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.