Staging: As Holmes used to say to Watson, the game is afoot!
The visiting artists have arrived and rehearsals have begun in earnest. Last night we bid a fond farewell to the Central Reformed Church, where we have been working with the adult and children’s choruses for the past six weeks. We won’t be back there again until we begin to work on The Elixir of Love in December. Now we are moving ahead with staging rehearsals which are being held in an empty store near Centerpointe Mall. Extra-super thanks to Visser Development for letting us use the old Dunham’s store. We love it! (And for anyone out there who is looking to lease a large retail space, the place is now sparkling clean!)
I’ve already put a few hundred miles on my car going from office to costume shop to rehearsal hall and back several times a day. Man, am I ever looking forward to a time when all three of those locations will be contained in one building. (go to the page on the Betty Van Andel Opera Center to see our future home!) I’ll gladly climb the stairs 20 times a day if it means that I no longer have to spend hours in traffic and use all of the remaining fossil fuels on the planet. (Never fear, environmentally-minded friends, I drive a hybrid!)
Today began with a production meeting. This is the first time that the Director, Stage Managers, Technical Directors, Properties Master and I all got together in the same room to talk about Tosca. It can be tedious going through the opera with a fine tooth comb to discuss props and scenery and costumes and lighting, but there really is no better way to do it than to put all the minds together and mentally go through the entire opera. Everyone asks questions and everyone has answers. Sometimes we need to discuss the pros and cons of a particular aspect or process or strategy. Sometimes these discussions lead us in directions that we would not have considered alone. This is one of my favorite parts of the opera: Collaboration! There was a combined century or two of theatrical experience sitting around one table. Together we are more than the sum of our parts, for sure!
The scenery for this opera is in no way literal. It is designed to represent not only locations, but also emotions and themes. There are several large panels onto which images will be projected. The set is less for the singers on the stage and more a guide for the audience’s benefit. The costumes and the props and furniture are all very, very literal and conventional. These things in the singers’ world are all realistic. I like the concept quite a lot and am looking forward to seeing everything together.
That event, however, is still weeks away. In the meantime, we will rehearse and bounce ideas off each other. We will make more decisions and think about things like wigs and makeup and stage blood and daggers that have retractable blades. We will figure out where to place the offstage singers and where in the world we will put all of the orchestra musicians in the limited orchestra pit at DeVos Hall. I suggested using a bit of Crisco, but no one else thought that was a good idea.
I guess that is why we collaborate!
I’ve already put a few hundred miles on my car going from office to costume shop to rehearsal hall and back several times a day. Man, am I ever looking forward to a time when all three of those locations will be contained in one building. (go to the page on the Betty Van Andel Opera Center to see our future home!) I’ll gladly climb the stairs 20 times a day if it means that I no longer have to spend hours in traffic and use all of the remaining fossil fuels on the planet. (Never fear, environmentally-minded friends, I drive a hybrid!)
Today began with a production meeting. This is the first time that the Director, Stage Managers, Technical Directors, Properties Master and I all got together in the same room to talk about Tosca. It can be tedious going through the opera with a fine tooth comb to discuss props and scenery and costumes and lighting, but there really is no better way to do it than to put all the minds together and mentally go through the entire opera. Everyone asks questions and everyone has answers. Sometimes we need to discuss the pros and cons of a particular aspect or process or strategy. Sometimes these discussions lead us in directions that we would not have considered alone. This is one of my favorite parts of the opera: Collaboration! There was a combined century or two of theatrical experience sitting around one table. Together we are more than the sum of our parts, for sure!
The scenery for this opera is in no way literal. It is designed to represent not only locations, but also emotions and themes. There are several large panels onto which images will be projected. The set is less for the singers on the stage and more a guide for the audience’s benefit. The costumes and the props and furniture are all very, very literal and conventional. These things in the singers’ world are all realistic. I like the concept quite a lot and am looking forward to seeing everything together.
That event, however, is still weeks away. In the meantime, we will rehearse and bounce ideas off each other. We will make more decisions and think about things like wigs and makeup and stage blood and daggers that have retractable blades. We will figure out where to place the offstage singers and where in the world we will put all of the orchestra musicians in the limited orchestra pit at DeVos Hall. I suggested using a bit of Crisco, but no one else thought that was a good idea.
I guess that is why we collaborate!
posted by Cat W. at
5:03 PM
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