To jump and soar

Kylie Clarke Johnson, Logan Loughmiller,
Luisa Sermol and Ted Schulz in
"Boleros for the Disenchanted"
(Photo by Russell Young)

With only nine days to go until the opening of Boleros for the Disenchanted, things are starting to heat up. We survived a 20-hour technical rehearsal weekend and are now in the thick of it. Working and running the show every night. It is all in the details of things. Refining moments and staging, asking the actors to layer in little things, create nuance, and specificity. It is a time when I am easily distracted by the sound of Peter on the light board, or someone walking backstage. I notice the imperfections or what I perceive as imperfections and I blame myself. I may have given a note early on that has lingered too long and has stunted growth or was just simply wrong. I find myself second guessing, which is normal; I always go back to those first instincts, trust them.

In a single moment I am aware of a prop that is not right, a costume that I like, a moment of staging that is wrong, a light that is too dim, and a beat that I feel like we are missing, the volume of the ambiance noise, and the laughter of Mark and Olga and Marychris from behind me, and my head is spinning and my hand cannot write fast enough the notes I want to give the different parties involved. And the moment passes and I am on to the next moment. It is insanity, for me anyway. I sit in the dark, watching this make-believe world where we are trying to create truth, and tell this beautiful story. It is difficult, challenging and frustrating. We are so very close. What will it take? Breathe, I tell myself, just breathe.

These next nine days are a time of incredible growth. It is a time when I ask people to jump and soar. What do I mean by that? I guess I mean to trust. Trust the work. You see when you work on something for five weeks it is easy to forget the early work, the instinctual work. Now it is just tweaking that work, minor adjustments, adding in layers, spicing things here and there, and sprinkling it with magic. But all the magic in the world does no good if you don’t trust the work. That is where we are in the process. I must jump and soar…and ask the others to follow.