Fight Call

I filmed this video a few weeks ago, but I didn’t want to post it then and spoil the surprise for anyone who hadn’t seen the show yet. With only one weekend of performances left, I think it’s safe now to share this look at the actors practicing the choreography of the big fight scene, [...]

The Cathouse Rags

About an hour before each performance of Candles to the Sun, the cast runs through the musical pieces in the show, with some help from cast members Stephen Dale (fiddle), Sorin Brouwers (guitar) and Ross Travis (harmonica), who play their instruments throughout the show on stage and off.
In this video, the three actors/musicians, who have [...]

Singer of Darkness

Even lighter blogging than expected (partly because I got more sick than I expected), but I promise we’ll be back in full force soon. I did manage to put together a quick video of the prelude to Candles to the Sun: the sonnet “Singer of Darkness,” which Williams wrote just before Candles, and which our [...]

Interview with the Artistic Director

As we were closing out last year’s Pearl Cleage season, and as I was getting ready to step into the role of Eclipse’s new Artistic Director, I sat down for a long interview with ensemble member Cecil Averett. Here’s a short clip from that conversation - Cecil had asked me to talk about our mission [...]

An early look at the set

Kevin Hagan, set designer for Candles to the Sun, created a model of the set to show the actors and designers at rehearsals. It’s a simple and slightly abstract set (designed to create the sense of being inside a mine shaft), and serves as both Bram’s cabin and Star’s cabin at different points in the [...]

Tablework

For the first few rehearsals of Candles to the Sun, the cast worked around a table (”tablework” is the fancy name we give it), discussing the script and their characters with director Steven Fedoruk and dramaturg Sarah Moeller, digging into the text before getting up on their feet.
Here’s a quick video from those rehearsals, with [...]

The first read through

Sixteen actors trudged through the snow and the creepy fog last night to gather for a first read through of Candles to the Sun - with members of the design team and a few friends there to listen, the cast got their first opportunity to play together with Williams’ language and the rest of us [...]

In case you missed it …

You can watch a clip from last Saturday’s Playwright Scholar Series event, From the Page to the Stage:

This is Steven Fedoruk reading part of “Monogamy Blues,” from The Brass Bed and Other Stories.
Ensemble members read excerpts from What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, Deals With the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot, and [...]

A conversation with the sound designer

Bourbon at the Border’s sound designer, Cecil Averett, sat down with me last week to talk about the collaborative process, the emotional connections a melody can evoke, and some damn good music. Watch the video:

A video interview with the dramaturg

Our dramaturg for Bourbon at the Border, Sarah Moeller, sat down with me yesterday to talk about the process and the research she put together for the cast and crew:

Watch a scene from Bourbon at the Border

Act 1, scene 5, to be exact - I filmed this during a tech rehearsal a few days before the show opened. Watch for Kat Saari, our fantastic stage manager, calling sound cues in the foreground.

You can watch this same scene at Stagechannel.com, filmed a few days later with a much better camera.

Watch a video of Bourbon at the Border rehearsals

We have our final dress rehearsal tonight, first preview tomorrow, and opening night on Sunday. As we’ve gone through the last few days of long technical rehearsals, I thought it’d be fun to share a behind-the-scenes look at the process: