On Monday it looked like the show would be a full-on train wreck. But as they tend to do, things started to come together on Tuesday and we made tremendous progress on the set, costumes, sound, lights--well you know. . .
Tuesday night I was finally able to see the show. I'd watched it a couple of times, but hadn't been able to see it alive. As one piece after another came together more and more of it came alive, and I think we're in really good shape. The cast is really strong.
Only missing the guns. A month ago finding a prop M16 was the least of my worries. We had an agreement to rent them from a guy. Only problem was when it came time to pay for them and pick them up he was awol. Nowhere to be found (or at least he stopped responding to voicemails and emails.) The check was written. . . j Save ust never was able to actually give it to him and get the prop guns.
So we went down to zap props to try to rent some of their arsenal. Turns out a christian group rented out every assault weapon/prop they had earlier that morning for something . . . I found some online but they won't make it here till Monday. Good Lord. That had been the only easy thing so far. Now when most everything else fell into place I'm scrambling to find a prop M16. If anyone in the city knows of someone who has one to rent/loan/sell let me know.
I'm also pretty happy with the sound. Our original designer bailed about two weeks out of opening and Juan called up one of his cousins who does sound engineering for the music industry. Never having done anything for theatre before, Oscar was able to do a pretty damn good job in less than 48 hours.
And the pièce de résistance . . . I finally figured out how to make the sand falling from the sky work. The space we're using isn't a traditional theatre space. No real grid to speak of and the ceiling is much higher than we have a ladder for in the center. So I had to get pretty creative. I think it's gonna work. I'll know for sure tonight. The first couple of things I tried were colossal failures. Now it's just a matter of the timing of the sand falling.
Which is much better than Monday's feeling of the sky is falling. Then again, my mother-in-law arrived in town tonight. . .
We weren't the only ones working on the national premiere of Militant Langauge who had a hard time getting the show up. Know Theatre's production opened last week. (Reviews here and here.) A couple of the others had to postpone their productions. We open tomorrow. Thanks to Jenns' mom being in town and watching the little one, we'll both be able to watch it together.
Side Note: one thing I learned was Jr. has a deep love for ladders. Each time he sees one he's off to the races trying to climb up it. He has absolutely no fear. Which can be hazardous to his health. Hopefully he won't jump off a roof, tie weights to his ankles and try to walk across the bottom of a pond, try to build a ramp big enough to jump his bike over a pine tree or do any of the other things I tried to do. All the stories that my mom tried to tell me about things I did when I was a kid I can see replaying and it's nowhere near as fun as there must have been for me way back when. Then again other than fingers I only broke one bone growing up. I guess when I was four I splashed water all over the bathroom floor, walked out in the hall way and ran into the bathroom trying to see how well I could slide. I guess I slid pretty well until I crumpled full tilt into the bathtub. I can see the joy in his face as he tries to scamper up the ladder . . . I think that my payback for the stunts I pulled in my childhood is assured, scary.
So I've submitted all my work for Militant Language and it feels weird. I feel like I'm missing or forgetting something. I've begun to see that when I take on a new job within the theatre, I always end up with this feeling. I'm so used to being an actor and my job not being done until the show closes, so it's understandable that I feel this way as Militant hasn't even opened. I forget that some people involved in productions are done before the actors even start rehearsals.
I also forget just how much work it takes from so many people to put up a production.
When I've worked as an actor in the past, I sometimes forgot this. I know, I know, it seems like an obvious thing to forget, but when you are not dealing with any of the behind the scenes action, this sometimes gets lost.
When you really break down how much there is involved with putting up a production, it's surprising that anyone without a full time staff and a million dollar budget ever gets a show off the ground. I mean think about it. If you're involved with a small theatre company, you are not just an actor or director or designer, you are also a marketing manager, a business manager, an editor, a website designer, and on and on and on. How the hell do we do it!?
I guess by not thinking about it. If we thought about it, no work would get done. We would all just wallow at the bar with martini's, wishing there were 30 hours in a day. Ok, so some of us do that without a reason. Don't judge.
So I'm not going to think about it. Instead, I'm going to try to figure out what I've forgotten. Sombody get me a dirty marty please!
I recently did some visual research for Militant Language and I've got to say that it is one of my favorite aspects of doing dramaturgy. I find that visual research is one of the easiest, most inspirational ways to start work on a project. With even just a few images, ideas can come a-floodin' to a theatre artist. Suddenly that moment in a text where an actor is unsure of what to do is illuminated. Or the moment in a scene that needs some lighting effect is suddenly easy to find. For Militant, I really wanted get pictures taken by soldiers as opposed to media shots in an attempt to get a first hand, unedited, raw perspective of war and combat. I found a fabulous website that does just this and most of the pictures from my research I took from this site.
I've sampled a few of my favorites below taken from undermars.com.
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