Design

Ochlos projects are typically simple, as far as the technical aspects are concerned.  This week we began adding a new dimension to "us" with the planning of scenery and props.  We've actually got some pretty crafty and visually artistic professionals in our midst of Four Strong Women.  So we dedicated a few straight days to the building of a large puppet, among other projects.  I fully endorse physical work when your mental capacities are on their way to fried.  How satisfying to see the concrete results, and to experience a healthy mix of intellectual creation with manual labor in creating a piece of theatre.

Theatre Makers are we: actors-writers-directors-producers-designers!
-Melanie

Them Apples

It's apple season in Sebastopol and I feel like we're swimming in a sea of Gravensteins this week.  The trees in the orchard on the property are filled with bright red balls and the ground is polka dotted with red, green and yellow splotches, like a live Pollock piece (but with the splatters only, not the smears...).

I love reaching up and plucking an apple from a tree.  The feeling of it quietly popping off the branch is so satisfying that I want to stand there and pluck again and again.

In the afternoon the sun-scorched hill smells like apples baking in the kitchen.  Simply wonderful.  And in the night, lying in my tent, every few minutes lets out a loud THUNK as another apple plops to the ground.  Abundance.

In the kitchen we are baking: apple crisp, apple tart, apple crumble. If only we could live on apples as our staple, we'd never go hungry this autumn.

Speaking of autumn, as I walked through the kitchen earlier this week while one of our deserts was cooking, I smelled the upcoming season for the first time.  A scent of fall and I suddenly imagined crisp weather, warm sweaters and cozy fires.  And I realized, I'm ready!

-Melanie

Ambulatory Theatre

This August week we've been working at a level of productivity heretofore unmatched in Ochlos history!  We're on a downward slope of momentum, founded on our work in June and July, and a script is coming together quickly.  As collaborators always say looking back, I never would have imagined our project would evolve into what it is now.  When this property in Sebastopol became our new creative residence I imagined performing in the barn, and that in itself was a dream come true.  But now we have in our hands quite an epic journey, taking the audience to almost a dozen locations throughout the property.  It is undoubtedly site specific, not meant to be performed elsewhere, and just as original music can deepen a theatrical experience, so too can an intentional location, in a powerful way.  Not only are we outdoors, among the birds, the wind and the trees, but we have an active experience to share with our audience.  With an audience engaged in this way, not only do we avoid numb behinds, but there is real potential for making an honest connection.

-Melanie

Puppies!

As our last full day of work for this month, and the first time since last weekend that all four of us were able to work together all day, we pulled together and got some good stuff accomplished.

Yoga first, breakfast, the making & jarring of plum jam from plum trees on the property (all the while brainstorming scene work), and a good two hours improvising a scene in one corner of the lower yard. Afterwards we came inside with really awesome lunch salads and our laptops, to log the text we'd just come up with and research some ideas that came out of that scene work.  How funny to see four ladies in one living room, each on their own computer.

What came next is what I believe could make any company more productive and all workers more healthy: we took a nap.  A couple of us outside in lounge chairs, the others in the house.  What a beautiful day for a nap.

We headed back up to the barn to play with how we would present a collection of stories in another scene.  We were well into it when Carol's husband yelled her name with an urgency that brought us all to our feet, heading to the door.  "What?!" Carol yelled back.  "Puppies!" was his reply.  Their pregnant Malinois was giving birth two days early.  One black puppy with his umbilical cord hanging off of him was present.  It's been a couple hours now and we're still waiting for more, with champagne glasses lined up on the counter to celebrate.


Tchin tchin!
Melanie

Campin'

I'm sleeping in a humongous tent we have dubbed The Condo.

-Melanie

Dictators

Tonight we watched a documentary entitled "Kim Jongilia."  Some quotes that struck me from refugees who have escaped North Korea:

Referring to Kim Il-sung, leader of North Korea from 1948 until his death in 1994: "We believed he had superhuman powers, that he could fly."

After Kim Il-sung's death: "Without him, nothing could be right."

From a man who was raised by the people who killed his family: "Everything I thought I knew was a lie."

Tomorrow we watch a movie about Hitler's last days in the bunker.

-Melanie

Our Second Week is Here!

Weekly intensive #2!  Welcome, July!

Two of our gals are stuck in Friday summer commuter traffic, so I've got some yoga and relaxin' to do.  Our June week was about Clearing, Prepping, Purging, Cleansing, Beginning.

This week is...  Development.  Digging in.

Here we go!

-Melanie