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.
Showing posts with label Leigh Silverman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leigh Silverman. Show all posts
Celebrating color, life and artistic freedom
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Labels:
Helen Martins,
Leigh Silverman,
The Owl House,
The Road to Mecca
Mecca Opening Night=Cocktails
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Labels:
Leigh Silverman,
opening night,
The Owl House,
The Road to Mecca
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:
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:
Mecca Set Building
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Labels:
Leigh Silverman,
Rachel Hauck,
scene shop,
set,
The Road to Mecca
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.
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.
Through the Blue Door
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Labels:
Blue Door,
Hubert Point-Du Jour,
Leigh Silverman,
Leo K.,
Reg E. Cathey,
Tanya Barfield,
The Wire
From Joanna Horowitz, Communications Department
Tuesday we had the meet-and-greet for the next show we're opening in the Leo K, Blue Door. The staff consensus was that this might have been one of our best meet-and-greets ever. Coming off two weeks of rehearsal in New York, the cast of two (Reg E. Cathey and Hubert Point-Du Jour) and director Leigh Silverman seem really relaxed and comfortable with each other. So much so, that Leigh shared the funny story of how she cast Hubert. Apparently she was really determined to cast an older, experienced actor in Hubert's part, which requires him to play over 20 characters or different ages, races and genders. But the rather young Hubert (I'm still trying to dig up his age) just floored them during the audition. So much that as soon as he left, they called him right away and asked him to come back in (he had gotten as far as the bathroom), where Leigh drilled him with questions like "are you SURE you can handle this?" Hubert was sure. You might have seen the other half of the cast, Reg, on the TV show The Wire where he plays Norman Wilson. Leigh made sure we all knew TV Guide had declared that the E of his middle name must stand for Excellent.
All backpatting aside, I think this show is going to be really cool. I've been entrenched in creating the lobby display (when you come to the show, look for the big posters in the Rotunda and imagine me hard at work at my computer), and have gotten to do a lot of research on the show, playwright Tanya Barfield, and some of the show's themes. Blue Door is about an insomniac mathematics professor who is confronted by his ancestors during a sleepless night. Their stories about slavery, Black Power and academia get him thinking about what it means to be black, especially a black man. The interesting thing about this show? It was written by a black woman and directed by a white woman. I think that's just a testament to this play's ability to speak to everyone. I mean, we all have ancestors. We all have stories. We're all searching for something.
The play deals a lot with the issues of double conciousness: how the main character Lewis views himself as a black man versus how others view him. Everyone has a sense of double conciousness, I think. I do being half Jewish. I'm also a small town girl in a big city, which gives me another sort of duality. I'd be interested to know what other kinds of double conciouness exist. Thoughts?
Tuesday we had the meet-and-greet for the next show we're opening in the Leo K, Blue Door. The staff consensus was that this might have been one of our best meet-and-greets ever. Coming off two weeks of rehearsal in New York, the cast of two (Reg E. Cathey and Hubert Point-Du Jour) and director Leigh Silverman seem really relaxed and comfortable with each other. So much so, that Leigh shared the funny story of how she cast Hubert. Apparently she was really determined to cast an older, experienced actor in Hubert's part, which requires him to play over 20 characters or different ages, races and genders. But the rather young Hubert (I'm still trying to dig up his age) just floored them during the audition. So much that as soon as he left, they called him right away and asked him to come back in (he had gotten as far as the bathroom), where Leigh drilled him with questions like "are you SURE you can handle this?" Hubert was sure. You might have seen the other half of the cast, Reg, on the TV show The Wire where he plays Norman Wilson. Leigh made sure we all knew TV Guide had declared that the E of his middle name must stand for Excellent.
All backpatting aside, I think this show is going to be really cool. I've been entrenched in creating the lobby display (when you come to the show, look for the big posters in the Rotunda and imagine me hard at work at my computer), and have gotten to do a lot of research on the show, playwright Tanya Barfield, and some of the show's themes. Blue Door is about an insomniac mathematics professor who is confronted by his ancestors during a sleepless night. Their stories about slavery, Black Power and academia get him thinking about what it means to be black, especially a black man. The interesting thing about this show? It was written by a black woman and directed by a white woman. I think that's just a testament to this play's ability to speak to everyone. I mean, we all have ancestors. We all have stories. We're all searching for something.
The play deals a lot with the issues of double conciousness: how the main character Lewis views himself as a black man versus how others view him. Everyone has a sense of double conciousness, I think. I do being half Jewish. I'm also a small town girl in a big city, which gives me another sort of duality. I'd be interested to know what other kinds of double conciouness exist. Thoughts?
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