Beginning work on my graphic novel project

Right now I'm doing my first bit of actually productive work on figuring out the plot for my graphic novel assignment. I always have trouble when I try to start a project without already have an idea for it, as opposed to starting the project because I was struck by an idea. But I think I've got at least the seedling of a plotline. Ages ago, I wrote a ten minute play set in the same universe as To Think of Nothing, about the first actress to play the role of Selene in Cassander's play being afraid that she's not good enough for the role, and not good enough for her acclaimed director, who she regards with a kind of reverence that might hint at something more. I like the bones of that play, but it should really be rewritten now that I've grown as a writer. I want to adapt the idea of this piece for the comic, because I click with the concept at least enough to begin, though I am still deciding how much I want to stick to it or deviate from it.

I go often to using theater as my subject matter, because I know and love it well. I can get engaged and write intelligently about the process of making theater. As of this writing, my two one acts that have been performed use theater as subject matter, To Think of Nothing and Merely Players. From there, To Think of Nothing spawned Fountain Thoughts, and that little piece I wrote to practice iambic pentameter. Eventually I'd like to write other things in that universe. Then there's Merely Players, from which I am in the practice of adapting the larp Break a Leg. There's also Just So, which lovingly mocks the kind of people that are sometimes drawn to theater. I hope to not overuse it, but when I'm having trouble figuring out what to work on it's a good shortcut to getting myself invested in the material.

The question now is whether to follow the thread as it appears in Fountain Thoughts or to just use it as a jumping-off point. I know I want a major concept in the piece to be a rivalry between two female artists, played by niobien* and blendedchaitea*. But a scene I worked on today that I am really feeling makes the most sense if Rachel's character, at least, is a dancer. Now, I could make it so they are both dancers and actresses-- certainly a thing that happens --but perhaps just to move myself away from my typical milieu I should make this a story about dance rather than theater. I'm even lucky in that my two first choice models are talented dancers. But if I did that, I'd be concerned that my lesser familiarity and understanding of that process would make me less able to depict an interested story within it. I guess I'll have to work on the plot a little more to figure out which setting would support it better. I just know I really like the one scene I did today, and that at least requires dance.



The knockoff Atonement dress

You may remember that this past April, to console myself upon aging out of the best years of my life, I purchased a dress off of eBay that was designed to resemble the gorgeous green silk charmeuse gown worn by Keira Knightley in the film Atonement. I've had it for some time now, but have yet to have an occasion to wear it. But one thing I've been meaning to do is take pictures of myself in it to post here.

The dress is not a perfect fit. It's actually cut for someone less curvy than I, if you can believe that. It's a bit tight in the hips, so it has to ride up to lay right, which makes it rumple in the waist. I like how the bust shaping gives me definition. There's just same old problem I have regarding my boxy, massively oversized ribcage that means the zipper in the back only mostly closes. I think that also means the straps are not pulled as taut as they should be, and are prone to slipping. I may shorten them a bit because of that. Fortunately the back shape camaflauges the slightly gaping top of the zipper. I've always found a bare back very sexy, particularly my own.

If I remade it, which I'd like to do someday, I may copy the original, but I also would love to make it as the Tailor dress. Cornflower blue, slight cowl neck over a close-fitting beaded bodice with a straight skirt. And of course, sized to my proportions. Or possibly someone else's-- niobien* not only plays Bethany Loring, the wearer of the famous dress, she is the one cast member who I actually think physically resembles what I picture for her character. It sure would be fun to dress her up in such a gown and take her portrait in character.

But even if this dress is not perfect on me, I still like it. It has a long train and is very hot, which makes it not the easiest dress to wear, but it is a fabulous, flattering, striking color and I love the drama of it. And at the very least, it will be good inspiration for future dressmaking efforts. 

 

Adviser meetings went well, projects set

Met with both my advisers this morning to nail down my projects for the semester, and I feel good about them. My playwrighting adviser is going to be Jami Brandli, who I've admired because of both how cool she seems and how young she is to have become a successful writer; she's got to be less than forty, and yet she's one of my teachers. And I've read some of her work, she's really good. I decided to be very frank about the stuff residency makes me struggle with, and she was very understanding, which I appreciated. I will in fact be working on Mrs. Hawking, which excites me. Jami is interested in plays that focus on women's narratives, so I think she will appreciate what I'm trying to do. I also have to write an eight to ten page essay on an aspect of the playwrighting craft that I struggle with. Not sure what that subject will be, but I think the focus on a weakness will teach and improve me a lot.

The other project I am going to do is some kind of comic. My adviser here is a really nice graphic novelist named John Rozum who is giving me a ton of freedom to experiment with the form, which is cool. I don't know what my plot is going to be yet, but I have decided I want niobien* to model for my main character, and I want blendedchaitea* to feature prominently as well. First of all, I think they are lovely girls who I would enjoy taking pictures of. Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, I have seen that they are remarkably good at conveying information with just their expression and body language. I knew that about Carolyn from her awesome performance as the pantomime character in Merely Players, as well as when she modeled as Daphne the tree ballerina/wood nymph. But Rachel first struck me when she was a dancer in Charlotte's Nennivia movement piece. Though she never spoke, I was impressed by how she always got across just what she was thinking from her physical expression alone. So I think they will make excellent physical actors to represent characters in a medium where the visual is so important. I'm sure I'll need more people to play other characters, but I know I want to prominently feature those two.

Choreography with Charlotte and Carolyn!

Yesterday I went to the Gosman dance studio with Charlotte and Carolyn and had a great time working on the Avengers-themed dance piece idea. I had all these ideas, images of what the dance would look like as I listened to the music, but I was having a hard time figuring out how to externalize those images into something physical. Charlotte and Carolyn were amazing with that. I'd tell them "blah blah random thing I was thinking for this section," and they'd be like, "Oh, what about this?" and bust out some really cool moves that worked both in a practical sense and the idea I was trying to get at. It was a blast, and they are super-creative. They worked together on Charlotte's independent study in dance, and did an amazing job, and they were just as amazing here.

We worked on I'm Alive by Shinedown, which I decided that the arrogant tone could only be suited to Iron Man. I thought it might be fun to have the song show that character bullying the Bruce Banner character into stepping up, getting involved in the hero game. I thought Carolyn would make the cutest Iron Man dancer, and I've already got some great ideas for her costume. But between the three of us-- mostly me babbling semi-coherently, and the two of them translating it into dance --we worked out the first forty-five seconds of the song! And it's good stuff, too. I'm incredibly pleased. We need to work out when we can do it again, because I am feeling incredibly energized to work on this.

The Daphne Series

Here are the roughly edited photos selected from the awesome photo shoot I did featuring the lovely niobien*. I just can't get over how amazing she looks.

Carolyn is playing Daphne, a dancing nature spirit.

We put a ballerina in a tree, and she turned into a wood nymph

I enjoyed doing the photo shoot with Gigi so much that I felt the need to do another one!

Yesterday niobien* was kind enough to allow me to dress her up and mess up her hair and send her up into trees so I could take pictures of her. katiescarlett29* served as my lovely assistant helping me figure out shots. The genesis of this one was that I had these two unusual dresses that I thrifted a while back, the ballerina-like pixie dress and a hundred percent silk empire-waisted gown in shades of green and brown. They are quite pretty, and I've never had a chance to do anything with them. At the same time, I've always loved the way Carolyn looks. She is petite with a dancer's body, a sweet face, and a gorgeous fall of wavy hair. It occurred to me that as she's close to my size, she would be able to wear the interesting things I've bought myself at thrift stores. The fact that she has a background in ballet-- she even was nice enough to come to class with me once --gave me the idea to put her in the pixie dress. Once I decided that we'd do the shoot outside, taking advantage of Carolyn's tree-climbing skills, I thought the brown and green silk dress would both suit her and fit into the environment.

Carolyn is a wonderful model. I knew she'd be fun to work with because of her expressive physicality-- it was what allowed her to bring such life and humor to the pantomime character Audrey in Merely Players. But she is also just a wellspring of ideas for poses, kind of dreamily flowing from one into the next, always finding some way to work herself into her environment in an interesting way. I gave her some suggestions for shots I wanted to see, but mostly everything we captured was her idea, with Steph moving around helping to spot good angles from which to take the picture.

Here's one of my favorite shots, completely unedited. Would you look at how beautiful this girl is?

We went to the area around the chapels on Brandeis campus because it's so pretty. The idea behind the shoot was not as cohesive as the one for Gigi's. I saw her as a sort of fairy-spirit-creature who incorporated the elegant composition of ballet into a more wild natural setting. Steph suggested we call this character "Daphne," which I think fits. I like the strong contrast between those two elements, and the contrast between the more structured, precise poses of Carolyn in the ballet dress and the more freeform poses of Carolyn in the silk dress. It really took advantage of Carolyn's look and physicality-- she could climb the trees, she could do the ballet positions, and she could do them both at the same time! The look of the silk dress and its accompanying style probably worked a little better, but I am happy with everything. Here's a nice one of her in the ballet dress:

With the brown and green dress we also got to include another neat little detail that I think added a lot. I like to save little bits of material from other things and incorporate them into later projects. It can be fun to tell the story of where those pieces came from when showing off the final product. For this other costume, we braided two green ribbons into Carolyn's hair for kind of a wild, messy look. One of those green ribbons was around a box of fancy nuts that morethings5* once so sweetly brought as a host gift to a dinner party I had (which impressed my parents mightily!) The other was a table favor from the wedding of Kerri and Andrew, whose wedding colors were green and brown.

So I'm really happy with this project. I will clean up the pictures a little and post the best ones here and on Facebook. I will be doing more of these in the future, I think, and I would definitely love to shoot Carolyn again sometime.

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge #13.10 - Tom confronts Kenneth and learns who he really is

This is a scene for Tailor that I've had in my head for a while now, of Tom confronting Kenneth about his part in the mystery and learning who the poor old drunk really is. It's in very rough form right now, as I just wrote it last night and haven't edited it at all, but I'm glad I banged it out.

As I mentioned, the other night I recorded Plesser and Jared in their respective roles of Tom and Kenneth. They were so great I wanted to work on more of their interaction, so this long-awaited scene came into being. I am working on setting up a strong parallelism in the story between Alice and Bethany, and I want to echo it to a slightly lesser extent with Tom and Kenneth, that the older, broken man sees some of who he used to be in the intrepid younger man. I'm also glad to get a little more dialogue for Emma and Bethany in by way of the flashback. I loved the slightly sad, carefully controlled, weight-of-the-world tone rigel* used when playing Emma, so I think knowing about the style she was going to use informed how I wrote her here. Also, I am just excited to have more acting opportunity for Carolyn, who is shaping up so nicely and putting such amazing sincerity and passion into the part.

KENNETH: Jesus Christ! You!

TOM: What were you doing out that other night?

KENNETH: What? Let me go!

TOM: Not until you talk to me! When I ran into you on the road, what were you doing?

KENNETH: None of your business!

TOM: I was up at the Loring’s place, just like you said. And I think you were too.

KENNETH: What are you talking about?

TOM: You were the one who broke in, weren’t you?

KENNETH: Screw off!

TOM: You had your arm hurt just like the burglar. You were hanging around just outside the grounds. And you’re too hot after anything to do with that family.

KENNETH: Oh, you got no idea!

TOM: What do you have against the Lorings?

KENNETH: Plenty, boy!

TOM: Did you want something from them? Money? What did they ever do to you?

KENNETH: More than you’ll ever know! So leave me to my own business!

TOM: Tell me what you’re up to.

KENNETH: No!

TOM: I could have the police after you in a minute! You were real sore against Miss Emma, weren’t you?

KENNETH: So what if I was?

TOM: Because she’s dead, that’s what! Because somebody killed her, and I think it was you!

KENNETH: Me? I didn’t do nothing to her!

TOM: You broke into her house and went digging through her things. We know what you were after, Kenneth. We found Emma’s papers. She was looking into the death of Bethany Loring.

KENNETH: I know that!

TOM: What did you want with those papers? Did you have something to do with that too?

KENNETH: You don’t know what you’re on about!

TOM: Did you want to hurt that girl too?

KENNETH: I never! I wanted to marry her!

TOM: What?

KENNETH: You think you know everything just because that little niece let you in? Think you’re so damn clever! You don’t know a bit of what went on in that house! I never would have hurt that girl in a thousand years. Bethany and me… we were… we loved each other.

TOM: How did you know her?

KENNETH: We worked there. My old man was Loring’s valet. I was a stable boy. Her father had me give Bethany her riding lessons, and we got to talking. She was about my age, and such a nice girl… we fell in love.

TOM: Nobody ever told me about Bethany having a sweetheart.

KENNETH: We kept it secret of, course. We had to! Her father never would have stood for it. He had bigger plans for his baby girl than some ruffian minding horses. We didn’t know how we were going to be together, but then...

TOM: What changed?

KENNETH: Emma found us out.

(Flashback effect.)

EMMA: Bethany? Mrs. Warren told me you’d gone out to the stables. Bethany?

(Sound of footsteps. Pause.)

BETHANY: Emma!

EMMA: Oh, Bethany…

BETHANY: What are you doing here?

EMMA: Looking for you. I wondered why you were suddenly so devoted to your riding lessons.

KENNETH: Oh, please, miss…

BETHANY: Emma, you can’t tell anyone.

EMMA: Bethany, what are you doing?

KENNETH: Miss, you don’t understand.

BETHANY: I love him, and he loves me.

EMMA: I see. How long has this been going on?

KENNETH: Since last spring, miss.

EMMA: Oh, good heavens. I see we’re all such practiced secret keepers.

BETHANY: Father would never understand. He’d only separate us!

KENNETH: I swear, miss, I only mean to be good to your sister. I’d never bring her to any harm. I love her, miss.

BETHANY: Please, Emma.

EMMA: (Sighing.) Very well, dear.

(Flashback effect.)

KENNETH: I kept waiting for her old man or her big brother to come down on us, but they never did, so I suppose she kept her promise. She never spoke to us about it again until we found out about what Mr. Loring was planning.

TOM: The arranged marriage.

KENNETH: Yes. How do you know that?

TOM: It was in Emma’s papers.

KENNETH: She said she was going to help us. Help us get away, so we could be together. She hatched this plan for me to whisk Bethany away from her coming out ball and slip away into the night. She said she had something that if Loring ever came after us, we could make sure he’d stay away.

TOM: What was that?

KENNETH: I don’t know, Emma never told me. But I trusted her, that cold bitch, for all the good it did. So I did what she said, and waited for Bethany just outside the party. I waited for hours, it felt like. All night. Then I heard how they found her, all broken like that… I never got to see her again.

TOM: What went wrong?

KENNETH: That’s the devil of it! I don’t know! I was there at the garden gate just like we planned, but she never came to meet me.

TOM: Emma still blamed you.

KENNETH: For letting it happen. Afterward she chased me off. Dismissed me from my job and told me never to show my face at Loring’s End again. The hag didn’t know who to blame so she settled on me.

TOM: And you swear you didn’t have anything to do with it?

KENNETH: I was a stupid boy, Tom, just like you are. But I loved her, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t have done to keep her safe.

TOM: And not Miss Emma either?

KENNETH: I didn’t kill her. More like she killed me. Swear on poor Bethany’s grave.

TOM: Then… help me.

KENNETH: Help you?

TOM: Yes. Help me figure out what’s going on here. It may be the only way to ever know what really happened to Bethany.

KENNETH: And… you won’t turn me in to the cops?

TOM: If what you say is true, no, I won’t. Just work with me. We’ve got almost twenty years of secrets to dig through here. I need all the help I can get.

(Pause.)

TOM: And then there’s Miss Alice. She’s a real nice girl, Kenneth. She needs all the help she can get too.

KENNETH: For all the good an old drunk like me can do you… I’ll help you how I can.

TOM: Thank you. Listen, I’m sorry about how Miss Emma treated you. But I think she hurt just like you do. Whatever she was doing, I think she just wanted to know what happened too.

KENNETH: Might be.

TOM: She must have thought about her a lot. When she came to me, she wanted me to make a copy of Bethany’s gown. She gave me this picture of her.

KENNETH: Picture? Could I… could I see it?

(Crinkling as TOM produces the clipping and hands it to KENNETH.)

KENNETH: Haven’t seen her in years. Didn’t have no pictures of her. Afraid I was going to forget what she looked like. (Pause.) My God, she was beautiful.

TOM: I’m sorry.

KENNETH: Not as sorry as I am. Go on now, Tom. I’ll be seeing you around. Let’s make it in the daylight next time, with no more shoving.

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge #13.9 - Tailor of Riddling Way, scene 2.5

Last night we finished recording the last voice in the scene we began with rigel* and thefarowl* last Saturday. Bernie and I snagged niobien* after the design meeting for Titus. We cleaned up the recording of the other two voices so that Carolyn would have something to respond to, and I'm very pleased with the results. We played the other two voice tracks and let Carolyn speak in the pauses we specifically left to accomodate her lines. Directing for voice recording is a different experience than directing for the stage, and the best ways of doing so are emerging to me slowly through practice. I'm really happy to have cast Carolyn, by the way. She has exactly the right sound for the character of Bethany Loring, and I loved working with her so much in Merely Players that I wanted to give her a speaking role and see how she did. Her enthusiasm and effort really comes through in her performance. The scene obviously hasn't really been edited yet, but technically we have a completely recorded piece. It's our first, the first of many we will need to do. :-)

This is probably the last scene in Episode 2, immediately following the large chunk that I posted yesterday. This scene went in a slightly different direction from how I expected it to. I wanted this part to place the issue of the class conflict overtly on the table. Della, who is a friend of Tom's and from a similar working-class background, forces him to think about how he may have to confront the realities of dealing with people of significantly higher social standing. I also included a hint that Tom's developing feelings for Alice. I was debating whether or not to include that in the story at all-- except maybe a suggestion that was where things were going at the very end, once everything is resolved --but I realized that can be a way of underscoring the class issue, of giving something for the two of them to deal with. Upping the conflict, I have learned from my grad program, is always an important part of designing a compelling story.

I am also looking forward to having inwaterwrit* in the role of Della. She was one of the few that couldn't make the read through, so I haven't had a chance to hear her yet, and I am very excited for when I finally do. I think she will do a great job bringing the sensibility, loyalty, and down-to-earth humanity that I want for the part. I also enjoy writing parts and dialogue with the actor in mind, so I've had her voice in my head as I put this scene together.

SCENE 2.5

SETTING: Tailor’s shop on Riddling Way

(Sound of sewing machine running. The bell rings as the front door opens. Steps coming inside.)

DELLA: Knock, knock. I need to see the tailor quite urgently. I’ve got a button emergency.

TOM: Della! To what do I owe the pleasure?

DELLA: Packed up a little something from the kitchen for you.

TOM: Ah, you shouldn’t have.

DELLA: Nothing fancy. Cold chicken, roast carrots and parsnips.

TOM: Sounds lovely, thank you. You know, you don’t have to keep bringing me dinner. I promise I won’t starve.

DELLA: Don’t kid yourself, Tom, I know how you are when you’re caught up in your work. Besides, you’ll fix my husband’s suits in trade. Nobody sews like you do.

TOM: Well, it’s a fair trade, then. I sure can’t cook like you.

DELLA: Good thing, then. We make one decent housewife between us!

(They laugh.)

TOM: Hand that coat over, then. I’ll spruce it up for you.

DELLA: Thanks, dear. You know I love to feed you, trade or no trade. You can use someone to take care of you.

TOM: However did I win myself so many lady champions? You know, the young niece of Miss Emma Loring stood up for me to the policemen at the estate.

DELLA: Must be your boyish charm. Or might be you seem helpless on your own.

TOM: Might be. Now, Della, I wanted to ask you… what do you know about that fellow that hangs around your pub sometimes? The one that was acting so strange the other day?

DELLA: You mean Kenny the ne’er-do-well? Little enough, I suppose. I spend more time chasing him off than getting acquainted with him.

TOM: Still. Anything at all you know, or you’ve noticed.

DELLA: Well… I know he’s been around for a pretty long while. Takes work once in a while minding rich folks’ horses. Though I wouldn’t think he works much at all. And he’s been in and out of the county jail more than his fair share.

TOM: What’s he done?

DELLA: Got drunk and acted like an ass, I’d guess. That seems to be his way.

TOM: Is he from around here?

DELLA: Think so. Would explain why he always comes back.

TOM: Hmmm.

DELLA: What makes you ask about him?

TOM: I think he’s got something to do with that bad business up at Loring’s End.

DELLA: Because of what he said at the pub the other day?

TOM: Yeah. He seemed awful interested in what I saw up there. And he sure had something against Miss Emma.

DELLA: I see what you mean.

TOM: There’s something odd going on up there, Del. It goes deep, and it started a long time before this. They try not to let on about it, but they’ve had it rough for quite a while.

DELLA: Just goes to show, money can’t buy happiness.

TOM: That’s for sure. And you know, on my way home from the estate the other night, I ran into Kenneth on the road, drunk and muttering about the place. I want to know what he’s up to.

DELLA: You went back to Loring’s End?

TOM: Of course I did. There’s a lot going on around that house that nobody knows, and I’ve promised Miss Alice to help her find out what.

DELLA: You’re helping little Miss Loring.

TOM: Yeah.

DELLA: To go digging around in their family things.

TOM: Yeah.

DELLA: Tom… are you certain about this?

TOM: Certain about what?

DELLA: Well, going so far out of your way for this girl.

TOM: Sure I am. She needs the help, and there’s nobody else who will.

DELLA: That’s real good of you, Tom. It’s just…

TOM: Just what?

DELLA: People like that, big fancy rich people… they don’t like it when you stick your nose into their private affairs.

TOM: I’m not afraid of that. They’ve been hiding all this for far too long. Especially from Miss Alice.

DELLA: Maybe so, Tom. But once you do them what they want, they don’t always take to making friends with regular folks like us.

TOM: Oh, go on.

DELLA: Sure, they’re glad to use you if they need it, but once they’re through they aren’t going to be having you to tea on Sunday.

TOM: Alice isn’t like that.

DELLA: Oh?

TOM: She isn’t. She’s kind, and she needs help.

DELLA: I see… are you getting sweet on her, Tom?

TOM: Della.

DELLA: Well, that’s what it sounds like. Can’t blame me for asking.

TOM: That’s… that’s not the reason.

DELLA: I have to tell you, Tom, that can’t end well. That rich family of hers… they’re not going to stand for it.

TOM: That doesn’t matter. It’s the right thing to do.

DELLA: Tom, I just worry for—

TOM: Della. That’s enough.

DELLA: All right, dear, all right. I hope you know what you’re doing.

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge #11.4 - A flashback from The Tailor of Riddling Way

Flashbacks are going to be an important part of The Tailor. The events and injustices of the past that were never revealed or made right drive the story in the modern day, and I want to depict those characters living out the events in a way that slowly reveals the entire picture. Here is a scene involving two of the Loring sisters, seventeen-year-old Bethany and twenty-five-year-old Emma, consulting a local skilled dressmaker by the name of Abigail Barrows, mother to our hero Tom, back during the end years of World War I.

As a side note, I am having a hard time casting some of my female roles. Miss Bethany I know I want to be played by niobien*; I think she'd have just the right sound for the role, and I also really want to direct her in a speaking part. But while I know the pool of talented actresses I am going to be picking from, I am having a hard time deciding who should play the rest of my female roles. I have never had such casting indecision in my life. Perhaps I should have people read for them, to see who actually does sound best. Frankly they're all good enough that I could just assign them randomly and the piece would come out, but casting is a process dear to my heart and I'd like to make the best match I can. I guess I'm spoiled for choice by having people with too broad a range of talent!

           SETTING: Loring’s End, 1917

BETHANY: Hello. Are you the seamstress?

ABIGAIL: I am. My name is Abigail Barrows. I hope you’ll find my work to your liking.

EMMA: Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mrs. Barrows. I trust you’ve been told Bethany here is soon to have her coming out ball?

ABIGAIL: I have, miss.

EMMA: She’ll be needing something special to wear. Something suitable for the nature of the event.

ABIGAIL: I very much understand. Something to make her seem more a woman than a girl.

EMMA: Exactly, thank you, madam.

ABIGAIL: I’ll just take your measurements, then, miss. Lift your arms, please.

BETHANY: Oh. Like this?

ABIGAIL: Thank you. I know just the thing. A straight skirt to lengthen the leg, a close-fitting bodice to flatter a delicate figure. The material will come dear, though, with the rationing…

EMMA: Not to worry. We have secured it already. Please, have a look at this bolt.

BETHANY: Do you think you can use it?

ABIGAIL: Oh, my! I haven’t seen so much fine silk since before the war!

BETHANY: Most decent people haven’t.

ABIGAIL: However did you get it?

EMMA: Our family deals in textiles of all varieties. Such are our spoils.

ABIGAIL: You have lovely taste. It will suit you well, Miss Bethany. I would suggest beading it in dark blue and ivory, to best set off the color. Beadwork is my specialty, you see.

BETHANY: That does sounds beautiful.

ABIGAIL: I’m very glad you think so. I will make sketches of the design for you and send them over. Did you want to talk about your wedding gown in this visit as well?

BETHANY: My what?

EMMA: I beg your pardon, Mrs. Barrows?

ABIGAIL: I’m sorry, it was something Mr. Loring said…

EMMA: What did our father say, Mrs. Barrows?

ABIGAIL: He said he wanted to engage me for more than just the ball gown. He wanted me to make Miss Bethany’s wedding dress as well.

BETHANY: Why would he tell you that? Emma, why would I need a wedding dress?

ABIGAIL: Perhaps I misunderstood…?

EMMA: No, I don’t think you did. Bethany, dear, I believe Father’s plans for you have become entirely clear.

BETHANY: Oh… oh, no. It’s that man, isn’t it? That man with the accent… Father is going to make me… oh, no.

EMMA: Heaven help us.

ABIGAIL: Did I speak out of turn?

BETHANY: (Breaks down sobbing.)

ABIGAIL: Oh, my… miss, whatever is the matter?

BETHANY: So it is true! He is selling me like a sheep.

ABIGAIL: Oh, miss, I… I don’t know what to—

BETHANY: Emma, what am I going to do?

EMMA:  Our brother warned me of this, but—

BETHANY: Rowan knew? Why didn’t he tell me? Why didn’t you tell me?

EMMA: Please, Bethany, it doesn’t matter now.

BETHANY: How could you keep this from me?

EMMA: I was waiting until the time was right! I was going to help you!

BETHANY: How?

EMMA: I— I don’t know yet. But not now, Bethany, this is a family matter.

BETHANY: Bother family matters, Emma! You all say family matters when you mean lies and silence and secrets! I won’t have any more of it! I… I’m sorry, Mrs. Barrows. But I don’t know what to do.

ABIGAIL: Not at all, child. If you’d like, you can tell me your troubles. There may be something I can do.

EMMA: Mrs. Barrows…

BETHANY: We must have help from somewhere, Emma.

EMMA: (Sighing) Yes. Yes, we must must.

ABIGAIL: Please, tell me. Perhaps… perhaps I can help.

Merely Players triumphant

Merely Players came to its triumphant conclusion this weekend, and I am incredibly pleased. We filled our little house both nights, and most gratifyingly of all, they laughed! They followed the show and got the humor! Thanks so much to all you lovely people who came out to see it. Your support means a great deal to me.

Plus we got to test the unusual performance format. More than just our show doing well, I am pleased by the proof of concept. People will come to a show with a cabaret-style setup and buy the snacks and have a good time. That is a doable endeavor that will succeed. Hold Thy Peace could use this format for side projects in the future.

Schwartz is a shit theater space, let me tell you. It's more meant to be a lecture hall than a performance venue, so opportunities for tech are minimal-- a presention sound system and a couple of light switches you can flip on and off are pretty much the extent of it. But we chose it because it fit the aesthetic of our show. I didn't want the polished atmosphere of trying to immerse you in the illusion of another world that so much theater aims for. Instead we wanted, as I like to say, all the nuts and bolts of theater on display. Instead of hiding the trappings of a production, we used them as our set dressing-- you could see our cruddy worklights on the side aisles, the props tables and costume rack set out in plain view. And on top of that, the actors were almost never out of sight, always in character off to the sides even when they weren't on the stage. It drove the point of the metatheater home nicely, and created an immersion of another sort, one where the audience almost feels like it's on the inside of the production rather than just being witness to the final product of it.

It wouldn't have happened without our fabulous staff. Sari, Sam, and Elena came in to wrangle the lousy space and equipment into submission, making our technical functions work in spite of everything. The hardworking waitstaff made up of Plesser, Caitlin, Charlotte, Tziporah, and Simon I thank most graciously for lending their time and effort to pulling off this whole "cabaret with concessions" scheme. Rachel is consistently one of the only designers I feel like I can simply hand off the job to, because I always trust her to do good work. And of course there's Bernie, for whom none of my theatrical endeavors would ever get off the ground. He supports me tirelessly with his work and expertise, and I can't express how amazing I find it that he can take the entire technical burden off my shoulders and make it appear, almost by magic, for me every single time.

My cast was great as well. Lenny, for example, blows me away with how incredibly generous an actor she is, having an excellent sense of how to balance the push-pull of onstage interaction. I chose the role of the Fool for her just to watch her GO, and she did not disappoint. For someone so big and active onstage, she really know how to share it, to extend when it's her time such that she holds the eye captive, and to withdraw to allow attention to shift to those onstage with her. She and Andrew have a particularly remarkable ability to read one another, to pick up on where the other is going and then to move to meet and balance them. I saw it first in Othello when they played Iago and Roderigo, but it definitely showed here too. Andrew himself is finally really hitting his stride as an actor, learning how to use his physicality, make effective choices, and convey expression with his voice. I can't wait to see how he continues to grow; this was a very good semester for him, first with an important serious role in Margaret, and then a comedic one in Merely Players.

Steph was so great in her part as the Director. The character was very much outside her acting experience, and she'd also never done comedy before, so the great work she did here really impressed me with her stretching. The character is in many ways one big parody of yours truly, and Steph exaggerated many of my habits and mannerisms to great effect. I loved how she threw herself into it, pushed herself and tried stuff to see what worked. I think she was one of the funniest parts of the show and probably my favorite of the characters.

I love Gigi's acting. I find her to be incredibly expressive and her enthusiasm makes her a joy to work with. She was my first choice for the role of the Ingenue because pretty much all of her previous roles required her to portray a more mature and dignified presence, something she is very good at, but I love seeing people do things that are different. She was adorable and charming, using a lot of her natural energy to bring the character to life.

Ben was just perfect as the Lead. I don't think he's ever had such a large important role before, so the chance to really get into and develop a character helped him immensely. I find it is often the case that an actor with growing room will often make a lot of progress if trusted with a part he can really work with. Ben has a gift for comedy, which helped, but I think it also encouraged him to create a definite physicality and expressiveness in letting him cut loose and really own the stage. I wonder if he can translate that forward leap into drama as well, and I look forward to seeing what he's like in his next role.

I just fell in love with niobien*'s work. The play would not support another person with dialogue, but I wanted to have a stage manager character in there. It was Bernie's suggestion to make the character silent. It turned out to be the coolest idea. People have a prejudice against non-speaking roles as less important, but pantomime is a difficult and dying art and I did NOT write this role to be a throwaway. It takes a lot of skill and effort to convey yourself without getting to say what you're thinking. Carolyn was amazing at that. She's never done a show as an actor before, but she was so enthusiastic and adventurous. Her expressions and her instincts were wonderful, making the character funny, endearing, and totally readable. I'd love to work with her again in a speaking role, but I am so glad that I trusted the difficult challenge of building a character out of pantomime to her.

April made for an excellent Diva. She learned to balance the over-the-topness of her character's humor with the occasional moments that demanded real, serious acting. She had great chemistry with Ben, and they made for some really fabulous interaction. Those two characters are supposed to constantly try to outdo each other, and it's no small thing that they managed to convey that without actually upstaging each other or failing to work together on the meta-level.

I also loved the visual texture provided by the techie characters, Emma, Jenna, and Miriam. Having them support the scenes made for so much additional humor. Their pieces required a lot of timing, energy, and discernment to nail just right, and they did wonderful things with it. This is a very pro-techie show, you'll notice, depicting them as the most competent and least screwed-up people involved. Though make what you will of my choosing to make the stage manager the silent character; some would say I have stolen that technical voice, while others may see it as a a reflection of how she's given up in the wake of so much actor madness.

Thus concludes my second produced play. Here's hoping that things continue on this vein, and I am blessed with such wonderful collaborators who will help me put on my work. Thank you again, all who shared the experience with me, and came to see the results of our labors. <3

Official Invitation: Hold Thy Peace presents MERELY PLAYERS

“All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.” —Jacques, As You Like It, II.ii.139-166









Meet the Walking Shadows, a ragtag little troupe of Shakespearean actors as they struggle to revitalize a company that has seen better days! Come join us for this fun and funny Shakespeare revue that intersperses scenes from the Bard's most famous work with original comedic material poking fun at the nature of performing in a troupe and working together to make theater.

Seating is cabaret-style, with drinks and snacks available for purchase! All proceeds benefit future productions of Hold Thy Peace. Cash only, please.

Two nights only!
November 11th at 8PM
November 12th at 8PM

in Schwartz Auditorium at Brandeis University

Runtime: ~1 hour

Admission is free, donations gladly accepted

CAST
CORNELIA, the Director - Stephanie Karol (Goneril, Helena, Mark Antony, Thalia, Duchess of Gloucester)
SYLVIA, the Ingenue - Gabrielle Geller (Lady Capulet, Portia, Hermione)
DIONYZA, the Diva - April Farmer (Regan, Nurse, Decius, Shepherd)
MALCOLM, the Lead - Ben Federlin (Montano, King Lewis of France)
ORLANDO, the Lover - Andrew Prentice (Lord Montague, Cleomenes, Roderigo, Edward of York)
ARCITE, the Fool - Lenny Somervell (Edgar, Theseus, Autolycus, Iago)
VALERIA, the First Chorus - Jenna Schlags (Oswald, Clown, Emilia)
CRESSIDA, the Second Chorus - Emma Lieberman (Perdita, Bianca, Lady Bona)
CHARMIAN, the Third Chorus - Miriam Goldman (Brabantia)
Introducing
AUDREY, the Stage Manager - Carolyn Daitch
with
Waitresses - Caitlin Partridge (Juliet, Casca, Euphrosyne, Camilla, Desdemona, Margaret) and Charlotte Oswald (Hippolyta, Selene, Duchess of Venice, Duke of Gloucester)
Bartender - Jonathan Plesser (Albany, Lysander, Friar Lawrence, Julius Caesar, Damon, Polixenes, Othello, Duke of Suffolk)

CREW
Writer, Director, Costume Designer - Phoebe Roberts
Stage Manager, Technical Designer - Bernie Gabin
Producer, Research Assistant - Stephanie Karol
Hair and Makeup Artist, Choreography Assistant - Rachel Feldman
Choreography Assistant - Carolyn Daitch

Practicing on my own

Work for the last couple of days has been a string of HIGH STRESS CHALLENGE WILL I BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT alternating with oh thank God I managed to take care of that and then more OH NO ANOTHER HIGH STRESS CHALLENGE PLEASE DON'T LET ME FUCK THIS UP, and so on and so forth. Could be worse. Could be crashing and burning. I'm handling it, but it's got me very on edge.

In less stressful news, I have decided that I am going to use practicing what I learn in my ballet class as a workout. I have gotten so fed up with my old workouts that I think this will energize me to keep up with physical activity. I'm really enjoying ballet, though I find it very challenging and am definitely not very good. But I want to get better, so hopefully that will be motivation enough to practice, which will simultaneously help me improve and keep me exercising. Yesterday I went home after work, walked to the gym, practiced for about forty minutes, went into the weight room to do some abdominal exercises, and then walked home again. I felt very good afterward, and my muscles felt like they got a good workout without being extremely sore. I worked away from the ballet bar so as to practice my balance, and I paid very close attention to keeping my torso above my legs and to how I moved my arms. My ballet arms have been consistently quite ugly, which irks me, oddly shaped and too tense at the shoulder. I also find it difficult to coordinate their movements with what I'm doing with my legs. These are things I'll particularly have to practice as I work on my own.

I've got the class again tonight, so I may just see that I get in some walking today to keep things balanced. Carolyn went with me this past Tuesday. it's Bring a Friend week, so we both got to take the class for free. (Tonight's the same, if anyone is interested!) It was very fun having a friend along, and she really is wonderful company. She's been a dancer for many years, so she's far and away ahead of me, but I hope I didn't embarrass myself too badly. :-) I have a lot to work on!

First Merely Players rehearsal



We had our first rehearsal for Merely Players on Sunday, and I was really pleased. The actors for the most part picked up the sort of feeling we're going for very quickly, allowing us to jump into the blocking. We're going for a very delicate kind of meta here, where everything is meant to be commentary on and parody of working in a theater troupe with all other aspects of the story being secondary. That means that whenever anyone does anything onstage, it's not so much for service to the plot or the expression of the character they're playing, but rather intended to make a point on the subject matter in a humorous way. It's a weird way for an actor used to building a performance based on creating a character who wants a thing to conceptualize what they're supposed to be doing up there, but pretty much everybody seems to be getting it. I'll have to do a good job explaining to make sure everybody's following.

Best of all, I think it's going to be genuinely funny. Humor can be a very elusive thing, requiring timing and judicious setup, and is not easy to really nail. But I'm proud of what we've done so far. Contrary to my usual control-freak ways, I am working very hard to encourage collaboration, so as to enrich the material with as many funny things as we can come up with. I am fortunate to have a game and gutsy cast who is willing to take risks to make it really funny. This is niobien*'s first time acting onstage, and she has been wonderful, enthusiastic, energetic, and very, very fun to work with. I think the audience is going to love her. I'm working really hard to have a lot going on onstage, to give it visual texture and keep a lot of the comedy physical. The more theater I do, the more fixated I become on the notion that good theater is visually engaging and dynamic, never leaving just a flat and static stage.

One thing I have resolved is that I am not going to stress over this show at all. If something doesn't go exactly right in the process, if things don't work out the way I plan, I am just going to roll with it. This is not supposed to be a magnum opus we're all going to hold up as high art we made for years to come; this is supposed to be a fun show where we experiment, learn some stuff, have some fun, and hopefully make our audience laugh. And one way or another, it will get done.