Category: Theatre

Ink Diaries: What’s Next?

What’s next?

In Memphis.

Moved in. Things set up. Groceries purchased.

Meetings follow meetings: Props. Set. Sound. Logistics. Asthetics. Choices. Face to face. Not Zoom to Zoom.

CleanShot 2023 02 20 at 07 58 09 2x

First Read tomorrow night. Life gets breathed into these words on the page and in my head. What’s been mostly mine starts getting owned by others, shaped by others, defined by others.

First Read is perhaps the most nerve wracking moment outside of first audience and opening night, Everyone is checking everyone and everything out. What’s the director guy gonna day? How’s this next period of my life going to play out? Big stakes in a big moment.

Bring it on.

Ink Diaries: Approaching Dark Mode

One week from today we’re off to the races when we begin rehearsals for James Graham’s play Ink at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis. I’m chomping at the bit to get in the room with actors and start bringing this story alive on our way to its opening on March 24.

Ink Prelim Art

We’re still heavy into production work but I’m just about at that point where I shut down research and script work. I call it Dark Mode.

Essentially I’ll put the script away for 4-5 days. All the research, script work and note taking just sort of percolates, simmers, or stews a bit. The day before rehearsals start I’ll take another cursory pass at the script. But when we sit down for the first read I want to hear the words with the voices of the actors and see how those voices confirm or challenge the thoughts I’ve been bringing to the mix so far. I look forward to both the confirmations and the challenges.

Immediately after that first read my brain will enter a period where it doesn’t shut off on the show until after it has opened. But until then I sort of have to enforce Dark Mode on myself. I’ll want to jump back into things now and then, but I’ve learned over the years to trust this percolating part of the process. Maybe it’s like letting a good piece of meat rest a bit before carving and serving. And maybe I should stop with the food analogies.

“Every creative act involves a leap into the void. The leap has to occur at the right moment and yet the time for the leap is never prescribed. In the midst of a leap, there are no guarantees. To leap can often cause acute embarrassment. Embarrassment is a partner in the creative act—a key collaborator.”

-Anne Bogart

Ink Diaries: The Muddle

I’m in The Muddle.

No, I’m not talking about mixing ingredients into a cocktail. I’m talking about preparing for rehearsal. Muddling typically implies confusing or mixing things up into a bit of disorder. And that’s exactly where I am in process as we’re about 5 weeks out from starting rehearsals for James Graham’s Ink at Playhouse on the Square. So, it’s time to pick up my pace on preparation. That means reading the play more times than any play should be read, making notes and typically reviewing research. It’s a bit different for this production. Because timing.

We actually began work on this production in 2020 and it has been on again/off again due to the pandemic. So a lot of the research gathering took place back in 2020. So instead of hunting and gathering I’m actually in more of a reviewing mode. Although I still keep finding new things and adding them to the muddle.

I call this phase of my preparation The Muddle because as I’m moving towards making decisions that will set us on course I still have the liberty of changing that course. I frequently do as I bounce ideas off of ideas to see what sticks. It’s a bit of muddling about because at this point almost anything is fair game and rhyme doesn’t necessarily have to follow reason. Out of disorder eventually comes order.

But it’s not all a blank slate. We’re in the design process and we’re mostly cast (still two roles to go) so some decisions are being made or have been made. But that’s actually when The Muddle gets the most intriguing. Decisions are choices and choices eliminate other choices and open up others. And when I find myself backed into a corner there’s either an undiscovered way out, or it’s time to revisit that choice.

Reading the play with certain choices in mind opens it up as it closes it down. And if you think that statement is contradictory or doesn’t make sense, welcome to The Muddle.

Rest in Peace Frank Galati

Frank Galati was a gentle sweet soul and one helluva theatre artist. I first came across him after my first move to Chicago in 1979 in the Wisdom Bridge production of Travesties. His performance was a revelation. As was his work on the whole.

One of his many gifts are the legions he influenced, insuring his gifts, like the memories he created, will live on. We were all blessed to experience him.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Director-Writer-and-Actor-Frank-Galati-Dies-at-79-20230103

Let’s Get This Show on the Road

Finally. 

I was first offered the opportunity to direct James Graham’s play, Ink at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis in 2020. Right before this thing called COVID descended. It’s been on again off again since and I’ll admit I thought we might never get to tell this story. 

Well we’re telling it in 2023. We kick off rehearsals on February 20 and open on March 24. And I’ll tell you I’m excited. It’s a rich, complex story about Rupert Murdoch’s taking over of London’s the Sun newspaper in 1969/70. Since I got the word that we’re moving ahead it’s been an exciting rush so far as we pull the pre-production plans together and finalize casting. 

Back when I previously blogged regularly I kept diaries of shows I directed on the 2nd Act of Life on the Wicked Stage and the plan here is to renew that tradition. So we’ll see how that goes. 

Meanwhile, stay tuned. It should be quite a ride.