• By: Andrew

Posted on March 29, 2010

So, we are finally off and running, making that big trek from the Paris apartment up the road to Gare Montparnasse.  We all made it safe and sound with the help of our wonderful friend Muriel, who lent her car for transporting all the show bags which made it so much easier.  And we got it all on and off the train with reasonable ease.  We always have to be at the train very early the first time because we have to go and show our passports and get our tickets officially stamped in order to ride.  While everyone was doing this Dave Young and I guarded the huge pile of bags which were eyed awfully carefully by the military men patrolling with their automatice weapons, our unusual mass of stuff I’m sure was suspicious.  No doubt we look like a rag tag band of American gypsies, but other than that the whole transportation process when rather smoothly.  And we arrive safely in Agers.

We got our first glimpse at the upstage screens, which was something we were unable to bring from the U.S. and we had generously designed and constructed by the Design School in Nantes.  Unfortunately, the person in charge was not quite consistent in his communication with me and in fact sent me the wrong instructions for assembling them, so take note all you artists out there this is why communication with your design/construction team is so crucial to your work.  It was an adventure assembling it all during load in as we were frankly guessing, but the design was actually pretty solid.  They chose to create two stands made of PVC piping with the fabric stretched between them.  It would had been perfect with a few conversations about its use, which we didn’t have, but for the most part is a really great structure and I think will actually give me some great things to discuss at the Q&A’s following the shows in Nantes.  Every year I have a discussion with the design students about the challenges of creating a set to travel.  Ultimately, without the instructions, we ended up tying the piping to the ceiling to stabilize it which worked fine in the quirky little theater here and fortunately, we will be able to have the designer on hand at our next venue.  The other major issue was that the fabric they used was white, which I am sure you can guess is a totally disaster on stage since it reflects everything and since all the locations in the piece are supposed to be rather seedy, we needed more of a brown.  So really our first adventure was hitting the hardware store to find brown fabric dye.  Fortunatley, we had the guidance of our beloved Agnes, who hosts Dave and I and Angers, and is our wardrobe misfit (oops, I mean mistress, wink wink) here on the road.  She is a total hoot and is frankly one of my favorite people on this tour.   We have had many great adventures together, plus she laughs at all my jokes and you all know how much I love that.  I could probably write a whole series of posts on my times with Agnes, but I’ll stick to techie stuff for now.  So she took us to the hardware store, I always love perusing the aisles in a French hardware store,  I guess it is much like a French museum for techies.  But she’s a pro and the fabric turned out looking great.

The next big obstacle for us was the car/bar/bed unit, a hollowed out rectangle that, other than furniture, is the only set piece in the show and at various points plays a bar, a check in desk, a train, a car and a bed, pretty versatile huh?  It was really solidly built but something happened in transit and tweaked one of the bottom bolts and when I screwed it in it dislodged its guide somehow and would neither screw in or out.  So our only solution is to saw it off during strike tonight and hope it either holds or that we can figure out a solid fix for it.  It is a bit disconcerting knowing how much the show rides on that piece and how much time, money and effort when in to constructing it, but these are the joys of hitting the road, you never really know how something will react until you get there.  That is why we must be such strong creative problem solvers.  We were at least able to tape the bolt in, thankfully it was on the bottom of the unit, which never gets seen, and we made it through these shows.

The theater we are working in is quaint and quirky, but has a really good vibe.  It reminds me of CounterPULSE in a way, run by a bunch of young hip folks and seats about 100 audience members.  Fortunatley, our stage is in much better shape thanks to our collective effort to improve our space, but ultimately I think it is a place I could see myself working if I lived here.  But this is where I really want to applaud the actors and the director of this piece.  In the techie world we often judge the quality of a director by the inventiveness and cleanness of the choreography of set changes and in this regard John Fisher did a phenomenal job.  Watching these shows reapeatedly has really shown me his talent and I applaud him for that.  Fortunately too, he has equipped the show with really intelligent, creative and talented actors.   Our last show in the states was at Theater Artaud, a space that seats over 300 and has a stage that runs for miles and miles and miles.  We could really spread out.  So the major challenge here was cramming this show onto a stage that was about the size of a postage stamp and a backstage area that was even smaller.  Nonetheless, the audience was enraptured by the actions and I really think that John’s careful planning of the actions combined with the creative intelligence of the actors are really what is going to make these shows in France special, it is already clear with one show under our belts.  Another aspect of John’s direction that really surprised me is the way that the story sounds.  In this small space I was literally in the back of a closet running sound, so I couldn’t “see” the show, but I did listen to it.  And, though I thought I’d be bored staring at a wall for an hour fifteen, the treatment of the cadences actually brought the show to life for me, much like the old radio shows, so again I applaud John’s treatment of this.  Overall, we have started off with a great show and I can only see it getting better from here.

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One Comment

  1. Johnette October 3, 2011 at 4:04 am - Reply

    If your articles are always this hluepfl, “I’ll be back.”

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