The Rehearsal Room/A Culture Clash Revival/Three Weeks in the Bag

Posters for Chavez Ravine outside the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City

For the past three weeks I have been in rehearsals for the Revival of Chavez Ravine by Culture Clash at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles. It’s been an incredible experience to work with a theater troupe that has been together for 3 decades.The work is specific, slow & steady. We are reviving a play that celebrates and remembers a part of Los Angeles history. This look back at a trauma that affected an entire neighborhood, an entire culture, so many families, creates a sense of haunted nostalgia. We are representing people who endured this period of history, many of whom are no longer with us. It’s a big responsibility and the writing and creating that the cast and crew have poured into this piece so far is stunning. Everyday we are finding ways to polish, tighten and deepen the story.

To reflect/journal each day of rehearsal I challenged myself to write a simple haiku. Tomorrow we begin tech, as an homage to the rehearsal room, and a way of saying goodbye to this part of the rehearsal process, I have combined all of the haikus into one long poem below.

 

Collaboration

Text, Music, Creative Heart

The First Day of School

We got to Act 2

Cuts, Changes, Focusing

Up next, on our feet

Worked the top of show

Jitterbug and party scenes

Last Day of the Year!

An eight hour day

With all the boys in the room

Act one almost done

Two days in a blur

Getting ready for a day off

Soon Herbert is back

Sunny day today

At lunch on a patio

My baby is sick

Maria grows up

Millie Miller scares watchman

Here we go Act Two

A costume fitting

Coffee spilled all over bag

On my feet High Heels

Ending of the show

What message are we sharing

I’m with Culture Clash!

Stumble through up next

Slowly lines grow in my heart

It’s moving along

End of second week

A designer’s stumble through

Was “Herorriffic”

Lines, Lines, Lines, Lines, Lines

Attacked Act Two with Herbert

Work, Work, Work, Work, Work

Rode the train to work

Slow but steady work, Act 1

Meeting with Darlene

Choreography

Trying to find Millie’s voice

Rode the train back home

The end is coming

Last days in rehearsal room

Must work on my lines

Another run thru

Things may fall apart, that’s fine

It’s been a long week

“Woodshedding the lines”

Beautiful lunch with my love

Last day before tech

Goodbye rehearsal room! Time to move on to the Stage!

 

Stave 5: The End of It

“Yes! and the bedpost was his own.  The bed was his own, the room was his own.  Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in!
“I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!” Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed.  “The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.  Oh Jacob Marley!  Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this.  I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees!”
Charles Dickens, Stave 5, A Christmas Carol

Happy 2015! This past year was filled with transition, transformation and travel. I’m looking forward to what this New Year of the Green Sheep will bring! Just as Scrooge promises at the end of this ghostly little tale, I will hold the lessons of the past, present and future in my heart. I promise to treat people with love and respect, I promise to breath and live in the moment and I promise to make art and surprise myself!

Past

Present

Future

May you all be blessed with love, light and laughter in this year to come!

“His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.
He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.  May that be truly said of us, and all of us!  And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”
Charles Dickens, Stave 5, A Christmas Carol