FONDLY DO WE HOPE...FERVENTLY DO WE PRAY

Oh Paris...

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 10:01:37 -0400

France is in a state of turmoil. Strikes have been going on all over the country since 2 months. The main issue is retirement reform. Their pension is going bankrupt and Sarkozy’s government wants to raise retirement age from 60 to 62. Even the school kids were on strike. I’m more concerned about whether they can get a job when they graduate. A subway car burst into fire in front of our musicians as they waited for the train to go to the theater but that was a mechanical issue and not a terrorist attack. But these are the times we live in. Are we ever safe?

And then there is Paris, beautiful as ever. What grace and elegance in the curve of the Seine, the silhouette of the city, the cracks in the stones....Oh, let me get back to the performance. We were presented by our friend and supporter Didier Fusillier at Maison des Arts Creteil. The work was extremely well received and we played to sold out houses. I’ve known some of the local crew for over a decade and they are some of the best. The stage is very noisy, trap doors and what not. Paul asked everyone to please not move during his solo in silence. In the next performances everyone was still after they ran offstage until Kevyn started speaking. Such love and respect for their colleague. The clip is of LaMichael and Kevyn Morrow (not seen) in the Biography.

One day before our opening night, the American Ambassador Charles Rivkin hosted a ceremony in his home/mansion in which Bill received the medal as L’Officier des Arts et des Lettres.

European Premiere

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 21:07:01 -0400

Just back from Lyon, France where we performed at the Biennial. The piece was extremely well received. The audience showed their appreciation every night by falling into unison clapping. We were concerned about how the French audience would respond to all that text (with supertitles) or if they would care about the subject. We were more than relieved.

This is the beginning of a new season, and we have a new actor, Kevyn Morrow and a new singer, Norman Vladimir. They both did beautifully. Norman is only replacing George for this tour. Jamyl left at the end of last season. We had a very memorable party for him where we, uh..... Anyway, we love and miss him and wish him all the best.

Of course, there had to be a strike. The French are used to it, according to the French. We had to stay an extra day in beautiful Lyon because of it. And Lyon is beautiful: the old city, the food, the farmer’s market by the river, the wine... Being on tour is not too bad. Fondly’s next stop is Paris in October. Till then.

At the Lincoln Center Festival

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:38:05 -0400

I am writing from the Berkshires where we are performing at Jacob’s Pillow doing Serenade/The Proposition. The performances at the Lincoln Center Festival were sold out every night. The piece looked beautiful in the Rose Theater and the company, those sublime beings, were at their best. The audience gave us a standing ovation every night, which has been the case everywhere we’ve been, but getting that approval from New Yorkers is quite special. We worked on every aspect of it during the week of rehearsals beforehand and during our technical rehearsal onstage. We had an extra day in the space which is an unusual luxury. All the designers were there, sound, lights, set, costumes, video. I am extremely proud of this work, of the multi-layered elements: the weaving together of movement and text, music, projection, the handling of the subject matter, the metaphors and inferences, the movement and choregraphy. There is no reason whatsoever to separate dance and theater.

The video clip is from the war section.

New York, New York

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:26:33 -0400

Last night we opened at the Lincoln Center Festival. There is nothing like performing in NYC. We had a few rehearsals to get the piece back, we haven’t performed this in 3 months. And we tweaked and fine-tuned every aspect of it. I’ll post the video after the last performance on 17th. Meanwhile, here is a link to the Channel Thirteen Sunday Arts piece about the performance.

Two Poems

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:36:02 -0400

By James Williamson.
He is a South Carolinian and currently attends Guilford College. Bill asked for his permission to publish these poems on our website and he kindly agreed.

belt truths

they call us Carter country,
we are no computer bible.
splendid ante-integration,
and traditional life.

“Who happen to be black, my wife
Who happen to be white.”
progress: Prevailing hostility -
Still help big house, live in Shack.

They, They, Hold so important
“nothing changes. Cept the weather,”
on to ethno boosterism. Dixiecrats -
- finally Republican, envision

some Eden, name: United Clocks
of Frozen. April 9, 1865 and now,
Still jeer Little Rock - our pale hearts.
We delay. regress. White.

Civil Attire

Golden Doors swing the bleeding death unripe
for gorgeous rights that tie New South’s oldie,
Fake cupid who strokes antebellum stripes.
chapel goo drunk by pregnant centuries

of Black shoe sky - sinking, aching, wedlock
Sewn to the weight of hate unforgotten
and reply with rain, God’s grain: whipping rocks.
If only to bury dwindled cotton,

History’s clocking, idiocy war
“born here; born here; born here; born here; born here”
the southern smoking city of failure
Prunes the New guise for our law of Care

Praying across the acres of freedom,
A colorful boot step that needs to come.

Hopkins Center. Hanover, NH.

Thu, 8 Apr 2010 10:39:56 -0400

It is wonderful to be back at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College. We had three shows, which means some rest for the crew. Bill is the Montgomery Fellow and has a myriad of activities, including classes, discussions, lectures, donor receptions, etc.

The Hopkins is a very intimate space. Our set is actually too tall to fit. The curtains have to be shortened by two feet. The bottom chain is removed, the edge is rolled up and clipped. The guiding pole which the dancers use to pull the curtains are also trimmed. With such a small space there is barely any room beyond the oval. It was a little scary to do the phrase in front of the curtain after the opening. At the worst part of the stage, they have about 8 inches of space and a footlight. Talli’s foot hit one of those footlights when he was running with the curtain during the 2nd performance. He was taken to the emergency room after the performance and got a few stitches.

I-Ling is back. We liked some of the changes we made to fill in for her. For example, Shayla walking I-Ling’s path during the debate while speaking (see the clip from Bloomington). So this time both Shayla and I-Ling took the stage against Talli, Paul stayed on his stool. You’ll see the same section in this clip with the new configuration. The debates section has been compressed quite a bit since the premiere, most of the transitions have been taken away. The sound effect suffers a little because it has to be cut and pasted, so to speak. Our next performances will be at the Lincoln Center Festival in July. We’ll have to spend some time on this section before then.

Bloomington, IN

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:05:20 -0500

If I have already mentioned that life is never boring on the road, here is another example. I-Ling was hit in rehearsal a few days ago by someone’s elbow, no big deal. But a few days later the right side of her face was swollen with an infection and it continued to spread. So on the day of the performance in Bloomington I-Ling told Janet that she is unable to perform. Mark our new company manager took her to the doctor. That afternoon we made the piece into a 9 dancer version for the 2nd time in 2 months. The dancers were remarkable, learning all the changes in one afternoon. Shayla walked I-Ling’s path in the debates while doing her speaking part. Erick did I-Ling’s part at the end of the piece beautifully, the person born in 2009. It’s a 7 minute slow solo.

On a lighter note, the campus of University of Indiana is beautiful. Indiana University Auditorium is a co-commissioner of Fondly. We did a couple of residency activities while we were there. Janet had a great time with the dance department. Sam our sound engineer is an alumn. The crew here is fantastic. I think Indiana holds the record for shortest load in and load out time.

Purchase College, NY

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:59:24 -0500

Of course we have to perform this piece on Lincoln’s birthday. We’re back at Purchase. Wiley Hausam, the director and one of our staunch supporters, had given us a week on stage last summer so we could see the piece on a normal proscenium stage before moving to Ravinia. It was a very useful week. So now we are back with the finished work playing to a packed house. There was a lovely reception afterwards as well. Thanks, Wiley!

We had a couple of surprise visits, Liz(costumes) and Robert(lights) both came to the tech and performance. We also had a few students and teachers from Jordan’s schools come to the rehearsal. Jordan is Clarissa’s little daughter who is the voice reciting the Poem of the Body at the beginning.

We continued to make some adjustments: going back to the explosion at the end of the slow war movement. Then closing the stage (with lights) down to one person, Erick and then Paul, and opening up the space much later. You’ll see that on the video.

Bill wanted to make some changes to the Debates as well but we ran out of time. The transition from debates to “the boil that bursts” still felt lacking. Hopefully we can solve that problem next time.

Cleveland, OH

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 08:50:14 -0500

We knew that Cleveland was going to be crazy. After all Antonio and Jerome are both from Cleveland, so we had the Brown clan and the Begin clan out in full force, plus the rest of Cleveland was also cheering for their sons. The audience was great, as promised by our gracious hosts Pan Young (Cleveland Dance) and Brian Bethune (Tri-C College). Little did the audience know about our woes. We knew the theater was small, but then when our crew arrived they found that there was a discrepancy of 4 feet from the paperwork. This means that everything had to be recalculated right there and then, a lens had to be rented from somewhere in Michigan and the runway was 4 feet shorter than expected. During the performance Asli and Shayla ran into each other at the end of the war, or to be precise, Asli’s neck ran into Shayla’s thigh. Asli was in extreme pain and shock for the epilogue. Shayla’s leg was bruised and that’s how hard they hit each other. Keith, a local physio-therapist who stayed for the Q&A after was summoned backstage and he worked on Asli for a long time. We are truly grateful for his generosity and expertise.

We made some more changes during tech rehearsal and I didn’t think they worked. One change was putting the speakers in the debates on the main stage with the dancers and cutting the Declaration of Independence that takes us from the debates to the Boil that Bursts. In the clip you’ll see the end of the debates into the Boil.

For me the highlight was the lec dem that we did at noon the day before. We performed the first 40 min of the piece for the most diverse audience possible: K-12 kids from various schools, a group from the senior center, another group of developmentally challenged people, some arrived in wheelchairs and oxygen. Someone was signing for a group hearing impaired people. I was so moved by their being moved. What a great thing Cleveland is doing. Keep it up Pam and Brian.

Ann Arbor, MI

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

It’s been 7 years since our last engagement at the Power Center in Ann Arbor, MI. I remembered as soon as I walked in what a wonderful theater it is and such a great crew.

Erick is back with us again. Some of the changes we made because of his absence actually made the piece better and we kept them. One new change this time was to have everyone except for Paul, Asli, Jamyl and I-Ling change into their rehearsal clothes for the epilogue. An hour or so into the piece, the dancers reappear as themselves. I was somehow moved by it.

On Friday our opening night, we had about 200 kids at our tech rehearsal, which really means we did 2 performances that day. We had thought that these kids were coming for an open rehearsal, i.e. come and watch us rehearse. You can imagine how performers like to take it easier during rehearsal and save it for the show. Oh well, not this time.

Chapel Hill, NC

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:17:54 -0500

While walking through the lobby of the recently renovated Memorial Hall in University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, it suddenly dawned on me that we are in the south. The walls of the lobby are covered with plagues of deceased alumni, and these people were sons and daughters of the south (see video). Many served in the Confederate army, some were in the congress of the Confederacy, some were planters, etc. I wonder what they would think of the work that we are performing in this hall.

This is our very first performance of Fondly this year. Our presenter and his staff were fantastic. Bill was with us and did several lectures as part of our engagement. Erick Montes was in Mexico due to a death in the family. We spent two days in NY getting the piece back, replacing his part, and making some changes to the piece. One important thing we wanted to accomplish was to link Paul’s Lincoln to Jamyl’s Lincoln. Jamyl’s character changes throughout, he is at different moments the narrator, the auctioneer, Lincoln or just one of a crowd. We also added Mary’s appearance in period costume at the end of the Bio section. While it was touching, I felt it was too much to come back to Mary and Lincoln at that moment. We’ll trying something else next time.

Louisville, KY

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:00:41 -0500

As you know, Lincoln was born in Kentucky. This is our first time in this city, and maybe this state. Hard to believe. Louisville has a beautiful performing art center downtown by the river. The area is a mix of old and new. KY is also famous for its whisky, the Kentucky Derby, Colonel Sanders of KFC fame, Mohammed Ali...

It is great to see the piece in a big theater where the satellite stage has room to breathe and the side lights are not next to the curtains. We added back Paul’s solo after Jamyl’s monogue, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”. we had taken it out in San Francisco. This speech ends the whole Biography section and it needed that moment of reprising Paul’s solo, under the black cloud and silhouetted by the back lights. Then we are ready to move on to the next section. You can see a bit of it in the clip.

The show went beautifully. No one would have guessed that we had to refocus video for the whole show during dinner break, all the way through 15 mins before the performance began. And as if that wasn’t enough, the projector died while we were refocusing because it was overheated. We opened the house 15 minutes late. Our new audience from Kentucky gave us a standing ovation at the end. They applauded almost after every section. We make the piece so that every section is linked to the next but we had to make room for the applause, which may not always be dramatically appropriate, but who doesn’t love such approval. Dan Forte, our presenter, was wonderful and we were very well taken care of (dinner was delicious). This is our last tour of the year. We’ll be back on the road in January. In the meantime we will be working on something smaller in scale, like duets by Bill and Arnie.

*Bill was in NY getting ready for the opening of FELA! on 11/23. It was a huge and glorious success.