Friday, February 25, 2011

Orphée in the Herbst Underworld



The rehearsals for Ensemble Parallèle's production of the Philip Glass opera "Orphée" have moved to the Herbst Theatre in the Veterans Building, where the show will be performed this Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. The long rehearsals have been intense and exhausting, as you can see from the photo above of me after an early makeup session.



One revelation is that Herbst Theatre looks more beautiful from the vantage point of the stage than it usually does from the audience, particularly when framed by the aerial artist Marina Luna spinning about on her silks.



Though there is virtually no backstage to speak of, there are a series of narrow, labyrinth style stairways leading into sub-basement dressing rooms, where you might run into the dead poet Cegeste played by Thomas Glenn (above).



The entire experience has literally been surreal, rather like the scary clown played by Mike Harvey (above), who took these photos.

10 comments:

  1. You look fabulous! Break a leg.

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  2. You look suitably divinely decadent. Break a leg indeed.

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  3. Didn't realize you were a star!
    I think I need eyebrows like that... Where is my Sharpie?

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  4. That's going to be some production!

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  5. I SO wish I could attend this. Sigh. Stupid conflicts. I've only heard/read good things ....

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  6. Interesting photo, I am looking forward to hearing how it went and what the underworld opera experience was like.

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  7. Luckily, Chris and I caught the Sunday matinee. Wonderful, simply wonderful! Thanks again for the CDs and letting me know about it.

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  8. I'm so glad I got to see this & you on Sunday afternoon. I can't believe this production only merited 2 performances!

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  9. Dear Axel: It merited more than two performances but I'm pretty sure economics dictated the two-day stand. Just putting that set together and tearing it down repeatedly would probably have cost a small fortune.

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