Timeless Practice

It was a bit of a surreal experience to be stage managing a rich and technically explicit production in a nineteenth century theatre in one of the most beautiful spots on the Adriatic Sea. I’ve never been to Dubrovnik, and aside from some brief research prior to the trip, I was unprepared for the staggering beauty in just the walk from the housing to the theatre each day. Here are some pictures of the walled city.

Here is the front of the theatre, flanked by a cafe with excellent food. And what you see when you come out the backstage door (the sea view).

The invitation to come to stage manage the remounted production of LULU XX created back in 2000 by artistic collaborators and Wax Factory NY founders, Ivan Talijancic and Erika Latta came as all life’s magical meant-to-be moments happen. In May, I received a query for a stage manager. Over almost twenty years at USC in the role of Director of Production and then Chair of Production and Stage Management, these requests were routine, but the genesis of the request, timing of my upcoming retirement combined with the opportunity to travel to a part of the world I’d never been too was just too exciting, and I leapt at the chance to go. And then, I was there, doing what has always come naturally to me in a place where daily I’d need to pinch myself that I was there.

Ivan and Erika, and the creative team they had assembled (most recently in 2019 at the Connelly Theatre in New York) are fearless artists with a rigor and intensity and ironically ease of practice that I haven’t encountered in the stage management role since 2015 when I worked on The Gospel At Colonus with Ebony Repertory Theatre and Wren Brown and Andi Chapman.

LULU XX is a fast-paced solo performance that is physical, thrilling at times, and it wouldn’t be possible without the intense focus and commitment that both Ivan as director and Erika as performer have brought to the theatrical space. Based on the play Lulu by Frank Wedekind, The Wax Factory’s LULU XX has had many iterations scenically. Here is a photo of the curtain call in the same theatre in Dubrovnik in 2000. Our production, twenty five years hence, is part of the annual Midsummer Festival in Dubrovnik and played one evening, June 20, 2024 at the Marin Drižić Theatre which shares a beautiful building with Dubrovnik’s City Hall.

Lighting Designer Paul Hudson, Sound Designer Yiannis Christofides, Video Engineer Irfan Brković, and Technical Director Igor Remata have remounted the 2019 production’s original elements including the costumes of Miodrag Guberinic, and the original video design of Jason Batcheller. Nestled in a forced perspective box with special features, LULU XX plays out in a terrifying and theatrical fifty minutes.

We had our first rehearsal in the blackbox space in the KMD upstairs over the stage last Saturday, five days before our one performance. In addition to Erika as LULU, there are two stage magicians who joined us and were new to the show, Kestrel Leah and Jay Eisenberg. They assist Erika with some quick changes and quick props pass ons. The blackbox rehearsals which continued Monday while the load in was happening were extremely useful to me as the new SM. I had had the benefit of a video capture of the 2019 performance and Sandy’s beautiful calling script and a few weeks of idle time at home post retirement, so I felt well prepared coming in. My collaborators are to a one, phenomenal and friendly and also well prepared. The tech experience, which should have been extremely stressful given the short time and the complexity of all elements was not in any way so. Love working with all of the folks. Here’s a chronological view of the load in process. Didn’t take enough photos but thanks to Irfan for some of the shots during tech.

After every evening’s rehearsal we dined out at some of the lovely venues in Dubrovnik. So from morning coffee to occasional lunch to full Mediteranean diet – do we still call it that when we’re in the Adriatic? At any rate, the food has been spectacular.

And the company even better! Here are a few shots from our week together. It was spectacular. Thank you so much to Wax Factory, NYC for the privilege and joy of this gig!

Ultimately, the performance on Thursday night happened and it was thrilling. This experience has been a great way to ramp down from my Academic job and meet some exciting new artists!