Monday, April 30, 2007

changes

Lots of evolutions and changes, large and small, going on around here lately.

I got a bit more of Sweetie Tanya written this weekend, and sent off the script thus far to Rachel Efron, along with a song farther down the storyline called "Cat and Mouse", but she actually wanted to "I'm So Much Younger Than You" instead. I had originally intended for the role of the other barista to be one of a series of roles played by a single actor, but the more I write the more pivotal she has become to the plot. I don't write small casts, it seems. At this point, this is going to be a cast of seven, although that might grow a bit. I hope not, however, as the larger a cast grows the less likely it is to be produced by small companies.

Indeed, as cool as the model is that I'm developing for this piece, I am beginning to see how it's going to complicate the future life of this show. Having multiple composers is going to make it very exciting, but should any other company seek to do it, negotiating fair payment for all the writers is going to be a challenge. Very soon I am going to need to write out contracts for the composers, and I will not only need to specify copyright ownership and rights of use (the composers retain copyright but I retain distribution rights in as far as they are attached to the project, and they get distribution rights in any other format) but also how they are to be recompensed for this and any future production. To do that I am going to need to do some "pie in the sky" wish making, in the event that his show is as successful as I could possibly dream of it being.

Jeffrey Bihr has received his song, "I Know I Shouldn't", and will be working on it over the next few weeks. Steve Kahn will be composing the theme. I'll be announcing more composers as I get confirmations.

Some of my earlier assumptions about the script are already beginning to fall away. The one-off joke about the lovers subplot in Sweeny is out the window, I think. There's just too much going on in Tanya's story to waste time on it. I may change my mind again, but I doubt it. The plot is getting more and more simplified, as the strength of the songs becomes mroe apparant. I'm used to relying heavily on dialogue and surprise plot twists, but that isn't really what this piece is about. It's a comedy, but a black comedy, blacker than I originally thought. Some horrible things happen, and sometimes to people who don't deserve it.

Sweetie Tanya changes aren't the only ones in the works. I had hoped to produce a show for Cassandra's Call Productions, with Dylan Russell directing, this fall. We haven't found the right script, however. Actually, we have found the right script but can't get the rights released to us yet. Maybe in 2008. In the meanwhile, we've relaxed our timeline to "when we find what we want, plus six months". This actually works out well for me, as I've just been tapped to direct "The Chinese Angle" by Hal Savage at the SF Playhouse, Stage 2. Hal played Gino the priest in "Get it? Got it. Good!" and I'm very excited to dig into the script. It's a noir musical and promises to be a good deal of fun.

I don't think I've mentioned that I'll be performing in Antero Alli's new film project, The Forest War, filming in late July and early August. I'm playing an actor playing Prospero in a series of exercises in the forests of California. Check out the website for full details, but here's the synopsis: "An obsessed theatre director brings his troupe out to a forest to ritualize his version of French Surrealist Antonin Artaud's vision of a mythic theatre of gods, ghosts and spirits. They stay at a privately owned campground that includes its own cook, a deaf
mute woman whose secret spirituality engages the hallucinagenic mushrooms that grow wild in the woods. Unbeknownst to the group are her good intentions of spiking their final night's meal with these mushrooms so they may enter and engage the spirit realm, that she believes, they are truly looking for."

Due to this project, I'm growing my hair and beard out, which is a bit of change in and of itself. I've had my hair long before, longer than it will be for this project, but my beard has already reached the longest it's ever been. I can only imagine how it will look by the end of July. Mayu, thank goodness, has no complaints about it.

Still, I am a shaggy mountain man.

Friday, April 27, 2007

DRM, RIAA, WTF?

the East Bay Express has an article about Gracenote that functions as a kind of "state of the union" on issues of digital rights management.

I'm of a mixed mindset on this. I think that it's important for things to be available, but I also think that artists and content creators should be recompensed for their efforts. Granted, Radiostar is free, but it would be nice if we got something other than satisfaction out of the deal. We're actually looking at putting out some "Best Of" CDs which would have some extra content that you can't get online.

One thing that I think helps is streaming technology. Having a song or a video stream through a flash environment or other system that makes it technically inconvenient to do more than listen to it once or twice as a kind of demo, seems fair. I want to listen to the new Tori Amos CD before I buy it, so I can stream it off of her site and if I like it, or just like parts of it, I can then buy the mp3s. That's workable. I'm not buying a whole CD based on a single I heard, or off of reputation, but I get to know what I'm getting. I can find new bands in the same way. Go to the site, see what I like, and then I have the option to buy. Can these things be hacked? Sure. Everything can be hacked, but 95% of users wouldn't know how to get an MP3 file out of a flash player so that they could store it permanently on their machine and then play it on their iPods.

I'm not happy about the "sue anything that moves" methodology, but sadly that seems to be how Americans do business.

As for me, I'm all about Creative Commons, which allows content creators to determine how much or little their work can be appropriated, reused, and reshaped.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Sweetie Tanya

I'm writing a play that will go up at the Darkroom Theatre in January. It's a musical serial killer comedy about sexual harrassment in the workplace called "'Sweetie' Tanya, the Demon Barista of Valencia Street". As the title indicates it's a loose riff on the fantastic Sondheim musical, "Sweeny Todd", although in the end I expect that the show will actually bear only a superficial relationship to the source material. If anything, Sweeny Todd will serve as a substrata of the play, offering a variety of in-jokes for those who enjoy such things.

I was hesitant to approach a single musician to score the play, as the last musical I wrote has been indefinitely derailed due to life happening. (It took me three years to write the first draft, and the composer has had a variety of life altering events happen since then)

So I had the idea of contacting a variety of musicians and asking them each to contribute a song. Top of my list was Rachel Efron, who has played before a couple of my other shows. The opening song is a direct riff on Sondheim's score, but the second song was one that I immediately knew I wanted Rachel to write. I hadn't heard a word from her in about six months, but I fired off my proposal and the lyrics for the first piece I had written, letting her know that I was in no way committed to those particular words.

She got the email after returning from a trip and immediately went for a walk. When she returned from her walk, she had "A Fearful Thing to Dream" completed in her head. I went over to listen to it last night.

If every song is this good, this show is going to go very, very far. She had taken the mood of what I had written and a few of the images and core phrases and created something infinately more haunting and beautiful than anything I could have conceived of. And to make it even better, she asked if I wanted a second song and played me a melody that she has in her head that needs some words. It was light and fun and playful and I am going to use it for the middle of Tanya's killing spree.

I have the lyric outline ready for the next song "I Know I Shouldn't" and will be passing it on to the next composer in the next day or two.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Casting Director

Diana Brown once forcefully reminded me that in my own small way, I hold people's hopes and dreams in my hands. I have a hard time seeing that, as my productions are small theatre and my company is still finding its feet, but nevertheless it's true. Every show you do is a stepping stone to the next one, and every connection you make pushes you farther in your career. As much as I tend to underplay my role in the theatre community, I am a provider of work for local actors and artists.

So, I shouldn't be surprised when I get unsolicited headshots and cover letters in the mail. I got one about a week ago, as I was heading out to look at a potential venue out in Fruitvale (a rather rough district in Oakland). I ended up using the large envelope to take copious notes on, but didn't look at the headshot until later.

A few notes, for those of you who are doing headshots and resumes. Firstly, ask yourself what it is that you want to communciate about yourself? This particular headshot went from the bottom of the bust to the top of the head, and she was wearing an outfit that was sleeveless and completely open all the way to cleavage. About 25% of the area of the photo is exposed skin from cleavage to chin and shoulder to shoulder (thin straps) and a large necklace that could be a sunburst or could be a paint splatter... like a pattern you might get from a paintball gun. On the back of the resume, under Skills, at the very end but spaced so as to give it emphasis are the following factioids: "I speak fluent Ob", "Former Girl Scout" and "My tongue is long".

Granted, her resume makes it clear that she does musicals, stand up comedy, improv and more. Still, it is not terribly wise to submit a headshot and resume that draws focus primarly to your upper torso, with a large metal symbol that looks like a liquid struck you at high impact right above your breasts, and point out that you have a very long tongue.

Well, depending on what kind of work you're looking for, maybe that is what you want to send out.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

self destruction

I have long been of the opinion that the human race is not getting any worse, but that we are simply more aware of the horrible things we do to each other on a global basis. Atrocity in your local community is one thing to take in, atrocity across the globe... made as immediate as if it happened in the next city, is something else.

The planet, however, I think is getting sicker and sicker, and we're at the core of the problem. Jeffrey Rowland has been referencing the Bee issue quite a bit, and linked to this article about the potential link between cell phone usage and the vanishing of bees... and I wonder exactly which of the many ways we are killing ourselves will be the one that does us in. I don't use my land line anymore. I rely completely and totally on my cell phone. Hell, I have two. One for work and one for home. I'm not worried about low sperm count, and I don't text enough for RSI injuries, but I'm not too fond of the whole brain tumor thing. If the bees keep dying, though, it won't really matter since we'll all die of starvation long before my little tumorous buddy shows up.

So, what's it going to be? War? Famine? Disease? Global Flooding? I saw a film online called "End Day" that appears to have been pulled from Google video, but that gave a rather chilling look at some of the more likely scenarios to destroy us all. The Strangelet theory is the least likely option, but still rather terrifying because it could theoretically destroy the known universe eventually... and who knows if it hasn't already happened somewhere else and that the void approaches us at this very moment? But a new plague, a meteorite collision, a tsunami, a super volcano... these things are extremely likely, if not inevitable. We will be hit by meteorites again eventually. We will experience another super volcano eruption, like the one that obliterated Krakatoa and that is rapidly building again... and it might happen in other locations that are more densely populated. In a world of rapid international air travel, the idea of a virulent airborne virus that kills rapidly spreading across the entire globe is not too far fetched.

But again, will we even be here if such a thing happens?

I don't worry about it a lot. One cannot live in a state of constant fear. But this cell phone thing, and learning how biofuels are actually increasing global warming is leading me to the desire to never leave my apartment.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Transitions

Just a quick note as I'm sitting in the Phoenix pub in the Mission, preparing to go and see excerpts from the one-woman show that Suraya is working on.

As of last Thursday, I am officially "off" the Help Desk at WestEd. I can now focus on project work and on training. This was promised to me back in December and I had officially given up hope of it happening. I moved into the smaller office next door on Monday morning, although I still have a lot of rearranging to do. I'm extremely happy about this. Although I am still fielding help desk requests from time to time, my phone barely rings anymore and I've been able to make some serious progress on some projects and am re-learning how to do ActionScript in Flash.

The BAPST meeting on Monday went well enough. We're still trying to figure out what we are and how to meet our dual mandates, but I think that it gets clearer and clearer each time we meet. The trick at this point will be to connect and communicate with certain parties that are forming opinions about us without having actually talked to us about what we're trying to do. Gotta love that. Theatre Bay Area asked me and two others to lead a group designed to improve services and communication among the small theatre community (a good third of their membership) and some of those theatres are immediately taking affront to it. All miscommunications and misunderstandings, but nothing worthwhile came without struggle.

I'm very excited to announce that Rachel Efron and Jeffrey Bihr have both agreed to compose songs for "'Sweetie' Tanya". I'm extremely excited about this project and am hoping to get more of the script written down by the end of this week.

That being said, I'm off to a show.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Expo

Last night was the Theatre Bay Area Expo. I got a booth for Cassandra's Call Productions, marketing the rehearsal room, Radiostar, and our improv groups for corporate events. I hadn't been to a TBA Expo before, so I wasn't sure what to expect but it seemed like a pretty good sized crowd given what it was. We had a decent amount of traffic and sat next to Custom Made Theatre, which was appropriate since our rehearsal room is next door to their theatre space. I think I was able to raise awareness and hopefully I'll see some new renters for the space and new listeners for Radiostar. A lot of the folks there were actors, though, and they would have probably been happier if we were advertising general auditions.

Still, I saw Dylan Russell, and had a good chat about getting me information on scripts she wants to do this fall, so that seems to still be a viable option. I was also able to chat a bit with Michael Rice over at Cool As Hell Theatre podcast, who has interviewed me a few times.

In any event, it's one more thing off my list of things to worry about.

I got chapter seven of the novel finished, finally, thanks to the gracious support of Mayuko. Who knew that having a girlfriend might actually *help* my productivity? Tonight I hope to edit another couple of episodes of Submergency and do some work for my outside clients. Tomorrow's Radiostar show is done, fortunately, so there's no need to sweat that at all.

I've taken on another project as well. I'm working with a principal in the Fruitvale district of Oakland about getting their old auditorium up to snuff to be used by the community as a performance and cultural center. I did a lot of assessing last week and need to write up a proposal for what needs to be done to make it all happen. I don't think that I'll be able to be the primary person on this, with everything else that is going on, but hopefully I can get it jump started and connect the school with the artists who can make things happen. It's all very exciting, but also very intimidating as the building hasn't really been touched in decades.

In further news, I've accepted a role in Antero Alli's next film, "The Invisible Forest." I'll be playing myself playing Prospero. It looks like it will be an interesting project, although it is requiring me to grow my hair and beard long for the role. We start shooting in late July, so I'll be very, very shaggy by that point. Mayu is being exceedingly accepting of my big bristly face.

On the social front, this weekend was full of goodies. Tristan Goldstein had a birthday party, we had lunch in Japantown with Mayu's friends, and volleyball in Lake Merritt park with coworkers. People keep asking me how I fit it all in, and I'm honestly not sure.