Author Archives: Surabhi Reddy

Dear Diary

I was quite surprised to see someone run in from the shop with a sledgehammer and start smashing up wooden blocks on the set about twenty minutes after the final performance ended. The complete discord and chaos of striking the set provided a stark contrast to Sonya’s usual quiet and controlled procedure within the shop. Construction generally necessitates an intricate plan of action, organized control, and a refinement of sorts. Conversely, destruction can usually be achieved with the brute application of force. Working on the set made me reflect on this law of an expanding universe, of order/chaos and entropy.

Another neat thing about Sonya’s work is her ability to take props and make them look old – to throw on a few layers of rustic paint and thereby furnish them with a unique antiquity. I remember her taking out the lanterns from the prop closet at the end of rehearsal one evening and bringing them back the next day looking like a year’s worth of rust had organically collected upon them. This contributed to the intricacy and detail of the set as a whole. The attention to detail from the production side was admirable.

I have some minimal experience with construction and woodwork, but the notion of building a set with multiple levels goes way over my head. David and the shop workers were skilled in this regard and worked really well with their hands, and I’d like to learn more from them in the future about how to build stuff in general. I believe that helping in the shop goes beyond being able to say that “I helped build that,” or “I painted that.” I think it imparts upon the cast a sense of ownership and responsibility, and creates a more collaborative atmosphere for everyone to work and perform in.

From,

Reddy
#teamsonya

Reddy’s Post

Since I was backstage for the most part, I was never able to see a direct audience response. Still, I was able to gauge a small sample size of the audience opinion from speaking to viewers at intermission and after the show ended. My friends that attended Vanya lauded the performance by the cast, collectively agreeing that all of the acting was superb. Another aspect of the show that my friends enjoyed was the music in between acts and at various points during the play. Going beyond the sensory appeal of well-played music, I think Bart’s compositions helped to set the mood throughout the show and elevated the monologues to entrancing and robust levels. I especially think that during a long performance like Vanya, music helps to keep the audience engaged and entertained.

I felt like an audience member during parts of the rehearsal and production process. So in the processing of analyzing the audience’s reaction I have intrinsically woven in my own opinions and reflections about Vanya. One thing I am curious about is how the audience reaction changes after viewing Vanya the second time around. Nick’s parents briefly mentioned that they were looking forward to seeing Vanya for a second time because they had, after the first view, a firm grasp of the doubles in the cast and the structure of the play. I think it becomes easier to appreciate the humor in Vanya after each successive viewing, because one becomes desensitized to the tragedy and sadness within the play and more receptive to its irony and whim.

From night to night, I think the audience varied with their energy level, responsiveness, and reception to Vanya. However, I don’t think the quieter audiences should be dismissed as uninterested and bored. To parallel Vanya with a film viewing, the initial reaction is comparable to the highs and lows during the movie itself – seating on the edge of your seat during suspenseful scenes, jumping out of your seat during frightening ones, crying like a little girl during sad scenes. For me, a second reaction generally materializes on the drive home, when I reflect on what I have just seen, recollecting the segments that I found particularly poignant or compelling. In one way or another, every performance evokes a reaction from the audience. Even someone in an unresponsive crowd, who rarely expressed emotion in an outright manner, may have privately and intimately had a profound reaction to the performance. I think there is a lot more to gain from any performance art by quietly absorbing it and and musing over what about it was enjoyable/tiresome rather than passing immediate judgment about what could have been done better.

Throughout the semester, I felt like a cog within the production process and it was gratifying to see Vanya come to fruition. I originally enrolled in this class to learn more about theater, and I did – from both an acting and a production standpoint. I felt accepted within Vanya company, and I think this will be an experience that I will look back fondly upon. Thanks everyone.

-Reddy

 

Reddy’s post that he forgot to do over the weekend

During rehearsal, one of my main responsibilities is helping to set up and track props. In addition to maintaining the integrity of the script, I think the purpose of the props/costumes is to add a dimension to or emphasize a trait of the character that operates them. For example, when the Professor rings the bell to get the attention of the other house members, the strident discord of the sound underscores the melodramatic nature of the man himself. I think the piano represents Yelena’s freedom and her passion. Just as she is prohibited from playing the piano by the Professor, she is prevented from escaping and flying away by her obligation to the man. Vanya’s bathrobe depicts his transition from an intelligent, respectable man to a more languid man with his emotions in disarray. I am excited to see the final props and how they fit into what we have done already.

 

Because I have been on book for the last few rehearsals, I think I’ve read Vanya at least five times over, but I’ve discovered new interpretations, noticed lines that I had ignored, and made deeper connections with the plot each time around. For example, when Yelena says something along the lines of “Dont worry, I’ll be old too in five or six years blah,” to the Professor, I merely thought she was attempting to sympathize with the Professor’s old age and ultimately, get the Professor to stop whining. It wasn’t until the third or fourth time we had gone through it until Jeff pointed out and I realized that it was also an affirmation that she would still be with the Professor five years down the line. Another example occurs when the Professor mentions “his unmarried daughter” when he makes the speech about selling the estate. It took a couple of read-throughs until I realized how much this contributed to Sonya’s sorrow, as she is again reminded of her desolation, and knows she will never be with her hunky loverboy Astrov. This has made me question if I’ve ever truly understood any book that I’ve read only one time around.

 

I also have a new found appreciation for the work that Hillary and the rest of the cast do. The sheer amount of time and effort a stage manager puts into organizing the show is astounding. Actors also have to work on many things simultaneously – memorizing lines, combining that with blocking, body language, intonation, and connecting it to other cast members – all in a fluid process. I’ve learned a lot solely from sitting back and observing, and from helping out whenever I am needed.

 

Many authors/playwrights/poets breathe an air of mysticism into their writing, in an attempt to take their audience on magical and extraordinary journeys. Uncle Vanya appeals to me because it confronts the real, homely, and everyday ups and downs of life. Whether it a lost love, a sense of listlessness, regret for the past, or sheer boredom with life, Chekhov conveys problems that normal people can encounter in their regular life. Along the way, the audience is still swept up on a journey, not one of magical and fantastical proportions, but rather one of personal and intimate experience. At some point while watching Vanya, I think an audience member will have a moment of consciousness when they stop to think “This reminds me of…” or “I remember when…” and this ability to connect to the performance in a distinctive, direct way will elevate their experience to a new level.

Although I admit I sometimes get bored during rehearsal, when I witness the play unfold, I find myself caught up in these sort of moments, and I feel engaged and intrinsically tied to Uncle Vanya and the entire cast.

Yours,
Reddy

I actually have an Uncle named Jack, and he is quite strange

I like to think of myself as an impartial observer during rehearsal. It allows me to watch you all and become captivated by the way in which you perform. The moment which truly made me say “Oh wow, Jeff and Jules are wild theatrical geniuses” was the first time we rehearsed the beginning motions of the play, in which Jaya enters as a stage manager and the rest of the cast enters as the rest of the cast of Vanya. The way in which the stage went from total chaos (“DEGREDATION”) to structured dressing of the doubles was brilliant.

I think it is very clear that Kali is passionate about her work, yet what I find more impressive is the ease by which she engages a room full of students and encourages uninhibited participation. Seriously, she rocks. For me, the movement workshops promoted freedom and fluidity. I remember from our discussion of Stanislavski that as an actor, it is important to be relaxed in order to portray a more genuine and emotionally invested role. The motions of the movement workshops helped me to immerse myself into various personas. At moments, I felt like a ballet dansuer, preparing for a elegant piruotte while adorned in a bright pink tutu. I particularly enjoyed watching the escalation from simple finger movements into full body representations of the text. Another noticeable aspect of the workshop was how simple changes in body language completely changed the role or tone of a character within the play. I noticed that our exercises that involved making eye contact paralleled long, bold strides within the room, compared to the exercises in which we avoided eye contact, which paralleled a submissive body language with shorter, unsure strides and shrugged shoulders. By remembering to channel these simple motions, I think it can really help an actor to depict power or timidity or any relevant emotion onstage.

A major theme within Vanya is the quotidian nature of life; how we trudge through our adulthood with our fickle emotions (whether sadness, bitterness, tragedy, excitement, or surprise) which collectively define who we are as humans. From Chekhov’s other writings, I think his goal is to present these raw, unbridled emotions within humans for what they simply are. Accordingly, I believe that is what makes his works so personal, because any reader can relate to a lost love, a past regret, a simple crush, or the feeling of being lost. I think fiction has a certain appeal for its ability to provide an enchanting escape or magical journey for the reader to embark on. The fact that Chekhov instead chooses to dwell on the idiosyncrasies of humanity is appealing in its own, organic, coarse way.

More than anything, I want to express my appreciation to you all for accepting me within Vanya company. I have already learned an incredible amount purely from observing, and the enthusiasm with which you all approach rehearsals is infectious. I’m not one hundred percent sure about what I will be working on as assistant stage manager for the rest of the semester, but I am willing to help in anyway possible, so let me know if I cant assist you somehow. I can’t wait to see Vanya come to fruition, because I truly think it will be a spectacular performance (that I will be glad to play a role, albeit a small one, in).

Yours,

Reddy