Ramping Up

Had the first reading of Trav S.D.'s Kitsch, Or Double Dutch Dumbkopfs (he's changed the subtitle) last night at Theater for the New City, with a cast of 14 taking on all the parts (the final show will need another 4 to 6 actors maybe). Went quite well, for the most part, showing us that the show will work, but still needs some work and rethinking in both the text and casting. Trav and I will have our differences on both, I know, but hopefully we'll work it out without a lot of problems.

Trav sent me his notes this morning, and I don't necessarily agree with them, but I see his point, which is as good. It's actually very very nice being a hired hand as a director for a strong writer/producer, as my function becomes very very clean, clear, and defined: how do I best serve this text, with these actors, in this space? I have to answer this question with my own shows, of course, but messier questions of "why?" come up in regards to all of these issues that I don't have to answer in a gig like this, I just have to do a pure craft job, which is nice sometimes.

First reading tomorrow of the Fassbinder play, Blood on the Cat's Neck, with most of the cast. As I lose one, somewhat central, cast member for most of May, I wanted to be sure to get a little work in on it right away. Nothing then until a first reading of George Bataille's Bathrobe on Thursday, if I can finish off some of the casting on that in time.

And I'm looking to get some last work in on the project with David Finkelstein this and/or next weekend as well before my rehearsal schedule puts that project on hiatus until September or so.

So, the year of shows has been ramping up fairly suddenly, and has begun involving actors in rehearsal rooms. Here we go.

And here's a Random Ten for Friday out of 25,527 tracks in the iPod (with educational links):

1. "The Big Time" - The Tammys - Girls Will Be Girls Vol.1
2. "Creation" - The Image - Prae-Kraut Pandemonium vol. 11
3. "Inertia!" - The Hustlers - Surf Legends (And Rumors)
4. "Embodiment Of Evil" - Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun
5. "Tryin' To Get To Heaven (live, October 5, 2000, London, England)" - Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs
6. "Bad Habits" - The Monks - Bad Habits
7. "Birds Eye View" - Tony Barber - Oceanic Odyssey Volume 12
8. "Stuff Up The Cracks" - Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Cruising With Ruben And The Jets
9. "I Like To" - Men At Work - Cargo
10. "Raining Raining" - Nick Lowe - Nicks Knack

And for cat blogging, nothing new, just some leftovers from the last shoot, but still representative of the home -- Moni's still in the space helmet for another few days, and not too happy about it . . .

Though she and Hooker and been extra affectionate with each other and us, which keeps making us wonder if something's wrong, or they're just reacting to getting some soft food every day, which they usually don't.

Moni still likes to look out at the birds outside, cone or no cone . . .

I still have two pieces in writing progress coming up here soon - one on the work with David (though I'm tempted to hold off on that until this "season" of work is done and I can think about the whole time) and a bit of the novel I've been writing for 25 years (as of this month) in homage to the late Mr. J.G. Ballard, who was inspirationally responsible for me continuing to work on it.

So, more soon . . .