Director’s Commentary: Jack Culbertson
Read through:
It’s strange to have half a cast that I’ve worked closely with in the past and the other half whom I barely know at all. I don’t feel unconfident with my casting, but I don’t feel safe either. Ryan is difficult to work with because his face doesn’t show a lot of emotion. How am I supposed to tell when he’s happy or pissed or tired? Tiffany is not a theatre major and therefore I don’t know how serious she is about the show or what lingo I may use that she won’t understand. Knowing that she did Violet Sharpe makes me feel a little better. Nate has never played such a dominant character and watching him during the reading was not satisfying. He went back to his average nerdy insecure self.
I had everyone introduce themselves. Leslie’s introduction was less that hopeful. She referred to herself as a bitch that people shouldn’t screw with. Has she had bad luck with actors in the past? Scott assures me that she is fine, just nervous.
Tiffany informed me that she will be in
Designers:
Met with the designers after the reading. It went well, but I don’t think that Leslie or Amanda get what we’re going for. Addam understands it to a point. I talked him though some of it and he’s getting there. Scott gets it of course since we’ve been talking about it for some time. I think I’m going to sit down with all of them individually and discuss the show.
Amanda:
I spoke with her briefly. She has no confidence in herself which means I’ll be feeding her complements to keep her going. She can do the work to my level of expectation. I’ve seen it. She just needs to stop worrying about what others will think. Anyway, she can’t really do a lot till she gets some designs from Leslie.
Homework:
Sent out some homework to the Actors. I always free having the actors go away for so long without knowing that we’re all on the same page. I asked for three journal entries and the moments before. Now I get to wait and see who turns it in on time. This should be telling.
Leslie:
I finally got the first of Leslie’s drawings. I had no idea how far off she was from the concept of the rest of the designers. She ignored my original instructions to avoid Disney’s Wonderland. I wish I could have gotten the Director’s Statement to her before these sketches arrived. It would be perfect if it was the regular
Free Music
Started to put the music of local bands and musicians that don’t charge for the use of their music in film and theater. Film isn’t half the medium that it was created for without music. I’ll be taking a sound class through the comm media department in an effort to learn how to build my own music for film as Scott plans to do for Saving Alice.
Designer Addam:
First real sit down with Addam. He got the world less than I had thought originally. He wanted pastels and bright colors for Wonderland and dim dull colors for the real world. Not a bad way to start thinking, but no. I told him to ignore everything he knows about
Books:
The book that Jason suggested, Acting with Style, arrived in the mail today. His major criticism of Mineola Twins was that the acting styles differed from one person to another. I agree with him completely. He suggested this book to help. This will come in handy with Ryan, Nate, Susan, and Hank. People who are scare to leave the world they act in and join someone else’s.
Leslie:
Leslie has agreed to meeting with the both of us in order to work out some ideas. Scott and I will be going to
Cabaret:
Susan has proposed a cabaret in order to fund the payment of the adjudicators as well as pay for any zany Scott set elements. This was a fund-raising event that was overly successful with Antigone, Natalia and Molly’s Summer show. Susan is in charge of the actually formation of the show including contacting the Indiana Players.
Leslie:
The meeting seemed hopeful. It went well enough I suppose. I’ll be receiving new sketches within the week. I think she is now the last designer that I needed to get on board with the themes.
Designer Addam:
Having spoke with Scott over the proper location of the show, at least that which is apparent within the script we took notice to it’s small burnt out town vibe. Scott noted that the lights in these towns are sodium based and they emit a yellow ting. This pleased Addam to all hell. Rather than scrambling Addam I decided to let him marinade on the thought for a couple of days.
Cabaret:
Pete Miltz, the new president of the Indiana Players, has agreed to let us use the space on July 24 for free. There have been several people who have agreed to perform for the Cabaret. There will be singing, dancing, juggling, and I will provide a reading of one of my very short stories. There will also be an art/ yard sale similar to Natalia’s Cabaret.
Cabaret:
More people have agreed to perform for the Cabaret bring us to the amount of performs that we need. Susan has suggested that we drop the extra activities and stick to the performance itself. In the next couple of days I expect to have a final list of performers. Also, Brian has agreed that the Cabaret is a good way to raise money.
Designer Addam:
Addam came back with some great ideas. We talked about the scenes that took place on
Homework:
Had to send out an email to the people that didn’t send me their work. Susan, Nate, Abe, and Ryan didn’t send me there information. Susan is working on the Cabaret. Nate is at his internship and Ryan and Abe are extras in the movie Warrior in
Cabaret:
It seems that Pete Miltz is no longer the person in charge at the Players and a new president is being elected. How this will effect the Cabaret is to be seen.
Cabaret:
The new president is James Dickson, whom I worked with on Sordid Lives. Susan attended the meeting with James as the new head and they approved the use of the space. They suggested that it be extended to two days however. Now we’ll have to see if the performers are capable of doing this.
Nate:
Spoke to Nate about set. He is too busy right now to think about such things. I understand. Gotta resist being forceful. Let him finish his work so he doesn’t lose his mind.
Cabaret:
Painted the front of the playhouse today. Never again will I make fun of the silly window drawings that reside of the front of the Ebensburg Burger King. The performers have agreed to perform over two nights.
Leslie:
Received the sketches from Leslie that I needed. I like them. Especially the Red Queen. Now I get to see how she takes criticism and adjustments to direction.
Designer Scott:
Work on the set has progressed a great deal. Scott suggested that we work on having a solid location for where Carter lives. We came up with a burnt out coal mining town, something that’s very prevalent around here. Upon reaching this conclusion Scott said that it would be ideal to write up a Directors Statement. I have been worried that all the designers won’t be on the same page, that their individual designs would stick out from the overall show.
Transitions
Reading through the script again, this time to block out transitions. In film transitions that are cleverly done can save a crappy film. In theater transitions done poorly will bore and audience to tears. I have way too many people coming on and off stage to have poorly done transitions. And I hate to have fun blackouts during scenes. It drags the show on. I think I may be able to have no blackouts in the first half. It’s always a goal to avoid blackouts all together. I’m going to try and not have any in the second half either.
Cabaret:
First night of the Cabaret went really well. The bands and sings sang well. The general attitude was great. We raised 192 dollars. Not half of what we’ll need but there’s always tomorrow. And people seemed to enjoy the two short stories that we did readings of. One of my goals this summer was to develop my novel writing abilities. Kinda got side tracked with filming Boxumentary and Saving Alice and teaching myself how to animate rotoscope style.
Scott:
Sat down and talked to him about Video for the first time. The ideas he had for the first two videos were really good. I told him my ideas and they fit together really well. The intro video is my favorite so far. It will definitely help bring the audience into the show. First they get a shot of Ryan’s monologue then a video that gives then a free sample of the style before easing them into the story dream.
I’m trying desperately to not get this comment: “I liked it a lot. It was very strange and I didn’t really get it. But it was cool.”
No, I don’t want to lose the audience again.
We’re sending out the date for the actors to return.
Cabaret:
The second night didn’t go as well. The weather was really really bad and greatly reduced our crowd. Anyway, we totaled at 300 dollars. That’s better than nothing.
Leslie:
I got the final version of the Red Queen today. It looks a lot better. I also got some other designs. White Rabbit needs a lot of work. Cheshire Cat looked cool though. Still needs work, but going in the right direction. I sent her feedback and some images. Scott and I realized that in steampunk land the war that would be going on would be the Civil War, so I sent her images of uniforms of that era that mix her ideas and my ideas.
Scott:
His Dad will be constructing the stick that I designed for Jabberwocky that resembles the stick that the plague doctors would have had except Steampunk version. I also managed to sketch out the design for the mask itself as well as the costume in-between work periods at the Arcadia Theater. I all honesty the design for the stick was taken from Akira (1988), but it fits better into Saving Alice than it did in the film.
Zeddies:
Having run into tim i told him about Saving Alice. He offered up some advice to getting money. The
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