PENNY DREADFUL (and others) update

Openings coming up at The Brick . . .

This Friday, Michael Gardner's acclaimed production of Notes from Underground (previously done in two LES spaces years ago) opens - follow the link for more details.

We keep it legal and on the up-and-up at The Brick -- here, co-founder/co-artistic director of the space (and star of Notes) Robert Honeywell applies fireproofing solution to an important prop . . .

Behind him is the large wall that has been built (by good ol' Art Wallace) towards what would normally be the rear of the stage - basically, right around where the back curtains usually are. This play will take place entirely in this small area, with the audience entering by going up and down seemingly rickety stairs and across a tight passage on platforms. Nice.

The show has always been popular, and there is limited and uncomfortable seating available, so get your tickets now!

Coming up on Saturday, Episode 4 of Bryan Enk and Matt Gray's ongoing monthly Penny Dreadful saga, "Battlin' Bob Ford: Pugilist from the Future!"

Adam Swiderski makes his directorial debut with this episode, and from what I saw at a runthru on Sunday, has done a cracking good job of it. Once again, I'm lighting the thing.

The problem there is . . . we're doing this is the same small walled-off area that Notes is in - but with actual (somewhat) comfortable chairs in there - which is not set up for stage lighting, as Notes is done entirely with practicals. Okay, fine, it's easy enough to hang and cable the lights and get them where I need - since I've always had to work with the house plot or another setup on the other episodes, it actually means I'll have real control over the light for the first time on Penny.

Unfortunately, with the wall and set where it is, it means that there's no way for Berit, operating the tech, to actually see the show. Not a bit of it. Hopefully, all cues can be taken off the dialogue. Even if I put the board on the extension cables, it still won't make it near the stage (and then we'd have to rig something special with the sound, too). We'll probably have to work out some way to actually call the show - like in a real theatre! (ha. ha.) - instead of our normal routine. I've been considering an ingenious system of mirrors. Probably we'll just hook up a video monitor, which always winds up barely working right, with the camera always being in a place to not pick up the visual cues. {sigh} Great.

For those not yet following the Penny Dreadful saga, as always, the synopses and videos of the previous episodes are online. Episode 3, "The Great Switcheroo," is now up HERE. As always, if you're going to watch the video, don't read the synopsis - it's complete and gives away everything. If you're coming to a new episode and haven't seen any of the others, and don't have time for the videos, THEN read the synopses.

I am personally really looking forward to directing Episode 5 in the Penny Dreadful saga. I have no idea what the plot of it is yet - the script isn't finished and I haven't seen a word of it; I will apparently be given a final copy of it at the Episode 4 performance. I've been given a list of characters I will need to cast, though (William Randolph Hearst? Who the hell can I get for that?), and this promotional illustration:

. . . which DOES fill me with delight, I must say. At least, having seen a run of Episode 4 now, I know who the "Deb of Destruction" is.

And at some point I will be acting in one of these shows too - Bryan and Matt are apparently still arguing over whether I will be playing George Westinghouse or Admiral Byrd -- or was it Admiral Perry? I thought that's what they said, but it doesn't make sense with the timeline of the show, unless they're doing a flashback of 50 years . . . which is entirely possible -- but wait, Byrd would have been really young at the time of the script. What the hell Admiral were they talking about? Waitaminit, I think they meant Robert Peary. That makes more sense.

Today, we'll be driving around in the rain getting more props for the UTC#61 shows. Also, some people have emailed and called back on my four shows - some are in, some are out - more casting to do there . . .

Rainy Day Prop Shopping

Well, that was a long day.

Spent the morning on the computer doing show stuff -- we're now finally fully cast for Harry in Love for August, that is me, Josephine Cashman, Walter Brandes, Ken Simon, Tom Reid, and Darius Stone. This is a hell of a cast and really great for the show and all parts, so I'm ecstatic there. More people in and sending schedules for the other shows, some people not in. Looking for others.

Then Berit and I went driving around Brooklyn shopping for props for the UTC#61 shows. Well, it was better than if we'd gone out in the snow yesterday, but not by much at first . . .

It turned out to be heavier rain than I'd thought (or dressed for, or brought enough umbrellas for), and after getting soaked to the bone walking around with Berit at our first stop on Coney Island Avenue, I wound up sitting in the car being bored and miserable and wet and waiting for her to find things at out next stop on Flatbush Avenue.

But then, we wound up at another stop on Flatbush that, for some reason, cheered me up - a big discount store that had a number of things Berit needed, as well as one prop I need for Harry in Love - an IMMENSE suitcase - that will also work for Cat's Cradle (EDIT - Wrong. It's for Hiroshima, my mistake). Nice big store, with lots of good things, cheap. Somewhere on Flatbush near Avenue N. By the time we got out of there, the rain had stopped, and we moved on down to the stop I'd been looking forward to, the hobby shop.

(hey, I built that Planet of the Apes model there in the foreground when I was a kid!)

This is at Michele's Country Craft on Flatbush, which is a hobby shop like I haven't seen since I was growing up, and which I'm not sure exists much anymore - plastic model kits (AMT, Aurora, Revell, etc.), Gayla kites, Estes model rockets, Corgi cars, plus lots of other craft things I was never interested in. Berit has gone in there for certain things before (she needed scale dollhouse pieces for Edward Einhorn's Unauthorized Magic in Oz toy theatre piece), and I just look at all the model kits - many of which I remember building, and which are still being marketed by the same companies in the same boxes (at much higher prices, of course).

There's a scene in Cat's Cradle that takes place in a hobby shop in the early-to-mid 60s, and a character is playing around with what we decided at a production meeting should be a plastic model. So Berit and I spent some time looking for a good "period" model to use.

I was really pulling for an official Revell Ed "Big Daddy" Roth car, with the Rat Fink character (I think it was the "Superfink" model), which came in an accurate-looking box, though actually the Roth ripoff models, the "Weird-Ohs," looked even more period . . .

Berit, however, noted that while these were the most "period" looking, they were also so distracting that audience members would be wondering "What the hell IS that he's got there?" rather than just thinking, "Oh, model kit, hobby shop" and paying attention to the scene. A very nice gentleman who remembered building these models in the early 60s (he pointed to his Vietnam Veteran cap and noted that by the late 60s he wasn't doing them much anymore) helped us look and we wound up with a good-looking car model that's also supposed to be painted in tones that scenes in this location for the play are being "color-coded." He grabbed us the correct color of Testors paint - the cement was, as it often remember it, behind the counter - and I thought that the paint bottle looked a lot smaller than the ones I used, but nope, I was assured, I was just that much bigger.

Then a nice drive out on the Belt to the lovely Gateway Shopping Plaza, right across from the landfill . . .

. . . which is the kind of place that friends and relatives from out of town are always surprised is in "Brooklyn, New York" for some reason. Sometimes we drive out a little into Eastern Brooklyn and, jeez, we could be in some small New England city, you'd never know the difference.

So we shopped at the Staples, the Home Depot, and braved the horrifying scents of Bed, Bath and Beyond, got more props (and I found a whole bunch of things to come back for later for my own shows this year), had dinner at a chain restaurant I'm too embarrassed and snooty to admit we did (we were tired and hungry), and came on home.

Berit's alternating work on some of the pieces now and relaxing with Guitar Hero II. I thought that I'd actually get to do the partial build on the model kit, but Berit's never built one and is interested in doing it herself (I think she's going to enjoy it, it's right up her alley):

Tomorrow, more show stuff as I can, and probably going to The Brick and hanging some lights for Penny Dreadful - oh, and it's turned out that Berit can't run this week's show because she'll be too busy with the props for Edward and Henry, so I'll have to be the board op struggling to know when the cues are. Ah, fun.

Maybe I'll wait till Friday on the lights . . .