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Hello, Long Story Short fans:
Two excellent preview articles came out this week for Long Story Short –
one by Chris Rawson at the Post-Gazette and one by Alice Carter at the Tribune Review.
Link to them here:
‘Short’ and sweet: Premiere of musical has roots in romance
and
With only a few days before the actors and musicians move into the theatre our production staff is kicking into high gear. Carlyn Aquiline, our Literary Manager and Dramaturg, snapped these excellent photos capturing all the activity.
Above, Scenic Artist Leah McDermott and assistant Zinnia sand and plaster the walls for the right texture.
In this photo, Lighting Designer Andy Ostrowski and his crew work simultaneously with Leah’s team. Here Andy shows his assistant how he would like the one of the approximately 100 lighting instruments focused. You can see the light being adjusted in the upper right hand corner of the photo.
And here’s one with a little more perspective–from the back row of the theatre. Note that Leah has painted the floor a striking blue.
Finally — the photo above captures the blue “cyc” that surrounds the stage. You can just get a glimpse of it on the left side of the picture. “Cyc” is short for cyclorama which is a large curtain, wall, or piece of fabric, typically concave, that serves as a scenic backdrop. In our production it is made of a semi-translucent material and therefore you can see light from an exterior door spilling through it rather dramatically. The design idea behind the blue cyc in combination with the blue floor is to give the apartment at the center of the action the appearance of floating in space. From the beginning of the design process director Tracy Brigden has described the apartment as “a floating jewel box.” And Scenic Designer Neil Patel, Lighting Designer Andy Ostrowski, as well as their hard working crews are working to translate those words into reality on the stage.
Brendan and Val joined Pittsburgh Today Live to talk about the show and sing the first song of the play, ”It happens in a Moment.”
Click here to link to the video: http://kdka.com/video/?cid=49
Fifteen days before previews and our excellent scene painter Leah McDermott has begun her work. Leah first painted a base coat to the walls and ceiling and then went back in with great detail to add additional layers of color and texture.
Painting Begins
Floating Ceiling Detail
Tracy Brigden — Artistic Director
SECOND DAY OF REHEARSAL
Music Director Doug Levine and actors Pearl Sun and Ben Evans
It’s really fun to rehearse a musical – mostly because if you’re like me – you like to listen to music – and when you rehearse a musical you get to listen to music all day.
Today we started with a second read-thru of the play with the actors stumbling (actually more often sailing) through the music that they just learned yesterday. Every time we hear the whole piece we find another set of little tweaks in script and score to make the story clearer. I am also able to start visualizing some clear images and ideas for some of the staging of the production as I listen to the actors and their interpretation of the text.
It is a misconception that directors have all the movement of the actors planned out before they start rehearsal. I always have ideas for some moments – the start and end of scenes or important sections – but don’t have every piece of movement written down to dictate to the actors. I prefer to find the physical life of the play along with the actors as we explore the text in rehearsal.
So, having read the piece again, I turned the actors over to our wonderful Musical Director, Douglas Levine – who is to taking them through the score to keep learning and fine tuning the music as I write this. Brendan, the second half of the writing team, is arriving in a few minutes from New York – he just called to say he was about a mile away – so I’m going to go and greet him. More soon.
Our production team has been building and installing scenic designer Neil Patel’s excellent design into our mainstage space over the past three weeks. While the main action of the play takes place in several Los Angeles studios and apartments the four piece band will set up on both sides of this interior space. Here are a couple of pictures in process….
The floor being laid and fit to the stage
Detail of the floor before shaping and painting
Tracy Brigden — Artistic Director
Director Tracy Brigden discusses the scenic design with writer and composer Valerie Vigoda and the cast
Valerie Vigoda, the husband and wife writing team, were introduced to me about six years ago by our mutual agent, Carl Mulert. I instantly fell in love with them and their music – both for the theatre and with their band, GROOVE LILY. I invited them out to our Momentum Festival and Brendan was able to make the trip. I wanted him to see how we develop new work at City Theatre and get a dose of the energy and excitement of our campus during the festival. I also thought it would be fun if our staff and patrons got to hear a little of his music, so he kindly agreed to play a set or two in the lobby during one of the parties.
Next we set out to find a playwright that Brendan and Val might like to work with to write a new musical to be commissioned by and for City Theatre. So Carlyn Aquiline, our Literary Manager/ Dramaturg, and I selected a group of possible collaborators and sent off a packet of plays to Brendan and Val. One of the plays we sent was a piece we had almost produced the previous year called AN INFINITE ACHE by playwright, David Schulner.
Brendan and Val didn’t just like David’s writing, they LOVED the play and asked me if instead of collaborating with David to write a new piece, they could just secure the rights to AN INFINITE ACHE and adapt it themselves into a musical. I loved the idea; we secured the rights and Brendan and Val began writing songs right away.
The last three years have been a series of readings, workshops, conferences, meetings, and of course hours and hours of Brenda and Val’s hard work writing songs and text , cutting, thinking, rewriting and recomposing. We have thrown out great songs because they didn’t fit in the structure. We have cut text and put it back in. We have changed plot points and motivations. And finally we have arrived at today. The first day of rehearsal for the world premiere production.
