Squatters

Squatters was conceived by Jeremy Seghers. This was one of the few improvised shows at Fringe this year. Jeremy built the idea around the premise that a sitcom about people living through hard times can be funny. I arrived a little early and blocked in the set in my sketchbook since I knew the show was only half an hour. Logan Donahue was a guest star. Every performance of Squatters at Fringe would be unique. Jeremy said he had given prompts and suggestions the evening before in a prior performance and he suspected the actors had too much time to over think the possibilities. On the evening I sketched the actors were given prompts just moments before they went on stage.

I found myself doing improv once when director Aradhana Tiwari insisted I join her group of actors. I was way out of my comfort zone yet the thrill of scenes taking on a life of their own is a thrill. Therefore I was rooting for the cast with every quirky turn.

The show started with a stage hand wearing a head set came who out to announce the beginning of the show. We were the studio audience. The set consisted of an ugly lime green rug and furniture that looked like it was from the 60's. Hints that the family was squatting were subtle, like when Cody Bush bragged that he had landed a job at Walmart. Logan added a real spark when he entered as a new age guru with a purple mask painted on his face. Scenes where he seduced Ashli Conrad were inspired.

There were plenty of laugh out loud moments and some outright strange surreal moments that were so campy I had to laugh. The laugh track added another layer to the humor. I must say, I had fun and this show took many chances many of which paid off. This is what Fringe is all about.

War of the Worlds - Costume Designer

As I entered the Shakespeare Theater I noticed one of my blog readers Patricia looking at the board covered with sketches I had done of the War of the Worlds rehearsals. I walked up behind her and said "I know that artist, he is a hack." We laughed and she introduced me to her friend. She asked if I was sketching or just enjoying the show tonight and I explained that I planned to sketch backstage again. She said she probably would not have known about the show had it not been for my blog posts. That made me extremely happy. Several students from my class at Full Sail also came out to this evenings performance.
Once back stage I decided to watch the hectic activity around the prop table again. Kelly - Anne Salazar the costume designer was relaxing and reading a magazine. She had already put out all the costumes and the actors were busy getting changed upstairs. Lindsay Cohen walked past and said "Hey TT". She has a nick name for just about everyone in the cast and now everyone refers to me as TT backstage. Sigh, its not very dignified, but I have to live with it.
The stage manager announced "Five minutes" and the actors replied "Thank you five". Alan who plays Orson Wells quietly went over his opening lines to himself. Everyone began wishing each other luck and then the show was on. What I like about sitting back stage is that the place feels like it is in a time warp. Kelly - Anne looked like she could have been straight out of the 1930's and the poster on the wall hearkened back to war times.
While I sketched I heard a teenage girl sobbing on the stairs above me. She was one of the younger actors performing in "The Two Gentleman of Verona" in the next theater over. I could hear the muffled singing from this musical as I worked and quite honestly the singing was often way off key. Another girl finally tried to comfort the sobbing actress. "What did you do wrong?" The sobbing actress said something in between the tears, but just thinking about it slowed down the emotions. "OK is that it." "You didn't do anything wrong." "It is soooo not your fault.""We are all freaking out, it isn't your fault." The crying actress finally said "I didn't want to do anything wrong." "Come on." The two actresses came down the steps hand in hand and went to the green room.
Suddenly a huge standing ovation broke out in the Golwin Theater and I realized War of the Worlds had rocked the house. The actors came out laughing because there had been a strange sort of group delay when they bowed. The audience didn't seem to mind, they went wild.

War of the Worlds - Prop Table

For Friday nights performance I immediately wandered back to the Green Room to contemplate what I should sketch next. I arrived a bit early and found the room filled with chattering and excited teenagers who were performing next door. Sophia was sitting among them. We both wondered where the War of the Worlds actors were going to change. We walked into the Goldwin Theater and Fletch was there to explain what was happening. It turned out the Young Actor Company had a performance in the theater next door at the same time as War of the Worlds. He found two other rooms for our actors to change in.
When Sophia disappeared Fletch told me about another major problem. Lightning had struck the Theater the night before and the stage lights had been blown out. Suddenly everyone as in a panic. In the final minutes before the show an electrician was called in to try and fix the problem. Fletch dreaded the thought of having to performing the play with just the house lights on.
While all this was going on Lesley Ann was working on the wardrobe placing actors props such as hats and shoes in the appropriate taped grid on the floor. Other props rested on a table with a similar grid. The stage manager gently opened the vintage lunch box and placed in an apple which Joshua would eat on the stage edge facing the audience in the first moments of the play.
Before the actors had finished changing into their wardrobes, the electrician walked past me up the stairs with a line of nervous stage hands and lighting technicians behind him. Five minutes later, an eternity for the directors, the electrician walked past me again down the steps saying, "Another tragedy averted." He was the hero of the day. I spotted Aradhana at the bottom of the staircase I was sketching from and shouted "They fixed the lights! You have lights!" She shouted with glee.
The actors just before going on the stage would tap fists together and tap elbows for luck. Andy who played Orson Wells, flipped through a magazine. The pace of this show is very fast. Actors would often run to the table to grab something and then they dashed right back on the stage.
The small rag doll on the prop table was created by Tanja and her daughters. It is made from extra curtain material she had on hand and filled with cotton balls. The hair was made from curtain lining material that they soaked in tea.The doll has a quirky endearing quality. For Tanja it is now a family heirloom.
I went to Tastings Wine Bar to celebrate with the cast. They had much to celebrate since the night was a near disaster that turned into a glowing success. Tonight is the FINAL performance of War of the Worlds. It starts at 7 PM at the Shakespeare Theater in Lock Haven Park. I plan to dress is a fine suit to celebrate a great run with an amazing cast. The end is near.

War of the Worlds - First Baptist

An alternate rehearsal space had to be found for War of the Worlds rehearsals. Aradhana arranged to rehearse in the cavernous choir room of the First Baptist Church of Orlando.
It is not nap time for the actors. In this scene the public is lying on the ground after the Martian invaders have sprayed a poisonous gas over the human population. The audio playing is of someone changing 1930's radio programs quickly. The actors coughing rise from their positions. Some actors exit the stage. The radio settles on a broadcast of German marching music and two members of the cast march toward the front of the stage. The effect is chilling and it makes you realize why hysteria was so easily triggered in these times. The scene is elegantly choreographed and perfectly timed to the music. The actors had to return to these starting positions again and again as they rehearsed the scene over and over. With each run through I would get another actor placed in the space relative to the others. Joshua and other actors have started to joke with me so I have started to feel at home at these rehearsals. Only one week remains until War of the Worlds hits the stage here in Orlando. Shows start July 31st through August 9th. Check the War of the Worlds facebook page for show times.

War of the Worlds - Sound Booth

Here Zac Alfson works his magic in the sound booth. He has his hands full as he often has to fade in the soothing sounds of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra. He of course also had to balance the sounds from the radio broadcast being conducted on the stage while also adding haunting sound effects where needed. Since all the sound cues are not set in stone at this point, Aradhana signals him on when to come in from where she is seated in the theater by turning and raising her hand.
Some complicated staging had to be worked out and Aradhana struggled to communicate to her Public actors while the Mercury Theater performers were rehearsing on stage. Since she couldn't hear herself think, she asked all of her actors to crowd into the sound booth hoping to muffle the on stage performance. This plan was foiled since the performance was amplified with speakers in the sound booth and the speakers could not be turned off. She ultimately held her acting huddle in the hallway outside the theater.
While doing this sketch I couldn't really see the colors as I put them on the page since it was so dark in the booth. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the sketch when I got home. I should paint in the dark more often.
During a break I was talking to Erika about how exciting all the rehearsals were to sketch and she said "This is enough isn't it?" She meant that staging the play was one thing, but also there is enough drama right here and now, that every day is drama enough.

War of the Worlds - Read Through

In this rehearsal the cast is checking their lines and sometimes trading lines if the dialogue seems to fit another characters personal world view better. Aradhana and Fetch work with the actors to get these details finalized or gelled. Although this wasn't one of the longer rehearsals, it was very productive. This new stage area in the Goldman Theater is a bit tighter that the first stage the actors had used so adjustments often had to be made to be sure that the actors had room to move.
During this rehearsal as the Mercury Theater announcer is relating the horrific event as they unfolded at Grovers Mill, a thunderstorm erupted outside. The rain could be heard pounding down on the flat metal roof. Reality and fiction began to mix and compliment each other. Loud claps of thunder accentuated the scene as the martians came out of the metal cylinder and began to spray the unsupecting crowd with a fiery heat wave. Erika Wilhite suddenly remembered that she had left the roof off of her convertible and she apologized as she sprinted for the door. It was time for a 5 minute break, Thank you five.

War of the Worlds - The Public Panics

As I set these notes on paper, I am obsessed with the thought that I might be the only artist to ever have witnessed this amazing journey as simple words on a page are converted into a mysterious and dynamic drama. Toward the end of a rehearsal Aradhana asked the actors who play the parts of "the Public" to all sit in a circle so they could read lines from a book of interviews of people who had lived through the panic caused by the Orson Wells radio broadcast. Everyone insisted I join in this reading circle so I did. Each actor in turn would read a line or paragraph from the interviews and revised excerpts from the readings were incorporated into act 2 of the show. It is surprising what people think of when they assume the end is inevitable. A policeman has to calm callers on one hand while wishing he could escape. A young woman wishes she had lived long enough to have a baby. An impoverished woman is glad she doesn't have to pay the butchers bill and thinks to herself she might as well eat the chicken in the freezer. Some people heard about the broadcast from friends and tuned in as the worst of the Grover's Mill invasion took place. For some it was just important to be with family and friends and accept their fate and trust in God. Sitting in this circle and adding my own voice to the confessions and lost hopes was sobering and magical.
In this sketch the actors are highlighting lines that they will later be asked to recite in the final play. When I saw the second act with these lines added the result is haunting and unexpected. This scene is lit with a ghost lamp. The tradition of the ghost lamp is that in Shakespeare's times the lamp was used to scare ghosts away from the performance. The ghost lamp is left burning in the middle of the stage all night. This superstition continues to this day.

War of the Worlds - Viewpoints

I have to interrupt this sketch crawl to bring you more news from the rehearsal hall of War of the Worlds. I will bring you an eyewitness account of what is happening. I will continue relating events as they unfold for as long as I can talk and as long as I can see. In many ways what is happening is indescribable, it is the most extraordinary experience, I can not find the words...
This second rehearsal built from the first using exercises called Viewpoints. The actors move on an imaginary grid exploring extremes of tempo and pacing to start. They then began exploring kinesthetic responses, namely why are they moving and are they responding to another actors movements. At times they were asked to repeat another actors movements. They were asked to become aware of the space around them and to be mindful of how they fill the space. Layered on top of this they were permitted to explore behavioral and expressive gestures. Lastly each actor was given a line from a poem which they could recite in order to further express themselves.
"I can't believe this is happening."
"Have you heard."
"This is it."
"Are you sure?"
"This IS happening."
As the actors explored their movements on the grid, Aradhana would shout out questions which would further affect the performances.
"Does someone elses panic affect your own?"
"How does panic build?"
"Are you more afraid?"
"Explore the way out of your panic."
"What are you afraid of?"
"Your words are what you hold onto when you are most afraid, they are all you have left."
The panic although expressed in an abstract fashion with limited dialogue was palpable, overwhelming and exhausting. I vastly admire what the actors were able to emote using just body language tempo of movement and limited expressive dialogue. These exercises inspired new thoughts in the directors and allowed the show to develop with every actor contributing to the final gelled look of the show. As the youngest actress, Sophia Wise, stated so eloquently, "War of the Worlds is a delicate balance between the abstract and reality."

War of the Worlds

We interrupt this blogcast to bring you news of an unexpected nature developing in Orlando! "The War of the Worlds" is about to hit this town like a firestorm and I fear that local residents might not be ready for the invasion.
Aradhana Tiwari, one of the Directors, of this intense and panicked staging gave this reporter the opportunity to observe the chaos and heated action first hand as it developed. I sketched as this group of individual actors became a unified group. Aradhana played the infamous Orson Wells radio broadcast and asked the actors to draw any images or write down words or thoughts that the broadcast evoked.
The radio broadcast is chilling to this day. It's visceral first act panic brought back feelings that have been dormant since the Terrorist attacks of 9/11. One actor felt he would have never fallen for the hoax, but others like myself felt that the American public would easily be swayed even today. The radio broadcast has causes outbreaks of hysteria in other countries as well over the years.
To help bring the cast together as an ensemble, Aradhana asked Associate Producer, Erika Wilhite to lead the group in an exercise called View Points .
Aradhana explained to the cast how this production would be built around the abstract imagery of radio waves. Radio waves can be pulled apart and put back together and yet at the core they have a central DNA like signature. In a related exercise, the actors were divided into two groups and each group was shown a different radio wave. The groups were then asked to stage performances that demonstrated the imagery. One performance was built around two chairs. On actor would sit stare out into space and say "It looks like lightning". Another actor would respond "Its not lightning". This back and forth exchange continued and built its tempo and pace becoming frantic over time. Two other actors then joined in the frenzied action talking over others and moving in fast clipped fashion about the stage. The radio wave they had enacted was a multi layered waveform with many high and low peaks and valleys.
The other group entered stage left hunched forward emitting a shrill Eeeee noise as they slowly moved across the stage. The shrill noise grew louder as the group picked up its pace until the exited stage right at a full run screaming. They had demonstrated a linear wave form which built steadily in volume. Every aspect of the rehearsal was fascinating to watch and draw, I plan to return as often as possible to follow the shows progression.