doin' a skit with the neighbor kids

this is one of the funnest parts of working in theater.

this is a short video you may see featured in "a year with frog and toad", a show i'm directing at first stage milwaukee children's theater.

we're in the middle of tech, which for any non-theater geeks will mean very little. tech is when you move from the rehearsal hall into the theater and add the technical elements to the show; the lights, the sound, the set, the props, the costumes. one day the actors are performing the entire play without stopping, and the next you've come to a screeching hault in order to make sure the lights hit them in the right way, or that the effect on stage is just what you're looking for, or to allow time for an actor to make a difficult costume change. it's slow and tedious for the actors. but still fun for the director.

our lighting designer, jason fassl, is attempting a snow effect he's never used before: projecting a video of moving snow directly onto the set to help achieve the look of actors going downhill on a sled.

this is what i love most about doing theater. this is when theater feels like doing skits with the kids who live down loland drive. playing and exploring and discovering. and when someone like jason comes up with something like this and makes it work, there's nothing better.

here's jason's initial video, which will run on a loop once the effect begins: