From Up Here

The Show Must Go On

MTC — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:55:58 GMT

Yesterday I worked with the understudies, who are all lovely people and wonderful actors! With a show that’s so dependent on each stellar performance, it is great to know that we’re all in great hands in case of emergency.

There are four actors who work as the understudies for this show, and each of them understudies two actors: Colleen Quinlan understudies Grace (Julie White) and Caroline (Arija Bareikis). Ben Hollandsworth has learned the roles of Kenny (Tobias Segal) and Charlie (Will Rogers); Amelia Jean understudies Kate (Jenni Barber) and Lauren (Aya Cash); and Baylen Thomas will cover Daniel (Brian Hutchison), Mr. Goldberger, and Officer Stevens (both roles are played by Joel Van Liew). It’s a lot of work! Aside from learning all those lines, the understudies have to learn every piece of blocking exactly, so that if they do go on, the rest of the actors onstage aren’t thrown off by the new performer. It’s a delicate walk to walk - how do you exactly follow the pattern that another actor has created but still find your own artistic process?

The Stage Manager is usually responsible for rehearsing the understudies and our Stage Manager is the Amazing David Lurie. Okay - I know everyone says their Stage Manager is “amazing”; but seriously folks, this guy is in a league of his own. I capitalize the word “Amazing” because I truly believe it’s an official part of his name. It’s like his first name, of three: Amazing David Lurie. Anyway, David has worked with the understudies about five times over the past few weeks - not a lot of time compared to a full rehearsal period - and he has done really excellent work with them.

When the understudies run through the show, they have to do a lot of scenes twice, since each understudy covers more than one actor, and the Assistant Stage Managers read the lines for the other roles. If you think this process sounds confusing, you’re right!

Last week Leigh and I came in to see the understudies run the show and to give them some notes. It was a strange experience watching the run. I hadn’t been to any of the other rehearsals, and suddenly there were four excellent actors doing a show that I’m so used to seeing with the original cast. It was like I had landed in some parallel universe. Everything was the same, and yet it was different. But once I got over that initial shock, I watched how Leigh gave notes to them, helping each of them to understand the character from a deeper perspective and pushing them to think about the larger reality of the story now that they had all the basic moves down so perfectly.

Yesterday was my second day with them, and we had a lot of fun. Since I don’t get to work on the show too much now that it’s opened, it was a great joy to get to re-visit it. I was so impressed to see the way they took notes and implemented them immediately. Obviously they’re all pros, which I knew, but great actors never cease to fill me with a sense of wonder.

The Mystery of Lulu

MTC — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:12:50 GMT

The blog lives!

Here I am friends, back again after a long hiatus.

Well what’s happened since I last wrote… we opened the show! And even though I saw From Up Here 22 times in a row during the first two weeks of April, I’m always surprised and delighted by it again.

But I am not the star of this blog entry, in fact far from it, my friends.

The star of this blog entry is Lulu. And who is Lulu you ask?

Lulu is Julie White’s dog.

I am not a dog person. I am not a cat person. I don’t have a fondness for snakes. I can identify with one of my favorite From Up Here lines, “I don’t even like animals.” I don’t really. I have nothing against them, I don’t hit them with my car, but I just don’t like them. Ironically, real life dog lover Julie White’s character ‘Grace’ is the one who says “I don’t even like animals.”

But the strange thing about having a heart of stone is that every once in a while someone comes along and melts it just a little bit. What I’m saying is, some animals are amazing, even to me (Not, however, an old cat named Sea Legs who attacked me when I was four, and not another cat named Killer who resented me for sub-letting his owners’ apartment one summer in Philadelphia, and who did everything he could to make sure I knew who’s apartment it really was. It was Killer’s apartment.).

Lulu is like a bouncing puff ball of joy. Throughout rehearsal Julie would make a running joke about all the ways she was trying to get Lulu into the show. Every time a piece of prop food would accidentally land on the stage, Julie would exclaim excitedly “Oh! This is a perfect job for Lulu! She could pop onstage, eat up the fallen lasagna, and run off. Can we put her in the show?” Once I met the dog, I wondered if we should put her in the show.

So what I have for you here is an all-star picture. Update your Facebook profiles, friends. Here is a shot of Julie White with her fabulous canine friend.

Notes From Underground

MTC — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:47:54 GMT

Dear dearest blog readers:

Hello from the other side of tech! I’m writing you from the New York City Center Stage I and II lobby where we’ve just finished our invited dress rehearsal, mere hours before the first preview. How about that for 21^st century on-the-spot reporting?

The dress rehearsal was a hit - even if it happened a little later than expected. Our dress rehearsal yesterday was tough; we ran into some oh-so-common technical problems with the automated stage, and we had to delay our dress rehearsal until this afternoon. But, all is well and we are off to a strong start!

So next time you see a show - whether it is FROM UP HERE or something else - and a piece of furniture glides onstage magically with no one pushing or pulling it, please remember: behind that effortless-seeming gliding is a motor, and behind that motor is a computer, and behind that computer is someone programming it and behind them are hours – HOURS, MY FRIENDS! – of exacting work, programming, discussions, and trouble-shooting.

Machines are great, baby, but they don’t necessarily simplify our lives (Thanks Ray Bradbury!).

But the FROM UP HERE team rallied with the technology and we made it! And the show is beautiful. Add to the set, the fact that the actors brought it like the rock stars that they truly are. I am just thrilled.

And to share my thrill, I’m attaching here some fun candid shots from the past few days. Not only is the experience of working on FROM UP HERE exhilarating and suspenseful, but it is also filled with good-looking people - click here to see my fantastic colleagues. A team with a lot of sex appeal is the first step to success.

(I learned that from watching The Apprentice.)

Where Do Old Props Go To Die?

MTC — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:25:01 GMT

Let’s take a moment to give a warm, web-based round of applause to everything and everyone prop-related at Manhattan Theatre Club. FROM UP HERE is a particularlyprop-heavy show and Manhattan Theatre Club has risen to the challenge.

A prop, as many of you may know, can be anything that an actor picks up, holds, or uses at any point in the play. Furniture can be considered a prop but major set pieces are not props. Smaller items, like coffee grinders and Rubix cubes, are props. Madam Playwright Liz Flahive has often hung her head in rehearsal and playfully apologized for the masses of props upon props written into this play.

No need to apologize, Liz! We love our props. And the amazing thing about MTC is pretty much all you need to do is speak the name of an item and it appears magically in rehearsal in front of you. This phenomena isn’t true everywhere, ladies and gentlemen, and it’s a major testament to the hard-working and dedicated staff.

The other people who get “props for our props” (yes, I went for that joke) are David H. Lurie and his fabulous stage management team and Scott Laule and his fabulous props team. When you come and see the show, try and figure out where every peanut butter sandwich, every pencil, and every loose piece of paper ends up. I promise you that you will lose track- most likely because you’ll be distracted by the PLAY going on in front of you- and when you do, take a moment and acknowledge the work of the people who do manage to stay on top of every one of these tiny but essential items for each performance.

Sometimes, my friends, when you’re a working on a show (especially a WORLD PREMIERE) things change and some props that start out in the play don’t make it into the performances. And sometimes those props are food. And the rest of us in rehearsal get to eat them.

Check out this photo of Liz enjoying the eliminated oranges; they were delicious!

Costume Collages

MTC — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:24:14 GMT

Dear readers,

Don’t be deceived by plays that take place contemporarily. They can be just as complicated for a costume designer as a show that takes place in medieval period. Think about it, when a play takes place here and now, it’s all about the details. As audience members, we can spot anything that isn’t authentic in half a second. We are all experts. We feel it in our bones, because these characters are supposed to be like people we see all around us.

I’ve known costume designers who perch themselves on a busy street corner and sketch for hours. Others prefer a digital camera, but that can get sticky with some passers-by This is still New York, after all. But, however they manage to get their inspiration, it’s always fascinating to hear and see about their processes.

We’re lucky on FROM UP HERE to be graced with the gorgeous talents of designer Mattie Ullrich. Mattie made collages with costume ideas and inspirations for each of the characters. FROM UP HERE is set in the suburban Midwest, now. So, her research was key – we all know people in the Midwest and have a sense of the look! For you, and you only, I snagged a few to post here as a sneak peek.

(Ok, “snag” might be a bit misleading since, yes, technically I got Mattie’s permission. But sneak peek totally applies.)

Check them out here first, folks, and then when you come to the show, you can see how the ideas changed over time. It’s like a game. Seriously, check them out, they’re cool. Mattie is a real talent - see for yourself by clicking here.

Introduction

MTC — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:18:42 GMT

Hello MTC website readers!

You’re arriving just in time for the most exciting part: as I write this very first entry, we at FROM UP HERE are a mere day away from tech…

What does that mean exactly?

Well, if you’re my parents it means you’re not going to hear from me for another week or so (Sorry, Mom! At least now there is a blog you can check.).

But if you’re actually a part of the production, it means we spend our first days in the REAL theater on the REAL set, working with our REAL props and costumes, and setting all the light and sound cues. We work long days, and for those of us who have been in the rehearsal room these past few weeks, it’s a crazy shift to go from a rehearsal set to the REAL thing, to go from an intimate room where we’ve all gotten to know each other well, to a big space with lots of new additions to our team – actually, all of these new additions have been working on the show all along, just not inside our little rehearsal room.

Think of it like a glorious meeting of the minds: actors meet lights, meet sound, meet sets, and meet costumes. Or, in my cheesy Disney version, it is where the theater magic happens. I know that sounds terrible, but I actually mean that, you can see magic happen, especially with the phenomenal designers that we are so lucky to have. Tech is amazing.

Since thus far I’ve been writing in first person, maybe I should give you a brief introduction to who I am. When I’m not being the eyes and ears of this illustrious new-found blog, I’m Shira Milikowsky, the assistant director on FROM UP HERE. I came to Manhattan Theatre Club through my connection with Ars Nova, a young, not-for-profit theatre company partnering with MTC to produce FROM UP HERE. I am currently the director-in-residence at Ars Nova. So far, it’s been an incredible journey. Working for director Leigh Silverman is basically a dream come true, and this cast is truly, profoundly, and deeply remarkable.

But if you want to know more about that, you’ll just have to check back again soon.

“But how are they remarkable, Shira? You must tell us!” “All in good time, dear readers, all in good time.”