News from the "MARS OUTPOST" -- the second blog entry from Peril on the Red Planet Director, Mollye Maxner....
Today I met with Peril on the Red Planet composer, James Stewart. We went through the script and the score, talking about how we might stage certain songs, and how we might transition physically and musically from one scene to the next. And we made some great discoveries! (I am often stuck by how sciences and arts live and thrive in the world of discovery.) One fun discovery was the ZARTOK THEME, a melody for the important but invisible "monster machine" that puts the "Peril" onto the Red Planet. This musical theme was originally part of the play's opening song, but it had been cut when we wanted to shorten the prologue. Well today that exciting lick of music, that we all were sad to see go, made it back into the play! Yay!
All of the performers have the musical score, and James and I are awaiting (like children before their birthday) the moment when we finally have all of the performers in the room and get to hear what it will all really sound like!
Signing off, until next time...
Mollye
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Creating Peril
From Peril on the Red Planet Director, Mollye Maxner ......
It is June, with only a few weeks remaining before Peril rehearsals begin in August! As I prepare for the exhilarating work ahead, I am thinking about our journey so far toward the realization of this brand new play: we have a script and score in hand, set and costumes being made, and a cast ready to delve into the world of the Red Planet.
On this rainy June day, (no such days on Mars!) I am reading through the script of Peril, preparing for how we will bring these characters and this far off world to life in visually and physically exciting ways. Not so long ago (less than six months!) I sat with the other script writers, Shona Simpson and Brian Sutow, and our composer, James Stewart, and we pondered what kind of of story we wanted to tell. What challenges faced us!
The mission: to write a play for upper elementary and middle school students that connects to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and is in close relationship with NASA's Imagine Mars Program. Where do we begin? Unlike writing something based on an historical occurrence, or enlivening an already written story, we had the challenge of writing a story from scratch, imagining not only what life might be like on Mars in the future, but also what issues might face the people living on the Red Planet.
We had the great opportunity to talk to a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and find out where the science and technology is at the moment--and where they think things might be in the future. We spoke about how humans living on Mars will likely be able to get oxygen from ice. Imagine looking out your window in the morning and seeing your friends on their "tractors" heading out for daily ice harvesting! We spoke about the geography of the planet--how the planet was once much like Earth, with water and rivers and weather much like ours. And we discussed the potentials of Olympus Mons to provide energy to humans through pockets of magma deep in the volcano.
The science provided some of the important and intriguing details of the world of the play, but what about the story and the characters? What's important to us right now in thinking about humans living on other planets? How do might the issues of a teenager growing up on Mars be the same or different from teenagers on Earth?
Well, through many many many drafts, with each of us writers taking on different scenes and then passing them back and forth for revisions, we came upon something that we all believe in deeply. The totally original story of Peril on the Red Planet is a coming of age journey that unearths the challenges of responsibility, bravery, and working together. It's central theme is the courage to move forward no matter the difficulty.
How wonderfully appropriate that the theme of the play is what each of us (director, composer, designer, writer, performer) must do to create the play: collaborate bravely and keep the story moving forward...so that soon we can share it all with you!
As the lyrics of the opening song say:
We have a tale to tell you
Listen close and listen hard
It's funny and it's scary and it all takes place on Mars
At the center is a question that each one of us must face:
How do we progress, how do we propel the human race
Responsible and Bravely and we live in outer space?
So you see my friends, the time has come to act,
Because we live when Science Fiction is becoming Science FACT!
Signing off for now!
Mollye
P.S. Check back for News from the "MARS OUTPOST" as the process continues...
It is June, with only a few weeks remaining before Peril rehearsals begin in August! As I prepare for the exhilarating work ahead, I am thinking about our journey so far toward the realization of this brand new play: we have a script and score in hand, set and costumes being made, and a cast ready to delve into the world of the Red Planet.
On this rainy June day, (no such days on Mars!) I am reading through the script of Peril, preparing for how we will bring these characters and this far off world to life in visually and physically exciting ways. Not so long ago (less than six months!) I sat with the other script writers, Shona Simpson and Brian Sutow, and our composer, James Stewart, and we pondered what kind of of story we wanted to tell. What challenges faced us!
The mission: to write a play for upper elementary and middle school students that connects to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and is in close relationship with NASA's Imagine Mars Program. Where do we begin? Unlike writing something based on an historical occurrence, or enlivening an already written story, we had the challenge of writing a story from scratch, imagining not only what life might be like on Mars in the future, but also what issues might face the people living on the Red Planet.
We had the great opportunity to talk to a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and find out where the science and technology is at the moment--and where they think things might be in the future. We spoke about how humans living on Mars will likely be able to get oxygen from ice. Imagine looking out your window in the morning and seeing your friends on their "tractors" heading out for daily ice harvesting! We spoke about the geography of the planet--how the planet was once much like Earth, with water and rivers and weather much like ours. And we discussed the potentials of Olympus Mons to provide energy to humans through pockets of magma deep in the volcano.
The science provided some of the important and intriguing details of the world of the play, but what about the story and the characters? What's important to us right now in thinking about humans living on other planets? How do might the issues of a teenager growing up on Mars be the same or different from teenagers on Earth?
Well, through many many many drafts, with each of us writers taking on different scenes and then passing them back and forth for revisions, we came upon something that we all believe in deeply. The totally original story of Peril on the Red Planet is a coming of age journey that unearths the challenges of responsibility, bravery, and working together. It's central theme is the courage to move forward no matter the difficulty.
How wonderfully appropriate that the theme of the play is what each of us (director, composer, designer, writer, performer) must do to create the play: collaborate bravely and keep the story moving forward...so that soon we can share it all with you!
As the lyrics of the opening song say:
We have a tale to tell you
Listen close and listen hard
It's funny and it's scary and it all takes place on Mars
At the center is a question that each one of us must face:
How do we progress, how do we propel the human race
Responsible and Bravely and we live in outer space?
So you see my friends, the time has come to act,
Because we live when Science Fiction is becoming Science FACT!
Signing off for now!
Mollye
P.S. Check back for News from the "MARS OUTPOST" as the process continues...
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Imagine Mars in the Schools
Last year we had the good fortune to match NASA Solar System Ambassadors with three schools where Open Dream Ensemble carried out week-long, arts-integrated residencies. The residencies featured a performance of The Red Planet: the Show Must Go On and daily work with students from selected classrooms lead by the Open Dream Teaching Artists. Each session incorporated the arts and Mars science with the standard curriculum in science and/or social studies and worked toward a final informance by the students.
After the residency was complete, a NASA Solar System Ambassador visited each of the schools, did a presentation about the latest in Mars research and answered student questions.
While we intend to utilize the well-informed NASA Solar System Ambassadors again this season, we are extremely pleased that a Imagine Mars team of facilitators is coming to Winston-Salem to lead a day-long session about using their program in the classroom. Teachers, curriculum coordinators and administrators are eligible to participate in the training. And while some of the training will certainly tie into the new Open Dream Ensemble production, Peril on the Red Planet, all aspects of the training will examine how to make science a subject that is vital, alive, and reaches across curriculum.
More information about the training is available here.
After the residency was complete, a NASA Solar System Ambassador visited each of the schools, did a presentation about the latest in Mars research and answered student questions.
While we intend to utilize the well-informed NASA Solar System Ambassadors again this season, we are extremely pleased that a Imagine Mars team of facilitators is coming to Winston-Salem to lead a day-long session about using their program in the classroom. Teachers, curriculum coordinators and administrators are eligible to participate in the training. And while some of the training will certainly tie into the new Open Dream Ensemble production, Peril on the Red Planet, all aspects of the training will examine how to make science a subject that is vital, alive, and reaches across curriculum.
More information about the training is available here.
Imagine, Mars!
Open Dream Ensemble Season Five marks the second year that we have the privilege of working with Imagine Mars. The cooperating organization status that we enjoy benefits our program in numerous ways including giving us access to the Imagine Mars staff, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists and the NASA Solar System Ambassadors. More on our cooperative plans for this season in the next post, but for now, here is Imagine Mars in their own words.
Imagine Mars is one of NASA’s most unique, creative and inspiring educational programs. It is a national science and technology education initiative that challenges students to design a futuristic community on Mars that is scientifically sound and offers a high quality of life. This challenge ignites students’ imaginations, motivates them to learn about the planet Earth, the planet Mars, and hones their critical thinking skills. The process of creating imagined communities on Mars not only exposes students to the world of science and mathematics, but opens the door to an appreciation of learning, curiosity, and the possibilities of their own community. As students work through the five steps of Reflect, Imagine, Discover, Create and Share, they learn about their community, discover things to appreciate about it, and decide how they would improve it; they explore Mars and interact with scientists and engineers; using their abilities and interests, they create something - a play, a painting, a story, a model - that depicts their envisioned community; and finally they share their finished project by presenting it to their home community, and posting it in the on-line gallery.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Getting "Set" Up
Set and Lighting Designer, Travis McHale, is currently hard at work constructing the set for Dream Machines.
When we saw the initial designs and sketches in March, the imagination and vitality of McHale's work impressed us. His ability to utilize basic set pieces in numerous ways will make for visually interesting and, at times, absolutely astonishing visuals.
Needless to say, we are looking forward to seeing his pieces in action and perhaps even attaching video clips of them in use to future posts! But, for now, here are some sketches.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Dream Machine Costumes
We are fortunate to have the creative and practical Costume Designer, Ren LaDassor, working on the Open Dream Ensemble costumes this season.
Before she even agreed to work with us, the following costuming stipulations were made:
1. All costumes must be quick to put on and take off.
2. All costumes must be durable and washable. These costumes
will be used for three years with between 50 - 80 performances each year.
3. Every costume must be constructed so that the performer has the ability to dance.
4. Costumes must reflect the period -- in the case of Dream Machines, the early 1900s.
5. And yes, the budget is small.
Undaunted by these restrictions, Ren has designed some exciting and inventive costumes.
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Look
Another post from the intrepid Isaac and Matt...
After we finished our first draft of Dream Machines, we realized that the design work posed some significant challenges: How do we create a vivid and dynamic world of bikes, planes, trains and automobiles that will delight our audiences visually, break down to fit in a compact space, travel easily, stand up to years of use, and still come in at a cost of just under one month's rent in a New York City apartment? The answers came bit by bit, but we got there eventually, thanks in no small part to our incomparable design team: Travis McHale (sets) and Ren LaDassor (costumes).
An essential theme of Dream Machines is the wondrous and limitless power of imagination. By embracing this theme--along with our budget--we found that simple, suggestive elements, such as a stick, an umbrella, or a patch of fabric, could not only be used successfully to represent far more elaborate and complex contraptions, but were much more exciting than the fully realized machines, because they invited all of us--creative team, performers, and audience alike--to exercise our own imaginations, and in so doing, come to recognize the imagination’s thrilling and unending potential.
In our meetings with Ren and Travis, we worked together to push our imaginations further: "If we flip that skirt over, can it become a bird's wing?" "If we turn a piece of furniture around, can it become a hill in Kitty Hawk?" "If we manipulate that fabric just the right way, can it become a plane soaring through the air?" These questions lead to more questions and to some inventive and extremely exciting solutions for our story. To get there, it took diligence, determination, resourcefulness, and above all, imagination.
The magic of design work is in the details. Every detail of the color, composition, and construction of every set and costume piece holds the potential to express our vision more fully and richly. For example, Dream Machines will be performed against a painted background of a cloudy blue sky, but precisely what color should the blue sky be? How many clouds, and what kind? Are they full of rain, with a storm brewing, or are they light and wispy, fading gently into the horizon? Are they perhaps growing in size as they rise further up, to create perspective that makes them appear to be moving away from us, suggesting an undiscovered road of mystery waiting in the sky? Detailed, specific and investigative questions like these have helped us to maximize the storytelling impact of every design element.
With rehearsals starting in about a month, our work with the designers has reached a point where we need our cast to complete the picture, and the discoveries we make in rehearsal will inform the design even further.
Until the next time, Dream on.
Isaac and Matt
After we finished our first draft of Dream Machines, we realized that the design work posed some significant challenges: How do we create a vivid and dynamic world of bikes, planes, trains and automobiles that will delight our audiences visually, break down to fit in a compact space, travel easily, stand up to years of use, and still come in at a cost of just under one month's rent in a New York City apartment? The answers came bit by bit, but we got there eventually, thanks in no small part to our incomparable design team: Travis McHale (sets) and Ren LaDassor (costumes).
An essential theme of Dream Machines is the wondrous and limitless power of imagination. By embracing this theme--along with our budget--we found that simple, suggestive elements, such as a stick, an umbrella, or a patch of fabric, could not only be used successfully to represent far more elaborate and complex contraptions, but were much more exciting than the fully realized machines, because they invited all of us--creative team, performers, and audience alike--to exercise our own imaginations, and in so doing, come to recognize the imagination’s thrilling and unending potential.
In our meetings with Ren and Travis, we worked together to push our imaginations further: "If we flip that skirt over, can it become a bird's wing?" "If we turn a piece of furniture around, can it become a hill in Kitty Hawk?" "If we manipulate that fabric just the right way, can it become a plane soaring through the air?" These questions lead to more questions and to some inventive and extremely exciting solutions for our story. To get there, it took diligence, determination, resourcefulness, and above all, imagination.
The magic of design work is in the details. Every detail of the color, composition, and construction of every set and costume piece holds the potential to express our vision more fully and richly. For example, Dream Machines will be performed against a painted background of a cloudy blue sky, but precisely what color should the blue sky be? How many clouds, and what kind? Are they full of rain, with a storm brewing, or are they light and wispy, fading gently into the horizon? Are they perhaps growing in size as they rise further up, to create perspective that makes them appear to be moving away from us, suggesting an undiscovered road of mystery waiting in the sky? Detailed, specific and investigative questions like these have helped us to maximize the storytelling impact of every design element.
With rehearsals starting in about a month, our work with the designers has reached a point where we need our cast to complete the picture, and the discoveries we make in rehearsal will inform the design even further.
Until the next time, Dream on.
Isaac and Matt
Monday, June 1, 2009
Directors' Post
Isaac Klein
Matt Cowart
From their posts in NYC, the writer /director team of Matt Cowart and Isaac Klein sent the following:
We are absolutely thrilled to be teaming up with the Open Dream Ensemble for this year's production of our brand-new musical, Dream Machines: the inspiring story of the Wright Brothers and their equally brilliant sister, Katharine. Rehearsals with the cast begin Monday, July 6th, but our work (well, it doesn't usually feel like work to us) began many months ago.
For starters, we put our heads together with Open Dream to find a subject matter that made for a compelling, exciting story and was strongly complimentary to the North Carolina School Curriculum. Once we made the Wright choice, we were ready to start building our script. The first step was to identify all the important moments that we knew had to be in the show. For instance, when the brothers first become fascinated with flight; when they first arrive in North Carolina; or when their plane first takes off. Once we had the key moments of the story mapped out, we began to capture them on paper, as well as dream up some moments in-between. When we first met with our music team, Joshua Morgan and James Stewart, we had only a partial script in hand. We knew for the most part which moments wanted to be expressed in song, but it wasn't until Joshua and James brought their talent and creativity to our collaboration that the songs fully took shape and came to life. We now have a script and score that we can't wait to bring into the rehearsal room with our diverse and wildly talented cast; that's when things will really take off.
Meanwhile, we've been very busy creating the visual world of our show with our design team, Ren LaDassor and Travis McHale, but that's a story for another blog...
Dream On.
Matt and Isaac
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