We're Moving!

Hey Blog fans,

We're moving our blog over to blog.seattlerep.org. We're bringing it a little closer to home. I hope you'll come join us!

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Seattle Rep

StageVoices Recap: Bill Rauch on Equivocation

Here are just a few things we didn't know about Equivocation until Saturday night's StageVoices conversation with director Bill Rauch:

- The script for this version of Equivocation incorporates the original script from the OSF production, along with some new additions made when playwright Bill Cain was working on the play at the Geffen Playhouse in L.A. "The Seattle Rep production is really a hybrid," said Rauch.

- The notion of bringing Equivocation to the Rep began when Rauch, stuck in Seattle during last year's snow storm, gave a copy of the script to the Rep's Producing Artistic Director Jerry Manning.

- Rauch also spoke to how much the play has evolved in it's new space in the Bagley Wright Theatre. "We anticipated that it would be fun, but technical," said Rauch of transitioning from OSF to Seattle. "But it was also about reclaiming the work in a new space... We spent much more time on relationships and making discoveries than we did on lighting cues."

Our thanks to Bill, his interviewer Andrea Allen and everyone in attendance for a fun, enlightening evening talking about theatre. For details on upcoming events like StageVoices, keep an eye on this blog and the Rep's website.

Stage Voices: Andrea Allen Talks Theatre with Equivocation Director Bill Rauch

This Saturday, our StageVoices Series of conversations with theatre artists sees Bill Rauch sit down with our Director of Education Andrea Allen, who offers her thoughts on this can't-miss event here:

On Saturday, November 21 at 5pm in the rotunda, I get to sit down with one of my very favorite theatre artists in the world, Bill Rauch. I've known of Bill for years, mainly through his amazing work with Cornerstone, a community-based theatre company that has inspired and awed me for years. I met Bill in person at a conference a few years back, and was able to take a theatre workshop with him, learning first hand how he elicits such incredible performances from professional and non-professional actors alike. When he took over at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, I was intrigued, wondering what he would do in a "regular" theatre company. The news coming from Oregon has been good--lots of interesting initiatives (e.g. American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle) and great art (e.g. Equivocation). On Saturday, we'll talk about OSF, Cornerstone, world premieres, Shakespeare and anything else that comes to mind. Please join us for this hour-long conversation. I promise I'll leave time for others to ask questions too.

Gary Cole Comes To Seattle Rep in Glengarry Glen Ross

You read that headline right - Seattle Rep's production of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross will feature Gary Cole in the role of tough-talking real estate salesman Ricky Roma.

While Cole is an award-winning stage actor who has been a member of Chicago's storied Steppenwolf Theatre since 1986, audiences will probably know him best from his many film and TV roles. Most well known for his role as one of the finest villains in modern cinema, dastardly middle manager Bill Lumbergh in Mike Judge's Office Space, Cole has played a variety of memorable characters in his career. He's been the picture of well adjusted suburbia as the patriarch of the Brady clan in The Brady Bunch films, and a gun-toting drug kingpin in Pineapple Express. He's played Will Ferrell's wildman, absentee father in Talladega Nights, and distinguished Vice-President Bob Russell in Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing. You've seen him in TV shows from Entourage to Desperate Housewives (and heard him more than a few times on Family Guy), and now you can see him live on the Rep's Bagley Wright Stage this February.

Cole also has a long history working with Glengarry Glen Ross director Wilson Milam, and Seattle Rep is proud to be a part of the continuing collaboration between these two great theatre artists. You'll be able to read more about the working relationship between the two in upcoming posts and articles.

We want to hear from everybody who's as excited as we are to have Gary Cole appearing at the Rep. Tell us what your favorite Gary Cole performance is on our Facebook fan page or tweet it @seattlerep - everyone who participates will be entered in a drawing to win two free tickets to Glengarry Glen Ross later this season!

Guest Blogger Lorin Wilkerson on Opus

We're very excited to have Northwest-based musician, singer, writer and blogger Lorin Wilkerson share his thoughts on the Seattle Rep's production of Opus. You can read more of Lorin's thoughts about the Northwest classical music scene on his blog, Musical Oozings.

Seattle Repertory Theatre turns to music as a central theme with playwright Michael Hollinger’s hilarious, moving, and insightful work Opus at the Leo K. Theatre. The play offers a detailed look into the frenetic existence of the imaginary world-class Lazara Quartet as they begin preparations for the gig of a lifetime at the White House. They have only one week to prepare the monumental Beethoven string quartet Opus 131 with brand-new violist Grace (Chelsey Rives), a fresh-faced, idealistic young woman who presents a stark contrast to the world-weary companions who have made music together for decades.

Hollinger’s insight as a violist who has played many string quartets was obvious; judicious name-dropping, high-brow insider’s jokes and the occasional below-the-belt one liner were present throughout, and even when the play got more serious as it moved toward the climax there were countless, genuinely hilarious moments. His portrayal of the volcanic frustrations and sometimes uncomfortable intimacy thrust upon men of mercurial temperament who have worked together so closely for so long, on something as personal as this music, never comes off as anything other than sincere. The love, cynicism and rancor between the men, and sometimes between them and their music, paints an honest, multi-layered portrait of these complex relationships.

The delivery by the five actors was by and large extremely convincing, and their timing was impeccable in the oft razor-sharp repartee called for by Hollinger’s dialogue. Of particular note was Allen Fitzpatrick’s brilliant performance as Elliot, the harried, antagonistic first violinist who is tormented by the fact that his lover Dorian (Todd Jefferson Moore), who is a much better musician than he, had been relegated to the viola despite Dorian’s superior skills, his ability to “hear things that we don’t,” as the second violinist portrayed by Shawn Belyea puts it.The structure of the work is non-linear and consists of many flashbacks that flesh out the circumstances behind Dorian’s mysterious disappearance, shortly after erratic behavior forces his ouster from the quartet at the beginning of the play. One feels genuine sympathy for the plight of this bi-polar genius whose unpredictable personality dooms any attempt to seal the rifts in his disintegrating relationship with the maddeningly self-absorbed Elliot. Rapid-fire changes of the minimalist set served to highlight the quick firing-off of the flashback sequences, and the soundtrack was poignant and familiar; lots of Bach, and Beethoven. Hollinger succeeds marvelously in portraying the passion, love and conflict the characters feel toward their music and each other; indeed one of Hollinger’s stated purposes was to use the intimacy of the players as an allegorical tool to portray the inter-play between the instruments in a string quartet.

One might have liked a bit more (indeed, any at all) finger-movement by the actors as an added verisimilitude, but thanks to Hollinger’s clever writing, the time-span in which the audience watches the group ’play’ music without moving their fingers across the neck is relatively short. The structure is such that the play takes about 90 minutes and is uninterrupted by intermission, so that by the time the shocker at the finale takes place, the audience is breathless and wondering if it’s actually over. The standing ovation was well-deserved.

Mozart For The Masses

"It's a play about classical music that everybody can enjoy."

I know, I know - it sounds like a pitch. But here's the thing - Opus really does have something for everyone. Being that my education in classical music comes mostly from old Merrie Melodies cartoons, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who knows less about classical music than me, and I loved this show. I loved it for the sharp writing. I loved it for the terrific performances. I loved the stellar treatment of a story about five brilliant, passionate people making incredible art together.

So yes, Opus is in large part about classical music. And yes, that's intimidating to plenty of folks, yours truly included, who have spent most of their lives feeling like classical music is best left to folks in in tuxedos and monocles and such. But it's not, and even the White House says so.

On Wednesday, the President and First Lady hosted an evening of classical music for everyone in the East Room of the White House, with an emphasis on bringing classical music off of its pedestal and into the homes of everyone who would really enjoy it if they ever thought to try it. In hosting a discussion with aspiring music students followed by a great concert from performers of a variety of ages and backgrounds, the Obamas made an effort to show that today's classical music need not be ivory tower territory. The evening drove home the fact that you don't need a trained ear to appreciate classical music - just an open mind. You can read more about the event in this great article from the Washington Post.

So at this point, you've got two choices. You can keep being afraid of classical music - or you can decide that you can enjoy any number of things, and get an introduction to classical music while seeing a great play in the bargain.

What are you going to do?

Guest Blogger Nicola Reilly on Opus

Violinist Nicola Reilly is a founding member of Seattle's Bella Trio. She performs regularly throughout the Puget Sound region with the Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, Bellevue Philharmonic, Northwest Sinfonietta and many others, and has recorded with artists like Sera Cahoone, Sky Cries Mary and Mastodon. Today, we're happy to have her share her thoughts on the Rep's production of Opus.

I attended Opus on opening night at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Before the show, my trio – The Bella Trio, performed some dangerously light classical music to polite applause in the rotunda. We sat in the second row, two violinists and one cellist. I could use every cliché term in the book to describe how accurate the dialogue is, “it really hit a home run,” “hit the nail right on the head,” “hole in one.” The play is truly perfect. The neurotic first violinist, bow tie and eye wear; the slightly lecherous, yet well meaning second violinist, in a shabby brown bathrobe; the laid back cellist, with deep pathos; and the two violists, one young, female and beautiful and one crazy and wildly gifted. Stereotypes are based in reality and Michael Hollinger took what he knows of musicians and created the beautiful and fragile world of a string quartet.

Each scene reminded me of moments from my own chamber music career. Anger, laughter, tears and even, a little bit of love. It truly is the greatest experience and provides the strongest most intense relationships. The people who you make music with are the people in your life with whom you share the most. It makes sense to talk about your love life on the way to a gig and it equally makes sense to pour your own sadness into the music.

I played the second movement of the Bach Double Concerto, the Largo, at the funerals of both my grandparents. When the first violin enters on the f-natural and the universes collide, softly, there is peace for a moment. The movement rises and falls in dynamics and yet the phrase carries throughout. I have never played that piece and not thought about life, death and my many blessings.

Every musician should put down their instrument and run to see Opus.

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November...

Opus officially opened last night with a great performance at which playwright Michael Hollinger was on hand. We're super excited for the run, and you can hear more about the show from the Bella Trio's Nicola Reilly right here tomorrow.

But with Equivocation coming up later this month, we'd be remiss if we didn't wish everyone a happy Guy Fawkes Day! The most nortorious conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot that's explored in Equivocation, Guy Fawkes was found beneath the House of Lords early on the morning of November 5th, 1605 along with 36 barrels of gunpowder and, one would assume, a distintctly surprised expression on his face. Fawkes was arrested for attempting to blow up the English Parliament and King James I, tortured and executed, as were several other men who were implicated in the conspiracy.

But while many of the conspirators names are now obscured by centuries of history, Fawkes bashing has remained a national tradition in England for more than 400 years. Every November 5th, the antion celebrates Guy Fawkes day, which is marked by bonfires, fireworks displays, and the burning of countless effigies of Fawkes throughout the nation. It's not just a history lesson for younger generations of Britons, but also an important moral tale - the moral being: Do not earn the ire of British royalty, because they really know how to hold a grudge.

But hey, if you're going to remind an entire nation to hate a guy every year, you might as well have fireworks, right?

The Sets of Opus: Building a CNC Router

We're all excited for Opus to kick off this week - the music is great, the cast if terrific, and the set looks awesome. One of the many folks we have to thank for that last one is our Assistant Technical Director Brian Fauska. In crafting the sets for Opus, which are engraved with highly stylized musical notations, it became clear that the Rep was going to need a piece of machinery it didn't have yet - a CNC router, capable of making quick, intricate and repetitive carvings. Brian took point on building a router that can make precision cuts all day long and innovates what we can do in our shop. And it turns out all you need to make one is one heck of a lot of technical know how, some programming savvy and a little help from your friends. Read on to get Brian's take on this exciting project!

When the early design ideas and research for Opus started showing up in the production office, Dana and I were having a difficult time coming up with efficient ways to create the desired wall texture. The wall texture is inspired by an architectural project where plywood panels were engraved with Morse code, and in order to achieve the level of detail and quality needed, typical sculptural techniques would take too long, be too expensive, or both. When doing further research into the project that inspired our walls, I found images of the process that they used to create the pattern and it included a CNC Router Table. I half-jokingly told Dana that we would need to buy a CNC Router to do the project; the idea of having one in the shop has been attractive for quite some time, and that suggestion was enough to start the ball rolling. Because of the myriad of ways this tool could help us in the shop nearly everyday, we decided it would be a worthwhile, if involved, project.

The general concept with a CNC Router is that you use a computer and motors to move a cutting tool around a table. The cutter can move in all three dimensions allowing you to cut anything from straight lines to intricate carvings. Once we had found some plans and an on-line forum to guide the build, we were set; we had 3 weeks and a limited budget but we were determined to get it right. We decided that we should be able to process full sized plywood and other sheet materials, so our cutting bed needed to be large enough for that, and we would probably want to carve architectural details and various shapes out of foam so we needed several inches of cutting depth. With our basic requirements in place we started ordering the legion of parts we would need, from simple things like steel tube and MDF to more complex things like stepper motors and controllers. While we waited for those to arrive, we pored over plans for our machine and learned everything we could about CNC machines in general.

In addition to the physical machine, there was the software and control system to consider. Typically in CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machining, there are several steps in making a plan into a reality. You start with a drawing of the thing you want to make. This is drawn in a CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) program and then that file is loaded into a CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) program that turns it into code that the CNC machine can understand. My research led us to some flexible and affordable CAM and CNC software and we built the control system from components recommended on-line.

As soon as the machine was completed it started earning its keep. The machine has cut parts for three theatres already, and we’ve found new ways to use it that save us time in the scene shop and create an excellent finished product. The machine is capable of cutting with accuracy in the thousandths of an inch (for reference, a piece of paper is about 4 thousandths of an inch thick) and the ability to cut repetitious parts without variation is fantastic.

The project has been one of the most fulfilling I’ve worked on at the Rep or anywhere. I was able to engage my interests in mechanics, computers, and building all at the same time, and the product allows us to add even more creative solutions to scenic challenges to our arsenal. The intricately textured walls onstage for Opus are a small glimpse into what we can now create quickly and efficiently in the shop, and we’re still learning more ways to use the CNC Router nearly everyday.

To learn more about how our new CNC router came together and get a look at photos from every stage of the process, check out the forum that Brian worked with here.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Nadia Kaboul is a dresser for The 39 Steps. During the show, the cast of four plays dozens of different characters, each with a different costume. The costume changes happen lightning-fast, and what the audience doesn't see is the carefully rehearsed, mad dance of quick changes. Nadia reveals what it's like to prepare for and work the show backstage as a dresser.

Preparing Costumes for The 39 Steps

A typical show of The 39 Steps is pretty regimented. In terms of prep, or “day work,” we press all of the base costumes (shirts, slacks, vests) and steam suit coats and dresses. We check the costumes for any repairs that are needed or interim cleaning/lint rolling. All of the pieces that are added on remain on racks/tables backstage. We make sure the costumes are pre-set to where they need to be for top of show, and make sure they're all in ready and working order.

We start our presets a little before an hour before the show, and are standing by, ready to dress at 5 minutes to show. There are three tracks—meaning there are three dressers backstage, four people if you count hair. It’s a pretty heavy track because there are constantly quick changes all throughout the show. All of the changes are done backstage—many of them in the wings—as the cues are so fast."

Made to Change

Many of the costumes are rigged for quick-change. Most "vests” and “shirts" are actually shirts or collars made in to dickies (a detachable insert made to look like a shirt), snapped to a vest that velcros up the back or front. Most bowties are rigged to snap on and off, and many of the costumes are ready to be put on, and taken off, very quickly. However, there are a lot of clothes (jackets, basics, hats) that look up close just the way they look on stage.

During the Show

The changes are very intense. Most people don't realize that all of the things that happen backstage (including set pieces and props) are choreographed just a closely and specifically as the action on stage. All of the changes are rehearsed laboriously, planned and talked through, so they are cued down to the second. A few of the changes toward the end of the show even involve three people to one actor—that's how fast things are happening.

There is a lot of presetting and under-dressing that allow the changes to go as fast as they do (dressing one costume underneath another one) so you just have to remove something instead of remove and add something else. The actors are great to work with, and I think are fantastic sports for how much running around and changing they need to do! It's been a very fun show to work on, even though it's a lot of work.

Pictured above: Ted Deasy, Scott Parkinson, Eric Hissom and Claire Brownell in Seattle Repertory Theatre’s production of The 39 Steps, playing in the Bagley Wright Theatre September 25 to October 24; photo by Craig Schwartz.

Guest Blogger Chris Bange on The 39 Steps

Here at the Rep, we’re proud to be part of the thriving theatre and arts community that Seattle is known for. In the interest of adding to the dialogue about the work we produce, we’ve invited several theatre artists from the Seattle area to be among the first to see our production of The 39 Steps and offer their responses to the show on our blog.

Actor and performer Chris Bange has appeared in a number of Seattle theatre productions and has taken his own shows on tour throughout the United States and Canada. in today's blg post, he offers his take on the top notch physical comedy that make up the heart of The 39 Steps.

The 39 Steps is a play that every audience member will love and every actor who sees it will want to be in (I know I do). This play is so fun because it allows the 4 actors to create the world of The 39 Steps using just a few trunks, costumes and hats. The 39 Steps is a high speed, action packed, thrill and a laugh a minute manhunt that follows the main character from London across the Scottish moors where he encounters literally hundreds of different characters.

One of the actors in the talk back session after the show described it as a vaudeville play! It absolutely is, in the best sense. Every comic gag in the book is thrown at the audience in rapid fire succession, from pratfalls to puppets shows. I think vaudeville play is a good way to describe it because, as in vaudeville, the main language used in The 39 Steps is a physical dialogue between and the actor and their fellow actors, and the actors and the audience. As an actor, when you play 70 some parts your physicality has to be very precise and clean, so that the audience knows exactly who that character is right when you meet them. With so many characters to play there is very little margin for error, especially when you only see some of the characters for a few seconds each.

There are also several strokes of stylized physical movement brushed throughout the play that put a very original stamp on The 39 Steps as a production, movements that physically draw out and heighten the moments of comedy or drama. Many of these movements are very much in the style of theatrical melodrama. A melodrama has essentially three iconic characters: the hero, the villain, and the victim, and usually the iconic character traits are traded off and on, giving the story twists and turns. Melodrama has a negative connotation as of late because most action movies today are essentially melodramas. Action movies give melodrama a bad name because they follow the basic character structures but it is so thinly done that it is often unbelievable to the audience or “melodramatic.”

The 39 Steps uses melodrama to great effect as the actors very physically play the life and death stakes of the scenes and you believe it. The struggle for life or death is the backbone of the story of this play, and this drives the comedy and drama to even greater heights because it is so immediate. These physical and emotional heights create a visceral reaction between the audience and play - in others words, when you laugh (and you will most certainly laugh) you will laugh hard! The 39 Steps is a rollercoaster of a play, to borrow a great quote, “You may pay for the whole seat…but you will only need the edge!"

Hitchcock Double Features All Weekend at SIFF!

We’re taking a moment today to address a common problem we’ve noted among audiences for The 39 Steps– namely, that seeing the play has whet viewers appetites for more Hitchcockian goodness.

Our first recommendation is to see the show again, but we’ll cop to a bit of bias there.

For those of you who just can’t get enough, may we suggest the Hitchcock film festival this weekend at SIFF? You can see the original film version of The 39 Steps along with five other classics from the Master of Suspense the way they were meant to be seen - on a big screen, accompanied by a theater full of people on the edge of their seats. And every show is a double feature, which means you get to check out two films for the price of one!

For more info and to get tickets, check out the SIFF website here.

Music School: Behind The Scenes of Opus

When Michael Hollinger's Opus opens in the Leo K. Theatre later this month, the cast, as talented as they are, won't actually be playing their own instruments. But they'll have plenty of coaching and instruction in looking and acting like they are from award winning Seattle-based musicians Melia Watras and Michael Jinsoo Lim. Keep reading to get a look backstage as Watras and Lim teach the cast how to conduct themselves like a professional string quartet.

The cast of Opus (from left, Charles Leggett, Chelsey Rives, Todd Jefferson Moore, Shawn Belyea and Allen Fitzpatrick) goes to music school under the tutelage of Corigliano quartet members Michael Jinsoo Lim and Melia Watras. Photo by Keri Kellerman.

Watras and Lim opine on zen and the art of violin maintenance. Photo by Ian Chant.

Allen Fitzpatrick and Todd Jefferson Moore demonstrate what a duel looks like in the world of chamber music. Photo by Keri Kellerman.

Director Braden Abraham looks on as Charles Leggett stops worrying and learns to love his cello. Photo by Keri Kellerman.

Todd Jefferson Moore, Chelsey Rives and Charles Leggett exercise the oft-neglected bowing muscles. Photo by Keri Kellerman.

Guest Blogger Warren Etheredge: The journey of The 39 Steps begins with one…

Here at the Rep, we’re proud to be part of the thriving theatre and arts community that Seattle is known for. In the interest of adding to the dialogue about the work we produce, we’ve invited several theatre artists from the Seattle area to be among the first to see our production of The 39 Steps and offer their responses to the show on our blog.

It's practically impossible to discuss The 39 Steps the play without discussing the classic Alfred Hitchcock film it's based on. And when you're discussing the juncture of film and theatre, you'd be hard pressed to talk to anyone more savvy than blogger and arts aficionado Warren Etheredge. We're excited to bring readers Warren's take on the production, direct from The Warren Report. And if you can't get enough of him here, don't fret. Warren will be presenting our pre-play discussion of The 39 Steps here at the Rep on October 15th at 7 pm in the rotunda. Be sure to join us that evening for what's sure to be a night of lively entertainment both on stage and off.

It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. It takes a tougher man to tenderize Hitchcock. Steely scriptor Patrick Barlow has pounded and punched up The 39 Steps, transforming Alfred’s 1935 flick into a frivolous 4-person stage show — now marinating at Seattle Rep — that prioritizes silliness over suspense. This is an acceptable bargain given the light touch of the original and the wisdom of creating a new vision rather than just replicating the old. (Gus van Sant’s virtual shot-for-shot remake of Psycho proved that there is more to Hitchock’s genius than simply mise-en-scene.) Bravely, Barlow not only wrestles Alfred’s ghost, he also tangles with Charles Ludlam’s specter. Surely within this re-imagining there is more than a pinch of Ludlam’s presentations at The Ridiculous Theatrical Company. And it is in this context that these 39 Steps have, surprisingly, more difficulty competing.


Barlow boasts chutzpah and craftsmanship. With the audacious assistance of director Maria Aitken, this adaptation unspools energetically on stage. The technical cleverness of the production is worth the price of admission. How often will you see a train-top chase or North BY Northwest’s bi-plane rundown materialize below a proscenium arch? No question there is enough flash to stun theater-goers and to appease movie-lovers. But what about the laughs? Barlow recognizes the humor in the time-honored. He re-plays the screenplay’s set-ups at 78rpm, an obvious and successful student of the louder, faster, funnier school. He also indulges the cheap seats with shouts-out to many of Hitchcock’s most famous titles, allowing even the dimmest patron to feel in on the joke/s. However, both creator and cast have trouble nailing the essence of camp, thus far, failing to transition from note-hitting send-up to irreverent, yet earnest, homage. Ludlam’s genius was his ability to satirically deconstruct classics while secretly celebrating their enduring magic. Ludlam, with partner Everett Quinton, could plunge a dagger into Shakespeare’s back while smilingly shaking his hand and being honored to make the acquaintance. It is conceivable that this cast will eventually come closer, but at the preview I saw — the first, I believe — the actors appeared preoccupied with hitting their marks moreso than embracing the duality of their roles. Camp is best when its players can maintain the veracity of the characters while still engaging the audience by luxuriating in the theatrical artifice and textual tomfoolery. (I suspect that Scott Parkinson and Eric Hissom, already amusing, will come closest to fully embodying the spirit.)

The 39 Steps surpasses the two cinematic remakes (1954, 1978) and provides a diverting night-out capable of making me neglect — never forget! — Hitchcock while pining for the absence of Ludlam.

Guest Bloggers on The 39 Steps: Emily Carlsen

Here at the Rep, we’re proud to be part of the thriving theatre and arts community that Seattle is known for. In the interest of adding to the dialogue about the work we produce, we’ve invited several theatre artists from the Seattle area to be among the first to see our production of The 39 Steps and offer their responses to the show on our blog.

Since The 39 Steps features fast paced costume changes and is designed to be enjoyed by audiences of all ages, our first guest blogger is elementary school teacher and freelance costume designer Emily Carlsen.

The Seattle Rep’s The 39 Steps is an enjoyable caper into the world of Alfred Hitchcock, a world which is very much aware, and sure to remind you, of its Hitchcockian influences. The team of four actors (Claire Brownell, Ted Deasy , Eric Hisson and Scott Parkinson) take on many a character to tell the tale of Suspense with a capital ‘S’. The ensemble cast is strong and cohesive; the four seem to be of one mind with their clear, stylized physicality. They keep the pace of the show moving, and it is clear they are having a blast doing it. The action on stage is supported by spot on, period costumes and flexible set design by Peter Mckintosh that is simple yet effective. It takes great acting to completely switch character simply by adding a hat, but you might as well have a great hat while you’re at it.

The 39 Steps is a great vehicle to introduce young theatre goers to physical comedy akin to the old vaudevillian talents, skills decidedly absent from venues in modern pop culture. Sitcoms, blockbuster movies and reality TV shows are not about watching what people can create, but what they have and can blow up. When you can go to the theatre and witness tightly orchestrated scenes, with more recognizable characters than actors present, these are the skills that truly celebrate what live theatre is all about.

Who doesn’t chuckle at a good Scottish accent joke, flying spittle and all? And everybody loves shadow puppets. The tween next to me was totally laughing, like, really hard. When actors occasionally wink to the audience and acknowledge their ridiculousness you can’t help but smile at the connection, and you can’t get that from Youtube.

Producing Artistic Director Jerry Manning on The 39 Steps

Tech begins this week for The 39 Steps. We’re officially underway on the 2009-2010 season. I won’t bore you with the typical “I’m so excited about this” and “It’s a unique theatrical experience” blather about the show. I’ll refer you instead to two links that say it better than I ever could from The LA Times and The New York Times, respectively.

This I know: We’re announcing today that The 39 Steps is extending. We’ve added five dates to the end of the run because ticket sales are so strong already. I loved the play when I saw it. You will love it too.

The 39 Steps, a la Hitchcock, is a favorite movie of mine. It presages what was to follow as Alfred’s career unfolded. It heralds North By Northwest and its epic chase. It is torqued like Psycho—seriously twisted. Start with this fact: Salvador Dali was the production designer on the flick. That’s a huge statement on Hitchcock’s part—what you’re about to see is in the realm of the surreal. Risky choice.

Here’s the point. The 39 Steps is an adaptation for the stage. This adaptation draws more generously from the original novel than from Hitchcock’s movie. So, here we have a stage adaptation based on the book and filtered through the lens of Alfred Hitchcock.

And our adaptation is just one of what seems like a confluence of theatrical adaptations playing now or soon in Seattle. We have Wicked, a musical play based on a book, which itself is loosely based on a seminal movie (The Wizard of Oz), which itself was based on Frank Baum’s still treasured books. We have Book-It doing a stage adaptation of A Confederacy of Dunces (I cannot wait to see Brandon Whitehead in the role). And in the spring the Rep will present an original adaptation of The Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare from Robert Fagles’ definitive English language adaptation

What do these things have in common? Easy. Hitchcock was a storyteller. Homer was a great storyteller. Fagles, Baum, the Rep, Brandon, Book-It—we’re all storytellers. Some stories are worth telling again and again. Great stories, universal stories deserve to be retold and respun into all kinds of different narrative structures.

I Spy: The 39 Steps and Hitchcock's Spy Thrillers

If you’re coming to see The 39 Steps, it doesn’t hurt to know a little about Alfred Hitchcock.

Though his body of work includes everything from dark farces like The Trouble with Harry to horror classics like Psycho and The Birds, Hitchcock was perhaps most in his element working in espionage. From The Maltese Falcon to The Bourne Identity, thrillers and spy films across the spectrum owe a debt to the Master of Suspense.

Among Hitchcock’s first and finest works are his classic spy thrillers, featuring secret societies and treacherous plots, icy assassins and smoldering femme fatales, double agents and triple crosses. Films like The 39 Steps and Foreign Correspondent are cinematic classics that still feel fresh and contemporary decades later.

Click here for a primer on Hitchcock’s finest espionage films—six movies where the acclaimed filmmaker’s mastery of the carefully timed reveal and the perfectly placed twist are at the top of their form.

from the Fringe

On Saturday night we made a big dinner for the crew and trekked over to the theater with our tools and costumes in tow. The show performing ahead of us finished a little early so we had plenty of time to set up. Jeremy and I figured out a new, more efficient system for attaching the outside posts to the dock using thru-bolts and wing nuts I found at a local hardware store. This is exciting stuff people. Bobby wired on the practical to the upstage post. Amy made sure we all had what we needed and kept her eye the clock. Our production's best friend, Karen, flew in from Seattle last night and we put her to work helping Becca with the front of house. Matt and Bobby to took advantage of our extra time to make a few last minute tweaks to sound and light cues. Cheyenne dirtied up Renata's costume a bit more using the brown shoe polish she bought this afternoon at the drug store on Union Square. Press kits are out. We're ready...Renata, who has been fund-raising, marketing, planning as well as performing with equal fervor, is in her dressing room warming up. Now she can finally take off the producer hat and just be the performer.

The house opens and the audience starts shuffling in. We would've been grateful for half-full on our first night, but they just keep coming until we're sold out--who are all these people? who wants to come to the theater at 10PM? We love them!

...

A good first performance. We're still working out a few kinks, but Renata was in very fine form. In the midst of all this chaos and with very little rehearsal time, she somehow managed to rip it up out there. Her ability to simultaneously be inside the characters, expertly telling the story, and yet always seemingly aware of herself in space, incorporating subtle shifts we've talked about, and maneuver through new blocking patterns we've just set hours before--this juggling act is the mark of a truly gifted stage actor.

One down. Four to go.

If you're in NY this week, you can see the complete performance schedule and get tickets here. And read our first review here.

from the NY Fringe

Renata Friedman and I have brought our production of The K of D by Laura Schellhardt to the NY Fringe this year. We got the whole team from Seattle with us: Robert Aguilar (lights), Matt Starritt (sound), Cheyenne Casebier (costumes), Becca Leshin (assistant producer), Amy Poisson (stage manager), Jeremy Katich (set wrangler, skateboard roller, and official camp cook). After a 3 hour tech (which included a run, load-in and load out), we're all curious to see the results of our slap-dash efforts. Curtain time is 10PM, so we're all drinking coffee. We'll have 15 min to set up our dock and 15min to break it down at the end. Renata and I just went over some notes in the apartment and reviewed the new blocking. Our run of the show a couple weeks ago in Port Townsend was in a lovely, intimate black box (thank you PT!!). Now we're in an equally lovely 3/4--The Cherry Pit. So some staging adjustments have to be made. Under normal circumstances we'd have at least a couple days of tech rehearsal to make these changes, but this is the fringe, and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants is part of the fun.

A little early Halloween shopping?

From Joanna, Communications Manager

It's definitely summer around here. No less busy in the communications world, but fewer blog- worthy items (and, OK, our intern Kiki is gone and the blog just isn't the same without her).

I did want to make sure you know about our upcoming costume sale, though. It's Saturday, June 6, from 10 am-4 pm here on the Bagley Wright stage. I went down to check out some of the costumes, and there are some amazing pieces that are reasonably priced. I was eying an amazing Rapunzel wig for $20.

Other things I saw: Oberon's cape from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Queen Elizabeth's gown from Beard of Avon, and couple of cool before and after costumes--Napoleon's fancy suit and the duplicate torn up after he's been shot.

Lots of different sizes, and we'll take credit cards, cash or check, with all proceeds benefiting the theatre.

We've only had one other sale in Seattle Rep history, and that was in 1974. So who knows when the next might be?

More info here.

Carrie's going to Broadway

From Joanna, Communications Manager

The producers of Wishful Drinking just announced Carrie Fisher will be taking her show to Broadway come September (it'll play at the Roundabout). Seems like Seattle's becoming quite the testing ground for the Great White Way. We must have good taste or something...

You can still catch the show here at the Rep through May 9. Insider's tip: If you want Carrie to chat you up and douse you with glitter, sit in the first three rows.

Highway Glamour Shots

From Kiki, Audience Development Intern

When someone offers me a smoothie, I always say yes. Mama didn't raise no fool. Little did I know that I'd be hiking up a mountain afterwards.

The Rep's Communication department went on a little outing while our Director was away for the day (jealous much?). We boosted up on intense-power-enhancing-mega-AWESOME-rocket-fuel energy smoothies with B 12 and made our way down the Galer St stairs to behold our beautiful billboard on Aurora. Then, like the nerds we are, we took pictures to document our efforts. Look at those excited faces! They weren't excited for long...

Once we were done geeking out we proceeded to climb back up the 700 some stairs, some of us in heels and others of us in need of an oxygen tank. It's fine. Looks like we're improving our department's odds of winning the coveted "I Hate to See You Leave, But I Love to Watch You Go" Reppie Award.

Kevin and Simone on the radio

From Joanna, Communications Manager

Yesterday I got to take Kevin Kling and Simone Perrin to KUOW for an interview about Breakin' Hearts and Takin' Names. OK, they are probably the nicest two people you'll ever meet. Is it the Minnesota in them? I love it when you fall in love with performers on stage and then they're just genuinely awesome in real life.

At the risk of sounding totally Tiger Beat, I learned: Simone shops at H&M, they both like shrimp phad thai, and Kevin's a runner.

More importantly, while they were on the radio, I got to hear some amazing stories about what it was like for Kevin while he was in a coma (he dreamt he was in Italy having his face rebuilt by calcium deposits) and some fantastic new original songs that are in the show, based on poems by Kevin and then put to accordion music by Simone.

They also talked more about the show, which is, Kevin said, about "the flight away from trauma." Whereas their play last season How? How? WHy? Why? Why? dealt with the aftermath of Kevin's motorcycle accident, Breakin' Hearts is about healing, of all kinds. "Trauma is trauma whatever is is: the loss of a limb or a heart or a promise or a person," Kevin said.

Listen to the entire interview/performance on KUOW here: http://www.kuow.org/rss.php?program=weekday

Why do people still love Star Wars?

From Joanna, Communications Manager

It's been over 30 years since the first Star Wars movie was released. With Carrie Fisher at the Rep (and discussing the juicy details of filming Star Wars, as well as reciting some particularly notable lines in her show Wishful Drinking), we've been asking ourselves, "Why do people still love Star Wars?" (and by Star Wars, we mean the original trilogy).

Some theories:

• Sexy Han Solo.
• A female character that is pretty much a badass, even if she has astronomically weird hair.
• A good, clear story or good vs evil.
• A really bad guy, voiced by James Earl Jones nonetheless.
• The Force.
• Special effects that at the time were totally groundbreaking.
• It's not as geeky at Star Trek.
• Escapism.
• Quotable lines galore.
• Millions of YouTube parodies, including this one and this one.
• Light sabers.

Here's an article just posted on Slate: Why does Star Wars still take over the minds of small boys?

Breakin' Hearts and Boozin' it Up

From Joanna, Communications Manager

I just e-mailed Breakin' Hearts and Takin' Names Production Designer L.B. for some interesting morsels about designing the show, storyteller Kevin Kling's latest. His response?

1. We’re using a large chunk of one of the Seafarer walls for the main bar wall in Breakin’ Hearts.
2. We’re collecting paper coasters from bars all around Seattle and Minneapolis to hang on the walls.

I'm sensing a bar theme.

Speaking of...did you know you can now take your drinks into both of our theatres? AND we have credit card machines at the bar now (available for your charging pleasure pre show).

For a full interview with L.B. about designing the show, click here.

For our bar menu, click here.

Directors announced

From Joanna, Communications Manager

I just got word that three more directors for the coming season have been confirmed: Andrea Allen, the Rep's own very talented Education and Audience Development Director will direct Speech and Debate, a wild comedy about teenage life. Braden Abraham who is currently helming Breakin' Hearts & Takin' Names and who directed Betrayal will take on Opus. And Wilson Milam, who directed this season's The Seafarer, will be returning to direct another testosterone-fueled play, Glengarry Glen Ross.

For more info on the season, click here.

Carrie Fisher Likes Shiny Things

From Kate, Technical Production Intern

Things have definitely slowed down here in production. Betrayal and The Seafarer are up and running and the next two shows are not technically intense; seeing as Wishful Drinking is coming on a truck and Breakin’ Hearts and Takin’ Names does not seem to have a very large set. Although today, I got to make a quick model of the Carrie Fisher set, so that we have something to look at instead of drawings.

I've also been making some artwork from the walls of The Road to Mecca set. The walls were covered in glitter, and apparently someone got word that Carrie Fisher loves shiny things, so we made parts of the walls into artwork for her dressing room. Random, I know.

2009-2010 Season Announcement

We're happy to announce the 2009-10 Seattle Rep season! The season consists of seven plays plus August: Osage County, presented in partnership with Seattle Theatre Group and Broadway Across America at The Paramount.

Here are the selections:

Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps
Adapted by Patrick Barlow, based on an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon, based on the book by John Buchan, directed by Maria Aitken
September 25-October 18, 2009
In the Bagley Wright Theatre

Four actors play 150 characters in this thrilling adventure comedy—straight from Broadway—based on Alfred Hitchcock's classic film.

Opus
by Michael Hollinger
October 30-December 6, 2009
In the Leo K. Theatre

A passionate, music-filled glimpse into the break-up and make-up of a renowned string quartet.

Equivocation
by Bill Cain, directed by Bill Rauch
November 18-December 13, 2009
In the Bagley Wright Theatre

Seattle Rep and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival bring you this exciting new play—woven with threads of King Lear and Macbeth—direct from Ashland.

Speech and Debate
by Stephen Karam
January 15-February 21, 2010
In the Leo K. Theatre

A ragtag bunch of misfits starts an after-school Speech and Debate team to expose a possible scandal—and sparks more debate than their high school ever bargained for.

Glengarry Glen Ross
by David Mamet
February 5-28, 2010
In the Bagley Wright Theatre

A gripping comedy-drama about a group of tough-talking Chicago real estate agents who will do anything to win a high-stakes sales competition.

Fences
by August Wilson, directed by Timothy Bond
March 26-April 18, 2010
In the Bagley Wright Theatre

In 1950s Pittsburgh, a garbage collector who once dreamt of becoming a professional baseball player struggles to let his son pursue his own dreams of playing football.

An Iliad
created by Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson, directed by Lisa Peterson
April 9-May 16, 2010
In the Leo K. Theatre

Tony Award-winning actor Denis O’Hare (Take Me Out on Broadway) takes you on an unforgettable journey through The Iliad, one of history’s most famous and exciting tales.

PLUS: AT THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE
August: Osage County
by Tracy Letts, directed by Anna D. Shapiro
October 27-November 1, 2009
Seattle Rep partners with Seattle Theatre Group and Broadway Across America for this special bonus show—part of your subscription, playing at The Paramount!

Call Me Crazy

From Kiki, Audience Development Intern

Last Friday night was the second time that I watched The Seafarer on our Bagley stage. You see, I had to watch it again because something had been bugging me from my first viewing. The character Richard just really reminded me of someone but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then, during the second act it hit me:

=

Admit it, that's pretty dead on.

The Brogue

From Joanna, Communications Manager

The Irish accents in The Seafarer aren't your typical Irish brogue, and that might be confusing (it certainly baffled the Seattle Weekly's reviewer). Here's an excerpt from a conversation with the show's dialect coach, Deb Hecht, on why The Seafarer won't have you thinking, "Lucky Charms."

Seattle Rep: Are there special challenges in The Seafarer that make this project especially interesting for you?

Deb Hecht: Yes. It’s actually a more unusual Irish accent than I’ve ever done before, and that we’re used to hearing. I think that when we think of an Irish accent, we think of something that’s a little—oh, I don’t want to say “Lucky Charms”—but sounds that are actually more associated with the west coast of Ireland. Those sounds are very different from the city of Dublin, and The Seafarer is in a very particular neighborhood, Baldoyle, which is on the north side of Dublin. It has a slightly different sound. It’s not as tight as the city of Dublin is itself. It’s a challenge. Some of it is quite close to American speech in a lot of ways, but it’s just different enough. I was saying to one of the actors that I feel like I’m standing on one of those things that clowns stand on–those Rola-Bolas—because it feels neither fish nor fowl. It’s not American, but it’s not the Irish we’re used to doing. It’s more relaxed than Dublin, so finding this can be tricky.

Continue reading the interview here.

The Seafarer Set Built—In Time Lapse!

Ednotes - The Seafarer

From Drew, Arts Administration Intern

In a seedy backlot in Baldoyle, Ireland, Ed Boyd pitches Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, now playing in The Rep's Bagley Wright Theater through March 28.

Ednotes - Betrayal

From Drew Dahl, Arts Management Intern

Ed Boyd, Lead Telemarketer for the Seattle Rep pitches Betrayal, the new show on our Leo K. stage . . . backwards.

In the trenches

From Joanna, Communications Manager

A few notes from the trenches:

Betrayal opening night is tonight. The play spans 9 years in 75 minutes. Our costume crews are busy, busy backstage with all the fabulous 1960s and 70s costume quick changes.

The Seafarer starts in previews tomorrow. There are a lot of bad Irish accents happening (in the marketing department, that is...the ones on stage are impeccable and you can read an interview with dialect coach Deb Hecht here). The other day we were trying to remember how those old Irish Spring soap commercials went. If only I had had a video camera on our Assistant IT Director Heather while she was whistling.

The two-story Seafarer set is amazing. We're in the process of recording a time lapse video of the building of it...on the way soon.

Interning...on Betrayal

From Becca, Literary Intern

It’s opening night for Betrayal, the third and final show that I get to work on this season. Here are some highlights from my experience on the show:

-One of the scenes takes place in a restaurant. During down time, the actors practiced their napkin-folding skills and created the always entertaining “napkin chicken.” It’s really amazing the kinds of things actors know how to do to keep things interesting.

-There are projections in the show of one of the actors playfully lifting a little girl in the air. The day we filmed, our young star (I think she was 3) got camera shy. It took about an hour of coaxing and the promise of hot chocolate to get the footage we needed. It of course looks wonderful on stage.

-The amount of liquid that the actors have to consume on stage is astonishing. I think one of them has to drink 2 beers, 4 scotches, and about a bottle of wine during the show. Of course it is all just really colored water (except for the beer which is O’Doul’s) but it’s amazing how much they have to drink. At least they are more hydrated than they have ever been in their lives.

The Emerging Critics Get Real

From Kiki, Audience Development Intern

Emerging Critics is an innovative education program that allows high school students to connect with theatre through critical writing. And eat a lot of Pagliacci Pizza. The program features a writing workshop staring local critic celebrities and then the students attend a matinee performance of one of our Bagley shows. Here are what the students had to say about The Road to Mecca:

"The glittering sets, subtle lighting shifts and audience-beguiling acting blended in harmony to the final standing ovation. Anyone who cares about the pursuit of creativity and the well-being of both old and young will enjoy this outstanding play." -Riley Peter-Contesse

"When you hear of the pain and suffering [Miss Helen] has endured, you begin to empathize. Moreover, when she is describing her lovely Mecca, you get a nice warm feeling. Sort of like going to your happy place." -ReeceAnn Buendia

"To appreciate the history and eloquence of The Road to Mecca entails an acquired taste belonging to those who value the performance of intimate conflict." -Amir Shabaneh

"I found the acting performance by Dee Maaske as Miss Helen very good. She impressivley kept character throughtout the performance...and I found [her] to be the highlight of the show." -Austin Hebert

"The message of elderly Helen [comes through] strongly with an excellent performance by Maaske, as the walls around her glitter and shine as bright as the outcast widow does." -Joe Johnson

The Night Watcher heads to New York

From Joanna, Communications Manager

We just got word that Charlayne Woodard's one-woman show The Night Watcher, which played at Seattle Rep to sold-out crowds in September and October, has been picked up for a run at Primary Stages in New York. Congrats to Charlayne!

Read the full scoop at Broadwayworld.com.

Photo: Charlayne Woodard, by Chris Bennion.

Playwriting Boot Camp

From Joanna, Communications Manager

Tonight is our Woodinville High School Playwriting Project. If you're looking for creative inspiration and faith that the youth in our country are imaginative and talented, you should check out tonight's free performance. Riffing off a given theme, eight playwrights from two high schools went through the Rep's "Playwriting Boot Camp." You can see the results—performed by students and directed by Seattle Rep teaching artists—tonight in our Leo K. Theatre!

This year's theme is "spilt milk." To the high school playwrights, this translates into plays involving a co-ed bathroom, a night of speed dating, a bank heist with lingerie, and a wacky psychiatrist.

Roosevelt High School performed Jan. 16, and tonight Woodinville High School performs right here at the Rep on our Leo K. Stage. The show starts at 7:30 pm. It is free (although donations will be accepted at the door!), but reservations are required. Just call 206-443-2222 to reserve your seats.

Celebrating color, life and artistic freedom

From Leigh Silverman, director of The Road to Mecca

When thinking about how to bring The Road to Mecca to the stage the first thing to consider was the set. The set is like another character. I wanted to honor the real Owl House (which you can see on the internet) and at the same time translate it to the stage in an exciting way. Our set – the main rooms of Helen’s house - is a literal and metaphorical representation of her soul – the soul of a radical, brave, inspired totally wild artist – willing to live on the outskirts of societal norms and sacrifice everything for her vision.

An example of her unconventional ways: Helen would grind glass in a coffee grinder (by hand!) and then put it on her walls. She was all about color, enormous mosaics and a compulsive use of color, light and candles. The first time Rachel, the set designer, showed me a sample of the glitter walls that we were going to use I was delighted, and I am so happy to work on a play that celebrates creativity, color, life and artistic freedom.

Mecca Opening Night=Cocktails

From Joanna, Communications Manager

Happy opening! You know it's an opening night around here because our IT Director comes to work in a suit. You know you work at a non-profit theatre when someone showing up in a suit signals a special day. And today is special because I hear we're having tea cocktails and little cakes for the opening night party tonight. Yes that's girly, and I am a girl and I love it.

The Road to Mecca is gorgeous, so beautiful and personal. I saw it last night by myself, and I'm glad I went alone so I could just have room to take it all in. It's a quiet play in that even though there are some intense emotions on stage, it has a sense of being really gentle. Is this making any sense? I guess I'm still soaking it in.

I can say that I am so jealous of our Associate Artistic Director Braden who just got back from a trip to South Africa. After doing research for The Road to Mecca (which takes place in a tiny town in the South African desert called The Great Karoo), I am so fascinated by the country. If Braden took pictures, I'll try to get some to post here (although I don't think he made it to The Owl House, the house that the play takes place in).

I have a blog from The Road to Mecca director, Leigh Silverman that I'm going to post in a second. We also got some photos of Leigh hanging out with set designer Rachel Hauck in our green room (photo by Miryam Gordon). Check it out:

Marya Sea Kaminski on the World of Mecca

From Marya Sea Kaminski, actress in The Road to Mecca

I spent some time in the blue room yesterday - the little alcove upstage that serves as Elsa's bedroom when she makes her visits to Miss Helen. We were teching (perfecting) the lights for one of the many big speeches in the play, and the actors were holding onstage. I happened to be in the blue room at that moment and sat down on the chenille comforter over the bed and had a small breath of a chance to take a good look around.

Candles with glaciers of wax drippings at their bases. A collection of thorny seashells across the upstage window, under the beaded mosaics of noonday suns. Figurines, mermaids, beads, glitter. So many tiny pieces placed so carefully by hand. "Elsa loves sleeping in this room," I thought, "I bet she dreams of the ocean and small treasures washed up on the shore when she falls asleep in this room."

Sometimes, when a show goes into technical rehearsals, I stop being able to actually see things for awhile. All of my focus is set on a rotating collection of balls to juggle - intention (why does she open her mouth in this moment?), listening (like I haven't already heard these words dozens of times), stage business (maybe if I loosen the buckle on my shoe by one knotch I'll be able to get it off faster during that first beat of dialogue).

Now that we've got a few previews under our belts, I can actually breathe on stage a little. And take a good look around. It's been a long time since I played on a set as inhabited as our world for The Road to Mecca. There are sweeping, gorgeous, glittering aspects to the set, which will be obvious (and maybe thrilling) at first glance, but the real life of this set is in the details. It feels like someplace I have lived in my life - with dishes in the sink and dust in the corners and small treasures stashed on shelves and pinned up on the walls. It is so complete.

It is so complete that it makes our jobs easier, as actors. This play is so much about relationships, and listening, and being present; living in such a meticulously detailed world allows that fiction to work on us, to envelope us even. Yes, there is a whole houseful of audience outside that fourth wall, but in here it is just us, and the tiny dusty details of our lives, and the crisis of this moment.

—Marya

Building Walls

From Dana Perreault, Technical Director

Note: Dana agreed to blog about a specific part of building The Road to Mecca set. The following is his insight on creating walls that literally shine.

Our work to obtain a wall application that would sparkle under candle light yet would be sedate under the regular stage light was tricky. We started by looking into what Miss Helen actually used for material and how she applied this material to her walls.

The thought of actual glass ground up and glued on the wall was vetoed for two reasons.
One was that we didn’t want the glass to flake off the walls and end up on the floor because there was a large possibility of actors having bare feet during the show. Second was the fact that it didn’t sparkle as well as desired when lit with the theatrical lighting.

Our paint shop experimented making samples using glitter, Mylar and lighting gels that would be painted silver on one side. These items proved to shine as bright as we needed, as well as provide the designer with the desired wall color. Now we needed to figure out how dense and in what order these items would be applied.

After figuring this part out, the lighting designer suggested that we should look into building fiber-optics into the wall, in order to “help” it shine.

When finished there was 20,000 feet of fiber-optic strand run through the walls which were then connected to three fiber-optic illuminators.

Once all of the walls were assembled, the paint department could come in and start adding toning glazes to help unify the parts.

Photo by Cindy Farruggia. Ten pounds of glitter in various color tones and sizes was used on the walls.

Mecca Set Building

From Joanna, Communications Manager

The Road to Mecca director Leigh Silverman calls the Mecca set a "fourth character in the play." Here's a picture of set designer Rachel Hauck's set model. The finished product took 400 lbs of cork (to look like sand) and 20,000 feet of fiber optic cable for some very magical lighting effect. Click here for a full slide show of photos of the set building in our scene shop.

Photo by Cindy Farruggia.

Re-Introducing Athol Fugard to Seattle

From Jerry Manning, Producing Artistic Director

In early September—two days after I was appointed Producing Artistic Director— it became clear that a planned production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot was not going happen. Skittish outside producers and wavering directors derailed the play. What were we going to produce in its stead?

The Road to Mecca immediately sprang to mind.

In the late 1980s into the early 1990s it seemed that South African writer Athol Fugard had a new play every season. My Children! My Africa! and Valley Song were mounted by companies around the country. Fugard’s work always carried strong political content—most specifically about the oppression of apartheid and the effects that the South African social system exacted on both white and black people. His plays told simple, personal stories of people struggling with racial segregation.

The Road to Mecca is set in South Africa during the time of apartheid, but in this play Fugard deals with a myriad of themes, with race only a tangential focus. How does one define independence? What constitutes art and who determines such? What role does religion play in our lives, and at what point does religion undermine our self-expressiveness? What moral obligations exist between young and old folks?

The generational themes struck me particularly as I re-read The Road to Mecca. Every year the Rep takes on as many as a dozen interns, recent graduates from some of the country’s best schools. I asked one of the new interns to pull some information on Athol Fugard and apartheid—I was met with blank stares. People now in their early 20s have no recollection of it. No recollection of Robbins Island and the Krugerrand. No real knowledge of Athol Fugard’s work. We thought it time to change that.

I am pleased to welcome back to Seattle Rep Leigh Silverman who staged Blue Door here two seasons ago. I am also delighted to welcome back to this theatre Marya Sea Kaminski (last seen here as Rachel Corrie), Terry Moore, and Dee Maaske who last appeared at the Rep in The Caucasian Chalk Circle. And I am pleased to re-introduce Athol Fugard to this community.

The Road to Mecca is currently in rehearsals and opens Jan. 15.