31 hours to SKETCHBOOK opening
Wow.
We just had our first SKETCHBOOK preview last night at the Steppenwolf
Garage. Things have been going very smoothly despite the ridiculous number of
overly ambitious artistic concepts and dreams we are reaching for (4 video
screens, live feed, live music, 14 world premiere short plays and this little
thing called SUBMIT in which we are integrating content from the audience into
the show on the fly!!!). Now, at the age of 34 with a 8 month old daughter, i
have been surprised at hot well I have been keeping up. You see, SKETCHBOOK
always catches up to me at some point, and i start feeling a wee bit exhausted
from the late nights, early mornings, phone calls, emails, meetings,
interventions, breakdowns, egos, logistics, and overall chaos. But, with only
one day till opening i went to bed last night feeling pretty good, but man,
this morning i felt like i could sleep and sleep and sleep (sidebar - two years
ago sandra - my lovely wife, muse and Sketchbook producer- borrowed our friends
summer house in Michigan to get some much needed post -Sketchbook rest and we
slept something like 32 of the first 48 hours we were there). However, this is
a critical point in the final push for the festival and there is "no rest
for the wicked", so onward we go. We are so close to pulling off some of
the overly ambitious things i mentioned that there is no turning back,
especially in the company of such hard working and brilliant collaborators
(just trying to keep up with Sammy, there must be two of him).
All that being said, as soon as i get to the theatre i feel no pain. It's
probably because all of the incredible energy i receive from the artists and
audience (i should write another blog titles the "post show crash").
i am sure, my fellow theatre artists know exactly what i am talking about. It's
like acting in a show with the flu. About 10 minutes before you go on, you stop
feeling sick, you feel fine, and then you perform and about 6 1/2 minutes
after you leave the stage you completely crash into a pile of human. Kinda like
when Michael Jordan hit for 63 against the Celtics in the playoffs with a 102
degree fever....
So, i am taking a morning at home to get my head together, review my notes,
answer emails and play with my ladies and I thought it was about time for an
updated blog post just to share where we are at....
1. the plays rock. so far, my favorites are Yellow (OMFG!),
2. This SUBMIT thing is wild. If you haven't submitted go to http://collaboraction.typepad.com/sketchbook/sketchbook-submit-the-ass.html and hook it up. the voicemail thing is really cool. If you leave a voice mail at ll 206-337-0678 our team gets a .WAV file emailed to them immediately so they can digest them and add to the mix (the sound team of mish and miles has this incredible way of randomly selecting audio submissions and dropping them in differently every night)
3. speaking of m&m, the music they are creating is amazing. too complex to describe without getting them pissed at me for butchering what they are pulling off ;)
4. can you say "Jeremy + moving lights = theatre of the future"?
5.video - holy mackerel, this Romanian guy named after that Elton John song, Livui, has been working with our favorite brilliant ADD Italian, Sammy, to create an immersive video world and let me tell you it is a pandora 's box of Romanian beauty and weirdness.
Ok, time to make the donuts. I hope you can make it out to SKETCHBOOK (btw, everyone over 21 is welcome to join us at the Opening Night party at 10 pm at 440 N. Halsted on Sat., May 17 for a free drink).
In a SKETCHBOOK induced altered state,
anthony
Comments