How I Ended Up In The Same Room As Cameron Diaz

From Kate, Technical Production Intern

Well, December is here (and by that I mean half over, where do these months go?!?!). I realized today that means my internship is almost half over as well. I can’t believe how quickly it has gone. I feel like just yesterday I was jumping right in with Night Watcher and Three Musketeers and trying to keep working on Shrek at night. Well, life has definitely calmed down, but still is going by much too quickly for the amount of fun I am having, even though I never seem to leave the building (that was a really long awkward sentence, but I am too lazy to change it). What with my internship, working the Front Desk, and being a bartender in the lobby, I spend more time in this building than everywhere else combined. And it is great, don’t get me wrong, but it is especially nice to get away, even if it is just for a few days. So I really enjoyed my trip to New York this last weekend. I literally got off a plane late last night and am back at my desk today, so I could write to you lovely folks (and of course talk about being at a Broadway show opening night! Of a show that I worked on!). That is the amazing thing about this business; you never know what you will be doing next. At the beginning of last summer, I was wondering how I was possibly going to manage to pay my rent, since I did not have a job until my internship started in September. Then one day I got a call asking if I would like to work on Shrek. In my immediate yes, I tried to seem like I got calls to work on Broadway musicals all the time (the squealing and breathing into a paper bag waited until after I hung up the phone). So my vacation to New York was to go to the opening night on Broadway! The show is amazing (unless you like several critics think that movies should not be made into musicals, which then you are not a very objective source to comment on it are you?). Plus, I attended the opening night party at the Plaza. I spent most of the night catching up with the cast and crew, dancing, and eating delicious food. DreamWorks really knows how to throw a party. Although I also spent a good chunk of my night trying to figure out how I possibly ended up in a ballroom with Broadway actors, famous people such as Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz (I even sat next to Rosie Perez at the show), and theatre royalty. I also sat next to a group of people who worked on creating the magic mirror effect for the show. So I got to brag about the fact that I work at the theatre that built the actual mirror itself. It was all amazing. I am going to have to stop talking about it now, because I am much too excited and could go on and on, but I won’t bore you with that. Happy Reading!

Road to Glitter

From Mollie, Props Intern

Another week at the Rep and yet this time things were a little different. Most of this week was spent working on the set for the upcoming show in the Bagley Wright The Road to Mecca. The show is based on a South African woman that is shunned by the community and therefore spends all of her time in her home. She occupies her time with her art, and by her art I mean her house. The walls of the set needed to look like they were covered in crushed glass because the woman did just that to her actual house. Previous productions have proven that real glass will not read on stage and therefore we had to individually glue pieces of half inch square confetti on the walls. This was of course after they had been painted and glittered. The process produces walls that really do look like crushed glass but has become quite a tedious task. The project calls for lots of hands, patience, and teamwork. We have successfully completed almost all of the walls and have even stood some of them up. (This of course proving that all pieces were not completely secure as a shower of confetti rained down upon us) The other few hours that were not spent on the walls were working on the other props for the show. I helped construct a table that was to have a snake-like base and look like it was made out of concrete. What it actually is made out of is a steel spiral that was bent using one of the cooler tools in the shop. The steel was then covered in blue foam, carved to the shape, covered in wire for support, and then finally coated in a cement like substance. I am currently working on a basin/birdbath that is in the shape of an owl. The woman in the play had a facination with owls and often used them in her sculptures. I think one of the coolest things about this show is that some of the props that we are making are acutally representations of her real work. So when an audience sees this house there will be many aspects of it that are from true life. I always find it more challenging to copy something from real life then to be able to design it as I go along. Well that is all for now. More glitter, more glue, more fun.

Livin' the Dream

From Michelle, Education Intern

The inimitable Kiki Abba (Audience Development Intern) always uses the phrase “Livin’ the Dream” to describe life here at the Rep. Recently I decided that I couldn’t agree more. My name is Michelle Burce and I am the Seattle Rep Education Intern. I am living the dream.

Every day here is different than the rest, but today has been relatively typical. I got here by 9am so I could do some final prep work for this morning’s student matinee of You Can’t Take It With You. Most of the morning was a whirlwind of getting over 600 high school students ushered into the lobby and to their seats in less than a half an hour. As soon as the show started, I popped up to my office to check out the latest news regarding school closures in Seattle. Our partner high school, The Center School, is at risk of getting closed at the end of the year due to Seattle budget cuts. Teaching Artist Beverly is working hard to keep hopes up and make the case for this arts-centered high school, but we’ll see what happens.

By 11am I was in the car off to Woodinville with teen-heartthrob Chris Dewar (last year’s Edu Intern), and we were headed to the third day of rehearsal for this year’s Playwriting Project. Andrea Allen, Director of Education and seasoned playwright, has been working with four young playwrights from Roosevelt HS and four from Woodinville HS over the past two months to create eight one-act plays. Now, five of us are jumping into this project as directors of these eight plays. We have four weeks of rehearsal (broken up by two weeks of winter break), and then we will be performing in the Leo K theatre at the Rep.

These high school plays are great fun to work on. When writing snippet-length descriptions, they end up sounding something like this: “Two guys are planning an elaborate bank heist – but the entrance to the vault is through a lingerie store! Hilarity ensues!” or “Brooke and Charlie meet at a work party and immediately hit it off. The only problem is she’s 30 and he’s 18, but they’ve both lied about their ages. Hilarity ensues!” or even “There’s a co-ed bathroom at a high school - hilarity ensues!”

Even two-hour periods feel short when I’m in the classroom, so after reading the script, discussing characters, playing a character-building game, and checking back in with our playwright about some re-writes, it was time to go. I caught a ride back to the Rep with the lovely Kelly Kitchens, fabulous teaching artist and director, and we spent the drive talking about different directing styles; Kelly is more strict professional with her students, Chris is more “camp counselor,” and I fall somewhere in the middle.

Once back in the office I met briefly with our production manager, prepared everything for tomorrow’s matinee, and breathed a sigh of relief. Tomorrow I’m at Roosevelt in the morning, so I’ll spend the rest of my day creating a curriculum for that cast. Sometimes I stop and think to myself, “Wow, they actually pay me for this stuff?” and then I remember how small my weekly paycheck is. But I’ve got nothing to complain about - I’m living the dream.

I Need to Do Laundry

From Kiki, Audience Development

Well, it's true. I really do need to do laundry. But alas, I don't have a lot of time for that. Why? Because of my awesome internship, that's why. And I'm watching too many TV seasons that I've rented from the Queen Anne library. But it's fine.

So when I originally got this internship I kind of didn't know how I was going to handle living off of $200 a week (which is the current rate that our stipend is at). But you know what, the Rep does a fantastic job of helping you out with job opportunities. I am currently pulling a ton of hours as a Lobby Manager for our shows doing the whole smile-at-patrons-and-wear-headset-like-Madonna song and dance. I'm getting between 15-20 hours a week and that really adds up to paying off my flights home and affording Met Mart sandwhiches (which is an expensive grocery store across the street from the Rep). You could also work behind our front desk after work or on the weekends. Basically you answer phones and buzz people into the building, which is so much more glamourous than Working Girl. A lot of interns also work in our Concessions in the Espresso Bar, coat check, or behind our Bar at the Rep. Once you're trained there you can work the bar at events like Crew, Happy Hour or Taste of the Rep and earn some pocket change there. And if you're really cool you'll work random Development Department events like passing out mini-pieces of chicken on a stick to women as they get their hair done at a beauty salon. Awesome.

It is important to note that I'm also doing a lot of work to hire YOU. Yes, you. One of my jobs is to coordinate the internship recruitment by e-mailing schools, posting advertisements on websites, making packets to send to career centers, you know the works. So if you're interested in applying you'll be talking to me, your new bffn (best friend. for now).

Another thing that I'm doing is acting as the Communications lead for our Playwriting Project. We take two local high schools and have 4 students from each write plays that we stage in our Leo K. Theatre. Baller, right? So I'll be doing a lot of work on the playbill, poster, e-mails, press releases and all that jazz. The point is to get us to "implement the skills that we've learned already" but really it's just a lot of fun. We're talking high schoolers writing plays about speed dating. I've said enough.

Speaking of high schoolers, I'm also working a lot on Emerging Critics. For this program we invite high schoolers to come to the theatre, hear a mini-lecture from a leading theatre critic in the area and then they get to watch the show that we're putting on. Then they write their reviews, e-mail them to me, and then I can tell the kids which ones have talent and which ones should try Golf Club. I'm kidding. They're actually all pretty good and really cut to the chase in their reviews. I wish more critics wrote like them. Dirty, to the point, and honest.

So basically things are really busy and I have no idea when my laundry is going to get done. But it's all good. I'm having a great time, meeting cool people, getting comps to plays, and pretending to know how to make videos for our blog. Just think, this could be you in 9 months. *cue dramatic music*

Don't Judge Me By My To-Do List

From Verhanika, Production Management

As the Production Management Intern, my To Do list is often filled with a wide range of activities. Today it includes many things including long term projects for the season, ongoing career development tasks, projects with outside theatre organizations, and, my two favorites, “Read Scripts” and “Make Snowflakes”. We are about to start the budgeting process for our 2009-2010 Season and I get to read all the scripts we are going to budget for. This is great for me since I have a hard time reading scripts and allows me ample practice to hone my skills on scripts ranging from the contemporary to the absurd. I also get to actually budget these shows alongside the Assistant Production Manager, Diane. And for those of your rolling your eyes and groaning, imagine it this way: we get to determine how much a production gets for all of its expenses ranging from scenic materials to travel per diems. We hold that power in our hands. So that’s why I’m reading scripts.

As far as the snowflakes go, we are creating a Winter Wonderland backstage for the opening night of You Can’t Take It With You. I work closely with production and company management and am often commissioned (and by commissioned, I mean told) to do a lot of things that our Company Manager, Sarah Petty, needs help with. While trying to coordinate the arrival of our director for The Seafarer, who is coming from London, setting up the arrival of our cast of The Road to Mecca, and keeping the casts of boom and You Can’t Take It With You happy, she has also been put in charge of opening night decorations. Needless to say, she is extremely busy and usually sends me and whatever other interns I can trick into coming to go pick up balloons, decorations and set up the backstage area.

It’s a bit of an atypical day with this much buzz. The production office, which had wilted under tech, has been enlivened with the promise of an opening and then a full blissful month before we start the rat race all over again. The next go around with tech will be just The Road to Mecca so the usual back-to-back back-breaking techs won’t be dragging us down.

Now I’m off to work on the snowflakes. I’m sure I’ll be covered in glitter and glue by the end of the day. My keyboard will surely sparkle!

What I'm Taking With Me

From Becca, Literary Intern

Because tonight is the opening night for the second show I worked on, You Can’t Take It With You, I thought I’d take this opportunity to reflect on my experience being a part of this production.

Going into rehearsals for You Can’t Take It With You, I never anticipated the varied things I would be doing for this show. As with nearly every production, our tech period presented some unforeseen problems. Because of these issues we encountered along the way, I ended up doing a number of things that I did not expect, including filling in for actors. During rehearsals I played many of the characters including Rheba, Grandpa, Kolenkhov, Penny, and Paul Sycamore. (I use the term “played” very loosely. I basically just did their blocking and read their lines.) For those of you who are familiar with the show, you can appreciate my impressive acting range (KIDDING!). Even though I was really only doing the blocking so that the actors could rehearse or the designers could work, it was still pretty neat being on the Bagley Wright stage.

Another one of my responsibilities was taking notes during previews for director Warner Shook. It wasn’t always easy keeping up with him but it was a great way to learn about directing. I also have never looked cooler than I did with my clip-on book light and yellow legal pad.

I also took line notes for the actors during previews. One thing I learned while working on this show is that George S. Kaufman (one of the writers), never watched his shows. He just paced in the back of theater, listening to the dialogue. He could hear the comedy in the words alone and did not need to watch the play. While taking these line notes, I realized that Warner has a similar sensitivity to the language of the play. Even though he wasn’t following along in the script, he could often sense when an actor was paraphrasing. After seeing the show about a million times, I’ve gotten pretty good at it, too.

Even though this show was at times stressful, I am thankful to have been a part of it. I learned a lot from everyone involved and the finished product is really wonderful.

I Enjoy Watching the Apocalypse!

From Liz, Stage Management Intern

Hello from the intern cave! It’s Liz again, and boom opened last Wednesday. We had a great crowd, and the food theme for the after-party in the lobby was “nonperishable.” I enjoyed the creative idea more than the food, though. We had lots of canned stuff and pickled peppers, mini-toast, twinkies, and Cheez Whiz. Wherever they are, twinkies and Cheez Whiz probably will survive the apocalypse! Ew.

During recent long days of tech, I noticed a difference between working here and in other theatres where I’ve worked: I’m used to having to cut or majorly simplify difficult aspects of a show during tech—crunch time! Get rid of what doesn’t work and just get the show up! But with daytime rehearsals during preview week, boom’s production team had the opportunity (and the capability!) to add complexity and quality to the production.

A major focus of tech was playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s stage direction “A comet hits the planet earth and is somehow simulated.” The designers aptly took on this challenge and created the apocalypse with lots of loud noises, a timpani, flashing lights, sounds of breaking glass, cabinet doors popping open with stuff falling out, and gold mylar confetti falling from above. All in all, it’s pretty awesome, and I get chills whenever I watch it.

Today I met with other interns Holly, Michelle, and Verhanika about the Playwrighting Project. The education department is working with two local high schools to develop and produce plays that will go up in January on the Leo K stage. My job will be stage managing four 15-minute plays for one high school. As of now, that means I’m keeping track of props needed, and (all in one day) helping run tech and calling the show. It sounds pretty exciting (and super-organized already, which is always inspiring).

In other, unrelated news, I’m freezing. It’s really cold in the intern cave. Fortunately, the Rep has an unusually extensive supply of tea, and the stage management interns have a key to the coffee/tea supply closet. Hehehe. Out of the 36+ kinds of tea, my two favorites are the peppermint and the chai white teas. I’m most put off by the licorice spice tea… Unfortunately, out of pure curiosity I tried the licorice Altoids someone left in the green room, and I must say that I’m better off without anything anise-related in my life.

Tech With 18 People and Communication…

From Holly, Stage Management

So my most recent adventure has been the technical rehearsals for You Can’t Take It With You. I thought that it would be a really difficult tech process because the director and designers of this production are very detail oriented, which makes for a great show, but a very long and tedious tech. I was totally wrong!

Tech flowed very well. The hardest part about it was corralling 18 actors in and out of wigs, costumes, and makeup. I thought that because the production team paid so much attention to detail that we would hit major walls in tech, not allowing us to move forward. The truth is, it that they are very aware of detail because all of them have such a vision. It was really an amazing thing to be a part of. Tonight was our first Preview and the audience loves it! Everything that Warner Shook (the director) said they would laugh at they did! I hope that one day I can have that much experience under my belt.

In that last week or so I have also been super amazed with my Stage Manager, Stina Lotti and my Assistant Stage Manager, Claire Zawa. They both have such different and effective ways of communicating. I am floored when I watch them navigate a conversation with actors, directors, everybody really. They know just how to phrase a question or statement to get the answer they were looking for. As some of us may know sometimes it is hard to get an answer out of theatre people, at least a direct answer. WE are such story tellers, but one in a while we just need the quick and dirty answer. I am so glad to be working on this project. And it both frustrates me that I am not at this level of Stage Management, and excites me to see what is ahead!