allyuh, griot looking for play ideas; we reading right now to select for an evening of 1acts, unless we find something full-length we cyah turn away, so...
what would you like to see onstage this year?
griot productions will close this 2010 season with nina mercer's gutta beautiful, which we did a staged reading of @ cornerbar last year, but we have a production slated for july-august before we get to the strippers, so tell us what else you interested in, nah; comment with ideas...
walk good.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
jestina's calypso, postmortem
i hadda start by saying this is just me talking how i feel as director of the show jestina's calypso produced by griot but not representing griot's views in any way, though some of the information i have accesss to is through being co-artistic-director @ griot.
and feel free to comment and tell us what you thought...
hard to say how i felt about the show, except i know i glad it over.
it was hard, and in too many instances harder than it needed to be due to forces beyond our control. but i think our audiences were truly supportive, encouraging, generous and forgiving, of us, of jestina, and of our desire to make theatre in our image.
people overall enjoyed the show and griot wuk hard.
i had problems with the venue- i admit up front that the venue we selected was an auditorium, not a theatre, but is used/rented out as a theatre regularly. i only heard on show night and after the fact that everybody we know who ever worked there said they were never going back, and i wholeheartedly join that group. never again, uwi open campus gordon street auditorium. hated it, plus they told our producer they were blacklisting us 'cause they didn't like it when i spoke truth to power.
this post isn't just about the venue though, but everything i want to say about the production, so lemme start by stating preliminary facts going into tech+performance:
griot productions is a brand new company being launched with this inaugural production of jestina's calypso by earl lovelace, who worked with us on revising his 1974 script for our run. the venue is an auditorium with arena seating, which means our show would be viewed in the round (audience on all 4 sides, no real or immediate backstage especially this particular arena). when we requested the venue after visiting multiple venues since our 1st choice (little carib) is currently, and for too long now, unavailable, uwi's space management/administration (we thought) asked griot to come and meet with them in person to discuss our plans. at this meeting with the head of accounting mr.rez, wendy who seems to handle bookings and other secretarial stuff, ms.bobb/babb director of open campus, and a lovely dude whose portfolio+name we sadly don't recall, they got all up in our business, way more than necessary for an enterprise that only required assurance that we could+would pay on time, and would attempt nothing illegal on their premises, under (inter)national law or their in-house rules. they wanted to know about our vision, mission, intentions, ambitions (individual+company), reasons for choosing theatre, reasons for choosing to work home in sweet t+t, reasons for choosing the piece, future plans...real ting. we talk the talk and they agreed to rent us the space. we were allowed to lay our set on their wooden floor but not to screw into or otherwise directly attach it to their wooden floor. they took us into the space for a walkthrough, pointing out dressingrooms+bathrooms, and watched us do a voice-test with one of us standing centrestage speaking to another @ the furthest away part of the back of the house then switching places to make sure acoustics were decent and we'd be able to hear actors. they stood with us during griot's discussion that ended quickly with our agreement that acoustics were good enough that we didn't need to rent microphones, thank the universe...
1. i was asked repeatedly by audience members, "why allyuh didn't use microphones so we could hear them properly?" and "why allyuh didn't get air conditioning?"- seemingly unrelated questions, but not. i was livid on our 1st day of tech last week when i walked into the space to discover the sound of air conditioning. 7units and 4 additional vents, the space is sweltering without them all on. with them on, even my voice (excellently trained, doh need microphone to reach back of house up to at least 1,500seats) can't be heard. actors standing 5feet away from each other onstage cyah hear each other. so the choice, since nobody @ the space thought it right to mention the ac noise when they heard us decide against mics, was to let the audience sweat to hear the actors, or sit comfortably and miss dialogue. and yes, actors' job includes vocal projection, but trust me when i say that even the strongest voices would struggle in this space. we tried running the ac all day to chill the space, then turning it off immediately before performance opening night ('cause, of course, the other problem is that you can't know if something will resolve for a room full of warm bodies what it resolves for cast+crew of less-than-20 until you put the warm bodies in the room and try) figuring we'd barely make it through before total meltdown with a no-intermission runtime of an hour+15. the audience, all dressed for our gala, looked like they were suffering collective heatstroke and isoke looked like a drowned rat rather than pretty girl, sweating onstage as laura, weave sticking to her face; stage management made the call to turn the ac back on about halfway through. the audience cooled but since the actors never exit once the show begins, they couldn't tell the ac was on and thus didn't adjust projection to suit (not that it helps that much in that space anyway) and even when they realised they couldn't hear each other and made the fix, it only helped marginally cause the ac so damn loud. next night we cooled all day again, then turned most of the units off for performance and tried to compromise with only some running, but the audience still had trouble hearing over the noise and still wasn't comfortably cool, although better off than the previous night's temperature. lose-lose situation that made griot look like we were too stupid to rent microphones for a production or care about audience comfort.
2. 1st technical rehearsal (which space management/admin[?] knew we planned to have) we didn't have basic functioning sound equipment on site. they said they'd have it for us next day, but as our 6p.m. tech start approached, we found out they had done nothing to resolve it whole day since our complaint the night before, and now saying they would buy it in the morning, even though they had all day to look for the piece of equipment, not find it, and replace it by close of business in time for our rehearsal. when we made a fuss, they called the person they shoulda called the whole time and he came and found what we needed, on the premises the whole time, meaning we lacked sound in our previous night's tech for no damn reason.
3. after the venue meeting, our production manager requested final paperwork so we could cut a cheque for the rental. they took a month to invoice us, giving the figure the friday before tech week, then pressured us from monday morning for the money, like we should come up with it instantly after waiting a month on them. on wednesday when we tried to load-in they wouldn't let us in until we paid the next installment in cash. i later complained to ms.bobb/babb that the lack of sound equipment for a scheduled technical rehearsal is unacceptable and that bathrooms, dressingrooms and technical requirements are non-negotiable, without raising my voice or cussing which griot production manager tonya can attest to, in spite of the fact that bobb/babb was rude enough to interrupt a conversation from the top of a staircase then not come closer to speak with us, making us strain to hear her and repeatedly ask her to repeat herself from the floor below, over the noisy ac. next day, bobb/babb called isoke (producer) who she apparently thought i was, and started screaming at her on the phone about how she (meaning me) was rude to her. she shouted+screamed at poor confused sok who eventually worked out the identity issue, then babb/bobb said she no longer wanted to give us the venue and jumbie sok for the full balance immediately or we were out. then even after sok acquiesced on the $, bobb/babb said she planned to tell everybody not to come to our show. so not only was she not grown+intelligent enough to say something one time about her perception that i was rude (which i wasn't, she just didn't like the truth) she, when it was too late, took it out on an unsuspecting innocent over the phone (nice of them to make us sit through their ridiculous meeting to then not know which of us 3 is which) then announced intentions to blacklist us. 'cause that's the way uwi professionals deal with shit.
4. the only time we think we actually dealt with space management/admin was when a woman came into our almost-complete load-in to say that we had to stop and move shit so they could put carpet on the floor under our set. i only saw her this one time, when she was telling us we had to let them put down carpet to protect the floor, in spite of it having been discussed in their too-invasive meeting that we could only lay stuff on the floor and needed a protective layer of ply demarcating our playing area, which we'd now already paid for and incorporated into the set. luckily we fought them down on the carpet issue, 'cause the road+house woulda look mightly silly on carpet...
5. for some reason, the head of accounting mr.rez, was the one who approached me while our lights crew was hanging instruments to say that the last time somebody brought in outside lighting (the space only has regular room lighting and no grid to hang from) it pulled too much power and overloaded in-house circuitry; another thing they coulda told us when they heard our site-visit-meeting talk of lighting rental costs and limited places available to potentially hang instruments, but didn't seem to think it important to mention. luckily our boys brought their own dimmer packs and handled it.
6. mr.rez was also who i spoke to when wednesday+thursday+friday had passed with them never unlocking male+female bathrooms+dressingrooms (1 of each) in spite of our repeated requests. while we set up for the gala saturday afternoon i asked the dude they made us pay to be on-site in charge of ac (which didn't stop him from asking "why?" when we requested it, like is any of his business once we pay to use the space) and not finding sound equipment and other crap we were fully capable of ourselves, and he say call mr.rez, mumbling something about storage. i call and mr.rez tell me he cyah help 'cause the male dressingroom they refuse to open whole week locked 'cause they using it for their own storage, leaving our cast of 7 young men+women all dressing in a single 6x8 room. he say they couldn't unlock the female bathroom and our female gala audience members (some of whom are older and walking with assistance) would have to walk across the yard to another building to pee, because the cleaner had the key. i asked if that was because the cleaner was finally coming to do the job, as the male bathroom we'd been forced to share all week had been filthy everyday in spite of signage insisting it's cleaned daily. he said no, but to make it up to us, he'd ensure it was all clean and female bathroom open for the next night's show (we'd never get the male dressingroom)- as though that was a big favour, having clean bathrooms when renting an auditorium. i ask mr.rez one time if he's the accountant, and he hastened to correct me, he's the head of accounting. so i bawl, good, i then take that to mean that in light of the conversation, he'd ensure we were refunded appropriately and didn't pay for amenities not received, because no bathrooms+dressingrooms for a professional production is unacceptable, and had we been told we wouldn't get bathrooms for audience and dressingrooms for cast, we woulda gone elsewhere. sorry.
7. blocking (choreographed movements of actors on+off+aroundstage, interacting with each other and set+props). my bad. i blocked my show for theatre-in-the-round cause that's the space. i thought about the fact that if we didn't fill the house it'd be a waste of major time+effort+energy, but i'd rather block to accomodate audience potentially not there than have people come and never see actors' faces. so on both nights of performance with the house half-full and audience seated in one half of the arena only, i was asked why i had actors back the audience so much. when audience cyah see people sitting on the other side of the arena facing them across the playing area, they doh recognise blocking designed to accomodate those seats; makes sense, "why they backing me?" is more immediate than "what they facing?"...maybe i shoulda anticipated half-houses as a 1st time production company, but i think i'd do the same thing again cause i doh ever want to not consider potential audience.
8. they ask how i could cast an ugly girl in the pretty girl role, opening night only; those who know her ask wha' happen to she. me+isoke/laura apologise. we didn't get her weave right for the 1st performance and it was throwing major shadow on sweaty face. poor laura looked dark+harsh+aggressive, and the heat due to no ac didn't help...we trim them bangs way back and had laura right come sunday. sorry...
other than that, i thought the actors did the best they could with less-than-ideal working conditions, and delivered a performance that grabbed audience members with laughter, then left them crying. i loved our set+costumes, big up paulette alfred and (michael) guy james studios.
griot learned that we should question every tiny detail because businesspeople do not volunteer information based on good sense for the venture, and that people do not always honour commitments to sponsorship and other assistance, willing to leave you and your big event twisting in the wind. we learned to let nothing get in the way of having tickets+flyers early. and that we never ever want to work in uwi's gordon street open campus auditorium again.
other shit went down, but this is what i have for now and this post is ridiculous already.
comment, nah; tell us what you thought about jestina's calypso...
walk good.
ps: we reading to select for a run of 1-act plays in june/july, so also comment with suggestions, nah!
[disclaimer: a version of this post exists @ http://urbanfolktales.blogspot.com/]
and feel free to comment and tell us what you thought...
hard to say how i felt about the show, except i know i glad it over.
it was hard, and in too many instances harder than it needed to be due to forces beyond our control. but i think our audiences were truly supportive, encouraging, generous and forgiving, of us, of jestina, and of our desire to make theatre in our image.
people overall enjoyed the show and griot wuk hard.
i had problems with the venue- i admit up front that the venue we selected was an auditorium, not a theatre, but is used/rented out as a theatre regularly. i only heard on show night and after the fact that everybody we know who ever worked there said they were never going back, and i wholeheartedly join that group. never again, uwi open campus gordon street auditorium. hated it, plus they told our producer they were blacklisting us 'cause they didn't like it when i spoke truth to power.
this post isn't just about the venue though, but everything i want to say about the production, so lemme start by stating preliminary facts going into tech+performance:
griot productions is a brand new company being launched with this inaugural production of jestina's calypso by earl lovelace, who worked with us on revising his 1974 script for our run. the venue is an auditorium with arena seating, which means our show would be viewed in the round (audience on all 4 sides, no real or immediate backstage especially this particular arena). when we requested the venue after visiting multiple venues since our 1st choice (little carib) is currently, and for too long now, unavailable, uwi's space management/administration (we thought) asked griot to come and meet with them in person to discuss our plans. at this meeting with the head of accounting mr.rez, wendy who seems to handle bookings and other secretarial stuff, ms.bobb/babb director of open campus, and a lovely dude whose portfolio+name we sadly don't recall, they got all up in our business, way more than necessary for an enterprise that only required assurance that we could+would pay on time, and would attempt nothing illegal on their premises, under (inter)national law or their in-house rules. they wanted to know about our vision, mission, intentions, ambitions (individual+company), reasons for choosing theatre, reasons for choosing to work home in sweet t+t, reasons for choosing the piece, future plans...real ting. we talk the talk and they agreed to rent us the space. we were allowed to lay our set on their wooden floor but not to screw into or otherwise directly attach it to their wooden floor. they took us into the space for a walkthrough, pointing out dressingrooms+bathrooms, and watched us do a voice-test with one of us standing centrestage speaking to another @ the furthest away part of the back of the house then switching places to make sure acoustics were decent and we'd be able to hear actors. they stood with us during griot's discussion that ended quickly with our agreement that acoustics were good enough that we didn't need to rent microphones, thank the universe...
1. i was asked repeatedly by audience members, "why allyuh didn't use microphones so we could hear them properly?" and "why allyuh didn't get air conditioning?"- seemingly unrelated questions, but not. i was livid on our 1st day of tech last week when i walked into the space to discover the sound of air conditioning. 7units and 4 additional vents, the space is sweltering without them all on. with them on, even my voice (excellently trained, doh need microphone to reach back of house up to at least 1,500seats) can't be heard. actors standing 5feet away from each other onstage cyah hear each other. so the choice, since nobody @ the space thought it right to mention the ac noise when they heard us decide against mics, was to let the audience sweat to hear the actors, or sit comfortably and miss dialogue. and yes, actors' job includes vocal projection, but trust me when i say that even the strongest voices would struggle in this space. we tried running the ac all day to chill the space, then turning it off immediately before performance opening night ('cause, of course, the other problem is that you can't know if something will resolve for a room full of warm bodies what it resolves for cast+crew of less-than-20 until you put the warm bodies in the room and try) figuring we'd barely make it through before total meltdown with a no-intermission runtime of an hour+15. the audience, all dressed for our gala, looked like they were suffering collective heatstroke and isoke looked like a drowned rat rather than pretty girl, sweating onstage as laura, weave sticking to her face; stage management made the call to turn the ac back on about halfway through. the audience cooled but since the actors never exit once the show begins, they couldn't tell the ac was on and thus didn't adjust projection to suit (not that it helps that much in that space anyway) and even when they realised they couldn't hear each other and made the fix, it only helped marginally cause the ac so damn loud. next night we cooled all day again, then turned most of the units off for performance and tried to compromise with only some running, but the audience still had trouble hearing over the noise and still wasn't comfortably cool, although better off than the previous night's temperature. lose-lose situation that made griot look like we were too stupid to rent microphones for a production or care about audience comfort.
2. 1st technical rehearsal (which space management/admin[?] knew we planned to have) we didn't have basic functioning sound equipment on site. they said they'd have it for us next day, but as our 6p.m. tech start approached, we found out they had done nothing to resolve it whole day since our complaint the night before, and now saying they would buy it in the morning, even though they had all day to look for the piece of equipment, not find it, and replace it by close of business in time for our rehearsal. when we made a fuss, they called the person they shoulda called the whole time and he came and found what we needed, on the premises the whole time, meaning we lacked sound in our previous night's tech for no damn reason.
3. after the venue meeting, our production manager requested final paperwork so we could cut a cheque for the rental. they took a month to invoice us, giving the figure the friday before tech week, then pressured us from monday morning for the money, like we should come up with it instantly after waiting a month on them. on wednesday when we tried to load-in they wouldn't let us in until we paid the next installment in cash. i later complained to ms.bobb/babb that the lack of sound equipment for a scheduled technical rehearsal is unacceptable and that bathrooms, dressingrooms and technical requirements are non-negotiable, without raising my voice or cussing which griot production manager tonya can attest to, in spite of the fact that bobb/babb was rude enough to interrupt a conversation from the top of a staircase then not come closer to speak with us, making us strain to hear her and repeatedly ask her to repeat herself from the floor below, over the noisy ac. next day, bobb/babb called isoke (producer) who she apparently thought i was, and started screaming at her on the phone about how she (meaning me) was rude to her. she shouted+screamed at poor confused sok who eventually worked out the identity issue, then babb/bobb said she no longer wanted to give us the venue and jumbie sok for the full balance immediately or we were out. then even after sok acquiesced on the $, bobb/babb said she planned to tell everybody not to come to our show. so not only was she not grown+intelligent enough to say something one time about her perception that i was rude (which i wasn't, she just didn't like the truth) she, when it was too late, took it out on an unsuspecting innocent over the phone (nice of them to make us sit through their ridiculous meeting to then not know which of us 3 is which) then announced intentions to blacklist us. 'cause that's the way uwi professionals deal with shit.
4. the only time we think we actually dealt with space management/admin was when a woman came into our almost-complete load-in to say that we had to stop and move shit so they could put carpet on the floor under our set. i only saw her this one time, when she was telling us we had to let them put down carpet to protect the floor, in spite of it having been discussed in their too-invasive meeting that we could only lay stuff on the floor and needed a protective layer of ply demarcating our playing area, which we'd now already paid for and incorporated into the set. luckily we fought them down on the carpet issue, 'cause the road+house woulda look mightly silly on carpet...
5. for some reason, the head of accounting mr.rez, was the one who approached me while our lights crew was hanging instruments to say that the last time somebody brought in outside lighting (the space only has regular room lighting and no grid to hang from) it pulled too much power and overloaded in-house circuitry; another thing they coulda told us when they heard our site-visit-meeting talk of lighting rental costs and limited places available to potentially hang instruments, but didn't seem to think it important to mention. luckily our boys brought their own dimmer packs and handled it.
6. mr.rez was also who i spoke to when wednesday+thursday+friday had passed with them never unlocking male+female bathrooms+dressingrooms (1 of each) in spite of our repeated requests. while we set up for the gala saturday afternoon i asked the dude they made us pay to be on-site in charge of ac (which didn't stop him from asking "why?" when we requested it, like is any of his business once we pay to use the space) and not finding sound equipment and other crap we were fully capable of ourselves, and he say call mr.rez, mumbling something about storage. i call and mr.rez tell me he cyah help 'cause the male dressingroom they refuse to open whole week locked 'cause they using it for their own storage, leaving our cast of 7 young men+women all dressing in a single 6x8 room. he say they couldn't unlock the female bathroom and our female gala audience members (some of whom are older and walking with assistance) would have to walk across the yard to another building to pee, because the cleaner had the key. i asked if that was because the cleaner was finally coming to do the job, as the male bathroom we'd been forced to share all week had been filthy everyday in spite of signage insisting it's cleaned daily. he said no, but to make it up to us, he'd ensure it was all clean and female bathroom open for the next night's show (we'd never get the male dressingroom)- as though that was a big favour, having clean bathrooms when renting an auditorium. i ask mr.rez one time if he's the accountant, and he hastened to correct me, he's the head of accounting. so i bawl, good, i then take that to mean that in light of the conversation, he'd ensure we were refunded appropriately and didn't pay for amenities not received, because no bathrooms+dressingrooms for a professional production is unacceptable, and had we been told we wouldn't get bathrooms for audience and dressingrooms for cast, we woulda gone elsewhere. sorry.
7. blocking (choreographed movements of actors on+off+aroundstage, interacting with each other and set+props). my bad. i blocked my show for theatre-in-the-round cause that's the space. i thought about the fact that if we didn't fill the house it'd be a waste of major time+effort+energy, but i'd rather block to accomodate audience potentially not there than have people come and never see actors' faces. so on both nights of performance with the house half-full and audience seated in one half of the arena only, i was asked why i had actors back the audience so much. when audience cyah see people sitting on the other side of the arena facing them across the playing area, they doh recognise blocking designed to accomodate those seats; makes sense, "why they backing me?" is more immediate than "what they facing?"...maybe i shoulda anticipated half-houses as a 1st time production company, but i think i'd do the same thing again cause i doh ever want to not consider potential audience.
8. they ask how i could cast an ugly girl in the pretty girl role, opening night only; those who know her ask wha' happen to she. me+isoke/laura apologise. we didn't get her weave right for the 1st performance and it was throwing major shadow on sweaty face. poor laura looked dark+harsh+aggressive, and the heat due to no ac didn't help...we trim them bangs way back and had laura right come sunday. sorry...
other than that, i thought the actors did the best they could with less-than-ideal working conditions, and delivered a performance that grabbed audience members with laughter, then left them crying. i loved our set+costumes, big up paulette alfred and (michael) guy james studios.
griot learned that we should question every tiny detail because businesspeople do not volunteer information based on good sense for the venture, and that people do not always honour commitments to sponsorship and other assistance, willing to leave you and your big event twisting in the wind. we learned to let nothing get in the way of having tickets+flyers early. and that we never ever want to work in uwi's gordon street open campus auditorium again.
other shit went down, but this is what i have for now and this post is ridiculous already.
comment, nah; tell us what you thought about jestina's calypso...
walk good.
ps: we reading to select for a run of 1-act plays in june/july, so also comment with suggestions, nah!
[disclaimer: a version of this post exists @ http://urbanfolktales.blogspot.com/]
Monday, April 19, 2010
morning after
procrastinating on collecting detritus from isoke's laura weave off my floor, alongside the usual post-lime assortment of wine cork, mariganja stems+seeds, wine-stained blankets(+floor), variety of glasses+cups containing a variety of dregs, napkins, faintly gyro-scented bags, and this time, randomly, a woogie (never worn one in my life so it strange to see it among the glasses every time i look up @ my rca cabinet).
most of jestina cast+crew+family limed by me last night, plus some musician friends and my darling zaaki (cyah wait, beach tomorrow babes). had a time; sal played his jestina tune he been wukkin in rehearsals+onstage and it sweeet...when i heard it in rehearsal i knew i liked it one time, which is why i had him keep it in the show, but then only ever got to hear it under the bedroom scene, too soft+distant for me to catch properly. last night in my livingroom we got to hear it full, especially with jestina cast, gyazette backups and my bassman peter in the house for musical support...hadda love my peoples...
griot productions' inaugural performance accomplished.
jestina's calypso was well-received in spite of technical issues on our gala opening night and i so glad people came out and supported us and our desire to make we theatre in we image...
i'ma blog a proper postmortem after my (desperately needed) day off tomorrow 'cause it have real ting to say about our run, ranging from moments of exhilaration to moments when i wanted to sink into the floor and die and wished the whole show could just be over and me in my house alone in my panty smokin' something. plus, i hadda talk our myriad issues with the venue, and that need space...if yuh think napa get pong, stay tuned for the zeppo...
walk good.
[disclaimer: a version of this post also over @ http://urbanfolktales.blogspot.com]
most of jestina cast+crew+family limed by me last night, plus some musician friends and my darling zaaki (cyah wait, beach tomorrow babes). had a time; sal played his jestina tune he been wukkin in rehearsals+onstage and it sweeet...when i heard it in rehearsal i knew i liked it one time, which is why i had him keep it in the show, but then only ever got to hear it under the bedroom scene, too soft+distant for me to catch properly. last night in my livingroom we got to hear it full, especially with jestina cast, gyazette backups and my bassman peter in the house for musical support...hadda love my peoples...
griot productions' inaugural performance accomplished.
jestina's calypso was well-received in spite of technical issues on our gala opening night and i so glad people came out and supported us and our desire to make we theatre in we image...
i'ma blog a proper postmortem after my (desperately needed) day off tomorrow 'cause it have real ting to say about our run, ranging from moments of exhilaration to moments when i wanted to sink into the floor and die and wished the whole show could just be over and me in my house alone in my panty smokin' something. plus, i hadda talk our myriad issues with the venue, and that need space...if yuh think napa get pong, stay tuned for the zeppo...
walk good.
[disclaimer: a version of this post also over @ http://urbanfolktales.blogspot.com]
isoke-cum-laura
how could i forget to mention in the costume parade post (below on mainpage): for anybody who missed the show, isoke had a straight-hair weave 'cause laura is not of dreadlocks...look out for whatever photos i can gather (needless to say i was too busy to pay attention to who photo-d)...
oh, morning-after post in the writing...
walk good.
oh, morning-after post in the writing...
walk good.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
costume parading + opening
so. i late. and lame.
we open tonight and i only now blogging the costume parade.
but if i made more time to blog, you wouldn't get such a good show, ent?
so the stellar mobile-phone image above is the cast of jestina's calypso with costume designer paulette alfred, mostly costumed.
that 1st night they tried costumes, they killed it in rehearsal- getting dressed for the part can make all the difference...of course, i mighta been predisposed to gladness after driving on jestina's road earlier...went to check out the set before evening rehearsal (paulette's husband, michael guy james made my day with his adorable deconstructed bedroom/parlour) and when i pull up outside the scene shop i see black-covered slabs of luaun (eighth-quarter inch ply) in the driveway. i mash brakes and ask michael if to drive on them and he laugh and tell me is the "road" for our show, living outside in the real road so people could drive+walk on it and make it look like our roads do, except that apparently we gettin' polite in we ole age, so not just me, but everybody stop to ask if it was ok before travelling on it...
but i drove on our road before it came to the theatre for installation!
maybe that doh excite anybody not wukkin' this show as much as it excited me, but tuesday seeing set+costumes, i finally felt it was coming together and maybe i hadn't made a terrible mistake thinking i could make these people those characters in jestina's world, and they felt it too.
needless to say, they still managed to be terrible the next night (or maybe it was the night after that, either way, another few times well before last night's final tech/dress rehearsal) but i eh worried: i have seen them do the work and do it brilliantly well; i know they capable of the work and believe they love the work; and they know they better do the damnblasted wuk or i kneecappin' every las' man jack! and plus, final dress was pretty damn bad, so show should be great!
earl (lovelace, playwright) revised the original ending and i think both he+i are liking this version. when griot decided we wanted to do jestina and approached him, he surprised us with the fact that he's been working on revising the script since he wrote it in 1974: he's never been quite happy with the ending, which i understand bothers people who need things to be neat+tidy and loose ends tied up; my life always been messy so i can accept non-resolution onstage...
but when he gave us the most recent revision there was some stuff (including a new scene+ending) that i didn't love, so i spent an anguished 2weeks building the nerve to tell someone whose work i admire (wine of astonishment so amazing it makes the writer in me incredibly jealous) who happens to be a giant in his field, that i had some ideas to improve his words/work.
me.
wha' i could do to help earl lovelace write? wha' i could tell him about words?
but i went brave. take in front. right?
i went back to his house in cascade, terrified but determined to talk about what didn't work for me as a director and why, and brainstorm how we might resolve some issues.
he was lovely, totally encouraging, helpful, humble, nonconfrontational, agreed with my suggestions, was more than willing to make adjustments, and even ended up telling me that he thought my questioning would finally make the play what he always wanted to make it. then when i thought my life couldn't get better he made me dinner...yummy.
this show was supposed to be...
come see it.
griot productions presents:
earl lovelace's jestina's calypso
saturday april 17: gala 7pm, opening performance 8pm.
sunday april 18: performance 6pm.
runtime inside an hour and a half, no intermission, no excuses.
walk good.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Producer's Note
"gOInG iNtO aCtIng iS LiKe aSkIng FoR AdmIssiOn To aN InsAnE asYLUm. AnYonE may apPLy, bUt OnLy THe CerTiFiaBiLy InSaNe ArE aDmiTTed."-Michael Shurtleff
I must have been insane to choose the life of an actor. Always struggling, never living beyond the moment, hustling yet surviving, inspired ready for the next moment. I love it, but there have been times when hated it. Not too long ago, I decided that I had endured enough. I felt that I had to make some changes in order to stop living inside simple survival and start living my life’s dream to its fullest potential. So, I had to move back to sweet, sweet Trinidad and start my own company. Thus gRiOt was born, and like a kinda magic "Jestina’s Calypso" went up, sold out and received rave reviews ... Ha! Ah wish!!! Talk about biting off more than I could chew! (If you are reading this, obviously I didn’t spit anything out). I couldn’t tell you the first thing about owning, running or producing for a theatre company; proposal, budget? Huh? I could barely budget my own meager income. But the one thing I was certain of going into this venture was that I, Isoke, Producer of gRiOt PrOduCtiOnS, needed to find the right persons for the two most important jobs in the company. Lucky for me, Barts (Artistic Director) and Tons (Production Manager) shared my frustrations, passion and my vision. Somebody say “DIVINE ORDER.” Destiny. Don't get me wrong… It has not been easy, the only thing harder than navigating through our differences has been getting Sponsorship !!!!
tHe gOaL Of tHe RevOLUtiOnaRy aRtiSt, is tO mAKe tHe revOLUtiOn IrResiStibLe" -Toni Cade Bambara
gRiOt came to me onstage in Nina Mercer’s "Gutta Beautiful" whilst taking my bow getting ready to part ways with Orchid aka Alice in Wonderdick. Nina had made her movements in the revolution irresistible to me through Gutta. She held up a big ass mirror for people to see their own ugly reflections, their deepest fears and twisted realities. After many auditions, type castings, forgettable roles and one trip back home, I knew I needed to do that right here. It has always been the function of the artist in whatever medium to reflect our reality, even that which we coat with our silence. gRiOt comes to break that silence by demanding your attention. We challenge you to speak, laugh, shout, protest or cry. Whether the noise is enraged or exuberant, it is only by articulating our voices that we can define our culture.
“MoSt peOpLe aRe NoT rEallY Free. ThEy aRe cOnFiNed bY ThE NiChE iN tHe WOrLd ThAt theY cArVE oUT fOr thEmSelVeS. ThEy LiMit tHeMsElVes To FeweR PoSSiBiLiTiEs By ThE NARRoWnEss oF TheIr vISiOn.”-V.S. Naipaul
When you have vision, there is no room to be frightened. If I stopped to think for too long, craving definite certainty, gRiOt would not exist and I would be working a 9-5. My vision for gRiOt is to be free….free to go out into the real world experiencing and exploring its most ugly and beautiful truths. Free to move, to dance, to grow in which ever direction we choose. Along the way, we hope to revolutionize the way theatre is viewed, and introduce new and limitless possibilities.
"iF i HaVE sEEn FuRthEr It Is oNly By StAnDiNG oN thE sHouLDerS oF gIaNTs."-Issac Newton
In all we do we must not forget to honor those who make what we do possible. Those revolutionary artists who were deliberate, afraid of nothing. Those who refused to be silenced and when they spoke did so in their own voice. In 1974, Earl Lovelace wrote "Jestina’s Calypso," and it is as relevant today as it was then. The issues have not changed, despite appearances. Lovelace’s characters continue to be a metaphor for our islands; the racial tension and dissension caused by class; the stereotypes that permeate our consciousness, shaping how we interact with each other and even view ourselves; the expectations of others and insecurities that limit us from reaching our full potential. Griot Productions will continue to honor our playwrights, the contemporary griots who continue the tradition of our ancestors by telling our stories.
Ase
Isoke Edwards- Najeeullah
Producer
director's notes, uncut
i never planned to direct this show. i bought it in a 2nd-hand d.c. shop for about 3bucks, searching for an audition monologue written for a voice like mine. (1st rule of auditioning, do something you comfortable with, right?) jestina's calypso delivered a monologue i like a lot but for some reason never memorised, far less worked or used, just kept reading and liking more over years.
then griot needed a 1st play...
trying to find something right for the 1st production, we all kept coming back to jestina; we loved it. we love it because is us, still, a generation after it was written, still waiting to begin.
jestina not easy, and to be honest, even i underestimated how hard, but still i love this piece.
i move smart: cast it well to make my work easier; good production team holding it down so all i had to do was direct. make magic. balance chorus and bedroom. make lulu ugly. just the impossible.
why i think i could manage the problems this play presents just because i love it? love is not enough to make theatrical device work. love is never enough.
i wasn't sure this process existed outside my imagination, wasn't sure any of the work was real until i drove on the road where the chorus limes outside the parlour, and stood in jestina's bedroom. but it was never just me; griot said yes, let's tackle perceptions of ugliness+beauty, postcolonial identity in the battle of foreign vs. local, love+betrayal, picong-as-escape-clause, fatigue-as-mask...no time to wait for everything to be perfectly aligned, do the damn show now...
apparently we did.
this cast makes me want to kill every last one of them but is capable of amazing things. they take their cuss and put in the work and dealt with my direction (swizzle your callaloo all over his...use your voice to wrap those warm words around his piggy and gently squeeze...) and in the end deliver a performance that makes me so proud.
coming home to do the work i set out for myself from jump, i couldn't ask for better than this show, this production company, this cast, this playwright, this musical director, this crew, this production+design team, this support group willing to come and throw extra eyes for what needed resolution, this time...this is we theatre, now.
walk good.
[disclaimer: a version of this post exists @ http://urbanfolktales.blogspot.com]
then griot needed a 1st play...
trying to find something right for the 1st production, we all kept coming back to jestina; we loved it. we love it because is us, still, a generation after it was written, still waiting to begin.
jestina not easy, and to be honest, even i underestimated how hard, but still i love this piece.
i move smart: cast it well to make my work easier; good production team holding it down so all i had to do was direct. make magic. balance chorus and bedroom. make lulu ugly. just the impossible.
why i think i could manage the problems this play presents just because i love it? love is not enough to make theatrical device work. love is never enough.
i wasn't sure this process existed outside my imagination, wasn't sure any of the work was real until i drove on the road where the chorus limes outside the parlour, and stood in jestina's bedroom. but it was never just me; griot said yes, let's tackle perceptions of ugliness+beauty, postcolonial identity in the battle of foreign vs. local, love+betrayal, picong-as-escape-clause, fatigue-as-mask...no time to wait for everything to be perfectly aligned, do the damn show now...
apparently we did.
this cast makes me want to kill every last one of them but is capable of amazing things. they take their cuss and put in the work and dealt with my direction (swizzle your callaloo all over his...use your voice to wrap those warm words around his piggy and gently squeeze...) and in the end deliver a performance that makes me so proud.
coming home to do the work i set out for myself from jump, i couldn't ask for better than this show, this production company, this cast, this playwright, this musical director, this crew, this production+design team, this support group willing to come and throw extra eyes for what needed resolution, this time...this is we theatre, now.
walk good.
[disclaimer: a version of this post exists @ http://urbanfolktales.blogspot.com]
Friday, April 9, 2010
no rest for the wicked
so, not having actually finished directing the show yet, we have our 1st little in-house audience this evening: playwright earl lovelace, design team of paulette alfred + michael guy james, sound+lights (whose names i'll confirm then) and warrenman as a trusted set of eyes for my feeback, oh, and one of our sponsors (right word, sok?).
but i feel better about how the cast wukkin than @ start of the week, and i'll hopefully have roughed in the latter part of the piece before we start today's designer run. i love the songs, lovin salcedo for being my bes' guitarman, and the voices for the wash-foot+jump-in, cause i know i gave them no prep for this part, except to say it was coming. i is no musical director; thank the universe for the master errol ince.
our set building somewhere, i hear; saw the model last night finally, but it had been thrown around in the back of somebody's vehicle since saturday with the furniture pieces not glued down, so by the time it reach me it was useless, since what i needed most was to see how michael placed the furniture in the 2rooms. sigh. so when he reach designer run today and i ask him to dress the rooms of the model, i hope wha' we been wukkin with is wha' he building...
earl should be able to resolve the last scene asap if i can direct them enough to show him something of how it works as it stands with the current roughly rewritten rewrite. if i do my job, we should be fixing final scene saturday, stumbling through sunday, running monday+tuesday, ready for tech wednesday. right? right.
walk good.
ps: photos sooncome; have to finish editing a paying ting...
but i feel better about how the cast wukkin than @ start of the week, and i'll hopefully have roughed in the latter part of the piece before we start today's designer run. i love the songs, lovin salcedo for being my bes' guitarman, and the voices for the wash-foot+jump-in, cause i know i gave them no prep for this part, except to say it was coming. i is no musical director; thank the universe for the master errol ince.
our set building somewhere, i hear; saw the model last night finally, but it had been thrown around in the back of somebody's vehicle since saturday with the furniture pieces not glued down, so by the time it reach me it was useless, since what i needed most was to see how michael placed the furniture in the 2rooms. sigh. so when he reach designer run today and i ask him to dress the rooms of the model, i hope wha' we been wukkin with is wha' he building...
earl should be able to resolve the last scene asap if i can direct them enough to show him something of how it works as it stands with the current roughly rewritten rewrite. if i do my job, we should be fixing final scene saturday, stumbling through sunday, running monday+tuesday, ready for tech wednesday. right? right.
walk good.
ps: photos sooncome; have to finish editing a paying ting...
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
jestina progress
last night's music session was a relief...
the cast learned songs quickly, our musical director seemed content with their progress, i heard good sounds, all songs except one at least roughed in; having salcedo/pappyshow lead as guitarman, bes' idea, yay me. music continues tonight, then thursday i cleaning and roughing in the final scene so earl (lovelace), warrenman et al could come be fresh eyes between friday+tech wednesday and me+earl can figure out how to make said final scene wuk (i'll get into our whole process with earl+rewrites when we fixing that final scene end of this week); if i make all that happen, we on like boil corn.
production photo shoot was harrowing (for me) but i always hate having my picture taken and had to do 2sets, director+production(griot), plus, why i always having to try and look cute stink+sweaty, straight outta rehearsal, double rehearsals, even? thankfully, kibwe was wonderfully patient with my face-for-radio. oooh, ladies-of-griot, somebody uploading photos to this blog, right? we have lovely ones from acosta's shoot too, up on the fasbook...
so this show could be everything i dream for it, or it could sink me and griot before we properly start, which would also be me ruining a friend...no pressure...ent?
walk good.
the cast learned songs quickly, our musical director seemed content with their progress, i heard good sounds, all songs except one at least roughed in; having salcedo/pappyshow lead as guitarman, bes' idea, yay me. music continues tonight, then thursday i cleaning and roughing in the final scene so earl (lovelace), warrenman et al could come be fresh eyes between friday+tech wednesday and me+earl can figure out how to make said final scene wuk (i'll get into our whole process with earl+rewrites when we fixing that final scene end of this week); if i make all that happen, we on like boil corn.
production photo shoot was harrowing (for me) but i always hate having my picture taken and had to do 2sets, director+production(griot), plus, why i always having to try and look cute stink+sweaty, straight outta rehearsal, double rehearsals, even? thankfully, kibwe was wonderfully patient with my face-for-radio. oooh, ladies-of-griot, somebody uploading photos to this blog, right? we have lovely ones from acosta's shoot too, up on the fasbook...
so this show could be everything i dream for it, or it could sink me and griot before we properly start, which would also be me ruining a friend...no pressure...ent?
walk good.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
griot productions presents:
griot productions' inaugural show, my directorial debut at home, earl lovelace's jestina's calypso rehearsing since right after carnival; featuring louanna martin, nickolai salcedo, darin gibson, mandisa granderson, marvin dowridge, tracey lucas, and lady griot sheself isoke edwards-najeeullah, musical director errol ince, all managed by the lovely tonya evans.
terrifying. at least, for me. plus, i never good at writing an experience during, can only ever disseminate after, all of which is to say i sorry i only now starting to blog this process, i meant to from jump but my brain doh wuk so, plus, i should probably apologise in advance for bringing you into a 1st-time attempt to blog an experience-in-progress cause i might be on shit. so! 2weeks out (less!) from gala opening, music now going in this week way way way much way too much later than i wanted, so you know is stress with that. 1st music rehearsal plus photographer coming to take headshots and a couple group shots on a day when i trying to get my phone fixed right quick before working with lilliput youths a couple hours before starting griot rehearsal, which, as i mentioned, is stress. we already had 1st media, the other day gayelle (the channel) shot rehearsal footage and interviewed the production team sweaty straight out said rehearsal; we were so greasy they had to reshoot production interview. sigh. we have an actor with a fuck-up knee who cyah do tings and also miss rehearsal for being sicky, which further fucking me up and causing me more stress; perhaps not as much as she but she knew her knee buss, while griot have multiple career-beginnings, much borrowed $, multiple futures, multiple enterprises, riding on this. our lead has only ever acted once before, this very carnival, and didn't have to even approach the range of emotions i demanding of her right now, but i convinced she's the one to play this character. our "toto" only available 3nights a week, 1 of which nobody else available so we only have him in rehearsal with us saturdays+sundays and he always playing catch-up. oh, and we had to replace the the hardest-to-cast actor. plus the venue (uwi, gordon street?) is an arena stage, which makes a set virtually impossible for audience sightlines on all 4sides when we must signify at least 2 clear playing areas (bedroom+road, never the twain shall meet) which really want 2-storey-configuration...why we set ourselves so many challenges at once, on a 1st show, beyond me...you believe we was studying masks at one point too! thank god i watch the time and let that layer go early enough...
meanwhile my cast keeping me laughing, extemporising songs about how ugly jestina is, new shit every rehearsal and they funny as hell- somebody sponsor a recording of the jestina sessions nah...
we in it now, it thick and pressure on and we have something to prove, mentors and playwright coming to rehearsals probably end of this week, tech next week...
april 17+18, 2010; griot's debut, jestina's calypso...stay tuned, freakout-in-process...
walk good.
[disclaimer: a version of this post also over @ my blog sweet trini's urban folk tales]
terrifying. at least, for me. plus, i never good at writing an experience during, can only ever disseminate after, all of which is to say i sorry i only now starting to blog this process, i meant to from jump but my brain doh wuk so, plus, i should probably apologise in advance for bringing you into a 1st-time attempt to blog an experience-in-progress cause i might be on shit. so! 2weeks out (less!) from gala opening, music now going in this week way way way much way too much later than i wanted, so you know is stress with that. 1st music rehearsal plus photographer coming to take headshots and a couple group shots on a day when i trying to get my phone fixed right quick before working with lilliput youths a couple hours before starting griot rehearsal, which, as i mentioned, is stress. we already had 1st media, the other day gayelle (the channel) shot rehearsal footage and interviewed the production team sweaty straight out said rehearsal; we were so greasy they had to reshoot production interview. sigh. we have an actor with a fuck-up knee who cyah do tings and also miss rehearsal for being sicky, which further fucking me up and causing me more stress; perhaps not as much as she but she knew her knee buss, while griot have multiple career-beginnings, much borrowed $, multiple futures, multiple enterprises, riding on this. our lead has only ever acted once before, this very carnival, and didn't have to even approach the range of emotions i demanding of her right now, but i convinced she's the one to play this character. our "toto" only available 3nights a week, 1 of which nobody else available so we only have him in rehearsal with us saturdays+sundays and he always playing catch-up. oh, and we had to replace the the hardest-to-cast actor. plus the venue (uwi, gordon street?) is an arena stage, which makes a set virtually impossible for audience sightlines on all 4sides when we must signify at least 2 clear playing areas (bedroom+road, never the twain shall meet) which really want 2-storey-configuration...why we set ourselves so many challenges at once, on a 1st show, beyond me...you believe we was studying masks at one point too! thank god i watch the time and let that layer go early enough...
meanwhile my cast keeping me laughing, extemporising songs about how ugly jestina is, new shit every rehearsal and they funny as hell- somebody sponsor a recording of the jestina sessions nah...
we in it now, it thick and pressure on and we have something to prove, mentors and playwright coming to rehearsals probably end of this week, tech next week...
april 17+18, 2010; griot's debut, jestina's calypso...stay tuned, freakout-in-process...
walk good.
[disclaimer: a version of this post also over @ my blog sweet trini's urban folk tales]
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