Tech Rehearsal at the Connelly
Okay. So? Maybe instead of going to Central Park to hand out palm cards to people on line to see Love's Labour's Lost, the morning should have instead be spent sprucing up our things so the women of the company would have a place to be, drinking coffee and generally relaxing because we were up until 1:30 AM and had a big day ahead of us.
Anyway, that's what happened.
Company meeting!
The company came together at 12:30 for a meeting, hauled everything down five flights of stairs, and schlepped it (as they say in New York) to the Connelly Theatre, where we met up with lighting designer Cris and our most awesome Venue Director Kimille.
While I admit there was a lot of energy, rushing about and bolts stuck totally the wrong way into the set frame (thanks for pointing that out, James, we won't get that wrong again, sorry) we managed, in two hours, to set everything up, tear it down, set it up again, run the entire show, tear it down and put it away. Because that is what we do.
We open tomorrow. Deep breath. Awesome.
Emily rocks this hat much harder than I do.
After notes from Lisa and a somewhat leisurely dinner, we headed over the FringeCENTRAL for FringeTEASERS. FringeCENTRAL is the main office for the festival, always in a different place each year. This year it's a nice big room on 2nd Av, with a lot of couches and chairs for people to hang out, look over their guides, choose their shows and purchase tickets.
A dozen or so productions were invited to perform five minutes for whoever walked in -- and all the other artists performing this afternoon. Several of the artists from last night were in attendance who were also at last night's gig at The Cutting Room. It was much more enjoyable to see them here, much more conducive, just projecting and not relying on microphones, everybody seemed really loose and comfortable, and the audience was so supportive!
There was some majestic singing (Gertrude Stein Saints) and hilarious, funky, creepy, sexy, physical comedy (Beast of Festival Skin) and a freaky dance troupe who has got to tell me what their soundtrack is because it must become part of my running mix (Kinematik).
The evening was defined by the Variety Power Hour, a late-night variety show, bacchanal, though this evening seemed a little low-key by VPH standards. This was not a surprise, as it was the first of FringeNYC '13. Tomorrow's crowd may be bigger, and will surely build as the festival continues.
However, it was a good crowd, a spirited crowd, and this time (unlike, say, last night) I took time to think through and actually rehearse what we were going to present or more to the point, how we were going to present it, using microphones. This show is podcast, and so I suggested we perform the post-dance dialogue as though it were a radio drama; no blocking (or not much) with people moving towards and away from the mic to suggest leaving the scene.
I will share when it goes up, we'll see how successful our efforts were. One thing went particularly weird was when I was instructed to create a Shakespearean sonnet based on anything I could find in the FringeNYC Program Guide. I composed a halting reinterpretation of the synopsis for Naked In Alaska. James liked it.
Afterwards we got pizza at Famous Original Ray's.
Big crowd!
There was some majestic singing (Gertrude Stein Saints) and hilarious, funky, creepy, sexy, physical comedy (Beast of Festival Skin) and a freaky dance troupe who has got to tell me what their soundtrack is because it must become part of my running mix (Kinematik).
The evening was defined by the Variety Power Hour, a late-night variety show, bacchanal, though this evening seemed a little low-key by VPH standards. This was not a surprise, as it was the first of FringeNYC '13. Tomorrow's crowd may be bigger, and will surely build as the festival continues.
However, it was a good crowd, a spirited crowd, and this time (unlike, say, last night) I took time to think through and actually rehearse what we were going to present or more to the point, how we were going to present it, using microphones. This show is podcast, and so I suggested we perform the post-dance dialogue as though it were a radio drama; no blocking (or not much) with people moving towards and away from the mic to suggest leaving the scene.
Emily and Annie at the C.O.W.
I will share when it goes up, we'll see how successful our efforts were. One thing went particularly weird was when I was instructed to create a Shakespearean sonnet based on anything I could find in the FringeNYC Program Guide. I composed a halting reinterpretation of the synopsis for Naked In Alaska. James liked it.
Afterwards we got pizza at Famous Original Ray's.
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