Thursday, January 24, 2008

One Week Until Opening. . .

It's just one week until the opening of Acts of Desperation, the inaugural production of The Relevant Stage at the historic Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro. While not the best photo I've taken, I do offer the following shot of the stage taken from the back of the house last night just prior to the beginning of rehearsal. Pieces of the set are on the stage as well as three of the cast members. The screen is visible because video is an integral part of this multi-media production.



This has been a unique experience for The Ancient One because he joined the cast late and has had a much shorter rehearsal schedule than usual. But the pieces are really coming together and it should be a very powerful experience for audience members. Much of Grandpa's "stage time" is delivered via video as this production integrates on stage performance (an ensemble of 11 actors), dance (6 students from the San Pedro City Ballet), and video.


The themes of the of the production focus on bullying and the too often seen types of violence occurring in our schools in recent years An interesting article was posted earlier this week at http://www.theunderdogforkids.blogspot.com/. A lot of difficult questions are raised by the performance. None of them are answered. The production's success will be measured by how well it gets audience members thinking about solutions to these major issues within our schools.



4 comments:

PipeTobacco said...

Leon:

I agree with you 100% that the writers have a legitimate reason for striking. I did not mean to suggest otherwise. I meant only that I am annoyed that fair, equitable solutions for all could not be realized without the loss of the venue of the entertainment.

PipeTobacco

Eric Valentine said...

Wow Leon, that sure is a very professional looking stage ~ beautiful, it looks like that is a sizeable production you have going there my friend. Good Luck with the rehearsals.. :)

Leon said...

Thanks for stop by Pipe. I did not think you were critical of the writers. I was just adding my 2 cents worth. :-)

Leon said...

It is Eric! I might have mentioned in an earlier post that the Warner Grand was built in 1931 and is a classic representative of Art Deco architecture. It also is on the national registry of historic sites. I am extremely excited about working on its stage.