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Our 1960's-style minimalist production of "Macbeth" closed last week, and I was pretty satisfied with it. Here are some more photos: The Murder of Banquo  Seyton  Prince Malcolm  Macduff  Banquo suspects Macbeth of treason  William Macbeth returns from the war  "Our fears in Banquo stick deep ... "  After Duncan's murder.  Lady Macbeth on the phone 
Dynastocles fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Apr 30, 2011 |
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Apr 30, 2011 18:31
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Word to the wise, it is not good for your sanity to be the technical director and male lead for a show. Matinee today and strike after. I'm so tired.
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May 1, 2011 16:26
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Won an award for my review of Chops. ("Chops cuts on Gender Lines"). Didn't win an award for best original play, but I'm a friend of the winner. Gonna ask her for a copy. Saturday I drafted out a cabaret show, based on the 1950's teen-crime movies. It's going to feature my friend's band; we hashed the entire thing out in half an hour. Word to the wise: don't order the cajun food in a Mexican joint. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 20:38 on May 1, 2011 |
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May 1, 2011 20:35
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I'm thinking of taking a clown class. This is how bored I've become with the period pieces and drawing room farces I keep getting =/
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May 2, 2011 20:37
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What do you want?
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May 2, 2011 22:18
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Honestly? I would love to do some more physical work . . . maybe physical comedy, like Commedia or clowning. Or maybe Beckett? I dunno, just something different.
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May 3, 2011 20:48
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Does anyone in Chicago do Santaland Diaries around Christmas? It is pretty fun and somewhat physical. One of local companies I work with in Ohio does it every year and it makes me wish David Sedaris would write more for the stage.
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May 3, 2011 21:10
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Yeah, someone does it every year though I can think of which company it is.
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May 3, 2011 21:17
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It's Theater Wit, I think.
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May 4, 2011 05:04
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Nah, that's the one about cancer.
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May 4, 2011 17:19
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Welsh drama student and TM here, I'm currently working on a welsh interpretation of the Columbine massacre, which is great except for the fact that none of us techies actually speak welsh  El Tortuga posted:Anyone here big on the idea of horror in theatre? I know this is a bit late, but have you heard of the Grand Guignol? It was French horror theatre from the turn of the 20th century, and was usually a 'hot and cold' mix of 4-5 plays in a comedy-horror-comedy-horror sequence which heightened the emotional response during the horror plays. My professor wrote a book on it (the second 'further reading' book), which gives the history of the Grand Guignol, as well as a whole load of plays. Definitely worth a read- he directed a few shows last year so he definitely knows his stuff. A particular highlight was a prostitute getting her tongue bitten off, which caused a member of the audience to faint  Mission accomplished!
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May 10, 2011 13:32
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A Slice of Bread posted:Welsh drama student and TM here, I'm currently working on a welsh interpretation of the Columbine massacre, which is great except for the fact that none of us techies actually speak welsh Do you go to rwcmd? I was looking at their grad program, but moving to Wales is a bit expensive for me right now. The Grand Guignol always seemed strange to me because I never heard of any riots caused because of the performances there. The French rioted when Victor Hugo debuted Hernani, they rioted when Alfred Jarry debuted Ubu Roi, but I have never heard of any riots related to the Guignol.
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May 10, 2011 14:31
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Burger Crime posted:Do you go to rwcmd? I was looking at their grad program, but moving to Wales is a bit expensive for me right now. The Grand Guignol always seemed strange to me because I never heard of any riots caused because of the performances there. The French rioted when Victor Hugo debuted Hernani, they rioted when Alfred Jarry debuted Ubu Roi, but I have never heard of any riots related to the Guignol. Nah, I auditioned for Welsh Col and Central but both rejected me. I go to the Atrium, with everyone else who failed the acting school auditions... Hoping to move on to an MA in theatre design at Welsh Col once I graduate next summer. I can't recall riots, but the interesting thing with the Grand Guignol was that most of the censorship wasn't to do with the graphic content, but rather the portrayal of the lower social classes (in that it actually portrayed them). Still, Ubu Roi takes the crown (ho ho) in that department, a riot over the first word in the play will definitely take some beating. Has anyone used MagicQ? I got my dongle today and can't stop playing around with it. A lighting desk in my computer! 
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May 10, 2011 15:48
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So Sunday's performance of my show was interrupted by a fire alarm and everyone had to leave the building. Cue 20 minutes of actors and audience standing awkwardly outside together while the fire trucks show up. Turns out the kitchen for the restaurant downstairs had burned something and the whole room was full of smoke. Maybe thought we were going to cancel and refund but nope, everybody piled back in and we re-started the scene. Moral of this story, I guess, is: don't do theatre above an Indian restaurant.
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May 10, 2011 16:42
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I haven't used MagicQ but I have used Hog3PC which is similar. Being able to run lights and sound off laptops with programs like SFX or SAC for sound and Hog3 for lighting are really going to change theatre in the next 10 years. It is becoming increasingly unnecessary to have board ops when you can just give the SM a laptop and have he/she run cues from it.
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May 10, 2011 17:54
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OSheaman posted:So Sunday's performance of my show was interrupted by a fire alarm and everyone had to leave the building. Cue 20 minutes of actors and audience standing awkwardly outside together while the fire trucks show up. Turns out the kitchen for the restaurant downstairs had burned something and the whole room was full of smoke. Maybe thought we were going to cancel and refund but nope, everybody piled back in and we re-started the scene. I don't know that my Attic story can top that but I can compete: we had the dimmer box overheat and go tits-up in the middle of a show. We got a few laughs from one of the wittier smart-asses quipping about temporary blindness and rich people not paying their bills. We had to do the rest of the show under works. Also, they may be bastards that set their kitchen aflame but they make great loving naan.
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May 10, 2011 18:35
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I've come back to the theatre thread for my periodic check-in. I graduate next Fall and by this point I won't have any more theatre classes. My last scene in my Directing class was from The Lieutenant of Inishmore. It was that scene from the Lieutenant of Inishmore. I blew a paper-mache cat the gently caress up. We had a compressed air rig that would shoot a load of blood and frozen jello gore from a cup we sunk into the model's neck. Then we put a model head on top of it with a loose skull-plate that would fall off and spill blood when the charge shot it off. Cost a hundred bucks and was loving magnificent. Even better, it's god drat reusable. I ended up winning Best Director in the class for my previous scene, though, which was Red. Never got my show for the Fall, which was going back and forth between Threepenny Opera and Red, but I'm assistant directing Candide. Really I'm going to be spending most of the summer and fall semesters writing plays and getting a grad school paper ready to send off to America's various and sundry PhD programs. I have decent chances with Northwestern (and I think my professor has my term papers floating around there...), but I'm still trying to land Columbia. OSheaman posted:Honestly? I would love to do some more physical work . . . maybe physical comedy, like Commedia or clowning. Or maybe Beckett? I dunno, just something different. Black comedy and savage comedy are tech-heavy out-of-nowhere delights. The Lieutenant of Inishmore requires an average of five gallons of blood per performance and Ubu the King, besides the several mass battles and massacres in the play, has a bear get shot and explode. *edit* Coffee And Pie posted:So, I just ended my first play recently, and I enjoyed it enormously. Unfortunately, since I'm still looking for a job, and I'm a student as well, free time and experience are not things that I have, so it's not like I can just do another play. What do you guys do to cure your post-show blues? *more poo poo to tack on* FizFashizzle posted:Walked off trying not to laugh. Last time I did SETC, when I was still in college, I received 47 callback. This time I received not a god drat one. I have completely forgotten how to do theater auditions like that. Wolfgang Pauli fucked around with this message at 13:55 on May 19, 2011 |
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May 19, 2011 13:27
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Another step in the saga: THAT PLAY got picked up and is now being represented. It's come along way from when I wrote it, mentioned it in the thread, nostalgized it in the thread, posted photos and video in the thread... What's your contact info, Pauli? I'd love to check out some of your other work, if you're interested in sharing.
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May 19, 2011 16:35
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My writing is still really experimental. I'm really well versed dramaturgically so I'm playing around with a broad range of ideas and trying to incorporate that into actual stagework. My whole theatrical perspective is to cover every perspective and the full spectrum of theatre history and dramaturgy, and to use whatever will work for any given purpose. Kinda like Jeet Kune Do or the pastiche aspect of postmodern literature, and tempered with the preparedness and flexibility that I got from stage management. Alot of my playwriting I don't really mean to shop around and I don't think I have any single work that's ready for public consumption, but my essays and stuff can probably hold water. Once I get back into town in a week or two I'll dig through my student drive and see what I can post.
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May 22, 2011 21:39
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Show me the stuff, because "I use everything" is kind of the default perspective. Unless you're a "True Believer" in one theory or another, most people use what seems right for the case. I'm 20 pages into a new play that I started Wednesday. It's a spinoff, kind of, with two characters I really like from a previous The logline: two supervillains discover that taking over a town is easy, but running it ain't. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 03:40 on May 23, 2011 |
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May 23, 2011 03:27
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This was a theatre history test of mine, I had to trace Chekhov realism and naturalism back from Neoclassical theatre. I passed out after the first paragraph. I woke up two hours before it was due and had to finish it while fighting off that panic attack, but I think it's my most shoppable paper. I think it could stand some revising if I want to use it as a sample. For my Children's Theatre final we had to blend together the techniques we were taught to teach some randomly assigned theme to everyone else in the class. I got religious tolerance, so I used a forum theatrey drum and rhythm thing. I wrote this for it, but it was mainly a cheat-sheet to lead the rest of the class through. People enjoyed it and some got something from it, but I had some trouble reigning in people towards the end. I learned alot about applying Boal to an audience, so it worked as an experiment. I also understand why hippies like drum circles now, that poo poo is magical.
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May 26, 2011 22:30
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Edit: Decision has been made, so the post is no longer relevant. New content: Is anyone here participating or has participated in the Minnesota Fringe Festival? I'm the playwright for at least one and maybe two shows this year. I'm also producing one of them. Any tips about the Fringe that isn't usually easy to figure out on your own? Any marketing tricks? Forget Forgive fucked around with this message at 03:58 on May 30, 2011 |
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May 30, 2011 00:15
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I just finished listening to the cast recording of Book of Mormon and that show is going to win a shitload of Tonys. It's really good (from the sound of it).
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May 30, 2011 23:47
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rantmo posted:I just finished listening to the cast recording of Book of Mormon and that show is going to win a shitload of Tonys. It's really good (from the sound of it). I keep meaning to listen to it. All the right people are recommending it to me, so it may be about time.
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May 31, 2011 03:29
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Geekboy posted:I keep meaning to listen to it. All the right people are recommending it to me, so it may be about time. So I've been meaning to ask you, Geek, how did your X-Factor audition go and did you actually end up on air? I heard about a guy who sang some pop song and it made me wonder if that was you.
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May 31, 2011 04:56
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rantmo posted:So I've been meaning to ask you, Geek, how did your X-Factor audition go and did you actually end up on air? I heard about a guy who sang some pop song and it made me wonder if that was you. It was miserable and taught me why I never want to be involved in a competition like that again. I sang my song well (Aint That Good News by Sam Cooke), but I didn't have on any neon, wasn't dressed as a super hero, don't swagger like a cocky rear end in a top hat and don't fit into an instantly recognizable box that could be marketed to 12 year old girls by even the dumbest of ad executives. I just sing. Well. Which isn't what makes a good tv show. And I am juuuust fine with that. I loved spending some more time in Chicago, though. Took my Mom (who drove out there with me as a last minute replacement for the person who was supposed to go but ended up having a panic attack as I was going out to start my truck to leave) through Millenium Park and the Art Institute on the one free day we had and we took a ghetto tour of Oak Park on the way home. I was broke as hell, so I just pulled up a map of the Wright homes in the neighborhood on my phone and we walked around and looked at them. Had such a great time and can't wait until I get a chance to go to Chicago again. Definitely the best city I've had a chance to spend time in. I just finally started back to work this week after almost a year on unemployment, so hopefully it won't be long until I can afford to head out again. This time hopefully with my wife, who is a lot more fun to spend time with than my Mom (though my Mom is pretty cool, too). I'd love to get to the point where it made sense to buy a membership to the Art Institute, because if it was cost effective that would mean I was going to Chicago a few times a year. As an update for my theatrical stuff, we're doing The Odd Couple this summer and I'm playing Oscar Madison. More Community Theater stuff, but it is going to be a lot of fun. Not exactly risque material, but you have to fill the coffers with a crowd pleaser every some times. Next year we're going to do a whole season of public domain or locally written material so that we can bring down ticket prices for a year. With no royalties and an amazing amount of great stuff out there we can do (Shakespeare obviously, but also things like Edgar Allen Poe and any other writers from the 19th century and back) but we can hopefully get people to show up by offering them something for next to nothing. We're planning on doing some promotions where we sell tickets for whatever gas is selling for that weekend as a way to try to get some attention and provide a good value. I really want to direct something for next season and keep waffling between doing a modern dress Cyrano De Bergerac or some adaptation of Faust. I cut my teeth directing Little Shop of Horrors, so doing Faust would be like going back to the source material. I would have to work a little harder to adapt Faust because of the way I'm seeing it in my head as a full on modernization. So of course that's the one I'm dying to do. The one that's harder and less likely to draw a crowd because it is too serious. I really love Cyrano and think I could sell tickets to it pretty easily, though. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any thoughts, though. I would do Cyrano modern dress but probably wouldn't change a single line of the dialogue. It's just so drat good. I see Faust as inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Cilgari where I try to work out visual tricks and such to mess with the audience's mind and would be more likely to try and modernize it. This would be a show in 2012 some time, so I've obviously got plenty of time to tinker with ideas.
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Jun 2, 2011 00:30
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Faust is very universal. It's the orignal story of a man making a deal with the devil, and that's the angle you need to sell it on. "Can the world's smartest man...outwit the devil?" That's a tagline that I thought up with my fingers, really. Glad you enjoyed Chicago. I walked around the yard yesterday and did a lousy job mowing, so there was a thin spiderweb between two tufts of grass. I figured, 'what if a squirrel got caught in that?', and that's the concept of my latest ten minute play. I'll post that when I get it finished, but I have to do a fair bit of research. I haven't even decided on the squirrel's gender (leaning female, but I always seem to write female protagonists).
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Jun 2, 2011 01:43
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Geekboy posted:It was miserable and taught me why I never want to be involved in a competition like that again. I sang my song well (Aint That Good News by Sam Cooke), but I didn't have on any neon, wasn't dressed as a super hero, don't swagger like a cocky rear end in a top hat and don't fit into an instantly recognizable box that could be marketed to 12 year old girls by even the dumbest of ad executives. I had a similar experience auditioning for a show about the people who didn't get cast in the 80's Mickey Mouse Club, which I did and was apparently damned close to becoming Justin Timberlake; I auditioned with a showtune and while they liked my personality, they weren't interested. For the best I suppose, not being a pop singer in the least. Geekboy posted:I loved spending some more time in Chicago, though. Took my Mom (who drove out there with me as a last minute replacement for the person who was supposed to go but ended up having a panic attack as I was going out to start my truck to leave) through Millenium Park and the Art Institute on the one free day we had and we took a ghetto tour of Oak Park on the way home. I was broke as hell, so I just pulled up a map of the Wright homes in the neighborhood on my phone and we walked around and looked at them. Had such a great time and can't wait until I get a chance to go to Chicago again. Definitely the best city I've had a chance to spend time in. I'm glad you liked it and I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet, but next time you're around we will. Also, next time you're around you'll have to take in some storefront theatre. Geekboy posted:I just finally started back to work this week after almost a year on unemployment Congratulations dude! Geekboy posted:I really want to direct something for next season and keep waffling between doing a modern dress Cyrano De Bergerac or some adaptation of Faust. I cut my teeth directing Little Shop of Horrors, so doing Faust would be like going back to the source material. I saw a very interesting take on Faust a few years back; the best way I can describe it was Kraut-rock. Everything was black, white and red, very angular and funny as hell. They really played up the comedy in the script and in Faust's joy at his powers, it was very effective. The other interesting choice was that Mephistopheles was played by a woman. There's a lot of interesting stuff that comes out of the text with that. Geekboy posted:I really love Cyrano and think I could sell tickets to it pretty easily, though. Anyone who doesn't love Cyrano is a monster  What translation would you use? I'm a Hooker man myself ( ) though I see the virtues in Burgess. I don't know what I make of a modern-dress Cyrano, I don't know why it wouldn't work but you have to keep the swords because it's a moral imperative. I'd love to see old-fashioned stage magic used more; there's a lot of cool, simple stuff that can be done (and I'd love to learn those tricks too) without having to spend money. Cleverness is key.
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Jun 2, 2011 03:09
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Geekboy posted:Next year we're going to do a whole season of public domain or locally written material so that we can bring down ticket prices for a year. With no royalties and an amazing amount of great stuff out there we can do (Shakespeare obviously, but also things like Edgar Allen Poe and any other writers from the 19th century and back) but we can hopefully get people to show up by offering them something for next to nothing. Don't take my word for it though. I can send a short play I adapted from the Norwegian comic book artist Jason and three short plays based off of short stories by Raymond Carver. I know those aren't in the public domain, but it will give you a gauge about how I do adaptions and if you like them or not. I happen to like them very much.
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Jun 2, 2011 05:34
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Wrote Squirrel and Spider today. Can't say I like the ending, but I have that problem with most first drafts.
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Jun 2, 2011 22:38
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Golden Bee posted:Wrote Squirrel and Spider today. Can't say I like the ending, but I have that problem with most first drafts. Still reading World's Evilest Mayors, by the way, sorry I haven't gotten back to you on it yet.
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Jun 3, 2011 07:32
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S'all right. I'm going to be out of contact until Saturday afternoon anyway.
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Jun 3, 2011 08:20
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So I've recently been cast as Leo Bloom in the first ever coastal bend area of Texas production of "The Producers". And that's pretty awesome, and I get to cross off one of my dream roles. One big problem I've found is that I'm really struggling to get a grasp of my character. Now, obviously the original cast of the musical and the movie-musical are pretty cemented as the portrayals of the characters. I know that I'm definitely a good enough actor to get over this, but it's still difficult to get around a character who is so cemented to people as being a certain way. Anyone else have any experiences with that? As awesome as this is, it's put a hold on my directing projects. A friend of mine has started a theatre company down in Corpus Christi, and I was slated to direct, but now it's been pushed back to the fall. While I am aching to direct another show, a chance to be in The Producers is an opportunity I'd never get again.
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Jun 3, 2011 19:01
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Well I don't have any experience with playing such an iconic role (or the musical derivation thereof) but I guess I'd tell you to make the character your own just like any other role. At the very least, please, please, please don't do the Matthew Broderick and just pretend to be Gene Wilder. That market is well and truly cornered.
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Jun 3, 2011 19:50
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I'm actually watching both movies over and over. Not so I can get ideas of what to do, but so that I know what NOT to do. I wanna make sure everything I'm doing is my own. It's incredibly hard with the "blue blanket" scene, which I consider one of the greatest comedic scenes on both film and stage. It's been done brilliantly twice before, and I just did whatever Wilder or Broderick did, then yeah it'd be funny, but it wouldn't be original.
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Jun 3, 2011 20:49
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Yeah the blanket scene will be tough, though I really think it was only done well the once. Sounds like you're off to a good start though.
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Jun 3, 2011 21:20
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Make him like Silvio Berlusconi
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Jun 4, 2011 00:09
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OSheaman posted:Make him like Silvio Berlusconi
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Jun 4, 2011 17:38
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El Tortuga posted:So I've recently been cast as Leo Bloom I certainly haven't played it, but for me, the essence of Bloom is his line "I wanna be a producer! ...'cause it's everything I'm not." The gap between those two lines, the letdown he feels in the space between his dream and his reality, that's everything about Bloom to me. Because that's the way Max gets inside his head. He has this vision of what it means to be a producer (i.e., Max when he was still the king), and he's the exact opposite of that. He's afraid to travel somewhere without his blue blanky because he's afraid someone will jump on him or throw water in his face. (Also, we have a theatre thread? I've been wanting one for years! My undergrad degree is in theatre, before I Leo Bloom'd my way to law school.)
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Jun 8, 2011 13:30
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Golden Bee posted:Show me the stuff, because "I use everything" is kind of the default perspective. Unless you're a "True Believer" in one theory or another, most people use what seems right for the case. I'm mainly toying with the ideas of postmodern subjectivity and overlaid functions of language, and the idea of imperfect information and uncertainty and reinterpretation. I've been reading Black Swan lately, and I don't think I could have found a more perfect book to take me down this line of thought. And that, combined with Candide this Fall, will hopefully give me a stronger foundation when approaching the idea of breaks in causality and random events. The free will/determinism argument of the absurdists didn't really do it for me, either. It wasn't encompassing enough. I need to stop talking about it and start collecting more citations and writing  Time to start digging through Esslin and Taleb, and until I have a play out of this it's all non-experimental hooey.
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Jun 15, 2011 16:14
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