Meeting the real space

Saturday, November 14th. First day in the Bedlam Theatre space.

The cast is talking about stage makeup, throwing around different ideas, and figuring out when and how to remove it. They will have certain makeup for specific parts of the piece but will need to remove it for other parts.

Bob is explaining his vision to the set crew. His idea is that there will be a wall of four-by-fours and the projector will be in the back showing the image of the horse on the wall. The crew members discuss how to accomplish this. They have already started to put the wall together, and John is hanging large pieces of canvas from the rafters that hang all the way down to the floor of the stage and can even act as stage wings.

James makes sounds that resemble thunder with a spring instrument. It looks like a simple noise-maker, but there appears to be a technique to making it exert a storm sound.

Barbra seems a little frazzled, but is making light of the stress. “We have another month to work on this show, right?” she jokes hopefully. Telsche remarks, “Five days.” “Shut up,” Barbra says. They all smile and continue the scene.

Barbra laughs long and loud after the three cast members name different warriors and make a joke. I think it’s nice for her to have this moment of indulgence in laughter as a release from the tension she might feel during the rest of the show. Bob asks why she skipped right to the laughter, and she says, “Oh yeah, I didn’t like that part, so I cut it.” “Thanks for telling me,” Bob says and laughs.

They work together on the part where Barbra is running through the forest and the cast acts as trees that surround her. Bob does not want them to do modern dance here, but he tells them to just run around and touch Barbra as she goes along. They all joke around about “Robert Rosen’s School of Modern Dance.” Sheila declares, “This forest is so post modern, it’s amazing.” They then take a short break.

When they come back, it is time to run through a large section of the piece. The cast paints their faces with grey paint for the warrior scene. Sonya runs to Target to get makeup remover wipes and knee pads for them.

When Barbra is reaching the sea, Bob says they should have some ocean sounds here. James makes a note of this.

The cast runs through the umbrella-people scene, and James realizes how high-pitched their jibberish is sounding. “I love how we’re going to Europe, but we reach the border and suddently we’re in Asia,” he says. “Haha, yeah,” says Bob. “Why are we in Shanghai?” He tells the cast to just try and use their normal pitch and normal voices for this part.

They back up a bit to the part right before the umbrella scene where the ship arrives in the new world and they all wave and then get off and start parading around. I find it hilarious when the patriotic-sounding music comes on and they all start mingling around quickly, Telsche riding a bicycle to deliver newspapers, Dario and Sheila hailing taxis and Barbra trying to imitate them. Bob is subbing in for Barbra so she can see her role being played. Barbra watches, smiling as Bob gets pushed around all flustered. One of the cast jokes that Bob is Barbra’s understudy.

They talk a little about costume pieces and props that still need to be worked out and placed. The cast hangs their coats and hats on the bedposts and the hooks that are on the bed.

Bob, Dario, and Sheila discuss the construction of the brick wall, decide who is building each part, and practice it beneath a warm sunlight cascading in through the big skylight over the space.

They practice the scene again where they arrive in the new world. The whole room is in chaos, the bed becomes a taxi and the cast takes Barbra “downtown!” Bob is giving Barbra points on how to interact as they go along, and Barbra is looking confused, feeling like she is in the way.

As they run through the scenes, someone is up in the ceiling, above the sound box behind me, fixing the lights with a flashlight.

I watch the café scene where Dario sits on a stool behind a newspaper, and Telsche the dog is playing with a brick on the floor in front of him. She repeatedly brings the brick back to Dario, and he throws it back for her to fetch, never looking up from the newspaper or even showing his face. He is hidden behind it. I think this is a great moment here.

They wrap up for the day, and Bob suggests that tomorrow they walk through the whole show and do an “Italian,” which I found out means they will just mark through the spacing without speaking all of the text. Bob wants them to physically know the journey in the space.

After they finish up, everyone goes next door to the rehearsal shop where John has a little model of the theatre stage with a plan of what it will look like for the show. They talk logistics of seating, backstage areas, and John asks the cast about their preferences and what they will need.

I’d say things are coming along smoothly, but I anticipate a lot of hard work will go into this coming week before the show. The sound, lights, and set crew are already working to start getting everything prepared, and John seems to be getting things organized quickly.