Big Shoes Getting Refitted

It’s May and that means Open Dream Ensemble is launching into preproduction work! This is a the time of year when the creative forces behind the script, music, set, costumes, and giant puppets have the opportunity to get entrenched in their inventive imaginations and help us discover how the next Open Dream show will look, sound, and feel. If the sketches and conversations we’ve had so far are any indication, the remounting of Big Shoes promises to be amazing. Photos of the process will be showing up on facebook soon. But, for now, take a look at the sketch of our bird by the amazing Kathryn Dunham.

Learning, Teaching, Moving, Dreaming

This post is from magnificent Marie Madesclaire. She is pictured here working with children in a Union County classroom.

It's cold and bleary here in Seattle, with the ever present rain I can't help but miss North Carolina a little. Since Open Dream ended I've moved cross-country and started an exhausting job search. And yet I can't shake Open Dream. Just the other day I was reading a book to a 4 year old boy, as part of my nanny interview, and I found myself using the tools we'd learned during Teaching Artist Training. I asked him to find his nose, or ears, when the book talked about noses and ears. Automatically I would ask to see his happy, sad, or grouchy face when the main character was happy, sad, or grouchy. I think he had a blast, he started to do things without my asking him to, or pointing out things before I could. It was sweet and reminded me of those days spent in classes with Marissa asking the children to do the silliest things. Make your body a VOLCANOOO!!!!!! Boosh. 23 little volcano's in a room, building up pressure and erupting into the sky to the soundtrack of Carmen. All this to say, I learned a lot while a member of Open Dream. Some of it from Rebecca, and Mister William and the other Dreamers, but mostly from those adorable little pipsqueaks in the classrooms and auditoriums. Thanks kiddoes :)

Moving Mountains

This post is from Cameron MacManus. In addition to his many musical and stage gifts, Cameron possesses those rare gifts of perpetual positivity and a highly-functional immune system. He is pictured here in the role of Gordy.

Around every corner of the trail and every turn of the page lies the possiblity to move in new directions and explore new roles. The chance to work as a teaching artist with the Open Dream Ensemble came as quite a surprise last spring. Now after over three months of total immersion in Gordy’s world, I can look back at the season and marvel at all we accomplished together. We moved mountains. That most daunting upward projection of the earth’s crust - Mount Blacklock, along with pink trees, the roll drop, the improbably heavy floor, the table and bench, instruments, the (un)sound equipment, and a myriad of costumes and props traveled with us along the highways of North Carolina and Virginia and helped us to engage the imaginations of thousands of young people. While those set pieces now slumber in a dark storage unit, the living inhabitants of that wonderful world continue our lives in the arts. For many of us, that means taking up day jobs that allow us to pursue our creative endeavors. As I return to other employment, I find that I have not simply spent a quarter of the year in another world, but have broadened the world I live in. Not only have I benefited in my own artistic life from the inspiration of working with some of the most talented and dedicated people in our community, but I feel more connected to the Winston-Salem arts community and the community at large. It is encouraging to discover that the two are more intertwined than it feels during those many solitary hours of practicing my instrument or writing music (or working other jobs to make sure that I can do those things). Already, several people in my neighborhood have mentioned that they saw either Big Shoes at a local school or the performance with the Winston-Salem Symphony. Having ascended to the summit, I see that there are so many more mountains to climb, and so many wonderful explorers to share the journey with. Thank you Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, UNCSA, and all the wonderful people who make the Open Dream Ensemble a reality!

Photo Blog from Haydee!

Haydee Thompson is a widely and deeply talented woman. In addition to her work on stage, she is also a visual artist, musician, and photographer. These are some of the pictures Haydee took during Open Dream 2012. They give a glimpse to ODE-on-the-road including residency work, connecting with children, creative practice space, and what happens when a container of chocolate-covered espresso beans is left in a hot van. (I am happy to report that Cameron survived the caffeine-induced heart palpitations, insomnia, and increased gastric acid secretions).

If the Shoe Fits (or not!)

This post is from William vonReichbauer. A consummate professional, William filled many roles with Open Dream Ensemble this season in addition to the ones he played on stage! He is pictured here playing bass.

GORDY: But I think, what would be really impressive, is if you could be everybody all at once. Now that would be something! ROBBER: Well, I can do that! Of course I can do that! All I’d have to do is wear one person’s shoes on each of my feet! Thanks to the illness that recently made its way through the cast, several of us ended up trying on a few extra pairs of shoes as we assumed various roles left vacant by our fallen comrades. The most fun for me was the opportunity to take on the role of The Robber, with his multitude of shoes, for four performances. While Alexander is certainly an antagonist in Big Shoes, he is ultimately not a bad person, and even comes out of the play a changed and better person. The Robber, on the other hand, is unarguably the bad guy. And it's fun to be the bad guy. And when you consider that he is holding an eleven-year-old boy captive in his magical upside-down house in the woods and plans to steal said boy's soul via the theft of his footwear, he's a pretty creepy and menacing foe. And The Robber's Song is great fun to sing; a surreal, sadistic tango with lots of room for humor, punctuated by Marissa's awesome clarinet playing, and backing vocals courtesy of the voices of all of the souls The Robber has stolen. The opportunity to play both The Robber and The Cobbler back-to-back also brings added meaning to Deepish's line to Gordy, "Look for the maker where the taker was." Of course, having absent cast members creates far more problems than simply leaving parts to be filled, as every one of us has many more jobs than simply performing our roles on stage: props and set pieces need to be set and moved throughout the show; many jobs left undone had to be reassigned in terms of getting the show set up and broken down; many lines, choreography, and even musical parts needed to be rewritten and/or adjusted to accommodate missing performers; and those who remained had that much more gear to haul each time we loaded in or out of a venue. I am proud to say that through it all, the remaining cast truly pulled together and performed admirably under very some difficult circumstances. And though it was great fun to try on a few extra pairs of shoes, it was a welcome relief when the "ODE Plague of 2012" passed and I could return to wearing the shoes... er... boots that truly fit my feet!

Disrupto Dissappears with Teamwork!

This is the fun final post this season from our wonderful Julianne Harper. Enjoy!

Well, well, well...our final day of ODE season 8 has snuck up fast, but it's here, and who else would make sure to have one final attempt to foil The Open Dream Ensemble's plans? None other than the disasterously evil, menacingly maniacle, undisputablely handsome, one and only - DR. DISRUPTO!!!!!!!!!! Most of you might recall this evil villain from our web-series adventures in which the team and myself traveled back in time to help Isaac Newton and Pythagorus complete their written roles in history. At every turn Dr. Disrupto was waiting for his chance to change the course of history and therefore, rule the world! Well our last day of the season would be no different. Disrupto surprised us by showing up at our place of departure, begging to be a part of our team. Promising that he had learned from all of his past mistakes, he desperately asked to join us on our journey to somewhere extraordinary. He sealed the deal with fresh baked muffins and piping hot coffee to enjoy on our final drive. In dire need of nourishment and some extra hands, we reluctantly accepted the Doctor's offer. Little did we know the snacks and coffee had been "doctored" and the whole lot of us instantly fell into a deep slumber. Disrupto's plan had worked, and for our final performance of the season- the stage would be all his! Although Disrupto was thrilled to have stolen our show, once he got on stage in front of the audience, he froze. He didn't realize how much skill and bravery it took to perform in front of an audience. So now we find the evil Dr. Disrupto at his most vulnerable, and just as the show was coming to an arresting halt, the rest of the team and myself woke from our slumber and rushed to the stage. Even though Disrupto had done us wrong we felt that through his grave embarrassment he had learned his lesson, and we stepped in to save the show! We aren't sure if Dr. Disrupto will change his evil ways for good, but at least he got a lesson in the enormous value of teamwork. Without the amazing talent and dedication of each individual member of ODE season 8, Big Shoes would have never been filled or arrived in such style at the finish line...THE END! P.S. Thanks to Peter Shanahan for inspiring this tale:)

Vlog-Blog

Super fun VLOG from Marissa and William!