Phylis is in Dublin for Opening Night!

Phylis Ravel surprised the students today ---

During a notes session with Patrick Sutton around 1 PM, Patrick received a phone call on his cell from Phylis. Patrick said what a shame it was for PR to miss the performance, and help up his phone so all could shout "hello". Then a door to the theatre opened and there was Phylis, shouting "Hello!!!!" Quite a surprise!!!!! The students were sort of in shock! We are so excited about tonight.

At least 2 sets of parents are here to see the show. Yesterday in Penney's, shopping for pantyhose (or "tights" as they call them here) a man grabbed me! It was Dr. Steven Franzoi, Amelia's dad, and her mom...they'd just arrived and Amelia was showing them her favorite shopping spots while they were jet lagged and waiting to get into their hotel. I know that Bonnie Auguston's folks are here from Portland Oregon, as well. How cool!

Patrick gave notes to the cast, and we have this afternoon off to prepare for the opening call at 6:30 tonight. It feels weird to have the afternoon off, and not be rehearsing or running around looking for props/costumes.

David & I treated ourselves to a healthy SLOW FOOD (as opposed to Fast Food) lunch of Japanese noodles, then came back to our little flat for a nap.

More later!!! I;m hitting the sack for an hour before getting on the bus back to Smock Alley.

Deb

Maisie Saves the Day...or at least some of my hair.

The lighting load in was typical of an older space, semi functioning equipment, eccentric qualities of the theatre, things that just don't make sense, at least to me. Something I haven't had to deal with before.

We faced a challenge Wednesday when we lost a bank of dimmers, essentially eliminating 4 lights. I contacted Maisie, the production manager, for guidance and she started making calls. I made some adjustments to the plot to compensate for the loss of the dimmers, and we were ready to go for tech that evening.

I stroll in the theatre last night for the preview performance, and as we were checking the lights, we discovered that 4 more dimmers weren't working. This was a bit of a problem as our preview was scheduled to begin in an hour.

So I sat myself down at the lightboard with my paperwork and just as I started to think abut how I was going to get out of this jam, Maisie walks in and says she finally heard from the house guy on how to fix the missing dimmer problem. She opened a scary looking panel (it was of many panels, some of which we did open) and flipped a few breakers and we were back in business.

Whew......

Poor Tom Opening Tonight

At about 2pm Milwaukee time, Poor Tom will receive its world premiere. The kids have worked hard and it should be an exciting event tonight.

The playwright, Martin, seemed genuinely happy, after sitting through the preview last night without pen and paper in hand. Patrick, the director, was pleased, and encouraged the cast to let it all out for tonight's performance.

Around 11am today, we will get together and work some scenes and moments.....then come back for opening night.

The lighting and other stuff....

A pile of lights...a scaffold....only 8 amps per dimmer.... the lighting fun begins Tuesday afternoon......

Rehearsals have resumed in Smock Alley; I am spending my time examining the exisiting light plot to plan what lights to re-use and what additional lights to hang.

The plan is to hang and circuit the lights Tuesday afternoon and evening. We will need to have all the lights focused by Wednesday evening when we start teching the show.

I made the production manager happy by cutting two booms and some cable. The huge step unit will be preset right where I want to put the booms.

The set is looking great, there are huge barrells with planks that Dave built on top of them. The props are outstanding: buckets, sacks, flags, a bathtub....all great stuff.

In rehearsal, the cast is working through the play with Patrick making adjustments. And the composer, Susan, has arrived to help with the music.

Thoughts on Ireland after 2 weeks, from Deb

From Deb:

I have come to accept that if one travels to Ireland in June, one must expect to be wet. All the time. No, strike that. God laughs and allows periods of mere grey in which your clothes dry out (almost), and you walk thru the streets feeling lucky and happy to be alive. And then it rains. RAINS. Sideways and vertically. Feet squish due to sodden shoes. Water soaks up your pants hems to knees. Hair slicks to your head. You are amazed that thru it all, you are sweating and your glasses fog up due to the humidity. Paper shopping bags disintegrate and dump your treasure in puddles. Your umbrella bends inside out in the wind, and the fabric tears off the frame, leaving a spider skeleton of flimsy imported-from-China wires. You wonder how you could have ever thought that an umbrella would be enough protection from the rain, not a rubber suit. You look at other tourists from America, students in their flip flops, middle agers in their golf jackets with zip-on hoods, drenched to the bone with no umbrellas and wonder – what were they thinking?? I wonder if any of them live in Seattle and are used to this? David describes this weather as "torturous". Makes him want to read Sylvia Plath and open a vein.

I love Ireland. The people are so wonderfully friendly; there are great places to see and things to do. The culture is rich and the adventures are many. But I think I am growing webs between my toes...

Had another day of props/costume shopping with David. Went to the 2 Euro store (our equivalent, although not monetarily, of the Dollar store) and bought things like paint, brushes, hair clips as cheap as we can. We can't find blankets ANYWHERE! They all use duvets and covers, mucho euros. And we need 3 small ones for show. So we went to the good folks at Murphy Sheehey fabric shop, where we've been about 4 times now for other needs, and bought the remains of a moth eaten bolt of fabulous hounds tooth checked wool at a discount to make our own. I bought the 3rd pair of boots to try for Ashlea - a used pair of Eastern European combat boots that I pray will fit her. Lots of interesting conversion tables consulted between the clerk and myself to determine her size in Communist codes. Shop keepers here are all so nice - let you return things. Antique dealers here rent to theatre companies and films on a regular basis, and seem happy to do it. Folks all say thank you many times over, and are glad to put some show fliers on their counter. Even the semi-porn JOKE SHOP where we found stage blood and liquid latex right next to the fake penises!!

We are almost on first name basis with folks at Lonegan's hardware store. Been to the charity shops on almost a daily basis - and we know certain parts of town quite well now. It's fun to have a mission, but we are really ready to get into Smock Alley and get this sucker mounted! Know we will have more problems to solve this coming week.

Behind the scenes (in our flat)

When you are on the road, you have to improvise the best you can. Here I am sewing up some prop bags for the show. It's a cute little battery powered sewing machine we bought at Target before we left Milwaukee. Tonight, David will be creating a fake tongue! All in the comfort of our little flat on Lower Baggot Street.

It's amazing that so much great theatre happens in this town without many resources. There is only one theatrical supply store and they don't really carry much. We've only found one good fabric store. And while we can find tons of stuff we can't get in the states, we can't find some really basic things. One thing is craft supplies. For instance, we can't seem to find styrofoam balls (or any other styrofoam product). A hot glue gun costs about 15 Euro (about $18US). We need a fake bird for the show and I think we wore out about an inch of shoe leather looking for it.

One thing that the government has instituted is a mandatory fee for plastic bags to take your purchases home. Not a bad way to cut down litter. In fact, when you get money from an ATM you have to ask for a receipt. So many people were simply discarding them on the ground that it became a litter problem.

On the other hand, the fabrics that you CAN get here are fabulous! The wools are real and not blended and many different weights. The hardware you can get for your front door is great, too! Great knockers (no jokes), latches, hinges, knobs, etc. that are copies of Georgian era hardware. Not exactly cheap, but at least it is available here. Even Renovators Supply doesn't carry what we see every where. And keys! Who knew there were so many different types, sizes and styles of skeleton keys. Great props!

Almost any restaurant sells food to go (They call it "take away" over here). And the variety is extraordinary. Lots of Italian, Chinese, Japanese (Yes, we had sushi!), Thai, African, Persian, Polish, oh, and Irish. Yes, they have McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Burger King. They even have Quizno's! Panini's, perogi's and pretzels - you can get it all here.

Well, got to get back to work. Here's a shout out to Tim and the Krajec clan.

Deb

Getting Around

You couldn't pay me $5 million to drive a car in this town. The traffic patterns make little sense to me. I would get in an accident for sure.

Our primary mode of transport is the bus which we have vaguely figured out. It costs 1euro to get from our hotel to the theatre. Deb and Dave have purchased a weekly pass for unlimited riding.

What I find amazing are the bus drivers here. They are able to maneuver their large vehicles in the tiniest of roads. This photo is from Galway, note the buses on the narrow streets.

Technical Production Update

Deb and Dave have been scurrying around town gathering more props. We thought we would be able to get into the theatre this Saturday to do some prep work, but we were given incorrect information. So we will start sometime Sunday morning, starting with getting the set in place and prepping whatever lighting we can. Then rehearsals resume in the space. We don't start rigging the lighting until Tuesday.

Today, Liam and I met with Mazzie (the production manager) and a guy named Steven. Apparently, he has worked in the space and he was able to answer our questions and gave us some tips. Most importantly, he told us each dimmer (there are 48) can hold 8 amps. With 220 v0lts in Ireland, that means we can plug 1760 watts in each dimmer.

Steven will be with us Tuesday afternoon for the 'get in' as they call it here (We call it a load in. ), so we should be in good shape. The strike is called the 'get out'.

Live Post: New Pictures and Rehearsal

Students rehearsing at the Gaiety School of Acting around 12:00 GMT on June 20th.

I have uploaded pictures up to today's rehearsal to the album. We are currently in rehearsal in a studio space at the Gaiety School of Acting. Our rehearsal space changes because of the many productions going on at the Gaiety. It is difficult to have to work some of the blocking in such a small space; but the actors are versatile and will, no doubt, have little trouble adapting to each space until we settle in to Smock Alley.

New Link For Pictures

To better organize the photos, I have put them in seperate albums on my webshots page. The link directly to my page is below. I also updated the link in the links menu.

http://community.webshots.com/user/ValiantToaster?vhost=community

I will be putting about 2 days of pictures per album. Enjoy!

A heron outside a window in Galway.

Live blogging tuesday rehearsal

Rehearsal in Smock Alley Theatre.

Got a connection with my Palm.

We are now running thru a 2nd time, this time in the theatre as it was locked when we started at 10am. We started rehearsal in a large room next to the theatre. Eventually, we moved into the theatre space.

New photos and rehearsals resume

Nicole Farmerie (left) and Jenni Shine (right) rehearsing a song.

Scott has posted more photos on the Web Album. The pictures start on page 7. They are from the 1st day of rehearsal.

We have begun week 2 of rehearsals, with more rehearsal time this week the day. Deb and Dave have been scouring the town looking for props and having good success. I have to present our lighting needs by our production meeting today at 1pm.

The show is taking good shape, and we will stage the ending today.

Galway: A First Impression

We have just arrived in Galway and, despite the cold oceanfront weather, it feels like the place to be. It is a bit smaller and just more relaxed than Galway. To put it in easier terms: If Dublin was Chicago, then Galway would be Lake Geneva. It is very hard for me to ignore the extreme similarities between this town and many small lake communities throughout Wisconsin. The only difference is that when an old fisherman approaches you on the street here, you do not get scared for your life, because his foreign accent makes him sound, as the girls in the group say, cute.

Well, those are my first impressions of Galway. I look forward to taking in this new side of the country. Tomorrow I have a trip planned up north to Swinford, in County Mayo, to meet with some Irish relatives of mine that I have never met and know nothing about. I am excited for it and will be sure to keep you all posted after the trip.

Overall, we have had a very good week and I am happy with the progress we are making on the show. I also really like the part I have been given and hope that I`ll be able to flesh it out the way I see it in my head. As far as our cultural visits have gone, I feel that we have truly seen a lot already. The shows we saw were interesting, Sweeney Todd was very well performed and had to be one of the best staged shows I have ever seen due to its creepiness and Barefoot in the Park brought me my first experience seeing Irish actors attempt American accents. It was weird to be on the other side of this. It was a little rough. They had a talk-back for us afterwards and lets just say that they thought they nailed the American accent. We were also brought on a general walking tour of Dublin where we saw many landmarks and got just a general history of Ireland and the city. Trinity College`s campus sadly put Marquette to shame. The Ghost Bus Tour was not very funny (although the Borat-quoting guide thought so) but was very worth it for the stops and actual stories.

Our trip to the Art Museum was also very interesting, seeing things from paintings, to stained-glass windows, to Francis Bacon`s very own, intact art studio, to short films. I spent a lot of time in the last mentioned. But, overall, the most interesting visit for me was to the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks. Aside from the many elaborate objects on display, the museum had a recently opened, huge exhibition about the history of the Irish military from the Middle-Ages through the fighting for Irish Independence and then to the present. Some of us spent a lot of time in this exhibit, myself and Liam personally staying for over an hour. It just really drew me in. I can`t get over just how much history there is to learn about this country as a whole. I think its just shocking coming to a country with so much more recorded history than we have, as the Europeans did not discover America until 500 years ago.

Well, I`ll spare you any more rambling for today. I`m off to take in Galway and will hopefully be able to write again soon.

Rehearsals June 14,15

The company blocked through about page 50 of the show. In addition, they rehearsed some original music.

Patrick was happy with the company's progress because he feels they have captured the 'soul' of the play.

The cast will begin memorizing their lines this weekend.

Rehearsals resume Monday June 18 at 1pm.

Scary!?!

Nicole Farmerie is scared to death prior to getting on the bus that took us to the haunted sites of Dublin.

The rest of the group pretended not to know her.

Coach Crean Hired Away???

This poster was outside of the Gaiety School of Acting. It is an ad for a production across the street about an Antartic explorer. Apparently it is a big hit.

The First, Extended Day (A Belated Post)

I thought that I could write a little bit about our day of travelling from the great city of Chicago to Ireland. I haven`t had much of a chance to do more than be dumbfounded at how great this city of Dublin is, and so, my post comes to you a little late.

The day of travel started out fine, with everyone showing up on time. We all luckily fit the weight requirements on luggage and were sent to our terminal...that is after we were to wait in what seemed like a quarter-mile long line to get through security. It wasn`t until all of us got close to the front of this line that we were told there are no more restaurants in the terminal area and that if we wanted to eat, we would have to get out of line. We did. Luckily we were able to pull out some charm and were let in at the front of the line. Turned a lot of angry heads.

We eventually boarded and all had a seat near one another, which was great to pass the time. The flight was long, but went by just fine. We all had our own diversions in order to get through. Some played euchre, some read books, some slept, and some had awkward conversation. All in all it was great, especially the viewings of "Wild Hogs" starring the Old-Timer Gang and "The Astronaut Farmer" starring Billy Bob "Sling Blade" Thornton. I laughed and cried! The food was good for what it was.

The moment finally came when I switched to a seat by Liam (next to the window) and watched as the sun rose over what was now Ireland. I looked down and saw nothing but green land. We flew past Dublin and over the ocean in order to swoop-turn the plane around and come back into Dublin Airport. This was a great sight and I wish I had a camera with me. There was not a cloud in the sky and it made the whole landscape below look beautiful.

We got off the plane and surprisingly did not have to go through Customs. We hopped right on a bus and headed down to our respective hotel/hostel. The city looked great. We dropped off our things in our rooms and went straight out into the city to fight our impending jet-lag. We saw St. Stephen`s Green, the shops on Grafton Street and real, live Irish people. We all had lunch and I had a traditional Irish lunch (sausage, baked beans, and chips) and then the pain of no-sleep set in. We all took long naps in the afternoon.

After that, we met the Gaiety staff and were visited by both the Governor of Wisconsin Jim Doyle, his wife, and the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland. It was an honor that they came. We finished the night with dinner and a show at the Peacock Theatre called "Terminus". It was a fantastic show.

Well, that was that. Since then we`ve had rehearsals, seen more shows, been to some museums, and just had a fun time. I`ll have more posts to come.

Web Album

Site of the old Smock Alley Theatre.

As the archivist, I have been busy taking multitudes of photographs. It has been hard to find time to sit down and go through all of the images with our busy schedule; but, I will put a small fraction of these photos in a web-album in a low-res format. These uploads are quick and dirty, but should give a good visual walkthrough of our journey. There will also be hi-res copies of the images archived. The link to the album is below, and in the links section as well.



http://travel.webshots.com/album/559448385nIJUko?vhost=travel&start=0

Enjoy!

Rehearsal June 13

At rehearsal, Patrick had Gwen (violin) and Jack (mandolin) play a song. Then the company rehearsed the lyrics with Gwen and Jack.


Martin (the playwright) went through some modest script additions. Then the company worked through the play reading the text while making up the blocking as they go.

Today, Patrick will begin the blocking with the intention of finishing the blocking tomorrow afternoon.

The Production Meeting

We had our first production meeting for Poor Tom yesterday afternoon.

Costumes - The stuff Deb (the costume designer) pulled and had the kids pack before we left seemed to be OK with Patrick (the director). She said she has a few items to figure out, but we are off to a good start.

Set - We will be re-using a rather large exisiting step unit that David (the set designer) will design of modifications to. The biggest challenge will be getting the materials and equipment required for the construction of the modifications.We will have some time where David, Liam, Scott and I can get this stuff built.

Props - I will ask David to comment on this. There are a lot of props. There are barrells....

Sound - Patrick has a specific style of music in mind to use. Liam (the sound designer) will meet with two local experts for help, through connections Patrick has.

Lighting (that's me, along with Bonnie and Gen) - We have a tight tech schedule. (more on that later) Patrick has already in rehearsal looked over to me and asked 'can we do this?' I have a pretty good handle on their lighting system now where I can answer coherently.....

The Gaiety production staff - Excellent and very helpful. They have already solved some our difficult prop challenges. We also have a modest budget from the Gaiety to help with expenses.

Connections, Photos and Frustrations

This post is going up via email. Why? For some reason I cannot login to the the blog to upload a post when I am in the hotel in the morning. When I am in the theatre, I can log in, but can't upload photos, of which we have lots of already.

Hopefully, sometime today, our photographer Scott and I, will sit down in the production office and get these photos uploaded. I also need to figure out a way to get student photos up effeciently.

Rehearsals begin

Yesterday we read thru the play. Then director Patrick Sutton and playwright Martin Maguire led a discussion about the play. They then did some movement work.

Gov. Doyle

It was great to have Gov. Doyle and his wife greet us on Monday. He spoke with all the students and asked some challenging questions of the kids. The US Ambassador to Ireland, was just as gracious.

I was waiting for the Gov outside the Gaiety School, which is off a tiny street in Temple Bar. He and his wife were strolling alone down the street. It was quite an image. No entourage, just the two of them as couple. In the setting up the Gov's visit, I was told it was the 1st vacation they have had in several years. We are fortunate that they took the time to meet us. A great kick off to our stay here.

We're here!!!

We made it!! A LONG day traveling, but we made it!

We got checked into our accommodations Early yesterday - luckily the apartments for Chester, Dave & I were ready when we got here, so we could CRASH in a major way. The adults are a VERY healthy walk away form the Gaiety - about a 20-30 minute walk - we may have to investigate buses!
The students can tell you all they did while us old folks were napping.
Last niigth - a lovely reception and warm welcome for the folks at the Gaiety! Wine and good nosh - we finally got to meet allthe staff we've been writing to - Patrick looked quite stunning in a Gangster pinstriped suit.

AND THEN GUESS WHAT! The Governor of Wisconsin came to meet up - Gov. Doyle & his really lovely wife Jessica came to meet Patrick and all of us - it was "grand", as the Irish say...and just when we thought it couldn't get any better - the US Ambassador to Ireland showed up!! What a night. Scott got photos and Dave got video - you should see some posted soon.

Amy Dawson (who is just as nice as I knew she'd be!!) walked us over the the Smock Alley theatre, where we'll be rehearsing and performing - just a few blocks away from the School. And we went to seen an amazing show at the Peacock Theatre last night - TERMINUS. Fabulous...talk about acting!

Got to run! We're doing a walking tour of Dublin this AM, then a read thru of newest version of script this afternoon.
All are well!
Deb

The Art of Last Minute Packing

Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin...


The thrill of last minute packing: How do I fit all this into that, and why didn't I do this earlier? I can't speak for everyone on the trip, but I have a feeling that many of us are doing a lot of packing as I type this. The way I see it: it's an 8 hour flight tomorrow. There will be plenty of time to sleep. We were encouraged to pack light, but that's always easier said than done. Many of us are packing costume items, props, and other essentials for the show. Personally, I need to find room for the camera equipment and hard-drives. If its a choice between lenses and clothes...let's just say I'm goin' commando. A few of the essentials:

• Raincoat/umbrella
• Camera
• Credit card
• In-flight entertainment
• Passport
• Paper plane ticket

This will be my first time to Ireland, and I'm really getting excited. No more procrastinating; these bags won’t pack themselves…but…what if they could...?

P.S. Check out my new apartment.

Hello World

The Dublin Project blog is now live for everyone to see....Pass the word.

We Have Started Thinking About the Lighting Design

As some of you may know, I (Chester) will be designing the lighting for Poor Tom (the working title). Gen and Bonnie asked if they could help with the design. So I appointed them Associate Lighting Designers.

Here are their thoughts so far-

From Gen:

While working on the grid, I have a lot of down light as well as hi-side light.

The only colors that I really seem to want to use at this point are red and maybe some blue. I also really, really like that gobo that Bonnie used in her one-act (I think Jenny may have used it in the Shakespeare presentations as well). Also, there are a few playful scenes between Angela and Tom, or even the women when I think maybe blue would be appropriate...I am also thinking a tree gobo for those scenes (so maybe I should switch that blue to a green to go with the organic feel...), as well as maybe during some of the songs.

Although the play varies in mood once in awhile, the show as a whole is soooo depressing! My rough plan includes a lot of dim light, even sectioned off at times to convey rooms or workstations and even jail cells. Like you said about getting a sense of their lives, Chester, I agree--I think that the work is really just drudgery that they have to push through day in and day out. There is obviously very little fun, so they have to make do with what they have. The only times I have really intense lighting (at this point at least) is when someone stands up to Hannah or the priest, and then the very end with the execution.

I'm still working on stuff and thinking about it, but thanks for the grid and the emails. I'll talk to you guys soon!

From Bonnie:

I have a lot a repeated ideas, but also some new ones. I tired right now, so I'm not going to spend time repeated what has been said in great detail. I agree with you Chester in terms of the angular patterns. Gen I'm not sure which gobo you liked in my one-act. I used a jagged angular pattern laid over a floral pattern to get kind of a gypsy feel, but maybe the mixed gobo thing is something you want to pursue in this show. I agree with both of you in terms of side light all around and also down light, especially at the particularly spooky moments.

Here are a few new ideas: As I was reading through I noticed also that there seemed to be a contrast between the moments with Angela and Tom and then the spookier moments. This I thought could maybe be done with color or maybe even a slight shift to more frontlight... not sure. I also thought that a blue would be nice for the moment when they are getting ready for bed (Angela and Hannah, I think). I thought that the jail scenes should be particularly angular. I'm not sure if we're using jail gobos or if there are set pieces, but i thought another good way to indicate that there are multiple cells would be to hang single light bulbs from the electrics. (like the one that Patrick was obsessed with during the intensive in august). This would maybe give a feel that the jail is a bit run down and also light the faces of each inmate in a creepy way ( I think there are at least 3 inmates at one point, when everyone's like, "Hannah, I'm your husband") I also thought that the jailer might carry a light of some sort, even if it's a flash light, to provide some movement of light in these scenes. Also, we could tap the bulbs a bit, to get a bit of a swing. That might be kind of cool. The last thought I had was to not only have booms for ome low side light, but also maybe mount some lights to bases like we did in the intensive as well. That upward angle might be cool to play with, especially during the scenes where the women are mixing/grinding the powder.

Meeting change for departure to Ohare

We will meet at the Al Mcguire Center at 930 am on Sunday June 10 instead of 1030am. This is a change from what was previously reported.