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.