Or Else What Follows? - 7.23.12

Twelfth Night opens this Saturday!

Summer is our busiest time of the year here at ADK Shakes. There are things going on just about every day, which makes it a bit difficult to keep up with my posting on here. Here's a recap of our weekend:

On Friday, we toured down to Congress Park in beautiful Saratoga Springs. We set up by the War Memorial to perform selections from The Twelve Labors of Hercules, and we learned quickly that some feathered friends would play an important role in our performance. Long lines of ducks marched right through our makeshift stage, which was pretty hilarious. Patrick particularly enjoyed scattering them with the Nemean Lion's entrance. Perhaps my favorite part of the day, however, was even before we got to the park -- I was on the radio!! In case you missed out, I gave an interview about ADK Shakespeare's third summer season on The Eight O'Clock Hour on North Country Public Radio. But don't worry, you can listen to the broadcast right here!

Saturday brought beautiful weather and an adventure down to Albany to pick up our NYC contingent of actors who traveled via bus to the capital. Almost everyone has now arrived, and we had a delicious dinner at our rental house in Wevertown.

Sunday was all about workshops (as is today!), and we are hunkering down at the Schroon Lake Central School to work on sonnets, verse speaking, and spatial awareness with Leslie Reidel (of the University of Delaware and the Enchantment Theatre Company). We are so fortunate to have Leslie returning to do workshops again this season. If I can find some time, I'd love to write a more detailed post on the experience of doing these workshops. I've found them so valuable in my own work as an actor, and I see a monumental difference in the work of others as well. And I have to say, I love it!

The rest of the week is rising action until we open Twelfth Night on Saturday evening -- 7:30 p.m. at the Boathouse Theater. Our first rehearsal for this show is Thursday, followed by one of our final Hercules performances in Ticonderoga. We'll be performing at 4:00 p.m. as part of their Arts Week festivities! Friday will be our long intensive rehearsal day all driving towards our evening opening performance on Saturday. Sunday we cap the week off with our very first tour to Caroga Lake -- we will be at the outdoor amphitheater on Main Street at 2:30 p.m. I'm already super proud of this ensemble and the amazing show I know they are going to put on -- don't miss our opening weekend of mainstage performances!

Reserve your tickets now at adkshakes.ticketleap.com and view our full performance schedule right here.

A Herculean week!

I couldn't be more thankful. We had an especially fantastic performance of The Twelve Labors of Hercules this morning! An amazing audience of 70 people laughed, applauded, and enjoyed the show today. All the actors felt especially "on" and the energy was completely contagious. I love shows like this!

Today's show was a wonderful cherry on the cake of yesterday's Meet and Greet. We had a great time chatting with many members of the community, snacking on some delicious treats, and running for cover from the insane thunderstorm that hit in the middle of Hippolyta whooping Hercules's you-know-what. We rolled with the punches and really enjoyed lighting candles and gathering in the beautiful parlor at the Paradox House Gallery Retreat. It was an evening to remember! Here are some pictures from the selected scenes we performed:

Deinos, the man-eating mare of Diomedes

Hercules moves rivers and puts the ram in the ramalamadingdong

Eurystheus discourages Iolaus

This evening we are working on some Hydra repairs and probably running some Twelfth Night and Hamlet lines. The main stage company arrival has felt so far away all month, but they will all be joining us here on Saturday -- a few short days away. I can't believe it's here already! Before they arrive, I have a paper to write on Romeo and Juliet for class. It certainly is an interesting experience to have my head in the production zone as well as the critical scholar zone. We'll be studying Hamlet and Twelfth Night for class too, so I'm particularly looking forward to what my different mode of thinking will bring to the performances.

Friends, ye Romans, gather here

What an exciting morning! The Twelve Labors of Hercules performed for the first time this morning to an audience of 65 parents, grandparents, children and friends of the company. And they were absolutely spellbound!

Openings are a complete roller coaster of emotion. There is excitement and nerves. Who will come see it? Will I remember all my lines and cues? I don't feel ready for performance yet. What if I forget to set this prop? I'm nervous about this line that I never ever get right. And then the audience arrives. They are glowing with excitement, here early to make sure they get a good seat. They're fans from seeing Midsummer or Theseus last summer. They giggle in all the right places. They even talk to us during the show -- and afterwards! They come to tell us which of the monsters was their favorite. To grab up brochures so they can come to see another show. To say "Thank you for bringing this to our town. We're glad you're here." 


Thank you for welcoming us to your town. For being the most terrific opening audience I could ask for. For laughing and smiling. For listening, for imagining, for playing with us. We can't do it without you!

The cast of Hercules (L-R: Patrick Siler, Mitch Conway, Tara Bradway, Aaron White. Center: Rachel Ritacco

We hope to see you again very soon. Our next performance of Hercules is tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. the Indian Lake Theater in Indian Lake. You can reserve your tickets now at adkshakes.ticketleap.com. On Friday, we'll be traveling to Mid's Park in Lake Placid for a day at the park. Saturday, you can find us in Shepard Park in Lake George Village, and Sunday we'll be hanging out in Rogers Memorial Park in Bolton Landing. We hope to see you there!

Or Else What Follows? - 7.9.12

An exciting week is ahead of us -- The Twelve Labors of Hercules opens on Wednesday at the Boathouse Theater in Schroon Lake village at 11:00 a.m. Join us! This show promises to be absolutely amazing. The masks and monsters alone are going to be quite incredible. I think the grown-ups are going to enjoy this just as much as the kids.

After we open on Wednesday morning, we'll be doing a little more poster-hanging around the area. Look for our blue ADK t-shirts wandering around Bolton Landing and Ticonderoga. Thursday morning brings us to Indian Lake, where we will perform at the Theater on Main Street at 11:00 a.m. We're excited to perform at Indian Lake Theater again this summer. We toured The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) here last season and really enjoyed the audience and the town. Thanks for welcoming us back!

Friday the 13th brings us to Lake Placid for the first time this season. We will be performing scenes from the show every half hour in Mid's Park. Join us starting at 10:00 a.m. -- come visit with the actors, hear about how we constructed our masks and monsters, and pick up one of our t-shirts as a souvenir. We'll be returning to Lake Placid in August -- you can see the full production at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts on August 15 at 10:30 a.m. as part of LPCA's Young and Fun Series.

It's so wonderful to have the kids' show company here settling in! Keep an eye out for our Meet the Company posts, which will be starting up later this week. Get to know the actors of The Twelve Labors of Hercules!

QB6WCKTRGV78

Hercules rehearsal {day 1}

It begins! All of our company members (for the children's show, that is) have arrived, and we begin rehearsals today. We'll have a full day ahead of us -- starting with building Rachel's base mask for Athena. Throughout the day, we'll be working a lot on our lines. This is the first time we have gotten to hear the script aloud, and I have to say that I am really looking forward to seeing this up on its feet this Wednesday.

Before then, though, we have monsters to finish, battles to choreograph, and lines to polish. The Nemean Lion is coming along -- he looks absolutely amazing, and so much cooler than I could possibly have envisioned.

Aaron has been working at adding more color and shading to the lion today. Yellow and gold have been added to the reddish-brown base. Patrick painted the eyeballs today, as well.

Tomorrow we'll be adding his raffia mane and perhaps some bristly whiskers. We've got some foam cones (from the floral arrangement section of A.C. Moore) that Aaron has trimmed down for his nasty, big, pointy teeth.

Here's Aaron working on the shoulders. They're constructed from drum heads, with straps for me to wear around my own shoulders. The raffia gives the suggestion of bulk, and will hang down to cover my hands. You'll get to see a sneak peek of us working the lion in tomorrow's post!

Somehow I have a feeling that the Nemean Lion will be my favorite of all the monsters. I wuv him!

Don't miss this production -- we open on Wednesday morning at the Boathouse Theater in Schroon Lake village. The house opens at 10:30 a.m. and the show starts at 11:00 a.m. Reserve your tickets in advance at adkshakes.ticketleap.com!

The Nemean Lion is born

Things are coming up so rapidly! One of our company members, Aaron, arrived on Thursday evening, and the rest of our group arrives later on today. I'm so excited and nervous to have the season starting up for reals.

As I type, I just completed our Orientation Meeting for Part One of the Kingship Cycle. I cannot wait to get to work with these folks -- what an amazing group of actors. These shows are going to be epic (in multiple ways).

I'm also listening to the pleasant buzz of the Dremel tool as Aaron sculpts foam for our Hercules monsters. This is so exciting, people! Our Nemean Lion began as little more than a huge sheet of foam. Patrick and I cut some chunks from it a few nights ago, and he began sculpting the beast's eye. The design is based on the Chinese lions (which I had always assumed were dragons), and it is turning out to be absolutely stunning. This guy is fierce! Check out this sneak preview:

We will be adding raffia for a mane, and we're starting to construct his shoulders and legs today. This is one awesome monster.

Also on our list is the Lernean Hydra, the man-eating mare of Diomedes, and the Stymphalian birds. It's coming together! I can't wait to share this production with our audience on Wednesday.

Or Else What Follows? - 7.2.12

Busy day today! This morning Patrick and I hung posters at some of our favorite locations in Schroon Lake Village. The town has been painted red in advance of the 4th of July celebrations coming up on Wednesday.

ADK Shakes will be there manning a table just in front of True North Yoga -- hands down, our favorite yoga studio anywhere. (We had our first class of the season just last Thursday, and we were super bummed to be too late to make this morning's class.) If you are in the Schroon Lake area, definitely drop in for a class. You'll love it! You can pick up a schedule on Wednesday when you come to visit our table.

We have a beautiful series of promo materials this year -- large size season posters and Hercules posters, a smaller sized poster for Hercules, as well as a brochure featuring all our artwork and our full schedule.

We'll be selling season passes: $35 - for unlimited access to our performances. This is an amazing deal -- if you are planning to come see more than one show, pick this up. (The only thing it does not cover is paid admission to the Scaroon Manor state park facility, because, well, that's run by the state DEC and not by us.) Visit the table for more details. We also have some cd's featuring music from our first season and some brand new t-shirts. And since you asked for it -- we have KIDS' sizes this year! This shirt features our beloved Hungry Will mascot on the front with a quote from Hamlet: "Eat a crocodile? I'll do it."

I'm looking forward to spending the day in the sunshine on Main Street in Schroon Lake on Wednesday and to chatting with everyone about our upcoming season. It's been wonderful to be back in town and seeing familiar faces. What a particular treat to hear wonderful thing about the company, about last year's productions, and the excitement folks are feeling about the shows this year. I absolutely cannot wait to see you all at our performances at the Boathouse, the Manor, and the Center for the Arts and all around the region.

And now, an endnote. I just added the title "Or else what follows?" to this post, which is a quote from Henry V. In the very back of my head I often tuck ideas on what to write about, and I've been toying with the idea of a weekly series for a long long time. Tonight, inspiration has struck. Not sure that "Or else what follows?" is the perfect title for such a series, but I like the idea of posting on what's coming up in my world "this week." So, here it is. What follows this week is Wednesday's Fourth of July celebration and parade in Schroon Lake, hanging more posters up in the Saranac Region, sending out multitudes of emails to build steam for the season offerings, cleaning the cabin for the kid's show company, a meeting with an environmental advocate on Friday, an orientation meeting for the Kingship Cycle Part One, and last but not least the long-awaited arrival of the Hercules company on Saturday evening!

Hercules Masks {Day 6}

Yesterday I shared this image of my inspiration for Charon. Alas Poor Yorick is not an easy model, however, for someone building large features on a mask for the first time. Actually, last year was my first experience building a mask from start to finish with my Mustard-seed mask for A Midsummer Night's Dream. I really love that mask -- but what I did was mostly just paint and add really cool feathers to it, no building up up features with other items.

What I love about the Charon base mask in this photo is actually how smooth it is. There's not much feature on it, so I think it looks a little creepy. I definitely wanted to keep the creep factor as I built, but I wanted him to end up looking more skull-like.

Using cotton balls pulled out into thinner strands, I built out larger eye sockets, working them into large circles. I don't think he looks terribly skull-like yet, but he does have this really bizarre and cool alien helm look to him. You can also see where I built out some cheekbones for him. I also added quite a bit of mass to his browline, which is harder to see in this image.

Hera is also coming along. The next step for her was adding a crown. I was a little nervous about this step as I wasn't certain the plaster strips would be sturdy enough to hold up the mosaic tiles standing on end. Worked on the first try, though - yea! I'll be painting over the plaster strips and finishing the mask with more of the red mosaic tiles and beading. Then all she'll need is some drilled holes in the temples and elastic to be fully completed. Can't wait!

A close-up of the crown

Oh, speaking of Mustard-seed ... here's a photo from last year's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, featuring the finished product!

Ross Hamman as Cobweb and me as Mustard-seed

Claim token: HJUY3E3DQ9KT

Hercules Masks {Day 5}

Well, technically today is Day 5 and I haven't done anything on masks yet today. These pictures are from work over the last several days. You got a nice look at the base masks for Charon and Hera, and I've been working mostly on Hera since then. She got a nice base coat of red mixed in with silver, which turned out a really nice mauve shade. I used dark brown to emphasize her very crooked, fierce brows. To the brows I've also added a line of dark red glass beads, which are highlighted by clear glass beads. She is also getting an "eyeliner" of clear and gold glass beads.

Here you can see the "eyeliner" as well as the lining around the edge of orderly red glass beads. 

Here's a nice close up of the broken mosaic tiles on the left side of the mask. I've decided that Hera's left (sinister!) side will be made up of the smashed tiles and the beads filling in. On the right side will be the unbroken tiles arranged in a much more orderly fashion.

Here's a close-up of the mosaic tiles laid in straight and unbroken. I need to drill holes in the temples for the elastic to go through before laying the rest of the tiles. I'm also hoping if I score some of the tiles I might be able to break them straight across and have some smaller rectangular pieces to lay alongside the eye.

This is a view of the mask so far. I'll be adding more tiles to the forehead, as well as laying in a golden crown with some other mosaic tiles. I love seeing this mask come together, and I can't wait to see the finished product!

Stay tuned for more updates and photos of the Zeus mask, and the progress on Hades and Charon. Here is my inspiration for the Charon mask. Let's see if I'm up to the job!

Hercules Masks {Day 1}

Here is Day One of making base masks for Zeus, Hades, Hera, and Charon! We set up outside so we could make a mess with our plaster strips. First we coated our faces with the Vaseline so we wouldn't be pulling up eyebrows. Then we got to work laying wet strips of plaster on each other's faces. I think the neighbors must have thought we were pretty strange.

No pictures of the actual process, since it was too messy and no plaster-fingers are coming near my camera. But you can see the finished base maks of Hera:

And Charon, the ferry-man who sails dead souls over the Lethe River and into the underworld. I like this guy. I think he's going to be a little creepy and unsettling when finished:

Mask-making for Hercules continues today! Yesterday, we spent time down in Albany shopping for foam for the Nemean Lion puppet as well as buying a ton of mask-making supplies at A.C. Moore. We made off with a good haul -- mosaic tiles, new paints, feathers, and glass beads.

I painted a base of a sort of mauve shade onto Hera last night and began to add glass beads and broken red mosaic tiles. She's this great raised eyebrow to make for a pretty fierce expression. More pictures tomorrow of the continued process. I think I'm going to like this one!

The Twelve Labors of Hercules

The time is nigh! We here at the Adirondack Shakespeare Company are gearing up for this summer's original children's show, The Twelve Labors of Hercules, penned by Jessica Hackett.

Jessica is no stranger to ADK Shakes. For the past year, she has worked for us as a social media marketing guru. For the 2012 summer season, she will also be serving as the company's Assistant Stage Manager. Jessica is currently working towards a Master's Degree in English at St. John's University, where she is heavily involved as an actress, playwright and occasional director in the university's official theatre group. When we approached Jessica about writing our children's show script this summer, we encouraged her to take inspiration from one of our heroes of children's work, Jim Henson. At Christmastime, we watched Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas and suggested Henson's The Storyteller series in particular. The script is everything we hoped it would be!


The characters of Octavius and Agrippa are quite compelling, and the journey of their friendship is going to be great fun to watch as it unfolds! This play has it all: friendship, struggle, adventure, and (perhaps best of all) monsters!


Today we are starting work on the masks and puppetry for the show -- which will include masks for the Greek deities (Hera, Zeus, Athena, Hades, Persephone -- this play represents!). We are especially excited to get to work on the Hydra and the Nemean Lion puppets. I'll share the process as we go, and I can't wait to see how they turn out.


In the meantime, you can reserve tickets for the performances which begin July 11 and run through August 15. Check out our ticketing website (provided by Ticket Leap): adkshakes.ticketleap.com. We have full-length performances in Schroon Lake, Indian Lake, North Creek, Lake Placid, and Ticonderoga. And we are also performing scenes from the show throughout the day at public parks in Saratoga Springs, Lake Placid, and Bolton Landing on the beautiful Lake George waterfront. For more details visit our Ticket Leap site or visit our website to view the full schedule here.

There is nothing either good or bad ...

Today was a rough one. No time to post this morning -- if you'd be so kind as to keep us in your thoughts and prayers, we would appreciate it! Thankfully, everyone is well and healthy, but we are dealing with the aftermath of a fire to the building our condo is in and it is pretty awful. It's been hard to focus on things for the season today with that on my mind as well as all the phone calls to insurance companies, property management, etc.

On the positive side, our proofs came through for our season posters, and they look beautiful. Here's a sneak peek of our Hercules poster, which I love:

We also confirmed our performances in Saratoga Springs for Saturday, July 14. We will be performing scenes from Hercules every half hour at the War Memorial in Congress Park starting at 10:00 am and running until 3:00 p.m.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting with Tannery Pond Community Center and hopefully sorting our performance there as well! That leaves only one final date open on our Hercules touring calendar as well as one tour date for Twelfth Night. We're getting there!

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and support.

Happy Summer!

Well, it is very nearly official. Just a few days away!

Things are gearing up for our festival season, so I can tell summer is just around the corner. Two weeks ago, the cast gathered for their first official meeting and to read through our three mainstage plays: Twelfth Night, Hamlet, and Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. And let me tell you, these are going to be some rocking shows this summer. It is privilege to work with actors like these -- and they are going to knock your socks off.

A few days ago, we also sent out our finalized script for The Twelve Labors of Hercules to the children's show company. Our playwright, Jessica Hackett, has done a wonderful job bringing a tone of the truly classic to storytelling for kids. I can't wait to get memorizing on my roles in this show. We continue to fill our calendar with additional tours for Hercules -- see how we're doing so far by checking our summer schedule here.

Casting is also underway for Kingship Cycle Part One, and I have Part Two beginning to roll around in my brain as well. I can't believe just how many wonderful things are on the horizon for Adirondack Shakespeare Company this year. It's kind of incredible!

Thanks for welcoming me back to the world of blogging this summer. It's nice to be back after a hiatus. I'll be keeping you posted on the goings-on at the cabin as we prepare for the season and letting you know just what's coming up next for us. I would be thrilled if you would consider sharing this blog with others -- follow me on Facebook via Networked Blogs, or add me to your Google Reader, or take it a step further and consider making a donation to support Adirondack Shakespeare Company's 2012 Summer Festival Season! We'll be launching our IndieGoGo campaign very very soon!

Heads ... heads ... heads ...

Check out the artwork for Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead! I am particularly proud of this one. Even though I did not do any of the design whatsoever, I did suggest to Patrick the idea for the coin.

At the start of the play, Rosencrantz is tossing a coin up in the air over and over again, and every time the coin lands heads up. I thought this would be a cool starting place for the design image ... and now here you go!

Heads!

Alas, hungry Yorick.

Although it's only March, summer is deceptively close. We are cementing our summer calendar, adding children's show tours, and putting together the artwork. Lots of behind the scenes things are happening now to make sure that our summer season is successful!

One of those things is art design. Patrick has been hard at work designing the images for our 2012 main stage shows. These images appear on the website, our Facebook page, our promotional postcards and posters, and go out with our press releases. We'll be living with them for a long time! Lucky thing I kind of (read: really, really) love these designs for this summer's shows. Here's a sneak peek at the first design Patrick has done for Summer 2012.

Alas, Hungry Yorick.

Meet Hungry Yorick! He's a very fun combination of our traditional "Hungry Will" image of Shakespeare with some Adirondack antlers and the famous skull from Hamlet: "Alas, poor Yorick."

Stay tuned for more of our summer art tomorrow!

Fun fact: While typing this post, I had two interesting typos. Instead of "kind," I typed "king." And for "Yorick," "York." Too much kingship on the brain?

Hercules: 2012 Summer Tours

Today I am blasting out some emails for our summer touring production. Last year we toured The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) around Adirondack Park, but this year we are switching gears a bit. We will be touring an original children's production of Hercules, written by Jessica Hackett, a young lady of many talents who will also be serving as our Assistant Stage Manager for the summer and managing our PR & Marketing.

So far I have been in communication with Ticonderoga, Indian Lake, Schroon Lake, and Bolton Landing. We are set in stone to be at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts on Wednesday, August 15 (hooray!), and I'd love to be in Mid's Park again right in the middle of town in July. I'll be sending more emails out to public libraries in Jay, Keene, Saranac, Warrensburg, Glens Falls, and further afield. Where would you like to see ADK Shakes perform Hercules this summer?

We have several dates available between July 11 - 21, with some flexibility to perform in early August as well. Send an email to info@adkshakes.org if you'd like to see Hercules in your town!