Lab - Week 3 Recap

And so it ends. I'm glad I took notes and pictures throughout, because right now it's a blur. Another reason could be that the large majority of us were out until 4am partying. Either way, it was a whirlwind and I certainly took the chance to get swept up in it.

Week Three began with a presentation and/or discussion from our playwriting groups. It was great to see and hear about so many different styles and techniques. Kudos to Jason Grote for organizing such a diverse group of New Dramatists playwrights. In the afternoon on Tuesday, Andre Bishop, the Artistic Director of Lincoln Center, talked to us about himself. Later, Ben Cameron, the former Executive Director of TCG, talked with us about ourselves. That night, we had a 'Directors Clambake' which was basically speed dating. We each had two minutes with each director to sell yourself. Luckily I felt that I knew most of the directors by then, and it wasn't impersonal or false. It was good practice to promote the company and it never felt like a sales pitch. It was just shooting the shit about what we do.

On Wednesday, Anne Cattaneo and Anita Ross talked about The Basics of How American Theater Works. This was primarily for the international directors who were still struggling to understand why the hell we do it this way (Ultimately, it was decided that we all need to move to the Netherlands.) And then Ira Weitzman, Associate Producer of Musical Theater, talk about himself without ever really telling us what he really thought. Then came our tour of the theatres. After lunch, Carolyn Cantor, director of Essential Self-Defense and The Thugs, came to talk to us about working on a piece that only a handful had seen with a character who talks in monotone. Carolyn was super cool, but I wish we all had a chance to see the play or had talked about something else with her. Then began our 'Day of Emotion' (though really it was two evenings and an afternoon). Divided into group based on where we placed ourselves on a line of emotion, we worked again on the John Guare play, Woman at the Threshold, Beckoning, and were to present our emotional interpretation. (Our group was the Moderate Emotion group, for whatever that explains). We rehearsed, which was mostly talking, again the next afternoon and presented our piece Thursday evening. No group did a straight on literal interpretation of the play, and frankly, I think made the play better.

Thursday morning was a discussion amongst us about director training and opportunities. Friday morning was a talked with Daniel Swee, the Casting Director for Lincoln Center, followed by another discussion amongst us about finding funding. Friday afternoon was a Viewpoints workshop (both Overlie and Bogart) led by Suzana Berger and Gwen Reitz. Saturday morning was another discussion about creating a theatre company. Then at 2pm, we had a final round room discussion about the future of the Directors Lab with Anne. At 4pm, the pizzas arrived (as well as the wine and beer) and the celebrating continued for another twelve hours.

Lab - Week 2 Recap

The body is weak, but the spirit is strong. I may have only gotten, on average, four and half hours of sleep a night this week, but I’m tapping into some energy that enables me to keep going somehow. I’ve got the day off today, so I’m hoping I can use it to recharge my battery. If nothing else, I look forward to taking a nap or two.

The second week at the Lab began with a discussion with Bernie Gersten, the Executive Producer of Lincoln Center. Later that afternoon, we had a discussion with Richard Eyre, the former Artistic Director of the Royal National Theatre in London, and most recently, of Mary Poppins fame. In the evening we had (a rather heated) discussion with Michael Miller, Director of the Actors Center, and Daniel Swee, Casting Director at Lincoln Center.

Wednesday began our two day ‘acting training’. The morning session covered Approaches to Acting with Ron Van Lieu, the afternoon was doing Clown Work with Chris Beyes and the evening was dedicated to The Actor’s Voice with Grace Zandarski. On Friday, we had a discussion with Anne Cattaneo, the Director of the Lab, on Dramaturgy, and after lunch, we had a discussion with the participating international directors: Chari Arespacochaga, Saroj Aryal, Karina Bes, Pia Furtado, Tess Jamias, Athina Kasiou, Dina Keller, Helene Kvale, Indy Lee, Ana Margineanu, Michel Melamed, Matteo Tarasco, Michel Van der Aa, and Andy Vitolo.

The weekend was spent in workshops with a variety of New Dramatist playwrights. I worked with Zakiyyah Alexander on Found Text and Images. I don’t want to describe it in detail because it was something better experienced than explained, and I know she teaches and don’t want to give away any of her gems. Needless to say, I had a great time. This city will never sound the same.

Lab - Week 1 Recap

I'm exhausted and I'm lovin' it. The Lab is an all consuming event. I eat, sleep and, as of this evening, literally breathe it. The best I can do at the moment is go far, schedule-wise, what we've done thus far. I don't think I'll be able to actually talk about my experience until after it's over. I won't have the time to process any of it until then.

After our orientation on June 4, we had a panel discussion with Blair Brown, Michael Krass, Seret Scott, Alex Timbers, Lois Smith, Bruce Norris, Colman Domingo and Pam MacKinnon with the title, Playwrights and Actors: What is their relationship today and where do directors fit in? The next morning, we began our three day Collaboration Principles workshop with Ben Krywosz. Ben is the Artistic Director of Nautilus Music-Theater in St. Paul. He looks like Santa Claus and made me believe in the Spirit of Christmas again.

In the afternoons last week, we attended 'presentations' of four new plays and one new musical. In order of performance: Maestro's Garden by Bathsheba Doran, Only Children by Rachel Peters and Michael R. Jackson, This Bloody Mess by Zohar Tirosh, The Green Zone by Rob Handel, and (Friday morning) Minor Gods by Charles Forbes. The experiment of the 'presentations' was a three week pre-lab rehearsal period in which the playwright was put in charge of the room. (I'll talk more later about why, though the shows were great, the stated mission wasn't even given a chance to fail.)

In the evenings, we broke up into groups of eight (one designer, one playwright, two actors and four directors). The first night, we discussed 1. What happens in your head when you read a play? 2. Please tell us about the best rehearsal collaboration experience you ever had. Why specifically was it good? What techniques made it that way? Who was it with? 3. Please tell us about the worst rehearsal collaboration experience you ever had. What specifically made it bad? The following two nights were spent working on John Guare's Woman at a Threshold, Beckoning. The experiment was to swish up our roles in the lab (i.e. the directors and designer became actors, the playwright became the designer, one actress was the director and one actress was the playwright.) Our assignment was to answer these two questions: 1. What is the action of the play? 2. What is the play about? (We answered: 1. To spin 2. In searching for the answer, the answer is the searching.) Of all the amazing things we've done this week, this has been my favorite. If the adage is true, that it's all about relationships and how you get on with people, then I count myself lucky to have been paired with my group. It's the most fun I've had in a rehearsal room in quite a while.

Saturday afternoon was spent with all the directors, actors, playwrights, designers and stage managers sharing Reflections On What We've Learned So Far. As we bid farewell to our collaborators, the directors gather that evening to say Who We Are. Luckily it was just a one minute biography circle. (I was having a serious existential crisis at dinner thinking about it. The best I could up with the either a. just stand there or b. sing the chorus from Steve Miller's The Joker.)

Sunday was the 'Clambake' (no actual clams), where we got to see portfolios from all the designers we'd worked with. In between talking with them and admiring their work, we had a discussion with Michael Krass and Bob Crowley (who was celebrating his birthday and went on to win two Tonys that evening).

We had Monday off & I tried to catch up on sleep. Not much luck.

Lab

So the postings this month are going to be pretty light, as I will be taking part in the Lincoln Center Directors Lab for the next three weeks. I wish I were as on top of things as Issac Butler over at Parabasis, but I've got no one to guest blog for me. At least we got to meet in person today. We're only two days in and already things are super intense. Having the opportunity to spend all day working and talking and COlLABORating with other theatre artists is a rare and unique gift. If it were over today, I'd still be able to take away a shitload. No doubt by the end of the month I will be a whole new director. I'll do my best to keep you up to date, but when you're lucky enough to be 'in the moment', you don't waste time reflecting on it.