Some big props arrive in the fog

T Tawanda at rest.

Steward George Fields had just finished this bench, halfway up, near the glacial striations sign. I was the first person to sit on it. I did not carve my initials in the bench. You'll just have to trust me.

You may have last seen Matt Kent hanging by one hand from the backhoe. Here he is as a scary gull. But Matt is very shy, otherwise.


The BIG porcupine in the mist.

And the porcupine with a person.

Rick and the backhoe on the road.

The backhoe and the tower on their way into the quarry.

Seduced by the promise of a look at the big porcupine, the bigger backhoe and the slender tower, I went back to the quarry on Wednesday, drifting down to Stonington along with the fog. I turned onto Oceanville Road, but could go no further. Two of the stars of Q2: Habitat, were taking up the road. Rick Weed and the backhoe were going toward the quarry, but they had stopped to talk to Charlie Peabody in his truck, headed the other way. They blocked the road for a while, then split. I followed the backhoe down the road.

The dancers were hanging out in the mist, having just finished working, and about to do some more. Meanwhile, some were lying on the ground, as if a fog-tan was the goal; others practiced lifts, while Tawanda perched, first on a rock, then on the structures that look like outlines of little houses.

And the porcupine was a big as expected. Full of puppeteers, it lumbered across the quarry. The fog was sliding in, they had hours of rehearsal left, and I was hungry. I went home, hoping for better weather. We'll see.

seagulls and porcupines Oh my!

Alison talks to the porcupines. They appear to listen.

Porcupines on the move. Slowly.

A flurry of gulls takes off.

Gulls.

Alison in the quarry, rounding up the gulls.

Gulls, living right on the edge.

Tuesday, July 28, was the first day in the quarry for the dancers from away (plus Wendee, who was here) and the porcupine costumes. It was the second time for the gull costumes, but this time they were inhabited by dancers. And it was sunny. On Sunday the bullfrog in the new pond by the edge of the amphitheater was quite vocal. This time he was pretty quiet.

And Wendy Schweikert was putting the finishing touches on a porcupine.

It was like all rehearsals, except bigger and hotter. Maybe CBDeMille worked in similar places. In order to be heard in the vastness, Alison had to pitch her voice. And in order to be seen, the dancers had to move big and fast, except for the porcupines, who moved big, low and slowly.

At this stage, like all productions, it looks as if the parts are going to be way bigger than the whole. The puzzle of putting it all together is out of the performers' hands (or feet, or wings...) for the most part, but resting on Alison and Mia's shoulders. There's still the pan band to fit in; the birdwatchers--and let's not forget Rick Weed's backhoe and Charlie Peabody's truck...

The babies who were there (Matt and Emily Kent's son Owen and Todd Devinish and Wendee Rogerson's son Everett) are not going to be in the production. They, along with an assortment of people who went to the quarry to look around and found something very interesting to look at, were just watching.

not being a seagull

I was all set to be a seagull, and was accustoming myself to scrounging scraps from the tourists strolling the streets of downtown ! Stonington, fresh off the boat (them, schooners, not me). Alas! or maybe hoorah!, it was not to be.
Us intrepid community members, out numbers now significantly increased by more than 100%, are probably not going to be gulls. We may be birdwatchers. To that end, the six or seven or eight of us spent time in the elementary school gym on Saturday, spotting basketball hoops, bleachers, lights, scoreboards and Mia and Alison. We pointed, sneaked, bent down low and then looked right into the rafters, all the while using binoculars which must be seen to be believed.
We tried moving in canon (that's one and then another), moving as a group, and standing, sitting, looking and emoting.
Someone did a wonderful movement. We all copied it, and then the originator couldn't reproduce it. We counted. We whispered to each other. We had it.

Sunday, we did similar things in the quarry. If you don't know this, let me tell you from experience from dancing in the quarry three previous times: GRANITE IS HARD. And pebbles are slippery. And what looks perfectly level from 30 or 40 feet away is, in fact, indented, slanty,
chipped and otherwise not what you would expect from a dance floor.

We didn't fall. We moved in something like unison. We were very far apart--wait until you see it. Meanwhile, I'm the one with the red hair. Or pink hat. Or not.

All the dancers are finally here. Carol and I, for want of something better to do, drove up to the Bangor Airport to pick up five young nubile flexible talented and beautiful dancers (wait until you see them!), three of whom had been here before. Lest you think they came by plane, allow me to disabuse you of that. They drove up in a rental, and we picked them up, not coming off a plane with hugs and kisses, but getting out of an SUV in the Hertz section of the parking lot. With hugs and kisses. Since three had been in Quarryography, they knew to treat Deer Isle like a foodless wilderness, and had cleverly gone to Hannaford to stock up. I didn't ask on what. Maybe I'll ask them....

It's really going to happen.

Anything for a free lunch

The sweatshop in Mia's studio.

Here's Mark Kindschi modifying the skeleton of the world's largest porcupine.

Huts or summeer houses? Come to Q2: Habitat and see!

Porcupine pelt in the making.

Carol sews! Well, cuts. It's the legs for the gulls.

July 21, and all is well.

Gluttons for punishment or just plain gluttons? Hard to know. A group of us, ladies all, answered Mia's job listing for sweatshop workers, to put the quills on the porcupines. (You can sing that to the tune of " Put de lime on de coconut....) The carrot was a free lunch. Although delicious: sesame noodles, marinated cucumber salad and green salad, with optional bread, maybe it wasn't really free. Not even if you factor the blueberry cake into it.

What we did was sew bunches of raffia onto the blanket-like pelts of the porcupines to be. All in the service of our art, it was. Even Carol Estey got to work--she was cutting out the leggings. No doubt she got that job because of her terpsichorean expertise. You never can be sure. After all, there is such a thing as pure blind luck. So she didn't have to thread the bulky raffia in the eye of a needle, even a big needle, and loop it into the fabric, pull it clear, line it up, fluff it out and tie a know so to would stick out, not lie flat. No squares. No square knots.

Meanwhile Mark was out in the Entropy Forge working on the metal frame/skeleton for the mother of all porcupines. It's on wheels. It's big. It was partly paid for by a grant from the Jim Henson Foundation. They know a good puppet when they read about one, and this is a doozy.

Having seen Cableman dance and bow in the quarry, I'm looking forward to watching the porcupine do her stuff. Should be fabulous. If you want to join in the fun, it's not too late. CALL 367-2788 and tell them I sent you. Maybe I'll see you in the quarry.

casting call--with props and costumes July 19

Kim is a seagull.

Mia and Carol are birdwatchers.

Alison and Carol spy a bird (must be Kim).

So where were you? Huh? I was there--so were Carol, Mia, Alison (in charge) and Betsy and Kim. Where were the rest of you "community people?" We had a wonderful time trying on the gull hat, wings and then seeing what moving in them felt like. The binoculars were easier to use, mostly because they had no lenses. It's all in the focus.

Quarryography was full of milkweed pods, blocks of granite and some of us in very odd, elaborate dresses. Alison is thinking maybe shorts under the wings--Mia has made wonderful yellow and orange leggings that make legs look like bird-legs, but a little more substantial.

Trying to fly up in the air like a startled gull, whirl around a little, hover and settle is surprisingly comforting--it's an opportunity to see what it might be like to be a gull, but without the french fries.

The next rehearsal is Saturday at 10, and I expect that now that you have read this there will be an absolute dash for the gull hats, a little like Filene's basement on a good day. I'm ready. Maybe because I was there I get my choice? Nah. See ya.

Seen on a Rooftop in Brooksville

This is just one of the many wonderful images that Mia and Alison have been preparing for the August sneak peak of Q2: Habitat. Carol has arrived in town to handle all details and dancers arrive next Sunday. Meanwhile we are calling for community members of all types to join in the fun, become part of a tribe of birdwatchers, trees, rebels, etc. No experience necessary. Tribes will use enhanced pedestrian movements. Casting call tomorrow (Sunday, July 18) at 1 pm at the DI/S Elementary School gym. Or if you can't make that, please call 367-2788.

Hello fellow Habitat-ites. I'm heading to the island tomorrow. Three day drive from Columbia, MO, to join the craziest lot in town and bring wonderful things to light on the Quarry stage. Can't wait to see everyone. Say, are you coming to the auditions on Sunday? We need you. Yes, you, reading this. :) Carol

entrances and exits

This is the peerformance ampitheater seen from above.

Where it is wet, it was bone-dry for the last Quarryography performance. Some of the dancers, me included, hit behind the horizontal rock--and our problem was gravel, not water.

The dance floor

A cableman progenitor

Left--one of the trails the audience will walk up needs a little work.
.Anne Hooke (IHT) shows Jennifer Morrow (OHA) a map of the trails. George Fields (IHT) looks on


Entrances and Exits

Usually a theater has a stage door, guaarded by a guy named Charlie with a cigar in his mouth. Performers and stage crew walk by him with a wave, and everyone else is barred from entry. If you want to catch a performer you wait outside in the rain with your little autograph book in your hand, or you make an appointment, and Charlie has your name on a list. Audience members enter through the lobby.

When your theater is a quarry with big open spaces and lots of trails, some ending on the edges of cliffs, and your are expecting a couple of hundred people to make the trek up either the main road/trail or a trail from the water-side, it's hard to control where people might end up.

Such a big production needs a staging area, dressing room and a place for the performers to hang out, preferably out of sight of the audience.

Ann Hooke and George Fields, IHT, met Linda Nelson and Jennifer Morrow (OHA) at the quarry on a gorgeous July morning to figure it all out. Walking the trails up and down, figuring out where they needed signs telling people which way to go, or not go, the four noted rough spots that need trimming, confusing spots that need volunteers to watch and places that are just not passable.

Ann had the map and a clipboard and they all walked. The walk started at the parking lot for all, then from the top of the quarry everyone walked down to the bottom. It sounds more onerous than it was--the day was drop dead beautiful. And by the end of an hour, they had it figured out.

Still, looking at that open space, it was hard to imagine it filled with heavy equipment, a steel drum band and an assortment of performers wearing exotic costumes. One year it was pink granite blocks that balanced on our heads. Beanies with wands extending from them--milkweed. And ball gowns. Tutus. This year it might be vinyl wings, tried out by the 7th-graders earlier. There's no knowing.

One thing is a constant--that fabulous quarrry. Stone underfoot, hard and unyielding. It's worse when it's slippery with water.

entrances and exits

Pictures from the parade

parades

Here's the news. It did not rain on July 4th . In fact, it did not rain on the parade. Amidst the flags, kiddies in VERY cute poses, horses, boy scouts and Haystack carrying its own cloud was OHA. and there he was, making his first public appearance this year--Cableman. Admittedly he did not have the space to demonstrate his unique grace and power. In fact, he was pretty much confined by the width or narrowness of the road. Still, it was a thrill to see him, looking not a year older than last year. Alison (Chase) hung off the side of the cab of the truck and Mia (Kanazawa) walked along with a block of granite on her head. I mean, we all knew the granite was costume, but it looked pretty real. The truck was prop rather than costume. It all served to whet my appetite for more. And more.
Cableman did not show up on the Stonington Fish Pier for the Fish'n'Fritters. He was home rehearsing. I'm going to the fireworks. Maybe I'll see you there.
Alice

So You Never Know

Mia was recently at a doctor's appointment on the Island and saw this radio tower lying in the grass and went inside and asked the receptionist Brenda Merrill about it. It was taken down back when the addition was put in. Realizing it would be a great "prop", she asked if we could use it for Q2. After putting it to the Board of Trustees, they said that "Yes, you can- that it would great use for it!"

So, this year we will put up one 20' section of the tower. Rick Weed has generously agreed to pick it up, deliver one section to the quarry and store the rest at his place. The plan is to use the granite blocks that Rick had set up around the "upstage" edge of the quarry and reposition them as "rubble" which will also serve as anchor points for guy wires for the tower.

You never know where you will find what you need.

Now does anyone have an empty portable storage unit?