First and foremost, we had our fabulous Rooftop Fundraiser Extravaganza last Thursday! It went swimmingly! (And yes, that may be a pun about the presence of a hot tub on this particular rooftop)

Photography by Shannon O'Neil

Look at my beautiful cast and crew! And my beautiful roof! This is indeed the roof of the very building where Vincent’s Yellow will be happening, in the background there you have Millennium Park, and you can even see part of the Art Institute of Chicago (where Vincent’s paintings are). Because there are no photos elsewhere on the site of these two lovely ladies, I’d like to point out that on the far right is my wondrous choreographer, Katie Eberhardy, and on the left that beautiful blond, bespectacled woman in a blue dress is my co-director, co-producer, co-We’re-Going-To-Make-This-Happen, Amy Buckler. The only person missing is my lovely Stage Manager/Assistant-to-Everything, Shannon O’Neil, who was taking the photos that night.

There she is! Isn’t she perrty? She came all the way out from New York for the month of July just to help me. Also, to enjoy Chicago in the summer, which is certainly worthy of her time.

Photography by Shannon O'Neil

We also maybe had a little fun playing with my Van Gogh doll. His ear comes off!

Photography by Shannon O'Neil

See? I’m holding it! And look at me and my lovely family: awww…

Shannon has also been going around Chicago lately taking photos of the Van Gogh doll in different locations, and so far this one has turned out to be my favorite:

Photography by Shannon O'Neil

Isn’t this photo profound? There’s something really fascinating about representation here: self-representation, others seeing your self-representation, the other’s representation of you, and all of this in a photo, that creates another imaging of two images… This photo really expresses to me a lot about Vincent’s Yellow, how in questioning this icon, and this human, we question ourselves. Who is Vincent looking at? What are we really seeing? How would he look at us looking at him? That’s all I can think while looking at this photograph.

The other thing accomplished this past week was that we painted the space! Not only was this important to set the right tone for the performance (it must be a space that feels old, from another time), but suddenly I found myself with paint on my hands, and thinking of Vincent. It took about 35 man hours to finish the apartment off, luckily I had help. Also luckily, my co-director Amy spent the last year in a scenic paint shop. I won’t show you the finished product, but here were some of the early stages.

Photography by Shannon O'Neil

Hi Amy!

Photography by Shannon O'Neil

Hi apartment!

Okay, that’s all for this week, running off to do many more things (like get less bruised from dance rehearsal, or make some canvas stretchers, or finish off my map of the current locations of Vincent’s paintings)…

much love!