As allued to in the last post, I decided this morning to do more than pull out the clippers and I pulled out the razor.
I walked into the office this morning and a coworker took one look at me and gave me a big hug, saying "Yeah! Sometimes you gotta take life by the horns, baby!"
All I could mutter was "Um... thanks, Bob."
Friday, May 26, 2006
straining at the bit
Each part of the creation process has its own joys and frustrations. This is the point in which I want to run before we walk. The actors are doing a fantastic job in finding the core of each scene, but it's too early to delve into truly shaping the scenes the way I'd like to. Until an actor is off book and ready to move around and think more about the moment (or not think, just do), there's only so much direction I feel I can give them. Some directors are all about spending hours doing various exercises to find new things and explore possibilities and what not. I'm not really one of those. I have a pretty good idea about what I want. The trick is to let myself be surprised into something better than what I want. How to direct, while allowing for surprise, but moving them towards the play as I see it, and yet being open to something larger than my original vision... that's something I continue to struggle with.
In the meanwhile, I watch the actors pass over the scenes, over and over, each time growing a bit more into these characters, and eagerly await the chance to throw the scripts down and start living the moments versus reading them. It's like wanting to get married when you're really just starting to date. The excitement of the vision of what is to come is just too compelling, but it needs to be resisted.
We should be off book in ten days, though, and at that point we'll move into the Cassandra's Call Rehearsal Room, with all of our set pieces and props. Gabrielle Guthrie, our costumer and artist, will join us and we'll start to get a sense of how these characters look, and that will influence how they move and feel as well.
In the meantime, I'll be starting yet another project with Diana Brown. We'll be doing short video segments for the Mondo Global Network on local comedians, and also doing longer audio interviews with them for a yet unnamed Cassandra's Call talk show podcast.
Oh, and I shaved my head today. I look like a kinder, gentler Lex Luthor.
In the meanwhile, I watch the actors pass over the scenes, over and over, each time growing a bit more into these characters, and eagerly await the chance to throw the scripts down and start living the moments versus reading them. It's like wanting to get married when you're really just starting to date. The excitement of the vision of what is to come is just too compelling, but it needs to be resisted.
We should be off book in ten days, though, and at that point we'll move into the Cassandra's Call Rehearsal Room, with all of our set pieces and props. Gabrielle Guthrie, our costumer and artist, will join us and we'll start to get a sense of how these characters look, and that will influence how they move and feel as well.
In the meantime, I'll be starting yet another project with Diana Brown. We'll be doing short video segments for the Mondo Global Network on local comedians, and also doing longer audio interviews with them for a yet unnamed Cassandra's Call talk show podcast.
Oh, and I shaved my head today. I look like a kinder, gentler Lex Luthor.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Delayed Beginnings
Rehearsals for Vagina Dentata began last week, although the real work begins tonight. We had an opening rehearsal party on Monday since most of the cast don't really know each other. We were short one actor, however, as I hadn't cast the final role yet. I wouldn't have the role of "Stephanie" cast until the middle of the week, since we had lost one actor and shifted roles for another. Here's a little peek behind the curtain of the magic and glamour of theatre. One actor is only available once a week due to a show that she's doing down in San Jose. We don't get her full time for another week or so. One actor is working nights doing drama therapy at a local prison on Tuesday nights, so she's gone. One actor hadn't been cast yet and was closing a show last weekend, so once she was cast she wasn't able to start immediately. Add to that the usual cast conflicts that come up, especially at the early part of a rehearsal run, we only had one rehearsal last week.
Normally, this would bother me, but with this cast I have no doubts that we can turn out a damn good show with only four weeks of rehearsal. It's partly the danger of casting a lot of very talented, working actors and also something that is more likely to happen when you write a show in which almost everyone gets equal stage time.
Still, I used my time to enjoy what free time I still have. I caught the new show (Roulette) at the SF Playhouse on Wednesday and quite liked it, although it felt like the author had built a really sold first act and then found that he had a fifteen minute second act and tried to fill forty minutes with it. Well acted, but I kept waiting for the story to go somewhere and it kind of danced around in circles. It was the second show I'd seen recently in which madness and insane rambling played a significant role and I am struck by how much a little can go a long way. It's a device I used myself way back in "In a Distant Country", although I was careful to keep it to a minimum. A three page scene can sustain that kind of dialogue a lot easier than a twenty page scene can.
I was able to catch the closing weekend of Dylan Russel's show "World Music" over at Theatre First on Saturday, which was a rare treat as it's one of the very few theatres based in Oakland. It's so odd to be able to walk to the theatre and not have to worry about catching BART afterwards. An excellent and emotionally gripping show about war, atrocity, conscience and personal blindness that reminded me thematically of "Small Tragedies", despite the fact that in every other way they were very different shows. The two shows are a good example of how the same themes can be treated in radically different ways and that two authors tackling the same issues will tell two very different stories.
Sunday night brought another RadioStar recording session, and our first live performance. Lila Theatre has a monthly improv showcase called Tememos and they asked us to come and open the show this month. It was our first time setting up the equipment and doing our thing in front of a live audience, although all of us have countless hours in front of audiences. The impact of the microphones on the audience and the audience on us was fascinating. They were clearly stifling their laughter, emitting titters and chocking down responses out of fear of ruining the recording, and we went a bit more for the jokes, working the audience, than we do when in the studio. Old stage habits began to creep into the show, so it'll be interesting to hear how it plays as pure audio.
I did have a bit of a shock yesterday when I got into the studio last night to find that one of my renters had smashed up against the Pharmarsupial poster and broken the frame... and not left a note or anything. I really don't want to start getting kindergarten teacher on people, but if I have to make everyone put their heads on the desk and raise their hand if they did it, I will.
Postcards for Vagina Dentata and viral cards for RadioStar are at the printers and should be in my hands this week. The PR push has begun and I need to send out the 4 week press releases today.
Normally, this would bother me, but with this cast I have no doubts that we can turn out a damn good show with only four weeks of rehearsal. It's partly the danger of casting a lot of very talented, working actors and also something that is more likely to happen when you write a show in which almost everyone gets equal stage time.
Still, I used my time to enjoy what free time I still have. I caught the new show (Roulette) at the SF Playhouse on Wednesday and quite liked it, although it felt like the author had built a really sold first act and then found that he had a fifteen minute second act and tried to fill forty minutes with it. Well acted, but I kept waiting for the story to go somewhere and it kind of danced around in circles. It was the second show I'd seen recently in which madness and insane rambling played a significant role and I am struck by how much a little can go a long way. It's a device I used myself way back in "In a Distant Country", although I was careful to keep it to a minimum. A three page scene can sustain that kind of dialogue a lot easier than a twenty page scene can.
I was able to catch the closing weekend of Dylan Russel's show "World Music" over at Theatre First on Saturday, which was a rare treat as it's one of the very few theatres based in Oakland. It's so odd to be able to walk to the theatre and not have to worry about catching BART afterwards. An excellent and emotionally gripping show about war, atrocity, conscience and personal blindness that reminded me thematically of "Small Tragedies", despite the fact that in every other way they were very different shows. The two shows are a good example of how the same themes can be treated in radically different ways and that two authors tackling the same issues will tell two very different stories.
Sunday night brought another RadioStar recording session, and our first live performance. Lila Theatre has a monthly improv showcase called Tememos and they asked us to come and open the show this month. It was our first time setting up the equipment and doing our thing in front of a live audience, although all of us have countless hours in front of audiences. The impact of the microphones on the audience and the audience on us was fascinating. They were clearly stifling their laughter, emitting titters and chocking down responses out of fear of ruining the recording, and we went a bit more for the jokes, working the audience, than we do when in the studio. Old stage habits began to creep into the show, so it'll be interesting to hear how it plays as pure audio.
I did have a bit of a shock yesterday when I got into the studio last night to find that one of my renters had smashed up against the Pharmarsupial poster and broken the frame... and not left a note or anything. I really don't want to start getting kindergarten teacher on people, but if I have to make everyone put their heads on the desk and raise their hand if they did it, I will.
Postcards for Vagina Dentata and viral cards for RadioStar are at the printers and should be in my hands this week. The PR push has begun and I need to send out the 4 week press releases today.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Yo, Semite!
This weekend was spent up in Yosemite with a bunch of yahoos. It was David Austin-Groen's birthday, so it was decided to do a guy's only camping weekend. Now, short of Burning Man, I haven't been tent camping since high school. As a child, we used to go to Little Grass Valley every summer, but even that usually involved a camper or trailer of some kind. I'm not much of an outdoors person. Allergies combined with a tendency to sunburn like an albino hairless rat under a radiation lamp have led me to pursue activities that involve shade and filtered air.
The ride up was spent talking a blue streak with Chris DeJong about Radiostar and some other projects that we've worked on. I remember the trip camping to be much longer, but we left early enough to get to the park in extremely good time. Everything about Yosemite reminded me of childhood. The continual presence of dust and pollen in the air gives everything a very particular quality. It's like everything is viewed through a camera filter and symbolizes the *past*.
A lot has changed since those halcyon days, though. For one, the tents have been vastly improved. Even with instructions that made no sense, had you put things together in the wrong order, and referenced parts that didn't exist, I had my new dome from Amazon.com up and groovy in minutes. Back in the Boy Scouts, getting a tent up was a major endeavor. If only we had modern technology back then. Of course my old "mummy bag" sleeping bag from back then still works like a charm.
The food was much better than camping in the past. Everyone was responsible for a meal, and everyone came with goodies. Eggs and bacon, fresh fruit, sausage, deli sandwiches, pasta, kebabs... we ate better than we do at home.
I certainly got more sun and exercise than I do at home. We went on what looked to be an innocuous mile hike at Vernal Falls, but failed to account for the fact that it was also a 1000 foot ascent, with one section of it dominated by ice cold spray that soaked every last one of us to the bone. The view from the top was phenomenal, but I was a bit focused at first on my own shivering, and then my fear that I had somehow gotten violently sunburned on my left hand. After a moment, I realized that the old tye dye shirt I was wearing was bleeding dye all over me. The shirt was a costume piece from a show I did years ago and it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be waterfall safe.
All in all, I learned some very important things during this weekend. First and foremost, turning Settlers of Catan into a drinking game is a very dangerous thing to attempt. Chris won, but I don't know how or when. I was constantly four steps behind everyone else. We tried it again the next night with Jack Daniels instead of good tequila and I learned that I am NOT a Jack fan. Ugh.
Not all things consumed were to my detriment, though. Zack Stern had some fancy schmancy allergy meds that he let me try that performed miracles on my beleaguered sinuses. I was breathing easy despite the constant layer of tree pollen that covered everything like a sugar donut of snot doom. Bless the man. Bless him mightily.
All in all, a good weekend and great way to spend my last weekend before Vagina Dentata consumes my life.
The ride up was spent talking a blue streak with Chris DeJong about Radiostar and some other projects that we've worked on. I remember the trip camping to be much longer, but we left early enough to get to the park in extremely good time. Everything about Yosemite reminded me of childhood. The continual presence of dust and pollen in the air gives everything a very particular quality. It's like everything is viewed through a camera filter and symbolizes the *past*.
A lot has changed since those halcyon days, though. For one, the tents have been vastly improved. Even with instructions that made no sense, had you put things together in the wrong order, and referenced parts that didn't exist, I had my new dome from Amazon.com up and groovy in minutes. Back in the Boy Scouts, getting a tent up was a major endeavor. If only we had modern technology back then. Of course my old "mummy bag" sleeping bag from back then still works like a charm.
The food was much better than camping in the past. Everyone was responsible for a meal, and everyone came with goodies. Eggs and bacon, fresh fruit, sausage, deli sandwiches, pasta, kebabs... we ate better than we do at home.
I certainly got more sun and exercise than I do at home. We went on what looked to be an innocuous mile hike at Vernal Falls, but failed to account for the fact that it was also a 1000 foot ascent, with one section of it dominated by ice cold spray that soaked every last one of us to the bone. The view from the top was phenomenal, but I was a bit focused at first on my own shivering, and then my fear that I had somehow gotten violently sunburned on my left hand. After a moment, I realized that the old tye dye shirt I was wearing was bleeding dye all over me. The shirt was a costume piece from a show I did years ago and it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be waterfall safe.
All in all, I learned some very important things during this weekend. First and foremost, turning Settlers of Catan into a drinking game is a very dangerous thing to attempt. Chris won, but I don't know how or when. I was constantly four steps behind everyone else. We tried it again the next night with Jack Daniels instead of good tequila and I learned that I am NOT a Jack fan. Ugh.
Not all things consumed were to my detriment, though. Zack Stern had some fancy schmancy allergy meds that he let me try that performed miracles on my beleaguered sinuses. I was breathing easy despite the constant layer of tree pollen that covered everything like a sugar donut of snot doom. Bless the man. Bless him mightily.
All in all, a good weekend and great way to spend my last weekend before Vagina Dentata consumes my life.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Many stories
I am more and more reminded of the incredible vibrancy of the local arts scene, and how unknown it is to much of this area's population. I saw four different shows this weekend, each wildly different from the last, and most with shocking low audience turnout.
Thursday I went to go see Cassidy Brown in Noises Off, out in Concord. A fun show, and one that I feel close to having been in a very difficult and story laden production back when I was first getting involved in theatre after my long hiatus. They were having an extension of the production, which is always difficult as you've been doing good enough business to warrant it, but it's not announced until late and so the PR is difficult to get out. Still for a Thursday night, it was all right. But then again, it was a Thursday night, and it was in the suburbs, and well known farces do very well out there. This particular company has done the show three times in the last ten years, which is highly unusual and bespeaks how financially safe it is to do what is actually a very difficult and expensive show. Afterwards we went out to what used to be the "King's X" bar in Piedmont, but was recently bought and turned into (of all things) a tiki bar. It was worth the trip, if only for the surrealness of it.
Friday night I met up with Eden Tosh and one of the best loved ladies that you will never see on stage, Peggy Powell. We met up over at Foley's Irish House before bopping over to the Exit Theatre for their annual DivaFest. I had done a few shows with the amazing "Lunatique Fantastique" years before and was eager to see their newest show, "Beauty and the Breast". For those uninitiated, Lun Fan does "found object puppetry." This mean that all the puppets and their props are items you would find around the house. The primary characters were bras. I don't mean that they had bras, they WERE bras. Ordinary bras you would find in any store that sold things like bras. Funny, truthful, and at times very sad (as a show about surviving... or not ... breast cancer should be). Again, a very small turnout for a company that routinely sells out its shows.
It turns out that Sarah Szewczyk was doing lights for the show, but I failed to return to her the stack of lighting gels that have been at my apartment since Manumission closed last October. She's been busy as hell, as talented lighting designers tend to be. I was able to join most of the Lunatique Fantastique crew for drinks at Original Joe's afterwards, prompting Eden's observation that all I do is go see plays and drink afterwards. Peggy, said that this was rather the whole point of theatre but then had to beg off the drinking part. So I traded off one set of lovely drinking partners for another and caught up with Robin Plutchok, who I hadn't really seen for more than a heartbeat since we did Fixed Boundary together two years earlier.
It turned out that there was a cabaret at Original Joe's that night, which was part of DivaFest. Having run into Amanda Ostermeyer (the power behind the throne at the Exit) and Christina Aguello, I felt it would be impolitic not to stay for the show and ended up running into a couple of strays. Kimberly Richards, who has been touring the country with her one-woman show "Late Night Catechism" showed up, as did the brilliantly deranged Thessaly Lerner who vanished Los Angeles-way a few years ago. It appeared to be a homecoming, and we all sat back for a somewhat slapdash (but surprisingly fun) cabaret celebrating San Francisco 06's, starting with the earthquake a century ago. It was one of those affairs that rode on goodwill and fun and enthusiasm more than any particular polish, rehearsal, or whatnot, and managed to succeed wildly on those credentials.
Finally, last night I caught "Money and Run, Episode 4" out at La Val's Pizzeria in Berkeley, which has a theatre downstairs. Impact Theatre is the current resident company, and I had seen the original three episodes of Money and Run two years ago. These are insane, delightful, funny as hell, and completely pointless homages to bad television of the early 80's. The original run was wildly popular and always well attended, so I was surprised to see that the theatre was barely a quarter fill, and it's a very small venue. A funny show with a great cast deserves better than that. Ãœberhot Alexandra Creighton once again is playing bad-girl "Money", and I try never to miss a show of hers if I can help it. We did Comedy of Errors a ways back and she's a rising star that we're going to be losing to So Cal fairly soon. Leon Goertzen and Hector Osario had joined the cast, which completed what Peggy has begun referring to as my requirement for seeing a show... knowing at least three people in the cast and crew.
And afterwards we all got drinks.
I may go back for closing night and the party, as the rest of the cast decided that I should be their groupie, and when a bevy of women makes such a proclamation... who am I to argue?
Thursday I went to go see Cassidy Brown in Noises Off, out in Concord. A fun show, and one that I feel close to having been in a very difficult and story laden production back when I was first getting involved in theatre after my long hiatus. They were having an extension of the production, which is always difficult as you've been doing good enough business to warrant it, but it's not announced until late and so the PR is difficult to get out. Still for a Thursday night, it was all right. But then again, it was a Thursday night, and it was in the suburbs, and well known farces do very well out there. This particular company has done the show three times in the last ten years, which is highly unusual and bespeaks how financially safe it is to do what is actually a very difficult and expensive show. Afterwards we went out to what used to be the "King's X" bar in Piedmont, but was recently bought and turned into (of all things) a tiki bar. It was worth the trip, if only for the surrealness of it.
Friday night I met up with Eden Tosh and one of the best loved ladies that you will never see on stage, Peggy Powell. We met up over at Foley's Irish House before bopping over to the Exit Theatre for their annual DivaFest. I had done a few shows with the amazing "Lunatique Fantastique" years before and was eager to see their newest show, "Beauty and the Breast". For those uninitiated, Lun Fan does "found object puppetry." This mean that all the puppets and their props are items you would find around the house. The primary characters were bras. I don't mean that they had bras, they WERE bras. Ordinary bras you would find in any store that sold things like bras. Funny, truthful, and at times very sad (as a show about surviving... or not ... breast cancer should be). Again, a very small turnout for a company that routinely sells out its shows.
It turns out that Sarah Szewczyk was doing lights for the show, but I failed to return to her the stack of lighting gels that have been at my apartment since Manumission closed last October. She's been busy as hell, as talented lighting designers tend to be. I was able to join most of the Lunatique Fantastique crew for drinks at Original Joe's afterwards, prompting Eden's observation that all I do is go see plays and drink afterwards. Peggy, said that this was rather the whole point of theatre but then had to beg off the drinking part. So I traded off one set of lovely drinking partners for another and caught up with Robin Plutchok, who I hadn't really seen for more than a heartbeat since we did Fixed Boundary together two years earlier.
It turned out that there was a cabaret at Original Joe's that night, which was part of DivaFest. Having run into Amanda Ostermeyer (the power behind the throne at the Exit) and Christina Aguello, I felt it would be impolitic not to stay for the show and ended up running into a couple of strays. Kimberly Richards, who has been touring the country with her one-woman show "Late Night Catechism" showed up, as did the brilliantly deranged Thessaly Lerner who vanished Los Angeles-way a few years ago. It appeared to be a homecoming, and we all sat back for a somewhat slapdash (but surprisingly fun) cabaret celebrating San Francisco 06's, starting with the earthquake a century ago. It was one of those affairs that rode on goodwill and fun and enthusiasm more than any particular polish, rehearsal, or whatnot, and managed to succeed wildly on those credentials.
Finally, last night I caught "Money and Run, Episode 4" out at La Val's Pizzeria in Berkeley, which has a theatre downstairs. Impact Theatre is the current resident company, and I had seen the original three episodes of Money and Run two years ago. These are insane, delightful, funny as hell, and completely pointless homages to bad television of the early 80's. The original run was wildly popular and always well attended, so I was surprised to see that the theatre was barely a quarter fill, and it's a very small venue. A funny show with a great cast deserves better than that. Ãœberhot Alexandra Creighton once again is playing bad-girl "Money", and I try never to miss a show of hers if I can help it. We did Comedy of Errors a ways back and she's a rising star that we're going to be losing to So Cal fairly soon. Leon Goertzen and Hector Osario had joined the cast, which completed what Peggy has begun referring to as my requirement for seeing a show... knowing at least three people in the cast and crew.
And afterwards we all got drinks.
I may go back for closing night and the party, as the rest of the cast decided that I should be their groupie, and when a bevy of women makes such a proclamation... who am I to argue?
Thursday, May 04, 2006
My words
I went to go see a show at one of the larger professional companies out in the East Bay tonight. A friend of mine is in the cast, and is also the casting director out there. He also lives nearby, which means that I can usually get a ride home afterwards. Huzzah! The show was quite good, but what tickled me the most was finding out that someone had recently auditioned there, using one of my monologues. He wasn't there for the audition, but the auditor afterwards mentioned that someone had done a really hilarious monologue from some new play called "Vagina Dentata." I'm assuming it's someone in the cast, although I've sent out enough copies to other actors in the area for feedback that it could have been any number of people. I think it's the nicest affirmation of my writing that I could ask for, that someone would choose a monologue from it to use as an audition piece.
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