Here Zac Alfson works his magic in the sound booth. He has his hands full as he often has to fade in the soothing sounds of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra. He of course also had to balance the sounds from the radio broadcast being conducted on the stage while also adding haunting sound effects where needed. Since all the sound cues are not set in stone at this point, Aradhana signals him on when to come in from where she is seated in the theater by turning and raising her hand.
Some complicated staging had to be worked out and Aradhana struggled to communicate to her Public actors while the Mercury Theater performers were rehearsing on stage. Since she couldn’t hear herself think, she asked all of her actors to crowd into the sound booth hoping to muffle the on stage performance. This plan was foiled since the performance was amplified with speakers in the sound booth and the speakers could not be turned off. She ultimately held her acting huddle in the hallway outside the theater.
While doing this sketch I couldn’t really see the colors as I put them on the page since it was so dark in the booth. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the sketch when I got home. I should paint in the dark more often.
During a break I was talking to Erika about how exciting all the rehearsals were to sketch and she said “This is enough isn’t it?” She meant that staging the play was one thing, but also there is enough drama right here and now, that every day is drama enough.
War of the Worlds – The Radio Broadcast
In this sketch the Mercury Theater performers, Brandon Roberts, Frank McClain, and Alan James Gallant prepare for another read through of the War of the Wolds Radio broadcast. Chantry Banks sits in the background listening to the old radio and reading a newspaper.
An amazing amount of work went into blocking the public’s performances during this rehearsal. I am discovering new ways of working and have found that I can block in a sketch when the performers repeat the stagings again and again. This will help with future sketches, allowing me to take greater chances.
After rehearsals the cast went to Tastings Wine Bar for a “Coming out Party”. The directors graciously invited me along and rather that sketch I took the time to learn more about some of the actors life stories. I learned about the struggles and sacrifices made to stay true to the calling as an actor or artist. I drank a bit more than I usually do and felt closer to the crew than ever. Mark from “The Dialy City” stopped by and I caught up with him. I had a long talk with Aradhana and tried to find some small nugget of drama in my humble sketch obsessed story. To find drama in what I do each day, I realized I might have to discuss my own character flaws and how they impact others.
After Tastings some of the cast went to see “Snack” at the Rep Theater. Driving over was a fun drama on its own. I laughed like I was back in High School. For once my guard was down and I just relaxed and had fun. Snack is a hilarious comedy and runs through July 26nd and is part of the Target Family Theater Festival. So you have several more days to go out and see this show. It was hilarious. I especially loved watching the children in the audience as they reacted. They know how to express pure joy.
War of the Worlds – Read Through
In this rehearsal the cast is checking their lines and sometimes trading lines if the dialogue seems to fit another characters personal world view better. Aradhana and Fetch work with the actors to get these details finalized or gelled. Although this wasn’t one of the longer rehearsals, it was very productive. This new stage area in the Goldman Theater is a bit tighter that the first stage the actors had used so adjustments often had to be made to be sure that the actors had room to move.
During this rehearsal as the Mercury Theater announcer is relating the horrific event as they unfolded at Grovers Mill, a thunderstorm erupted outside. The rain could be heard pounding down on the flat metal roof. Reality and fiction began to mix and compliment each other. Loud claps of thunder accentuated the scene as the martians came out of the metal cylinder and began to spray the unsupecting crowd with a fiery heat wave. Erika Wilhite suddenly remembered that she had left the roof off of her convertible and she apologized as she sprinted for the door. It was time for a 5 minute break, Thank you five.
War of the Worlds – Mercury Theater
Advice for reading this blogcast, Open an new internet browser window while keeping this one open. Navagate to Analog Artist Digital World in the new Browser window. Then click on this link for the audio background music. Then return to this page with the audio still playing and read the copy. When you are done reading explore the Mercury Theater Radio Performance link below and keep the audio soundtrack playing in the background. This involves some complicated internet staging but it should be worth it.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. From the Meridian Room in the Park Plaza in New York City, we bring you the music of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra. With a touch of the Spanish. Ramón Raquello leads off with “La Cumparsita.”
In this early rehearsal I finally got to see how the Mercury Theater Radio performance would work with the actors I had been sketching all along called “The Public”. I focused on the radio announcers who I hadn’t observed before and although the public was active the whole time with it’s nervous energy I didn’t focus on them as much except in this one instance in which I sketched actress Tanja Mobley Pektas as she crawled in and collapsed during the reading. Here Frank McClain reads while Alan James Gallant prepares to speak. Up until this point the Mercury theater actors and the public actors had been working in separate rehearsals. Director Joseph Fletcher had been directing the Mercury Theater actors and Aradhana Tiwari had been directing the public. Here the two groups came together for the first time and any changes in the blocking of movements on the stage were made. As Aradhana walked past me during this rehearsal she whispered to herself with excitement “This is starting to feel like the show”.
War of the Worlds – The Public Panics
As I set these notes on paper, I am obsessed with the thought that I might be the only artist to ever have witnessed this amazing journey as simple words on a page are converted into a mysterious and dynamic drama. Toward the end of a rehearsal Aradhana asked the actors who play the parts of “the Public” to all sit in a circle so they could read lines from a book of interviews of people who had lived through the panic caused by the Orson Wells radio broadcast. Everyone insisted I join in this reading circle so I did. Each actor in turn would read a line or paragraph from the interviews and revised excerpts from the readings were incorporated into act 2 of the show. It is surprising what people think of when they assume the end is inevitable. A policeman has to calm callers on one hand while wishing he could escape. A young woman wishes she had lived long enough to have a baby. An impoverished woman is glad she doesn’t have to pay the butchers bill and thinks to herself she might as well eat the chicken in the freezer. Some people heard about the broadcast from friends and tuned in as the worst of the Grover’s Mill invasion took place. For some it was just important to be with family and friends and accept their fate and trust in God. Sitting in this circle and adding my own voice to the confessions and lost hopes was sobering and magical.
In this sketch the actors are highlighting lines that they will later be asked to recite in the final play. When I saw the second act with these lines added the result is haunting and unexpected. This scene is lit with a ghost lamp. The tradition of the ghost lamp is that in Shakespeare’s times the lamp was used to scare ghosts away from the performance. The ghost lamp is left burning in the middle of the stage all night. This superstition continues to this day.
War of the Worlds – Viewpoints
I have to interrupt this sketch crawl to bring you more news from the rehearsal hall of War of the Worlds. I will bring you an eyewitness account of what is happening. I will continue relating events as they unfold for as long as I can talk and as long as I can see. In many ways what is happening is indescribable, it is the most extraordinary experience, I can not find the words…
This second rehearsal built from the first using exercises called Viewpoints. The actors move on an imaginary grid exploring extremes of tempo and pacing to start. They then began exploring kinesthetic responses, namely why are they moving and are they responding to another actors movements. At times they were asked to repeat another actors movements. They were asked to become aware of the space around them and to be mindful of how they fill the space. Layered on top of this they were permitted to explore behavioral and expressive gestures. Lastly each actor was given a line from a poem which they could recite in order to further express themselves.
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Have you heard.”
“This is it.”
“Are you sure?”
“This IS happening.”
As the actors explored their movements on the grid, Aradhana would shout out questions which would further affect the performances.
“Does someone elses panic affect your own?”
“How does panic build?”
“Are you more afraid?”
“Explore the way out of your panic.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“Your words are what you hold onto when you are most afraid, they are all you have left.”
The panic although expressed in an abstract fashion with limited dialogue was palpable, overwhelming and exhausting. I vastly admire what the actors were able to emote using just body language tempo of movement and limited expressive dialogue. These exercises inspired new thoughts in the directors and allowed the show to develop with every actor contributing to the final gelled look of the show. As the youngest actress, Sophia Wise, stated so eloquently, “War of the Worlds is a delicate balance between the abstract and reality.”
War of the Worlds
We interrupt this blogcast to bring you news of an unexpected nature developing in Orlando! “The War of the Worlds” is about to hit this town like a firestorm and I fear that local residents might not be ready for the invasion.
Aradhana Tiwari, one of the Directors, of this intense and panicked staging gave this reporter the opportunity to observe the chaos and heated action first hand as it developed. I sketched as this group of individual actors became a unified group. Aradhana played the infamous Orson Wells radio broadcast and asked the actors to draw any images or write down words or thoughts that the broadcast evoked.
The radio broadcast is chilling to this day. It’s visceral first act panic brought back feelings that have been dormant since the Terrorist attacks of 9/11. One actor felt he would have never fallen for the hoax, but others like myself felt that the American public would easily be swayed even today. The radio broadcast has causes outbreaks of hysteria in other countries as well over the years.
To help bring the cast together as an ensemble, Aradhana asked Associate Producer, Erika Wilhite to lead the group in an exercise called View Points .
Aradhana explained to the cast how this production would be built around the abstract imagery of radio waves. Radio waves can be pulled apart and put back together and yet at the core they have a central DNA like signature. In a related exercise, the actors were divided into two groups and each group was shown a different radio wave. The groups were then asked to stage performances that demonstrated the imagery. One performance was built around two chairs. On actor would sit stare out into space and say “It looks like lightning”. Another actor would respond “Its not lightning”. This back and forth exchange continued and built its tempo and pace becoming frantic over time. Two other actors then joined in the frenzied action talking over others and moving in fast clipped fashion about the stage. The radio wave they had enacted was a multi layered waveform with many high and low peaks and valleys.
The other group entered stage left hunched forward emitting a shrill Eeeee noise as they slowly moved across the stage. The shrill noise grew louder as the group picked up its pace until the exited stage right at a full run screaming. They had demonstrated a linear wave form which built steadily in volume. Every aspect of the rehearsal was fascinating to watch and draw, I plan to return as often as possible to follow the shows progression.
United Arts Board Meeting
Yesterday the United Arts Board of Trustees voted to decide if United Arts would help in an attempt to keep Opera alive in Orlando. The Orlando Opera company filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 24th, and the Orlando Philharmonic has offered to help produce limited staged productions where opera singers could perform before the Philharmonic. This endeavor would cost an additional $200,000 and United Arts is offering to help. Over a thousand people had subscribed for Opera season tickets and they were shocked that they could not get their money back when the Opera went bankrupt. Of the $200,000, being invested by United Arts, $50,000 will be used for vouchers to allow the subscribers to attend the Enzian Theater’s “Opera on Film Series”, and OPO’s semi-staged concert Operas.
I had heard that this meeting might get heated since some board members feel that United Arts should only support existing organizations and since the Opera is bankrupt it no longer exists. It was pointed out that all arts organizations are struggling in the present financial climate and the money might be better put to use if it helped keep existing organizations afloat.
The board meeting was actually quite civil. Both sides stated their causes and then a vote was taken by a raise of hands. In the midst of the heated discussion, trumpeting Elephant calls could be heard emanating from the next room in the Shakespeare Theater. This rather surreal moment tended to lighten the mood among the board members. In a final plea, Mark Hagel summed up all the arguments with a simple question, “Do we want Opera in Orlando?” The votes tallied were 20 votes for helping produce limited stage Opera productions, and 3 votes against. With this vote an executive committee will further look into the particulars of the plan and by August 15th the plan will either be a go or no-go. Orlando was once able to boast that it was the only city in Florida with the “big 3” professional companies for Opera, Ballet and a Symphony. Today a crippled Opera continues to tread water.
Shakespeare Theater
Memorial Day marked the end of the Orlando Fringe Theater Festival. On this final day all the Visual Fringe artists were asked to pick up their work. As Terry and I drove to the Shakespeare Theater it once again began to rain. Driving through downtown on the 408 the rain became a torrential downpour. When we walked into the Visual Fringe room all the art was on the floor leaning up against the walls. I had to sign a form stating that I had picked up my work and then Anna helped me find my sketch. Everyone must have been up late partying because they looked exhausted. Anna gave me one last hug and then the rain let up as Terry and I exited the theater on our way out to the parking lot. Terry and I climbed into the truck and headed home. As we exited the parking lot, the sun burst through the clouds and an immense rainbow stretched from horizon to horizon. The Fringe was officially over.
The Worm
I spent most of Saturday at the Fringe. It was hot, muggy and sunny when I arrived. I immediately went into the Shakespeare Theater to soak in the air conditioning. I found a comfortable leather chair and relaxed.
This sculpture by Doug Rhodehamel is made entirely from cassette audio tape. In an effort to keep patrons from stepping on or touching the sculpture, Doug placed a sign on the floor that stated that performance artist Brian Feldman may or may not be inside. The worm looks like it has taken and interest in the program that a Fringe patron is reading.
Kristina Goetz, the Director of Development, arrived and sat down in the leather chair next to me. We talked for a while. She said that in preparation for the Fringe she has to make sure all her bills are paid, that her laundry is done and that anything perishable is out of the fridge. She does all that because she basically lives at the Fringe for its duration. She explained that the rain has hurt revenues but now that the sun is out, people who must have cabin fever after a solid week of rain, are coming out in force.
Since I missed Flamenco con Fusion last night I decided to catch the 11:20PM show tonight. I got a ticket
and ran over to the theater just before to get in. It turns out I arrived and hour early. For whatever reason I have been constantly confused trying to get into con Fusion. In the lobby outside the show the guitarist and one of the dancers were taking pictures. I got to shake his hand and I explained that I had heard quite a bit of buzz about his guitar playing
and the show which was wonderful. From the moment the guitarist sat in the glow of a single spot light on a bare stage, I was entranced. The dancing consisted of a duel between a traditional Flamenco dancer and a Break dancer. After the high energy performance the audience stood, screamed and yelled.