Making the Promo Video 10/9
Martin Meccouri (Performer/Marketing Director for RATC)
These days you gotta have a video. Artists don't always understand because to us, a title or obscure reference is enough to get our butts in the seats. But a compelling idea has to find a compelling way to communicate itself to the public. So we make TRAILERS. I went to Vancouver to shoot this promo for Tempting Air with our satellite videographer, Joel Halcro. Because the cast couldn't be there, we got the lovely Owen Pierson and Olivia Pierson to stand in for our company members. Joel's sister and world-class stylist and make up artist, Natalie Halcro, graciously waived her fees and came along to help by costuming and doing make up.
We went to the rugged Wreck Beach in Vancouver to shoot. Talk about TWILIGHT land. The location played itself effortlessly and we went about recreating key moments from the non-linear Tempting Air. Everyone was such a pro, we were done in about 90 minutes. Then Joel went right to work at editing and produced a beautiful 90 second trailer that really brings forth all of the power, suspense, and storm-like energy of Tempting Air.
This, combined with a lovely postcard image designed by Josh Tewell and a press blast to New Orleans media outlets, will launch our marketing campaign. It's not easy to market a show as non-traditional as Tempting Air, no matter how exciting, brilliant, and innovative, because it disrupts a story that audiences think they know: Shakespeare's The Tempest. However when we boiled a project like this down to its dramatic stakes and universal themes, we found the hook that will land with a potential audience. Then we reference it's more heady and innovative structural qualities: a ticking clock sound in the trailer to reference the Chris' fast-paced count-down temporal structure; sound and images that appear and disappear like the ephemeral nature of the character Ariel and the narrative of The Tempest; and direct quotes from the play set against elemental imagery which creates the idea of a storm gathering. Hopefully the audience can feel the electricity of that storm and come experience TEMPTING AIR!
These days you gotta have a video. Artists don't always understand because to us, a title or obscure reference is enough to get our butts in the seats. But a compelling idea has to find a compelling way to communicate itself to the public. So we make TRAILERS. I went to Vancouver to shoot this promo for Tempting Air with our satellite videographer, Joel Halcro. Because the cast couldn't be there, we got the lovely Owen Pierson and Olivia Pierson to stand in for our company members. Joel's sister and world-class stylist and make up artist, Natalie Halcro, graciously waived her fees and came along to help by costuming and doing make up.
We went to the rugged Wreck Beach in Vancouver to shoot. Talk about TWILIGHT land. The location played itself effortlessly and we went about recreating key moments from the non-linear Tempting Air. Everyone was such a pro, we were done in about 90 minutes. Then Joel went right to work at editing and produced a beautiful 90 second trailer that really brings forth all of the power, suspense, and storm-like energy of Tempting Air.
This, combined with a lovely postcard image designed by Josh Tewell and a press blast to New Orleans media outlets, will launch our marketing campaign. It's not easy to market a show as non-traditional as Tempting Air, no matter how exciting, brilliant, and innovative, because it disrupts a story that audiences think they know: Shakespeare's The Tempest. However when we boiled a project like this down to its dramatic stakes and universal themes, we found the hook that will land with a potential audience. Then we reference it's more heady and innovative structural qualities: a ticking clock sound in the trailer to reference the Chris' fast-paced count-down temporal structure; sound and images that appear and disappear like the ephemeral nature of the character Ariel and the narrative of The Tempest; and direct quotes from the play set against elemental imagery which creates the idea of a storm gathering. Hopefully the audience can feel the electricity of that storm and come experience TEMPTING AIR!
Approach to Design 9/30
Sarah Abigail Hoke-Brady (Designer/Stage Manager)
Tempting Air is an aural, visual, visceral interpretation of Shakespeare’s 'The Tempest', taking the themes we react most strongly to and weaving them into something wholly ours. Structurally it breaks from traditional theatrical performances and mirrors a symphony more closely in many ways. The airs are built similarly to movements and the vignettes weave together within these movements as themes do within the movements of a symphonic piece. However, unlike both a commonplace theatrical or symphonic performance, within the movements there is room for improvisation: changes in the order of vignettes, opportunities for themes to grow differently. It has therefore proven to be both daunting and extremely exciting from the perspective of the designers, forcing us to re-imagine the boundaries of theatrical design and pool our creative and practical knowledge to build an environment for Tempting Air.
Before even learning what our space is we were thinking seriously about our first challenge, transporting the show from Newark Airport to New Orleans. After a great deal of thought about necessary and aesthetic objects for the show a minimal amount of versatile props/space dressings were settled upon: five hard shell suitcases (these were initially five chairs) that will be moved, opened, stood or sat on, and used to serve not only as suitcases but as tables, chairs, rocks, and anything else we may find need of; five generous lengths of sheer fabric to be thrown, draped, wrapped and used by actors as clothing, binding implements etc; and a series of ‘initiation props’ (a boot, a compact, a birdcage and so forth). Our initial desire was to have as raw a space as possible to build an unique environment for Tempting Air. The space we were given, Cafe Istanbul, is anything but that--a smaller cabaret space with a raised stage, proscenium and wrap-around balcony--so our task has become to transform instead of build.
Check back for more details about that transformation - we'll be posting updates and ideas, plus a sketch or two as the design evolves and develops along with the performance.
Tempting Air is an aural, visual, visceral interpretation of Shakespeare’s 'The Tempest', taking the themes we react most strongly to and weaving them into something wholly ours. Structurally it breaks from traditional theatrical performances and mirrors a symphony more closely in many ways. The airs are built similarly to movements and the vignettes weave together within these movements as themes do within the movements of a symphonic piece. However, unlike both a commonplace theatrical or symphonic performance, within the movements there is room for improvisation: changes in the order of vignettes, opportunities for themes to grow differently. It has therefore proven to be both daunting and extremely exciting from the perspective of the designers, forcing us to re-imagine the boundaries of theatrical design and pool our creative and practical knowledge to build an environment for Tempting Air.
Before even learning what our space is we were thinking seriously about our first challenge, transporting the show from Newark Airport to New Orleans. After a great deal of thought about necessary and aesthetic objects for the show a minimal amount of versatile props/space dressings were settled upon: five hard shell suitcases (these were initially five chairs) that will be moved, opened, stood or sat on, and used to serve not only as suitcases but as tables, chairs, rocks, and anything else we may find need of; five generous lengths of sheer fabric to be thrown, draped, wrapped and used by actors as clothing, binding implements etc; and a series of ‘initiation props’ (a boot, a compact, a birdcage and so forth). Our initial desire was to have as raw a space as possible to build an unique environment for Tempting Air. The space we were given, Cafe Istanbul, is anything but that--a smaller cabaret space with a raised stage, proscenium and wrap-around balcony--so our task has become to transform instead of build.
Check back for more details about that transformation - we'll be posting updates and ideas, plus a sketch or two as the design evolves and develops along with the performance.
Performance Space, Dates and Scripting Work 9/25
Chris Shepard (Director)
We're cooking with grease now everybody! We found out our space assignment and performance dates last weekend and very excited to be performing at Cafe Istanbul, located in the New Orleans Healing Center. It's a great cabaret and music space (recently hosting Joan Rivers and Chaka Khan!) that I'm super-excited about using in a completely new way. More to come on that later. I'm also really happy with our performance times! We'll be opening on Thursday, 11/15 at 9pm, followed by 3 more shows: Friday, 11/16 at 7pm, Saturday, 11/17 at 11pm, and Sunday, 11/18 at 5pm. If you're out in NOLA - come join us!
Meanwhile, I can’t stop thinking about this project! This is, of course, good news for Tempting Air, but bad news for the rest of my life. I’ve spent hours visualizing, sketching, scribbling. I’ve been reading The Tempest over and over, lifting text - identifying moments, language and images that may prove useful. I’m drawing sketches of our space, imagining how to use it and the short time we have variably to keep the audience engaged.
Where can I build in moments of anticipation and suspense? When do spectacle and magic come into play? What text can we let shine and what can be embodied rather than spoken?
While I’ve worked with Shakespeare before, never have I de/re-constructed a text this long in this manner. The cast has been incredibly helpful - choosing text that will help them sculpt characters and their arcs for our gallery visitors. How much of the story do we need to include? Luckily, Shakespeare included very little plot in his final solo work. This allows us to create an opportunity for our audience to navigate through the characters, relationships, power struggles and wonder of the play, without forcing them to ask “what just happened?” Instead, I hope Tempting Air will invite its audience to live inside the experience, and perhaps revel in the sometimes chaotic tour through Shakespeare’s text.
We're cooking with grease now everybody! We found out our space assignment and performance dates last weekend and very excited to be performing at Cafe Istanbul, located in the New Orleans Healing Center. It's a great cabaret and music space (recently hosting Joan Rivers and Chaka Khan!) that I'm super-excited about using in a completely new way. More to come on that later. I'm also really happy with our performance times! We'll be opening on Thursday, 11/15 at 9pm, followed by 3 more shows: Friday, 11/16 at 7pm, Saturday, 11/17 at 11pm, and Sunday, 11/18 at 5pm. If you're out in NOLA - come join us!
Meanwhile, I can’t stop thinking about this project! This is, of course, good news for Tempting Air, but bad news for the rest of my life. I’ve spent hours visualizing, sketching, scribbling. I’ve been reading The Tempest over and over, lifting text - identifying moments, language and images that may prove useful. I’m drawing sketches of our space, imagining how to use it and the short time we have variably to keep the audience engaged.
Where can I build in moments of anticipation and suspense? When do spectacle and magic come into play? What text can we let shine and what can be embodied rather than spoken?
While I’ve worked with Shakespeare before, never have I de/re-constructed a text this long in this manner. The cast has been incredibly helpful - choosing text that will help them sculpt characters and their arcs for our gallery visitors. How much of the story do we need to include? Luckily, Shakespeare included very little plot in his final solo work. This allows us to create an opportunity for our audience to navigate through the characters, relationships, power struggles and wonder of the play, without forcing them to ask “what just happened?” Instead, I hope Tempting Air will invite its audience to live inside the experience, and perhaps revel in the sometimes chaotic tour through Shakespeare’s text.
Early Table Work 9/15
Jessica Ko (Performer)
Early table work has been such a discovery as we delved into the themes, relationships, and characters. We’ve determined the most interesting character arcs and relationships, particularly what we’ve been calling the “servitude vignettes.” A huge part of that are the relationships that Prospero has with Ariel, Caliban, and Miranda. It’s the whole idea of who is serving whom, how those roles change, and how strongly one clings to or tries to escape from his/her role in this servitude relationship. We discussed how societal structures influence such relationships and balances of power. Whether the grasp for power has always been an innate, primitive impulse or a result of civilization’s division of labor and hierarchy, Nature (with a capital “N”) seems to be the ultimate equalizer, which Prospero uses to his full advantage with the help of his and Ariel’s magic. For instance, the Royal characters have been literally tossed in a “tempest” (hehe, I had to throw that in there), and so have their positions, socially and emotionally. Alonso, the Duke of Naples, spends most of the play completely defeated and despondent over the possible loss of his son, which gives Antonio the will to start plotting with Alonso’s brother, Sebastian, to overthrow Alonso. Talking about Nature inevitably leads to discussion about how Nature has impacted every generation, including ours—which then leads to such recent natural disasters, namely Hurricane Katrina. It’ll be interesting for our company to somehow deal with the fact that we’ll be in New Orleans with this project.
Something else that have come out of early table work is a constant referral to cultural references that remind us of The Tempest, that have been directly influenced by Shakespeare’s last work, or just certain images and phrases that conjure up connections to other things we’ve seen or heard. Of course, that’s also led to many seemingly tangential discussions and excited non-sequiturs, but what I love about our process is that NOTHING is unrelated. Jokes, personal stories, complete re-enactments of film scenes and musical renditions (Little Mermaid, anyone?)—it all goes into the rich tapestry of what will becomeTempting Air!
Early table work has been such a discovery as we delved into the themes, relationships, and characters. We’ve determined the most interesting character arcs and relationships, particularly what we’ve been calling the “servitude vignettes.” A huge part of that are the relationships that Prospero has with Ariel, Caliban, and Miranda. It’s the whole idea of who is serving whom, how those roles change, and how strongly one clings to or tries to escape from his/her role in this servitude relationship. We discussed how societal structures influence such relationships and balances of power. Whether the grasp for power has always been an innate, primitive impulse or a result of civilization’s division of labor and hierarchy, Nature (with a capital “N”) seems to be the ultimate equalizer, which Prospero uses to his full advantage with the help of his and Ariel’s magic. For instance, the Royal characters have been literally tossed in a “tempest” (hehe, I had to throw that in there), and so have their positions, socially and emotionally. Alonso, the Duke of Naples, spends most of the play completely defeated and despondent over the possible loss of his son, which gives Antonio the will to start plotting with Alonso’s brother, Sebastian, to overthrow Alonso. Talking about Nature inevitably leads to discussion about how Nature has impacted every generation, including ours—which then leads to such recent natural disasters, namely Hurricane Katrina. It’ll be interesting for our company to somehow deal with the fact that we’ll be in New Orleans with this project.
Something else that have come out of early table work is a constant referral to cultural references that remind us of The Tempest, that have been directly influenced by Shakespeare’s last work, or just certain images and phrases that conjure up connections to other things we’ve seen or heard. Of course, that’s also led to many seemingly tangential discussions and excited non-sequiturs, but what I love about our process is that NOTHING is unrelated. Jokes, personal stories, complete re-enactments of film scenes and musical renditions (Little Mermaid, anyone?)—it all goes into the rich tapestry of what will becomeTempting Air!