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.)

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!

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.

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.”