I was much more into The Little Princess than MAD Magazine when I was little, but I understand what a creative effect it's had on American culture for 50 years.
So, when I received a phone call from former editor Nick Meglin last week, I jumped at the chance to speak with him, despite the fact that he repeatedly asked for the last 4 digits of my social security number in order to verify my freelance writer status.
He's relocated to North Carolina, found great satisfaction in creating musical theater, and thinks that the Open Space Cafe Theatre in Greensboro is doing great things. He wanted to talk about it all, and I wanted to listen, and he taught me more about the nature of musical theater in our one conversation than all you that have tried to convince me how awesome Rent and Mama Mia! are over the years. Not that I don't love you for trying ... I just didn't get it til now.
His musical, "Tim and Scrooge," opens tonight in Greensboro. As of the moment, tickets are still available. And you don't have to provide your social security number, no matter what anybody says.
Showing posts with label theater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theater. Show all posts
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Notes in a Darkened Theater
One of my small joys is being in a space before something big is about happen. In a restaurant as servers polish glasses before the evening shift. The press room before the press conference, when people are just finding their seats. A church before a wedding. And the theater before the play.
Paul Tazewell makes his living in that last space, sitting alone in a dark theater, sometimes with a few people around him, taking notes on seemingly random afternoons as he sees his costume creations come to life on the stage. The actors, start, stop, the lights are being calibrated, and he watches how his contribution begins to create a life on stage.
He makes notes about a hat that really doesn't work, the fact that a dresser wrapped a cummerbund wrong, or a hem that drags the floor. It's the end of the process for him, a process that started in his imagination, then was communicated through art. But his process ends even the instant before the curtain rises on opening night.
He's one of the best large-scale costume designers in the business, and an exhibit of his sketches and costumes just closed in Randolph County, N.C. You can read about his process and the exhibit in this recent article in Go Triad.
Paul Tazewell makes his living in that last space, sitting alone in a dark theater, sometimes with a few people around him, taking notes on seemingly random afternoons as he sees his costume creations come to life on the stage. The actors, start, stop, the lights are being calibrated, and he watches how his contribution begins to create a life on stage.
He makes notes about a hat that really doesn't work, the fact that a dresser wrapped a cummerbund wrong, or a hem that drags the floor. It's the end of the process for him, a process that started in his imagination, then was communicated through art. But his process ends even the instant before the curtain rises on opening night.
He's one of the best large-scale costume designers in the business, and an exhibit of his sketches and costumes just closed in Randolph County, N.C. You can read about his process and the exhibit in this recent article in Go Triad.
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| Tazwell designs from an Opera Omaha production |
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