The Theater J Blog

Talk about relief! Talk about happiness! Talk about an epic in the making! We are thrilled! We have work to do! We are on our way!

Two more previews today - with a discussion involving the nucleus of creative team, Nick, Yehuda and Daniel. We’ll report on that shortly. It’s Mother’s Day and we’re running late. But we’re happy happy happy. and inspired.

May you be as well.

It is the end of 7 weeks of rehearsals on the biggest project in our history and we are finally (just about) ready to share our new musical before a preview audience tonight, followed by two previews tomorrow (the Pay What You Can performance is Sunday at 8 pm).  Last night we were able, for the very first time, to run through the entire show, with lights, costumes, full band, full everything.  The entire running time — both acts, not counting the intermission — was 2 hours and 33 minutes.  Guess what?  WE GOTTA SHOW!

Guess what?  We were totally afraid that Act II would run an hour 36 minutes.  It was a full 25 minutes shorter than that!  In other words, despite plenty of little things that didn’t go quite right in our first-ever run-through, some very basic things went quite right. The structure of this show–its story telling; its musical dynamism; its character development; its kinetic movement; its theatricality and humor and narrative clarity are all very strong and in place.  Are we in a perfect place yet?  No.  Are we feeling totally secure about where each screen movement happens and how to execute the quick change and how we bring out the chuppah?  No.  But we gotta show!  A pretty potentially great show, if all the energies and professional efforts of the two dozen plus artists working on this show can gel over the coming days to fully realize this musical’s promise, we’ll have created something most timely and extraordinary.

We have a list of things we’ll be working on next week that we can’t address anymore this weekend. So the show preview audiences see this weekend will be different than the show people see next weekend.  But those who comes this weekend will be so deeply treasured for their desire to be there; their excitement to take in the freshest expressions from brilliant but understandably nervous artists; the opportunity to help clarify and applaud and help send a show off on its maiden voyage–yes, there will be an anxious sense of occasion tonight.

How are we doing as a company?  A little bleary-eyed from 7 days in tech; eager but uncertain as to how an audience will respond; concerned that not everything is perfectly set yet. Going public is the hardest and most important step awaiting us. Here’s a little bit of the note I sent to our company yesterday under the emailed header: “Our Optimism and Our Thanks”
Keep reading →

Having the show pushed back a couple of days from previews gives you, the audience, a chance to warm up to the main event.  Remind yourself of the Biblical story by visiting our website and reading some of the juicy quotes that inspired our production:

The women sang as they danced, and they chanted:
Saul has slain his thousands;
David, his tens of thousands!
Saul was much distressed and greatly vexed about the matter. For he said, “To David they have given tens of thousands, and to me they have given thousands. All that he lacks is the kingship!” From that day on Saul kept a jealous eye on David. FIRST SAMUEL 18:7-9 

How have the mighty fallen
In the thick of battle -
Jonathan, slain on your heights!
I grieve for you,
My brother Jonathan,
You were most dear to me.
Your love was wonderful to me
More than the love of women. SECOND SAMUEL 1:25-26

As the Ark of the LORD entered the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the LORD; and she despised him for it. SECOND SAMUEL 6:16

Click here to read more.

Or, if you are a visual learner visit the website The Brick Testament for the full story told in legos.

With picture and everything!

Apparently it’s news when a MAJOR THEATER like us drops a preview or two to keep working. Not only do we get ink; we get a pic in the paper, with Lawrence Redmond in knee pads!  Oh, the sweet success of unintended consequences…  Or wait; should we feel badly for negative publicity?

Not in this case. Catching the company in choreographed pose is just too interesting. And that Washington Post photographer in rehearsal was, in the end, something of a coup; or at least a very good thing. Let it be known, this article seems to be saying implicitly: This show is huge - a major effort - and one, we all believe, will be a thoroughly thrilling, worthwhile adventure for audiences.  

(Note, the rehearsal photo comes with this caption – Publication Date: 2008-05-06 - NEGATIVE# josephm 201107–SLUG-st/david–DATE-04/29/08– Washington, DC-PHOTOGRAPHER-MARVIN JOSEPH/TWP– Celia Wren is writing a feature on the play “David in Shadow and Light” which is coming up at Theater J. She will focus on the dance/choreography aspect of the show. Synopsis of the play: “An epic musical retelling of King David’s astonishing trajectory from boy shepherd to superstar ruler to aging king.”) 

AND P.S. MORE INK FROM THE POST: (from last weekend’s Sunday Source)

OUR PICKS: 5. DAVID IN SHADOW AND LIGHT

[ON STAGE] Lest you worry that David in Shadow and Light will be just another biblical musical along the lines of The Prince of Egypt, set your mind at ease. Yes, it’s a musical retelling of the life of King David, but Theater J has assembled an amazing team of actors and dancers for this stunning and strange world premiere. They tell David’s story partially through dance sequences, framed by the commentary of an archangel and Adam (yes, that Adam), who watch David’s life from above. So it’s a postmodern Biblical musical, which is something you probably don’t have enough of in your life.

Opens Wednesday. Through June 22. Theater J, 1529 16th St. NW. $20-$55. 800-494-8497.

– Sunday Source staff

Who, me?  Worry?  Nah, not yet.  Why not?
Because my daughter, Sophie, who sat through 29 hours of tech this weekend with me, 28 of which were spent on the first act of our show–all this happening while Kate is in Russia–assures me that after seeing the Act I run-through of DAVID on Sunday night, that everything is going to turn out quite wonderfully.  After spending the weekend teching the first act, we felt it pretty crucial that we run act one with all the new elements that were introduced during tech–new cuts, new staging, new costumes (and quick costume changes), new integration of band and singers–we did what we needed to do, which is to say, we went slowly and methodically through our scenes and, as a result, we didn’t finished our work on Act II.  So we’re late for where we’d scheduled ourselves to be.  

And so we’ve pushed back first preview to Saturday night, May 10.  It’s a miracle that we can do this, without impacting much at all on our official press opening of May 18.  In short, we’ve decided to not begin sharing this show until we’re really ready to do so and this particular schedule–unlike virtually all others that we set up–allows us to be this flexible! Our Pay-What-You-Can performance of DAVID is pushed back to Sunday, May 11 at 8 pm.

Here’s a wonderfully supportive email from our Theater J Council Co-Chair, Irene Wurtzel:

Sounds like it’s an excellent move to postpone. Give the birth all the love and care you can, and if it takes a bit longer to see daylight, that might be a very good thing.

Easily the largest undertaking in our history, we are assembling all the elements for this musical this weekend for the first time and, while slow and laborious, what we’re seeing and hearing is pretty spectacular.  The costumes, designed by the inimitable Reggie Ray and a his team from Howard University are so confident, so outrageously post-modern, so interestingly conceived by Reggie, and director Nick Olcott picking on the suggestions in playwright Yehuda Hyman’s libretto, that the entire production seems to rest on the very audaciousness of this zig-zagging through the centuries, having a strapping David in biblical tunic, a servant to King Saul wearing a Jeeves/valet/butler tux and speaking in a clipped British dialect, a punk rock Goliath in pleather pants, a modern military officer’s jacket and black sunglasses for the battle figure of Uriah, and so on. The principal circle of characters who make up the family of Saul and David are dressed in stylish archaic biblical with only spare modern touches. The surrounding figures and players bring us much more up-to-date. Colin Bills‘ lights bring the shadow screen imagery into huge theatrical relief. This is Colin’s most ambitious lighting plot for us, just as it’s the most impressive score and most incredible gathering of musicians we’ve ever assembled. It is huge and quite glorious when it works and comes together.  

(I’ll run a full list of the incredible design team when I have the correct spelling in front of me!)

On the other hand, we’re hours behind where we’d like to be. We probably won’t finish our tech of the entire show tonight. We’ve allowed for the process to continue on Tuesday and we’ll hopefully get through a first run-through, a first dress rehearsal, on Tuesday night. Wednesday is now our first and only Pay What You Can Preview. We’ll learn a lot from that run through, even if we’re not really ready for it. We’ll see what we have in front of an audience. And then, with Thursday’s preview cut in favor of a more evaluative working session, we’ll have three rehearsal sessions to refine, cut, adjust before our 2nd preview on Saturday night. We’ve taken a lot of the pressure out of this first week of previews so as to ensure that we keep building this big show in calm, careful, deliberate, painstaking fashion.

I wish we had a clip to show; a video or audio file that might give a sense of what we’ve got cooking here. Instead, let me just give you the cast of characters, which is fascinating all by itself. And then refer you over to the website to read much more about the show.

DAVID IN SHADOW AND LIGHT

CAST OF CHARACTERS

METATRON – an Archangel
ADAM - the first human
SAMUEL – a prophet
DAVID – a shepherd, then the second king of the Hebrews
SAUL – the first king of the Hebrews
SERVANT – valet to King Saul
MICHAL – a princess, Saul’s daughter
JONATHAN – a prince, Saul’s son
GOLIATH – a Philistine soldier
GOLIATH’s MOTHER – a Philistine of Moabite heritage
URIAH – a Hittite soldier in the Hebrew army
NATHAN – a prophet
AMNON – first born son of King David
TAMAR – daughter of King David
ABSALOM – youngest son of King David
BATSHEVA – wife of Uriah, and wife of King David
SOLOMON – son of Batsheva and King David
YOAV - a General.

All actors are PLAYERS, most enact several roles. The roles are assigned as follows:
PLAYER ONE: METATRON
PLAYER TWO: ADAM
PLAYER THREE: SAMUEL/URIAH
PLAYER FOUR: DAVID/SOLOMON
PLAYER FIVE: SAUL/DAVID (older David, middle Act Two)
PLAYER SIX: MICHAL/TAMAR
PLAYER SEVEN: GOLIATH/YOAV
PLAYER EIGHT: JONATHAN/ABSALOM
PLAYER NINE: GOLIATH’s MOTHER/BATSHEVA
PLAYER TEN: SERVANT/AMNON/NATHAN

Oh, and here’s a fun little Facebook page about our upcoming preview week. Check in out!

from: Motti Lerner
subject: Alas, No Award

Dearest Ari,
How unfortunate. But your speech is wonderful. Let’s keep it in our files for the Obie.

from: Sinai Peter
Dear Ari,
Your speech is excellent because it comes from your deep heart and it gives us the strength to keep on collaborating for the good cause. I`m proud of everything concernig the production of PANGS.

שולח (sender): arirothdc
נושא: alas, no award

…but we got a lot of good mentions - good pictures - a nice souvenir program I can bring to you, if you like. The American Theatre Magazine issue goes online May 1 but the print issue is already out and both your pictures and your articles on the cultural boycott are excellent.  Here was the speech cobbled together from both your emails that I would have delivered, had we won, and had they allowed others to make acceptance speeches. In the end, they wouldn’t have allowed me to speak on your behalf anyway.

“I’m here on behalf of the playwright, Motti Lerner: From Ramat HaSharon he writes, “The success of the production shows that there is a hunger in the audience to see political plays both in Israel and in the US, and if there are many of these plays, together they can create a change, both here and in the US…”

From Israeli director Sinai Peter, writing from Haifa: 
”It is the role of a contemporary free theater to struggle against fundamentalism where ever it settles in the heart of the people and endangers their free thought and their intrinsic humanity.”

On behalf of Theater J, we thank you for this first-ever Helen Hayes Award. Keep reading →

Got this funny, sweet note from director Richard Stein who ran Laguna Playhouse for 17 years and has a great piece on the IsraDrama Festival of last December in this month’s issue of American Theatre Magazine.

Ari,
I lost count of how many times Theater J was mentioned, you were quoted, productions by Theater J were cited, etc, in the new AMERICAN THEATRE I just received today!

The issue, dedicated to the theater’s response to the Palestinian Israeli conflict is available on line beginning May 1 but, with 8 great long articles spanning some 30+ pages, it’s really worth picking up a copy at your local Borders or Barnes & Noble. As Rick points out, Theater J’s got lots of contributions to the overall subject, with good pix of Motti Lerner, Sinai Peter, our production of PANGS OF THE MESSIAH, and a production shot from PLONTER, coming to us in March of 2009. Beyond that, I think there’s mention of Aaron Davidman’s A JERUSALEM BETWEEN US and Laila Buck’s IN THE CROSSING and, well, perhaps much more.

Tonight’s the designer run of DAVID IN SHADOW AND LIGHT. And Thursday night’s the wandelprobe (actors in a musical or opera being joined by the band/orchestra for the very first time — like a Sitzprobe, but with the singers strolling about the stage to their approximate blocking). So we’ll be seeing, and then really hearing the musical in a continuous flow for the first time since rehearsals began (way back on March 25).

Last night was the Helen Hayes Awards bash. Many, many of our artists participating in DAVID IN SHADOW AND LIGHT were up for acting and design awards (Will Gartshore, Donna Migliaccio, Lawrence Redmond, Bobby Smith). As with our PANGS OF THE MESSIAH nominations (for Motti and Alexander Strain), none won (though they are all Major Winners in our book). Matt Pearson, our extraordinary David, was on stage for much of the evening as one of 5 great young singers who took the place of a single host for the event. Matt did great. And two of our DAVID designers, Colin Bills (lights) and Reggie Ray (costumes) took home awards for their work at Woolly Mammoth and Studio Theatre respectively.

A fun (dumb) evening, as usual. They do put on a great party. Very generous of them. The awards themselves? Not so ecumenically parceled out. But that’s okay. We were in good company. In all senses.

Look for more updates as we move DAVID onto the stage. And hopefully, we’ll hear from some of our cast members, now that they’re totally mastered composer Daniel Hoffman’s wildly ambitious score.

And here it is.  Me thinks Jane did a pretty great job!

The Price closed last Friday.  It broke every box office record we ever had.  Big audience.  Big art.  Big drama.  Big royalties to pay.  We did great.  Couldn’t be happier.

And wasn’t Passover fun?  Anyone stopped up yet from all the matzah?  In our house in Chicago, we eat so much kampot (stewed fruit) that constipation is literally impossible. Well, not literally.  It just doesn’t.  Generally happen.  

Who didn’t have Passover off?  The hard-working cast and creative team of DAVID IN SHADOW AND LIGHT, that’s who.  A hats off to the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange choreographers and, in particular, Shula Strassfeld (sister of Reconstructionist Rabbi and brilliant new Passover haggadah author, Michael Strassfeld) for working over the weekend — but not violating the holiday (technically) — at least Shula was able to walk right over to the Dance Exchange studios and continue rehearsing with our dancing ensemble.

Tonight, the band practiced in their first rehearsal.  They are not to be believed.  Would you like their names?  Next time, I’ll pass on their links to some brilliant MySpace pages.  Run throughs ‘a coming by the weekend, our final week before getting set for tech.  What a huge beautiful difficult radiant show it will be.

And tomorrow, we have our season listed in Backstage.  Let’s hope they’re able to get PLONTER in. There were some questions of space earlier in the day… Fingers crossed…