Ringplay Productions

Sunday, November 6, was the beginning of my fifth full week here at GVSU. The day started with an invitation to breakfast with Karen. She, as you may recall, is the person who first contacted me about this job. It’s been a difficult time for her recently with the death of her mother, mother-in-law and aunt. It’s been difficult for us to get together just to talk. She will not be able to attend opening night so we had an opportunity to catch up on Sunday morning and reflect on all that has happened since I’ve been here. Before she arrived I placed a call to my niece, Mia, who was getting married that afternoon and since I was here, I could not be there to attend. Karen and I went into Grand Rapids, had a good breakfast, a very good conversation and then she dropped me back to my residence so that I could prepare for my day of tech.

At one o’clock we began our cue to cue. Horse, as most of you might know, has a ton of cues so we used the entire four hours that we had scheduled to get this done. We then took a break for dinner and came back at seven to run the show for the first time with the cues that we had just set. It was an okay run and there were a few cue notes given for either early or late cues but for a first run using those cues, there were no major problems and the lighting board did not freak out on us at all. Hopefully whatever that was on Saturday has now been fixed. We finished rehearsal at around nine-thirty and looked forward to our first Dress Rehearsal on Monday.

Monday evening was my first chance to see what everyone would be wearing. Jill, the person here responsible for costumes, had pulled out a number of pieces and also had the costume shop make the dress for ‘Mother’. For the most part what was presented worked. A few minor changes were made but the costume department here is really on the ball. The rehearsal was okay with still a few lighting cues to get ironed out. My main note was that I felt that the cast was just biding time. They know the play but they don’t open until Friday so I felt that they were not giving one hundred percent and saving themselves for opening night. I told them that that would not do and that I expected to see a full out performance at the next three rehearsals so that I would know for sure what to expect from them starting Friday.

Tuesday night. Well, there it was, a performance that I would feel comfortable with an audience seeing. They were focused, energetic and I was interested in watching what they were doing. There were a couple of minor things that happened that I gave notes on but they were not enough to take away from what they were finally able to do. The next two rehearsals would be the test to see if they could sustain what they brought to this performance and to continue to build the show. It felt good to know that they have now performed this work to a point where I could say to them, “You have a show!”

Wednesday night of course could not be as good as Tuesday. It was not a bad performance but it was just not Tuesday’s. ‘Son’, ‘Lawyer’ and ‘Mother’ were actually stronger in some of their scenes but it was the Jury who were not as tight as they had been the night before. They know what they have to do and it’s now their show so it’s all about focus and energy on a continuous basis. Final Dress Rehearsal is on Thursday night and Winston is expected to be there. I collected him from the airport after rehearsal. Well, that was the plan but his flight was delayed and he did not get in until around 12:30 so we did not get back to GVSU until after one. He is scheduled to meet some of the faculty on Thursday and speak to a few classes and then attend the final dress in the evening.

Thursday. Winston and I had lunch with a few of the faculty members from the theatre department, which was very pleasant. We then went over to the theatre lab (room #1506) to Karen’s directing class. We sat in a circle and talked about the genesis of the play, some of the social issues, in The Bahamas, that he dealt with and we also talked about co-directing, which is something that Winston and I had done for both Our Boys and Sammie Swain. We had been scheduled to attend another class but Winston, having not gone to sleep until four in the morning and having gotten up at twenty past seven was not up for anything else so I dropped him back to where he was staying and I picked him up later for the Dress Rehearsal.

“Pleasantly surprised” and “very pleased” were the words that Winston used to describe what he had witnessed at the Dress Rehearsal. I think that the last time he saw this play performed was the production that we did in Nassau in preparation for out trip to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. So that’s been around fifteen years. For me, this performance was still not as good as Tuesday night’s but it was better than Wednesday’s. ‘Mother’ had some issues that hopefully would be sorted out for Friday’s opening.

So, my work here is actually done!

I don’t have any more notes to give (But I’m sure I’ll end up giving a few more anyway). This show is now in the hands of the cast and my SM and ASM. I’ll have three opportunities to see them perform it and then I will say goodbye to Grand Valley State University and the people that I have worked with here over the past five weeks. Nico arrives after the opening on Friday and she will get to see Saturday night and Sunday afternoon’s performances.

Friday night or I should say Opening Night! A good size house, a quiet and attentive audience, a very good performance from the cast and some very complimentary comments afterward. One performance is finished, five more to go. I am very pleased with what this cast has accomplished. Some of them had never been on stage before and most of them can’t read a note of music. You Can Lead A Horse To Water is not an easy play to perform and I can really say that this cast exceeded my expectations, and, I think, the expectations of many of the people here. It’s been fun, at times, and very challenging, at times, but what’s most important is the end result and quite frankly I really don’t think that I could have asked for anything more. Winston went out to the pub with the cast after the show and had a great time getting to know some of them. I went to the airport to collect Nico. We stopped and had dinner on the way back and arrived at the Alumni House, where we are all staying, just after Winston.

Decoration of Louis Armstrong foyer for the production

Saturday night was the second performance and it went well. I think that the first night’s performance was better, however, but not by that much. Nico, who was a cast member, some fourteen years ago, and is still able to sing and recite every Jury number, and most of the other lines delivered on stage, posted a review.

After the show there was a talkback with the audience, with the playwright and the director. What was most interesting, during the hour that Winston and I were onstage, was how involved the audience had been in the play and how many varied questions they had. There was a reception afterward and we hung around for a little while talking to various audience and cast members and then we went out to dinner with Patrick Johnson and his wife Tassia. Patrick is a Bahamian dancer who has lived in Grand Rapids for about ten years. Some of you might remember him when he danced the Ghost in Sammie Swain.

Sunday afternoon was the last performance of You Can Lead A Horse To Water that I would see at GVSU. The show continues next week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday but during that time, Nico and I will be having a much needed vacation in New York as we get to watch other people’s theatre. This was a very good performance to end on. The cast was on, and performed brilliantly. They were not sure what kind of performance they gave but both Nico and I enjoyed it. Nico was very pleased that she saw it again because even though she thought that the performance on Saturday night was good, she was even more impressed with this performance. After the show there was a cast/farewell party at the home of one of the theatre professor’s and after that we got together with Patrick and Tassia again for dinner. We then headed back to the Alumni House to pack and get ready to fly out of Grand Rapids on Monday morning.

The playwright with Son

The director with Mother

This has been a great adventure for me and I will not soon forget my time at GVSU or the people with whom I came in contact. I hope I have an opportunity to meet up with as many of them as possible again someday and I do feel that my life is richer for having met them. I trust that those of you who have read about my adventure here at GVSU, over the past five weeks, found at least some of it interesting. But alas my writing from this place will now come to an end. There may be other aspects of this trip that I may write about later on, and Nico and I might post, on this site, about some of the theatre that we will see in New York but I will sign off from Michigan now by saying thanks to Karen, Al, Jill, Ian, Paul, Roger, Kate and my entire cast and crew for a most wonderful experience.

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