THE UGLY ONE
One of my first professional shows was with Trap Door Theatre and their production of The Ugly One! I found this job through a posting on the League of Chicago Theatre website. I had such a fantastic time working with this theatre company and their team of artists, it was a great place to start my career in the Chicago theater community and I am grateful for all I learned on this show!
Trap Door Theatre
Written by: Marius von Mayenburg
Directed by: Michael Mejia
Rehearsals: August-September 2022
Performances: September 22-October 29, 2022
Photo Credit: J. Michael Griggs
The start of the process started out with some team building exercises and the creation of a movement vocabulary. Trap Door is known for their avant-garde expressionist productions, and our director continued this notion by having the cast do movement exercises that would become the building blocks of our staging. It was really beautiful to see the ensemble mesh together so quickly and get along so well, it set us up for a really positive and collaborative rehearsal process.
I was tasked with sending out daily rehearsal communication and reports, here is an example of the calls I would send before each rehearsal and performance.
As we started rehearsals, it was really important to take clear notes about the staging and movement. This show was a 1-act play that had 24 different scenes, with each scene being in a different setting. We built a lot of big movement transitions between each scene, and making sure the blocking was easily translatable to other actors, understudies, and the production team was crucial. The blocking also changed constantly throughout the process, so I had to ensure that all the staging I recorded was up to date. This is an example from some blocking in my script.
Overall our rehearsal process went really smoothly. I was a bit nervous heading into tech as this would be one of the first professional techs I would be leading, but I had a lot of support for the Trap Door staff and it made the tech process go extremely smoothly. I helped create a tech schedule that made sense to what we needed to accomplish while also still working reasonable hours. We were able to finish teching the show fairly quickly and were able to find time to do line throughs and cue-to-cues of the show before we started dress rehearsals. Tech went very smoothly and reminded me of the importance of showing up prepared and ready to work and how that can encourage others to stay focused.
The script contained elements and themes surrounding intimacy, sex, attraction, and physicality, and in turn that meant that we created some physical/intimate moments on stage. Safety is a huge priority for me, so the cast and directing team and I did some workshops and had discussions regarding touch, consent, and creating a safe and respectful place for us to work. We were all able to work safely with one another and explore this world with care. To track all these moments, I created a fight/intimacy list that contained any physical element in the show between the characters. The cast eventually narrowed down what they would want in a fight call before house opened, and some of that list is pictured to the left. It was great working with a team of people who were open about their needs and respectful of the boundaries that were set in place.
Photo Credit: J. Michael Griggs
Overall the run of the show was extremely successful We had many sold out performances throughout the run and received lots of great reviews. This was my first show running both lights and sound, and I learned a lot about the set up and maintenance of each respective system. The cast and I had so many laughs and really bonded over the few months we were together, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of individuals to work with. I was so pleased with this production and to have been able to work with the historic Trap Door ensemble. The Ugly One was the perfect show to get my foot in the door and I made a lot of genuine connections with incredible artists and collaborators.