Umbrella heads!

October 31st, the morning of Halloween.

When I arrive at this rehearsal, Dario, Sheila, and Telsche are sitting on the wood floor of the studio amidst three huge black umbrellas, propped open like big boulders around them. Barbra is rehearsing the text leading up to the point where she reaches the ocean. Sheila sits on a stool against the vast, blank white wall, writing in her notebook.

They are moving towards the scene where Barbra and the cast will travel to a new world aboard the bed, which will be transformed into a ship full of horses and people. They now talk about the context of Barbra in the story. Barbra says, “When I wrote this, I wrote it as a person inside the story, telling the story, and then she comes out of the story,” as she gestures into the audience. Bob stresses that they haven’t really stepped out of the story yet, but that they will once they get to the sea port, and people are speaking in other languages or gibberish. Barbra likes the idea of the cast speaking in gibberish when Barbra arrives at the sea, because then the audience is equally confused and can feel how lost Barbra is.

They will be transitioning from a scene where the bed is offstage to the scene where the bed is the boat. Bob suggests they could cheat a little and have Deb push the bed on from back stage, while the cast sits on the bed, covered by their big black umbrellas.

They play with the umbrella scene, all walking around with umbrellas over their shoulders like parasols, whistling, chirping, talking nonsense, as Barbra desperately tries to fit in and figure out where she is supposed to go.

James has an electric keyboard today and is looking over some sheet music to play during the scene. Bob wants to create the sound of the ocean and try to find the “impulse of the wave.”

The cast of three is still practicing walking around with the umbrellas, making whoosing wind sounds as Barbra starts to read the text. Bob teaches them how to pull the umbrellas down over their heads so their heads are not even seen. They now play with this, grumbling to each other, trading things, ignoring Barbra or answering her in gibberish. It looks like their heads are umbrellas. It’s quite hilarious.

Barbra asks what others think about the ship being named the “ARGO.” This is the name of an actual ship, but maybe they don’t need a name for it. But Barbra argues that she will be presenting a ticket for a specific boat and asking the other people where to find it. James mentions that ARGO is the name of the store equivalent to Ikea in London. Laughs.

Barbra had originally written her character to just find the ship and get right on, but it seems unrealistic that a stowaway would be get on the ship, so they work with how she will inquire about her ticket and eventually find the ARGO.

James begins to improvise on the keyboard as they discuss.

The fan on the wall at the back of the room suddenly starts blowing very loudly. Bob and the cast are so deep in conversation, they don’t notice this. But it becomes hard for them to hear one another, so they gradually move closer together, without realizing it. Now, I can’t hear them for a while because they are talking in a little huddle in the middle of the room.

After a bit, they break up a little and are moving on to the fumigation scene. Sheila asks what fumigation is, and Barbra explains that the immigrants were stripped down and checked for lice and other things before they were allowed to board the ship. They then talk about how the names of immigrants were changed when they came overseas because the officers of immigration control misunderstood them. Barbra laughs at the ridiculousness. Some of them were just “saying where they were from, and now that’s their name!” she exclaims.

Dario says, “Why don’t we do gibberish and then start becoming horselike?” He makes noises, snarling, and laughs. The idea is that the cast of three will first play the umbrella people, and then will play the horses that share the boat with Barbra. Dario organizes them to all be together under the umbrellas and then separate and walk around, speaking gibberish. They work with how to hold the umbrellas and how to see out of them. They play with how they are going to respond to Barbra, a lost foreigner looking for her ship. Telsche wonders if they could size her up even with their umbrella heads. Dario tries moving his umbrella head and upper body up and down, as if examining Barbra. Sheila says, “It’s got to be bigger.”

Next they work on becoming horses. There is a plank on the platform under the bed that they will pull out and walk up to get onto the bed (ship). Bob coaches them on their posture, and tells them not to be too stiff. They all start clopping their feet down like horses would stomp their hooves on the ground. Bob joins in too, playing, trying to figure out how a human can embody a horse. James offers that they release their ankles a little and gets up to try it himself. Everyone except Barbra is tapping around, making horse sounds and nuzzling each other, while the stage managers and I are having a good laugh. How often do we get to play and pretend to be animals anymore?

The horses wait for Barbra to finish the text and then walk up the plank to join her on the ship. Bob says it’s okay to jostle her a little but try not to manipulate her too much. Barbra tries to imitate what the horses are doing, physically, and Bob helps them maneuver themselves to all sleep together on the bed. They talk about the fact that horses usually sleep upright, but eventually decide on laying down because it will work best with the next part.

After a short break, Sheila, Dario, and Telsche work on the next scene, which involves them each telling a story as a sailor or passenger on the boat. Dario tells the others about his wife who died. Telsche is excited and baffled about a newspaper article detailing a group of Christians who thought they could jump to Heaven together. Sheila reads a letter from her son, and seems hopeful to see him soon. As each tells their story, the others listen. Barbra is asleep on the bed during these stories. Each story carries a very different emotion, and Bob wants them to annunciate more and take their time with certain moments in the stories.

At the end of rehearsal, Sonya, the costume designer, fits things on some of the cast before they leave for the day.

History, images, ideas, progress

It’s October 25th, Sunday. Rehearsal in Bob’s studio.

Some of the cast sits around the big white table, eating cookies as others wander in. Bob tells everyone about the film he saw a friend shooting the previous night. He relates filming to theater. Directors, writers, visionaries work really hard to get that “thing” that they want. They have an ending in mind, but there is so much work needed to find this end. It may not be revealed until something in the process of play sparks it. Once it is found, everyone can rest a little, but that thing that clicked has to be re-created every time.

They start talking about a show some of them just saw at the Guthrie. Then Bob tells them he was recently reading the Divine Comedy and noticed a connection between Dante and the Wizard of Oz. He realized that not only is every movie rooted in the Wizard of Oz, but theater is rooted in the Wizard of Oz, and even life is rooted in the Wizard of Oz.

The conversation shifts to the music for the show. Barbra wants Bob to listen to a specific waltz song played on accordion. Maybe Sheila could play it on violin for the puppet show or for background music as they are traveling on the bed. They will need to find the sheet music somehow. Bob says they could use a combination of live and recorded music, however it might be tricky to get a piano into the space.

Ideas are thrown out regarding the plot of the puppet show. Sheila suggests they could take a scene from Dante and adapt it or even a little story from the Torah. Something simple that can be made funny and cartoonish. Bob suggests a Golem story, something from Lorca, a Bible story, or the scene they brought up before with Catherine the Great. Perhaps there could be a fire, the puppets could burn and be cooked in a pot by the actors. Bob thinks of a horse’s smashed leg in the pot. “So dark,” but they all seem to like it. Barbra laughs.

They look for narratives by immigrant Jews in the How We Lived book to add to the graveyard scene. There are more historical references they want to add to the text. Bob reminds them that “we don’t want them all to be hardship stories.” Some should be hopeful, and there should be one about Barbra’s grandfather.

Deb says, “It’s 11:30, if you wanted to take a break.” They are still sitting and discussing these ideas. They laugh about how they are already on break,that today has been a constant break. I would disagree, having seen light bulbs blinking non-stop over each one of their heads since the rehearsal started today. “How about we take ten to work, and then come back to the break,” Bob jokes. Everyone laughs.

Later they work on what images are being shown in the cave scene. Bob says a lot of people will come out of an open room with light spilling out. The audience will see the shadows of the people, some in relief, some silhouette or shadow, but their outlines will not be completely clear. Barbra will play with the shadow people. Barbra adds that, thematically, it should be about war, violence, some reflection of that.

When they move on to the border patrol scene, where people are rolling stones, Bob says this is “all very dream-like.” He wants to keep the three actors separate, not characters interacting with Barbra, until they reach the sea.

This rehearsal was a huge success, in my opinion. I think they have all had some breakthroughs, whether they know the final answers or not yet. Again, I feel privileged to watch such brilliant artistic minds at work and achieving discovery.

Still working here..

Well, I hope you all enjoyed "Stories As Told In a Bed" this weekend. Barbra and the cast of Sheila, Telsche, and Dario executed the piece so well, and I was really impressed by the transformation the show made in the final few days before the show, thanks to Bob Rosen's directorial vision and the hard work of sound and lights crew and stage managers Kristin and Deb. I saw the show on Friday and felt completely refreshed by the changes and embellishments that had been made since the tech on Wednesday. Great job, everyone. Really exciting stuff, Barbra.

And now...

I will proceed with the rest of my story as an observer, watching the process up to the point in which it was shown to the public this weekend. I truly apologize for the delay in these writings. My coursework at school had me completely tied down during the final week before the Stories opened, and I am sorry to not have finished this before the show.

Anyway, continuing with the rehearsal on October 24th..the cast has been working through bits and pieces of the show. Large pieces of canvas are hung as a backdrop in Bob's studio space. Barbra is doing some grande plies in the center of the room, while Bob talks to the cast who are still laying on the bed by the back wall, under the canvas hangings.

Before they move on to the next scene, Barbra tells Bob the thing that strikes her most in the moment they have just worked on is how alone that person (her character) is. "So, it'd be nice to just have the person alone..and hopefully not sad," she says. "I really think moments where I'm just still and talking would be nice."

They also talk about Barbra's costume. Bob says, "You almost look too clean right now in that coat," so they discuss how to make her look dirtier. "I could be barefoot," Barbra says. "My feet are just really cold."

Barbra does the forest part again, and Bob thinks there are some gaps that need to be filled in. Barbra and Bob continue working on this part while the others take a break. I can hardly stop watching them figure through Barbra's lines and actions. Their communication is so cohesive and they are equally dedicated to the evolution that will inevitably occur in the piece through their work. They are respectful in responding to one another’s ideas, and seem to have parallel wavelengths, artistically. It is as if each idea one comes up with has been something buried in the other’s mind that they just hadn’t yet discovered.

Bob and the cast work on manipulating the canvas hangings by rolling and pinning them up in different ways to achieve a space to show the audience a fire. Bob supposes they could use transparencies over the lights to show images of the fire and the horses again, this time in a different context. Silhouette or shadows could be used to avoid realism.

Telsche runs around in a circle, shaking her arms to warm up.

They talk more about the fire. Telsche is most familiar with the Bedlam space, and she adds that there are sprinklers that are heat-detected, but the Bedlam stage does not have fire alarms per se, so the fire should be okay.

Bob finds a screw sticking up in the floor. Everyone crouches down to investigate.
Barbra talks with Bob about having the cave men – Telsche, Dario, and Sheila – make a sort of shadow show on the back wall of the theatre or on the canvas.

Bob, James (assistant director, musician), and John Bueche (Bedlam’s Co-Artistic Director), set up extension cords to try out the shadows on the canvas. The cast of three decide what they are going to do in the shadows, and Barbra looks through the text, reading, marking.

Sheila, Telsche, and Dario sit close together and Bob shines the light on the side wall, creating a shadow of the group. They play around with the shapes they can make in the shadows, moving hats, brooms, and arms, and watching the pictures they are making.

Barbra and James hold up the fabric hanging and Bob tries shining the light on that. “It’s interesting,” he says, “to have not just the white back, but…texture,” referring to the canvas.

Bob gets closer to the cast with the light, and watches their shadows get larger and larger on the canvas.

Sheila suggests they try standing. Dario puts his arm in a distorted sling position over his head and walks frumpily around, hunched like a caveman, frowning.

I am sitting by, interestedly learning with them, but my intrigue increases ten-fold as they move violently with the objects. The shadows appear to be killing something.

They use papers to drip down like guts falling out, a pillow is beaten, Sheila stabs with a stick, Dario takes a block of wood overhead and slams it down. What is happening? I wonder.

Sheila kneels down and flaps her arms like a bird while Dario and Telsche make stabbing, beating motions to appear to kill the bird. Sheila stops moving to indicate she is dead, and Dario and Telsche devilishly stir the pot of papers. The shadow is more than disturbing.

After playing with this scene, they converse about different ways to use the light and the canvas and how this will be seen from the audience.

The cast does the same with another scene, acting out the part about the prisoners in shadows, pretending to eat together while Barbra reads the text loudly.
They play with this for a while, but some seem unsatisfied with it. They finally decide to just get rid of this particular image. Barbra is a little disappointed, but knows this is to be expected sometimes. “It was too good to be true,” she says and sighs. “We were moving so well.”

Barbra suggests they run the piece from the beginning of the show, since Telsche and Dario will not be in attendance at tomorrow’s rehearsal. Considering what they have “sort of accomplished today,” it would be wisest to use the rest of their time running the piece. Telsche reassures everyone that they need slow days like this sometimes to just work through things. Hopefully it will help them make some decisions and she reminds them how nice it is to have people act out ideas to see how they look, although it is more time consuming.

Bob compares this cave scene and the image of people pushing rocks to Dante’s inferno. He talks of Barbra seeing the horrors of these cave men. “Not only did she leave her family, everything she knows, but she’s going back to the beginning of man,” he proclaims.

He puts forth a thought that is expressed in this scene: the point where one asks “where am I going, and what am I looking for?” Nothing is answered..

I watch them do the shadow scene again with the two cave people beating the bird and Barbra articulating the text, closer to the canvas. How interesting that the shadows made by the three are so much bigger than Barbra, and they get even taller as they walk towards her, so tall that their heads are cut off at the ceiling. They are like giants, enveloping Barbra. As she steps closer to the wall and creates a clearer shadow of herself, the three people are following behind her, creating larger, more blurry shadows of themselves around her. She reaches out to look as if she is touching them.

They wrap things up as rehearsal comes to an end. Barbra wishes Telsche well on her weekend journey on the road, and Bob and James talk about the play, images, music that James will play.

I think the shadow work was very successful, and I am extremely excited to see this scene on stage.

Photos from tech! Come see the show this weekend at the Bedlam!

SHOW OPENS TONIGHT! 7:30 at the Bedlam Theatre

And here are some more photos taken at rehearsals. I am far from finished explaining the process of how the piece came to be what it is now, but I hope you all will come out to see the final product! Shows are tonight, tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday at 7:30. I attended the final tech rehearsal last night, and am thoroughly impressed with how the show has come together. Paging through all my observations, I am amazed at the transformation the piece has made through the work of Barbra, Bob and the cast. I hope you will continue to check back here in the next few days as I add the rest of my observations leading up to the show!

The shadows of the cave

Rehearsal on Saturday, October 24th began with a bit of a show and tell. Telsche had brought photos of her grandmother, Agnes, who was an Irish orphan, auctioned off to a farm at a young age. Now Agnes is 95 years old, and has told Telsche some of the stories from her childhood as an orphan who was forced to leave her family. The cast sits around the big table in Bob's studio, admiring Telsche's photography and commenting on the similarities between Agnes' story and the story Barbra is telling about her grandfather's experience as an Lithuanian immigrant.

After catching up for a few minutes, they move to the rehearsal space and Bob helps the cast rehearse the line on page five of the script, a line in which they are playing with different stops and changes for each word of the line. They want to each say a few words of the line and have it connect together. They try standing in a line. The first person says the first phrase, then the second person says the last word of the first person's phrase with the first person, and continues on with a few more words. They continue down the line, each saying the last word with the person before them and finishing the phrase. Bob says it sounds a little "clunky." Barbra likes that the word "completed" provides a pause before "my aloneness." She seemed content with the flow of the words from person to person, though the sound quality might need practice. I personally think it is nice they are all involved in this line. It shows that the three characters are really a part of Barbra's imagination and are helping her tell her story.

They practice this fractured line while walking around the room and each carrying an object, while Barbra lays on the bed, wearing the wig she will use in the show, and goes over the next lines from page five to herself.

The cast then joins Barbra at the sides of the bed for the next part. Barbra will be waking up as the sun comes up to tell more of the story from the bed. Telsche shines a floodlight on Barbra as she is getting up. "This may be directorial," Barbra says, "But shouldn't the light come on before I wake up?" Bob hesitates, and says, "Shut up," jokingly. Everyone laughs.

They go through the lines, moving further in the script this time. They stop now and then for Bob to offer a suggestion or make a change. Each time Barbra revisits her lines, she delivers them in a different way, or with a different sound. Sometimes she adds or changes a word, but this offers a new interpretation of the script, a new vocabulary to play with, each time.

Bob and Dario fix the pieces of canvas hanging from the ceiling. They roll and clip them so the bed can slide underneath to be hidden for part of the piece. Barbra lays back on the bed, and everyone puts the crumpled papers all around her. There is talk about Barbra's wig, and costume adjustments before they move forward.

In the next part, Barbra practices the lines in the forest. She tells Bob that she changed something in the script, and he makes note of this. Barbra and Bob work for a while on Barbra's part only, while Sheila, Telsche, and Dario are lounging on the bed at the back of the room, underneath the canvas hangings.

A little later, Barbra goes back and sees the three of them are all laying together, whispering pleasantly on the bed. "Hey guys," she whispers.."What are you doing?" Dario and Telsche peak out from behind the canvas sheets, and the all have a good laugh.

I realize I have a long list of moments that I observed in this rehearsal. I will stop here, at this point of laughter among the cast, and resume very shortly.

A couple mistakes, plenty of laughs

October 18^th, rehearsal in the Ivy Building again, Bob’s studio.

It was a day of many shared laughs, silliness that never carried on too long or cut into the seriousness of the work. How great it is that these performers, these artists can laugh at mistakes, and their smiling eyes reflect how much they love their jobs. We all have hobbies, interests, things we like to do and are passionate about, activities that are fun for us. We also have work that we must get done, deadlines to accomplish before we can have time for these hobbies. And we may not like the work as much as the fun stuff, even if we enjoy it. For these people here in the Ivy studio, their laughs, their fun, the fire they have in pursuing this work is a perfect combination of the two. Their hobby is their work, their work is their passion. And they are passionate. The enthusiasm and emotion, both negative and positive, that come with this type of creative work are part of what makes the final product so rewarding.

Shall we continue on the journey..

I entered the studio and sat down on the stack of mats to watch them set up. The room is somewhat quiet, except for the hum of the fan on the wall and Telsche kicking around crumpled papers and whistling.

The others gradually move into the space as they are ready, and Barbra and Sheila go through the mother daughter relationship at the beginning of the play. Bob wants Barbra to really relive the memories from when she was 17, the sights, the sounds, the smells that she associates with this age. Barbra acknowledges it, takes a deep breath, and starts the line, “I was 17 when I left…” Bob corrects her – it is actually “I was 17 when I walked away.”

“Just punch me every time I do that,” Barbra says, looking slightly frustrated, but unabashed.

Barbra begins the monologue again. Bob thinks the line, “This is a true story,” is important to say. He makes a mental note that this line should not be changed. The edits in the script are just as important to the process as these moments when a line is confirmed as completely right on.

Later, Bob is explaining that he wants Barbra to break up the pieces of the play so that the audience doesn’t already know everything that is happening. He wants memories to start coming back to her slowly throughout the piece, rather than her telling the story from a list of memories she already has in mind.

There is a part in the script that is several repeating lines of “I will no longer see you with my eyes. I will no longer touch your warmth. I will no longer hear your breath..etc,” spoken by Barbra when she remembers departing her mother. Everyone has a good laugh when Barbra jumbles some of the words trying to say the lines. She says, “I will no longer smell your touch..I will no longer hear you with my tongue,” looks around and smiles, then giving up says, “I will no longer do any of these things!” and shakes her head at the mistake. I had to laugh myself.

Barbra and Sheila have an interaction in a scene when Barbra is deciding what to pack as she prepares to leave home at 17. There is a suitcase open on the floor. Sheila, the mother figure, stands next to her, eyes glazed. She appears as a figment of Barbra’s imagination. Barbra frantically searches for things to pack in the suitcase. She puts some of the crumpled papers in it. Then she moves Sheila to step into the suitcase, and tries to fit her in and close the suitcase.

During the break, Bob and John talk about different ways to use the crumpled papers. John asks me how I’m doing, if I’m getting tired of watching them “do the same thing over and over again, eight different ways.” I tell him I’m not tired, and I’m pretty used to this process. As tedious as it may be at times, I know it will be worth it.

Rehearsal finishes with more ideas about the papers. They are still trying to figure out how to eventually get rid of all the papers on stage. Bob suggests Barbra rip the papers into smaller pieces to use as dollar bills. Everyone nods and smiles at this idea.

There are thoughts of moving the bed to symbolize the dream moving forward.

Kristin keeps them on track. “We’re at 1:00,” she says. Done for the day.

The bed is rolling

Continuing with the October 17th rehearsal...

The cast moves as a unit with the bed--Barbra laying on it, Sheila underneath it on the platform, Telsche and Dario pushing it around the room. Bob stands by watching, seemingly concentrated on the patterns Dario and Telsche are making with the bed combined with the music Sheila is playing. This beginning part of the piece is very much about moving and traveling, stopping for a quick moment, and then getting back on the bed and moving again. After a while of circling around, Bob instructs them to stop, and they quickly transition to a short scene where Dario and Telsche are sharing food from a pot while Sheila looks around the new place they have arrived at.

After a couple minutes of this, they hurry to put the pots and stools and crumpled papers back on the bed. Barbra decides to hide her hands under the bedsheets as she drops the papers, and Bob wants some sort of butterfly net or piece of mesh on a pole to catch the papers as she drops them. Then he decides that Dario and Telsche could pick them up as they go.

They also want a bicycle. It could be attached to the end of the bed the way a bike is attached to a car hitch, or Dario could just ride it around while helping push the bed. It would provide a real image of vehicular transportation as they are moving from place to place with the bed.

They are getting ready to progress into the first section of script now, and Barbra starts to yell out the first line while laying in the bed in the center of the room, the others mingling around a little. She sings, trying out different vocal timbres, “I was…I WAS…I waasss..I was 17 when I walked away.”

Bob tells Kristin to make a note that he will need a piece of white chalk to draw the country border line on the floor when they cross it. Dario looks around, hesitatingly, and then says that he actually has a piece of chalk in his bag and goes to get it. Everyone laughs at this.

They draw the border on the floor, and practice moving with the bed again, Barbra laying down, dropping the papers, Telsche and Dario now slipping around trying to catch them as they fall while also holding onto the bed and maneuvering it in circles. Telsche struggles playfully to catch the papers in her hat, reaching here and there, sometimes leaving the bed to get the obscure ones.

They talk about how the chalk will look on the actual theatre floor. It is possible the Bedlam stage floor might be too busy to exhibit the white chalk line. They take a 5 minute break. Kristin keeps track of time as they snack and rest.

When rehearsal resumes, Bob preludes by saying he wants it to be more explosive, more animated at the beginning. They nod in agreement and ponder on ways this can be achieved.

Kristin gives me a copy of the script, which I look over briefly. Barbra sees me reading it and, peering over my shoulder, says, “If you’re looking for what we’re doing on there, you won’t find it.” I laugh, realizing they are still working on what comes before the script starts. It’s so fascinating the way artists work in spurts almost, filling in this piece first, then moving on to another when the inspiration comes, and later fitting them all together, perhaps in a totally different order than they were originally set to be.

They work through the scene yet again, this time much louder, livelier, like an eruption. Telsche and Dario run with the bed, Barbra screaming “Not so fast! Not sooo FAST!” and throwing papers out sporadically. She shouts directions at them and they struggle to please her, shifting the bed this way and that quickly. Bob wants an earthquake. They improvise with the objects on the bed, banging pots and pans, dropping wood blocks, Dario covering his ears with his headphones, Sheila making horse noises.

They look for a stopping point in the madness, and Barbra thinks it might be nice to have different languages spoken when they are asked for their papers each time they cross a border.

After the earthquake movement gets slower, but Bob tells them to keep the energy up. They begin the first part of the script where Barbra looks for the beginning of her story in the mess of crumpled papers. Sheila, Telsche, and Dario help her by picking up papers and starting to read, to which Barbra usually responds “No, no, that’s not it,” and continues the search. She finally finds the right one, and reads the first line of the story.

Rehearsal comes to a close, all seem proud to have accomplished this first bit with the bed rolling and paper messing. They review the parts of Barbra’s imagination that are acted out in the beginning with Sheila as the mom, Telsche as the brother of “She,” Barbra’s character. There is a general notion that the other actors should be interconnected as parts of Barbra’s story while she is telling it.

‘Twas an eventful morning.