Puppet designers Elizabeth Luce and Brian White with “The Very Old Clerk” puppet

At Rogue Artists Ensemble everyone brings ideas—and better be prepared to let them go

The Rogue Artists Ensemble, as their name suggests, do not play by the rules. Many theatre companies will find a script, rehearse for six weeks, bring in technical crew at the last minute and open whether they are ready or not. Take that process, extend it by about three years, get the input of 15 designers and you will get a feel for how the Rogues create what they call “Hyper Theatre.”

A production concept and many of the group’s trademark visual effects precede the script by as much as a year. In a tradition that owes a lot to Brecht, Peter Brook and Kabuki theatre, the story is carried forward using as many stage techniques as the design team considers appropriate. While masks and puppets have been around as long as theatre itself, in the Rogue’s “Hyper Theatre” they’re combined with an injection of modern technology to create enormous production value.

Their current production—Gogol Project—is based on three of acclaimed 19th-century Russian writer Nikolai Gogol’s short stories, adapted by playwright and NPR radio host Kitty Felde. The script is an amalgam of Diary of a Madman, The Overcoat and The Nose.

Process
If you are wondering how 15 designers can agree on anything, Artistic Director Sean Cawelti says he has never had too much of a problem with it.

“Each member creates a small sacred list of ideas and the group allows these to bubble up to the surface,” explains Cawelti. “It works very well—I very rarely have to adjudicate.”

Collaboration is at the heart of Rogue Theatre thinking.

“We did not start the company just to put actors on stage,” says Cawelti. “We are designers, storytellers and artists that want to create work that will engage an audience. The core group met at UC Irvine between 2000-2003 and pushed the limits of what typical student production could do. We have production meetings at least once a month and constant cyber meetings for about two years before we open a show. We bump into each other and ideas happen.”

For this production the group brought their “show bible” of artwork and visual research to the author Kitty Felde who blended three Gogol short stories into one. In the Rogue world, this script became one of many changeable elements that serve the theatrical experience. Knowing how this approach could induce hysteria in playwrights, Cawelti says, “We make it clear from the outset that everything can and will change and that we welcome input in every area—nothing is sacrosanct.”
Cawelti and Assistant Director Tyler Stamets refer to the company as an ensemble and the antithesis of an actors showcase. They virtually erase the lines that separate backstage and onstage. Members can be actors, lighting and sound techs, projection experts, set designers or puppet makers.

“I started as an actor and now they are letting me work with puppets—it’s not as easy as it looks,” company member Nina Silver adds. And independent spirits are not only welcome but required.

“While people come and go, we try to keep one person from each craft within the ensemble at all times,” says Stamets. With all the emphasis on multiple functions it’s not surprising that most of the group hold day jobs within the production industry.

If this sounds too Utopian to work, the results speak for themselves. Last season the Company scored critical (three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards) and box office success with The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch establishing themselves as a model for how theatre can work outside a script-driven hierarchical structure.

Location
As a nomadic group, they are thrilled to be back at the Bootleg Theatre located in historic Filipinotown near downtown Los Angeles. For a 99-seat Equity theatre the space has an impressive rig of ETC Source 4 fixtures, an ETC Insight console and Meyer full-range cabinets with a Yamaha digital console. The original brick warehouse walls are especially appealing to the design team who will extend this element with “flats that play tricks” into a full street scene. The extreme stage depth gives the set a forced perspective. Cawelti says, “We have a long history of going into small L.A. theatres and retrofitting them for our shows—many of them remain that way after we leave.”

Rehearsals are interconnecting cells. While Cawelti works with the actors using brown paper bag rehearsal puppets, Stamets and set designer Katie Polebaum huddle over a scale model of the set. Mock-up puppets ranging in size from tiny dogs to larger than life characters are in a constant state of modification. The tools of choice are the Apple MacBooks and rolls of gaffers tape.

In the control room of the Bootleg Theatre the talk is of show control and MIDI interfaces. QLab Show Control software is at the heart of this complex show. Sound Designer John Nobori and Lighting Designer Haylee Freeman create complex cue stacks for projection, lighting and audio on a newly acquired Mac. A month before opening night Nobori is experimenting with “point sourcing” placing of microphones within and near the larger puppets. For a church scene he is trying floor mics fed through the reverb on the Yamaha DM1000  console to create the feeling of a cathedral. For other effects he will use Pro Tools. He jokes, “We will soon be at the point where we start integrating with each other and fighting for space on the grid.” Freeman still favors traditional consoles like the ETC Insight over software based laptop devices. However, the cues she creates will be triggered by QLab’s MIDI generator.

Brian White has created video effects for previous Rogue shows and, drawing from his background as an illustrator, is also credited with puppet design. He explains, ”The video content is created in Adobe After Effects with a little bit of Flash, and for this show we use some stop motion animation. We are overlaying video over video for the first time. We have created an animated clock face and a number of environmental effects.”

White worked with veteran puppet builder Elizabeth Luce to create puppets that are durable, lightweight and visually stunning. From analog sketches the puppet team, which included Wes Crain and Lena Garcia, crafted the arcane Gogol characters from foam, thin wood and paper mache.

“It was very, very labor intensive and time-consuming, but I am very happy with the results” says White.

“The tricky part is making them actor friendly” adds Crain. “There is a lot of onsite adjustment.”

Musical Director Ego Plum (born Ernesto Guerrero) created musical themes and songs for the piece. His non-conformist approach and broad musical influences from jazz, through New Wave to the Beatles has made him the perfect rogue collaborator—which is good, because Cawelti is always thinking about the future.
“Sometime our production requirements are stringent but not always,” says Cawelti. “We are also developing small shows ‘Rogue Nanos’ and the idea is that we could set them up anywhere. Right now we are in development for three larger projects. It is also quite possible that we could tour our productions—the projects could definitely have a life outside of Los Angeles. I would love to take our work to universities.”

If this dream comes true, be sure to check out the Rogue Ensemble at a theatre, warehouse or simply a space near you. 

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