Touchstone Backstage

I’d like to dedicate this to all the great patrons of the arts, from whom Touchstone has enjoyed generous and deeply appreciated largesse. Without them we could not exist.

The year has its cycles, its ebb and flow. Today’s February 25, 2013, and we’re definitely in a flow time at Touchstone. Linny passed two weeks ago, the apprentices just finished a brilliant Fresh Voices two nights ago, and the days ahead are a log jam of stuff to do.  My plate is full: in this next week I will be…

• Working on the text for our April production
• Rehearsing for the touring of an in-rep solo piece up to New Hampshire
• Beetling away at the narrative of a National Endowment grant for a piece set to occur over two years from now
• Planning for three, five years down the line
• Teaching middle schoolers the skills of playwriting
• Seeking sponsors for our Young Playwrights’ Festival in May
• Attending important community and administrative meetings

Or, last but not least, and simply moving on because I’ve made my point, scratching away at a hopefully meaningful blog for this all important web blog.

I was recently reading a very insightful article by Lewis Hyde in the Kenyon Review.  In it he talks about his book, The Gift, saying:

It describes a problem– the disconnect between the practice of art and common forms of earning a living… There are categories of human enterprise that are not well organized or supported by market forces. Family life, religious life, public service, pure science, and of course much artistic practice: none of these operates very well when framed simply in terms of exchange value …Any community that values these things will find non-market ways to organize them. It will develop gift-exchange institutions dedicated to their support.

It would be my view that we haven’t quite got this problem figured out (yet) in this country. Thus, we culture workers are left with either creating “commercially supported art” or working in such a manner that one is carrying on two lives– the one that is the artist and the other that does all the work to support that life.

There is much to do, even under the best of conditions. But in this country, it’s a conundrum, a bit like the ones that so often lead to endless quarrels in our political system whenever addressing any significant challenge. And, as usual, the folks at the center of the issue are left to fend for themselves, with broken social and economic tools, while our leaders fight over who’s in charge while ignoring the problem in the hopes that things will work themselves out in time.

At Touchstone, we work very hard to serve our community, to run “like a good business”– to work efficiently, with an understanding of the market value of our efforts, and the discipline of best business practices. Still, over 60% of our income is unearned, our staff is stretched to the limit, and lack of funding undermines our abilities to effectively make successful art. There is much talk of the importance of gun control, of the violence in our culture, of immigration, and the importance of getting our borders secure, of our budget mess. There is little discussion of the importance of art as part of our culture and how it should be funded. Thank God for our supporters, and if you are one of them, this prayer is most sincere. But relying on the largesse of individuals to keep the arts alive is far from creating a healthy cultural environment. Like telling the homeless to rely on what they can beg off the street, it’s not the ideal solution.

I call on someone, anyone, please, this country! to look further into building institutions and processes that will advance real art in this country, not just popular entertainment and cultural icons. I am simply a theatre creator. My plate is full. As Mr. Hyde goes on to say:

Those who can be clear about supporting the arts not as means to some other end but as ends in themselves; those who can shape that support in response to the gift-economy that lies at the heart of the practice; those who have the wit and power and vision to build beyond their own day: for artists, those will be the good ancestors of the generations of practitioners that will follow when we are gone.

“What about breakfast?”
“You’ve already had it.”
“We’ve had one, yes. What about second breakfast?”
“I don’t think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.”
“What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn’t he?”
“I wouldn’t count on it.”

— The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001

We started out this season with Cravings and The Little Farm Show, two guest-presented shows about the food we eat and the importance of the things that sustain us. Five months into the season, and I am still way struggling with that concept. This week has been especially demonstrative of that.

Lunch hour is usually spent in the office or in a meeting, trying to catch up on work in between rehearsal hours, or trying to keep momentum going on work without breaking. Lunch dishes are determined (in part) by how well they fit in between my computer and my piles of papers and sticky notes. A bowl of soup is nice and compact, not to mention warm and comforting on a cold day, and canned soup is usually on sale.

Dinner is two parts. After the bulk of the day at Touchstone, I’m off to Moravian, helping to stage manage their production of The Memorandum. Dinner part one is a small coffee or tea or hot chocolate, to help me push through the last few hours of the day, and a small tupperware full of pita chips, because I am profoundly fond of pita chips. Dinner part two is something easy after rehearsal ends– pasta or salad or sandwiches. Or Wawa. Usually Wawa. Delicious, life-sustaining Wawa.

Due to late evening rehearsals, I’ve been trying to pace myself by taking a later start on some days. A variable breakfast time follows, anywhere between 7:30 and 10. A bowl of Kix or a Naked Juice smoothie while I sit with the cat and get myself settled for the day.

Oh yeah.

Snacks are sprinkled throughout the day, when there’s room. This is the time of year where my favorite snack of all, the Cadbury Egg, graces stores with its presence, and I begin stockpiling them for when I need a chocolate pick-me-up.

So, clearly, this is not exactly what we call a healthy diet.

As the schedule continues picking up the pace, it’s easier and easier to fall into bad habits. I’m trying to look ahead to pockets of spare time where I can actually make a proper meal, and it’s always a nice treat to manage when possible, but it takes constant attention, and it’s so easy to let slip. Looking ahead, I’m counting the days until my evenings return to normal and I can try to resume slightly more regular mealtimes, and I’m definitely looking forward to that.

But until then, I’ll make do. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to grab a sandwich and coffee from Wawa. And it’s going to be delicious.

Which one of these is not like the other one? Taxes!

This year’s FRESH VOICES, entitled “ReEvolution”

The annual Fresh Voices show is one of my favorites every season.  After getting to know the current season’s apprentices, it’s so much fun to see what they create, what subject they choose to tackle, and how. Sometimes it’s a predictable choice, other times it’s a complete surprise.

Every year, in the months and weeks leading up to Fresh Voices, I hear snippets of conversations about their solo and ensemble works-in-progress as they pass by my office to theirs. Until the first sharing (when the apprentices share what they’ve created so far to the ensemble and we offer feedback), I’m left speculating as to what this year will hold. Today marks our first sharing – can’t wait!

Last year’s apprentices, after their FRESH VOICES.

Today also marks the deadline to get the 1099’s out the door to last season’s apprentices. So this week I sent off messages to the 2011-12 apprentices who’ve all moved, some just a few miles away, others across the country or state. Amidst the address confirmations was the inevitable catching up– “I saw on facebook your show just opened, how’s it going?” or “how’s the rehearsal you just started?” or “how’s teaching been going?” etc., followed by the “what’s going at Touchstone, how’s Fresh Voices?” Most of them had kept up with Fresh Voices via facebook and sent their support to this year’s group, remembering probably all too well this time in the process split between the joy and stress of a creating new work. The ones too far away wishing they could come back and see the show and the company.

The timing has never worked like this before, but I had so much fun catching up with the “old” and sharing the “new” swirled around taxes and Fresh Voices. I hope the timing works out like this next year too.

The 2012-13 apprentices. We’ll see their FRESH VOICES in just under a month!

I work hard every day of my life
I work ’til I ache in my bones
At the end of the day
I take home my hard earned pay all on my own
I get down on my knees
And I start to pray
‘Til the tears run down from my eyes
Lord, somebody, oh somebody
Can anybody find me somebody to love?
— Queen, “Somebody to Love”

Emma’s getting a cat!

Working at an ensemble theatre company gets one accustomed to being around and relying on a family of artists and company members that surround you constantly.  When you get home in the evening and the mob isn’t present, sometimes the silence of an empty house can be deafening.  I think that’s why Lisa and I have four cats.  It’s sort of like our own little private ensemble; we have disagreements, we have to clean up after each other and we are always there to lend a hand.

Today, Emma and her squeeze begin their own kitty ensemble.  I hope you’ll join me in wishing them luck on their first season together  (which I’m sure will involve ample amounts of hairballs and litter).

A few weeks ago Touchstone held an early morning gathering for businesses in the community to look at creativity in the marketplace and to explore the intersection between “the business of art” and “the art of business.” It was illuminating.

But before we can go on here, I have to ask the all too obvious question: “What is art, anyway? What’s all this todo about ‘art’?  Why should I care?” (That is three questions, but you get my point) Lisa, Touchstone’s Managing Director, recently passed a book on to me that defines it this way: “Art is a verb… meaning ‘to put things together.'” Art is making things– including our businesses, our schools, our community, our own lives. What makes that work special are the values, the basic assumptions of what’s important, that underlie that putting together.

One of the values, here at Touchstone, that we hold important, is intimacy, community, a sense that we’re all in this together. Our theatre is like sitting in someone’s slightly overlarge living room; we create work that literally grows out of our lives and our community; we collaborate with artists over years evolving the effectiveness of the work and what it is we want to say; together we’re like a large, hopefully not too dysfunctional, family, and we feel these long term relationships and commitments lead to a deeper, more meaningful, more fecund experience– not so much an “object of art” as an extraordinary expression of our lives, of living artfully.

I was recently reminded of this last week, December 15th, when Lisa came onto the stage to do the traditional pre-show speech. Someone shouted out, “Happy birthday”– I’ll let Lisa tell the story from here:

“It happened a little too smoothly– a friend in the audience yelled out ‘Happy Birthday, Lisa’ as I walked onstage to give the curtain speech and then the entire audience began to sing. It was a sweet surprise and somewhat embarrassing, my face surely the same deep red as the Follies curtain; I was truly amazed and touched. Heading into work on your birthday is not always fun, even if you love your job, so to be met with an audience filled with so many faces I’ve gotten to know throughout my time here sending me collective, impromptu birthday wishes, well, it’s certainly an experience I would not trade and a birthday I will not soon forget.”

As I stood in the wings, arm in arm with Mary Wright, waiting to go on for the first number, I couldn’t help but think: where are you going to go, what professional theatre are you going to attend, where the audience feels safe enough and free enough to have the audacity to spontaneously begin a round of “Happy Birthday” for the Managing Director before her curtain speech. I’m tempted to say “only Touchstone”– but of course there are other organizations everywhere that are working to hold and build a sense of community, of mutual support and compassion.

But at that moment, as the Follies curtain was about to open, nowhere was it being more sweetly expressed. I was so proud of us all– that we can build a place of compassion that embraces the humanity in us all, a place of joy and excellence and play. That is the life that we at Touchstone are trying to make when we are at our best, that is the heart of our art.

This year marks 75 years since Bethlehem christened itself the Christmas City.  An anniversary I was reminded of many times at Downtown Bethlehem Association meetings, on the various Bethlehem-focused websites, and now hear nightly at Touchstone’s Christmas City Follies (though in Follies it’s argued that we should really be the “festival city” instead – who’s with us?)

Most of my pre-holiday evenings and weekends are spent with Follies, in late November designing costumes and props, then in December running the box office and front of house for each show.  Follies runs all through December, so I rarely get to partake in all the Christmas City has to offer this time of year.  But I’m grateful it’s here, and I do love talking about it!

At intermission during the second week of the run, a couple had come to town to visit and found their way to Follies, which happened to feature Mayor Callahan as our Special Guest that night.  They were so pleased to be in Bethlehem and wanted the inside scoop on the places they thought about eating, shopping, or visiting while in town. I was happy to be able to tell them that the family-owned Brew Works had a great variety of fresh brewed beers and tasty dishes with a focus on local farmers and faire, then a 10 minute walk down Main St. (or longer if you stop in all the shops) they’d reach Hotel Bethlehem, a truly historic and beautiful building, which has a fantastic brunch on Sundays, then right across the street they can hit up the endless Moravian Book Shop they were looking for and swing back up the other side of Main St. for more one-of-a-kind shopping.  And if they wanted more shopping and dining they should try Broad St. or come back over to the South Side.  I spent nearly the whole intermission with this couple who were now smitten with Bethlehem – having seen the Mayor perform and gotten some insider Bethlehem info.

There’s a synergy here; perhaps it began 75 years ago with the proclamation of Christmas City.  However, it began, it’s palpable – out-of-towners sense it – there’s a distinct quality to our restaurants, shops and downtowns.  You won’t find the same old things on our Main Streets and you’ll meet business owners and locals who love their city and are happy to tell you about their favorite places.  I’m thrilled that for the last 15+ years Christmas City Follies found a home in the middle of the holiday season in the Christmas City.

“Nothing is forever in the theatre. Whatever it is, it’s here, it flares up, burns hot, and then it’s gone.” – All About Eve

We’ve been incredibly busy, these last few months, and it feels like whenever you turn around, another week has rushed past in a way that didn’t seem physically possible. Two months ago, Lisa and I tried to schedule time to hang out and giggled over the fact that we wouldn’t be able to do it until after Follies opened, the distant future. Now, all of a sudden, hang out time was almost a week ago, and I’m not quite sure where the time in between went.

In such frantic times, it’s nice to take a moment to pause and look back at where we’ve been, during this mad, headlong rush. Or where I’ve been, anyway; I can’t speak for everyone else.

We begin our look back in the pre-season calm. After the back-to-back extravaganza of A Resting Place and Young Playwrights’ Festival, a much deserved rest was needed for us– not to mention our beloved building, which received some much-needed attention and shiny new windows.

See? Shiny new windows.

The kick-start to the season is often the arrival of the apprentices, and this year was no exception.

Hi, new apprentices! Thanks for the kick-start!

And without further ado, we were off. First shows of the season were the two presented works for VegFest, The Little Farm Show and Cravings: Songs of Hunger and Satisfaction. I had the pleasure of helping with tech on Cravings (both at Touchstone and at Moravian, which was its own challenge) while Jp hosted The Little Farm Show; both were a real treat and totally perfect fits for the weekend. I mean really, at the outdoor performance of Little Farm Show, a guy dressed up in a carrot suit wandered by to watch. How much more perfect could you get?

Not much more perfect, that’s how much. Unless there’d been someone in a lettuce suit as well.

The month of September was a rehearsal extravaganza, jam-packed with… well, a whole lot of rehearsals. We re-mounted our acclaimed production of The Tempest, adding Kayla and Kyle to the cast– a lot of fun, but very specific, exacting work, with long hours and a lot of physical strain for a three-person show. I can’t thank the two of them enough for their enthusiasm and hard work, both in the rehearsal room and in the months to come as we’re out on the road, taking the show to local middle and high schools. We also started the devising process for The Odyssey Project, which was much more open-ended, waiting to be created. Oddly, the sheer open-endedness of the project often felt as nerve-wracking as it was liberating. Now in December, with the “open-ended” time come to a close, Jp is working on wrangling it all into some kind of cohesive script.

The new cast of Touchstone’s TEMPEST.

THE ODYSSEY PROJECT. Which also features tempests.

All of this, of course, was happening at the same time as the great god Pan was making his return to the Touchstone stage with In Pan We Trust. So much manic, high-energy fun! In the words of the big guy, “Baaaah.”

Baah, baby.

And at the same time as that, Christopher was directing his premiere production of Faust in France, over at Moravian. That’s right– directing two world premiere productions at the same time. Madness. I was lucky enough to have an incredible co-stage-managing team of Kyle and Lizzie for the process, but between Tempest, Odyssey, Pan, and Faust… well, it was an interesting time trying to manage my own schedule, let alone everyone else’s.

Thom Eiser from Moravian as Faust. Also what I looked like at the end of the night on most nights.

I confess, I’d been dually dreading and thrilled about Going Green the Wong Way since the beginning of the season– thrilled because it looked like (and was) and absolutely brilliant show, but dreading because of a very daunting technical rider. Jp repeatedly re-assured me– other presenting artists on the tour circuit had less tech-savy houses at their disposal; surely, Going Green would be fine here. Should have listened to him! Besides some difficulty with the projection screen, it was a totally easy, totally laid back, totally delightful time playing host to some really fun and talented guests.

The sexy and talented Ms. Kristina Wong.

And Young Playwrights’ Lab— I’ve felt like an incredible rookie, because despite having been here a couple years now, this fall was my first time working on a full-length YPL residency. Working with the kids at Freemansburg (some of them back for their second year of the program – these kids had more YPL experience than I did!) has been an absolute joy; I feel like no matter the constant schedule-crunching and time-slipping, walking into that classroom always makes me smile, and I always leave with my heart feeling a little lighter.

Seriously, these kids are pros.

In the wake of last year’s incredible success with A Resting Place, the Ensemble has been in the process of brainstorming ideas for our next big community-based project. Themes that have come up so far included social justice, economic division, division of classes, oppression, and freedom. When former Steelworkers and other community members came together to protest the potential infringement of free speech in the new Town Square by the Steelstacks, it seemed like a perfect occasion to document and consider for our process. The event went off smoothly, free speech was respected, and the good people of Bethlehem were more than willing to share their stories with us.

Touchstone company members stepping out into Town Square to gather stories.

And then there’s the merry, manic, freaky, festive, joyful, jubilant madhouse that is Christmas City Follies.

Even a week without power in the building, twenty hours less of rehearsal time due to Sandy outages, and no heat in the office for a week after the hurricane couldn’t keep us down. We worked on scripts from home, read them by candlelight, and even made plans to hold rehearsals offsite if the outage continued much longer.

But no heat makes us sad. Brrr…

There was a lot of schedule crunching because of this. Follies is already an inherently hectic show, but this year’s weeks leading up to production were especially wonky. We were all working ’round the clock, and despite our jolly countenances in many of the skits, we were all feeling the stress.

And yet somehow– in spite of the last second set fixes, last second prop and costume additions, on-the-fly re-writes, and occasional questioning of the material at hand– by the time the first audience steps into the theatre, abuzz with curiosity and holiday spirit, it all miraculously works out, into something cohesive and beautiful and brimming with joy.

We’ll be breaking in a couple weeks– after a final flurry of education work, pre-break meetings, and occasional rehearsals– going to visit with friends and family, taking trips, celebrating the holidays, or just catching up on sleep. No doubt, when we come back, we’ll be right back into the headlong rush of bouncing from one project to another. But it always feels good to end the year on Follies— because no matter the crazy rush of the season so far that brought us here, no matter how much time it feels like we’ve lost, and no matter the fact that the shows are sometimes hectic or still-evolving, when show-time comes around for Follies, it always feels like we can really, sincerely enjoy the time we have. And that makes all the lost time worth it.

Touchstone Ensemble Affiliate Christopher Shorr has recently closed his debut production of Faust in France (Christopher is the head of Moravian College’s Theatre program and a brilliant independent artist). This adaptation of Marlowe’s original puts Faust in a German trench during World War I. His goal… to create mustard gas.

For four years now, Christopher and I have been collaborating on production design. Our first collaboration was a production of Oedipus at Moravian College. Since then, we’ve collaborated on design of over a dozen projects, on top of writing two musicals together. I wanted to take a moment to show you some photos of our latest design brought to life. I believe it to be one of our most exciting.

I’d like to add into this a special thanks to Jeff Reidy (our Master Carpenter on the project), Emma Chong (Stage Manager and Associate Lighting Designer) and Rob White (Carpenter). Thank you all for bringing this Jordan and Shorr design to life.

It was “check-out” time at Young Playwrights’ Lab after the third session at Central Elementary School in Allentown.  “Check-in” and “check-out” are two of the regular activities used in nearly all of Touchstone’s educational work. Participants stand in a circle and simply state their name and how they are feeling. All feelings are valid, and validated, whether its bored, excited, happy, sad, hungry, mad, or frustrated. This not only allows the teachers to get a sense of where the students are at, emotionally, before launching into the lesson plan, but also, hopefully, gives the student permission to begin expressing themselves honestly and in a safe, healthy way. Check out repeats the process at the end of the session.  Students and teachers alike discover what has changed for them during the past hour or so.

Mary, teaching Young Playwrights’ Lab last year at Freemansburg Elementary

The “check-in/check-out” on this particular day at Central framed the rest of a quirky, fun-filled, and exciting session using the idea of objects being interviewed as a writing prompt. The students picked an object that belongs to them that is special to them for more than just monetary value. Through a series of guided prompts, we learn about the object, what it looks like, what kind of condition it’s in, where it’s kept normally, what’s its normal used for, what is might actually be used for, and more. Then we ask the creative leap questions: what does the object want more than anything in the world? Why can’t it get it right now? Without realizing it, the students have begun the process of developing characters, settings, plots. That object might eventually become a character, or the basis of a character, that will appear in one of the young playwright’s original one-acts.

I love teaching this object exercise to the kids. It reminds me of the wild imaginations that children still have – when they are encouraged to let them roam free. A favorite belonging can take a life of its own– can become a famous ballerina, a professional wrestler, a thief, or a president.

I’m caught off-guard sometimes by the moments of real truth and beauty that happen in class. A little girl’s object, a teddy bear that still smells like the Family Dollar store from which it so recently came, let us know during “its” interview  that all it wanted was to have a chance to go back to Family Dollar to let the other lonely toys know what its like to have a roof over your head, food to eat, and someone to love you.

Over the next weeks, we’ll approach writing from a lot of different angles. Most of them begin with the kids on their feet, playing some theatre game, which then leads to the germ of an idea and onwards to the plot of a play. This fall we’re working at Central Elementary in Allentown  and Freemansburg Elementary in Bethlehem. Come Spring, we’ll be at four or five other schools.

On May 18,2013 the best of the best of the wide variety of plays that will be written in this year’s Young Playwrights’ Lab will be featured in the grand Young Playwrights’ Festival – a gala and celebration of the great creative minds and hearts of our youngest of playwrights in the Lehigh Valley.

When you see a play featuring a shoe that wishes it could be worn to dance around the world, you’ll know that Zimir didn’t want to leave class that day.

And neither did I.

This last weekend, my daughter Anisa married Dan Rothenberg. It was intense. First there was a musical gathering on Wednesday night for a little over 100 folks– musicians, actors, theatre people– a women’s gathering Thursday night where I had to hang out with the “ostracized” men, Friday night the Rehearsal Dinner, and finally the wedding on Saturday with one hundred and fifty family and friends. Again, filthy with musicians, theatre people, architects, and artists, let alone family. Lots and lots of family. But no one from Touchstone. In the midst of all this, Touchstone– my theatre family– was opening a new work– The Pan Show: In Pan We Trust.

I don’t want to get too psychotheraputic about this, but I’ve always felt that one of the reasons I am so dedicated to the process of Ensemble is because I’m constantly trying to rebuild my family around me. I was one of five children–three brothers and a sister. Just about the size of of cozy Ensemble.

The family that is me. I’m the one on the right, but I assure you, I’m made up of each individual in this picture.

It may be relevant that Anisa has married Dan Rothenberg, who is also an Ensemble Theatre Artist–a group called Pig Iron Theatre, based in Philadelphia. The values of Ensemble tend in the direction of that of family– a mutually supporting group of individuals working over a long period of time to advance as individuals and collectively. The relationships grow and deepen with time, bringing meaning that cannot be replicated quickly. It’s why there’s so much laughter, and of course, why there are so many tears and anxieties. It’s not an easier way of living, or making theatre, just one that, I judge, brings more meaning.

A Wedding Photo– the Rothenbergs on the left, the Georges on the right.

One of the challenges of working/creating/living with deeply held relationships is that it costs you. And this last weekend was an example of that. Jp Jordan, Artistic Director of Touchstone and a co-worker and friend of mine for seven years now, was opening his new play, In Pan We Trust. Because of the wedding, I couldn’t be there, and because of the play, he couldn’t be at the wedding. In fact, since everyone at Touchstone was wrapped up in the production, the wedding was without many of  my Touchstone buddies. And vice-versa. That sucks. Still, there’s a lesson in that. In order to preserve our ties, we must be true to them and forgiving when we cannot be there for each other. That requires real trust in our partners and a constant effort to encourage them to take care of themselves, not to impose our needs unnecessarily or immoderately on the other.

It’s a regular maturity clinic. I don’t profess to being good at it, only that I think it’s a good thing for me to try and do. And in the end, the rewards far outweigh the costs.

My Touchstone Family, missing Lisa and Kathryn. I’m assuming Emma’s in the Panda costume and Kyle’s in the booth.

By the way, just one more weekend of In Pan We Trust. I’m going to be there every night (gotta make up for not being there last weekend). Hope to see you there.