The Slog is Over

please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please

Open

Hey. We're open. I didn't get the chance to say it to the company tonight, but I'll say it here: I'm honored to work with every single last one of you (actors, designers, stage managers, directors) and I'm flattered and amazed at how you've brought my impulse to tell this story forward with such blinding directness. I can't say thank you enough in response to your tireless commitment to developing a genuinely honest product. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, and it has so much to do with life as we are living it today. You guys have made me very happy.

John

post-preview/pre-opening thoughts

Our first two previews have been two different shows, w/two different audiences, and two different casts(thanks Ellen;  good to have you back Jason); but I want to share what I feel is the constant which is the story being told and the heartbreaking honesty behind it. The story is nothing w/o each person on stage and in the booth, and nothing still w/o the audience. Wed we were focused on being there for our stand-in actor and were blessed w/a vocally giving audience. Thurs our audience was more intellectual than vocal and our start was disjointed; we did however come together in a concentrated focus on connecting w/the audience.

So between now and opening curtain please be encouraged and let go of any and all mishaps from the nights prior, and remember you're not alone. A great observation from a cast member tonight was that it's impossible to name any characters as "leads"; we are truly an ensemble, we are one. We fall flat or soar together, and I'd bet my paycheck(all 12 cents) that we will do the latter. 

Youth Preview

Tonight we performed a dress rehearsal for more than 150 students. Young audiences let you know exactly when they're engaged and when they're bored. Raise the frickin' roof.

Thanks to Project Success and all you people who made it happen. It was great to have you in the house.

Tomorrow is fixes and preview. We'll be ready.

It's Happening

We are in at The Southern! Marquee full of errors! Dirt under the fingernails! Hope I don't make many spelling or grammatical errors in the program! Please get people to come see this show!

Goodbye Ivy Building, And Thanks For All The Echoes

Animal Farm is on the move. Tonight marked our final rehearsal in the Ivy Arts building, working in Bob Rosen's space. It was a great place for us, in spite of the cavernous tin-can sound quality. Monday we move to The Southern. Anybody want to volunteer? I'll give you comps!

I'll reiterate what I said to the cast tonight: we are NOT behind. We are where we should be. The show is GOOD. Next week we have the opportunity to make it GREAT.

For the few souls who read this blog: I offer you 2-for-1 tickets on opening night (Halloween). Use the code [ORWELL].

Executions

There's a moment in Orwell's novel that strikes even the most astute reader as perplexing. Why in the world do the animals commit (presumably) false admissions of guilt after they've seen the four dissident porkers executed by Napoleon's dogs? Has he threatened them in some way? Could they possibly be so entranced by the cycle of guilt to give themselves up to the chopping block? Are they just brainwashed dimwits?

Well, I'm happy to say now that I think our production addresses all of these possibilities without too much heavy handedness. Thanks to HHB for jumping in there tonight at rehearsal and refining this puzzling moment.