On The Road — Page 98

Playing With Blocks

May 15, 2013 at 8:58 am by Claudia

That sneaky scamp, Scout, took over my blog yesterday! I don’t know how she did it. But she’s a Border Collie and they are very smart, indeed. Thank goodness I’ve taught her some manners; she responded to all your comments in her inimitable, slightly sassy, way.

I finished all the blocks yesterday, then, on a rehearsal break, laid them out on the carpet. Then I climbed on a chair and stood on the kitchen counter to take this photo:

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This is my home-away-from-home version of a design board. I’ve found that taking a photo helps me to see any problems with the layout.

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The nice thing about being in this apartment is that I can do something I never could at home. I can leave the blocks on the carpet. No dog hair, no curious Scoutie walking all over them. Since I don’t have my own space at home that I can contain with a closed door, this is a refreshing treat! I kept glancing at the layout throughout the evening and found I didn’t like the concentration of vivid red at the top of the photo, so I kept playing around with block placement. The vertical row of blocks on the left will actually be the top of the quilt.

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This is what I ended up with. Although now that I look at it here, I’m going to tweak a couple of blocks.

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There. I tweaked it. It’s almost impossible to get a good photo in this space, but this gives you an idea of the look I’m going for.

The finished quilt is supposed to measure 63 inches by 74 inches. As you know, we don’t have a lot of wall space in our home, due to an abundance of windows and the sloped-attic-type walls upstairs. I started to wonder whether I should go with the 5 blocks by 5 blocks layout or make it 4 blocks by 5 blocks. Now is the time to make that decision. So I called Don and had him measure the available space on the staircase wall. When we first moved in to the cottage, I had a quilt hanging there. It’s sort of the perfect place for a quilt.

Turns out there is just enough room. I don’t want this to be a throw. I really want to hang it because the colors are so wonderful and they really go with the colors in our living room and kitchen – as well as in my studio. And the great thing about hanging it in that space is that I will also be able to see it from my studio. I like the simple, graphic quality to it and the patterns and colors make me happy. (Hopefully, I’ll still feel the same way when I’ve finished it!)

The next step is to start sewing the blocks together. Today, however, I will have to be at the theater most of the day. Final tech rehearsals in the afternoon and evening, then the first preview tomorrow morning. Morning, you say? Yes. For the life of me I cannot figure out why the first preview is a student audience at 10:30 in the morning. That means we lose another afternoon to run through the show before an evening preview. Believe me, if I was still an actor, I would not be happy about teching until 10 or 11 tonight and then having my first performance at 10:30 in the morning. For students. I do not know a single actor who likes morning performances.

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Tomorrow I will have a post about my visit to Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground, which was in use from 1640 to 1803. I took lots of pictures.

Happy Wednesday.

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Creative Therapy and a Rehearsal Process Update

May 13, 2013 at 8:34 am by Claudia

I found myself in a weepy state for much of the day yesterday; everything was tinged by sadness. When my sister went to visit my mom, I had her call me and hold the phone up to mom’s ear so I could wish her a happy mother’s day and tell her I love her. She didn’t really respond, though she was listening. Meredith says that she feels mom recognizes her but is not always sure exactly who she is. That’s where we are now. It’s as if there’s a curtain in front of mom which hides the mom we knew, but sometimes it moves ever so slightly and a brief connection is made. I’m far away. Meredith is right there. If it’s hard for me, imagine how hard it is for Meredith and my father.

I spoke to Don and cried. In the course of the conversation, I asked if the lilacs were blooming and would he take a photo if they were? Later, the phone rang and Don said that Scout wanted me to look at my Facebook Timeline. She’d been up to something:

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My little girl and my little lilac bush.

I have had a couple of days off and normally this would be a time when I could go home for a visit. But, with gas being so expensive and our budget tight, I decided I should stay here. I’m trying to tough it out.

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I managed to make 8 more quilt blocks. (Whoops – I forgot to turn the one on the bottom right.) Cutting and piecing was good therapy for me yesterday. I lost myself in the process and eventually emerged from my sadness. The creative process can be so therapeutic.

Mabel has been a treasure on this trip. She performs admirably, all of the time. Her straight stitch is a thing of beauty. I made some minor adjustments to her so that I could get a good ¼ inch seam.

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I marked it with a stack of Post-it notes. Unfortunately, they didn’t always stay in place, so I had to slap that piece of painter’s tape on them. I’m always reading about using a scant ¼ inch seam and I tried that with my first couple of blocks, but they were off, so I reverted back to a true ¼ inch. Edited to add: Carol expressed concern that the tape might be touching the decals and might harm them. Only a corner of it was, but I adjusted it (Thanks, Carol!) and all is well. This new photo shows the adjustment.

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I call this Sewing Still Life.

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And this: Ironing Board Study. I took both of those photos as is. I looked up from the sewing machine and the arrangement in Sewing Still Life is exactly what I saw. And then yesterday, as I was pinning and pressing, I noticed this arrangement on the ironing board, which turned out to be surprisingly color coordinated with the ironing board cover, which, of course, came with the apartment.

Where we are in the rehearsal process: We finished our last run-through in the rehearsal space on Friday. On Saturday, we moved to the theater. Saturday was spent on Spacing. The actors get used to the space, the director sees how the blocking has transferred to the set and makes adjustments. The actors work through entrances and exits and, most importantly, work on the set. In this case, the set is an intricate garden maze. I ran into the director when I was having coffee with my former student, Brian, and he was full of excitement to finally be working on the set. Positively giddy!

Yesterday, the Tech process began. In the Tech process, actors are in costume and makeup for the first time and all the technical cues are added to the play: Light cues, scene changes, sound cues, fade ins, fade outs, props, costume changes. Everything is timed, cues are written and re-written, every moment that involves a cue is run again and again until the director, actors, technicians and especially the stage manager (who calls the cues) feel it works successfully. This is a long and sometimes tedious process. Tech Rehearsals are not about me or my work. The last thing, at least in the first tech rehearsals, the actors are thinking about are their voices. Nor should they. I tend to stay away until the entire play has been teched once. I come back and start taking notes during the second tech run-through. I did stop in for a couple of hours yesterday to see the set (gorgeous) and listen for a bit.

Today is the day off. Tomorrow, Tech will resume. I’ll check in to see where they are. We have another day of Tech on Wednesday and then our first preview (with an audience) will be on Thursday.

Happy Monday.

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