Friday 5/30 - "How To Talk To A Lighting Designer"
This evening we had a panel discussion led by the lighting design team of Lincoln Center Theatre's production of The Coast of Utopia: Natasha Katz, Brian MacDevitt, and Kenneth Posner. It was a terrific discussions, and maybe one of the most useful panels of the whole lab. It's not always clear how and when to integrate the lighting designer's work in the process. Many good points were made. Here are some from my notes:
- Talk to a lighting designer like you would talk to an actor. In other words, speak to them in emotional terms. Say things like "I think this seen should be intimate" not "I think this scene should be darker." Don't rob them of their creative contribution. Trust them to do their work.
- Research is useful for a first meeting. The director should bring whatever he has to the table- images, thoughts, ideas. Also, always ask the designer to bring their research. And take the time to consider it.
- Lighting designers like it when the director says "this is what the play is about, this is how I see it."
- Think of light as another character. Speak about it with image and emotion. Lights will help to tell your story in very unexpected ways.
- Never use the words "warm" and "cool". Ever. Banish them from your vocabulary.
- Lighting designers can function as storyteller. Imagine them as telling the story of the play without words. This is the job they can do.
- After the very first run-thru of the play, the director will naturally want to know what his designers think of the work. But remember, the designer is just trying to take it all in. She is seeing the show for the first time. Give them a chance to just absorb it.
- Sometimes lighting design can make or break a show. Think of "Grand Hotel". Not much plot to go on there. But the design made it all very interesting.
- Without a strong director the lighting designer can become defensive, rather than offensive. Give them the respect they deserve and let them do their work as an equal!
- Lighting designer Jules Fisher used to say two things: Never put a drink on my tech table, and never ask me "is that it yet?"
- Don't "hunker down" during tech. Remain fluid. Stay active between he stage and the house. Use down time to work with the actors.
- Nobody knows what its going to look like until you walk into the theater.
- No idea is too small that a director shouldn't tell the designers.
I was pleased to have with me at the discussion my friend, colleague, and favorite lighting designer in the whole wide world - Paul Bartlett. Paul contributed alot to the discussion. Thank you Paul for being there!
Friday 5/30 - Andre Bishop
Friday morning we were treated to a special visit and talk with the Artistic Director of Lincoln Center Theatre - Andre Bishop. Andre is one of the most intelligent and articulate personas in the American theater, and has succeeded in making Lincoln Center a great national theater where many before him have failed. He was candid and honest in his talk, and fielded questions on a variety of topics. He said that "producing is the intelligent exercise of your own taste." It isn't something you learn how to do over night. He talked about the toll the pressure of his job sometimes has on his life. But I was left with a feeling of inspiration, that somebody cared about theater so much, and was striving to achieve the very highest of artistic standards. Andre's choice in plays is never based upon clever structure. He reads a play for its performability. He likes writers who are idiosyncratic, who have a unique voice and strong convictions. He said LCT cannot take a risk with beginning or unproven directors. But beginning next year they are launching a new initiative called LCT III, which will bring to the stage newer, more experimental work.
Friday evening I attended a presentation on director Robert LePage. The talk was given by fellow lab member Joanie Schultz. I went in knowing almost nothing of LePage's work. I left feeling inspired, wanting to see more, hoping for an opportunity to check out his work when he directs the Ring Cycle at the Met in 2009.
"Dreams become reality and then you have to live with them." Robert LePage
Saturday 5/31 - Macbeth Presentations
This morning we saw the presentations from the directors who had been rehearsing Act III of Macbeth all week. They were instructed to move their rehearsals to different locations, including a loading ramp, a hallway, a bathroom, and a the smoke ring of the theater. The idea was to allow the location to inform the text, and see how it manifests itself in the playing. It's a good idea. I see how it could be a benefit to work with a play in this way. Unfortunately, for me, most of the work was self-involved, and unintelligible to the audience. American directors still don't get that Shakespeare's work is about the words. If we can't understand what the actors are saying, then we're never going to hear the play. Perhaps I judge my fellow directors too harshly. But I was completely underwhelmed at the level of the work.
Now on to the final week!
ciao - w.
I've fallen behind in my LTC Director's lab blogging effort. Part of me thinks that I owe it to myself to keep writing about this experience. Another part of me, however, feels like I'm betraying the lab process. Not that there's any big secret, or we're sworn to silence, or anything like that. It's just hard to view something when you're in the midst of it, and so much is happening that I will be doing a dis-service to my time here by trying to encapsulate it. I will, however, for the sake of obstinacy, persevere. Here are some highlights:
Saturday 5/24
We saw a presentation of excerpts from Oedipus directed by Styx Mhlanga. Styx, as I mentioned in a previous blog, came here all the way from Zimbabwe, where he has been harangued by the police and local government for his work. He was delayed getting into the country and his process was even shorter as a result. But it was astonishing to see what he created in such a short amount of time. He began to weave the story together using elements of African Dance in the chorus. I didn't see enough of his rehearsals with the principal actors to learn about that process. It is a powerful thing, however, to see thirty-odd people on stage moving together to tell a story. We rarely have such an opportunity here in the states. I would love to watch how a work like this would develop.
Saturday night, we were given an assignment called "Who Are We". Basically, we were each given thirty seconds to tell the rest of the group about ourselves and our work. Something about the time limit made everyone really cut to the chase. It was a good way to find out about my colleagues. We then played two really fun, easy games: cross the line (group divides in half, then "cross the line if____(you're from New York, for example): then a variation on musical chairs called "I love my neighbor who_____".
We then broke for Memorial Day.
Tuesday, 5/27
I didn't attend the sessions during the day, opting instead to catch some time at my day job and get a little scratch. Tuesday evening, however, I gave a presentation on Joseph Chaikin to about ten members of the lab. I was surprised to learn how many young directors didn't really know anything about Joe. They'd heard of The Living Theatre (and oddly, not the Open Theatre), and had some vague idea of the sixties, but not much else. I spent alot of time talking about Joe's biography and place in American theater history, but I was grateful for a chance to keep his memory alive.
After my talk, I attended another presentation by Lab member Andrew Simon on director Arthur Nauzyciel. I'd never hear of Arthur Nauzyciel. Andrew worked with him at Emory University. He directed the students in a site-specific production of Roberto Zucco by Bernard-Marie Koltès. It's difficult to get a true sense of any director's process without experiencing it first-hand. But Andrew did a great job of giving us some insight into the techniques of the French director. For one thing, he addressed the way in which American actors are completely overtaken by Stanislavski method. He believes that characters emerge when you remove any psychology, so the focus is strictly on the language - sentence by sentence - finding the rhythm and reading the text as a score.
Wednesday 5/28
I watch a bit of a rehearsal for Macbeth. There are four directors working on Act III at various locations throughout the building. The idea is to let the place, for example a bathroom, inform the work. I was sitting on a concrete ramp in a hallway that was very uncomfortable and it was hard to hear the actors. I only lasted an hour and then I went out for coffee. But the work seemed to be progressing well.
From 11am - 1pm there was a discussion with the resident stage managers here at Lincoln Center about the role of the stage manager in the rehearsal and production process.
In the afternoon, we attended a performance of The New Century, playing at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater. A new play by Paul Rudnick, directed by Nicholas Martin, it's really four monologues loosely connected by the themes of homosexuality and death. Not terribly deep stuff, but there were some very funny moments, a little - very brief - full-frontal male nudity, and great character turns by Linda Lavin, Peter Barlett, and Jayne Houdyshell.
Before we left for the day, the stage manager handed each of us a piece of paper, on which was written this:
Question For Friday Discussions:
Take a globe of the world, and a long pin. Pierce the globe in any direction you choose and see where it emerges. Try to avoid the ocean. This is the country where you will be traveling to work.
Choose a play to bring with you that reflects the core beliefs of your country. This play should inform the country you are travelling to about what we believe in. Your adaptation or interpretation of this play might show a contemporary attitude towards these core beliefs.
What is the play you would bring? What is your "take" on it?
So, there you have it. For anyone wondering what's goin on at the Lincoln Center Directors Lab this year.
w.
Thursday 5/22
OK, I confess. I played hooky in the morning. I decided I needed to make some money, so I skipped the a.m. sessions which were a rehearsal of Oedipus directed by Syyx Mhlanga from Zimbabwe, followed by a discussion with LCT Executive Director Bernard Gersten. I'm sure both were very interesting, but I wasn't there.
I did, however, arrive in time for the afternoon rehearsal of Goldstar, OH. It was fascinating to watch director Andy Paris continue his process, working with the elements to bring his actors into the text. The process he employs is the same used to develop The Laramie Project. His subject matter - the Iraq war - couldn't be more immediate. There were moments of great enlightenment. Any time limitations are created, the art begins to emerge. I look foward to seeing where this leads.
In the evening I participated in the chorus rehearsal for Oedipus. It involved African dancing, and some re-enactments of old Living Theatre shtick. It was a nice stretch but theatrically unenlightening.
Friday 5/23
This afternoon there was a presentation of Goldstar, OH. Of course, it's unfair to even call it a presentation after only 4 days of work. But the material is gripping. There were some incredibly moving moments. They used the device of the interview, so we watch an actor playing the role of interviewer asking questions of the family who has lost a son or brother or husband. In between there were some non-verbal pieces that explored relationships in space and worked with light. It was a great effort, and I applaud the entire team.
I decided to skip the evening rehearsal of Oedipus. I don't really need to do anymore African dancing. I'll wait to see my colleagues in their presentation tomorrow.
That's all for now folks.
w.
