Come to the Cabaret!

Hello Friends! Happy April Fools Day!

Lacking plans for the evening? Like mischeif, music, and merriment?

Come to the Theatre Building at 7:30 for Point of Contention’s motley miscast cabaret, APRIL ANTICS! Come see us play roles we were BORN to play – but no one in their right minds would EVER cast us as! Featuring songs and scenes from Chicago, The Music Man, Spring Awakening, Shakespeare, Side Show, Mamet, and more!

Tickets are $10 and available at the door– or at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/59740

(For the CTA riders out there — #77 Belmont Bus, or the Belmont Red/Purple/Brown lines are right down the street.)

Huzzah for Showtunes and Gender-Bending!

and then the bell rang…

Radium Girls, my year-long labor of theatrical love and geeky research and chair-eography has come to an end.. and though I’m glad (to get free time again, to get to sleep, to not have to deal with the minute details of keeping a production running smoothly) I am also a wee bit sad.  Mainly sad because of the people involved, who were (all-in-all)an absolute dream.

So yeah – now, other than a weekend trip to Milwaukee and Thankgiving, I have the rest of October and November free. Adventures already planned include time with The Morgans, Ikea, Chinatown, and a few random citywalks.

Oh, and the 5k on 10/26. Pray for me.

these are the days

Ah, weekend #1 of Radium Girls went swimmingly -

Filled with great performances, good audiences, happy times, and new friends.

And now would be time to rest… Except that it’s me and I don’t rest.

Tonight, I begin work on show #2 – “The Confession” at CityLit Theatre, which I am Assistant Directing. It’s a great piece adapted from a turn of the century novella, and I’m very excited to be a part of it. I’m a huge fan of CityLit Theatre, and delighted to be involved in a project there.

Will I ever sleep again? Doubtful.

Will it be worth it? Probably.

Radium Girls Press Photo

Radium Girls Press Photo

Originally uploaded by confettigirl

After six weeks of hard work and even harder laugher, Point of Contention is proud to open our fall production of D.W. Gregory’s Radium Girls TONIGHT at The Side Project Theatre.

Seriously. It’s a great show with a stunningly wonderful cast.

Come see it.

Love,
Jamie

Radium Girls: Why I hate Q2Q… :)

I hate Cue-to-Cue.

I mean, duh, it’s a necessary part of any theatrical process, but I still hate it and I believe if you asked most people working in the theatre, they’d say they hate it, too. Cue-to-Cue (or Q2Q) is the process by which the show is run and every light and sound cue is added in – How loud does the sound need to be? How fast does it need to fade? What about the actors? Do they wait until darkness to leave or do they leave ON the fade? It’s lengthy and tiring and oftentimes frustrating, but it’s necessary.

We had Radium Girls Q2Q last night, and it was long and tiring, but – for the limited amount of tech time we have – it was necessary and actually not THAT bad.

However, as I left the theatre Monday morning at 5:30am and was back at 11:00am, I was tired and cranky and frustrated. Not to mention – The store I would have gotten my usual miracle cure (Skittles & Mountain Dew) from was closed.

Gah!

On the upside:

The show is going to look and sound lovely – my light designer (Brandon Boler) and sound designer (Brandon Baisden, also a cast member) have done marvelous jobs in capturing exactly what I wanted. And I have the most lovely cast I’ve ever seen. So yeah.

It’s gonna be gorgeous.

Radium Rehearsals Continue…

Wiley/Markley – Rehearsal

Originally uploaded by confettigirl

Radium Girls, the focus of literally all my non-work time at present, opens one week from today, and I couldn’t be more excited.

I can’t wait for the world to see this piece that myself and a dozen other people have poured our hearts and souls into for months now.

From the first moment I read the script, I knew it was a special project, and we’ve had such good fortune all along the way so far, I expect great things to come. We’ve had the involvement of the playwright (DW Gregory rocks!), an amazing audition process which led to our seriously stunning cast, an energetic and excited production team, and enough lucky breaks and good times to last a lifetime so far.

At present, we’re beginning to put the finishing touches on the show and shining it up for all the world to see. This is the part where directors get to be picky. Like, silly picky. Like.. “I like Diane’s hair, but.. can it be curlier?” or ” Can you drop the coat ON ‘Radithor’ – Not after the word?” It’s a fun place to be.

I’m also terribly excited for the tech part of the process to begin. It’s a show about Radium. Which glowed in the dark. That’s all I’m saying.

I think it’ll be a lovely show.

You should all come see for yourselves.

On Actors –

radium directing

Originally uploaded by confettigirl

They’re marvelous beings, actors.

They’re highly creative, intelligent people who like to tell stories and become other people.

They can be chill, they can be insane, they can be any number of things, but I’ve never met a stupid actor.

The cast of POC’s production of Radium Girls are nine of the most talented and clever people I’ve ever had the good fortune to get in a room with. I’m impressed every day by their level of committment and their willingness to collaborate. We have an amazing script, a slightly crazy venue, and 9 actors playing 38 roles – it takes patience sometimes to make things make artistic sense, but it always works out and usually ends with giggles and a better answer than we originally came up with.

The grand director lesson I’m learning working on this show is how to deal with a group of people who work in entirely different ways. Some are incredibly method; Some just throw it all out there and take huge risks; Some need a little persuading; Some are seriously so chill and effortless it seems like they’re not working at all. Radium Girls is such an awesome script because everyone has scenes with everyone, so everyone is working together. Chill-boy and Method-Girl go head to head. It’s neat to watch how people adapt.

I’m sure it could also form the basis of a pretty good quality psychology paper as well.

As a director, I am mad fortunate to be more-than-ably assisted at rehearsals by a triple-header of awesome and competence.

First, there’s my amazing costumer, Amanda Bobbitt, who is literally drowning in fabric and polka dots and having fun despite herself. She’s making everyone look pretty and perfect and precise on a tight budget. Amanda is a freshman at Loyola in the theatre department and strikes me as one of those kids who’s going to do well because she works her ass off and doesn’t start unnecessary drama. Always a good thing.

Then, there’s Betsy Morgan, who plays multiple roles in the show including Marie Curie, but who has also come to my aid as a rockstar acting coach – and soon, warm-up captain. Betsy has that instinct of knowing how other actors work and figuring out how to help them find the trait or feature that defines their character. She’s awesome sauce. Truly.

And last, but SOOO certainly not least, there is my brilliant and unshakeable Assistant Director/Stage Manager, Mr. Eric Prahl, who I feel like I’m married to at this point – and on September 18th we get to have a baby called Radium Girls. Eric is whipsmart, totally honest, and the best second set of eyes a director could ask for. That, AND he makes the most amazing spaghetti I’ve ever eaten. Seriously, I can’t stop talking about it. I think I even mentioned it on the new podcast episode (coming soon!) Theatrically, I am head over heels for Eric.

Radium Girls opens in 13 days.

I couldn’t be more excited.

Radithor: "It is perpetual sunshine!"

Have you ever heard of Radithor?

No?

Don’t feel bad – Neither had any of us, until we began work on “Radium Girls.” But it’s a fascinating product and an insanely interesting story. Radithor was, in essence, Radium water. Supposedly, it would make you feel energized and reinvigorated. But it had dangerous effects.

From RG research –>

“Prior to being emptied, the bottle pictured at left contained one-half ounce of Radithor, i.e., triple distilled water guaranteed to contain at least 1 microcurie each of Ra-226 and Ra-228. The manufacturer of the product, Bailey Radium Laboratories of East Orange, New Jersey, offered $1,000 to anyone who could prove the product contained less than the stated amount. No one ever did.

However, another of the company’s guarantees, that “Radithor is harmless in every respect,” proved false. Radithor is one of the few radioactive quack cures that can be unambiguously linked to someone’s death, specifically that of Eben Byers at age 51.

Byers was the founder of the A.M. Byers Company, one of the world’s largest steel companies. In 1928, the Pittsburgh industrialist and one-time U.S. amateur golf champion (1906) injured himself on a party train following a Harvard-Yale football game. At the recommendation of his doctor, he began drinking Radithor, and he continued to do so long after the injury healed – he averaged three bottles a day for two years. Byers stopped consuming Radithor in 1930 when his teeth started falling out and holes appeared in his skull.

Perhaps more than anything else, his death in 1932 alerted the public, and much of the medical profession, of the harmful effects of “mild” radium therapy.”

– Radithor, and William J.A. Bailey, appear in Radium Girls.

Seriously. You should make plans now to see this play.

Ah, the dark side of America’s excitement over new products.

Radium Giggles

One of the coolest things about rehearsals from a directing standpoint are the wonderful discoveries you get when talented actors go to town with the material.

You’re all aware how hopelessly devoted to my amazing cast I am by now, right?

Well, we had a fun rehearsal last night -

After knocking out one of the more serious scenes (easy breezy when everyone understands their characters so well – and these actors do, down to the letter…) we went on to one of the street scene/media circus interludes.

Taking a step back –

Radium Girls contains two kinds of scenes, essentially. There are the very serious, very realistic, human scenes involving the people who suffered from these illnesses and their antagonizers. There are also these very vaudevillian scenes, led by a Reporter and a Sob Sister, that help transition through time and explain the media’s influence on the case. Remember the OJ Media Circus? The Radium Girls case was kinda like that – in the 20s. These scenes are, in essence, the spinning newspaper scenes from any movie of the pre-1950s. They feature characters named “Shipgirl,” “Customer,” “Venecine Salesman,” and give my cast a chance to really go to town and create some silly characters in the middle of a tremendously dramatic piece. The scenes are musical theatre, without the music.

I laughed a lot at rehearsal last night. Good times, good times.

Oh, and thanks to Bob – for finding us a hilarious jingle that now HAS to go in the show.

I can’t wait until the beginning of September, when we start putting all these puzzle pieces together.

Radium Work

Sometimes, as a director, you cast a show and then spend the rehearsal process telling actors things like “Step forward, then turn to him and smile” or “Lift your hand on that word.” (It can be a little like babysitting.) But then, sometimes – if you’re lucky – you cast the show, get into rehearsals, and realize your job is merely to set things up, figure out where the chair goes, and to get the hell out of the actors way most of the time.

Thats how I feel about the cast of POC’s Radium Girls.

Seriously, it’s probably the most completely and utterly talented cast I’ve ever seen. There isn’t a weak link in the bunch. There are nine of them – Seven of whom share 36 different roles – and each role is being crafted with so much care and affection. The play is based on real-life events, and it’s fun to watch people go digging to find the truth about their characters. We’re still in the early stages of blocking, and some of these roles have already come to such vibrant life, while others are still being explored. Exciting discoveries are happening each and every day.

For example – the photo below is of Marie Curie during her whistlestop tour of the US. Her stop in New York is portrayed in Radium Girls. We’ve also discovered street addresses of the girls in the play and googlemapped them – they all live within like 7 blocks of each other. And we found Arthur Roeder’s Cornell University alumni newsletter. It’s things like this – the fact that all these people and events really existed and happened – that make this show so amazing to work on.

It’s an exciting process – and should lead to a thrilling show to watch.

You should come see the show — and watch these talented actors at work, telling a horrifying tale based on real events – While the play takes place in Orange, New Jersey (where the most famous Radium Girls case occured), there was also a plant in Ottawa, IL that had the same circumstances. Years later, superfund sites still remain. It’s still happening…

(The most morbid cartoon ever.)