Listening to the first read of the play on Thursday night revealed a number of truths. One is that a great play pales on the page by comparison to having actors express it, even at the raw level of unfamiliar, misguided, occasionally on-the-spot reading aloud. I thought I loved the hell out of this show before, but when I heard the actors I cast commit it to spoken language, the air around our table simply sparkled.
One of the things that appeals to me about doing theater, and even writing fiction (for that matter), is getting the chance to create genuine moments. Revealing core truths, human connection, and life with its clothes off is quite satisfying. Often times these moments are shared in the confines of rehearsal, but when stars fully align they can be shared with an audience. Even though there are great distinctions between my first two plays, one intriguing similarity is that first meetings and the banter of strangers pervaded both pieces. Each contained myriad lonely people, seeking connection and warmth.
If the first two shows were about strangers than the new piece is about longevity, in all of its glory, misery, and in between. There is an intriguing depth and shorthand had between people who've known one another for a long time. The fact that this play deals with those who have lost touch with the above adds all sorts of interesting challenges for me and my cast of strangers. I can tell that the arms length beginnings of the interactions between the actors will steadily grow into something more and more acclimated and familiar. And I can hope that after they've stopped squirming in their seats and the laughter has quieted, we'll have found some morsel of truth for everyone to take away. They'll be heard and say yeah, that's what it's like.
30 July 2011
29 July 2011
table five
All of the hard work is starting to show results. The whole cast met for the first time at our first group read-through of the script. I have cast at least three of them against type, so several were surprised by which character they were offered and likewise some of the actors were taken aback by who they would be working across. This is just the right combination of comfort and unease about the casting, as well as the raunchy material that I feel is necessary for each to find the show challenging but still completely surmountable. Things are underway and the excitement is growing.
27 July 2011
breaking bread.
Hollywood has been having a field day, raping the childhoods of those who spent theirs in the mid-seventies and eighties. Remakes on the big screen have been an aspect of silver screen enjoyment since the beginning, whether it was the multitude of Wizard of Oz flicks, the infamous Gaslight scenario, or Hitchcock remaking his own The Man who Knew too Much. These days it's gotten much worse, and more notably the source material has unexpected co-ownership by the reams of kids who grew up on it. Hollywood does not own the rights to our childhoods. Yet a new Footloose, a new Karate Kid, and even a rehash of Indiana Jones exists.
Remakes in music have always had a different tone, because they come and go. Classical music became the pieces struggling pianists would learn, beat by beat, to have in their own oeuvre. Much of classic jazz and vocal music would become standards, which is code for 'remake me'. Purists have original music in their hearts and were the first to react when hip-hop reached into the vaults of their nostalgia, taking their backseat prom memories out of context, and looping them into oblivion. Musical remakes are much easier to by-pass. A huge percentage of them do little more than overlay their different voice over the same general structure, like phoned-in karaoke. Therefore, most remakes sound like Smashing Pumpkins doing 'Landslide' and not Placebo doing 'Running Up that Hill'.
Plays are designed to be performed by one company after another. Playwrights can only hope for the wide-reaches of the world to meet their characters, hear their words, and react to the depth of their thought. In a way, this is one of the things that has attracted me to doing theater. At a primitive level, it's the fourth grade all over again. We are all assigned a project, but we each approach it differently. The script is the recipe, but every cook knows that recipes are but an outline, a jumping off point, contingent about the available ingredients, mood, and out-and-out instinct.
Putting together my dinner amongst sordid friends play that I am doing right now has followed similar themes. My behind the scenes support grows by leaps and bounds every few days. My on-stage performers have been much, much harder to gather up. The preceding show has a cast of baker's dozen. The theater across town is dropping RENT on the stodgy old-timers. I knew the pick-ins would be slim. However, much like that improvised recipe, you have to be able to use what you've got. I knew last week I could not present the show with the combination of actors I had found. Much like a marriage being only as good as how the correlation between the two operates and always at the threat of combining like that murky brown-black color that happens to paint on a palette, my ensemble cast needed a certain combined verve and energy. To me, that came in the form of an actor who came out for my third night of auditions on Monday, who would add just the right color to the show.
Now I have a cast. I have confirmed with everyone involved. Everything about this process and its result has felt like combating a new video game level. Now this one is replete with its own challenges, such as a stage manager who I had to gently wheedle out of performing in the aforementioned preceding show and many an actor's scheduling conflicts, such as one who will be gone for two weeks come this Friday. I feel that my first play had its own share of duress, so I feel completely undeterred by these hurdles. I have a solid cast put together. That's something toast worthy!
Remakes in music have always had a different tone, because they come and go. Classical music became the pieces struggling pianists would learn, beat by beat, to have in their own oeuvre. Much of classic jazz and vocal music would become standards, which is code for 'remake me'. Purists have original music in their hearts and were the first to react when hip-hop reached into the vaults of their nostalgia, taking their backseat prom memories out of context, and looping them into oblivion. Musical remakes are much easier to by-pass. A huge percentage of them do little more than overlay their different voice over the same general structure, like phoned-in karaoke. Therefore, most remakes sound like Smashing Pumpkins doing 'Landslide' and not Placebo doing 'Running Up that Hill'.
Plays are designed to be performed by one company after another. Playwrights can only hope for the wide-reaches of the world to meet their characters, hear their words, and react to the depth of their thought. In a way, this is one of the things that has attracted me to doing theater. At a primitive level, it's the fourth grade all over again. We are all assigned a project, but we each approach it differently. The script is the recipe, but every cook knows that recipes are but an outline, a jumping off point, contingent about the available ingredients, mood, and out-and-out instinct.
Putting together my dinner amongst sordid friends play that I am doing right now has followed similar themes. My behind the scenes support grows by leaps and bounds every few days. My on-stage performers have been much, much harder to gather up. The preceding show has a cast of baker's dozen. The theater across town is dropping RENT on the stodgy old-timers. I knew the pick-ins would be slim. However, much like that improvised recipe, you have to be able to use what you've got. I knew last week I could not present the show with the combination of actors I had found. Much like a marriage being only as good as how the correlation between the two operates and always at the threat of combining like that murky brown-black color that happens to paint on a palette, my ensemble cast needed a certain combined verve and energy. To me, that came in the form of an actor who came out for my third night of auditions on Monday, who would add just the right color to the show.
Now I have a cast. I have confirmed with everyone involved. Everything about this process and its result has felt like combating a new video game level. Now this one is replete with its own challenges, such as a stage manager who I had to gently wheedle out of performing in the aforementioned preceding show and many an actor's scheduling conflicts, such as one who will be gone for two weeks come this Friday. I feel that my first play had its own share of duress, so I feel completely undeterred by these hurdles. I have a solid cast put together. That's something toast worthy!
24 July 2011
23 July 2011
baker's dozen
My horoscope from Tuesday, July 19th:
The official auditions were a major disappointment, to be certain. But the production itself has been in full swing for some weeks now, as the behind the scenes team has been underway with work, ideas, and steadily building the show's momentum. Given the material, it seems apropos to allow it to morph organically.
Aesthetically the skeletal structure of the animal that encompasses this play's production team is growing thick and sturdy. As for the meat and the heart of the production, I am feeling set on half of my cast - both of which were in one manner of speaking or another, personally hand-picked and not due to the open call. Communications back and forth with my (tentatively) other two cast member considerations has been with ease, but less frequent than I would hope it to be.
Today marks two months until the show opens.
This makes me a little uneasy, given how challenging this material may be to pull off. My last show was assembled in just shy of three months rehearsal. By comparison, most of the production credits did change hand about five weeks out. The show was about unstable mental states, which certainly accounted for a lot of the dramas that went down outside of production.
This show is about core needs, like sex, eating, and music. A party, by comparison.
If a recent project isn't turning out the way you'd anticipated, it's time to use your built-in escape route. Implement Plan B like the brilliant superhero you know are. A great opportunity is coming soon -- flex your flexibility!
The official auditions were a major disappointment, to be certain. But the production itself has been in full swing for some weeks now, as the behind the scenes team has been underway with work, ideas, and steadily building the show's momentum. Given the material, it seems apropos to allow it to morph organically.
Aesthetically the skeletal structure of the animal that encompasses this play's production team is growing thick and sturdy. As for the meat and the heart of the production, I am feeling set on half of my cast - both of which were in one manner of speaking or another, personally hand-picked and not due to the open call. Communications back and forth with my (tentatively) other two cast member considerations has been with ease, but less frequent than I would hope it to be.
Today marks two months until the show opens.
This makes me a little uneasy, given how challenging this material may be to pull off. My last show was assembled in just shy of three months rehearsal. By comparison, most of the production credits did change hand about five weeks out. The show was about unstable mental states, which certainly accounted for a lot of the dramas that went down outside of production.
This show is about core needs, like sex, eating, and music. A party, by comparison.
22 July 2011
added spice.
I have heard time and again from people excited to see my upcoming play. The little bit they know is quick to whet their theatre-going appetites. I have even heard from folks who aren't regularly interested in plays throwing their own ideas into the fire, as they suppose what the show might be from the small amount of gristle I have given out. That said, the need to properly cast is amped up with this sort of buzz. Fortunately my intincts were true, and I am slowly assembling a third set of auditions, tentatively more of a specially scheduled event rather than a mass cattle call. Despite, the off-set antics of my first play, this one is the closest I have come to putting together an ensemble cast, so which element each actor brings to the stage will help determine the right combination for a tasty evening for all who see it.
21 July 2011
second (re)course.
if I only could be running up that hill- kate bush
with no problems...
My show can not move forward with any variation of the five people who came to audition. As the producer and director of this show, I should feel resolved with this understanding. Part of me worries that they are my only available casting options. They all bring their own bag of tricks. I will afford them that, however the two months I have until open won't allow me to teach the weakest among them to act, much less bring what's necessary to give this fine play its due.
As soon as I realized that my auditions would consist of one phone-in, one slummin'-it, and three pity parties, I resolved to personally contact specific actors from the Facebook event list who had indicated their likely or Facebook-definitive attendance. It is certainly an act of desperation, but being at the helm of such a fantastic show that the theatre is riding a thousand dollars and one month's rent on, to say little of my own need to deliver certain production quality, it is a harsh necessity. The personal, intimate touch has often been a trademark of my productions, so I hope my cold-call (if you will) e-mails aren't too off putting. But what other choice have I?
20 July 2011
feast. famine.
After the meager turn-out for the first night of auditions, desperate times called for adjacent measures. I decided to drop an e-mail to one of the directors of this past season. There were a lot of creative choices left unmade and leisure instead of focus in the on-stage results in their show, but I knew I could hone the skills of a couple of the actors in it - in a pinch.
I asked if they'd be amenable to getting the word out about my second night of auditions to their cast. I didn't say which cast, since desperation doesn't need to be without discretion. I am truly glad I did, since that director, and two of that show's cast made up seventy-five percent of my second night's gleaming hope.
The final quarter was held by an old friend of mine, who I have known for six years now and who I have directed before, but who really phoned in the audition. If I didn't know him, it would appear as if he didn't give an in-flight fuck about my show. My friendship with this guy is not exactly a casualty of the nuclear fall-out from the divorce, but it's taken injury and hasn't been the same since. His personality suggests diplomacy, but his attitude proves his favoring of my late-other-half.
One friend of mine, who is very supportive of this show, said to me: I don't envy you having to cast this show. I know they didn't mean: because practically no one is going to come out for it. I know this is a fantastic play, I feel intensely good about the direction I am going with it, and my previous shows hold a positive history amongst local theatre-knowers. I could go crazy if I continue to try and discern why the party was such a bust. So, I'll resist the opportunity.
I asked if they'd be amenable to getting the word out about my second night of auditions to their cast. I didn't say which cast, since desperation doesn't need to be without discretion. I am truly glad I did, since that director, and two of that show's cast made up seventy-five percent of my second night's gleaming hope.
The final quarter was held by an old friend of mine, who I have known for six years now and who I have directed before, but who really phoned in the audition. If I didn't know him, it would appear as if he didn't give an in-flight fuck about my show. My friendship with this guy is not exactly a casualty of the nuclear fall-out from the divorce, but it's taken injury and hasn't been the same since. His personality suggests diplomacy, but his attitude proves his favoring of my late-other-half.
One friend of mine, who is very supportive of this show, said to me: I don't envy you having to cast this show. I know they didn't mean: because practically no one is going to come out for it. I know this is a fantastic play, I feel intensely good about the direction I am going with it, and my previous shows hold a positive history amongst local theatre-knowers. I could go crazy if I continue to try and discern why the party was such a bust. So, I'll resist the opportunity.
19 July 2011
the gathering.
And we're not little children- talking heads, road to nowhere
And we know what we want
And the future is certain
Give us time to work it out
The fifteen month journey since the last time I stepped into my theatre as a creative entity and last night's audition session has been one fraught with life altering forward momentum and unexpected discovery. There is a beautiful correlation between the synthesis of the current fabric of my life at present and the organic manner in which I am approaching the new show's production.
I hadn't even read the play's script until after I had submitted it as my selection for the season. I scoured the web for plays, reading through or about hundreds of shows, honing my mind toward shows of specific cast size and offering certain key ingredients that I find key for nailing a show at this most intimate theatre space. Everything I was reading about the show, and the few pages I was able to see while I awaited my Amazon.com delivery held my interest, excited my instincts, and whet my creative appetites. The previous shows I directed had the security blanket of film versions. I never allowed my cast or myself to refer to them, but isn't it nice to have such an out?
This show allowed me a creative freefall, which is quite indicative of the distance I have come since putting together the last show, two years ago. All of the personal and professional growth that has transpired in that time leads me to undertake such weighty material. It's a very challenging show that finds the humorous gravity amidst deep held human viscera.
Since my last show, the theatre itself has been through a great transition in leadership and visually, as it heads toward the professional workplace I had always deemed it to be. My shows were often the anomaly for this reason, but now that the bar is moving in my direction, I am ready to step up my own game, if you will. It was truly invigorating to be back within its scarred, cobwebbed, whispering walls. Even more exciting was finally getting to share this second home with my girlfriend.
She and a few others were in attendance for the first night of auditions. There was a lot of lightness and humor in the air, and an excitement for plenty of things to come. I even had an unexpected visitor in a friend of mine who just dropped in to say hello, which is truly an unfortunate rarity these days.
Then like something out of 200 Cigarettes, the showing for actual auditioners was embodied by one unexpected soul, who is better known to commit blood, sweat, and tears to the other, far more funded, safe theatre. I have no idea what drove her to consider this show, but there we are: one audition down, one more to go. I can only hope that tonight proves more fruitful. It's an amazing show, whose backstage production value is coming together fluidly. I can only wish for some actors to embody this attractive skeletal structure we're assembling.
18 July 2011
hunt. peck.
The first of two nights of casting auditions is happening tonight. I am headed over to the theater in just a few hours, crossing my fingers that the swelling of buzz around the show causes a multitude of people to come out.
I tossed and turned a bit last night in anticipation of this first round of monologues, meetings, and meandering artist types. One of my favorite aspects of working in the arts is the recidivism of that first day of school anxiety. Every new show, every hurdle therein, every opening night, and every finale is rife with creatively charged nerves. There's little else like it.
Each of the plays I selected to direct have been desperately demanding on everyone involved. The first show had two nights of auditions and then a week and a half of waiting to finalize the cast, since I was holding out for my preferred pick who was busy deciding whether or not our theater shone the right color on her resume. That show's follow-up took three open auditions to cast, and it involved me taking an extra special gamble on a couple of weaker actors. With the work we put in, everyone was quite able to hold their own by show's open.
This new play again asks a ton of everyone involved, at every level. I suppose I have some semblance of a sadistic streak in me, at least when it comes to what I expect of others, and certainly an audience. But many know that I put just as many demands on myself, so I hardly get away scot-free. What's the point of waking up each day if you're making no effort to stretch yourself and strain the limitations of your disposition, your perspective, and your core being? As much as this show is an intensely twisted comedy that edges farther and farther, pushing the proverbial envelope more and more, at its core there is a relatable story of mortality and meaning.
I tossed and turned a bit last night in anticipation of this first round of monologues, meetings, and meandering artist types. One of my favorite aspects of working in the arts is the recidivism of that first day of school anxiety. Every new show, every hurdle therein, every opening night, and every finale is rife with creatively charged nerves. There's little else like it.
Each of the plays I selected to direct have been desperately demanding on everyone involved. The first show had two nights of auditions and then a week and a half of waiting to finalize the cast, since I was holding out for my preferred pick who was busy deciding whether or not our theater shone the right color on her resume. That show's follow-up took three open auditions to cast, and it involved me taking an extra special gamble on a couple of weaker actors. With the work we put in, everyone was quite able to hold their own by show's open.
This new play again asks a ton of everyone involved, at every level. I suppose I have some semblance of a sadistic streak in me, at least when it comes to what I expect of others, and certainly an audience. But many know that I put just as many demands on myself, so I hardly get away scot-free. What's the point of waking up each day if you're making no effort to stretch yourself and strain the limitations of your disposition, your perspective, and your core being? As much as this show is an intensely twisted comedy that edges farther and farther, pushing the proverbial envelope more and more, at its core there is a relatable story of mortality and meaning.
06 July 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)