Power: Onstage and Offstage

Our directors lab last month was led by Derrick Sanders.  Derrick has had such amazing experiences ans a director; working with August Wilson, artistic director of a theater company; directing for any number of great theater in Chicago, NY and elsewhere.

All I wanted to do was ask him questions.  How do you maintain power as a director?  How do you run your rehearsal room?  Where do you find your inspiration?  What is your process before a show begins?  Is it the same every time?

Derrick was gracious enough to answer all of our questions no matter how seemingly pedestrian.

Am I exposing myself here?

I guess I am.

As a new director I was intimidated. I have very little experience and the craft is still unfolding in front of me every time we meet.  I don’t feel like I have a solid process.  I get really anxious about having to have all the answers.

I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW!!

I don’t have to have all the answers and being willing to admit not knowing is a powerful thing.  I know that.  In my mind.

But not my heart.

Does that make sense?

It sounds cheesy and cliche but as a director I want to be able to help guide my actors, designers, crew to express clearly the message the playwright has laid out for us.

Do professional directors  feel power within themselves because they trust the process or their research?

Is finding that power a matter of practice and doing it over and over and falling on your face?

The prospect of falling on my face with so many people counting on me is…unnerving.

Do directors feel terrified every time they work but have become so good at managing the personalities in the room they are able to muscle through?

Lots of questions in this blog huh.

For the next part of the lab Derrick began to tackle composition.

My tension starts to rise.

I had been reading out our textbook “Play Directing: Analysis, Communication and Style” by Francis Hodge.  It makes it all seem so complicated and formulaic. I am not formulaic by nature.

Tension building.

Do directors really have all of this going on in their mind at any given time when they are working on a scene?  Points of power and planes and 120 degree angles and the like.

I mention this to Derrick.

He responds that it’s good information to have and know and that different directors use that information in different ways.

Good.

Good response.

Tension still rising.

Now having some distance from our lab and preparing to enter into another process there are a lot of things swimming in my mind.  The most compelling of which is something  I have scoffed at when I’ve heard it mentioned in the past.

My husband talks about needing SPACE.  That to be creative requires lots of SPACE and TIME.  And I’m all – who has space and time?  I have a career and a business to run and two kids I don’t have time to create space.

It’s interesting to me now to try to carve out time to be inspired.  Time to find images.  To shift my perspective from panic to pleasure.

Derrick said that he has pictures he took on his iphone, of people he saw on the street who resembled characters in a play he is working on.

How fun is that?

The director of our next month’s lab talked about how she listens to lots of music to get inspired and watches lots of  movies.

Also fun.

Tension decreasing.

So I’m off to fill my ipod and carry around my Flip and will try to keep reminding myself to make it fun and find inspiration in the tiny spaces I have in my life.

Did I also mention I got rid of cable?  Thought that might open up some time since I won’t be watching Supernanny til midnight.

And am giving up drinking until June when my next project opens.  I’ll keep you posted on how that one is going.

Comments, smart remarks and inspiration are welcome.

TEATRO LUNA IS LOOKING FOR YOU! ANNOUNCING 2010 SEASON GENERALS!

Non-Equity General Season Auditions & Interviews for Teatro Luna: Monday February 15, 2010 & March 13 2010

TEATRO LUNA IS LOOKING FOR YOU!

Our 2010 General Season Auditions are coming up and we are looking for talented Latinas of all ages and backgrounds.

At this time,  We’re casting for the touring versions of S-E-X-OH! and MACHOS.

We are also looking for actors of ALL racial/ethnic/gender identities to audition for some of our new works initiatives: 10 Minute Play Festival & our LUNADAS Reading Series.

Detailed Descriptions:

S-E-X-OH: Looking for Latinas of all ages and types to tour with our hit show S-e-x-Oh!  The ideal person is cute, adaptable and able to travel.  Bilingual English/Spanish is NOT necessary.

MACHOS: Looking for Latinas of all ages and types to tour with our hit show MACHOS. The ideal person is willing to wear facial hair and able to travel. Bilingual English/Spanish is NOT necessary.

HALF: Looking for  writers, performers, and musicians to work on creating a new ensemble devised full-length performance.  This is a chance to experience Teatro Luna’s unique development process from the very beginning!

TEN-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL: Looking for actors of ALL racial/ethnic/gender identities for 10 different 10 minute plays written and developed through our PlayLab .

LUNADAS READING SERIES: Looking for actors of ALL racial/ethnic/gender identities for the casting pool of a bi-monthly reading series.

TO AUDITION: Please bring a head shot and resume, and prepare a 2 minute contemporary monologue. If you would like to perform your own work in addition to that, please include that in your email– we would love to see you perform that as well.  If you are interested in auditioning for the development of Half, please also prepare a 2 minute sample of an original work. If you are a writer of ANY genre, we encourage you to submit a piece of writing of your own that you love in advance with your email. (max 10 pages)

AUDITIONS:  Monday February 15th from 9 am – 2:00 pm, by appointment only. We will also be taking appointments for March 13, 2010 10 am – 4 pm  For more information, and to make an appointment, please e-mail casting@teatroluna.org with your resume & headshot. 2649 N. Francisco Avenue 2nd floor, Chicago IL 60647 On Francisco between Diversey & Logan Blvd.)

ABOUT TEATRO LUNA:

TEATRO LUNA is Chicago ‘s first and only all-Latina theater ensemble dedicated to creating original work that honors latina lives, and showcases the talents of Latina/Hispana artists. Founded in 2000, Teatro Luna is dedicated to expanding the range of Latina/Hispana roles visible on the Chicago stage and beyond.  Previous shows include Generic Latina, Dejame Contarte, Kita y Fernanda, The Maria Chronicles, SÓLO Latinas, S-e-x-Oh!, Quita Mitos, Lunatica(s), MACHOS, SÓLO Tú, and JARRED (A Hoodoo Comedy).  Teatro Luna tours colleges and festivals around the country with a blend of ensemble-created performances, visit http://www.teatroluna.org for more information.

WANNA SEE OUR WORK? Check out our current hit LUNATIC(a)S! Now Playing through February 21 at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Avenue Plays Thurs-Sat @ 7:30 pm & Sun @ 6:00 pm. Tix $12-$20, available at http://www.teatroluna.org. Bring a group! We offer group discounts and buy-out opportunities. For more information email boxoffice@teatroluna.org

January PlayLabs-Death of a Salesman and Art as Inspiration!

Happy New Year! Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays–I’m happy to be back with an exciting synopsis of our January PlayLabs. As always, there were some wonderful scenes read and some great discussions! So first, we’ll start with:

PLAYLAB 1-JANUARY 9th

Our reading assignment was “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller. The last time I read this play was in high school, when I was a 17-year-old wondering why we were reading about this old man loser…what did this have to do with me at all? Fast-forward to years later, and I’m blubbering through this play as I’m reading it…why did it hit me now? The same words kept being repeated throughout the discussion–”broken dreams”, “failed goals” “loss of hope”.  We all agreed that the character of Willy Loman served as the ordinary everyman trying to be extraordinary by being “well-liked”.  We compared the loss of Willy’s dreams to the loss of the American Dream–the hard realities that we all have to go through in life’s journey (which is why Willy Loman is a more poignant character at this stage in life than as a teenybopper trying to get an A in English).

“Death of a Salesman” is structured differently than the other plays read in our labs–in this case, Miller used flashbacks as Willy’s memories and entwined them with the current-day action.  One example of this technique is early in the play, when Willy is playing cards late at night with his next-door neighbor and he remembers a conversation he had with his late brother.  As the memory progresses, Willy starts talking to his brother out loud, in present-day, and his neighbor grows confused, then concerned with Willy’s behavior.  An embarrassed Willy ends up running the neighbor out of his house.  The participants all agreed that the technique of integrating Willy’s memories moved the action forward more effectively than just using plain exposition.

According to David Ball, in his book “Backwards and Forwards”: “Action occurs when something happens that makes or permits something else to happen”.  According to Ball, action is one event that leads to another event, and these actions are what makes up any play.  For example, you can say “How are you?” to a friend, and she can reply “Fine.”.  The “How are you?” is the first event that comprises the action–the “Fine” is the second event that completes the action.  As Ball says, “The first leads to the second; the two compose an action”.

Ball has assigned terms to these events that make up an action–the first event is called a “trigger” and the second event is a “heap”.  Again, an event is anything that happens–but it takes a subsequent event that happens as a result of that FIRST event that comprises an action.  Now, according to Ball all plays can be mapped out by their action, not only from beginning to end, but backwards–from the end to the beginning, all based on the “triggers” and “heaps”.

We will be discussing action in further detail in our February PlayLab–we will be analyzing our next reading assignment and the actions within the play to further understand triggers, heaps, etc.  It should make for a great discussion–I’m looking forward to it!

This month’s writing exercise was:

TAKE ONE OF YOUR PREVIOUS EXERCISES AND REVISE IT TO TAKE PLACE IN A DIFFERENT LOCATION.

SELECT A LOCATION THAT ADDS A NEW OBSTACLE FOR AT LEAST ONE OF THE CHARACTERS OR INCREASES THE URGENCY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE  CHARACTERS.

The scenes that were presented really benefited from the change in location–the characters were more clearly drawn, and there was definitely more action within the scene, instead of just exposition or talking heads.  I think there is definitely some room for expanding on these scenes, if the participants wanted to do so.  That’s the most exciting part of the PlayLab 1–seeing where someone can expand on their work and start to write more…either about a character, or a situation.  We are now beginning to work on projects that will lead to a one-act play by the end of the session.  I’m looking forward to seeing these one-acts develop over the next few months!

Keep up the good work, ladies!

PLAYLAB 2- January 12th

Our assignment for this lab was:

WRITE A SCENE BASED ON A PAINTING.

We had some fun scenes based on this exercise–participants had playful ways of incorporating the painting into their scene.  Whether it was literal (referencing the actual painting within a hilarious scene about a high-school field trip to an art museum); or figurative (a surreal scene about a magical parrot or a scene about profession of love before an arrest), it was an entertaining night!  The best part is having new artwork to love now as well!

I’m excited to announce that THREE of our PlayLab 2 participants have completed their full-length projects.  Two of the participants, Kristiana Colon and Petrucia Finkler, will have table readings of their plays read at Teatro Luna in late February/early March 2010.  I’m so excited to attend these readings, as I feel I’ve only caught glimpses of these fabulous plays, and I’m ready to hear the whole play read out loud.  A table reading is such a valuable tool for a playwright–when you’re dealing with dialogue, it’s so important to have other people read your work out loud.  Sometimes a monologue is brilliant tragedy on paper, but when read by an actor turns into melodramatic tripe.  Also, it’s important to see how the play “moves” when read aloud–will the actors be able to catch what you’re trying to accomplish?  Will the plot be clear?  Will you be able to relate to the characters?

Our third participant, Mishelle Apalategui, is having her play, “Shiny Boxes”, produced by the Dream Theatre Company in February.  The information on this show is below:

AELITA & SHINY BOXES
by Bil Gaines & Mishelle Renee Apalategui

Thursday, February 4 through Sunday, February 21, 2010 at Dream Theatre 556 W 18th Street.
Performances run Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00PM, and Sundays at 7:00 PM.
Street Parking is available. Tickets are $15-$18.

773-552-8616 / annainthedarkness@gmail.com

http://www.dreamtheatrecompany.com/main/index.html

I can’t wait to see it!

As long as I’m plugging shows, last week I was able to catch another show written and performed by two of our PlayLab 2 participants–Lorena Diaz and Wendy Mateo make up the comedy group Dominizuelan, and their current show is running at ioChicago:

Dominizuelan Presents: People in the City

Thursday nights until 2/25 at 8PM in the Del Close Theater

Tickets are $10.00

For more information, call the iO Chicago Theater Box office at 773.880.0199 or visit the Dominzuelan website at http://dominizuelan.com.

You do NOT want to miss this show–it’s hilarious, fun, and a STEAL at only $10.  These ladies will be also writing and performing in the next Teatro Luna show, “Multiple Americas” in May, so get a head-start in checking them out.  You will NOT be disappointed–I was literally crying from laughing so hard!

February’s PlayLabs are when the 10-minute play festival submissions are due, so I’m DEFINITELY looking forward to those labs.  I can’t wait to read what the participants have written based our our MOON theme.  We are going to have some very interesting pieces to present, and I’m also very excited about working with the Directors Lab as well, as they will be directing the 10-minute plays chosen for the festival.

As always, I welcome comments, suggestions, etc for the blog.   Thank you for reading, and looking forward to catching up with you in February!

-Diane

November 2009 PlayLabs-Character, Our Town and Memory as Inspiration

Hello, all! I’m back with another exciting synopsis of our November PlayLabs. There were some wonderful scenes read, some great discussions, and the best news–the announcement of the theme for our 10-minute play festival! Without further ado…

PLAYLAB 1-NOVEMBER 7th

Our reading assignment was Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Some of our participants had been in a production of Our Town at one time or another, so it was very interesting to hear their take on the play. What struck me was how layered their analysis of the character they played was, given the apparent simplicity of the show. One point that kept cropping up in our discussion was how deceptively simple this play is-the set is a couple of chairs, ladders, a bench. Yet for all the simplicity of the show (the Stage Manager announces the theme of each act), all of the participants were able to find a deeper meaning behind the script and the characters…which lead to our discussion of character.

According to David Ball, in his book “Backwards and Forwards”: “Scripts contain bones, not people”. He goes on to state that “character is revealed primarily by what a character does. Yet even the best of plays presents only a skeleton, because much of what the audience perceives as character has to do with the actor”.

With this in mind, we took one of the characters from “Our Town”, Simon Stimson, and sketched out the “facts”–what we knew about the character from his actions and from what other characters said about him. By just listing the facts (not interpretation), we were able to give details that would guide a director and actor through the role. However, these facts (Simon is a drunk, he is the choir director, his wife is constantly looking for him) are only the “bones” of the character. It is the actor and director that work together to “flesh” out the character–he could be portrayed as anything from an arrogent SOB to a pathetic has-been, depending on the actor’s interpretation. One of the participants talked about her experience playing Mrs. Soames, the busybody of the town, and how she saw this character in more of a sympathetic light…so she chose to play her as someone who had good intentions behind the nosiness and gossip.

This month’s writing exercise was:

“A” must tell “B” something without “C” knowing. None of them may leave the stage.

This was not an easy exercise-how can you prevent a character from knowing what’s going on right in front of their nose? I am glad to report that our participants rose to the challenge with some very entertaining scenes.

Keep up the good work, ladies! I look forward to our January PlayLab to see what else you have in store for us!

PLAYLAB 2- November 10th

Our assignment for this lab was:

WRITE A SCENE BASED ON A FAVORITE OR PARTICULARLY STRONG PERSONAL MEMORY.

Try to include what you felt, what you saw, what you heard, what you smelled? Does the time of day, time of year, weather, or setting color your memory of this event? What is important about this memory? Why does it remain so strong for you.

WRITE A DETAILED SUMMARY OF THE MEMORY BASED ON THE QUESTIONS ABOVE, THEN WRITE THE SCENE BASED ON THE MEMORY.

You may change the outcome if you wish-what else might have happened? How do you wish this event had ended? What is significant about the way it did end?

What was especially lovely about this exercise is hearing the memory-having the details behind each memory (what time of day, the weather, even down to what the person was wearing) really lent to an honesty within the scenes. Even when the scene was far left of the actual memory, I noticed that the participant’s attention to detail prompted sharper writing and more attention to environment. I would strongly recommend this exercise to any writer who might feel “stuck” with their project.

The writers of PlayLab 2 are on notice now to start bringing their projects to a close–we are hoping that in 2010 we can offer each PlayLab 2 participant a chance for a reading of their full-length project, depending on the finished project. I’m looking forward to checking in with the participants in January, to see how far they’ve come with their plays!

We have our theme for the 10-minute Plays Festival! To honor Teatro Luna’s 10 year anniversary, we decided on the following theme:

THE MOON

What does that mean? Whatever inspires the PlayLab participants! Is it a scene about the cycles of the moon, or will there be a scene about someone mooning over a celebrity? Will there be a literal scene about the Man in the Moon, or an abstract scene of lovers meeting by moonlight? Whatever THE MOON means to our participants, is what we will be accepting as submissions. Again, we will have our PlayLab participants submit their 10-minute plays, and we will choose 10 10-minute plays to produce for the evening. They will be directed by our Directors Lab participants as well.

We have now closed out 2009, and what a year it has been! I’m looking forward to what 2010 will bring!

As always, please feel free to post any comments, questions, etc for this blog!

Until next year!

Diane

PlayLab October-Three Sisters, Music as inspiration, 10-minute play festival!

So the PlayLabs 1 and 2 have been up and running since June, but we figured it would great to keep all updated on our progress with both!  So a short synopsis on both of the October PlayLab workshops:

PLAYLAB 1-OCTOBER 3RD

It was a small yet mighty group for this PlayLab–our reading assignment was Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, and we had a lively discussion about how the play relates to us today.  We were all able to draw parallels between the three sisters and points in our own lives where we’ve been “stuck” or “living in the past”, and we talked about how that universality makes this play relevant even today.

We also discussed the challenges in reading the play with the amount of characters, the loooong names, and the fact that it was a five-act play as opposed to the two or three act plays we are used to in modern times.  We all agreed that we would like to see a live version to see the work fleshed out–it was a reminder that in our own writing we need to be sure to give our characters distinct voices so they are not lost within the play, and how we are writing within our times of shortened attention spans so it would be a challenge to mount a 5 act play like Chekhov’s in today’s world (not impossible, just challenging).

The women of PlayLab 1 are doing a great job with their writing assignments–I can definitely see the improvements over time in each of their work just by the quality of writing in their exercises.  This month’s exercise was:

One character is high status, one character is low status–the high-status character asks for something from the low-status character, which the low-status character does not want to give.

Our lovely participants came up with some great scenes–from sorority sisters to city officials to old neighborhood “friends”, they were very fun to read and entertaining.  Keep up the good work, ladies!

PLAYLAB 2- October 13th

Our assignment for this lab was:

Write a scene inspired by music

It’s always interesting to see what songs inspire writers in their scenes–we had songs like the Glee show’s cover of “Don’t Stop Believing” set up a scene about alien invasion, or drumbeats inspiring a scene about oppression and revolution…Nina Simone inspired a father/daughter scene that was heartbreakingly honest, while Adele’s “Daydreamer” and “Ghosts in the Water” by Julian Velard colored a scene about a woman’s recollection of a Halloween party.  Last, Portishead was the inspiration behind a continuation of a play where the dead feed off feelings like vultures and patterns are sustained, broken and remade.

The most exciting news to come from October is the confirmation that Teatro Luna will be producing a night of 10-minute plays to coincide with the Latino Theatre Festival as well as TL’s 10 year anniversary.  We will have our PlayLab participants submit their 10-minute plays, and we will choose 10 10-minute plays to produce for the evening.  They will be directed by our Directors Lab participants as well.   We are working on a theme that the 10-minute plays will be set agains–any ideas??  Let us know!

Well, until November…feel free to post any comments, questions, etc for this blog!

Until next month,

Diane

‘The Event’, “All My Sons” and squirrels at this month’s Directors Lab

What is an event?

Something big?  Something life changing?  Sometimes.

It’s something that has an impact on your daily life.  To use the example from our lab you are walking your dog.  You see a squirrel stop ahead of you.  It looks odd. Frozen for too long.  It darts under a car. You glance under the car and see the squirrel having a seizure.  It looks pretty intense.  You watch for a moment.

And just like that.

The squirrel is dead.

It died right in front of you as you were watching.

Not hit by a car, no discernible reason just dead and stiff.  You move on with your day but you can’t quite seem to shake it.  You even get a little teary over it when  you think of that squirrel there in the street.  The image of the squirrel is with you as you head to work, sit at your computer and ride the train.

The next day you see another squirrel.

Approach it cautiously.

Could it happen again?  Are you somehow linked to the fate of squirrels everywhere?

No!

It sees you and runs the other direction.  It’s just a normal squirrel that didn’t eat a poison plant or drink anti-freeze or anything like that.  But witnessing the final moments of the first squirrel was an event for you.

Plays are a series of events, some big and some small, that answer the dramatic question of the play.  As a director part of your job is to manage and focus those individual events.

Keira Fromm led us through this discussion and gave us tools/guidelines to discover the dramatic question of the play.

She used “Hamlet” as an example.  The dramatic question in “Hamlet”: Will Hamlet kill Claudius?   The ‘events’ in the play contribute to answering that question.

Hamlet finds Claudius praying in Act 3 and contemplates his death saying “Now might I do it!”.  This is one of the events that makes up the spine of the play.

What is the moment of the event?  By shifting a few lines forward or back how does that change the focus and energy of the scene.  Is the moment Hamlet discovers Claudius ‘the event’ or is it when he thinks to kill him or when he changes his mind?  How does your choice of that moment, affect the tone and pace of the scene? Of the play?

As directors we are highlighting or framing specific events to answer the dramatic question of the play.

In “All My Sons” by Arthur Miller the dramatic question seemed linked to the directors choice of the protagonist in the play.  Keira suggested we identify what character undergoes the biggest change.   There were arguments made for a number of different protagonists: the son Chris, the father Joe or the mother Kate. We were hoping as a group to get to see Timeline’s production (which just closed) to see Kimberly Senior’s choice.  Anyone see it and want to tell us about it?  Comment.

How do we choose a dramatic question? We identify the events that really resonate with us. We look at the sum of those events and try to identify what question is being answered.

How much latitude do you have as a director to make choices that resonate with you?

What is the difference in choosing your dramatic question or protagonist when using a well-made play (The Importance of Being Earnest) versus metatheatre (Our Town)?

Which brings us back to our discussion of last month.

What is the function of the director?

Keira felt that a director has to have a point of view when tackling a piece.  She cited Harold Clurman’s book “On Directing”: “The director is the author of the staged play”.

Does the director have their own point of view or spin? Or is their job strictly to communicate the playwrights vision?  Does it really only matter if the playwright is living?  How does that apply to the classics?

We left with a lot of great questions so now let’s hear some of your thoughts and get this dialogue going!

Luna Director’s Lab Takes Off!

Last Sunday night was the first night of Teatro Luna’s Director’s Lab and it was really exciting.  Almost 20 Latina artists from Chicago came together to discuss the need for a presence of Latina Directors in Chicago Theater.

I wasn’t sure initially how our discussion would go over.  We were a group of really seasoned theater professionals trying to create a discussion around the function of a director in theater, what inspires the artist to create, who are the artists and what are the shows that inspire you.  Things I’m sure they have discussed before.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how invigorating the conversation was and how humble and how ready to jump in everyone was. It was also awesome to find out about all of these other artists I should be checking into for inspiration: Marta Carrasco, Anna Shapiro, Mary Zimmerman.  Wonderful visual voices in the field of directing that if I didn’t know before I’m glad to know now.  And all women!!

After our initial conversation we read aloud Chekhov’s ten-minute play “The Proposal” and then began learning a basic technique for script analysis to use on the piece.  That was also pleasantly exciting.

I thought “The Proposal” was pretty straight-forward to begin with, but I was really blow away by how much information we could actually gather by really paying attention to detail and focusing on THE WORDS which were provided for us.  To me the words became the key to the map.  It was wonderful.  For our next meeting, we are reading a classic “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder because it is the ‘most produced play’ in American history and also because there were two really varied successful productions of it produced in Chicago in the past year – the first by The Hypocrites and the second by Lookinglass.  The assignment is to attempt a script analysis and come up with a proposal to produce the show.

On a side note, I have heard the question, why are you studying “Our Town”, why Chekhov, why dead white men.  And the answer that comes to mind is you have to understand the system in order to change it.  It’s all well and good to be interested in producing theater that speaks to a Latino population or that speaks to a female population but to really instigate lasting change don’t we have to have an understanding of what came before to move forward?  Shouldn’t we understand the system before we turn it on it’s head especially when living in an educational system that speaks the language of those dead white men.

And why couldn’t one of our Latina directors decide they want to work on Chekhov or “Our Town”?  Do we need to restrict our thoughts to works by and from an ethnic perspective?

We are also looking into scheduling an outing together to experience some theater. Possibilities include: Stoop Stories, Lorca in a Green Dress, Fake and Mistakes Were Made.  Any thoughts or opinions on what would be a good show?  Something I haven’t thought of yet?? Recommendations???