Wow, where did the time go? We opened to a very happy audience on My 17th and wrapped our final production of The 39 Steps on June 2. Between the NAB trip, generally trying to get the show up, and a lot of work for TPC, I've just been up to my eyeballs in it since my last post. As it is, I didn't have time to even put these thoughts down until a week after we closed while relaxing in a hotel room just outside Amsterdam (work thing - don't ask), at which point I realized I had taken all the pictures off the computer since the show had wrapped....So now that I've finally had a moment to breathe, lets look back over the last few weeks/months/whatever:
But of course this far down the line there's no point summarizing each rehearsal. As I mentioned in the first production blog, my intent had been to try to give you all weekly updates and play with trying to publish a weekly "production blog". However being a volunteer project, and work being what it was, I just didn't have the time. Suffice it to say, the remainder of the rehearsal process went very well, with a few predictable hiccups here and there. We finally got the stage towards the end of April and set building began. Aeryn (my amazing girlfriend/Stage Manager/Set-deisgner/Sort of AD) and I designed the set. Of course I wanted to make it as complete as possible, as opposed to going with the minimalist/implied set that many other theatres in the area have done when approaching this show. Being the stage manager and the strongest one on the crew, Aeryn understandably wanted to minimize the set as much as possible. What we ended up with was a compromise that stretched CCCT's technical limitations to their limits.
The other "major" set piece that was a bit of a beast to figure out was the train car. I choosing a 4X5' platform as the base of the train car. I wanted it to feel a little cramped, but it needed to still provide the room for the cast to move around (and yes, at one point the ENTIRE cast was in the 4x5 space). Having a five foot wide, eight foot tall wall on a platform with no other walls already meant we'd be building something because most of CCCT's pre-built flats are either 2' or 4' pieces. But on top of that it needed to have a door with a window in it, and matching windows across the entire wall so it wouldn't block action upstage, which automatically meant we were building something new - none of CCCT's existing pieces met that spec. And the final piece of the puzzle was that the wall itself needed to be able to support both my lead actor, Luke Hales, as well as one of my "clowns" Steven Sarp. And neither of them are small men.
We wired a couple of flame bowls from Spirit Halloween into the fireplace and masked them with logs. This created a great moment for the gag in the script called for "a fine roaring fire" that comes on a moment later than it should. There was also a double sided 4'x8' wall on a platform with a door in the middle of it. Using the same approach as Hannay's flat, this set piece actually stood in for 3 locations. The interior of the professor's house, the interior of the police station, and the interior of the McGarrigle Hotel. The other pieces were smaller and used to fill out and dress other scenes. We had a door and a window on casters so that they could slide around the stage easily and be used in various locations. As well as some furniture that got used in multiple scenes in different configurations and some boxes that were used in the train scene, and then combined and dressed to make the bed for the McGarrigle hotel scenes. All in, not counting furniture, we only had six set pieces that arranged in different configurations managed to present 33 scenes, many of which were unique locations in the world. I personally had members of the audience approach me after a performance and compliment us on the set design. One in particular mentioned how the entire thing felt more cinematic with "real" set pieces as opposed to the minimalist design they'd seen other theatres use. Of course the set wasn't the only technical challenge that had to be figured out before we opened... Among the other challenges in our space, I had to figure out how to make fog come down out of the ceiling without a DMX controlled fog machine. We had to make an AIRPLANE appear on stage (and have it crash), the show called for 4 on stage gunshots that I decided we should do with small load blanks, and because it just screamed for it, I decided I needed footlights when the theatre doesn't usually have that resource, and then there were the sheep... Obviously, if I dove into any of those any further they could be their own blog post. (Drop a comment below or on my social if you're interested in some behind-the-scenes on how we pulled off those particular bits of theatre magic and I'll make a point of getting to it sooner or later). All in all I think we were very successful in pulling off the tech demands in the show, especially with such a small crew and stage.
Seriously, all four of them did a phenomenal job in bringing this show to life and each brought some fantastic ideas and thoughts to the table. Especially with a show like this it's so important to have a cast that's willing to try different things and play with the direction a bit. As I've said before, the way I see my job as a director is to take all the best ideas in the room and mesh them together in the most cohesive way possible. There's no point in throwing away a good idea simply because it wasn't what you saw when you first read the script. So anyway, after many late nights rehearsing and building the set and tech we got to opening night. (Okay, so we just barely made it to opening night - due to some technical issues outside of anyone's control I was programming audio right up until we opened the house and continued tweaking it in through the first weekend). We opened May 17th and ran to June 2nd, every audience seemed to genuinely enjoy the adventure we were taking them on (even that one really quiet audience that drove the cast a little mad - seriously if you go to a show and find something funny, don't be afraid to laugh!). Generally the audience laughed where we expected them to, gasped where we wanted to and nearly jumped out of their skin at every gunshot. Of course there's always a couple "curve ball" audiences that sit quietly through the big joke but then loose it over that one little moment you and one of the actors put in just for giggles.
So there you have it, the run of The 39 Steps in a very large and slightly bloated blog-post nutshell. I know there's some very interesting things that I just glazed over and if you want to know more about how we pulled off any of the moments from this crazy show, feel free to drop a comment below or shoot me a note on twitter or facebook. If I get enough questions I'll write a followup blog post. Otherwise I'll just answer you directly. Once again I would like to thank my amazing cast: Luke, Roxann, Esme, and Steve for all the hard work they put into this show. Likewise my insane and slightly beat up running crew, Aeryn (stage manager), Lauren and Riley (stage crew), for all the literal blood, sweat and tears they put into this show. It wouldn't have been possible without any of them. Anyway, that'll do it for this week's post. Work aside, I'm going to try and chill for a couple weeks before I jump headfirst into anything else, but as always keep an eye on my Twitter and Instagram accounts for behind the scenes tidbits and other fun things, like the timelapse I shot out of my window the other day. I'm @tomameek on both platforms. As always thank you for reading, I know this was a long one. Until next time. -Thomas PS - if you didn't see it, scroll down to watch the video/slideshow I threw together to help promote the last few shows of the run. |
AuthorThomas Meek is an independent filmmaker living and working in Houston, TX Archives
March 2021
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