Without You

We have been in Philly for nearly a week, continuing to refine our vision of what Enlightenment on E Floor North is and preparing for our longest run yet at the Philadelphia FringeArts Festival. With any process, inevitably not everyone can be in attendance at every rehearsal. When you work the way we do, this can happen in larger chunks (though I am proud of how often we actually get together without absence). Long story short, Roblin let us know awhile back that while we were all going to start rehearsing again in Philly on August 19, he would not be joining us until the 26th. We miss him of course, but this sort of shake up the usual thing can also be really helpful. Without Roblin's energy and without Roblin's character of Turner in the room it forces all of us to sort of shift and continue to reinvent our own selves and who we need to be in the process. This late in the game that can be an incredible gift.

I am amazed at how much we've been able to work through this week. I thought we'd run up against so many walls and not actually crack open this play we've all come to know so well, even though we all still feel there is some sort of something that we have yet to find. Not sure that we've gotten there, but for sure. . . I am hopeful.

We miss Roblin so much, but not having him there has been interesting and I guess I can say, I am happy for the way it has forced us to look at things. However, it's not like we haven't had a stand-in. In fact, this is who has been playing Turner's role in Roblin's absence. He's not as good, but he's not that bad either. . .

See you Monday, Roblin! We miss you!

The Last Meeting

To prepare for the Philly Fringe (we'll be there in a week-and-a-half) we had one last meeting over the ol' google hangout. Roblin brought a special friend. . . who also really concerned his dog. . .

Gimmie Shimmie

You know what's really fun? To just make stuff. Jed and I (PVD) AND our friend and buddy Carolyn from the Wonder Show are doing a performance piece inspired by the movie Daisies at this year's Foo Fest and we are having such a blast creating something that has nothing to do with security guards or performance in the traditional sense. I know it may seem like an odd thing to do with our month off, but I think it may be the perfect way to gear back in. Anyway, here's a photo of the banner we're making to be on the outside of our tiny performance booth at Foo Fest. The mouth and eye of the snake will actually be cut out for us to offer instruction to the passer-by. And so on from there. . .

One Week Ago

Back in RI. We are immediately and gloriously thrown into the opening of the School House Long House design project with the RISD Museum -- the culmination of nearly a year's worth of designing a multi-use performance space for their show, Locally Made. Our Alaskan tour seems like it must have been a thousand years ago. Or maybe it happened to someone else. In any rate, to give a little perspective, here is where we were exactly one week ago:

(yes, that is a horse "parked" outside of a bar in Haines, AK)

The front page story in the Haines paper the week we were also featured: tree stump art or vandalism?

And here is where we are today:

No complaints.

SE Alaska Tour Highlights

Latest Security Guard Training Regime

Haines, AK - Our Final Stop!

A full and boisterous audience came out to see our final show in our SE Alaska tour at the Chilkat Center for the Arts in Haines.

Big thanks to Tom and Liz Heywood, the supportive Haines Arts Council, Byrne Powers and Anne Hanssen for the generous Alaska-style hospitality.

Tenakee Springs!

Hooray! About 1/2 of the population of the remote town of Tenakee Springs came to our show July 12th. It was an intimate performance at the community center followed by the warmth and hospitality of good local desserts and conversation.

The small float plane ride out and back from Juneau was as exciting as the community hot springs was soothing.

Big thanks to Chris and Darius Mannino for their generosity, great food and hospitality!

Subterfuge! Marketing!

First Friday in Juneau -- the classic night of downtown gallery openings -- happened to occur the night before our weekend of shows at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. We could not help but put our costumes on and have a little fun. Please enjoy our highlight reel.    At the JACC

At the JACC

At the JACC

At the JACC

At Annie Kaill's

At Alaska Robotics

At the Canvas.

Let Us Say Goodbye to the Lost Moments

Along the way in play creation, we inevitably get rid of some things that worked well, that we liked, that were FUN. But for whatever reason, they stopped the ultimate progress of The Work. As we reach the tail end of developing this piece, I wanted to take a minute to pay those cut moments their much-due respects. In no particular order, here are the moments (which probably won't, but may return) to Enlightenment on E Floor North.Getting Dressed:

In a couple different forms and iterations we have messed with this idea of seeing the guards get dressed while hearing some voiceover about work and museums. At long last I think we have decided that the piece can just start with guarding. Well, guarding and singing, but you know, no getting dressed.

The Dance

We tried really hard to keep in our funny choreography. We even added more in Philly, but a few days before performing in April we realized that we no longer understood what it meant at all and it all was feeling a little too cliche. Out it went.

Cleaning Yogurt

The yogurt scene definitely still exists -- tightened and polished, ready for action. However, we decided after Phase II that Turner should not actually clean it. In fact, no one cleans it. Ever. Drama ensues.

Arm Wrestling on a Windowsill

This one doesn't really count because we are on tour and so haven't had a windowsill again. Especially not one that is just the right height for Aram, but not for Roblin. However, the show now has the arm wrestling happening on a stool that is close to a wall. I keep it in here because anyone who has seen the show in AK would see it differently than the people who saw it in Philly (not to mention the people who saw it in New England where there was NO arm wrestling), and I think this is the magic of touring a piece with space variables.

Guards Playing Patrons

Jed says this one may come back in, but we haven't put it back in yet, so it has made my list. Including this part where Gene pretends to be a madman and gets taken out by Mike, which Jed tells me will never be in again.

The Mating Ritual

This scene went away in Philly, and became an actual sceney-type scene with a very small mating ritual -- almost invisible. In Philly it even included a big kiss, which has also now been cut. But just to prove it happened, here's the pic:

I could fill a whole other blog with all we've added and changed since our first shows in February, but my gosh, I would rather folks just came to a show.

Alaska! Here we are!

OK, we have actually been here in Sitka for two weeks now. Had a wonderful show for the community, taught adult theatre classes, circus camp and now the middle school session at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp on the historic Sheldon Jackson.

Onward!

Sitka, AK

It's our first day in Sitka: an amazingly beautiful town in coastal Southeast Alaska. Jed, Roblin, Aram and I arrived by taking the ferry from Juneau. Here are three pictures of that experience:

The Sitka Fine Arts Camp, which is hosting us while we are here is an amazing story that you can read more about here. The short story is that the camp is housed at the Sheldon Jackson Campus which the town is revitalizing through a huge volunteer effort. Here are some photos of the Allen Center:

One week left in PVD

One of the best parts of our working relationship is this constant off-balance we go through with shifting geography. By spending time apart and then re-finding each other in different cities, different spaces, different audiences, we intentionally stop habits from forming. It's one of the ways our shows grow so strangely and surprisingly. Say what you will, but we are never predictable. Having worked already in Rhode Island (with a happy small stop in Maine) and Philly, our logical next stop is Alaska, and this time we're touring SE, spending time in towns we've never gone to as a group, bringing Kamili -- who has never been to Alaska at all -- and then also still getting to spend time and perform in Juneau, seeing familiar faces for sure. It's one of those trips where I have to stop and remember, "I get to go on this amazing adventure because I make experimental theatre."

Meanwhile the show is in a really exciting spot, but also delicate. This next phase will tell us so much about the actual piece we are making. It's like we've generated all this raw ingredient that we feel so good about, but now we have to decide what it makes: angel food cake or German chocolate?

For now, I have to tie up all kinds of junk in RI! Leaving your life behind for 6 weeks is a whole other blog post!

A Big Thank You!

Please enjoy this small video. We can't fully express how much everyone's help means to us. But we try.

Where we are now

Just one more rehearsal until we show. The material feels like a joyful pile that comes in and out of focus. In the meantime, Jed hangs lights while I handle business. It's a late night night.

Springtime comes to Philly

  It's an amazing thing to go into these deep intense rehearsal phases. The whole world kind of stops existing. All I think about is learning the new song, deepening character choices, sending e-cards and continuing to break open the material. Meanwhile we get these stories through some sort of reality that continues without us: bombings in Boston, lock-downs, a fertilizer plant explodes in Waco, Congress blocks gun legislation. I start to wonder what is so important about us making plays; what good these funny pursuits are for the world at large. Then I notice these cherry blossoms that seem to have burst open over night and remember that all of us are living the best lives we know how and that if we stay true to that. . . Well, you can't ask for much more.

Yes!

And 84 degrees F.

PMA Play Day

Yesterday was the PVD crew's first full day in PHL. We thought it was only fitting to head straight to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

While we were there to dip into the atmosphere of the museum as a way to move back into rehearsal for Enlightenment, it was impossible to ignore how stunning the PMA is.

It's also important to take the time at a new museum to notice the small details in branding and design that distinguish each place. We really likes the PMA's metal buttons. Aram said they used to be round. . .

And of course, we were sneaking peaks at security guards too. . .

PHL Here We Come!!!

That stack of khakis in the foyer can only mean one thing. We are about to hit the Rhode Island roads, head South and join our comrades in P.H.L.

The Collective Unconscious

Two articles have come out in the past few days that make us feel caught up in some cultural zeitgeist. The first came up on the Pig Iron blog today about a new Annie Baker show at Playwrights Horizons called "The Flick". Pig Iron linked to it in reference to their recent show "Zero Cost House." In our world, however, it all felt hyper-relevant to "Enlightenment": a three-person play, two men and a woman, about a boring job filled with lots of stillness. Annie Baker's play is about people who work in a movie theater rather than an art gallery, other than that. . .  The similarities aside, the article is all about how much audiences have hated the play because of all the silence. Weird seeing as all the feedback from our showings was to add more silence. Perhaps Playwrights Horizons doesn't have the right audience for our show either. . .

Another amazing piece of press that has come out in the past seven days is a huge spread on museum security guards in the New York Times last Thursday. It held everything that thematically is our show.

When combined these two pieces of writing somehow create the play we haven't completed yet. This either bodes amazingly for us and our piece: we are clearly creating the totally most current show of the moment in the moment it wants to be made. Or it's awful: we are just locked behind some sort of cultural curve and by the time we complete our show everyone will be into something else, like plays featuring only live snakes as actors or something. People will wonder how we ever got away with being such copycats.  Time will tell. Best just keep making.

Click here to read the article on the silent play:

Click here to read the article on museum security guards: