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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Arts / Theater Opening Night: Mike Daisey

Posted by Jen Graves on Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 6:37 PM

Mike Daisey: about to go on.

^{(This is a sometime feature in which we'll talk to artists in the final hours before they go onstage, to see what's on their minds, what their rituals are, what kind of shape they're in. This time, our subject is Mike Daisey, whose full-length monologue The Agony & the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs—a two-hour marathon, without intermission—opens tonight at Seattle Rep.)}

Sent at 6:14 pm via email:

I am in my dressing room at the Rep. I have just taken a very long walk around Seattle Center in the rain—I'm cold and wet, but I'm not noticing it in the tumult of this evening. I've been revising my notes, locking down a number of major changes I made over the last two previews, walking through my flight plan for the evening, checking my notes again. As soon as I finish this email I will make my final preparations and then go sit on the stage in the dark for a time, which I like to do when I can before important nights, because it helps me orient to the room's tone and timbre.

I have many rituals, hundreds of them. I have found the only way to leash them and make them useful is to obey them and then break them religiously, overturning old rituals for new ones with every run, or even more often when possible. This helps them be the focusing tool they are intended to be, and keep them from becoming a neurotic leash. But one of the things that makes a ritual work is that I don't tell anyone what it is, so you'll have to use your imagination—though don't imagine too much, because like most acts of peering inside a creative form, it is singularly uninteresting to the outside world, even though I become deeply invested in them.

I also become very obsessed with time. I will be onstage in 82 minutes.

See you there, Daisey. See you there.

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Seeing this show next week! Looking forward to it!

Posted by Suz on April 28, 2011 at 7:58 AM

That desk and office ensemble he's got is super kewl.

Did he get that in Bangladesh?????

Posted by sgt_doom on April 28, 2011 at 11:32 AM

I guess I'm a cheapskate. I wouldn't mind seeing this, but unless one is willing to sit in the very back of the balcony or on the extreme sides tickets are pricey for "adults".

Posted by stinkbug on April 28, 2011 at 11:35 AM

The Rep has pay what you can nights and other chances to get tickets for less. Call the box office and ask.

Posted by moomoo on April 28, 2011 at 5:48 PM

We saw Daisey at Mike's Pub in Manhattan. In a lifetime of theater-going, in Seattle, San Francisco, and New York, this was the most moving performance and most brilliant writing/researching/creating I have ever experienced. That's why we hastened back west to grab our second row tickets. I would make this a "must go" experience. Daisey's work is life-changing, in a good way. You know what the car salesmen say - if you skipped one latte a day, you could afford this car. Afford Daisey. He's better than a car.

When I was growing up in Seattle, we kids ushered to get tix or at least standing room. Can you still do that? In NY, there are all kinds of way to get less expensive tickets, such as show up at the theater and wait two or three hours sitting on the floor... Is there a way to nab less expensive tickets in Seattle?

Posted by Kirie on April 29, 2011 at 12:49 PM

If you're a member of TPS (Theatre Puget Sound), you can get free standby tickets. But a TPS membership isn't cheap ($55 for a year IIRC). If you see a lot of theatre shows in town (like a couple a month or more), though, it pays for itself via ticket discounts.

Posted by Gomez