the inside scoop

Hello Frankers!

We wanted to give our followers a little inside scoop into the hearts and minds of the production team. We asked the team the following questions and got back some pretty great responses...

1. What is your favorite thing about the script?
"The script dances beautifully between grand Greek tragedy and small, every day reality. The way Marina Carr writes her characters is blissfully real, and the deeper we explore the text the more dynamic and human the characters become." (Anika Solveig, playing Caroline)

"I like how it's a tragedy but there are funny parts, too." (Izzy Rousmaniere, alternating as Josie)

"The script has an evocative setting (the Bog of Cats). It reminds me of the the cold November Marshes back hom in the Minnesota River Valley. It is this foggy, dank, dark bog world and ghosties keep showing up all over the place." (Mike Croswell, sound designer)

2. What are two of three fascinating things about your character or design element?

"I thought briefly about being a priest when I was about seven, and I see that child in Father Willow." (Gabe Angieri, playing Father Willow)

"Well, my design work is COMPLETELY fascinating, (puff, puff) but seriously, my favorite thing about the show is the dancing on the edge between the physcial and the ghost worlds and getting to play with that visually." (John Bueche, set designer)

"The Guthrie has fantastic gear, and I will have really nice subwoofers for this show. I am recording these really soft low frequencies that have funny looking waveforms on the computre. The frequencies are so low you really do not hear them, but they show up on the computer screen as these big soft waves." (Mike)

3. Are there any funny or touching moments from rehearsals or meetings?

"When Izzy's parents came to pick her up one night after rehearsal, she ran up to them and said with a gleam of joy in her eye, 'I died a bunch of times tonight!'" (Anika)

"The insights that both Izzy and Sulia have contributed have bowled me over. Makes me think how much more grown up kids are these days." (Gabe)

"Once, Cheryl (who plays Monica) told me that in Britain 'bog' means 'toilet.' And there is a line my character has that says 'isn't my mom always on the bog?' I think it's a funny coincidence. Whenever I say that line, I always find myself looking at Cheryl out of the corner of my eye to see if she's laughing." (Izzy)

4. Who's the person you admire most on the production team?

"Well, I have always had great respect for the unsung toil that stage managers go through everyday. Artists are not easy to work with and Spencer's artisry in dealing with all of us is superb." (Gabe)

"Not a fair question. Our design team is frankly amazing. But Kathy Kohl is an unbelievable designer. Her costumes add to the character and inform the actors about each of our roles in the play. She has an incredible truthful eye and makes striking bold choices that help tell the story." (Anika)

"Nancy Waldoch is building the Frank outta that set: keeping it simple; making it fun. Next I'd have to say Ryan the Guthrie lighting dude, because he sends me laser pictures." (John)

5. What's the most "Frank" thing that has happened thus far during this process

"Gus the dog was laying under the table at the director's feet during a run through last week. Remember Gus? He was one of Frank theatre's favorite canince actors from the A play." (Mike)

"When we we're sure we'd cross the thresh-hold of 50% set materials recycled from past shows - the drape from Chekov Project put it over the edge. The most Bueche thing was that I needed some corrugated metal, preferably painted white and worn... and they tore town the building across the street from Bedlam; it's been condemned since 1979 and they finally got around to tearing it down. Low and behold, big pile of white, worn, corrugated metal. Shazbang." (John)

6. If you could ask Marina Carr any question, what would you ask her?

"What is up with these Irish people hanging out with Medea?" (Mike)

"What's the back story? Why did Big Josie leave? Is she still alive?" (Izzy)

"Are all your plays this good? What's the next one?" (Anika)

7. What are your hopes, wishes and dreams for this production?

"Sold out shows every night, and a laughing, crying, breathless audience. And maybe lots of fake blood everywhere by the end of the show!" (Anika)

"I dream that the fantastic muslin/scrim legs Heather made glow eerily (somebody tell Jeff, the lighting designer)." (John)

"That it leaves people weeping, laughing, and talking about it for a long time." Gabe


Next up: opening the show tomorrow! Come on down to the Guthrie's Dowling Studio and check us out! More info at www.franktheatre.org and at www.guthrietheater.org

Bog Photos

Hello Friends of Frank!

Rehearsals are more than half over now and the production is really coming together!  Taking the wonderful text Marina Carr has written and translating it into a visual and visceral medium is both challenging and rewarding.  And in the spirit of that translation, we thought we'd offer our cyber friends out there are peek into the visuals that we've been creating.

Here are some promo shots of our lovely and talented actors

Photos by Tony Nelson.  

(Top) Josie (Sulia Altenberg) and Mrs. Kilbride (Melissa Hart) play a game of Snap.

The Catwoman (Annie Enneking) reads omens in bog holes for Hester Swane (Virginia Burke) as they bury Black Wing, an old swan.  

Xavier Cassidy (Bob Davis) threatens Hester.  

Carthage Kilbride (John Catron) and Hester argue over who should take the blood money.  

Hester pulls Caroline Cassidy's (Anika Solveig) hair.  Ouch.  

Josie (Izzy Rousmaniere) tells her mom a little secret.  

Stay tuned!  Coming up next: an interview from a member of the production team!

Blog of bogs

Hello Franksters!

BY THE BOG OF CATS rehearsals continue and after a full week of table work, we feel like we're finally getting a grip on this dense and fascinating play Marina Carr wrote.  Whew.  She's packed a lot of punch in this one.  Not only are there all the allusions to the ancient Greek play MEDEA - the play upon which BOG is loosely based - there's the ancient history of Ireland to wrestle with as well.

 

One bit of history that struck us as uber-cool is the lore and legends about bogs in Ireland and northern Europe.  Check out these creepy pics of bog men from National Geographic.

Rockstar smarty-pants Steve Matuszak brought this all to our attention (thank goodness for awesome dramaturgs!)  The cast and production team have been  pouring over the pics while discussing the mysticism and magic of bogs.  The play is populated with misfits, ghosts and witches.  And some of the characters in this play, well, they make some pretty poor choices.  But you have to give them a break.  If you were walking around in your backyard and knew that there's a possibility of running into a bog man floating around out there, well.  You might be a bit unhinged of mind as well.

Coming soon:  We'll share a sneak peek of some production pics!  Stay tuned.

bloggin' for bog

Hey Frank Fans!

Today is the first day of rehearsals for BY THE BOG OF CATS and we couldn't be happier about it.  Stay tuned here for all the dish and dirt from the production team!

love,

Frank

What was YOUR first Frank experience?

We had a fundraiser last week, and when news of this upcoming blog leaked around the crowd, the idea for detailing various "points of entry" on a Frank blog got people ALL excited. The crowd who had been gabbing all had met Frank at different stages. "FARMYARD!" "TOP GIRLS!" "QUARTET!" Sounds like a good jumping off point for me. It's always curious to hear when people met Frank, and how that introduction influenced their perception. Some of the pieces have been brutal, I'm sure, scaring people off for good (like the first date couple who came to FARMYARD). And some of the "easier" pieces like THE CHEKHOV PROJECT have also created dubious first impressions. I directed the first show, so I go way back. Bernadette and I decided to do a gritty project to offset the skills required by her growing success as a commercial voice talent; FARMYARD was the ticket, a heartbreakingly nasty little piece about how inhumane we humans are to each other, with more silence than dialogue. We had no idea about how to produce a piece of theatre, and we were much less interested in starting a theatre company. Somehow we wrangled all the pieces of the production, and we staged the play in a fourth floor studio of the Rossmor building in St. Paul, long a home to many artists but recently converted to condos. The brutality of the play
gave some folks pause, but the performance was excellent, and led to another production and yet another. Seventeen years later, the similarly harsh scenes in Suzan-Lori Parks' FUCKING A just seem to reiterate the idea present in our original production, that is, sometimes this world isn't a very nice place for some people.

Where did you come into the party?