2013: Plays and Caffeine

Saturday was filled with coffee. The cup I drank when I got up at 6 am to prep for a meeting about a guest visit to a class on Shakespeare’s Comedies and a design meeting for Fool for Love. Both these meetings took place at coffee shops, so…more coffee. And then there was that cup I drank before heading out for the closing night of Cressida. There was also laundry and husband time and thai food with family and drinks with friends. It was as fantastic a day as it was a long.

There have been a lot of long days lately, most not as balanced (or varied) as Saturday. I am still at the full time survival job and two plays I directed opened in January: Feral and Cressida. 

Production Photo by Rio

Feral premiered as part of Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival of New Works at The Bob White Theater Warehouse. Compass Works produced the play, written by their very own artistic director Bruce Hostetler. Interviews with homeless and formerly homeless individuals provided the raw material for Feral. Bruce conducted some of those interviews, the rest came from an interview project done by Sisters of the Road. Feral rehearsals began January 2^nd. The show previewed on January 24^th. Whirlwind.

Rehearsal Photo by Heath Houghton

Cressida opened at The Headwaters and ran three weekends. The show was a remount of my MFA thesis production with a new cast and a few revisions to the script, including my music director’s brilliant idea to add some of Emilia’s speech into the Othello willow song that Cressida sings on her voyage from Troy to Greece. We began rehearsals for Cressida in October, mostly finished the play before the holiday break, and came back for pick up rehearsals in January. Cressida opened January 24^th. Crazy.

And now both those shows have closed and my desk looks like this:

Yes, the mug has coffee in it.

Fool for Love rehearsals begin February 26^th. Before then, there is a fundraising campaign to launch, design meetings to attend, costumes to shop for, and a get away trip so that I can catch my breath.