New photos of set and rehearsal...

It's coming along...get excited!

Maria on Marisa

Well, you never know what a playwright is going to be like. We met Marisa at the Burbank airport. She came out with a knapsack and a cup of coffee. She'd been on the plane from Chicago to Dallas with a layover and then Dallas to Burbank. We took her to the house and she showered. We ate and went out to dinner. Then to the real stuff…to the Victory. She saw a 'stumble thru" and we then went to work.

The next day we worked thru scenes 8-10 and I do mean we worked. I have really good focus when time is ticking and hallelujah so does Marisa. We wrangled and cut and talked and ran scenes until we were both satisfied we had what we needed. The actors were 'there' for it and contributed great work.

Sunday we worked the front part of the play and wrangled and worked and cut more. Of course with Marisa's help we found more nuances and colors.

Roby's meeting with Lila was a real stumbling point for me and finally light dawned. I realized that she could not even think about entering the family home and stood outside on the porch in fear. A great moment was born. Tara who plays Roby got it beautifully, and I felt we could move on after that.

We must have worked 9 hours that day. So Tom and Marisa and I went back to the house and drank! We joked and laughed and had a good time.

She's a great gal and I really enjoyed every minute of her presence. I think we've hooked her into coming back. She's got a real voice as a playwright, born out of her own experience and pain and love. She's easy and clear and altogether a great force in the production. Her presence was quietly dynamic and she's a real theatre person.. I miss her already.

xMaria

Trailer filming for 10 Cent Night

Our "Trailer Team" for 10 Cent Night was hard at work this weekend! More info about their work later.

Crazy weekend with playwright of 10 Cent Night!

Marisa flew in from Chicago this weekend for a full load of rehearsals/rewrites/more rehearsals/script cuts/ and...more rehearsals.
Info coming soon about our amazing weekend!

the discovery of Ten Cent Night...

Tim and I have been following Marisa’s work for the last couple of years. The Victory Theatre Center did a reading a couple of summers ago of her play that had been commissioned by Steppenwolf, The Butcher of Baraboo. We thought she had such a unique voice and great talent, especially for someone so young. When I finished reading Ten Cent Night, I immediately sent out an email to Tom and Maria telling them to stop reading everything else and READ THIS PLAY. I thought it was so funny and touching, kind of Cohen brothers quirky. Soon after, we did a reading and all felt it was the perfect play for the Victory. I saw the stumble-thru last Sunday and was blown away by this exceptional cast. Tim and I are so happy to be part of the production and look forward to meeting Marisa this weekend!

Tim & Carri
Co-Associate Artistic Directors

Notes on the Poster

Developing creative for theatre has to be my favorite type of design. And when it's for a play as strong as Ten Cent Night it makes the job that much better.

I had only read the first 10 pages of the play when I first spoke to Tom & Maria about the creative and I didn't want to discuss it so I just listened. What did I come away with? "Sexy" Now, that's not unhelpful, but it's not exactly groundbreakingly original stuff. Besides which, I'm one of those annoying designers who has to read every word of content I'm working with so it can properly marinate in the back of my mind while I work on other things. When it's ready the creative pops into my head as a finished image... imagine toast popping out of the toaster when it's done... it's like that. That's when I go to work piecing together what I need to bring that image to life.

There's a lot to work with in Ten Cent Night. The characters could practically walk off the page they're so well developed and the setting is a place near and dear to me being from Texas myself. Reading the play, Ten Cent Night felt like Roby's story so all the visuals that ran though my head were of a ballsy, attractive (despite herself), young broad on a literal and figurative journey. The only question for me was... how to convey this visually?

Creating photorealistic imagery out of bits and pieces of found "stuff" is kind of my thing, but this had some pretty specific requirements. My sketches all revolved around some very specific objects.



I needed: Roby, a dirt road, an old house with a porch, a dilapidated sign, a folding chair, a guitar case and handcuffs.

The Problem(s)
Issue #1 — The play wasn't cast yet so that meant my Roby couldn't have a face.
Issue #2 — Who was I going to drag out skantily clad to the edge of a deserted road carrying a guitar case and handcuffed to a chair?
Issue #3 — Needed props, didn't want to spend money. (Not sure this is really worth listing given that this is ALWAYS an issue).

Solution
Use myself as Roby, enlist boyfriend James for photography, borrow guitar case from afore mentioned James, happen upon "lost" folding chair in public park, assemble costume from my closet borrowing grandpa's amazing cowboy boots from grandma, acquire handcuffs from sex shop.... trek to dirt road leading to local dump site and set up the shot. The funny thing is, after all the set up, the shot I used for the final creative was one that James just happened to take of me walking away from him to the next location. The tone of it was exactly what I was after. There's something so matter-of-fact about it. That said, it took some work to build the rest of the scene. Take a look at the photos to see how the creative took shape.



All in all, this was a really fun project for me. I can't wait to experience the play on stage at the VTC.

- Jennifer Logan, Vice President VTC Board of Directors and Design Principal at Studio Fuse, Inc.

See more of my work at www.studiofuse.biz.

a note from the director about the set and scenic designer.

A note from Maria:

This is my third time with Gary Randall designing. I love working with him. He's also the designer of our new lobby. First time in 29 years I felt that we had a real lobby. It was fun to watch him get the idea for the lobby. You know how slot machines look when they all come up with the same symbol? I swear I saw his eyeballs say "bingo" when he got the idea for the lobby bar.

Gary is warm and fun and easy to work with. And he doesn't mind coming in when I have a problem with understanding the space on the floor plan. He's altogether
great! His set for Wishing Well was so beautiful – everyone felt the atmosphere. And Kimberly Akimbo was astonishing and even had a turntable. He's just brilliant.

Anyway – here are some of his renderings. The set is really great. Only problem is the actors have to run around the building a lot – but they aren't complaining. What a group!

x maria