I thought I would give everyone a little insight into some of the interesting assignment I have been assigned to complete at CalArts. Last week that I mentioned that I was not able to present a performance piece I had worked on because of the fires, but I finally did this past Monday. The assignment was for my Performance by Design class. The class is made up of primarily MFA 1 designers, no actors, and is focused on creative performance. The assignment was a solo performance project that could literally be anything! No restrictions, the sky is the limit, as long as you don’t light it on fire. I am personally not that comfortable performing, but that does not mean I’m not creative. With no restrictions, and really no examples to work from, it took me a long time to really figure out what I wanted to do.

I usually start out by thinking of the most ridiculous situation and go from there. This time around I recalled a social experiment I tried in college where I placed a yellow nylon cord in the dormitory hallway and had it lead into my room with my door open. It was interesting to see how many people were curious enough to follow it into my room and then meet me. So the base idea for my project was I wanted to incorporate string and see how I could get people to follow it. To get back to my outlandish creative process, I started thinking, where would this string lead, and how far could it reach. Could I get my class to march from school to my apartment a ¼ of a mile away following a string and welcome them into my apartment for refreshment and snacks. I could, but that sounds crazy doesn’t it?

I let this idea simmer for a week, and it just so happened I was in the grocery store check out line and saw a bunch of breast cancer donation cards. The light bulb went off in my head. I was going to get a mile of pink string and run it all over the CalArts campus and have everyone walk a mile for breast cancer. I thought about this idea for a while, but reworked it and came at it from a different perspective. What if no one knew why we were walking a mile or following this pink string, just like the people who entered my dorm room had no idea who I was.

My final idea was to give everyone in the class a single dollar bill at the start of the performance to make them question what was going on. Then I would have them follow me as we started to walk along this pink string of an undetermined length. Only after we had completed a mile would I explain to everyone the purpose of the Surprise Breast Cancer Mile-Walk-a-Thon and ask them to donate their dollar back to support Breast Cacner. I also wanted to supply breast cancer awareness facts at the end of the mile.

It was a great idea, but a little hard to pull off. Do you know how much and how long a mile of string is? I eventually found a good solution: 5 bundles of cheap pink yarn. The next step was to tape down a mile worth of string through the numerous corridors and levels of CalArts. It took me nearly 2 hours to set up, and I COVERED, and I mean COVERED the school in pink string. You couldn’t turn a corner with out seeing this stuff, it was crazy.

The performance was a hit I think. I gave everyone a dollar. The primary reason for this was so everyone could feel like they participated and also to show others how easy it is to do a fundraiser for a good cause. So I merely told the class, “Well come on.” And off we went on our hike through the school. My classmates were very cordial at first walking in a single file line in silence. As time progressed though, things started to loosen up. We went upstairs, downstairs, through the theatre, into the sub-level of the building and outside. People starred at us, made inappropriate comments and were annoyed that we blocked up their office entrances for a moment. Even one my classmates later told me he said, “This is like waiting for Godot with pink string.” I think most people probably got a bit annoyed after about 15 minutes of walking through the school and when they started to break a sweat from an unexpected morning workout. It was certainly interesting to see their reaction when we finally hit the mile mark about 25 minutes into the piece.

I was able to get some amazing feed back on my project after it was done. The class was incredibly impressed by the shear length of the string. The classmate that made the Godot comment said that at the end he felt like a Big Jerk because of it. Other people thought they had my piece pegged down from the start and that the string would lead to a vending machine where they could buy a snack after burning off the calories we used to walk there. Others thought I was giving a weird campus tour. No one seemed to have ever given a thought to the pink string and breast cancer, which was the best feeling to know my piece succeeded. The best comment I received was certainly from Chris Barreca who told me that I surprised him, and no one surprises him. So in the end I raised just over $30 for breast cancer research and I hope it’s an experience my class will never forget. If you are interest in donating to breast cancer please visit: http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/

I had a really enjoyable Don-day this week. No Don-day is not a typo, it is what I fondly refer to Mondays at CalArts as. To explain a little further, all of the MFA lighting designers have class with Don on Monday, and my class year has a straight 6 to 6.5 hours with him. Monday is the one day each week that he flies into LA from any show he is working on, teaches class, and then flies back that night.

I was working in the studio on some assignments Sunday night when others told me that classes were canceled for Monday because of the brush fires in the area. After a few phone calls we found out that Don was still flying in for class, but that was fine by me. When someone flies across the country to teach, I’ll certainly show up for class. Our schedule was changed a bit, and light lab was canceled, but everything worked out well.

Don-day turned out incredibly well this week, considering that southern California is engulfed in numerous wild brush fires, the air smells of smoke, many of my friends here were unfortunately evacuated from their homes, and CalArts canceled classes for Monday and Tuesday.

Even though classes were canceled, my fellow lighting designer and I still managed to have most of our regularly scheduled classes. I had a performance piece that I was really excited to present at 8am, but due to the lack of students in class it has been pushed off to next week. I’ll blog about that next week though.

In Don’s class I got to present my research and concept ideas for Edward Albee’s play Three Tall Woman. It is our current paper-project for class. I got some really useful constructive criticism on my ideas that are going to help my design a lot in Act II. Next week our final plot and paperwork are due and I feel confident in the direction my design is heading.

Class ran longer than normal since light lab was canceled, which allowed us to look over a lot of Don’s light plots for shows like Gem of the Ocean, Movin’ Out and Thoroughly Modern Millie. It was a lot of fun looking at the plots, but also a bit nerve racking in the detail and complexity of each drafting.

After class had finished up, everyone decided to go to the restaurant down the street go grab a late dinner and talk about the touring version of Movin’ Out we saw 2 weeks ago. It was a enjoyable night of six lighting designers sitting around a table and talking about topics that we are really interested in. By far this was the best part of the day, and probably where I learned the most. On top of that I sometimes wonder what the waitress must be thinking as she came by the table and overhears us talking about the opening of the Lion King, or Mike reading his concept statement about Three Tall Women, or a discussion about Twyla Tharp’s choreography. I mean if she’s not into the art/theatre movement it means nothing, but I’m sure it sparked some questions in her head.

Amongst the fire and smoke burning down thousands of acres of land in southern California right now, there is a bit of beauty. Below are a few photos I snapped of the interesting effect smoke has on sunlight. It would be amazing to recreate some of these looks on stage. These photos were taken at 2pm in the afternoon.

I thought I would do a little self-promoting and post a link to an article I wrote in this month’s issue of LD. If you have the current issue it is on page 20, otherwise you can find it online here. Click. The article is about my decision to work for year after I completed my undergraduate degree, and also includes helpful facts and tips I think all graduates should know when looking into graduate programs. I hope the article will help others in picking a program, because I know I was certainly in the dark for a good portion of my experience. If you are a recent graduate I hope you will take a minute and see if any part of my experience can help you out.

Continuing with my past updates from last week, I had the opportunity to see two exceptional national tours this past week. I saw Avenue Q at the Ahmanson theatre and Movin’ Out in Thousand Oaks. The performances were excellent, but I’ll just say it right now, I enjoyed Movin’ Out the most. I’ll clarify that it was my favorite because I love watching dance, and also because I got to go on a backstage tour of the show and talk with the production electrician of the tour.

I have listened to the Ave. Q soundtrack over the past few years, but never got around to actually seeing the show. I figured while the show was in town, I should finally go see it. I had a great seat, just a few rows back in the orchestra, which really gave an interesting perspective on the performance. While the show is dominated by puppets, it’s nice to see the expressions and movements of the puppeteers in relationship to their characters. The show is full of puppets, but there are also a few human characters as well. The thing I was most impressed about was the scenic design by Anna Louizos. The thing about the set is, that it is this unique combination of a real set and a puppet theatre. There are life size doors and windows into houses, but then parts of the set open up to reveal the smaller living quarters of the puppets. I just thought the versatility of the set was great!

Movin’ Out was another show I was never able to see on Broadway, so I was thrilled when I found out my lighting class would see it when the tour came through the area. I really enjoyed myself at the show because I was in the mood to watch a Rock N’ Roll style show that incorporated dance. I have always enjoyed designing and watching dance, but some of Twyla Tharp’s choreography just captivated me so much. I had never seen combinations and so much cohesive movement before. I am not surprised that she won the 2003 Tony.

The most enjoyable part of the show, was of course getting to go backstage and talk to Chris Herman, the touring production electrician. As a lighting designer, you sit, watch and enjoy a show, but all you’re really trying to do is figure out what type of lights are being used, color choices, and if anything is broken or not working right. So it was some relief actually finding out that Mac 2000s and Mac 500s were used for the bulk of the show, and a lot of conventional fixtures with scrollers. It was also interesting to find out about the load-in and load-out process for the tour and problems that are encountered and have to be solved. It was certainly an interesting perspective to find out and be reminded that things don’t always run smoothly

So the winner of the national tour battle is Movin’ Out, but Avenue Q came in close behind in my book.