Words As Silent Tattoos

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On December 12, I went to a rehearsal of “The Words We Wear” at the Goldman Theater in the Orlando Shakespeare Center. The theater space was pitch black when I entered. I stood behind the back row waiting for my eyes to adjust. The directors Aradhana Tiwari and Kevin Becker greeted me warmly. The Goldman is a small intimate space so I decided to sit house left near the back.

Actress Mikki Scanlon Kriekard was getting into military fatigues to perform a monologue Aradhana had written. The director asked all the other actors to clear the space. This was the first time Mikki was performing the monologue and the director didn’t want any distractions. I kept sketching and thankfully Mikki and Aradhana didn’t consider me a distraction.

It had been 192 days since the soldier had spoken. She had been stationed in Afghanistan and things had happened over their that would get under anyone’s skin. When she returned, people seemed like a sea of pages walking the streets. She felt she had been stained by silent tattoos. She came close to relating the horrors that she had seen, but she stopped short. Then she met a young girl that could read her like an open book, seeing the scars and invisible tattoos. The girl gave Mikki a slip of paper laced with hope and redemption. The room was silent and full of emotion. I didn’t know why but my face flushed and in the darkness hot tears roll down my cheeks. No one could see. Mikki, as a brave soldier managed to keep her emotions in check but when
she related how thankful she was, her throat constricted and she had to
slow down to keep from crying, for the first time she felt hope.

After the performance, there were notes from the director. I wiped my eyes and kept sketching. I began to wonder why I had been emotionally bowled over by the performance. A friend had a way of reading people and was able to heal others with a touch. She had a deep, heart felt faith. Yet she wasn’t able to heal her own invisible scars left by life.  Her boyfriend, an artist, that she had just broken up with, drove to the Grand Tetons, did a few paintings and then shot himself. I only saw her once after her boyfriends funeral. She asked me to pray for her. I didn’t pray. Several weeks later, she took her own life.  I realized that I hadn’t cried at her funeral or since. What kind of person doesn’t cry at a funeral? Instead of feeling anything, I sketched like a machine. At the time I was annoyed that the focus at the memorial service was on resurrection rather than on the suicide. The word wasn’t uttered once. She wasn’t rising from the grave. Due to red tape her body had yet to be cremated. I hadn’t seen it coming. The one word on my mind remains WHY? How could someone with so much faith take their own life? Did she find the enveloping love of God that she hoped for? I wish I could believe that. Her suicide note absolved everyone from guilt, but guilt remains. I could have been a better friend. This performance finally made all the suppressed emotions bubble up to the surface.  There is so much to live for. The sun burns bright. What choice remains, but to hope?

The second part of the rehearsal involved the whole cast removing white fabric with negative words and then picking up fabrics from the clothes line with positive words. Some actresses removed scarves, shackles, belts and blindfolds. One fiery redhead looked like Jackie Onassis with big sunglasses and the head shawl that she threw away. In one run through, Becky Lane removed her negative garment and when she picked her life affirming clothes line fabric, she smiled and daintily nestled it in her cleavage with a silent film Chaplinesque flair as she walked off stage. I was thankful for the laugh.

“The Words We Wear” will be playing tonight at the Goldman Theatre in the Orlando Shakespeare Center (812 E Rollins St, Orlando, FL).

Saturday, December 14th at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM

Sunday, December 15th at 8:00 PM. (The Sunday performance is sold out.)

You can purchase tickets on the EpicVita website.

Words We Wear

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I bumped into Becky Lane in the Full Sail parking lot and she told me about a show she is working on called Words We Wear. Kevin Barber and Aradhana Tiwari are co-directing and Holly Harris is in charge of choreography. Becky invited me to a rehearsal at Movement Arts Studios.

Words We Wear is a 60 minute original performance piece that includes dance, acting, and mixed media. There is an ensemble of 20 female performers.

The show itself is relatively secular. It is about exchanging negative words for more positive words, but the final call to action is faith based. An organization called Epic Vita contracted Becky and the rest of the creative team and heavily influenced the content of this show. They focus on Christian Women’s Ministry.

At the rehearsal, blue tape marked a grid on the floor. The female cast were walking aggressively as if on the streets of a big city. They wove together in a tight knit pattern. If a performer got in the way then the dancer would stop, turn at a right angle and move in another direction. At one point rows of dancers had to move past one another and the squeeze was so tight they bumped shoulders. A fraction of an inch adjusted the movement and the bumping stopped.

The next sequence rehearsed involved movements related to exercise. They wanted to have a quick beat to the movements and Becky demonstrated an accelerated yoga routine where she did sun salutations and downward facing dog to a quick eight beat. The effect was both funny and awe inspiring. Aradhana chimed in, “These moves will be simplified, you can all thank me later.” Everyone applauded Becky’s performance, thankful they wouldn’t have to repeat it.

As I was finishing my sketch, the women rehearsed a routine involving the drudgery of sorting laundry. The baskets of clothes became part of a delicate angst filled dance. Performers experimented and improvised slowly allowing the routine to find it’s own form. This is what I love about sketching rehearsals, there is an open sense of childlike play that brings a piece to life.

Aradhana explained that the show was built around a quote from Maya Angelou. Aradhana explained that certain events in her own life have made the shows theme particularly relevant at this time in her life. Maya said, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, ““Someday we will be able to measure the power of
words. I think they are things. I think they get on the walls, they get
in your wallpaper, they get in your rugs, in your upholstery, in your
clothes and finally into you.”

The show will be playing at the Goldman Theatre in the Orlando Shakespeare Center (812 E Rollins St, Orlando, FL).

Saturday, December 14th at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM

Sunday, December 15th at 8:00 PM.

You can purchase tickets on the EpicVita website.

Shadow Play

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On September third, I went to Movement Arts Studio (1602 Philadelphia Ave, Orlando FL) to watch a rehearsal of a dance piece by Holly Harris. The two performers were Rebekah Lane and Ariel Clarke. Becky has an acting/puppetry background and Ariel is a contemporary dancer and instructor at Focus Performing Arts Center in Lake Mary. Both are representing Canvas Creative Movement Coalition at The Shift Unity in Motion.

Holly explained the premise behind the creative movement and dance piece. “A year ago I read through some silly fables from a
book called, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day. A three-line
poem in that book stood out to me called The Shadow.”

‘Once there was a man was was afraid of his shadow.

Then he met it.

Now he glows in the dark.’

“When Larissa asked me to present an
experimental movement piece for The Shift, I immediately went to my idea
board to find this poem. I thought I could lead an audience on an
imaginative journey of sight, sound, and feeling through the art of
creative movement. In the beginning of the duet, you see Becky reading
and as she yawns she suddenly takes notice of her shadow for the very
first time. She is connecting the black mass that is seen on the stage
floor with the light coming from the lamp and it confuses and frightens
her. One minute into the piece, her shadow is personified by another
dancer, who at first alarms her but then reveals that she is simply an
abstract continuation of her body and mind as they move in sync
together. As the piece continues to develop, the shadow guides Becky
into exploring the mysteries of the world that often go by unnoticed
like a solitary shadow.”

This rehearsal space is inside a huge warehouse with tapestries and gilded mirrors on the walls. Large blue fabric was draped elegantly over the long dancer’s mirror. The rehearsal involved Becky and Ariel developing the first three minutes of the piece.One particularly memorable moment involved Becky walking in a wide arc ad Becky as her shadow matched her steps as she rotated on her hips on the floor. Movement was developed in a playful collaboration. Holly watched the dancers shadows to be sure everything worked.

Mark Your Calendar!  The Shift which involved pieces developed by six dance companies will be September 13th and 14th in the Goldman Theater in the Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 E. Rollins Street Orlando FL) at 8pm. Tickets at the door are $20.

Mary Love Projects

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On August 18th, I went to the Center for Contemporary Dance off Aloma Avenue in Winter Park to sketch a Mary Love Dance Projects rehearsal leading up to “The Shift, Unity in Motion”. For that particular show, she is doing some solo works, so there were only one or two dancers at rehearsals. This dance company has six company dancers and two apprentices.

 Mary Love Dance Projects will be doing three dances in The Shift, all are solos and distinctly
different in their tone and emotion. Mary Love choreographed two dances, but at this rehearsal she was learning “Young and Beautiful” choreographed by Jennia Shanley.  Jennia greeted me at the front desk when I arrived at the dance studio.

The two dancers warmed up and stretched for a bit and then Jennia set up her laptop on a chair in the corner of the dance studio. She played a video of the “Young and Beautiful” dance routine which was about  three minutes in length. The goal for this rehearsal was for Mary to learn the entire minute routine. Jennia had improvised sections of the routine so she had to refresh her memory using the video periodically.

The music for this piece was by Lana Del Ray. Mary Love began in the chair admiring herself with a hand mirror and then the dance spiraled outwards like a nautilus shell. Every moment seemed physically demanding yet graceful. When Jennia stopped to go over a new section, Mary had a moment to regroup and catch her breath. I was astonished at how fast Mary retained the physical memory of each and every movement. Lana sang “Will you still love me when I’m not young and beautiful” with her sultry voice as Mary moved her arms in graceful arcs. Though just a rehearsal, moments gave me chills.

By the end of the rehearsal, Mary was spent, lying on her back to catch her breath.  She had learned the entire routine and will continue to rehearse this piece at least once a week if not more until the
show. Mark Your Calendar!  “The Shift, Unity in Motion” will feature six local dance companies on September 13th and 14th in the Goldman Theater in the Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 E. Rollins Street, Orlando FL) at 8pm. Tickets at the door are $20, and $14 for students and seniors.

Orlando Shakes Scenic Shop

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Jeff Ferree suggested I stop by the Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s scenic shop. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was so I asked a woman at the ticket booth where it might be. She seemed unsure but suggested it might be behind the Goldman Theater. I wandered around a bit until I saw a woman whose clothing was spattered with paint. I asked her and she walked me back. Jeff was working on some wooden columns. Jeff introduced me to the other folks in the shop.

Work was being done to assemble the set for “The Importance of Being Earnest“. Jeff showed me the blue prints. The set resembled a British country estate with a quaint outdoor garden patio. I believe the set would allow for interior and exterior scenes. The play, written by Oscar Wild will run from September 14th through October 9th. The Red Chair Affair had a scene from the play where Ernest is asking a matronly British woman if he can marry her daughter. The matron was played by a man in an ostentatious red gown. He, she held a notebook checking items off her list as she interrogated the suitor about his credentials. Things seemed to go well until he reveled that he had been found in a basket at a railway station. Shocked, she advised him to find a family immediately. The scene was hilarious, pointing out the silly notion that your family name is the only thing of importance when establishing ones station in life.

Ron was at a large work table and he mounted a router blade to the machine. Large boards needed a slot routered down the center. Jeff showed me where to get ear plugs since the shop was going to get loud. The ear plugs had flames printed on them. When the router fired up I stuffed the plugs in my ears and started sketching.

McFeldman Wedding

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At the start of the year I was asked to join the Feldman family as they celebrated the wedding of Adrienne Feldman to Jason McIntosh. The wedding took place at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater (812 East Rollins Street). When I arrived, I immediately went inside the Goldman Theater where the ceremony was going to take place. The Houpa was already set up, so I used the time prior to the ceremony to work out the details of the space. It was on this stage that the Feldman family once performed as the “Feldman Dynamic.” This Fringe show organized by Brian Feldman, simply featured a dinner table and the family eating dinner as they always did. There was no script, this was a simply demonstration of life as theater. Now the family once again took to the stage to enact the simple drama of joining two hearts. Before the ceremony Brian paced the stage excitedly.

When the wedding party took to the stage, I started sketching frantically, since I knew the wedding ceremony would last at most a half an hour. The family had saved several seats for Terry and myself in the front row but I liked the view from the back row where I could work some audience members into the foreground. When it came time to exchange rings, a small Dachshund ran up to the stage. The dog was wearing a tuxedo and the rings must have been tied to the outfit. Everyone laughed out loud at the sight. The ceremony was quick and to the point. When Jason had to stomp on a glass, he missed on his first and second try. Once again the seriousness of the occasion was broken and people laughed.

The reception was held in the Patrons Room which was once a planetarium in the buildings past. A green laser projected thousands of green points up onto the dome shaped ceiling. Every table in the room was labeled with a month of the year. The newlyweds sat at the January table at the front of the room. Adrienne approached me and said she was excited to finally be in one of my sketches. She was upset however that only her back was in the sketch. I decided I would have to sketch her during the reception to make it up to her. The moments of the celebration seemed to fee by as I sketched. Brian joked with me that this assignment was much harder than the sketch I did of the swan boat talks. He was absolutely right. Getting this sketch was a major challenge since the reception flew by at the breakneck pace of an MTV music video. As I worked, the caterer insisted I move to make room for an ice cream table. I said that wasn’t going to happens, he shoved the table up behind me. Jason’s mom, Janice, tackled the job of cutting the wedding cake. She joked with me that she hadn’t signed on for cake duty but she was a trooper and as the last slices were being handed out, I was finally wrapping up my sketch.

Thomas Thorspecken Sketches the Audience

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This staged performance, where I sketched an audience at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, would never have happened if friends I had met over the last year and a half of sketching had not stepped in to help. Aradhana Tiwari invited me to take over the theater for one night and Brian Feldman had the vision for this show close to a year ago. The staging consisted of me sitting in a lone spotlight facing the audience and doing what I do every day – sketch. One video camera shot the sketch I was working on and projected the image on the theater wall behind me, while another camera, operated by Brian, shot footage of the audience just as in a baseball or football game. This would be the first time my work process was ever projected bigger than life for an audience to scrutinize. At leastthree video cameras were recording the proceedings the whole time. This has to be the most documented event I have ever been a part of. The program gave the audience plenty to read and a blank page to sketch if they so liked.

73 of my sketches were hung around the theater clothesline style using fishing line, electrical tape and alligator clips. Ron and Maisy Marrs arrived early and worked tirelessly for over an hour and a half before curtain call. Tommy Wingo handled all the technical aspects of the two video cameras and all the wiring. Evan Miga lent us his digital projector and operated the video camera pointed at my sketch during the whole performance.

At first I envisioned music from “The Illusionist” soundtrack playing the whole time I sketched, but Aradhana and Brian both felt it had too dark and brooding a mood. We agreed to play some Bach performed by Yo-Yo Ma when people entered the theater and looked around at the art. The music was silenced and Brian Feldman walked out into the spotlight to offer an introduction. He mentioned how he and I met over a year ago at the Kerouac House for a performance of his called “txt.” Since that night I have documented over 25 of his performances. When the audience applauded, I walked on stage and took my seat. I couldn’t see a thing with the spotlight in my face, so I grabbed a baseball cap out of my backpack. I was a bit nervous to start and dropped a pen. I had difficulty seeing since the house lights were at half. I called out to the lighting booth, asking if she could raise the lights a bit. When I could see, the sketch started to progress. At first the room was silent, but soon people forgot about the cameras and artist recording the proceedings and the mood lightened. Ashley Gonzalez, Tommy Wingo’s fiance, walked right up on the stage and stood looking over my left shoulder. She whispered the one question I cannot stand into my ear, “Are you an artist?” I laughed and asked, “Did Terry put you up top this?” Clearly she had.

About one hour into the performance, just as I was about to finish up the pen line work, a large group of audience members decided to get up and move to the opposite side of the space so they could be in the sketch a second time. I shouted out “Anarchists!” I placed them the best I could in the new location. Then the watercolors came out and I started to work faster.

People talked and mingled. At times people joked with me and the artist and model exchange became playful. An artist named James Barone wore a kilt and sat in the front row with his wife who held an umbrella. He drew a robotic version of me sketching. Maisy drew all over her questionnaire. What was amazing about this audience as a whole was how much talent was gathered in one room. There were visual artists, authors, poets, dancers, comedians, directors and photographers all mingling in a shared creative experience. It turned out to be a fun way to meet new people while sharing my art. Life as theater, theater as life.

Shotgun

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Shotgun, written by John Biguenet, and directed by David Karl Lee, is without a doubt the best play I have seen this year. The play was in the intimate Goldman Theater inside the Lowndes Shakespeare Center as part of PlayFest! The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays. Dennis Neal, who plays Dexter, gave tickets to Mary Hill, his former wife, and I went along to do a sketch.The play takes place in New Orleans after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. Beau, a white middle class plumber, and his teenage son rent an apartment in a shotgun duplex from Mattie, an African American woman, and her father, Dexter. Dexter is a bit like a black version of Archie Bunker, not liking the idea of renting to white tenants. He is however under his daughters care so he has to toe the line.
The set for this show is fascinating to watch. When a scene switches from the porch to the apartment inside, the walls fold back creating the side walls of the interior room. The first time it happened, I let out an Ooooh, just like I was watching fireworks. This effect became a bit distracting however since the scenes kept switching form the porch to the interior. The most gut-wrenching scene comes about at the end of act one when Beau, played by Rus Blackwell, and Mattie, played by Chantel Jean-Pierre, are sitting at the kitchen table in his apartment sharing a bottle of liquor. Mattie asks him what happened to his wife and he tells the long painful tale of how she died days after the hurricane from injuries she sustained trying to get out of the house from a jagged hole he had cut in the roof using an ax. He sobs uncontrollably since it was his decision to stay in his home. Mattie consoles him. This scene had me in tears.
Love blossoms between Mattie and Beau and this causes racial tensions for both families. Beau’s son Eugene, played by Brandon Peters, suddenly lets out a racial slur when he sees Mattie come out of his dad’s bedroom. Willie blames his dad for his mom’s death and refuses to forgive him. In the end, the racial divide it too great and Beau moves back with his son to the devastated white suburban neighborhood where they start building their life again from scratch. Love does not always triumph.

War of the Worlds – Prop Table

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For Friday nights performance I immediately wandered back to the Green Room to contemplate what I should sketch next. I arrived a bit early and found the room filled with chattering and excited teenagers who were performing next door. Sophia was sitting among them. We both wondered where the War of the Worlds actors were going to change. We walked into the Goldwin Theater and Fletch was there to explain what was happening. It turned out the Young Actor Company had a performance in the theater next door at the same time as War of the Worlds. He found two other rooms for our actors to change in.
When Sophia disappeared Fletch told me about another major problem. Lightning had struck the Theater the night before and the stage lights had been blown out. Suddenly everyone as in a panic. In the final minutes before the show an electrician was called in to try and fix the problem. Fletch dreaded the thought of having to performing the play with just the house lights on.
While all this was going on Lesley Ann was working on the wardrobe placing actors props such as hats and shoes in the appropriate taped grid on the floor. Other props rested on a table with a similar grid. The stage manager gently opened the vintage lunch box and placed in an apple which Joshua would eat on the stage edge facing the audience in the first moments of the play.
Before the actors had finished changing into their wardrobes, the electrician walked past me up the stairs with a line of nervous stage hands and lighting technicians behind him. Five minutes later, an eternity for the directors, the electrician walked past me again down the steps saying, “Another tragedy averted.” He was the hero of the day. I spotted Aradhana at the bottom of the staircase I was sketching from and shouted “They fixed the lights! You have lights!” She shouted with glee.
The actors just before going on the stage would tap fists together and tap elbows for luck. Andy who played Orson Wells, flipped through a magazine. The pace of this show is very fast. Actors would often run to the table to grab something and then they dashed right back on the stage.
The small rag doll on the prop table was created by Tanja and her daughters. It is made from extra curtain material she had on hand and filled with cotton balls. The hair was made from curtain lining material that they soaked in tea.The doll has a quirky endearing quality. For Tanja it is now a family heirloom.
I went to Tastings Wine Bar to celebrate with the cast. They had much to celebrate since the night was a near disaster that turned into a glowing success. Tonight is the FINAL performance of War of the Worlds. It starts at 7 PM at the Shakespeare Theater in Lock Haven Park. I plan to dress is a fine suit to celebrate a great run with an amazing cast. The end is near.