Opening Night is here!

Hello all,

Abbie and I are sitting in the lobby as the practically sold out house is watching the second act of Escape From Happiness. The comments from the audience members at intermission were incredibly flattering. I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say after the show as well.

Now that the show is open, I plan on taking the blog in a new direction. As you all know, our mission is to illuminate diverse perspectives around one cetral topic per year. This season’s topic is REDEMPTION. I would love to hear what our loyal audience thinks about redemption as a general topic and also how  The Crucible, Escape From Happiness and our 24 Hour Project has illuminated the topic. I would love to hear from everyone, so please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Have a good night and happy opening night to the entire cast and crew of Escape From Happiness.

Joey Alaimo

Putting On His Acting Shoes

Hello again. So this week is winding down and we are finally hitting opening night. Tonight I find myself sitting at the theatre while our preview audience is inside watching the really funny production that is Escape From Happiness. I asked Chris Maher, our Artistic Director, to give us his thoughts on this process. This is what Chris had to say.

It has been four years since I last acted in a play.  As excited as I was to be a part of this show, I was also extremely nervous.  So after a few weeks of reorienting myself to this whole performance thing, the nerves have slowly started to melt away.  The little pleasures of acting began coming back to me- the connection with my acting partners, getting to put my costume on for the first time, standing in the stage lights, etc.  Needless to say, I am glad I decided to take a break from directing to get on the stage again.  I know how fortunate I am to work with such a terrific group of artists.  Getting to interact with a strong director like Genevieve has been really cool.  I also can’t say enough about how well the tech team has done getting everything up, ready and looking amazing in such a short amount of time.  And the cast!  Everyone is just so flipping talented.  I have directed at least half the cast in something or another over the years.  But seeing their process from the other side has been a lot of fun.  So I guess what I’m saying is to come see ESCAPE FROM HAPPINESS.  This is a tricky little script.  But I think the group we’ve assembled definitely has the talent to pull it off.  At the very least, you should come to check out the sweet mustache I’m sporting.  Hope to see you at The Raven!

Chris Maher
Artistic Director
(And Detective Mike Dixon)

I am really excited for everyone to see this show. I had the pleasure of sitting in on the final dress rehearsal last night and I was in stitches for most of it. Although a bit biased, I will say that this ensemble is really amazing. I will leav it up to you all to tell me what you think of the show after you see it.

Tomorrow I will be back to get immediate reactions from opening night.

See you all then,
Joey Alaimo
Front of House Manager

Tech! It’s What’s For Dinner!

As promised, Commonwealth Fans, the blog entries shall be swift and incensed, rapid and enraged, fast and furious this week as we lead up to our highly anticipated opening night! (Saturday! July 10! Go to www.infamouscommonwealth.org and buy your ticket NOW!)

 I popped over to the West Stage of the Raven Theatre Complex last night to see how it’s all progressing and came away with some more photographs with which to tantalize and tickle your theatrical tastebuds!  Check it out!

 ICT Company, Escape Cast Member and Jeff Award Winning Actress Nancy Friedrich marvels at the wonders of Pledge

 

Stage Manager Cade Wenthe talking shop and giving the actors “the business”

 

Fight Choreographer Geoff Coates SNAPS and beats the stuffing out of Escape Cast Member Joe Ciresi!  Wait…no…
I’ve been told Geoff is actually showing Joe how to SAFELY be thrown into a refrigerator.  

 

More teasers of shopping cart action! You must be salivating like one of Pavlov’s Dogs to see what this is all about!

 

Tickets are available now!  Go to www.infamouscommonwealth.org to find all the information about Escape from Happiness and a link for purchasing tickets!

Abbie Colton
Managing Director

Tech Week Has Begun!

Hello Commonwealth Enthusiasts!!

ICT’s production of Escape from Happiness by George F. Walker opens in just 4 short days and our actors, designers, directors and production staffs are busier than one-legged men in a butt-kicking contest!  So our next few blog entries will be courtesy of me, Abbie Colton, ICT’s Managing Director.

I had the chance to be at our Load-In and Build yesterday and took the opportunity to snap a few photos and give you a sneak peek at what’s in store! (I also took pictures of dozens of props for inventory purposes, but I will spare you those.)

Set Designer, Kathy Arfken deftly painting the floor while employing a ballet-like arabesque technique.

 

Long day’s journey from the storage space… here ICT Company Member, Joseph Alaimo hauls a shopping cart to the theatre.

 

Coming soon to a Raven Theatre near you!

 

ICT Company Member, Light Designer and Sound Designer Stephanette Smith directs ICT Volunteer Nathan Tykocki on light instrument placement

 

ICT Company Member and Director, Genevieve Thompson assembles a relic of a fridge that will become a part of the set. It has a “Butter Control” switch….I kid you not.

 

And it begins to come together! ICT Company Member and Stage Manager, Cade Wenthe and Joseph Alaimo work together on wall placement (or Joey is trapped in a wooden box of emotion…it’s hard to tell)

 

Only in theater could this photo be official tech week business and not just goofing around. ICT Company Member Josh Atkins practices a bit if difficult stage choreography.

 

ICT Company Member Stephen Dunn ALSO not goofing off….though he may have been briefly abandoned in this state for purely comic reasons…

 

There is so much more to show and tell but I don’t want to give it all away!  I am so excited to have you all come to see the final product.  We open Saturday, July 10! Click the link to go to our website and get your tickets today!

www.infamouscommonwealth.org

And remember to check back in periodically this week to hear and see more of what’s happening during tech week!

Abbie Colton
Managing Director

One week to go!

Escape from Happiness opens one week from Saturday. Now is the time when all of the parts really come together. All of the technical elements, the rehearsals and the director’s notes, culminate into the production that you will be seeing come July 10th. This week we are hearing from Rachel Sypniewski, our Costume Designer.

So I’m at the point when everything costume wise kicks into high gear. We’ve had our production meetings, I’ve talked with the director and I’ve talked with the actors about any special needs or request. Also at this point I’ve seen a run through. For me that is the most important step in fully developing a design. As a designer, it important to emphasis the director’s vision and important to be in harmony with the other designs, but as a costume designer it is critical to support the actor’s work.

Before watching the run through, I did gather some costumes here and there. Items I could find free or borrow, or that would extremely cheap. I didn’t want to spend my budget on something that wasn’t going to be used. Now, that I have the a better idea of where each actor is taking their character, I can make better decisions about what they should be wearing. Since this is more or less a modern show, the costumes are coming from thrift shops and discount chains.

I also get anxious and excited before fittings and before tech week. It means all my work is happening from now until we open July 10th, but I also get to see everything on stage together for the first time and really visually absorb the new world I have helped create with ICT.

RACHEL SENT US SOME PHOTOS TO SHARE:

We promise that from here on out, these blogs are going to be coming fast and furious. Check back as often as you can, as more info is coming in tomorrow. And next week, Chris Maher, our Artistic Director, and Abbie Colton, our Managing Director, will be joining me in posting info from different perspectives as we go through the much anticipated and always interesting TECH WEEK.

See you at the theatre,

Joey Alaimo

 

 

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre (ICT) opens the final full production of their 2010 season dedicated to the topic Redemption with George F. Walker’s Escape From Happiness, directed by ICT Founder Genevieve Thompson.

Hello all,
My name is Joe Alaimo and I am the Front of House Manager for Infamous Commonwealth Theatre. ICT is very excited to have just begun rehearsals for the final production in its 09-10 season. As rehearsals roll on and the weeks leading up to opening night on July 10th get shorter and shorter, we wanted to invite our loyal patrons to check in with us throughout the process. In the weeks to follow, we will be posting blogs from different people on our production team, giving insight into the process from their points of view. It is our hope that this will really give you a chance to see behind the scenes as we prepare to open our next production.

Up first is the director of Escape From Happiness, Genevieve Thompson.

Top 5 of Week 1

Five interesting things I’ve learned during Week 1 of Escape from Happiness rehearsals

5.  Coffee is going to be vitally important.  It always is and always has been important.  But more so.  Much more so.  This is not a reflection on the actors.  They are brilliant and entertaining.  This is a purely self-indulgent number 10.

4. Escape from Happiness is not small.  After shows like The Grapes of Wrath, Cloud 9 and The Kentucky Cycle, people have come to think of those as regular sized shows.  I’ve gotten lots of comments like “Oh, you must be excited to have such a small show to work on!”  Newsflash: a ten-person cast with a fight call longer than one typed page, 4 necessary entrances and exits, and pretty much chaos from page 1 til the end — that’s not small. 

3. For some reason, when I block, I feel it’s necessary to talk really really loud — sort of like those people who talk really loudly to people who speak a foreign language.  Except I talk loudly to actors who understand perfectly well what I’m asking them to do.

2. My utopia would be a world without pauses.  I think, from all of my research, that George F. Walker would agree with me.  Most actors who have worked with me know my deep disdain for pauses.  But this show has NOTHING on my past shows in terms of speed.

1. I seem to think in terms of animals when directing.  In the first 3 days of rehearsal, I have asked actors to think of themselves as lions, tigers, hummingbirds, monkeys and monsters.   This is surely an odd collection of animals — especially if you count a monster as an animal.

Thanks Gen. Next week we will hear from more people on our technical staff. In the mean time, if you have any comments, feel free to leave them. If you want to hear from someone specifically, let me know.