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April 21, 2010

IRNE Awards Shoutout

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 12:42 am

The IRNE Awards were last night — that’s the Independent Reviewers of New England, basically the theatre awards for the Boston area and other New England environs. I’ve never been to the IRNEs or anything, but it’s something I like to follow because I usually have a few horses in the race.

This year it was productions of Hello, Dolly, Mame and La Cage that I was PSM for at the Reagle Players this past year.

I’m pleased to say that we won six awards including Best Musical.

The winners were:

  • Best Choreography: David Scala for La Cage
  • Best Supporting Actor: R.Glen Michell in Mame (Beau) and La Cage (Dindon)
  • Best Actress: Rachel York in Hello, Dolly! (um, Dolly. Obviously.)
  • Best Actor: David Engel in La Cage (Albin)
  • Best Musical Direction: Daniel Rodriguez and Jeffrey P. Leonard for Dolly and La Cage
  • Best Musical: La Cage

We had many other worthy nominees, many of whom lost to the people above. They were: Susan Chebookjian for choreography on Dolly, Maureen Brennan (Mame) and Sarah Pfisterer (Dolly) for Supporting Actress, Jamie Ross (Georges in La Cage, who was just as important to the charm of the show as David, but naturally had the less flashy role — literally!), Worth Howe (Dolly) and David Scala (La Cage) for Best Director, who were both a real pleasure to work with, Troy Costa for Most Promising Performance by a Child Actor for Mame, and finally Dolly was also up for Best Musical — which is a tough choice, as it may or may not have been the best show I’ve ever done. At least until we did La Cage a few months later.

I also have to give a shoutout to Anita Yavich, who is an awesome costume designer I worked with on Henry V, who won for her design on The Miracle at Naples.

Anyway, if the IRNEs are anything like the Tonys, they would be motivated only by political and financial concerns, by a bunch of people who haven’t seen half the shows nominated. So I hope they’re not. I prefer instead to think that we are being recognized for our good work this past summer. It’s nice to think that my work might have contributed in some way to the impact the show had to earn it Best Musical, especially since I haven’t been able to have that degree of impact doing Shakespeare for the last six months. It is truly time to go home.


August 23, 2009

The Tale of the Thirsty Flyman

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 9:53 am

Last night our flyman was enjoying a bottle of Gatorade during a scene. As he was drinking it, he looked for a place to set it down between sips, and settled on the only flat surface in his vicinity, on top of the counterweight bricks on the line he would next be flying. The thing is, he never went back for another sip until after the scene change, when he looks for his bottle, and realizes it’s now somewhere up in the vicinity of the grid and will be staying there for about ten minutes. Thankfully it didn’t spill on the way up or on the way down.

I think this has to be the theatrical equivalent of driving away with your coffee on the roof of your car.


August 17, 2009

Fun with the ETC Ion

I call this: mac,summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 11:12 am

Reagle’s regular light board is the ETC Microvision FX, an example of which is shown here.
MicroVisionFX
It’s ancient. It usually works OK, when it doesn’t double-go, but for anything complicated, like color scrollers or moving lights, a newer console needs to be rented. La Cage is just that kind of show.

This time around we got the ETC Ion, shown here (except we don’t have the one with the row of faders on top):
ion

It’s very cool. It saves the show onto a thumb drive instead of floppy disk, and so forth. I haven’t had much time to learn how to use it (I can barely bring a cue up), but while we were in tech our lighting designer invited me to play with the scrollers. It was definitely the highlight of tech. There are a couple different ways the board can help you choose color. There is sort of a color swatch screen that shows you the gel numbers and you click on the one you want. The dials at the top can also be spun to change color, saturation, etc. But the one I got to play with was the color wheel.

Since I’ve been doing a lot of web design and graphics lately, I have been kind of obsessed with color. So when I saw that the board had a color wheel, the same as you’d find in Photoshop or wherever, and you can click anywhere on it and it will put that color onstage, I thought that was incredibly cool. Of course the specificity of the color it can produce is limited by the variety of gels you have in your scroller, but even in my random clicking I was able to get it to look pretty much like I wanted.

I made a short video to demonstrate this feature. Unfortunately the color wheel got pretty much washed out on the video, so I didn’t spend any time looking at the intricate differences in color since you can’t see exactly what the mouse is pointing at, but you get the idea.

Also, as a side note, I shot this video with the iPhone 3GS, and edited it with iMovie ’09, which is the first time I’ve successfully created a movie with the new iMovie format without having to stop before I smashed my computer. Even with something so simple I was frustrated by stuff that I apparently couldn’t do, but it at least gives me hope that I don’t have to hang on to iMovie ’06 forever just to get anything done. Just the ability to upload to Youtube without worrying about formats was worth it.


August 9, 2009

La Cage Tech

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 11:49 am

We are in our second day of tech for La Cage. Since Twitter has been suffering from a DoS attack, there is no techtweet this time.

We teched the first act during the first 10-out-of-12 hour day. This is a new show for Reagle, so we’re feeling our way a little more than usual but overall it’s not going that much more slowly than a more familiar show.

The cast is completely comfortable with the show, which eases a lot of our stress about the final outcome. The show is quite busy technically — there are some numbers where finding a place to give warnings was tricky. It’s become something of a joke in certain parts of the show, for the TD to say, “Karen can you find a place to give us a warning…” and I immediately say, “No.”

We’re using color scrollers for this show, so our little Microvision from 1987 B.C. needs to be replaced whenever that happens. We’ve got a rented Ion, which I’ve never used before. It’s basically the very modern version of the size of the Microvision. During a break yesterday I was invited to play with the scrollers. I was handed a mouse and pointed at a color wheel on one of the screens, like you would find in Photoshop or whatever. I was told to click anywhere on the color wheel. Instantly the entire stage changed to that color. I played with it for a good five minutes just watching how many different shades I could make. It may be the coolest thing ever.


August 2, 2009

La Cage Week 1

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 11:40 am

For a complete change of pace, our final show of the season is La Cage aux Folles. It’s a small, fast-paced show, where the men are women, the women are women, and I can actually do a head-count in rehearsal without losing track (we have 33).

There are no super-celebrities in this one, just a bunch of guys who know absolutely everything about this show. Our director, David Scala, and our Albin, David Engel, were both original cast members who did the whole 4-year Broadway run. Our Georges, Jamie Ross (who was also an amazing Vandergelder in Dolly earlier in the season) did the role on Broadway at some point. The rehearsal room is filled with 25-year-old backstage gossip, tales of things that were cut in Boston, anecdotes and history, and offhand statements like, “Whenever I would do this scene with George [Hearn]…” that bring a wealth of experience and depth to our little production, and are just plain fun to hear about.

Most Reagle productions are staged by or star people who have done their roles on Broadway or in high-profile productions, but the ones I love best are those that are really intimately connected to the original productions. It’s not just about setting the show with the original choreography and design, but getting a living theatrical history lesson in the process of creating the show. It’s like reading one of those books about the making of a show, except it’s more like having the commentary running on a DVD, and you can ask questions back!

We’re almost done with our first week, and although David is both directing and choreographing, we’re making great progress. Act I, which is far more complicated, will be completed today. Our principals are all wonderfully cast, the Cagelles are amazing dancers (and actors), and our singers are top-notch as always. It’s going to be a lot of fun going through this process.


July 24, 2009

A Star is Born

I call this: summer stock — Posted by KP @ 7:23 pm

purseheadshotIn the Reagle Players’ production of Mame, an understudy has become a star. I am speaking, naturally, of this purse shown at right. This large, floppy red purse was Dolly’s rehearsal purse during Hello, Dolly. Rachel York grew so attached to it (as we all did) that after a while the search for a “real” purse was called off and the humble red purse got the job. During tech, pockets were built into it to hold specific props. However, in the end it clashed with most of her costumes and was not nearly crazy enough to match Dolly’s personality. Another, rival purse that had actually been a Dolly purse on Broadway was brought in at the last minute to add some star power, and the humble red purse was relegated to the blue bin of rehearsal props, along with a styrofoam bowler hat and some newspapers.

In Mame, it has made it to the stage as the purse of nanny Agnes Gooch in the opening scenes of the show. Speaking of her co-star, Tony nominee Maureen Brennan said the purse “is kind of like my security blanket.” Brennan is currently lobbying for the purse to be cast in Reagle’s next production, La Cage aux Folles.
pursemaureen

The Purse and Maureen Brennan in Mame


July 12, 2009

Mame Tech

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 10:45 pm

We’ve finished tech. Didn’t get to run the show yet, but this is a big, complicated one, and it’s taken a lot of drilling to get everyone comfortable with scenes and choreography.

As I announced, I have tweeted the entire tech process in my TechTweet Extravaganza on Twitter. If you look at the tag #TechTweet, you will see my tweets, as well as some of those of the crew who also began using the tag towards the end of the process.

We are now finishing out the day with more choreography review (without tech) so I’m basically just minding rehearsal. About half the cast has been dismissed. I can’t wait to go home. We don’t have a day off this week, but tomorrow is our daylight day of rest, where we don’t have to be in until 7PM.

Normally we would do a run of the show, but we’re going to need to stop a few times to add elements that we didn’t have at tech. I’m just glad this weekend is over and we’re almost there!


July 11, 2009

TechTweet Extravaganza

I call this: summer stock — Posted by KP @ 1:34 am

In the morning we begin tech for Mame. I am planning a TechTweet Extravaganza for the whole day (and maybe Sunday too). Expect many tweets throughout the day.

Follow me at @thegobutton on Twitter.


July 5, 2009

Only in the Theatre

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 10:56 pm

SCENE: The hallway of the theatre. The water dispenser is empty. I scan around for someone to assist me in putting the new jug on. The dance captain comes by and I ask for help. So I uncap the jug, and together we lift it over to the dispenser and get ready to flip it over. I say, “OK, on 3?” at the exact time he says, “5,6,7,8…”


June 27, 2009

Dolly – End of Run

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 3:44 am

IMG_0760We close Dolly tomorrow, and I’m definitely going to miss it. The show has been a pleasure from start to finish. Our houses have been packed, and the response from the audience wildly enthusiastic. There are so many numbers that stop the show — “Sunday Clothes,” “Hello, Dolly” and “Before the Parade Passes By” tend to be the ones where the actors often get stuck standing there waiting for people to stop clapping for 30 seconds or more. It’s really fun to work on a good show, especially one that has such iconic moments as those three songs. The set is still unwieldy at times (it’s the most inconveniently overbuilt, bent-out-of-shape pile of steel and wood you could ever work with), but it looks great, and a lot of the light cues are really cool and fun to play with. For calling a show, it’s pretty high up there on satisfying experiences. Not so hard as to be frustrating, but it’s challenging to keep up to the level of all the other excellence on the stage.

Today I spent pretty much all my waking hours working on paperwork for Mame, and while I was at it, decided to do the paperwork for La Cage at the same time since they start off the same templates. All the Mame stuff got done, and except for the contact sheet which is half-done, La Cage is as good as it can get until we get closer. It took me six hours, right up until the time I had to leave for the theatre, but I eliminated a few hours of work for myself over the weekend — and over the weekend four weeks from now, when I’d need to do all that La Cage stuff. I’d have kept going too, if I didn’t have to go to the show!

Tomorrow I’ll probably spend some time taking notes on the Mame script, but I’m pretty well caught up until we have a schedule. We have a production meeting on the dinner break of the first rehearsal (I hate doing that, but we had to to accommodate people’s schedules). We’re building the set for this one, which is a big undertaking but also good because we don’t wind up with set pieces that are too tall for the theatre, which happens, oh, every time we use a rental set. A lot of it was built during this past week and is shoved in random corners of the building, like in the dance studio, until Dolly starts loading out tomorrow. The truck will arrive in the afternoon, and all pieces not used in the show will be loaded then. The rest of course will have to wait until they’re done on stage!


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