Do I wake or sleep?

So, for the second Friday show, we had some unusual audience members--KIDS.  As in 12, 11, 10 years older and possibly even younger (one of them was genuinely tiny--she looked about 8, for realz).  They were in two groups in different sections of the house--during pre-show I approached one of the groups, consisting of girls about 12 years old, and tactfully asked them "have you ever seen the show before?"  (I certainly wasn't going to ask them if they were virgins!).  None of them had, so I briefed them on the basic shoutouts--Asshole/Slut, etc.  I said you can use these words ONLY during the show, they're not appropriate outside the show (don't want to give girls the message it's okay to call each other names like that).  I can't imagine taking such young kids to see a show like that (especialy the LATE show!), but whatever, I'm not their parents!  At places, Tactless Emailer asked me in front of the cast "there are kids out there, do we change anything?"  I said "Hell, no!  We will not pull our punches for anyone--this is not a kid-friendly show and the and the adults in charge of them must know that.  Nope, doing the show as directed."  During the silhouette scene, the kids were DYING, simultaneously horrified and screaming with laughter.  I doubt their parents heard any complaints :)

After the second show Paul and I, and some other cast members, went over to the apartment of Dylan (he was in Pirates and teched for Christmas Carol), who lives in Hoboken.  Dylan saw the show that night and was raving about it, saying he didn't think it was his kind of show but he loved it and now wanted to audition next year.  Then he was going on about how much fun he'd had during Pirates and how much he loved working with me.  He was a little tipsy but hey, I certainly wasn't complaining!  Then he started on Christmas Carol (which he worked on twice--once as a techie in 2008, and then as a performer in the staged reading version in '09)--and I am not exaggerating when I say he went on for about 45 minutes raving about my version of Christmas Carol, how much fun he'd had, how much he loved the language, the music, the feeling of the whole experience, thanking me for all of it.  I mean, he really went off about it!  I said well I can't take much credit for the language since my whole thing was to restore the original Dickens--I just shaped the structure a little bit, elaborated on some paraphrased scenes, dramatized it with the Readers, and then got out of the way.  But I *can* take credit for the music, which I chose very carefully.  He LOVED the music, most of which he'd never heard before.  He was going on about how haunting and mysterious it sounded--I started singing The Angel Gabriel and he was all "yeah!  What a great piece that was, I loved it!"  I said I chose it because 1) Angels are messengers and Gabriel visits Mary to tell her about her destiny, much as Jacob is about to visit Scrooge to tell HIM what's up, 2) it's a beautiful, haunting piece that sets the mood for Marley's visit, and 3) it's not as well-known and therefore not played out.  I told Dylan that I grew up hearing and singing all those pieces, that it's all English music and thus part of the Anglican tradition.  I also told him that Sting had actually covered The Angel Gabriel--he was astonished and I said well, he is English, after all!

Paul also made me very happy--he told me that both he and Jen weren't sure if they wanted to do Rocky again...until they found out I was directing.  Steven said the same thing--"if Clara's directing, I'm in."  This is especially touching because I didn't cast him as the Narrator--but he didn't care.  He said he knew it would be a great show if I'm directing.  Wow.  Honestly, that makes me feel incredible.  This was a great cast, altogether--so much love, so much fun, inventiveness.  Even Tactless Emailer wasn't bad at all--she just loves Rocky and wants the best show possible.

For our final two performances Saturday night, we had great crowds--and a standing ovation!!!!  Very, very proud of that--those are *rare* with TTC audiences.  I think the only other one I've gotten was for The Vagina Monologues.  And in one of the show I heard an audience member gasp when Janet walked away at the end.  LOVE IT.

After the last show the cast had put together care packages for me and some of the staff members--bottles of champagne and goody bags.  I got some very nice cards--one signed by everyone and a couple of individual cards.  We had a pajama party at Julia's (cast member) apartment in Jersey City--tons of food and drink and a huge living room.  At one point we were all gathered around the kitchen table and they wanted me to make a speech, and then Susan and Charlotte both made speeches about the show and working with me.  Susan got very verklempt :)  At one point Steven pulled me into the bathroom and we had a good ol' fashioned bitch session :)  And then at another point we were all rocking out in the living room to "Call Me Maybe."  Also Charlotte got VERY drunk and started making the moves on a cast member, in front of her BF who was there!  Then a few minutes later she ran into the bathroom and was sick for 20 minutes.  Good times :)  She is a bit of a mess but adorably so (in other words, she's not drama-queeny or annoying, she's just super-talented and makes age-appropriately bad choices.  We all love her and I would cast her again in a heartbeat).

The next day we all gathered in the East Village for a final gettogether--brunch at the Sunburned Cow.  My parents were calling me about Sandy which honestly had not registered much on my radar at that point.  Paul drove a bunch of us (crammed into the back) into the City from JC and we waited endlessly as the other cast members straggled up.  Had a great time of course and I ended up getting home around 4, well ahead of the subway shutting down.

Man.  WHAT fun.  I won't deny I am VERY very glad I have some free time now--after directing two straight shows in Hoboken, I'm exhausted--but this was a really special show.  The cast was great and I got to DO something with Rocky, I got to make it a little bit more than your typical replica-of-the-movie.  And the cast was behind me every step of the way.  I will admit, I was a little nervous about this show at first, wasn't sure how I was going to make it my own, especially since I'd been in it, in the same space, last year.  I feel great about it.

Presenting

Charles Dickens's

A Christmas Carol

Adapted and directed by
Clara Barton Green

Three performances only!

December 16, 17 & 18, 2009 at 7:30pm

at

The Hoboken Historical Museum
1301 Hudson St.
Hoboken, NJ

Tickets:

$15 general admission
$10 students & seniors
Refreshments included with purchase of ticket.

Tickets are available for purchase in advance at the Hoboken Historical
Museum or at the door.

Hope y'all can make it!

So, my show opened Friday. I got there around 7:30 and hung out backstage. Several of the kids in the cast gave me little birthday gift bags, which was totally unexpected and adorable. I received three different candles, two boxes of dark chocolates, and a Christmas ornament. How sweet! I also gave a few last-minute notes and worked a slight change with Ignorance and Want. Eventually Shawna called 5 minutes, then I did my St. Crispin's Day speech to the ducklings. I said we've done all this work--we've rehearsed and done our research and now the fun part comes. Now you actually get to go out and BE these people--you get to go on a journey and take the audience with you. And that's why we become actors.

I watched the first part of the show from the balcony. It was all going fine until the Marley knocker effect didn't happen at which point I started to freak and then had to leave the balcony to chill. I would be a terrible Olympic parent, I simply can't watch when I'm not in control. I spent the rest of the show wandering in and out of the balcony, noticing at intermission that Jason, Alex and Don were there. From what I saw, the show went fairly well--not great, but well enough. I can never trust my own assessment of how well it went--I tend only to notice the mistakes, like Tess (Tiny Tim) singing "stood a lowly cattle shed/where a mother raised her baby" instead of "where a mother laid her baby." I've given her that note several times now--"Tess, you know, they did move out eventually! Joseph and Mary weren't *that* poor!" And Niki (Mrs. Cratchit) keeps messing up "and we haven't ate it all at last!" which she did again on Friday. Niki said after the first Cratchit scene (when both these flubs happened) she and Tess looked at each other and said "Clara's gonna kill us!" Which I did, after the show :)

Jason, Alex and Don came up to me in the lobby afterwards and said some very nice things. Jason said he could tell my directorial touches and he liked how my adaptation flowed. Don mentioned how interesting it was to watch it, as opposed to being in it. I was a little shaky (opening night with such a tech-heavy show is very stressful to me). The cast wanted to go somewhere where the entire cast (including the kids) could fit but there really isn't any such a place in Hoboken (especially on a Friday) so they went off to the Dubliner and I joined Dave for a quick drink at Court Street. The quick drink lasted longer than I thought and the cast kept texting and calling me, so finally I left Dave and walked along Court Street (all those cobblestones) to the Dubliner. The cast had gotten me a bouquet of flowers, a card and two Starbucks gift cards (they are all well aware of my coffee love). How sweet! I love my cast. They're all awesome. Someone bought me an Irish Car Bomb (my Xmas Carol drink--I discovered them last year at Court Street when Pia introduced me) and I mingled with various cast members, dissecting the show and the experience.

Niki said I was the best director she'd ever had--I said well, I love directing and I'm passionate about it. I love the work of directing--I love thinking about the blocking and the themes, I love bookwork and research.

Saturday after the show, we went to Benny Tudino's. Rebecca (Want/Fan) had gotten an illustrated version of CC as an opening night gift and she was marveling at how much of it was familiar. I said that's because I tried to make my script as authentic as possible. As it turned out, a couple sitting nearby had been at the performance and complimented us. One of the mothers said "tell her--she's the director and wrote the script." The woman of the couple said that she'd cried--I was all "excellent..."

Check us out!



Playgoers who enjoy having the Dickens scared out of them should find it worthwhile to make their way out to Hoboken this holiday season for the historic DeBaun Center for Performing Arts' production of A Christmas Carol. Adapter/director Clara Barton Green has taken great care to see that her text is accurate to both the spirit and letter of the great Charles Dickens novel and that includes an appreciation for its appeal as a good ol' fashioned ghost story.

But that doesn't mean it's not appropriate family entertainment and, quite frankly, with the way things are going these days ticket prices of $20 for adults, $15 for students & seniors and $10 for children seems pretty family friendly, too.

I've enjoyed DeBaun productions in the past, including last year's A Christmas Carol, so if you plan on taking that mere 15 minute bus ride from Port Authority to the theatre keep an eye out for me making a return trip. Just don't tell the driver my coffee cup is really filled with smoking bishop.

Thank you, Michael!

After a thoroughly crappy two weeks ago, last week and this past weekend have turned out wonderfully.

I'll start with A Christmas Carol this weekend. I've been blockingblockingblocking the past several weeks--blocking and then drillingdrillingdrilling. Again and again. Polishing and perfecting the timing, the movement, the text and the acting. One of the reasons these scenes are so complicated is that not only are the traffic patterns tricky, they're also set against the Readers' lines--since I wrote the play, of course I can take out or add lines if necessary but I'd rather not do that, I chose every line for a reason. And then to make it even trickier, the choir is singing over some of these transitions and scenes, so that has to time out as well.

On Saturday we spent four hours in the Music Room and finished the blocking. And the MD taught "Once in Royal David's City" to the Cratchit family, and then "Deck the Halls" (the curtain call) to the cast. We went over some of the bigger scenes that we hadn't run in awhile, and things seemed to be going smoothly. I finished up the rehearsal by working with Mark (Dunn) and Sheila, the two Readers who have some of the densest text in the show (the food porn against the Introduction of Christmas Present, and against the London Streets at Christmas). I worked with them on personalizing the descriptions and words, getting it out quickly and articulately, and at the same time, not rattling it off. We also worked on the timing of the final scene in Act One (yes, we now have an intermission!)--the scene I call "Goodbye to Christmas Past." It's very *dramatic*--as Scrooge is struggling with the Ghost, the Readers are excitedly telling us what's going on, and in the background the choir is reprising "Remember O Thou Man." The scene ends

Mark: ...and had barely time to reel into bed...
Sheila: ...before he sank into a heavy sleep...
Choir: ...Therefore, repent!

It's all very exciting ;-)

Sunday was a long day--we were in the Music Room from 12 to 5:30. We caught up some of the people who hadn't been there on Saturday. The choir wasn't there--they should've been but at the last minute two of them had conflicts (the third had a long-standing conflict) so I had to sing-in for the choir. We girded our loins, gulped and went ahead with what was supposed to be a stumblethrough--but went very smoothly indeed. Amazingly smoothly. For long swaths of time, I only had to stop to give the Readers their entrances and exits.

Can you believe that?! We had our first runthrough nearly THREE WEEKS before we open!!! Does my cast rock or WHAT?!

After the finale, the whole cast applauded. I was literally dancing around, I was so pleased. I still can't believe it--I was marveling at my wonderful actors. I was saying "see, that's the way you do it--you cast the best actors you can and you work around their conflicts, no matter how severe. Because this is when it pays off. They get it. They know what they have to do to make it work."

It's a great cast. Everyone is bonding nicely, and a couple of cast members have approached me about doing some sort of charitable excursion as a cast--a soup kitchen or something like that, something in the spirit of the show. I mentioned this yesterday afternoon and everyone seemed agreeable.

My right shoulder has been aching for a couple of weeks now. I strained it in my sleep (I think) and a couple of days later got a massage at Athens Nails in Astoria. MISTAKE. It felt good at the time but it's been hurting ever since. I'm hoping it'll heal on its own, since I'm not sure what to do to help it.

Rehearsals for A Christmas Carol have been going very well, but not that easily. We have a very strong cast this year--not one weak link--and that's both good and bad for rehearsals. The bad is that good actors tend to have mad conflicts--the good is that they pick up the blocking much more quickly. I'm rethinking some of the set pieces (especially Scrooge's bedroom platform) and changing a good amount of the blocking. The "London Streets at Christmas" scene (that is, when the Ghost of Christmas Present and Scrooge first venture out together) is gonna look and sound great, just great. I'm very excited about it. The final Ghost of the Future scene looks awesomely thpooky as well.

I was telling Ashley, I don't know why any hack would want to direct A Christmas Carol--it is NOT easy at all. You get very few "book scenes"--there's Fred and Marley, and the Cratchits at dinner, and Belle's scene, but most of the show, in almost any adaptation, is short little scenelets here and there and they have to MOVE. You have to have a nimble, versatile set. Maybe that's why I've seen and been in so many bad versions. As silly as the demon dancers were when Ryan and I did it in Virginia, that solved the problem of the constant set changes.

I had my first production meeting for A Christmas Carol Tuesday night. Almost all of the technical staff from last year are back, including Matt, Carl, Michael and the costumer and makeup designer. I have a different SM, Shawna, and producer--Bob Reed, the guy who started the Theater Company. I'm gonna miss Gina a lot--she and I clicked on a number of levels, and she was terrifically proactive. Shawna is nice enough (she was the SM for "Patrick and Lisa's Wedding") but she's VERY quiet.

( Food Porn! )

Anyway, back to the meeting--we talked about the new script and I went through it with them, pointing out areas I'd highlighted in the script where I thought we could do something interesting technically. The tech staff had some GREAT ideas that I won't give away but if it comes off the way we were talking, it will look amazing. I *am* keeping my thpoooky Ghost of the Future though. I talked about where I was taking the new script and Carl was extremely supportive, saying that last year's CC was "famously the best" (or something like that--I know he loved it, and told me that everyone on the staff agreed it was the best of all the CC productions at DeBaun). I was recounting this to Griffin and said "it's not necessarily because I'm so amazing, it's because I love the story so much and threw myself into it--I didn't just serve up the same ol' Christmas Carol."

Auditions are next week--Tuesday and Wednesday, with callbacks on Thursday. I can't wait!

Hey guys--I've been working my *ss off on this for the past month and I'm pretty proud of it. I chose all of the music--all Anglican sacred and English traditional pieces, like "Once in Royal David's City," "The Angel Gabriel," "Adam Lay Y-Bounden" and the Coventry Carol. (Plus tons of dramaturgy on Victorian culture, including mourning and courting customs...scratch a Clara, find an historian...)

Hope you can make it! One weekend only!

Clara

The Theater Company
in residence at The Center for the Performing Arts at DeBaun Auditorium presents
A Christmas Carol

By Charles Dickens

Performances
December 14, 2007 at 8pm
December 15, 2007 at 3pm & 8pm
December 16, 2007 at 3pm

Open Captioning Performance
In our ongoing efforts to make theater accessible for all, The Center is proud to offer Open Captioning for the hearing impaired at the 3pm performance on Saturday, December 15th . The New Jersey Division of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing makes this open captioned performance possible in partnership with the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State.

General Admission
Adults/$20
Students & Seniors/$15
Children Under Twelve/$10

Special Discounts & Group Sales
Discover Jersey Arts Cardholders: Buy one ticket, get one free.
Group Sales: 30% off groups of 20 people or more!

Special Package
Dinner & Show Package: Enjoy dinner just steps from the theater at Court Street Restaurant & Bar for only $40/person. More information and menu being offered can be found online at www.debaun.org/cgi-bin/tickets/dinnershow.php. This package is only available for purchase on-line at www.debauntickets.org.

Box Office
Call: 201.216.8937
E-mail: BoxOffice@debaun.org
Or Purchase Tickets On-line: http://www.debauntickets.org

Performance Location/Parking/Directions
DeBaun Auditorium, Edwin A. Stevens Hall
5th & Hudson Sts., Hoboken, NJ
Discounted Parking & Directions: www.debaun.org/cgi-bin/directions.php.
Easily accessible by PATH, LightRail, NJ Transit & NY Waterways

Show Info
A Christmas Carol is the story of an old, bitter miser—-Ebenezer Scrooge-—and the chance for his redemption through the visitation a partner from the past who learned his lesson too late, and three timely ghosts. Since 1843 Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" has been an integral part of many people's holiday traditions. The Theater Company's production helps to ignite that holiday spirit with traditional carols and English folk tunes creating the atmosphere of the world of Scrooge, Tiny Tim and old England for young and old alike.

Director: Clara Barton Green - Music Director: Meg Zervoulis

Cast
The cast consists of Pia Ambardar, PJ Brennan, Cathy Carrey-Aquino, Daphne Ciccarelle, Michael Clay, Samantha Gutterman, Benjamin Holmes, James E. Keelen, Jr., Peyton Kennedy, Anthony Lorenzo Parker, Don Pflaster, Duncan Pflaster, Rolando Ramos, Francesca Ruiz, Emma Spahic, Sarah Vidal, Kate Willard, Yasmin Yarosh, and Zoe.

For cast and director biographies and pictures, please visit The Center's website here.


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A Holiday Tradition
An additional holiday tradition of The Center is to provide support to The Hoboken Shelter, a local charitable organization that provides accommodations for 50 people and feeds 80 to 100 people every evening. At each production of A Christmas Carol, The Center will collect monetary donations from audience members who would like to aid The Hoboken Shelter in supporting their mission to prevent homelessness and to assist homeless men and women re-integrate into the community. Last year, The Center was able to collect over $1000 for the Shelter and knows this year they will be able to collect more!

www.debaun.org

Saturday was a nice mellow day. I was originally planning to go to Hoboken for callbacks for A Christmas Carol but we're having some difficulty getting men so we postponed the callbacks. Which worked for me, I could sleep in. I eventually arose and drank coffee and then finally pulled myself together enough to go over to the Time-Warner store location to return the equipment and close out my account.

I walked back through the neighborhood and checked out various stors--there's a well-stocked pet store right across the way from Isham Park. There is a teeny little black kitten with green eyes named Lucy who lives there--Lucy cuddled in my arms as I shopped. After that I explored PJ's, which has to be the best-stocked liquor store I've seen since I moved to NYC. It's absolutely huge, with every imaginable variety and brand.

After that I got a manicure and pedicure at a place on Broadway run by some Vietnamese women. I asked them if there were any Vietnamese restaurants in the neighborhood--sadly, no (I love Vietnamese food).

A so-relaxing fall Saturday afternoon.