SHIPTECHED!

by director Tom Quaintance

It's about 1:00am - I'm sitting in the Paul Green Theatre after we just wrapped up our weekend of "ten out of twelve" tech rehearsals.  We go from noon to midnight with a dinner break each night from 5:00-7:00. Long days.  A common term to describe this time is "tech hell" - but it is my favorite part of rehearsals.  An army of amazing designers, talented technicians and phenomenal artisans are putting together the complex technical elements of the show.  I can't speak to how well the show is directed, but it is designed beautifully.

This is a particularly exciting show to tech.  SHIPWRECKED is chokerblock full of theatrical challenges.  We tell a story that ranges across decades and continents, from England to the Coral Sea.  The show is a tight 90 minutes, but it feels like we packed the tech of a much longer show into the confines of this story.  I love the old school theatre storytelling done with technical virtuosity; the shadow puppets, the Foley artists upstage creating the ambient sound effects of the show, the actors creating a storm by flinging their bodies across the stage, the list goes on and on.

This play could be done with three actors, a chair and a box of paper clips... this is not that production.  Donald Margulies, in his afterword of the play, says of the story of Louis de Rougemont: "In it I saw the potential for a purely theatrical play about the power of the imagination."  This production revels in that idea of pure theatricality.  We demand much of both the imagination of the audience and our own imagination as artists.  There is no conceit here that we are only going to tell this story using things Louis could have brought with him from the 19th century, or from a single box we drag on stage.  We are celebrating our storytelling power as theatre artists - and tech is where we get to see it all come together.

I can't wait for previews to start.  We've thus far been rehearsing without one of our most important characters.  Finally, on Wednesday, the audience arrives.

The cast of Shipwrecked! in the rehearsal hall before tech

The cast of Shipwrecked! in the rehearsal hall before tech

Director Tom Quaintance and cast members Jimmy Kieffer, Derek Ledbetter, Scott Ripley and Dee Dee Batteast

Stage Manager Sarah Smiley with Foley artists Josh Tobin, Lauren Klingman and Kelsey Didion

Some of the Foley instruments used on stage to provide the show's sound effects

It's Tech - Part 2

Tonight I got see the dress rehearsal for Part I! Of course I'm supposed to be biased, but honestly - it was still the most fun I have had at the theatre in a long time. Previews for Part I start tonight. Production photos will be right here tomorrow, so be sure to come back and check them out. Today, however, we've got even more Tech! Because Tech is such a long journey, there are lots of photos, so here we go!

Dede Corvinus takes a turn as Mrs. Crummles.

While Tom and stage manager Chuck Bayang discuss logistics with Weston Blakesly, Matt Murphy and Alice Whitley practice a few steps.

How will Allison Altman descend from this high platform? David Adamson and Jimmy Kieffer to the rescue!

Joy Jones, Marianne Miller and Alice Whitley wait to resume rehearsal after a cue break. 

Justin Adams as Nicholas Nickleby

The grand entrance of the Infant Phenomenon

Wardrobe Supervisor Amy Fortenberry discusses quick changes with several actors backstage, during a break. Where they have to go to change; what they're changing into. If you've seen the chart, you know this is a complicated process.

The Crummles Company

This is the "tech" table. Stage Manager Sarah Smiley, along with designers run the show from here during rehearsals. 

Tom has a note for Joy Jones as Miss Snevellicci

Dreaming of Nickleby

A few days before Tech (Halloween to be exact), stage manager Sarah Smiley sent me a blog post describing how Nicholas Nickleby was affecting her dreams. I absolutely love it and have to share it with you below. One of the characters in this dream you've already met - Sarah's dog Tug. After attending only part of the third day of Tech on Sunday, I wonder what her dreams are like now. 

Check back in the coming days for more info about Tech, including photos, but now... onto Sarah's dreams...

Eight a.m. Five minutes, please. Have to get up and walk the dog. Five…minutes… please. No…have to get up and walk the dog. Five…Week four and I fall asleep in North Yorkshire and I’m waking up in London.  Where is that letter from Fanny to Ralph…isn’t it letter #8 or maybe #9 or #10? I thought I put it on the prop table… or maybe I mailed it? Or maybe, it’s in someone’s coat pocket…they can’t do this scene without the letter…Am I looking for Noggs’ copy of the letter, or the one Allison brings onstage or is it Ralph’s? He reads one, too. Ray needs a letter, too!! Which letter ends up in his coat pocket? Who presets his coat…I have to find his dresser…Ralph. Ralph Nickleby. I will learn that name by heart. Ralph’s office is cold as fresh coal…Ralph’s office is the angular platform, it moves up and downstage with the effortless push of a button. Who is pushing the button? Stand by Button Pusher…Button Pusher…GO! Button Pusher, I hear a noise...it’s not the platform making that noise, is it? Do we need to stop?  I form an “h” with my mouth, intending to finish the familiar stage manager’s refrain I’ve begun, “Hold…please!” No sound moves my tongue but I hear the whisper of a biting wind. I hear the falling snow and see a young, lost lad with a spoon. I listen harder, wonder where I am and keep looking at the boy, trying to pick up my cue…is it coming from backstage? No, it sounds like the melodic honking of geese making their way south, flying over Devon? Geese in Devon? Why am I in Devon…how did I get to Devon? No…it sounds like…like…Line? “I’ve never done...” “I’ve never done anything like this before!”  I shout from the top of my lungs, standing center stage and staring out at the house…it’s empty…all around, it’s empty. I must be having one of those anxiety dreams...I’m not an actor, I think, I think to myself in the dream-theatre. But backstage, and I can hear it clearly, I hear a humming, many voices becoming one…one story, two parts, two directors, two rooms and one cast. All in London, damn ‘em.  Eight o’nine a.m.  and the geese are humming…wait a minute, geese don’t hum, they honk…as I begin to walk toward upstage center, trying to find the prop I misplaced, the humming begins to sound like a truck backing up but I know there are no trucks in Victorian London. What about geese? I turn towards stage right and I reach out to pick up a piece of paper that I think is the missing letter! I still have time to finish the preset…rehearsal doesn’t start until one o’clock! Who calls? Who calls so loud??? Instead, my hand slaps the alarm clock and then I’m staring with blurry eyes at the ceiling.  It was a dream. I have to get up and walk the dog. It’s week four and it’s time to get up and go to the theatre. I have to prepare for rehearsal.

I shake the ague from my consciousness and try to focus on the sunlight that slices though my window. It reminds me of the afternoon sun in the rehearsal hall, the way it warms the floor and creeps from here to there as we move through the day. I’ve been dreaming about what I do. Sometimes, I am afforded an epiphany about the process. But, as my dream-self remarked, I’ve never done anything like this before. 25 years in theatre and never have I been so awed and humbled by a process or the people who are making it happen. There are many props to preset and much paperwork to update and meetings to attend and people to talk to and furniture to move and there is coffee to make. Lots of coffee. 25 actors drink a lot of coffee. I need a cup of coffee…I roll out of bed and dress, call the dog and we go outside and take in the morning breeze. It’s October, and the geese are flying south for the winter.

–Sarah Smiley, Stage Manager

Just for Fun Friday

It's a quiet Friday morning, so I thought I would post some "just for fun" pictures from around the building. An abbreviated tour, if you will...

First up... co-director Tom Quaintance in the wee hours, three weeks into rehearsal. This was taken from a Skype conversation he was having with friends back home. Tom actually sent this to me; I did not invade his privacy for the sake of the blog! (This time.)

Here is the first thing I see everyday - the "yellow brick road" - a path through backstage that is painted yellow. It helps guest artists find their way around this maze of a building. 

This is what the Nickleby set looks like so far, from backstage. Very little work goes on in the morning because most of the crew is either teaching or attending classes.

This is the stairwell that leads from the dressing rooms down to the stage. This season, some of the bigger sports fans in the building hung this inspirational sign a la football field houses. 

The hallway leading to my office... On the other side of this wall lies the costume shop and here are some examples of projects that are routinely displayed. These particular dresses are from the "Period Pattern" projects by several costume graduate students. 

Just around the corner, is our rehearsal hall. Stage manager Sarah Smiley preps for today's rehearsal. 

Stage Manager Chuck Bayang tries to keep it light.

A rare moment (and only a moment) of down-time for the Stage Mangers as they prepare for today's rehearsal.  I think Chuck and Sarah are the two busiest people in this building. It's their job to corral 2 rehearsal rooms, 2 directors, and 25 actors while trying to schedule rehearsals around costume fittings,  PR events, classes, production meetings, union rules, the flu, and dozens of other obstacles.  Then of course, they have to manage rehearsals! They are often the first ones in the building and always the last ones to leave. I am in awe of these two and the fact that they can still stand up.

And last but not least - Tug! This is Sarah Smiley's bulldog. He has become an important member of the PlayMakers family over the last 3 years and can often be seen carefully watching over rehearsals. His office is directly across the hall from mine and "Tug days" are always good days here. He even has his own couch in the rehearsal hall!

First Rehearsal - The Joys of a Read-Through

We rarely take photos of first rehearsal, but when it comes to the biggest show in our history, exceptions have to be made. The first rehearsal is typically  a read-through, as you'll see here. 

This is our rehearsal hall, which is large enough to tape out the actual specs of the stage. With a set as amazing as McKay Coble's, the taping process includes a complicated color-coded system of tape, indicating everything from stairs to moving platforms. 

Co-directors Tom Quaintance and Joseph Haj confer during rehearsal 

(also company member Kenneth P. Strong and playwright David Edgar)

Playwright David Edgar joined the company for the first week of rehearsals

(also pictured stage manager Sarah Smiley)

Long-time company members Ray Dooley, Dede Corvinus and David Adamson

Associate DDA Chair and company member Jeffrey Blair Cornell, acting graduate student Joy Jones, and undergraduates Sarah Berk and Jeb Brinkley, and Allison Altman (recent graduate from UNC and the Department of Dramatic Art.)

Guest actor Justin Adams (Nicholas) prepares for the read-through

While the company was doing table work, everyone gathered in our rehearsal hall, however that phase was completed on Saturday and now they've divided into two spaces in order to double the rehearsal time. More pictures will be coming soon!