Here’s what happens when your stage is a pool,
which is how it is with playwright Mary Zimmerman’s famous
Mary Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses” at Arena Stage
Related Video
How to get a 30,000 pounds of water on stage without flooding everything
...without flooding everything.
In the theater, patrons get wet.
Audiences in the first few “splash zone” rows may find towels in their seats at Arena Stage, where Zimmerman and
her longtime team of designers and performers have brought their singular play. “We go though 50 or 60 towels a night,”
says stage manager Cynthia Cahill. That’s towels for audiences, actors, and mop-up duty by the crew, because:
Backstage, everything gets wet.
Zimmerman says, “The backstage life is a colossal, frenzied, sopping wet, ripping-clothes-on-and-off nightmare.”
Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses,” based on Ovid’s myths, has been an unusually fabled and durable phenomenon on the recent theatrical landscape, especially for a non-musical. Zimmerman started it at Northwestern University in 1996, where she was (and still is) teaching. Two years later it was produced professionally by Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre and Zimmerman was a MacArthur “genius” grant winner.
By 2002 the show was on Broadway. Its tales of transformation featured such familiar figures as Poseidon and Narcissus, and the themes of love, suffering, loss and redemption were particularly moving in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. The water was spectacular, but also a fluid metaphor for change; Zimmerman won a Tony for her direction.
Last fall it was revived as part of the 25th anniversary season at Lookingglass, where Zimmerman is a company member. That show — the same one now playing at Arena — features all the designers and many of the actors who have been with “Metamorphoses” since the early days in Chicago. Yet water issues persist as everyone adjusts to the vast rectangle of Arena’s Fichandler space.
“I don’t know that I’d say it’s a well-oiled machine,” says set designer Daniel Ostling. “But we have a clearer sense of what works and what doesn’t.”
Costume designer Mara Blumenfeld says, “Because the water places so many demands on the technical elements, it’s never just a simple remount. There is a lot of wizardry behind the curtain.”
Here, then, are some of the liquid’s lessons, or the Tao of the Pool:
The water
Arena will feature the biggest “Metamorphoses” pool yet, and the first that’s not resting on a floor. Beneath the Fichandler stage, a forest of iron poles holds up the pool’s structure. That’s also where you’ll find the drainage buckets that catch water sloshing onto the pool deck, plus the pump and two water heaters.
The actors’ contract calls for the water temperature to be 99 degrees or above. During the show, the pump and heaters are turned off to eliminate sound and the vibrations that can ripple the water’s surface. The water cools considerably, but the show is only 90 minutes long. When the pool’s not in use, the crew uses a standard cover (a material similar to bubble wrap that floats on the surface) and an additional tarp to preserve heat.
“That helps a lot,” says stage manager Cynthia Cahill, who worked on last fall’s Lookingglass production.
-
article_story
Theater review: ‘Club de Caballeros’ is a witty tale of love, friendship
Director Mario Marcel’s comedy runs through May 25 at Gunston Arts Center in Arlington.
1369241640000 -
article_story
Playwright adapts Aeschylus to post-Katrina New Orleans
Dan Dietz’s “Clementine in the Lower Nine” has its area premiere at Forum Theatre.
1369176595000 -
article_story
‘The Full Monty’ at the Keegan Theatre comes across a little rusty
REVIEW | With a few exceptions, this production is stiff, stilted and halting.
1369159440000 -
article_story
Choreographers use improvisation, spirituality in Dance Place show
Performance features Christopher K. Morgan & Artists and Skybetter and Associates.
1369107167000 -
article_story
‘Beneatha’s Place’ adds to conversation ‘Clybourne’ started
Center Stage offers world premiere of Kwame Kwei-Armah's “Beneatha's Place.”
1369105740000 -
video_story
‘Eveningland’ by Christopher K. Morgan & Artists and Skybetter & Associates
Preview of “Eveningland,” a collaborative work by D.C.-based contemporary dance company Christopher K. Morgan & Artists and New York’s Skybetter and Associates.
1369002464000 -
article_story
An English actress, transformed by Washington
Hannah Yelland married a Yank and settled in the District. Now she's practicing her craft here, too.
1368824367000 -
article_story
Ravens’ Jacoby Jones learns some new moves — on ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Wide receiver, the final celebrity man in Monday night’s finale, wins praise from friends and fans.
1368821220000 -
article_story
Kennedy Center concert celebrates composer Stephen Schwartz
From his Disney hits to “Wicked” and “Pippin,” his work consistently finds the sweet spot onstage.
1368804997000 -
article_story
Theater review: ‘Three Musketeers’ is all for fun — and less for wit
‘Three Musketeers’ is Synetic at full throttle, with a spinning, dancing production that delights the senses
1368740991000 -
article_story
A ‘Winter’s Tale’ for all seasons
The play, performed by a cast of nine, arrives at Shakespeare Theatre Company.
1368717900000 -
article_story
From Constellation Theatre Company, a visually snazzy, mystical ‘Gilgamesh’
REVIEW | The production is the first full staging of a published verse play by poet Yusef Komunyakaa.
1368542760000 -
article_story
Jeff Talbott’s ‘The Submission’: What starts out as sly becomes unbearable
The Olney Theatre Center production has a fantastic premise, but the dialogue devolves.
1368463620000 -
video_story
Arachne Aerial Arts and In-Flight Theater: ‘For That Which Returns’
Preview of “For That Which Returns,” an aerial performance based on the myth of Demeter and Persephone.
1368394286000
- Spam
- Obscene
- Duplicate
The Post Most: EntertainmentMost-viewed stories,videos, and galleries in the past two hours
Find A Theater
Search dance and theater performances by name or keyword.
Loading...
Comments