#dollar tan

[film-book]

NO ESCAPE (2015) Movie Trailer: Owen Wilson Protects Family During Uprising No Escape Trailer. John Erick Dowdle's No Escape (2015) movie trailer stars…

[isabelkeating]

This is Dollar Tan, past company member, who gave name to our "TICK."

As we wind down at Spidey, I am reminiscing about the wonderful people who have been a part of our web. Long before we all learned we would be closing, I was fortunate to have been asked to be the backstage "correspondent" for Playbill's Broadway Yearbook for the 2012-2013 season. I take the liberty, without express permission, except that they are my own words, of printing an excerpt of the piece I contributed to that volume, to pay homage to all of us who have been a part of the making of Spider-Man. From its inception, we have had a backstage ritual that continues to this day, only through Saturday night January 4, 2014. Here, for #throwbackthursday, is our "Tic(k) Circle." 

"We have a very special ritual we perform as a company before every single performance. At our "places" call, the cast gathers on deck, stage right. We hold hands to form a circle in order to offer each other well wishes for a good show. This circle originated early in our process as an invocation of gratitude and protection. For a time, it included moments where anyone who wished would speak from the heart and dedicate a few special words. It evolved to become a ritual of remembrance and inclusion, our "TICK CIRCLE." Every time an actor departs the company, he or she adds a word or a sound, with a movement, to the existing choreography. The TICK CIRCLE is so named because one night company member Dollar Tan spontaneously launched into one of his signature moves and voiced a simple "tick, tick, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM" with coordinated foot-stomps. It has since grown (and continues to grow!) into a lengthy stream of words and sounds accompanied by specific moves which we execute with alacrity and occasional grace, nightly, just before the curtain goes up."

I'll just add that at its inception the crude sacred circle had in attendance ALL of those involved in our process: cast, crew and creatives. I salute us.