CollisionWorks

Well, these are okay photos, but I gotta find some of the good ones, or make some new, better ones.


Somewhere there's a bunch of prints from before we had the digital camera (which is currently busted), and I should dig them out.


In the meantime, here's Hooker, in a mood.





Here's Moni, in a regular pose of hers:





And here they are as the Amazing Two-Headed Cat Graft:

Well, last night's rehearsal didn't go as planned.


I got text messages from Danny and Christiaan that they'd both be out sick with the damn thing that's going around, and Roger was unable to be at rehearsal to begin with, so we were left with almost nothing that we could rehearse productively. So I had to send home Maggie, Jessi, Eric, Aaron, and Fred, and just work the two Foustka/Vilma scenes with Walter and Alyssa.


As I've somewhat mentioned, these scenes are delicate and require a certain amount of spontaneity that gets lost in repeated rehearsals. Walter and Alyssa really "know" the scenes by now, and we can really only do each scene twice at most, discuss what's working and what's not, and move on -- any more than that, and the scenes become self-conscious and not what we're trying to do.


So we did each scene once, I think, and the opening of one scene a second time, and discussed a few subtle things, and that was pretty much what we could do. Walter had a great idea about a second meaning for one of his lines in another scene, which neither I nor Alyssa had thought of, but both of us were enthusiastic about. Walter also had some questions about his blocking during his long speeches in the office, and wondering if he was wandering around too much. I didn't think so, and (somewhat unintentionally - I was on my feet and in position) demonstrated how I thought the movement in those scenes worked best, and it seemed Walter "got it" better as a result


I really try to avoid giving line readings, or even the physical equivalent of "line readings," but sometimes it just happens, and more often than not it actually does work and speeds things along.


Frustrating not to do what I expected, but at least actual good productive work happened. I felt better by the time we were working.


Since we were done really early, and I had paid for the space, Berit and I left Walter there to work alone as he wanted to, and went home. Checking in on blogs I found a great piece by Matt Zoller Seitz on one of my favorite films, Kiss Me Deadly, and as usual when that film comes into my head, I have the immediate urge to watch it right then and there (the other film that does this for me is Lost Highway). So I put it on and enjoyed it again.


Today, Berit doesn't feel well but can't tell if she's coming down with the same ick as everyone else or it's just allergies. To a lesser extent, me too. I was planning to type up and send out some emails about costumes/props and other things that are needed to the cast, but haven't got round to it. Must do it tonight. Berit and I are going to go over to The Brick shortly and drop off some of our set pieces. The house light designer, James Bedell, is supposed to be there, hanging the house plot for the Havel Festival, and if he needs any help I'll lend a hand (I also got the wonderful news that James has been told about my desire to have at least 8 practical edison plugs on stage controllable from the board and is indeed setting that up! YES! I was really worried it wasn't going to happen, for some reason).


I have GOT to get cheerier about this show. There's no good reason for me to be moping around when it's going better than usual, at least as far as what I normally have to worry about is concerned.


Tomorrow, maybe more work at the space. Saturday, fight choreography with Walter and Alyssa under the direction of the great Qui Nguyen. Then scene work with Walter and Timothy. Sunday . . . and I cross my fingers on this one . . . a full-cast run. For real.

Shoot -- wireless out again, so I wrote this hours ago and only now just ponged it over to the dial-up-compatible old PC we keep around.


Okay, so now we have 16,988 songs on the iTunes. I've thrown on a lot of albums that I intended to chop tracks off of later. I also included lots of tracks that I wouldn't normally think of as anything I really liked, but that I thought would be a nice change-up when they came up randomly amongst everything else.


This morning's Random 10 is what happens when iTunes decides to give you nothing but a bunch of these tracks. Ugh. If there had just been a couple tracks with loud guitars in here, or a real BEAT, it would have made the rest okay, but as it stood?


1. "Damnation's Cellar" - Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet - The Juliet Letters
2. "El Tonto de la Colina" - Robertha - Rato's Nostalgia Collection 21
3. "(All I Can Do Is) Dream You" - Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl
4. "Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got" - Benny Gordon - Soulin' vol. 4
5. "Taxman" - The Music Machine - Turn On
6. "Everything Right Is Wrong Again" - They Might Be Giants - Then: The Earlier Years
7. "Africa Bamba" - Santana - Supernatural
8. "Prove My Love" - Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
9. "Delicate Cutters" - Throwing Muses - In a Doghouse
10. "There Have Been Bad Moments" - Mike Keneally - Boil That Dust Speck


Again, ugh. I mean, the Music Machine and Violent Femmes tracks kinda rock, but not hard enough to raise the overall lugubriocity level of the run. And when I skipped forward after this to get to something . . . PEPPY . . . the first thing I got was Glenn Miller's "Stardust." Jeez! It took about 20 skips to finally get to something that might help wake me up -- a nice run of The Cramps, Dick Dale, and Southern Culture on the Skids (doing a Link Wray tune).


We're coming up on 60 gigs in the iTunes. When it hits, I start culling. Now I have some good ideas where to start.

Well, didn't expect to do this for two posts in a row, but Lucas continues with interesting words that are at the heart of my concerns with Theatre, and I felt the need to comment on them, twice. And not move the comments over here, as they work best in context with Lucas' post and comments.


So please read Lucas on Lighting the Body in Space (part 1).


Now I have to get to rehearsal.

So, Temptation.  We open three weeks from tonight.

The show goes well, and best of all, I have all the speaking roles (and the most important non-speaking role) cast, and cast well.  We've been joined by Eric C. Bailey, who was in World Gone Wrong, as Neuwirth, Tim Cusack (of Theatre Askew and many, many past collaborations, and friendship) as The Dancer, and my friend of 23 years, Aaron Baker (who I Iast directed in The Skin of Our Teeth at Northfield Mount Hermon School when we were both 17) as The Secret Messenger.

Aaron and Eric joined us last night, and fit right in and immediately got all the nuances and comedy out of their "small" parts that I thought would be there, even if no one I tried to cast previously could see it.

I'm still short the roles of The Lovers -- I got an email from Edward Einhorn's assistant director today offering to pass on people who had been interested in the non-speaking roles in The Memo, so I said, yeah, great.

But people have been vanishing upon learning that the roles basically consist of making out for ten minutes at center stage in one scene, and dancing behind a scrim in another.  I'll find the people, I'm sure.  Just wish I had them NOW.

Today, catching up on paper business for the show.  Really, I've done most of what I can that way (form and documents to Equity for showcase; form to Samuel French for rights; form to my insurance company to reup the GCW volunteer policy; press release out), and I'm playing the waiting game on docs I need back from them, so really it's just catching up on what needs to go where next, and when, once everything is indeed back to me.  I was hoping to get started on the set build for the show this week, but rehearsal in the space last night kinda made it clear I'm going to have to hold off on that.

Between the three shows in the space now (or coming up next week) and the pieces Michael Gardner's been bringing in for his HavelFest production of The Mountain Hotel, there's no damned room for me to store anything I would build in there just yet.  So I guess I wait a week or so . . . damn, for once I had the money, the time, the energy, and the equipment to get things done well in advance of schedule, and now I just don't have the space to get these things done.

However, Michael has a couple of terrific lamps he's found for his show that would also work great for mine, so I have to ask him about sharing those.

Since the last time I wrote anything on the show, I've had a couple of rehearsals for the Foustka/Fistula scenes with Walter and Timothy, which have shaped up very nicely.  Not as immediately together as the Foustka/Vilma scenes -- a lot more tweaking and discussion of emotional beats had to go on -- but by the time we left them, they were mostly on their way.

Last Tuesday, the 3rd, we rehearsed in cramped conditions at Jessi's apartment, as she's still recovering from foot surgery.  Cramped, but enough productive work happened to make it worthwhile, and we had some good cast "bonding" (and a tasty and incredibly rich birthday cake for Jessi).  Wine flowed as we worked, and while I don't think anyone was acting (or directing) drunk, it felt somehow civilized and relaxed.

The following night, I was supposed to meet with Alyssa and Walter for their scenes at The Brick, but two problems came up -- first, Alyssa was sick and couldn't show up, so Walter and I decided to meet and go over all of his monologues in depth; unfortunately (second problem), Michael had made a mistake in the schedule at The Brick, and had a rehearsal of his own in there at the same time. 

But it worked out for the best, Walter and Berit and I worked in the space for an hour before Michael's group came in, then the three of us went down to the Kellogg Diner for dinner and coffee, and to do detailed table work on the script, and Walter's speeches and character arc as Foustka (and Michael and I checked and there will be no more double-bookings in the space).

I used to always do private table work one-on-one with every actor in every show I directed, but I've found it less and less necessary the last few years.  I may have been very wrong in this.  The time Berit and I spent with Walter was incredibly productive in terms of clarifying things for Walter regarding the character.  I think I used to do it more because I was more often directing shows that had "characters" in situations but not much in the way of "plot," and cast members really needed to know who the hell they were, as the text didn't give them many clues.  So we would clarify what the character was going through for the actor, and even if it wasn't literally "understandable" for the audience what was going on, it made emotional sense and was satisfying in the right ways.

Directing a mostly straight narrative play such as Temptation makes me take for granted the need for that kind of character work, when the characters seem to be so clearly defined by the text.  But with a character like Foustka, who can be played in a million ways, with a million intentions, it was indeed valuable to sit and make sure Walter and I were on the same page.

And now we are.  So, the show is moving along -- I also worked this week with Maggie and Walter on the Mrs. Houbova/Foustka scenes, which took a little thought and tweaks to make work, and oddly had more potential options that would work than a lot more "substantial" scenes in the show.  Maggie made a strong and good choice for Mrs. Houbova, and that immediately made the scene focused a certain way that works (and gave Walter some good opportunities to show off aspects of his character that feed into the rest of the show).  Last night was the first time we basically had the whole group for the large group scenes, and they really began to take off; unfortunately we don't have more time with the group until next Monday.  I need to work fast on those scenes.  Faster than I did last night.

I lose Berit on the 23rd, too, which will be a pain, as she goes over to house manage the shows at The Ohio.  The credit I've settled on for the two of us now on our shows is "designed and directed by Ian W. Hill, assisted by Berit Johnson," which is both completely accurate and not quite right as regards our working relationship.  It's a bit more  . . . connected than that.  But this is long enough for now; I'll try to explain Berit's and my partnership in work some other time.

Two video clips. Two recordings. I kept thinking of comments to make, why these are important to me, especially next to each other, but really they just speak for themselves.

Elvis Presley, on an MGM soundstage in Hollywood, 1957, age 22. Song written and produced by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller.

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Elvis Presley, at Madison Square Garden, 1977, age 42, less than two months from his death. Song by Alex North (music), and Hy Zaret (words).

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Ah, morning after the big Havel Festival fundraiser/birthday party at the Czech Consulate/Bohemian Hall. Tired as all get out. Phew. Went well, at least. More later on that maybe.


And lots to do this weekend -- starting today with auditioning an actor at The Brick at 4 pm. Met a very young Columbia University actor at the party last night who could be either The Lover or The Dancer (maybe) and is very interested in joining in, so I'll call him later. Still haven't heard back from potential Secret Messenger and Neuwirth actors I've asked. Worry beginning to set in.


So, a morning Random Ten, all over the place and incoherant as a series of songs, pleasant as they all are individually:


1. "Silver Legs" - Barigozzi Group - Easy Tempo vol. 2 - The Psycho Beat
2. "US Millie" - Theoretical Girls - The Great New York Singles
3. "Foooooood!" - Fred Katz - The Little Shop Of Horrors
4. "Open the Kingdom (Liquid Days pt. 2)" - The Philip Glass Ensemble w/Douglas Perry - Songs from Liquid Days
5. "Acrobat" - U2 - Achtung Baby
6. "October Fest" - Giuseppe De Luca - Barry 7's Connectors 2
7. "Ooohhh Baby" - Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby
8. "Over There" - The Bobettes - Girls Will Be Girls Vol. 1
9. "Nuclear War (on the Dance Floor) - Electric Six - Fire
10. "December (demo)" - Regina Spektor


So, now to go out and refill the larder -- out of some necessary breakfast items (COFFEE!), and I'm hungry. Back later with Temptation updates from the last few days.

Yeah, I know I've been going a little video-happy here at CollisionWork (damn you, YouTube!). More tomorrow about this weekend's rehearsals and maybe a bit about our all day marathon at The Brick yesterday (Berit and I were there from 9 am to noon for rehearsal, then we stayed for the all day WPA fest until 12.30 am -- Alyssa Simon was with us from the start through most of the evening, but not the full 15 hours). We leave in an hour again for the theatre for the Plato's Symposium reading (and Berit's actually been talked into participating in the reading, granted, as just the reader of all the "he saids" in the text). Then after three hours of reading, four hours of rehearsal (which means I can't participate so much in the Plato drinking game that's been suggested -- drink every time the word "beautiful" is used or he makes a mysogynist remark).


Well, we are having free bloody marys and mimosas for all who show to the Plato, so even if I can't imbibe (greatly) due to rehearsal and driving, anyone else showing up sure can.


So, maybe something more tomorrow, but in the meantime, a bit of good old-fashioned nightmare fuel, Bob Denver performing "Ho Daddy" in the 1964 film, For Those Who Think Young:

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Dear god, what made them think ANYONE would want to see that?

So a good deal of other theatre blog-type-people will be involved in the PRELUDE 06 events of the next two days at CUNY. I cannot attend, much as I'd like to, primarily as I'm in rehearsal for Temptation tomorrow morning and Sunday evening at The Brick, but also because I'll also be continuing to spend the rest of those days at The Brick (and possibly other W-Burg locales) enjoying the New WPA Free Fest being put on by The New WPA (that is, Williamsburg Performance Association).

I'm in rehearsal from 9 am to 12 noon tomorrow, ugh, but then there's a whole damn day of cool stuff at The Brick:


1.30 - 2.00 pm Chris Harcum performs Some Kind of Pink Breakfast
2.15 - 3.00 pm Debby Schwartz plays n sings fer you
3.15 - 3.45 pm Lisa Ferber's new play An Evening with Molly Hadafew
4.00 - 4.30 pm Deenie Nast
4.45 - 5.15 pm Cousin Hubie
5.30 - 6.00 pm Eric Davis
6.15 - 6.45 pm Tom X. Chao and Erin Leahy perform "Lunch in Los Angeles" from Freak Out Under the Apple Tree
7.00 - 7.30 pm The Bitter Poet
7.45 - 8.15 pm Trav S.D.
8.30 - 9.15 pm Michele Carlo's It Came from New York
9.30 - 10.00 pm The Curse of Cursed Mountain
10.00 - ??? pm Oddball Mini-Filmfest (very likely including a cult favorite musical in black-and-white about the Sixth Dimension)


And it's FREE! There's lots going on in other Williamsburg spaces, too -- if you can't read the map/guide I linked to above, I have it on good authority they'll be handed out at Williamsburg subway stations all day.

And there's even more (and still FREE) on Sunday, including a reading of Plato's Symposium as a "radio theatre extravaganza" at The Brick from 2.00 - 5.00 pm. I will be participating as a reader in that one, apparently . . .


Monday night, The Brick will be the locale for the New York Theatre Review fundraiser, which I hope to also attend (this one costs $20, and I don't know if I have the cash right now, but if you do, it's a good cause, and you SHOULD GO) -- many of the familiar theatre-blog-type-people will be attending this one, too. I hope to see some familiar faces there.