It’s still raining outside, but it is beginning to heat up inside the studio theater.
We moved downstairs last night for technical rehearsals for The Little Dog Laughed. There were all these cool hipsters pouring into the building as we came in (we started at 5:00 pm) and after nosing around a bit, I learned that they were gathered for local Engineering Awards.
Antoinette (who plays Diane, the ruthless agent) and I rode together in the elevator. I was curious about the pile of magazines she was carting around with her.
She shared that she was creating a “Diane collage” for the wall of her apartment in the Mark Spencer Hotel.
Dex Edwards (Batboy: The Musical; This Wonderful Life; A Christmas Carol) designed the set, which allows us to move fluidly between a high end hotel room, a skanky nightclub, a restaurant in LA, the subway, Westchester, and the streets of Manhattan - among others.
This is the first show I’ve directed in the studio - and it reminds me an awful lot of being at Actor’s Express (my theater in Atlanta). The set was nearly ready, but the aisleways hadn’t yet been carpeted, and I got a little exercised at how difficult that would make it to time entrances and exits. But our crew is fantastic, so they very quickly remedied the problems.
Brik Berkes plays Mitchell (the moviestar) in Little Dog. He is fond of wearing Star Wars T-shirts to rehearsal, so we were pretty impressed at how well he cleans up. Brik and I worked together about a decade ago in Atlanta on a production of Paul Rudnick’s Jeffrey.
Techs usually require the actors to stand around and wait alot, while the light designer and sound designer are working to get their work timed precisely. So things can get a little goofy.
I love using the space with the audience on four sides. It’s been quite fun on this show, as there are numerous occasions throughout when the actors speak directly to the audience - and we’ve had to engineer ingenious ways to make the intended recipient clear.
By about 10:30 - Dennis was toast.
Natalie (who plays Ellen) gets quite a wardrobe transformation throught the show, as her fortunes rise.
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