This is the year we're doing that really infamous Voldemort play. And while there isn’t actually a play I’m aware of called Voldemort, it’s what we have decided to call our production of MacBeth. If you've been in theatre for any amount of time, I don't need to explain the link between MacBeth and Ralph Fiennes, but for the uninitiated, here's what's what: MacBeth is bad luck. Saying it, quoting it, performing it, rehearsing it, the entire ordeal is bad luck. Like walking under a ladder or standing up on a hammock. The rules vary based on intelligence, but if you accidentally mention the Scottish play, or quote it, horses whinny and lightning strikes and everyone looks around waiting to get crushed by a concession stand or something. And yet, in 15 years of theatre, I have never witnessed the successful summoning of these air-to-ground concession stands.
And then there's Voldemort, the other guy whose name is filled with scary fictional context. The difference is that he-who-must-not-be-named probably could summon a malicious concession stand, even though that's not referenced in the canon.
Since we are frightened far more by people who believe in the curse than the actual curse itself, and being the associative thinkers that we are, we call this play Voldemort. And after this, we'll probably end up calling it concession stand.
This will be the blog cataloging the adventures of the Technical Theatre Crew of Joel Barlow High School throughout the production. I can't take full credit for the idea, it was suggested by a very kind parent. 'People like your sets and lighting,' the kind parent said, 'you should do a blog about the creative process'. I found this claim of 'people like it' dubious - while our theatre program is great and the performances are always impressive, the technical side of things is often... lets say 'well-intentioned'.
You may think I'm being modest, but you have to understand - almost every one of our projects is categorized on a scale of 'what are the chance this is going to catch on fire?'. Anything under 40% is considered acceptable, but we’ve pushed that as far as 90%. To date, nothing has caught on fire. These statistics prove only that we are the right mix of ignorance and confidence. But it's this 'extinguish fires by the seat of your pants' sort of attitude that has us shrugging our shoulders at every compliment, thankful the set has the structural rigidity to actually survive a compliment.
I'm going to maintain this blog as long as I can, or as long as I can be bothered to remember it exists, or until the final weeks of rehearsal eviscerate my spare time. For the sake of context, I'll include tangential information to illustrate where the production is as a whole. Who am I? I'm the technical director, a name i made up but then found out is also a real thing. Be assured the final entries for this show, made in the fueled haze of late rehearsals, will be longs strings of gibberish accompanied by picture of crayon markings on a lone mtn. dew can.
Not counting pre-production and copying hundreds informational flyers onto brightly colored paper, we just started Voldemort this week. Those who will be auditioning in the near future were given basic information on what will be expected from them at auditions (and beyond). We also handed out some paperwork, which I’m certain has been turned into lovely paper airplanes by this point, as actors take to clerical work like tech crew takes to Sprite soda.
In both cases, the subject curls their lip and asks ‘What is this?’
Next: The first Set Design meeting...
