Cause and Effect and How to Deal

Friday, June 29, 2012.
a few minutes before 10:00 PM.
Endstation Theatre Company's 2012 Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival was reaching the height of its season, while the Sweet Briar College campus buzzed with activity...
The musical "Big River" was in full-swing, with two more box office record-breaking performances to go...
The tech week and opening of "Macbeth" was just ahead...
This year's Playwrights Initiative was about to start up, as well as rehearsals for "Unearthed" - a new musical being developed at the Festival...
A week of birthday celebrations was about to unfold...
And a very enjoyable, yet incredibly hot (over 100 degrees) performance of "The Comedy of Errors" had JUST wrapped up...

when the highly-destructive and unexpected "Derecho" hit.

        
        A derecho, as I have recently learned, is a "widespread, long-lived wind storm associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms."  Its damage is typically directed in one direction along a relatively straight path.  (http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofacts.htm#definition)
The record-breaking derecho that hit the Sweet Briar campus traveled 600 miles from Chicago all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, near D.C.  The 60-80 mph winds caused widespread damage, downed hundreds of trees, and left more than 3 million people without power.

        The derecho also had serious effects on this summer's festival.  Thankfully, there was practically no damage to either outdoor set/space, despite the fact that there were large downed trees all over campus.  The company relocated to various parts of Lynchburg (about 30 min. away) where there was still power and AC.  Saturday's "Big River" show was cancelled, and Sunday's show was rescheduled to Tuesday, in hopes that the power would be back by then.  Sadly, it too had to be cancelled, and "Big River" lost its last two performances.

(a wonderful shot from the wonderful show, Big River)

        Tech for Macbeth was interesting...  Sunday's rehearsal was cancelled.  Monday's was performed in the space, but without any "tech."  Tuesday's was relocated to a theatre in Lynchburg so that we could finally hear the band's underscoring music -- which is amazing and adds even more tension to what's already in the play.  Wednesday's was performed in the space as a dress rehearsal, and the band was able to power up thanks to a generator in one of the buildings. 
And on Thursday... the power finally came back!!  We had our first and only Tech rehearsal, and we miraculously and successfully opened the next night!!  Opening night also marked the 5th anniversary of Endstation Theatre Company.

        Unfortunately, by opening night, I felt very sick, and by the end of the show the next day, I lost my voice and was put on vocal rest.  I think there were many factors that led to my voice loss, but since it had never happened to me before, it was a little scary... especially when it lasted the entire week.  But, by the magic of Linklater voice work (and after resting it all week), I magically got my voice back about an hour before the top of our next show that Friday, and haven't had problems since!!

        Although dealing with the storm was difficult at times, I'm amazed at how we pulled through!  It was hard being split up from each other, and having work supplies and personal items scattered in various locations, but everyone put in a lot of effort to make things work.  There was a lot of problem-solving, and teamwork, and being quick on our feet, and successfully adjusting to whatever came our way.  

(Me as the Young Native Woman & part of the Macbeth set)

        I think the most inspiring thing came when Geoff (director, UArts alum) and Krista (the scenic designer) decided that instead of completely cleaning up and polishing the Macbeth space, they would incorporate some fallen tree limbs and leaves into the set.  The storm had an impact on the community, so instead of ignoring it, they decided that we should embrace it.  The "mess" of the debris actually fits the tone of the play (plus, there actually are several references in Macbeth to storms), and also fits into the naturalistic design of the set/space, so it ended up not just fitting, but adding to what was already there.
        After the power came back, Endstation offered the Big River Celebration Concert for those who hadn't seen the show, for those wanting to hear the music again, and for the actors who worked hard to bring the show to life.
        I helped out with the Playwrights Initiative, assisting the producer with The Public Reading Series.  This series included the Special Guest, Ad Hoc, and Post Haste Reading Series.  At each reading, new plays written by the six visiting playwrights were read and discussed.  It was very exciting to hear such great new works, and to take part in their creative processes.  

                  (Yes, those are ipads.  Yes, we're awesome.)              (5 playwrights with Michael, the producer, standing middle)

...

        I can't believe this season is already winding down.  My internship is officially over in 1 week.  We have our last performance of The Comedy of Errors tonight :(  and two more Macbeth shows.  I'll be sure to post one more time about my experience as a whole.

Lace and Fedex

If you were to walk into Veronica's apartment yesterday, you would find three sweaty ladies eating carrots while meticulously sewing lace fabric together and drawing portraits. We met at 1:00 and worked until 6:00 that evening. Megan and I continued on Veronica's Edgar Allen Poe project, just sewing pieces upon pieces of lace together which eventually will resemble a curtain. We made a lot of progress. Megan started connecting finished rows of fabric together and I continued to sew new rows. Veronica had to draw portraits for a different project and they all look stunning so far.
I was surprised by how fast time went. Perhaps it was a combination of the doo wop music and taking breaks to play with Veronica's cats that made sewing lace for five hours a bit more exciting. Around 4:00 Veronica confirmed with Fedex an order of fliers for her show at Philamoca, a gallery in North Philly. She sent Megan and I to pick them up today at Fedex. During the week we need to distribute them. I plan on putting some up in the UArts buildings and local coffee shops. Veronica's show will be on August 2nd 6pm to 11pm at Philamoca on 531 N. 12th St. come check it out!

This week in Asbury...

We had a fairly calm week at the studio. My time was spent mostly downloading photos taken over the past couple of days and organizing, and archiving the photographs. I did some minor editing for the clients, but they were mostly event photos so they didn't require a whole lot. So I did that, made DVDs of the images for the clients and that was that!

The exciting part for me this week was meeting Cynthia! Cynthia is Andrei's business coordinator, she manages his bookings and does the books and paperwork for him. I asked her for some pointers for in the event that I become a freelancer. Some starter points were these:

• Always stay organized. Devise a system where you always know where to look to find something, even if it is from a while back. This will come in handy more often than not. 
• Keep records of everything. Make sure details happen in writing and not just on the phone. If things do get worked out over the telephone, make sure to send a follow up email in order to have everything there for in the event that things get confused and you need a concrete agreement to refer back to. It's a safe and easy way of making sure you're always covered!
• Be in touch, always ask questions if you have them and follow up with everything. Communication is key to running a business and making sure that you're doing your best to serve your business and your client to the best of your abilities. 

So, she was busy trucking away at her paperwork but we still had a really great and informative chat. She's such a nice lady! And (!) she went to school at the University of Rhode Island, just minutes from where my mom grew up! By the way, Rhode Island is amazing and everyone should go there at least once. 

Here's an instagram photo I took on my day off when I went... to the beach. Haha, we actually went to Belmar which is a few towns over from Asbury but it was kind of funny.

Have a great week everyone!

PS. This coming week I will be T.A.ing for my UArts professor, Jordan Rockford for a continuing education course for teaching professionals. I am super excited about this! I'll be back with more Asbury adventures the following week. See ya!

Just Some Lacy Times

As I was describing the past couple weeks of my Fellowship to a friend, she exclaimed “My goodness you’ll never want to have a lace wedding dress now!” And it’s true. In these last weeks everything that I have done involves lace, from shopping for it, to cutting it, and then the tedious task of sewing it back together.

We are using the lace for a fabric installation Veronica wants to display in the Edgar Allan Poe House. She is manipulating the lace to resemble a brick wall because she wants her work to simultaneously blend in with the house’s inherent characteristics while standing out enough to offer a sense of discovery and intrigue. The purpose of the installation is to represent the “basement” of Poe’s mind (it will also be placed in the basement), and to address the events in “The Black Cat.” In order to leave this historic place undisturbed the hand-sewn veil will be hung from a tension rod. The neatly ordered brick pattern will blend into a chaotic mess of amorphous shapes. This will represent the unraveling of reality that Poe often acknowledged in his writing.

Shopping for the lace was the fun part and we got lucky at Rodeo Kid on 4^th St. When we told the woman that we were buying lace for our boss she immediately thought we were from Urban Outfitter.

Cutting the brick pattern was repetitive, but still easy enough while we listened to Kermit’s Rainbow Connection play in the background. As we cut the bricks we had to make sure to use a variety of hues, from aged eggshell to mildewy beige, so that there would be a differentiation between the “bricks.”

Sewing the lace is where it gets tricky. Lace tends to be more holes than it is fabric, and sewing a hole to another hole is not exactly a breeze. You are lucky if you get a piece that has a lot of floral patterning, although chances are that “brick” will be matched with a circle design.

 

We still haven’t finished the fabric installation, and there are two more bags worth of lace yet to be cut up and pieced back together, so I really cannot wait to see what is in store for us in the next couple of weeks. 

More Mold Making!!!

This week me and Anthony prepared and and made molds of the smaller pieces of the Mother Theresa Sculpture. This consisted of several pieces of drapery, the sleeves, and the hands. I got several pictures this time to show and better explain the process!

This is a picture of the "sleeve" molds. The "white" is the plaster "mother mold", which supports the rubber (pink part). The rubber can be painted on with a brush or slabbed and rubbed into the clay. The rubber sets over night. When all is done, each layer can be pulled from the clay and you have a perfect impression of the clay you first started out with.

This is a picture of the molds in the rubber stage before the plaster mother mold was put on them. The bigger molds in the back are the bigger sections of the Sculpture. The reddish/brown that is on the pink sections is the wax that has been painted in them.

This is the rubber mold with the mother mold after the clay has been removed. These two sections put together make up one sleeve. Each piece will be painted with hot liquid wax. When the wax is about 1/4 inch thick, it will be removed from the mold and sent to the foundry for bronze casting.

This is a closeup of the bigger section with the hardened wax that was painted in it.

Anthony also gave me some drawing exercises to do over the course of the next week. I'll be sure to post these when I complete them! Wish me luck!

Child's Play

One of the things that I have learned from Veronica is the importance of thrift stores. They are a great place to find unexpected and cheap materials. Plus Veronica likes to incorporate things that are aged and have had a past life because it gives her pieces a more eerie effect. Lydia and I have had several adventures digging through ragged piles in order to find materials for Veronica. One week she gave us the task of finding old children’s blankets. She said “the dirtier the better.” Our first stop at Philly Aids Thrift on 5^th and Bainbridge turned out to be a jackpot. We came away with several sheets and all together it was under $10.

 

Veronica used the sheets for an exhibit called And There The Moon-Bird Rests From His Flight.  The installation was set up on the Broad Street window in UARTS’ Anderson Hall. It represented Veronica and fellow CHER artist Jessie Clark’s interpretation of Shel Silverstien’s poems.

In order to make the installation Veronica created a goblin child peaking out from a tent, which was made from the children’s blankets we had collected. Lydia and I became masters at glue gunning as we spent an entire day making goblin hands, drool, and pillows. The pillows featured drawings by Veronica and quotes from some of Silverstien’s poems. Jessie drew her interpretations on fabric, which was hung from the ceiling of the window box.

On the actual installation day we painted the wall to look like it was a child’s bedroom, including doorframe, windows, and picture fames. Veronica taught us that lighting works best when the bulbs face opposite, diagonal directions. We were constantly running in and out of the building to make sure everything looked level and even, and I think some people were more interested in seeing us waving our arms and making expressive faces in order to communicate since the window glass was nearly sound proof. One man watched us the entire time proclaiming that the installation was part of the art piece, although we believed he might have had his eyes on something else.

 

In the end onlookers of Broad St got a great view into the dark world of childhood nightmares mixed with the lightheartedness of Silverstien’s poems.

A Summer Job on the Jersey Shore

Not something I ever really thought I'd have! Here I am in Asbury Park, New Jersey interning with Andrei Jackamets. I started this past Monday working with Andrei, and have had a blast so far!


So this is my first entry in the communal blog we have for this wonderful program. I will, therefore, introduce myself:
Hello! My name is Elyse Lenore Leyenberger. I graduated in May from UArts with a BFA in Photography with a minor in Art History. I was lucky enough to recieve the opportunity to intern with a fellow alumnus of our wonderful university, and am very excited for the month ahead of me.


Back to business! Asbury is a really cool town full of neat shops and restaurants, which Andrei was kind enough to give me a short walking tour of. We travelled the neighborhood and he pointed out good places to park and good places to grab a bite. 

This little guy is called"Tillie"... he's Asbury's mascot, kind of.

Back at the studio we talked about our goals for this experience. Andrei is interested in learning more about Adobe software to maximize his workflow, and I want to better understand the business side of things and what makes his operation tick. His operation is rather small, so although he may not need me to do work for him every time I am there, he wants me to work on my portfolio and learn his equipment  during my time in the studio. This is a great perk for me, because I have lots of ideas of how I want to change and improve my current portfolio to fit my goals.

We started off by doing a brief lesson in Lightroom, how it works and how to quickly label and organize images. I learned how his digital archive is organized, and how some of his software and devices work. It was a short day, but packed with new experiences. OH! Did I mention that Andrei is a beekeeper on the side? 

Because he is. How awesome is that? Very awesome. Today he gave me my very own jar of his delicious honey, cleverly called "Honey Moon"

I had a taste of it back at the studio and it is absolutely delicious. I'm so lucky to have my own jar! 


So today, Andrei was busy working through some event photos he had shot. As he did that, he challenged me to set up some still lives using difficult surfaces and unusual set ups. So I kept busy in the studio making photographs. Pretty nice deal, if I do say so myself!

Black glass + pearls = beautiful.

So that about wraps it up as a summary for this week! I'm learning and living and having a great time with a really good person. Looking forward to what is to come next week! 


Elyse