Graves in the Water
a generative theatrical pieceLetting go of control.
If there is one thing that will kill an artistic process it can be the need to control what is happening on stage & lock it down. For me this kills inspiration.
Graves in the Water is no different.
Since this Halloween is the first time the piece is being performed, as the director I’ve been struggling with coming up with an order for the piece. We’ve found individual thru lines for each actor, but are missing one for the whole show.
So I said “fuck it” and suggested to my cast that we work off of our own inspiration. Maybe it’s because I spent my birthday weekend at the Baltimore Improv Festival or maybe I just couldn’t make up my mind, but I think having a “no structure” format will make this piece exciting, new & fresh each time it’s performed (for the actors & the audience).
Here’s what I mean by “no structure”:
The evening will start with Mrs. Kessler and end with Edith Conant, but everything in between is not set. The actors work off their own inspiration, they must listen & react to what is being said around them to find who goes next.
There are some challenges with doing the piece this way, mainly sometimes the actors get “stuck” and aren’t sure who should go next, but in rehearsal we are working on that. The first time I actually had them work in this “no structure” format I let them improv the actual pieces, speaking subtext that kind of thing. They worked off of the inspiration provided by the previous character. Now our focus is shifting on to “opposites” or impulses that pull you away from the character previous. This allows the actors to come from a place where they feel comfortable and gives them the freedom not to get stuck.
For some this lack of control may be difficult, but as a director I love the opportunities to let go of that and to just really trust my actors. I mean I hired them for a reason, didn’t I?
We’ll see where it goes from here!
~Lynn
Playing in the Graveyard.
Originally posted on October 11, 2009 on the B-more Theatre blog.
It’s amazing the energy a graveyard gives off. You are surrounded by the history of hundreds that all ended up in their one little plot of land.
Some families have plots or mausoleum, some individuals have large markers or a tomb. What a person’s grave site looks like says a lot about the impact they’ve made on the world around them.
Last Saturday we had rehearsal in Greenmount Cemetery. Normally this might be considered a little strange, but for us it made sense. The piece we’re working on takes place in a graveyard, so why not get the visceral experience of speaking with hundreds of souls surrounding you?
What really struck me was how many of those graves we visited never really saw visitors any more. The section we were in seemed to have a lot of graves of individuals that died in the 50′s, I even found a family plot for the Mortons, though I don’t think there is any relation. I thought about how many of these people laying here no longer receive visitors, no one comes to mourn for them. I wonder if all their family is dead and if not, are they remembered enough to be visited?
We did an exercise to warm up where I had the two actresses tell me the story of a person in the cemetery. It’s kind of amazing the information you can gather from such a small plot of land. Our history is written by those that bury us.
Like the Leary’s, Thomas Leary’s mother was buried there, his wife too. They had a large plot marker, like it was meant to be a family plot, but no children were buried there. They could have had children that were buried elsewhere in the world, but a family plot is usually something that is known about, yes? He died after his wife and is buried between the two women that loved him the most.
We also met a woman, Harriett (I believe was her name), who survived her husband. He was a doctor, died in his 40′s or 50′s, but poor Harriet lived without him for another 40+ years. She shares his grave site though, they are buried on top of each other, lying together for an eternity. Next to her is where her son is buried, died when he was 21. She survived the two men she loved most and had to live on without them. Someone cared for her and her family though, the have a large stone marker than covers her & her husband’s entire site.
It was a really great day, I appreciated the opportunity to get out of the rehearsal space and experience something different. It’s amazing what getting out of the normal comfort zone of the rehearsal space will teach you.
~Lynn
Swimming in the Spoon River.
Originally posted on May 2, 2009 on the B-more Theatre blog.
Well I’m soon to be swimming in the Spoon River. Not really though that could be something to try. What I mean by this is that a theatre colleague of mine, Alex Hewett (see the post called “Addicted”) and I are going to working on a project we are tentatively calling “The Women of Spoon River”.
This all came about when I was working on Watch, A Haunting back in October and one of the books that we used in the show as a prop was The Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. She made a comment about how much she loved it and I told her how I loved it as well. All of a sudden things clicked and a project was born.
So we are going to start working on it now, identifying the poems we would like to work on, as well as recruiting two other actresses to work on the piece once we get into rehearsals. I’m directing, Alex will be acting and we both will be piecing together this piece, writing when needed, etc.
I’m really excited to start working on it! We do know that we will be running Halloween weekend and that we will be a part of Free Fall Baltimore at the Strand.
I’ll keep you updated via this blog on our process and what we’re doing. Generative work is what feeds my soul and I love that I’ve found a long term project to work on with an artist I respect immensely. Yes, I did say long term, so though the show goes up in October, that won’t be the last time you see this piece.
~Lynn
