CollisionWorks

Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury reopened at The Brick last week, but I had to relight the first two performances to work with a different plot, so I went back and spent two days reconstituting the normal Brick setup and re-relighting the show to bring it back to the original look I had for it in December (which I was quite happy with) along with some of the slight improvements I had made in version 2. I saw it again last night and it worked quite well.

Tonight, Rudolf II opened at Bohemian National Hall, and went quite well. It was a bit of a pain to light, given the layout of the show and what I had to work with, but it wound up being fine. It's by no means the first time I've had to light a show that plays on a thin long strip with the audience on both sides, but I still struggle to accomplish anything that makes me happy in that setup. There's still some rough edges -- most I can correct, but some not so much. Oh, well, it happens.

Tomorrow I get a day off, but the four or five things I want to fix in Craven Monkey are still nagging at me, so I may take a ride over to The Brick tomorrow to do that if I'm up for it. But I could use the rest.

It's been an odd week -- the work was long and tiring, yes, but more often obstacles would arise from someone or some organization doing something silly that made my job harder, but as I would be getting a good anger on, the problem would either vanish or a solution would appear that would be much better than any original plan, which was great, but would leave me with a big ball of unresolved anger and no place to put it. And having all that anger riding on you gets exhausting.

But all that's pretty much done, and it's on to the other work.

Meanwhile, back in the iPod, a Random Ten from out of 25,443 (with links to hear and/or see most of them on YouTube):

1. "The Art Of Everyday Communication Part 1" - The Light Footwork - One State Two State
2. "Man With A Gun" - Jerry Harrison - Casual Gods
3. "No One Knows My Plan" - They Might Be Giants - John Henry
4. "Lucky Day" - Tom Waits - The Black Rider
5. "Story Of Isaac" - Leonard Cohen - Songs From A Room
6. "Monster Man" - Soul Coughing - Mix Disk - Dad
7. "Skippy Is A Sissy" - Roy Gaines - Sin Alley, Vol. 1: Red Hot Rockabilly 1955 - 1962
8. "Got Love If You Want It (live 1964)" - The Yardbirds - Five Live
9. "Return Of The Rat" - Wipers - Wipers Box Set: Is This Real?
10. "Delia's Gone (original)" - Johnny Cash - Legend

And I have nothing new in the way of photos, but as for videos -- in honor of the recent announcement that Shout! Factory will be releasing the wonderful 1987 Max Headroom TV series on DVD, here's Max with Art of Noise, back when he seemed to be popping up everywhere:

A bizarre little spot from IHOP in 1969:

A local commercial that Berit and I fell for while up in Maine (we love local TV ads):

And the classic Apocalypse Pooh:

Back to rest . . .

I had to go in and relight Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury, as the first two performances are running in rep with the current mainstage hit show, the Debate Society's You're Welcome, and the lights have been changed from the house plot for their show. So I went in, did some fixes, and it looks okay. Probably better than okay, but I was very happy with my original work on the show, and I'm not sure it's as good now. Actually, I think a few things are improved here and there (and some lights/gobos brought in by Debate Society I've been allowed to use have balanced out no longer having any changeable colored backlight). I just miss some of the subtlety I was able to get from the regular plot. I was going to go in for opening night tonight, but Snowpocalypse 2: Electric Boogaloo (along with a slight illness that's been hovering on me for a couple of days) makes this a poor idea for tonight. Tomorrow, probably, then.

I'm also now lighting Untitled Theatre Co. #61's production of Rudolf II, which will be fun -- it's a great space, and I have the assistance, assistants, and equipment to make it all fine and good (though I may not quite have the time I would like) -- but somewhat of an unexpected gig, and I tend to get oddly thrown, personally, by sudden, unexpected things popping up anywhere outside of my work (and I don't like them there either). Saw a runthrough of the show the other day, and it's simple and something I can do well, but, yeah, I am worrying about the time to do it as good as I know I can. We'll see. Basically, I'm lighting the whole thing on Monday and making fixes over the couple of days after.

Otherwise, I'm writing as I can, going over the Devils script in prep for a reading late in March, planning the wedding, helping Berit with her own work on Rudolf II, and having my weekly improvisation sessions with David Finkelstein (that I still need to write about). And listening to even more music than usual.

Speaking of which -- from among the 25,446 tracks on the iPod, here's a Random Ten (with associated links) for this week . . .

1. "One Of Those Things" - Dexy's Midnight Runners - Don't Stand Me Down - The Director's Cut
2. "I'd Rather Be Burned As a Witch" - Eartha Kitt- This October: A BenT Howl-O-Ween Mix
3. "You Bowed Down" - Elvis Costello & The Attractions - All This Useless Beauty
4. "Hawaii Five-O Theme" - The Ventures - Hawaii Five-O
5. "Ain't Going Home" - Telli Mills - Sin Alley, Vol. 2: Red Hot Rockabilly 1955 - 1962
6. "Here Come The Lies" - Sham 69 - Hollywood Hero
7. "Behind Closed Doors" - Charlie Rich - Love Songs
8. "Your Honor" - Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch
9. "Quicksand" - David Bowie - Hunky Dory
10. "Hey Joe" - Roy Buchanan - That's What I Am Here For

And I got some kitty pictures for this week. Here's Hooker being playful on B's lap as she computes . . .

And him being happy and stretchy-adorable by her foot on the couch . . .

So, yes, today was the surprise snow day that looks worse than the big anticipated one earlier this month. And it was a day Berit and I were going to drive around and get stuff for Rudolf II. I didn't think it was a good idea, but I agreed to drive to Staples -- by half a block from home, Berit saw why I didn't think it was a good idea (though this below is Avenue P, which was actually plowed, unlike Avenue S).

On the other hand, I was probably lucky to do this, as when we got to Staples, I discovered I had a flat tire, and probably had since I left home, and before -- and the Staples is only a half-block from the tire-repair joint where I get my alignments done. So the flat fix wound up being quick.

I wasn't going to drive out further after that today, so we went home and B went off on errands by train. You can see how happy she is about it . . .

And I took pictures from the subway stair landing . . .

And under it . . .

Before an odd brief break in the snow gave us blue skies and sun for a bit . . .

And I came home to write this slowly and listen over and over to a favorite "new" song that I found among the thousands I have in the iTunes that I haven't listened to as yet -- I download tons of comps and can't get through them all, so I get surprised by discoveries all the time.

Here's a YouTube video featuring this song, "You Haven't Seen My Love" by Danny Hernandez & The Odds, from Michigan, 1967 (invisible on Facebook, but I posted it separately there). I'm as obsessed with this song as I was with Sagittarius' "Gladys" last year, but I have no show this year to get it into, unfortunately. I'll have the perfect scene for it someday . . .

Back to trying not to be ill and thinking about the work . . .

I need to see a few more rehearsals to figure out how to make it work - I can do it with the instruments we have, sure, but I need to really buckle down on what to put where - can't be wasteful at all with instruments on this. The Brick is pretty much all opened up, with rows of seats against the walls, as Frank Cwiklik did with Bitch Macbeth in January.

There's a low central platform, a big stairs/dais piece (the "holy ground") at one end (with projection screen to be bisecting it) and 16 small areas where people have a kind of "home base." Jeff tells me there's really just about 8 real areas to deal with isolating, which helps. I have 26 source-4s (two with I-Cues, two with color scrollers), with 3 others that are broken but fixable (I have the parts), 1 PAR can, two working birdies on floor stands (maybe another one or two fixable), another floor stand for the PAR or a source-4 (and I can always make more if I need them), and basically 31 dimmers (+1 for the house lights). I can make it look good, I'm sure, but I need to see how the whole show moves before I figure out how.

23 out of the 32 listed cast members were there last night, including many friends and frequent collaborators. It'll be fun coming by to these rehearsals and seeing everyone without having to direct them or act with them for once.

So tonight is a first meeting for one of my August shows, Everything Must Go (Invisible Republic #2).

This show is to be "a play with and in dance," and is being built around the actors, so I don't have very much to it yet. A vague structure and setting, some visual, scenic, and choreographic ideas, and the characters I think the 13 actors will be playing -- assuming I have all 13 actors - some haven't replied or said anything to me since agreeing - sometimes vaguely - to do the show. Tonight I'm expecting 8, maybe 9 of the actors. Maybe. I'll see who shows.

I think the show will be about 75-95 minutes long, in one act, in two defined parts that take place in the advertising agency setting - either two days or one day split in half by lunch. I hope I don't lose any more actors (and I keep the one who's still checking schedule to see if she can do it).

Oh, and I have some music for this. Probably most or all of it, some may be added, some may be dropped. I like these songs basically for their sound, the way I feel movement flowing to them, and the emotional rise and fall of the action in the show as a whole as I see it - the only problem is that they are songs, with lyrics, and while the intensity and feel of the song as a whole is exactly what I'm looking for, sometimes the words are distracting, and would seem to impart meanings to the scenes they're intended for that aren't supposed to be there.

But I don't have anything better as yet for those scenes, so these songs will stay until anything better comes up (unlikely). I spent some of the morning burning CDs of the music to be able to give to the cast tonight. Here's what's on them:

PRESHOW:
1. "Anthology" - The Kay Gees
2. "Listen to the Band" - The Monkees

SHOW, part 1 (morning to afternoon, or maybe day one; I don't know yet):
3. "Jimmy Carter" - Electric Six
4. "Slug" - Passengers
5. "Down at McDonnelzz" - Electric Six
6. "Dry Bones" - The Four Lads
7. "Laughing" - Pere Ubu
8. "Transylvanian Concubine" - Rasputina
9. "Shannon Stone (mashup)" - Mark Vidler/Go Home Productions
10. "Not Yet Remembered" - Harold Budd & Brian Eno

SHOW, part 2 (afternoon to evening, or maybe day two; I don't know yet):
11. "The Coo-Coo Bird" - Clarence "Tom" Ashley
12. "Paradise Flat" - The Status Quo
13. "Maybe" - The Chantels
14. "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" - Roxy Music
15. "Uptight Maggie (mashup)" - Mark Vidler/Go Home Productions
16. "Episode of Blonde" - Elvis Costello
17. "Theme One" - George Martin
18. "Back of a Truck" - Regina Spektor

POSTSHOW and EXIT:
19. "Money Changes Everything" - Cyndi Lauper
20. "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts" - X

I have no idea yet if this odd jumble of styles and sounds will mix in an interesting and ultimately coherent way, or simply seem scattered, disparate, and unfocused. I think it'll work the way I want it to, and unfortunately confuse some people, which I'd rather not do, but whatever. You can't make it work for everyone.

Tonight I'll play the music and watch how people move (several are trained dancers, of various styles, some are musical-theatre people with some dance, some are actors who move well, and there are a couple that I have no idea about, but they seemed to be needed in this world and I'll choreograph around however they move). Maybe set them up in patterns and see how they work visually. Think about words they look like they should be saying.

So much of me hates working this way, making it up as I go along, but I just know I have to do it this way right now.

From today until the August shows are done - 151 days - Berit and I will have a total of 27 days without a rehearsal or performance of one of our four shows - and never two days in a row except maybe between Ambersons performances in early June. And most of those 27 will be filled up with work to get the shows and space ready (as well as working on Babylon Babylon, Penny Dreadful, and The Film Festival: A Theater Festival). And then the two days after the shows are over will be spent getting The Brick spiffed up for this year's Clown Theatre Festival, followed by another 33 days straight of techs and performances for that festival (and Penny Dreadful again).

We finally get some time off September 29-October 17. Until then, we're pretty much busy every day on shows.

We're fucking nuts.