For me when a show I have directed closes I am both happy and sad. Happy that a project is complete and sad that I won't get to see a great bunch of people I have spent the last few months with. I hate to admit it, but this time around I was more happy than sad. Not because I was glad to be rid of all of my "crazies", but more because this show was so completely and utterly draining. Because not only did I direct it (Co-directed with Eric), I also had a small role in it.
In the past when I have acted before I had "down time" during the show. Time that was spent going over the next scene, breathing, catching my breath, getting a drink, going pee...anything else but being on stage. This time around there was no such thing as down time. From the minute the doors open every single actor in the production was "on". They were in character and interacting with the arriving audience members and with each other.
It was harder than one could expect. Each one of us on stage had to be constantly moving. Crazy people don't really sit still. To help the actors prepare Eric and I had a total of 11 weeks of rehearsal. Not everyone in the cast attended. They were only called as they were needed. The actors that sang attended the music rehearsals, the lead characters met at least once a week for the first 8 weeks to work on their character. All of the cast had to attend stage combat work shops so we could be sure that no one would get hurt during all the craziness. The actors even had to go through accent training. Sadly, not enough time was spent on the accent workshops and the accents were cut because many of them were muddled and inconsistent.
During the first couple weeks of rehearsal we lost 5 actors. Either due to time constraints or because they were intimidated by the show. We also had 3 people turn down one of the lead roles because the script seemed too intense and artsy. So we had to move around some of our actors and I had to step into the role of an inmate called "Mad Dog". I was essentially an insane sociopath that wanted to kill the director of the hospital.
I was told by more than a few people that I played crazy very well.
Now that I think about it I'm not sure how to take that.
One of my favorite comments was that I gave someone nightmares.
But I can not stress how hard doing this show was. To be utterly insane for almost two hours was draining. Like running 15 miles draining. It was also worth every bit of blood, sweat and tears I put into it.
I can honestly say I am so proud of every one of my cast members. Each of them started researching their character after they were cast. Each of them worked on their own outside of rehearsal. The singing quartet not only learned their music, stage combat and accents, but they also learned how to perform Acrobatic Yoga. I know I usually work my actors hard. From character development to opening night there is a lot of work that I ask of my actors. Usually because I like to cast very green actors because they always bring something fresh to the table and I know that I won't have to deal with old bad habits that they may have developed.
Sometimes this works out great. Sometimes not. This time around it worked out phenomenally.
The young man that portrayed the inmate portraying Jean Paul Marat was not necessarily new to the stage. He was new to such a large and important role. His name is Morgan Von Sydow. And he was simply brilliant. It is a rare thing to come across an actor that is a natural at what they do. It is rare to find an actor that is willing to completely immerse themselves into a role. I want to take a moment to thank Morgan especially for the work he did in Marat/Sade. Some people are born to play certain roles and I could not have imagined anyone else in this role. Bravo to you Morgan. Thank you for all of your hard work.
Now the rest of the cast was a different situation.
JUST KIDDING!
I am so thankful for all of you. Really. Everyone really pitched in a helped with so many things. Robyn and her friend Kim with the costumes, Robyn with helping everyone get their makeup on every night, Matt, Tsunami, Danny and Amanda for staying late MULTIPLE nights to help build or clear or paint. One night Danny, Amanda and Tsunami stayed to help paint, not for the show, but because the theater needed to be painted. And on another night they stayed AGAIN to help Eric build the set for THE MIRACLE WORKER that was going up the week before we opened.
We had a simply amazing cast. I can not stress enough just how thankful I am to each and every one of you.
And thank you to everyone that made it out to be a part of the audience. I hope we didn't scare you too much. And I hope even if you did not understand what was going on that you were at least entertained.
Also my beloved crazy cast, I wanted to pass on a few of the comments I received regarding your performances.
"Amazing. Simply Amazing. I'm so happy I was able to see and so freaking angry I was not in it. I never should have turned down that role." -Jack Slider
"That the play I saw at 11pm Saturday night was the first thing I thought of this morning. I'm still rejoicing in your victory!" - Mark Price
"..the best play I ever saw at the Empty Space in Bakersfield... It has a Great Cast!" - Cameron Brian
"There wasn't a bad performance in the whole show. The loons were perfectly loonie, the perverts and sadists were perfectly perverted and sadistic, the schizophrenics and paranoics perfectly schitzie and paranoid...seriously, great job. " - Susan Castro
"That wasn't a show. That was an experience." - Unknown audience member that stopped me after the show.
"I didn't know what was going on, but I couldn't stop watching. It was pretty amazing, thank you." Unknown audience member that stopped me after the show.
And there were so many more, but it is getting very late and after spending the last few weeks going to bed at about 3am and waking up at 8am my body is telling me to call it a night.
Good night all.
Be good to each other.
Love, Sunshine and Happiness
~Michelle~
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