As I mentioned in Google Buzz, this past weekend held much theater for me to execute-- planning a piece, building a set, and seeing a show.
The piece I helped to plan was for the performance part of morethings5*'s post-bac show. We figured out in more detail the choreography and the direction of the piece, and threw around some ideas for costumes and makeup. The idea is that we will do a silent series of actions related to the pieces of visual art he's displaying to tell a connected story. I'm very excited, it should be really interesting. We plan to do a rehearsal of sorts in some public space, as Jonathan feels audience reaction is extremely important. The real show will go up Wednesday, April 14th from 5 to 7PM in the Dreitzer Gallery, the art gallery in the lobby of the Spingold Theater. It should be interesting and offbeat, and I suggest you come see Kindness's art, and me, in it.
This weekend we also got a lot of the set built for Julius Caesar. I have to say, this was the most efficient and most pleasant build I've ever been on. The core group of HTP by now has had several show's worth of experience constructing sets, particularly platforms, and with just some instruction this cast put together seven perfect platforms in just three hours. Bernie is a good leader and organizer, and the cast just worked so well together. After how tough the tech week was for the previous mainstage show, it was quite a validation that we could pull it off so smoothly. Last night was strike for the HTG show that went up this past weekend, which I could not attend, and I wonder how it went. It had to start very late due to the unusual Sunday evening time of the show. I'll be going back over to help today, though, after lunch with Jared. I hope there is more I can do to help, and that things continue as well as they began.
Finally, the show we saw was the Actor's Shakespeare Project's production of Othello, organized by katiescarlett29* for her boyfriend Walter's birthday. It was a very nice group we went with, consisting mostly of awesome Hold Thy Peace members. One thing that I've noticed recently is this is the first generation of Hold Thy Peace that I've been witness to where pretty much everyone in the group is friends and spends time together outside of the group. I mean, previous generations have certainly liked each other, but their main connection to one other was that they were all in Hold Thy Peace, and they weren't particularly social outside of it. I like how now everyone is actually friends who enjoy spending time together. Jared and I had a very nice time being together and being with friends. The show itself was good, if a bit long; my back and knees were starting to get stiff by the end of it. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Iago was played by Ken Cheeseman, an artist-in-residence at Emerson and my brother Casey's teacher. If I remember correctly, Casey is a TA for him. His Iago was very good, though perhaps a little bit more comedic than I'm used to, and I enjoyed him.
The rest of this week will be Caesar-devoted. I am planning on helping out as much as I can with build, and I've also agreed to run photo call and operate the camera to film the show during one of the performances. Should be busy, but I am resolving not to stay too late, and to just do as much as I can without messing up my schedule. :-) The show runs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 8PM in the Shapiro Theater, if anyone is inclined to see it. I myself will be attending all three performances, and I'd enjoy the company. I have yet to see any of the show as I didn't want to spoil myself, but everyone feels good about it, and it promises to be a good piece.
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