Learning about LaRue

If you’ve seen Hairspray, you may have noticed there are lights everywhere. They’re above the stage, around the stage, IN the stage. But who’s actually responsible for constructing all of those? Our master electrician, Sarah LaRue, is a technician extraordinaire and quite the wiz when it comes to all things technical. She took a few minutes to tell the Hairline about her work on Hairspray:

Some of the production team working on LaRue's "Practicals"

1) We got a small taste of what you do a few weeks back but can you tell us more specifically about your involvement with Hairspray?

Hairspray was especially interesting because the scenic designer created a lot of practicals for the set.  A practical in theatrical lighting is something that lights up that is not necessarily a standard theatrical lighting fixture such as a sconce, chandelier, or sign. In my 5 years here at Signature Theatre, Hairspray holds the record for number of practicals, including 5 signs, 12 windows, 3 sconces, 4 billboard lights, 2 bare bulbs, 2 lightboxes, 1 fan, and the Corny Collins header which consists of 42 diamonds with a light bulb in the center of each wired in a 3 circuit chase. Fortunately, practicals are my favorite part of the job so clearly I got to have a lot of fun with this one.

2) As Signature’s resident Master Electrician, what does your job entail once a show has opened?

Once a show has opened, the day to day running of the show gets handed over to my assistants Katrina Maurer and Erin Jones and I get freed up to begin the planning process of the next production.  Occasionally, a piece of equipment will break and I’ll need to fix it.

3) What has been your favorite project for Hairspray?

My favorite project for Hairspray was surprisingly something fairly simple.  It was when I installed some ropelight into a box fax (below)  With every show there is always some little project where you stop and think…  boy, my job is weird… I’m installing ropelight in a fan…  who does this?  This is what I come to work and get paid to do everyday and I LOVE it!

Sarah working on her favorite project

4) How did you end up at Signature? What have been some of the highlights?

The story of how I ended up at Signature is a classic one of being involved in the DC theatre community.  I had been happily freelancing around town when I received a call from a friend at Barbizon, a theatrical sales and service company in Alexandria.  She mentioned that Chris Akins, whom she previously worked for at Williamstown was now the Production Manager at Signature, they were opening a new theatre and looking for a Master Electrician, and I should apply.  I wasn’t necessarily looking for full time job, but I figured I’ll go to the interview and see what it’s all about.  5 years later, I’m still here!

5) What is your next project at Signature?

I’m currently prepping for our next two shows Really, Really and Brother Russia.  Brother Russia is going to have a ceiling of festoon lights which will consist of hundreds light bulbs in numerous different shapes, sizes, and colors.

"Backstories, People!"

When you throw a bunch of actors together for an extended run, something rather strange transpires. Histories develop into novels, backstories evolve and develop and relationships morph into something straight from a soap opera.

Some stay simple,

“Corny and Velma had an affair in the early days of the Corny Collins show” – Sherri Edelen (Velma Von Tussle)

While others are, shall we say, complicated?

“When I return as Carol, Shelley’s mom, for the end of act one/beginning of act two...I am friends with Velma until she gets bailed out by the governor....who happens to be my husband...and the affair is new to me in the jail scene...so I turn to the integration side!” – Kirsten Riegler (Brenda)

Read on for some more:

“Fender is Link's best friend” – Patrick Cragin (Link Larkin)

“Brad is a senior, and the oldest of all the 'Nicest Kids'...and he doesn't go to Patterson Park High. He goes to a fancy private school!” – Matthew Wojtal (Brad)

“Edna saw the 1934 Will Rogers movie ‘Judge Priest’ as a teenager, and was impressed by the scene when the judge's son comes back from college. Hattie McDaniel (as "Aunt Dilsey") decides to make the son ‘her best chicken,’ and when he also asks for waffles, she adds that in--so Edna decided to order those things together from then on. It was Edna's initial craving for those two foods together that initiated the restaurant craze to provide both foods--although in actual fact, there was no place that specialized in chicken and waffles together until AFTER 1962!” – Robert Aubry Davis (Edna Turnblad)

“Shelley basically has a crush on every guy in the show. But a major crush on Link!!! One that is sometimes hard to hide :) She is also trying to impress Amber so that Amber will like her. She is the ‘new girl’ to the group so she’s always trying to fit in. The ‘Tracy Hairstyle’ was not a huge hit with Amber” – Jenn Cameron (Shelley)

“Well lately Prudy and Mr Spritzer have the beginnings of a love affair with a date in the offing established during ‘You Can't Stop The Beat". Which is a welcome development for Prudy since it's been quite a dry spell and Spritzer is quite a successful businessman.” – Lynn Neal (Prudy Pingleton)

“During You Can't Stop the Beat, Amber realizes that perhaps she was wrong about black boys and finds one in particular VERY cute!  She watches him through the whole Motor Mouth solo and that is what helps her decide to shake her fanny muscles!  Shhhhh....don't tell her Mom!!!” – Erin Gardiner (Amber Von Tussle)

Photo courtesy of Chris Mueller

We've Extended!!

Hairspray just announced that it's extended for a whole extra week!

That's EIGHT more chances to watch these wacky cats...

SHIMMY

SHAKE

AND GRIND

to the music of the 60's!

Already seen it? Let us know what you thought!

Breaking it down with Brianne Camp

If the name Camp sounds familiar, that’s probably because Karma Camp has been a Signature regular since 2007, devising dances for Signature favorites like Witches of Eastwick and Showboat. With the high energy choreography needed for Hairspray, she brought on her ever charming daughter to join the creative team. A recent graduate of East Carolina University, Brianne graced the Hairline with a few minutes of her time to tell us all about the process.

Brianne Camp

1)       Ok, so, you’re the Associate Choreographer. How’d you get that gig?

Actually I was promoted by Eric and Karma to Co-Choreographer! I worked with Eric and my mom on Overtures for the past seven years and they have watched me grow and thought this may be a good opportunity for me. My mother also saw my work at Interlochen Arts Academy and thought I should try my hand here in Washington. 

2)       What does exactly does the Co-Choreographer’s job entail?


My position entails being responsible for creative content and demonstrating our ideas to the cast. I also clean all our numbers, which I love to do!

3)       What was it like working with your mother? Is this the first time you have worked on a show together in this capacity?

Yes, this is the first time we have worked as equals. I am also currently her legs as she is patiently waiting to have knee surgery! Mom and I have similar teaching methods so we work very well together. I guess you could say I learned from the best!

4)       Do you see yourself more as a dancer or a choreographer?

Always a tough question! I love both. I am way too young to stop performing but my passion for teaching will always be there.

5)       What’s your favorite part of the show to watch? Any reason in particular?

That's tough too! I love every minute of the show because you can see how much fun the cast is having! If I had to choose I would have to say “Run and Tell That”.  That number has the most influence from my style of dancing and watching people interpret your own style is fascinating and fun to watch.

6)       Do you have any other projects coming up in the near future?

Yes, I go to Toronto soon to associate choreograph Aladdin on the new Disney ship debuting in March! I am paying my dues now and look forward to one day leaving my stamp on the Washington D.C. area!  

Happy New Years!!

It's another year and Hairspray still can't seem to stop the beat here at Signature!

What better way to bring in the new year than with a Hairspray-themed flash mob? They've popped up in malls across the country, it would only make sense that the next logical place would be a screening of Hairspray.  While you're recovering from last night's debauchery, sit back and enjoy a little 60s style shimmy-ing

At the Heart of Edna

Divine as Edna in the original John Waters film

Think creating the part of Edna Turnblad for our production was simple? Think again. Robert Aubry Davis is a nut for history. Place him in a musical rich with historical context and you can bet he's going to do his homework. How much, you ask? Robert graciously shared this email exchange between himself and Dr Beicken, a professor of German history at UMD and long lost friend. Acting as a witness to their reunion is thrilling but hearing them expound on the importance of a show like Hairspray brings the enjoyment to a new level.

Behind its endlessly jubilant music and uproariously witty humor, Hairspray is rooted in an incredibly important historical movement. And as Dr Beicken says himself: "The way you played Edna's changing self from ironing domestic to staunch supporter of equality is worth an essay."

Think of this as a little light (no pun intended) reading between your holiday festivities. Enjoy!

Dr. Beicken's initial email:

Dear Robert,

Even after more than 30 odd years since we saw each other at the Goethe "Faust" performance way back in the cultural middle ages of DC, you and your daughter in tow, I was happy to see you in today's hilarious (and very successful and thrilling) performance of "Hairspray". I am a friend of Rose Ann Cleveland who invited me to come. And I was excited to see you again, live on stage, and briefly afterwards. As I said, you were very excellent on stage, even more appealing than the red sweater breasted cultural icon of DC (and suburbs). You did your role of Edna with a great sense of a weight challenged social outsider and an equally  great vulnerability of someone who's not really a stage experienced pro, but has all the prerequisites of a true 'stage animal'. It is a testament to your creative persona that them kids on stage did not intimidate you but you had your moments/run of glory giving Edna an intelligence hardly commensurate with your typical Baltimorian (pronounced: Ballimorian) overweight lower middle class domestic/housewife. 

I have watched you and heard you for decades as royalty of our local cultural scene. But I deeply appreciate your venturing onto the stage at Signature. The show is a bright spot in American musical theater, because the heart is on the right side of human and political enlightenment. The way you played Edna's changing self from ironing domestic to staunch supporter of equality is worth an essay. Here you showed your wonderful compassion, intelligence and finesse. Filling this role made you larger than life. While Tracy is the all-too-facile mouthpiece of radical change, a kind of American trumpeting optimism, your portrayal of Edna brought the human touch: how can  a colossus change, how can a mass of neurotic over-eating get a handle on life and politics and human commitment. You did this brilliantly. Please keep at it for the rest of the show. I am glad you're not Travolta or any of the others. You elevate Edna to intellectual and totally believable human  insight. Her departure from the iron is like the decision to built the electric car (not going to the moon as going to the other side of town is the challenge of the hour). 

It was fun to watch. Supreme fun. All characters are within the parameters of American musical. But Edna has these extra dimensions. She's a reflective person -- all others are reactive. It starts with her girth and ends up with her liberation from her former self. Whereas Tracy, her daughter, is a bundle of teenagerness, Edna, the big person contemplating her bigness, undergoes a true reformation and remarkably significant change.

I understand you like the cast so much and talk to all and everyone lovingly. I also hope you will articulate your creative experience on stage in some form or another. It must be quite an experience. And it is not a matter of drag. It is really about humanity and who we are as we define ourselves beyond being defined by others.

I totally enjoyed myself. In view of 2012, this musical has a big place politically as the conservative onslaught is strong and frightening. 

Dear Robert, find the energy and love to shine all the way through this show and may it be a life changing experience for you. 

Best, Peter Beicken

Robert's Response:

Peter!

Well, first Fayre (my daughter's) reaction:

Wow, SO cool! I remember Faust! One of the most impactful memories of being 3? 4? And I remember the alley.!

Second, thank you for the deeply thoughtful analysis. I think I am in a unique position to do this role for a variety of reasons.

I lived through these actual events--I watched Buddy Deane (the original show on which all this story--a heightened version of a true event--was based) when the antenna picked up Baltimore, and we had our own milt Grant Show here in DC--where I could have qualified to dance on Sixth Grade Day, but as a chubby kid was not one of the Beautiful People they wanted represented. The original John Waters film also includes the attempt to integrate Gwynnes Park, which like Glen Echo here was segregated. I remember going to Glen Echo soon after desegregation and my friends and I were a small minority of white faces, since once they opened to people of color, few whites would go anymore.

And, as a (as one former boss called me) Unreconstructed Flower Child, I lived through so many of the events that the '60s and late '70s brought. 

As to Edna, we have clues about her Real Steel. The Suffrage movement in Baltimore, inspired by the remarkable Edith Houghton, who became a doctor at Johns Hopkins, married a fellow physician (Dr. Hooker), and quickly created a Suffrage party, newspaper, and even a Men's Suffrage League (where Dr. Hooker often led meetings) was an intelligent and powerful bunch. We know Edna's mother moved in those circles. If Edna's mom was, say, 20 in 1905, Edna must have been born around 1915 or 1920 at the latest. We can put her courtship with Wilbur during the Depression--his quixotic quest to run a joke shop seems even more windmill-tilting if you put in in context. 

And, while he was off for the war, she began gaining more weight as she took in ironing (and probably boarders) to make ends meet ("For 20 years I have been washing and mending and ironing other peoples' clothes"). 

Wilbur comes back from the war, Edna gets pregnant right away--we know Tracy was born in 1946--but based on the unusual alchemy of both Wilber and Edna's natures, I think a person like Tracy would have been real. I knew improbably optimistic girls like that then, and I respect that spirit more and more as I age.

In any event, I have built such an affection and loyalty to this amazing cast and crew that Eric has assembled, it is important I make this work for them--I do and have done many many things, but they are mostly all at the start of the vector of their career.

Again, thanks for the insightful analysis. As an aside, I studied German lit. with Hermann Salinger down at Duke. He used to have this signed picture in his office of a smiling well-dressed, grandfatherly person playing with what was obviously a grandchild. I asked him who that was, and he said "Oh, I wrote Hermann Hesse after years of teaching his works, and asked to have an autographed picture--and that was what he sent!" It was a truly Zen mind-altering moment for me--something I could barely apprehend at 22, but makes a lot more sense at 62...

RAD

Double Trouble

We all know great things come in pairs: peanut butter and jelly, Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Kander and Ebb... and The Hairspray Hairline recently got its own partner in crime with the Signature in the Schools blog, From the Classroom. If you don't already know about Signature in the Schools, than you're missing out on one of Signature's most exciting programs! Each year, a select number of local high schoolers are chosen to participate in the creation of an original play penned by our resident artist Joe Calarco (writer of Walter Cronkite is Dead and director of The Boy Detective Fails) They've already spent months with our Education Associate, David Zobell and Education Intern, Laura Matey, blocking scenes, building props and, in February, will be performing on the set of Hairspray! 


Just the other day, one of the student actors posted about his experience working on the set of Hairspray. Not that we have any investment in their blog or anything but we heartily recommend taking a gander...


http://educationatsignature.blogspot.com/2011/12/signature-in-schools-and-hairspray.html

The Signature in the Schools cast rehearsing on the set of Hairspray