The Most Intimate Theatre Experience Imaginable

Second Wind has a new adventure. It's called The Elite Pass. It's a mini-membership that gets you closer than ever to the creative process, and it's perfect for theatre enthusiasts, students, and budding actors, directors, and theatre people. What do you get?
> One ticket to any performance of Vigilance
> Two workshops with playwright/director Ian Walker and Producer/Choreographer Misha Wyatt
> One free "youth ticket" for friends and family 12-17 years of age
> Half off all concessions
> Exclusive behind-the-scenes videos and articles
> And the ability to see the show a second time for free

It's the most intimate theatre experience imaginable.  And we've got a video glimpse of the program.

Get your Elite Pass Here.

A Woman: First Read Thru

Welcome back and welcome in the first read-thru for The Woman in Black. For this series of video blogs we're aiming to be even more interactive than ever, pulling the veil back on the nuts and bolts of producing small theatre. This series will combine video and traditional blog entries in an effort to examine crucial elements of running a company.

For our first entry in The Woman in Black series we have a peek behind the scenes of our first read-thru of the play. Enjoy.

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/

On Directing as the Playwright

We're entering a more frenetic time, production-wise. The flurry of activity and tension is due to the fact we're scheduled to film the video segments of the play this weekend-- and thus need costumes, lines, and scene work to be spot on-- and also because we're about two rehearsal days behind where I'd like to be. It's unusual for me; most of the time I'm able to pace the process more closely, but so many elements (and as I've said before, so much physical movement) have made it more difficult. Yesterday was the first formal "off book" day. It was rough, but in general they did pretty well. There are glimmers of beauty, but a lot of mud to clean up. So I thought I'd talk about my approach to directing, particularly as it relates to the strengths and weaknesses of being the playwright.

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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

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

Getting Started

Finally! I got off my duff and posted the first video entry into the MEADOWLAND video blog. It's more rough and tumble than polished, which is what's I'm going for. I'm already cast and in production meetings with a great team of artists. More to come....

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.