The Times: Dress Rehearsal

Last night was the final dress rehearsal for These Are The Times without any kind of audience. Tonight there will be a small number of CPT staff members in attendance.

If you wish to be entirely surprised by the production, then don't look at these pictures. However, I would like to recommend you look at them, anyway. Thanks to Heather, Josh and David, who have made our already beautiful performers look incredible.

Act One: Centennial

Lena Horne

It Can't Happen Here

At the Alcazar

Orson Welles and Bernard Schrader

The Dromios

Jesse Owens' ticker-tape parade

Bernard

Act Two: The Times

"The Man Who Sold His Wife For a Car"

At the Lemko Social Club

Beat poetry with Mister Bear

"Hamlet by Jack Kerouac"

Danny Michaels and Barney Silver

"One Summer's Evening at the Beach"

The Times

We open tomorrow night at 7 PM at Cleveland Public Theatre.
Please join us.

Double Heart: Olde Towne Hall Theatre

Backstage!

Last night it was Olde Towne Hall Theatre in North Ridgeville. We love this space, all of us, you can read previous accounts of experiences here, here and here. Last night, however, was one for the record books. Literally, we will consult the record books and find that we had the largest turnout ever last night at Olde Towne Hall, a charming venue that looks like a classic Midwestern opera house.

Deb Wentz went out of her way to really push the show this year, and as our visit fell neatly within a run of Kiss Me Kate she was able to educate their regular audience about the tour before every performance. There was also a class from Baldwin Wallace and also -- very special for us -- company members from Great Lakes Theater's upcoming production of Much Ado About Nothing!

 

Post-show talkback

There was a giddy energy last night, excitement spreading from the crowd to us and back to the crowd. Emily's boyfriend Benjamin was on hand, and reflected what many who have seen the show earlier in the tour have said, that it has improved since the show has opened, and that is definitely true. There are many, many moments which were impossible to create in our dinky rehearsal hall, without an audience. We close in two days, and as they say, by then we should be ready to open.

Steven, Annie and Katelyn
Actor-teachers unite!

The Times: Technical Rehearsal

Tonight our company took the space at Cleveland Public Theatre in preparation for this weekend's workshop performances of These Are The Times. Lights, slides, costumes, props, set pieces ... it all comes together with life, and in color.

I have heard this script read numerous times ... staged readings, individuals scenes presented at special events, and of course in rehearsals for this production.Watching this piece come into vivid focus is something I have previously only had in my head ... and for a long time. But this is just what is it supposed to look like.

May Day!

William McDermott and Dare Wright at the Alcazar

Jesse Owens and the Olympic Boycott

 Passing a jay at Lemko Hall.

Tonight with Jack Paar.

 The end of The Times.

Many thanks to David Krupla (lights), Heather Brown (costumes), and Josh Brown (multimedia) and of course director Mark Cipra for such a smoothly run tech.

Double Heart: Akron Main Public Library

Another great Sunday afternoon performance, today at the main branch of the Akron-Summit Public Library. Attendance was very good for that space, over 90 people were in attendance, many children and teenagers, adults and seniors. Some "fans" of the tour, familiar faces we see every year. Post-show discussion was spirited, largely inquiring as to how we do all this. Daniel invited all the kids (and also several enthusiastic adults) to come up onto the stage to check out the props and costumes.

... and swords!

One guest of honor was Michael G., former GLT actor-teacher from the School Residency Program, as well as two previous outreach tours, The Brute (2009) and The Mysterious Affair at Styles (2012).

Of course, afterwards we put him to work tearing down the set. Thanks, Mike!

There are three more public shows. Sigh. Tomorrow night we travel to the always attractive and enchanting Olde Towne Hall Theatre in North Ridgeville. Curtain at 7:00 PM. Please join us.

Double Heart: Our Lady of the Elms

What, and give up show business?

We have only five more performances, the final on Thursday is not public, it is at a school. It is only Saturday and this is already depressing. The good news: I can stop shaving my entire face on Friday.

Since 2009 we have visited Our Lady of the Elms in Akron, and these girls have always made an incredible audience. In particular I remember how strongly they responded to Michael and Beth in The Brute. When it comes to romance -- especially actual, on-stage kissing -- they generally explode.

However, yesterday made me very nervous. I mean, I didn't start out nervous, but as the show went along, I became increasingly concerned about the sheer weight of scatalogical humor and sexual innuendo. I mean, you know, it's verse, it is implied, we never some out and use any of those common vulgarities or obscenities you hear, you know, everywhere ... but still. They didn't miss any of it, and we were holding for laughs longer than we have done before ... and that made me even more self-conscious!

Because, uh, I wrote that. I was waiting for some authority figure to leap up and stop the show, but that did not happen. Of course not.

I should have had more faith in the material. Yes, it goes there (as the kids say) but it also goes some many other places. Damn, what a ride. We even nailed the dance, it's all so giddy and youthful, but everyone grows up so fast. And I think that's what people see. I hope that's what they see.

One of the nuns came up to speak with James after the performance. She used to be on the Tri-C board, believes strongly in it's mission, and she was so happy and proud when he announced during the Q&A that he is currently a student at Tri-C.

Tomorrow we perform at the Akron Main Public Library at 2 PM. Please join us.

Double Heart: Akron Public Library - Nordonia Hills Branch

James is about to vomit. No, really.

Two outstanding audiences at Summit County public libraries the past two days. I was disappointed to learn that Akron city schools were closed on Wednesday -- traditionally we would get maybe a dozen seniors to join us for the afternoon performance at the Shatto Avenue library, and about 100 students who walk over from nearby Firestone High. We decided only to put out about 64 seats (8 rows of eight) so the expected audience would look too thin.

However, almost every seat was taken! We had a very strong turnout, not just from seniors, but also high school students who obviously could think of nothing better to do on a day-off than see a play, and also some families with younger children who happened to choose the library as the thing to do that day and heard there was a show going on.

James thinks he had food poisoning, and was on the verge of exonerating during the entire program. His performance was outstanding, and the fastest I have ever heard him go. He even sat through the talkback before excusing himself to meet his little porcelain helper.

I am ... butt hurt.

The Nordonia library in Northfield is one of our smaller venues -- you can't get more than sixty chairs into that room. It remains, however, my favorite stop on the tour. It's not just the cookies (thank you, Friends of the Nordonia Public Library) it is also the fact that we can back the truck right up to the performance space and load-in takes about five minutes. Finally, the audience is always very responsive, they laughed at the low humor, and got all the more sophisticated references.

There was a great mix of young and old -- one family had several small children who must be quite experienced at witnessing live theater and were engrossed in our show from beginning to end. Teenagers brought their parents to see this play, not the other way around. For the post-show discussion Daniel, who normally needs to warm everyone up, just got out of the way as hands shot into the air to ask about every aspect of performance, the writing, the acting, the costumes, the music, everything.

Then we had cookies.

The Times: Boy Howdy!

Meanwhile, this is happening.

Noble Sissle and his Syncopated Sizzlers!

The Double Heart tour ventured to Fairview Park Library last night, and onto the Akron Public Library - NW Branch this afternoon. However, this does not mean I get a "night off", rather I will head back to Lakewood for my first experience seeing a complete run-through of These Are The Times.

Technical rehearsals begin for this Big Box show (as with every other Big Box show) on Sunday, four nights jam-packed with activity, incorporating video, lights and costumes into what is already a frenetic, wide-ranging piece. I haven't counted all of the different characters represented by these nine actors, but there are at least fifty.

I have no idea how long the play runs. That's part of what this entire shin-dig is about, having the opportunity to see what it is. Is the first act even close to one hour? No idea, there is just no idea to clock this thing without standing it up and moving it around. The decision not to include any additional sound cues at all is, I feel, a good one, because I want to be aware of every pause. Recorded music between moments would only serve to make things take more time.

Tomorrow will be the final rehearsal in the rehearsal space, before loading out for CPT. Of course, I will miss that, Double Heart will be playing the Nordonia Library. As playwright, I am haunted by the words of Sinclair Lewis:

I haven’t slept for weeks! Nobody can say I haven’t given everything to the Federal Theatre, now it is all terrible. Come to New York and postpone the play a week. It is all terrible. It is all a failure.

Whoa-ho-ho!