The Wrap

It's all over. My film director and photographer Richard Enriquez put together a timelapse photography video of the tear down and load-out... a fitting wrap to the process. Recently, I heard an interview about copywrite law. Issues of what is public domain and private/commercial domain are fascinating to me, but I was also drawn to the idea of what is permanent and what is ephemeral. Movies, music recordings, and books are all (essentially) permanent; theatre is ephemeral. And as much as I will miss this show and everyone in it, there's something beautiful in the fact that it has a lifespan, that it will persist only as feeling and memory. I decided that this blog, which was designed as a rough and tumble, unpolished diary, should also have a limited life. So come March, I'll be taking it down. Should Second Wind decide to blog another project, it may reappear. So, as au revoir:

Opening Weekend

I'm on the run so I won't say much: here is a photo montage from the show. It provides a little taste of the final product. We took many of the photos for the press, so they're also examples of what we think make for good press photos. What makes for a good press photo? RC Staab, my friend, fellow playwright, and ad man for the SJ Mercury News says: "you should have at least two photos, one that is horizontal for tabs like Sunday's Datebook -- 5x7 is fine -- and one that is a strong vertical for ROP (when you think about, papers are strongly vertical). A third photo, more square -- black space around -- would also be good." Of course he told me this after I took my pics.

So far both our Friday and Saturday performances on opening weekend sold out-- despite having not been listed in the Chronicle (thanks Chron, the only thing worse than poor service is unreliable service). Tonight's performance also appears that way headed....

Get your tickets while they're hot: http://www.secondwindtheatre.com/

Oh Where Oh Where am I? Tech!

My long absence (fueled only slightly by difficulties with my blog server) is a statement in itself. Tech was grueling: 12 stright days working at times until six in the morning-- and never quitting before 1pm. I fell sick for two days near the beginning. People fell off the stage. Repeatedly. We discovered one of our computers didn't have enough processing power to run both the video program and the videos smoothly so we bought another laptop, programmed it, tweaked it, and then learned that it had a faulty circuit on the power board that kept it from running reliable. We returned it on opening day, programmed, tweaked, and threw it into the mix. After having never seen all of the media elements together in the same show, we ran without a hitch to a standing-room only audience on opening, followed by an over-sold audience on Saturday. But all of that is another entry; this one is a little behind-the-scenes of tech itself.

We're open! So you can buy tickets at: http://www.secondwindtheatre.com

Sound Design

I've been off-line for the past week because rehearsals are on break. During the last week the show started to slip steadily behind where I wanted it to be in terms of the actors' readiness; then it took a nice step forward in the final run-thru. We're still two days behind in my estimation, but it's not so far that we can't get back up to speed during tech if the actors stay on top of their game.

Break from rehearsals does not mean a break from production, though. There's still publicity to do (though primarily prep work, since nobody's in the office, now); video footage is being edited, tech tools-- like the Arkaos VJ program and SCS sound controller-- are being tested; and I've re-focused my attention on the sound design, which is the topic of today's post.

It's difficult to give a concise, helpful summary of how to design sound for the theatre, especially in a video blog, so I've added a written overview of my process here. It's not quite a tutorial, but close.

http://www.secondwindtheatre.com/

Two Days of Filming

We went into the studio this weekend to shoot about 3 minutes worth of footage for the production. We scheduled six hours over two days to get it done. To say I'm proud would be ridiculously arrogant, because the real work, the real creativity and beauty, the real accomplishment was by others: the filming, costumes, choreography, and acting was the result of other people's inspiration. Many thanks to Colin Day, our Director of Photography who also made it possible to work in a real studio, and Richard Enriquez, film director for the sequences. This one is worth watching....

Ticketing, website, info and more: http://www.secondwindtheatre.com/

Inside a Rehearsal

This time it's an inside look at rehearsals in moving images. I've shied away from taking footage of scene work because I think it's too intrusive. It's too easy to start acting for the camera (for both the actor and the director). But Thursday's rehearsal was focused on integrating movement and fight choreography into the scene-work, giving an opportunity to shoot a little more tape. We've slipped about a day behind in the rehearsal process; there's just too much physical work to cover, and it always takes longer than one expects. Where we'll make it up, nobody knows. It's particularly frightening, because we'll take a 11 day break for the holidays, and if we're not solid before then, the show could slip dramatically. On the bright side, Arthur Keng returned from NY after 2 weeks out of rehearsals very much ready to go. When a moment catches fire for the first time in rehearsal is a blessed thing.

Visit us: www.secondwindtheatre.com

Why Meadowland, Why Now?

Rehearsal, rehearsal. On Monday we focused primarily on the romantic scenes between the Investigator and Sister-in-Law. They're right at that tentative point where the memorization and the emotional journeys are almost connected. So close, in fact, that I felt bad knowing that we weren't scheduled to re-visit the scenes for a week, and I asked them if they'd be willing to rehearse with the AD and AAD on Tuesday, while I worked the dance and fight choreography with Misha. They agreed, and that's what we did. I hope to have some footage from yesterday's choreography up soon.

But today's topic is why Meadowland, why now? What made us take on this work right now, from both the artistic and the political perspective.

Visit Second Wind's website at:

www.secondwindtheatre.com

Ah Paperwork!

Theatre companies don't exist on creativity and inspiration alone. I thought today I'd address some of the organizational aspects of producing theatre (and the creativity--and discipline!-- that goes into getting things done) by sharing some of our production materials. There's always more, but here's a taste.

http://www.secondwind.8m.com/Production%20Papers.html

See you in the theatre...

Where's We're At

Where We're At as of Friday, November 28th. A simple update.



www.secondwindtheatre.com

Masks and Fight Choreography

Okay, it's two in the morning, I've spent 10 hours of my Sunday in either production meetings or rehearsals (I ended up bookending a 4 hour rehearsal with design meetings), the light in this shot is beyond awful, and I'm having trouble forming sentences. Not my sharpest entry. Maybe it's the whiskey. But if you jump about a third of the way in there's some nice footage of our fight choreography excersizes, and some face casting for masks. We also worked the "romantic" scenes, but you won't see any of that. Thanks to Richard Enriquez for his camera work (and everybody else for their commitment).

What is Meadowland?

All these entries and I still haven't told you anything about the play? Well, that'll change here. A brief introduction-- with no spoilers!-- on Meadowland, which happens to be based on a 12th century folk story from Japan.

www.secondwindtheatre.com

Auditions

Auditions: they're nerve-wracking on both sides of the auditors table. Hard on actors, and hard on the producer/director-- at least that's how I feel about it. They're actually my second least favorite part of the producing process. So here's a bit about how we tricked-out our audition process to get hard-to-reach actors, and the inside scoop on what I'm looking for in an audition. And I promise the next videos will be shorter...

As always, you can hop to our website for more information about the show, buy tickets, and have a generally fine time at: www.secondwindtheatre.com

What's to Come

This is just a place holder for what's to come. This is a video blog for Second Wind's production of MEADOWLAND, by Ian Walker, hosted by Ian Walker. My hope-goal-desire is to post an insider's account of the production process, with new video's every other day (starting with the first day of rehearsal, November 16, 2008). I'm going to add a few pre-production posts to give some background, starting next week, and ramping up as we go along.

Until then, welcome.