Two More Weeks

So Denny and Steve left today. A sad farewell for sure. But I'll see them in a few weeks in Vermont. The show has gone very well so far, and I gauge its success on the number of people leaning forward throughout the play. Many people are visibly offended by the content at times, which is also a point in our favor. The play is controversial, and if it does not shake some people up, it is not doing its job.

It did not become Hitler's LEAST favorite play for nothing.

And ha ha, the last quatrain we sing begins with "Combat injustice, but with moderation." Because if you work too hard to stand up to injustice, you will face retaliation, because as Jenny Diver says, "when you kick a man, he tends to kick you back."

Doing the Threepenny Opera in St. Thomas has been an uphill climb. As Steve says "theater is most difficult to do in places where it is easiest to live." VERY TRUE. When people are comfortable and complacent, getting them to relate and feel the urgency of edgy stuff is like herding cats. It seems that people want "feel good" theater here. Boo. Keeping the energy up through the play as been a struggle, but we have a few key people who help elevate every scene. And I kick off the show with a rousing rendition of Mack the Knife as a street singer. Yee haw.

For the most part, the audiences love it, especially the Caribbean-islanders, who identify very much with Mac the Knife's last words:

"Ladies and gentlemen, you see before you a declining representative of a declining social group. We lower middle-class skilled workers who toil with our humble crowbars on the cash registers of small shopkeepers are being swallowed up by big corporations with banks behind them. What’s a crowbar compared with a share of stock? What’s robbing a bank compared with founding a bank? What’s rubbing a man out compared with giving him a job? "

HERE HERE!!

So two more weekends (six more shows).

OPENING NIGHT

is officially tonight! We had a "pay-as-you-can" performance on Thursday, but this is the official. Because there's champagne and roses.

Last night, the show went well, but with many hiccups. So I hope tonight will be spectacular! The audience had a good time, and really listened to the songs, which is GREAT. For example, they all laughed at the end of the Solomon Song's "His sexual urges brought him to this state. How fortunate the man with none." Ha ha. Or the Love Song's "Anywhere you go, I will go with you/" "You go with me, then I won't go anywhere." Hah ha.

But it is so hot on stage! My first costume is 3 layers: a shift, a long sleeve shirt, a long skirt, stockings, and a long black tuxedo coat with tails. And a top hat. And gloves. AGGGHHHH. But it's a great costume. I hope to post pictures soon.

Final Dress Rehearsal...

is TONIGHT!

The show is going much better, and even though I still give notes to everyone about improvements, I have resigned myself to the depressing resolution that it won't be anything to write home about.

The costumes and set design are wonderful, the music is fun, but some of the actors are amazingly flawed. Denny and Steve leave after the opening weekend, so after their departure, I am in charge. I just hope there isn't a coup des acteurs.

So other than that, everything is swell. I've met wonderful people here, and I love spending time with them. And the beach is LOVELY, and I'll be wonderfully tanned when I return, to the dismay, I'm sure, of all the pasty wonter-weatherers.

Shoddy Karma

Taking advantage of the sunny weather, I stripped off every extra piece of covering on my jeep. I looked pretty cool, yes, but finally my security carelessness caught up with me.

After rehearsal on Friday, Shanna and I returned to my car to find the stereo face, registration and insurance information stolen out of the glove compartment. The jeep I’m using is Carl’s, on loan to the theater. (Carl is a 30ish guy acting as General Counsel to Pistarckle and the Board, and he’s also in Threepenny.) So Shanna and I trudged back into the theater to tell him. Getting back int o the car with heavy hearts, Shanna noticed a piece of paper on the ground. Turning it over, I saw that it was the registration! Further down the parking lot embankment I was the stereo face and the insurance booklet! Struggling back up the hill, through brambles and thorns, but with everything in hand, I hopped into the jeep to take Shanna home, boasting loudly about what great Karma I must have….

Well that night I went out with Ellie, Jordan and Dylan, and what do I discover upon returning to the car? Yeah, it’s all been stolen AGAIN, and this time search, the loot was not stashed right next to the car.

So what about that karma?

So It's Come to This

Well, it's a shambles. I am 70% sure I will never return to Pistarckle Theater to direct another show. There is no technical support and Denny, Steve, and I have spread ourselves way too thin. Besides that, I am not billed on any of the Posters for teh show, except for as a castmember. As I am in the cast, that's fine, but I also spent more energy and am contracted to music direct it... ughhh. Everyday in this theater is like cleaning up a messy room. And there's no Mary Poppins to make the job a game.

But on the bright side, Shanna and I will try to steal away from the office to have beach time.

Happy Valentines Day!

I love Valentines Day!

It's really big on the island. In stands on the side of the roads, women sell huge platic wrapped teddy bears holding chocolates, roses, and other red and pink doo-dads. Everyone greets you with "Good morning, happy valentines" and all the single men try to make women their valentine.

But it's just another day at the theater. The show is a week away and though we aren't in a state of panic, all of the shortcomings that Denny Steve and I shrugged off early on are now presenting BIG problems. Like the fact that the "technical director" hates theater and hasn't read the script or attended a full rehearsal... or that we have no light board operator... or that our lighting designer can't be at the full tech rehearsal... or that our stage amangaer is leaving next week... or that one of the leads CANNOT memorize his lines... or that the costumer is on the verge of a nervous breakdown...

AGGGGHHHHHH

But it's Valentine's Day!

Strike

Last night after dinner and a rousing evening of "the Fiddler" at Latitude 18, Shanna, Kyle, Dan and I went to Pistarckle to strike the Island set. Of course, the actors and everyone involved in that show should've stayed to help, but the director, the actors, the stage manager and costumer were four people, and they managed to sneak out the back. So it was the Threepenny cast and the carpenters helping.

The Island set consisted of a jail cell--half iron bars, half wooden walls, and a barbed wire fence. For those not familiar with the Island, it was written by Athol Fugard (author of the novel, Tsotsi) of South Africa. Set in the famous Robben Island prison (in which Nelson Mandela was held for 17 years), its main objective is to attack apartheid through the display of two cellmates' relationship and their rehearsals of Antigone for the upcoming prison "concert."

The intersections of Sophocles' Antigone lends its themes of man's law versus God's law and whether "guilty or not guilty" is a valid and grave question given the bias of Creon's law. The two cellmates, John and Winston, argue over the play's relevance, and whether Antigone is guilty or not guilty. And of course, they vehemently argue over who will dress up as a woman in front of their cellmates and guards at the concert.

But it's over, so Tear it Down! And we did.

This evening, we have rehearsal, then Shanna and Kyle and Kaiden and I and her crew are going down to Coki beach to hear Cool Sessions play and dance the night away. Before all that ensues, I have to read more Shakespeare and find scenes or line couplets that I can bring into the two student workshops I'm doing next week...

Just another day...

Another beautiful day on the island. It's a constant 82 degrees here during the afternoon, and with a constant sea breeze, it's deeeelightful.

But I could NEVER live here for any length of time. There is no buzz here, no rush of activity, save the four cruise ships that land everyday. People are not involved in their community, and the little resources any organization has, they are careful to guard it with suspicion. Poeple are afraid that every visitor is a solicitor, that every charity is a "loan," and that every non-profit theater who asks for a donation is the devil...

But of course given the island's history as a small paradise stripped of its natural resources and pride, the general distrust of the government and outsiders is more than understandable.

Besides that, its' EXPENSIVE! Gas is $3.15 a gallon, and with all of the hills, it's not exactly cheap to navigate the 12 mile island. Little things that are all imported cost a lot, and even water and electricity are through the roof. Also, there is no dairy on the island, so all the milk is reconstituted. Bleaghh.

Oop, off to rehearsal at the Theater...

No Stake in Community Theater

"This is the last time we do Community Theater," Steve shrugged and Denny and I both nodded.

It is 3 weeks to opening, and with the exception of 3 actors, everyone else has major problems to overcome.

Because Steve translated a new version of Threepenny from the original German, one actor takes his own artistic license saying, "Well since you rewrote the play, why can't I rewrite my lines?... I don't think ___________ would have said this....etc."

Now everyone is telling us that he is legendary for poor line memorization. Thanks for telling us NOW. When he sings, he accosts the audience by getting right in their face and sneering at them, no matter what the sing. Denny tries to counteract this terrifying gesture by lacing him far upstage and sitting for many of the songs.

There is a woman whose body and brain forget every piece of direction, so for other actors, it's like talking to a preprogrammed crane who moves in spite of other activity. She doesn't even notice when other characters enter, she just delivers her lines to whoever should be there.

Then of course there are the normal yet annoying problems of paraphrasing lines, boring delivery no matter the amount of coaching, missed entrances (there's a guy who missed every single entrance), and general apathy.

It is certainly different than working in a college environment. There, students had a stake in a show, in getting better, in developing a "craft." Here, there are 3 people out of 16 who have any desire to get better. For most, they are content being mediocre, and because there is no community theater "community" to speak of, they know they are irreplaceable.

Agghh! Nikki (Producer) wants me to return this winter to do "the Nutcracker: The Musical." Right now, I can think of nothing more exasperating.

Island Fever

So I had my first “island fever.” And it’s not the good kind, like Saturday night fever. It was four days of feeling like I could sleep ‘til I died. I was overdue for some rest, though. During those days, I stayed in bed way past my usual wake-up hour, slept or lay staring at the ceiling rafters, thanking my lucky stars (Rigel and Saiph—yes I have actual stars—those are Orion’s feet) that I didn’t have Malaria or Dengue Fever.

From my bed, because it’s on the roof level, and the east side next to my bed is all windows, I can watch the celestial procession of stars across the night sky. It’s clear and beautiful almost every night, and I’ve made it a routine to sit on the flat ceramic-tiled roof every night to star gaze. The most prominent constellations are Orion and his crew (Sirius, Procyon, Castor & Pollux, Capella and Aldebaran), the big Dipper, Casseopia and the great square (Pegasus and Andromeda).

Ah! News! So I am definitely IN the show now. Someone dropped out, and we need more vocal support in the group songs, so I’ve been willingly drafted. I’ll be singing the entire Mack the Knife Ballad. Seven verses of the same tune. My job is to make it sound interesting, because after the third time you hear the same notes, you get it, yeah, this Macheath is a bad guy.

I choreographed the Tango between Mack and Jenny Diver yesterday. It’s short, sexy and very cool. Bethany, who plays Jenny in Threepenny, discovered that Jenny Diver was a real person. She was locked up in the Old Bailey in London on several occasions for her involvement in several pick-pocketing gangs. But for some reason, she always conned her way out of jail. When she was finally hanged, Scotland yard advertised and sold tickets, and she swung to a sold-out crowd.

That’s how I want to go. If not celebrated in life, celebrated in death. But of course Lotte Lenya, Brecht and Weill (married to Lenya when Threepenny debuted) made sure we never forgot her.