An update from the Henry project down here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina…

This past week has been about continuing scene work on both Henry IV and Henry V. Our current cut of Henry IV has three acts and Henry V has two acts, so on our second pass at the work, we’ve been focusing one full day on each act (after having spent a week staging each play), working on deepening relationships and character work. The arc of the Henries is primarily Hal’s trajectory from Tavern life to his role as Henry V, so one of our main goals this week has been trying to thread those pieces together: How the kind of ruler Henry V ultimately becomes is influenced by his experiences in the tavern, and the difficulties of having to put aside old friends and lifestyles in pursuit of responsibility and obligation.

We start the tech process in one week, so our next step is to take a step back, let the company run the shows a few times so that they can process some of the notes that Joe and Mike have been giving. This is that precarious period where it’s about the actors needing space to let things percolate and drop in. Everyone has been working at such a feverish pace getting these pieces created and staged, and now we’re giving folks room to breath and process.

… and for those of you who want to see some of our key players, here’s a video of the Playmakers synopsis of Henry IV. Enjoy!

Happy New Year! I’m writing this entry from my room in Chapel Hill, where I am currently on my second assistantship with Playmakers Repertory Company working on Henry IV and Henry V.

So many things to update on… where to start? Let’s rewind a bit…

It feels like eons ago, but I want say that DirectorFest was a huge blast. Tough as it was to get Chekhov on its feet and done in five days, I think it went off rather well. Working under a pressurized system like this is always a challenge, but I think it forces us to make immediate decisions, and doesn’t allow directors the luxury of being precious with choices. It was also really exciting to see the work of my colleagues, and to get a taste of the kind of work that interests them. We had a really unique and wide range of taste between the four of us, which I thought provided for an interesting night of theatre.

After DirectorFest closed, I went to LA to see family for three days, and then flew to Chapel Hill to start work on the Henries. I spent both Christmas and New Years here, and the folks at Playmakers Rep are as welcoming and as accommodating as can be. The food is ridiculously fattening (everything is either sugary or pork-based or deep fried–if not all three), and the alcohol flows like none other. Southern hospitality at its finest.

As far as rehearsals go, it’s a very intense process. We managed to get the entire Henry IV (which is a merged version of parts 1 and 2) up and staged–with fights and music–in five days. We start Henry V tomorrow, and we’re planning to get that up in four days. My role as the assistant has been to track the progress in the two rehearsal rooms that we’re working in–Joe and Mike are working in separate rooms simultaneously, and I have the task of building the schedule around them to make the best use of the time we have. It’s like the world’s most complex game of Tetris.

We’re continuing to make tweaks to the script, rearranging scenes and making cuts to get the Henry IV production in under 3 hours (with two intermissions). It’s a very driven room with a group of remarkably talented people. The majority of the cast is comprised of graduate school actors and faculty/staff from the UNC Chapel Hill MFA program, with a handful of local community actors and out-of-town guest artists. The synergy in the rehearsals have been positive, and everyone is stepping up to meet the high bar that this production has set. I’m excited to see how it goes, and will be back with more…

So it seems like just about every day something happens in rehearsal or prep for a show in which someone says “that should totally go in your blog.” Needless to say, I forget almost all of them.

I do happen to remember at least one.  So, I’m directing Naomi Wallace’s No Such Cold Thing, a beautiful, poetic, violent, tragic, beautiful and provocative new play.  It also happens to include a half naked man lying (laying? I can never get that conjugation right) on a bed without a mattress and a 13 year old girl wearing a burqa.   I have discovered that while one might think there are certain things that can’t be joked about, when you deal with a play full of death and  repressive regimes on a daily basis, you find almost any way to keep it light that you can.  And a half naked man and a burqa on stage is one of those things.  In addition, my cast is incredibly jovial and at some point my delightful Stage Manager Jinay Reitze and I nicknamed them the Care Bears.  And the jokes about what would happen if the Taliban came in contact with the Care Bear stare have been never ending.

Tonight we began dry tech.  Mostly we spent time trying to spike my mulch.  Our lovely set designer Julia, has created a beautiful, if appropriately hard to contain spiral of “sand” that makes up the majority of my set.   Needless to say the first attempt at setting it up took up most of the dry tech.  We did however get far enough to need to see the burqa under the lights.  At which point I said something to the effect of “we need to get that thing under the lights, cause it’s gonna glow like a mo fo.”  To which the set designer responded, that I needed to put that in my blog.  I have certainly learned more about burqas doing this show that I ever anticipated.

Something I’ve prided myself in over the last few years as a director is my ability to keep my actors feeling safe.  Obviously a show this topically dangerous makes it even more important than average.  While many of the casts for our showcase are filled with adult actors, mine range from age 16-22, which to me, makes it even more important.  However, I really think I have been blessed because sometimes I think they are the ones keeping it light for me.   We have learned to find humor in odd places.  We have done things like celebrate the very brave Hannah Schwalberg’s 16th birthday with a Funfetti cake on the the day we staged the darkest part of the show.  We find never ending amusement in the  immensely talented Alex Hernadez’s various antics, and break out in laughter when the jubilant Archana Rajan frequently does impressions of people in her brilliant Indian accent.  This, I have been reminded, is what makes the process possible.

When I was in college I did a really dark play about cycles of abuse in families and looking back I wish I could tell my 22 year old self about just how important it is to find the joy in the hidden places.  This has been a surprisingly happy process.  I have watched more documentaries about Afghanistan than I ever cared to and they really made me feel like I needed to go on a Disney streak when I was done.  I feel like every day in the New York Times there is some article about new atrocities  happening there.  And I have certainly become more aware and horrified by my country’s complicity in the rise of the Taliban.  And yet I keep returning to the thought of “it’s a shame we can’t fix it all with the Care Bear stare.”   It is amazing how eye opening a play can be and how important coping mechanisms like Care Bears are.  In a sense that is exactly what this play is about…..but you’ll have to come see it to find out why.

So we’re close to done, just a few days left.  Tonight I went to see Martha Clarke’s Angel Reapers which was exactly what I needed right before plunging into tech.  It is so important that as we keep doing this work, not only do we find the levity, but we continue to find sources of creative inspiration.  So tomorrow I will plunge into my hour and a half in the rehearsal hall before tech armed with 8 hours of ideas for adding poetry to this piece  (inspired by the brilliant dance/theatre piece I saw tonight.)   Hope my Care Bears are ready for the marathon!  Then, again, I have little doubt they are, as I am fortunate that they never give up, and always come armed with a new way to make me laugh.

The mulch getting spiked...

This has been an intense past seven days. I arrived in NYC one week ago (Nov. 30) to begin work on DirectorFest ’11. For DirectorFest, I’m directing Lisa D’Amour’s short play, My California. Everyday I find myself more and more in love with this play. After months of rehearsals in which I was supporting the work of someone else, it feels amazing to wrestle with a text and collaborate with actors on something that I chose. I have the most amazing cast. These ladies, Kelly McAndrew, Kari Nicolle, and Kate Hare, are all gracious, gorgeous, uber talented, and above all, willing to jump right in. I must sound like a kook to them in rehearsals, but they never let on. They commit whole hog to the story, and at least three times a day give me the chills.

Rehearsals began Thursday and already today was dry tech. I can’t wait until tomorrow when we have the actors on the set, in costumes, and light. I am the happiest camper of all time in the theatre. Everything else (and there is a lot of everything else in my life right now) simply fades to the background while we play, create, and make belief. It’s also quite fabulous to be working with so many women in the theatre. Our design team is most women, and my stage manager, C. Renee Harris-Alexander, keeps it 100% and I LOVE IT.

Soon I’ll see what the other directors have been up to when we bring all the shows together in two days for our dress rehearsal and opening night performance. I think this will be the one I always tell the kids about, “when I was a drama league fellow…”

…the world was full of infinite possibility.

me, Lily, Desdemona, and Amanda
Your Fall 2011 Drama League Directing Fellows

Well it is the day after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday” as it is commonly referred to, and I am sitting at a computer at my temp job thinking about my preparations for my extended stay in NY beginning next week.

It was about this time last year when the applications for the Directors’ Project went up, and so for this past year the Drama League has been a huge part of my life. For that I am tremendously thankful.

It is bitter-sweet that our fall fellowship will conclude in just under 3 weeks time, and the 4 of us will be off in the world (Des still under the auspice of the fellowship at Playmakers Rep). I can only begin to explain what this experience has been for me because I will reach the point where words fail. For the last 7 months I have been in rehearsal halls, techs, previews, design meetings, casting sessions, off and on Broadway shows, producers’ offices, actors’ dressing rooms, a lodge in the Berkshires, and here with you on this blog, and it has been the time of my life. And on a personal level I feel like I have achieved the impossible, because I have done it all while being a single mom (and as a member of a few other socioeconomically under privileged groups).

Now as I gear up for DirectorFest, I know that the rest is up to me; to go out in the world and make the art I am passionate about with people who inspire me, that I believe in, trust, and admire. IT IS SCARY, but I am ready, and so grateful for the time, investment, and resources of Roger, Gabriel, and the Drama League, and the camaraderie and support of the other fellows (fall, summer, musical, classical, present and past) has been terrific. (If you are reading this because you think you want to apply to the Directors’ Project, YOU MUST DO IT).

MY CALIFORNIA is all cast, and I couldn’t be more excited about these three women. This show has very quickly become an incredibly personal story for me and I am thrilled to bring it to life with these breath taking actors.

So I have a quick turn around trip on Monday to NY and back for our big production meeting, and then on Wednesday, Jordyn and I pack up for our 2 week stay in the big bad apple. WOW!

Diving in, in 5…4…3…2…

So one of the best and worst parts of ADing in my humble opinion, is notes. Every director has a different way of taking and distributing notes that works best for them. Some people take their own, some people whisper them to you. After doing two shows together Will and I discovered that what works best for him is to take his own notes and then after the show he dictates and expounds upon them and I transcribe it all, divvy it up by actor and send them out by email. The great part about this is that I know what he is thinking about and wanting to fix and change. It also means that I am equipped with the information to help our cast work through notes when Will is working on other parts of the show, which given our long and extremely busy preview period has been invaluable. When we do his notes, we also frequently discuss notes I may have taken as well. Now the challenge with this whole process is that we have a tendency to get kicked out of the theatre because by the time we’re done with our production meeting after the show, they are ready to lock up.
So at some point back in mid-October we got in the habit of going to the Westway Diner. Now, I have strong feelings about what one can and cannot order at midnight at a diner. Salad for example, not a good choice. French Fries, totally appropriate but later leave you wondering why on earth you thought that was a good idea. Needless to say, The Blue Flower will go down in my record books as the Westway show. Will and I have been there so many times that not only is it a joke between us, but with most of the company as well. Last night we completed preview #28 before opening this Wednesday. I wish I had kept track but I believe we have been to the Westway just under 20 times in the last few weeks. The company was shocked when we froze the show on Friday and opted for Frozen Margaritas to mark that occasion instead. And they have gotten in the habit every day of asking me what I’m going to order. It ended up in a rotation of the following items,
• French Fries
• Sweet Potato Fries
• Chicken Fingers
• Chicken Soup
• Sauteed Spinach
• Apple Pie
• Tiramisu
• Bread Pudding

I think I can confidently say, our Westway days are done. I have to say at the end of a 14 hour day neither of us will miss typing notes at midnight while eating various fried or sugary foods, but I have a feeling it will make me chuckle to walk past there for days on end. I’m pretty sure we’re not the first show in history to have taken up residence in those booths…. The exciting news is: we’re done because opening is tomorrow!

And in other news, I have started auditioning No Such Cold Thing. Auditions are really one of my favorite things in the world. There is something so inspiring about seeing people come in and give it everything they’ve got. Auditions for me are a moment of absolute potential. For the first time you start matchmaking between people and the story and it really is the moment when a show starts to come to life. Not that we haven’t been in design meetings, but it is that human moment of seeing an actor become one of the characters that is truly awe inspiring. The hardest part is seeing so many talented people and knowing that you can’t cast them all. Yet there is also something magical about seeing the person you know is perfect and watching the pieces start to snap into place.

I would concur with the other fellows too that working on your own show after ADing is incredibly liberating. It feels really really fantastic to be making art. When it comes down to it, that’s why I’m in this business. There is absolutely nothing in the world that makes me feel the way I do when I feel a story starting to come to life in my imagination, and to take that dream and put it on stage.

There’s nothing quite like the exhilaration of working on three projects at once–and then some!

HORSEDREAMS is well into previews now. Gordon made some recent staging adjustments that activated the show and the actors significantly, and the piece is now galloping along. (Pun totally intended.) The cast is locking into a beautiful rhythm, and our little 11-year old boy is really tapping into the emotional depth and challenge of the role. When he’s on, he’s ON. There are still some minor timing tweaks being made, but at this point, it’s all details and minutiae. A good place to be, with opening night a few days away.

Meanwhile, the land of Shakespeare’s England and France has started to come into my consciousness now. Joe Haj from Playmakers Rep is in NYC this week, and we are in the throes of casting our Prince Hal / King Henry V as well as our Hotspur for HENRY IV/V. I sat in on casting sessions with Joe and Mike Donahue (co-director and DL alum ’09), and man oh man, Mr. Shakespeare does NOT mess around. These are sexy roles for sexy actors. Can’t say much more about it at this point, but I’m excited by the some of the prospects we’ve seen. I’ve also been attending costume design meetings with our designer Jennifer Caprio, who has started sketching out some ideas for the world of the English Court, French Court, Tavern, soliders, etc. Joe is not interested in using costume as indication of period, but rather, thinking about elements that are evocative of 18th/19th century. We talked a lot of about equestrian culture, type of clothes that were functional versus decorative in how people relate to the act of horseback riding, different types of boots, different types of gloves, who works vs who doesn’t, arid dust bowl/depression era imagery, sun-worn worker fabrics, Celtic knots, cowboys, and much more…

It all sounds like a melting pot of ideas right now, but trust me–they actually blend together quite well. More to come as things develop…

Joe and Mike and I have also started talking about the rehearsal plan for Henry 4/5. We essentially have five weeks to put two shows together in rep, both of which share the same cast. You can imagine what kind of logistical challenge this can be. The two of them divvy up the play, work separately in separate rooms (each with their own stage managers), and then swap, and work the other’s scenes, and back and forth and so on. It’s a kind of co-directing collaboration that can only work between two incredibly trusting people who are absent of ego. And I can see that Joe and Mike have an amazing rapport and great open channels of communication. As the assistant, I get to tag team between the two of them, and in a sense, I’ll be the only one of the three of us who knows what’s happening in both rooms. My job is mostly to keep an eye out for consistency and to relay critical information about one room to another room if need be (e.g. if Mike directs an actor to exit stage left, Joe needs to know that for that actor’s next entrance). Joe says it’s like I need to be in the room watching the work while metaphorically standing a couple of feet behind the two of them–in order to see the bigger big picture. Neat.

This idea of working in a pressurized system like this is pretty fucking thrilling, I have to admit. And it totally feeds my inner OCD child to be able to make spreadsheets, figure out which actors can and cannot rehearse at the same time, etc.

And in the midst of all this, we are in final designs for DirectorFest. I’m doing Chekhov’s THE BEAR, and I’ve been talking to the designers about embracing the earnestness of the romance in the play–that feeling of giving in to something bigger than ourselves despite our stubborness at wanting to get whatever we want. Somewhere in a sleepy haze last week, my mind wandered to the film “His Girl Friday,” and I suddenly found myself thinking about 1940′s hollywood romantic comedies. And I think that’s where this is going. Or at least a rural version of it. There’s a kind of brisk whim and nostalgia about that era of romance, along with biting wit and sexy banter between manly men and feisty women that I see resonate very strongly with this piece. We’ll see how it goes… fingers crossed.

PS. I saw Fiasco Theatre’s CYMBELINE at Theatre for a New Audience last night. OH MY GOD SO GOOD. Chamber production of six, amazing singing, so earnest and magical and the language was CRYSTAL CLEAR. It re-instilled my faith that the lesser known plays of the Bard can be done well, so folks, no more excuses about how the play is “just not as strong as Hamlet.”

So my assisting gigs are all done and DirectorFest is fast approaching. I am over the moon to get back to directing my own projects. The time assisting is invaluable and educational, but it also reaffirms that I am meant to be directing.

I will be directing Lisa D’Amour’s MY CALIFORNIA, and it seems like the right time in my life to give voice to this piece. I am a native Californian, from the SF Bay Area (where MY CALIFORNIA starts), and have only been away from home for 3 years and some months to complete grad school. Right now I am feeling very homesick and, like the character Ashley in MY CALIFORNIA, have this idealized Cali that I am trying to make it back to.

I go in to casting next week and am so excited to work with Michele at Cindi Rush Casting. I’ve never worked with a casting director before (though I have had a few artistic directors who in many respects where working with me in that capacity when I was directing at their theatres). I love that there is some one who hears what I am looking for and brings me several options to choose from.

I have been revisiting the script almost daily and am more and more in love with the play with each read. I feel like I can get back to my core (director) values and aesthetic with this material and I am just really feeling ready.

In other theatrically stimulating news, I had the opportunity to attend two readings this past week. The first was Marcus Gardley’s THE HOUSE THAT WILL NOT STAND, as part of the BrandNEW festival at Hartford Stage. The play is an amazingly rich and poetic adaptation of Lorca’s HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA. I loved everything about it, and thought for a first draft it was remarkably ready for some rehearsal. He is just a genius, and I’m not only saying that cause he is my friend.

The second reading was Laurie Carlos’ MARION’S TERRIBLE TIME OF JOY. Laurie Carlos is one of THE most amazing artists I have had the honor of meeting. I am so glad the universe saw fit for us to collide, because I am lifted by having experienced her. This play is very much a score, a rhythmic,in a jazzed aesthetic, bridging gaps in space and time to bring three woman together in a New York kitchen, as a gift to a friend. Truly inspiring on so many levels and gets me even more excited about MY CALIFORNIA, because in a number of ways Lisa’s play is doing some similar things.

Ntozake Shange, in purple, with the cast of for colored girls, from left, Aku Kadogo, Paula Moss, Rise Collins, Janet League, Trezana Beverley and Laurie Carlos

I’ve been a little lax on updating this blog, so here I am, checking in on a tech dinner break…

Hard to believe, but we’re already in final dress for HORSEDREAMS. The process has been quick but efficient (only two and a half weeks of rehearsal!), and the production looks really sharp. In a way, I’ve come to feel like this show is a bit of a love-homage to an era of protopunk/underground rock music of the 70′s and 80′s. It’s remarkable how the lighting and sound have come to support the atmosphere of the storytelling–I mean, of course tech ALWAYS makes a show more appealing, but the tech on this show enhances the story in a way that I did not expect. We have our first preview audience tomorrow, and will continue to have a solid week of previews before opening, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the production will continue to evolve as the days pass.

In showcase news, I will be holding auditions next week for THE BEAR, and I’m eager to discover who my casting director has planned for me to see. This is my first time working with a professional casting director, and I have to admit, it’s a bit of a thrill to have someone helping recruit talent–someone knows the pool much better than I do, and someone I trust to give me reasonable feedback and input on the casting process. It’s like working with a designer. They’re cast designers. Talent designers.

I’ve been making a list of shows in NYC that I still need to see… I’ve been told to see Venus in Fur, Chinglish, Milk Like Sugar, War Horse, Other Desert cities, King Lear…

Other suggestions?

More soon…

Hello out there in cyberland!

It’s been one week since my arrival in NYC, and after a few days of settling into my temporary digs and acclimating to the hustle of the city, I’m finally catching up on my blog posts.

I’m assisting Gordon Edelstein on HORSEDREAMS by Dael Orlandersmith at the Rattlestick Platwrights Theatre. It’s a raw and powerful story about a father-son relationship and the unraveling of a family as a result of addiction. It’s a piece that Gordon and Dael have been developing over the course of several years, so they’re both very familiar with the material and it’s various past incarnations.

HORSEDREAMS is what I would label a spoken-word play, a series of monologue-like chunks, about 90% direct address where individual characters narrate personal experience and openly express inner psychology. Gordon refers to it as a “concept album, where each chunk is a song that has a break inside.” I think it’s a great way to articulate the nature of the piece–it’s both a story and meditation on a theme performed by this amazing quartet of actors.

Navigating staging logic has been interesting to watch. Because so much of the play is aural, we’re exploring how much movement is necessary. It’s a bit reminiscent of a staged reading in terms of it’s simplicity, but we’re working to see how far we can push the envelope in terms of physicality. We’re operating under the premise that ”at this stage, more is more. There will be a time later when less is more, and cutting is easy.”

Gordon is great to be in the room with. He has this vivacious energy that is blunt, abrasive, and utterly charming. One of our actors in the show is an 11 year old boy, so that’ll throw some excitement into the mix too. I’ve never worked with young actors outside of an educational context, so I’m definitely taking notes of Gordon’s bedside manner on this, especially given the content of this piece.

PS. There’s this ridiculously amazing falafel place right next door to the Rattlestick and all kinds of other crazy good food in the area. I’m looking forward to some great culinary adventures.