War of the Worlds – Lighting Cues

X2L calling CQ . . . 2X2L calling CQ . . . 2X2L calling CQ . . . New York. Isn’t there anyone on the air? Isn’t there anyone on the air? Isn’t there anyone . . .
War of the Worlds has invaded Orlando. I spent a solid day sketching rehearsals on the day before the play opened. Here Fletch and Zac are in the sound booth working on the lighting cues for the show. This is a grueling process for the actors who had to go thought the play scene by scene being interrupted every few lines as the lighting was adjusted. I finished 5 drawings all together this day and I discovered it is possible to draw and paint in a pitch black theater. As the actors performed the lights seemed to switch constantly and arbitrarily. This forced me to work in different ways using less line and larger masses of color. Not being able to see where I placed lines forced me to trust my instincts more than the final polished look.
When I arrived at the Shakespeare Theater, I saw a young woman struggling to get in with a huge plastic bag packed to overflowing on her shoulders. She was also carrying some heavy coats on hangers. I helped her by opening the inner theater door. It turned out that this was Kelly Ann who is in charge of the shows costuming. One at time the actors approached her and tried on their stylish 1940’s duds. What followed then was the first full dress rehearsal. For the first time the play was performed from start to finish with lights, sound, props and costumes. For me the performance was overwhelming and a joy to watch. The play taps deep into the depths of our humanity and the our vulnerability and everyday fears. Something magical happened at this dress rehearsal, emotions and actions were crisp, clear and sincere. The directors and actors are continuing to polish the performances but they are polishing a true gem. Tonight is opening night, don’t miss it! If there is one play you need to see this year, trust me it is War of the Worlds. Performances are:
Opening night Friday July 31, 8PM.
Saturday August 1st 2PM and 8PM.
Sunday August 2nd 7PM.
Friday August 7th 8PM.
Saturday August 8th 8PM
Sunday August 9th 7PM.
Tickets are $12. If you want to order online, go to http://www.playthemoment.com/index.html Listen to the directors talk about the production on the WUCF Podcast.
Do not miss the invasion!

War of the Worlds – Orange Day

While sketching at this rehearsal for War of the Worlds, Sophia Wise informed me that it was Orange Day at the rehearsal which meant most of the actors were wearing orange. I didn’t get the note so I was stuck wearing nothing but blues and grays. I did make sure to put plenty of orange into my sketch however. I also noted the blue tape which Zac had put down to mark the edge of the stage. If the actors wandered past these blue tape marks they would fall into the audience in the Goldman Theater. Since Sophia informed me about Orange day, I decided to put her in the foreground of my sketch and I made a note of her orange shirt and the stripe on her shorts.
In the play she is listening to the radio broadcast. “Now, ladies and gentlemen, there’s something I haven’t mentioned in all this excitement, but now it’s becoming more distinct. Perhaps you’ve caught it already on your radio. Listen: ……….
Do you hear it? It’s a curious humming sound that seems to come from inside the object. I’ll move the microphone nearer. (PAUSE) Now we’re not more then twenty-five feet away. Can you hear it now?”
Sophia and the rest of the public actors lean in to hear better.
While Fletch worked with the actors on the second act, Aradhana asked my if I would like to hear the acoustics in the First Baptist Worship Center. I had only been in this space once before for the memorial service for Caylee Marie Anthony. Zac and Lindsay ran to the highest point in the worship center which was like a footfall field away and when they were there Aradhana quietly asked them to say something. Zac said “what should I say?” in his normal speaking voice, and it was like he was right next to me. Amazing! The acoustics here made the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center seem like a muffled barn.

Faery Festival

Avalon held a Faery Festival that encouraged people to come out dressed like a Faery. There were perhaps 10 tents set up outside and dozens of people with wings. One tent was offering Henna Tattoos and another offered massages. Almost all the vendors were dressed as faerys or wizards. I walked among the tents for a while contemplating a possible sketch but the 95 degree heat drove me inside. The store was packed elbow to elbow with people picking out incense, cards, polished gemstones and assorted magical potions. I sat in the less crowded front porch area and waited till just the right Faery entered my scene. Some children with wings also entered the scene but parents always tugged them away quickly from the delicate figurines and crystal balls before I had a chance to truly look at their costumes. I know a costume contest was held but I didn’t find out who the winner was.
I was seated in front of the stores newspaper and flier stand. As I worked a woman came in and dropped off a flier for a Witches and Wizards Ball. I tool the flier because it sounds like a tempting subject. I rather liked the banner that proclaimed never, never, never give up. That mantra ran through my head as my field of vision was often blocked at I tried to complete the sketch.

War of the Worlds – Jessica Earley

Jessica is soft spoken, humble yet vibrantly creative. When she speaks I always lean as close to her as I can to hear what she is saying. She is almost always laughing and has a innocent charm that can be seen in all her video work.
When I arrived at Jessica’s studio, it was pouring rain outside. I climbed the slippery metal staircase and struggled to close my umbrella to get in the door. Inside was warm and cozy.
She is the creator of the amazing viral promotional War of the Worlds video. Here Jessica is preparing to animate the stop motion titles to me used in a possible second video. Her huge cat is named Mein Kampf (my struggle) and he had a habit of stretching every few minutes and he knocked the Crayola Crayons off the Coffee table twice. Occasionally Jessica would accidentally brush a piece of paper against his fur and this would wake him up and make him look around wide eyed in alarm. Jessica said it is a bit embarrassing when the he gets out and she has to wander the neighborhood shouting “Mein Kampf” to try and find him.
She quickly drew all the letters on brightly colored craft paper then cut out the letters with scissors. These letters were then taped on the world map behind her and she then incrementally moved them until they formed the title over North America. She then animated the flying saucers which entered the scene and blew up the title with lasers. Her tripod is the pile of books to the right and the individual shots were taken with the tiny digital camera perched on top. It was fun watching her work her magic. I decided my sketch was done when her second camera battery died. Her work and mine was done.

Brian Turner Poetry Reading

Brian Turner the new resident author at the Kerouac House read poems from is book of poems titled “Here, Bullet” at Infusion Tea on Wednesday night. These are not the type of poems that get polite applause from the audience rather they hit you strongly in the chest often leaving you chocked and dazed. The Iraq war that Brian writes about is still going strong today, the media seems to have turned away feeling the public does not want to hear more of the bitter hard truth. Often the line between the poem and an ongoing narrative or explanation was blurred. Brian talked about how he had done readings for cadets at military campuses and how he once slept in the same bed a s Dick Cheney in a fine hotel near the base. He spoke of how women soldiers in the army are often sexually abused, and of his visits to veterans hospitals where the injured go ignored.
Even after experiencing and writing about so much human suffering, Brian remains gracious and is a champion of all the arts. The Orlando arts community is lucky to have such an amazing author writing and compiling his work right here at the Kerouac House for the next 3 months.

War of the Worlds – First Baptist

An alternate rehearsal space had to be found for War of the Worlds rehearsals. Aradhana arranged to rehearse in the cavernous choir room of the First Baptist Church of Orlando.
It is not nap time for the actors. In this scene the public is lying on the ground after the Martian invaders have sprayed a poisonous gas over the human population. The audio playing is of someone changing 1930’s radio programs quickly. The actors coughing rise from their positions. Some actors exit the stage. The radio settles on a broadcast of German marching music and two members of the cast march toward the front of the stage. The effect is chilling and it makes you realize why hysteria was so easily triggered in these times. The scene is elegantly choreographed and perfectly timed to the music. The actors had to return to these starting positions again and again as they rehearsed the scene over and over. With each run through I would get another actor placed in the space relative to the others. Joshua and other actors have started to joke with me so I have started to feel at home at these rehearsals. Only one week remains until War of the Worlds hits the stage here in Orlando. Shows start July 31st through August 9th. Check the War of the Worlds facebook page for show times.

Brian Turner Poetry Workshop

At the Kerouac House Brian Turner hosted a Ekphrastic Poetry workshop. Ekphrastic poetry is poetry that is inspired by works of visual art. Brian first spoke about his humble background. He grew up in a family of middle class intellectuals. His father used to read a book to the family at the diner table, but the family never discussed what was read. Brian put himself through college as a machinist. Later like his father he felt the need to serve his country in the military. When he was deployed to Bosnia and then Iraq he wanted need to learn about the country’s culture and ways. As a soldier he had to be keenly aware of the environment and the pace of life in the villages and towns. If the pace of life changed something was wrong.
As an exercise Brian asked all the poets to walk through the house and pick and object to write a poem about. From all these separate poems he later compiled the group poem “Tonic”.

Tonic

A lone gin bottle sitting on the headboard
labors to inspire the numbing dreams
which-out of love, like musicians
with their instruments laid down-
might serve to keep me company.

The air has turned electric-conducting
all that is about to happen. Through windows
of blue and grey-the air smells of rotten cabbage,
pond scum, rancid sweet fermenting,
stewing, the dark soul of a marriage
overcome by the hive of bees in sheet rock,
layers of winged frenzy sweetened
only by the magnolia out back.

If there’s only one thing I have learned-
not from the wandering,
not from the traveling, and
not how Aristotle said it best-
it’s how I move, most impressively,
alone. No one stretches me.

It is true. A bottle of gin is only lonely
when it is empty.

This collaborative poem was written by: Susan Shannon Spraker, B.J. Hart, Naomi Butterfield, Julie Dunsworth, Mary Ann deStefano, J. Northlake, Lorie Parker Matejowsky, Mary Elizabeth McIlvane, Kenny S. Murry, Gene Moore, Bernadette Adams Davis, and Brian Turner.

War of the Worlds – Sound Booth

Here Zac Alfson works his magic in the sound booth. He has his hands full as he often has to fade in the soothing sounds of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra. He of course also had to balance the sounds from the radio broadcast being conducted on the stage while also adding haunting sound effects where needed. Since all the sound cues are not set in stone at this point, Aradhana signals him on when to come in from where she is seated in the theater by turning and raising her hand.
Some complicated staging had to be worked out and Aradhana struggled to communicate to her Public actors while the Mercury Theater performers were rehearsing on stage. Since she couldn’t hear herself think, she asked all of her actors to crowd into the sound booth hoping to muffle the on stage performance. This plan was foiled since the performance was amplified with speakers in the sound booth and the speakers could not be turned off. She ultimately held her acting huddle in the hallway outside the theater.
While doing this sketch I couldn’t really see the colors as I put them on the page since it was so dark in the booth. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the sketch when I got home. I should paint in the dark more often.
During a break I was talking to Erika about how exciting all the rehearsals were to sketch and she said “This is enough isn’t it?” She meant that staging the play was one thing, but also there is enough drama right here and now, that every day is drama enough.

iPhone Class

Terry recently bought herself an iPhone and she is in love. She uses it constantly. She asked me if I would like to sketch as she took a class on how to use the iPhone at the Millenia Mall Apple Store. We entered the Mall early and there was no one around, which is in itself kind of spooky. The Apple Store was open with a sign blocking the entrance explaining that a class was in session. Crowded around the table were eight middle aged people and the teacher was a young twenty something with spiked hair. Any time someone would ask a question he would respond “That is a very good question…” then he would explain how to use the technology in a Disneyesque way. Some questions were more generational than technological. For instance a woman asked “Well why do I have to text someone if I can just pick up the phone and call them?” The instructor had to explain that his generation had grown up with texting and it is less intrusive in that he could ignore a text document for a while and answer when he had time. If you ignored someone on the phone, that would be rude.
At a party at the Kerouac House, everyone in the living room area except myself pulled out their iPhones all at the same time and were doing who knows what with them. They slid their fingers over the polished screens and giggled to themselves. I tried to fit in by pretending to use one. No one noticed. I am beginning to suspect that iPhones are much like the invading pods (iPods) in the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” if you do not have an iPhone, a friend will try and convince you to get one. If you fall asleep in the same room an an iPhone it takes over your body and leaves you an empty shell yearning to stare at the ever changing screen, ignoring life as it passes you by. I found it interesting that in the Apple store there were booklets on how to live an iLife. What is that all about? I pay close attention to where Terry leaves her iPhone at night, I don’t want to fall asleep unless I know it is in another room.

War of the Worlds – The Radio Broadcast

In this sketch the Mercury Theater performers, Brandon Roberts, Frank McClain, and Alan James Gallant prepare for another read through of the War of the Wolds Radio broadcast. Chantry Banks sits in the background listening to the old radio and reading a newspaper.
An amazing amount of work went into blocking the public’s performances during this rehearsal. I am discovering new ways of working and have found that I can block in a sketch when the performers repeat the stagings again and again. This will help with future sketches, allowing me to take greater chances.
After rehearsals the cast went to Tastings Wine Bar for a “Coming out Party”. The directors graciously invited me along and rather that sketch I took the time to learn more about some of the actors life stories. I learned about the struggles and sacrifices made to stay true to the calling as an actor or artist. I drank a bit more than I usually do and felt closer to the crew than ever. Mark from “The Dialy City” stopped by and I caught up with him. I had a long talk with Aradhana and tried to find some small nugget of drama in my humble sketch obsessed story. To find drama in what I do each day, I realized I might have to discuss my own character flaws and how they impact others.
After Tastings some of the cast went to see “Snack” at the Rep Theater. Driving over was a fun drama on its own. I laughed like I was back in High School. For once my guard was down and I just relaxed and had fun. Snack is a hilarious comedy and runs through July 26nd and is part of the Target Family Theater Festival. So you have several more days to go out and see this show. It was hilarious. I especially loved watching the children in the audience as they reacted. They know how to express pure joy.