask you about your show... it means word is getting out. 

This week, things kick up a notch in a big all consuming way... I'll keep you in the loop as best i can.

It's going to be a very special, very important show... for reasons I already know, and lots of reasons I don't... but I have this... very special feeling about it...  up, up, and away!

X Marks the Spot

Saturday morning, I had a wave of inspiration around the Icarus staging based on the work Diana and I did last Thursday.  I dutifully opened my computer's paint program, and tried to translate the idea into a diagram.  Despite my shaky illustration skills, I was very impressed by what I ultimately came up with... a map which tracks Icarus' movement through the space, anchored by key bits of text.  I made it my desktop because I like it so much, and then thought perhaps it might be amusing to share here... et voila!  The ideas at play may be lofty, but the execution is decidedly very basic... the result is weirdly amusing. Diana liked the map a lot, so we'll see what happens when we take into the studio tomorrow. It's still early in our process and much can change... but this is an exciting point of inspiration. Sometimes you just gotta follow the rabbit hole no matter where it takes you.