The people make up for the lacking work related artistic fulfillment

We opened the first show last night. It didn't go very well, but I guess that's what happens when you try to make a play with full design elements and everything in just a week. I get to try again with the other two shows i'm in so we'll see if those go any better. Now that we opened, not only do we not perform that show again for 2 weeks, but we also don't have a single rehearsal for it between now and then. The planning seems a little ridiculous sometimes. Especially since they've been doing this for 47 years before I got here and still haven't figured so many things out.

I do really enjoy being here though. The people are all very nice for the most part and I like engaging with them. Which is nice because its not atypical for me to find myself avoiding conversations with people under a large variety of other circumstances. Other than two of the company members who are in a relationship, there hasn't been any problems with cliques or even people who stick together all the time. Most of us are kind of like free agents on the social side of things, but in a really interesting way that still lets us all connect with each other person without a hitch. We are all getting comfortable with each other and there are plenty of jokes and poking fun at one another. It is a very livable environment.

I have plenty of complaints about how the theatre is operated but my cohorts are all really great people as far as I can tell. I only wish a few of them would take a little more pride in what they do. Not just on stage, but in their technical assignments as well. It has gotten better though. I recognize that I am an idealist. And sometimes my ideal is not feasible. Actually it rarely is. But when the bar is high, even a failure looks like something magnificent to those who are used to bars of the lower variety. I just don't understand why you would waste your time doing something half way. We don't get to redo anything in life. It will always cost you more precious time to go back and do something again. And I know how limited time really is. It just confuses me when other people seem to disregard how transient our existence is and how important it is that we use every minute to its fullest potential while setting ourselves up to use the next minute to its fullest ability as well, instead of having to use the next 3 minutes to go back and fix what we did without really doing in the last one.

I know that is a really confusing train of thought, but there is meaning there somewhere.


Anyways, back to the theater. =]


W

Adventures Under the Sea: What the Fish?!

Kudos to Kivan for the blog title.
So tonight we had quite an undertaking before us. We had to go through all the costume ideas that our costume designer had laid before Kivan. It was not quite right yet in the eyes of him, so we had the fun (and that is not sarcastic) task of going through and specifying the ideas that he wanted in more detailed picture examples. This is when I thank the Holy Diet Coke Can that me and Kivan communicate creatively so well. We had several hours of hardcore Googling and Pinteresting (and as a stereotypical girl, Pinteresting is my JAM) ahead of us, so it was nice that we could break it up into creatures and with just a few key words, I could find pictures to put into hardcore visual material the things that Kivan was thinking. For example, he would say, "The colors on the fish aren't right. I want...deeper, you know?" And I came up with this:








And it worked. Daaaaaang, I'm good.

My favorite part was finding the Mersister images, because boy can I tell you, I love me some bling and glitter and that's basically what it was. 

 

See? Aren't these all fun? And I'm not entirely sure why my text is pink now, but it seems fitting after those veeeeeery girly tops. All in all, tonight was about professionally shooting down ideas that don't work with the director's vision. Theater, as we know, is all about collaboration and in this particular production, that is very clear with the costumes. 

To wrap it up, look at some other pretty pictures I found. 

  

Yeah. thats it. Tomorrow is our first run-through of act 2, so that's going to be pretty darn fun. I can't wait to see my land ensemble dancers doing their thing. Fingers crossed they remember which way to turn.

Adventures Under the Sea: Chatty Cathys (And Bens, and Alecs, and Clays)

This is just gonna be a super quick one to talk about the biggest problem we had a rehearsal today. They just wanted to TALK! About everything! Loudly! When you are trying to get through 2 hours worth of stuff in 1, it is not always easy to remember that they are still very young and have Oh! so much energy. I had the pleasure of working with the Land Ensemble today which is 7 (eek!) boys and one blissfully quiet girl. And I do dearly enjoy each and every one of them. But with school ending this week, they definitely had their Summer Spazzings underway and it can get a little overwhelming sometimes. Luckily, they are all old enough to understand when I tell them to quiet down because I mean BUSINESS that I mean BUSINESS!

...At least for about 15 minutes until something else distracts them. Still, even with the chatterboxes in full swing today, their enthusiasm for the show and just for life in general left me feeling good about where we left off, if not a bit exhausted.

The Clubhouse at the Playhouse

 

 Training and prep are finally over and the children have arrived, at least some of them. Most schools are not out yet so I am only occupied with camps in the morning. It's been an unusual week because of this, yet adorable. I'm working with kindergartners and since its the second day their shyness is fading and personalities are shining. This camp involves me working with one of the veteran teachers at the Playhouse named Carol Taylor and she has a wonderful way with puppets. Icabod is the elf that visits the classroom everyday and helps Carol tell the children stories, they love when Icabod helps them out with a hard question or asks them a silly one. Also, I forgot to mention that each day all the activities for this camp take place in a fort, which we call the Clubhouse, that the children build everyday. There's a secret handshake and a fun song for the Clubhouse that I got to make up to the tune of, "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?". It goes like this:

Do you wanna build a Clubhouse?
A Clubhouse at the Playhouse!
It will be a lot of fun
Everyone will want to come
To the PLAYHOUSE!

We tell stories for the children to act out and create a fun new craft everyday. Today we made Russian Maryshka dolls out of card stock, it was surprisingly simple for such an unconventional idea. The children are excited to take the dolls home tomorrow but they're even more excited to get the special treat of seeing Cat in the Hat on Friday morning. Now my task for the week is to figure out how all the children can make a craft related to this, I'm thinking their very own Cat in the Hat hats out of butcher paper and paper plates with custom designs (created by the children of course!)

The morning camps have been rather fun but as soon as their done my afternoons resemble the prep work we've been doing for the kids. This afternoon I gave a tour of the Playhouse with the other interns and we also organized games to play with a group of daycare kids that came to visit. It was interesting to see the staff that came with the children because the kids were not "troublemakers" and while the staff was kind, there was what seemed to be a lot of them and they corrected every questionable behavior the children made without realizing that it was more important for the children to learn what the rules taught in our games instead of being chastised for making an honest mistake. It made me realize that theater has always emphasized trying your best but that making mistakes was okay and you'll get a second chance while the outside world often teaches children that perfection is the only way and if you're individuality hinders that strive towards societies' standard of perfection than its better to be like everyone else instead of yourself. It was frustrating for me and the other interns to be leading games and having the daycare instructors over correct the children, not only because honest mistakes are okay during the Playhouse games but also because there are moments during certain games where its okay to let the children run and scream for the five seconds it takes them to go back to their spots. The games are actually designed that way and we purposefully play them because those brief moments that allow the children to burst with energy means that they will be able to play the quiet, slower paced games that require more patience and attention for longer. Seeing the discipline style that contrasted our training as Playhouse interns today really helped us understand the value in not having perfection be the end goal and letting kids be kids.

So after learning what the intern I don't want to be looks like, it was nice to head home and get to crack down on my 9 credits of summer class. The only problem was my 9 week old kitten with the most ironic name in the world, Harmony. As I was working on homework she decided to play a game of peek-a-boo where she hides behind my laptop screen as I am typing. Which is adorable, except the "boo" part of peek-a-boo where she actually gives me quite a scare by biting the edge of my laptop's touchscreen as she tries to catch a glimpse of me. The more I toss her on the bed next to me every time she bites something she shouldn't the more she comes at me with the fervent energy of a toddler who is convinced your reaction means you want to play harder. She seems to have finally fallen asleep for the night though, so I guess I can finally call it a night and get ready to deal with not only Harmony's antics tomorrow but also the Clubhouse.

chops internship

hello all!
I just wanted to take a few minutes to tell everyone whats going on with my internship. I had one lined up all nice and pretty up in Minneapolis at Secoa-a theatre supply company- what it was going to involve was actually the management side of things- checking orders and packing list against  CAD drawings and customer specs, as well as going out to job sites to set up things like permanent rigging instillation like i did last summer, and  various other details. this position was basically an experimental position they wanted to try out on an intern before they made it a full time job. the unfortunate thing is, the higher ups in the company decided that they like the idea of the position so much that they opted out of the trial stage and are now looking for a full time person instead.
 so now i'm looking for something else. I have several possibilities but am waiting to hear back- though some of them seem like a done deal at this this point. the option that are looking best so far are Dallas Children's Theatre, and The Eisemann center in Richardson Texas. as soon as I know more I will let you know!

Thanks for reading!
Justin (Chops) Voga

Turning Point

We open There Goes the Bride on Friday. Thus far, I have done my best to prioritize courtesy over productivity when the others have been screwing around and wasting what little time we're allowed to prepare the show. But since we open on Friday, that has changed now. Last night during a line shoot, the girl who plays the Bride and probably has the fewest lines missed every single one of her cues. She was on facebook on her phone the whole time, so after about the 6th or 7th missed cue, I just said "why don't you put your phone away. You have missed every single one of your cues. not cool. We open this show in 4 days." There have been so many times I have bitten my tongue instead of speaking out about all the bullshit I've seen here, but I felt such a huge relief after finally calling one of them out on their bullshit. And it was completely called for. She was mad at me for a few minutes but I think it sunk in that she really needs to get her shit together. And everyone else who was there for the line shoot has buckled down since.

I don't want to be bossy. I never have, because I hate bossy people and know-it-alls. But I have come to realize that I'm sometimes going to have to risk people mistakenly labeling me as such if I honestly want to do all I can to make sure the work we do is the best it can be. I really just want to help. And until recently, it was more important to me that other people think I am a nice person than it was that I do all I can to ensure our success. Not just for my own sake - even though I have absolutely no desire to be associated with any form of shit show - but for the sake of the work and the art and the audience.

Everyday it becomes more apparent to me that ISU's staff has been equipping me incredibly well for what I want to do. I had to explain to a few of my cast mates last night that the reason I know most of their lines - or at least the ideas within them - and not just my own lines, is that I learn the whole story and not just my character, Bill Shorter's story. I also told them that I am more concerned with what I'm doing when I DON'T have lines than when I do. This might not be completely true, but it's close. I told them that reaction and listening are just as important as your mastery of the lines you deliver. Otherwise the audience would just stay home and listen to old radio programs instead of coming to the theater to WATCH real humans portray real life in a stylized way. And just to be clear, my point is that the reason they are having trouble remembering their lines is that they engaged with the story in relationship to all the other characters around them who are giving them a reason to say what they say!


Anyways, I feel really good about being able to help people who have goals like mine in the theatre, even though I'd rather just lead by example and not have to risk sounding bossy or condescending or like a know-it-all or be labeled pretentious. I really just want to help. And I think they can see that here. My work ethic has yet to falter so hopefully that helps to, because like I said, I would much rather just lead by example.


Also I have made a couple of closer friends now. One of them is an alum who is back working of our sets and the other is the protagonist in There Goes the Bride. He clearly wants to do the best work we can and we team up to kick people into gear when we need to. I am very grateful that they are here, because there are also people on the opposite side of the spectrum with deplorable work ethics here.


There are two others that have impressed me in the past week as well. The guy playing the granddad of the bride and the girl playing the flapper who shows up as Tim the protagonist's hallucination when he gets hit in the head. They are really on the ball with their parts and I can see that they have a similar apprehension toward calling their fellow actors out on their bullshit - even if it is completely screwing their own work up when that problem person is their acting partner in a particular scene. It was also for their sake that I made the decision to stop sitting idly by instead of calling bullshit. The script manager (stage manager) doesn't do diddly squat. It really pisses me off, but we open in 3 days now so I don't exactly have the time to call her out on it. I'd rather just pick up the slack myself so we can do what we need to get done.


I'm sure most of this makes me sound like I am a complete asshole here, but I promise you I am constantly aware of the fact that I am representing ISU theatre in a way, and I conduct myself accordingly. I show respect to everyone here, including those who might not even deserve it or who aren't decent enough to return the favor.


That's all for now

W

Frantic Rehearsing

This was written on 5/31.

 So the phones and internet service have been out of order for the past two days in the entire town of Brownsville. I wasn't sure I would survive till today but I made it.

The girl who works in the box office with me is turning out to be more harm than help. I end up having to do the work two and three times in order to check her work and fix her mistakes. It's very important that we don't screw things up because all the money comes in through us and by "all the money", I don't mean there is a lot. We are running on very little which makes it a big deal if we lose track of even just $50 somewhere in the system. For some reason she doesn't seem to understand that. When I tried to explain it to her, she referenced how much money we as the box office still have for our budget, which has nothing to do with the theatre's actual income. This is just one example of the carelessness that surrounds me here. It's hard enough running the box office as it is with a ridiculous amount of information to sort and enter into several different modes of record without having to combat the constant menial problems that she causes. She's a nice person as far as I can tell, but she apparently has no accountability for her technical assignment to the box office. And I only have so much patience.

Since we put shows up so quickly here, the rehearsal process is very frantic and unforgiving. Keep in mind that we were instructed not to memorize anything before rehearsals begin. The director separates the show into sections (what ISU would call beats) and then we block 6 sections at a time. Then we go back to the first of the 6 and walk through the section on book 3 times and then off book twice with line-calling allowed and once more with no line calling. We repeat this process for all six of the sections and then we start combos. During combos, we are off book but allowed to call for lines. For this example, let's assume we're working section 1 through 6. First we would go through 1 twice, then 1 and 2 together twice, then 1, 2, and 3 together twice, then 2, 3, and 4 together twice, then 3, 4, and 5 together twice, then 4, 5, and 6 together twice, then 5 and 6 together twice, then 6 twice more. Then we do all of them in succession twice with the director watching the second run of the full 6 sections.

It's a very effective model for getting a show up and running in such a small amount of time, but last night my brain felt more fried than I can ever remember it being before. We learned all of Act 1 in two days and we had to stay a half hour late last night because apparently we were behind schedule. I am looking forward to getting everything in my head so I can stop learning lines and start playing with them more. Some of this is already happening, because I memorize pretty quickly. Usually by the third run of a section on book, I don't need to look at my script and I seem to be retaining everything very well so far. I really like that we get to start rehearsals with the full set right off the bat. But I am very confused how the box office can be such a shittily built machine when the rehearsal process has been designed to be so effective in contrast.

I still have more qualms with the director than I can count, but one thing that we agree on is blocking. It was not uncommon for me to be moving to the next position he would want me before or as he was telling me it was what he wanted. He even said something about how I was reading his mind. I was able to stop myself from responding with any of the hundreds of smart ass comments that he set me up for by saying that, and I was glad that we finally agreed about something. Now here are the problems:

he instructs us never to stand in any shape but a line. An instruction that goes against everything I have learned at ISU.

he takes 15 minutes to block each section (1-2 pages) because he has to read each individual line to himself sometimes 3 to 5 times in order to jog his memory of what he wanted the blocking to be and then makes us stay late to rehearse because we're behind schedule.

He ignores the concept of comedic timing and demands that the entire show is done with a uniform pace which he wants to be as fast as we can possibly go.

I could go on but I have to get back to rehearsing, Maybe I'll post more later on.

Just to be clear since I realize I've been doing quite a bit of complaining on here, I am not miserable all the time here. There are just extreme ups and downs. But being on