Tech Week

  Tech week can be a bitter sweet portion of the production process. Many associate it with impending disaster and late stressful nights. I've been fairly lucky with my tech weeks, and this one is no exception, though not without it's hiccups. We only have our dress rehearsal this evening and then we will have survived the infamous tech week.

Andrea as "Laura" with her favourite piece
from her menagerie.

Some of the highlights of the tech week for Glass Menagerie include:

• A love seat that my stage manager and I carried up the stairs from the basement of the Staircase, and then after turning it pretty much every way possible realized it would not fit through the wings of the space, so we had to carry it outside and bring it up through the loading door. Not a big deal.
• Realizing that the original lamp I wanted to hang in the 'dining room' has a European plug so I took the lamp from my mother's kitchen to use. 
• Moving a ladder inch by inch, as Danielle my stage manager, fed and flung extension cords over dusty poles in the ceiling. She also used a large blue plastic crayon somehow to help this process along. 
• I broke the unicorn. The delicate, fragile unicorn that lost it's tail during shipping. The unicorn that has been very carefully wrapped in about three scarves, and bubble wrap and carried in a box. The one that needs to seem like the horn is broken off in the show, but isn't and doesn't get broken for our three week run. I broke the horn off the unicorn on Tuesday. 
• "Tom" couldn't be at the first rehearsal in the space, so my boyfriend was kind enough to sit in the dark with me and read in his lines from a script he's never read. Did I mention this was in the dark?

  However, tech week has been successful and enjoyable. I always love getting in the theatre and seeing all the pieces you've been working on for two months come together. The actors' performances reach another level when you add costumes, lights, music etc. It's difficult to explain what it's like to see all these elements come together in a way that you envisioned from the start, but somehow it always looks different in the end than it did in your head. Usually better. And that's how it is with this show. Somehow, with a tiny stage, eight or nine lights, and a unicorn that was once a reindeer, the show looks great. The actors have worked so hard and humoured me by somehow making sense of the ridiculous notes I give, and through  my muddled way of explaining things, they have created beautiful and real characters in this show. They are what makes this production worth seeing. 

We had a 'rehearsal' at Michael's, where we ate snacks and met
his bird. 

I loved having a bird on my shoulder.
Ryan loved the snacks. 

Andrea and Gail rehearse in The Staircase. 

Andrea and her best friend. 

Day 1 of Tech Week. Move in. 

Amanda in all her girlish glee.
Tech Day 3, Tech Dress. 

All pretty girls are traps.
Tech Dress.

Take a look in the glass.
Tech Dress. 

Poster Process

Once I knew that I would be directing The Glass Menagerie, I talked to Damian about creating a poster for auditions and for the production. Damian has helped me many times over with posters and headshots in the past. Damian is always able to infuse the feeling I'm going for in an image. Just as I want the production to be engaging, I want the poster to engage people as well.

We used this to advertise auditions
in the program of our October show Dracula. 

Originally, we had discussed having each character in the Wingfield family pictured with something that correlates to their character. Laura would have her unicorn, Amanda jonquils and Tom a notebook or perhaps on his fire escape. The idea being to show each character and their preferred reality or the world they take refuge in. However, shortly before getting ready to take photos for the poster, I came across a trailer for a recent production of The Glass Menagerie in Greece that completely captivated me.

This is a very stylized production of the show, and nothing like what Black Box Fire's production will be like. I loved the unfocused nature of the video, and how that speaks to the theme of memory in the play. I love how this video represents the 'vapour-like' (Gail who plays Amanda used this word and I thought it was so perfect) quality of memories. Just out of reach and hazy. My favourite part of the video is at about 50 seconds when each character is lined up on stage and their image is projected overtop of another image of them. The gentleman caller is just out of reach and the other characters shift and seem to be the embodiment of memories that are a little unclear. So, I thought why not use this as inspiration for our poster? I just couldn't get that image at the 50 second mark out of my head. I thought it was so beautiful and haunting, which is exactly what this story is for Tom.
So, I talked to Damian, showed him the trailer and he went to work.

"Tom" takes it easy with a giant coffee. 

Tom, a slave to texting. 

"Laura" receiving direction from the photographer. 

The Gentleman Caller wants YOU!

The finished product!

Headshots. Or Should I Say, Glamour Shots!

 Damian Ali did the photography for the poster as well as our headshots for The Glass Menagerie. I sent him examples of headshots of actors from the 1930's to use as inspiration. I thought it would be nice to have a nostalgic look to the shots since it works with the theme and time frame of the play.
Danielle Dean-Alton, our stage manager, is not pictured here as she was working on a beautiful cruise ship when these were taken.

Amanda Wingfield - Gail Edwards

Laura Wingfield - Andrea Phillips-Adcock 

Jim O'Connor - Michael Anania

Tom Wingfield - Ryan Moran

Director - Lauren Repei 

Producer/Co-Stage Manager - Stephanie Yantsis 

I Have Tricks in My Pocket

 When I was eight years old my dad took me to the set and prop shop at Theatre Calgary where he worked as the head scenic artist, and he showed me the props for their upcoming production of a play called The Glass Menagerie. My dad showed me this tiny glass unicorn which broke and lost it's horn in the play, but then showed me that each night it was 'fixed' and ready for the next performance. There was something very intriguing about the notion of this single glass unicorn being broken each night and then like new again, only to be broken again. A couple weeks later, my dad took me to see the play and I feel in love with it. I didn't fully understand the play, but loved it nonetheless. It is one the first stories I remember not having a happy ending.

 I am currently directing a production of The Glass Menagerie for Black Box Fire, which will open in about a month. I know it is one of the most produced plays in amateur theatre and that it is a classic which is loved by many, which does  make it somewhat of a daunting task. I do however, have a wonderfully talented cast who are as dedicated as I am to telling this beautiful story. And that's all I really want to do. I don't want to re-invent the production, I am not concerned with doing something that has never been done before; I just want to tell the story. Who doesn't want to hear lines spoken like " blow your candles out! - for nowadays the world is lit by lightening", or "For time is the longest distance between two places", and "I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion" and my personal favourite "Unicorns, aren't they extinct in the modern world?"

Cast and production team
Thanks to Damian Ali for the photo!

A Weekend of Theatre

   This weekend I saw two theatrical performances. The first was a one woman show by Sara Weber at the fundraiser Banter & Bluegrass at The Pearl Company. I had the pleasure of working with Sara on The Metamorphosis and when I finished working on that production with Sara I remember writing in her thank you card that I would help and support her in any of her future theatrical endeavours. She is an absolute delight to work with, and a delight to watch on stage and her performance at Banter and Bluegrass was no exception.

   Sara gave us a glimpse into her childhood which was spent in Alabama and I ate it up like it was a delicious side dish to the pulled pork and baked beans served that night. I'm a nostalgic person, I love hearing the stories of people when they were children and seeing how little they've changed. Highlights for me included a story involving a southern belle and crotch itching, the picture of Sara's father and how he basically spends his days playing 'cowboys', formally known as 'cowboys and Indians', but that's not pc these days, so Sara just calls it 'cowboys'. Also, Sara mentioned drinking sun tea, which reminded me of my mother who is from Michigan, brewing tea in the sun during the summer months. It's too bad this performance was a one time deal, because I know many people that have worked with Sara in the past who would have enjoyed the evening immensely.

   The second show I saw this weekend was at the Citadel Theatre, which was formally known as the Downtown Arts Centre. I saw the first play in the Citadel's season, Mass Appeal by Bill C. Davis. Mass Appeal opened this past Friday but continues it's run next Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8pm. I suppose I'm making an appeal of sorts to get people out to see this show. Simply put, it is a great production. The production values are high, very strong performances and the script itself is something you shouldn't pass up seeing staged. The very basic synopsis is that of a passionate student working towards becoming a priest who is assigned to a complacent priest comfortable in his position, and the two have vastly different approaches towards leading a congregation. What this play is really about is a dialogue between two people who are constantly engaged in a power struggle, but not always with one another. This theme of a dialogue is introduced within the first scene of Mass Appeal and is seamlessly weaved in throughout the play, and this is not just done with the script but through direction and the performances. The plays I have always loved are the ones in which characters fight for two hours on stage, where the stakes are constantly being raised and each character has everything to lose. I don't see plays for happy endings, I see plays to be engaged, to watch a struggle, to question; this is entertaining to me. And Mass Appeal had all those elements.

Mass Appeal was poorly attended on it's opening weekend, and of course I sympathize because I know what it's like to give a performance to an audience in which the cast out numbers them. You're always extremely thankful to those that have come out, but when you put in so much time and effort and the outcome is something truly wonderful and something that you can be proud of, it's a shame when there isn't an audience there to share it with.

   So, basically what I'm saying here is, if you missed Sara's show at Banter and Bluegrass, you missed out. It was a wonderful performance, extremely entertaining and enjoyable, but it was a one-time event, and it did sell out. But there are three more opportunities to see another wonderful production that hasn't yet had the audiences it deserves.  

Emerging Artists Series: It's a Wrap!

The 2011 Emerging Artists Series has finished, and what a whirlwind it was. It was only three weeks of shows, but they were in the works since approximately February and although the board members of Black Box Fire don’t have a great deal to do until the last few weeks, it has been an exhausting task this year. For myself, towards the end of the run, I find myself more tired than usual when working on a show, and I think that may have something to do with not having the adrenaline you usually get from being involved in performing a show. Regardless of my energy level the series was a success.

The first week of EAS was a well-made play entitled, A Trip Aboard by Eugene Labiche. It was a translation of a French play from the 19th century which was part of the genre that was a predecessor for sitcoms. It was an extremely entertaining production, with a creative backdrop of mountains in charcoal on paper, extremely well-done and tailored costumes, but it was definitely the performances that made this production. It featured some of the best character work I’ve seen in a long time, and as an audience member, it was clear that the performers were having a great time on stage.

4.48 Psychosis dress rehearsal

The second week of EAS was 4.48 Psychosis, written by Sarah Kane a British playwright who is often compared to Sylvia Plath because of the style of her work, as well as they both committed suicide. The show was a poetic and dark piece about one person’s struggle with mental illness. Not necessarily a piece that someone would say they ‘enjoyed’  as it was a very draining play to watch, but that‘s not to say it was un-enjoyable. This play is a good reminder that theatre doesn’t always supply answers, or tie everything up neatly at the end, but often requires some engagement with the piece on the part of the audience. 4.48 Psychosis will also be performed at the Fringe Festival this month at Theatre Aquarius. It was a last minute, but great opportunity for the production and first time director who is still in high school.

'

Production and Creative teams for 'Death of a Roller Coaster'
and 'A Trip Aboard' at auditions.

This last week of EAS was the double bill of original works Death of a Roller Coaster and Enter Alice. Death of a Roller Coaster was an ensemble piece about an old beloved roller coaster being retired at Beaver Tail Island amusement park. This was another show where it was easy to see that everyone on stage was having a lot of fun! The highlight of this production was the roller coaster, The Great Canadian Grizzly. The coaster itself was very simple, a few rows of chairs covered in black, and they constructed the front end of the coaster, but the sound effects and the actors made this rollercoaster a real pleasure to watch! They choreographed the actors’ movements with the sound effects and it was easy to envison the track the coaster was whipping around on.

Board members of BBF
organizing EAS auditions. 

The final show of EAS was Enter Alice, which had previously been in the Sears Drama Festival. This was an absurdist piece that had a very polished presentation. It took place in a nightmare of a theatre where the actors were puppet-like and the ‘fears’ from their previous lives clung to and manipulated them throughout the show. Playwrights Thomas and Lewis offered comedic relief and manipulated the happenings on stage.  Among all this theatrical madness, a boy from the ‘real world’ stumbles into the theatre looking for his drunk and lost father, but eventually is given the choice to return to the real world fatherless, or to become a puppet-like actor where Lewis and Thomas offer him a scripted life, with a father.

EAS this year was once again very diverse, and offered both established scripts and original works. I guess at the end of it all, what I really hope is that it was an enjoyable experience for everyone involved.

Hot Ticket Items

On May 28th Black Box Fire will be having their second annual yard sale to raise money for this year's Emerging Artists Series. I have already collected a mass amount of things, and I wanted to share a couple of the lovely items I have found while going through some of the boxes and bags of stuff.
The yard sale will be taking place May 28th, at the break of dawn (almost) at 40 Chatham Street which is just between Locke St. (West Town) and Dundurn St. (The Beer Store).

A beautiful Christmas plate, circa 1972.

Another beautiful Christmas plate, circa 1973.

A big ol' Cowboy Boot Pinata. 

Ladies cowboy boots.
From my bad ass aunt Cynthia who probably wore these while riding her Harley. 

Add a touch of class to your bed by tossing
this tiger print throw over it.

A wall hanging...this picture doesn't do it justice.
It's nice!

Parents/boyfriend/roomies won't let you get a cat?
Here's 20 to toss on your bed. 

What does Bashful think he's doing there in front?
Regardless, Snow White is always a princess, isn't she?

The original calculator.

Snake skin boots. These are from my aunt Lois Lane.
Think of how you could tell people you had Lois Lane's snake skin boots!

A fab satchel.