On Costuming 'Angels'

Today we have responses from Giny Speaks, the costume designer for Angels. Giny is a recent graduate of Warren Wilson College where she majored in Theatre/English. Sneak peek pictures of her Angels costume designs will be up soon, but in the meantime, check out what she designed for WWC's productions of The Bacchae and The Winter's Tale. Now what you've been waiting for...  

Heeeerre's Giiinnnyyy!
 

1) What's your history with this play? I first read Angels in college, and I have seen only bits and pieces of the film adaptation. I've been searching photos of various other productions that have served more as a counter-influence; I try to look at what has been done, what people's exposure has been to the play and go in a different direction.

2) What has been your biggest design challenge for Angels? My biggest challenge is to take such a well-known play in a new direction. Particulary since the release of the movie, audiences have begun to expect certain things from this play, and designers often stick with the comfortable, accepted design choices because it's a guaranteed hit. I want to change things up and find new ways to stimulate the aesthetic senses of the audience.

3) What aspect of the design process for this particular production excites/has excited you most? One of the things that I love about this play is the wonderful juxtaposition and coherence between different spheres of American society. The characters range from devout Mormons to corrupted businessmen to drag queens and beyond, and despite each character's background and personal beliefs, they all share in the human condition and have ties to people who are extremely different from themselves. I constantly find myself asking, "How can I translate this concept into the language of shape and color to unite such a vast range of personalities?"

4) When you think of 1985, what comes to mind first? Don Henley won the MTV Video of the Year award for "Boys of Summer".  My parents were married.

5) What's your favorite chaser for hot dogs? Mozzarella sticks

6) Any other highlights/last words? Photos coming soon!

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One last note: Remember to come see us at Blue Ridge PRIDE this Saturday! Tell us your Angels story, get info on tickets, see what we're up to... we'll be there all day. See you there!

More Designer Responses... Questions, anyone?

For today's post we have James Johnson's responses to the designer questionnaire. James is our set designer, and here's what he had to say:

1) What's your history with this play? Angels in America was one of the first productions I was in during my college career. I was a freshman, and I played Prior Walter in Perestroika. I was in way over my head. I don’t think I understood the cultural importance of this play, which is integral to a quality production. For me, this play is so much more than a play, it’s a commentary, a critique, an adventure with America at the heart.

2) What has been your biggest design challenge for Angels? Ha! Biggest design challenge? How does an Angel crash through the roof? How do we move seamlessly from scene to scene in such a small space? How do you excite the production team with an interesting design? How do you speak to the audience through a design? A very good friend of mine once said, "I never finish a design, I simply abandon it." That statement speaks volumes to what I try to do onstage. Everything is a challenge, and should always be a challenge. But that’s why I love what I do!

3) What aspect of the design process for this particular production excites/has excited you most? I love finding interesting shapes and colors that can become other things or harken an idea. For this production we harken the look of New York, yet nothing really looks like New York. Its more American than that.

4) When you think of 1985, what comes to mind first? I wasn’t born yet... Is that weird?

5) What's your favorite chaser for hot dogs? Or, your preference: hot dog or antacid? Or, if that weirds you out, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream? Hot dogs are good anytime, I would just have another hot dog. Cookie Dough!

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NCSC Mainstage: Angels in America

As we approach the opening of Angels in America, we will be posting some more responses of our design team about their process and vision for the production and interviewing some cast members about their experience. I just came up with the questions on my own, but how 'bout you? Do you have questions for our Director? Cast members? Designers? Artistic Director? Producing partners, Western North Carolina AIDS Project (WNCAP) or Posana Cafe?
 

Respond at the end of the post or email us. Hope to be hearing from you soon...

Over the Years: Angels

Drawing by Al Hirschfield

While looking for some informative links, videos, and pictures from productions of Angels over the last twenty years, I found some fun and stimulating stuff. (Amazing, the internet.) Aside from the picture above, we've found a great article from Out Magazine entitled "Angels in America: The Dream Life of Angels", a snippet from an Arts Wire 'Current' from the archives of 1997 on the decimation of arts funding in Charlotte attributed to Charlotte Rep's production of the play, and a video by Signature Theatre Company in New York City who is producing both Millennium Approaches and Perestroika this season in a 20th anniversary celebration of Angels. 

From Signature Theatre Company:

Sneak Hear from Jason

So Monday we had our sound designer's responses to the Designer Questionnaire, and as promised, today (the aforementioned 'later in the week') we have a sneak hear of what Jason's been working on for Angels. This is the main theme he wrote for the production and what he is currently working from to develop the music in the show. Check it out!

Angels Designer Insight

Just last week I came up with a few questions for our design team to answer about their process, the play, and some personal anecdotes relating to the play. Today we have the responses of Jason Waggoner, our sound designer.

1) What's your history with this play?
I actually have never seen Angels on stage or screen. I knew about it by reputation only, but didn't encounter it in my professional or personal life until NC Stage approached me about designing this production. I feel like this is an advantage in some ways specifically because I don't have any preconceived notions about the show or how it should be done. Essentially, I can have a completely unencumbered design process for it.

2) What has been your biggest design challenge for Angels?
The sheer size of the text has been quite a challenge. I am at a point in my career where I am almost insisting on composing any music used in my designs, with the exception of incidental music called for by the script, of course. With a play like Angels, a play that has something in the neighborhood of 30 scenes, that's a fair amount of music to write. In addition to the sheer size of the show, trying to capture the feeling of Angels has proven a bit of a challenge. I want to keep the sound of the music rooted in reality, that is to say not write music that makes Angels seem like a fantasy play. However, I also want to keep the fantasy alive enough in the music that fantastic moments in the show can be supported by the score when appropriate. Doing all this and keeping the music from going stale through the show is a constant balancing act, it seems.

3) What aspect of the design process for this particular production excites or has excited you most?
Writing the music is always the most exciting part for me. I enjoy putting together sound effects and creating the aural environment of a show, but for me the most challenging and exciting part of a design is the composition.

4) When you think of 1985, what comes to mind first?
Punk rock, Reagan, AIDS epidemic, crack cocaine epidemic, Dallas (the TV show), my dad's rocking chair... to name a few.


5) What's your favorite chaser for hot dogs? Or, your preference: hot dog or antacid? Or, if that weirds you out, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream?
My favorite dog chaser is a nice cold PBR, I don't take antacid because I have insides made of iron, and my favorite ice cream flavor is mint chocolate chip.

6) Any other highlights/last words?
Doing Angels seems to be a modern right of passage almost. People talk about their first Romeo and Juliet, or their first Mamet play; Angels seems to be joining the ranks of theatrical monoliths that all actors, designers, and technicians do at some point in their career and remember as a milestone from that point forward. I entered this show fairly unassuming, and while I expect to come out the other side having experienced something profound, I feel I am remaining rather unassuming throughout the process. I feel extremely privileged to be going through this process with other artists that I know and trust, and who I know will support me and trust my decisions. I hope that as the audience experiences the full production of Angels in America, the passion and the heart of the people involved on all sides of the production will translate to a truly memorable and remarkable experience.

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Be sure to check back later for some sneak peeks (sneak hears?) of what Jason's been working to create for the production, as well as more designer interviews.

Stories of 'Angels'

As we get closer to opening our production of Angels in America, we will feature personal stories about the play. Today we have our first story about how Angels played an important role in how theatre is a part (or became a larger part) of the author's life.

We welcome the words of Willie Repoley. Willie is frequent actor on our stage and will be playing the role of Prior Walter in our upcoming production of Angels. Here's what he had to say:

"I posted something on the NCSC blog in 2007, when we presented this play as the very first (For)play reading. It has now been three years since that posting, and 10 years since I first performed in the play (as Louis) at Guilford College. That makes it about 15 years since I first experienced the play, at Charlotte Rep.

It seems so unlikely that a single play would keep showing up in my life, and even more unlikely that I would be just as excited to approach it each time. After all, plenty of plays -- or songs or artists or you-name-it -- that once seemed vital and full of life now strike me as ordinary or even boring. What is is about Angels in America? Why does this play still seem so revelatory?

It's hard to say exactly or concisely, but I'll try. I left the theatre after seeing Millennium Approaches at the Rep in a state of amazement, and said to my dad, who took me, "That's why." It was the best I could articulate what had just happened at the time, but years later, I can recognize how seeing the play literally changed the trajectory of my life. Now that I knew firsthand what people meant by "the power of theatre," I knew that I wanted to share in making theatre that had the potential of affecting people in serious and profound ways. So, that's why.

It's also an unusual play in the sense that it is set so precisely in time, this moment in the mid- 80's when Reagan was president and AIDS was an almost wholly unknown and terrifying modern plague. Plays that are tied so closely to one snapshot of time run the very real risk of growing dated. No one wants to perform --or come see-- a play that doesn't feel like it matters anymore. And Angels is also about very specific people, all of whom are removed by at least a degree or two from "mainstream" America-- the lone WASP? He's gay. The white Army widow? She's Mormon. The black male nurse ex-drag queen? Well, you get the idea. But the relationships between these people are as vivid and emotionally engaging as if every one of them were a close family member or dear friend. When I first saw it, the play made me feel like a better citizen of the world and a more powerful inhabitant of the good old US of A, even though the world of the play was fairly far removed from my own life and my own experience. It is remarkable to me that a story about a particular time that is reasonably meaningless to me personally (I was 8 in 1986), and about characters have little to do with me personally are so well constructed and so true to themselves, that they can still engage me is such a visceral, immediate way. So that's why.

What can I say? The play challenges me, and engages me, and pushes me, and comforts me, and makes me cringe, and makes me laugh, and makes me sit on the edge of my seat in giddy excitement at my good fortune to be involved again with this story, and with these characters. I think it is one of those rare plays that actually helps me see me. Like, say, Hamlet: I'm never going to be in his situation, but experiencing his struggle engages me in not only his story, but, if it is done well, in my own. I think it is Alfred Hitchcock who is credited with saying something like, "If you want to be universal, be specific." It sounds strange, but when someone gets it right, it makes perfect sense, and for me Angels in America is about as right as it gets. It is very specific on every level: the time, the place, the people, even the language and punctuation of the play itself. And in risking making the play inaccessible to a wider audience, Kushner actually has allowed it to be much bigger than the sum of its parts. So, that's why.

I'm pretty much scared out of my mind to start work on the play with the specific goal of playing Prior Walter, who on the surface is very unlike myself. Where do I start? How do I present him honestly, coming from such a different place? I don't know. But I do know that the answers will be found in the rehearsal room with the help and hard work of not only myself, but of the entire cast and crew, and of course Angie. And ultimately, I know that the truth of Prior is already there, in the words, and in the very real connections he has with all the people and situations of his life. And I know, I have absolute faith, that I can trust in that.

And that's why, too.

I hope this play keeps showing up in my life. I will always be ready to visit it again. Let's get started. See you on the other side."

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Many thanks go to Willie for sharing his Angels story. If you have a story to share about Angels, please share it with us! Contact Lauren at laurenkriel@ncstage.org to do so.

Keep checking in every Monday (and mid-week, too) 'cause we'll have more stories, pictures, designer sneek peaks and interviews coming up in the next month. Thanks for reading!

Monday Update: Bard-a-thon, 'Angels' (For)Play

We've finished the Bard-a-thon and 'twas a smashing success. We surpassed our fundraising goal by over 30%! Thanks go out to all donors, viewers - both physical and virtual - and, of course, participants. We'll have more info up later in the week once we get through some number crunching and tallying, and we'll also have another blog post this week with some personal stories from folks involved in Angels. Some hosts and participants from the Bard-a-thon are cast members from Angels, and you can see and hear them read again very soon...

If you haven't had your fill of hearing plays read aloud this weekend, TONIGHT, Monday, September 13 is the first (For)Play reading of the 2010-2011 Season! Come hear the cast of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches read this epic play at 6 PM in the Carol Belk Theatre on the UNC-Asheville campus. We hope to see you there!

So you've never been to a (For)Play reading? Here's the deal: The (For)Play Series is a series of free readings of our Mainstage plays before rehearsals begin. If you enjoy watching the artistic process unfold, we encourage you to come to this initial reading and then buy a ticket to see the fully realized production. For an even more in-depth look, buy a copy of the script at Malaprop's Bookstore, which is stocking all of NC Stage's plays this season.

Angels... Approaches

Greetings all! It's been quite a while since our last post, but as our Mainstage season is fast approaching, we wanted to give you a peek at what's been going on in preparation for our first production, Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes - Part One: Millennium Approaches. We'll be posting every Monday from now until when the show opens with all kinds of interesting stuff from designers, cast members, and (potentially) folks from the community, too!

To start off, Angie has shared a little about the play and why we chose to produce it...

"This play, first produced in 1990, was a catalytic theatrical event of the last twenty years and is generally regarded one of the finest and most influential plays of the 20th century. Though most of its plot points revolve around AIDS and gay life, the themes are much wider: loss, identity, home, truth. Tony Kushner masterfully explores timeless human concerns through the lens of the AIDS epidemic, specifically as it affects Prior Walter and Roy Cohn, two of the main characters.

We have been attracted to this play for years. I saw it on Broadway in the mid-90s, and the characters' stories and the piece's inherent theatricality stuck with me. Its intimate scenes are well-suited to our space and our aesthetic, and its theatricality is an exciting challenge. Kushner, like Shakespeare, often works with pairs--opposites, complementary pairings, and things that look like opposites but really aren't...we are using this structural inclination to inform our design choices and the approach to this sprawling, gorgeous play.

We are thrilled to be working on this piece. The designers, cast and I have been working for weeks already to distill our approach to this play, and to define our theatrical language. Already, many people have asked, 'How are you going to do the Angel?' All I can say is wait and see. It's gonna be awesome."

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And now you can meet some of the people involved! Pictures are from a reading of the play we had a couple weeks ago with most of the cast (including one castmember in Los Angeles via video iChat!), designers, and NCSC staff.

Angie - Director, Rob Bowen - Lighting Designer, Charlie, Michael MacCauley - Roy Cohn, Vivian Smith - the Angel, Willie Repoley - Prior Walter, Rebecca Morris - Harper Pitt

Andrew Livingston - Joe Pitt, Jessica Kammerud - Props Designer

Michael MacCauley - Roy Cohn, Willie Repoley - Prior Walter

Rebecca Morris - Harper Pitt

To meet the rest of the cast not pictured, you can check out the Angels page on our website.

If checking out these pictures has piqued your interest in what it would be like to sit in on a reading, you're in luck 'cause next Monday, September 13 at 6 PM we kick off the first reading of our (For)Play series at the Carol Belk Theater on the UNCA campus by reading Angels in America: Millennium Approaches.

So you've never been to a (For)Play reading? Here's the deal: The (For)Play Series is a series of free readings of our Mainstage plays before rehearsals begin. If you enjoy watching the artistic process unfold, we encourage you to come to this initial reading and then buy a ticket to see the fully realized production. For an even more in-depth look, buy a copy of the script at Malaprop's Bookstore, which is stocking all of NC Stage's plays this season.

More to come... just wait 'til next week!