SD Rep's 'House Of Joy' Video Available On Vimeo Until April 12
Speaker 1: 00:00 As with many theaters. The San Diego rep has had to close its doors because of health concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. KPBS arts reporter Beth Armando explains how the theater company is going online with its production of house of joy. Speaker 2: 00:16 Sam. So the Corona virus pandemic has forced a lot of theaters to come up with some creative and innovative ways of dealing with the fact that the physical theater space has to be closed. So what has the San Diego rep been able to do with this production of house of joy? Speaker 3: 00:35 Well, first and foremost, we were fortunate that led by some regional theaters, actor's equity association. The actor's union has granted a limited opportunity for people to see video of productions that had to close because of the virus. As I'm sure you know, we opened on March 11th and closed on March 12th so our opening night, it was our closing night performance. So we had one hell of an opening and closing night party on the same time, even though we didn't know it til the next day. So we had fortunately recorded a B roll, but promotional content video a week before the invited dress rehearsal. And so we, we had our videographer Mark Holman cut that together and have released for a limited time for April 12th a video of the entire dress rehearsal shot with four or five cameras that people can see. If you already bought a ticket, used to see a complementary, if you hadn't bought a ticket, you make a donation, you can see the video. Speaker 2: 01:34 In this case you were lucky enough to have had a video recording of the show you were about to produce moving forward. What other kinds of things can you do to give people access to San Diego rep content or just to provide something to kind of stay connected with the community? Speaker 3: 01:51 You know, it's an interesting, um, transition for us because we, like many theaters in America, our business is gathering people together into a room to be close together as someone said, to join hands in the dark and to experience something together to share a story. Well, the very core of our traditional businesses currently not possible. You cannot do that. So we had become a media company like many other theaters have where we are distributing content, uh, via the web video and text, uh, interviews, stories. Yeah. Musical selections. Sam salon online for the first time in 12 years. I'm going online with it instead of live in the theater. So we're publishing a weekly e-magazine on Thursdays called represents, which we are trying to fill with provocative and interesting content for curious viewer. Speaker 2: 02:48 And again, you mentioned the fact that you know, theater is about this community and about people being in the same space together. What are you trying to do to create any sense of a, in terms of Speaker 3: 03:00 people being able to interact with you or share comments about a play they've just seen? Is there anything in regards to that at this point? Well, yesterday at an editorial meetings he would sound like the publishing company. Uh, we talked about how we could create interactive experiences for people and that we might hold some kind of a round table or content poetry, theater driven material that would then be followed by a conversation and meet the artists conversation and talk back if you will, an interactive conversation hosted. Oh, that would be sort of the next step. And our media published empire that was born two weeks ago. Speaker 2: 03:38 Let's talk a little bit about house of joy cause people are going to have an opportunity to watch this for a limited amount of time. So tell us a little bit about this production and what it's about. Speaker 3: 03:48 House of joy is pretty much unlike anything you've ever seen. It's set in 1666 in Delhi, India in a the emperor's palace inside the Royal harem, inside the palace where the men who are enter must cover their eyes, masks and blindfolds because they're not allowed to see the women in the empire. So everyone inside the condom is a woman or a unit. Speaker 2: 04:16 [inaudible] Speaker 4: 04:16 thousands of women work inside these walls every day. Keep this treasure. Six, don't keep it pure. The most talented women of the empire and beyond, but trying to accountants, seamstresses, gardeners slows ships working at the pleasure of his magazine and they're supervised by the special ones, those who were not met and who are not Wiz. There are so many bleeds between the inside and outside worlds. Nothing escaped. There are no cause. I do see. So step out and do execution will begin to expect to coat the likes of which this kid has not shooting. Are you ready today? Speaker 3: 05:15 And this story is set in this farm in which the son of the emperor is threatening to start a revolution and overthrow the kingdom and the female guards of the Hiram. That's how you say it are challenge to defend the women in the highroad becomes a, a story of women saving and helping other women, including battle warfare, fights, combat, intrigue, suspense. There's a rescue of the the chief queen and she's carried through the, uh, sewers out to freedom. And then there's the invasion of the Hiram by all of these men that you never see. Speaker 2: 05:56 This production was particularly beautiful to look at. I mean in terms of the costumes, the colors, but also it had a really creative use of your space. There were, I've never seen quite so much of that um, facility put into use. Speaker 3: 06:10 Yeah, we had a good time, you know, with the piece was set in the Hiram as I said, but part of the story happens outside of the arm. So we stayed in the round, so essentially a flat floor painted very uh, exotically and beautifully but a flat floor designed by union Bay. And then to escape the home, we built a ladder where the actors climbed up the ladder and ran into the catwalk where the legging technicians usually hang out to escape the higher end, be out in the city. And so it was in the round. So it was happening from all corners of the room. Yeah. Unusual theater technology and use of space and, and extraordinary visuals from the costume designer, Jennifer Martin get it. And the scenic designer in Bay and the lighting designer, David Cuthbert. Speaker 2: 06:58 You know, for me it's interesting that the things that I love so much, which is going to film, going to theater have always been this community experience where you go together and in times of crisis or stress, being able to join with that community and share an experience like going to a play is so important. How do you feel as an arts organization about kind of having that means kind of taken away and um, you know, how does it feel coping with that? Speaker 3: 07:30 How does it feel? Well, um, I would say two things. One is, yeah, it's quite scary. It's quite deeply threatening to our stability and viability as a [inaudible]. It was an institution as a business Speaker 3: 07:45 because we cannot conduct our core business and we're not really a media company. We are just acting like one right now. And so [inaudible] poses a direct threat to the very core of our business. Now the other side of the yeah answer is the theater is the place that all optimists flock to. And people who come to the theater believe in the power of people coming together to make something out of nothing. And that's what we do whenever we start a play, there's nothing there. There's words on a page and we make a piece of gear so that energy still exists and is right now driven into planning and sharing that planning and sharing what we're working on for the future. So we're optimistic, we're cautious and we want to try to be as safe as we can. Speaker 2: 08:35 And is there anything else else that you want to tell people about the play in terms of, can you suggest a way to watch it maybe in the sense of encouraging people to maybe watch it and then partake in a zoom meeting or a share it while they're on Skype or FaceTime or something? Or are you trying to come up with any of like viewing suggestions in that respect? Speaker 3: 08:57 It's interesting to see a play recorded live on video, but it's not staged for the camera. This is a recording of a place staged for the stage. So you're going to experience camera angles and shots that you don't ever see on television or in the films and one one level. This is a unique experience in that you're looking at a, at a recording of something stage for a whole different purpose and meaning. The second is I would encourage people to send us their thoughts to our website, to our Facebook page, send it to me. Be curious to hear what people think about the video as as again, this experience of a piece of theater in the round. No less, and I guess I should point that out, that if you're staging a plan around every single person has a different point of view on the play visually. Speaker 3: 09:51 So there is no one universal, this is the way you should look at this piece. It's the most egalitarian and democratic, I guess populist [inaudible] putting a play on stages. Everybody's got their own point of view. In fact, some people don't want to stage in the round because they can't control what the audience sees and you can't, you can't ultimately control it. So you know, some of that's deep in the weeds, but it's interesting being somebody who watches a lot of video television, film. I'm struck when I watched the video of house of joy. How visually different it is from what you usually see, Speaker 2: 10:30 depending on how long this lockdown or a stay at home, a mandate is in order. How is that impacting you in terms of your staff and who you can keep on staff and how long you can keep going? Speaker 3: 10:44 Ooh, that's a tough question to answer. We, we don't have, I doubt that anyone has yet [inaudible] completely clear picture of how we are going to operate for how long we're going to operate without our core business being possible. Uh, currently we're operating on a reduced staff, some of whom work. We're going to be laid off and for a load at the end of our mid March or the end of March, which just happened. So we're operating with reduced staff right now and, and we're going to do our best to stay not only active, but to stay in active preparation for our return when the Phoenix rises from the ashes. Mmm. Knock on wood and wooden table. Speaker 2: 11:39 All right. Well, I think ending on a note of the Phoenix rising is a good place, so thank you very much. Thank you. That was Beth haka. Mando speaking with San Diego rep, artistic director. Sam Woodhouse. House of joy will be available online through April 12th.
