collisionwork | Entries tagged with nyit awards

Tonight was the New York Innovative Theater Awards "Nominee Announcement Party," held in the spacious basement (Demo Hall) of Our Lady of Pompeii, in Greenwich Village, near NYU and all the places I lived in and hung out at from 1986-1990 or so.

I once saw a Fringe play in this hall about the Bronte clan done by an L.A. theatre company, featuring my old friend David LM Mcintyre; they weren't too happy about their show being put in a church basement with no AC and no real tech facilities.

The area has changed a lot, but certain recession-related artifacts are beginning to result in a slight resurgence of seediness that seemed to have been wiped away in the last decade.

I was amused to see that the IFC Center movie theater is showing Blood Simple as a midnight show currently, as on my first solo trip into NYC in the Summer of 1985 I saw that very movie, still on its first run, in that same theatre when it was still The Waverly.

I had been asked to come by early to be interviewed by local cable TV (actually, one of the best interviews I've done in terms of saying what I wanted to say without tripping over my tongue, swearing, or omitting something important, and remembering to get a plug in for my upcoming shows, which won't air, of course, but still . . .), and then I had time to kill so I got a sandwich and hung out in the little park on Father Demo Square (once, for an NYU location sound recording assignment, I recorded the sound of this little park, noting that I believed that "Father Demo" was the patron saint of 4-track recording, appropriately for the Village; my teacher was vaguely amused by this).

Having left the space after the interview meant not being let back in until the doors opened for the event, which happened later than planned, but once in, the joint got hopping quickly.

I didn't realize these nominee parties were such a scene, but as Brick Grand Pooh-Bah Robert Honeywell and Erez Ziv of Horse Trade (both visible below at front) said, "It's like being at a prom with the people you WANT to hang out with!"

It's a little sparse still in the above shot because everyone was still at the rear of the house getting the free drinks (I had quite a bit of sangria, myself):

By the time I went back for the third sangria, the whole place had filled quite a bit, and it was hard to move around. Unlike my last time there, the hall was definitely air conditioned, but it either stopped working or was just not up to handling the number of bodies that crowded into the room:

Gyda Arber, her mother Wendy, Robert Honeywell, and I were the first people in the door when the place opened, so we commandeered the table most front and center as soon as we got in, where we got to hang out and somewhat hold court as friends from all across the Indie Theatre community came by and said hello (and we also kept going away, mingling with other groups and friends at their "courts," and getting more drinks ourselves).

We were there to represent The Brick en masse, and six of the seven staff members wound up being there (Berit decided to stay home and have an actual day off from rehearsal) -- and yes, we all knew we had some nominations coming up. Here's (a lousy photo of) Hope and Jeff of The Brick and Piper McKenzie, who were most directly responsible for me being there tonight, instead of at the rehearsal I decided to cancel:

The tables had nice arrangements of candy on them, and other neat things. I made the mistake of trying to eat a Tootsie Roll with my dental plate in. Ouch.

The executive directors of the NYIT Awards, Nick, Shay and James, came out and spoke:

And then announced the people who would be reading the nominations -- I knew two of them, Aaron Riccio, writer//critic, and Stephanie Cox-Williams, stage manager/propmaker/actress (at center):

Then the nominations were read -- it took almost 40 minutes; there are quite a few, and everyone nominated for "Best Ensemble Performance" was listed -- and there were some big ensembles in that category.

Several favorite groups or people were listed and I joined in the cheering.

And eventually, some of the Brick-related nominations came up. Here's the second:

And here's Ivanna (who I got to direct as Aunt Fanny in my Ambersons) with her nomination certificate for her performance in Piper McKenzie's The Granduncle Quadrilogy: Tales from the Land of Ice:

To my pleased surprise, Gyda's nomination for Suspicious Package was for "Outstanding Production of a Play"! For her interactive Zune Player piece. This is cool:

And Gyda was happy . . .

And, yes, there was indeed a definite reason I had decided to show up this evening rather than have a rehearsal for a show this evening, and why I was there early to be interviewed by the cable TV people . . .

And this actually means an awful lot to me . . .

Despite the fact that I've actually done more lighting design for theatre than I have anything else, including acting, I'm still quite surprised and delighted by this validation that - sometimes at least - I'm doing something right as an LD. If you gave me an actual budget and needed a plot drawn up, I'm not sure if I could actually do it (I last drew a proper light plot when I was 17, when it was all by hand on paper with drafting tools and the little plastic stencils I had - and still have - with all the different light shapes that are now outdated), but if you show me the room, the script, and tell me what you want and show me the pile of equipment I have to work with, I'll make it look as good as it can within the limitations there are.

You can see some images of Granduncle, with my lighting, in two sets of photos by Ken Stein HERE and HERE. My own photos of the production aren't as technically good as Ken's, and were done at a dress rehearsal with incomplete costuming, unfortunately, but the color palette in them is a little closer to how it actually read in performance, I think, and they can be seen HERE.

It really is an honor just to be nominated.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: John Lennon - "God Save Oz" - Anthology

A day off from everything. Nice.

Except, of course, catching up on and reading about the big ol' stupid world just gets one down.

So, varied subjects to mention or pass on . . .

Re: The Financial Bailout (aka "Your Money Or Your Life!/I'm Thinking, I'm Thinking!"):

Many others are writing about this with clarity, precision, detail, and even humor, and should be read.

Screenwriter toddalcott, who blogs constantly and well about many subjects, has turned to the current situation with appropriate amounts of wit and anger, especially HERE and HERE. He suggests, as many have this morning, writing your Senators and Representatives to let them know how you feel on the matter. I've already done this - with Senators Clinton and Schumer, Rep. Nadler, and Speaker Pelosi - it's easy to find out how to contact them online, and I suggest you do the same.

Isaac Butler points out that apparently phone calls are taken more seriously than emails or petitions (and snail mail is taken most seriously of all, but there's no time for that), but some of us are a bit phone-phobic, so . . . but you can also easily find out how to call them with a quick Google search, if you care to.

Other people I'd suggest reading: Paul Krugman, in general, and a specific post from "Devilstower" at Daily Kos, "Three Times Is Enemy Action," which is a good laying-out of the history of where the current crisis comes from, going back to 1982, and has been picked up by several larger media outlets as a result (extra points from me for the epigram/title taken from Auric Goldfinger).

The fact is that it certainly appears the Government will have to do something, some kind of bailout of some kind to keep the whole furshlugginer house of cards from collapsing - it's just that the current plan just AIN'T IT. You can read an easy overview of it HERE and a draft of the proposal HERE.

I'd like to point out (as a commenter did on Todd Alcott's blog, bringing it to my attention), a section from the proposal that, um, particularly bothers me (emphasis mine) . . .

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary [of the Treasury] pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Oh yeah. That's great. Just great. Yeah, I trust ya, Secretary. I trust ya.

And along those lines, Wil Wheaton posts a little piece of humor about what kinds of spam this bailout may remind you of, with the reminder that sometimes it's important to laugh to keep from crying. John Clancy didn't tell me anything I didn't know, but did it in a way that made me smile, which is as good. And Mike Daisey posted this image he got from somewhere, without credit (as he is wont to do), which updates a classic National Lampoon cover to our present situation:

Elsewhere in egregious stupidity of a less-vital kind (courtesy of Gawker and Portfolio), Adam Buckman, critic for the New York Post, includes this section in his review of the season premiere of Heroes:

Instead, this show, which was once so thrilling and fun, has become full of itself, its characters spouting crazy nonsense.

Here's one I wish someone would translate for me: "There's a divinity that shapes our ends - rough hew them how we will," spouts the enigmatic industrialist Linderman played by Malcolm McDowell, who should win an Emmy for keeping a straight face while reciting these lines.

Okay. I'm not an all-out snob who thinks everyone everywhere should know their Shakespeare. Even Hamlet (heck, I cut the line from my version last year). That said, I hold critics/reviewers to higher standards. Even then, sure, I can understand maybe not recognizing the quote.

I CAN'T understand not at least hearing that and not thinking, "Hey, that sounds like it could be Shakespeare!" and looking it up before calling it "stupid nonsense" (and I just realized it HAD to have gone by at least ONE copyeditor before hitting print, right? so there's SHARED idiocy here . . .).

Also, does he ACTUALLY need a "translation" of the quote? Really? Sure, plenty of Shakespeare can be hard to understand today - less so if spoken properly with correct emphasis by good actors - but I keep looking at the line and trying to figure out what's so hard to understand about that. Anyone?

Oh - even more . . . now Buckman appears to have commented on the issue as reported at Portfolio, and if it is him, he couldn't even completely understand some of Jeff Bercovici's obvious sarcasm, and thinks Bercovici was calling HIM a "pretentious goober" when Bercovici was making fun of him by joining in and calling the author of the quote he didn't recognize by that phrase, while linking the words to Act V, Scene 2 of Hamlet. Jeez. This is a literate, observing critic with a keen eye, huh?

In less-annoying, just interesting items, I was amused to see a piece in The Guardian about a rise in theatre pieces in England using pre-recorded vocal tracks with actors miming to them live for artistic reasons. This is made out to be some kind of commentary on "our anxious times." Well, maybe. Berit and I shared a laugh though, as I've been doing that in the NECROPOLIS pieces since March, 2000 (for me it was about Determinism). Berit's comment was, "See, the British are going to steal the idea, make it bigger, and then claim to have invented it - just like Punk!" Yup, sounds right to me.

Speaking of NECROPOLIS, none of those plays or The Hobo Got Too High wound up nominated for anything at the NYIT Awards, which are being given out tonight, though all were eligible and I was really trying to push them for this last August, mentioning the Awards in the programs, by email, and here in the blog. I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't disappointed by that, but I'm still a big fan and supporter of the organization and the awards, as it's pretty much within the Indie Theatre community for the Indie Theatre community, mainly from and for our peers, so I have some more respect for it than most awards.

Quite a few people I know and respect are nominated, including several old coevals I haven't seen for years but think of fondly, like three of the nominees for direction, Emma Griffin, Damen Scranton, and Edward Eleftarion. Some people have criticized the awards as being just friends giving awards to other friends, but given the judging system, etc. I don't think it really works that way. For the second year in a row I've been pleased to see that shows I checked out in my capacity as a judge, since you have to judge three shows for every one of yours you want judged, and really liked and voted for strongly - from companies that I didn't know, featuring no one I'd ever heard of - have wound up nominated for multiple awards.

Those going tonight, enjoy yourselves. Hope I'll be there next year, but as I didn't push this August's shows as hard as I did last year (I was both distracted by production and depressed about last year's results), I doubt it.

Last night's evening of music at The Knitting Factory was fun but long (and LOUD). Arnold Dreyblatt was wonderful, especially with his temporary "Orchestra of Excited Strings," Megafaun (whose own set I didn't like as much as I'd hoped - what I'd seen online was less folky and more folky-mixed-with-drone/noise). The two openers were also worthwhile, both the prepared-piano stylings of Melissa St. Pierre and especially the solo violin playing of Agathe Max, which I quite dug and recommend - for into on her, her webpage is HERE and her Myspace page is HERE. Great noice/drone/loop work, in a grand tradition that goes back to La Monte Young and Steve Reich but includes John Cale, Fripp & Eno, and Dreyblatt in there.

Well, to feel better about things tonight, either I'll sit around here at home and watch a marathon of David Bowie music videos or see if we feel like going out to see Burn After Reading. Probably the former. It's a day to stay in.

And, for some more smiles before returning to the horrors of the news, two favorite recent items from LP Cover Lover: