An incredible story

This story is what has been on my mind this week. This is my friend Shane with Former President Clinton at the premiere of Shane's movie Bridegroom at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC on Tuesday, April 23^rd. I borrowed this photo from his Facebook Page because I don't have any of my childhood photo albums with me here in Ashland-trust me we were pretty cute kids back then. But back to the point, well sort of, I'm sure I'll get to it eventually - the Former President is quoted as saying “This is really -- on one level -- a wonderful, sad, heartbreaking yet exhilarating and life affirming story, and on another level it's a story about our nation's struggle to make one more step in forming a more perfect union, for which marriage is both the symbol and substance," Clinton told the crowd. "I hope you enjoy it as much as I did." I know it's not directly related to FAIR or OSF but in a way it is a whole different level of the Diversity and Inclusion conversation we have started to engage in. I have known Shane for as almost as long as I can remember. We grew up together and I learned a lot about inclusion and diversity from him. I remember his struggle to fit in with our world in small town Montana, his fears and frustrations of being in a world where being “out” was at times like putting a target on your back. His bravery, demonstrated by sharing his own story with the world, now, is something I am most proud of knowing him for. He is slowly turning tragedy into a triumph by simply telling a story – his story. Isn't that what we as theatre artists do? We tell stories about the human experience in an effort to make people feel, to start conversations, and to engage our audiences in bigger and smaller ideas. Part of why I love OSF is that they have started telling new-old stories – American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle is a project dedicated to the telling of stories about America – some known and some unknown, some good some not so good but all parts of our past as a nation. So I end my story today with a toast to my friend Shane and his incredible story and his generous heart that has chosen to share his journey with the world.

The Great Shop-ocalypse

The title of the invitation to the annual Scene Shop party - apparently it is a pretty big thing around here for most of the OSF company. It is tomorrow night - Robin Hood has rehearsal until midnight but we've been assured it will still be rolling. In preparation I have hot-roller-curled my hair - it took 45 minutes and now my arms hurt.

Where's a girls mom when she need her!

27

Yesterday, I turned 27. I feel extra old, I mean even the movie "The Sandlot" turned 20 this year, I have a 30 year old brother (so I guess I'm not that old) but if not older I am definitely wiser. It was the first birthday I have celebrated in MANY years (I was counting and I really think it is over 10) that I have not been at some sort of theatre rehearsal. It makes sense though if you think about it because that is roughly how long I've been pretty actively involved in theatre. I celebrated last night with a wonderful group of new friends. I made a crock-pot full of soup and everyone brought something to share be it salad, cake, wine or some other tasty drink made of vodka and pineapple. We started late in the evening because Monday is our day to get stuff done - laundry, grocery shopping, bank attending etc - I found a nice box in the mail room with my name on it and it came full of all kinds of wonderful little things and then festivities ended quite early in the morning. In fact I'm not sure when the last time I stayed up until nearly 3 am was. We laughed, talked, danced and participated in general merry-ment. There is talk of making Monday at the "Wimer House" a regular occurance - we'll see what happens. A photo of the remnants of my birthday celebration:

sorry it is a little blurry - again snapped with my phone but I wanted to catch it before the lilac wilted and figured I better do it now while I have time. Both cards were hand made for me - the one in the middle says "there are a thousand miracles to behold"which I just love. It is simple but true.

Tracking

The photo above relates to this post in that it is a very small snapshot of my world of tracking in the realm of stage management - lots of pages to sort through, sticky notes for side notes to come back to, words to revisit. 

track
verb
1: follow the course or trail of (someone or something), typically in order to      find them or note their location at various points:
       follow and note the course or progress of
       [no object] follow a particular course
       (of a stylus) follow
I more often find myself tracking - stuff - at rehearsals. Words mostly - new ones, old ones, deleted, added and/switched around ones but also scenery, props, instruments, breaks – all kinds of stuff. I thought of this concept for a blog entry while listening to a conversation I was engaging in. I've begun to track this whole "Diversity and Inclusion at OSF" idea that is being embraced by this company, to try to sort out how exactly I fit in to it all. While diversity is not at all foreign to me, I did grow up in a rather un-diverse locale as compared to other places I could have grown up. These conversations I've been a part of are thought provoking, enlightening and even entertaining at times but tracking them, connecting the ideas to my world and starting to think about how I, myself, can implement them or relate to them is what I find most interesting. To sum up "Diversity Inclusion" in as few words as possible because I believe it embodies a pretty big overall concept or idea I look to the words of the all knowing osfashland.org website:

“We believe the inclusion of diverse people, ideas, cultures and traditions enriches both our insights into the work we present on stage and our relationships with each other. We are committed to diversity in all areas of our work and in our audiences.”

These are ALL good and exciting things. The conversation is far from over and I will continue to track it wherever it may lead.

Just a photo I took with my telephone

I snapped this the other day while waiting to go to rehearsal. Lithia Park is an easy place to wait around - lots of trees and green space to spread out in. The duck pond is a favorite spot with its park benches and varying spaces of sun and shade. This mallard paddled over was pretty sure I should be sharing my grapes with him. I however was more interested in the reflection of the back of the Elizabethan Theatre in the water.

Lorca In A Green Dress

At 1:00 pm on Tuesday, October 7th, Two Thousand and Three. I entered the Thomas Theatre (then the New Theatre) for the first time.  Having no idea what the impact on my life would be. I sat with my classmates from a small-ish town in Montana and watched in wonder as the story of the death and life of Federico Garcia Lorca unfolded before us. Lorca's story as told by Nilo Cruz is an examination of the life and death of the famous Spanish Poet following his murder. Different versions of himself help him to accept the inevitable, his passage from to death. As a senior in high school I had no idea what I was watching except that it was beautiful, emotional, powerful, exciting and like nothing I'd seen before. We did theatre in Montana but not like that. What followed that week were more displays of the impossible - shadows being left on stage, a kings fall from the thrown, a version of Midsummer in the soaking, bone-chilling rain, Hedda's slide toward tragedy, and a Shakespearean soap opera none of us could seem to follow. Our young minds learned more in that week about theatre and possibility than I think I could comprehend even now. Just the simple idea that this art of story telling could even be a full time job, for more than one person, is something that stuck with me for the next ten years. I owe so much of my theatre story to that first week of watching plays. I owe even more of my story to growing up in a place that supports the arts. The community I grew up in and learned about the world of theatre in let me and my classmates fly in ways we never thought possible. I have returned many times to the festival – as I mentioned above the first time was as a student soaking up inspiration and then later years I arrived as an adult chaperoning young minds and also as a solo patron hungering to hear stories of the human experience. I find it fitting that on my ten year anniversary watching plays at the festival I have a pass, to the world behind the scenes and while it is technically a Guest FAIR pass the benefits have already begun to appear. Being accepted into the FAIR program was really simply a dream come true. Working with professionals at this level and in this element can only lead to good things and I am proud to be a part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Family.

TAPE!

We get to work with a variety of kinds of tape in the world of stage management gaffers tape, regular scotch tape, glow tape, duct tape etc., but my favorite is probably the kind known as "spike tape." It comes in a plethora of colors and generally is either 1/4" or 1/2" thick and can be easily torn with out the use of scissors.

While we didn't have an actual called(scheduled) rehearsal with actors we did spend time in our "New Place" rehearsal room hosting a taping party in which any stage management persons available came and helped us compete the task at hand. We spent the mid - morning hours taping out our set in neon green and orange and yellow spike tape colors. These lines will serve as our guidelines for staging in a space that is far from the reality of the Elizabethan Stage. Point after point we plotted and strung lines to re-create a flat version of a very three dimensional world.

New Place

Tree in full bloom outside "The New Place" or our rehearsal hall for the upcoming weeks.

Everything smells so good here - there are flowers blooming everywhere and the days have been nicely warm. We started rehearsals today with a show introduction and then a read through. I am so excited to be working with these people. Our director is from The Twin Cities so every time he talks (which is often) I feel like I am talking to my cousins. I wish I had a tape recorder during the show introduction because I would have loved for you all to hear the passion he has for this show. The play is about change, connection, heart, adventure and so many more things. It is a new telling of an old tale and the best part is that it was described at one point as a "journey into the heart of the forest that goes a little Monty Python." It's been a long day - complete with an allergic reaction to something tree nut though I'm not exactly sure where it came from just that it happened 3 hours before rehearsal started and I wasn't going to let it ruin my first day and it didn't - so I'm going to get some sleep. One last thought though, as posed by our director, "What makes us rich?" - this question is at the heart of Robin Hood's story and the answer finds itself as the story unfolds.

Company Member.

My day started at 8 AM with a meeting that included all of the different FAIR participants from this part of the season. There were 9 of us present and I think I understand that there will be 12 of us eventually. 3 Director's assistants, two stage management assistants (me included), a props assistant, the Richard Hay Design Fellow and two lighting assistants. We will meet every Thursday as a group to discuss, engage, support, listen, learn and grow as artists beginning April 11th. It is part of our FAIR Experience - we numbered into groups of three and our first assignment is to bake cookies for our next FAIR meeting. Should be interesting - not sure yet how it is relevant but if I find out specifically I'll let you all know. After our meeting we were taken on a tour of the many places we may find ourselves in the coming weeks. We walked all over the OSF campus and went through doors and hallways I've often seen but never been granted access. I saw the costume shop, the props department/construction, the scene shop, all three trap rooms in the theaters and we walked across stages and no one told us to get off or don't step there. There was a moment I had standing center stage on the Angus Bowmer Theatre stage. I found myself looking out over the 600 empty seats and I thought to myself "I'm finally on the other side."

Nearly 3 hours later I would find myself back in those seats amongst hundreds of others attending my first OSF company meeting. It was one of the most endearing moments I've personally experienced at the festival so far. The very first thing we did was go around and introduce all the new people. From FAIR apprentices to actors just beginning their season this year to ushers to custodians to board members - EVERYONE was introduced. It is a wonder to behold that such an amazing place is as amazing on the inside as it is on the outside.  I stood up in front of the entire company and shared my name, the show I was working on and in what capacity and where I came from and now long I had been with the festival. It was probably one of the most nerve wracking experiences of my theatre career. It lasted not longer than 15 seconds and a few people hollered about MT - will be interesting to see if they reveal themselves to me ever - and the introductions continued on down the row. The important thing to take away from my 15 seconds is that I think people actually cared and were invested in each one of us introducing ourselves. I have met so many people today and have so many more to meet tomorrow at our first rehearsal that I think my head might explode from trying to remember everything.

Between the tour and the company meeting I met with the Assistant Stage Manager I'll be working with on Robbin Hood. We started moving things into our rehearsal space, copying scripts and chatting about expectations. It sounds like my responsibilities will be similar to those that I held at SCR except that I am not expected to be at everything all the time unless I want to - why wouldn't a person in this position want to? I can't fathom why you would hear the entire experience as opportunity knocking...

I ended my day on campus watching The Unfortunates to borrow from the OSF website: "A musical pilgrimage through uniquely American genres delivers five prisoners to salvation — or at least keeps the terror at bay. Facing an uncertain end, they bring to life the story of Big Joe, a tough bartender who risks everything to save the armless courtesan Rae from a deadly plague. Combining the heat of a gospel revival with the sweet sorrow of the blues, "The Unfortunates" convinces us that any great challenge can be faced with dignity, grace, and compassion." It was amazing and a perfect reminder of why I love theatre and why I love being a part of theatre. We have the unbelievable capacity to tell stories that mean something, that make people feel and that make people think.

Lastly, as I looked through the tickets of shows past that I have seen here at OSF I found the ticket from the fist show I saw which was "Lorca in a Green Dress" which was staged in the Thomas Theatre (then the New Theatre) which happened to also be where the Unfortunates was staged. It was a bit of a 10 years ago I sat in this space and dreamed I might be here and now, well now I have a key card and responsibilities. The adventure officially begins tomorrow with our first rehearsal.

Back to blogging!

No really, I'm serious about it this time. Really truly serious and here is why: On Friday, December 7th I was sitting in Great Falls High coaching at a particularly chaotic tournament when I noticed I had missed a phone call. Upon retrieval of a voicemail message I learned that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival wanted to talk to me about my FAIR application (fellowships, assistantships, internships and residencies). Let me just say that one more time - the OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL wanted to talk to ME about MY application (an application I had submitted in May and prior to this phone call had heard nothing about). After almost deleting the message and the info inside it I managed to write down a telephone number and then broke the news to my colleagues. After much talk and excitement I wandered down a vacant hallway, found an abandoned staircase and called the number back having prepared the message I would leave as it was nearly 8pm Pacific Standard Time and surely whomever left the message wasn't still in their office. Lucky me! Someone answered the phone and my prepared message went right out the window and quickly turned into "yes! i'm still available and interested" and just like that I was offered an assistantship in stage management at OSF. I called my mom and dad and then I called everyone who would still be awake and know how excited I would be. I held off announcing the news on the blog for so long because it took a long-ish time to get all of the official paperwork and on the off-chance that it wasn't real, or something happened and I really didn't get the opportunity I didn't want to deal with the heartbreak of un-announcing the big news. Safe to say though I am all moved in to my "bungalow" and start tomorrow morning at 8 am.
I left clear blue skies in Montana on Saturday morning and drove to Portland where I stayed with my roommates from college and then drove the rest of the way to Ashland on Sunday. The weather has been coolish and it rained most of this morning but I am hopeful that things will start to warm up soon. The flowers and trees around here sure look like they would appreciate some warmer weather.
I promise I'll be better at blogging but for now here is photo I took on the way out of town. I love those Montana Mountains!