REHEARSAL JOURNAL
OCT/NOV 2008
List of Potential Solo & Group Actions – still to make
Meghan – dance of heart broken open
Trae – dance to keep you out of jail (evolved into dance of no fixed position or identity, don’t stay anywhere long enough to be identified with that place or action)
Omar – the story that is obvious or expected meets the story no one expects, doesn’t know or might not believe
Nestor – jumping and climbing (wings?)
Omar, Nestor, who else – honoring the fallen, gone. Names but what else?
Jorge – running dance
- pushing through each other, with Meghan
- lift someone really high
Jorge Meghan Trae Jeremie, yes
Nestor, Constance, Omar, maybe
Tracy, Dawon, no
Dawon – fierce dance of determination and survival, repeat until exhausted – end with flocking or unison?
Stuff to get or try
An image with ash (Tracy). Get ash, tarp, and vacuum.
Nail the hoodie to the box. Hammer, nails.
Write – a text to prep The Beat selections. Voices under lock-up, unlocking voices.
- voices we can’t seem to hear (ask Omar for vocabulary)
Wear shoes to rehearsal. Talk about brands.
Get up with someone standing on you – Omar, Jeremie, Meghan
Omar – push ups, add push ups to Krupke
Krupke, add leg kick to spin, drop, kick
Dawon dance in 3-sided box. Yes. He gets locked up. Does he yell to be let out?
Big list of potential sections
chronology not set but almost, some things go before or after box gets made
Radio Plays
1. Nestor/Omar
2. Krupke – most of cast
3. The Beat – most
4. People die – most (after box)
5. Who we are after rehearsal – Omar, Meghan
Solo Texts
1. Constance – 24th St is on fire
2. Omar – trying to tell my sooty, what can I ell you that will tell you I am human & deserve to exist, to survive, to grow, to succeed
3. Nestor – nothing written yet
4. Dawon – from inside the box
5. Meghan from under the wall?
Dances
1. Duo – Meghan & Jorge (after box)
2. Trio – Meghan, Jorge, Trae (before box)
3. Duo – Trae & Dawon (before)
4. Solo – Meghan heart (just before)
5. Solo – Dawon – box
6. Solo – Trae – no fixed location – perhaps with 3. duo?
7. Solo – Jorge – under the wall
Circus dances
1. Tracy at cage
2. Tracy with hoodie – contortion, slow backbends
3. Jeremie - rope
4. Jeremie aerial cage
5. Nestor - rope
Pre-show installation, as audience enters
Dawon/Trae – hold up the wall
Nestor/Omar – We the People, working on it, rewriting…
Tracy – alone at cage with sign or unused mic, when all are seated she speaks
Facts to audience
Constance – delinquent news, Marcy Kaptur (what does this mean?)
Meghan – blinders, no matter how long, no insight – sitting in her square
Jorge – facts? amp/feedback
Jeremie – some slow sensing score
Questions?
the cheer?
Jeremie giving bodywork
Thu Oct 9
Go over the map/score – what’s missing, what do you want?
Talk – how I imagine the cast when not ‘doing’, the role of ‘being’, role of 2nd and 3d level images, including holding up the wall
Round robin, wall holding.
Nestor – people die – names, 1 thing we should know
Oct 14, 4-9pm, Studio 210
Oct 16, 4-7pm, Studio 210
Oct 18, 2-6pm, Studio 210
Tue Oct 21, 4-9pm, Yerba Buena,
Thu Oct 23, 4-7pm, 7-9pm optional, Yerba Buena
Sat Oct 25, 3-6pm, Dance Mission, 3316 - 24th St.
I must have lost my mind during this intense month of rehearsals. I have no notes in my book. I guess every rehearsal I just worked on what I could with whoever was there. The map/score got tighter, things undone either got done or cut. Texts got memorized or a way to read them was developed.
At YBCA rehearsals, we started to get a feel for the space. Max came to rehearsals and measured the space, figuring out light placements. Jeremie went into the grid, 30’ high and started to play, carefully. I was shocked when we got permission to have this image/dance in the performance.
I’m pretty sure that I was never as anxious working towards a premiere than I was during this month.
undated notes…
Thu Nov 13, 3pm Dress rehearsal – don’t go to work or school – Keith will pay lost wages. Marty Sohl & Edward Casati will photograph.
Note: Nov 1 – 5-10 people will come to watch run thru.
Nov 1, Studio 210, really rough run thru for feedback
Rigo, Yvonne Hardt, Max, Jess Curtis, who else comes?
Rigo – suggested that Omar do his first 3 numbers in Spanish, when he’s still in Nicaragua, and switch to English when he moves to the US – Yes
Yvonne – questions how to use the written texts? choreography for the hand held cards? what about mistakes? Brecht – don’t get emotionally involved in the reading of texts. Where to look? Questions the circle? Is it a real circle? Political theater is usually in a line. The fist during the mask dance. Whose fist? Malcolm (L arm, head down). Worker fist is 45 degrees fwd. Notes on speaking – what is the body doing, watch the voices which seem to go in and out. Constance in sling – either fit the strap to C or contort C to fit. Texts – sometimes too long, pedagogical. why? Silence – can be as successful as text. What if Dawon’s voice doesn’t get out? Transitions – either overlap or extend the space… Simplify where possible, e.g. take out Tracy’s split leg in stripper dance.
Jess – thank you. You have a show that will touch people. Get out of the way of the truth you are carrying. Text – hold it – how? Memorize, read, tell your story, practice! West Side Story is R & J, youth as frontline of social violence. What is body at start…? Wall – play with locations. Meghan dance – quality is good but it’s not there yet. Box building – rehearse!
Tue Nov 4, 4-8:30
- measure rope (28’) & pulley (27’)
Nestor – 2pm to work What is a man?
Meghan – more action
Edit “why” and “24th St.”
Trae – 2 dances, 2 statements
Dawon?
Reh all with Omar
add Jorge & Meghan – hug, jump, catch
Run 24th St with Jorge dancing
Omar & Meghan text – add
Work with Nestor happens slowly but we’re getting somewhere, grounding political in personal. What is learned at home? “My mom says, you’re just like your father.” How to say Bitch and why? or Ho? Women as toys just for pleasure or fun. You (guys who treat women like ho’s) are just disgracing yourself and acting like a dumbass with no control over what you’re saying and so you pass it on and pass it on. You’ll be the same person begging for a drink, for money. I ask, Where do you wanna be in 5 years? College, education, job.
Thu Nov 6, 4-7pm
Reh group stuff – Krupke, The Beat, mask dance
Trae
Omar
Omar + Meghan
Nestor
prep for Tech day, Wed
Sat Nov 8, 2-6pm
3:30pm run
6pm take apart walls
work Trae opening
Transition to group, music, Go!
Krupke – work text, style of speaking, solo dances: what and when?
Jeremie – less flopping, stand in rope
Omar – go help Jorge out from under wall
WORK TRANSITIONS
Transition Nestor rope to Constance poem
Trans to Tracy hoodie
Trans to People Die
Tracy – skip “people who died” it’s assumed
Trans – move cage!
Overlap Nestor with all @ cage.
Texts – don’t lose last lines
Nestor – questions
Reh the box – define jobs – who does what?
Tue Nov 11
8am – Paint walls with Nestor
11am – Aaron to pick up box, then cage at CounterPULSE
Yerba Buena – load-in, Max lights, when sound?
Run thru, 6:30-9:30pm, Brava Theatre
Dances, texts, masks, music, hoodie
Wed Nov 12
Tech Reh, Yerba Buena
10-3 focus notes
1-4 optional
4-8pm, please!
5:30-8pm compulsory!!!
Thu Nov 13 – PREMIERE!
Dress Reh 3-6pm, 8pm performance, Yerba Buena
I have pages of notes from the dress rehearsal with checks indicating that they were all communicated. Notes cover individual performance, transitions, how to use mics, lights, timing for Matt to start or stop sound, clarify the preset, run thru that text before 8pm, mic levels, sound volumes, April cues and more stuff to take care of.
I know that with all ensemble creations, each person commits to the work, to the group, in their own timing. And there is always someone who is last. This time it’s Dawon. Between missed rehearsals and also having to jump the furthest from his life outside the project to the world inside this project, he has kept a distance that is now dangerous to the work. I considered cutting him several times but kept feeling like I couldn’t. Some folks were more annoyed and/or understanding than others but it was clear that action had to be taken. I remember telling him at dress rehearsal to stop holding anything back, that I hadn’t yet seen him really dance. He was still hurt about being inside the box so long, and not feeling important to the work and not feeling like he really gets to shine shine shine. But somehow, despite everything, he did finally join the work at dress rehearsal, with only 2 hours to spare before we opened.
Then I have another six pages of notes after the glorious premiere. It’s clear that I am just now in these last 2 run thrus getting a feel for what’s possible. Asking for all kinds of little additions, gestures, or deletions, simplifications. Some of my notes are about negotiating the audience responses – applause, laughter… Lots of notes for lights and sound. And then I have notes like: Nestor – excellent! Constance robot salutes – yes yes yes. Dawon – dance in box during the silence – yes yes yes. Tracy – nice breathing. Gorgeous first back bend! Krupke – a little flat at 2/3ds with a good finish. The cage was too high – lower the trio so they can dismount easier. Matt – the beats came in a little too heavy during the cage dance.
This was one of the most satisfying openings I’ve ever experienced. Standing ovation and instantaneous passionate positive feedback. It still felt fragile, incomplete, rough as hell, what the fuck, but somehow we made it. We really did.
Fri Nov 14
6pm call, 8pm show! 9:15pm Talk back, Yerba Buena
I still had pages and pages of notes after the Friday show, which I gave to the cast on Saturday as they arrived.
After the performance on Friday we had a talk back session with the audience, which was attended by at least half the audience, well over 100 people. It was really powerful for the cast, especially those with little performance experience, to hear directly how their work had impacted people, touched, impressed, moved, inspired.
Sat Nov 15
6pm call, 8pm show! Strike, Yerba Buena
As per tradition, my own, I don’t take notes for the final performance. What for? Let go. Let go.
After the strike I go out with some friends for food and drink but Tracy & Omar keep texting me to join them in a club. I can’t actually believe that they are out together, so at midnight I go find them, with Meghan, Max, and Tracy’s beau. An amazingly unlikely group that outside of this project would never be in the same club, let alone together. Tracy and I dance madly, a performance that nearly causes trouble. We all drink a lot. Meghan, Max, Omar and I catch a cab home. We hide Omar who says they won’t stop if they see him. It’s the gang banger homeboy cholo version of being black when hailing a cab. Meghan pisses in the street when we get to the Mission, out of view but still another cultural bridge or clash moment that I adore.