Postcard Girl

Direct and to the point are words that come to mind about our dear Lindsay Allen's answer to our five questions. As the boys and girls of Bright Room (and even a few men and women I am told) face down this weekend of tech, leading up to Pay-What-You-Can Previews starting Wednesday at 8pm, I am reminded of so many things. Mostly standing around and waiting, but that is because I am an actor. For stage managers, designers and directors this is when things come together.

Lindsay does a lot of heavy lifting on stage for Bright Room. We all have our fingers crossed for her on Monday when they announce the Helen Hayes Awards, Lindsay is up for Best Supporting Actress in a Play for Experiment with an Air Pump for Journeymen. So without further eloquence, Lindsay Allen. Also if anyone has a good caption for the picture to your left of Ellen and Lindsay please post it in comments.


Scotty,

Sorry I forgot to respond to this before. I don't know if these answers are still useful but, here you go:

1. What do you do in Bright Room? (ie: Role, Crew, Direct, Design)

I try not to cry.

2. What has been the coolest thing that has been discovered while working on the play either by you or someone else?

My red shoes that I left backstage during Master & Margarita - almost three years ago. It's like I got new shoes for free.

3. Tell us something about either your role or your design or how you are helping.

I bring in oranges and have go to Weimer via Sweden.

4. Where have you worked previously?

Journeymen Theater, Two Foot Trout/Phoenix Theatre DC, Folger Theater, Woolly Mammoth, Open Circle Theatre, Theater Alliance, Project Y, Longacre Lea Production, Cherry Red Productions, Shenandoah Shakespeare Express, Richmond Shakespeare Festival, Rising Sun Theatre Company and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company.

5. Finish the following sentence: Rahaleh as a director is uncompromising and unwilling to make cuts.

The Dunphy You Know

This next actor is not someone I know well. I can tell you after seeing him in the run last Friday he is someone with chops. From his communist functionary to his very special character that brings Act One to a creepy if not down right scary end. Matt Dunphy is a tall drink of water and we are glad to welcome him to our happy little family of show folk on Columbia Road, NW.

hello scott,

since ellen requested hot pictures of me, i am responding to your info request. not that i wouldn't have responded anyway. i would've. really. the hot picture request just reminded me. so here we go...

What do you do in Bright Room? (ie: Role, Crew, Direct, Design)

i'm matt. i am playing emil traum, "slightly higher-ranking communist functionary" extraordinaire. and herr gottfried swetts, importer of spanish novelties. herr swetts has a second job too, but you'll have to see the show to find out what it is.

What has been the coolest thing that has been discovered while working on the play either by you or someone else?

i have rediscovered my love for liberal people. i grew up in cambridge, massachusetts, a hot-bed of liberal democratic activity, and during the second day of table work, i actually felt.... conservative. but i'm not. at all. really.

its good to be around vocal, like-minded, opinionated people who have a passion for what they believe. the characters in the play are all people like that, and so is this talented company. it makes for rich rehearsal discussion and discovery.

Tell us something about either your role or your design or how you are helping.

emil traum wants to do rosa malek. and herr swetts, as rahaleh suggested, is "nebbish-ly grand."
Where have you worked previously?

arena stage, folger theatre, imagination stage, journeymen theater, discovery theater at the smithsonian, maryland shakespeare festival.

Finish the following sentence: Rahaleh as a director (and she already spoiled this by using it as a caption) encourages indication.

that was fun.
matt.

Somthing Strain

Few shows back I worked with a young gentleman named Alexander Strain. He has been making quite a name for himself all over town. He is nice, personable and quite talented. But there was always something at the back of my head that made me think there was something not quite right about the boy. And then it occurred to me he was another one of those British guys. Now I think I have made my feelings quite clear about British actors coming to this country and taking our theater jobs and women. Them with their manners and strange pronunciation of the word banana.

Yet thanks to people like Alexander and even Hugh (God bless him) this great-grandson of Irish immigrants has learned not just to tolerate but to love every hair on their footie loving heads. To embrace their love of strong smelling cheeses and their tendency toward trash talking the French (a people who in my opinion are the most reasonable level headed people in all of Europe.) So I greet you in your native tongue when I say, "Welcome Alexander Strain!" Welcome indeed.

What do you do in Bright Room? (ie: Role, Crew, Direct, Design)

I'm playing Gregor Bazwold (Baz) an employee of the Berlin Institute for Human Sexuality and a close friend of Agnes Eggling.

Oh, and I'm fulfilling Rorschach's quota of allowing at least one immigrant to perform in each of their seasons. (Editor's Note: Rahaleh already met the quota for the year in Fair Ladies. Thank you for your paranoia. Rorschach does not consider citizenship or place of birth when casting.)

What has been the coolest thing that has been discovered while working on the play either by you or someone else?

Truly, while also being unabashedly sentimental, that Rorschach is a nice place to work.

Tell us something about either your role or your design or how you are helping.

Gregor is an anarchist. An advocate of responding to emotional and physical stimuli over the crippling qualities of intellectualism. If he had a mantra it would probably echo sentiments of "If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't". He's decidedly homosexual and celebrates the retrospectively fragile open-mindedness of 1930's Berlin with unbridled enthusiasm. I relate to his idealism and hopefulness.

Where have you worked previously?

Theater Alliance, Forum Theatre/Dance, Washington Shakespeare Company, Signature Theatre, The Kennedy Center, and various theatres in New York that noone has ever heard of but are important to me, including Ailanthus Theatre Company, Theater for the New City, The Blue Heron Arts Center, 7th Sign, and Gestalt Theatre Company.

Finish the following sentence: Rahaleh as a director is evocative of the Prussian empire.

I Love Cam

Cam Magee has been one of those people who has come to Rorschach with a pocket full of miracles for all of us. Her work dramaturgy on Beard of Avon and her work with the cast of Fair Ladies on verse this season has been far above and beyond anything we could do for her. This time she trades in her well worn shoes of dramaturgy for a pair of acting shoes in Bright Room. She took some time to answer my five questions and here is what we got. Look for more of these tomorrow.

Only for you would I do this.


What do you do in Bright Room?

I play Annabella Gotchling, Communist graphic artist. Using the I Love Lucy character scale, Gotchling is the "Carolyn Appleby" of Bright Room.

What has been the coolest thing that has been discovered while working on the play either by you or someone else?

1. How well everyone is suited to play their characters. I look forward to going to rehearsal just to be with this cast.

2. DaDaism. Hannah Hessel (dramaturg) suggested I look at Hannah Höch's collage work in the National's current exhibit in order to understand Gotchling's art . The exhibit has been beautifully curated. I had no context for DaDaism until I saw the exhibit and the context is World War I. WWI maimed and fragmented the DaDaists' lives. They made their art from fragments.

Tell us something about your role.

Ah that would spoil the surprise pop quiz contrasting and comparing Annabella Gotchling, Communist graphic artist and Carolyn Appleby, Lucy Ricardo's rival in housewifery.

Where have you worked previously?

As an actor, the Folger Theatre, Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington Shakespeare Company, Theater J, Source Theatre (resident artist 1991-1999), Woolly Mammoth, Catalyst Theatre, The Washington Stage Guild and the Maryland Shakespeare Festival.

Finish the following sentence: Rahaleh as a director is NOT letting me get away with jack.

The Theater Lobby

Well true believers, Rorschach returned to its Jewish roots on Friday evening, by providing a special run-through of A Bright Room Called Day to some University of Michigan students who are doing a semester in DC. Theater J Artistic Director Ari Roth is giving these bright eyed poli-sci and econ majors a down and dirty look at the theater of politics and conversely the politics of theater. Rahaleh and her happy band of actors and support staff made their way over to the 16th Street Lobby of the JCC to run, what is becoming clear to me is going to be one of our most emotional and timely shows to date.

As many of our long time fans know Rorschach has a long and fabled relationship with the Washington Jewish Community Center at 16th and Q, NW. Our first show The Hairy Ape was performed on their stage and our third show God of Vengeance was performed in their lobby. A lobby whose high ceilings and proximity to 16th Street and its constant bus and emergency vehicle traffic make an actors job especially challenging. Some words of greeting from Ari and our own Randy Baker and Rahaleh Nassri, the show began.

I could tell you all how well the show ran but I think you all have a pretty good sense of how I feel about this particular company and I may at times practice the art of hyperbola in a effusive, bordering on the ridiculous, manner. But it is good ladies and gentlemen, it is good. Once this show has all of its elements set it will be something that every person of conscious will want to see. And with added bonus of the lightening, thunder and gale force winds outside their was mood folks. Lots and lots of mood.

The acting is superb and the direction is firm and clear. Now we just have to dress this lady up and take her to town for an evening or twenty. After the run, the students and actors sat down for a heart to heart about the show. I love student out reach and this year we have done a fairly good amount of it. Issues of the role of a play that was written 20 years ago for our own time and very intelligent point flew around and many of them landed in unexpected and amazing ways. The students had read the play and their comment was they were amazed at how certain scenes came alive on stage and what seemed fantastic on the page seemed perfectly natural and right when staged.

This week the hard stuff starts as the cast, director, designers and crew work to make this thing a piece of art. We are so close I can taste it people.

Cast and Crew on the Verge . . .

Well it took some moderate work on my part but I made the turnip bleed. We got exclusive shots of the cast and crew of Bright Room. Exclusive mostly because no one is really competing with us to run them, but exclusive none the less.

Loyal reader and stage manager of Beard of Avon Ellen writes to us:

ellen said...
I'd like to request pictures of the hot Matt Dunphy!

Well there are two of them here. And the only reason I indulge you is because you showed more than a little leg when called upon by that weird guy who asked for hot shots of the stage management team back in November.

Commentary except where noted is provided by Rahaleh. Enjoy this and on Monday, I will have news on the run-through that is happening tonight and Cam Magee answers my five questions. Remember that next week is tech weekend and pay-what-you-can previews start on the 19th of April which means just 12 days before this thing gets on it feet.

1) Viv, our stage manager, and her new look. If she answers your questions, run it with that. If she doesn't, run it anyway.

Well Viv did answer after a style. She sent me her bio. Here is what Viv says about herself.

Vivian Woodland- Stage Manager- This is Vivian's professional stage management debut. She has recently been serving as Assistant Stage Manager at the Folger Theater (Much Ado About Nothing) and at Theater J (The Disputation) (Central Park West/ Riverside Drive) (There Are No Strangers). Vivian holds a B.A. in Theater from George Mason University.

It is these kinds of details that create a compelling blog entry.



2) Hannah -- Last time we did an indoor Zillah shoot she kept track of the time codes. This time she was promoted to boom operator.



3) Zillah, single-handedly will bring Laura Ashley back in style. Thanks to the genius costumer Frank Labovitz.



4) I make Lindsay cry.



5) I told them to point for the picture. Matt said hefound the answer to question number five: I encourage indication.

Invite to the Cast and Grady's Response

I know that you all wanted information about the non-company members and what they do and who they are, so I sent an email to everyone in the production:

Hello all,

There have been people demanding some information about the cast and crew of Bright Room on the blog. Therefore if any of you have any photos or wise words you would like to share about yourself or the experience forward them to me as soon as you can.

If you would like to not have to think and would just answer the following questions it would be a big help as well. This is a shortened form of the profiles we have been running lately.

What follows is Grady Weatherford's answers to the questions I sent. I know you all wanted to hear from people like Cam, Alexander, Katie and Ellen. Well they haven't gotten back to me yet. Hopefully they will have some time soon. Enjoy!

What do you do in Bright Room? (ie: Role, Crew, Direct, Design)

I'm playing one eye' d cameraman, Vealtnik Husz, Lover of Agnes

I'm the multi-media designer, responsible for the filming and editing of all the Zillah interruptions as well as slides in the show.

What has been the coolest thing that has been discovered while working on the play either by you or someone else?

The coolest thing I've discovered is not really cool, but the difference in perspective, balance, and awareness that comes with having only one eye. Tell us something about either your role or your design or how you are helping. The design is dynamic. It's shot in wide screen to give it a cinematic feel, also black and white to make it feel dated. Since the film portion of the design is set in the 80's we are using long shots mixed with the kind of MTV editing that began during that decade. But I want to keep the rest a surprise.

Where have you worked previously?

Roundhouse Theatre, Folger Theatre, Theatre Alliance, Theatre J, Olney Theatre, Project Y, Washington Shakespeare Company, Forum Theatre and Dance

Finish the following sentence: Rahaleh as a director is enjoying playing with models.

The Last Time We Did Kushner

It was the summer of 2001 and it was definitely summer. The sweat that trickled down to the small of your back and car exhaust filled your lungs if you breathed too deeply that summer. Rorschach was doing a summer show. Rorschach's fourth show was Tony Kushner's adaptation of a Pierre Corneille play The Illusion. This was my second show with Rorschach and I was excited to be playing a comedic role after throwing my lesbian daughter into a whore house just months before in God of Vengeance.

All the familiar faces were in The Illusion and even then we were building a core of performers and designers that would work with us time and again. Jenny McConnell (before there was a Frederick) directed a cast that included Rorschach favorites like Rahaleh Nassri, Yasmin Tuazon, Jason Stiles and Grady Weatherford. Rounding out the cast were oft time sound designer and actor Jessie Terrill, Tim Marone, and Mike Glenn. And designers included company member Deb Sivigny and friend of the theater Eileen Daly.

The Illusion is the story of a father who goes on a journey to find a wizard who will tell him what happened to the son he abandoned. The wizard then proceeds to show the father scenes from his son's life. In each scene the son has a different name as do the people around him. But as each scene progresses we see him fall into love and into lust. At times killing and at others being killed. All of the scenes play out before the father and no can be sure which is true.

What I remember most about this production was the heat and the crowds. We were in a windowless warehouse gallery in NW, near what is now the DC Convention Center. People came in droves and sat mesmerized as the story unfolded. Fans were placed behind the heads of the audience to cool them and the cast acted their asses off. It was a special experience, one of those times in your life where you find the people and place that you want to stay with you for all your life.

I have no doubt that similar feelings are afoot at rehearsals for A Bright Room Called Day. This is yet another Kushner play of beauty and depth. And Rahaleh I know has the same sort of abiding love that many of us who were in The Illusion possess. Grady even gets to make a return trip on stage.

I feel that of all the playwrights we have produced at Rorschach, Tony Kushner is my favorite. His writing is a mixture of timeless and timely that you don't find anywhere else. His characters fill the stage and hold forth in monologues of unsurpassed beauty and he can write low jokes as well. He finds truth and beauty in everyone of his characters. His use of the supernatural and surreal to illustrate real world truths is masterful. Many people are only familiar with Angels in America and if that was all he ever did he would be ensured a place in theater history text books from this day forward. Plays like Slavs, A Bright Room Called Day and The Illusion only cement that place. And I think this will not be the last time Rorschach brings Kushner to life on our stage.

Slow Day

Often I am forced to use my imagination to fill this space. Last night I kept thinking about what to write and the answer never came. Therefore I am running a picture of Lindsay. Enjoy!

Catching-Up

So after a couple of extra drafts, an extended reshoot via Instant Messenger and some great work by Grady on the layout, here is the look of the Bright Room post card. We are now coming down to the wire with this show. First preview is just a few weeks away. Grady and the crew are slaving away on the multi-media aspects of the show and the cast is just working their hearts out to bring a very special show to the stage. Here at marketing central we are ramping up our efforts with ads for the City Paper Spring Arts Preview and trying to get the seats filled.

Just a reminder, Rorschach Theatre is still one of the best values in town when it comes to ticket prices and we always have specials for all of our shows. Even at our regular ticket price of $18 we beat the hell out of the competition when it comes to bang for your buck. Other theater companies, who I won't name here, spend a lot of money and leave you with the feeling that you have just seen something very pretty from a hundred feet away. Rorschach gives you sets, costumes and lighting of extraordinary quality and some of the finest young talent in town. You are never more than 15 feet from the stage and the action happens right in your lap. For some people that may be a problem so please don't sit in the front two rows.

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves but there is still one last show this season, Arabian Night. The first round of auditions took place at Casa yesterday and from what I hear this show is going to be sexy with a capital X. Look here for more updates as they become available.

Later today I will be posting another poster for you to down load and print. As before if everybody who reads this blog were to print out just 10 copies of this poster and post them around town, there would be 800 or so posters up. Much more than Randy or the company could post in a couple of days going up and down 18th Street and around DuPont Circle.

Going Commando

As a follow-up to our story about the video shoot at Casa last week, Rahaleh, Liz, Grady and some other folks possibly, took their shoot to the people. There are advantages to living in a city like DC, when you want to make something political you take a ride downtown. See if you recognize where Liz is.

Hey Scott,
We did the outdoor shoot for Zillah scenes on Wednesday.
Lots of fun and we didn't even come closeto getting arrested.
Here are some stills I took.
-Rahaleh

Rorschach Sweet 16

Play at Home with your Friends.
Click image to enlarge.

Rahaleh Points Us to All Things Nazi

You ever wonder how they did it? How the Nazis turned the otherwise loving people of Germany into a nation hell bent on invasion and genocide. Well Rahaleh directs us to web site at Calvin College, which shows Pre-1933 Nazi Propaganda. Essays by Joseph Goebbels, political cartoons and for all intents and purposes how to guides that were used by the Nazis to achieve their goals.

Post Card Image

Had ourselves a little photo call this weekend. Above you will see the result of a couple of hours of hard work and a lot of scrambling before hand. The beautiful Linday Allen met up with Jenny, Randy and me for a photo shoot at Casa on Saturday to take some rather stunning pictures. Using all of the film noir training I received by watching Double Indemnity last Wednesday, a white sheet, a borrowed camera and an overhead projector, I took some great pictures of Lindsay and her shadow. Costume designer Frank came up with just the right look for Anges and Lindsay did up her hair in a very period style.

Next we took the picture and printed it out and laid it on this carefully constructed 3-D collage of images from the world of the play. Hopefully it shows Agnes in her room with the rest of the world going on around her. At least that is what I meant for it to do.

How Rorschach is Like Dick Cheney

I try not to be topical around here and making things politically heated serves no one but those who think that all theater types are pinkos and liberals. But sometimes an issue comes across my radar which relates directly to the way we function as a company. There is an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, detailing the requirement of our Vice-President when staying at one of the various undisclosed locations. Here's what you need in a room for a Cheney stay:

*Queen or king bed.

*Temperature 68 degrees. All lights turned on.

*TV turned on to Fox News.

*Decaf coffee, brewed prior to arrival.

*Four to six bottles of bottled water. If Lynne Cheney along, two bottles of Calistoga or Perrier.

*Diet Caffeine Free Sprite, four cans.

I have a similar list of demands that are a rider to my contract when working on a Rorschach show and for the first time ever in an attempt at full disclosure I want to share it with all of you.

* A dozen hard boiled eggs. All of which must be dyed to match the set.

* Handful of NoDoz pills. No other sleep suppressant will do.

* A copy of the timeless Western Musical, Paint Your Wagon, starring Clint Eastood and Lee Marvin.

* The Guinness Book of World Records just in case I do something amazing on stage and need to verify if I have in fact broken a record of some sort.

* In true rock star tradition a one pound bag of M&Ms with the letters scratched off.

* Legendary actor David Carradine on speed dial in case I need some quick advice as to how Kwai Chang Caine would do it.

* A holding area for my pet pot bellied pig, Arnold.

* Handy-wipes, at least a gross.

* Final approval of all of the other actors choices in any scene where I am talking. If I am not talking they can do whatever the hell they want.

* Do not expose me to bright light. Do not get me wet. And whatever you do, do not feed me after midnight.

* An hourly update on whether they have found the wallet I lost in 1986 at the Golden Ring Mall in Baltimore while watching a movie with Amy Belschner and Miki Geiger.

* Another dozen hard boiled eggs.

I have yet to receive any of these and I am kind of disappointed. As long as the threat of being replaced by a sock puppet exists I will suck it up, but the minute I win that Oscar all bets are off. Keep that in mind Jenny and Randy.

Of Sound Mind

Matt Frederick, how could I not love the man. I was best man at his wedding and there are not too many people I can say that about. I spent the evening with Matt and his lovely wife Jenny last night and we watched American Idol. I know just the demographic Fox is going after with that show, men in their mid-thirties. The thing was that Matt and I both had similar reactions to the performers and we could watch it and not have our heads explode. I feel Matt, like I, is a student of Popular Culture. His knowledge of music is exhaustive and he is one of those people who always seems to be in a good mood even when the world is turning to crap. He has great taste in vintage clothing. In particular he wears brown velvet tuxedoes better than anyone I know. Some nights he uses his musical knowledge and taste to go to that place and do that thing, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

He has designed sound for several Rorschach shows, the last two in succession. Credits include: Ubu Roi, Master and Margarita, The Scarlet Letter, The Beard of Avon, and Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards.

1. Place of birth?

I was born in Washington, DC, in a hospital?

2. First experience in theater?

My first experience as an audience member was seeing The Big Slam at Woolly Mammoth, way back in 1997. My fist job in theatre was The Old Neighborhood at Theatre J, hired by our own Randy Baker.

3. Where you went to school?

I went to High School at Parkdale in Riverdale MD, and before you make any wisecracks about PG county schools, remember this...Sugar Ray Leonard went there! I then received an honorary degree from the University of Life.

4. What do you do?

I'm a Sound Designer

5. What was your first experience with Rorschach?

Almost worked on the Hairy Ape, but a series of panic attacks prevented that, we don't discuss that anymore. The first Rorschach show I saw was Rhinoceros.

6. Company member you would most like to be if you were not yourself?

I would have to say it's a tie between Tracy Olivera and Hugh T. Owen.

7. Some story about working on a Rorschach play that either made you laugh or touched you deeply?

I remember on Master and Margarita having to take apart the mini-disc player and do some delicate surgery to save the disc that was safely trapped inside, this a half hour before the show, that made me both laugh and cry. And when Grady was way up high trying to fix the trap door, was that the same night?

8. Where do you think Rorschach will be in the next ten years?

I'm not sure where we'll be, but I know we'll be totally cool!

9. What is your favorite Rorschach show that you were not in?

A Clearing in the Woods.

10. Scott McCormick harmless adolescent or world conquering super villain?

I would have to lean towards harmless adolescent.

Peeking In

Rahaleh let me come to a rehearsal last night. Originally I was told to stay away because, as has been before mentioned on this site and at several Rorschach auditions, I scare the actors.

Well I can't help it. I was born with this face and this voice. Is it my fault if people are intimidated by good looks and the voice of a man who sounds like what would have happened if Eartha Kitt and Barry White's voice had made sweet love one lonely night and had a love child? Is that my fault America? "Aw baby! Come over here and let me make love to your sweet cat like voice and we will give the world yet another voice of incomparable depth and sexiness."

Any way I made my way into the space to find Rahaleh and the stage manager Viv hard at work arranging rehearsal chairs and tables for the boys and girls. Bright Room is made up of many scenes that show Agnes, the tenant of a very comfortable and inviting apartment in Berlin, and her friends as the forces of history work their will on them during Hitler and Nazis rise to power. The first scene of the play, which they were rehearsing last night was a New Year's Party. As Agnes and her friends welcome 1932, they share drink and ghost stories; this is a moment of happiness before the real world starts to creep into their lives.

Being an actor I don't usually get to sit and watch other people rehearsing a scene. When you are called you are there for a purpose, my purpose last night was simply that of a witness to the process. It's funny the things you don't think about when you are actually a part of the process. This is a process that requires you to say the same lines over and over again, trying to mine the various meanings and sub-text of a scene. Using all of the skills you have accumulated over however many years to give the director what she wants. All of the actors tools: voice, movement and improvisation all in service of not yourself but of a story. Sometimes I think audiences and theater folk lose sight of what it is we are doing up on stage. With theater's of more extravagant means throwing thousands if not millions of dollars at a play its hard to remember that no matter what your budget all you are doing is enacting a tradition as old as speech itself, the sharing of a story.

What really brought that home for me is watching the cast as they acted out Kushner's first scene. This group of artists begins to play a game by telling a story. Agnes starts the tale of a man who is walking late one cold night on the streets. Agnes's friends continue the tale of a man and his war against nature. A story that has begun with a simple premise begins to turn into parable about man and his attempts to find comfort in a world where there are many things, nature among them, that are out to get you.

As the actors read the scene again and again, you could see the wheels whirling and spinning, the first couple of times through as they sorted out what the scene meant. Then Rahaleh would offer some notes and tweaks to what they were doing. Eventually the whirling and spinning died away and all you saw was a group of old friends who were having a party. As I watch I begin to believe that this is a real party and the people at the party would never be this happy again.

I am really looking forward to this show.

Message from the Director

I may not have mentioned this yet but Bright Room while set in 1930s Germany incorporates a character from the 1980s. The character of Zilla, being portrayed by company member Liz Chomko(The Scarlet Letter and Behold!), enters into the world of the play from time to time to make points about not just the Nazis but about conspiracies and political hypocrisy of all kinds. As a way to integrate these two very different worlds Rahaleh Nassri, the director, decided early on that these interruptions would work best on film. Last night they began shooting these scenes which will eventually be integrated into the performance. Rahaleh took some time this morning to talk about how the shoot and how the show in general has been coming together.

WOW. Everyday everyone working on Bright Room amazes and surprises me.
I got off of a five hour flight yesterday afternoon and headed straight to Casa for our first night of shooting the Zillah scenes.

We planned on shooting four of her monologues but figured the first day would be more of a test. Would we have the props we needed? How would the picture turn out with that black wall? Would Liz know her lines? Costumes? Equipment? Staff? We decided to wing it, see what we got out of it and then have better subsequent shoots.

As I was discussing the “typewriter situation” with Hannah and Viv, Becky Trotter (props designer) showed up with the typewriter and a whole lot more. The German Lesson Book. The Bible. There was also the drawing “Bridegroom Called Death” Nathaniel Sinnott (lighting designer) had sketched for the Zillah set. The drawing is a nod to how Kushner got the title of play.

Frank Labovitz (costume designer) dressed Liz in incredibly imaginative designs we all decided belong in collections by Gaultier. But as we started to dress the set he finally said, “this is what I love to do: set dressing.” I said, “okay, run around Casa and find anything appropriate and dress away.” Becky, Frank, Viv, Hannah and I worked on dressing the set while Grady set up his equipment. There was really nothing on the set but an ugly piece of furniture when we started and an hour later when Jenny walked in, she couldn’t believe how good it looked.

We managed to get great takes and interesting shots for three of Zillah’s monologues. Material that we will actually be able to use and (barring any horrible sound problems) won’t have to reshoot. That is so much more than I expected.

Everyone helped in more ways than one. Viv did everything, including give us her blanket. Hannah, our dramaturg, jotted time codes. For one scene Frank even became the boom operator. And Liz did some great work as Zillah. Her final interruption in the play was positively chilling.

And, of course, none of it would have been possible without Grady. I love being able to do this with the Zillah character. I wouldn’t have even dreamed of taking it on if there was no Grady.

Thank you all for a great first shoot.

The first week of this insane project: the play itself, the film, the set (make that two sets) has been incredibly productive. Not just what we see everyday, but all those working behind the scenes. Scott marketing at the Tony Kushner event, among other things. Randy and Jenny constantly working on production details. I can’t believe how much we get done everyday with so little stress and so much enjoyment.

I appreciate all of you more than I can say.

Thanks.
Rahaleh

Lives Wrapped Around One Another

It was January 2001 that I did my first show for Rorschach. In that time we as a company have come a long way. Starting as a company of vagabonds in found spaces using our wit and charm to lure audiences down alleys and into abandoned high schools, we have grown up over those years. We have a semi-permanent space and subscribers, but more than simply growing as a company we have grown as individuals and artists. People who I started out with have been playing some of the biggest theaters in town, appearing in films and producing television shows. There have been birthdays and weddings. Why this year alone, there will be four company members walking down the aisle.

We all started out in our 20s and have been inching our way into respectability as more and more of us fall solidly into our 30 somethings.

Randy Baker had a birthday on Saturday night. And it reminded me of all of the other birthdays and special times we have shared as a community and dysfunctional theater family.

- Moon bounce at Grady's thirtieth, when the power would cut out and the moon bounce would collapse on the people inside.

- Jenny and Matt's wedding when I the 55 year old bartender, who kept slipping me free drinks and telling me should owned her own house and then looking daggers at any woman who came up and talked to me.

- Mine and Deb's combined birthday when everyone was told to dress like Scott and Deb. The number of wrap around skirts and Hawaiian shirts was inspiring.

- Tim sitting in his back yard picking and a grinning for his 30th.

Cast parties and opening parties aside, we are all so wrapped up in one another’s triumphs and defeats, sometimes its hard to know where my life starts and someone else’s begins.

Sitting there on Saturday and listening to Grady go off about the Spanish Golden Age of Drama, talking to Liz about working at Studio, and making jokes with MJ and Styles about the personal grooming habits of several DC actors, reminded me how much fun this life can be. Sometimes I think that so many of these parties are viewed as business obligations, but every once in a while I am reminded that they can actually be fun.

A Poli-Sci Major Spouts a Little

It is when we do plays like A Bright Room Called Day, that I realize my degree in Political Science is not completely wasted. While it is important to not simply look at Bright Room as some sort of historical document isolated from the world that we live in, it is also necessary as artists and audience to be aware of some of the realities of the state of German Affairs in the 1930s.

It is easy when anyone does a project involving the word Nazi, to simply reduce the ideas of Nazism to the Holocaust and Hitler. It makes people feel safe and cozy to think that those things are in the past. As time moves on and we get further and further from the events of World War II and the horrors inflicted on all the peoples of Europe, it seems many people forget that the Nazis and Hitler didn't just show up one morning and start running Germany. They started as a political party with a message that appealed too many of the German people. Ideas like national pride and fighting the threat from without and within.

Germany was still suffering economic and political instability after their loss of World War I fifteen years before the events of Bright Room. Assassination, revolution and poverty were the order of the day in Germany during the intervening years between the wars. It was threats of this sort of terrorism that led many people to seek an alternative to what was perceived as the Weimar Government's ineffectuality and capitulation to the demands of the victorious European Powers. Imagine inflation during the 1920s that had 10,000,000 marks equaling 1 American Dollar. You would need a wheelbarrow full of marks to buy a loaf of bread. To the left you see children standing next to a stack of nearly worthless mark notes.

And so what happens when you are hungry and you don't know who will be in charge as leaders are killed or deposed? You lash out and things that you thought you would never sacrifice go out the window as you look for a little security in a world where no place seems safe. And if you are a politician with a thirst for power you exploit that fear.

You use the uncertainty to bring people to your cause. And not just the working masses, but intellectuals, war heroes and artists. You use the media and popular culture to carry your message of the threat of foreign governments and internal threats. You use the state's mechanisms to spy on its own citizens and ask neighbors to spy on neighbors. You put your opposition in jail and eventually build up your national defenses to spark a lagging economy.

And this is the world that surrounds the events of A Bright Room Called Day. A story where a group of idealists and artists slowly watch their nation slip under the spell of an Austrian with a penchant for public speaking.