Blog

from Benno Nelson, Floor Manager

Spolier Alert!  Special Effects in the theater always inspire the question: how did they do that? This is true onstage more than onscreen because onstage you know you’ve been tricked mechanically — no computer animation, no stunt doubles, the secret will be something simple.  Performers whose onstage work is comprised solely of effects and tricks (magicians, for instance) have to relentlessly guard their secrets, but for our performance, in which the special effects are just dressing on top of a solid plot, characters, and theme, we don’t mind sharing how we make the surprises onstage.  Since the crew has to start cleaning the stage right away, often we’re asked by audience members how we make the blood or how the bodies work, and generally we’re happy to explain.

After a few weeks of performance in this technical show, much of the crew’s job becomes upkeep of these illusions.  Today, for instance, I had to come in to work early to repair one of the corpses, whose foot came off.  Using a mixture of splints, silicone caulk, and hot glue I was able to re-attach it well enough that, hopefully, no one will notice.   Additionally, the Assistant Stage Manager, Cori Kabat, has to spend a while every night cleaning all of the guns.  This is quite a job: not only is there the usual powder debris, but our guns also get a healthy dousing of stage blood and stage shoe polish (corn syrup and chocolate frosting, respectively) and getting these sticky substances out take a lot of work.

The stakes are relatively low for my repair.  If one of the corpses comes out without a foot, we can reasonably believe the foot has been taken off already.  But if the guns aren’t just right, they might not go off, which leaves the actors in an odd position.  The actor playing Padraic, Cliff Chamberlain, told us all a hilarious story of a play he was in, where his character got shot in one of the opening scenes.  One night, the actress shooting him pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.  Thinking quickly he just acted like the shock of that misfire gave him a heart attack so that he could die and the play could go on.

Luckily, we haven’t had to do any heart attacks yet.  We’ll keep you posted.

from Molly Hansen, Director of Development

Important food for thought from Time Magazine (courtesy of “You’ve Cott Mail”).  I truly believe that our passion for feeding the human spirit through theatre is essential to our well-being. We are deeply grateful to those who share our passion through their financial support.

From Time Magazine, 4/30/09
At the “confluence of passion and pragmatism,” as one executive puts it, a handful of companies across the U.S. continue to support arts organizations in an economy not given to song and dance. The fine arts have been roughed up by this recession, some fatally.  But enterprises such as Omaha Steaks, Target, AutoZone and Olive Garden — despite struggling themselves — are standing by commitments to keep dance troupes, museums, orchestras and theater groups alive one burger, towel set, windshield wiper and pizza at a time.  “When the economy is struggling, the arts help people move forward,” says Todd Simon, senior vice president of Omaha Steaks.   The company donates “seven figures a year,” according to Simon, to the Omaha Symphony, the Omaha Performing Arts Society and Opera Omaha, among others.  Simon cites a local 2007 study showing that every $1 million added to the budgets of Omaha’s nonprofit arts organizations generates three times that amount in economic activity, plus $1 million in wages and salaries and almost $1 million in annual state and local taxes.  Simon’s executive summary: “You can’t argue with those kinds of numbers … especially when you consider the power of the arts to educate, energize and bring people together.”

Read the full article

from BJ Jones

Opening nights are always fraught. The critics are coldly professional and involved in their jobs assessing the work, the audience is overreacting and the adrenaline factor is incredibly high, threatening to tear the delicate fabric of the work.

We’ve had two sort of opening nights with a full house on Wednesday of students and twenty-somethings who loved the play and knew it by reputation. It was like a rock concert with screams of laughter and shrieks louder than anything I have ever heard in our theatre.

Last night, the official opening, was more subdued. The audience got completely involved in the story of the play, laughed uproariously when it was appropriate and listened intently when the story and characters unfolded. One of my favorite moments is the quiet little love scene among all the carnage. And shortly there after, the strange sad rendition of “The Patriot Game” filled with disappointment and loss, sung by Mairead. Haunting and heartbreaking, the end of the play asks that we feel these emotions along with her.  I know some in our audience are turned off by the pyrotechnics of the play, but that is the key - it is a play, and it is only foam rubber and corn syrup.

As my friend and frequent Northlight performer Patrick Clear wrote me this morning, “I honestly can’t remember the last time I came out of a theatre feeling so totally jazzed. Like stepping off a roller coaster, part of me was thinking “Wow, I can breathe again,” and another part is thinking, “I can’t wait to do it again.”

I am so proud of our cast, crew, creative team and our Board, who have supported what is a real risk for a mainstream theatre like Northlight with a largely suburban audience.

I hope you can join us for the wild ride.  We’ve been Jeff-recommended!