| DYING CITY Technical rehearsals
by Jim Davis - Managing Director on 2/03/2009 09:27:00 PM
Greetings from Technical Rehearsals of DYING CITY. It takes a lot of talented theatre professionals to put up a show here at The Next and we're so very fortunate to work with some of the best in the Chicagoland area.
This amazing team of designers and technicians have been hard at work over the past few days putting the final touches on the technical elements for the play and we've certainly come a long way since we started pre-production in early December. From design meetings where we decided as a creative team what we wanted the world of the play to look and feel like, to scheduling the load-in of lighting and scenery to making sure that the costumes, sound and props departments all stay within their budgets... there are thousands of details to work out and it's my job to coordinate the minutiae of all of it.
We're very lucky to work with the likes of Lighting Designer Keith Parham and Costume Designer Kristine Knanishu (both back in town from their amazing work on the Off-Broadway production of THE ADDING MACHINE) as well as Sound Designer Nathan Leigh who joins us for the first time from Boston. As Production Manager I'm enjoying serving double-duty as Scenic Designer to work with this amazing creative team, led by our old friend (and new Washington DC resident) Jason Loewith, who is directing the show.
Properties Master Michael Groth and Assistant Scenic Designer Diane Fairchild at work re-upholstering the show's sofa.
It always amazes me what a wonderful and talented team of resident technicians I was able to assemble to work with us on our shows. Erin Diener is now in her second show with us as Production Stage Manager and she's assisted again by Susie Pelayo. Our Master Electrician Mac Vaughey has been with us since my first show here two seasons ago and Matt Hallock, our Sound Engineer is doing his fourth show with us. Grant Sabin is back again as our charge Scenic Artist who painted the show to very careful specifications and Properties Master Michael Groth has done amazing work rigging our onstage kitchen to do some pretty cool things. My Associate Production Manager Patrick Fries and Assistant Scenic Designer Diane Fairchild have both been hard at work to make sure that I keep my sanity while serving double duty.
For now, I should get back to work... there's still much to do to make sure that we're ready for our first preview.... in 45 and a half hours!Labels: Dying City, Production Department, Rehearsal, Technical
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I thought this play was excellent and the acting superb. The brothers, I felt, had an unsatisfactory and unhealthy relationship - though they each clearly wanted more. The wife was truly victimized by both of them. I did feel as though I was left hanging - that the play was a work in progress. I couldn't help feeling I wanted more answers.
Our group of four viewers found much to discuss in this play. I personally was too aware of all the facial and arm gestures of the wife: I almost never felt that I was unaware of the acting. That was disappointing. None of us felt that the comparison to Bagdad or any other city was clear and stand-alone. I was not clear whether the flashbacks were intended to be what the widow remembered as opposed to what actually happened; grief could alter the widow's perception of reality greatly. We wondered if the warrior twin was a closet homosexual. It also was not clear whether Peter's motivation was his hope that he might be able to father a nephew as a link to his twin. These ambiguities did not strengthen the play in my mind.
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