A Tale of Carnevolar

It was a dark and stormy night.  Six people were crammed into a reappropriated hot tub room the size of a generous closet.  Three of these people are shirtless and/or pantsless, and there is always at least one person chatting from the doorway.  This is the Demon Factory- the makeup room for Carnevolar IV:  The Haunting.
We start makeup at 2pm for a 10pm show.  If we start at 3, we will be late.  In this way, the parade of already muscley bodies that enters this room leaves piece by piece painted, powdered, sprayed, and buffed into a grotesquely exaggerated but in my opinion, still gorgeous version of themselves.  Downstairs on B-side the aerialists are doing the same thing, whiting out their irises, swallowing fake blood then sputtering it out, tangling moss in their hair.

Luckily there are glorious photos by our own Kari Kirkland of Emerald City Trapeze Arts:

This is how magic is made.  Because when this band of lunatics (and I do include myself in that) is set loose on the stage or in the air, the effect is literally to me, a dream come true.

Photo by James Boyer:

During the pre-show, I would rush from backstage to the soundbooth and on the way be bombarded by pieces of my mind someone else managed to make flesh and blood.  I can only imagine looking at your own children to be more rewarding than this.  But I prefer my children to be blood-soaked demons in this case.

Cast photo by Mauro Costa:

I was going to talk more about an upcoming project but I think Carnevolar deserves a post of it's own.  I still wake up thinking about it even though it's now firmly in the "yesterday" category of stuff to think about.

This was my first time ever directing so many people, but also my first time being involved but not being on stage.  There were moments I missed performing but I am so glad I made that choice- I would have been too worried about myself otherwise and not able to see the holes to fill.  Couldn't have asked for a better cast- course working with a house full of people you know and love in a place you yourself have incubated is a seriously ideal first time.

The things that scared me the most:

1)  Ruining the whole production.  But instead we sold out all three nights to 500+ people.  So, that didn't happen.

2)  Talking on the headphones.  For some reason these have always intimidated me, trying to push the damn button to talk to the tech booth while being crammed into a corner of backstage.  But...I was scared for nothing.  Turns out the headphones work for you and not the other way around.

3)  Choreographing on a fly team.  Because what the hell do I know about flying trapeze?  But when I got to Seattle, I discovered this was one of the most fun things to do, ever.

And a very merry Samhain to you all!!!