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Wolfgang Pauli posted:Great design is definitely not dependent on budget. The great lighting designer isn't the guy who does a great job with all the lights in the world, it's the one who can do a great job with three Parcans and gels that were taped together from a bunch of free gel books from the Rosco booth at USITT. Hah, I didn't mean to suggest money = greatness, there's just a lot of stuff on that blog that I've never seen anything like before and it's assaulting all my ideas about what can be done, visually, in the theatre, which probably doesn't shine very well on me. Creating a design that is, by its design, limited to the stage but, by its design, isn't? I don't know what I'm trying to say but I do get the feeling that I should read and design more.
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Mar 7, 2013 21:46
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Wolfgang Pauli posted:Great design is definitely not dependent on budget. The great lighting designer isn't the guy who does a great job with all the lights in the world, it's the one who can do a great job with three Parcans and gels that were taped together from a bunch of free gel books from the Rosco booth at USITT. Oh, you're preaching to the choir here, I've seen some truly amazing lighting design and most of our theatres in Chicago don't have lighting grids at all. Same thing with set design, creative solutions with exceedingly limited resources are the rule. Still, you can't deny that the Met Opera does some stunning work with their millions of dollars and cavernous space.
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Mar 8, 2013 01:21
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Magic Hate Ball posted:This tumblr is and making everything I learned and saw in scenic design class look really boring and stodgy and I wish they'd update more (this is a nice stand-in, though) because stuff like this is just blowing my mind. I recognize a few of these from Broadway too. Jude Law's Hamlet is in there, as is the set from The Farnsworth Invention. So there's a lot of money in quite a few of these. I'm envious of the height in the Broadway spaces. Beautiful stuff! Though some of them are so visually loud that I wonder if they didn't overwhelm the show. There is something to be said for understatement.
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Mar 8, 2013 01:22
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rantmo posted:Oh, you're preaching to the choir here, I've seen some truly amazing lighting design and most of our theatres in Chicago don't have lighting grids at all. Same thing with set design, creative solutions with exceedingly limited resources are the rule. Still, you can't deny that the Met Opera does some stunning work with their millions of dollars and cavernous space. If a great mind can do something amazing with zero funding, imagine what that same mind can do with The Met budget. I have met people that can't make the transition though.
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Mar 8, 2013 03:34
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r0ff13c0p73r posted:If a great mind can do something amazing with zero funding, imagine what that same mind can do with The Met budget. I have met people that can't make the transition though. Frankly, I'd be content if they could get 1% of the Met's budget.
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Mar 8, 2013 05:11
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RebBrownies posted:Sondheim loving rules.
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Mar 8, 2013 17:08
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I know it's really late in the conference, but are there any other tech-goons here at USITT? There's not a whole lot of time to meet up, but it would still be cool to know how many (if any) people are/were here.
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Mar 23, 2013 02:31
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Sack of Orphans posted:I know it's really late in the conference, but are there any other tech-goons here at USITT? There's not a whole lot of time to meet up, but it would still be cool to know how many (if any) people are/were here. I didn't make it this year but if you are still there you should check out the Safehouse restaurant. It is a pretty amazing place. Have any goons ever worked on or performed in the play "Distracted"? I am LD for it in August and just did my first read through yesterday. So far it is pretty great and I really love the use of projection in it.
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Mar 23, 2013 09:38
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Just got cast as a Confederate soldier in The Civil War. My theater is doing it as part of the 150th birthday of West Virginia, so there should be all sorts of people coming in from all around the state. David Selby is going to do the voiceover as Lincoln in the show. He is from Morgantown, and shamefully, I have only scant knowledge of who he is. Apparently he was in the original Dark Shadows? It appears to be a very powerful show, so I'm excited, plus I get to die onstage during the climactic battle. Awesome. We have a lot of issues getting men for these shows, so I always make sure to do these shows that I'm not too invested in so that whenever a show comes along that I AM interested in doing, I have a better shot at getting a role that I want. We're doing Chicago after this show, then Les Mis in the Fall. Again, full of shame, I have never seen Les Mis and don't understand why everyone is in utter rapture about getting the rights to do it.
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Apr 5, 2013 14:54
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peepoogenderparts posted:Again, full of shame, I have never seen Les Mis and don't understand why everyone is in utter rapture about getting the rights to do it. That's really easy to remedy, but the big reason they're so excited is because the show has been a huge hit for 25+ years, but the rights were not made available until a few months ago. You're in the first wave of non-professionals to get the chance to do it.
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Apr 5, 2013 15:18
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And it's about to go back on Broadway.
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Apr 5, 2013 20:24
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It is funny because at the annual business meeting a few months ago, they were saying that for about 10 years, there has been an account set aside strictly for the rights to Les Mis if they ever became available. And I hear that they were not cheap.
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Apr 5, 2013 21:25
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"The Whale" by Sam Hunter just went into previews at Victory Gardens, and you should all go see it.
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Apr 6, 2013 16:46
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Saw it at SCR. Was completely meh. It's an interesting concept, but the tacked on Mormon crap and the paper thin supporting characters bleed all the life out of it. Not that the performances were top notch (Matthew Arkin played the lead, he was off and on - focused on the physical discomfort entirely too much, the girl and the Mormon were solid, and the nurse/wife were atrocious), but that script has some major problems - it's about an inch deep. T-Bone fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Apr 6, 2013 |
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Apr 6, 2013 23:46
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It's been about a year since I've even worked on a show, let alone directed one. I don't think my career in theatre is quite taking off. 
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Apr 7, 2013 00:37
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Wolfgang Pauli posted:It's been about a year since I've even worked on a show, let alone directed one. I don't think my career in theatre is quite taking off. You probably need to move somewhere else. I realized that when I was living in Ohio and the only way to do more than 3 shows a year was to form my own company so I left the state and it was a huge difference in the amount of work I was getting and I moved to Montana. If you move to somewhere that is even more active I am sure you will find even more opportunities.
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Apr 7, 2013 13:46
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I intend to move to Berkeley, but I don't see myself getting the kind of cash to let me move anywhere in any reasonable timeframe. My estimate for a move to Berkeley is around $10,000 (which is almost certainly low-balled), that's looking like a year and a half of grinding through part-time minimum wage work. The only alternative I can see is racking up an irresponsible amount of debt to pay for the move.
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Apr 8, 2013 02:40
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I thought this thread would appreciate a text my friend got (he's red):
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Jun 3, 2013 22:16
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Class divas are the best 
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Jun 4, 2013 03:15
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My opening performance of Noises Off is Friday, with my local community theatre. I don't think I've ever been as challenged by a production as I have through these rehearsals. Has anyone here been involved in/seen a performance and have any advice for playing as Freddie/Phillip?
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Jun 4, 2013 06:16
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So I've got nothing to contribute to any discussions at hand, but this is the only plays to talk shop in all of SA. Anyone in the thread based out of Austin? The wife and I are moving there next month and I cannot wait. There is nothing for me in my current city. It's got a great college theatre department, but community theatre-wise, it's lacking, especially for a director. The large theater is (was, as of recently) ran by an ego-manic that's afraid of anyone with an ounce of talent and education. And the small one doesn't have a real good grasp of what it means to actually run a theater. But the small theater is the only one willing to let me direct anything. Even if all it means is that since January of last year all I've gotten to direct has been a production of Little Shop of Horrors, and Into the Woods. Now, granted they've been great experiences and production, I am losing my mind. Actually, that's stretching the truth a bit, Into the Woods was, and will probably always be, one of the toughest experiences of my directing-life. I had to direct a production of Into the Woods in a 100-seat theater with minimal lighting and backstage areas. While the show turned out great, I've had to take like a six month directing break. tl,dr - I'm moving to Austin because I want to do some theatre besides community theatre musicals.
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Jun 8, 2013 03:22
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I am in Austin, but I'm like the worst person to ask. I don't know poo poo about theater, I just get paid to make the electrical and electronic poo poo work while the actors do that "acting" thing I sometimes hear about. I should improve my knowledge. There are, however, like eight million loving venues and companies here, all competing for attention and trying to get into the big theaters.
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Jun 8, 2013 07:05
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I don't know about Austin at all but if you want to travel a little way, the Alley Theatre in Houston is a great place. I have some friends that design there and they have a fairly large and diverse season selection. It is an equity house though so it can be more demanding and restricting at times.
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Jun 8, 2013 08:07
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For the record, a little way is like a three hour drive.
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Jun 8, 2013 20:00
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I'm glad to hear that about Austin because I loved the hell out of it when I was there for SXSW earlier this year and have thought about moving there someday. I'm finally going to do my first audition tomorrow since moving to Chicago and am woefully unprepared. I thought I had a decent idea of what to do, but then a discussion with someone made me doubt my choices and I'm kind of out of time to change them without risking just blowing it entirely. It's a season audition for a company who is doing a variety of shows (all of them musicals), so I wasn't all that concerned with auditioning with a song from one of the shows until I talked to this person and she made me second-guess myself. I was just going to do a song I know well, don't hear very often, and can nail a capella. I've used "Tell Me On a Sunday" for a few of my old community theater auditions back in the day, so since I was learning a new monologue I thought I'd take it easy and just use what I knew already. I don't think I can prepare a new song while still working on not blowing the monologue and do it justice with the audition being tomorrow. I'm not terribly concerned if this goes terribly since it will be a good learning experience either way. So have I blown this before I even show up? I would think they would be more concerned with "Can he sing?" than "Can he sing [specific role]?" especially with a season audition, but I admit I know next to nothing. Also: Is there anything I should bring that they haven't mentioned? I assumed I should go in and update my acting resume, but otherwise I wasn't going to do anything else. I could maybe print out some headshots, but I'm not going to do that if they don't ask for them.
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Jun 11, 2013 16:46
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Always bring a headshot and resume, and keep your resume current (it's also worth it to keep a headshot and resume in your bag everywhere you go.) They might not ask you for it, but that's likely to be the exception rather than the rule and if they don't, now you've got one ready to hand off when you randomly need one. Having a good idea of your future conflicts is important too, though for a season general, I'm not sure how specific, if at all, they'll get. As for what to have prepared, unless they've asked for something specific an audition song that shows off what you're capable of as a singer seems to me the thing to use. I just don't know what else there would be to audition with. I think your instincts have been dead-on, you've got a good, demonstrative song and you're focusing on your monologue. The only possible hitch in the plan is that you could be absolutely terrible, in which case I'm recasting you, but beyond that, it sounds like you're in good shape.
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Jun 11, 2013 17:02
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Thanks, rantmo. At worst I'm serviceable, so don't recast me dude.  They asked for a typical "reflective of the season," which is pretty diverse. The other audition I missed because I didn't sign up until it was already filled asked for something more specific (musicals of the 20-60's) and I was preparing something different for that, but this company's more all over the place. Which I view as a plus, by the way. And honestly, if they tell me that they didn't cast me because of the song then I'll have learned something and popped my big city audition cherry anyway.
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Jun 11, 2013 17:20
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ANOTHER of my plays was licensed for Australia. My third play's been approved a while through my rep, but stuff on their end is complicated so it's not up yet.
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Jun 11, 2013 22:27
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Any other sound designers in the thread? I'm wondering if anybody knows of any good resources on how to create interesting sound effects through layering audio, i.e. for creature sounds or supernatural vocal effects? I know the internet is riddled with them, but I'm just wondering if anybody's run into any that stick out.
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Jun 12, 2013 06:11
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Isn't it suppose to be spelled "theater"? Can we get a mod to fix the title please?
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Jun 12, 2013 06:42
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My opening weekend for Noises Off went exceptionally well! We've been rehearsing it so long I had forgotten it could be funny. I had an active elderly couple come up to me after the show and say that they enjoyed our production more than one they had caught in New York. There's no accounting for taste, I suppose, but it did make me happy to hear.
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Jun 12, 2013 18:20
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Rap Game Forum Mod posted:Isn't it suppose to be spelled "theater"? Can we get a mod to fix the title please? "Theater" is for when you're talking about the building you go to watch plays and movies in. "Theatre" is the actual art of acting, directing, stage managing, all that stuff. So yep, the thread title is correct.
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Jun 13, 2013 07:06
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Bumping this thread  My theater is doing "Chicago" the first two weekends of August, so we only have five weeks to get it together. Within the first eight minutes of our first rehearsal on Monday, the director mentioned "diet" twice. I've been "training" for this since April. I was told specifically that I would be "guy with no shirt" for the show, so in addition to my usual weight training that I do (I'm obsessed with it. I average about six days a week, 2.5 hours per day) I'm doing cardio and dieting. It does stink at times though. I fall right into the category of Billy Flynn. I can sing and I have a comedic tilt to my acting (director's words, not mine) and I'm handsome (.....okay, those are my words ) but I never had a shot at Billy Flynn because the director needed me shirtless. Even after the original Billy Flynn had to drop out, I knew I wasn't even in the running to replace him. 
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Jun 26, 2013 19:24
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The season is ending! Then it's 3 months until the next load in! Does this mean we get a break? Nope, building a set for another theatre for the next month and then working on all the backlogged improvements/repairs. Being paid hourly is really great at times like this.
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Jun 27, 2013 05:20
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peepoogenderparts posted:Bumping this thread I had a similar situation back when I acted. My training was all classical, mostly Shakespearean, and even though I could very easily play a lot of the young lead male roles, I rarely had a chance because I have a large athletic build compared to your average lead male. I always ended up playing other young male roles because I was too large in comparison to most of the guys I was up against. It's not the end of the world-- For me, at least, I found that I enjoyed a lot of roles more than I expected (Tybalt was a blast). When it comes down to it, it's all about knowing your type and learning to embrace it. There's some roles you'll never play, even if you're not strictly speaking "wrong" for the role. It doesn't mean you shouldn't shoot for them, audition specifically for them-- you never know when a director will decide they want to cast a role out-of-type. But knowing your type and exploiting it will, admittely, get you more work all around.
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Jun 27, 2013 07:08
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After about 2 years of sitting on my butt and talking about being an actor I finally got my act together enough to actually send out some resumes and got an audition for a musical. I've got a monologue prepared, but I'm also required to present two contrasting musical pieces no less than 32 bars, and finding something that can be effective at that length has me somewhat stymied. Can anybody give me some suggestions? The musical is a comedy so at least one would ideally be comedic, but at this point I'm just looking for a good place to start.
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Jul 5, 2013 16:55
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Oh hey a theatre thread, this is exactly what I needed today Right now my life basically centers around involvement with my local civic theatre. I'm from a sorta small town and a few months ago I decided that my project for the next few years is going to be trying to grow the arts scene around here a little by expanding the talent base and audience at the theatre. Right now I'm working on three projects, one of which is the first I've worked production on, and it's making me the teensiest bit crazy, but I'm having a blast. I'm in a weird situation with one of the plays I'm working on and I'm not sure how to handle it. The short version is that we're doing a play about women who served in Vietnam and in the script, one of the women is black. It is clearly stated in several places throughout the script, including her first monologue -- quote:Afterwards she calls me aside and says, "Oh, sorry about this Steele, but we can't have any Negroes in the band because you just don't blend in!" 1950! My first touch with the American Armed Services. I think they didn't have many people audition or something because they cast a white lady for it and removed all references to racism from the script. I pretty much think that's bullshit and they should just keep looking until they find someone. However, it's not really my call to make. I'm having difficulty deciding whether I should approach the director about this or not. He and I have a good working relationship and offstage he basically treats me like I'm his adopted child, but at the same time I realize that going to a director and saying "hey I'm pretty sure you brutally miscast this role and may want to rethink that" is rude. Everyone working on the show takes it really seriously and I know the production staff all want it to be as accurate and sensitive as possible. I think it's just a matter of only having done small-town theatre where like everyone's a WASP and not really knowing that whitewashing is a thing. I guess my specific question here is, how would you handle this situation? Keep quiet and just do the show, or go to the director and talk to him about it, and if that option, how would you approach that conversation so as not to hurt anyone's feelings or call their judgment into question?
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Jul 11, 2013 22:37
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My personal thing has always been that if you need to change the text of the play you're performing, you're performing the wrong play. It's one thing to me if you have the author handy and they give you the approval, but I have no patience for bowdlerization. I'm also a believer in colorblind casting. Admittedly, this is more of an academic/legal standpoint (it's been more than a decade since I last directed anything) but there it is. I'm not advocating blackface or anything, but there is such a thing as "acting." Maybe reading the script I'd feel differently, but my armchair instinct would be go with the show as cast and keep the script as written.
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Jul 12, 2013 00:20
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It depends on the type of people you're working with. Theatre has a very specific hierarchy, but that tends to break down the less professional the theatre is. What is your job? Does it include giving the director creative feedback (Actor, Stage Manager, Assistant Director, Artistic Director, Designer could all be such a job) If it does not, it might not be a good idea to approach the director unless he asked for your feedback before. It might just be a better idea to wait and see what happens with the opening of the play and then get drunk with him afterward and ask him what was up. Alaemon posted:My personal thing has always been that if you need to change the text of the play you're performing, you're performing the wrong play. It's one thing to me if you have the author handy and they give you the approval, but I have no patience for bowdlerization. In the right hands, a change here and there can be a beautiful thing. As my directing professor once said back in the day: "There are no rules, there are only tools."
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Jul 12, 2013 02:15
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r0ff13c0p73r posted:It depends on the type of people you're working with. Theatre has a very specific hierarchy, but that tends to break down the less professional the theatre is. What is your job? Does it include giving the director creative feedback (Actor, Stage Manager, Assistant Director, Artistic Director, Designer could all be such a job) If it does not, it might not be a good idea to approach the director unless he asked for your feedback before. I'm an actress in this show, but this particular director and I are pretty close. The last show I did with him, he was attempting to cut another actor's line and I felt pretty strongly that it was an important line. I spoke up during the rehearsal and argued to keep the line, he ended up keeping it and thanked me later. He is a pretty collaborative director and respects me. My concern is that this is a casting decision, not just "do we cut or keep this line" and the casting decisions have already been made. If I sat down with him and said look, this is maybe a bad idea, think about calling so-and-so and asking her to do the part instead, I think he would take me seriously and at least strongly consider it. The problem is that the woman who is playing Steele is on the board of directors for the theatre and is basically off book at this point (she did the role as a staged reading earlier this year). I don't want to piss anyone off. I had my second rehearsal for this show tonight and after having heard that character's opening monologue for a second time I'm even more convinced that we would be doing the play a disservice by having Steele played by a white woman. Colorblind casting, sure, but considering the themes of this play, I feel really uncomfortable that any discussion of racism has been completely removed from the script. It's also kind of uncomfortable to hear White Lady read the "southern black woman" pronunciations of words as written in the script ("new yawk" etc). uggggh I just can't decide what to do.
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Jul 12, 2013 04:09
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