#NerdsUnite: Big lights, big city, and a journey into confidence

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Jordan. He's a youngin living in the great big apple in the hopes of becoming his dream, a theater director. Will he make it? Won't he? What problems and struggles will he deal with along the way. I have no idea ... so that's why he's here. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT JORDAN!!! </editorsnote> 

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Jordan Friedman

I’ve now officially survived a hurricane.

It’s almost new to me, I did get hit with Irene back in 2011, but relatively speaking what Irene did to my city was nothing compared to what Sandy did last week.  Personally, I got very lucky in this regard, what happened to me and my neighborhood was very lucky compared to the rest of this city. I never lost power, only the lights flickering throughout the day on Tuesday. I’m very stunned I never lost power considering just how large this storm actually was. There was also a lot of preparation that ended up never being used 100% but was still warranted, a lot of canned food and actually buying water by the gallon containers, which I’ve never done before. This preparation still was helpful as the grocery stores were low stocked for quite some time and still probably don’t have their full supplies back even today.  So while I never got the worst of it personally, the idea that something this powerful could have affected me for a long period of time rung in my head for quite some time. I ended up checking out my neighborhood a couple of days after Sandy hit and passed through, and what I noticed around my neighborhood is that a lot of smaller items got damaged. What I mainly noticed with Irene was one big tree near my street and not much else. With Sandy, at least 4 or 5 signs got damaged or destroyed, several large tree branches down, and 3 or 4 smaller trees affected, including one downed tree blocking the road and one that basically had its entire top ripped off. 

What really sunk in for me is how much New York City actually got hit by this. When I first heard that everything in Manhattan below 39^th lost power, it blew my mind. While the news I found covered it well, I think what the news didn’t fully show is how large the area below 39^th in Manhattan actually is.  So many different neighborhoods and people are in that area, and so to hear that everywhere that far lost power was something that I didn’t think could ever happen to that much of an extent. And it wasn’t just there, the people that I knew losing power in Brooklyn, Queens, and Jersey emphasized just how large this storm actually was. And that was before I knew at least two friends of mine had to leave their homes because of this storm. Not a good feeling to know that your friends are going through that. It’s not as if it’s over either. I’m right near where there is actually a gas rationing going on, only letting people getting gas every other day depending on their license plates. I haven’t heard of anything similar happening since times of war in the U.S., and I’m only miles away from where this is happening.  Here in New York, as of Friday, there were still lines a couple of blocks long to try to get a shuttle bus to go the same places as their subways could. Luckily the subways are starting to come back, but I’m honestly not expecting a full service return for quite some time.  Schools were closed here for a week, which I never saw even the worst of blizzards cancel in both school and college for me. It in a way made my cancelled rehearsals the least of my problems for awhile, figuring out safety of others and when I could safely leave the apartment again took priority.

I’m moving forward with rehearsals now thankfully, and I’ve had a very good few couple of rehearsals with this cast and crew. These people I’m working with have a lot of talent and drive, which I think is going to make the entire process worthwhile. Post-hurricane times should be very good times for me. But it’s something to think about for sure as I travel throughout my city for my work. Looking forward to blogging about theatre minus the hurricane soon.

Until next time.

Nerd responsibly.

-Jordan

#nerdsunite

Follw him on Twitter at @jordanbfriedman!
A Director Blogs:  adirectorblogs.blogspot.com

#NerdsUnite: Big lights, big city, and a journey into confidence

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Jordan. He's a youngin living in the great big apple in the hopes of becoming his dream, a theater director. Will he make it? Won't he? What problems and struggles will he deal with along the way. I have no idea ... so that's why he's here. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT JORDAN!!! </editorsnote> 

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Jordan Friedman

This is the part of the blog where I wish I had a picture of me with a snorkel to start things off.  I will however preface things here, going perhaps the obvious route with some Scorpions:

I’m getting a hurricane this week. Isn’t that just lovely? Considering I’ve never dealt with one in my entire life, and then I get 2 within 13 months of each other, the fates are having a real ball with me being here.  Even more amusing is the fact that one of the days where it’s supposed to be the worst was my first scheduled rehearsal. Thankfully I’ve scheduled things in a way so that I only lose two day’s worth, and these are days I can easily move to another time.  It’s still frustrating however to have your momentum pushed towards a certain time frame, and having things be thrown for a loop.  Otherwise things with the production are going pretty well. I’m beginning the process of launching ticket sales for this show, another new thing I’ve done, but another concrete accomplishment in this set of circumstances. While these sales aren’t likely to happen for a couple of days for obvious reasons, these concrete points within the show give me the positive energy that things are moving along nicely.

So what’s a nerdy director to do when a hurricane is on the horizon? On the more serious end of the scale it gives me some quality time with the script allowing me to get even closer to it. Books are very helpful in these situations anyway, it just so happens that I could be reading the book that I’ve read the most out of any these last months. But on a personal level, with no potential power, there’s only one thing to do. Print about 30 sudoku puzzles and go to town on them. With my luck I may solve one super hard in a day, but it gives me something to do. Perhaps this is the one time where I wish I had roommates, because some good beer would have been in my purchases, but I’m not really the type to drink alone.

That’s really it for now, I’m off to do some last minute prep for this storm and get myself ready for the next scenario. I hope to be back next week with another blog, but that’s not necessarily a guarantee if I lose power.

But still, until next time.

Nerd responsibly.

-Jordan

#nerdsunite

Follw him on Twitter at @jordanbfriedman!

A Director Blogs:  adirectorblogs.blogspot.com

#NerdsUnite: Big lights, big city, and a journey into confidence

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Jordan. He's a youngin living in the great big apple in the hopes of becoming his dream, a theater director. Will he make it? Won't he? What problems and struggles will he deal with along the way. I have no idea ... so that's why he's here. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT JORDAN!!! </editorsnote> 

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Jordan Friedman

This is becoming a very exciting time for me right now in my project. I’m just about to start rehearsing the actual show itself next week. It’s weird for me in a sense thinking of this project in its early stages right around two months ago, and now to see much of this process actually begin and unfold in front of me. There’s still a lot of work to do, I’m working on some more script analysis and having a few meetings. Then I think a lot of my time, and these blogs will focus on the rehearsal process from the start of next week until show time.  I’ve done a lot of talking back and forth to different sorts of people, including another meeting with designers coming up as well as discussing with one of my friends who possibly could help me with graphic design work (This is very important to me since a three year old could probably make a better poster than me).  I’m also mentally sort of getting myself in a rehearsal-ready mind frame and thinking of how I can best use the information I have about the script. It’s been a lot on my mind, but I think I’m doing the best I can with it to make this show work and not overwhelm myself at the same time.   

Over two months into the process, this has been very interesting for me doing independent work. Up until now I’ve been primarily working for other companies who want me to work on shows that best fit the needs of their company or their target audience. While this was beneficial to some degree, I had concerns of falling into a certain niche as a theatre artist. I consider myself someone who likes to do a variety of work as a theatre director, and I want to be able to branch into work that I felt as if I was separating myself from doing in the work I did prior. It’s an atmosphere that I’m actually slowly getting used to, as I’ve done work at least somewhat supervised going back to college work being guided by curriculums and professors. It’s not as if such supervision was entirely bad, in fact a lot of positives came out of it and my core directing and theatre skills came out of it. However, being in the real world is a different feeling. You’re not doing work for a grade or because you’re directly being told to. If you’re a director in the real world, you want to do this for more than just one course. That sort of overall though is what I’ve incorporated into my M.O of working independently at least for one show. Will I return to working for other companies? Absolutely. I’m young enough in that I’m able to take in a lot of information from many different people. But what I’m doing now is seeking something I feel is probably intangible and something one best learns on their own, which is leadership techniques, and the idea of building something from the ground up.  It’s an experience I’m very glad I’m doing, and something I know I’ll carry with me for the rest of my professional career. I’ll leave you all on that note, I have a lot of work to do.

Until next time.

Nerd responsibly.

-Jordan

#nerdsunite

Follw him on Twitter at @jordanbfriedman!

A Director Blogs:  adirectorblogs.blogspot.com

#NerdsUnite: Big lights, big city, and a journey into confidence

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Jordan Friedman

I feel like one of the things I haven’t really done here on this particular blog is explain what I actually do as a director of theatre.  This is what I’ll devote this particular blog to. Bear in mind that there’s probably more than I can convey on here, but I’ll do my best here to explain, in a somewhat streamlined process, what I do as a director.

One of the first things I do is go in-depth into the script I’m working on. This is very important for my craft. At their core, directors are storytellers. They use the tools that they have to tell the story that the playwright wants to be told. You can’t do that unless you actually read the script and understand what the playwright has written. On the basic level, this requires reading the script. A lot. At more specific levels, I analyze specific details, including the overall story chart, the given circumstances that are present in this story, and perhaps the one that I spend the most time on, the details of the characters. Because these are the people that make up the story, I take my time to make sure I understand them right. For my current project, I’m writing down who each character is, what I consider to be their superobjective (Where as a character might have one objective in a moment, they likely have a superobjective, or overarching goal throughout the story), and the actions they take. I am someone who, as much as possible, directs by telling people what to do rather than what to be.  To get concrete actions written down for these characters is crucial for me, it allows me to know how they respond to a certain situation and why.

After the script analysis comes aspects that may or may not be in my control. In the overall production sense, there’s getting your production staff and cast together. In the past, I haven’t always had control over these; for example in showcase work I often tend to have cast members chosen for me. When I do have control over these, I talk to potential designers and stage managers to see if they speak the same language that I do theatre wise and can create their best work under a certain set of circumstances. With actors, I’ll either have them read monologues or certain portions of the script that best define the character they’re interested in. I do this to see their overall acting ability as well as their ability to adjust to changes I may throw at them (On either end of my field, you have to be very adaptable). I then process over everything as much as I can and select the people who I believe will get me the best performance.

Then, the rehearsal process begins. Depending on the script and the circumstances of the show I’ve had some rehearsal processes last under 6 hours, while my most recent one is probably going to push at least 60. No matter how long it lasts however, I have a few key steps with what I do. First is what’s known as table work, or the actors sitting down at the table with scripts in hand, reading out loud and discussing what the text means to the actors and how they initially respond. From there I take those instincts and attempt to build their characters and their reactions to the story in front of them. This gives the actors a foundation of what they do, why they act the way they do and what is in the characters’ heads in the moments of the play. Once that’s done I enter blocking, which is simply having the actors on their feet and adding movement and pace to what was discussed in table work. This is not only important to complete the characters and their actions, but it also truly lets me see how everything works on stage and whether it plays out on the stage the way it was intended to be in table work. This also lets everyone get everything in their head the way they’re supposed to and correlate lines to actions and responses in order to get everybody in a state ready for performance.

Once that’s gone on for some time, and I’ve had meetings with designers on the side to discuss their work comes the joy that is tech week. This is often one of the more tiring process of being a director as you have to work to get the technical aspects of the show together with the performance. The lighting, set, costume, and sound elements will be loaded into the theatre and I’ll often make sure to test them before actors come into the space. Then there’s the work of getting the actors used to the space and balancing the timing of the actors and the tech elements, along with overall story telling with everything together. With last minute refinement and changes that can be made as well, this can be a tiring week in the process, particularly as this is the week to make sure everything is right and ready to go. However once it’s done and the product is complete, I consider my job done and let the piece carry its course. It’s something I consider to be a fulfilling end after a long process.

While there’s more to the process than what’s listed here, there’s a brief look at what it is I do. Perhaps when there’s a way to show specific examples on here I can take what I show and put it into context. But for now I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my world. Until next time.

Nerd responsibly.

-Jordan

#nerdsunite

Follw him on Twitter at @jordanbfriedman!

A Director Blogs:  adirectorblogs.blogspot.com

#NerdsUnite: Big lights, big city, and a journey into confidence

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Jordan. He's a youngin living in the great big apple in the hopes of becoming his dream, a theater director. Will he make it? Won't he? What problems and struggles will he deal with along the way. I have no idea ... so that's why he's here. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT JORDAN!!! </editorsnote> 

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Jordan Friedman

I know I said last time I’d be continuing the stuff I wrote about in the previous blog, however I’ve noticed something that’s going to help me change topic a bit. This is a little more serious of a blog than I usually write. There won’t necessarily be the Most Interesting Man In The World appearing again and I feel this is more serious than usual for me to end with Stay Nerdy My Friends.  This is my response and story to what I can gather has been a challenging time for Jen, who I consider not only my boss on this site, but someone who I respect greatly not only for letting me write on here and has treated me very well here so far. I feel a great sense of empathy towards her, and I sense this sadness within her writing sometimes (particularly lately) This is my response to this, and my response to this is to share an aspect of me that has consciously affected me for probably at least 15 of my 22 years on earth, if not something like 18. It’s also something I suspect is not going away anytime soon. So in response to Jen being dealt many lemons as of late, here is the story of what I will refer to as my constant lemon.

Since at least the time I was 7 years old, I’ve had heightened anxiety. There’s the possibility that medically this is a generalized anxiety disorder, but there’s also the idea of this merely being a small part of something bigger (that something bigger gets its own blog at some point). Point being, I get anxious often, and whenever I do, I feel it hard.  It’s almost as if the anxiety I feel can be, at its worst, paralyzing, placing me in a state of apathy with me not wanting to exert much energy towards anything. It also feels as if my brain has pressure certainly externally as well as possibly internally. Intangibly I can’t pinpoint exactly what this is in my head, but something always feels wrong in my head when it happens.  Sometimes it’s a long-term anxiety, sometimes it just rushes in as if it were a panic attack (which although it feels like it very rarely do I have the actual symptoms of one). Neither is pleasant, and it’s annoying that I feel as if as much as I’ve attempted to get this under control, it probably isn’t going to go away entirely.

I first started seriously trying to control this probably around freshman year or sophomore year of college, when I realized it was starting to affect my academic performance, and as I recall it was starting to be noticed by my boss as well (He gets another article as well at some point, because I learned more in my college years from this man and the job I had than I learned in all of my courses combined). I took serious steps towards this. I tried therapy again for a little bit, it didn’t quite work the way I wanted it to. To this day I take occasional medicinal Xanax (a lot less than I used to), and while these steps helped, I think one particular thing drove the point home for me, which was simply putting on the metaphorical helmet and getting stuff done. And when I did get stuff done and made choices that helped me get shit done.  I wish I could pinpoint a specific moment that lead me to this realization, but I know one thing. By 2009, I began to become a different person. While I wasn’t entirely there yet (I still wouldn’t say I fully am), this was the first concrete time I can remember actively trying to improve not only my anxiety, but my confidence as well. This was also the point where my anxiety attacks weren’t as paralyzing as they used to be. Granted they still sucked and do occasionally, but I think now even though I still have them, the part of me that needs to work, get shit done, or even just have a good time supersedes the actual attack itself.

Where am I at today with this? Hard to say with my professional career starting to take off. Do I get the anxiety attack occasionally? Absolutely. Do they cause me some serious shit from time to time? Hell yes. But I think where I’m at now is that originally I may have thought my anxiety may have caused me to have major setbacks in my career. Now I think of myself as a professional who happens to have heightened anxiety. It’s certainly not the worst place I could be in with this.  And why did I share all this? As I said before, having Jen be hit with a bunch of lemons during the brief period I’ve been part of TNTML so far was not a pleasant thing to see. My goal was to present a lemon that’s probably been on the vine so to speak for years, and to perhaps present the honesty in a 15 year old plus problem of mine in the attempt for her, or anyone else who could be reading this, to find one thing in in my chronic lemon that can help with their lemons, whether they can be made into lemonade or not. Jen, whatever your lemon is on your vine (and I would have to read through a lot to find out the lemon), whatever is the root of this sadness I’ve seen this month, I do hope it becomes lemonade, possibly even hard lemonade. And to all reading this, I sincerely appreciate a safe atmosphere for me to talk about my anxiety, it’s nice for me to let it out and I hope you all didn’t mind it.

Until next time,

Nerd responsibly.

-Jordan

#nerdsunite

Follw him on Twitter at @jordanbfriedman!