Ringplay Productions

Sunday afternoon, October 30th, I went over to the Louis Armstrong theatre to observe as Paul, the person here at GVSU responsible for sets, and four students, who work in the set workshop as a part of their work-study program, began to load the constructed set of Horse onto the stage. One of the students working there is Randy, who plays ‘Old Fool’. I took some photos and watched for a while but I did not stay to see the loading completed because it looked as if it would take quite a while to get it all set up so I decided that I would probably have a better look at the setup sometime on Monday.

Monday evening, before I left my residence, I got an email from Paul letting me know that we could move into the theatre on Tuesday and start rehearsing on the stage. He had stained the platforms and wanted to give them 24 hours to dry properly before anyone started moving around on them so I’m sure that everyone is looking forward to getting on the stage. I know that I’m looking forward to seeing them there.

The actual rehearsal was nothing much to write about. It was not bad, nor was it anything special. It was another rehearsal that will hopefully help to move everything forward. Still some lines to be learned, some numbers where everyone needs to come in on time and some scenes that could use a little work.

Tuesday evening and we are in the theatre. For those of you who have been in shows, it was a typical ‘first night on the set’ rehearsal. It was good to have the run but there is still so much work to be done. Now that we are on stage and have had an opportunity to run in that space, I feel it’s time to make some adjustments. I therefore decided to forgo the run on Wednesday in favor of a fixing rehearsal. I’d given myself notes and also had the Stage Manager email me notes on things that I’d said needed fixing, during rehearsals, so it was now time to get them fixed. That kind of rehearsal would also give Brie an opportunity to work on a couple of the numbers that continued to plague the Jury. So, on the one hand, it was good to be in the space and on the other hand, there is still much land to be possessed.

Wednesday evening we were missing a few people and some arrived at rehearsal late because of scheduling conflicts. Some cast members work or have late classes so instead of the usual Friday off we always took off Wednesday. I decided, however, that as we were getting closer to opening, this rehearsal was needed. Ian came by to have a look at the fights, that he had staged sometime back, and to work on the birth control pills scene where ‘Lover Three’ manhandles ‘Mother’. We started at the top and Brie, Ian or me would stop the run whenever we thought something needed work. I felt that this was a very useful rehearsal. I now had a chance to work on most of the things that I’d been meaning to get to. The cast started to get nervous when I told them that the playwright would be arriving in a week. They are hopeful that he will think that they are doing justice to his play. It’s not often around here, or in many places for that matter, that the playwright of the piece on which you are working is a member of your audience.

Thursday afternoon started with a rehearsal with ‘Wife’ and me. She was concerned that he accent was a little too southern (US Southern) so we worked on her dialect. Then ‘Other’ joined us and we worked on their scene, outside of the church. ‘Neighbour’ then joined and ‘Wife’ left so I worked with the two of them mostly on the their second scene where ‘Other’ discovers “who da man is”.

Thursday evening we got into our run right away because Al needed the theatre to set lights and I told him that we would try to be finished with the stage by nine. I must say that this run was the best we have had so far. There were no major mistakes and the show moved well. It’s not ready to open yet but if the cast can now build on what was done at this rehearsal, I feed that they will definitely get there. I think that they now finally understand the energy level and the amount of focus that’s required of them for each and every performance, so hopefully, with that knowledge, tomorrow afternoon they will continue to move the show forward.

Friday started with our weekly production meeting at one o’clock. Costuming was a big topic of discussion as we have scheduled our first Dress Rehearsal for Monday. Other aspects of the final week were also discussed, including the arrival of the playwright and the talkback with him and the director, after Saturday night’s performance.

I moved from that meeting into a rehearsal meeting with ‘Son’ to discuss his character. He has reached a point now where is off book and can delve even a little deeper into his character. We talked for forty-five minutes about how ‘Son’ thinks and we discussed some of the things that he might try in the remaining rehearsals.

We had decided on rehearsing at four o’clock on Friday. A rehearsal had not been originally scheduled but, since we had also not scheduled a Saturday rehearsal, it was felt that two days off would be tempting fate so we fitted in an afternoon rehearsal. A rehearsal could also not be held in the evening because we had scheduled our Dry Tech to start at seven. A “Dry Tech” is when the director, stage manager, lighting designer and/or sound designer (no sound designer for this show) discuss which lighting and sound cues happen when, during the production. Actors do not and should not attend the Dry Tech. The rehearsal ended shortly after six and there was indeed that next step forward, made by the cast. I’m hopeful that every rehearsal from now on will just build on what has been learned, to move them closer to stronger performances.

Once the rehearsal was over, Al began moving and adjusting lighting instruments. We got started with our Dry Tech promptly at seven. Included at this rehearsal were Al, a student lighting board operator, Maria (my assistant stage manager), Megan (my stage manager) and me. The five of us worked for about three and a half hours setting looks and cues and then decide to call it a night. We got to about the midway mark in the play and on Saturday we will pick up where we left off and program the rest of the cues.

Saturday afternoon we were scheduled to start at two and four of us were in place. We had given Maria time off to go and see Bard to Go and she arrived shortly after we had started. The board operator put in the cue where we left off on Friday night and all of a sudden the lighting board started to freak out, with the lights going into chase mode. A chase is where all the lights come on, one after the other, in a sort of rapid-fire mode, something like a strobe effect. This is something that you can program the board to do but no one here had done so. Al had to go and shut down the main breakers, to get us going again, because shutting down the board and starting it up again did not solve the problem. So, we get back in place and again we go into the cue where we had left off the night before and sure enough it happens again. So we take a break as Al tries to get this problem ironed out. We finally get to work and start to program the remaining cues. About a half an hour in, the chase starts up again so it’s back to the breakers. This happens about two more times during the tech so we lost about an hour of our day trying to get those remaining cues programmed. At about six-twenty we were done, so I walked back home, to my seven by eleven, in the pouring rain. What a way to end another week here at GVSU.

My last full week here starts on Sunday with most of that day being dedicated to a technical rehearsal, this time with the cast. Here are some highlights of the week ahead: Dress Rehearsals begin on Monday, Winston arrives on Wednesday, the show opens on Friday, Nico arrives on Friday after the first performance, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon are performances and on Monday we will all depart Grand Rapids.

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