Week 5: "There's nothing like being liked by your family"

the closing moment from my show, "The Happy Journey"

So today I am a proud papa.  I just closed my first show here at UCI as a grad Director.  I am so proud of the work that my team and I did.  And I feel so supported by all the faculty, fellow grad students, and students that came out this weekend.  I received what I think is the best compliment I could have gotten.  My friend Sammy came on IDR, and there weren't programs.  He asked my SM, Gabbie, if the second piece was mine, just to make sure.  She answered, "yes," and he said, "I knew it!  There was so much 'Travis' in it!" I think that I've succeeded if I have stayed true to myself and put "me" into my work.  As an actor, you approach the character, not with how you are different from him/her, but how you are similar.  As a director, you bring the story that you want to tell from the text, and strive to make it clear.  

For me, Wilder's "The Happy Journey" is about human connection, specifically told by a family's journey to reunite with a family member going through a hard time.  It is about the good times and the bad, the happy and sad - and everything in between.  My favorite line from the work comes from the last scene in the play (pictured above).  Ma says, "Well I hope you like me.  There's nothing like being liked by your family."  Wow.  I took this picture in tech when we found exactly how the last moment of the show worked.  The mother and daughter are finally reunited, after the daughter has lost her baby and almost died herself in child birth.  Having lost a son of her own, Ma sympathizes as a mother who herself has lost a child, grandmother to Beulah's baby, and mother to Beulah herself.  It is a powerful moment, when the world onstage shrinks as the lights focus down to just the little area where the two characters are.  Then there is a silent moment in the text, where Ma puts Beulah to bed and then sings her to sleep as the lights narrow in on the little cot where Beulah rests.  The last moment of the show is when Ma looks to the heavens as the lights fade to black.  

Collaborating with Darrin, first-year MFA Lighting Designer, was such a treat!  I feel like I have gotten to apply what we are learning in class, and putting it into practice has solidified the concepts for me.  From the first meting, we focused on the last scene of the play, and built the rest of the design around that.  All the designers and I knew from the beginning that this last moment in the show was important. We took a long time in tech to find what was most optimal to convey "there is nothing like being liked by your family" to the audience as the last thing that are left with. 

In the picture, I love the down light on Ma and Beulah.  The soft blue-green light feels like a moment in time that thankfully lingers for longer than it actually is...like time momentarily is put on pause and you feel the weight of a particular moment.  The shadows are dream-like and feel like memories.  The "source" feels like it is coming from Heaven itself and lends a spiritual "button" on the play, sending the message that there is something greater than ourselves - we are all connected.