BWW Blog: Ed Dixon of Pittsburgh Public Theater's L'HOTEL - Third Week

Tuesday, October 28

We started the new week with the top of act two. We sat around and read it. We've started doing this in comfy chairs in a circle rather than around a table and it's very intimate. Then we started at the top. Everyone's on stage from the beginning and it's so marvelous to see how at this point, everyone is really inside the characters so it goes really quickly in a kind of short hand. We got all the way up to the "eleven o'clock number" moment of the second act and quit there.

Wednesday, October 29

We started the day with the "eleven o'clock number" moment. There is a show within the show and this is it. It involves a "star turn" for each of the principles which requires music and choreography. We worked all the way through that and then went back and ran the act to that point for the end of the day.

Thursday, October 30

This day started with choreography so I took the morning off. I wandered around and then had lunch with Jordon Ross Weinhold, the orchestrator of CLOAK AND DAGGER, who's in town for WUTHERING HEIGHTS at the Irish Classic Theater. It's always a joy to see Jordon and we're already discussing other projects... and in particular, A PARK AVENUE CHRISTMAS, my holiday show.

In the afternoon, I saw what Ted had done choreographically and it was very exciting... for me and everyone else. At the very end of the day Ted sketched out the final moments of the play... which meant... that we had been ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE PLAY. At least for the first pass. Pretty exciting.

Friday, October 31

I went to Starbucks for my morning coffee and all the baristas were in COSTUME. It always amazes me that people dress up on this holiday... I've been playing dress up my whole life. I feel the same way about weddings, but that's another story.

We started with the show within the show and it is turning out to be as beautiful as I could have hoped. The staging and musical choices... talk about VARIED. They are everything from Rossini to Jim Morrison. Then we went back and looked at act one to see if anyone still remembered it. They did. Whew.

Saturday, November 1

Okay, now we're in the month that the show will open. Not lost on me. And we ran through the entire show twice. Once before lunch and once after. This was pretty amazing for me.

Once of our cast members has a wedding on Sunday, so Ted surprised us all by giving us the day off on Sunday. He did this for two reasons. First, because it's an ensemble piece and would be very difficult to rehearse without one cast member and secondly, because we're AHEAD OF SCHEDULE! Who gets ahead of schedule with a new play? Ted Pappas.

Sunday, November 2

Went to see the final performance of THE GLASS MENAGERIE, a truly beautiful performance both scenically (by Michael Schweikhardt) and performance-wise. I went with Erika Cuenca, our Young Woman and Evan Zes, The Waiter. We all had a great time and then went to Nicky's Thai Kitchen, one of the best Thai restaurants I've ever tried. THE GLASS MENAGERIE was the first play ever produced by Pittsburgh Public and this full circle production boasted the finest Laura I have ever seen, Cathryn Wake. A jarring performance.

Monday, November 3

The official day off. I started off at my favorite Starbucks and had a noteworthy encounter. My favorite barista, a senior citizen... like myself... finished her shift and sat down to speak with me. I invited her to my play and THE GLASS MENAGERIE came up. I told her that I had seen Tennessee Williams twice in my life, and both times he was falling down drunk. She then confessed to me (she felt it was okay to tell me since he's long dead) that she had cared for him in a mental institution. What were the chances of two people who had collided with this great man under less than great conditions having a chance meeting in a Starbucks in Pittsburgh? Amazing.

I then went to the theater where THE GLASS MENAGERIE was long gone. The crew had worked all night and construction of L'HOTEL had begun. Seeing the beginning of a set that you have imagined in your head for years is an astounding event... no matter how many times you experience it.