This is Part II of McCarter’s look back at what some of the artists from 2007 are up to now. Click here for Part I.

Stick Fly
In just a few weeks, Stick Fly playwright Lydia R. Diamond will open her newest world premiere, Harriet Jacobs, at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The play is based on the life of Harriet Jacobs, author of the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. This play, which opens February 8, is part of the Steppenwolf for Young Adults series. Lydia’s adaptation of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye has been receiving productions around the country, and was recently listed as one of the San Francisco Chronicle’s top ten theater events of 2007. The list also includes Argonautika, which recently ended its run at Berkeley Rep. Stick Fly was also recorded by L.A. Theatre Works, and will soon be available for ordering on their website.

Tartuffe
Tartuffe transferred to Yale Rep, in New Haven, Connecticut and ran through the month of December. it only just ended on December 22, so there hasn’t been all that much time for the various artists of the show to start new projects. The big news, however, is that actress Sally Wingert is slated to lead the cast of Wendy Wasserstein’s Third at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Many of our audience members will remember Sally for her utterly fabulous turn as Dorine, the saucy maid who sees through all of Tartuffe’s cons. Sally is one of the great stars of the Twin Cities, and The Guthrie is one of the finest theaters in the nation (and where McCarter’s Artistic Director Emily Mann did some of her earliest work). There’s a great video of Sally talking about Third here.

A Christmas Carol
Since closing McCarter’s production of A Christmas Carol, director Michael Unger has started his next venture, directing The Happy Time at Arlington Virginia’s Signature Theatre. The Happy Time is an unfortunately forgotten musical by Kander and Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret, Curtains, etc.). It originally starred Robert Goulet, and sadly its claim to fame is that it was the first Broadway musical to close having recorded a net loss of over a million dollar. Nevertheless, the score is quite tuneful, and Signature, a theater that has recently won great acclaim for its productions of Sondheim musicals, is producing it as part of a Kander and Ebb celebration. Unger is in excellent company; the other festival directors are Eric Schaeffer (Signature’s Artistic Director) and Frank Galati, two time Tony Award-winning director of musicals and classics, and an Associate Director at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. The Happy Time runs April 1-June 1, 2008.

Let us know what you think! Post a comment below by clicking on the “comments” link.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

Cornel West with the Stick Fly company

In the theatre, every story is a love story; the key is discovering where that love resides. In Stick Fly, every character needs to be seen—surely the first step to love. The desire to be recognized and acknowledged in this story is sometimes strong and demanding, sometimes broken and messy. But, to love one’s self enough to ask to be seen, is to claim one’s dignity.

And so, to honor the journey we have all taken these past ten weeks, I wanted this final post to be from those who have brought you this show each night.

Here are their closing thoughts on our Stick Fly experience:

• “My first car was a piece of crap with a clutch in it. I had to get my prom date to help ‘kick it off’ while I pushed it out of the gas station. Since then I can appreciate riding in style and knowing that reaching your destination is possible. Stick Fly is the answer to my prayers. The staff at McCarter, Lydia Diamond, Shirley Jo Finney, the volunteers, and the crew have made this the Bentley of my life.” - Kevin Carroll “Kent LeVay (Spoon)”

• “Every now and then there comes a gem more precious than the actual stone. Such is Stick Fly…a play, a moment in time, an experience far greater than the stage that will forever travel with me on this journey called life. Thanks to the playwright, director, cast, and McCarter staff…closing night is truly the official opening to new friendships, bonds of humanity, trust, support, and creative spice.” - Javon Johnson “Flip LeVay”

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Wednesday was the second student matinee performance for Stick Fly. Most of the students who attended the first matinee we did a few weeks ago will be taking part in our playwriting residency, Youth Ink. They created a really exceptional audience, and the post-show discussion was above average. So the education staff was excited when the second stu-mat was scheduled. Plus we were told subsidy was available (thank you, Development Department!) to fund the ticket cost for the 270 student attendees from Newark and Trenton.

The students and teachers were so excited when they arrived yesterday by the bus loads. It’s a huge undertaking to greet all the students, make arrangements for pick up with their bus drivers and escort them into the theater. Luckily, we have an incredible staff of interns who work their butts off to ensure this happens. We had really great bus karma and all the schools arrived and students were in their seats with 10 minutes to curtain. Before the performance started, Paula Alekson, the Director of High School Programs, polled the students during her pre-show speech. We learned that over half of the audience had never been to McCarter before. We also suspect that a large percentage of them had never been to a play!

We have at least one matinee for the all the main stage shows and 7 (yikes!) for A Christmas Carol, 4 for Youth Ink and 4 for the Education Department’s touring show, The Odyssey Experience. Well, two down and 20 more to go!

See also:

• Discussing Stick Fly
• Top Ten Rewards of my Stick Fly Experience

Posted by Francine Schiffman, Education Administrator at McCarter Theatre.

1. Working! As an actor who mainly works in professional theatre with bits of film and TV scattered in, I never know exactly when I’ll have a job. And I love to work! For a few weeks I don’t have to hustle—I can just do what I am meant to do. (Of course, now that we have just two weeks left, I am reluctantly on the prowl again.)

2. A beautiful and quaint apartment in Princeton to temporarily call home. Of the regional theatres I have worked at around the country,McCarter’s Actor Housing is the nicest by far. It has charm: dormer windows, lace curtains, and a skylight in the kitchen. On a hard day of rehearsal, it is great to come back to a place of comfort and curl up to rest and recharge for the next day.

3. Getting to know this beautiful town. Princeton is a great place to be for a few months—lots of shops and restaurants to walk to and that incredible campus, standing by to inspire. I’ve not worked in a more lovely location.

4. The Bent Spoon!!!

5. Deepening my understanding around the challenges faced by African-Americans. During this journey, I have been in a truly unique position: I am “the white girl” in this play. (Usually it’s the other way around and there’s one African-American amid an all white cast.) I’ve participated in discussions about race, and about how it feels for my fellow artists to move through the world, which have been sometimes horrifying, sometimes hilarious and always eye-opening. I am so grateful that truths were shared generously. At times it hurt. At times it divided. But it always expanded my heart and mind.

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1. Being away from my husband and home for 10 weeks.

2. The raw, deeply personal, sometimes painful process of our table work. We delved heart-first into our truths about race and class and family. A lot of tears and discomfort and learning and growing pains went into creating the foundation on which we now stand each night.

3. The stress of frequent rewrites on the company. I actually had a dream one-night right before previews that I showed up to rehearsal and no longer had any lines in the second act! Not so funny.

4. No car.

5. Lack of sleep caused by “New Play Insomnia.” I woke up many nights trying to figure out a moment in the play for my character that wasn’t working as well as it could. Most of the time I would eventually come up with an idea to try the next day at rehearsal—but usually it was 6am before that idea came.

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We held the second of two post-show discussions after yesterday’s matinee performance of Stick Fly. Over 100 people stuck around for a chance to ask questions of the actors and hear them respond! The discussion was moderated by Alexis, the directing assistant assigned to the show, who has been working with Shirley Jo throughout the process, and has a great deal of insight into the play at this point. I even got up on stage and fielded a question in my capacity as literary assistant.

Our only regret was that the discussion couldn’t have gone on for longer. There were so many people with great questions and a lot of enthusiasm about the show, and I know I would have loved to hear more of the actors’ always fascinating and insightful discussions of their experience working on Lydia’s play. Unfortunately, this was the fourth in a five-show weekend, and the actors do need some time to rest and recover, plus stage management needs time to reset the stage for the evening performance. So all too soon we had to send everybody home. I did have some great one-on-one conversations with a few members of the audience after the talk-back. And of course, what is this blog for if not to continue that discussion beyond the doors of the theater? So, if you were at the discussion (or even if you weren’t) and have a burning question or comment you didn’t get to share and would like to, feel free to post it here. I’ll personally do what I can to get answers to any questions you might have posted up here in response.

Thanks to everyone who attended!

See also:

• Enter the Audience
• Fly on the Wall

Posted by Elizabeth Edwards, Literary Intern at McCarter Theatre.

Stick Fly opened on Friday. It was thrilling to be in the audience on opening night - the cast was on fire and the audience was sending lots of love. Multiple standing ovations at the end - it was very exciting. After the show, the audience meandered downstairs for an opening night party with the cast and crew. Good times were had by all. Naturally, it didn’t take long before director Shirley Jo Finney had gotten people dancing. Go figure.

Sunday was our “Dialogue on Drama,” so after the matinee Lydia stuck around to have a conversation with Literary Manager Carrie Hughes and to answer audience questions. I think (I hope) that someone recorded it, and if it ever ends up online I’ll post a link. Here’s a picture I snapped after the event of (left to right) Kevin Carroll (Kent), Lydia Diamond, Kemati Porter (Artistic Affiliate), and Michole Briana White (Taylor).

Update: The Stick Fly Dialogue on Drama audio recording can be found here.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

Tonight is the night! Stick Fly opens! It was only a few short weeks ago that I blogged about the first rehearsal, or that Shirley Jo Finney shared an insight into her creative process. When we were all only 39 days, 7 hours and 51 minutes from opening, it felt ages away. Well, now we’ve got only a few hours left to go!

Fortunately, no one is panicked. At this point, the cast has performed this play many times in front of a paying audience - this just happens to be the performance called “opening.” The Development Department is setting up a fancy-schmancy opening night dinner, but they’re pros at this sort of thing. And the box office is working with them to coordinate VIP and press seats for the opening night audience. There will be a big party after the show. It should be quite a festive event.

At left is a picture of Michole Briana White as Taylor in Stick Fly. T. Charles Erickson took this photo at the dress rehearsal. You can see more pictures of Stick Fly here. If you’ve already seen the show, drop us a comment to tell us what you thought!

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days. I’ve been very busy. Stick Fly previews have been going really well. I went on Saturday night, and the audience (nearly a full-house) seemed engaged and involved. The show gets smoother and better every time I see it, a combination of directorial tweaks, actors gaining more comfort and confidence, and Lydia’s small adjustments.

At the left, you can see a picture that Producing Director Mara took a few days ago backstage. Julia (who plays Cheryl) was preparing for her first entrance in the dressing room. She’s a pretty darn good photographer, that Mara. Tartuffe’s first rehearsal is in a few minutes, so I’ll give an update on that later today.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

So, Stick Fly had its final dress rehearsal last night, with an audience of forty or fifty subscribers, guests, and McCarter staff members. Overall, it was a great show. Naturally still some of the technical hiccups you expect at this point in the process, but in general things were impressively smooth. It was lots of fun to finally see the show in all the glory of its set, lights, sound, and costumes. Not to mention the massive amounts of props. But I think my favorite addition of last night was the audience itself.

It was so wonderful to be there as many of these people experienced the characters and the story for the very first time. At this point I’ve seen so many iterations of the script, popped in on so many rehearsals at so many different points in the process, that it’s sometimes hard to remember the moments of surprise and delight I experienced as the play first unfolded before me. But I recalled them afresh as I heard and felt the audience members around me gasp, cluck, laugh, and sigh their way through the developing relationships and gradually revealed secrets of Lydia Diamond’s Stick Fly.

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