And now, over a year later, we’re in the final rehearsal stage for PUSH’s re-telling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Our version of Dracula departs from the original novel for mostly practical reasons. We don’t have the numbers to fill out Stokers’ main cast, much less all the supporting roles. We also don’t have a good way of staging a weeks-long cross-European chase with trains and boats. At least, no way that wouldn’t leave the audience catatonic from intense boredom.

The central liberty we’ve taken with the story is to tell it from the perspective of the madman Renfield. In Stoker’s novel, Renfield is a sort of motion sensor for Dracula, his actions parallel Dracula’s movement and desires. Renfield also serves a crucial plot point by becoming the weak link in the defense of the asylum he is housed inside. A local writer/actor and friend of ours, Danny Hoskins, wrote and speaks Renfield’s part on stage with us as we alternately become his nightmares, fantasies and actual characters.

(YouTube doesn’t seem to be working with me today. Video’s are here.)

On the spiritual side of things, Dracula is an interesting story to tell. There have been a lot of sidelong glances from many church friends who ask “Why Dracula? Isn’t it all about EVIL?” The short answer is: yes it is. Our ‘Dracula’ is a story about absolute evil. In a society where morality is more of an opinion than a standard, we felt this would be a particularly compelling idea. It breaks the social norm and makes our vampire story a bit different what pop culture is producing. It’s a conversation point, which is what we always hope will occur when people watch PUSH perform.

We’re pretty excited about Dracula, if you couldn’t tell. This is by far the biggest project we’ve ever worked on – the show is almost an hour long. It’s also a chance for us to merge the many worlds PUSH draws our art form from. The narrative of Dracula draws out our classical story-telling mime background. The horror element allows us to indulge the more extreme movement training. There’s even a moment where I get to bring out some of my old circus training and hang from the ceiling.

We’ve got more videos and pictures up on our Facebook page if you want to take a look (which I’m sure you do). We’re using social networking pretty heavily for this show, so there will be plenty of updates before the show goes up.

Anyway, Chad asked for something to explain the last few months of my life. This is slightly humorous since I actually saw Chad back in April, so he knows about half of what I’m about to relate. I’ve edited things down ‘cuz these were a couple of packed months.

March

Picking up from February (yes it’s been that long), I move right into March. I don’t really remember much of March at this point. Let me check my calendar, one moment…

Ok, it appears the highlights of March were our performance at Roberts Weslyan College. Roberts is kind of a homecoming show for PUSH. The weekend after we performed a group of Roberts guys actually parodied us at a talent show – after weeks of practice and rehearsals – as ‘PULL Physical Theatre’. They’re even on YouTube:

Yes, they stole our logo, too.

April

My calendar tells me that April was when Chad saw me. April was also the month of residencies. PUSH was teaching multiple classes at a local high school the entire month, slowly retiring one project after another as the month drew to a close. Darren and I also taught a bullying residency during this month, which was awesome. We had a group of 3rd and 4th grade boys who were either ‘bullies’ themselves or were being pushed to a breaking point as a result of being bullied. With all of the out-of-studio work, we had a really wacky schedule. We ended up rehearsing mainly in between classes at the high school since they had a dance studio available for us.

To make scheduling even more difficult, I took a week off to travel down to Mississippi, where I saw Chad. My main reason for this trip was to participate in an even for my mentor, Dr. Lou (not to see Chad, unfortunately). Dr. Lou asked me to be present at a book signing and literacy event he organized for the re-publication of his novel Wind of Destiny. This was a great reunion of old friends and generally a pretty fun excuse to get warm for a few days (Spring is a rather confused season in upstate NY). I also put on mime make-up for the first time in 2 years at that event. I managed to remember enough to not embarrass myself.

May

I was glad to get to May because it meant a return to a more regular schedule… sorta.

Our company got back into our regular studio routine, but we were in earnest rehearsals for our Geva run which started at the end of the month. Adding to the stress were the displacement of one of the company from her apartment via basement fire and smoke damage and the end of the year crunch of school performances. Johanna (the fire displace-ee) was also working on costumes for our Dracula trailer, so she lost a lot of time by being evicted from her own space.

Our end of the year crunch is interesting enough to bear mention as well. It turns out that PUSH is essentially in league of its (our?) own when it comes to arts in education around Rochester. This has prompted a curious circumstance at the end of this particular year. You don’t need me to tell you schools have lost a lot of arts funding this year; but this has actually benefited PUSH (weird, right?). What happens is this: schools waited until then end of the year to find out how much of their budget was left over for arts education. Then, because they didn’t have a whole lot, the schools decided to spend what they had on a proven quality program. We’ve actually ended up with the same or even more work than we had last year!

GEVA

So this is the big event that ended May and began June. Honestly, I’m still not really sure how it got to be so far into June… Or am I surprised it’s still June? I can’t remember.

Basically, this was a two-weekend run with a week of tech before hand. It was fun to be back since we had such a good experience last year. We premiered two new works and performed a trailer for a third during this run. The new pieces were “Time” and “Flight 1549″. “Time” is an exploration of the shifting perspective of time during track and field events and set to voices of professional athletes describing their personal experiences. “Flight 1549″ is based on the successful emergency landing in the Hudson river in January of this year. The piece is set to the cockpit tapes of the pilot and ground control calmly discussing the emergency until radar contact is lost. We become alternately the birds that caused the accident, the plane itself and the passengers inside.

The trailer we debuted was for “Dracula: The Shape of Evil”, which is a one-act length work we are working on for this Halloween. I’ve put a couple pictures of the trailer up here, so if you were wondering, that’s what they’re from.

On a personal note, on top of the tech rehearsals and run of the show, I had 12 consecutive days of family in town and then two days of friends from out of town later on. I loved seeing everyone, but I was most definitively exhausted by the end of the run – which was this past Sunday.

There! I have now bridged a four month gab in internet gabbiness. As a further note to appease the Chad-like folks out there. I do think about writing things a good b

Yet another month passes in whirl of activity. February was spent attempting to hang on while we worked on a month-long teaching residency in a local school. I had a great time, but so many things got sucked out the open window I’m still trying to catch them weeks later.

Retreat

I’m writing now because I have a few minutes and I keep thinking I ought to do this more. I’m gearing up to head out to a church leadership retreat tomorrow, which should be an interesting experience. The leadership style here is so different than anything else I’ve encountered. Not that it’s wild or uncanny, it just hasn’t fallen into my range of experience before. It’s been a long road to adjust and then appreciate how they work.

The attractive part of this is that PUSH works very much like Mosaic (my church), and I believe PUSH has one of the most sane approaches to living as a performance company I have ever seen. So if I can get a little deeper into why/how this system works, the better able I will be to utilize these concepts in my own career. I’m definitely looking forward to a little bit of life lesson-ing at the moment.

Just how cool can I be?

I can get into the newspaper! That’s how cool I can be!

This is an article published about our residency in February. I got the front and center picture because… well basically because I was teaching in the gym, which looked better than a cramped classroom. But do read – we taught complicated neuro-scientific principles about the relationship of art and the brain to fourth graders. Talk about challenge!

Webster 4th-graders work with PUSH Theatre

You wouldn’t expect the average fourth-grader to be familiar with neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran’s laws of art.

But at Schlegel Road Elementary School in Webster, 75 students are learning these concepts and putting them in motion, literally, as part of PUSH Physical Theatre’s monthlong residency at their school.

Theater company founders Darren and Heather Stevenson and fellow performers are teaching the fourth-graders to express ideas through pantomime, coordinated body movements and improvisation. Teachers say the students love it.

Part of the program’s success has to do with where the fourth-graders are developmentally: They’re physically strong and capable of self-control, but they haven’t yet fallen into the self-consciousness of adolescence.

“I think they’re really starting to feel comfortable expressing themselves,” said enrichment specialist Tracy Nail, who has helped coordinate the residency. “The kids are in that area where they trust each other enough to try things out.”

They now understand principles such as symmetry, metaphor, generic viewpoint, isolation and grouping, which are among the eight laws of art put forth by Ramachandran and philosopher William Hirstein in a scholarly paper from 1999. The rules help explain why art appeals to the human brain.

One class of Schlegel fourth-graders has come up with a complete routine illustrating each concept with their bodies. To show contrast, for example, half the group reaches over their heads on tiptoe and the other half crouches low. Then half the group runs in place, and the other half moves in slow motion.

Each of Schlegel’s three fourth-grade classes has its own routine.

The students will perform in front of the entire school Friday afternoon, and for their parents that night. PUSH will perform as well.

Fourth-graders Noah Cardella and Adrianna Visca, both 9, showed off some the moves they’ve learned in the past month: leaning on an imaginary table, being dragged away by a helium balloon, and putting their hands on an invisible wall.

Noah says his balance has improved, but only after working at it: “Practicing one night in my bathroom, I fell,” he said.

The PUSH residency at Schlegel was funded by a $5,000 grant from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.

STVEALE@DemocratandChronicle.com

A few updates…

Google Attack!

In a strange set of circumstances, I have apparently become he web’s leading authority on Jerzi Grotowski, according to Google anyway. Seriously. Type ‘Jerzi Grotowski’ into Google and see if my article on him isn’t first on the list or close to it. Unfortunately, if you Americanize his name to ‘Jerzy Grotowski’ it doesn’t work, so don’t do that!

In response to the attention I have re-written my Grotowski article. Most of the changes are actually corrections to the horrendous 11th hour grammar of the original. It is much easier to comprehend now. Points are followed through, thoughts do not flow over tall cliffs and sentences now finish in the appropriate places. Yay editing!

PUSH

PUSH was featured in a news article in our local paper, the Democrat and Chronicle. It has a short interview with my director, Darren Stevenson, and some video of some new choreography we’re working on. The link to the interview is here. Or if you just want the eye candy…

Yes, I did just call Darren ‘eye candy’. But it’s only skin deep… You should try working for him. It’s like working out and working – at the same time!

Upcoming

Be on the lookout for a few articles coming up sometime soon. I’m working on an update to Darren’s “A Case for Physical Theatre” that will attempt to show specific examples of things PUSH does as a result of those ideas as well as the changes nine years have made to the company.

I’m also working on a couple research articles for our upcoming work on ‘Dracula’ that I’ll try to toss up here whenever they’re done.

‘Dracula’

Oh yeah, ‘Dracula’ itself has been postponed until Halloween. We’ll be doing a shorter run at Geva in June as a stop-gap and then coming back for a longer run over the ghouly holidays to present the Count in all his glory. Should be a lot of fun.

Well, that’s all for now!

Whew. Oct 2nd to June 10th. Crazy times.

Don’t worry, I won’t get all sappy and do a year recap in this post. I’m not a huge fan of soliloquizing in any case. (This does make blogging difficult at times…)

The thought that comes to mind is actually a line from the musical Rent.
How do you measure a year in the life of friends?

Not much of a line, but it speaks to the idea of counting time in something other than minutes and seconds.

Some results from that train of thought:

• Friendships gained – I have a lot of friends up here who I value very highly.
• Friendships left – physical proximity is a huge barrier. I’ve also firmly put most of my college friendships in the ‘past’ category – not all by any means, just most.
• Career growth- instead of constantly creating the method and means to go forward, I spent this year learning and following others.
• Personal growth – always hard to define, but I definitely have made some marked improvements (I think) in the manner and style by which I encounter the world. In particular I feel like I’ve filled in a lot of the gaps in my life that constantly left me on shaky ground.
• Etc… – it’s hard, nay!, Impossible! to name everything that changed over so many months. Here’s to the ‘Unknown Detail’ upon this Mars Hill (I’m currently on ‘Walnut Hill’, but I don’t think that makes for as clear an allusion).

The occasion on which I’m feeling so reflective is that today was my final day in the studio for this season. I think we (PUSH) noticed this coming up a few weeks ago and then didn’t think any more on the subject until it was under our feet and gone. Combine this with the residual experiences from my excursion back to Jackson two weeks ago (!) and I went all thoughtful and introspective.

The final note for this go-around has to do with that oh-so-clever segue about my trip to Jackson… alright, it was just a normal segue – but at least I made it somewhat ironic!

*Ahem* The segue was SUPPOSED to mention how I felt like that trip put an endcap on my experience here. With all the maturing and changing I’ve experienced, going home felt like I was trying to act like another person. I wasn’t, but the general expectations from people who haven’t seen much of me for almost a year were disconcerting.

However, it was kinda cool how I was able to meet my family and good friends at a new place. It was good to remember who I’ve been and then find ways to pick out elements of that to reincorporate into who I am now. I wish I had more time to process those things with everyone back home, but alas this was not to be.

Oh well, that will be for next time.

Now, for an updated reading list!

What I’m Reading Now:
Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Michael Ward

On the Shelf:
The Necessity of Theater by Paul Woodruf
The Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

I’m actually in the middle of watching the movie Adaptation as I write this. It’s pretty cool, all about a guy who’s writing a script that happens to be the one you’re watching. Trippy.

It’s bringing up interesting thoughts about life – which seems to be a common thread in all the media I’ve consumed recently. I’m still reading Ravi Zacharius’ book The Grand Weaver (which I highly recommend), which has been a nice closer to the book I read before it: unChristian.

unChristian was a spooky read. It presents research into Christianity in America that lends credence to just about every hunch I’ve had about how our society and culture view Christians. It also presented research on current culture that was equally helpful.

It’s kinda weird to struggle through myriads of conversations, assumptions, and general skepticism about your understanding of the world – and then have scientific research swoop in to take your side. unCrhistian will probably be a game changer for me – even though I’m not changing anything (weird, huh?).

Speaking of change, I’m moving into more work with PUSH for the next month or so. Tom Ohl is in the final stages of phasing out of PUSH to pursue his career in teaching and deaf education more fully. This leaves the current PUSH roster with three guys: Darren, Topher, and me. Seeing as Tom was performing alongside on or the other of these guys, that leaves many of his roles to me.

This is pretty cool, but at the same time scary and a major challenge. This is due in large part to the fact that I am performing right on the edge of my abilities to learn Tom’s parts. This move in particular is difficult for me. –>

The result of this new performance repertoire is a set of extremely sore legs and arms. One might be able to imagine why from this photograph. I thought I had discovered all the odd little muscles in my body that no one else uses… I was wrong.

Since I met him, Tom has been an inspiration. His presence on stage is so vital and nuanced; not even bringing up his technical skill which could stand on its own merit. And this is outside of his real life off the stage – which is even more amazing.

Que serra…

Finally, I thought I’d add in a short set of references to what I’m currently (or future-ly) digesting in book form.

Jiggity jog!

What I’m Reading Now:
• unChristian by David Kinnaman
• The Grand Weaver by Ravi Zacharaius

On the Shelf:
• The Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster
• The Necessity of Theater by Paul Woodruf

Just finished a week of shows at the Strong National Museum of Play here in Rochester. Although the week started out rough with me getting over a strong showing from my allergies, the onset of warm, sunny days and greatly reduced stress levels (e.g. quitting my day job) helped swing the week into the positive.

Of course that doesn’t mean easy. Two shows a day and three on Friday, eleven total in five days. Admittedly, they were shorter than our normal set but getting warmed up and ready for each show took up the slack there. PUSH must be on the up and up because the job’s getting harder every month.

A highlight of the week was the fact that we got free passes to the museum during the run. The place is just amazing. Besides the National Toy Hall of Fame there are some awesome exhibits. There’s ‘Reading Adventureland’ that has interconnected ‘houses’ devoted to almost every genre of children’s literature you can imagine. Tucked inside each house you can find almost every book you read as a child – which is only the start of the coolness. Then there’s the ‘Field of Play’ section that has everything from air cannons to DDR to a sideways room tucked inside.

The current traveling exhibit tucked in is called “Grossology” which takes every impolite or disgusting body function and just goes there (except THAT one – it’s still a kids’ museum!). It features such wonders as ‘Urine – The Game’ and a life-size version of ‘Operation’. There’s also a giant faucet, ‘Nigel Nose It All’, that drips snot and ‘Burp Man’ with a visible digestive track belching. Oh, and I won’t tell you about ‘Toot, Toot’, ‘Vomit Center’ or ‘Y U Stink’.

The crowning joy, however was the last afternoon when I got to sit down on Sesame Street and play a game of chess with DJ Stevenson. Just too cool. Surrounded by the old rough brick architecture, chalk drawings and good old-fashioned PBS education just made the week for me. “Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away…”

PUSH just finished a two-week run at Geva Theater in Rochester; a kind of debut performance for the Rochester community at large. We’ve performed all around the area for focused audiences, but never as such a large-scale event for the general public.

And it was fantastic. We sold out every one of our shows and made it to the number 3 ‘Thing to Do This Weekend’ in Rochester. The only similar event to beat us out was a short appearance by the David Parsons Dance Company – and they’ve got a good head start on the popularity meter.

The run was just about everything we could have wanted – except easy. Almost everyone in the company is battered from something. Between sickness, our metal props and general stage wear we’re all a bit tattered.

So after a few days of rest and re… more rest. I’m finally getting back into this whole ‘life’ thing.

The sad thing is, apart from the incredible beating my body took during the run (I came out with a strained groin muscle in my left leg and weird twinge in my left elbow – not to mention a crutch-sized notch in my knee and Heather’s blood on my hands) I would have been happy to continue that run for another month or so. Life around the stage is such a second nature to me after all these years, I fell into old rhythms very quickly. It reminded me of how much I’ve invested in that part of my life.

The run felt too short to me; but on reflection I realized it’s actually the longest run I’ve been a part of. The previous record was eight shows, not counting tour days and/or mission trips. A conservative count of the PUSH run would give you nine shows – a generous count would give you twelve.

So… life again. I’ve got a lot of things rushing back on me. There are a lot of decisions to be made about what I’ll be doing in the next few years coming up far too quickly. There are also decisions about what I’m going to be doing immediately… which should have been made already. The intensity of the Geva run kind of drove those off for a bit, but they’re back full force now and I need to give them my full attention.

Time to leave the ‘angels and ministers of grace’ behind to confront the world.

The funny thing about the whole situation was the perspective switch that we went through. It’s not as if we were completely different people who had to re-work our relationship, but I could tell there was a subtle dynamic shift.

For several months now I have been straining to make the transition from a “student of art” to “professional artist”. That may seem simple, but the switch is impossible for about 90% of my peers (how many BFA’s work at Starbucks?). After living through the last year, I can very easily see why. I found it’s not so much the hectic times that kill the dreams, it’s the dead zones in between that stymie us the most. It’s a hard road to travel but I think I’m beginning to turn the corner.

I’ve loved the few weeks I’ve been working with PUSH. If there’s one thing I have been challenged by more than anything else, it’s the lifestyle choices they make. I have learned so much by just watching these people work. I came out of school with a great many ideas about how the professional artist works – great ideas with no connection to daily activities. It was a painful and slow process learning about that gap.

Now I get to see the actions up close. For example: grant-writing was always a concept that made sense to me, but was out of reach in practical sense. I had no idea what process was used to get from zero to step one. Today, I not only got to sit in on a first contact meeting, but I am also getting advice and supervision as I write the grant in question.

There are so many things constantly ‘popping’. Mostly, they’re little things like a reaction or word choice, but they make all the difference. I can see so much of what I needed to learn occurring right in front of me every day. It’s these actions that separates the “student” from the “professional”. In short, a lifestyle of choices.

The challenge before me is to absorb this lifestyle. I believe this is already happening – in large part because I made a conscious choice to leave what I had and work with PUSH. I think this is what made my old friendships seem a little different. It’s still me that people see, but choices have been made, attitudes have changed, and the person has grown. New eyes taking a look at old friendships and vice versa.

This is significant feat as the whole process has been shrouded in layers of secrecy, bureaucracy, and extended vacations. Also a double attempt to join the circus.

I now have incontrovertible proof that the director expects me up in Rochester, NY by Oct 2. So, I’ll be leaving Mississippi within a week or two to head north. I don’t know the exact time because I still have to figure out my housing situation. As soon as something works out, I’m gone.

If anyone believes they are somewhere between Jackson and Rochester, let me know and I’ll see if I can’t at least wave at you from the fast lane.