Finally opened on Friday night, and thought I’d share a few images from the show.

{Tateh (Leif Norby) and his daughter (Anna Bishop) get off the boat and greet their new Shtetl in Ragtime. Photo by Owen Carey.}

{Coalhouse (Gavin Gregory) gets the keys to a new car while Henry Ford (Todd A. Horman) extols the virtues of mass production in Ragtime. Photo by Owen Carey. }

{Susannah Mars in “What Kind of Woman.” Photo by Owen Carey.}

{The men of Ragtime share the profundity (and profanity) of a baseball game in the show stopping number “What a Game!” Photo by Owen Carey.}

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Moved onstage this afternoon.  A slooooow first session, what with trying to equalize 22 michrophones, and adjust to the period costumes, video monitors, audio monitors, sliding panels, and the general disorientation.

But also really fun to see what it’s going to look like.  Gavin (Coalhouse, above) is getting better at playing our imaginary piano, which is no small feat – while you’re trying to sing or deliver dialogue.

The period costume seemed to suddenly transform Danny Rothman (Younger Brother) into ‘a young man in search of his destiny.’  Why did people ever stop dressing like this?

Lacreta, who plays Sarah’s friend, was showing off her new hair.

While Tiffany (Evelyn Nesbitt) tried to figure out how to maneuver over a mountain of chairs in her new clothes.

Todd (Henry Ford) and Tom (JP Morgan) looked quite dapper themselves.

And Gavin (Coalhouse) and Rachael (Sarah) were starting to melt into their roles.

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Hard to believe it, but we have our first preview performance tomorrow night.  We’ve been “tech-ing” the show onstage since Wednesday, and our wondrous stage manager, Mark Tynan, the mind-blowing designers and the crackerjack crew have been doing a brilliant job bringing our baby to life. The environment of Apollo is an incredibly layered melding of sound, lighting and video, which must be orchestrated and conducted like the symphony that it is. And oh yes–there are also 12 actors onstage, and “just a few” costume changes. It’s madness, I tell you!  Glorious madness.  I can’t wait for you all to experience it.

I’m grateful that some of my costumes have pockets, because I was able to have my little camera with me onstage during much of tech week. Actors must often stand still for several minutes while lights are focused on them, which afforded me ample opportunity to take some fun character portraits. I also captured some beautiful moments during run-throughs–the photographs capture the scene from a different vantage point than you will get when you’re sitting in the audience of the Gerding Theater.

Here are some characters and images from Apollo :

{photo: Nick Santoro as Bosquet Wev}

{photo: Christopher Shaw as Arthur Rudolph}

{photo: Richard Gallegos as the Dora Prisoner}

{photo: Jeffrey Johnson as Monty Cone}

{photo: Russell Edge as Dietrich Bonhoeffer}

{photo: Lorne Green as Frank Fisher}

{photo: Christopher Shaw as Arthur Rudolph}

I love this photograph, because it affords you just a glimpse of Justin Townsend’s exquisite lighting design.

{photo: left: Christopher Shaw;  right: Andy Hirsch as Eli Rosenbaum}

{photo: left to right: Jeffrey Johnson, Richard Gallegos, Andy Hirsch}

The following images from Apollo Part 1 were taken by Meredith Patt:

{photo: The computer screens of the mad creative geniuses as they orchestrate the environment of Apollo during tech week}

{photo: Apollo Part 1, “Sputnik section,” full cast}

{photo: Christopher Shaw as Korolev, holding Sputnik aloft}

{photo: Ray Ford, observing the madness}

The crew has the Herculean task of completely changing the stage environment, both onstage and behind-the-scenes,  during two intermissions.  We do our best to stay out of their way.  Fortunately, we have this gorgeous green room in which to lounge, eat and play cards.

{photo: Hanging out in the Green Room at the Gerding Theater.}

{photo: Brandon Ford Green and Andy Hirsch playing a vicious game of Crazy Eights.}

Well, that’s the end of my photo presentation.  Now I must rest up for our big Preview tomorrow night!  The countdown is almost over…3…2…1……….Blast off!

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I’m a member of the merry band of Apollo players. We’re all thrilled and delighted to be here, and are getting very excited about the upcoming opening of our show.

I thought I’d share some of the photos I’ve taken since arriving from Los Angeles on December 15, 2008.

FYI, all my photos are taken without a flash to avoid startling the actors during rehearsal (they’re very high-strung and prone to stampeding if provoked) so please forgive the somewhat grainy quality of some of the images. Hey–it’s art!

This is Nancy Keystone, director, playwright, scenic designer, all-around girl genius, bravely trying to explain the gist of our “little skit” (as we affectionately call it) at the Meet & Greet on December 16, 2008.

The rehearsal room is adorned with these marvelous photo panels. Here are just a few:

{photo: Some of the people that appear as characters in Apollo.}

{photo: Wernher von Braun and friends.}

{photo: Ralph Abernathy, RFK, and images of the Civil Rights Movement.}

And here are some of my fellow Apollo crew members:

{photo:From the left: JKaren Thomas, Lorne Green, Angie Browne, Richard Gallegos, Nancy Keystone, Andy Hirsch and Brandon Ford Green.}

Here are some random shots from the rehearsal room:

{photo: Christopher Shaw cradles his beloved Sputnik from Part 1.}

Here I am, having a blast bringing Mickey Mouse to irreverent life in Part 1, along with Jeffrey Johnson as Walt Disney, and Russell Edge as Wernher von Braun.
{photo: Andy Hirsch takes a much-needed break from the rigors of playing Eli Rosenbaum in Part 2.}

{photo:Jeffrey Johnson, Russell Edge, Christopher Shaw (partially blocked) and Nick Santoro dance a smoldering Tango between the German Rocket Scientists and the US Army in Part 2.}

{photo: This is a scene that was recently added to Part 1. Shown from left are: JKaren Thomas, Lorne Green, Angie Browne, Andy Hirsch as Senator Sparkman of Alabama, Ray Ford and Brandon Ford Green.}

{photo: Rehearsing the fantasy production number in Part 2, “Fly Me to the Moon.” From the left: Russell Edge, Andy Hirsch, Richard Gallegos, Nick Santoro and Jeffrey Johnson.}

Be sure to look for my next post, where I’ll give you a behind-the-scenes peek at Part 3!  (If I can manage to take pictures during the run-through tomorrow!)

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{photo: A Huntsville citizen (Ray Ford) welcomes the space program to Alabama in Apollo, premiering January 16th here at PCS.}

I had a chance to watch the first run through of Apollo on Wednesday afternoon, and I have to admit that I was kind of blown away.   I saw the first two parts of the piece in Los Angeles a few years ago and looooooved it.  But I think in that incarnation I was ‘wowed’ but not particularly affected emotionally.

{photo:Nancy Keystone in the rehearsal studio.}

In this new incarnation (which premieres the entire three part cycle), Nancy Keystone (pictured above) – the writer and director – has streamlined the story, and drawn out deeper, more potent connections between the intersections between the three parts in a truly astounding way.

{The cast of Apollo rehearse the “impossible problem of cotton” sequence.}

Images of reaching into the air repeat throughout the piece, at first seeming to reference the American aspiration for space flight, but later evoking images of the aspiration for freedom through the Civil Rights movement.

{photo: “the impossible problem of cotton” segment during the workshop production of Part 3 [Liberation] at USC. Photo by Sibyl Wickersheimer.}

The visuals of the piece are breathtaking, and how the actors manage to keep the logistical demands in their brains and bodies is beyond me.

{photo: Apollo ensemble member Andy Hirsch on a rehearsal break.}

The performances themselves really affected me.  Andy plays Eli Rosenbaum in part two, who as a very young attorney with the Justice Department, began a lifelong search for Nazi war criminals hiding in the United States.  A line he repeats, “What do people do?  And what do we do with people?” stayed in my head for days afterward.

{photo: Apollo ensemble member Lorne Green.}

In part three, Lorne plays Dred Scott, whose name I knew but whose story I was not aware of.   Nancy has done a beautiful job of weaving through connections from the history of America’s relationship with slavery, to our aspirations to reach beyond the earth.  Lorne provides a beautiful, grounded presence in an act that is pretty overwhelming.  The accumulation of emotional resonances really built for me into a wholly original, very powerful event.  Cannot wait for you to see this one!

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