Excuse Me...Coming Through...

Last week saw the opening of three Lab Company Productions - two new plays, LEARNING RUSSIAN and THE THING ABOUT AIR TRAVEL, in the Wedge and a Kiddstuff production, REELING, on the Neiderkorn stage. These two spaces share not only a wall, but also backstage and cross-over space. What it basically boils down to is - when these spaces are in tech at the same time (which is often) actors may be using the playing space of The Wedge to make an entrance into the Neiderkorn - and vice versa. We were all warned about this early on. Actors know to make their cross-overs quietly, causing minimal distraction to the other show.

While working on LULU during first rotation (and sharing backstage space with THE KID WHO TALKED TO PENGUINS), we never encountered this issue. We did have to hear "Do the Funky Penguin" through the wall quite a bit. But, never saw any actual actors. REELING is a completely different beast from PENGUINS. I think Corey would agree with me when I call it a beast. The show, a dialouge-less play based on Buster Keaton films, has 16 actors, a myriad of props and constant action.

While teching RUSSIAN, there was always a policeman or showgirl running through every so often. It was easy to get used to, and, after the first time, we didn't notice it all.

Until - the morning of the third day of tech. At a dramatic moment during our dress run, the center door to the Wedge opened and an actress dressed as an obese caterer - padding, silly hat and all - rolled in a giant fake turkey. Well...needless to say, nobody could keep a straight face.

Here is a photo snapped at the end of the turkey's exodus.
This quirky moment gives you a small idea of the joy that I feel here at the Hangar - working so closely with my fellow directors.

And, during this rotation, the joy of working with a playwright-in-residence! It was really a treat having Michael Mitnick here to work on LEARNING RUSSIAN. The whole company was inspired by working on such an innovative new play. It will be sad to close the show this Friday - but we've had so much fun. And, a write up in the Ithaca Journal!

I'll leave you with a production shot sans-turkey.

I've got this one in the bag

So here we are in Rotation #3. I just finished directing Howard Barker's "The Possibilities," about which I hope to have a fuller blog post eventually. I'm working on a wonderful new play called "The Thing About Air Travel," and it's my third show in a row (with almost no time in between). It is a beautiful, imaginative, and funny play that calls for some extraordinarily fun tricks and gags, including the following: throughout the entire beginning of the play there is a suitcase sitting on the stage, about fifteen minutes in, the bag unzips itself and a woman gets out, sits down and asks for a cough drop.

So one of the things I've learned this week is that most modern luggage is not built to hold normal-sized human beings. They either fit in it lengthwise or widthwise, but rarely both. And if they can manage those two, they don't fit in heightwise. After several failed attempts to squeeze my actress into various bags (probably one of the more demeaning things that can be done to an human being), I was nearly ready to give up and try to find another, not quite as wonderful, solution.

Almost every night, the four Drama League directors get together to talk about how our rehearsals went that day, what our frustrations are, what are discoveries were, and what is and is not working. We live together and have similar schedules, so this often happens informally over a dinner break, or after the last rehearsal of the day, while we are all trying to unwind. Yesterday, we decided that we wanted to go out, and so we went to the "Dryden Hotel," a local establishment that appears to be a sketchy dive bar and actually is what passes for a family restaurant in the town of Dryden. After much pizza was consumed (and pie--at the Dryden "Queen Diner"), we headed back to the dorms. It was at this point that I told the other directors about my baggage bind, my suitcase strait, my portmanteau pickle, my luggage labyrinth, etc... Ever eager to help another director, Lauren pointed out that she had a massive case she'd bought in NYC expressly for this summer. I asked to see it.

Still giggly on sugar and giddy on pie-stimulated endorphins, we decided that the best thing to do would be to see if I could fit into the suitcase. I hopped in without a problem. Corey had gone to dinner in another car, and on his way had stopped to eat ice cream, so I hid in the bag until he returned, and popped out immediately after he walked in the door. See the picture at left--me inside the bag.

Then Lauren and I began discussing how the actress could stay in the bag for that long a period. She decided she needed to show me another way to sit in the bag, and crawled in. This idea was perhaps not as brilliant as Lauren's ideas tend to be, and within moments of crawling into the case, she got herself stuck.

If you've ever been stuck in a giant piece of luggage before, you know that once you are embedded, self-extrication is nearly impossible. And Corey was busy eating his ice cream (and didn't want to get ice cream all over the luggage). And I was busy taking pictures (after all, documentation is critical). So poor Lauren was left stuck in the bag.

It's all for the art folks, all for the art.