CollisionWorks

Yesterday, B & I rewatched three full serials -- Radar Men from the Moon, The Lost City, and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe -- made comments, stole lines, and came up with more concepts, scenes, and ideas for Spacemen from Space, which gets crazier and funnier as we make more and more of it up.

I was REALLY hoping to get away for about two weeks to Maine to buckle down and write the thing, but it looks like have to do some jobs at The Brick at widely separated times during the window I had for a getaway, so I'm stuck here, where writing just doesn't happen as well. I have to get out of the home, I think. Maybe I'll schlep the laptop to The Brick's depressing office space and punch in some 8-hour days next week, just writing and pacing. That means, though, I wouldn't have Berit around. I'm not sure yet if she's going to get co-writing credit on this one, but she's been more involved in the immediate creation of it than usual on my original plays, where she acts as my best critic and bounceboard during the whole process. I do all of the actual writing, and especially the conceptual and structural work, but more and more dialogue in this one is coming out of the two of us improvising scenes in reaction to the actual serials we're watching, so her involvement in more direct here in the creative process (though both of us, I think, agree, it's not quite at co-writer level yet, it may well get there).

Unfortunately, while the majority of the actors I wanted for the other three shows have jumped right in, the 22 people I asked to be in Spacemen have mostly turned me down, or said it's unlikely they'll be available, or said they won't be able to commit fully to an August show until much, much later in the year. So I may have to do a full casting call with this one and bring in a LOT of new people (apart from the people I asked, most of the people I know just don't fit in the world of Spacemen). So it goes. It was a lot more fun writing it for actors I knew and liked and figured would knock it out of the ballpark easily.

In between writing, planning, and checking in online, I continue to try to cull enough tracks out of the iPod to put in all the tracks I've got in the last year that I'd like to have there (I pretty much filled up the damned thing and stopped my regular dropping in of any and all music I was finding on March 11 of last year). I've dropped about 800 tracks from it, and now added back in about 350 from the last year. This will take a while.

So, from 25,621 tracks now in the iPod, this week's Random Ten (with related video links):

1. "Pricks Up Front (Presto Con Brio)" - Andy Prieboy - From Pauper to a King
2. "Anthology" - The Kay Gees - Keep On Bumpin' & Master Plan
3. "Run Run Run (live 1967)" - The Velvet Underground - The Gymnasium - 1967
4. "'21 Sounds For The Sunset' - LP Promo Spot" - Radio Record Promo - Psychedelic Promos & Radio Spots, vol. 1
5. "Macumba" - Piero Umiliani - Angeli Bianchi... Angeli Neri
6. "Pray Them Bars Away" - Lee Hazlewood - Cowboy In Sweden
7. "New Cooter Boogie" - Southern Culture On The Skids - Ditch Diggin'
8. "KRLA, King Of The Wheels (Full Song)" - The Bobby Fuller Four - Psychedelic Promos & Radio Spots, vol. 5
9. "Spearmint Pup" - Mike Keneally - Hat
10. "Catch A Wave" - The Beach Boys - Greatest Hits

Oh, it's March 6. What's happening today? Oh, right . . . the Watchmen movie.

Don't know if I'm going to see it . . . I think I'll reread the graphic novel today (the 20-year old trade edition I have signed by Alan Moore). Actually, Tasha Robinson at A.V. Club makes it sound like it was, for her, exactly like what I'd expect it to be for me in her piece here -- a fascinating, immersive experience with enough small (and seemingly-small but not really) changes from the book to not-quite-but-almost spoil the whole experience. She notes at the end of the piece (and repeatedly restates in the comments) that she LIKED the movie, but has still has several pages of not-at-all-unimportant problems with it.

The trailers got me somewhat excited about the movie, but the scene excerpts I saw kinda killed that buzz. The scenes I watched looked (mostly) well-acted, (mostly) acceptably staged, (mostly) deeply faithful to the book, and (heavily) boring as all fuck. Enough film writers I respect have positive things to say, overall, about it (and plenty of ones I don't respect are being assholes about it in general, which can actually also be a plus), and I'd enjoy seeing a big IMAX experience film again, so I'll probably go (especially now discovering there's an IMAX screen where it's playing right nearby in Sheepshead Bay), but I'm also a little pissed that I'll be seeing a cut-down version as opposed to the full version that will be on the DVD. I enjoyed Fellowship of the Rings on the big screen at first, but once I saw the expanded (and improved by it) DVD version, I just got more and more angry watching the later two Lord of the Rings films in the theatre, knowing there would be a better, longer version released later, feeling a bit ripped-off paying full price to see a "tab" version.

Well, however the film works out, it couldn't be any worse than the 80s Saturday-morning cartoon spinoff version . . . (hee, hee) . . .

Hey, we got some new cat pictures! Amazing, considering that their skills (especially Moni) for immediately walking away, turning, blinking or whatever whenever we get a nice shot set up have gotten more and more acute. Now we have to take pictures when they're sleeping, for the most part. Like in a box of old props and costume pieces . . .

Or on a chair . . .

Or at the other end of the couch from where I'm writing . . .

Or, when I'm taking a nap break from writing, on top of me, in photos I don't discover Berit's taken until I download the camera . . .

Maybe next week, I'll get some more active photos of the two. Maybe drinking from their new razzafrazzin' fancy-ass water dish.

While we were in Maine last time, we finally bit the bullet and spent some money on a fancy drinking fountain for them. Moni has always seemed to prefer running water, and follows us into the bathroom on every trip so she can stand on the sink and drink at the faucet, if we'll turn it on for her. So we decided to get a powered water bowl that runs water down a plastic dome into a bowl, thinking she'd love it (and that Hooker, who's pretty easygoing, would accept it).

Nope.

Moni has been terrified of the damn thing - she hates the motor sound, we think, and more and more demands the sink faucet instead, and won't drink from her new (and for us, expensive) toy -- I've been worried about her getting dehydrated, but can you check this with a skin response test, and she seems okay. It took her forever just to drink from a normal bowl we put next to the thing! Hooker didn't like it at first, but soon took to licking the water off the dome as they're supposed to. We thought this might give the always-jealous Moni some ideas when she saw him do it, but no. Berit even got down on the floor and tried to demonstrate it for her. No go.

Last night, B said that she FINALLY saw Moni drinking from the new thing. We'll see if she's got it down now . . . I'll believe it when I see it.

Done with Secrets History Remembers and Matt Gray & Bryan Enk's Penny Dreadful Episode 1: The Amazing Viernik (sorry I didn't mention that before - one night show Saturday at The Brick; I lit it; it was great).

Brief sojourn next in Maine and Massachusetts with families for Thanksgiving weekend and then back to stage the Marc Spitz play for the Baby Jesus One-Act Jubilee and create something for The Brick's Quinquennial celebration.

Some videos kicking around to share -- first, from yesterday's Simpsons, a new comic store comes to town (owner voiced by Jack Black), and Daniel Clowes, Art Spiegelman, and Alan Moore appear as themselves in a scene that probably means nothing to non-comics-geeks, but for some of us (which probably includes a good portion of this blog's readers), it's a laff and a half:

Then, from the school of movies recut into trailers for different kinds of movies, Mary Poppins is taken to a different genre:

And finally (and no, it isn't real, looks like a school project, but they did a damned good job), THE ITALIAN SPIDERMAN!

Enjoy.

Work has started "for real" on Ian W. Hill's Hamlet.


Friday night we had the second reading - almost full cast, just down one actor - at La Tea. I put back in the Reynaldo/Polonius scene I had cut to almost nothing -- for years I had been determined to keep that scene (which almost EVERYONE cuts), and I was surprised to realize that I had gone berserk in one of my cutting sessions at some point in the last six years and removed it "for time" -- Bryan and Peter got it down right away, and it stays. It really does establish the character of Polonius importantly, especially for this production (and it's damned funny at a good point for it in the show). I also tried out my plan for the voice of The Ghost, overlapping among six actors, and it was rough, being done for the first time, and not easy, but it was clear that the idea works the way I want it to (several of the actors not in the scene gave me pleased nods and thumbs up). Ran a little longer than the first reading, but the show will still be under 2:30. Maybe even 2:20 including intermission.


Saturday, again at La Tea, we talked about and blocked the Osric/Horatio/Hamlet scene, the Ophelia funeral scene, and the entire finale (minus fight choreography). This, and most of the work the next week or so, was and will be just setting the start point of the blocking, discussing the underlying motivations (where necessary) and walking through the scene a time or two or three. It started coming together quickly, for the most part. I was a bit worried about the "crowd" blocking in the latter two scenes, but it was easy enough to stage.


Today we worked over at Stacia's apartment, doing the scene where Claudius tells Hamlet he's being sent to England, the entire Gertrude/Claudius/Laertes section with L's return and confrontation of C (leaving out the little scene in the middle with Horatio getting the letter from Hamlet), the scene between Claudius and Gertrude following the killing of Polonius, and the BIG SCENE between Hamlet and Gertrude. I guess that's a lot, but it worked. A lot more discussion of the many layers and levels going on - these are important scenes for people pulled by two or three desires/motivations at any one time, and I wanted to get all of them clear for all involved.


I have cut the second entrance of "mad Ophelia" for a number of reasons, but I was disturbed at losing the moment of Laertes actually seeing his deranged sister. I had thought of a solution, but wondered if it was a bit forced -- I suggested it and everyone liked it, so we're going with it, and the sequence now runs like this: Ophelia goes off crazy the first time, Claudius orders Horatio to go after her and keep a good watch on her - Laertes enters and confronts Claudius and Gertrude - Claudius calms him and begins to take him away upstage for a heart-to-heart as Gertrude starts to exit with the guards and attendants downstage - Ophelia reenters, running to her brother past Gertrude, followed by Horatio - Laertes, Ophelia, Gertrude and Claudius have a fragment of the cut scene (silently) upstage as Horatio is stopped and has his scene with the sailor, getting the letter, downstage and exiting out there as Ophelia runs away upstage, followed by Gertrude - Claudius brings Laertes back "into the scene," continuing their talk, creating the plan.

This works, getting across the missing moment from the cut scene well enough, getting Jessi (Ophelia) upstage where she will need to be to reenter later as one of Fortinbras' soldiers, and somewhat explaining why poor mad Ophelia is left alone enough to drown herself, after Horatio was told to keep a close eye on her (which has resulted in comments of "Nice job on the watching, Horatio!" from Berit and I in the past).


I was tempted by the joking suggestion - a brief moment with the actors and I - that when Gertrude re-enters to announce Ophelia's drowning to her brother (which I've cut way down, eliminating the goddamn "There is a willow--" speech that drives me nuts), that she come in breathing hard with her sleeves wet, and as Laertes gets emotional and walks downstage, lost in his grief, that she silently makes an "I'd-had-enough-of-her" strangling-struggling gesture to Claudius and he gives her a big thumbs up. No, not going that way . . .


The Gertrude/Claudius scene is going to be as sad, touching, and melancholy as I had hoped, and the Gertrude/Hamlet one will be good and unnerving, though it will certainly now need some consultation with the fight choreographer (once I have one finally settled) to be made completely safe for Stacia (I think I'm pretty good at manhandling her safely, but I want another opinion on it to be sure).


So, good work. I'm happy. Several times a day I get giddy, even giggly, and can only say to Berit, "We're doing Hamlet!" in amazement.


Over the years, when telling people that I was someday going to get to this Hamlet, the suggestion has come up many times that I should do a production of the First Quarto (aka "The Bad Quarto"). That wasn't a production for me, as much as I'd like to see it, but as this production has been coming to fruition, I've heard this idea more and more.

So, I'm really jazzed that there is a fellow Hamlet in the festival, and it is indeed Q1: The Bad Hamlet. This is a restaging of a production done last year to much acclaim, and I'm really glad that this is the other Hamlet in the Pretentious Festival.

Gaby, the Gertred/Ghost in the production, is blogging their creative process OVER HERE, and it's a great read (not just because she said nice things about me there, too).

Though Gaby has also embarrassed me by pointing out my overlong blurb on the Festival webpage -- this was . . . a bit of an error. I wrote a big long blurb for publicity purposes earlier, and having not written a shorter version of it for the page, it was put up in its entirety. I cut it down a bit, and it was reposted, but for some reason, my cutting of a 12-line blurb down by a number of words now made it take up 13-lines on the page (I still haven't quite figured that out). I'll fix that and have The Brick fix it ASAP -- I'm kind of crazy about following rules like that and making sure that everyone does; I was always the person in the cast who rigidly followed the 100-word bio rule set down by producers of a show, then got the program and discovered that everyone else just ignored the rule. Irritating. So it's not good to find myself being that kind of jerk that always annoyed me in the past.

(and Gaby, thanks for the concern about my mouth -- yeah, not great, but much better now . . .)


And, just 'cause, I want to mention The Nietzsche Family Circus, a link sent to me by Daniel McKleinfeld (Rosencrantz). Way too addictive. I can't stop refreshing it.