Much Ado About Nothing: it's looking like a show!

A lot of things were accomplished this past week with the show, and it's starting to look like one now. People are either off book or close to being so. I'm getting costumes finalized with the director. Everyone is delving into their characters and having fun (at least they are when it's not 90+ degrees during an outside rehearsal).

Monday was hard core scene work with one of my scenes (1:3).  It was the first time Angie had Kevin and I work it since Matt came in for the Shakespeare workshop. She had us go through it once, then asked us questions and gave us things to think about. We then broke the scene down and went through it again.  After that, she broke it down even further, and we went line by line to find the emphasis, juicy words, inflection, meaning, etc. It was great - I love digging into a text like that and really understanding it.  I feel that it's important too, especially for Shakespeare. So Kevin and I worked out that scene. Then I worked a bit with Gavin on 3:3. At this point, I feel that the latter is the weaker one of the two.  Kevin is easy to play with and try new things.  It's different with Gavin.  I don't want to arrive at a "rehearsed" feeling, but I'm not sure how to keep playing when my partner does the same thing almost every time.  At least it's making me think about my own acting, and how I can be a good scene partner to others. Oh - and it was extremely buggy outside on Monday.

Wednesday was a later call time, and the cast worked through 2:1.  It's the masked ball scene.  Choreography had already been started, so we reviewed and taught the people who hadn't been there the first time. We then worked it from the top of the scene up until where we had stopped the dance.  Angie is pleased with how that's looking, so it's encouraging.  Note to self: whatever costumes the cast is wearing during that scene need to be moveable and comfortable.

Saturday was our longest day yet. Since we're performing our show outside, we had to build the stage.  Fourth Room Theatre still had their platforms from last year, but we needed to raise them to specific heights: 16", 12", and 8". We met a little after 9a and brought everything out of the barn, then spent 1.5 hours screwing the legs on and positioning the platforms for the show. It's going to be really neat.  I had an idea of angling a couple of the platforms, so they weren't flush edge-on-edge, and Angie really liked the look.  We had a bit of a break and then were back for rehearsal at 12:30.  Fawn worked through the remaining choreography for the dance, then taught Kevin and I a bit for our scene together. It really adds to our characters and their relationship. Once Fawn was done with the choreography, we ran the show from the top and got through almost the whole thing. Energy was down because of the work morning, high humidity, and bugs. So the plus side is that we stumbled through.  Negative side is that it wasn't pretty.  But I feel that's normal for the first time in the space.  And we still have almost 3 weeks till we open. Angie isn't worried from what I can tell.

Today Angie and I met at the Coralville Center for Performing Arts to look through City Circle's costumes. We've gotten a lot figured out already with the items she pulled from Iowa City Community Theatre. We went in looking for some specific clothing pieces and accessories and found some ties, gloves, hats, a couple outfits, and shirts.  So our collection is growing! It's fun to see everything coming together.  I really do love costumes.  And vintage pieces make me really happy.

Oh - forgot to say that we've been hanging posters around the area.  I took some to North Liberty, and I hope they pique peoples' interests. It's hard, though.  I've been brain-storming different marketing and PR things for the show, just because I want people to know we're doing this.  I mean, it's not a matter of ticket sales and making the show worth our while.  We're doing this for free for the community.  We want people to come and have an enjoyable evening. That's why I want so many people to know about this. In working with so many community theatres over the years, I've noticed a lack of good marketing and PR.  Maybe I should think about a minor...

Anyway! That's all folks! Until next time,
~ Noel

Blind Sculpture & Oracle Theatre

Last week I was able to travel to Chicago and work with Mary Swander on the music for a new play: The Blind Sculpture Project, which focuses on the way blindness affects and is perceived by our culture. I was working in the basement at Oracle Theatre while Matt Foss was helping facilitate another play by Mary, called Map of my Kingdom, on the main floor. For three of the days, I wrote music in the basement, taking breaks occasionally to run errands to buy props. It was actually a really incredible opportunity to pick up props and materials from around Chicago. I really imagine Chicago as a prospective city to live and work, and running those errands gave me a much more holistic idea of how the city is organized. By the end of last week, I was much more capable of navigating the intersecting streets. The last few days, however, I was given a break from composing in order to help Jason Fassl, lighting designer for The Jungle, hang lights and focus. This week, I must finalize some of my music drafts to send to Mary, as well as make a recording of The Blind Sculpture Project being read aloud in order to better understand how music fits into the play. Exciting traveling and exciting composing! I am looking forward to see how this project develops. 

My Last Week

     This week hasn't been the greatest. I have two girls that have been causing me a lot of grief and don't exactly understand the rules or how to follow them. They are definitely keeping me on my toes to say the least. Other than that, classes have started for the program "Acting for the Stage" which consists of each kid having to do a monologue at orientation so the professors could get a good understanding of where the kids were at skill-wise. One of the teachers for this week is a former Broadway performer and is helping the kids work on their stage work and presence. I look forward to seeing what they have in store for the kids!

Much Ado About Nothing: a fun week

This week has been a whirl-wind of activity for "Much Ado About Nothing". On Monday we worked the opening sequence with a bit of blocking then went into a stumble through of what we're calling Part 1 (Top of the show thru 3:2).  It went better than expected, and Angie was really happy with it.  We were supposed to be off book on Monday, but a few people still need their scripts in rehearsals. It's a bit frustrating, but also understandable. We aren't getting paid for this and many people have families, jobs, other shows, etc. We're still 4 weeks out from the show, so in all, it's looking good.

Angie brought in Matt Weedman (a friend and voice coach/professor) on Wednesday night to talk with us, help us warm up, and give suggestions/tips.  It was wonderful.  He warmed us up vocally and physically first off, then talked about things to do to keep our voices in shape. Hydration, steam, rest, exercise, and avoiding overuse are all important.

We jumped into the text with one of my scenes first off (1:3), and Matt worked with Kevin (Don John), Gavin (Borachio), and me (Conrade). Everything he said reminded me a lot of Matt Foss. I remember him helping me pick an audition monologue for this show, and Foss talking about tasting the words. Matt Weedman didn't use that exact phrasing, but he talked about the words being important. It's so easy to just say a line because that's what supposed to come next. But there needs to be a discovery of that action/thought at the same time. In working with Matt, I realized that I often rush through the text. He encouraged me to slow down and think. Let the ideas come to mind. We also talked about breathing with the whole body - not just the chest or diaphragm. I jotted down notes over the next day and here is a bit of what I wrote to myself:
- Don't be afraid to mess up. Going back to what I wrote about a week ago, I'm was having issues with reverting back to my old habits with acting.  Finding something that worked, then sticking with that instead of exploring and trying new ideas and tactics. That's more following a formula instead of experiencing the moment.  And I want to experience and react to the present situation.
- Remember the sexy verbs and tactics from Brad Dell's Script Analysis class. Use them. Play with them. Try crazy stuff.  There is still 4 weeks of rehearsal.
- Slow down! See the tactic work or not, then retry or move on. Juggle the balls. Let things fall. Time is your friend. Savor the words.
- Enunciate and project, especially since this will be performed outside with all the distractions. If the audience cannot hear the words, then there's no point of them being there.
- Recognize the different thoughts in the text. Don't just say the words. How do the tactics change?
- HAVE FUN!!! Play play play! Stop being so serious and stop trying to do everything right. You're not  perfect, cause nobody is. Loosen up and live in the moment.  As Foss always said "Don't be correct; be excellent." Be adventurous.

Thursday was our first big choreography night.  No, we're not making "Much Ado" into a musical! But there is a party scene in 2:1.  We've set the show in 1960, so there's some great dancing going on as well as some wonderful songs from that year. Fawn Boston-Halter came in and taught us a sort of group party dance. Angie got a video, so I'm sure it'll be up on youtube at some point or a part of a promotional video. I've worked with Fawn before in "Urinetown", and I was more familiar with her style, so it wasn't too hard to catch on.  She's a fast teacher, but she's also very thorough and gives direction easily.

This morning we had a photo shoot for the show.  Angie and I figured out some of the costumes last week, then on Thursday night. We wanted a very early 60's look, and I think we did well. A few of us got to the space at 8am to start on hair and make-up.  Others arrived a bit after, and we started the shoot about 10am. The location was incredible, and we all had a lot of fun. From the excitement of the director, I can assume the pictures turned out really great.

All in all, a good week of rehearsals and stuff getting done.  I'm glad that I realized last week that I was reverting back to old acting habits. That realization coupled with the workshop night with Weedman really helped to encourage me to explore. I'm excited to see what this next week will bring. Until then!
~ Noel

Chops update with pics!

hello all!
I finally took some pics for you.
since I have been working with the kids camp there really isn't much work going on in the shop except for some painting in whatever free time I can find, so this post will mostly be a picture show of what we have been working on.

this is the "Wave unit" someone stands in the middle, and someone else stands on the raised platform and "Rides" the other person like a surfboard.

These are the picture frames that caused so many issues.

these are the headers that go on top of the bedroom walls-they slide up or down and add 9 inches to the wall height-they slide down so they will fit in a truck. 

and these are the bedroom wall units- the one without the hole in it is also faced on the back side-it turns around and is the doctors office. the huge hole in the first one is where Stanley rolls through and changes into the "flat" costume at the beginning.

This is the window unit that goes between the bedrooms. on the backside is the kitchen window.

I know I've mentioned these things in one of my posts- that is the stand for one of the surfboards that caused so much annoyance.

there are quite a few more small things but they are unimportant at the moment.

I hope you're having a fantastic summer!

Justin (Chops) Voga

Week 2 & 3

     The past two weeks have been incredible. My second week group was Voice Acting and they had the opportunity to get taught by 3 big names at Disney Animation Studios. Throughout the week, they worked hard to prepare sides and then got to showcase their different characters at OpenAudio sound studios in front of their teachers. That Thursday, the kids, as well as their mentors (I included), got to tour Disney Animation and meet several different creators of shows, designers, musical composers, and even voices. Some of my personal favorites to meet were the creators of "Kim Possible" and a voice and creator of "Phineas and Ferb."I loved getting to watch the excitement the kids had as they got to experience such a cool place, while also getting the chance to voice over characters for new shows coming up on Disney. I even got a small part and got to experience voice acting! Definitely not as easy as I had imagined and I now have a new appreciation for the work they do. We also got to see the process of how music is composed and how it corresponds to the show.
     It wasn't just the fact that we were there that was so cool, but how they decorate the entire building to correlate with their latest movie coming out. At the current moment, it was "Planes: Fire and Rescue" and the entire office area was decorated in "Planes" decor including a camping area and huge trees. I think the kids really enjoyed being able to visit and do work for Disney because so many people will never get the chance. That has by far been my favorite experience of this entire camp.
     This past week, I got a new group of kids, the Sitcom Actors. Their task for last week and this week is to become familiar with the techniques and process of working on sitcoms. This includes table reads, auditioning, and filming. I will be a Personal Assistant for the rest of the week in the class as they set up for the shows the Screenwriting group has produced. Today, I got to read all the characters on the script that weren't being auditioned for my kids. It was a great chance to be able to hang with my kids, as well as see just how talented they can be inside the classroom.
     In the next few days, the students will be given their roles, as well as have another table read as their character in front of both the screenwriters and the administration. Then, they will have rehearsals before they film the sitcoms and present them to fellow campers and family. Having been a mentor for this group is really making me realize how much I love sitcom acting and all that it entails. One of the teachers, Carrie, is a professional actor that I have gotten several opportunities to talk with on how to pursue a career in this focus.

Guest speakers that came the past couple weeks have included 2 of the two teachers from Voice Acting, Jesse Wilson, an actor/professor, and this week is a make-up artist, so there is a lot of variety that hits all different aspects and interests of the camp.

For our weekly trip, we got to hit Santa Monica pier and let the kids roam for a few hours. I, of course, hit the beach with a couple of mentors. It was just nice to get off the campus for awhile and relax. A couple more days ahead until the weekend! Wooohooo!!

Summer's Flying By

                 It's been a crazy last few weeks here at the Playhouse full of Hogwarts' Professors, TV stars, detectives, spies, and a play in four days. The character weeks were my particular favorites, I got to dress up as Harriet the Spy one week and I also got to pose as Grubbly-Planks. That one was particularly interesting considering I had never read any of the books or seen any of the movies when the summer began. Fortunately for me my fellow interns hosted a movie night for me to watch the first two Harry Potter movies since the camp covers the first three. During the camp the children all come and the Playhouse is Hogwarts and the children are the young witch and wizard students. The Harry Potter books are referred to as history books and the children take a variety of classes with the teachers such as care of magical creatures and potions. It's a lot of fun especially for the teachers because we have Lupin turn into a werewolf by the end of the weak and attack the children.
                    When I wasn't saving children at the Playhouse from a werewolf I was directing scenes for a four day play as well as filming commercials and TV shows. It was a lot of fun to do film with the children because it left a lot of free time for them to play games so me and the other intern Jenna were extremely busy that week teaching more games then we have ever taught a single class. My favorite part of the Daytime TV camp though was getting to see the excitement the children had when creating their show segments. They each got to do exactly what they wanted and write the scripts themselves, it ended up being extremely humorous. The play in four days was also demanding but that was because I was busy trying to cram something that would normally take at least four weeks into one. I was running around making props, pressuring kids to memorize lines by Wednesday and blocking scenes as well as cramming in backstage etiquette classes with the little time we had. The kids pulled it off though and their skills as performers have grown tremendously because of it. They are ahead of most of their peers when it comes to putting on a play and all the skills and dedication that go into it.
                  Despite the fun I had watching all the triumphs  these children had through their performance camps, my favorite camp was most certainly getting to play Harriet the Spy for a week. The Mystery week is my favorite because all the teachers are in character but also we have the children solve a real mystery. We coordinate it so the current shows lead goes missing and then she shows up at the end of the week because the children found her and saved her. It's so much fun and some of the children truly think it is real. I had the special treat of getting to take the kids on a playhouse tour which was actually a secret clue hunt so we crawled and somersaulted around the playhouse trying to avoid being seen. The children ate it up and kept asking to do it again throughout the entire week referring to it as "Mission Impossible".
                  Overall it has been an exciting fun-filled summer that has taught me I most certainly do not want to be a teacher.

Much Ado About Nothing: a halting continuation

Rehearsals have been few and far between for Much Ado on my end as of late, which is why I haven't written sooner. I literally didn't have a rehearsal for over a week. But things are still going smoothly and the play is coming together. However, the flooding in Iowa City has not helped! A week ago Wednesday, rehearsal was cancelled because our director and a cast member were trying to get water out of their basement.  So it's been something of a wild ride, but I think we're finally pulling everything back together.

We've been working on some staging the last two rehearsals I've been to.  Angie isn't really giving us directions like "move downstage left", but she is guiding our movements. It's hard to actually stage this until we are in the space. No one really knows exactly what it's going to be like. The production will be done outside in the back yard of a house on Melrose St. One of the doctors at the University hospital has kindly allowed us to use his home and yard.  I think it will be a really neat venue. From what we've discussed, the set will be extremely simple.  Platforms will give actors elevation as well as places to sit.  The audience will be seated in the grass, facing the back of the house.

In rehearsal, Angie has given some really good ideas and direction with the characters and scenes.  She called me out on driving my energy into the ground with some hand movements, then encouraged me to try different things with the scene. She's also constantly asking what is going on in the scene. We're coming up with back stories that the audience won't really get in the end, but it helps with character development.

I'm been a little frustrated with myself lately. It's been too easy to revert back to some old habits in acting. Maybe I'm trying to analyze my character more often than discovering her.  I haven't been playing as much with "is this working or not" as I should be. I guess that's one problem with working up a back story is that I have something of a mold that I have to fit in now.  At the same time, that doesn't mean I can't explore within the realm and boundaries of my character. Letting go and loosening up - it's so hard to do!

Today I'm meeting up with Angie and Rachel (another one of the theatre members) to go over costumes.  We're setting the show in 1960, so I've been researching late 50's to 1960 fashion and regular clothing. I'll also be getting measurements from as much of the cast as I can today at rehearsal. Today is a big day, but it should be really good.

Until next time,
~ Noel

chops update 7

so it's been a boring week-
Thursday and Friday of last week I sat back stage for the show that just got off tour- Stuart Little- moved a trashcan off stage, pushed on the "toy car" and walked a dress to the other side of the stage. we did four shows. (I was filling in for a chick who stayed home sick for a few days)

this week was the start of the kids camp- so I'm only working afternoons
Monday we met the 4 kids-then went back to normal work - I finished building a small platform type thing then put some stands on some surf boards that are supposed to look like they are stuck in the sand- we had some issues though because they wanted them standing straight up but they wanted the stands to be small-so they'd stand up till you just barely taped them- after trying 3 different ideas I finally came up with my own idea that actually worked-attach the hinges that hold the stand on sits about half an inch from the bottom of the board so the boards sit back at a slight angle.
Tuesday we started painting everything- I just lined all of the edges where we couldn't get with a roller, or needed a clean line (we ran out of tape)
Wednesday was more painting- then we helped the kids camp build small flats-both Broadway and Hollywood-
Thursday we finished the majority of the base painting and sat through a lecture about using Q labs video software.
Friday we were with the kids all day helping them pick costumes and props for their show next week. then we did some Q-labs work with their own pics- then we watched a run through.

sometime next if I remember to take my camera I will post some pics of the set thus far.


have a wonderful weekend!

Justin (Chops) Voga

Last one!

 Yay! So, we made it through tech week and the three performances. I did not get to see any of the actual performances, but welcome to 2 theatre gigs and another part-time job to pay the bills. Anyway, the kids made it through their performances with little to no trouble. The run-crew kept everything together. Nobody completely lost their sanity, but some came very close and now I know to choose your theatre jobs better. I failed to take pictures of the production, but I know that Boone Community Theatre has them and I am allowed to take them from their Facebook page.

So, I know I've complained a bit about this gig, but overall it has been a great learning experience and I'll be sure to utilize the information and lessons I have learned during it. I hope everyone has a great rest of their summer.

Signing off for the last time,
Dursky

Chops update 6

today was boring as hell- before lunch we just mixed small batches of Durhams rock hard putty (about a 5 minute dry time) and filled all of the staple holes and seams on all of the set pieces we built the past two weeks. after lunch, I spent all but the last half hour sanding all of the putty so it would be flat enough for painting. in the last half hour I built a small support frame to hold a piece of painted MDF onto a platform. it was a fun day......

hope y'all had a good day at least!
Justin (Chops) Voga

And That's That

So now it has been a few days since The Little Mermaid closed, and I'll admit, I already miss the kids. Working with them, and seeing the strides they made to make this show as phenomenal as it was really made me proud. After the last show, I had a bunch of them sign my program and either the notes that they wrote to me or what they said made these last few months extremely worth it. All the problems and frustrations that came with the show sort of melted away when I had some of the kids genuinely thank me and tell me that they would miss it. I'm very proud of them, and am happy that I could help in any way to get the show to its amazing final place.

And that's it for me!
Have a great rest of the summer!!!