CollisionWorks

Ladies and gentlemen of the theatro-blogosphere, please give it up for Mr. Bill Foster!

He is the co-founder of ETC and co-creator of the Source Four and a number of other revolutionary lights and light boards.

And he has just been elected as Democrat (from a longtime Republican district) to the House of Representatives from the state of Illinois, in a special election to replace former House Speaker Dennis Hastert for the rest of his term - this coming January. He will go up against Hastert again in November for the following term.

He is a scientist - and we could use more of them in office - who has been working for years at Fermilab on particle physics.

Congrats, Mr. Foster!

The illness slowly abates. Yesterday began with one of those false start mornings where you wake up feeling almost completely normal and can get suckered in to going about your normal routine, but then the sickness creeps back up on you and you've just made it worse by being active again too soon. Luckily, I was not fooled and stayed inactive.

So, better, but not great.

And I've definitely caught Berit's conjunctivitis and will have to go get a prescription for eyedrops ASAP.

Meanwhile, work on shows slows. Casting nearly done on my four shows for June and August (to recap, June: The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction; August: Harry in Love by Richard Foreman, and two originals, Spell and Everything Must Go), but now I have to focus on Penny Dreadful for the next week and two days. Bryan and Matt, as writer-producers, have been handling a lot of things for me during this sick-week, which has been a big load off my mind.

I've been able at least to plan out most of my music cues for the show. Using all Bernard Herrmann, I think. I'm currently having a big internal debate about whether to underscore one tense, nasty, and dialogue-free scene with nothing but the sound of a ticking grandfather clock - my first instinct - or to set it all to Susan Alexander Kane's aria from Citizen Kane (in a recording where it's actually sung well by Kiri Te Kanawa), which actually times out perfectly with the dramatic beats and rises and falls of the scene. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, and each would play better for a different kind of house, but of course I have no idea what the house will be like until the show is running. So I just have to mock it up first and look at it both ways and then see if that makes things easier.

The purity of the scene with just the clock keeps being appealing to me, and I wonder if I like the idea of doing it with the music because it will make the scene seem a bit more "tour-de-force" and directorially showy. Then I wonder if the clock way is too pure, too sparse, and will suck the life out of the scene while being formally interesting, and the music way will keep the scene theatrically alive and give it the power it's supposed to have. I shouldn't be afraid of the grand, showy gesture when it's appropriate. This is a melodrama, after all.

Gotta love a script with a page-and-a-half of nothing but stage directions for me to interpret as I'd like - and actually, the scene before the big wordless scene is another dialogue-free scene of about 3/4ths of a page. So I have about 5 minutes or so of pure movement and sound and light to put together toward the climax of this piece. As much as I love working with actors on getting line readings right, sometimes I just like to focus on eyes, fingers, and body postures and tell stories that way.

It's a pretty easy script to stage, luckily (in the the pure blocking sense of "where does this person move now?" - I can see the best way immediately and don't have to think about it). And it'll work nicely in the front space of The Brick the way it's set up now (with no audience risers). If the space I have to work with in the theatre is a big square seen from above, and you split it with a diagonal line from lower left to top right, I'm putting the audience in the right half and the stage on the left. I can use the staircase and entrance walkway from Notes from Underground as sets in very appropriate ways, and there are plenty of lights available in this part of The Brick now (as opposed to last month's Penny).

Looking forward to showing up tomorrow and starting to direct this thing. A nice feeling, being in just as director on this one - really feels like being jobbed in on a TV show that you really like or something - you know the drill, the format, and you can't break it or bend it so much, but you can have a lot of fun within it. And for once, being in as director/designer means only as director/designer, and not also as line producer or production manager, so I get to just focus on my proper jobs, while Matt, Bryan, and the rest of the regular PD crew handle everything else.

A very excellent Random Ten this morning from out of 25,224 in the iPod. Good way to start the day:

1. "Trem Two" - Mission of Burma - Vs.
2. "Sex Junkie" - The Plasmatics - Beyond the Valley of 1984
3. "Gary and Priscilla" - MX-80 Sound - Out of Control
4. "Alone Again Or" - Calexico - Alone Again Or
5. "Tombstone Blues" - Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
6. "Hang On To Your Emotions" - Lou Reed - Set the Twilight Reeling
7. "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" - They Might Be Giants - Severe Tire Damage
8. "Mamá Cuchara" - Manu Chao - La Radiolina
9. "You Burn Me Up and Down" - We The People - Mindrocker 60's USA Punk Anthology Vol 6
10. "Mom and Dad and God" - Suburban Lawns - Suburban Lawns

And some recent kitty pictures - focusing on the very pretty Moni. Here she is doing her imitation of an apostrophe ('):

Close up of sleeping sweetness:

And with a blurred Hooker - but she's the one with the adorable face here . . .

Well, I'm mostly over the sickness, but not completely yet (there's a reason I've been up since 4.30 am, after a couple hours sleep that was apparently spent sweating about five gallons worth into the bedding), which means I need to now go spend another day of forced relaxation (which has actually been quite boring) so I'll be ready to start work tomorrow. Needed a cheery time last night, so we watched Myra Breckinridge, Blazing Saddles, Dark Star, and Kentucky Fried Movie (didn't quite make it to Modesty Blaise, which was next on the playlist). Before that, mainly Warner Bros. cartoons for days on end.

I'm running out of "fun" stuff to watch -- oh, that's right, we haven't stuck to just the happy films: I also watched Peter Greenaway's cruel and amazing film The Baby of Macon and Peter Brook's Marat/Sade, which seem to have joined Ken Russell's The Devils and Godard's Tout Va Bien on a list of "France-related, incredibly depressing movies that have something to do with my original August shows in some strange abstract way that I can't at all articulate yet but when I figure it out will help me crack those shows right open."

An unwieldy name for a list, but as accurate as you can get. Okay, medicine and back to bed maybe.

Today, B & I have pretty much nothing to do. This is her first day off in weeks and weeks, and she's spending most of it passed out and recovering from illness. I am spending it awake, and in the middle of illness. And sending out lots and lots of casting emails. 30 so far. Waiting to hear back from the "first wave" before I move on to the second, if I need to.

Yesterday, I ran lights for 3800 Elizabeth. Here's what I needed by the light board to get me through it:

(that's tea in the cup)

So, made it through that, feeling only a bit feverish and uncomfortable by the end. As long as I keep up with the Advil and Robitussin, I seem to hold the worst of the symptoms at bay.

Maybe I can find some good and inspirational movies to watch. In the meantime, here's a couple of Star Wars-geeky videos that have come up by chance today in various surfs around.

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Enjoy.

Supposed to be the last night of shooting on Daniel's DV short last night, but it took longer than anticipated, it was very cold, and I got worn out -- or whatever you call it when you do enough takes in the cold that you can't think straight anymore and begin to forget where you are entirely when "Action" is called ("wait, what? why am I standing on this stoop? why am I holding a scarf in this hand? why is there bright light on me?").

So we're coming back tonight to do the one-shots of me in the kitchen scene, which are all that remain, but which will probably require many many takes of me slowly going crazy, at varied levels of incremental looniness.

Not many pictures from last night - my camera battery died early on (maybe from the cold), and I was in most of the shots, but I got a couple. Here's the reverse angle in the basement scene, after the Director of the slasher movie calls cut and we see the ultra low-rent production (as Sally McKleinfeld and Jenny Tavis get onscreen cameos as boom and camera operators, joining Michele Schlossberg as Production Manager):

And here's Daniel and Sally getting Michele's entrance onto the stoop, right before my camera battery went out:

Came home to more and more casting worries. I can cast just about all of the roles in my own four shows except for one major one in Ambersons that I may have no one for (I thought I'd have someone, but it looks to not be working out). This is really good and I should be happier, but that one part frustrates me. I saw plenty of good people at my auditions, and more good women than I have parts for, but NO ONE at all right for this part. I've got some time, but I'm a month behind where I want to be (if still a month ahead of where I usually am).

And Penny Dreadful, which of course is what's coming up immediately, is having bigger casting worries. As Berit says, I need to just calm down and keep working, it'll work out fine (a lie, really, it works out fine maybe 87% of the time. maybe.). Yeah, I just want to get it right. The idea this year was to get everything done much MUCH more in advance than I'd ever done before, and it's getting to be just much more.

Which reminds me - I've been so worried about the rest of the casting that I've been neglecting getting Harry in Love, which is fully cast, in motion. Two of the cast members are still busy on other projects, I think, and can't do anything right now, but I should be checking in with all of them . . .

Meanwhile, back in the iPod (25,154 songs), here's what comes up as I write:

1. "A Man and a Woman" - Sir Julian - Ultra-Lounge 11: Organs in Orbit
2. "That's Why They Call 'Em Moms" - Peer Pressure - S/T 7" EP
3. "I'm Free" - The Who - 09/29/69 Amazing Journey Live at Concertgebouw Amsterdam
4. "Take Me Just As I Am" - Lynn Collins - James Brown's Funky People (Part 1)
5. "Anna (live)" - Arthur Alexander - In Their Own Words - at The Bottom Line
6. "Butsi" - Las Comadrejas - We Are Ugly But... We Have The Music
7. "Suzie-Q" - The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones No. 2
8. "Monsieur Dupont" - Sandie Shaw - Those Classic Golden Years 04
9. "Good Gin Blues" - Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band - mix disk from my Dad
10. "Shortnin' Bread" - The Fabulous Playboys - Lost Legends of Surf Guitar

A pretty laid-back, relaxing mix. Nice.

The cats have been little darlings recently, especially Hooker, who won't leave me alone and just wants hugs and affection all the time. Usually when I'm trying to type on here, or make notes in a show notebook, or read some research material. Not a good combo. Finally got some new shots of them, though.

Hooker on the windowsill, for once not interested in my attention:

And Moni on the couch, wanting a bellyrub from Berit:

And both of them, curled up on the bed, almost under the pile of scripts and show notebooks I was coming in to get:

Finally, ladies and germs, please welcome Mr. Trav S.D. to the blogosphere with his new home in the orthicon tube, Travalanche!

We continued shooting Daniel McKleinfeld's video short yesterday afternoon/evening.

It was a bit more of a pain to light the basement than I thought, as we were just putting gels around 250w bulbs in cliplight fixtures, and we rapidly discovered that the gels would melt very VERY quickly if they came into contact with the bulbs for even a fraction of a second. So lighting took longer, but shooting actually took shorter than anticipated. Looked great, especially in the shots where I also slashed across frame with bits of green, which I was handholding over a Lowell light.

The basement scene was the faux-slasher movie that opens the piece, so I went all out with silly horror colors -- Dario Argento as filtered through cheap 80s horror. This picture's been Photoshopped to try and make the light/set look more like they did through the 24fps DV camera, but it doesn't really have the right contrast and color. Close, though:

Here, Jessi Gotta is ready to go as the Prom Victim:

Below, Daniel practices the shot of Jessi entering the basement to hide from the Killer.

Ah, I see we now have the corsage on her wrist. It was forgotten for the shooting of one shot, requiring a redo, and the bad continuity actually wouldn't work even in this "bad" movie within the short. Of course, that was one of the two shots that required Jessi to be exposed to sub-freezing cold in that dress, and half-barefoot, as she enters the basement and closes the grate behind her.

It got REALLY cold out there last night. I had been boiling my hands, even with heavy workgloves on, holding the light in the basement, and thought it would keep me warm outside, but it didn't do a damned thing except cause the gloves to smoke (there may have been some oil residue on them). It wasn't pleasant at all for Jessi.

Tonight we're shooting a full outdoor scene that I'm acting in. I've been established as wearing a light t-shirt covered by a light suit jacket. I can't really wear another layer without it showing or looking weird. Damn.

And here are some more of the joys of shooting -- Jenny Tavis (PA/Script Girl), Jessi Gotta (Victim) and Danny Bowes (Killer) are waiting for the camera setup. Danny spends his time texting. At least it's actually somewhat warm down here in the basement by this point (it wasn't when we started) with all the 250w lights on:

More joys of waiting, this time in the enjoyably-appointed antechamber to the basement proper. Danny and Jessi wait again for Daniel to get the shot set to return to the scene of the cheesy slasher movie. My job as lighting director is pretty much done, so I'm waiting to get on set and act myself as the director of the horror epic.

Tonight, Michele Schlossberg and I freeze out on Daniel's front stoop for the last scene and shoot day (and we shoot my one-shots for the kitchen scene). It'll look good though - Daniel has done a rough cut of the kitchen scene and it's working. That was quick.

And I actually had time to go through yesterday and look back at the auditions I've done to date and fit people into the shows where I need them. I have to see two more people at least, but if the ones I'm planning on seeing pan out for the parts I think they'll be right for, and everyone accepts the parts I offer them, I could actually have all of my shows cast in two or three days!

Except for Penny Dreadful, where we're not getting men of the types we need. Dammit. Goes up on March 15. Double dammit.

Well, I - or extensions of me - have been showing up elsewhere online.

In the one that I was expecting, and had mentioned before, the interview I did with Jon Stancato of Stolen Chair Theatre Company is now up at ArtRadio: WPS1.org -- you can hear it HERE.

I think this is a pretty good half-hour discussion (they thankfully cut the 30 second lull where I went up on anything to say, having jumped to the "finale" question five minutes too early). It mainly works because Jon is so together in talking about his company and their work - I just have to suggest something slightly and he goes off into talking quite articulately about it, and without sounding "prepared."

As for me, Berit just cracked up on hearing my intro, saying that I had completely gone over-the-top into "NPR-land," and that I sounded like I was in one of those Alec Baldwin SNL sketches about the "Schwetty Balls." Yeah, true. I think I was a hair nervous to start, and put on a "radio voice" to feel comfortable doing this (it's not a Firesign Theatre voice, but it comes from the same part of my brain that pulls out those voices and characters so easily). I get looser and sound more like myself as the program goes on. Though Berit also points out my annoying "you know" vocal tic. Ugh.

I was worried immediately after the recording that I had "inserted" myself into the discussion too much, which was supposed to be about Stolen Chair, of course, but as Jon had specifically asked me to do this as a fellow theatre artist, I felt I had to turn it into a discussion a few times rather than a straight "interview." Still, I was really uncomfortable about it right after the recording, but listening to it now, it seems like just about the right amount of me in proportion to Jon.

I wince a bit at the way I say I've been doing this much longer than Jon, 10 years, and he notes that he's been doing it for 6, which isn't so much of a difference - but I think I was including in my head the 8 or 9 years or dithering around as solely an actor and techie-for-hire before I got myself together to start producing and directing my own shows, which he (smartly) never went through. I still felt like "the old guy" who took forever to get himself even slightly together (and still really isn't) talking to the younger guy who was really together right out of the gate and is on his way to bigger things.

In the end, a nice piece about Stolen Chair, I think.

To my surprise, one of my snow photos of Gravesend, Brooklyn wound up in a post at a favorite Brooklyn site, The Gowanus Lounge.

Then I was surprised to find my digital camera videos getting more hits than expected on YouTube. Not much, but not what I expected just from posting them here. Turns out they had also wound up in a post at Gowanus Lounge. Nice.

I've seen five people thus far in auditions (and, amazingly, all good thus far) - seeing more tomorrow and Saturday. Today, Wednesday, and Thursday, I'm lighting and acting in a short video for Daniel McKleinfeld. I think I'm coming down with something (I have an odd-feeling throat, as does Berit - she thought it was just from working long hours in the moldy basement of Walkerspace, but it's looking less likely), so I should stay well away from auditioners and fellow actors.

And I have to get to work on Penny Dreadful. Let alone finish with casting my shows. How did I get this busy right now? I was supposed to be able to leisurely get my shows together right about now . . .

Long day today that involved a lot more slogging around in snow in a very heavy winter coat for long periods of time than I had anticipated (or certainly wanted).

It was, however, kinda pretty most of the time, even while I was sore and annoyed.

This is the second recent snow that has come down in big, puffy, soft flakes that blow attractively and collect softly. I think this has maybe happened only twice before (if that) in the nearly 7 years B & I have lived out here. Brooklyn doesn't quite always look as I think many of my family, friends, and other out-of-town readers may think it does.

It was lovely again on Avenue S when I went out to the Duane Reade on an errand this morning . . .

And also on East 2nd Street . . .

But I was still not all that happy about walking around in the stuff . . .

I was cranky, but I thought the neighborhood looked nice from the subway platform . . .

And, zoning out on the F Train, I looked out and felt myself flying over Brooklyn. I hadn't tried out the video mode on the Xmas Camera yet, so I decided to do so and attempt to capture the flying feeling of zooming over McDonald Avenue . . .

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Once in Tribeca, I was sent off on an errand that wound up being, for the first part, a wild-goose chase as I walked up and down Broadway from Walker Street to 4th Street and back, finding one (pitiful) item out of six or seven needed. I was achy and unhappy, but a Broadway Snowman in Soho cheered me up . . .

And once the show was up and running, and my box office duties were complete, I was able to leave Walkerspace and go home -- and as I hit Walker and Church, there was one of those views that bring back years and years of NYC memories, and songs, and feelings, and make me feel oh so good about living here sometimes . . .

Sometime in December of 1987, I went out and bought Brian Eno's albums Here Come the Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain (by strategy). I hadn't heard any of the songs from either, but I was familiar with his following two "song" albums, so I thought I should get the first ones. I decided to listen to them for the first time while on an evening walk - I was trying to lose weight by walking at least 90 minutes an evening; I'd bring two CDs and my immense, heavy, early-model Sony Discman, walk away from my dorm for the length of one record and return with the other.

So I started up Warm Jets and started out from Washington Square South.

When I hit Canal Street and Broadway, walking West, "Driving Me Backwards" came on, and music and view came together suddenly in a perfect synthesis. It pretty much looked like the photo above, but more so - more steam, more mist, more shafts of light, more reflections. And that, with the insistent piano driving the slowly-grinding song, sparse but wide, seemed to connect the NYC I was now living in with all those images from the movies I had seen for years. Most of all, I felt like I had walked into Taxi Driver. Scary, but alive.

Then, the beautiful "On Some Faraway Beach" came on as I walked around some beautiful buildings in Tribeca, and the spell changed.

A couple of years later, I got Eno's book of lyrics (with paintings by Russell Mills), More Dark Than Shark (but one deadly fin), and he doesn't say much about "Driving Me Backward," but I was surprised to see he does say that when he saw the film Taxi Driver (the song predates the film by 2 years), he felt a kinship to this song in the film . . .

Ohohohohohohoh oh

Doo doo doo doo doo doo dah

I'll be there.

Oh driving me backwards

Kids like me

Gotta be crazy

Moving me forwards

You must think that I'm lazy

Meet my relations

All of them

Grinning like facepacks

Such sweet inspirations

Curl me up

A flag in an icecap

Now I've found a sweetheart

Treats me good just like an armchair

I try to think about nothing

Difficult

I'm most temperamental

I gave up my good living

Typical

I'm almost sentimental

Ah Luana's black reptiles

Sliding around

Make chemical choices

And she responds as expected

To the only sound

Hysterical voices

And you - you're driving me backwards

Kids like me have gotta be crazzzzzy i-i-i-i-i-i-i

Doo doo doo dodoo dodah I'll be there

1. Still casting for the June-August shows - got a lot of great connections through the actors already cast. Haven't been able to actually do anything with these connections except send out a form email saying, basically, "I'm really busy until Wednesday at the earliest, but I DO want to meet with you and I'll be in touch about it around then." I could be doing this now, I guess, but I need some personal time right now.

2. I need this as the last few days have been a bit nutso, though ultimately rewarding and not as much of a pain at all as I thought they'd be. Friday was the Notes from Underground opening and party at The Brick. I was hoping to set up a bit for Penny Dreadful on Saturday, but that proved to be impossible at the time - the show and the party were kind of more important at the moment, and needed to be handled.

Didn't see the show (maybe this weekend) but the party was great. At least the start of it. I left early as I had to be back early the next day.

Saturday was Penny Dreadful tech from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm. Longer than usual, but it was very difficult with the restrictions of doing it in the Notes set - as in, Notes is done entirely with practicals and there are no stage lights focused there. So I focused and moved some lights and wound up with six instruments with which I could light the show, including a scroller so I could have some color variation. And it wound up looking lovely, actually, even without the footlights which I had been thinking of as the trademark of the Penny Dreadful "look" - with the audience on all four sides of the playing space, there was no way to use the floor-mount birdies without blinding the viewers. And, of course, I couldn't actually see the show while I was running it because of the setup.

It was nerve-wracking to run the show blind, relying on an audio monitor (which had trouble with soft lines of dialogue), a video monitor (from one corner angle, not seeing all of the playing area), and Adam, the director, shining a flashlight up at the booth to indicate when scene changes had been fully accomplished. But it ran well. I made two sound cue screw-ups, one minor which no one but me and Adam would notice, one major (to me) that no one did notice apparently, but stabbed me in the heart because the moment was so much better with the correct sound cue (thing to ALWAYS watch for when using CD players with Auto-Cue - advancing to the next track at the same time as the machine is doing the same thing, putting you one track off where you think you are; Berit, about the best board op you'll find, notes that she's made this mistake more times than she'd care to admit, and that it accounts for the vast majority of sound errors she makes).

Sunday, I had to cover for Berit as stage manager/board op on 3800 Elizabeth while she made props for Cat's Cradle and Hiroshima. This also went well, and was moderately stress-free, apart from the live commercial that Gyda Arber and I did towards the end of the program - 3800 Elizabeth, being a sitcom, has commercial breaks. So far, these had been parody commercials made on video by Art Wallace and projected in the appropriate places, but creator Aaron Baker has wanted real commercials for local businesses to be done live in there too, and we had our first sale recently, so Gyda and I did the spot, which I had in my head vaguely for a couple of weeks and wrote down quickly for Gyda less than an hour before doing it.

( Here's what we did . . . )

Aaron Baker directs Michael Criscuolo, Iracel Rivero, and Peter Handy.

And that was fun. And I came home to find Berit cheery in her prop building for once - she was pleased that the creators of the first atomic bomb (she had to build a miniature replica) had made it approximately the shape and of a 1-liter plastic soda bottle, making her life much easier for a bit.

Yesterday was the load-in for Cat's Cradle, and I was there to get the video and some sound working and do whatever I could to help. Load-ins are often long, sloggy, unpleasant days, but this wound up being fast, and pleasant and fun and light. A good crew seems to keep it all light, even when wanting to scream about not having as many working dimmers as they had been told. Timothy Reynolds helped me in particular, handling most of the ladder work that he's good at (and I'm not) while I ran around buying cables and adaptors I needed and getting certain things ready.


Edward Einhorn and Art Wallace, who declared 10 years ago that Edward was "his evil nemesis," put aside their differences to peel up tape from the set floor. Timothy Reynolds smiles at this show of indie theatre brotherhood.

So, long day, yes, but fun, mostly. I had too much coffee and too many donuts and got a classic "tummy ache," abated eventually by a meatball hero and some ginger ale. Got the video working. All good. All fine. OK! I have to go back later today for some tweaks and to install a mic stand on the set's podium. I also have to drive out to Ikea in New Jersey to pick up a table for Hiroshima and go to BJ's Shopping Club in the Gateway Plaza for concession supplies. But I'm trying to put that off till tomorrow.

3. Videos of note that I've seen and wanted to pass on . . .

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4. Alain Robbe-Grillet died. I'd be a liar if I didn't say I was more familiar with his influence than his work (apart from the amazing script for Last Year at Marienbad), but that influence is large. Large enough for me to have been daunted in actually delving into the work. Maybe I will now. Lovely tributes from Glenn Kenny and Tim Lucas.

That's it for now. Back to work. Or at least, breakfast.

Still casting the shows. Glad I'm working this far in advance, as it's taking a while.

As mentioned previously, the August production of Harry in Love: A Manic Vaudeville (by Richard Foreman) has been fully cast.

Spell (original play to be created in collaboration with the company, also to go up in August) is mostly cast. Currently in: Moira Stone, Fred Backus, Alyssa Simon, Iracel Rivero, Rasha Zamamiri, Jorge Cordova, Olivia Baseman, Sammy Tunis, Jeanie Tse, and Liz Toft. I still need another woman who speaks a non-English language fluently - and it has to be a language that comes from a country with some kind of revolutionary movement in its past (I've gone through actresses that spoke Russian and German). Also waiting for a man I've asked to say yes or no. I may want another woman in it as well.

Most recent description of the show sent out to the last people I was asking to do the show:

It's about an American woman (Moira) who has apparently done some kind of horrible, murderous terrorist action in the USA, and is being interrogated, or maybe examined by doctors, to find out why she did it, and we watch her attempt at justifying her action in light of other "revolutionary" movements of the past. We're seeing it all inside her fragmented mind, however, so things are changing and sliding around all the time. She keeps changing the "Military Interrogator" back and forth to a "Doctor" in her head, and also keeps changing the sex of this person (Fred & Alyssa). She also keeps imagining herself as a man, a romantic, handsome young revolutionary, who comes out to defend her actions (Jorge). She is also haunted by three witches who seem to be out of Macbeth, but also maybe are the Three Fates, and also represent revolutionary activity of the past as they speak mainly in non-English languages - the witches are Cuban (Iracel), Palestinian (Rasha), and To-Be-Decided (actress-to-be-cast). She also has "flashbacks" to her life before terror, where she's always tormented by men in control of her life (all played by the same man to be cast), and sees herself as a number of different women of different kinds (Olivia, Sammy, Liz, Jeannie, and maybe another).

I've watched a few movies recently that have had some kind of inspiration for where this is going: Godard's Tout Va Bien, Ken Russell's The Devils, some Greenaway, and I'll get to INLAND EMPIRE again sometime soon.

This image seems inspirational for this show as well - John Heartfield's Hurrah, the Butter Is Finished! from 1935:

(quote at bottom) Goering: "Iron has always made a nation strong, butter and lard have only made the people fat."

Songs that are in the playlist for Spell right now: "Children Go Where I Send Thee" - traditional, performed by Ralph Stanley; "Monkey Gone to Heaven" by Pixies; "Highway 61 Revisited" performed by PJ Harvey; "The Red Telephone" by Love; "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" - traditional, unknown performer; and "Just Another Day" by Brian Eno. And somewhat tangentially, "Folk Song" by Bongwater and "High Water" by Bob Dylan.

The other original August show is now being called Everything Must Go - previously the working title was Invisible Republic, but I always figured that would be a subtitle. It's now become apparent that Invisible Republic has become a "series title" for me like NECROPOLIS, with That's What We're Here For as the first part of the series.

Now in Everything Must Go are: Jai Catalano, Dina Rose Rivera, Gyda Arber, Maggie Cino, Jay Liebman, Amy Liszka, Patrick Cann, Julia C. Sun, Brandi Robinson, and Doua Moua. I'd like another two men in the company - I've asked one, and I'm going to audition another.

Most recent description sent out to cast about this one:

It's about the USA, capitalism, and advertising/selling. It takes place in an advertising agency, over the course of a day . . . and that's most of what I know about it. Jai plays The Big Boss, and everyone else works under him, from VPs down to clerks. I'm going to create the dialogue and movement around the actors I get - I'm asking certain people I want who feels right for the world of the show, who I think can move well - there will be a mix of actual dancers of various kinds and people who just move well, or who I know can move "right" - and we'll see how it goes. And that's probably all I can say about it right now. I have music in mind, and dances and movement, and a bit of structure, but I can't do anything else until I have the performers.

Songs to probably be used in the show: "Jimmy Carter" by Electric Six; "Slug" by Passengers; "Down at McDonnellz" by Electric Six; "Dry Bones" performed by The Four Lads; "Transylvanian Concubine" by Rasputina; "Laughing" by Pere Ubu; "Not Yet Remembered" by Harold Budd & Brian Eno; "The Coo Coo Bird" performed by Clarence "Tom" Ashley; "Episode of Blonde" by Elvis Costello; "Theme One" by George Martin; and "Back of a Truck" by Regina Spector.

I've watched a couple of inspirational movies here, too -- Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, All That Jazz, and in some strange way Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 all had something to give.

Oh, and this show also has a particularly inspirational collage image, Richard Hamilton's work from 1956 (though the authorship is disputed), Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?:

And that's the August shows. Now as to the June show, The Magnificent Ambersons by Orson Welles: A Reconstruction for the Stage . . . this is a casting pain!

I've got nine people set (besides myself) for this one, and still need another 11. I'll be auditioning four people I know of now, and I've asked another person who hasn't answered, but that leaves a lot more to look for. Hard to get people for this it seems.

Currently in: Timothy McCown Reynolds, Stephen Heskett, Shelley Ray, Walter Brandes, Ivanna Cullinan, Rebecca Collins, Amy Liszka, Linda Blackstock, and Aaron Baker.

In the morning, I'll send an email out to the people already cast in all shows asking for suggestions of people they know, like, and trust I should meet for the remaining parts - I usually wind up getting good people that way.

And that's it for the shows for today. Tomorrow, a little work on them in the morning, then over to The Brick to prepare for Penny Dreadful and the opening night party for Notes from Underground. Another day.

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 . . .