With Lulu's closing performance this past Saturday, I am now fully and officially Madame Producer. This is a brand new role for me. I often produce for myself (as many of us emerging directors do), but producing for other artists is whole new game. I've got 2 phones, a barrage of emails and the most random "To Do" list of my life.Adam offered me some sage wisdom heading into this rotation. He cited my wide range of professional assistant directing experience and said, "That's basically it. Approach it like that."
This was some genius advice on his part. Approaching producing with the mindset that I am simply doing everything I can to aid these directors in creating their best work, in addition to facilitating the most fully realized production possible, took the pressure off of having to get it "right." It has freed me to take ownership of this role and dispelled my fears. Though, I must admit, there is more math involved in producing than there is in assisting - and I'm always sure to triple check my math.
It's a busy week here at the Hangar. There are two shows up on the main stage right now (NO CHILD and BAD DATES), which means double load-in, tech and performances. It also means double opening night parties! No Child opened last week - showcasing powerhouse acting from Rachael Holmes, as well as gorgeous work from director Wendy Dann and her designers. I'm excited to see what Bad Dates has in store for us later this week!
In rehearsal at TC3 are two Wedge shows (Adam's Possiblities and Corey's Leonce & Lena), Lydia's Pinochoccio for Kiddstuff and the main stage production of Oklahoma. That's six shows all humming along. I've had a great time sitting on rehearsals, getting to see my fellow directors in action!
And, on Saturday, I'll get to see the whole company in action in our 24 Hour Play Festival, TC24. The company is spending the week in playwriting master classes - the only time our whole company actually gets to work in the same room together! On Saturday we'll mix up their roles - designers will act, actors will write - and see what we can come up with in 24 short hours. As you can see, we've got more than a few kettles on the stove here. Or is it irons in the fire?
I'll leave you with some photos from Lulu - my director's choice play for the Wedge - and the text from the program note.
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind
was conceived in San Francisco, born in Germany and christened in honor of American democracy. He penned his most widely known work, Spring Awakening, in 1894 - at just 26 years old.A year later, while strolling the Champs d’Ellyse, he was struck by an idea for a “gruesome tragedy.” Wedekind skipped dinner with friends that evening to write the first act. The result is Lulu, a play that was never fully produced in Wedekind’s lifetime. Its graphic depiction of vices in all forms and shapes, and his refusal to alter the text, kept Lulu relegated to the bars, cabarets and backrooms of Vienna.
It was at one such performance where Wedekind met his second wife, Tilly Newes. The nineteen-year old beauty was playing the role of Lulu. Wedekind, then 37, was playing the role of Jack. The line between art and life was thin in Wedekind’s world. He chose to write about the prostitutes and artists with whom he spent his time, shocking the German bourgeois with what they considered to be pure pornography. Nicholas Wright’s translation, recently produced by London’s Almeida Theatre, gives this classic the modern edge Wedekind intended.
In the eve of World War I, Frank Wedekind understood the timeless starving class struggle between the longings of one’s inner self and a world that offers a certain set of possibilities.
