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Count Your Blessings, Remember Your Dreams Or, You Say You Want To Do A TV Show? By John Tudor (Originally Published in The Linking Ring Magazine, January 2005) |
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| Count Your Blessings, Remember Your Dreams 1421 words (Or, You Think You Want To Do A TV Show?) By John Tudor Television has always fascinated me, both as an actor and as a magician, and my dream has always been my own TV special. I‘ve produced a few of my own TV projects, but nothing ever really went anywhere. The area I live in (South Carolina) isn’t exactly the media center of the universe, either. I’d been told that my dream of my own TV show would never happen and I should just forget it, but I’m glad to report they were wrong. John Tudor’s Magic Theatre started in the fall of 2003, at a talk by Tom Fowler (Director of Programming for South Carolina Educational Television) about the new statewide digital cable channel (the South Carolina Channel, based at WRJA in Sumter, SC). They were seeking new video content related to people in the state, but the big news was about a place I’d performed many times. The Sumter Opera House had been retrofitted with state-of-the-art digital video equipment: the beautiful theater was now a studio! It took several months to get the “green light”, but eventually a date (September 24, 2004) was set. An hour long, free-to-the-public magic show would showcase the best magicians of our area; and be broadcast to approximately 400, 000 digital cable subscribers. I was both producer and lead performer. Here’s the project I’d dreamed of! Slowly it sank in what I had taken on: creating a live revue show, and a TV show, all at once. Most importantly, it had to be excellent, because what the camera records is “set in stone” forever. The complexity of the project is hard to overstate, and the work load proved daunting. Many days I had to make a choice: to work on the show’s production & promotion, or to work on my own act! The balance was not easily maintained. How was I going to do all this, and (as it was an ETV “zero budget” project) how was I going to pay for it? The answer was to count my blessings of mentors, friends, and experience. Technical/magic director Henry Pettit, and director (and magician) Gary Hipp, have for years supported my ideas and made them possible. For more than a decade, Glenn Strange (Spartanburg, SC), Tim Sonefelt (Anderson, SC) , Dave Tanner (Myrtle Beach, SC), and I had done stage shows together (including the SCAM convention). They agreed to appear, as did newcomers Robert Moreland (Savannah, Ga) and my student, Sarah Straney (Columbia, SC). The SC Channel crew, Production Coordinator Eleanor Vaughn, and Station Manager Will Anderson, also provided invaluable guidance. The artistic direction was agreed upon early. The “Magic Theatre” concept came to mean “original magic stories which feature imagination, depth, and emotion.” Since we weren’t just doing the standard TV magic fare (close-up shot with hand held cameras on a street, for instance), but showcasing magic as a fine art, special funding was possible. The project was awarded generous grants from the SC Arts Commission, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the Coastal Community Foundation. As we conferred with each performer on the live show aspects, we also created the video; in terms of blocking, logistics, color/light coordination, etc. Through what seemed like endless meetings, calls, e-mails, and review of music and videos; the show was planned on paper. The video script was an ever evolving template for the show- and the use of the director’s deceptively simple format became the biggest single thing I learned in this process. All of the performers (and others involved) took this show as sort of mission, to create the best possible performance they could. This was personally rewarding as most had hardly done any TV. One particular challenge was to perform exactly to a chosen time limit with new music (due to licensing issues), so we were all forced to rehearse extensively to polish our work. The Show The day of the shoot was one of the most intense days most of us had ever experienced. Four cameras, six magicians, what could go wrong? A wide variety of technical problems and delays cropped up. Some personnel had to drop out, which left us without a producer (I had to get ready for my own act!) We brought in the largest audience that a Sumter Opera House/SC Channel taping ever had. To engage the audience right from the start, we began with visual routines. David Tanner opened with the Compressed illusion, shrinking assistant Chelise Simpson to a foot tall and back again. Tim Sonefelt looked fantastic as he did a sharp classical bird act in white tie and tails, with a jazzy, nostalgic flair. Our own sleight of hand prodigy, Robert Moreland, performed his flawless yet explosive card and coin work. The magic premise being set, we took the audience deeper. Emcee Glenn Strange acted as the bridge between magic with, and without, meaning. He changed a National Enquirer magazine into it’s natural form (toilet tissue), then later shared a childhood memory as a Snowstorm appeared from his empty hands. The only female professional in SC, Sarah Straney, told an Asian tale of enlightenment (with Chinese Sticks) to a large group of children seated all around her. Two were brought back to present “magic theatre” type material, allowing them to demonstrate depth. Sitting on the edge of the stage, Tim Sonefelt did a magic story Blendo routine about pirates, based upon a library book, that urged young people to read. Dave Tanner returned to tell of his magic mentor Reese Hart, whose ongoing (ghostly?) presence was beautifully shown with the Losander Table Levitation. This was my own favorite part of the show..and the words the old man had left Dave stayed with me: Count Your Blessings, Remember Your Dreams. I featured the tale of a Spanish swordfighter’s redemption (Card Sword). Recurring nightmares were experienced (Bob Neale’s Last Dream). Finally, I fulfilled some early inspirations as Breanna O’Neal was vanished in a Marc Chagall painting (Steinmeyer’s Lady In The Puzzle). The audience rewarded us with a long standing ovation. The house manager said that not a single person complained about the technical delays, and many found it fascinating to see behind the scenes of a TV production. Broadcast Halloween weekend, the final product looked better than I could have hoped and all were happy with it. We are even able to make it up to those without digital cable, as Magic Theatre will be broadcast on the main SC ETV network in early 2005. The Documentary Simultaneous with the SC Channel shoot was an “indie” documentary shoot, to create a “behind the scenes” look at the making of the TV special and the secret world of magicians. It was coordinated by Joey Vazquez, a young magician with a background in videography, who did most of the shooting. This second unit also included international filmmaker Alan Geoghegan, Cameron Lovejoy (another young videographer/ magician) and a still photographer. They were there to document the process, and were challenged to create a video record of their own learning experience in the various disciplines involved. The documentary taping began in June of 2004, with an early conference with the director. Over the next several months we videotaped rehearsals and planning sessions, and conducted interviews with those involved. The interviews especially focused on the emotional aspects of preparing for a TV show. On the day of the show, from early in the morning; the young cameramen roved the theater, the control room, and the neighborhood. As they also were on the stage crew, they seemed to be everywhere! The technical difficulties of the television production made for a certain “reality television” intensity in the video footage they shot. At the time of this writing, we’re assembling the content into a story of the making of the show. Hopefully , besides the “stand alone” documentary, some of the documentary footage will make it’s way into a new version of the TV special itself. The final product will be an educational work designed to fill a void in the knowledge of many performers. Using the experience (and footage) of creating this TV show, we hope to go beyond “how to do it”; to foster an understanding of the new paradigms of digital media as applied to performing arts. Watch www.tudormagic.com for details. And if anyone ever tells you that you can’t do something, think of Reese Hart’s words: Count Your Blessings, and Remember Your Dreams.
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