Photos from the performance of Do Do That Voodoo.
12:10 AM Home again. Cannot tell you (yet) how satisfying that event was. Pictures will come, and stories. There was no time to get back to blogging to report as it was happening, that should be a sign of how successful it was, for everyone.
Thank you, so much, to Emily, Josh, Geoff, Eric, Toni, our stage manager Rose and our
two capacity audiences and all of our friends at the event, and
CONGRATULATIONS TO CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATRE and anyway I need to go to bed.
I feel good.
6:49 PM Places.
Backstage make-up action.
6:10 PM Okay, one secret revealed ... I may dance.
35 minutes to places, we have concluded working the opening presentation. I need to eat something or I will never get the chance. And then then I must dress. The Levin is now loud and excited with performers.
The Gordon Square. Soon it will throng.
5:27 PM SHIT! Official schedule says our first performance is at 8:00 o'clock sharp, not at 8:05. Not what I meant by "expect the unexpected."
But the skies are clear, the actors are bustling, the Muses just went downstairs (that sounds ominous -- they're just actors, dressed like Muses) and there is an awful lot of food around here.
5:14 PM In the holding pen in the Levin, sitting with our stage manager Rose. Waiting for my wife to arrive. The question is whether or not I choose to get dressed up and join the "Big Surprise" rehearsal. I almost said what it is. That would give away the surprise.
Christine Howey is sitting two tables to my right, wearing one of those pitch helmets that have a fan built into it.
4:24 PM Tweet much?
#pan11 to find out what others are saying about the big gig tonight.
... that picture down there really makes me unhappy.
2:32 PM The less-than-sexy part of the day, while I am sorting props in the rehearsal hall. Right now I am fantasizing about all of the free
Magic Hat I will be drinking tonight between the 8:05 and 8:55 presentations of that scene I wrote.
Tim teaches Eric the "Romeo/Paris" fight.
Kelly teaches lady actor-teachers how Juliet stabs herself.
11:56 AM Great Lakes actor-teachers traditionally spend the first Saturday of rehearsal period learning stage combat from Kelly Elliott, who (with her husband Josh, seen below) created the fights we use for the
Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and
Hamlet residencies. She also leads the actors in hand-to-hand instruction to use in drama workshops, and for new residencies like
Midsummer and
Othello.
Last year we went al fresco, out in Star Plaza, to pick up the movies. Today, like most days this week, it's raining, and we are in the Salon at the
Hanna Theatre.
Almost every actor-teacher is performing at PANDEMONIUM tonight, in four or five different shows. I told you, every performer in Cleveland wants to be part of this party ... especially the young ones.
"Tut, tut ... looks like PANDEMONIUM."
11:09 AM And we're out. Time to head back to actor-teacher rehearsals. Tight little act we've got ... no idea how long it is, somewhere around five minutes. Don't be late! Geoff expressed aloud if we might perhaps offend some people. I always assumed when a drunken asshole of a character starts making racist comments you aren't necessarily supposed to assume the playwright holds the same opinions. Unless it's Mamet.
Dan, Geoff, Emily, Josh, David, backstage at the "Lose Me Lounge."
10:37 AM Rehearsing
DO DO THAT VOODOO in the Storefront. Power was out in Gypsy Bean ... and the Storefront when we arrived, apparently the lights went out on Wednesday. Looking forward to performing by candlelight tonight! Happy to have Josh back in town with us, first time running the scene with all of our actors ... except the bartender. Crap.