Light Cue 23

The summer has been crazy with all the travel. I got back from California Monday morning and went, more or less, right into tech. Today we load-in for the dance piece I am working on at Joyce Soho with choreographer Trebien Pollard. I am very excited about this project, I think it will be a lot of fun. I have lit around ten or so of his dances but never a full evening piece, so this should be interesting. And then on Sunday I fly to Edinburgh.

Quite a time!

I just got off the phone with a company in Virginia and it looks like I will be lighting two plays in repertory there this September. It is an interesting pairing, Dracula and Driving Miss Daisy. This promises to be a curious few weeks of tech. At least they tech sequentially so I do not have to bounce my brain back and forth from one to the next.

I really enjoy working in differing locations. Spending time in a new or just different city or town really helps with theatre work. Theatre, and by that I include dance and opera, is at its core about human beings and human relationships. The more different types of people one knows and interacts with the greater depth and breadth of experience there is to draw from when working on a show.

So far this year I have worked in four states and one foreign country. By the end of the year I will be adding at least one of each to that list. Not to say that the quality of the experience is based upon its frequency or volume, because it is not, but something for me really gets animated being in new and different places. Returning to familiar locations, like Berkeley, is wonderful as well and provides its own satisfactions.

Working in the theatre is, in many ways, like a perpetual homecoming. Friends and coworkers recombine and move about and are encountered in varying situations. The lead tenor in Aida sang the role of the Mother in The Seven Deadly Sins. The safety coordinator at Glimmerglass was the TD when I worked at Virginia Opera. Different show, different city, same people.

This fall is shaping up nicely with shows in Virginia, California and New York. It will be nice to get a good dose of American regionalisms after spending three weeks in Europe and the UK.

But in the meantime, come see my play, opera, or dance.