Let the countdown begin! Tonight marks our third-last performance of MISSING -- the antepenultimate show!
Given the smooth way we slipped into this final week, the run almost seems too short. Tuesday our show took another step forward, with a warm and encouraging audience drawing confident, expansive performances from us. The highly disciplined circumstances of our production's making kept us all respectful and carefully accurate -- now we can carry all that, and ALSO add what we have learned from our performances of the last three weeks.
Major help in this regard was provided by our student audiences and talkbacks. I've already mentioned the great questions from our audience of Brampton students last week. Last Saturday night, our playwright, Florence Gibson, announced that she would be addressing drama students from Fanshawe College, London, after the show. Others would be welcome. Several of us joined Flo on stage for a revealing session.
Hearing her speak reminded us of some of the special challenges of MISSING. Unlike the usual aim of laying out a story step by step, MISSING celebrates a world of ambiguities -- uncertainties that seem to spread through the story like expanding wave circles on a pond, colliding with each other and changing with each interaction.
One amusing note occurred early in the following question period. The opening of MISSING includes a time of darkness when only night sounds are heard, many of them created vocally by the actors. "We were doing those animal sounds in class just the other day!" enthused one of our students, obviously delighted that these apparently childish games had a place in real theatre. Of course, such devices are an essential part of this sort of storytelling, childlike elements that manage to convey a more sophisticated message. If you can feel the night around you through these simple means, your susceptibility to the atmosphere of the play has been established before a word of text is spoken.
What's interesting in MISSING is the wide range of atmospheric effects employed. The guidelines set by director David Ferry are very broad. The actors create some relatively complex sounds using vocalizations and/or props. including the scraping of a restaurant grill, the sound of French fries in a deep fryer and (a group favourite) the boiling-over of a pot of vegetables. But some effects are recorded as sound cues -- car motors, barking dogs, telephones on a rural party line. The soundscape even includes non-realistic background sound as well. A multiplicity of means are used to convey these sounds to the audience. The preshow music (selections from Canadian 'seventies bands) is played through several small, wired portable radios, fixed with duct tape at various points around the theatre space, while "regular" sound cues can be heard through backstage or upstage speakers.
The variety of these approaches, I believe, again reinforces the spine of a play that deals with ambiguities, where rules and conventions are constantly called into question. In a similar way, lighting cues are sometimes realistic, with shadows apparently thrown through doors or Venetian blinds, and sometimes emotionally based, as when two married characters quarrelling are seen within a pattern of (prison?) bars.
Questions in audience talkbacks about these elements remind us how much support, both naturalistic and subliminal, our sound and lighting designs provide for the themes of our play -- not to mention the beautiful woven-wire sculpture that dominates upstage centre!
Friday, April 3, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Bannerman Bloggination Redux
What is it about this play MISSING that keeps us all on tenterhooks? It's two weeks today since we opened (after three preview performances), and only NOW are the insistent voices in my head beginning to fade. Like a successful jingle heard over and over again, or the tune from a musical you're working on that won't let your mind rest, elements of our production keep popping up in those anxiety-inducing dream visions that occur in the twilight between sleep and waking.
Recently I dreamt that I received a phone call while pounding rock music filled my home (which happens in MISSING, but not to me). I was offered the lead in a production I suddenly knew I had read for the week before (in dreamtime). Just as I was trying to explain that I was already committed, my wife urged me to "get the dates", because another actor could take over my present duties.
How does this relate to MISSING? Simple. In our play virtually every character is caught in a paradoxical, morally ambiguous trap, subject to equal and opposite emotional pressures. In my dream, the two overriding prerogatives of my life, work and family, are at war. What do you do when there's no right answer? Each character in MISSING tries to find a suitable personal solution.
Further, I would argue that this tension is manifested in the structure of the play as well, in the opposing challenges offered to the actors. As we began our work, we were all concerned with our characters, while taking peripheral note of certain choral sections of the script. Within two days, playing a character seemed a snap compared to the rhetorical demands of the choral set pieces. Sometimes linear, more often fragmented and chaotic, these lines defied logic and resisted memorization. Yet it was virtually impossible to stage them effectively until we were all off book.
Ultimately, all was well --but our varying attitudes and approaches to this challenge were instructive. Some performers found these words unnecessary and intrusive, and yet mastered the technical demands quickly. Others felt these interludes were an integral part of the piece, and should be considered as part of a dance that included many different steps and rhythms.
This dichotomy of styles, I think, enriches and informs ALL of MISSING, while also representing PHYSICALLY the PSYCHIC tensions of the characters. And THAT'S why live theatre is for experiencing, and not just for reading.
Recently I dreamt that I received a phone call while pounding rock music filled my home (which happens in MISSING, but not to me). I was offered the lead in a production I suddenly knew I had read for the week before (in dreamtime). Just as I was trying to explain that I was already committed, my wife urged me to "get the dates", because another actor could take over my present duties.
How does this relate to MISSING? Simple. In our play virtually every character is caught in a paradoxical, morally ambiguous trap, subject to equal and opposite emotional pressures. In my dream, the two overriding prerogatives of my life, work and family, are at war. What do you do when there's no right answer? Each character in MISSING tries to find a suitable personal solution.
Further, I would argue that this tension is manifested in the structure of the play as well, in the opposing challenges offered to the actors. As we began our work, we were all concerned with our characters, while taking peripheral note of certain choral sections of the script. Within two days, playing a character seemed a snap compared to the rhetorical demands of the choral set pieces. Sometimes linear, more often fragmented and chaotic, these lines defied logic and resisted memorization. Yet it was virtually impossible to stage them effectively until we were all off book.
Ultimately, all was well --but our varying attitudes and approaches to this challenge were instructive. Some performers found these words unnecessary and intrusive, and yet mastered the technical demands quickly. Others felt these interludes were an integral part of the piece, and should be considered as part of a dance that included many different steps and rhythms.
This dichotomy of styles, I think, enriches and informs ALL of MISSING, while also representing PHYSICALLY the PSYCHIC tensions of the characters. And THAT'S why live theatre is for experiencing, and not just for reading.
Post made by Laurie Murphy, Factory Theatre:
MISSING's Andrew Gillies wins theatre award in Halifax for his work as an actor. Congratulations from all of us here at Factory!
Chronicle Herald, May 24, 2009:
The 10th annual Merritt Awards recognizing excellence in Nova Scotia theatre production were presented at a gala ceremony Monday Night at Neptune Theatre, hosted by actor Charlie Rhindress.
...Outstanding performance by an actor in a supporting role: Andrew Gillies as General Burgoyne in The Devil’s Disciple, Neptune Theatre.
For article in full, click http://thechronicleherald.ca/Search/9011123.html.
MISSING's Andrew Gillies wins theatre award in Halifax for his work as an actor. Congratulations from all of us here at Factory!
Chronicle Herald, May 24, 2009:
The 10th annual Merritt Awards recognizing excellence in Nova Scotia theatre production were presented at a gala ceremony Monday Night at Neptune Theatre, hosted by actor Charlie Rhindress.
...Outstanding performance by an actor in a supporting role: Andrew Gillies as General Burgoyne in The Devil’s Disciple, Neptune Theatre.
For article in full, click http://thechronicleherald.ca/Search/9011123.html.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Bannerman Bloggination
Let the Bloggination begin! Or I suppose I SHOULD say, "continue". I"m impressed by the frankness and lucidity of David Ferry's previous notes.
I am, however, a completely different Guy. Guy Bannerman, in fact. Still, it's good to have a forum to discuss our performers' experience of MISSING -- and we may have a few opinions on the rehearsal process, too, already chronicled by our fearless director.
We were reminded about that very process today, when an enthusiastic audience of Brampton teenagers asked us how long it had taken to perfect our scene changes. Sighs and groans were our response, as we relived those hectic last days. With any new script, there are bound to be necessary last-minute decisions that lend added challenges to the final rehearsals and first previews. Although we did absorb some minor line additions and cuts from Florence Gibson, our transitions developed into a master class on tightening and restructuring.
David Ferry had already instituted a convention of overlapping the endings and beginnings of scenes vocally, while necessary movement of set pieces was carried out. This alone was not enough to support the accelerating flow of the play towards its conclusion. Ultimately David developed a convention that froze the largest set pieces (the diner counters) in one all-purpose configuration, and combined this with the gradual stripping down of the stage picture by eliminating pieces of furniture from familiar locations. For example, a fight that used the large farmhouse table as an integral element was restaged in an empty space.
There was even a humourous element to the proceedings, as a chair needed by one actor missed being set by another actor. A clever improvisation covered the mistake -- and was almost immediately incorporated into the "official" version. Art includes accidents!
I am, however, a completely different Guy. Guy Bannerman, in fact. Still, it's good to have a forum to discuss our performers' experience of MISSING -- and we may have a few opinions on the rehearsal process, too, already chronicled by our fearless director.
We were reminded about that very process today, when an enthusiastic audience of Brampton teenagers asked us how long it had taken to perfect our scene changes. Sighs and groans were our response, as we relived those hectic last days. With any new script, there are bound to be necessary last-minute decisions that lend added challenges to the final rehearsals and first previews. Although we did absorb some minor line additions and cuts from Florence Gibson, our transitions developed into a master class on tightening and restructuring.
David Ferry had already instituted a convention of overlapping the endings and beginnings of scenes vocally, while necessary movement of set pieces was carried out. This alone was not enough to support the accelerating flow of the play towards its conclusion. Ultimately David developed a convention that froze the largest set pieces (the diner counters) in one all-purpose configuration, and combined this with the gradual stripping down of the stage picture by eliminating pieces of furniture from familiar locations. For example, a fight that used the large farmhouse table as an integral element was restaged in an empty space.
There was even a humourous element to the proceedings, as a chair needed by one actor missed being set by another actor. A clever improvisation covered the mistake -- and was almost immediately incorporated into the "official" version. Art includes accidents!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Sneak Peek of MISSING with Kyra Harper and Shauna Black
"It takes a writer as skilled as Florence Gibson to juggle the multitude of realities that are on the table in Missing..." - Richard Ouzounian, Toronto Star
BUY NOW at www.factorytheatre.ca
Call: 416-504-9971
NOW PLAYING TO APR 5
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
director's notes 8
Sorry for my absence since Thursday last, it was Captain Crunch time at the factory.
If you follow this blog you likely know theatre and the absurd process we follow to get a play opened..I suspect if one had 3 months to stage a piece one would still feel unprepared for opening--but I say, give me the three months and we'll see.
Starting with the Thursday 10/12 hour call it truly felt like a race..and like the man pushing the rock up the hill, I felt like a bull trying to herd us all across some imaginary finish line. I also had two projects I am serving as dramaturge/director on getting ready for the Passe Muraille BUZZ week..so Saturday and Sunday morning before Missing rehs found me rehearsing those, and yesterday I started rehearsals for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.
The actors and designers and stage management and production crew spent last week madly scrambling to get the play to where it needs to be for an audience. In the process it really is true that you end up making lightning decisions..cuts, shifts, re-blocking. On Weds we looked at the major set image and it seemed it would never be what we wanted (a large wire sculpture) but by Sunday it was there. I had a wild desire to end the play with falling leaves..nice image but it didn't work well and more importantly was meaningless in the end. I had thought that a radio broadcast the character does to plead for his wife to come home would impart the right sense of isolation if it seemed that we observed it from the rear of a broadcast booth only
hearing him via a series of portable radios behind the audience..but it was strangely static..out with the mic and the idea.
Saturday I re-blocked the whole of the second half of the play so the pace and flow of the play would be better serviced..it helped but we had a dress that night so it was pretty scary for the actors.
Sunday's first preview was relatively smooth and we got to a time we liked, but I sat there seeing only what wasn't working for me..a dangerous time for a director..you can be so hard on yourself it can be counter-productive.
Yesterday I suggested a further re-ordering of scenes and some cuts to Florence and spent the evening after Judas rehearsals working them out and communicating with the designers and actors and stage management how they would work and how we would rehearse them today for tonight's preview. Off to morning rehearsal of Judas and then into the theatre for a couple of Missing hours, then watching again tonight with our second audience.
Next up..observations about my second recent experience directing a non linear piece by a feminist author (36 Views was the other one)--what I have learned.
If you follow this blog you likely know theatre and the absurd process we follow to get a play opened..I suspect if one had 3 months to stage a piece one would still feel unprepared for opening--but I say, give me the three months and we'll see.
Starting with the Thursday 10/12 hour call it truly felt like a race..and like the man pushing the rock up the hill, I felt like a bull trying to herd us all across some imaginary finish line. I also had two projects I am serving as dramaturge/director on getting ready for the Passe Muraille BUZZ week..so Saturday and Sunday morning before Missing rehs found me rehearsing those, and yesterday I started rehearsals for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.
The actors and designers and stage management and production crew spent last week madly scrambling to get the play to where it needs to be for an audience. In the process it really is true that you end up making lightning decisions..cuts, shifts, re-blocking. On Weds we looked at the major set image and it seemed it would never be what we wanted (a large wire sculpture) but by Sunday it was there. I had a wild desire to end the play with falling leaves..nice image but it didn't work well and more importantly was meaningless in the end. I had thought that a radio broadcast the character does to plead for his wife to come home would impart the right sense of isolation if it seemed that we observed it from the rear of a broadcast booth only
hearing him via a series of portable radios behind the audience..but it was strangely static..out with the mic and the idea.
Saturday I re-blocked the whole of the second half of the play so the pace and flow of the play would be better serviced..it helped but we had a dress that night so it was pretty scary for the actors.
Sunday's first preview was relatively smooth and we got to a time we liked, but I sat there seeing only what wasn't working for me..a dangerous time for a director..you can be so hard on yourself it can be counter-productive.
Yesterday I suggested a further re-ordering of scenes and some cuts to Florence and spent the evening after Judas rehearsals working them out and communicating with the designers and actors and stage management how they would work and how we would rehearse them today for tonight's preview. Off to morning rehearsal of Judas and then into the theatre for a couple of Missing hours, then watching again tonight with our second audience.
Next up..observations about my second recent experience directing a non linear piece by a feminist author (36 Views was the other one)--what I have learned.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
