CollisionWorks

Okay, so Ian W. Hill's Hamlet is open. Still have to work it, make it better, be more ready. Sure.


But then what?


Well, the big thing is figuring out what I'll be doing in The Brick in August, as the primary slot (and possibly others) are all mine. I had a list of shows I wanted to bring back - my two originals, World Gone Wrong and That's What We're Here For, The Mind King by Richard Foreman, which I did as a solo piece, The Hobo Got Too High by Marc Spitz, and the three Chekhov shorts, Sad Clowns On Velvet. So I emailed the 25 actors involved in these shows.

Thus far, 14 responses. It looks like World Gone Wrong will come back as the "main" show - ten members of the original cast of 21 are up for it thus far (including me), and I think I'll have at least four more - if I don't get at least 2/3rds of the original cast, I'm not sure about going ahead with it. Four of them definitely can't do it, but I can deal with that. I'm pretty sure another one can't as well, though he hasn't responded, as he's getting married.

That's What We're Here For will have to wait, though it really needs to come back. Both Berit and one of the cast members have made the point that it deserves a lot more work and going over before opening again, more than we could do before August. Also, I wouldn't have a good number of the original cast members I wrote it for, and that would be harder to deal with here than on other shows.

I will have to get ahold of Marc Spitz to see if he'll let me do Hobo again. I don't think he's very fond of that play, and he may not want it shown again. I hope he lets me do it. It's funny as hell and a good crowd-pleaser, and I want more people to see it.

The Chekhov will have to wait - Peter Brown and I would be up for doing it again, but we need a third actor. I'm not in touch with the original third actor anymore, and the one I wanted to take over for him is unavailable.

Mind King is a hard one for me, but I could probably get it up and running again. I'd like to have it always ready to go, in any case. Good to have a simple 45-minute solo piece standing by at all times.


So, maybe I'll also consider bringing back the other completed parts of the NECROPOLIS series thus far: #3: At the Mountains of Slumberland (after H.P. Lovecraft and Winsor McCay), and #0: Kiss Me, Succubus (after Jess Franco, Radley Metzger, Jean Rollin, et al.).

Those would be a bit of a pain, but there's something attractive about having the four completed NECROPOLIS collage-plays going on at the same time (those two with #1&2: World Gone Wrong/Worth Gun Willed (after film noir)).

Then I could start thinking about a smaller way to do #4: Green River (after road pictures and long-form music videos). As written, Green River would require a giant stage with a fly system. Not gonna happen anytime soon, so, how to scale it down? Also, I'd have to rethink it for new actors, as it was dream-envisioned to star Yuri Lowenthal (now in L.A.) and Jennifer Clark (now out of acting). Actually, Matt Gray and Dina Rivera might work well in it, and it'd be nice to have a real couple as the onstage couple (the female part needs a trained dancer, too). Anyway, that's a while off no matter what.


Okay, back to Hamlet. Gotta do some work - tonight we're going into The Brick after the last show to prepare things better for the quick changeover between shows so we don't start late again (Tuesday was terrible that way - we had a crucial part of the set delivered to us, several days late already, by UPS at 7.05 pm for an 8.30 curtain, then had to rush to the theatre, getting stuck in bad traffic, and put the whole furshlugginer mess together as fast as we could, which wasn't fast enough, really).

But first, I have to go get better cleaning supplies to clean up the blood we leave behind the show (we haven't had proper cleanser, sponges, or brushes at the space), then go soak in a tub and run my lines again and again and again.


Tomorrow looks to be a big night for Ian W. Hill's Hamlet, housewise, and especially for friends and family of yours truly. I have the feeling it'll look like Joe Gideon's final number in All That Jazz for me out there, though hopefully without the same ending. I'm feeling oddly confident and calm and expectant now, but I'd better give myself some good reason to feel thus.

So, we opened Ian W. Hill's Hamlet tonight. I've now played Hamlet.


Afterwards, one of the actors asked me how I felt, and I said, "complex," and I don't want to go into it any more right now. I'm coming down off the adrenaline high that's been keeping me going for days. I need to crawl into bed and pass out for as long as my body says it needs to.

But I wanted to thank everyone for their comments and emails. It was appreciated, to feel that support.


Thank you.

Lots of emails back and forth between Berit and I as she finalized the postcard.


I'm very happy with how it turned out. I won't post another version of the front, but the final version - which may be the same as the last version I linked to, I'm not sure, is HERE.


Here's the final for the back:





4x6". Glossy on both sides. Let's see how fast we get them. Unfortunately, it'll probably be Monday . . .

I'm about to drive off to Maine to get my teeth taken care of - accompanied today by Aaron Baker, Ian W. Hill's Hamlet actor and friend for 24 years, who was going to New Hampshire near I-95 himself and could use a lift.


Rehearsal last night until 10.30 pm, then work at The Brick. Got home at midnight.

Only rehearsed Act I - getting late, and it didn't feel worth it to keep everyone especially late. Scattered energies (including my own, I guess).


Berit stayed up most of the night working on the postcard for the show so we could send it out today. Here's what we have now:





I'm sure I bore people saying it, but I do have to keep remarking on how amazing it is to me, with this show that I've been considering for 18 years and working on (and least textually, off-and-on) for 15 years, to see ideas I've had bouncing around in my head for so long actually coming to fruition. I had the idea for the design of this card sometime around 1994, and here it is, pretty much as I've always imagined it (except I always saw my head more at an angle, and the fire and text levels are more recent additions to the fantasy).


I don't think Berit has the back done yet, so I'll have some notes for her when she's up about typography. Usually, with something like this, I have the design, Berit accomplishes it with her mad Photoshop skillz, then I go in and do the type layout and processing, as I'm very critical of that -- from 4th to 9th grades, I went to a school with a working print shop where you could take "Print" as an elective; I spent years putting movable type into composing sticks and eventually working my way up to linotype machines.

With this trip north I won't be able to do the type myself, so before I fell asleep I wrote out what info needed to go on the card, and where, and in what typeface (Bank Gothic). Now as I look, it needs some filters on that title there, but I wouldn't know what until I played with it. Something to take away the computer-sharpness a bit. I'll call Berit from the road (she's quite out now) and mention it (if she hasn't read this already).


Okay, Aaron's arrived - we should be out the door soon. Next time in Portland.

And har-de-bloody-har.


Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended


Just the kind of humor I needed right now. Really.

The Pretentious Festival has opened. Look on Our Works, Ye Mighty, and despair!


Now I have a week and two days to get Ian W. Hill's Hamlet ready. Well, we're pretty much okay. I have lots of things to do, but time to do them in, pretty much:

The postcard (mostly in Berit's hands now - we have the image, she has to do the processing/layout from my design, then I do the typography).

Building the platforms - I thought more shows in the Fest wanted to use them, but it seems like it will only be mine and Q1: The Bad Hamlet unless others grab them (Q1 is wonderfully reciprocating by letting me borrow an Ophelia coffin and a Yorick skull) - I'm making two new 2x7' platforms and reusing the 6x3.5' top of the Temptation bed and putting 2' legs on them (though I'm making the legs removable for storage purposes and so other shows can leg them at different heights; I'm making legs for Q1 of 8" on one platform and 18" on another).

I have to go through the potential music I've put aside and settle on certain music for certain scenes/transitions and get the sound effects together - some stock, some to record (I need to have the music settled for the dumb show by Monday, when we rehearse it again to put it to whatever music I pick).

Get the last of my lines down - I'm almost there.

Get the fencing foils, masks, jackets, gloves (and the fight choreographer) in.

Charts and diagrams for the company for the scene transitions (lots of platform, chairs, and desk moves).

Props that we don't already have must be acquired.

I'm sure we'll think of other things we've missed. Hopefully, well before tech.


Oh, yeah, and rehearse it some more . . . We have four more runthrus - Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and next Monday (tech). And that's it. Some work tomorrow at The Brick (dumb show) and maybe next Sunday, but that's it.

Luckily, it's looking good as of yesterday. The previous run, on Thursday, was logi and lacked momentum. It wasn't helped by the fact that we were focusing on the transitions, and so there was a long pause after each scene while we worked out who was moving what, but even taking that into account, it just kinda lay there like a lox. Once upon a time, it would have worried me, but I could see the work we'd been doing underneath the blah-ness. The thought was there, the smarts, the levels, just not the energy.

So I wasn't worried, and rightly so, as it turns out - yesterday's run worked very nicely indeed, despite (or maybe helped by, actually) being in the small room at Studio 111. A hot, confined space, and there we are, doing Hamlet (and it wasn't even all 18 of us; just 14). I wanted to laugh, sometimes, seeing us do the great big Famous Work in this little room. We had to skip sections due to actor lack, but the show was mostly there, with marked blocking at many points. The intensity, drive, and focus was back. We did good.


I was a wreck after, though. I need a little more fuel in me before I do Hamlet, and water around offstage. My engine was running on fumes right after. But a trip over to The Brick to see Art Wallace's Between the Legs of God was a nice warm-down (hysterically funny, with a few old classic in-jokes from Art's and my days at Nada). Followed by a screening of Art's DV-Movie from a few years back, Melon of the Sky (in which my performance did not embarrass me so much as I thought it would - not nearly as bad as I remembered), and a few hours of Berit and I hanging out at the space with friends, eventually closing down the place with Aaron Baker, Gyda Arber, Tom X. Chao, and Michael Criscuolo. A nice evening of theatre talk and bitchy dish (like there's a difference). Just what I needed.


Ah, just spent time on a show announcement I just realized should be it's own entry. Coming up shortly.

Once again, beginning to run out of good photos - we returned the camera we borrowed from Robert Honeywell, and now I'm just going through everything we shot while we had it.


Here's Hooker and Moni in one of their temporary detentes over the currently favorited chair for each of them:





And Moni on the identical chair across the room, where she can be close to Mommy-Berit's normal position:





Meanwhile, back in the bedroom, I take a nap and my little buddy joins me to remind me who rules my sleeptime:





And congrats to our great friends, regular catsitters, and cast members of Ian W. Hill's Hamlet, Christiaan Koop and Bryan Enk on the acquisition of their new feline buddy, Dharma!

Between the two of us, Berit and I can do almost any job there is in theatre anywhere from passably to excellently. Except for one.

Costumes.

Berit and I have a huge blind spot when it comes to this - well, we know what's right when we see it, but trying to imagine it in advance? With few exceptions, we're lost. Spending time trying to self-educate myself online and with fashion magazines has gone nowhere.


So I'm always glad when someone of talent takes this over for us. In the case of Ian W. Hill's Hamlet, that someone is Karen Flood.

Since I have only a few ideas as to what I want, as well as what is needed, as called for by the script, I had to write detailed notes to Karen about the style and feel of this production, and how I view the characters. This wound up being as much for me as for Karen by the end, as it helped keep a few things clear in my mind, and summed up much of the work we've done in rehearsal to this point.


So here the two emails to Karen yesterday, edited a bit:


KF,

Here are my actors and their emails [emails redacted, of course]:

Ian W. Hill (hi!) - Hamlet
Gyda Arber - "Buffy," Norwegian Captain, English Ambassador
Aaron Baker - Francisco (guard), Priest, "Heroic" Player
Danny Bowes - Elsinore Attendant, Gravedigger, Norwegian Soldier
Peter (Bean) Brown - Reynaldo, First ("Dramatic") Player
Maggie Cino - "Muffy," the Gravedigger's Wife, Norwegian Soldier
Edward Einhorn - Guildenstern, Norwegian Soldier
Bryan Enk - Polonius, Fortinbras
Stacia French - Gertrude
Jessi Gotta - Ophelia, Norwegian Soldier
Rasheed Hinds - Horatio
Carrie Johnson - Marcella (guard)
Daniel McKleinfeld - Rosencrantz, Norwegian Soldier
Christiaan Koop - Voltimand
Jerry Marsini - Claudius
Roger Nasser - Osric
Ken Simon - Bernardo (guard), Sailor, "Comic" Player
Adam Swiderski - Laertes, "Female" Player

I'm working on what notes I can for all of the characters above, but the general feel of things that I've been describing is "20th-Century America - all mixed together, no specific decade that can be pinned down" but really I guess I'm thinking more specifically of, say, 1955-1985 (a certain level of modernity, but still before cellphones and the PC revolution - people use dayplanners instead of Blackberries, still) . We jokingly call the locale "Denmark, Connecticut" at rehearsals, as it is very much based on my memories of growing up in preppy Greenwich, CT. Elsinore feels like a cross between a yacht or country club, the White House, and a white-collar business. This is a very class-centric Hamlet.

The soldiers/guards are somewhere between the military and the secret service. There are various lords, attendants, ambassadors, and interns around Elsinore of varied upper-middle-class to upper class stock ("Muffy" and "Buffy," Gertrude's two ladies-in-waiting, are certainly interning daughters of wealthy lords or dukes). The Gravedigger and his wife are working class.

Okay, just got your latest email. I've attached a script and will send this now. I'll have some more detailed notes in a bit.

thanks,

IWH


. . . later . . .


KF,

Okay, below is some more of a breakdown for how I see the characters, with my vague ideas for costumery where I have any, but more often about how I see the characters, as clothing is a blind spot to me, mostly, until I actually see it, so often I write in feelings and images that don't literally apply to clothes, but might give you an idea of what the "feel" is supposed to be.

Also, I don't know if it will help, but I made up a timeline of the events of the show that is on my blog at

http://collisionwork.livejournal.com/79627.html

Since the play takes place, basically, over four days in the course of a year (one in May, one in July, two in September) [as noted last entry, we were wrong on this, there are two days in July], it would effect how people are dressed. There's a lot of notes on the show at the blog, if you're interested, and they can all be accessed through:

http://collisionwork.livejournal.com/tag/hamlet

And, if you don't mind, the kind of thing I like posting on the blog are the notes like I'll be giving you here, so if it's okay with you (please let me know), I'll put them up at some point. As a result, some of these notes may go on and on and be of no use to you, but putting them down makes things clearer in my own head sometimes.

In any case, the characters:

FRANCISCO, BERNARDO, MARCELLA (Aaron Baker, Ken Simon, Carrie Johnson) - Danish soldiers and members of the palace guard. They feel something like a cross between military and secret service. When they are out on the battlements, more military, when in court, more secret service (perhaps with earpieces). They are armed with pistols. In the first scene, when she visits the battlements, Marcella is "off-duty." Apart from that, whenever we see them they are on duty. Francisco is a bit of a slacker, does his job as much as he needs to, and that's it (he wears a watch); Bernardo signed up cause it seemed like a good idea, and now regrets it; Marcella is career military, likes it, and is good at it.

HORATIO (Rasheed Hinds) - from a family and line with more respect, style, and personal nobility than money or titles - I think Rasheed has said he sees himself as the Danish-born (or at least raised) son of diplomats to Denmark from an African country. Black, middle class, with great intelligence and self-awareness. A college friend of Hamlet's with a certain amount of leave to come and go around Elsinore as he pleases, without any real function.

THE GHOST (Ian W. Hill) - Old King Hamlet, in military gear. A warrior and a king. There is, in this production, the ever-so-slight implication that it is, in fact, young Hamlet himself dressed up as his father and wandering around (perhaps sleepwalking). The military garb must be obvious - he needs some kind of helmet, perhaps (I have three real military helmets, but Berit says they all seem "goofy" and "not Royal"). Armed (sword? pistol?). Heavy boots.

CLAUDIUS (Jerry Marsini) - a great Army General, now king. Wears a crown (some kind of simple one, I don't know what yet). Wears some kind of dress military uniform at some public events (certainly at his first speech). Is King now instead of Hamlet primarily because Denmark, threatened by Norway, needs a "War King" now, some kind of show of military "might" at the helm. Much more comfortable as a military man than as a king, but believes it is his duty to run the country now in troubled times. Starched and pressed, but gets a bit more frazzled and unkempt as the play goes on and things fall apart.

GERTRUDE (Stacia French) - poised, beautiful, regal, a Queen through and through. We've decided she's of German origin (a princess married off to the old King Hamlet when he was a young prince). Plenty of USA "First Lady" qualities to her, especially when we see her in "office" scenes where she's signing documents and working (she has reading glasses on a cord around her neck). Tasteful jewelry. Always aware of what it is to be royal, and dressed accordingly (even when meeting her son in her bedroom, she is "casually" well-attired, a Queen meeting a Prince more than a mother meeting a son). Perhaps a crown, too?

POLONIUS (Bryan Enk) - a politician/statesman - like a USA Secretary of State. Somber and fastidious, seemingly boring in his preciseness, but everything is calculated and deliberate. Three piece suit? Wears glasses. Pocket handkerchief. Maybe a pocketwatch with chain and fob?

LAERTES (Adam Swiderski) - handsome, dashing, preppy. The Big Man on Campus, and he knows it. Probably plays lacrosse and ice hockey, as well as being a fencer. Knows how to dress for public occasions, but also dresses down in a deliberate way when not having to dress up. In a perfect world, would wear classic Sperry Topsiders with no socks when saying goodbye to his father and sister at dockside. Wears a watch.

OPHELIA (Jessi Gotta) - I envisioned her as a bit of a tomboy, but I'm not sure Jessi is exactly going that way, or wants to. In any case, I don't think she dresses especially "feminine" until her dad has her dress up to meet Hamlet, and she has to drag out "the pretty dress" to put on. Jeans for the dockside scene with her brother and father, I think. Some kind of nightgown or slip for the mad scene - something unpleasantly "femmy," almost little-girlish. Generally, well-dressed (her family is quite loaded) when need be, but somehow differently formal -- she is wealthy, and near the Royal Court, but she is not of or serving that Court.

HAMLET (Ian W. Hill) - royal, spoiled, preppy, indolent, priggish, prudish, entitled, incredibly intelligent, unpleasant. Blue blazer, blue shirt, nice tie, loafers, tan pants (most of which I have) when we first see him at the Court (with a black armband, which is what is referred to as the "mourning colors" he should cast off, and which he wears for all of Act I). Something slovenly from his closet for when he's acting "mad" - probably nice clothes that have gotten worn or torn or stained (or all of the above), maybe a tie wrapped around his head. Needs an overcoat for the battlements/Ghost scene. Maybe a windbreaker for when he's being shunted off to England. Returns for Act II in black jeans and t-shirt and sunglasses and sneakers.

VOLTIMAND (Christiaan Koop) - Christiaan and I have had some costume discussions, and she has some specific ideas as to what she wants. I see her as very 1970s USA professional business woman/diplomat. She just wants to very definitely not wear a "power suit." She had some very good research photos that we looked at, and knows clothing well. I'm sure the two of you could figure something out well without much more from me. She gets a little more frazzled and unkempt as the play goes on (like Claudius, she gets more overworked and harried after Polonius' death).

REYNALDO (Peter Bean) - servant to the Polonius family, very loyal to them. Well-dressed, but definitely a servant, ready to do anything from carry messages to the King in a formal setting to carrying Laertes' bags for him as he goes away.

OSRIC (Roger Nasser) - a bit of a dandy, a little foppish, but not as over the top or even "swishy" as sometimes portrayed. Devoted to etiquette and propriety in all things Royal -- a dedicated reader and follower of current fashions and trends in Courtly dress and behavior. Does everything by the book. Loves royalty, dislikes Hamlet because he doesn't behave as a Prince should (and loves Laertes because he does). Wears a hat that he can fan himself with, annoyingly (because of the style we're doing this in, it can't be some big feathered monstrosity as it often is, so I'm not sure exactly where to go with it). Pocket handkerchief.

ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN (Daniel McKleinfeld and Edward Einhorn) - from extremely wealthy families, grew up around Elsinore, childhood friends of Hamlet, though not of the Court. Jewish (Daniel and Edward want to wear yarmulkes and will be getting their own, not-quite-"traditional" ones, I believe). Rosencrantz is a bit looser and more stylish than Guildenstern (R is a business student, going for his MBA; G is studying to be a lawyer). Some kind of "travel" coats for when they are going to England.

"MUFFY" and "BUFFY" (Maggie Cino and Gyda Arber) - non-canonical names have shown up for these two who are non-speaking Elsinorians, most often seen as ladies-in-waiting/assistants around Gertrude (Maggie most often is giving Gertrude papers to sign - plans for menus for state dinners, whatever). Preppy intern girls from well-to-do families (as Maggie chirps in rehearsal, "My daddy's a Duke!"). They are also seen to act as cater-waiters. Berit sees them in matching blazers like NBC pages. Not a bad image tonally, even if not what we go with.

ELSINORE ATTENDANT (Danny Bowes) - Danny is the only person hanging around Elsinore who doesn't really have a name/character (otherwise, everyone else is the same characters when we see them around - Francisco, Marcella, Bernardo, Osric, Voltimand, Muffy, Buffy, Reynaldo). Danny is a bit more of a "servant" (we see him clearing food and drink after the opening scene) but we also see him acting as an armed guard helping to bring in Hamlet after he's killed Polonius. I still think a "servant" in his position is somewhat of rank in some way (like Muffy and Buffy), so he's definitely still of a higher class than the military people we see.

THE PLAYERS (Peter Bean, Aaron Baker, Adam Swiderski, Ken Simon) - working actors, tradesmen who know their job. Casual. Peter is the "great dramatic character actor" of the bunch, who plays the evil poisoner in the play within the play, Aaron is the "heroic" actor, who plays the King, Adam is the "female" actor, who plays the Queen (and is getting too big and old to play women's parts), and Ken is the "comic" actor, who plays a servant. They enter and exit in their "traveling" clothes, we also see them in "warmup" attire and in the play "The Murder of Gonzago."

GRAVEDIGGER (Danny Bowes) - a workingman, uneducated but intelligent and savvy. Dressed for work. Overalls? Or, since he has to hang around for the funeral respectfully before filling in the grave, is he in "nice" but scuffed working clothes, and just good enough at his job that he does it fastidiously in shirtsleeves and tie (his jacket hanging on a nearby tombstone)?

GRAVEDIGGER'S WIFE (Maggie Cino) - helps and supervises her husband, and acts, with equal parts love and exasperation, as his "straight man." The Gravedigger and Wife are the representatives of the working class in the play, able to comment on the ways of the world with a freedom that the other people we see cannot, because of the structures around them.

PRIEST (Aaron Baker) - the religiosity of the play is somewhat confusing . . . and while we're creating a rather WASPy world here, the religion seems to work best as Catholicism, so he's a Catholic priest. I have a short-sleeved Catholic priest shirt, but I don't know if it will fit Aaron.

FORTINBRAS (Bryan Enk) - I see him in a long leather coat - fairly much a Nazi, or at least fascistic. Some kind of military hat (not a helmet). No colors but black, grey and silver. Elegant.

FORTINBRAS' SOLDIERS (Danny Bowes, Maggie Cino, Edward Einhorn, Daniel McKleinfeld, Jessi Gotta) - cyberpunk stormtroopers, all leather and vinyl and rubber and metal and duct tape and tubing and goggles and gas masks and steel-toed boots. They smell of gasoline and burning plastic and hair. They don't feel human, but like animated anarchy.

NORWEGIAN CAPTAIN (Gyda Arber) - she is in between the last two mentioned above, and more human than either - not a cold fascist like Fortinbras, nor mindless destruction like the soldiers. An officer with a wry, realistic outlook on war and battles, but who still must look like she belongs to the same fighting force as the rest of the Norwegians.

ENGLISH AMBASSADOR (Gyda Arber) - another well-dressed female diplomat, maybe a bit more drably and somberly dressed than Voltimand.

SAILOR (Ken Simon) - a working fisherman in working clothes.

Well, that's plenty, or more than plenty, sorry. I doubt that you have fencing gear (jackets, gloves, masks) but in case you do, that's needed, too (damn, but it'll be pricey to rent or buy . . .). The play moves from Spring through Summer into Autumn, and there is a progression in color, if possible, along with the time, from muted to vibrant to washed-out and desaturated.

Okay, sorry to be so long-winded. This a good start?

We will have six full runthroughs and two other work days before we open, if you want to come to any that you can and would like to. I've attached a schedule.

My own sizes are:

[uh, no damned way . . .]

best, and thank you so much in advance for the gorgeousness,

IWH

I previously posted David Cronenberg's amazing short film/video Camera, which was made for the Montreal International Film Festival.

Cronenberg has made another short film for a film festival - this time as part of the Cannes 60th Anniversary compilation Chacun Son Cinema for which many great directors from around the world made films of approximately 3 minutes or so.

Again, appropriately, Cronenberg takes as his subject cinema itself, and again, death. He himself plays the silent onscreen character.

Here's the film, At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World: