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.