A QachIt Family Affair

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Hey, All!

QachIt Family Table Read

QachIt Family table read in Klingon. L to R, Shandee Vaughan, Phil Zimmermann, Jeremy Cowan, Christina Romano, Clark Bender’s forehead, Elizabeth MacDougald, Christopher Kidder-Mostrom.

We’ve been busy in the rehearsal room finishing blocking (!!!) and working through language. Almost all of my rehearsals this week were for QachIt family scenes and it turns out when you mix a room full of sleep deprived artists, a puppet and space language, things get super silly. Like painting with the windows closed silly. Giggle fits, Star Trek puns, and a surprising amount of cat references filled the rehearsal space as we blocked and incorporated language into our dinner conversation around the table.

Elizabeth MacDouglad

Elizabeth MacDougald and tImHom

In the show, my character marDa QachIt often interacts with her younger brother tImHom, a puppet brought to life by the talented Elizabeth MacDougald. Throughout blocking, Catie (our director) had tImHom and I improv some playful interactions to incorporate fun brother/sister moments into the scenes. Our puppet expert Alison Farajpanahi joined rehearsal one evening to work with the cast on puppet movement and etiquette.


(Alison teaching me how to pick up tImHom after several failed attempts)

Me: So, do I like aim for the armpits or try to just scoop him up or…

Alison: Think of it like you’re picking up a two-year old.

(Blank stare)

Alison: You know, like how you pick up a kid when you’re going to hold them?

Me: I just realized I don’t think I’ve ever held a child. Like ever. Does that say something about me?

Alison: …have you ever picked up anything similar to a child?

Me: Do cats count?

Alison: We’ll work with it.


Join some Klingon Christmas Carol cast members at Geek Bar in Wicker Park this Sunday, November 9th from 3-7pm for a “Klingon Cultural Symposium”! You might even see some ridges {{{:-)

Until 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

Klingon Combat and the Road to Ridges

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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.

Fight Day

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.

Klingon1

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

“Capital T’s are to Klingon as Crying is to Baseball”

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We’ve officially completed our first week of KCC rehearsals and although my brain is a little melty, I just might be starting to get the hang of it.

I knew that learning Klingon would be challenging and take some time, but to be honest, I thought it was pretty easily within my reach. I studied Spanish from kindergarten through senior year of high school, I learned IPA in my BFA program at the University of Minnesota, Duluth and being a writer makes me kind of a word geek. I knew it might be tricky, but I had secret hopes that I could pick it up instantly and be terribly impressive.

In short, I was wrong. Desperately, profoundly, emphatically wrong.

While the language lessons kicked my butt in ways I didn’t previously know butts could be kicked, we were given a tremendous amount of support. Leading us in our Klingon education was our insanely patient and knowledgeable Klingon Language Expert, Jeremy Cowan (pictured below).

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We were given a PowerPoint presentation, multiple dictionaries (one with all of the words in the script assembled by Jeremy himself), grammar handouts and three 3-hour lectures. I cannot express enough respect or gratitude for the help that Jeremy, our producer Ali and the entire cast provided throughout the week.

As a theatre artist, I’ve been somewhat coddled by spending time around people who all share a similar passion and knowledge surrounding that passion. I know the references, I get the jokes, and I can usually hold my own in green room conversations with fellow actors. I feel like a member of the community. This is the first time in a while that I’ve felt completely and entirely out of my element. If a ‘Chekov’ joke is made, my knowledge of theatre in late 1800’s Moscow probably doesn’t apply.

For example:

 (Writing practice sentences in front of the cast. Someone attempts to write the word “virtue” in Klingon spelling it “ ghobe’ ”)

Jeremy: So, what are you trying to write here?

Cast member: Virtue.

Jeremy: Close, but it’s actually spelled ghob’e’. You forgot the additional ‘ mark around the e, which actually changes it to another word. Does anyone know what the word ghobe’ means?

Entire room in unison: NO.

(Everyone bursts out laughing. I’m comforted knowing that I’m not the only one who didn’t know the answer)

Jeremy: Correct, the word ghobe’ means “no”.

(Resume failure)

While I might have been overwhelmed this week and still have plenty of practicing to do, I was able to learn basic pronunciations, grammatical structure and some Star Trek/Klingon history. We even learned some Klingon “epithets” and had an insult battle (pictured below).

Klingon Insult Battle

In addition to these lessons, here are three helpful tips I picked up for the Klingon beginner:

1. Do not try to sneak bites of dinner in between practicing sentences aloud. No, not even a protein bar. You will spit it all over the actor next to you and it will be gross (Sorry, James).

2. When claiming that your mispronunciation of a word is a “character choice”, first ask yourself: “Am I Christopher Plummer?” If not, then perhaps reconsider.

3. Capital T’s and lowercase i’s, d’s and h’s are to Klingon, as crying is to baseball. (as observed by this year’s SQuja’)

As somewhat of an outsider to science fiction fandoms, I was a little worried that I might not be accepted into the community. This time I’m happy to say that I was once again wrong. Even if you don’t understand the Star Trek culture and couldn’t tell the difference between TNG or DS9 if your yIn depended on it, the passion and spirit with which KCC was created is enough to make anyone fall in love with it. Whether it’s a book, a movie, a band, a sports team or a TV show, we all look to something outside of ourselves to seek identity and community in an increasingly isolated world. The Star Trek fandom invites its members on adventures that transcend earthly limitations to illuminate our place in this world by exploring others. And whether you speak Klingon or not, I think it’s pretty easy to see what makes that wonderful.