Backstage Pass Becomes Something More

If you've been paying attention lately (or if you are on our mailing list), then you you've heard that we've launched a podcast called Backstage Pass. By we, I mean my brother John and I are doing it on behalf of Maurer Productions OnStage. Backstage Pass is a podcast about all things community theatre in Central New Jersey. It's an interview show that typically runs from 15 to 30 minutes on topics like upcoming productions, how to get into community theatre, profiles of people working in local theatre. Stuff like that.

Okay, yes, I have to admit that I originally thought of the idea of doing a single episode podcast as a promotional tool to drum up some attention for our production of Brighton Beach Memoirs. But after talking about it with John, he quickly made me realize that it was a lot more affective -- and a lot more fun -- if we made it into a real show and opened it up by doing episodes about all things community theatre and covered what the other theatre companies were doing in Central New Jersey. And thus, Backstage Pass was born.

I'm glad we took this direction. We already have four episodes online with a fifth scheduled and more on the drawing board. On the selfish note, they are a lot of fun to create and they help raise awareness for our theatre company. But when you look at the bigger picture, Backstage Pass is helping to promote community theatre in general . My favorite episode is one I hosted featuring Kyrus Westcott, Kitty Getlik, and John Maurer talking about the Perry Awards. John did another himself with the folks from Yardley Players' about Moon Over Buffalo.

Upcoming episodes will include one John is working about the production of Skin of Our Teeth, which Brian Bara is directing at the College of New Jersey, and an episode I'll be putting together talking about children in community theatre. I don't know if this podcast are any good. I only know that like them and they're fun to produce and fun for the people who participate in the interviews. If you've had a chance to listen to any of them, I hope you'll offer us your feedback through this blog. We're always looking for ways to make it better.

Also, if you have an idea for an episode of Backstage Pass, please email us at info@mponstage.com.

Daisy Journal: Lighting Design- Let There Be Light

"Let there be light"!

I think Kitty Getlik said that. Or maybe it was someone else. In the fog of exhaustion that surrounds you during Tech Week, it's hard to remember. In any case, whoever said it was only telling part of the story. When it comes to producing good theater, it's not just about having light, it's about the right light provided in the right way at the right time. As a Perry Award reviewer, I've seen too many community theatre productions around New Jersey whose idea of lighting design is to turn the lights on when the curtain goes up and wait for the bows to turn them off. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but you get my point.

Kitty, a three time Perry Award nominee for Lighting Design, is also the Artistic Director of the Kelsey Theatre. There's no one better to have designing the lighting for your show. And she's a dynamite person to boot. I'm am blessed to know her and very fortunate to be working with her.

When we started talking about lighting design for Driving Miss Daisy, we were in sync immediately. "I'm thinking very warm tones," she said. "Very nostalgic." That's exactly what I was looking for as well. In fact, in a previous meeting with other members of the design staff (set and set dressing) I said I was going for the feel of a Norman Rockwell painting. And I think in the end we achieve it pretty closely once all the pieces were in place.

The added advantage of working with Kitty is that she is also an excellent director, a Perry Award nominated actress and a fine educator. That means she can serve as an extra set of eyes when it comes to the directing and the acting and uses her experience in those areas to inform her lighting. And as an educator, she's very patient with new comers and first-timers and doesn't mind doing a lot of explaining. She also offers suggestions at times, but only when she knows the director is open to them. We have a very good working relationship, which I think is critical between a lighting designer and a director. She tries her best to understand what I'm looking for and give me what I want, but at the same time, she doesn't shy away from saying: "That's not going to work the way you think it will." (And then she'll do it to show me and she'll be proven right.)

Kitty has also been helpful in giving tips on directing and acting. Before tech week started, I told her I was open to any and all suggestions she had; that I wasn't going to offended as some people might be if she spoke up. I'm sure she's very conscious of not stepping on another director's toes, but in my conversation with her I wanted to make clear that I'd rather she step on one of my toes than I make an embarrassing blunder. She took that to heart, and while she hasn't made too many suggestions, the ones she's made have all been right on target and I made sure to pass them along to the cast and crew.

When it comes to the lighting design we, again, are mixing styles -- abstract and realism. Kitty told me up front that if I'm going to do that, I need to be consistent with where I use those styles and ensure that the lighting in those areas follow the realistic and abstract conventions. Here's a great example of keeping the style of the lighting aligned to the style of the different playing areas and at the same time applying subtle lighting effects to support a dramatic moment.

Each of the three characters has a moment in the play where he or she opens up to let the audience see what's in their hearts. These are little monologues or soliloquies. Daisy's is a story about remembering the first time she went to Mobile when she was 12. Hoke's is about recalling seeing his best friend's father's body after he was lynched by racists. And Boolie's is when he tells of his fears about how the business community will react if he goes to a dinner honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. During these scenes, I had wanted some special lighting that subtly highlighted the speaker. Something that the audience wouldn't notice, but which would make them "feel" drawn into the story that character was telling. At the same time, I was going to have the sound engineer slowly drop out the ambient background sounds, another technique for focusing the audience's attention.

Both Daisy's and Hoke's stories come in the car. Kitty came up with the idea of lighting the scene using the techno beam focused on the actor telling the story, but the beam's light color and intensity was set to blend into the lighting of the rest of the scene so you didn't know it was there. Then, as the scene reached the moment where the actor started telling his or her story, she brought down the surrounding lighting very slowly and subtley, leaving the techno beam at its original strength. The result is a slight and subtle dimming of everything except the person talking. This, combined with the slow subtle potting down of the ambient sound draws the audience into the moment.

This works wonderfully for Daisy and Hoke's story because it is a stylistic lighting technique employed in an abstract playing area. But Kitty was quick to point out that the same technique applied the exact same way for Boolie's story would be wrong, because Boolie tells his story while standing in Daisy's living room, which is a realistic setting. So to get the same impact and keep the lighting more realistic in style, Kitty took a different tact. She employed a gobo that threw the shadow of a window light onto the set. When Boolie reached that moment in the scene where he started telling his story, he simply stepped into that light. It made it appear as though he was looking out a window while telling the story, the lighting highlighted Boolie, while Daisy's lighting was much softer. The impact was exactly the same as Daisy's and Hoke's special moment's, but done in a style that allowed us to keep the lighting in the realistic playing areas consistent.

There are many examples in the show where Kitty uses her knowledge and techniques to strengthen the story telling. Most are not meant to be noticed, so much as felt. After you've seen the show once for the whole experience, I encourage you to go back a second time and pay closer attention to not just what you felt during a particluar scene, but how she made you feel it. It's really impressive work.

Back in the Saddle

Glub, glub, glub, cough, cough! That's the sound of me coming up for air. After late nights and weekends crammed with theatre doings -- some backstage and some onstage -- I can finally come up for air and start posting to this blog again. That's right. I'm back in the saddle.

John and I and the rest of the OnStage team have been completely swamped since going into auditions for Emperor. Producing three shows in a season is a lot more work than I expected. Granted, we've brought this on ourselves, but still, we had no clue it would be another full-time job. Anyway, here's a quick recap since my last post.

1) We held a marathon weekend auditioning for and casting Emperor. About 70 people come out and audition on Saturday and Sunday, a great turn out. Then came the casting meeting, which started on Monday night at Buzz Herman's house and lasted until the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday. That's a story in itself, one that I'll save for another day.

2) Meanwhile, my brother John and I have been working on setting up the marketing for this season. That includes giant lobby posters for all three shows (in case you've been living in a cave the last few months, we're producing The Emperor's New Clothes, Driving Miss Daisy, and Singin' in the Rain); a large postcard featuring our three-show season which we'll use as a hand-out in various libraries, community centers and coffee shops; separate buckslips for each show (those are the promotional pieces you find in your Kelsey Theatre ticket envelope); and a large postcard promoting Emperor to school teachers (gotta beef up those school sales up).

3) While that was happening, John and I and Emperor director Alycia Bach-Cantor were working on a Short Play Festival produced and hosted by Arts YOUniversity. (The show was performed September 8 to a full-house). Alycia appeared in a piece called The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage and did a wonderful job. John appeared in Twicknam as well and also directed a piece called Judgement Day. Meanwhile, I wrote and directed an original short play for the festival called The Road Not Taken, and also performed in Judgement Day. On top of writing, acting and directing, I did a little stage managing (everyone did) and played chief cook and bottle washer. No kidding, The Road Not Taken was set in a restaurant. There were real dishes to wash.

4) While that was happening, our production of Winnie the Pooh was nominated for two Perry Awards (yeah us!) -- one for Best Set Design (John), and one for Best Lighting Design (Kitty Geltik). What's more, John and I have been asked to be presenters at the Perry Awards Dinner. We'll be presenting the award for Best Costume Design for a Musical. With that going on, we wanted to be sure all our friends sat at the same table. Let me tell you, trying to pin down 10 busy theatre people to confirm a dinner date is hard enough, but to get them to cough up $60 per ticket was even tougher. It was a lot like herding cats. But it got done and we'll be going to the Perry's on September 16.

5) And if all that wasn't enough, John and I were working nearly every night and weekend for the past few months building a new website for the company. This blog is just a small part of it. The site itself probably has close to a hundred pages including photos, casts lists, feature articles, and tons of stuff on our new shows and most of our old shows. We have lots more in store for the website. By the time we're done (sometime next year?) the site will likely grow to several hundred pages. The goal has been to turn it into a resource for local actors, theatre patrons and potential volunteers -- and of course to sell as many tickets as possible.

Allrighty, then. The new website has been launched, the Short Play Festival is over, our Perry reservations are set, and Emperor rehearsals are rolling along smoothly with Alycia at the helm. That left me with a few minutes to bring you up to speed, and so I have.

Bat Boy

I'm trying to get out to see Bat Boy. It closes this weekend, so it's now or never. But we also have auditions for The Emperor's New Clothes this weekend. It will be tough to squeeze everything in, but Stars in the Park usually does a good job and I'm hearing good things about the show. So I'm just going to have to make the time.

No surprise the buzz is good, especially considering the cast includes talents like Kitty Getlik, Nicole Spadafino (Annabelle Glick in our production of Lucky Stiff) and many others. Caroline, (that's my daughter) has friends in the cast (Kitty and Nicole among them) and is eager to see the show. I'm interested in see in friends on stage, of course, but I'm even more interested in seeing the repelling scene. Apparently, to stage the scene where characters repel down into a giant cave, director Diane Wargo has actors repelling from the Kelsey Theatre catwalk using mountain climbing rigs. Very cool. If I can get out to see the show this weekend, I'll fill you in on the details.