A few weeks ago I stopped by the Production Office to check out a system they were using to test the video projections for The Mad 7. The play uses pre-recorded video (and supertitles) juxtaposed with live acting, and the video is played on three different surfaces. All told, this requires four video projectors all coordinating their projections from one source. In order to make this possible, the Production Staff coordinated with our IT staff to rent some new technology. I got a chance to take a sneak peak of the set-up and snap a few photos, and I’ve finally had a moment to put them up online. The five monitors you see in the picture were being used to test the five different outputs that the system will have to generate (one for the operator’s screen, three for full motion video, and the fourth for supertitles). In the actual performance space, there will be only one screen, and the other four monitors will be replaced with video projectors.

Rich Tepper, who is our IT super-hero, explained it all to me. The projections are run from an Apple Mac Pro, which we rented specifically for The Mad 7. It has dual Quad-core processors at 2.66ghz and 4gb of RAM. It also has three Dual head PCI-E video cards (with 256mb of video RAM each) installed. That gives us the possibility of having six total outputs. With one of those reserved for the operator’s screen, there are actually five possible presentation outputs, and we are using four of those (three for the video, the fourth for supertitles).To coordinate all this, we use a piece of software called Qlab that is produced by a company called Figure53. It is a free download for the Mac OS (so give it a try at home) that runs playback of audio, video and MIDI. It sort of works like SFX (which I discussed in a previous blog post), except it is a heck of a lot cheaper and is capable of controlling video as well as sound (and integrating the two into the same media timeline).

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

This is the fifth segment of a six-part interview with Yehuda Hyman, writer and performer of IN-Festival Spotlight Production The Mad 7. Read segment IV here. The play is based on “The Seven Beggars,” a story by Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and follows a character named Elliott as he encounters seven storytellers from various regions of the world. Each one shares a mystical story through music and dance, propelling Elliott on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.In the following section, Yehuda discusses the various approaches one can take to the story, and the many levels upon which it can be experienced.

The play consists of seven individual stories told by seven different storytellers. Is there an overarching theme, or something that ties each of the individual stories together, in this piece?

That’s a tough question because I don’t want people to come in with a lot of preconceived explaining of what this is or isn’t about. Because it’s going to be completely different for every person.

It’s open to many, many interpretations. Through the process of this, I’ve come at each story from a different angle several times. It’s fluid; it’s like water. It’s always changing for me. One day it means something, another day it means something else a little bit. And I think it needs to be that—whenever it gets stuck, it’s dead. You know?For instance, there are seven beggars. There are seven days of the week. There are seven days of creation in the Torah, the Hebrew scripture. So that’s one way of looking at it—what happened on each of those seven days, what was created, what came into being. That’s one way of encountering the story.

But then the second story, for me, is also connected to the Sephardic experience. The story talks about this magnificent city. Well, in Sephardic culture, there’s the idea of a Golden Age, which was when they lived in Spain before the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. That was a peak, beautiful time, where Jews and Christians and Muslims all lived together and got along. And the Jewish population was in a very good situation. And it was lost—they were expelled, they were all forced to leave or convert. Just like the magnificent city in the story is lost. So, that’s another way of encountering the stories—on a historical level.

(more…)

Playwrights and artists
Come to the IN-Festival
For artsy new work.

Singing fairy tales
Liberian soldier girls
Dancing Jewish dude.

Most events are free
Except for The Mad Seven
Reserve early, please.

Post your own haikus by clicking on the “comments” link below.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

McCarter has an extraordinary group of donors! Who says so? Can you believe: the actors?Every year, a donor benefit is an event we call the Meet-the-Artists Panel Discussion and Dinner. While past panels have been composed of directors, playwrights, leading men, leading women, producers and the like, this season, we invited a group of “Character Actors” to talk with our constituents. They were five actors whose names are not necessarily household words, but who are every casting director’s dream. The panel was assembled and moderated by our Producing Director Mara Isaacs and Director of Artistic Administration Grace Shackney. What are “Character Actors?”

You can find out by listening to the discussion here.

In listening to these talented, articulate, self-deprecating individuals regale us with tales of their exploits both on and off stage, I laughed, I cried, and I thought about how privileged I was to be in their midst. I often feel that way about our donors, too, believe it or not! I just love the enthusiasm and dedication of our donors, and when they call me (usually for tickets), I feel so connected to them as we discuss the shows here, our families, our travails. But surprisingly, Mara told me that, after dinner, some of the panelists commented to her about what a wonderful group of people McCarter has as supporters.

Now, I must admit, I am always a little fearful of putting our donors in direct contact with our artists. Invariably, someone says something really embarrassing, like, “Oh, you were in that play? I fell asleep in the middle of Act I!” But on Monday evening, the donors and the artists were charmed by each other, and I was delighted.

Posted by Lisa Patterson, Annual Fund Director at McCarter Theatre.

Amy Bennett is McCarter’s Company Manager. In addition to negotiating contracts with actors’ agents, Amy is responsible for making sure that McCarter’s artists have the support they need to produce their best work. She arranges and maintains housing for out-of-town artists (at any given point McCarter is housing over a dozen artists and interns), coordinates grocery runs and doctor appointments, gets artists to and from rehearsal and takes care of the myriad problems that come up whenever you are a visitor in a new town. In the end, Amy’s work is a large part of what ensures that artists are eager to return to McCarter over-and-over again. I asked her seven questions:

What’s your hometown?
Burke, VA

What do you like most about being the Company Manager?
It’s a very busy job so I’m never bored. I never know where each day is going to take me and I’m constantly challenged. Plus, I get to meet and work with some incredibly talented people.

What’s on your iPod (or CD player, etc.)?
My iPod is completely dedicated to cheesy work-out music!

What do you love about Princeton?
Princeton is just beautiful. I love the many restaurants and shops, as well as Princeton’s proximity to New York and Philadelphia. I’m pretty new here so I’m still exploring.

If you were trapped on a desert island, and could only take one book, what would it be and why?
A layman’s guide to boat building with raw materials.

What was the first play you ever saw?
That’s hard to recall exactly. One of the first professional productions I remember seeing was Les Miserables. Before that I guess it was school productions. I grew up right outside of Washington, DC, so I was very fortunate to see a lot of plays at Arena Stage, The Folger, and The Kennedy Center.

What is your favorite thing so far about working at McCarter?
Hmm… driving the snazzy company van is certainly a perk. Seriously, it’s the people. Everyone here has such enthusiasm and talent and dedication. It’s inspiring and I’m grateful to be here.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

The Princeton News Network has once again done an interview with one of McCarter’s artists, this time with Mara Isaacs. In addition to being McCarter’s Producing Director (my boss), Mara is directing The Mad 7. For those of you who have spent the last six months living under a rock: The Mad 7 is the spotlight production of this year’s IN-Festival. If you have any comments or questions, post them below by clicking on the “comments” link.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

This is the fourth segment of a six-part interview with Yehuda Hyman, writer and performer of IN-Festival Spotlight Production The Mad 7. Read segment III here. The play is based on “The Seven Beggars,” a story by Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and follows a character named Elliott as he encounters seven storytellers from various regions of the world. Each one shares a mystical story through music and dance, propelling Elliott on a spiritual journey of self-discovery. In the following section, Yehuda discusses his artistic influences.

Are there any specific artistic influences that you’ve had, from other dancers or writers…?

In this particular piece?

Mm-hm.

God, there’s so many. From a very early age the person that most excited me about theater was Peter Brook. I remember I saw a piece of his in Germany, in an armory. It was an African folktale called The Bone, with a multi-national troupe. They did the piece in French mostly, which I’m not fluent in, and some German, a little bit of English—so basically I couldn’t understand what was being said. They did it on a bare stage; I think it was six actors and a percussionist. And it was—I’ll never forget it—it was one of the most enjoyable, funny, powerful pieces I’ve ever seen.And it was very much integrated with the audience. So that idea of that, and the simplicity of a folktale—because that piece was about hunger, it was about a village that was hungry. So it just tapped something, in all of us. All of us can relate to that. So his work was really, really an influence to me.

I also remember, on my first trip to Israel, there was an international theater festival. I don’t know who this woman was, I wish I did, but she was from India, and she was on this tiny postage stamp stage, and it was just her, and she told stories and danced them. And I thought—this is it, this is the whole experience. She was so highly skilled. She really brought everything to life, and she did it with her body and her voice, and so… Whoever that woman is, I don’t know, but… It’s the kind of thing I’m attempting. (more…)

The Shakespeare Theatre Company (our co-producer on Argonautika) really rocks my socks when it comes to creating exciting, multi-media digital content to talk about their productions. I’m super-inspired by all that they’ve done, and you can expect some similar stuff from McCarter in the very near future (oooh, exciting!). Below, see one of their YouTube vids of Mary Zimmerman, telling the story of Jason and the Argonauts.SPOILER ALERT: In case you didn’t understand that last sentence, if you watch this video, you will learn part of the story of Argonautika.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

If you have been reading this blog at all (have you?), you know that The Mad 7 is part of McCarter’s IN-Festival, which takes place in “The Room” in the Berlind Theatre. Traditionally The Room is a rehearsal room, so we hired award-winning set designer Narelle Sissons to transform it into a truly unique and theatrical space that would work not only for The Mad 7 but also for the other events that will be a part of McCarter’s IN-Festival. She came up with a brilliant design—a room within The Room, complete with a periwinkle blue floor, 4 walls, and 7 doors. The audience sits with the actors inside this new environment, and it’s very very cool. I stopped by on Thursday to see our Production Staff installing it, and I took a few pictures.

One of the interesting things about installing a set in The Room is that at the end of the run, we have to turn it back into a rehearsal studio. That means the sprung floors still need to be safe for dancers and actors, which means there can’t be screw holes, nail holes, or crusty glue residue. Obviously, painting the original floor periwinkle blue would be out of the question, so our staff is installing a new floor on top of the old one. Since the new floor can’t be screwed, nailed or glued into place, they had to rely on a neat cabinet-maker trick to hold the whole thing together. The floor is made up of many pieces of 3/4 inch plywood, which are held together with “biscuits” (see below). Once they are all attached to one another, the weight of all the floor pieces will keep them in place. In other words, the floor stays in place with biscuits and gravity. Which is a lot like biscuits and gravy, only not as tasty.

In this case, the biscuits aren’t tasty treats, but instead are small, thin, oval shaped pieces of wooden hardware that serve to lock together two adjacent pieces of wood. They are often used in the making of cabinets to avoid using screws or nails. The carpenters use a “biscuit joiner” to cut oval shaped indentations into the side of each piece of floor. They then slide the biscuits into the indentations (see the picture above) and line them up with the indentations on another piece of flooring. When they slide them together, the biscuits act to hold the pieces together (sort of like the edges of a puzzle piece). The whole floor is created this way, without glue, nails or screws. Pretty cool, huh?

If you’ve got any questions, you can post them below by clicking on the “comments” link.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre

As always, the folks from Princeton News Network have come out to McCarter for a quick video interview with one of our artists. Today’s interview features Yehuda Hyman, playwright, performer and choreographer of The Mad 7, which is the spotlight production of this year’s IN-Festival. Enjoy!Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.