So here we go, the Big News: I HAVE A SPACE FOR MY SHOW!
Yes, yes, it is super duper exciting. And amazingly, it was the first space I looked at, and I just couldn’t find anything wrong with it. It is perfect.
Let’s first take a look at the location: it’s in the Loop.
The Loop is basically the heart of Chicago, in case you don’t know. All train lines connect from all directions and circle around the center of Chicago. The space is an apartment in a beautiful building inside the Loop, which means easy access for all visitors. It also means it’s blocks from The Art Institute of Chicago, where Vincent’s paintings are held in this city, which means frequent field trips with my cast during the rehearsal process, and that cross-promotions (which I absolutely plan on organizing) will be as easy as possible. YAY!
So, if you were paying attention, you perhaps noticed I said “an apartment”. I am indeed utilizing a living space for this show. Why, you ask? Because I want intimacy, and therefore a smaller space for a smaller audience, and let’s face it: it is always wonderful to have your rehearsal space be your performance space. With an apartment, I get the space for months, can schedule rehearsals whenever it’s convenient for the people involved, oh and yes, I get to keep all of the box office. No need to split it with the building. And I’m not paying for a sound system or lighting plot that I won’t be needing for this show. (It will be all live music and oil lamps)
And did I mention this particular apartment building is made up of converted dance studios? Which means the walls are thick, the floors are safe for bare feet, and basically it’s perfect for Yellow! Also, since it’s full of live/work spaces, the management approved my doing performances there (which not every building would be okay with).
Oh, yeah, and there’s this incredible rooftop garden with a jacuzzi, a small pool, a full bar, and I can rent it out for nothing more than a security deposit. Rooftop jacuzzi fundraiser party? Inevitable.
And the floor plan is Open Space. Perfect.
Pinning down rehearsal and performance space for a show is kinda the biggest step, it is one big fat leap and overall just incredibly important. And it also means that there’s no denying it now: the show will happen. In fact, I just signed the Leaseholder Change Agreement. Just now. And will fax it in shortly.
eeek!
I’ve also started conducting interviews with actors over the past week, which has been very exciting and intriguing. I’m doing interviews first because this show is my baby and I need the right people. I need the right hearts and the right minds.
After three years of researching and writing, I am so fucking excited!
See you next week…
PS My business cards look amazing. I wish I could give one to you right now.
Tags: actors, business, Chicago, heart, intimacy, performance, rehearsal, space
So it’s looking like I’ll have some big news to post here tomorrow night, until then I’m gonna have to ask you all to play the waiting game.
And, I apologize for not updating the site “later in the week” as I promised last Monday. Lately, I’ve been a little frazzled, talking to actors and looking at spaces. I hope you will all forgive me, and return tomorrow night.
All my love,
Thanks to vangoghletters.org
UPDATE (3/26/10)
I apologize for not updating this week. It has been a very difficult time for me, but there will be an update this Monday to come. And it will hold all the big news. Have a lovely weekend, my friends.
I sit at the end of a wonderful day. Today, unlike many — most — days in the life of the artist (gosh, it still feels awfully cheesy to use language like that sometimes, but to hell with it), today was full of reassurance. In many different ways I was told to relax, that I am on the right path, and that I can let myself breathe a little. I haven’t felt such a cosmic pat on the back since my incredible last day of YellowEurope. I was given all sorts of rewards today, from a job offer to (literally) massages from the voluntary hands of very sweet children. It is a rare day for me to have, probably for anyone to have, but it is particularly rare for an artist, and I’ll make my case:
As an artist, you have no boss. You get very few pats on the back, regardless of how hard you may toil. There is no promotion to look forward to (neither in position, nor, for the most part, in salary), but simply a dream of a future of enough appreciation so that you may work away many hours of your life at what you do best, what you felt you were put here to do. That is the highest dream of the artist. At least, the good artists. I rarely think the good artists are power or money hungry. (There, I said it.)
And this week has been all about business business business. And in some ways, that’s more relaxing. Certainly gives me a nice break from editing text (which you can only do successfully for certain periods of time, then you just have to walk away), though I did spend many hours editing images last night. And so… voila! My business card. FINALLY.
photography and design by Teresa Veramendi
design by Teresa Veramendi
That would be the sun through the fields where it is thought Vincent shot himself (and I’m inclined, after the strange way I ended up in that spot, to believe it is true), and a little piece of wheat from that field, that I took home with me from Auvers-sur-Oise. I wanted the card to be personal despite how mass-produced a business card is, so there you go: my handwriting, your field, Vincent. The only way to get my handwriting in yellow on a photograph was to make a print and use a paint pen, for the curious… it demanded several layers. So. A[n] [auto]biography and a love story. That’s all I really have to say.
HA – if that were true, I wouldn’t be writing a play and a book, would I? Yes, I giggle at such silly things…
I am also officially posting calls for auditions and interviews with possible collaborators. If you are in Chicago and want to get in on the conversation or if you know someone in Chicago who might want to get in on the conversation, just look at this, forward it along:
Looking for 3W, 2M: collaborators, performers, dancers, and music-makers, particularly people who can do more than one, for an original work about Vincent van Gogh, love across time and space, and why we all make art in the first place.
Directed, produced and written by produced playwright and Off Broadway performer Teresa Veramendi (NYU Drama graduate with a masters in Performance Studies).
It’s been three years in the making, come jump in the deep end. Rehearsals begin May 21st, performances July 29th through August. Email me at TVeramendi@gmail.com to schedule an interview.
Seriously. Let’s not be shy about this. :)
Next up, I’m opening a business checking account, getting Paypal hooked up, and then if you lovely people feel inclined to donate to my art-machine-heart-fire, I’ll make it easy as pie for you (can a silly metaphor cancel out a poetic one? I hope not!) I’m going to try to figure out a way so that for any donation of $20 or more, I’ll send you a Van Gogh postcard with some of my related poetry written on it. I just have to figure out how to keep track of who’s who… I’ll be updating later this week on that, keep an eye out.
Last but not least, I stumbled upon a series of Vincent’s drawings the other day that took my breath away, so enjoy, my friends. From March 1884. Winter scenes in Nuenen. Pretend you’re drinking tea if you’re not.
Thanks to vangoghletters.org
Thanks to vangoghletters.org
Thanks to vangoghletters.org
I always find it wonderfully cosy to sit by a fire in the dusk and to look through the window at a snow-covered landscape.
Vincent, between 15 and 16 of March 1883 to artist Anthon van Rappard
(I couldn’t really go the whole post without sharing a little Vincent, could I?)
Onwards!
Tags: audition, business, collaboration, dance, death, drawings, dream, music, performance, promotion, reassurance, theater, wheat