The Red Chair Affair is held once a year in Orlando at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center, (401 W. Livingston St. Orlando), to introduce the upcoming theater season. It is a opulent crash course celebration of Central Florida’s arts and culture. John DiDonna directed this intricate evening showcasing an army of Orlando talent. The logistics of just getting everyone on and off stage on time and in order must have been mind boggling. Thankfully John allowed me to sketch a rehearsal, since I had another sketch outing planned for the night of the performance.
I entered the stage door and made my way through the back stage maze of dressing rooms to get to stage right. Crowds of actors, dancers, singers and acrobats were in the halls. John shouted my name and welcomed me. Both he and Jennifer Bonner advised me to sketch from out in the house, so I abandoned the notion of sketching from back stage. Besides stage lights were blinding. In the back rehearsal room, all the decorated IKEA Red Chairs were on table being inventoried for auction. Each arts organization decorated a chair.
YOW Dance was on stage going through a dance routine for staging. I turned my attention to the TV camera operators who were filming the rehearsal. The NuLook School of Performing Arts students performed a lively
and stylish Indian dance called “Redolare.” I caught one of the dancers sinuous lines. Comedic actors from the Orlando Shakespeare Theater performed a hilarious fast paced history of Shakespeare using a sports commentators pacing. I recognized actor Brandon Roberts who always makes me laugh. Since I’m no Shakespeare expert however, some of the analogies were way over my head. I heard that the Enzian Theater was going to screen “Notes on Biology” which we now screen every month in the Full Sail 2D Animation course to help inspire students.