CollisionWorks

We opened A Little Piece of the Sun to a nice-sized and appreciative house last night. It's hard to tell what people make of this show -- it kinda hits you in the face with a big load of nastiness and doesn't let up -- but they actually laughed at the (very dark) humor when it was there, and a couple of people, strangers (always nice), were quite effusive in their praise outside afterward.

It was a good performance, but still a hair shaky here and there in spots, often with people so determined to get their lines right that they were jumping in and stepping on other peoples' the moment there was a (deliberate) pause. But it was a start, and a good one. Nothing to be ashamed of, at all. The first performance of thirty-six we're doing this month (nine performances each of the four shows).

More info on Little Piece and the remaining performances at the Facebook page HERE, along with many of the great promo shots taken earlier this week by Mark Veltman. Wow. Here are a few favorites:

At the Funeral of Lenin (Roger Nasser and other company members):

Andrei Chikatilo sees the Light (Tom Reid):

The interrogation of Chikatilo and Kravchenko (Tom Reid, Fred Backus, Adam Belvo):

Portrait of Issa Kostoyev (Gavin Starr Kendall):

Portrait of Alla Rakova (Alyssa Simon):

Two stories heading for two trials:

Today we open all three of the other shows in our season of works at The Brick, The Collisionworks. I think we're ready, though I'm still not sure if I may be going on today with script in hand for a VERY sick actor.

I still have to finish one of the programs, and Berit and I still need to get to the space early to finish some props and set stuff, but here are the Facebook pages for the other three shows, and some images from each:

Blood on the Cat's Neck by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Info HERE. Some pictures (mine, not as good as Mark's):

Phoebe Zeitgeist (Gyda Arber) enters a new world:

The Policeman (Danny Bowes), The Girl (Shelley Ray), and Phoebe:

The Teacher (Eric C. Bailey) and The Wife (Samantha Mason) argue, with The Butcher (Roger Nasser) nearby:

Most of The Company:


From George Bataille's Bathrobe by Richard Foreman. The costumes for this one are by Karen Flood (Berit and I handled the design of all else on all shows). Info HERE. Pictures:

Frank Norris (Bill Weeden) in his cell:

The Man From Another Planet (Timothy McCown Reynolds) dances:

A confrontation (Timothy McCown Reynolds, Sarah Malinda Engelke, Liza Wade Green, Bill Weeden):

Frank (Bill Weeden) annoyed by The Dandy Fop (Bob Laine):


And finally, you can get info on Sacrificial Offerings, by myself and David Finkelstein, HERE, and here's some images from David's video, Marvelous Discourse, featuring David, myself, and Agnes DeGarron, which makes up half the performance:

Okay, time to finish up the last of the programs and get moving. Three more shows to open in one day. Phew.

Last two nights we rehearsed the Richard Foreman play, George Bataille's Bathrobe at The Brick, and it was nice to stage the thing in the actual space. We had only a trio of actors (out of eight total) for most of Wednesday - one showed up later - and five yesterday, with, again, one showing up towards the end, so we did some scene work that we could do with the people we had and got some solid work accomplished.

Everyone says the play becomes clearer and makes more sense as we work it. I know it makes sense of a kind, but it's a kind of dream sense, and I don't always know what it is until we're on our feet and doing it (if then). One longish scene - Scene Nine - received a lot of work on both nights, and by the end of last night had come together enough to make it clear the whole thing was going to work just fine.

But we need to keep hacking away at it bit by bit. What makes Foreman work is getting all the little details and multiple possibilities of all the lines all going at once. We don't touch this show again until June 7, when I should have the entire cast together for a rehearsal, finally.

I rehearse the other two shows already in progress (as opposed to the still-being-scripted BBQ) the next two afternoons, then also don't touch them for a week. In between, I'll be too busy getting The Brick set up for The Antidepressant Festival and doing the light design for four of the shows in that Festival: Nosedive's Infectious Opportunity, Ten Directions' ...and the fear cracked open, Sneaky Snake Productions' Adventure Quest, and Theatre Askew's The Tale of the Good Whistleblower of Chaillot's Caucasian Mother and Her Other Children of a Lesser Marriage Chalk Circle (phew!).

And FIRST, tonight, I go and help babysit a benefit going on at the space, with a break in the middle to join my old friend Sean Rockoff in seeing X at the Bowery Ballroom. I'm really happy to be seeing one of my favorite bands for the first time, but kind of tired and weary and wondering how I can bounce around and enjoy the fine fine superfine rock of Exene, John Doe, Billy, & D.J. in this state.

I'm sure it'll all be fine when the music starts . . .

Meanwhile, back in the iTunes (Berit has the iPod today - she's working the UTC#61 festival from 9 am to midnight or so), here's a Random Ten out of 71,285 tracks (so I've added 228 tracks since last week, huh?) . . .

1. "Juliano the Bull" - Jason Crest - Circus Days Vol. 4 & 5
2. "Read It & Weep (live 1975)" - Rocket From The Tombs - The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs
3. "I'll Never Let You Go" - Steff - U-Spaces: Way Out Wonders vol. 1
4. "Love Me Like I Love You" - Me & Dem Guys - Quagmire 3
5. "Longarm" - Wall Of Voodoo - The Index Masters
6. "Yo-Yo" - Pylon - Chomp
7. "Modern Things" - Voice Farm - Sleep / Modern Things 7"
8. "The Bride Stripped Bare By 'Bachelors'" - The Bonzo Dog Band - Keynsham
9. "Country Kisses" - Sheb Wooley - Country Boogies, Wild & Wooley!
10. "Segue 5" - The New Power Generation - GoldNigga

Again, no new cat pictures this week.

But meanwhile, in the Cool News of the World -- as someone who's not the world's biggest Obama fan (he's okay, but I'm still fairly to the left of the man and his policies - and believe that those calling him and those policies "Socialist" are insulting Socialists - but I recognize he may be as good as we're gonna get in that office in my lifetime - may be), I am at least quite pleased by the Obamas' choices for new art to display around the White House, as discussed in a Wall Street Journal article HERE.

The only work of art I was aware of being on display there was Frederic Remington's The Bronco Buster (1903), and I got the impression that the style of art otherwise on display there had not advanced very much from that time and style. I didn't know that Hilary Clinton had been personally passionate about acquiring an O'Keeffe and a Henry Ossawa Tanner (whose work I'm not familiar with) for the permanent collection while there -- every administration displays works on loan from various sources, museums, whatever; some works are acquired, under stricter policies -- usually works older than 25 years, from dead artists, so as to not unduly effect the market rates, though the Bushes accepted a donation from Andrew Wyeth. Also, Jackie Kennedy pulled out some Cezannes from the permanent collection there, and Laura Bush had a Helen Frankenthaler on loan for the private residence. But these have been exceptions to the mainly middle-of-the-road work on display at the White House.

I had heard the Obamas had put out a call for more works by minority and female artists, fine, okay, the Dead White Male club could always use some shaking up (and I speak as a fan, primarily, of Dead White Males), but they've gotten a good share of work for display in the White House, some of which surprised and pleased me. There's a Johns, a Diebenkorn, an Albers, a Ruscha, a Rauschenberg, a Nevelson, a de Staël, two bronzes by Degas, and two pieces by Alma Woodsey Thomas, which fulfill both the "female" and "minority" calls while also being abstracts. Currently being looked at for possible inclusion is a set from the Art Institute of Chicago (where the first couple went on an early date) that includes works by Franz Kline and Beauford Delaney.

It's not a big thing, I guess, but it makes me happy to know that the home of the First Family has in this way finally entered the 20th Century.

As for videos . . .

Just because I dig it, here's a video recently linked to on Facebook by Kim Morgan which she described (accurately) as an "Ike and Tina meet David Lynch meet Guy Maddin clip of brilliance." It's a lip-synced performance of beauty that almost doesn't make me think this song is overrated in Phil Spector's oeuvre (it's muddy and overdriven - a Wall of Sludge rather than a Wall of Sound - and sounds better over computer speakers than on record).

Among the Ikettes on this occasion is Ms. P.P. Arnold, who I'm a fan of (and I didn't know she was an Ikette). Two clips of her being wonderful on England's Beat Club can be found HERE and HERE.

What, not more redubbings of the Hitler/Downfall scene? Yup. Here he has some strong feelings about J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot (h/t flyswatter):

And here, a meta-commentary version created by Brad Templeton of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (who describes in detail the efforts he went to in being sure his version of this meme was 100% legal in an interesting post HERE), in which Hitler finds out the limits of copyright protection:

And, hey, courtesy of Tom X. Chao, here's a recent photo of myself and Berit, from Gyda Arber's Memorial Day backyard BBQ (Berit is wearing a spare hat of Gyda's to keep herself from sunburn, a problem that seems to have almost vanished for me entirely - though I have a permanent "trucker's tan" on my left arm).

We actually look pretty relaxed, huh? A combo of mead, champagne, cider, Mike's Hard Lime, and (in my case) a some big hunks o' meat will do that to you . . .

Now to take a nap in prep for a LONG weekend of action . . .

And that's what things are like around the homestead this week.

Not much is getting done this week. Some research, in both viewing and reading, for Spacemen from Space, but the cold (or whatever it is) that has gripped Berit and myself (in my case, for 12 days now), though on the upward swing it would seem, is still hanging on and taking its own damn time about leaving. And as it began with several days of a nasty cough before manifesting any other symptoms, it's leaving the same way.

So work is happening somewhat on the four August shows, but not as fast as I'd like, as it's hard to concentrate. I've asked some good actors to fill the open roles in Blood on the Cat's Neck and George Bataille's Bathrobe, and, happily, a couple have agreed and another couple are giving it a few days to look it over and see if it fits their schedule, but seem positive. I have to email some more of them back and check in, and sit down with all the schedules I've received and work out a rehearsal/performance schedule. And work out an audition for the two dancer/actors I need for Bathrobe, which is not something I'm looking forward to (I've never auditioned dancers before - help has been offered by Becky Byers, which is appreciated).

Finally found and got ahold of the rights holders for the Fassbinder play (Blood) and found it'll cost me $75 per performance, so I'd better be sure to sell at least 5 tickets for each performance. Now, how many performances of that one do I feel able to pay for? At least nine. As many as twelve?

A Little Piece of the Sun is pretty much ready to start work as soon as I work out a rehearsal schedule and get it set with the actors, so I need to spend today/tomorrow doing that. Have to concentrate and remember to get that done. The mix of (at various points of the day and night) Dayquil, Nyquil, Tylenol Cold and Mucinex D makes this difficult at times.

I hate this sick.

This past week, the main thing was the final episode of Bryan Enk and Matt Gray's Penny Dreadful, three performances on Saturday and Sunday, and it was a glorious conclusion -- excellent performances and terrific audiences, both in size and reaction (we sold out, or nearly sold out, all the houses, and they laughed and shrieked in all the right places).

Here's most of the cast of 22 that performed the episode (minus Adam Swiderski, who had to run to a class), plus Bryan Enk (center) and myself (lower left corner, holding the severed head), so we have 23 out of the 67 actors that have performed in the serial since it began in November, 2007:

The videos for the first 11 episodes are still up at the title link above, and I'm sure the video/synopsis for #12 will join them fairly soon.

It was an honor to work on this terrific serial, and get to direct one full episode (#5), act in a couple of others as George Westinghouse (#6 and #10), design the lights and some other technical elements for all 12.5 episodes (a fun, challenging, and ultimately very satisfying job, keeping a consistent look to the series using whatever I had in the house plot for the mainstage show), and, finally, direct the finale of Episode #12, Act I, where I got to finish the story of the poor little witch/rich girl, mad, sad, crazy Abigail Pierce, The Deb of Destruction, as she - SPOILER ALERT - and her Anarchist friends blow up every single world leader (and themselves) at the King of England's funeral in 1910.

(which is why I'm holding a severed head in the picture above, as I dropped it to the stage from the grid as the final punctuation to this horrible act - and to the 1900s part of the Penny Dreadful story - and it got a very satisfying gasp from the three audiences that saw it, heh-heh-heh)

What Bryan and Matt accomplished was, in the end, a helluva achievement: a mix of what is sometimes referred to as High and Low Art (and isn't it, 9 years into the 21st Century, about time to retire the false distinctions? are they actually useful anymore?), mixing the melodrama and plot of the turn-of-the-20th Century pulp fictions with the richer characterizations and acting of the present, and staging styles that mixed vaudeville and music hall with Robert Wilson and Wooster Group, opera with rock and roll, classical with modern, all in one unified, crowd-pleasing and crowd-satisfying (which are two different things) work of serial fiction that was able to excite both the brain and the gut. This may have been the most - crazy and frustrating as it was to get the tech right a lot of the time - sheer FUN and EXCITEMENT I've had working in theatre in many many years.

I will miss Penny Dreadful. A lot.

Onward to August and beyond . . .

Currently in the iPod: 25,525 tracks. My cleaning out and replacing of tracks I don't need in there with ones I do has now gotten through letters A through F, and X through Z (and songs with numbers starting their titles). Still working on it. Here's a Random Ten from what's in there:

1. "Busy Bodies" - Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Armed Forces
2. "Inside Outside" - The Knaves - Leave Me Alone
3. "It Serves Me Right" - John Lee Hooker - The Ultimate Collection: 1948-1990
4. "I'll Be There" - Tony Worsley - Before Birdmen Flew - Australian Beat, R&B & Punk: 1965-1967 Vol. 3
5. "Jack Of Diamonds" - The Daily Flash - Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, Vol. 3
6. "Come Back To Me" - X - Under The Big Black Sun
7. "Lucky Fellow" - LeRoy Hutson - LeRoy Hutson
8. "Bloodsucker Baby" - D.O.A. - Hardcore '81
9. "Blues In The Night" - The Cleftones - For Sentimental Reasons
10. "The Way You Do The Things You Do" - Manfred Mann - Mann Made

And as for today's cat shots, I don't have much in the way of anything new and interesting, so here's a few alternate shots, similar to ones I already posted:

And one of the fun things about Times:365:24:7, the show currently up at The Brick, is that they have lights all over the place, as they're using almost every bit of the space for performance, including the tech booth, so Berit had a nice little creepy birdie by the light board she could turn on when we were working Penny Dreadful, if she wanted to make a point as she boomed over the god-mic:

Coming up this weekend, more work on my shows, preparing for the benefit for UTC#61's Festival of Jewish Theatre and Ideas coming up next Tuesday (separate announcement to be posted soon for that), and another afternoon of work on the continuing improvisation/video project of David Finkelstein's. I have to write at more length about this work with David, which has been very valuable to me in many many ways right now, but it will take some time to organize my thoughts, I think.

And hey, in the three hours since I started making this post . . . since I'm always doing several things at once online and never make one of these straight through . . . it appears my cold symptoms have reduced to the near-nonexistent. This bodes well.

Thanks to all who came out and supported them.

I'll have more of a post-mortem soon (if revving up for the Clown Festival doesn't take over my life TOO much), but Berit™ and I are taking two days to do nothing or whatever damned thing we feel like, and I have some ideas.

For example, whenever I've been driving to The Brick and feeling particularly stressed and harried, and it's been a beautiful day as I drive under the Brooklyn Heights and I look across the East River towards the South Street Seaport, and there are boats on the water and it all looks so peaceful and lovely out there . . . I just wish I was sitting over there on a dock or promontory, looking at the water and eating a cone of swirled soft-serve ice-cream-style product. I may try and do this tomorrow. If it's actually a nice day.

In the meantime, show promotion for someone else who deserves it and could apparently use the help:

Michael Laurence in Krapp, 39, photo © 2008 by Dixie Sheridan

As I mentioned before, I saw my old friend Michael in a solo show he wrote/performed in the Fringe (directed by another old friend, George Demas) called Krapp, 39, which I loved. Now, some of my love may have come from personal knowledge and shared history, but apart from me, the show was one of the big hits of the Fest, and got great reviews all over the place.

I had mentioned it before, not really thinking I could promote it, as I saw the penultimate Fringe show, and was pretty sure the last one was sold out. Well, I forgot the Fringe does indeed extend the more popular shows that it can, and Michael & George's show will be playing another six shows at the larger Barrow Street Theatre in the West Village, rather than down at the small space at Pace where it was.

So - it's a great show, and well worth $18 if you can spend money on theatre. And especially if you can see it soon . . . they weren't able to announce the extension until today, of course, and the first show is this Thursday the 28th at 7.00 pm, so I know they're looking for house. After that, it plays 5 more times to September 14.

Look interesting? Then it is. Check it out.

Berit™ and I had a nice dinner at the Lazy Catfish after the last show last night and discussed next August.

We are definitely planning on doing Daniel McKleinfeld's documentary play A Little Piece of the Sun, which we worked on the original production of back in FringeNYC 2001 (she stage managed/made props; I acted/designed sets and lights). I am still thinking of doing Foreman's George Bataille's Bathrobe - though it wouldn't be the USA premiere; I forgot Yelena Gluzman actually directed it in the 2nd ForemanFest (I can't keep straight what we did and didn't do in those Fests).

And we're thinking of an original show that has something to do with a 1930s-1950s USA view of science fiction (really space opera). Rocky Jones. Commando Cody. Brass and leather and wood and glass and so forth. Republic movie serials. Professional men and women in snappy suits and hats doing their jobs, but with impossible jet packs and rockets and things. Don't forget your space-beams, men! The Crimson Ghost is planning on magnetizing the entire Southwest! Why do the Radar Men from the Moon need to rob Earth banks for their nefarious plot?

But what is it ABOUT? Don't know yet, but there's something there itching at me. When we go up to Maine, we will research this and see where it takes us.

We also have our long-gestating puppet show to work on.

But first . . . CLOWNS.