.

.

knock knock

Trick or treat, treat, treat, and treat.

Good work everybody.

the miracle

So we've performed the show three times now, and I think it's safe to say it's been a success. I mean, when words like "miraculous" and "impossible" and "perfect" are being thrown around by theater professionals like Peter Sham, you've got yourself a damn fine show. And although there is a bit of anxiety over whether the average audience member will even be able to comprehend the magnitude of what they see in Nosferatu, we've been assured that it's not lost on the people who matter.

These are exciting things to hear, especially considering the chaotic frenzy that was Nosferatu just hours before it opened on Thursday. I hesitate to even tell the story, but if we're going to brag, we might as well go all the way.

Because tech took longer than expected, rehearsals were extended to 6 hours each, with the final dress happening on Wednesday night. This was to be the first time running the show from beginning to end with all elements (lighting, costumes, makeup, sound, scenery, props, cameras, etc). However, when the cast gathered for pre-show notes, we were apprised of a shocking mistake. Somehow, every light cue for the entire show had been erased.

Every light cue. Gone. And we were opening tomorrow night.

We had spent a full, arduous, painstaking week setting the lighting for each individual shot. And now, with one night to go, the lighting team started over.

The following day, an emergency rehearsal was scheduled at 4PM, to accomplish what Wednesday's rehearsal did not - running the full show from beginning to end with all elements. But even in that run-through, set construction was still happening. Drills were running in the wings, lighting cues were being tweaked, and the final product of all our hard work remained an elusive mystery. Until finally, after a 20 minute break, the show opened to a record audience.

And yes, it was a miracle. Yes, it was impossible. It was flawless.

Nosferatu: Behind the Terror (Pre-Show)

Ok, so I am not a speedy typer and there has been so much I have wanted to share in this blog. I don't know where to begin so my thoughts are well, you know consumed with Nosfeeatu. Being a costume designer for this show has been quite a halloween trick-or-treat. Not sure what you're going to get with some unexpected setbacks but a great hodge podge of eyecandy all in one bag. It has been a fun challenge to get the certain costumes to match the movie and I'm very pleased with the results.

Enough on the costume talk, moving on..... I love Vampires and things that are spooky. I have long since been a fan of vamypres all the way back to when I was but a wee girl. One of the neighboorhood boys told me about vampires and said you could kill a vampyre with a wooden stake and bubble gum on the top. I think it's the bubblegum that's the most powerful part of the ritual.

I just notced the time and need to go be a student, more to come, hopefully soon. It's opening night I'm so excited. the show is to die for;)

we open tomorrow!

Last night, we haunted the Ragan Theater until exactly Midnight, working and re-working the intensely intricate motions of this show. Spike tape litters the stage like confetti on New Year's Eve. Electrical wires and power cords lay like vines, snaking up light trees and cameras. Every detail of every scene change was assigned, re-assigned, worked, and re-worked. A cast and crew of forty-or-so college students maintained an incredible level of concentration, while working costumes, makeup, and set changes for six nonstop hours. If we're not ready, it isn't because we're not busting our butts.

What impressed me the most last night was a short walk I took across the stage at around 11:00. We had been rehearsing furiously for 5 hours. At this point in a typical rehearsal, students would have checked out. But as I walked surreptitiously from station to station, I noticed that every single conversation - and there were at least ten - was totally focused on solving a specific problem on stage. Nearly everyone at nearly every moment of this production process has been intently, patiently, and urgently focusing on making Nosferatu work.

I'm literally awed by the work this cast and crew have accomplished.

So, barring some sort of catastrophic event this evening (when we run the whole show for the first time ever), we're good to go.

We are in the final stages of rehearsal.
Lights are lighting. Sets are setting. Cameras are filming. Actors are acting. Cues are called. Costumes are clothing.
Next step ... Makeup is ... making?

By now, all of the actors who are applying their own makeup have seen Mandy for makeup training and have the necessary supplies. If not, shame on you.

Makeup should be pretty easy, and hopefully, everyone remembers what to do.

Step 1. Apply light base coat of 'blithe spirit' with sea sponge.
Step 2. Add dark circles around eyes and contour face using 'death purple'
Step 3. Deepen shadows using black
Step 4. Highlight if necessary.

Thats basically it.

Fall Break?

Fall...break...crash...kaching...thud...thud...thud...wait for it...KABOOM!

And my weekend went down in flames of a baby shower, wedding, work, peek at homework - no, no, NO! back into the flames it goes, and back to lots of NOSFERATU interrupted by sleeping, eating, and this blog.

I thought about calling up Bekah and seeing if she needed help with puppets or something. Oh well, it's the thought that counts. Right?

On the bright side of life, I could have been somewhere in the backwoods on a hiking trail or at least polishing off one of the hydra heads of homework. But I hear the whip cracking right now. Hell week, indeed...

8 Days and counting... "Fall Break"

Since apparently I'm the only one who posts anymore (hint hint guys) I'll give you an update on the show (as far as I have understanding):

We have set the lights for the entire show-
Scenery is spiked.
Cameras are spiked and framing set.
Music has been chosen (right Chris?).
Title Cards are finished.
Footage is in order.
Placeholders are in place for all those pesky "Narrative" title cards.

Anyway- its really amazing to see the show coming together on the big screen... there is some real freaky stuff and some quite beautiful stuff.

I'm going to say this once and I'm going to say this proudly- this show is going to rock. your. socks... and its mostly likely going to rock them right off!

12 days and counting- "Hell Week: Day 1"

Day 1 of what we in the business like to call "Hell Week" (tech week) has started. I'm at my day job at the moment and completely ignoring all the work I have to do so I can be prepared for tonight.

We have 3 cameras, 4 or 5 tripods, hundreds of feet of cable (video and power), 5 monitors, a switchboard, a computer for footage/title cards (of which there are roughly 120 cuts) and a maze of headsets... Not to mention, an editor, three cameramen (rushing to do around what I'm guessing to be about 30 different set-ups EACH) and myself calling most of the show.

That's all just on the video end.

On top of this- we have a copious amount of lighting needed to be set in the next few days for every single angle we do- using a full separate crew all being coordinated by Mike James;

Scene changes, prop placement, etc all being coordinated by Kyle Hess;

Sound cues being coordinated by Jeremy Showgren, later to be called by Kyle Hess;

The scenery itself being coordinated by Jared Lewis;

Costumes and Make-up being put together by Anna-Marie Johnson, Mandy Lions and Bekah Wilbur;

And of course trying to keep the actors' performances fresh, honest, and keeping the story beats where they should be (and of course- overseeing the overall vision of the production) all being coordinated by Christopher Clark...

Did I miss anything?

You can see why we call this "Hell Week". To make matters more interesting, its more like- "Hell Three, Three Hour Days and One Full Day"... (yep, that's how much time we have to get coordinated into a well oiled organic-mechanism)

ALL of this and I still can't wait!

Tom is creepy...

But beside that- I just wanted to give you a little side by side comparison of what we're doing...

First- watch the original scene from the original movie:


Now, watch what we have been doing in rehearsals... remember, this is being shot in real time! (also, its rehearsal, so no lighting, sets, make-up or costumes... you'll get the idea)


Well- there you have it!

how appropriate

While researching various polyps to model a puppet after I stumbled upon some rather appropriate information. The particular polyp used in Nosferatu, the hydra cnidaria, is even more vampire like than they make it out to be in the movie...you see, the hydra is biologically immoratal. It never ages, and only dies when killed by a predator. How cool is that?!

How the legend begins.

Imagine an empty stage.. above the stage- center is a large screen.

House lights dim and there is a moment of quiet- then this following video plays as set pieces, cameras, lights, props and all sorts of crew/actors flood the stage and set up for the first few scenes of filming... as the credits fade the the live video cuts seamlessly with live footage and a veritable dance of production follows...

This is to give an idea how this will play out... and timing. The credits are slightly temporary and I'm not sure what the music will be so I threw this in as an idea... I have tried to match the original credits from the German version of the film as closely as possible in style... enjoy.

sub-titles

So now we are entering Phase Two. Phase One was called "Blocking," with the subtitle "Try to Pretend that the White Box is Carpathia." Phase Two is called "Blocking with Cameras" with the subtitle "Shut up, Chris. Let Joel Do His Thang."

And I'm more than happy to. We now have three additions to our cast: camera men. Which means we now have electrical gaffers (holla, Jason, Bowyn, and Kyla!) And the addition of cameras into the creative process has been far smoother than I imagined. Probably because Joel knows what he's doing, and also, as I mentioned, because I'm shutting up.

The cast has been focused and supportive, despite long hours of "Waiting," with the subtitle "Welcome to the World of Film."

I'm excited by the project, and intrigued. But my technical concerns, while still there, are being alleviated and I'm reminded of the formidable creative talents of the fantastic team I'm working with.

Something... creepy...?

I'm the Technical Director for this here production of Nosferatu. As such I have a plethora of jobs to do, i.e. I'm overseeing everything video oriented... which in retrospect is everything that ends up on camera... which is most the stuff we're doing...

Anyway, one of these jobs is setting it up so we can use footage from the movie that will be spliced into the projection in order to bridge the gaps between live shots... This will be done mainly in places where we can't really fake it on stage... e.g. The Carpathian mountains, a pack of wild horses being spooked by a werewolf, a raft full of coffins floating down a river- you get the point-

So- I'm sitting here at my computer, pouring over the film frame by frame- finding all the stuff we can't do in real life and putting it onto a timeline in my video editing software- as I do all this I am naming the clips in the sequential order they'll be showing up in the show; the first clip is named "1", the second clip is named "2"... am I moving to fast for you?

Well, right at the end of Act I (there are V acts) is the scene where we are introduced to the one and only Count Orlok (i.e. Nosferatu's creepy alter ego) and wouldn't you know it- when I typed in the name of the shot leading right into that classic scene... I noticed it was: "13".

I'm not a superstitious man... I actually happen to like the number 13 quite a bit- so when it comes to doing a fantastic halloween show, starring one of the most famous (and perhaps most accurate) vampires of all time... I couldn't think of a better omen!

the world's ugliest vampire

Vampires - the mere mention of our favorite creatures of the night conjures up images of dashing men in effeminate suits and long gleaming white fangs that are both horrific and titillating.  And, on occasion, they even gleam like a spinning disco ball in the teenage fantasies of young girls.  But who needs a handsome stranger doing the hustle, eh?  Our country got over sequins and sparkly men thirty years ago. 

Here at the UVU theatre department our incredibly talented makeup crew has been drumming up images of the grotesque and far more interesting – something suitable for Halloween, something that can make you pop out in pustules like a pubescent teen with the plague at the mere mention of his name.  While TWILIGHT may have Edward, UVU has NOSFERATU coming soon for you.  Just say it – N-O-S-F-E-R-A-T-U. And don't worry about the pronunciation – it's German. 

Yes, the world's verifiably ugliest vampire is soon to be here on the Ragan Stage with his plague rats and verifiably "so ugly" face.  After polishing his appearance to perfection, we took him for a tour of world-renowned Provo yesterday.  A quick visit of the Castle made him feel right at home followed by a leisurely drive through the rush hour streets of Provo and Orem. 

Excited to meet the locals, he couldn't stop himself from grinning out the window of our van at all his new friends on the way back to the school.  Other drivers shrieked and giggled with laughter upon meeting him.  Quoth one young lady on his appearance, "OH. MY. HELL.  You are so ugly," as she smiled and quickly rolled up the window.  Charmed by his leering grin, she sped off to tell her family and friends about Orem's newest resident.  Weary with his long journey, Nosferatu headed off to a local restaurant on University Parkway to grab a bite and gave a very positive review of local flavors. 

Nosferat-who?

Aaaaalrighty then!
What's so great about being in Nosferatu, you ask? Pah. Where do I begin?
First of all, you have lots of time to do stuff. Really awesome, non-homework stuff. Perhaps, you'd like to see how we occupy ourselves while waiting--that is when we're not talking about how psycho Chris is. Oh, hi Chris... didn't see you there... ehe...
Erik Crossette and I made this lovely drawing Tuesday night. I am accepting commissions.
Tonight, we played the scribble game. These were some of the best things we came up with.


Pretty impressive, I know. (By the way, don't play the dot game with Erik. He cheats, and when you call him on it, he bites.)

I took note of some of the highlights--for me--of tonight's rehearsal.

• Heather Murdock lint-rolling Jason Sullivan as she mouthed, "The flowers... you killed them..."
• Tom Ferlund's horrifying make-up.
• Ashley Grant letting Tom kiss her in said horrifying make-up.
• Chris' Knock voice.
• Chris' maniacal, "We're already on page three! Ah ha ha!"
• Joel Petrie: "Would the angry old biddies be in their spot?"
• Bryn Dalton's man-hands.
• Carpathian women.
• Jason Jensen showing Chris his stomach.
• Definitely not the word "suckle." Add it to the banned list.
  
• Chris' zoo impressions.
• Jason Sullivan's dance.
• Joe Spear: "Scary eyes 2: the sequel."
• Mark Oram's monkey clap. Okay, just Knock in general.
  
• Bekah Wilbur crossing herself when Hutter says he's going to Orlok's castle.
• Tom Ferlund mimicking the love scene.
• Joel Petrie: "The carriage is a bat out of hell..."
• Hearing Bjork randomly sing during intense moments. Also that one song from Donnie Darko.
• Seeing a vampire use a laptop.
  

So there you have it. If you make me laugh, you'll probably end up on my next list. It's isn't hard to do.

Really though, I think that this project is super interesting. I haven't done film before, so it's kind of fun to see that side of things. I'm a little nervous to see how much more complicated it all becomes when we add another two cameras and a much more spread-out space, but it's a good nervous--not the kind having Tom as a blood-sucking neighbor would inspire. I love that the whole project is an ensemble experience. You step in, do your thing and then move the block you were on. It's awesome.
Another great thing about this project is how melodramatic it is. It kind of feels like a turn-of-the-century soap opera to me. How does that not sound like fun? I'm stoked to see it finished.

More later.
Love, Meg Rush

PS--Everyone really should listen to the song "Buildings & Mountains" by the Republic Tigers.

photo shoot

The publicity photo shoot that took place earlier this day went suprisingly well! (...Not that I wasn't expecting it to go suprisingly well, I'm just suprised at how suprisingly well it went)

Here are some previews for wandering eyes:

clockwork

Mark Oram, here. I'll be playing "Knock," yes, the one who eats flies, bites people, and runs around town laughing maniacally.

Because I'm currently performing in another of Chris's shows (Pericles at BYU), I haven't had a chance to observe much of the rehearsal process yet. When I can manage to drop in towards the end of an evening rehearsal, I get to sneak in and watch the fruition of the night's work. Quite honestly, it's already unlike anything I've ever seen.

This play is going to be insane. In a good way. Not only are we re-creating a classic 1922 vampire film before your very eyes (no, I won't stop there!) - we're also splicing our live action performance with footage from the original! It's a mind-bending enterprise, with multiple camera angles and multiple sets being utilized simultaneously to create (we hope) a seamless experience.

Now you would think, or at least I would, that a bunch of freshmen would be incapable of pulling off such a feat - at least until the week of Final Dress. But, as I mentioned to Chris this evening - "it shouldn't be working, but it is." Everyone is alert, focused, and professional, and the play has already begun to develop a creepy, rhythmic flow. It's amazing to watch the discipline and precision that each of the cast and crew are putting into this effort. And I think it's because we all have got a sense of just how incredible this show can be if we pull it off.

this is the director speaking

Isaac Walters suggested a blog for Nosferatu, and I think it's a good idea. It's a nice way of documenting the process, especially when the process is particularly insane as it is here. If the show turns out to be a disaster we can at least look back and see where it all went wrong. And if it gets a few more people to come to the show, then, voila!

My idea for the show was inspired by the work of Katie Mitchell, a Scottish director who specializes in mixed-media. We saw a production of hers, Some Trace of Her, at the London National while on Study Abroad with UVU students this past summer. I didn't actually love the show, but I loved the idea of it. Conceptually, I thought it was daring. Mixed media is all the rage. Basically, I'm just hopping that bandwagon.

I love Halloween, and I love Nosferatu. I like the idea of mixing our footage with the existing stock - I've never seen that done before. I also think it's a wonderful education for our students to understand the workings of film. Even if it's super cheesy, over-acted, 1922 film-making. I guess that's part of the fun. I keep telling them in rehearsal to make everything bigger! More cartoonish! Every time I tell them to overdo their faces a little part of the Meisner angel on my shoulder dies. These are words I never thought I would say. It's fun to see them respond.

It's also tricky working without a traditional script. Basically, our script consists of storyboards from the film. We follow them very closely so we can recreate the original shots and blocking. It can be a little tedious, all this copying. I worry that the actors feel mechanized. But they seem to be having fun. Who knows what they are saying about me in the hallway when we aren't using them. It's a great cast. I'm excited to see the show.

I will try to be faithful in recounting rehearsals. But you should know right up front: so far, so wacky.