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Worth Seeing
Jan. 20th, 2007 12:46 pmThree things going on right now that I've either seen all or some of and would like to recommend.
First, I saw Stolen Chair Theatre Company's Kill Me Like You Mean It at The Red Room last night, and it was excellent. It's a combination of film noir and Ionesco-style absurdism done with incredible sensitivity to tone and rhythm.
I came for the noir - director Jon Stancato did an email interview with me on the company's blog as part of a series of interviews with people who've done noir on stage - but I was made rapt by the absurdism. Lovely script by Kiran Rikhye (created in collaboration with the company).
The company is altogether very good (must repeat: beautiful tone and rhythm), but Cameron J. Oro is a wonder as American Private Investigator Ben Farrell; pitch-perfect, doing immense amounts with an accurate-to-the-style deadpan.
It plays four more times, tonight and next weekend, and it's selling out. If you're interested, tickets are available through smarttix.com. Get em quick.
I met with Jon for coffee before the show and had a nice talk about noir for the stage, and the problems of people assuming parody where none was intended (and the discomfort of getting excellent reviews that entirely miss the point of the show), as well as stories about the grade school we turned out to share in common (where he teaches now). Any problems with the show? Sure, but nothing that probably matters to anyone other than another director (I'm hard, as I always say, on scene changes). Good show. Wish I'd seen Stolen Chair's earlier work, but I'll get to the rest from here on.
Berit and I were hired last week to be the stage manager/running tech crew on a show in the CULTUREMART festival at HERE, but unfortunately, due to issues beyond the control of either B&I or the show's creators, we wound up unable to do it. We attended one rehearsal, however, enough to see an very interesting work happening -- we supervised a line-through and watched the musical numbers rehearsed -- and we're looking forward to seeing the show next weekend.
It's Wickets, by Jenny Rogers and Clove Galilee, adapted from Fefu and Her Friends by Maria Irene Fornes, and featuring one of our favorite actresses, Moira Stone (our contact for the job in the first place). We were looking forward to working on this potentially amazing work - oh, well - and it'll be good to see it next week. We're seeing the last show of four, so I won't be able to promote it after. Again, what we saw looked REALLY promising, and we're looking froward to seeing it. Check the links for more info on the show and tickets.
Finally, I've been blessed with the beginning of this year with an actual position on staff at The Brick theater - Facilities Manager.
First company/show I got to work with has been Inverse Theater and their new production of The Death of Griffin Hunter by Kirk Wood Bromley. I'm also an Associate Member of Inverse who's acted in Bromley's plays several times (The Burnt Woman of Harvard in 1993 and 2001, Want's Unwisht Work in 1996, Midnight Brainwash Revival in 2001 and . . . 2003, was it?), so it's great to see Inverse/Bromley and The Brick come together.
I saw the original production of this one, and thought that at it's core it was one of Kirk's better plays, but that it was indeed a bit too long (Kirk gets this criticism a lot, and I often disagree with it, but not on the original production of this one). I hear the show's been rewritten to be shorter and sharper. The members of the cast that I know are all great, and I saw the first 15 minutes at the final dress, which looked excellent. I'll be seeing it next weekend, most likely, and I recommend it, ESPECIALLY if you've never seen an actual production of one of Kirk's modern verse dramas.
Oh, and not only, but also -- my favorite movie ever, David Lynch's Eraserhead, is screening in a brand-new restored 35mm print at the Museum of Modern Art. Berit has been waiting to see this film until she could see it on film on the big screen, and, despite the excellent DVD that Lynch put out a couple of years ago, that's probably a good idea (I've only seen it projected in a good print once, at the Bleecker Street Cinema in 1989 or so). Nathan Lee writes a nice piece in the Voice here about his past with the film that strikes more than a few familiar chords with me.
Three more screenings after today. See it if you haven't. I think we're going on Monday.
First, I saw Stolen Chair Theatre Company's Kill Me Like You Mean It at The Red Room last night, and it was excellent. It's a combination of film noir and Ionesco-style absurdism done with incredible sensitivity to tone and rhythm.
I came for the noir - director Jon Stancato did an email interview with me on the company's blog as part of a series of interviews with people who've done noir on stage - but I was made rapt by the absurdism. Lovely script by Kiran Rikhye (created in collaboration with the company).
The company is altogether very good (must repeat: beautiful tone and rhythm), but Cameron J. Oro is a wonder as American Private Investigator Ben Farrell; pitch-perfect, doing immense amounts with an accurate-to-the-style deadpan.
It plays four more times, tonight and next weekend, and it's selling out. If you're interested, tickets are available through smarttix.com. Get em quick.
I met with Jon for coffee before the show and had a nice talk about noir for the stage, and the problems of people assuming parody where none was intended (and the discomfort of getting excellent reviews that entirely miss the point of the show), as well as stories about the grade school we turned out to share in common (where he teaches now). Any problems with the show? Sure, but nothing that probably matters to anyone other than another director (I'm hard, as I always say, on scene changes). Good show. Wish I'd seen Stolen Chair's earlier work, but I'll get to the rest from here on.
Berit and I were hired last week to be the stage manager/running tech crew on a show in the CULTUREMART festival at HERE, but unfortunately, due to issues beyond the control of either B&I or the show's creators, we wound up unable to do it. We attended one rehearsal, however, enough to see an very interesting work happening -- we supervised a line-through and watched the musical numbers rehearsed -- and we're looking forward to seeing the show next weekend.
It's Wickets, by Jenny Rogers and Clove Galilee, adapted from Fefu and Her Friends by Maria Irene Fornes, and featuring one of our favorite actresses, Moira Stone (our contact for the job in the first place). We were looking forward to working on this potentially amazing work - oh, well - and it'll be good to see it next week. We're seeing the last show of four, so I won't be able to promote it after. Again, what we saw looked REALLY promising, and we're looking froward to seeing it. Check the links for more info on the show and tickets.
Finally, I've been blessed with the beginning of this year with an actual position on staff at The Brick theater - Facilities Manager.
First company/show I got to work with has been Inverse Theater and their new production of The Death of Griffin Hunter by Kirk Wood Bromley. I'm also an Associate Member of Inverse who's acted in Bromley's plays several times (The Burnt Woman of Harvard in 1993 and 2001, Want's Unwisht Work in 1996, Midnight Brainwash Revival in 2001 and . . . 2003, was it?), so it's great to see Inverse/Bromley and The Brick come together.
I saw the original production of this one, and thought that at it's core it was one of Kirk's better plays, but that it was indeed a bit too long (Kirk gets this criticism a lot, and I often disagree with it, but not on the original production of this one). I hear the show's been rewritten to be shorter and sharper. The members of the cast that I know are all great, and I saw the first 15 minutes at the final dress, which looked excellent. I'll be seeing it next weekend, most likely, and I recommend it, ESPECIALLY if you've never seen an actual production of one of Kirk's modern verse dramas.
Oh, and not only, but also -- my favorite movie ever, David Lynch's Eraserhead, is screening in a brand-new restored 35mm print at the Museum of Modern Art. Berit has been waiting to see this film until she could see it on film on the big screen, and, despite the excellent DVD that Lynch put out a couple of years ago, that's probably a good idea (I've only seen it projected in a good print once, at the Bleecker Street Cinema in 1989 or so). Nathan Lee writes a nice piece in the Voice here about his past with the film that strikes more than a few familiar chords with me.
Three more screenings after today. See it if you haven't. I think we're going on Monday.
