I've been revisiting old tunes I haven't listened to in a while today, just in general. This morning, I opened up a playlist I forgot I had made of songs I listened to back on the post high school Europe trip in '99. Then, I just shuffled through all songs on my phone at random, turning up songs from the 90's and other stuff I haven't listened to since the first year I was here and even as far back as high school days. Right now, I'm listening to a playlist on my Windows Media Player called "Bittersweet." A Regina Spektor tune is playing.
And the weather here is finally whispering of fall, after another upturn in the temperature and humidity since my last posting. Low humidity (most importantly) and a light breeze, highs in the low 80s. I'll take it, I thought. Literally, a day before the change came, I swore off the awesome hat I picked up at Brooklyn Industries the other day and long sleeves, just generally, cold though it may be in the building where I work. But then I regretted it slightly, strolling down the street in a tee-shirt and jeans and a bare pate on a cool morning a few days ago. I love it, though, when the breeze rolls in and you can smell memories of the last year and you have to stop and breathe it in.
Anyway, I promised I'd spout some more about the McKittrick Hotel's rooftop bar. Last Tuesday night, Alexa and I got in our 1940's get up and, after a nice dinner in Chelsea, we headed over to the Gallow Green, a separate entrance from where one would go in to see Sleep No More. A darkened elevator, operated by a man in period dress, took us up to the floor just below the roof and there we were met by a hint of that token intricate set design one comes to expect from Emursive and Punchdrunk. When we emerged on the roof of the building we were seated and given menus with clever cocktails with names like "Damn Spot" and "Blonde in Peril," both references to Shakespeare and Hitchcock.
There were also people in character and a live band playing. One woman came by to tell us how she lived at the McKittrick for many years and hinted at a special appearance by someone later in the evening. We drank our fill of cocktails and I even had an absinthe shot but no one ever showed up and unfortunately the band stopped before we could get much dancing in. The band was then replaced by a DJ with a Macbook which sort of destroyed the atmosphere a tiny bit. I'd certainly go again sometime with a gang of folks post show perhaps because they also offer punch bowls that serve 2-4 people or more. These I've heard involve some presentation as well. Sounds fun and delightful! Plus, I got the feeling there were many details in the set design and references to the show all about but I didn't get a chance to really look. I'll have to go back.
Anyhow, in the week since, I've been busy with voice over work and debating another coaching session. And meanwhile, also waiting. For responses from the current filmmaker and the prospects. Even also waiting for payment from the last voice over gig. Seems like waiting is a theme lately.
But I can't help but feel I'm on the verge of something all the time. Hence, it's a pretty exciting time right now. Regardless of the outcome of all the various things I have floating up in the air right now, it's just good to know how much better I'm doing now than I was last year at this time.
With that said, it's time to (guess what) go to bed. Tomorrow is my only day off this week. With the Republican National Convention going on in Tampa there's extra coverage and I was working overtime today...so naturally I'm exhausted. Most of my shifts at NY1 take place when there's not a lot going on so being there during the week with massive amounts of stimulation is a bit of a change. Makes me want to relish my one day off so much more. So, good night for now.
Showing posts with label sleep no more. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleep no more. Show all posts
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Of raining and pouring, both literally and figuratively...
There's a sweet tang of autumn in the air tonight. Good. I was getting sick of August in the city. Windows open. Relaxed. Home from work. And as usual, lots to report.
Lacy and I rehearsed with a drummer friend of mine from work last Wednesday. We rented out space in one of these places and spent a thundery afternoon hammering out jams in their South Park Slope location, a dingy building behind a row of houses on 23rd street within spitting distance of my old abode (yes, the mushroom palace). I brought my laptop and my Behringer FCB1010 and was able to plug up to the amplifier they had there. Brad, drummer extraordinaire, brought a few parts of his kit and supplemented the Pearl kit already present in the room, while Lacy plugged up her laptop and mic to the house PA.
As the rain and hail beat on the roof of the building (thankfully having waited for us to unload the equipment from the car), we tried out a few of Lacy's songs, at first fighting with Lacy's audio interface and the PA mixer trying to sort out why everything was so quiet, ultimately scrapping it to jam without any of the backing tracks for a few of her songs.
It was a great time all around and I got to mess around and jam with some improvised loop ideas on my pedal, while Brad played along and Lacy did some vocalizing. Composing like that is so much fun. Lay down a rhythm, loop, play some lead guitar, come up with a second guitar part, loop that, repeat ad infinitum.
So we're talking about renting a space monthly so we can store some things there, Brad his drums and me an amp and some other things. So, this side project of mine can finally take off and Lacy and I can start playing with a full band eventually. Rock Rock Rockity flippin' Rock. I can't wait. Seriously.
Beyond that, I've been busy as a bee and so has my website apparently. While I'm wrapping up work on the Samurai film score (sounding awesome, BTW), I get an email from someone who's found my work in a Google search for NYC based composers and is looking for a composer for a feature length doc to air on a certain TV station. Apparently, my website is doing its job and Google is doing its. I'll say not much more about it so as not to jinx myself, but if you want details send me a private message, etc.
On the same day, I booked a gig voicing an ad for the very same dating site I quit a while back after having no luck, just bad dates and lots of good stories. So, that put me through the roof. It's a national TV and internet spot too. I was thrilled. I'll be sure to let you all know when/where to look for it.
Not even a week later, I got contacted by someone else with a documentary in need of music (this one a short), who was referred by a good friend of mine. So fingers crossed for either of those. Things are looking ever positive.
Meanwhile, I've got some fun on the horizon. Going back to the McKittrick Hotel tomorrow, not for the show but to check out their rooftop garden. My girlfriend and I are going to get dressed up in period garb for it (yes, I just mentioned having a girlfriend in my blog, which I almost never do). 1940s-ish. Fitting one should think, as the show is basically a big 1940s film noir orgy based on the Scottish Play.
I'll have lots to say about that soon. For now, I must get to sleep for however will I get all this work done tomorrow if I don't sleep?
Lacy and I rehearsed with a drummer friend of mine from work last Wednesday. We rented out space in one of these places and spent a thundery afternoon hammering out jams in their South Park Slope location, a dingy building behind a row of houses on 23rd street within spitting distance of my old abode (yes, the mushroom palace). I brought my laptop and my Behringer FCB1010 and was able to plug up to the amplifier they had there. Brad, drummer extraordinaire, brought a few parts of his kit and supplemented the Pearl kit already present in the room, while Lacy plugged up her laptop and mic to the house PA.
As the rain and hail beat on the roof of the building (thankfully having waited for us to unload the equipment from the car), we tried out a few of Lacy's songs, at first fighting with Lacy's audio interface and the PA mixer trying to sort out why everything was so quiet, ultimately scrapping it to jam without any of the backing tracks for a few of her songs.
It was a great time all around and I got to mess around and jam with some improvised loop ideas on my pedal, while Brad played along and Lacy did some vocalizing. Composing like that is so much fun. Lay down a rhythm, loop, play some lead guitar, come up with a second guitar part, loop that, repeat ad infinitum.
So we're talking about renting a space monthly so we can store some things there, Brad his drums and me an amp and some other things. So, this side project of mine can finally take off and Lacy and I can start playing with a full band eventually. Rock Rock Rockity flippin' Rock. I can't wait. Seriously.
Beyond that, I've been busy as a bee and so has my website apparently. While I'm wrapping up work on the Samurai film score (sounding awesome, BTW), I get an email from someone who's found my work in a Google search for NYC based composers and is looking for a composer for a feature length doc to air on a certain TV station. Apparently, my website is doing its job and Google is doing its. I'll say not much more about it so as not to jinx myself, but if you want details send me a private message, etc.
On the same day, I booked a gig voicing an ad for the very same dating site I quit a while back after having no luck, just bad dates and lots of good stories. So, that put me through the roof. It's a national TV and internet spot too. I was thrilled. I'll be sure to let you all know when/where to look for it.
Not even a week later, I got contacted by someone else with a documentary in need of music (this one a short), who was referred by a good friend of mine. So fingers crossed for either of those. Things are looking ever positive.
Meanwhile, I've got some fun on the horizon. Going back to the McKittrick Hotel tomorrow, not for the show but to check out their rooftop garden. My girlfriend and I are going to get dressed up in period garb for it (yes, I just mentioned having a girlfriend in my blog, which I almost never do). 1940s-ish. Fitting one should think, as the show is basically a big 1940s film noir orgy based on the Scottish Play.
I'll have lots to say about that soon. For now, I must get to sleep for however will I get all this work done tomorrow if I don't sleep?
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Sleep no more…again...
I arrived home last night with a Venetian mask, fake blood on my shirt, a pocket full of salt, a single playing card and a locket. And I awoke this morning with strange memories in my head. Yes, I was at The McKittrick Hotel again last night. Sleep no More was a total and complete blast and did not disappoint in the least. I brought my friend Alexa with me and, after we shared shots of Absinthe at the bar, we were separated for most of the rest of the evening to go off and have our own adventures.
Can I just say that I love how everyone is in character the whole time, even the bartenders and the hotel staff? It's really great and it makes the immersion in the environment seem complete from the beginning.
It was interesting this time, since I've been before, the way my mind operated in that place. I was constantly trying to get back into certain scenes I remembered from last time. But, thinking back, I had no idea at what point during the action I was entering the hotel's upper floors, so my strategy was a little hard to implement at first. All I could do was explore until I saw some action and then latch onto any of the characters that I knew were in those scenes and follow them until those scenes played out.
I did my same maneuver as last time, getting off the elevator first, knowing that the elevator operator was going to let only me off and leave me behind as the doors shut. However, I ended up on the psych ward just like last time and unfortunately, I wasn't alone like I had been before. But it was okay, I immediately had a sense I could do something totally different so I didn't even bother to explore the rooms on that floor, knowing already where I was. I flew up a flight of stairs or two (see, I completely forget what exactly happened at this point). I was having trouble finding the actors at first, though I was immediately familiar with the space. Knowing what transpired in that space, made me want to hang around but I felt an immediacy unlike the last time when I had no idea what was and would be happening.
I had a goal to see the scenes with Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, where they are feverishly trying to clean the blood from themselves, the scenes where Lady Macbeth is muttering to herself and "sleepwalking," of course, the Orgy scene with the witches and the goat head man, and of course, I wanted to see if I could reenact the one on one I had with the lady in red (Hecate). I got to do almost all of those things too.
First though, I calmed down a little and began to explore the set since I wasn't finding any characters and I'm not sure I did a ton of this last time. There's some creepy stuff between the taxidermy and the random bones hanging from ceilings and the close spaces, the medical tools and jars with strange labels. Gotta love the candy store, though too. I actually saw a scene play out here that I missed last time. I decided, for the moment, that instead of trying to find scenes I had seen, to stay and watch. There was a gentleman behind the counter in the candy store who looked as though he was closing the shop and primping himself to meet someone. He gathered up a bouquet of dried flowers and then left the room. I ate some candy and then followed.
These next few scenes I watched were between a woman who was not part of Macbeth but whom I'm sure was the Hitchcock character. She was interacting with a private detective in a few of the scenes I followed her into. Others she was by herself, once packing her suitcase, once nosing around in the detectives office and then writing a note on his desk, something about "plant a seed and it will show you…" something something (I couldn't read her tiny handwriting). Another scene, the gentleman I had seen in the candy store with a bouquet of dried flowers was handing her the bouquet and I watched as she rejected him. No doubt this was the same woman who, last time I saw the show, I watched cut pages from the Bible and fold them into a locket. (Different actress this time though)
I say this because I was lucky enough to have a one on one with her, involving that locket, when I came back to that floor a little later. Before, I was in a small room with her that led to a bedroom beyond a door. There were others around us and she went for the door but turned and extended her arm. I went to take it but she looked beyond me to someone at the back of the room. That person was invited in and no one else. I left, but upon my return later on, I was luckier. This must have been on the second run through of the play, for several scenes had played out that I've left out: the scenes with Lady Macbeth, crazed and talking to herself (at one point she turned and grabbed my shirt and spoke a few lines to me), nude in the bathtub in the psych ward (again here, something about "there was so much blood in him!"), and then trying to clean blood off of hers and Macbeth's hands in the bedroom…once I found her I stuck to her like glue because some of her scenes, especially in the bedroom with the raised bathtub, have the best dancing in the show.
This very bedroom is incidentally, where the fake blood got on me. As MacBeth storms into the room covered in blood he pushed past me. When I saw who it was who had pushed me, his hands and face covered in blood (or chocolate syrup…I'm pretty sure it was chocolate syrup), I immediately, reached back and touched the back of my shirt where he had made contact with my shoulder. Sure enough the same stickiness was on me and I reveled at my first experience of crossing the threshold into the action.
Anyway, back with the Hitchcock character, there I stood, with fewer people in the room this time, and she focused her gaze on me. My heart jumped because I knew this had to be it, like I had unlocked some secret passageway. I had no idea what to expect as she pulled me into the room and closed the door. She took my hands and led me over to her dresser, spoke to me. It's hard now to remember everything she said to me but there was a good bit about how she went to Manderley again last night and how she can only visit it in her dreams and can never go back (all lines that I now know are from the opening of Hitchcock's Rebecca). Then she led me over to a wardrobe, removed my mask and spoke to me even more about Manderley. I listened intently, trying to remember every word. Then we climbed into the wardrobe, she closed the door, got very close to me and whispered in my ear, ever closer, her cheek resting on mine now, how I'd never be able to return to Manderley and kissed me on the cheek. She then said, "take my locket, it will keep you safe" and put it around my neck. This was indeed the same locket that contained a folded up strip of paper from the Bible that she had placed in it in a scene I knew took place earlier (because I witnessed it the first time I came). She then put my mask back on, turned me around three times and pushed me through the back of the wardrobe. I thought I was going to come out in Narnia.
I was riveted. I spun around and came through a door and found myself inside a room with an old radio playing and a desk with papers on it and a book opened up. I scanned the room for a while and then realized that there were audience members walking by and then it began to occur to me where I was. I ran out to join the fray not sure where I was heading. I'm regretting now not exploring the set more and looking more into where I was. Though, I don't think it was a terribly secret room. My friend told me she saw someone come through the wardrobe from the other side at some point during the night.
On another floor, I began to haunt the halls where scenes between Lady MacDuff and MacDuff took place. I saw these last time and found them very intriguing. The two characters were literally climbing the walls in some pretty stunning acrobatics. I wanted to witness this again once I realized where I was. Walking into the sitting room, I realized I was earlier in the action perhaps as Lady MacDuff was by herself. I witnessed her pull another audience member into a side room and then walked off to see what else was happening on that floor. I found myself in the graveyard just off of the room where I had watched Lacy Macbeth. There was a man (possibly one of Duncan's sons) kneeling by a grave digging in the dirt so I stopped to watch what he was doing. He unearthed a cloth and unraveled it to reveal what looked like a bone, but I think now that it was a letter. He added another something to the cloth, wrapped it back up, and then put it back in the ground. At this point, I wandered off to something else. Now, in the telling, I realize that some of these events are out of order. Seeing Lady MacDuff pull the audience member off for the one on one may have happened earlier on.
I ended up in that exact same scene later on because I came upon Lady MacDuff, and followed her up several flights of stairs. Down a hall hung with different mirrors, I followed her and stopped as she peered into one of them. Seemingly as she saw my masked face in the mirror behind her, she gasped and twisted the mirror around on the wire from which it hung and slammed it into the wall. She walked on and I followed into the same sitting room from before. I stood and watched her move around the room, entranced as I took in my surroundings, and then realized that she was looking directly at me, a smile on her face and wonder in her eyes, her hand extended toward me. I took it and she led me into that side room. I couldn't believe I was getting two one on ones in one night. "Fortune favors the bold," said the elevator operator as he brought us up earlier.
In the small side chamber, she pulled me aside and said, "You've come." I said, stupidly, "I have." She said, "Let me get a better look at you," as she removed my mask. She stroked my beard and then grabbed my shoulders, rotated me and made me kneel before an open Bible on the table. I looked around at the other items on the table as she leaned over me and spoke about how I had always been made fun of by the other kids when I was younger and how she used to put a pinch of salt behind my ear to protect me. She then put my hand on the Bible and her hand on mine and slowly traced her hand along my right arm. Then she frantically ripped a page from the book, folded it into a pouch, filled it with salt, handed it to me and then, seemingly frightened, she looked toward the door and ran out. I realized I also had salt behind my ear at this point. It was weird but I'm sure there's some symbolism in there somewhere. It was only much later in the bar that I realized I had a pocket full of salt.
When she left the room, I took chase because she was off rather quickly. Plus, at this point, having already seen the banquet scene play out once I knew that I was in the second run through, at least, and became frantic again to find the one last scene I wanted to witness. The crazy naked goat head man dead baby orgy scene. I followed a few more characters that I knew were in that scene, one of them the Hitchcock character whom I watched enact a scene with the bellhop in the hotel lobby involving a tea set and some spilled tea. This scene was fascinating to watch because I was basically sitting right in the middle of it. I almost sat down on the arm rest of her chair. One of the things I love about Sleep No More is how you can sit down right in the middle of the action, or choose your vantage point from across the room. The characters will move you out of the way casually, if you are standing too close to the action or if someone's about to come running in.
Again, I moved on and followed a few more characters, getting more and more excited as I started to recognize what was happening. Then, I saw two of the witches with MacBeth, and heard thumping techno music and knew right away that if I followed them, they'd lead me where I wanted to be. A group of us followed them down a long hallway and watched as MacBeth and one of the witches lifted the other witch high in the air against the wall. Suddenly, they took off down a side hall and I wondered how I never saw it there before (I'd been looking for it for most of the night), because this was indeed the hall that led to the room where the orgy takes place.
The lights were low and blue when I walked in and the witch in red (Hecate) stood frozen with her arms outstretched, letting out an audible exhale in time with the music, once every few seconds. At this point, I stood about five feet away from her, waiting for what I knew would come next: a blood curdling scream, followed by another directly behind me from Macbeth who stood on a table. Even knowing this was coming, it still gave me goose bumps. That coupled with the fact that I was so thrilled I managed to not miss this, my favorite scene, put me on cloud nine. Giddy like a little kid I watched the rest of the scene play out, with the strobes and the frenetic movement, the fake blood flying and lastly, the naked character in the freaky goat head mask. I knew that the very next scene was the one that led to my original one on one with the lady in red from the time I went back in August.
A full description of that scene is in my other blog that I referenced earlier in this entry, from back in August, so I won't go into much detail here. (Haha, I know this entire blog is basically detail!). I watched the following scene between the Hecate and the Hitchcock women. The lady in red was a different actress this time and she played the scene a tad more comically, pouring wine in a shot glass for both her and the other woman, but only pouring a tiny bit for herself while she poured the glass to overflowing for the other woman. There was a moment where the Hitchcock woman made a grab for the key on a chain around the witches neck but the witch stopped her. She began to cry and the witch did the same bit where she held the glass up to the woman's cheek to collect her tears and then she left her there at the table. I followed swiftly. I had been looking over my shoulder at the audience members trying to gauge both how many there were and if any of them seemed like they also knew what was going to happen and would try to thwart my attempt to follow her. It had occurred to me that some of these audience members who hung back when the other characters left the room, were probably also trying to relive their prior experiences. I was at the front of the herd following her and she turned and look at me. I cocked my head to the side and she did the same. Then she grabbed my shirt and began to pull me towards her. Sort of breaking the spell a little bit, one of the black masks who are there to sort of regulate put her hand out to stop me from following. I realized then that the lady in red was rethinking her choice and grabbed a girl to my left and pulled her inside instead.
I have to wonder if I was too bold. They can probably tell just by your over eager behavior that you've already done something and they probably would rather give a chance to someone else. Fair enough. I admit I was getting a little greedy.
I believe it was at this point, that the black masks started to corral people and I wound up walking up to the end of the banquet scene again. At this point, I found my friend, recognizable because she had brought a book with her and I could see it sticking out of her back pocket. I snuck up on her and asked her if she was having fun and then went on my way trying to see what else I could see before going. I tried to visit the piano on the upper level of the banquet room but a black mask blocked my way. Finally winding my way down to the next floor, I was allowed to enter but everywhere I went on that floor I was turned aside by the black masks. Eventually found my way back to the Manderley Bar where I reunited with Alexa and we shared our stories.
We watched the bands and had a drink and I showed her my mementos, the locket, the page of the bible folded into a pouch…and the pocket full of salt that came with it as an unfortunate bi product. As we sat and talked a hotel employee came over to us and offered to sell us the book they have printed up about the show, complete with photos and interviews with the production team. I could not resist. After all, I was told I can never return to the Estate of Manderley.
Can I just say that I love how everyone is in character the whole time, even the bartenders and the hotel staff? It's really great and it makes the immersion in the environment seem complete from the beginning.
It was interesting this time, since I've been before, the way my mind operated in that place. I was constantly trying to get back into certain scenes I remembered from last time. But, thinking back, I had no idea at what point during the action I was entering the hotel's upper floors, so my strategy was a little hard to implement at first. All I could do was explore until I saw some action and then latch onto any of the characters that I knew were in those scenes and follow them until those scenes played out.
I did my same maneuver as last time, getting off the elevator first, knowing that the elevator operator was going to let only me off and leave me behind as the doors shut. However, I ended up on the psych ward just like last time and unfortunately, I wasn't alone like I had been before. But it was okay, I immediately had a sense I could do something totally different so I didn't even bother to explore the rooms on that floor, knowing already where I was. I flew up a flight of stairs or two (see, I completely forget what exactly happened at this point). I was having trouble finding the actors at first, though I was immediately familiar with the space. Knowing what transpired in that space, made me want to hang around but I felt an immediacy unlike the last time when I had no idea what was and would be happening.
I had a goal to see the scenes with Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, where they are feverishly trying to clean the blood from themselves, the scenes where Lady Macbeth is muttering to herself and "sleepwalking," of course, the Orgy scene with the witches and the goat head man, and of course, I wanted to see if I could reenact the one on one I had with the lady in red (Hecate). I got to do almost all of those things too.
First though, I calmed down a little and began to explore the set since I wasn't finding any characters and I'm not sure I did a ton of this last time. There's some creepy stuff between the taxidermy and the random bones hanging from ceilings and the close spaces, the medical tools and jars with strange labels. Gotta love the candy store, though too. I actually saw a scene play out here that I missed last time. I decided, for the moment, that instead of trying to find scenes I had seen, to stay and watch. There was a gentleman behind the counter in the candy store who looked as though he was closing the shop and primping himself to meet someone. He gathered up a bouquet of dried flowers and then left the room. I ate some candy and then followed.
These next few scenes I watched were between a woman who was not part of Macbeth but whom I'm sure was the Hitchcock character. She was interacting with a private detective in a few of the scenes I followed her into. Others she was by herself, once packing her suitcase, once nosing around in the detectives office and then writing a note on his desk, something about "plant a seed and it will show you…" something something (I couldn't read her tiny handwriting). Another scene, the gentleman I had seen in the candy store with a bouquet of dried flowers was handing her the bouquet and I watched as she rejected him. No doubt this was the same woman who, last time I saw the show, I watched cut pages from the Bible and fold them into a locket. (Different actress this time though)
I say this because I was lucky enough to have a one on one with her, involving that locket, when I came back to that floor a little later. Before, I was in a small room with her that led to a bedroom beyond a door. There were others around us and she went for the door but turned and extended her arm. I went to take it but she looked beyond me to someone at the back of the room. That person was invited in and no one else. I left, but upon my return later on, I was luckier. This must have been on the second run through of the play, for several scenes had played out that I've left out: the scenes with Lady Macbeth, crazed and talking to herself (at one point she turned and grabbed my shirt and spoke a few lines to me), nude in the bathtub in the psych ward (again here, something about "there was so much blood in him!"), and then trying to clean blood off of hers and Macbeth's hands in the bedroom…once I found her I stuck to her like glue because some of her scenes, especially in the bedroom with the raised bathtub, have the best dancing in the show.
This very bedroom is incidentally, where the fake blood got on me. As MacBeth storms into the room covered in blood he pushed past me. When I saw who it was who had pushed me, his hands and face covered in blood (or chocolate syrup…I'm pretty sure it was chocolate syrup), I immediately, reached back and touched the back of my shirt where he had made contact with my shoulder. Sure enough the same stickiness was on me and I reveled at my first experience of crossing the threshold into the action.
Anyway, back with the Hitchcock character, there I stood, with fewer people in the room this time, and she focused her gaze on me. My heart jumped because I knew this had to be it, like I had unlocked some secret passageway. I had no idea what to expect as she pulled me into the room and closed the door. She took my hands and led me over to her dresser, spoke to me. It's hard now to remember everything she said to me but there was a good bit about how she went to Manderley again last night and how she can only visit it in her dreams and can never go back (all lines that I now know are from the opening of Hitchcock's Rebecca). Then she led me over to a wardrobe, removed my mask and spoke to me even more about Manderley. I listened intently, trying to remember every word. Then we climbed into the wardrobe, she closed the door, got very close to me and whispered in my ear, ever closer, her cheek resting on mine now, how I'd never be able to return to Manderley and kissed me on the cheek. She then said, "take my locket, it will keep you safe" and put it around my neck. This was indeed the same locket that contained a folded up strip of paper from the Bible that she had placed in it in a scene I knew took place earlier (because I witnessed it the first time I came). She then put my mask back on, turned me around three times and pushed me through the back of the wardrobe. I thought I was going to come out in Narnia.
I was riveted. I spun around and came through a door and found myself inside a room with an old radio playing and a desk with papers on it and a book opened up. I scanned the room for a while and then realized that there were audience members walking by and then it began to occur to me where I was. I ran out to join the fray not sure where I was heading. I'm regretting now not exploring the set more and looking more into where I was. Though, I don't think it was a terribly secret room. My friend told me she saw someone come through the wardrobe from the other side at some point during the night.
On another floor, I began to haunt the halls where scenes between Lady MacDuff and MacDuff took place. I saw these last time and found them very intriguing. The two characters were literally climbing the walls in some pretty stunning acrobatics. I wanted to witness this again once I realized where I was. Walking into the sitting room, I realized I was earlier in the action perhaps as Lady MacDuff was by herself. I witnessed her pull another audience member into a side room and then walked off to see what else was happening on that floor. I found myself in the graveyard just off of the room where I had watched Lacy Macbeth. There was a man (possibly one of Duncan's sons) kneeling by a grave digging in the dirt so I stopped to watch what he was doing. He unearthed a cloth and unraveled it to reveal what looked like a bone, but I think now that it was a letter. He added another something to the cloth, wrapped it back up, and then put it back in the ground. At this point, I wandered off to something else. Now, in the telling, I realize that some of these events are out of order. Seeing Lady MacDuff pull the audience member off for the one on one may have happened earlier on.
I ended up in that exact same scene later on because I came upon Lady MacDuff, and followed her up several flights of stairs. Down a hall hung with different mirrors, I followed her and stopped as she peered into one of them. Seemingly as she saw my masked face in the mirror behind her, she gasped and twisted the mirror around on the wire from which it hung and slammed it into the wall. She walked on and I followed into the same sitting room from before. I stood and watched her move around the room, entranced as I took in my surroundings, and then realized that she was looking directly at me, a smile on her face and wonder in her eyes, her hand extended toward me. I took it and she led me into that side room. I couldn't believe I was getting two one on ones in one night. "Fortune favors the bold," said the elevator operator as he brought us up earlier.
In the small side chamber, she pulled me aside and said, "You've come." I said, stupidly, "I have." She said, "Let me get a better look at you," as she removed my mask. She stroked my beard and then grabbed my shoulders, rotated me and made me kneel before an open Bible on the table. I looked around at the other items on the table as she leaned over me and spoke about how I had always been made fun of by the other kids when I was younger and how she used to put a pinch of salt behind my ear to protect me. She then put my hand on the Bible and her hand on mine and slowly traced her hand along my right arm. Then she frantically ripped a page from the book, folded it into a pouch, filled it with salt, handed it to me and then, seemingly frightened, she looked toward the door and ran out. I realized I also had salt behind my ear at this point. It was weird but I'm sure there's some symbolism in there somewhere. It was only much later in the bar that I realized I had a pocket full of salt.
When she left the room, I took chase because she was off rather quickly. Plus, at this point, having already seen the banquet scene play out once I knew that I was in the second run through, at least, and became frantic again to find the one last scene I wanted to witness. The crazy naked goat head man dead baby orgy scene. I followed a few more characters that I knew were in that scene, one of them the Hitchcock character whom I watched enact a scene with the bellhop in the hotel lobby involving a tea set and some spilled tea. This scene was fascinating to watch because I was basically sitting right in the middle of it. I almost sat down on the arm rest of her chair. One of the things I love about Sleep No More is how you can sit down right in the middle of the action, or choose your vantage point from across the room. The characters will move you out of the way casually, if you are standing too close to the action or if someone's about to come running in.
Again, I moved on and followed a few more characters, getting more and more excited as I started to recognize what was happening. Then, I saw two of the witches with MacBeth, and heard thumping techno music and knew right away that if I followed them, they'd lead me where I wanted to be. A group of us followed them down a long hallway and watched as MacBeth and one of the witches lifted the other witch high in the air against the wall. Suddenly, they took off down a side hall and I wondered how I never saw it there before (I'd been looking for it for most of the night), because this was indeed the hall that led to the room where the orgy takes place.
The lights were low and blue when I walked in and the witch in red (Hecate) stood frozen with her arms outstretched, letting out an audible exhale in time with the music, once every few seconds. At this point, I stood about five feet away from her, waiting for what I knew would come next: a blood curdling scream, followed by another directly behind me from Macbeth who stood on a table. Even knowing this was coming, it still gave me goose bumps. That coupled with the fact that I was so thrilled I managed to not miss this, my favorite scene, put me on cloud nine. Giddy like a little kid I watched the rest of the scene play out, with the strobes and the frenetic movement, the fake blood flying and lastly, the naked character in the freaky goat head mask. I knew that the very next scene was the one that led to my original one on one with the lady in red from the time I went back in August.
A full description of that scene is in my other blog that I referenced earlier in this entry, from back in August, so I won't go into much detail here. (Haha, I know this entire blog is basically detail!). I watched the following scene between the Hecate and the Hitchcock women. The lady in red was a different actress this time and she played the scene a tad more comically, pouring wine in a shot glass for both her and the other woman, but only pouring a tiny bit for herself while she poured the glass to overflowing for the other woman. There was a moment where the Hitchcock woman made a grab for the key on a chain around the witches neck but the witch stopped her. She began to cry and the witch did the same bit where she held the glass up to the woman's cheek to collect her tears and then she left her there at the table. I followed swiftly. I had been looking over my shoulder at the audience members trying to gauge both how many there were and if any of them seemed like they also knew what was going to happen and would try to thwart my attempt to follow her. It had occurred to me that some of these audience members who hung back when the other characters left the room, were probably also trying to relive their prior experiences. I was at the front of the herd following her and she turned and look at me. I cocked my head to the side and she did the same. Then she grabbed my shirt and began to pull me towards her. Sort of breaking the spell a little bit, one of the black masks who are there to sort of regulate put her hand out to stop me from following. I realized then that the lady in red was rethinking her choice and grabbed a girl to my left and pulled her inside instead.
I have to wonder if I was too bold. They can probably tell just by your over eager behavior that you've already done something and they probably would rather give a chance to someone else. Fair enough. I admit I was getting a little greedy.
I believe it was at this point, that the black masks started to corral people and I wound up walking up to the end of the banquet scene again. At this point, I found my friend, recognizable because she had brought a book with her and I could see it sticking out of her back pocket. I snuck up on her and asked her if she was having fun and then went on my way trying to see what else I could see before going. I tried to visit the piano on the upper level of the banquet room but a black mask blocked my way. Finally winding my way down to the next floor, I was allowed to enter but everywhere I went on that floor I was turned aside by the black masks. Eventually found my way back to the Manderley Bar where I reunited with Alexa and we shared our stories.
We watched the bands and had a drink and I showed her my mementos, the locket, the page of the bible folded into a pouch…and the pocket full of salt that came with it as an unfortunate bi product. As we sat and talked a hotel employee came over to us and offered to sell us the book they have printed up about the show, complete with photos and interviews with the production team. I could not resist. After all, I was told I can never return to the Estate of Manderley.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Sleep no more...
Oooo! Free wifi in DUMBO! How cool! Blah blah blah whatever, I had the coolest night last night. Really. I'm so excited about it I can't even get excited about having free wifi in the park. I went to see Sleep No More with a free ticket from my work. What an incredible time! I don't even know where to begin.
I feel like this is the kind of play where you could go not knowing too too much about it and have an amazing time still…mostly because of how alarming it might be to walk into this place not knowing what to expect and how unique your experience would be. You get taken for quite a ride. It's a modern dance production of Macbeth crossed with Hitchcock's Rebecca and set in an old warehouse that they've cleverly reconstructed into a hotel, The McKittrick Hotel (apparently a reference to Hitchcock's Vertigo), with several floors of intricately decorated sets (of which you can and should touch anything and everything). You are allowed to walk around the hotel during the performance, following performers from scene to scene or just exploring the place to your heart's content. Also, you are made to wear a mask and told not to talk during the performance so it becomes a highly individualized experience. You could be all alone exploring the hotel and it feels like your own little adventure. There is period music and Bernard Herman scores pumping through all the speakers as you wander from room to room providing the eeriest of soundtracks. Goose bumps covering my skin most of the time, I got lost rather easily and, in my disorientation, was always surprised when I came back upon something I had already seen. When we first entered the hotel, there was a 1930s era bar filled with fake smoke at which you could order a drink, punctuated by a stage with piano and drums set up. Here, we waited for a gentleman, presumably the host, who stood on the stage to call us up according to the playing card we were given upon entering the hotel. I was a 3 of diamonds so, once I realized they were going in sequential order from Aces up through whatever, I had to guzzle my scotch that I was drinking. We were then masked and given instructions and then funneled into an elevator.
Now, I went in having heard a ton about my co workers' experiences who had seen it last Tuesday so I don't feel too terribly bad sharing most of mine. I'd say spoiler alert but honestly, you won't have the same experience as me if you go. So, consider this a preview.
One co worker told me about how he ended up being the first off the elevator and how the elevator operator stopped the other audience members from leaving the elevator. Now my co worker was totally alone in the near pitch black hallway and eventually a woman walked up to him with an old fashioned wheelchair which she directed him to sit in. She wheeled him into a room and reclined the wheelchair so he was looking up at the ceiling when the lights came on to reveal a painted ceiling (I believe that's what he described). Anyway, the woman kissed him on the cheek and told him he'd never be able to see that place again and then promptly sent him on his way.
I did not have the same experience though I expectantly waited to be the last on the elevator so that I'd be the first off. As had happened with my co worker, I was the only one let off the elevator while the others were held back. I turned slyly to my fellow audience members to see their stunned expressions showing through their masks as I raised my eyebrows and grinned though they couldn't see my face.
The floor that I found myself on was a psychiatric ward with rows of beds and charts describing patient conditions. I wandered through the ward into another room lined with claw-footed bath tubs, one of which was filled with water. More on this later.
It wasn't long before I ran into other audience members and started to traipse around amongst them exploring, picking things up and reading letters on the desks and tables. Soon after, actors started to appear. It was quite hilarious to watch every one perk up and start swarming after them as they moved out of the rooms. I won't say much about the scenes acted out so as at least not to spoil that aspect for any of you who might go but I will say that it was some amazing acrobatic stuff and that the costumes were spectacularly done as well. I found myself in one particular scene shortly after that my co workers described as the naked goat head man dead baby orgy scene. Use your imagination and don't hold back.
This is where my experience got way weird and incredibly exciting at the same time. After the strobe lights went down and after one of the dancers, supposedly one of the witches from Macbeth, did her solo dance, a lady in red with feathers walked past me and trailed her feathers along my neck as I locked eyes with her through my mask. After watching a scene unfold between her and another woman, she began to leave and made the same motion with her feathers along my neck and so I did what any curious audience member might have done and followed her out of the room. She turned at one point, in the hall, and met my eyes again, studied me for a second and then grasped my arm and gently pulled me into a room, closing the door quickly behind us. Not sure where she was going with this, but terribly curious and excited to be essentially in the scene with her, no longer a passive observer, I consented to join her. She studied my face again and then drew in closer, lifting my mask. At this point, she quickly turned to a desk covered in tiny vials and jars and raised one to my lips. It tasted salty and I imagined it was either salt water or tears. Either way, I didn't exactly drink it but some dribbled down my chin at which point she hastily turned and grabbed a note, saying, "I need you to take this to the porter in the hotel!" I asked, "Downstairs?" She nodded, "I can trust you with this?" I said yes and she pulled me towards the door, then quickly turned to me and kissed me on my mask and then shoved me out the door.
Holding the note in my hand, I began to frantically run through the hotel, now fully ensconced in the action of the play, feeling truly a part of it, trying desperately to trace my steps back to the hotel. Before I could get very far, new scenes were unfolding in front of me and I got drawn in. Then I started to think, "This is just a play! Of course, I don't need to take the note if I don't want to, and I can't be that big of a deal if I don't find the porter right away and besides, I don't even know which one is the porter!" The gentleman on the microphone in the bar could have been the porter, so could the elevator operator. I was at a loss and the play was happening before my eyes. So I chose to follow the actors that I first saw and wound up watching scene after scene unfold not sure at what point in the narrative we were. Some were more obvious. Lady Macbeth was played by a young woman who, at one point, was stripped nude and was washing blood off herself in the same bath tub I had noticed earlier in the psychiatric ward. When I saw it this time the water was tinged red already, a sign that the scene had already played out once before by the time I came back to the room. As the scenes changed I followed her and watched her dances which were incredibly choreographed and artfully executed. The most fantastic scene I saw took place in a giant ballroom with a huge table on an elevated stage. I figured that this was the banquet scene at the end of Macbeth. Seeing this climactic scene for the second time signaled to me that the play was through its second run of the evening and that it would soon be over. The disorientation complete, I was startled when I found myself jumping out into the hotel bar to the sounds of a jazz band in full swing (no pun intended) and being pulled into the room by grinning hosts, shuffling me onto the dance floor where I was offered champagne and absinthe. Here I joined up with some co workers who I knew were attending but whom I had not seen the whole night (masks and all that). So I sat with a fellow media operator and watched the band while swilling a shot of absinthe, something I had wished I knew they served before I paid $15 for Johnnie Walker Black Label earlier in the evening.
I'm finding out more and more about what I was seeing as I read the reviews linked from Sleep No More's website. Here's a really good one I'm currently devouring. The reviewer really captures the essence of what an evening at the McKittrick hotel will entail and even gives really good tips, one of which I may take if I happen to get the chance to see it again before it closes in September. That is, read Macbeth and/or see Rebecca.
I feel like this is the kind of play where you could go not knowing too too much about it and have an amazing time still…mostly because of how alarming it might be to walk into this place not knowing what to expect and how unique your experience would be. You get taken for quite a ride. It's a modern dance production of Macbeth crossed with Hitchcock's Rebecca and set in an old warehouse that they've cleverly reconstructed into a hotel, The McKittrick Hotel (apparently a reference to Hitchcock's Vertigo), with several floors of intricately decorated sets (of which you can and should touch anything and everything). You are allowed to walk around the hotel during the performance, following performers from scene to scene or just exploring the place to your heart's content. Also, you are made to wear a mask and told not to talk during the performance so it becomes a highly individualized experience. You could be all alone exploring the hotel and it feels like your own little adventure. There is period music and Bernard Herman scores pumping through all the speakers as you wander from room to room providing the eeriest of soundtracks. Goose bumps covering my skin most of the time, I got lost rather easily and, in my disorientation, was always surprised when I came back upon something I had already seen. When we first entered the hotel, there was a 1930s era bar filled with fake smoke at which you could order a drink, punctuated by a stage with piano and drums set up. Here, we waited for a gentleman, presumably the host, who stood on the stage to call us up according to the playing card we were given upon entering the hotel. I was a 3 of diamonds so, once I realized they were going in sequential order from Aces up through whatever, I had to guzzle my scotch that I was drinking. We were then masked and given instructions and then funneled into an elevator.
Now, I went in having heard a ton about my co workers' experiences who had seen it last Tuesday so I don't feel too terribly bad sharing most of mine. I'd say spoiler alert but honestly, you won't have the same experience as me if you go. So, consider this a preview.
One co worker told me about how he ended up being the first off the elevator and how the elevator operator stopped the other audience members from leaving the elevator. Now my co worker was totally alone in the near pitch black hallway and eventually a woman walked up to him with an old fashioned wheelchair which she directed him to sit in. She wheeled him into a room and reclined the wheelchair so he was looking up at the ceiling when the lights came on to reveal a painted ceiling (I believe that's what he described). Anyway, the woman kissed him on the cheek and told him he'd never be able to see that place again and then promptly sent him on his way.
I did not have the same experience though I expectantly waited to be the last on the elevator so that I'd be the first off. As had happened with my co worker, I was the only one let off the elevator while the others were held back. I turned slyly to my fellow audience members to see their stunned expressions showing through their masks as I raised my eyebrows and grinned though they couldn't see my face.
The floor that I found myself on was a psychiatric ward with rows of beds and charts describing patient conditions. I wandered through the ward into another room lined with claw-footed bath tubs, one of which was filled with water. More on this later.
It wasn't long before I ran into other audience members and started to traipse around amongst them exploring, picking things up and reading letters on the desks and tables. Soon after, actors started to appear. It was quite hilarious to watch every one perk up and start swarming after them as they moved out of the rooms. I won't say much about the scenes acted out so as at least not to spoil that aspect for any of you who might go but I will say that it was some amazing acrobatic stuff and that the costumes were spectacularly done as well. I found myself in one particular scene shortly after that my co workers described as the naked goat head man dead baby orgy scene. Use your imagination and don't hold back.
This is where my experience got way weird and incredibly exciting at the same time. After the strobe lights went down and after one of the dancers, supposedly one of the witches from Macbeth, did her solo dance, a lady in red with feathers walked past me and trailed her feathers along my neck as I locked eyes with her through my mask. After watching a scene unfold between her and another woman, she began to leave and made the same motion with her feathers along my neck and so I did what any curious audience member might have done and followed her out of the room. She turned at one point, in the hall, and met my eyes again, studied me for a second and then grasped my arm and gently pulled me into a room, closing the door quickly behind us. Not sure where she was going with this, but terribly curious and excited to be essentially in the scene with her, no longer a passive observer, I consented to join her. She studied my face again and then drew in closer, lifting my mask. At this point, she quickly turned to a desk covered in tiny vials and jars and raised one to my lips. It tasted salty and I imagined it was either salt water or tears. Either way, I didn't exactly drink it but some dribbled down my chin at which point she hastily turned and grabbed a note, saying, "I need you to take this to the porter in the hotel!" I asked, "Downstairs?" She nodded, "I can trust you with this?" I said yes and she pulled me towards the door, then quickly turned to me and kissed me on my mask and then shoved me out the door.
Holding the note in my hand, I began to frantically run through the hotel, now fully ensconced in the action of the play, feeling truly a part of it, trying desperately to trace my steps back to the hotel. Before I could get very far, new scenes were unfolding in front of me and I got drawn in. Then I started to think, "This is just a play! Of course, I don't need to take the note if I don't want to, and I can't be that big of a deal if I don't find the porter right away and besides, I don't even know which one is the porter!" The gentleman on the microphone in the bar could have been the porter, so could the elevator operator. I was at a loss and the play was happening before my eyes. So I chose to follow the actors that I first saw and wound up watching scene after scene unfold not sure at what point in the narrative we were. Some were more obvious. Lady Macbeth was played by a young woman who, at one point, was stripped nude and was washing blood off herself in the same bath tub I had noticed earlier in the psychiatric ward. When I saw it this time the water was tinged red already, a sign that the scene had already played out once before by the time I came back to the room. As the scenes changed I followed her and watched her dances which were incredibly choreographed and artfully executed. The most fantastic scene I saw took place in a giant ballroom with a huge table on an elevated stage. I figured that this was the banquet scene at the end of Macbeth. Seeing this climactic scene for the second time signaled to me that the play was through its second run of the evening and that it would soon be over. The disorientation complete, I was startled when I found myself jumping out into the hotel bar to the sounds of a jazz band in full swing (no pun intended) and being pulled into the room by grinning hosts, shuffling me onto the dance floor where I was offered champagne and absinthe. Here I joined up with some co workers who I knew were attending but whom I had not seen the whole night (masks and all that). So I sat with a fellow media operator and watched the band while swilling a shot of absinthe, something I had wished I knew they served before I paid $15 for Johnnie Walker Black Label earlier in the evening.
I'm finding out more and more about what I was seeing as I read the reviews linked from Sleep No More's website. Here's a really good one I'm currently devouring. The reviewer really captures the essence of what an evening at the McKittrick hotel will entail and even gives really good tips, one of which I may take if I happen to get the chance to see it again before it closes in September. That is, read Macbeth and/or see Rebecca.
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