by David Dower
As the buzz around Stick Fly continues to build, we're also moving into full production mode on The Light in the Piazza.
Casting was recently announced. A whole bevy of Broadway performers joins a bevy of DC actors and musicians on this production. That's Hollis Resnik, our Margaret.
Earlier this week Janine Sobeck, our Literary Manager, interviewed director Molly Smith in what's become a standard practice in our production schedule: The "Page One" meeting. These meetings are an early opportunity for the whole staff at Arena to hear from the artists at the helm of our productions-- about their vision, their priorities, and their passion for the piece we are all about to produce together. Molly expressed her vision in terms of "compression"-- she's hoping to make the audience viscerally experience the compressed timeframe and heightened passions of the story.
Even those who have seen the musical may have missed the sense that it all takes place in a single week! The love story at the center, and the swirling emotions it evokes in everyone concerned, ignites and reaches its fever pitch over the course of a few days. Molly's hope is that we create a production that sweeps the audience into that sense of urgency and breathlessness-- life altering decisions having to be made on a dime. Love overwhelms in this play. What would you do if it struck you with this much force?
Our Crystal City space is actually an asset to this sort of compression. It's intimate. There's no proscenium arch, so the performers are in the same physical space as the audience-- no remove, no comforting fourth wall. The smaller, chamber-sized cast and orchestra will keep the focus on the story as well, which is perhaps even part of why the authors have returned to this size. Molly's going to be looking for what she calls "jump cuts" in the transitions, ways to keep the pedal to the metal, to remove any chance for the audience to catch up to themselves in the same way the characters can't catch their own breath.
We're also going to put the musicians on stage. The music is a major star in this musical, and it will be present in the way we tell this story.
I was at dinner last night with Hollis Resnick, our Margaret, and our Priest, Drew Eshelman (who know each other from the national tour of Les Miz among other projects) and we were talking about how much this production will be a different experience than the one that played the Kennedy Center some years ago. It reminded me how exciting it was to see Signature's Les Miz, how visceral and urgent it felt both due to the intimate relationship to the stage and the stripping down to the storytelling essentials.
You'll be able to hear much more on this topic when the video documentary about the making of our production appears on the Sub/Text site. Stay tuned!
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