Behind the "Fables" (3Ps O-Show 2011)

Friday, September 2, 2011

Day Five - Woah.

Tufts Homepage. 9/2/11 at 2:30am.

So, this blog is currently posted on Jumble, an internet site devoted to tracking anything cool and interesting and "Tufts." I don't know how, but they found this blog.

Not only that, but links to this blog are now posted on the Tufts homepage. That's right. www.tufts.edu.

All I can say is...woah.

I have no idea how many people are actually reading this. If you are a freshman, that is fantastic. If you are a current student, that is fantastic. If you are a Tufts parent/alumni/faculty member, that is fantastic. If you are some random person interested in theatre at a liberal arts school, that is fantastic. Tufts and theatre and theatre at Tufts are all amazing, and I am so happy to be able to share this experience with you!

Thanks so much! Please feel free to comment on anything that I write! If there is a certain part of production you want me to focus on or something, let me know!

Abby

Day Five - Makeup time!

Tucker: Do some girls do this everyday? WOAH.

Tonight Michelle, our Hair and Makeup designer, gave Tucker and another actor a tutorial on basic stage makeup. I tagged along for the ride, just to see what it was like. All I can say is that I learned a LOT about how makeup is used and more importantly, why.

Actually, that isn't true. I can say more than that.

The tutorial started out with an explanation of everything in the famous "Actor's Makeup Kit" that every actor needs to purchase. The contents are very interesting, and include:

liquid latex (face glue)
Mint-flavored stage blood
Brushes!! Powder-puffs!
Spirit gum (more face glue)
Hair mascara (for touches of gray hair)
Scar wax

Then came the fun part. Michelle showed us the correct process for applying all this makeup. In short, actors need makeup onstage because if they don't have it, the stage lights can wash out their faces and make them featureless and terrifying and very not-human looking. The main idea

behind stage makeup is to accentuate the dimensions of the face, so that everything that is hightlighted by the light is even MORE highlighted, while everything that is in shadow is even MORE in shadow. Make sense?

Here's how the process works:

1. Mix foundation to match the color of your skin. Then, apply it ALL OVER YOUR FACE AND HAIRLINE AND NECK.

2. Powder your face. All of it. Everywhere. Michelle: "For example, if you don't powder your eyelids, and then you sweat under the stage lights, you will be like 'why are my eyelids so sweaty?' and then you will realize that you didn't powder them!"

3. Apply highlights. Michelle drew out a diagram of a person (or alien?) and marked which areas of the face should be highlighted or shadowed. The highlighted parts are the areas that would stick out if a light was shining on your face.

4. Apply shadows. Same concept as before. Michelle even offered tips on how to, for example, figure out where your jaw line was by rolling your finger on your cheek. Michelle: "I do this a lot..."

5. Blend, blend, blend! This is the hardest part of the process. You don't want to blend TOO much, but you don't want lines on your face either.

6. Powder more!

7. Apply blush to cheeks to make you look like a human being and not like Voldemort.

8. Eyeliner time! This is a skill that takes many many years of practice, and one that guys always hate. Michelle: "I haven't poked anyone's eye out...yet."

Michelle is so proud.

9. Lip-liner and lip color. Actors, especially guys, need to be careful in this part because if you make your lips too big or too red, you could look like a drag queen by accident.

10. More powder!

At this point, this is the end of the process if all that is required is standard stage makeup. However, there are many many many other things that can be added to create a specific look for a particular character or for a particular show. For example, when the Drama Department did Arabian Nights last spring, the female actors all had fancy eye-shadow, fake eyelashes, bindis and henna on their hands. Not to mention the hair.

One of Michelle's creations for Arabian Nights

As you can probably guess, applying makeup takes a lot of time. This is why actors are called several hours before the show starts. Pretty cool eh? Stay tuned for more information from Michelle herself!

Day Five - Adding the "stuff"

The most important part of rehearsal today was the addition of all the main furniture elements and prop pieces to the mix. Since this show has eight different transitions where the actors change costumes as well as change the set, practicing with these elements is very important. Today, the arena was being used for Orientation purposes, so we were back in the Hangar. (Which is fine, I love the Hangar.) Anyway, that meant that ALL OUR STUFF had to be transported and set up in the Hangar, and then transported back to the arena afterwards. Not an easy task, I can tell you that. Kyle P. was a beast today at playing 3D tetris as he packed the van with all our stuff. I believe he fit it all in one load? Either way it was impressive. As we were loading up the van after rehearsal, Cole remarked how this random pile of furniture could be seen as some freshman's stuff for moving in: "I mean, come on! We could move in with an entire living room set!"

Like I said, we used all the furniture and props during our run-through today so the actors could get a feel for the things, and the designers could get a better sense of what worked and what didn't.

For example, in scene 5 there is an imaginary car. Theresa had provided some car keys for the driver, but during rehearsal we realized that if the keys are in the ignition, they would have to be suspended in mid-air. That isn't going to happen, unfortunately. I mean, Tufts and Hogwarts have a lot of similarities (LIKE QUIDDITCH), but we still have yet to master the art of levitation...

During the run-through, it was my job to mark down line-notes. Pretty much what that means is that I noted every time an actor messed up a line, whether they forgot it, skipped it, or cut off the end of it. If what they said wasn't what was in the script, I noted it. Jeff made these really cool line-note forms that make this process really easy. All I do is fill them out. It's great. Only one person today didn't have ANY line notes (meaning she was perfect in all her lines), and that was Eliza. WOOOOOO!!!

Tonight there was Dark time and Quiet time, during which the lights and sound people do their thing. (More on that later.) All was in preparation for tomorrow: Cue-to-Cue.

Dun Dun Duuuunnnn!!

Day Five - The Dance Party Warm-Up

You know how actors always have weird things that they do before they start acting? Some sing strange notes or say weird things (*ahem* To Sit In Solemn Silence On A Dull Dark Dock...) or jump around and stretch in odd positions? Well, not this group of actors. To warm-up before rehearsal today, these guys had a DANCE PARTY.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Day Five - Jankety

Day Five. Thursday. 10am. Aidekman Lobby. Yet another pstaff meeting.

Everything still seems to be going smoothly, which is really great. The meeting was super short (20 minutes) which is rare in 3Ps productions.

Things of note from this morning's pstaff meeting:

Cole arranges a meeting with his faculty directing mentor, Downing, LIKE A BOSS.
Nothing in furniture stock fits exactly with anything else.
We have a nice bed, and a ghetto bed. The ghetto bed might need to be replaced by somebody's ACTUAL dorm bed. Sorry guys, I am NOT moving my bed...I need it for sleeping.
Kyle P. says that our furniture is very jankety. He says that the actors will be fine as long as they are careful. Alexa, on the other hand...is always in danger?
Our posters haven't been approved by the Office for Campus Life for some reason, so they technically can't be in dorms. Some of the ones I put up yesterday have been taken down. Sadness and woe. Thomas' reaction: "That's really annoying." Yes, yes it is.
Sadly we will not be getting T-shirts since there aren't enough people interested. As Cole would say yesterday.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooOOOOOoooooOOOOOO!!!!!

(http://nooooooooooooooo.com/)

Day Five - Costuming!

Marisa, our costume technician, answered a few questions for me about what it is like to work on costumes for an O-Show.

"So I don't really remember how I got involved with this show... I'm pretty sure I asked Ruthie, last year's VP Tech, to put me on the pstaff for the oshow. This is my 5th show doing costume tech at Tufts, and my 8th show total here. This show is very special because the actors are different characters every scene, so they need different costumes for every scene. That means TONS of costume changes. Most of the changes aren't too bad, but some of the larger ones are going to have to happen very quickly. Costuming an Oshow is difficult because there's a very limited budget and there's not as much time to always do all of the alterations. This show is easier than most because we're using clothing from the actors' wardrobes, so we don't really have many alterations to do. I'm really excited to watch Nora do her scene in the wedding gown because she looks gorgeous! The play is really funny at times, but it also has a message about friendship and relationships. I think the freshmen are really going to enjoy it!"

"For freshmen interested in costumes- just do it! Assist on any of the shows this semester or work (with me!) on this year's freshman show! My first show was the freshman show my freshman year, and I'm so glad I did it. It was difficult being thrust into a position at first, but then I got the hang of it. And I had wonderful mentors (Ruthie and Emily) who helped me the whole way. Most of my best friends now are people who I met because they were either working on the freshman show, were actors in the freshman show, or are friends of those people."