Production Night

 

October 23, 2021

From The Asheville School:

Leiner, Kathy Meyers <Leinerk@ashevilleschool.org>

Fri, Oct 22, 3:56 PM (16 hours ago)

Hello David,

I hope you are well. We look forward to seeing you tonight and having a seat reserved. We are happy to accommodate any guests too.

Thank you for your work. Our students and faculty have responded with such enthusiasm to your play. Tonight might be a light audience since many students and faculty came on Wednesday and Thursday due to sporting obligations. But, our cast and crew are thrilled that you are coming to the performance.

I wish I could bottle up the responses for you to hear. Please know the impact on our community has been so rewarding to witness. I am grateful John found your play and brought it to our stage.

I have gone down quite the research rabbit hole and found so much inspiration from your glimpse into the lives of the women of Washington Place. My research led me to create a lobby display that shares some background on the event and honors those lost in the fire.

We hope you will join us for cake and conversation with the cast after if you have time.

See you soon!, Kathy Leiner, Chair of Fine Arts, Dance Program Director, Graham Theater Manager

Asheville School

The production was quite good–polished, one might say, in ways not necessarily expected from a secondary school. The actress playing Yetta could walk unblushing onto a college stage. The actress playing Gussie could, too. She chose over-the-top–which turned out to be workable. Essie and Lucia had beautiful singing voices. The sets and SFX were quite professional– though set-pride caused scene changes to be longer than they needed to be. I kept thinking “school,” where the techies and set designers need to have triumphs as well. A beautiful set of the skyline of New York from the roof was pretty much unnecessary, as the whole seen could have been played abstractly on one of the ample wings. No matter, it was gorgeous on its own, and one heard gasps from the audience. Maybe no one but me minded the wait, the bumping and scraping behind closed curtains. The actress playing Rosario was an international student (Japan, I think) and for the most part could not be understood. She was also clearly terrified. Everyone wore a mic, which meant from time to time mics would be rubbing on costumes or would go out when the connection flagged for a second. Projection and elocution must have fallen from the syllabus– I observing that projection and elocution are pretty much what a playwrights thinks are most necessary. Just say the words, it will be all right. The overall experience was solid, gratifying, and inspiring. It appeared the kids thought so too. 

I arrived early, of course, and sat in the parking area watching sunset on Mount Pisgah from a direction unfamiliar to me, one in which it appeared flat and smooth, like a stage set of tremendous size and remoteness. 

When the air warmed enough I was outside, gardening. Front garden trimmed of its spent, giant cosmos and Mexican sunflowers, the raised bed moved, and about 50 square feet opened up to cultivation. I’m running out of things to plant. Terribly bitten by ants I didn’t know I’d disturbed.