The School Tour production of Animal vs. Animal: an Aesop’s Fables mashup is up and running at elementary schools (there are public performances at MTC the last two weekends of March).

Here’s the stage manager’s performance report from this morning’s show, along with some production photos:

Animal vs. Animal
By Steve Yockey
Directed by Josh Costello
Marin Theatre Company
Performance REPORT #2
Friday, February 26, 2010

PERFORMANCE #2

Friday, February 26, 2010

GENERAL:

Location: Mary Silveira Elemtary School

Scheduled Curtain: 8:30a
Pre-show speech (Megan Sada): 8:29a
Act I – up: 8:29:55a; down: 9:11:05p; total: 42:10

GENERAL RUN NOTES:

Today’s performance went fabulously! The stage was a perfect space for our show at Silveira Elementary, and there was enough lighting for the actors, and actor friendly entrances from the wings and outside of the theatre as well. The actors had great energy going into the show and had time to do a full line through beforehand, while I set up. The principal was very nice and we gave her permission to take a couple of photos for the school paper before the show started.
The audience was very responsive. There were several teachers and parents in the audience that were able to laugh at the adult directed jokes, and the kids laughed, cheered and loved the show, too. The actors were able to get into the audience easier at this school and did so often, as blocked. The students tried to wake up the Hare, but when they couldn’t and the Tortoise won, the all cheered for the Tortoise. When the Capri Sun part came, a lone student started chanting “BET! BET! BET!,” soon to be joined by the rest of the school, and Mr. Jones egged them on. It was a great, lively audience, but it was all in control and in context.
After the show, the Principal told us that the lessons in the show were directly related to their “No Bully” program, their readings about two second grade students who make up their own fables, and the school’s Life Skill of the Month – Honesty. She was very grateful for the show and the morals it taught. After the performance, another teacher came backstage to take more photos, but we had to remind them that we couldn’t (the actors were tired and sweaty) because of the AEA rules, but encouraged them to contact Josh Costello for some of our production photos.
Overall, it was a great show and a great day! Thanks!

PRODUCTION NOTES:

Props – I painted the Fox’s inner ear white today.

Costumes – I did the laundry today and the costumes are back in the car.

Production – Nothing to note. Thank you!

ATTENDANCE/COMPANY:

Nothing to note. Thank you!

Thank you,

Megan Sada, SM

Our School Tour production of Animal vs Animal: an Aesop’s Fables mashup opens next week. Here are a couple of rehearsal photos showing some of the wonderful animal masks designed by Dorothy Vollendorf, MTC Production Intern and Production Designer for this show. The actors are Danielle Levin and Patrick Jones (members, AEA).

Marin Theatre Company’s Teen Advisory Board has selected eight finalists from the thirty plays submitted by Marin high school students for the Marin Young Playwrights Festival.

Each submitted play was read by at least three members of the Teen Advisory Board, and the process was blinded — the readers did not know the playwright’s name or school. After the first round of voting and discussions, we determined that there were well more than eight plays that deserved to be finalists. To narrow it down to eight, and to ensure that no more than two finalists would be chosen from any one school, we read some plays aloud, went through several rounds of voting, and held a heated debate. Finally, a consensus was reached. Here are the finalists, in alphabetical order:

A Different Sort of Art by Gwen Hicks, Marin School of the Arts

A Locked Door by Chris Madera, Redwood High

A Love Hate Relationship by Lauren DeBiasio, Sam Maher, and Emelliano Salas, San Marin High

Death of a Barista by Sam Stecklow, Marin School of the Arts

I Did the Washing and Tidying Up by Cindy Diaz and Bonnie Kate Wolf, San Rafael High

Lost Play by Keira Sullivan, Redwood High

Mr. Goodyshins and His Numerous Dinner Guests Find A Murderer Under the Sea In Their Polka-Dot Submarine by Sander Lutz, Tamalpais High

Toby by Jasper Hirose, Terra Linda High

The eight finalists will be performed at MTC in the Marin Young Playwrights Festival at 7pm on Monday, February 1, 2010. The cast for each play will be either members of the Teen Advisory Board or students from the playwright’s high school, as decided by the playwright. This event will be open to the public. MTC’s Artistic Staff will serve as judges, and will select one winning script.

The winning script will be presented as a staged reading with professional actors and a professional director at MTC, in conjunction with MTC’s New Works Series, on February 11 at 7pm.

It’s the last day of MTC’s 2009 Summer Camp. 91 students from grades 2 to 12 performed in 4 different plays in our 2 theatres during the 8 weeks of camp, and 12 interns assisted our 25 teaching artists. Classes included playwriting, freestyle rap, costume and set design, circus skills, and much more. Thanks to one and all for a fantastic summer! Afterschool classes start soon.

MTC is commissioning emerging playwright Steve Yockey to write a new adaptation of Aesop’s Fables for our 2010 School Tour production. Steve’s work (for adult theatregoers) has recently been seen in the Bay Area at Magic Theatre, Encore Theatre, and Impact Theatre. The SF Chronicle calls Steve Yockey “a fiercely imaginative and finely tuned new voice.” We are thrilled to be able to work with Steve to create a brand new play for young people in Marin and the Bay Area.

A huge thank you to our Perspectives guest, Patricia Gill, for her incredibly informative lecture before the matinee performance of Lydia on Thursday, April 2.

Patricia is the Executive Director of Marin Brain Injury Network, a rehabilitation and support organization for traumatic brain injury survivors and their families, serving Marin and Sonoma counties since 1983.

During the rehearsal process, Patricia was kind enough to invite the actors and the director, Jasson Minadakis, to the center to learn about the effects of a traumatic brain injury in very practical terms, and were invited to meet and interact with some of the participants. This research was vital to the creative process, informing the character of Ceci and the characters around Ceci who would participate in her therapy and rehabilitation.

Her point of view was an incredible opportunity for the audience to understand the play from a different angle, and to learn a little more about one aspect of the show.

For more information about the Marin Brain Injury Network, please click here.

Please consider joining us for future Perspectives lectures before the Thursday matinee. Call the box office for more details.

Actor Gloria Garayua on Lydia:

Tonight was interesting. It was our first official preview but our second audience altogether. They seemed very responsive. They were generous with their laughter and engaged in the more dramatic moments as well. I thought I heard a few sniffles in the audience here and there. I was so tired from the long week we’ve had and all the energy this show took out of me last night left me draggin all day today. But I think I gathered up the energy again for tonight’s show. I was trying to implement some new notes I received today and I ended up getting a little caught in my head remembering them. The idea eventually is to remember the notes without having to actively remember them. There’s always tomorrow.

Actor Gloria Garayua on Lydia:

So tonight we had a producer’s preview. We thanked the peeps who gave us money by giving them a dinner and giving them a private preview of our dress rehearsal tonight. It went great! It was nice to sense people in the audience. It’s always interesting to hear how others perceive the information that I’ve had over a year to become familiar with. Interestingly enough, people laugh at some places where I expected it and didn’t in others. And I can’t help but feel “Oh, gotta find another way to deliver that one”. But, then again, not getting the laugh has alot to do with the whole stage picture, and where you just came from. So, I talked myself into believing, hey, if they didn’t laugh, there wasn’t meant to be a laugh there. Besides, I have SO much to worry about that I got plenty to keep me busy!

Actor Gloria Garayua on Lydia:

We’ve been running out of time lately and so since last Thursday, we haven’t been able to run the whole show. It’s frustrating because working scenes so choppy doesn’t help. Not for me. I need, at least at this point, the fluidity of a run through. So tonight, we got a chance to run most of Act 1, with lights, sound, costumes, and might I mention OATMEAL! It went really well. But doing it straight through is the only way I can test myself as to whether I know the order of things or not. It also helps me figure out what lines I’m not sure about, or what movement still doesn’t feel natural now that I know my character alot better. We ran out of time again so we weren’t able to finish Act 1, but we’ll finish it tomorrow, then run Act 2, and then…THEN we have a real life AUDIENCE! I can’t believe it! Here it comes! No more rehearsals! I better get it together! It’s ok, previews are really going to help me figure the last minute details out. – Gloria Garayua

Actor Adriana Gaviria on Lydia:

This will be my first blog entry EVER! It’s been a lot of fun getting to know Mill Valley, especially for an East Coaster. In the first few days, I saw a skunk, got lost in the mountains driving to rehearsal, kept on running into deer, and carried a big huge flashlight everywhere I went since I’m not use to such darkness at night. After all, I am from the Big Apple where no one ever sleeps and Times Square is lit up at all times. We have been working at a great pace and this weekend we had our two longest days. They are called our 10 out of 12s. That means that we worked for 10 hours each day with a nice 2 hour break in between working on getting all the elements of the show to fit together to tell Octavio’s story – Lights, Sound, Costumes, Set, and Actors. It’s been such a gift to have the playwright during this process. Both Jasson, our director, and Octavio give us a lot of things to think about so that we can deepen our characters as the rehearsal process moves on and we begin to get ready for previews. This stage in the rehearsal process is the trickiest, I think, because we are just getting used to the set and are having to deal with props and other technical elements like quick changes or entrances/exits. Once this passes, then we can let go of thinking about all that stuff and really slip into our roles and organically find all the magical moments Octavio has beautifully written for us!