On the Dark Side of Twilight: Firestone High School

Ten years ago, Great Lakes Theater produced my first outreach tour "On the Dark Side of Twilight."

Thursday, March 11, 2010

We closed today, our final performance was at Firestone High School. Always a favorite of mine, Mr. Z. has a vast number of dedicated performing arts students. Only "VPA" students (visual performing arts) are invited to the outreach tour performances, but at a school this size that still means we have at least 150 people in the audience. And they always get the real obscure stuff, too. There's a Winter's Tale reference in Dark Lady of the Sonnets and theirs was the only venue that got it.

Sure, it was early. 7:30 arrival for a 9:15 performance, but really, we had this down to a science. Until we discovered that their set for Sweeney Todd (opening next weekend!) was already built ... with a raked stage made of planks with half-to-three-quarter inch gaps between them.

Now, our set has been a little wobbly on the best days. Slamming that door made the whole set shake, gave it a real "Ed Wood" feel. But placing it on an incline seemed downright disastrous.

So we took every bungee cord we had, and strapped the thing to the floor. The spaces between boards was actually a benefit. We also got a number of extra stage weights from the school, and don't you know, the set was more secure than it had ever been, seriously solid.

Many students assisted getting everything together and tearing it apart. In between, it was a rollicking performance, the three of us were really pushing it for our final go-round. I think we even made some very wise discoveries. Hate doing that on closing night. Morning. Whatever.

The post-show discussion was very interesting, and went on for a while. What has been most interesting about these talkbacks was the opportunity for people to quiz the playwright, about writing, about rehearsing with the playwright there, editing, the future of the production, and so on.

A number of the students picked up on some of the minutiae of the play, about the conceit of using "found documents" (see: Dracula) the setting for the interview (see: Interview) even the origin of Lucy's name in the final arc (see: Dracula.)

After the show, Dusten, Emily and I had burgers at the Winking Lizard, and then it was off to dump the set and props, store all the education department materials, and return the van. And today was a beautiful, seventy degree day. The end of the tour always means the beginning of spring.

I am really going to miss this one, a lot.

Double Heart: Firestone High School

Cuyahoga Valley Art Center

From Lakewood Library, to Cuyahoga Valley Art Center to Firestone High School -- three very different performances spaces with three very different crowds, in size, in age, but not in appreciation. Things continue to go very well for the tour. A gentleman last night said it was the most stimulating live performance he'd ever seen.

And then there was the person from an earlier venue who thought the entire first scene is about masturbation. I feel it is my responsibility to inform everyone at this time that I would never send a play into a high school or retirement community that makes reference to masturbation.

The entire first scene is about piss.

One person near the beginning of the run stated he didn't care for the politics of the play. I was stymied. What politics? I would never make a political statement in any of my plays, in fact I think theater an entirely inappropriate place to discuss anything of substance at all.

We go to the theater to make jokes about piss.


In general the praise has been high, and warm. Today at Firestone High -- normally our final date on the tour, but not so this year, and I regret that -- was another great audience. They have a strong theater arts program there, and every year I can expect not only attentive and well-read students, but that they also have a lot of interesting questions about the design, the process of writing, and how to pursue a future in the arts.

Styles: Firestone High School

"It will be the TALK OF THE TOWN!"

And we are out. Fixed up the set, performed for a couple hundred great students is Akron, loaded-out, dumped the set at the scene shop, returned the van. In between we had our annual end-of-tour stop at the Winking Lizard in Fairlawn.

Mr. Z. at Firestone, as always was quite prepared for our arrival, and he and his team of students were extremely helpful in getting the space and lights and everything right for our production. It's a big auditorium (capacity 850+) well preserved and a he runs a smooth operation. And I understand they will be tearing it all down in a another year or so. You'll never see this kind of high school auditorium again.

You know, I didn't even do most of the heavy lifting for this tour, I left that in James and Michael's capable, youthful arms. But I am tired, my neck and shoulders are sore, and I just want to sleep for several days. It was a very successful tour, everyone says so. The people who worked on it are simply the best. I am very happy. I am glad it is over.