Well tomorrow I have rehearsal for Antigona. We fly to Rumania on Tuesday. There are still a lot of unknowns regarding the technical aspects of this production. What we do know is that the venue was unable to supply us with the lightplot I had requested, so there will need be some cuts and rethinking of how the lighting is going to work.
This is a problem we had foreseen and already have a plan in place to solve it. It will be quite an adventure to see what all happens with this show. I am looking forward to it. We began by approaching the text and performance from a minimalist lighting perspective. Now the question will become how minimal.
Previews continue for Fate’s Imagination, although my work is done. No notes from the director and only a small handful of timing changes I noticed makes me feel confident leaving the show with two preview left. I do feel bad about it and try to avoid this kind of situation whenever possible, but in this case it was unavoidable to not leave early.
The process on this show was wonderful. Everyone involved was a true pleasure to work with and for the most part, the design team had never worked together before. I have done one other show with the costume designer and then the director and sound designer have worked together, but other than that a whole new team. And it was a big one, scenery, costumes, lights, sound and projections. Not a simple show by any means. Sound, lighting and projections all have very involved cueing, but it has been handled admirably by the stage manager.
Truly this is one of the more involved shows I have worked on from a technical standpoint. Interestingly it came about very organically through various attempts to solve specific and distinct storytelling problems. The style is a kind of heightened naturalism. Upon a first read I thought it would be a very straightforward naturalistic play, but as things progressed it found a rather interesting and I think very satisfying style. Far more involved then I first thought going into it, but very exciting.
The entire process had one of those “why can’t they all be like this” feelings. The whole design team had a synergy to our working process that is one of the best feelings in the theatre. Where the ideas just flow and the exact germination is of little consequence as it simply becomes a matter of practical and artistic problem solving. A true collaborative effort. I think we have quite a handsome production on our hands.
I have a little bit of work to finish up so I can leave the show in the hands of my master electrician and then its off to the world of minimalism.
Tags: antigona, design, fates imagination, process, synergy, tech
Keep us posted while you are gone, if you can. I’ll miss you.