Get to Know Marissa Molnar

Once again we begin our continuing series of probing questions in an attempt to Get to Know the Cast and Crew of Rorschach's various big top like events. A series of questions were submitted to the cast and crew of birds and today I present you the first victim, Marissa Molnar.

I already told you about Marissa's adventure in the back alley behind Casa two weeks ago. She is delightful company and has been coming to see Rorschach shows all season so I feel like she is already one of the family. So take a moment to discover the slightly twisted yet exceedingly entertaining answers that this young actress gives to my 7 Questions of Doom.

(P.S. Keep voting for the Rorschach Ultimate Fighting Match-Up below. You can vote everyday and I will have the results on Wednesday.)

1. What is your job in producing birds?

i'm the production's prostitute. i keep everything fluffed up and ready to go. because there are so many feathers with all the bird imagery, you know.

2. When you were a child what if any stories or fairy tales effected you the most?

i was a big fan of narnia until i realized that aslan was an awful lot like jesus, and then i just got confused and moved on to safer, more pagan stories like arthurian lore and ursula leguin.

3. Is this the first time you have worked for Rorschach? If no, when have you done for us before? If yes, why did you decide to come and play in our sandbox?

yes... i could not turn down the chance to let my inner teenage hooker out. everyone has one, and mine has been repressed for far too long. also, jenny gave me candy once.

4. What is one impossible thing that happens in birds?

jjana gets drunk?

5. What is you favorite bird?

roasted, with ginger and mango chutney.

6. How do you think or hope audiences will react to birds?

i think they will walk away thinking about how funny it is how much belief influences the perception of reality. i hope they will not throw things at us.

7. If you had a theme song what would it be?

um, roxanne?

Photo Shoots and the Setting Sun

Things slow down here at the old blog if your's truly isn't in the theater with the crazy kids trying to put on a show. That doesn't mean that things aren't happening, it is just that the information I have to impart is almost always of the marketing/press variety.

Marissa Molnar is a beautiful woman and she was kind enough to do two photo shoots for birds. The first shoot didn't turn out so hot.

Several months back we tried to shoot the post cards for the three remaining shows in Season 7. A group of about ten of us (models, photographer, costumes designers, Artistic Director and Marketing Director) all gathered in various stages of undress in the lobby of Woolly Mammoth to make us some art.

You all by now have seen how fantastic the images for Rough Magic and References . . . turned out. Well we also made an attempt at shooting birds that day as well. I have included a sample of what we were trying to achieve above, for some reason I haven't got any actual shots from the original shoot. The concept was as straight forward as my mind allows me to be. Marissa dressed as a prostitute with feathers sprouting from her body in various locations, shot down a long hallway with light in front of her and a trail of smaller feathers like bread crumbs behind her. Well let's just say this is not an easy thing to do and the final product by no fault of the model or photographer was crap.

So we needed to do a new shoot. Marigan and Marissa were champs. Marissa dusted off her streetwalker best and Marigan made the trek from B-more through thunder storms and traffic on 95 at rush hour to get to Jenny's place before the sun set in the alley behind Casa. It was a close call and we didn't get in the alley until after 7pm.

As you can see by the examples I have been doling out, the effort paid off. There will be several things done to the shot by our graphic designer Carrie before it is finished but a combination of talent, genetics and Jenny standing with a reflective dish in an alley trying to catch the light of a setting sun, made for some fantastic pictures.

Thank you to everyone for not just helping to fix something but in making it a whole lot better.