Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It's Thanksgiving day and the staff of NC Stage are at their respective holiday things. Much like last year and the year before. What's different this year is that we are in rehearsal for a show that opens tomorrow night. The cast of Live From WVL Radio Theatre: It's A Wonderful Life has been rehearsing for the past few weeks and opens tomorrow, Friday November 27th and runs till December 20th. Today is their day off and then we're back for a dress rehearsal Friday afternoon with the opening performance that night.

So I was realizing that our folks in the cast don't get to travel anywhere this Thanksgiving. To some, that might be a blessing. To others, a hardship. But it made me start thinking about traditions. And certainly It's A Wonderful Life makes me think about traditions around the holidays too.

So I asked the cast and crew of our production of IAWL if they would share some holiday food traditions that have had a lasting impact on them. Here's what they sent.

Kathryn Temple, playing Mary Hatch and others:

Butter Mints! There are Butter Families and there are Margarine Families. Whole Milk and 2% Skim families. The kids from the latter try desperately to trade lunches with the kids from former, usually with little or no luck. I was from a Margarine/ Skim Milk / Whole-Wheat/ No-Sugar-Cereal Family whose mother had sworn off cooking early and passed the apron off to my father. So, it was nothing short of a Christmas miracle when my mom busted out a list of four ingredients that at no other time of the year could be found in our kitchen:

Butter
Powdered Sugar
Mint Extract
Green Food Coloring

She blended the exotic ingredients and I stood at her side, barely eye-level with the countertop. She rolled out the ice green confection and I methodically pressed a shot glass into the dough, cutting out quarter-sized mints. She carefully lifted the mints onto waxed paper, and then layered them into gift tins.

This was what Christmas was all about. There was butter in our kitchen. And powdered sugar. In the same place. These were no ordinary communion wafers. This was a holy time, no doubt, and I let those buttery discs melt in my mouth and stain my tongue bright green.


Tiffany Cade, playing Violet Bick, Ma Bailey and Zuzu Bailey and others

When I was a little girl I always dreamed of having a Thanksgiving Dinner just like they do in the movies. You know, everyone well dressed, table nicely set with festive cheer and warm candlelight. It is after all Thanksgiving Dinner. Well, I'm not sure how my family missed the boat on that one, but missed it they did. Ours was more like Thanksgiving Breakfast. Oh we had turkey, and green bean casserole alright; we just ate it at 10am. And I'm not even exaggerating! For generations all the women in my family would begin cooking at 5am, by 10am they were "starving." I tried to convince them that it was an easy fix; just eat a good breakfast and don't start cooking till noon. That idea never quite seemed to catch on. Being the late sleeper that I am, I often missed it all together; waking to find uncles and cousins with food coma setting in, snoring away. By 2pm everyone would be making their way back home. So depressing, I thought. My family does realize it's Thanksgiving Dinner, right?

I haven't spent a single Holiday with my family since I moved away from home in 1993. I love my family dearly, but I choose to go home during other times of the year. I decided I couldn't participate in one more Thanksgiving Breakfast. I'm thrilled to say that my parents are coming to Asheville for Thanksgiving and to see IAWL. For the first time in their lives, they will finally experience a real Thanksgiving Dinner!!!! I'm hoping they'll enjoy it so much that they'll go back home to Louisiana and spread the "tradition!" I love you Mom & Dad! Thanks for all the wonderful stories that you've given me.

PS My 2 favorite Holiday dishes that I can't live without:
Grandma's Mac & Cheese (from scratch and the kind you bake)
Green bean casserole (also from scratch, with real fried onions)


Willie Repoley, playing George Bailey, Harry Bailey and a few others.

Fried dough. Have you ever had this? I’m not kidding. You make a simple dough, let it rise, punch it down, and then pinch off a small amount, form a roughly hand-shaped lump, and drop it in a pan of hot oil. Flip it over when it starts to get all golden brown, and cook the other side.
Now, this is actually fairly common in a number of cultures, I think, but the Italian angle is what was handed down in my family: top the fried dough with red sauce (homemade, of course), dried oregano, and freshly grated parmesan cheese. It is related to a pizza, but the dough—golden, fluffy, slightly chewy—is quite different, and the particular combination of ingredients is not quite like anything else in the world. And earlier this year, I came into possession of my great grandmother Maria’s ladle, so we’ll be making the sauce with the same spoon she used to make sauce back when she and my great grandfather immigrated to this country in 1911.
(What I’m not sure I should admit to is that for the past, oh, twenty years, the family has gathered every year around the making and eating of fried dough, accompanied by the annual viewing of Ernest Saves Christmas. Really. This is a great movie. Maybe I’ll adapt it for a radio play next year if our It’s A Wonderful Life sells poorly.)

Michael MacCauley, playing Clarence the Angel, Bert, Mr. Potter, and others

Mashed potatoes. Sounds simple, I know, but they are part of the trio that is Thanksgiving. My mom made them for years, but now, many years later, I have added my own special touch. I am also from a family that is 100% Irish, so potatoes are mandatory, in whatever form they may appear.

The number of potatoes may vary, depending on how many people there are to serve.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Cut potatoes into quarters, and boil for 20 to 25 minutes. Leave skins on. After draining, add 1 stick of butter and milk to desired consistency.
Preheat oven to 450Take 1 clove of garlic covered in olive oil, heat in oven until lightly golden brown, (approximately 20 to 25 minutes). Remove from oven and garlic will easily squeeze out from the skin. Smash, crush, blend garlic into a paste and add to mashed potaoes. Vampires beware!

The following is a fundraising appeal letter from Angie that went out to our mailing list last week. Please take a look and consider a gift to NC Stage. Thanks!

Charlie and I are excited to welcome you to NC Stage's 8th season! There is, as always, a lot going on here--on the Mainstage, in the Catalyst Series, and even off our "campus"--out in the community and the schools.

A few highlights--NC Stage is thrilled to welcome Alexa Hardy, a VISTA (Volunteers in Service To America), who is heading Stages, our education program. Already, Alexa has doubled the program's reach since beginning in this position in August, and she is hard at work contacting schools, community centers, and after-school programs to forge more alliances. We are also proud to announce the launch of LiveWire , a marketing and branding campaign for the performing arts in Asheville that we’ve been working on for the past two years. NC Stage received a $50,000 grant from the Asheville Merchants Fund of the Community Foundation of WNC to fund this project. It involves over 70 performing arts organizations in Buncombe County, from the Asheville Symphony and the Orange Peel to aerial acrobats, hula hoopers, and street performers.

I am writing to ask for your support in two ways this season. First, please make a gift to NC Stage's annual fund. This year, we need to raise $75,500 in individual contributions. Some of our patrons have already made an annual fund gift to NC Stage this year--as Green Room Society members, with their subscriptions, or as part of our Bard-a-Thon fundraiser. Many thanks for these gifts. If you have not yet made your annual fund gift this year, we hope you will sustain your past level of giving, whether that level is $10 or $5,000. To make a donation online, click here.

Second, please come to the theatre, and bring friends. We all know people who keep meaning to come, but play after play comes and goes, and they never quite get here. Can you help us get them through the door? The best way you can support NC Stage is by helping us become a household name with your friends and neighbors, making each play a not-to-be-missed event.

Thank you so much for all of your past support. Your feedback and patronage are helping to make NC Stage a better and better place to share a profound theatrical experience. We are looking forward to sharing NC Stage with you this season!

Best regards,


Angie Flynn-McIver
Producing Director

P.S. For your convenience, we’d be happy to spread out your contribution over several months or a year. If you would like information on paying a pledge in monthly installments, or contributing stock, please call Reggie Ealy at (828) 239-0263, extension 11. Thank you!

Angie takes me on a tour of the Beauty Queen set

Had a great opening weekend with lots of people attending Beauty Queen and some great performances turned in by some really talented and skilled actors. Check out the Asheville Citizen-Times review! Good review. The headline is "Delicious staging shows off 'Beauty Queen of Leenane'" and it speaks about the set and technical elements as well as the performances. So, since Actors' Equity Association won't let me show you the performers doing what they do in the show, I thought I'd show you the set! I made Angie take a break from the office and tour me around the set and show me some of the cool things about it. So I hope you'll check it out!

I'm Back!

Hey! Been a bit of a break, but we're getting ready to open up the brand new season. First, I want to share a shameless self promotional video of an interview with a person buying a subscription to our 2009-2010 season. I happened to be in the lobby when this person came in to buy her subscription and I asked if I could whip out the Flip Video Camera (man I love that thing. So handy) and ask her a few questions. She didn't disappoint!

Second, check out this post from Angie Flynn-McIver, director of our first production, Beauty Queen of Leenane. They are two thirds of the way through the rehearsal process. Angie comes home from rehearsals both exhausted and exhilarated and from what I know about the play and the people in the cast, I can totally see why. Check out the cast bios. You'll see some people you will recognize from some of best productions as well as a face you might remember from 1980s TV (She's in the middle of the back row between Bruno and Shorofsky). Perhaps those of you NOT watching the Cosby Show.

Director speaks about rehearsing "Beauty Queen"

I asked Angie Flynn-McIver, director of our first production of the 2009-2010 season, co-founder of NC Stage and my wife of 9 years as of October 14th, to write something about her experience while directing "Beauty Queen". Hope you enjoy and come see it!

Just a collection of thoughts about The Beauty Queen of Leenane as we head into the final week of rehearsal:

Twelve days into rehearsal. We’ve got Monday and Tuesday of the coming week to continue to work scenes and polish moments, then we start running the show, then tech, then first preview the 21st. This thing always happens when I’m directing—by the second day of rehearsal, I’m bone-tired. I don’t know if it’s because of the extra hours at work or the intense focus it takes, but I can’t get enough sleep. The actors say they are having crazy dreams—we’re all being taken on quite a ride by this play.

Here’s some stuff I’ve spent time thinking about the past two weeks:
• Who is lying?
• Who isn’t lying?
• How would the world of the play be different if this lie were true?
• How much sex has the main character had?
• What is the ideal ratio of perceived threat to unquestioned actor safety that can be achieved in front of an audience (in other words, how real can it be before it’s too real?)
• What outfit says “I’ve given up” versus “I may give up soon”?
• How do you pronounce “Leenane”?

Mag and Maureen Folan are mother and daughter. They live together in a small cottage in a small town in Ireland, and they spend almost all of their time together. However, instead of, say, taking up cooking or cross-stitch or volunteering at the church food pantry, their mutual hobby is tormenting each other. Mag nags at Maureen constantly, insisting that she be waited on hand and foot though she’s capable of doing many, if not most, things for herself. Maureen takes petty revenge by only buying cookies her mother hates at the store and leaving lumps in her nutrition drink. Thank god for the funny moments in this play—there are a lot, and they can’t come too often for me!

This play is challenging. It’s different from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead—that was a very heady play, plus a hell of a lot of blocking and problem-solving. “Beauty Queen” is tough because it's all heart, no head--the main characters are stuck in a terrible relationship, and they are not people you want to spend a lot of time with in real life. And in fact, though their behavior is extreme, I can still see myself in it. I am a mother and I have one; I am a daughter and I have one. I am not the caretaker for any elderly relatives, and I certainly don’t plan to emulate any aspect of the relationship depicted in this play. I do think, though, that anyone can find themselves behaving badly towards those closest to them, indulging in petty comments, striking at the most vulnerable places because we can. There’s a reason this play was an award-winner and has had many, many productions in many countries—the rhythms of domestic annoyance are familiar to us, as familiar as the faces of our loved ones. The way they play out in this story is extreme, even epic, but their structure is repeated in homes of every size and location.

I didn’t go into theatre with the goal of learning about myself, or questioning my own behavior, or analyzing my relationship with my kids or my parents or my husband. But the incredible gift of this kind of work is that it happens anyway. The cast and I are sitting around talking about the play, figuring it out line-by-line, and parallels spring up in my mind, and in the minds of the actors. Everyone has an illustrative story to share, a metaphor, an “oh, yeah, that happened to me”. And when we make these links, we learn. Maybe we identify an aspect of our own interactions that isn’t all it could be, or we think more about kindness, or, frankly, we just become better theatre artists because we’ve expanded our experience.

A letter to our Bard-a-thon participants

Hey there Bard-a-thon readers/fund raisers!

I wanted to check in with you and say thanks for helping us with this unique and grueling fund raiser for NC Stage. I also want to tell you that we still have some interesting roles available for reading (come on! 4am Titus everyone! It’s gonna raaawk!) so here’s a link to a google doc for info on still available roles. Feel free to send it to anyone you know who might be interested in participating.

Some cool things happening around the event:

I’m setting up a Livestream.com channel for NC Stage and, like last year, the Bard-a-lution will not be televised, but it will be streamed live over the interweb. But, unlike last year, more people will be able to watch at one time and you can also chat with other viewers in real time about what’s going on.

For those of you who do the tweets, I’ll be setting up a live feed from my TweetDeck and I’ve started a hashtag, #bardathon, to track any comments that come through. I’ll have the laptop hooked up to the projector and we can see any tweets that pop up regarding the Bardathon. So feel free to bring your phones, laptops, etc. and join in all the interconnected twittering fun. Come follow us on Twitter at @ncstage

Now to the core matter of this exercise: Raising money!!!

Since this is a fundraiser I thought I’d start a little check in process for all of us to share successes, challenges, tips, etc. as we go around asking our friends, families, stranger to sponsor us. So this letter will be posted on the NC Stage blog and we can all use the comments section to communicate with each other about advice or tips or updates.

First off I hope you are aware of the absolutely fantastic prizes that have been donated for the various categories of highest funds raised. If not, check them out here

Our goal is to raise over $7,000. So let’s do a little math. There are 26 participants so far in this year’s Bard-a-thon. Each participant would need to raise $270 for us to reach that goal. If each person got 14 sponsors at $20 each the goal would be met.

So, you get the idea, right? You can break it apart any way you like but the point is, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

So you can ask people who will sponsor because they know you. Or you can appeal to someone’s philanthropic nature in general or because they like theatre, the arts or NC Stage in particular. If you’re in need of some talking poins for NC Stage, consider this: NC Stage is a professional, not for profit, 501(c)3 theatre; Contributions are tax deductible; We’ve produced over 30 productions and hired more than 300 artists; Our education program, Stages, has reached over 15,000 students in WNC with residencies and student performances covering subjects from Shakespeare to geometry!; NC Stage has donated thousands of dollars worth of tickets for local charity fundraisers for groups like WNCAP, MANNA Food Bank, YWCA of Asheville, The Mediation Center and Rotary Club of Asheville, , and NC Stage supports other local theatres every year with $14,000 of its own money through the Catalyst Series.

So that’s just a little update and check in. Hope you’ll join me on the blog and thanks again for helping NC Stage with this. It’s a rough time out there but with your help we’ll be able to start things off really well this year.

Charlie

Oh! Hello there! Update and a little presentation.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!!! Where've I been!?! Well I did 2 shows down at Flat Rock Playhouse, we had 2 shows running at NC Stage, the kids have been in summer camp, including JCC summer camp and the Soggy Sneakers preschooler's camp at the NC Arboretum, and a week long trip to the beach with the family. You know what's hard to remember to do? Write blog entries. I don't know how the professional bloggers do it. Oh well. I'm here now and looking forward to writing some more about NC Stage and other stuff. If you're just starving for the day to day info about NC Stage, you can follow the NC Stage Twitter account that's listed to the right on this blog page. I'll get back to some more stuff about producing the season and hopefully get some guest bloggers in here soon. Until then, here is a Keynote (that's the Mac version of Power Point) presentation that I gave to a local economic development think tank. Thought it might be interesting. It's one of the other things that's had my attention recently. Hopefully, it won't be too dry. New season coming up! I'll tell you the plays later.

Beautiful View Video

Hi all,

I'm posting a video of some footage I took when I visited rehearsals. I saw the invited dress rehearsal the other night and am really excited about this play. I've also been at Flat Rock Playhouse opening Man of La Mancha and rehearsing their next show, Perfect Wedding, all the while. While I'm writing, I just want to say how much I appreciate Flat Rock and what they do down there. They're a wonderful, talented and dedicated group of people who run that theatre. It's a big job and they've gone through a lot this past year, losing several members of their close theatre family, including their long time resident sound designer and their Executive Director, Robin Farquhar. All within the past year. So my hat's off to them and I thank them for letting me work there and for taking such good care of me.

About this video. In it are Anne Thibault - cast, Jay Putnam - director, Bitch - cast, Connie Silver - Stage Manager. Also, I didn't really edit any of it and the language can get saucy during rehearsal so be warned.

So, enjoy the video and go see a play!

Charlie

Season 09-10 Sneak Peek

Oh my goodness!!! What a busy spring! After closing A Number a month ago, we started the production process for our Rep Season which included a mammoth scheduling feat by our stage manager, Connie Silver. We're basically rehearsing, marketing and performing three full shows. The staff has been working triple time and has put up some really excellent plays.

We've also been raising money through our Help Get Us To 600 campaign and meeting with individual donors to get their input and advice on raising money more effectively.

We attended Arts Day, we participated in the NC Arts Council's grant panel, we had the immediate theatre project's production of Body Of Water, we presented a reading of the Heidi Chronicles, we hosted No Shame.

In the Flynn-McIver household we've attended weddings, funerals, end of school plays/sleepovers/parties for our kids.

To top that all off, I've started rehearsals for Man of La Mancha and A Perfect Wedding out at Flat Rock Playhouse.

But somewhere in there, we managed to pick a selection of plays for our 09-10 season. I'll get to that in a minute. But first, check out this video that our friend, Tim Carhart, shot over a couple of days while Angie and I battled it out over play titles. It's a pretty fair representation of the process that Angie and I go through while choosing a season and it's a good insight into our working relationship.

Check it out and then I'll tell you the season!

Share your story

In this blog I usually discuss rehearsals, set designs, background research on the plays NC Stage presents - you know, the fun stuff. But if you'll forgive me, today I'm going to take a moment to talk about fundraising and advocacy.

The other day, we realized that we have 473 current contributors listed in our playbill. As a non-profit professional theatre, individual contributions are crucial to our operating budget. So we set a goal for ourselves to reach 600 donors by May 15th. The good news is, we've reached our goal! We also got some great personal response from donors - you can click here to read the most recent email with some of those responses.

In that email, I also asked all of our supporters to do me a favor.

One of my duties, besides running the theatre, is advocating for the arts in Asheville and on a state-wide basis. As an example, I recently made a presentation to the Asheville HUB on behalf of performing arts groups in town and, most recently, visited our representatives in the NC State Legislature on Arts Day to encourage them to maintain funding for the NC Arts Council.

Every time I make a case for funding the arts, these bodies seem most interested in how much money arts activity generates (which is a lot, by the way). But focusing only on dollars and cents is dangerous: it risks minimizing the intrinsic value of the arts to our community. That’s not cool.

So whether or not you are able to give a gift, I’d like you to share your story in the comments. What does a well-produced play achieve for you and your community? How is it meaningful in these strange times we live in?

When I am out in the community advocating for the arts, I will use these stories to help me illustrate the value of art in our community. (Plus, it will be a shot in the arm for the NCSC staff when they need a little inspiration!)

So I hope you’ll take a few minutes to respond and share your story.

Thanks!
Charlie

Cryptic Rave

Jim Cavener is no spoiler. He takes great pains to praise the production without giving away the plot in his Citizen-Times review of Caryl Churchill's A Number.
-Ron Bashford

"It's like Mamet, but better." -Charlie Flynn-McIver

Following Friday night’s performance of A Number, the actors, Charlie Flynn-McIver and Graham Smith, and the director, Ron Bashford invited audience members to a question-and-answer session in the lobby of NC Stage. Patrons used this opportunity to ask questions about the play and compliment the performers. Topics which were brought up included questions about the playwright, Caryl Churchill, choices that the actors made, the intimacy of doing the show in-the-round, how performances will progress over the next few weeks of the run, along with many praises.

In relation to inquiries about Churchill, Ron mentioned that her plays are relatively serious and challenging, which is why they are not performed as often as other productions. An audience member asked about spacing between lines in reference to the moments of silence on stage. An interesting fact about this play is that there are no pauses written into the script, which a patron would obviously not be aware of unless they had read it prior to viewing the show. Ron mentioned, “She doesn’t write pauses, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want them.” Charlie also commented that a lot of the communication is conveyed through silence. The majority of the patrons responded with positive remarks on the intimacy of the seating around the stage. One audience member felt she could feel the tension more by being closer to the actors. Graham said that if there was a further distance things that happened in the play would loose meaning. A member of the audience pointed out the density of the text and complimented the richness of the production by comparing it to a flourless chocolate cake. He also noted that the actors were not condescending and felt that the audience was treated equally during the performance. Another patron stated that Caryl Churchill might be the greatest living playwright and expressed her appreciation to NC Stage for producing one of her plays.

The final rehearsal for A Number took place last Friday afternoon (4/17). The actors are now on their own to facilitate the growth of the show through performances only. One audience member told the cast that he is planning to view the show again during the final week to witness its evolution. I personally feel that those who attend a performance of A Number should see it more than once to truly appreciate Churchill’s writing as well as Charlie and Graham’s immense talent in playing these roles. I also encourage patrons to hang around the lobby after the show to talk with the actors and the crew who welcome questions and comments about the play. They may seem intimidating on stage, but don’t be fooled, they are all very friendly and inviting and are open to discussing this intense drama.

-Elizabeth Dacy

Dress Rehearsals – The Final Stretch

The first dress rehearsal for A Number this past Sunday (4/12) was preceded by Ron’s notes for the actors. Charlie and Graham ran through a few scenes that still needed some work during which Ron asked them how they felt about certain moments or lines. I was able to observe earlier during the time when the actors’ movements were carefully planned and thought out. Now, the sequences of their actions are effortless as though they were not premeditated or discussed, but are spontaneous. Each individual move is not structured, of course, but staging is difficult because of the arena style seating in the theatre, referred to as “in the round”. There is still constant questioning and revisions of the staging due to this seating arrangement choice. Ron watches closely to the actors’ movements and placing making sure that they are not obstructing audience members’ views for long sequences. Changes also occur in smaller ways which drastically alter the effectiveness of a scene. Sometimes the actors run through a section and it works cohesively, then go through it again and it feels wrong to either them or Ron, but they all typically agree when they sense that something isn’t working. I find often that after I watch them run through a scene it looks perfect from my perspective, then Ron changes a minor step or one of the actors decides to change their tone of voice and I realize how much more natural the same scene appears after their revisions. It obviously takes experience as an actor/director to know how to recognize these feelings and to know when something looks or feels right. It felt satisfying to watch the first dress rehearsal and view the entire play including lighting and sound from beginning to end. Transitions between scenes are an effective aspect of the play as well. The music suits the tone of story unerringly. The lighting design during transitions reminds me of watching a rhythmic dance. The light rotates in and out from the stage to the back of the audience changing hue while gliding with the music. The sound and lighting designs are both features to admire in this performance.

The night before the opening of the show, NC Stage hosted an event welcoming contributors, members, and many others in the Asheville community to view an invited dress rehearsal. With nearly every seat in the house filled, the acoustics in the theatre sounded much different than they had in the dress rehearsal on Sunday. I noticed that a higher level of emotion came out in Graham and Charlie who both performed brilliantly and intensely. After the show, Ron went over his notes with the cast and crew. They discussed small staging adjustments as well as modifications in lighting and sound refinements. They then ran through the areas that required corrections. The play has its first "Preview" tomorrow night (actually tonight considering I am posting after midnight) and the actors definitely seem prepared and comfortable with all of the elements of the show. Ron, Charlie and Graham will continue to rehearse in the afternoons this week until the official "Opening Night" this Saturday. Just a reminder, dates for A Number are April 15-May 3. This is a unique and powerful performance that is sure to usher contemplation and compassion.

-Elizabeth Dacy

And from the director...

Friday night's performance will be followed by a "talkback" discussion with me and the cast... more info is available at www.ncstage.org.

Also, there's a new "Student Rush" price and policy: a limited number of seats may be purchased at the box office by students with ID for $5 beginning one hour before each performance during the run of the production (subject to availability). Shows are Wednesdays-Saturdays at 7:30, Sundays at 2.

-Ron Bashford

Taking the Next Step

Elizabeth Dacy, our production blogger from Warren Wilson, posts again...

Production for Caryl Churchill's A Number took an exciting turn this week as staging for the play commenced. Staging is a term used in reference to the period in production when the actors and director plan the movements and placement of the characters in each scene of the play. The actors run through their lines as the director advises and facilitates ideas as to where the characters might sit or stand. The director also asks the actors to determine for themselves where they feel their character should walk to or if they feel more comfortable remaining stationary. This process does not sound like as much work as it actually requires. It is imperative that the actors feel justification for each separate movement. They must ask themselves why their character should walk to the opposite end of the stage or what reason might the character have for standing at a certain moment? Staging is a course in production that takes a specific form of concentration and allowing room for constant adjustments.

Rehearsals have now moved to NC Stage from the space the cast had previously been using for table work. The actors are on an actual stage and under lights making the reality of the play itself rise to the next level. The stage has been built in a unique fashion: In his recent blog posts, Ron discusses the design process and the seating arrangement, and how theatre space reflects the themes of the play.

The actors are not quite off book yet, but the energy and life in their characters has begun to take a greater hold. Charlie is playing three separate characters who all have very different personalities. Each one seems to become more individual and defined as rehearsals progress. Graham plays a strong character who has made questionable decisions in the past which he must now explain. It is astonishing how quickly Graham is able to jump into character at the beginning of each run through. I feel as though he becomes a completely separate, distinctive person when a scene begins. His personality is very different than his character’s, but he appears to have little trouble switching into the mind of this role.

It was interesting to observe Ron’s process during the first staging rehearsal. He seemed to be working very methodically. He moved from one section of seats in the audience to the opposite side, his face continually transfixed on the actors on stage. In forty-five minutes Ron changed seats five times. When one of the actors expressed frustration or confusion about the staging for a scene, Ron generally advised them to just go through the lines and see how it felt to move one way or to remain seated. He did not directly tell them what to do or where to go, but instead he allowed room for interpretation. The way a concrete decision is made during the staging process does not occur through one single method, but by understanding how a choice can be made. This generally happens through discussion between the actor and director, allowing the actor to do what feels comfortable or what he thinks his character would do in a particular scene, or going back and figuring out how the previous staging in the scene might affect it later. Directing takes a specific eye and a sense of knowing when something feels right. Personally, I admire the method of directing in this particular play because of the challenge it presents. Churchill did not include any stage directions in the script. Interpretation is everything in this piece. Ron’s method is perfect for a play like this because he does not set anything in stone right away. The actors are always able to go back and change something if it doesn’t feel right later. The show opens in less than two weeks. I have a feeling that the true depth and reality of this play is about to reveal itself. This is sure to be an interesting week for both the cast and crew of A Number.

-Elizabeth Dacy

And a tidbit from director, Ron Bashford:

Here is a recent picture of playwright Caryl Churchill. She is 70 and lives in London. A compilation of reviews from the original production of A Number can be found here. Daniel Craig (a.k.a. James Bond) was in the cast!

“As a child too you were very pretty, very pretty child.” –A Number, scene two

A play is like a child. It begins as an infant and grows to reach maturity. A play travels across a vast range of stages of life. Exploring different directions it can go, stretching and growing until it discovers itself. The director is its parent fostering its abilities and guiding its path. Actors are what give it life. They grow along with it. A play is an entity, a life-force. You can understand it and it in return can understand you. Whether you are the audience, the director, the actors, or the stage crew, you are all a part of this life.

I dealt with this notion a lot this past week as I sat in on a few rehearsals for A Number. Parts of the play deal with childhood and how events during adolescence can change your outlook and personality as an adult. As I watched Graham and Charlie rehearse their lines at the table, I noticed how much their tones and demeanors had changed since the first rehearsal last Monday. The characters began to appear within them. I felt shocked during certain scenes by the depth of emotion which came out in their words. Their faces turned red as they began to shout at one another the way their characters would while having these conversations as real people. At times, the actors seemed indistinguishable to their characters. I have been to many plays in the past, but I have not previously experienced witnessing the amount of work and analysis that goes into a show, particularly the initial stages. It has been so interesting to watch the growing process of this play.

In case you are wondering why the actors are still spending time reading at the table during rehearsals I would like to clarify. Ron explained in rehearsal on Saturday that they planned to finish close analysis of the text at the table before working out any of the staging. He said that in some cases while working on a show, the cast will analyze one particular scene at the table, then stage it and go back to the table to work on the next scene and so on. With A Number, they are gaining a lot of progress at the table by reading chunks of text, then discussing questions and interpretations about that scene. They will usually read a certain part, analyze it, then go back and read it again. In doing so, the structure of the lines take a new form each time they are read. The way the text is written allows an open means of interpretation. Ron explains the construction of the Churchill’s writing and the play itself in his blog in a very detailed, coherent way. This next week, the cast will finish up table work and move on to staging. I’m looking forward to continuing to watch this show evolve and grow.

-Elizabeth Dacy

So many plays! A Number!...AND...haiku contest!

Wow! These are some great plays, and LOTS of them! I can’t thank everyone enough for taking the time to jot down some of your faves. Turns out, a lot of them are our faves, too! Some are already on our short list, while some others are on a different list because they’ve been performed around here in the last 5 years, etc. You know what I really appreciate is the thoughtfulness of suggesting plays that you think either fit into our space, budget or aesthetic. So many of these suggestions are spot on. At this point, we really have no idea what we’ll be able to choose, get the rights for, etc. but the time is coming when we will need to get out a season announcement. So again, thanks for giving us such a HUGE reading list!

I just started rehearsals for A Number, by Caryl Chuyrchill. I won’t say much about that since we have a guest who will be writing regular, oh what should I call them, not updates, but impressions of the process of working on this play. Dacy is a student at Warren Wilson College and our director, Ron Bashford, is one of her professors. Dacy sat in on the first rehearsal on Monday night and took notes for a series of blog posts we’ve asked her to write. We’ve really given her no instructions on what the posts should be other than her own impressions of the process from someone not involved in the production and someone not really involved in professional theatre.

So here's the first 2 posts of a regular series that I hope you’ll enjoy and feel free to comment upon.

Finally, the LYLAS sketch comedy group wound up their 2009 show at NC Stage this past weekend. I caught it this past Saturday and had a great time. My favorite sketch involved tourists on Segways. Nuff said. Anyway, they gave their curtain speech about turning off cell phones, where the exits are, etc with a series of haikus. I really love haikus.

So I want to announce an unofficial, impromptu haiku contest for our blog readers. Post your best haiku in 3 categories: haiku about NC Stage; haiku in praise of theatre; and haiku about your favorite play you’ve ever seen, anywhere.

I am the sole judge of this contest and there are no prizes as of yet. I will post winning haikus on the NC Stage Facebook page and on the literal wall at the theatre. If they really kick my ass, I’m sure I can come up with a couple of tickets for an upcoming production or maybe a gift card. How about that?

A Number - First Rehearsal

A Number – First Rehearsal 3/23/09

The first rehearsal for the NC Stage Company production of Caryl Churchill’s play A Number began this past Monday with an intimate table reading followed by a discussion among the cast and crew members about their impressions and interpretations of the play. Those present at this meeting included the director, actors, stage manager, sound designer, producer, and costume designer. I felt apprehensive when initially meeting everyone, but they were all welcoming and seemed excited about my blogging endeavor. I do not have previous experience with writing for a blog. I am, however, passionate about both writing and theatre and am curious to combine these areas of interest through blogging about the process of the rehearsals and production of this play.

A Number is a fascinatingly bizarre drama based on family and cloning. In the NC Stage production, directed by Ron Bashford, two actors will be playing five separate roles. Actors Charlie Flynn-McIver and Graham Smith are currently in the process of working with Ron rehearsing the play and analyzing the complexity of the story itself. While observing the table reading of the script during the first rehearsal, I couldn’t help but notice that both actors were very well suited for their roles. The emotions evoked within their characters’ words came naturally and the tension built between them seemed eerily real. The actors paused after particular lines which they found perplexing or interesting in terms of the story and a discussion would ensue between everyone present as to the possibilities the lines might have. Both cast and crew members also talked about their individual interpretations of the characters and what reasons they might have for expressing specific emotions and statements. At times, I felt compelled to add to these discussions, but initially refrained in order to keep a distant presence. This is not to say that I thought I was not allowed to speak my mind and convey my suggestions, but I observed in particular that the conversations between the actors and the director exclusively was an intimate part in the process of analyzing the play. To watch them play around so candidly with their ideas was mesmerizing to me. I eventually began adding my own interpretations of certain aspects of the play and the characters. I was actually surprised and delighted by how open everyone was to my input.

While taking notes during rehearsal, I suddenly realized that I did not know how I could ever write entries for the NC Stage blog without divulging too much information about the play, subsequently ruining the story for those who intend to see the show when it opens in April. I decided later that it is not the story told by the play itself that I should be concerned with discussing in my entries, but the events and breakthroughs which transpire during the progression of the rehearsals. For those who intend to keep up with my entries, I encourage questions about the proceedings of the preparation for A Number. I will try to answer them to the best of my ability. Stay tuned for more exciting behind the scenes news!

-Elizabeth Dacy

Planning

I won’t say it’s been a quiet week in the office, but we haven’t been in rehearsal or performance for anything or holding some kind of event. A lot of prep work going on for the beginning of rehearsals for A Number on the production side of things and a lot of administrative stuff on the office side of things. Grant season don’t ya know.

Rehearsals for a number start next week, March 23rd. During the rehearsal and performance period, we will have a guest blogger from the Warren Wilson College Creative Writing program to come in and write about her perceptions of the process.

Elizabeth Dacy is in her second year at Warren Wilson College, where she plans to major in Creative Writing and minor in Theatre.  Elizabeth recently did the sound design for Thom Pain (based on nothing) and works on the Theatre Crew, one of the many that are part of the college's distinctive work program.

Elizabeth has agreed to be our guest observer and intrepid blog host over the next month or so as we produce and perform Caryl Churchill's harrowing and fascinating play, A Number. She'll be attending some rehearsals and meetings, and arranging blog posts by the folks working on the production. Welcome Elizabeth!

One of the biggest things Angie and I are doing right now is planning for next season. Although there is a lot of number crunching and prognosticating to do about the economy for the next year, still, one of the best parts of the process is choosing plays. There are many reasons for doing or not doing a play, cast size, budget, housing for out of town actors if we need it, set size, do we like the play, etc., but we always start out thinking about it as if none of those things mattered. What if we could do whatever we wanted?

So, with that in mind, I want to hear from you. What’s your favorite play and why? This isn’t a contest or anything. I’m just asking what you think. Several of our most successful productions, artistically and attendance wise, were suggested by patrons who get what we do.

So let’s hear it. Can’t wait to see what’s out there!

Obstructed View

Hey there NC Stage folks! I've got a guest posting this week while I work on opening our run of Stones In His Pockets (See earlier post for the countdown clock) over at the Diana Wortham Theatre. Before I get to our guest, though, just a few things happening at NC Stage. First, our run of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead closed this past Sunday. Thanks to everyone who attended and made up the great crowds that saw this show. Our next Catalyst show is coming up with Lylas sketch comedy. And we're just getting started on scheduling production meetings for A Number by Caryl Churchill. I will be in this one with my good friend Ron Bashford directing.

That's what's going on over at the theatre. That plus a lot of fundraising, grant writing and reporting, etc.

Now on to our guest. Jamie is a tremendous asset to Asheville. She's a teacher and also performs in a lot of theatre around town. We at NC Stage are very grateful for her service as a volunteer. She is there almost as much as Angie and I are!

So here she is and I'll see you next week.


Obstructed View, by Jamie Shell

I usher a lot in and around town, and you can too! It’s a great way to see a ton of theatre without breaking your wallet, though you may have to make the initial investment of white top and black trousers. Anyway, since I do spend a lot of time at several different theatres, I have had the opportunity to note and pass sometimes irrational judgment on the various--and, yet, oh-so-similar--behaviors of theatre patrons. I shall now use my gathered wisdom to make general suggestions to make everyone’s theatre experience a happy one. As I am also a teacher, I will try to state these in the form of positive “do”s rather than negative “don’t”s.

Do! Arrive on time. Arriving on time is so awesome! Arriving on time with extra time to go potty before the play if you tend to need to do so is even better! Arriving with enough time to pick up your tickets AND go to the potty before the curtain speech is planned, should you need to do both of those things, is best of all! Yay punctuality!

Do! Notice quietly and only in your head that, based on their theatre-issued badges, all the ushers appeared to be named Usher! (Like the R&B singer!) Noticing this aloud to the usher is the social equivalent of, like, when someone named Rhonda introduces themselves, and you begin to sing the Beach Boys song that is her namesake. Don’t be That Guy. Oops, no “don’ts”. Do be someone other than That Guy.

Do! Double-check that your mobile communication device is silenced, even if you’re absolutely 100% sure that you turned it off before you got to the theatre. Seriously. I even accidentally left my ringer on once when I was proctoring the SATs. The horror. So, shit happens, but try to let it happen outside of the theatre when people won’t want to shank you for suddenly underscoring The Grapes of Wrath with “My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard.”

Do! Laugh, cry, and gasp in response to the events of the show (as appropriate and as the spirit moves you). Do also remember the size of the theatre you're in, and adjust other noises/chatter accordingly. Although someone crying out, "It's midnight!" in the middle of a production of Rodgers' and Hammerstein's Cinderella has provided me with part of a fun anecdote for several years now, it can be a bit distracting to the actors if they're close enough to hear what you're saying, and it can be a bit distracting to your fellow audience members if you're not at Amateur Nite at The Apollo.

Do! Clean up after yourselves when you leave! Find an usher and give him or her your program to recycle, or find a pile of similarly purposed playbills and add yours to the stack. If the theatre permits you to bring in food or drink, it typically does so with the hope that the food and drink will not still be there once you are gone. Also, remember: just because a surface is concave, it is not automatically a waste receptacle.

Do! Offer sincere compliments to people involved in the show if you enjoyed yourself. Sure a lot of actors are notorious for not needing egos any more swollen, but many more truly appreciate the feedback and affirmation and are humbly grateful to receive it. Furthermore, if you are one of the people involved in the show, do wait for people to give said feedback of their own volition, or do ask them their opinion only if you truly desire it, no matter what it may be. And do allow your tone and the wording of your question to connote that desire. Same goes for Audience-Member-With-Friend-or-Otherwise-Vested-Interest-in-Show asking Unassuming-Audience-Member-Who-Doesn't-Want-to-be-an-A-hole: "Didn't you love it?????" This is not a neutral question and will typically not garner a truthful response. If you do not like truthful responses, then ignore all of the above.

Do! Find out a little about the show you're going to see if you know you're offended by, well, anything. I was just in a show with numerous walk-outs that needn't have happened if people had taken a few minutes to Wikipeducate themselves beforehand. Walk-outs are kind of fun, but people who really do want to see the show getting to do so and staying the whole time is even fun...ner.

Do! See lots of theatre! I know we all get caught up in our own shows but our own shows can't happen if we neglect to go out and see everyone else's. Support your friends! See your enemies and mock them afterwards! Whatever! Enjoy!

Welcome!

Hi! You've reached the new NC Stage blog. As the header hints at, this is a loose format blog of things I find interesting and I'm thinking you might too. We'll put stuff up about upcoming productions at NC Stage, we'll post reviews, (if we like them), links to podcasts and video, (oh yes, we have that kind of stuff. great podcasts coming up of discussions with the directors of our productions) and just stuff I think is interesting. I'll be inviting guests to post short articles as well. I've already got a special guest who is a volunteer for NC Stage, and I can't wait to read her post.

So check it out, recommend it to friends, subscribe to the feed, put it in your google reader, make comments! We'd love to hear from you! Also, if you have an idea for a guest post, let me know.

Angie chimes in

I asked Angie to contribute some thoughts from working on R&G.



"If we start talking about toenails, we'll never figure this out." I want to keep a running tally of all the things like that that the circumstances of rehearsing a play lead people to say--the funny and (usually) insightful combinations of words and ideas that just don't seem to crop up anywhere else. Willie said this last week in rehearsal, and it was funny (obviously) and exactly on point as to what his character needed in the scene we were working on.

Theatre people amass mental collections of strange bits of information and odd tricks (like knowing the names of all of Jacob's sons in the Old Testament or being able to play only one song on the mandolin), and it's because over the years, we work on so many different plays that explore different ideas and require different skills. I mean, with this play alone we've discussed the nature of identity, the theory of multiple universes, Hamlet, the law of averages, when the precise moment of maximum humorous impact is for plucking a coin off another person's head, how to make a coin disappear, how to make people disappear, being the agent of your own fate, Samuel Beckett, and how to score tennis. It's an exciting way to spend the day.

Stones In His Pockets at the Diana Wortham Theatre

I'm in rehearsal for this right now. Running down to Flatrock every night to rehearse with Scott Treadway. He's funny. Neela Munoz is stage managing for us. If you don't know this show, you should check it out. Very appropriate for a place like Asheville. Has a very can do attitude for the locals in the play that spurns the "outsiders" coming and promising the world if we let them use us. Here's a little Wikipidia info about it. Kind of sterile description but it has some nice links. Google "stones in his pockets" and you'll get close to 10,000 hits. Very popular play to produce and I think you'll really love it. It's a joy to perform, that's for sure.

A brief history

So we’re starting this blog and it occurred to me to give a little history of NC Stage right at the beginning, so…well…everyone would know.

Anyway, my older sister moved to A’ville in 1990. She married someone who grew up in A’ville and they were moving back for him to start his private medical practice. I remember helping them move in in 1990 and just thinking how utterly amazing the area was. There wasn’t much to speak of in terms of “stuff” to do. Of course there were the stalwarts; the Tourists, Asheville Community Theatre, the Asheville Mall, the Blue Ridge Parkway. But there wasn’t much downtown and every time I visited and my sister took me out to dinner, it was not downtown.

Every time I visited, however, I sort of daydreamed about how cool it would be if there were a professional theatre here. When I helped my sister move in way back then, I was in grad school studying to be an actor and would soon move to NY. Every time I would visit my older sister, I would have one more regional theatre acting credit under my belt and A’ville would have one more shop or restaurant or gallery downtown. It kept getting nicer and nicer every time I visited. My acting credits were getting better and better too. I’d get jobs at really good regional theatres but in town like Montgomery, AL, Syracuse, NY, Worcester, MA, towns that just couldn’t hold a candle to Asheville.

So this notion hatched in me that Asheville would be a really cool place to have a professional theatre. I mean, just to work in a place like this would be so incredible. Regional theatre acting jobs generally last 8 weeks, 4 weeks of rehearsal and 4 weeks of performance, and you live in the city for that time period and then go back to NY and try to find your next job. How cool would it be to spend that kind of time in a place like Asheville as opposed to Syracuse. No offence, but, Syracuse.

Thus my idea to start a professional theatre in Asheville. But for years it just languished as a daydream that I’d talk about with friends at a bar. It seemed a neat idea but I had no resources to make it happen nor the drive to spend that kind of time and planning.

Then a few things happened. In the beginning of 1998, I had some major changes in my life that led to a lot of time alone and a realization that I had little standing in my way to make my daydreams become reality. At the end of 1998, I met Angie. We met for our first date on Jan 1, 1999. We decided to meet each other at the Krispy Kreme on 23rd and 8th Ave. and we would go from there to the Chelsea Cinemas across the street and see Waking Ned Devine. After the movie we headed down 8th Ave. and stepped into a bar called The Viceroy. It was bitterly cold as I recall and the bar was warm and cozy. As we sat there having the usual first date chit chat, Angie started describing what she was doing for a living and all that she’d done in NY during her time there. At the end of that, she mentioned that, although she really liked NY and was having a great time, she couldn’t get the idea of moving back to North Carolina and starting a professional theatre out of her head. I asked. “Where?” and she responded, “Asheville”.

True story. So about a year later, we were engaged and got married on October 14, 2000. In the following year George Bush would be elected president, we would move from Brooklyn to Asheville and September 11th would happen. Also, NC Stage would be incorporated as a 501c3 organization and planning and fundraising for our first season was underway.

That was 8 years ago. Now Angie and I have 2 children, we live in North Asheville, NC Stage is in its 7th season and we’ve produced over 30 professional productions in our 100 seat theatre in downtown. We’ve awarded over 159 acting contracts. We’ve become an Equity theatre and we’ve spent nearly $2 million as a small business in the local economy. But more than that, I think we’ve become a member of a community that values creative expression and risk. We’ve really come to get to know and love our dedicated subscribers, donors and friends.

So that gets us to the start of NC Stage around 2001. I’ll get to the rest of our history in future posts. All sorts of things to come in the ensuing years. iPods, Iraq, Afganistan, housing bubble, hybrids on the national front. Hamlet, Hedwig, Loot and Proof on the NC Stage front.