Friday, July 24, 2009 at 2:45PM My father took this photo of an owl hanging out on a tree in front of their terrace. He has returned to look for mice almost every night. Absolutely wonderful view.
Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 10:22AM My second original work this year already! This one, written by Jeff Stilwell, is a spiritual journey through a small campsite and the minds of Angie, Pip, Trevor, and a zany park ranger. Pip's efforts to forge true and lasting peace are interrupted by Trevor, who seeks the interest of Angie.
Meanwhile, the park ranger seems to help Angie and Pip regain their youth and love for one another. There are wonderful moments in the show, hillarious one liners, and touching dramatic moments. This is really good theater! All this subject matter rolled into a 90min show, and a small 50 seat theater.
Lighting and sound was my task in this show. The lighting design goes from realistic to fantastical flashback sequence and back again. This small space and insteresting lighting positions made for some shadows that were difficult to avoid but i believe i handled it ok. David Baileys wonderful idea of stars (xmas lights) and tree canopy (camo tarp) made a really wonderful "backdrop" above the stage.
One sure gets used to the lighting consoles of today, when faced with the daunting task of customizing your style and technique into the limitations of the console provided by the space.
This is a Lightronics TL-5024, which barely does something resembling a cue. Its concept of Scenes in different Banks are then played back as cues that one has very little control over. No monitor to adjust intensity of individual channels, or add "point" cues. Sure make you feel spoiled with the fancy consoles that we use today.
Sound on the otherhand is something that is no less than a perfect example of automation. Especially with a show that demands a constant environmental sound atmosphere. A babbling brook, crickets, frogs, birds... all throughout. Using a Mac and the program MacsCue, I'm able to loop sounds for as long as i want until hitting the space bar for the next cue. I can layer multiple sounds together and bring others in when needed while keeping the others going. I really love using this program, alot!
Don't miss Jeff Stilwell's new, wacky metaphysical comedy about saving a marriage, ONE TILE SHORT, opening July 9th and running for nine performances (Thursdays through Saturdays, July 9 - 25) at New Space Theatre in Shoreline. Tickets ($15) available at Manya Vee Selects or call 425.776.3778. See http://newclassicstheatre.org to meet the cast, read the script and more!
Monday, June 29, 2009 at 10:57AM Driftwood Players represented the Northwest Region at the national community theater competition in Tacoma this last weekend. Our entry, Minnesota Moon, a wonderful story about two highschool buddies that hang out next to a cornfield farmhouse and talk about the good ole days before one of them has to leave for college. This show won in Idaho recently at the regionals competition.
The event was held in Tacoma, Washington which, lucky for us was very close. 11 other community theaters had to fly in from around the country. We were able to drive. Thats where i came in. The director, Zanne Gerrard, a most amazing woman, asked me to help out and drive the set down from Edmonds. Here we are loading the set into the truck.
The wonderful venue in Tacoma is the Pantages Theater, or Broadway Center for Performaing Arts. A 1918 vaudville style theater with really pretty archecture, and an amazingly friendly house staff.
And look, we happen to be in the local paper, showing us as the local representative. What a wonderful feeling.
After a fabulous weekend of watching these different theaters put on their creative shows, the banquet and awards ceremony capped off the Saturday night. Held at the Rialto Theater, another wonderfully designed space. The ceremony was fun to watch as they used musical numbers to annouce the catagories.
Unfortunately, we did not bring home an award, but we are all still amazingly happy that Driftwood was able to attend Nationals for the first time in 50 years.
