Threefold Distress'd

One of 4 incredible posters
made for this production by Jen Wetzel

Strap on your life preservers, folks. This is live theatre. There is no lifeguard on duty.

Last night's opening performance was fraught with challenges from start—is that 15-foot swath of plastic really going to fall? yup—to finish—wait, they've run out of music before the end of the fight and that means . . . the actors in the wings don't realize . . . oh, no . . . oh, yes. There were forgotten props and dropped lines and missed cues, but in the end, it was what was supposed to be on this night in this place. It is live performance art. If you want to see "flawless" (though what shaped by human hands can truly be so?), you'd best stick to movies and magazines.

And there were great moments, too. The funny bits were funny, and the audience was appropriately horrified at Richard's callous evil. Lady Anne was lovely but hollow; Richmond heroic, the Duchess of York disgusted, and the goons creepy.

The ladies sitting in front of me had come as a group having met beforehand to make a chart of who was who in the play and discuss the plot. You gotta love prepared audience members. These ladies didn't miss a beat and giggled/hissed/hooted in all the right places.

A new day. A fresh start. We make mistakes and yet are given the opportunity to forget what is behind and press on. Tonight we have another go at Richard III: The Terrible Reign. God's mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness!

Invocate Thy Ghost

Richard (Ron Pyle), about to strike,
is haunted by the ghosts of those he murdered.

Last night was our SMART (Sharing Masterworks of Art) program for high schoolers. It was technically our final dress rehearsal. The run of the play was first-rate. I was pleased with every aspect of the production—from tech to acting to audience response. (Hey, if a bunch of high schoolers stay engaged with one of Shakespeare's histories, something's going well.)

I was perhaps most happy with the six "goons" (the guys who move the furniture/props and act as extras). As my wife so aptly put it, "Those goons totally rocked the doors." Which, being interpreted, means that they hit their marks and performed the intricate opening/closing door movements (you'd have to see it to fully appreciate the complexity) with near-perfect precision . . . no small feat, I assure you.

Opening night is now only a day and a half away. Bring it on.

Due of Birth

I stand in for Richmond in the final death scene.

Last night was the last rehearsal (aside from Monday night's SMART performance, which is technically the final dress). We had a fine rehearsal despite several epic challenges earlier in the day and into the rehearsal itself. God is always good.

One exciting moment came when Philip Eoute (Richmond) got the call that his wife was headed to the hospital for the birth of their second child. Protesting that they still hadn't decided on a name (may we suggest several Shakespearean possibilities—Eglamour Eoute? Arviragus Eoute? Dogberry Eoute?), he had to be dragged from the battlement and put into a car to head home. The video above was taken backstage just before he was sent packing.

That left me to wrap up the play book-in-hand. Not quite the heroic conqueror I'd imagined. . . .

Update: No baby as of this posting. This little Eoute  must possess a real sense of the dramatic entrance.

Ready or not, here we go! (We're ready.)

Divided York and Lancaster

Richmond (Philip Eoute), our hero, prays before battle.

We're using a lot of plastic in this production—another way in which I'm trying to bring a modern element to Richard's world. I've already posted about the grey "corrugated" plastic sheets that I chose for some of the doors on the set. (See "Enter KING RICHARD" post from September 26.)

There's also a fair amount of white-ish opaque plastic sheeting used. Here's the thought: Richard is such a bloody person that he needs his surroundings to be able to be cleaned easily and frequently. The plastic is so clinical, sterile (in the sense of barren/unfruitful), slick, cheap, fake—all words that describe Richard and his reign.

The curtains/dividers of plastic are drawn to create different locales of the play. In the previous (November 5 post), you can see an entire room of plastic behind the throne.

Here's another thing about plastic. It glows. Enough said.

Tyranny Begins to Jet Upon the . . . Throne

Richard III (Ron Pyle) and Queen Anne (Katharine Golightly)
with six company members standing guard

The throne for Richard III: The Terrible Reign wanted a gothic, 15th-century feel to it, so we refurbished an old stage throne that had been used in previous productions and brought it into the world of the play—glossy, black, metal. My idea was that Richard would tolerate only one throne in his court and that Lady Anne would be seated at Richard's feet clearly in subjection to him. I decided that the throne also needed steps leading up to it and that Anne would perch awkwardly on one of them. The props folks added gothic motifs such as the quatrafoil, which gave us some rounded elements against the very linear floor and doorways. We use the same throne without the steps when Edward is on it at the beginning of the play and add the steps to show Richard's meteoric rise as well as his great ego.

The boys in the background, whom I have taken to calling "the goons" (Joseph Case, Nathan Duff, John Cox, Matt Jones, Lucas Walker, and James Krech), are adding elements of coldness, calculation, and efficiency to the play. Their costumes are a touch of Victorian but otherwise modern, and the cut of their vests gives them all broad shoulders. Their makeup (note the red under the eyes) is creepy and modern. They act as set-movers, extras in the crowd, guards, soldiers, etc. They are also responsible for lots of door opening and closing. These guys are super important for the crisp execution (no pun intended) of scene changes. When they are in sync, the effect of those doors opening (or closing) at exactly the right moment is awesome.

Sleep with Perturbations

Hastings (Ryan Meers) blesses Richmond (Philip Eoute)
in rehearsal for the ghost scene.

One of my favorite parts (of many) in Shakespeare's Richard III is the scene in which all of the people Richard has murdered (or had murdered) come to haunt him. King Richard (who is really losing it about now) is on the battlefield in his tent. As he sleeps, the ghosts appear and curse him (listen for the special sound effects/voice reverb) and then proceed to bless Richmond, who lies in his tent elsewhere on the battlefield.

Dr. Ryan Meers, chairperson of the division in which I teach, agreed to take on the role of Lord Hastings. He has developed his character well over the course of the rehearsal process—I love watching the characters grow throughout the rehearsal process. (And I think he's enjoying the whole spook thing a little too much.)

For this production, I decided to outfit the ghosts (there are 8 of them) in exact replicas of the clothing they wore in life—only in soft greys. The effect, some of which we saw for the first time last week, is absolutely stunning. The costume personnel really did some fine work on these pieces. My wife actually gasped when she saw these costumes.

Bold, Quick, Ingenious, Forward, Capable

King Edward IV (Philip Eoute)
& Queen Elizabeth (Anna Brown)

Just time for a quick post with a very blurry picture of King Edward IV (one of Richard's brothers) and his queen. Queen Elizabeth's dress is ruched silver metallic fabric with studded vertical strips and a flowing, gauzy skirt and sleeves. I wish you could see the back—there's a heavy-duty exposed silver zipper. Her hair is amazing, too, an intricate weave that Alicia Carr, our wigmaster dreamed up. Queen Elizabeth's look reminds me of some kind of Victorian steampunk Barbie. Anna pulls the whole thing off quite nicely. It's one of the most fashion fused pieces in the whole show. By "fashion fused," I mean the elements of 15th century, Victorian, and futuristic are each represented in this look.

I wanted to play up the contrasts between characters with this costume. One contrast is of this new queen (who had been a commoner) with the old queen, Mad Margaret, who is dressed very quaintly and a bit frayed around the edges (something that echos her character). Another obvious contrast is Elizabeth with her husband, who appears old-fashioned next to her. Her costume also gives her a sense of strength—again, as compared with those around her. She is edgy, a bit hard, and definitely fashion forward.

Lights Burn Blue

Behind the curtain at the stage manager's
desk from which he calls the show

Today is all-day dry tech. That's theatrespeak for a technical rehearsal with no actors present. Basically, I sit at the director's desk about mid-way back in the house with the lighting designer (Rich Streeter) and the stage manager (Tim Endean), and together we set levels and timings (how long a sound or light fade will be, where it will come in the script, etc.) for the whole show. Rich (and later sound designer Bob Johansen) comes with his best ideas, and then I tweak/readjust/edit so that the show looks, sounds, and feels the way I think it should.

Richard III: The Terrible Reign is fairly tech-heavy. Lots of exact timings on lights, doors opening and closing, spooky music, clanging, and so on. There is give-and-take and lots of collaboration. It's a ton of stress (the first three scenes today took three hours), but it's the first time the show begins to really look like a show. I love it.

Deep-Revolving Witty Buckingham

Design Rule #1: Make your producer look good.

I am very happy to have as part of this year's (might I say epic?) cast the show's producer, Dr. Darren Lawson. You may know that Darren is the Dean of Fine Arts and Communication at Bob Jones University, but did you know that Darren and I shared an apartment in grad school in the 80s? We have that special bond that comes only from having had another apartment mate who occupied our common living room every Saturday afternoon watching WWF. (That's pro wrestling for you unsophisticated folks.) But I digress.

Darren is playing the part of the Duke of Buckingham (Richard III's cousin) in our production. He has been relentless (in a good way) about trying to nail down who his character is and how his character changes throughout the story. 

In real life, as a husband, father (of a Bruin soccer goalie), and dean, Darren wears many hats. I'm so glad he decided to put on Buckingham's hat for this production. 

(No, Barb, I'm not adding an extra hat.)

Made Glorious

One of Richard's costumes has this great golden shoulder guard.

Richard III's opening speech is wonderful example of Shakespeare's command of the blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) poetic form. Here's an example with some paraphrase from me in italics after both couplets.

    Now is the winter of our discontent
    Made glorious summer by this sun of York;

Finally! This horrible patch of tough luck the York family's had
Is turned around because my brother's [with a play on the homonyms sun/son] in control;

    And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
    In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

And all the bad stuff that's happened to us
Is far away and done with.

The speech goes on to explain that even though things are looking up for Richard, he's still not satisfied and will set his brothers Edward and Clarence against each other in order to seize the throne for himself. What a guy. He ends the 41-line speech with the following—

    Dive, thoughts, down to my soul. Here Clarence comes.

And so the story begins. . . .

Look to See a Troublous World

Philip (center) gives instruction
to one of the camera operators.

My good friend Philip Eoute and a team from the video productions department is working on a trailer for the Richard III: The Terrible Reign project. I don't want to give too much away, but they did some filming today, and it is looking exciting—metal stairs, those great IKEA lights (see previous post), a huge sliding door, lots of fog and great camera angles. Can't wait to see the finished product, which may be available for viewing some time next week if all goes well.

Fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands

A box for (stage) drowning?

As mentioned previously, Richard III dispatches with a great many of his relatives and friends during the course of the play. (With friends like that . . . ) One of these is his own brother, Clarence.

History is a bit cloudy on the facts about Clarence's death, but it is generally accepted that he died in the Tower having been sent there for treason against his other brother, Edward IV (of the fabulous House of York boys—Edward, Richard, Clarence). Some historians think Clarence was beheaded, but legend has it that he was drowned in a "malmsey-butt," a huge Elizabethan wine vat.

In Shakespeare's play, Clarence pleads for his life with the two men sent to murder him and just as he talks one out of killing him, the other stabs him. And then drowns him. Just for good measure.

So we needed a contraption that would hold water. Enter this 1940s icebox/cooler, perhaps used to store fish on ice. I bought it sight unseen (well, I saw this image) and drove to outside Commerce, GA, early this morning to pick it up. It's smaller than I'd thought from the picture, but I'm sure Jason Waggoner and Dave Vierow can add wheels, etc., and make tit perfect for our stage purposes. Look for it in Act I, Scene 4.

Were It Light Enough

We got the biggest (of course)
of the 3 black lights in the picture.

My wife went to Ikea in Atlanta this past weekend and picked up some wonderful hanging lights that I'd seen only in a catalog.

She texted me this picture to let me know that she'd snagged the three I needed for the Richard III: The Terrible Reign production and that they were even better in person. I concurred.

The lights will be used in Scene 2 where Richard woos Lady Anne over the corpse of her husband. Richard normally stops the carried body in the streets, but in our adaptation the audience should get more of a morgue feel.

Exit with the Body

A old gurney—not completely sure what ours will look like

Gotta getta gurney. It's time. We need it. We need to practice hauling bodies around on it. So yesterday my good friend (and resident lighting designer) Rich Streeter (more about him later, I'm sure) stepped up and found one on eBay. He made an offer and the kind gentleman in Ohio accepted, and voila! we have a gurney winging its way toward us. Hurrah.

Sons of Edward

Richard, Duke of York (Shelley Redlinger)
& Edward, Prince of Wales (Katrina Case)

One of the most despicable things Richard does (of many) in Shakespeare's play Richard III is to have his two young nephews, Edward and Richard, imprisoned in the Tower of London and subsequently killed. However,  history is not so definitive on this matter as is our playwright. 

The historical facts seem to be that after Richard, Duke of Gloucester (our bad guy, future King Richard III, and title character), had Queen Elizabeth's (Woodville—a commoner) marriage to his dead brother Edward IV declared illegitimate, Richard then seized the throne. He had the 12-year-old Edward (the heir apparent) sent to the tower where his brother joined him. The two princes disappeared just a month after Richard was crowned, and rumors of the day said that Richard had had the boys murdered.

Shakespeare's play leaves no doubt as to the boys' demise. In our streamlined adaptation, they are brutally killed by a character named Catesby, one of Richard's young thug-lords. Check this guy out:

KING RICHARD. Dar'st thou resolve to kill a friend of mine?
CATESBY. Please you;
    But I had rather kill two enemies.
KING RICHARD. Why, then thou hast it. Two deep enemies,
    Foes to my rest, and my sweet sleep's disturbers,
    Are they that I would have thee deal upon.
    Catesby, I mean those bastards in the Tower.
CATESBY. Let me have open means to come to them,
    And soon I'll rid you from the fear of them.
KING RICHARD. Thou sing'st sweet music.

Siblings: Princess Elizabeth of York (Margaret Stegall)
with Princes Edward & Richard

For our Richard III: The Terrible Reign, I decided to cast college girls as the young princes. Katrina and Shelley are doing a great job learning to act like pre-teen boys. They really are lovely young ladies, but you can't tell it from these pictures! I love the way Edward the prince's fur collar turned out. The boys' costumes have a strong Victorian feel. The simple golden crown leans toward the 15th century though.

The Thrall of Margaret

Beneth Jones as Queen Margaret
with me as pleased costume designer

Detail of Margaret's ruff, bodice, sleeve, & Starbucks

Mad Queen Margaret is one of Shakespeare's most interesting females (not that there are that many). She is the widow of King Henry VI, who has, like so many, been killed off by our title character Richard. Margaret's son Edward was also killed by Richard. (Before you feel too sorry for Margaret, you should know that in the Henry VI plays, Margaret was not only involved in the murder of Richard's younger brother, Rutland, but she also flaunted it by waving a napkin drenched in Rutland's blood in Richard's face.) So Margaret haunts the castle at the mercy of the York family, who she believes destroyed her life. She proceeds to curse a number of characters in the play. At first everyone ignores her rantings as those of a crazy woman and a "hateful, bitter hag," but when the curses start to come true, Richard and others have to pay attention to her. Mad Margaret's big scene in Act I, Scene 3, is emotionally charged and a challenge for any actor.

Beneth Jones is taking on this role, and I'm so excited to be working with her. Get a load of the hair, makeup (thank you, Alicia & Dan), and this incredible costume (thanks, costume room stitchers). I am thrilled with the sparkly, cobwebby material I found in Atlanta and the wonderfully gauzy fabric on the ruff. Margaret's costume is a mix of styles—the ruched sleeves come down over the edge of the hand reminiscent of the 15th century; the high-necked ruff smacks of the Victorian era, and the metal straps and buckles on the bodice seem to be from a future time. 

Like an Angel, with Bright Hair

Alicia puts extensions in Marg's hair

Dan works on the lips

Elizabeth, the future Queen

Three photos on this one. I just couldn't resist. And still so many more to post from the photo shoot earlier this week. These are of my daughter Margaret (now you see why I couldn't resist), who will be playing the part of young Elizabeth.

She doesn't have any lines in the play—just walks in, stands around, and has a great costume. Check out that shimmering, sequined, wine-colored fabric from Mood. It's fantastic. And the folks in the costume room did a great job with the cartridge pleats I asked for on the dropped waist. Elizabeth's costume is another example of the play's melding of period styles—the 15th century waistline/silhouette and simple crown mixed with the modern fabrics and cartridge pleats at the hips.

A word about hair and makeup in the production. Dan Sandy and his team are pulling out all the stops on this one. The makeup is fresh and forward thinking. And the hair designs that Alicia Carr has come up with are beyond my wildest hopes. I am loving working with these folks!

Keep watching for more amazing stuff from the hair & makeup people. (HINT: Lady Anne looks like she's stepped off a Paris runway.)

Bay of Death

Dale, Randy, and Rod problem solving on the set

Setwise, the look I'm going for with this Richard III: The Terrible Reign set is stark, clinical, and sterile with an undertone of evil. In the adaptation Richard has nearly a dozen people killed during the course of the play, and the word "blood" (or "bloody") occurs over 40 times. That repetition and Richard's brutal actions got me thinking about what metaphor best embodied his character. (The biblical "whited sepulchre" came to mind; however, that image wouldn't transfer well to stage.) In the end, I was inspired by research of old morgues and slaughterhouses. Morgues appear scrupulously clean but are in reality gruesome and sometimes grotesque. Slaughterhouses do a bloody business but can be hosed down and almost all evidence of what's happened there eliminated. I see that as befitting Shakespeare's Richard (who is likely not much like the historical Richard). Richard is all courtesy and polish outwardly but greed, envy, and wickedness inside. Richard has his relatives and "friends" mercilessly murdered but tidies up the business as if nothing untoward has happened—the supreme example being his wooing of Lady Anne over her husband's murdered corpse. (PURIST ALERT: I've done the unpardonable in this adaptation and changed the identity of the corpse from Anne's father-in-law, King Henry VI, to her husband, Edward. Richard killed both. Every time I've ever seen this play on stage or screen, I think that's who it should be, so I changed it.) Our set looks clean but very black—just like Richard. The shiny surface will also reflect light well—especially red light, reinforcing the major theme of blood.

Enter KING RICHARD

How 'bout this for doors?

So many costume photos to show. But first, here's a post about the set, which has taken a back seat with all of the costume excitement. I made a quick trip to Home Depot and Lowe's over lunch today and look what I found for some of the doors on the set—grey plastic corrugated sheeting. Perfect. There will be a dozen doors across the back of the set. Lots of doors will make for quick entrances and exits, a key, I think, to making this play (incidentally, the second longest in the canon when performed uncut—this adaptation uses about 60% of the text) move along quickly. I'm eager to see what scenic artist Jason Waggoner can do with several of these plugged into my designs.

Fashions to Adorn

Today was a photo shoot for what we call our SMART (Sharing Masterworks of Art) guide. It's a pamphlet we put out for high school students/teachers and anyone else interested in a little background for the play—family trees, Shakespearean information, etc. We also take portraits/photos of the characters to give a visual reference for understanding the relationships. Photographer Hal Cook does an incredible job with helping make the costumes and the people in them look great. We got some wonderful images today.

These are shots of Ron Pyle as Richard III and his boot. Love the spikes and buckles that Barb Filipsic came up with. That boot is on only one leg—his right—and has sort of a prosthetic feel, steampunk style. And those big square buttons are fantastic on Richard's vest. Thank you, Mood!

More great photos to come in the next few days.