McFeldman Wedding

At the start of the year I was asked to join the Feldman family as they celebrated the wedding of Adrienne Feldman to Jason McIntosh. The wedding took place at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater (812 East Rollins Street). When I arrived, I immediately went inside the Goldman Theater where the ceremony was going to take place. The Houpa was already set up, so I used the time prior to the ceremony to work out the details of the space. It was on this stage that the Feldman family once performed as the "Feldman Dynamic." This Fringe show organized by Brian Feldman, simply featured a dinner table and the family eating dinner as they always did. There was no script, this was a simply demonstration of life as theater. Now the family once again took to the stage to enact the simple drama of joining two hearts. Before the ceremony Brian paced the stage excitedly.

When the wedding party took to the stage, I started sketching frantically, since I knew the wedding ceremony would last at most a half an hour. The family had saved several seats for Terry and myself in the front row but I liked the view from the back row where I could work some audience members into the foreground. When it came time to exchange rings, a small Dachshund ran up to the stage. The dog was wearing a tuxedo and the rings must have been tied to the outfit. Everyone laughed out loud at the sight. The ceremony was quick and to the point. When Jason had to stomp on a glass, he missed on his first and second try. Once again the seriousness of the occasion was broken and people laughed.

The reception was held in the Patrons Room which was once a planetarium in the buildings past. A green laser projected thousands of green points up onto the dome shaped ceiling. Every table in the room was labeled with a month of the year. The newlyweds sat at the January table at the front of the room. Adrienne approached me and said she was excited to finally be in one of my sketches. She was upset however that only her back was in the sketch. I decided I would have to sketch her during the reception to make it up to her. The moments of the celebration seemed to fee by as I sketched. Brian joked with me that this assignment was much harder than the sketch I did of the swan boat talks. He was absolutely right. Getting this sketch was a major challenge since the reception flew by at the breakneck pace of an MTV music video. As I worked, the caterer insisted I move to make room for an ice cream table. I said that wasn't going to happens, he shoved the table up behind me. Jason's mom, Janice, tackled the job of cutting the wedding cake. She joked with me that she hadn't signed on for cake duty but she was a trooper and as the last slices were being handed out, I was finally wrapping up my sketch.

Thomas Thorspecken Sketches the Audience

This staged performance, where I sketched an audience at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, would never have happened if friends I had met over the last year and a half of sketching had not stepped in to help. Aradhana Tiwari invited me to take over the theater for one night and Brian Feldman had the vision for this show close to a year ago. The staging consisted of me sitting in a lone spotlight facing the audience and doing what I do every day - sketch. One video camera shot the sketch I was working on and projected the image on the theater wall behind me, while another camera, operated by Brian, shot footage of the audience just as in a baseball or football game. This would be the first time my work process was ever projected bigger than life for an audience to scrutinize. At least three video cameras were recording the proceedings the whole time. This has to be the most documented event I have ever been a part of. The program gave the audience plenty to read and a blank page to sketch if they so liked.
73 of my sketches were hung around the theater clothesline style using fishing line, electrical tape and alligator clips. Ron and Maisy Marrs arrived early and worked tirelessly for over an hour and a half before curtain call. Tommy Wingo handled all the technical aspects of the two video cameras and all the wiring. Evan Miga lent us his digital projector and operated the video camera pointed at my sketch during the whole performance.
At first I envisioned music from "The Illusionist" soundtrack playing the whole time I sketched, but Aradhana and Brian both felt it had too dark and brooding a mood. We agreed to play some Bach performed by Yo-Yo Ma when people entered the theater and looked around at the art. The music was silenced and Brian Feldman walked out into the spotlight to offer an introduction. He mentioned how he and I met over a year ago at the Kerouac House for a performance of his called "txt." Since that night I have documented over 25 of his performances. When the audience applauded, I walked on stage and took my seat. I couldn't see a thing with the spotlight in my face, so I grabbed a baseball cap out of my backpack. I was a bit nervous to start and dropped a pen. I had difficulty seeing since the house lights were at half. I called out to the lighting booth, asking if she could raise the lights a bit. When I could see, the sketch started to progress. At first the room was silent, but soon people forgot about the cameras and artist recording the proceedings and the mood lightened. Ashley Gonzalez, Tommy Wingo's fiance, walked right up on the stage and stood looking over my left shoulder. She whispered the one question I cannot stand into my ear, "Are you an artist?" I laughed and asked, "Did Terry put you up top this?" Clearly she had.
About one hour into the performance, just as I was about to finish up the pen line work, a large group of audience members decided to get up and move to the opposite side of the space so they could be in the sketch a second time. I shouted out "Anarchists!" I placed them the best I could in the new location. Then the watercolors came out and I started to work faster.
People talked and mingled. At times people joked with me and the artist and model exchange became playful. An artist named James Barone wore a kilt and sat in the front row with his wife who held an umbrella. He drew a robotic version of me sketching. Maisy drew all over her questionnaire. What was amazing about this audience as a whole was how much talent was gathered in one room. There were visual artists, authors, poets, dancers, comedians, directors and photographers all mingling in a shared creative experience. It turned out to be a fun way to meet new people while sharing my art. Life as theater, theater as life.

Shotgun

Shotgun, written by John Biguenet, and directed by David Karl Lee, is without a doubt the best play I have seen this year. The play was in the intimate Goldman Theater inside the Lowndes Shakespeare Center as part of PlayFest! The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays. Dennis Neal, who plays Dexter, gave tickets to Mary Hill, his former wife, and I went along to do a sketch.The play takes place in New Orleans after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. Beau, a white middle class plumber, and his teenage son rent an apartment in a shotgun duplex from Mattie, an African American woman, and her father, Dexter. Dexter is a bit like a black version of Archie Bunker, not liking the idea of renting to white tenants. He is however under his daughters care so he has to toe the line.
The set for this show is fascinating to watch. When a scene switches from the porch to the apartment inside, the walls fold back creating the side walls of the interior room. The first time it happened, I let out an Ooooh, just like I was watching fireworks. This effect became a bit distracting however since the scenes kept switching form the porch to the interior. The most gut-wrenching scene comes about at the end of act one when Beau, played by Rus Blackwell, and Mattie, played by Chantel Jean-Pierre, are sitting at the kitchen table in his apartment sharing a bottle of liquor. Mattie asks him what happened to his wife and he tells the long painful tale of how she died days after the hurricane from injuries she sustained trying to get out of the house from a jagged hole he had cut in the roof using an ax. He sobs uncontrollably since it was his decision to stay in his home. Mattie consoles him. This scene had me in tears.
Love blossoms between Mattie and Beau and this causes racial tensions for both families. Beau's son Eugene, played by Brandon Peters, suddenly lets out a racial slur when he sees Mattie come out of his dad's bedroom. Willie blames his dad for his mom's death and refuses to forgive him. In the end, the racial divide it too great and Beau moves back with his son to the devastated white suburban neighborhood where they start building their life again from scratch. Love does not always triumph.

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.