take me out

looks like we sort of pulled it off. go figure.

(though san antonio theatre critics are known to be milquetoasty.)

follow-up

opening weekend went surprisingly well.

the replacement actor completely changed the atmosphere among the actors. he didn't do it intentionally; he is just such a different person that the change happened naturally. the mood lightened and it seemed everyone started having a lot more fun. 

i know i did.

just so you know...

THE GOAT closed and was a pleasure from start to finish.

now i'm in another play, a fun and insightful look at baseball, homophobia, racism and friendship called TAKE ME OUT. the production has been somewhat poorly organized from the beginning, and this past week it manifested a big piece of doo-doo.

the guy playing the lead, who was severely miscast and had chronic trouble remembering what we had done in rehearsal each previous night, WALKED QUIETLY OUT OF REHEARSAL AND DROVE AWAY IN HIS CAR... A WEEK BEFORE WE OPEN. he texted the stage manager, "i can't do this. i need out."

those of us left in the theatre sat stunned. some with incredulous smiles, some with angry grimaces, some simply flummoxed. the next day this annoying person who quit wrote us all an e-mail stating that he disagreed with the nudity in the play and the way the nudity was being dealt with. (the play features baseball players in shower scenes, and the nudity is valid because it clearly illustrates the vulnerability these macho men feel, both as men and as baseball players, in light of their teammate's recent outing of himself to the press.) this excuse put forth by the annoying person who quit was a complete fabrication and a flimsy one at that, to cover the fact that he couldn't retain any information about his blocking, entrances and exits, or even his intentions as a character within the play. what's more, he came to his final rehearsal high on pain killers, after some invasive 'surgery' the day before. quotation marks very intentional.

so he left.

oh my god, i thought. what's going to happen? i thought, "if he comes back, i don't know what i'll do. i'm so appalled and disgusted by his behavior, and my character is supposed to have a crush on his character... i won't be able to maintain onstage with him. i'll sneer, or maybe vomit!"

but what happened is good:

someone who has played the role before has been enlisted, for a moderate fee. he has come from out of town to bail us out of this problem. and he's right for the role! he's the right age, the right ethnicity, and a good actor to work with! 

so, whew. drama!

we open friday. i'll post a report (regardless of whether or not anyone even reads this anymore).

new albums

i met my brother in austin on monday. we met at waterloo records and i purchased leonard cohen's new one, 'live in london,' which is the kind of concert recording you sit and luxuriate in, smiling lazily and maybe occasionally wistfully singing along for a strain or two. so satisfying. i also found a new recording of van morrison singing the entire 'astral weeks' album in concert. it is also beautiful, and contains the lyrics, which i hadn't remembered reading before. 

Little Jimmy's gone

Away out on the back street

Out of the window

To the fallen rain

Right on time, right on time

though the lyrics aren't surprising and pretty much match what i had in my head, it still seems like a small revelation to read them, after just listening all these years.

after waterloo, my brother and i had mexican food and then went to stubb's, where we saw gomez, a rock band originally from the UK. they were great and a little too loud (have my ears grown more sensitive with age, or am i just now noticing it?). mostly it was just fun being at a concert with my brother, whom i love.

i'm in another play, 'take me out,' which opens a week from today. it is perhaps the most ill-prepared production i've ever been a part of. the two leads are still very much on book, the production values are haphazard, the director seems blissfully ignorant. i can't understand how he's not frantic and humiliated at this point. i don't enjoy being a part of it, but as i said to fran today, i am opting to see the experience as a challenge and adventure. everything's for a reason.

kyogen details

my first exposure to the japanese kyogen was with KITUS. we did an interpretation of 'the fox mound' as part of our moun-tain extravaganza carnivore (the one we performed in 110 degree heat at rehoboth art league, complete with fur coats, while people were dying in philadelphia and chickens were suffocating in their cages surrounding the schoolhouse). 

when i was asked to work with the 5th graders at my alma mater, st. luke's episcopal school, i was told that the previous year, the entire play had consisted of a bicentennial parade. i didn't want to do something baby-ish, but i knew that there needed to be a sense of play about the production. i was very excited when, one slightly inebriated evening on my front porch, the idea of the kyogen popped into my mind.

back in the 14th century, these short comedic plays were used as intermission material between Noh plays, as a sort of refresher for the audience, so that they could get some laughs out before coming back for another epic tragedy. most of the kyogen deal with people playing tricks on each other, and most of them end with one character becoming enraged and chasing another, shouting "don't let him get away! catch him! catch him!"

i made sure the kids knew that whenever they heard the phrase "catch him," they were supposed to shout the second "catch him!" in unison, and with great volume and energy. that part worked really well.

another thing that was fun was using the kids as objects. i have always loved the american tradition of playing an inanimate object as a child. ask people you know, many of them will say, "oh, i've never been in a play, except for that time i played a doorknob in 2nd grade." stuff like that. so i made these 5th graders play doors, trees, tables, fences. that was fun.

they did an amazingly good job with the language, as well, which at times was pretty challenging-- sentences like "I am a wealthy landowner who dwells in this vicinity."

we set up the stage so that there was a red carpet coming out to make an aisle down from the stage into the middle of the audience, which led to a sort of pagoda-like umbrella at the far end of the audience. so that the action was more integrated into the audience. i think that helped a lot. 

costumes were basic accessories on top of a black t-shirt/pants base. lots of hats and jackets. 

it was fun.

week in review

it was a big and satisfying week for me.

on monday the 25th i met my sister at rudy's in leon springs for a little post-birthday lunch. i got to hang out with my sister and brother-in-law a little, and after that i went to st. luke's for our final dress rehearsal of the kyogen plays. though the rehearsal was predictably chaotic, with kids coming and going at all hours and not an optimum level of concentration, i had already decided to take it easy and roll with the punches, and it all went fine.

on tuesday the 26th i stayed at st. luke's pretty much the whole day. we had a rehearsal in the morning from 9:30 to 11:15. i set up the parish hall while kids were having lunch. at 2:30 we did a show for students and parents. after the show we had pizza and japanese sodas and talked about the performance. then we did a speed-through. then it was time for our 6:00 performance. it went well, the kids were adorable. though i wished we'd had more time to work on things, i think the bottom line is that the kids had a great time and will remember the experience, overall, positively. that evening i met scott mcdowell, a local playwright, at barnes & noble, to talk about his sequel to the play i directed of his last summer. it is a film noir-inspired trilogy and i think it's going to be a lot of fun.

on wednesday the 27th i had lunch with my friend michele. we talked about falling in love with animals (she is smitten with a gibbon at the zoo) and she told me she knows a guy who is making a zombie movie and that she would recommend me to him. that evening david and i had a dinner party for 4 of our friends-- two other couples. it was low-key with good food and good conversations.

on thursday the 28th we had a production meeting for 'uncle vanya', with this great technical team that has assembled to work on the project. margaret, who is handling costumes, is doing incredible research and has designed such beautiful things for the show. we had it at her house. we discussed concepts, transitions, looks. it was a good meeting. in the evening we began our final weekend of performances for 'the goat.'

'the goat' has been such an unabashedly fun and drama-free experience. the actors, technical team and director have been a pleasure to work with. yesterday, at our final performance, the house was packed. gloria and i kept shards of broken pottery as keepsakes. we took pictures. i had a blocking rehearsal for 'take me out,' and after that, joined the cast party for 'the goat' which was already in progress.