WELCOME TO MY FRIDAY BLOG
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| Photo: René Miko - Segment 4 of 6 on Fly Babies / Piojos |
For years I gathered as much information as I could about lice, famous people with lice, the history of lice and trends
according to ethnicity, types of hair, race etc.
according to ethnicity, types of hair, race etc.
The more I thought
and scribbled and searched,
the more complex
the world of lice became.
I wanted it to be a
comedy. Besides, each time I mentioned the theme of the play people
laughed. So I thought "it'll be funny". Never assume.
Preparing for last
Friday's blog helped me organize notes and identify benchmarks leading
to the moment in which I began to think concretely about Fly Babies / Piojos (1996-2005). I had no title for it yet, though, but I had a pretty good outline for
some of the characters: an actor-cast-as Louis XIV had surfaced first
(check out last week's blog for info on Louis XIV), an activist looking
for 'something' that would unite humankind, and sketches of a teacher.
This seemed the kind of project that would reveal itself through the
characters rather than through a storyline. In other words, the
storyline was buried in the ton of information I was still gathering. Fly Babies seemed to be slowly emerging as a performance comedy consisting primarily of monologues perhaps in some sort of interaction with other characters.
It was a puzzle and each piece could fit with each other in numerous ways, or not at all. In putting it all together, I had my actress cap on most of the time.
2006-2007 - The Turntable
In
2006 my attention was split between the creation of another new work and
the yearlong inaugural events at Pregones. We had just opened the
theater with a great season and I was still in a high from the success of
The Red Rose.
But in the Spring of that year, during yet another train ride - can't remember where-- I began to draw circles. I had flashes of Stop The World - I Want to Get Off, a show I had seen in 1978 at Lincoln Center. The main character would get on and off a moving 'globe' gracefully. It helped that he was played by Sammy Davis Jr.! Click: A turntable! Our stage is large enough to hold a turntable that the actors could manipulate as lice stories emerged, most likely in relay form.
Fast forward to 2011: The turntable did not materialize. It would be a mechanical monster and
resources were not at hand. The next best thing? Block in the round.
Think circular motion. And keep it simple! It would be a challenge. Enter Brian Ireland, our set designer, and Lucrecia Briceño, lighting designer. They 'got' me right away. Designed
'legs', a subtle fence that framed the projections screen and
musicians, movable benches that morphed and rich textured lighting did
the trick . No turntable. But I had my circles!
2008-2009 - Remojo
During this period I concentrated on the structure of characters that were emerging from the vast amount of anecdotes I found in sites from all over the world and those volunteered to me. So far I had the Actor, the Activist, a sketchy urban mom who was hiding her lice problem at all costs, and a small town, self appointed Duchess very knowledgeable about lice. Click: The sketchy mom would develop into the opera singer and Duchess, formerly a teacher, would develop into a dorky entomologist. More on this later.
Remojo (Spanish for soaking) is a fun project that allows audiences to watch our ideas in action. Those of us at Pregones developing projects have the opportunity to show up to 25 minutes of the idea. We can do it as a staged reading, or a combination of a reading and a performance. It can be sketchy and we can even interrupt and let the audience know if we are not sure of what to do with the next section but will put it out there anyway. It is one of our most successful behind-the-scenes events and we have a full house each time.
Still
no central story! The overload of information and anecdotes had something to do with it. If it seems like I was working backwards, I was. Again, my gut feeling was that the individual stories could
carry an entire performance whether there was a central storyline or
not, because each character had an arc I could depend on. I needed to test my assumptions, though. Just not yet.
2010 - The Carrousel
30+ years of travels have made the world manageable for my work. In the past 10 years, though, our international family has expanded thanks to the International Community Arts Festival in Rotterdam.
The ICAF brings together community and professional artists from all over the world. This has led to the creation of joint initiatives and global projects. One of these is the Worldwide Virtual Theater Carrousel.
Working with partners in Belgium, Perú and South Africa, Pregones is able to participate in joint creative ventures. We do it via film, country-to-country hopping, photography and of course, virtually. We have participated in each other's productions on four or five occasions.
Fast forward to 2011: We invite our Belgium partners, Sering Theater, to come on board. They went to work, filming actors scratching their heads and sharing lice stories, which were then edited with our other footage. By now we have had many conversations about lice. They are just as familiar with lice as we are. One of Sering actors, Jan Janssen (in projection), shared his opinion about lice, in dialogue with Omar Pėrez (playing Dr. Reyes, the scientist--formerly the Duchess).
The process is always a bit complicated and shows great commitments from our partners. After the concept is clear, they convene actors, filmmaker and other personnel. If they use video, they film it, then load it -- a process that takes several hours -- send it to us, our filmmaker picks it up do all kinds of technical things I know little about, and edits as needed. Meanwhile, we skype constantly.
Language is another factor. Jan speaks in Flemish. Omar is perfectly bilingual...in English and Spanish. We decide that the conversation will have to be in Flemish. Omar jumps at the opportunity to learn the lines. He loves languages. We skype with Mia Grijp, Artistic Director of Sering, and we video the session in which she coaches Omar with the correct pronunciation. It's a sight! And it worked!
But what was the conversation about? By the time we filmed Jan and Omar, we had a story!
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| Photo: In house - Pregones in construction - 2005 |
But in the Spring of that year, during yet another train ride - can't remember where-- I began to draw circles. I had flashes of Stop The World - I Want to Get Off, a show I had seen in 1978 at Lincoln Center. The main character would get on and off a moving 'globe' gracefully. It helped that he was played by Sammy Davis Jr.! Click: A turntable! Our stage is large enough to hold a turntable that the actors could manipulate as lice stories emerged, most likely in relay form.
 |
| Photo: Erika Rojas |
2008-2009 - Remojo
During this period I concentrated on the structure of characters that were emerging from the vast amount of anecdotes I found in sites from all over the world and those volunteered to me. So far I had the Actor, the Activist, a sketchy urban mom who was hiding her lice problem at all costs, and a small town, self appointed Duchess very knowledgeable about lice. Click: The sketchy mom would develop into the opera singer and Duchess, formerly a teacher, would develop into a dorky entomologist. More on this later.
 |
| Shadia and Yarani going over music score |
Remojo (Spanish for soaking) is a fun project that allows audiences to watch our ideas in action. Those of us at Pregones developing projects have the opportunity to show up to 25 minutes of the idea. We can do it as a staged reading, or a combination of a reading and a performance. It can be sketchy and we can even interrupt and let the audience know if we are not sure of what to do with the next section but will put it out there anyway. It is one of our most successful behind-the-scenes events and we have a full house each time.
I decided to go for it in the Remojo. I had written the song Fly Babies (check some
of the lyrics in blog #2) and substantial sections of monologues.
Working with Desmar Guevara, our composer and musical director, we had
three rehearsals, staged the song, the monologues and voila! We
presented 20 minutes of the idea. Laughter and comments throughout.
Cheers. A good sign.
2010 - The Carrousel
30+ years of travels have made the world manageable for my work. In the past 10 years, though, our international family has expanded thanks to the International Community Arts Festival in Rotterdam.
The ICAF brings together community and professional artists from all over the world. This has led to the creation of joint initiatives and global projects. One of these is the Worldwide Virtual Theater Carrousel.
Working with partners in Belgium, Perú and South Africa, Pregones is able to participate in joint creative ventures. We do it via film, country-to-country hopping, photography and of course, virtually. We have participated in each other's productions on four or five occasions.
 |
| Omar Pėrez and Jan Janssen (of Sering Theater, Belgium) |
Fast forward to 2011: We invite our Belgium partners, Sering Theater, to come on board. They went to work, filming actors scratching their heads and sharing lice stories, which were then edited with our other footage. By now we have had many conversations about lice. They are just as familiar with lice as we are. One of Sering actors, Jan Janssen (in projection), shared his opinion about lice, in dialogue with Omar Pėrez (playing Dr. Reyes, the scientist--formerly the Duchess).
The process is always a bit complicated and shows great commitments from our partners. After the concept is clear, they convene actors, filmmaker and other personnel. If they use video, they film it, then load it -- a process that takes several hours -- send it to us, our filmmaker picks it up do all kinds of technical things I know little about, and edits as needed. Meanwhile, we skype constantly.
Language is another factor. Jan speaks in Flemish. Omar is perfectly bilingual...in English and Spanish. We decide that the conversation will have to be in Flemish. Omar jumps at the opportunity to learn the lines. He loves languages. We skype with Mia Grijp, Artistic Director of Sering, and we video the session in which she coaches Omar with the correct pronunciation. It's a sight! And it worked!
But what was the conversation about? By the time we filmed Jan and Omar, we had a story!
2010 TO BE CONTINUED...The tension mounts, Tolkien emerges, with a glitch. So does the story. The Carrousel joins in...just one year away from opening night!
NEXT BLOG, NEXT FRIDAY
BONUS VIDEO
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