Berkeley Rep Blog
Category archive: Our shows
Handmade bracelets by an Emotional Creature cast member
posted by Karen McKevitt on Thu, Jun 28, 2012
in At the theatre , Our shows
Meet Emotional Creature ensemble member Olivia Oguma:
(Photo by kevinberne.com)
Olivia loves to make bracelets. And we love Olivia's beautiful and versatile bracelets so much that we're selling them in our Roger & Silvija Hoag Theatre Store for a mere $25.
(Photo by Mary Kay Hickox)
Aren't they awesome? It's a good thing Olivia brought her craft supplies with her to Berkeley, because we already sold out of her first batch of braceletes. Don't worry, we have more in stock now. So come by the store before or after the show, try them on, and support our guest actor and artisan!
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Stamping out Chinglish
posted by Mary Kay Hickox on Thu, Jun 28, 2012
in Our shows
This week, Cheshire (Berkeley Rep’s art director) and I put up the exterior sign for the first show of our 2012–13 season, David Henry Hwang’s comedy Chinglish. This was a wonderful play to read, and I was very excited to be able to create artwork for this production. Inspired by Chinese woodblock seals, I created a few rough variations on the idea (shown below), and settled with the two stamps in the final version. I separated the flags into two to create flexibility when the artwork has to be used in small formats (such as the ads in the weekly newspapers or web ads) or in larger formats.
To create the stamps, I made two basic shapes in Adobe Illustrator — the U.S. flag with the Chinese stars, and the Chinese flag with the U.S. stars. At this point they were looking very Saul Bass, and we needed to make it look more stamplike. There are a lot of ways to grunge up an image digitally, but you can always tell when something has been treated with a computer. The best tools for achieving this look? Your hands, printer paper, and an X-acto knife. I printed out a large version of each of the flags, and crumpled them. Then I flattened them out, and then crumbled them again. When the ink on the paper began to loosen up, I began scratching off the toner at certain spots with the knife. This process took a few iterations just to perfect the look.
The crumpled mess of a paper then goes into the scanner and Photoshop. I moved around the scratches and blobs, as it began to look like torn holes in the artwork. The final stop for the flags in the Adobe Creative Suite is with InDesign, where I laid out the images with the show title, information, and other logos onto the poster. Cheshire thought of the tagline. Unless you can read it, I won’t explain what it says — you’ll just have to come by Berkeley Rep in August to find out for yourself!
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Emotional Creature heads off Broadway
posted by Karen McKevitt on Wed, Jun 27, 2012
in News , Our shows
The cast of Emotional Creature. Photo by kevinberne.com
Emotional Creature is headed off Broadway (after it finishes its run at Berkeley Rep on July 15, that is)!
It'll begin previews at the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre on October 26, with an official opening set for November 12.
In the last 25 years, 25 shows developed at Berkeley Rep have moved to New York. In the last six years alone, Berkeley Rep has helped send six shows to Broadway, eight to off Broadway, and one to London, while two turned into films and others toured the nation. Over the years, these plays have earned five Tony Awards, seven Obie Awards, nine Drama Desk Awards, four Lucille Lortel Awards, five Outer Critics Circle Awards, and a Grammy Award.
Now Emotional Creature is the 26th play to follow that trail from Berkeley to New York. Congratulations to the cast and creative team!
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Carry some of our art
posted by Karen McKevitt on Fri, Jun 15, 2012
in Costume shop , Our shows
Reuse, recycle, upcycle. If you've been to Berkeley Rep, you've noticed our recycling and compost bins -- and those are only the beginning of our green ways.
We're even recycling and upcycling our set, costume, and prop pieces. Our fabulous costume shop created these incredibly detailed tote bags out of the leftover canvases from this season's production of Red:
You can see they're super-sturdy, absolutely one-of-a-kind, and now available in our Roger & Silvija Hoag Theatre Store!
(These photos were taken at a staff-only craft fair we held last week.)
The Berkeley Rep staff loved these totes so much that we almost bought them all out before they even made it to the store. But then we thought, we want to share the totes with you. So come visit us soon and check them out!
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Emotional Creature cast shares their fav songs
posted by Karen McKevitt on Wed, Jun 13, 2012
in Our shows
We asked the super-fun gals in the Emotional Creature cast to share their favorite songs with us. Their playlists were so cool that we created a playlist of over 90 minutes of awesome on Spotify. From Beyonce to Lana Del Rey and Melissa Etheridge, there's something for everyone. They even threw in a little Green Day.
So, check their tunes out -- and share them too! And, be sure to catch these gals onstage in Emotional Creature. First performance is tomorrow!
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A New York Times piece mirrors Black n Blue Boys
posted by Karen McKevitt on Fri, Jun 8, 2012
in Our shows
Dael Orlandersmith's Black n Blue Boys / Broken Men, which plays until June 24, centers on a rarely discussed topic: men and boys who have been abused, often by women. The subject matter is tough, but it's also a moving, poignant, and ultimtely incredibly important show.
The Berkeley Rep staff decided to expand our post-show talkback program especially for Black n Blue Boys. We're now offering talkbacks after every performance, moderated by staff, so audience members can stay and discuss what they've seen.
Today, the New York Times published an opinion piece about abused men that mirrors so much of the themes in Black n Blue Boys. Here are some excerpts:
"...men spend years putting their emotions in a deep freeze or masking post-traumatic reactions with self-defeating behaviors like compulsive gambling and substance abuse. Eventually, they are forced by internal or external events to find treatment."
"Even in 2012, we are socialized to think that 'real men' should be resilient, and certainly not victims. For a man to acknowledge sexual victimhood, even to himself, is to say he is not really male."
If you've seen Black n Blue Boys -- or even if you haven't -- what are your thoughts?
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Making graffiti
posted by Karen McKevitt on Wed, Jun 6, 2012
in Our shows , Scene shop
By Lisa Lazar, charge scenic artist
Greetings from the Berkeley Rep Scenic Art studio!
Today we answer the question: How might one paint a graffiti-covered corrugated roll-up door for Emotional Creature? How might one paint this on a non-corrugated floor?
The image is drawn on a huge sheet of paper and then transferred to the flooring material. Drawing on the paper allows the artists to work out the drawing without damaging the actual scenery.
Once the image is transferred, the artists start painting. All the colors are custom-mixed to match the designer’s specifications. In the above photo, Scenic Art Fellow Anya Kazimierski is painting with a color she mixed to match the designer’s scale rendering. You can see a blue crescent on a white board at the top of the photograph. That is what the artists are working to replicate.
Once the graffiti portion of the painting is completed, the next step is to add the illusion of corrugation. Here, Anya is marking the lines that will become the next layer of this painting.
All of the lines are airbrushed on with a spray gun made for painting automobiles. The spray gun gives a smooth, photographic quality to the painting, but because there is the risk of unwanted “over-spray,” this technique requires extensive masking.
And here you have it! One custom-shaped handpainted graffiti-coved roll-up door…on the floor.
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Critics praise Black n Blue Boys
posted by Karen McKevitt on Mon, Jun 4, 2012
in Our shows
Dael Orlandersmith. Photo by kevinberne.com
Dael Orlandersmith delivered a stunning opening-night performance of her uncompromising Black n Blue Boys / Broken Men that had audiences on their feet -- some were even whistling. Truly, she is an amazing force of nature onstage.
Here's what the critics say:
“Mesmerizing... Incisively written and masterfully performed... Fierce, uncompromising and alive with sharply observed, humanizing detail... [Orlandersmith] is a riveting performer with an urgent tale to tell.” —SF Chronicle
“Orlandersmith, who riveted audiences with the Pulitzer-nominated Yellowman, lends this play such a piercing sense of honesty that it’s hard to believe it’s not documentary theater... There’s no shaking the intensity of the experience.” —San Jose Mercury News
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Emily's Emotional Creature blog: Inspiring empowered girls
posted by Karen McKevitt on Sat, Jun 2, 2012
in Backstage buzz , Our shows
The cast of Emotional Creature is blogging about their experience preparing for the world premiere of Eve Ensler's new play here at Berkeley Rep -- we knew these gals would embrace social media! These will be co-posted by Berkeley Rep and V-Girls.
Here's a post by ensemble member Emily S. Grosland:
Eve asked each of us to bring in a story about an incredible girl who is an inspiration for us. We are going to collect stories about the incredible women who have changed history, overcome adversity, or simply loved and supported us. This incredible community of emotional creatures will serve to inspire us every night on stage and hopefully we will be able to harness their strength and share it with all the young girls in the audience.
My story for today was about two incredible young women that I do not know personally, but their story inspired me greatly. Elizabeth Van Meter is a young actress in NYC (Her similarity to me and my fellow actors in this show is why I find her story so inspiring). Thao is a young woman in Vietnam who was born with severe life threatening birth defects as a result of Agent Orange. Despite the obstacles that life has given her, she has maintained an incredible joy about her. Elizabeth decided to fulfill Thao’s greatest wish (the build a library for her village) even though she did not have a large amount of money or resources for herself. In fact, I believe she was unemployed at the time. But in doing so, she found her own great joy for life.
There is a Vietnamese saying that goes, “The good leaves shall cover the torn ones, and the torn leaves shall cover the shreaded leaves.” For Elizabeth and Thao this means that those of us who are lucky enough to live safe, comfortable lives have a responsibility to help those who have it a little rougher than us. And those who have it a little rough are then responsible to help out those who have it worse than them.
You can learn about the whole story and watch a short documentary about these two wonderful women at:
http://www.thepurposeprojectfilm.com/home
Check it out…it’s truly inspiring!
Love,
Emily
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Molly's Emotional Creature blog: I dance to be here!
posted by Karen McKevitt on Fri, Jun 1, 2012
in Backstage buzz , Our shows
The cast of Emotional Creature is blogging about their experience preparing for the world premiere of Eve Ensler's new play here at Berkeley Rep -- we knew these gals would embrace social media! These will be co-posted by Berkeley Rep and V-Girls.
Here's a post by ensemble member Molly Carden:
Luam the fabulous choreographer is finally here! We started the morning off going over our group songs and some dances and then Luam arrived (we all applauded and hugged her) and jumped right in, fine-tuning and spicing up the basic structure we already have in place thanks to Jo, our amazing director. Luam encouraged us all to take our movement to the next level. Because I’m not a dancer, I was nervous and probably a bit tentative at the beginning of the day, but by the end of it the energy in the room was infectious and I’m psyched to jump in tomorrow and see what more is in store. I feel like our group energy is really starting to grow. We ended the day singing through “Emotional Creature” (the song that ends the show) and even though we were all a little shaky with some of the words because we just learned it, I felt an incredible sense of gratitude to be standing up there with these 5 amazing women singing this beautiful song written by the extraordinary Eve Ensler. Eve was there all day today. It’s always such a privilege to have her in that room. Tomorrow we’re going to start a ritual of sharing the stories of women who inspire us or who we want to inspire. I think that’s a great idea. Gratitude. I feel so full of it right now. Eve says that true joy comes from gratitude. I think she is right. I’d say week two is off to a good start.
–Molly