Windwill’s ‘nightnight’ premieres

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Last week, the Windmill Theatre Company presented “nightnight,” a one-act production about three astronauts on a mission, written by Lucas Hnath and co-directed by third-year Logan Schulman and thesis student Michael Valdez. The play represents a departure from past performances – there is a greater emphasis on technical aspects of the performance space. Valdez refers to “nightnight” as a “love letter to the BBT.”  

“I think considering the Black Box at this point is four or five years old, we haven’t really come to realize its entire potential,” Schulman said.  

Over the summer, many technical additions were made to the Black Box space, including new lights, and newly installed base and subwoofers. “nightnight” signifies what Schulman calls a “technical rebirth.”

“When students who have seen shows in the Black Box come to see “nightnight,” they’re going to say ‘I had no idea this space could do that,’” Valdez said.

The production itself was prepared entirely over the course of 30 days, which included all the usual preparations, done over a significantly shorter amount of time.

“So [Valdez] at the beginning of this process said this thing that has kind of been the motto throughout.  He said ‘yeah, it’s a tank down the mountain production,’” Schulman said.

“Normal productions are like a choo-choo train going from Seattle to New York,” Valdez explained.

The production represented a stark contrast to his analogy, as the drastically shorter time frame required for many different tasks to be happening concurrently, such as securing the rights for the play, helping the actors understand their roles, creating the set and setting up the BBT for the technical challenge ahead of it.  

Future Windmill productions this semester will include several student-written pieces, such as McAlister Grant’s thesis production, “Little Nightmares,” on Oct. 31.

“I’m just really happy that this is going to kick off our second semester of a full season,” Valdez said.

 

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