I survived our first combat day! We spent our Saturday rehearsal working with our fight director, Zach Livingston, to put together a giant group fight sequence. We had an absolute blast and I was seriously impressed with what we were able to accomplish. I really appreciated Zach’s commitment to storytelling as he assembled the fight, always making sure that each movement served and enhanced the story. He also used each actor’s combat/movement experience to highlight the best of our individual skill sets. Stephen Dale (wIlqInS) goes on a particularly entertaining rampage and Kim Fukawa (Qob, marja’) also shows off her fierce combat expertise.

Bel throws the first punch in the fight! A moment I’m glad that Phil (SQuja) was able to capture, as I was apparently looking out a window in the exact opposite direction. Sure, the rest of the cast got to watch Vivian look exceptionally cool, but who can tell you what was going on with the brick wall across the alley? Only that window and I know, and we’re not telling.

In addition to some more blocking and physical work this week, we had our first introduction to ridges! As an actor, it’s always fun to take on new and challenging physical transformations. As a former middle school student who still gets nervous around the cool kids, I was a little worried that I would look goofy and wouldn’t make a terribly convincing Klingon in comparison to my KCC veteran cast members. As someone who has felt the pain of applying and removing heavy stage makeup multiple times a week and prefers to keep the skin on their face, I was terrified.

While we didn’t go into the full Klingon makeup, we looked for a base color and found the right ridges/wigs for the majority of the cast. Christina Romano (the actress playing my mother) and I were able to make our hair giant enough that we didn’t need to be wigged and could just wear our ridges. I was super relieved as I’ve spent many hours of my life pin curling massive amounts of hair to fit under wig caps and now I just might be able to spend that time eating dinner between work and showtime! Reach for those stars, Violette!

I’m really excited to keep moving forward in rehearsal and start working some of my marDa scenes. The first rehearsal of a scene is with Catie (our director) to block and work more character/relationship stuff. Then, the next rehearsal is to review blocking and go over language and pronunciation with our language expert, Jeremy. Looking forward to the next steps. More next week!

Caity-Shea

This is Klingon Christmas Carol’s 5th and FINAL year in Chicago, so tickets will be going quickly! Guarantee your spot by getting tickets in advance at: http://www.tinyurl.com/Klingontickets-2014