Yesterday I think the thing I experienced was that I was pushed to let my heart be as open as it's ever been to a piece of Shakespearian text, and I truly allowed everything Shakespeare put into his words to be channeled through me and through my instrument in a way that was thrilling and electrifying and feels like it's impossible to reproduce without someone grabbing me by the back of the neck and forcing it out (which is quite literally what happened).
Previously to that, our teacher had a conversation with the group about what for them makes great theatre, and afterwards in our feedback session everyone agreed that the thing I did was the thing they look for and feel in those moments of great theatre. One of the teaching assistants talked about how seeing my work in that moment filled them with hope for the human race.
I filled someone with hope for the human race! WITH MY ACTING! I didn't fully comprehend what an incredible thing that is until I was struggling to calm my mind enough to fall asleep at the end of the day yesterday. In my intro to the group and the faculty, I spoke briefly about the role of (secular) humanism in my life and the how I feel myself struggling to maintain an open heart to the world even after having been wounded through that openness in some truly deep ways in my life. I know my heart is open for others to access, but I'm realizing I need to open my heart to myself and to let other people's thoughts and feelings go into that place even if it means I can be hurt because it also means I can receive something incredibly beautiful, like happened yesterday.
I have that same teaching assistant to thank for that revelation. And the world, as well. Thank you.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Shakes and Co Day Two: The Journey I Have BegunJourney (Fuck Fuck Fuck)
I am drinking a beer as of this moment, taking all the sights, smells and sounds of my "boot camp for actors", as one of the faculty members at Shakespeare and Company just referred to it as.
I will say this about my second day at Shakespeare and Company as it's sitting with me in this moment, I did some of the most textually connected work I've ever done. Inevitably, that's what happens when I have a good teacher poking and prodding me to cut out the bullshit, but today that happened to the Nth degree.
This training regime is incredibly intense, in every possible way. The nature of the work is such that I have to be careful, for the safety of the other participants, how much more I describe about the process thus far. I will say, I am incredibly far outside of my Harvard Extension acting class comfort zone, in ways I wasn't initially completely on board with about the nature of this training, but after today I'm done "trying" to be on board and just here, experiencing everything that's happening, moment to moment.
Yoda said of course, "there is only do or do not, there is no try" and from this moment, I'm done trying. I am going to do, or I will fail and try again. And again. And again. And so forth.
That is my mantra. There is no try, there is only do, or do not and trying again. I'm also celebrating the power of "fuck", as a word. And acting from your junk. And yourself. And all the other good shit. Yeah.
I promise I'll make time to write a more meaningful blog post later. When I actually have some free time. Which will likely be never.
I will say this about my second day at Shakespeare and Company as it's sitting with me in this moment, I did some of the most textually connected work I've ever done. Inevitably, that's what happens when I have a good teacher poking and prodding me to cut out the bullshit, but today that happened to the Nth degree.
This training regime is incredibly intense, in every possible way. The nature of the work is such that I have to be careful, for the safety of the other participants, how much more I describe about the process thus far. I will say, I am incredibly far outside of my Harvard Extension acting class comfort zone, in ways I wasn't initially completely on board with about the nature of this training, but after today I'm done "trying" to be on board and just here, experiencing everything that's happening, moment to moment.
Yoda said of course, "there is only do or do not, there is no try" and from this moment, I'm done trying. I am going to do, or I will fail and try again. And again. And again. And so forth.
That is my mantra. There is no try, there is only do, or do not and trying again. I'm also celebrating the power of "fuck", as a word. And acting from your junk. And yourself. And all the other good shit. Yeah.
I promise I'll make time to write a more meaningful blog post later. When I actually have some free time. Which will likely be never.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Shakespeare and Company Day 0: Exclamation Points (!)
Here I am! In my dorm room thing! With my roommate! His name is Paul and he's very nice. I joked with my brother over dinner, "what's the worst that could happen, he could be a chronic masturbator" and so far so good on that front. I went with him to wander around some and see there was also wandering around the hallways to meet, of which there were several people, all also very nice. And some nice dorm like facilities, one lounge with a pool table and couches, another with a kitchen, several emptyish rooms with gym mats or what have you, I guess for rehearsals? I don't know! You know what else I don't know? My sonnet! But I'm taking a break from memorizing to type this blog post. Since I can't really do any podcasting from here in Lenox, given that Jesse and all my recording equipment is on the other side of the state (although I did bring a microphone and my portable recording interface thing, as well as a guitar, so maybe I'll try and set down some music at some point). Usually, as perhaps you've noticed, I'll blog more while I'm doing a show or taking a class, and since I'll spend the next month doing Shakespeare, Shakespeare and more Shakespeare, here's to having stuff to blog about!
Oh, which by the way, here's some shit to blog about: I was cast in a show! With Company One! It's She Kills Monsters! I'm very excited! It's been a goal of mine to work with Company One since I started seriously acting in Boston, because they do really good, cool stuff a lot of the time, and it's a good stepping stone into further paid acting work on the theatre scene. Come to think of it, this will be my third paying theatre gig in a row, which is pretty cool. I'm particularly excited that it'll be with Shira Milikowski, who's work I saw and enjoyed in the Lily's Revenge, and that it will be in the context of this particularly funny, ass kicking, heart felt script.
So basically, my life is perfect. For the next month I'll be hanging out in Lenox doing Shakespeare ten hours a day, then when I get back I'll be in a show which is exactly where I want to be, doing what I want to be doing.
I've met a handful of other participants while I've been here, everybody seems fun and cool and on my wave length which is nice. I started quoting Shakespeare lines at people and thought "this is going to be fun!" Which it will be.
And that's my roommate, who I over heard saying he's about to go to bed so I'll sign off and return to memorizing. Until I blog again! Which will be soon. Just you wait.
Oh, which by the way, here's some shit to blog about: I was cast in a show! With Company One! It's She Kills Monsters! I'm very excited! It's been a goal of mine to work with Company One since I started seriously acting in Boston, because they do really good, cool stuff a lot of the time, and it's a good stepping stone into further paid acting work on the theatre scene. Come to think of it, this will be my third paying theatre gig in a row, which is pretty cool. I'm particularly excited that it'll be with Shira Milikowski, who's work I saw and enjoyed in the Lily's Revenge, and that it will be in the context of this particularly funny, ass kicking, heart felt script.
So basically, my life is perfect. For the next month I'll be hanging out in Lenox doing Shakespeare ten hours a day, then when I get back I'll be in a show which is exactly where I want to be, doing what I want to be doing.
I've met a handful of other participants while I've been here, everybody seems fun and cool and on my wave length which is nice. I started quoting Shakespeare lines at people and thought "this is going to be fun!" Which it will be.
And that's my roommate, who I over heard saying he's about to go to bed so I'll sign off and return to memorizing. Until I blog again! Which will be soon. Just you wait.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Life (is a dream) of Pi
This evening I went with my family after doing presents and eating Christmas dinner to see Life of Pi in 3D at the AMC Loews in Downtown Boston, a film I'd read about based on a book people had told me about but which I'd never read, and I'm still processing the experience.
As a non religious person it spoke to me deeply about the meaning and level of importance in people's lives and how it helps them comprehend and accept both the beauty and the brutality of the natural world and the human experience.
And... I don't know, I can't summarize the themes of the film any more meaningfully than Ang Lee's images, especially experienced in 3D in a crowded theatre full of people. So if you can before it's pushed out completely from theaters try and see the film, OK? I can't speak for the book, but I can speak for Ang Lee as a film maker of great poetry, the film as one of the most effective blendings of real life visuals and special effects I've encountered, and the central performance as perhaps my favorite film performance so far this year (allowing that I haven't seen Lincoln and apparently Daniel Day Lewis is a great actor, but I think we all already knew that).
For it's immersive and striking use of 3D to develop a compelling story as told by a recognized film maker an immediate comparison that comes to mind is Hugo, Martin Scorceses' film from last year and also his first foray into 3D and one of the first films after Avatar that people went around seeing it was enhanced the experience to see it in that format. Except for me, Hugo was completely artificial, from it's visuals which were completely computer animated to it's performances and it's sentiment it felt calculated to the point of maudlin inauthenticity compared to Life of Pi. And mind you, Hugo is a different film with a very different message and is fundamentally supposed to be the film maker's love letter to the art of film making or whatever it was I read in reviews of the film and am parroting back.
But Life of Pi for me spoke to the depth of the human experience, and the search for meaning against a back drop of brutality, beauty and the omni present drive to survive whatever horrible things transpire. And ultimately the film for me was about the role of religion and mythology in making the harsh discordance of our experiences palatable and understandable.
Which again, as a non religious person, really spoke to me. Especially because, repeating myself, being a non religious person that's something I don't get or understand... being able to place your total faith in a power greater than yourself or in the idea that a power greater than you or your conception exists and entering into rituals that reaffirm that feeling and it being the fundamental thing from which you draw meaning or the power to go on living or whatever the purpose religion serves for any individual. It's super foreign to me. But unlike some religious people who may disdain it or find it distasteful... I enjoy seeing an instance of this wherein it's celebrated with such beauty and sensitivity, and it reminds me of the argument I always want to articulate in favor of religion that being that it's inspired so much art work of incredible, breath taking beauty.
I mean, right? Come on other atheists, Handel's messiah? The sistene chapel? Examples of spiritually informed art not from Western Culture... uh, the pyramids! That's something! Buddhist art too! Yeah, all incredible works of art the experience of which has enriched the human experience for literally countless lives across generations, you have to admit that's worthwhile. And even if religion is a source for a lot of problems, it can be a worth while lens through which to consider the world even if it's foreign to you or you've chosen to distance yourself from it because it was the lens through which so, so much of the human experience has been considered through out human history, right?
As an atheist trying to understanding the role and the experience of religion, I can have faith in at least that much.
As a non religious person it spoke to me deeply about the meaning and level of importance in people's lives and how it helps them comprehend and accept both the beauty and the brutality of the natural world and the human experience.
And... I don't know, I can't summarize the themes of the film any more meaningfully than Ang Lee's images, especially experienced in 3D in a crowded theatre full of people. So if you can before it's pushed out completely from theaters try and see the film, OK? I can't speak for the book, but I can speak for Ang Lee as a film maker of great poetry, the film as one of the most effective blendings of real life visuals and special effects I've encountered, and the central performance as perhaps my favorite film performance so far this year (allowing that I haven't seen Lincoln and apparently Daniel Day Lewis is a great actor, but I think we all already knew that).
For it's immersive and striking use of 3D to develop a compelling story as told by a recognized film maker an immediate comparison that comes to mind is Hugo, Martin Scorceses' film from last year and also his first foray into 3D and one of the first films after Avatar that people went around seeing it was enhanced the experience to see it in that format. Except for me, Hugo was completely artificial, from it's visuals which were completely computer animated to it's performances and it's sentiment it felt calculated to the point of maudlin inauthenticity compared to Life of Pi. And mind you, Hugo is a different film with a very different message and is fundamentally supposed to be the film maker's love letter to the art of film making or whatever it was I read in reviews of the film and am parroting back.
But Life of Pi for me spoke to the depth of the human experience, and the search for meaning against a back drop of brutality, beauty and the omni present drive to survive whatever horrible things transpire. And ultimately the film for me was about the role of religion and mythology in making the harsh discordance of our experiences palatable and understandable.
Which again, as a non religious person, really spoke to me. Especially because, repeating myself, being a non religious person that's something I don't get or understand... being able to place your total faith in a power greater than yourself or in the idea that a power greater than you or your conception exists and entering into rituals that reaffirm that feeling and it being the fundamental thing from which you draw meaning or the power to go on living or whatever the purpose religion serves for any individual. It's super foreign to me. But unlike some religious people who may disdain it or find it distasteful... I enjoy seeing an instance of this wherein it's celebrated with such beauty and sensitivity, and it reminds me of the argument I always want to articulate in favor of religion that being that it's inspired so much art work of incredible, breath taking beauty.
I mean, right? Come on other atheists, Handel's messiah? The sistene chapel? Examples of spiritually informed art not from Western Culture... uh, the pyramids! That's something! Buddhist art too! Yeah, all incredible works of art the experience of which has enriched the human experience for literally countless lives across generations, you have to admit that's worthwhile. And even if religion is a source for a lot of problems, it can be a worth while lens through which to consider the world even if it's foreign to you or you've chosen to distance yourself from it because it was the lens through which so, so much of the human experience has been considered through out human history, right?
As an atheist trying to understanding the role and the experience of religion, I can have faith in at least that much.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Holiday Blog Post (prelude to training
I'm writing this from my mother's laptop in my parent's house, taking a moment to appreciate the luxuries implied by both, that I have a house within easy reach, with parents and a brother, heat, electricity, running water, food and computers to visit over Christmas.
I think that sense of gratitude was an important theme for me in 2012, I certainly blogged about it more than just on Thanksgiving the obligatory occassion in which we all take note that we could be much worse off. Perhaps it's inappropriate to frame it that way, but it's true. Whatever your situation you could be far more destitute than you are now, just by virtue of the fact that you're able to read this and therefore you either own or have access to a computer, do you ever think about that shit? Truth.
Other than that, I'm grateful to have my parents, both of whom are in their sixties and who one day I will not have, also truthful. And my brother, who's only here a few times a year now that he's down in Columbus which is a much further trek than where he used to live in New York.
And that I'm here with Adia, who I'll miss terribly (as well as all my friends who are with me in spirit) while I'm off at Shakespeare summer camp... well, winter camp, or whatever, for the month of January. For which I leave on either Friday or Saturday, it's still being negotiated when exactly I'll do that. And then I'll be gone for an entire month, away away away from the real world, how's that shit? Pretty wild man. I wonder how I'll feel coming back from all that time doing Shakespeare, Linklater, Alexander, and all the rest of the stuff they teach you.
I'm really excited. And I don't tend to get excited about things easily, to be honest... towards most things I feel a weary, vague anxiety much of the time. No that's not true, I still get excited. And I'm excited about this. Because I love acting! I love training, I love the study of the craft. Almost as much as I love getting up and doing it. But I really, really do appreciate those aspects of it, but I've never been in a true, full out conversatory enviornment where I was able to live and breathe acting. And from all the people I've talked to who have done it, I've gotten the impression that the intensive is a life changing experience and how many of those do we get to go through, as artists or otherwise?
So just a few more days of real life, then it's off to Shakespeare camp, and I can't wait.
I think that sense of gratitude was an important theme for me in 2012, I certainly blogged about it more than just on Thanksgiving the obligatory occassion in which we all take note that we could be much worse off. Perhaps it's inappropriate to frame it that way, but it's true. Whatever your situation you could be far more destitute than you are now, just by virtue of the fact that you're able to read this and therefore you either own or have access to a computer, do you ever think about that shit? Truth.
Other than that, I'm grateful to have my parents, both of whom are in their sixties and who one day I will not have, also truthful. And my brother, who's only here a few times a year now that he's down in Columbus which is a much further trek than where he used to live in New York.
And that I'm here with Adia, who I'll miss terribly (as well as all my friends who are with me in spirit) while I'm off at Shakespeare summer camp... well, winter camp, or whatever, for the month of January. For which I leave on either Friday or Saturday, it's still being negotiated when exactly I'll do that. And then I'll be gone for an entire month, away away away from the real world, how's that shit? Pretty wild man. I wonder how I'll feel coming back from all that time doing Shakespeare, Linklater, Alexander, and all the rest of the stuff they teach you.
I'm really excited. And I don't tend to get excited about things easily, to be honest... towards most things I feel a weary, vague anxiety much of the time. No that's not true, I still get excited. And I'm excited about this. Because I love acting! I love training, I love the study of the craft. Almost as much as I love getting up and doing it. But I really, really do appreciate those aspects of it, but I've never been in a true, full out conversatory enviornment where I was able to live and breathe acting. And from all the people I've talked to who have done it, I've gotten the impression that the intensive is a life changing experience and how many of those do we get to go through, as artists or otherwise?
So just a few more days of real life, then it's off to Shakespeare camp, and I can't wait.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Do It Like It Matters (Until It Actually Does)
Here's a profound thought for the day. I haven't been writing as much in this blog, because I've been putting more of my energy into my joint podcasting and musical effort with my podcasting/music partner Jesse, which has not only been consuming the energy I'd been putting into writing when I was writing in this more or less weekly (times when I'd be writing I'm instead editing audio, for example) and in the process it's been fulfilling my need to be creative in a comparable way to how this blog has in the past. Also, probably because I haven't really been acting except for a few small readings and a little film shoot, and I mainly blog about acting stuff, therefore not much to blog about.
But here's something. Often on the subject of consistently releasing new podcasts, which I try to do every Sunday and have been pretty consistent at doing (with the exception of this Sunday, which is a more complicated issue) either Jesse or I will say "oh but it doesn't really matter". And in a very literal sense this is true. According to the statistics on Buzzsprout, the website that I'm using to host podcasts (for the time being) the average number of plays for a given episode is 14, with episode 4 having been played 21 times, and episode 8 having been played 8 times and the other ones existing in a spectrum in between. This is to be expected, since I haven't gone any lengths to expose my efforts to the outside world except through my social media network and given the weird, misunderstood, nichey nature of podcasts it's even more expected and who's going to Buzzsprout for podcasts? People go to iTunes, and we're not even on there, so basically I'm the only person in the universe with an investment in a new podcast being released to the internet every Sunday.
Except, as the proprietor and creator of this product that's exactly as it should be at this moment. And I should continue to be invested in maintaining that strict schedule because if I ever want to court a wider audience, and eventually that would be nice, I need to maintain that dedication throughout the time period in which it matters to no one else until eventually it does matter.
And this is the way to success in any creative field, through sheer tenacity and not giving up. Because when you start acting, or painting, or making music or whatever of course no one's going to care when you start and probably they shouldn't because you won't be very good. You have to care though, and no matter how long it takes for other people to care enough to give you money for what your doing (if that is your goal) you just have to keep going until that happens. Ya dig?
Well anyway, I do, and it really summarizes where I'm at with this podcast thing right now. Sure only eight people have clicked on my latest podcast, but in many respects it's improved on what we'd done before and hopefully the next one will have improved on that and so on and so fourth until eventually hopefully if we've been doing it long enough someone will start to notice. Or at least I have to tell myself that, and in the meantime just take as much satisfaction as I can from the work itself.
The end. Of this blog post, but not this blog! In fact, I'll be taking a forced hiatus from the podcast during the month of January while I'm doing the January intensive at Shakespeare and Company, so look out for blog posts then, I hope! Assuming I have the energy or focus after all the intense Shakespeare boot camp stuff I'll be doing.
But here's something. Often on the subject of consistently releasing new podcasts, which I try to do every Sunday and have been pretty consistent at doing (with the exception of this Sunday, which is a more complicated issue) either Jesse or I will say "oh but it doesn't really matter". And in a very literal sense this is true. According to the statistics on Buzzsprout, the website that I'm using to host podcasts (for the time being) the average number of plays for a given episode is 14, with episode 4 having been played 21 times, and episode 8 having been played 8 times and the other ones existing in a spectrum in between. This is to be expected, since I haven't gone any lengths to expose my efforts to the outside world except through my social media network and given the weird, misunderstood, nichey nature of podcasts it's even more expected and who's going to Buzzsprout for podcasts? People go to iTunes, and we're not even on there, so basically I'm the only person in the universe with an investment in a new podcast being released to the internet every Sunday.
Except, as the proprietor and creator of this product that's exactly as it should be at this moment. And I should continue to be invested in maintaining that strict schedule because if I ever want to court a wider audience, and eventually that would be nice, I need to maintain that dedication throughout the time period in which it matters to no one else until eventually it does matter.
And this is the way to success in any creative field, through sheer tenacity and not giving up. Because when you start acting, or painting, or making music or whatever of course no one's going to care when you start and probably they shouldn't because you won't be very good. You have to care though, and no matter how long it takes for other people to care enough to give you money for what your doing (if that is your goal) you just have to keep going until that happens. Ya dig?
Well anyway, I do, and it really summarizes where I'm at with this podcast thing right now. Sure only eight people have clicked on my latest podcast, but in many respects it's improved on what we'd done before and hopefully the next one will have improved on that and so on and so fourth until eventually hopefully if we've been doing it long enough someone will start to notice. Or at least I have to tell myself that, and in the meantime just take as much satisfaction as I can from the work itself.
The end. Of this blog post, but not this blog! In fact, I'll be taking a forced hiatus from the podcast during the month of January while I'm doing the January intensive at Shakespeare and Company, so look out for blog posts then, I hope! Assuming I have the energy or focus after all the intense Shakespeare boot camp stuff I'll be doing.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Making a Commitment
This weekend will mark the release of the 8th episode of my podcast, currently titled the Mike Handelman Podcast, although that may change soon... the title I mean. But hopefully not the dedication I've shown in producing it regularly! Even more regularly than I write this blog, and guess which takes a greater investment of time and energy? It's a rhetorical question, making a podcast is much harder. Yet rewarding! Even if they are averaging ten to twenty downloads a piece... which come to think of it, is how much traffic my blog posts receive on average... but for me, a big part of this experiment has been committing to an idea and sticking to it. The idea in this case being producing and regularly releasing a podcast, just like a professional person in the entertainment industry. Not that there are that many people making a living off their podcasts, in fact almost no one is doing that, but they are using them as a tool to promote themselves and their brand. The archetypal example being Marc Maron, who had worked as a respected although not particularly affluent stand up who helped kick off what's called the "alt comedy" movement, and stayed afloat in the entertainment industry throughout the 90s before joining with the ship that was Air America (an attempt at a liberal talk radio station) through it's various ups and downs and after being finally fired from it for the last time, started doing a podcast.
An example numerous comedians have followed, myself being one of them. When asked what young comedians started out should do, another well known podcaster (if you follow podcasts that is, which lots of people don't, yet) Doug Benson said "start a twitter account and then start a podcast" both of which are easy, free ways of self promotion and brand building (unless and until your podcast blows than you need to pay for hosting but that's another thing) and podcasting isn't as easy as it sounds! At least, not if you want to do it well, which is my ultimate goal.
And keeping sight of that goal has eased the transition from the end of Uncle Vanya to where I'm at now, which is focused on editing and releasing a new podcast every Sunday and listening for what myself and my partner Jesse can do better from week to week, a goal I've been accomplishing.
And thinking about it feels like a real accomplishment. I was reflecting on my past creative endeavors and I realized that I've put more focus, time and energy into this project than just about anything else I've ever started completely on my own. Sure I've put a lot of time into theatre and film things that I've been a part of over the years, but in all of those examples I've been in some way or another subservient to another person's master plan. But this is me, this is my thing, and so far it's success or failure has been dependent on my talent and dedication.
With that comes a degree of anxiety, I am collaborating with someone else and I can't take all the credit even if I am the "director" of the project (and the producer, and the editor, and the... you get the idea) and I'm trying to keep Jesse on board and motivated without being a pain in the ass. Which is a feeling I struggle with. In the few times I've taken on a "director" role, prior this point exclusively in theatre classes, it's something I've struggled with as well. The people I'm working with are volunteering their time and energy, and how do I manage that effectively and not be overbearing? If nothing else, this phase of my podcasting career will also serve as a record of how we got to know each other and have become better friends by working on this together and how do I manage that friendship aspect of the project? It would be easier in some ways to hire someone to do the podcast with me, but not nearly as satisfying or rewarding, and I can't easily think of anyone else I'd rather be working with from week to week. But there's that component, from week to week to week, I'm asking for a lot of time and so far he's been very gracious in giving it and I couldn't have gotten this far without him in the room lending his energy... I've tried it, and getting on the microphone by yourself is harder and a lot less fun than having someone to bounce energy off of. It's also a necessary skill I should learn someday, and I can think of some examples in the podcast field of people who do it very well.
Which brings to mind another source of anxiety, where am I going with this? When and how will I take it there? One step has been the establishment of a Facebook page for my podcast. A facebook page I actually established a while ago intending it as a means of promotion for my acting stuff and this blog, but I've been too bashful to share it with the world. No longer! That shits gone public! Likewise I've yet to move beyond the very small pond of Buzzsprout, the free service where I've been hosting my podcast and where no one is particularly likely to see it without first being linked to another, more professional and money costing service like Libsyn and then to the grand daddy of podcast directories... iTunes. Basically, I've been waiting until we could consistently deliver a product I felt comfortable sharing with strangers, which took us a while both from a technical stand point and a creative one but I feel like we've gotten there and my hope is when I get from the January intensive to start doing that. Assuming we can resume our present momentum, which I'm hopeful we can and even if it takes a little while I now have a nice back log of episodes to recycle.
So all in all, I feel good about the work I've been doing. I've found an outlet separate from my live performance, channeled my energy into it and taken visible steps towards developing it... all good things! Now, the next steps are to develop a live performance component that ties back to the podcast which I hope will be Jesse and I's comedy music which we can play out with first at open mics and then hopefully at real events in real venues. And of course, actually building an audience. All in good time! Time I look forward to.
An example numerous comedians have followed, myself being one of them. When asked what young comedians started out should do, another well known podcaster (if you follow podcasts that is, which lots of people don't, yet) Doug Benson said "start a twitter account and then start a podcast" both of which are easy, free ways of self promotion and brand building (unless and until your podcast blows than you need to pay for hosting but that's another thing) and podcasting isn't as easy as it sounds! At least, not if you want to do it well, which is my ultimate goal.
And keeping sight of that goal has eased the transition from the end of Uncle Vanya to where I'm at now, which is focused on editing and releasing a new podcast every Sunday and listening for what myself and my partner Jesse can do better from week to week, a goal I've been accomplishing.
And thinking about it feels like a real accomplishment. I was reflecting on my past creative endeavors and I realized that I've put more focus, time and energy into this project than just about anything else I've ever started completely on my own. Sure I've put a lot of time into theatre and film things that I've been a part of over the years, but in all of those examples I've been in some way or another subservient to another person's master plan. But this is me, this is my thing, and so far it's success or failure has been dependent on my talent and dedication.
With that comes a degree of anxiety, I am collaborating with someone else and I can't take all the credit even if I am the "director" of the project (and the producer, and the editor, and the... you get the idea) and I'm trying to keep Jesse on board and motivated without being a pain in the ass. Which is a feeling I struggle with. In the few times I've taken on a "director" role, prior this point exclusively in theatre classes, it's something I've struggled with as well. The people I'm working with are volunteering their time and energy, and how do I manage that effectively and not be overbearing? If nothing else, this phase of my podcasting career will also serve as a record of how we got to know each other and have become better friends by working on this together and how do I manage that friendship aspect of the project? It would be easier in some ways to hire someone to do the podcast with me, but not nearly as satisfying or rewarding, and I can't easily think of anyone else I'd rather be working with from week to week. But there's that component, from week to week to week, I'm asking for a lot of time and so far he's been very gracious in giving it and I couldn't have gotten this far without him in the room lending his energy... I've tried it, and getting on the microphone by yourself is harder and a lot less fun than having someone to bounce energy off of. It's also a necessary skill I should learn someday, and I can think of some examples in the podcast field of people who do it very well.
Which brings to mind another source of anxiety, where am I going with this? When and how will I take it there? One step has been the establishment of a Facebook page for my podcast. A facebook page I actually established a while ago intending it as a means of promotion for my acting stuff and this blog, but I've been too bashful to share it with the world. No longer! That shits gone public! Likewise I've yet to move beyond the very small pond of Buzzsprout, the free service where I've been hosting my podcast and where no one is particularly likely to see it without first being linked to another, more professional and money costing service like Libsyn and then to the grand daddy of podcast directories... iTunes. Basically, I've been waiting until we could consistently deliver a product I felt comfortable sharing with strangers, which took us a while both from a technical stand point and a creative one but I feel like we've gotten there and my hope is when I get from the January intensive to start doing that. Assuming we can resume our present momentum, which I'm hopeful we can and even if it takes a little while I now have a nice back log of episodes to recycle.
So all in all, I feel good about the work I've been doing. I've found an outlet separate from my live performance, channeled my energy into it and taken visible steps towards developing it... all good things! Now, the next steps are to develop a live performance component that ties back to the podcast which I hope will be Jesse and I's comedy music which we can play out with first at open mics and then hopefully at real events in real venues. And of course, actually building an audience. All in good time! Time I look forward to.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Being in the Room Together (or: theatre criticism!)
Last night and tonight were my first Wednesday and Thursday nights off since before Vanya opened... so what, six or maybe seven weeks? And I have to be honest, it feels good. In between missing the production and everyone involved... aside from those feelings, having my evenings back does feel good. But doesn't it always?
I could write more about that experience but instead I feel compelled to write some other experiences, specifically two great shows I saw this week that were great for completely different but maybe sort fundamentally philosophically similar reasons!
On the bus ride over to our last show, my friend, comrade and cast mate Ron and I were discussing (philosophizing as it were) as we often do on the nature of theatre! Somehow or another, the topic came around to how contemporary audiences' perception of theatre is inevitably influenced by their experiences with film and cinema, related but very fundamentally different mediums. Ron went on to decry theatre that attempts somehow to replicate cinema in spite of these differences or because the way we experience stories as acted out by people ala theatre is so affected by our experience of cinema... This is a long winded way of bringing around the point that the most successful theatre fundamentally acknowledges you, the audience and us the performers are in a room... together! And what makes live theatre especially compelling to us audiences in the age of cinema is the texture of that experience and how it is so much missing in our lives. I think ultimately acknowledging that is a big part of what made Vanya so successful.
And the same could be said of the two productions I'm reviewing in this blog post, Project: Project's "What Are You Doing Here?" and Whistler in the Dark's Tales From Ovid.
And it is my earnest hope to sincerely well, review them! Which is something I don't often do. Well, I sort of do, have you read many of my blog posts? I often react to the pieces I see. But I tend to avoid out and out reviewing things because as an acting member of the theatre community I can't be critically objective both because I know and have worked with or my opinions are somehow affected by my relationship to so many people making theatre and also because well, I want to work them and for that to happen I have to be hired by them and reviews can be touchy things, right? So if I were setting out or felt compelled to write a Thomas Garvey-esque scorching criticism of something or somebody (and in the past I've had to restrain myself) I couldn't bring myself to write anything like that about anyway. So I'm not really a true critic, and that's fine. But in the case of Whistler in the Dark and Project: Project I feel like I also know the people behind those companies well enough that I don't foresee them taking anything I have personally and perhaps even welcoming my criticism and commentary as part of a broader discussion, so here it goes! Critical response review a-ma-gigs!
Let me start by saying that Project: Project's "What Are You Doing Here?" is definitely the kind of show I could stand to have more of in my life. Conveniently located in the Democracy Center which is a fifteen minute walk away from my apartment, for a suggested donation of $5 a piece and under an hour long oh and I forgot to mention phenomenally entertaining, original, engaging and energetic. Basically like, the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon, which is when I happened to be seeing it, which happened to be their last performance. Talking to people afterwards and from the product I experienced it was clear I was therefore seeing the show in it's best possible light, all the mechanics of the piece hummed along beautifully while also incorporating the numerous discoveries the performers had made from bringing their devised, largely improvisational work before an audience four times previously.
Oh, so what exactly is Project: Project and what do they do? What an excellent question! It's a site specific, interactive, immersive... performance piece? For vague reasons, there are Boy Scouts but also Roller Derby Girls and the Boyscouts have crushes on the Roller Derby Girls and vice versa except when they have crushes on each other or not at all. It was delightfully convoluted, or maybe just a little convoluted if you weren't totally on board with being broken up into groups of five or six and being lead between the Democracy Center's different rooms, including the kitchen, bathroom, library and a room with arts and crafts. Meanwhile, the action unfolds around you as characters run back and forth falling in and out love and commonly asking audience members for pick up lines or relationship advice when not flirting or courting one another. In the end, the majority of the characters get paired off, and not always in ways you expect! All of this was structured around the very clever conceit of starting and ending in the so called "Ball Room", the biggest room and sort of main hall of the Democracy Center (and probably where you've seen anything there like a reading if you been to Interim Writers or what have you, a group that shares membership with Project: Project). While in the ball room, most of the plates and pieces which constitutes the plot begin spinning starting with the Roller Derby Girls crashing the Boy Scouts trial orientation for new Cub Scouts which the audience is supposed to be a part of.
Did you follow all that? Did I mention it was interactive? Which generally is something that I'm into! I like being a participant in my theatre pieces, I mean as I previously stated by being in the room I am already so I don't mind taking an extra step. But then again I am an actor and I crave attention. And this is a tricky tight rope to walk and thing to pull off. The pieces of "audience interaction" in Lily's Revenge were frankly... not great, mainly consisting of reading off pieces of paper a few times during the show. It didn't really add too much (and also chatting with performers between acts, which I'll admit was more effective). In the case of Project: Project, I wasn't completely sure what our role was supposed to be. Over the course of the bathroom segment (which was maybe my favorite part of the piece) audience members were explicitly polled for pick up lines, and throughout the piece there was no fourth wall so actors constantly referred to or addressed the audience. But at other times it wasn't clear if actors were talking mostly to the other actors on "stage" with them, or to the audience or a little bit of both and when should we be contributing? One guy for example hooted and hollered and added his own asides to the content of the second ground scene, which although, you know, not appropriate, I can't really blame him. And luckily it didn't detract from the overall experience, but I do believe for future endeavors from the company it could be better incorporated, that's all!
Overall I thought it was a super fun show and an awesome use of the Democracy Center space. The main thing that made it work for me along with the clever staging, was the sheer energy and commitment to their characters of the ensemble of performers which included some very, very talented local vets of the fringe scene. For me as an actor, seeing all of their choices and picking out what was scripted, what was spontaneous and what must had developed from the run about their interactions was a big part of the fun and that aspect was so well incorporated, it was hard to tell! And I also can't say how much I enjoyed moving from room to room watching the story unfold as the actors scurried around us in a well oiled hum of choreography and placement... man it was just so cool!
And you know what else was super cool? Tales From Ovid... I mean, holy shit, melted my fucking face. Over the summer (man I guess it was still summer when I took it, or early fall) I took an intensive in Lecoq Technique with Whistler in the Dark, with several members of the Ovid ensemble and the core of that work really shone through for me, enhanced and informing my experience of watching their performance. There are so many little, really beautiful moments I could highlight... the way the actors thrummed and moved as one when Danny Bryck was personifying the sun comes to mind... the way they incorporated the music, for another. The amazing and beautiful silk work. Their sheer physical presences together as a singular unit...
So yeah, all that just incredible shit. My only possible critique is the show's length and the absence of an intermission made it difficult to be completely and fully engaged throughout the entirety of the performance, I mean two hours is a long time to sit in one place and never think "oh and what should I do for dinner?" but anytime I drifted off I was inevitably pulled back in by another awe inspiring moment.
To be honest, I'm still a little too overwhelmed by the experience to write more than "it was really awesome" but it was really awesome! And it was really exciting seeing a show from my peers on the fringe elevated and brought to a new level of exposure by an organization like Arts Emerson and my one time professor Rob Orchard, who I took a class with many years ago when he was still at ART and who I said hi to on the way to the show. Hi Rob! I know Rob Orchard has better things to do than read this... but still. Also hi Meg Taintor! And Max! And Jeff! And anyone else involved with either Whistler or Project: Project who stumbles across this, my message to you, keep doing what you do!
*Editor's Note: I also interviewed Jeff Mosser, co founder of Project Project for my podcast and talked to him about the project (project) on that show. And like I said I took that intensive with Whistler. So I really can't be critically objective! But those are my thoughts on these shows, enjoy!
I could write more about that experience but instead I feel compelled to write some other experiences, specifically two great shows I saw this week that were great for completely different but maybe sort fundamentally philosophically similar reasons!
On the bus ride over to our last show, my friend, comrade and cast mate Ron and I were discussing (philosophizing as it were) as we often do on the nature of theatre! Somehow or another, the topic came around to how contemporary audiences' perception of theatre is inevitably influenced by their experiences with film and cinema, related but very fundamentally different mediums. Ron went on to decry theatre that attempts somehow to replicate cinema in spite of these differences or because the way we experience stories as acted out by people ala theatre is so affected by our experience of cinema... This is a long winded way of bringing around the point that the most successful theatre fundamentally acknowledges you, the audience and us the performers are in a room... together! And what makes live theatre especially compelling to us audiences in the age of cinema is the texture of that experience and how it is so much missing in our lives. I think ultimately acknowledging that is a big part of what made Vanya so successful.
And the same could be said of the two productions I'm reviewing in this blog post, Project: Project's "What Are You Doing Here?" and Whistler in the Dark's Tales From Ovid.
And it is my earnest hope to sincerely well, review them! Which is something I don't often do. Well, I sort of do, have you read many of my blog posts? I often react to the pieces I see. But I tend to avoid out and out reviewing things because as an acting member of the theatre community I can't be critically objective both because I know and have worked with or my opinions are somehow affected by my relationship to so many people making theatre and also because well, I want to work them and for that to happen I have to be hired by them and reviews can be touchy things, right? So if I were setting out or felt compelled to write a Thomas Garvey-esque scorching criticism of something or somebody (and in the past I've had to restrain myself) I couldn't bring myself to write anything like that about anyway. So I'm not really a true critic, and that's fine. But in the case of Whistler in the Dark and Project: Project I feel like I also know the people behind those companies well enough that I don't foresee them taking anything I have personally and perhaps even welcoming my criticism and commentary as part of a broader discussion, so here it goes! Critical response review a-ma-gigs!
Let me start by saying that Project: Project's "What Are You Doing Here?" is definitely the kind of show I could stand to have more of in my life. Conveniently located in the Democracy Center which is a fifteen minute walk away from my apartment, for a suggested donation of $5 a piece and under an hour long oh and I forgot to mention phenomenally entertaining, original, engaging and energetic. Basically like, the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon, which is when I happened to be seeing it, which happened to be their last performance. Talking to people afterwards and from the product I experienced it was clear I was therefore seeing the show in it's best possible light, all the mechanics of the piece hummed along beautifully while also incorporating the numerous discoveries the performers had made from bringing their devised, largely improvisational work before an audience four times previously.
Oh, so what exactly is Project: Project and what do they do? What an excellent question! It's a site specific, interactive, immersive... performance piece? For vague reasons, there are Boy Scouts but also Roller Derby Girls and the Boyscouts have crushes on the Roller Derby Girls and vice versa except when they have crushes on each other or not at all. It was delightfully convoluted, or maybe just a little convoluted if you weren't totally on board with being broken up into groups of five or six and being lead between the Democracy Center's different rooms, including the kitchen, bathroom, library and a room with arts and crafts. Meanwhile, the action unfolds around you as characters run back and forth falling in and out love and commonly asking audience members for pick up lines or relationship advice when not flirting or courting one another. In the end, the majority of the characters get paired off, and not always in ways you expect! All of this was structured around the very clever conceit of starting and ending in the so called "Ball Room", the biggest room and sort of main hall of the Democracy Center (and probably where you've seen anything there like a reading if you been to Interim Writers or what have you, a group that shares membership with Project: Project). While in the ball room, most of the plates and pieces which constitutes the plot begin spinning starting with the Roller Derby Girls crashing the Boy Scouts trial orientation for new Cub Scouts which the audience is supposed to be a part of.
Did you follow all that? Did I mention it was interactive? Which generally is something that I'm into! I like being a participant in my theatre pieces, I mean as I previously stated by being in the room I am already so I don't mind taking an extra step. But then again I am an actor and I crave attention. And this is a tricky tight rope to walk and thing to pull off. The pieces of "audience interaction" in Lily's Revenge were frankly... not great, mainly consisting of reading off pieces of paper a few times during the show. It didn't really add too much (and also chatting with performers between acts, which I'll admit was more effective). In the case of Project: Project, I wasn't completely sure what our role was supposed to be. Over the course of the bathroom segment (which was maybe my favorite part of the piece) audience members were explicitly polled for pick up lines, and throughout the piece there was no fourth wall so actors constantly referred to or addressed the audience. But at other times it wasn't clear if actors were talking mostly to the other actors on "stage" with them, or to the audience or a little bit of both and when should we be contributing? One guy for example hooted and hollered and added his own asides to the content of the second ground scene, which although, you know, not appropriate, I can't really blame him. And luckily it didn't detract from the overall experience, but I do believe for future endeavors from the company it could be better incorporated, that's all!
Overall I thought it was a super fun show and an awesome use of the Democracy Center space. The main thing that made it work for me along with the clever staging, was the sheer energy and commitment to their characters of the ensemble of performers which included some very, very talented local vets of the fringe scene. For me as an actor, seeing all of their choices and picking out what was scripted, what was spontaneous and what must had developed from the run about their interactions was a big part of the fun and that aspect was so well incorporated, it was hard to tell! And I also can't say how much I enjoyed moving from room to room watching the story unfold as the actors scurried around us in a well oiled hum of choreography and placement... man it was just so cool!
And you know what else was super cool? Tales From Ovid... I mean, holy shit, melted my fucking face. Over the summer (man I guess it was still summer when I took it, or early fall) I took an intensive in Lecoq Technique with Whistler in the Dark, with several members of the Ovid ensemble and the core of that work really shone through for me, enhanced and informing my experience of watching their performance. There are so many little, really beautiful moments I could highlight... the way the actors thrummed and moved as one when Danny Bryck was personifying the sun comes to mind... the way they incorporated the music, for another. The amazing and beautiful silk work. Their sheer physical presences together as a singular unit...
So yeah, all that just incredible shit. My only possible critique is the show's length and the absence of an intermission made it difficult to be completely and fully engaged throughout the entirety of the performance, I mean two hours is a long time to sit in one place and never think "oh and what should I do for dinner?" but anytime I drifted off I was inevitably pulled back in by another awe inspiring moment.
To be honest, I'm still a little too overwhelmed by the experience to write more than "it was really awesome" but it was really awesome! And it was really exciting seeing a show from my peers on the fringe elevated and brought to a new level of exposure by an organization like Arts Emerson and my one time professor Rob Orchard, who I took a class with many years ago when he was still at ART and who I said hi to on the way to the show. Hi Rob! I know Rob Orchard has better things to do than read this... but still. Also hi Meg Taintor! And Max! And Jeff! And anyone else involved with either Whistler or Project: Project who stumbles across this, my message to you, keep doing what you do!
*Editor's Note: I also interviewed Jeff Mosser, co founder of Project Project for my podcast and talked to him about the project (project) on that show. And like I said I took that intensive with Whistler. So I really can't be critically objective! But those are my thoughts on these shows, enjoy!
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Theatricaling
Oh my... so! Let's blog some shit! Yeah!
What have I been doing? Uncle Vanya, that's what, five times a week for the past four weeks, that's how much. After tonight's show, a young guy introduced himself to me, and complimenting my guitar playing, asked "so how is doing this show for you? Stressful?" and I said "stressful? Shit no. I hang out, play some guitar, chill out back stage, do my three lines, play some more guitar, hang out some more, do a few cues off stage and then have a beer." And that's the way life should be. My friend Anne, who's playing Nanny, said to me the other night "you're probably ready to play a bigger role now, right?" And thinking about it, I've made so many little discoveries with the music from night to night, and with my few little interactions on stage, as "small" as my part has been I've got nothing to complain about. Especially with my guitar playing... I've gotten to be so much better of a musician from this show. There's something very pure and simple about jamming out on a few russian folk tunes for thirty minutes every night, solo on stage. You really do develop a different level of chops playing in front of people, which despite the fact that I've been playing since I was 17 (which is what, six or seven years now?) I haven't done that much of in my guitar playing career. So that's been really satisfying. And hearing myself develop and change how I approach the music night after night, finding new nuances, new variations, new ideas in these simple melodies. Again, totally solo. And in front of crowds of thirty people, which forces you to focus and when an idea gets tired move on from it because even though it's a very private moment on stage, ultimately I'm performing for a room full of people. Among other things, I hope it's really solidified my confidence as a musician. As an actor, I have no problem doing my thing in front of people because that's what it's all about. But like I said, I haven't done a lot of live music performance before this and the times in the past when I had I used to get surprisingly nervous, believe it or not. But I think I have my sea legs under me. And it helps I played these tunes for the entire duration of the last run of the show, and now coming back to them and playing them for four more weeks I really know them in and out.
And I've discovered so many new things in the process about playing the classical guitar, for the first three weeks of the run completely with my fingers, a technique I've become light years more comfortable with (again that thing of chops from playing in front of people) and now this week I've started bringing my very anachronistic plastic, bright red "jazz" style guitar pick on stage with me (jazz style in this case refers to the dimensions of the pick which are very small and subsequently make it ideal for the kind of precise technical stuff you'd be doing in a jazz setting, that's it) and discovering brand new things in the process.
So that's all been very fun. Don't tell the cast, but I've been meaning to sit down and record all of this music at home to make a nice CD to give everyone as a memento of our experience. Oh wait probably some of my cast will read this... well don't tell those other people! Or do, and then they'll be expecting it and I'll be forced to put up or shut up and get it done this week because only five more shows to go, oh my god!
In other news, I've begun auditioning for things as opportunities that fit within my schedule have been springing up. In between the relatively close proximity of this show with Rosencratz and Guildenstern and that show with Three Sisters, I haven't been able to audition for a lot of things I would have liked to have gone out for, but oh well. And now I'm doing the winter intensive at Shakespeare and Company, which is very, very exciting, but limits even further what I'm able to audition for. But, now things are coming down the pipeline that don't start rehearsing until February, and as they trickle through Stagesource I've been responding. What are they? I don't feel like saying, because two of them I didn't get and the third isn't until next weekend and I don't want to go and jinx it!
Other than that, with Uncle Vanya wrapping up I can look forward to getting out and seeing more of the local theatre (with a Boston accent, theatuh)! This afternoon, I made it out to 44 Plays for 44 Presidents from Bad Habit Productions and directed by my buddy, Jeff Mosser! Who I interviewed about it! So I was pretty excited, because the last show I saw from Bad Habit in this same space, Much Ado About Nothing With A Twist was awesome so I'm a fan of the company and of Jeff. How was it?Well, I can't be critically distant because it's Jeff, but I liked it! It brought up some really interesting questions about how we interpret history and also the darker epochs that reveal themselves of colonial aggression, genocide, racism and war that make up the fabric of American history. I mean, have you ever thought that essentially the entire political climate beginning from the decision to allow slavery to be abolished in the North and continue in the South was one big build up to the Civil War? One of the most violent conflicts in world history up that point? Have you? Well I did after seeing this show! Oh and it was very funny and entertaining. So I recommend checking it out! Here's a tagline for Bad Habit, "Both fun and thought provoking, 44 Plays for 44 Presidents is a People's HILARIOUS History of the United States!" There you go! Use it, I dare you.
What have I been doing? Uncle Vanya, that's what, five times a week for the past four weeks, that's how much. After tonight's show, a young guy introduced himself to me, and complimenting my guitar playing, asked "so how is doing this show for you? Stressful?" and I said "stressful? Shit no. I hang out, play some guitar, chill out back stage, do my three lines, play some more guitar, hang out some more, do a few cues off stage and then have a beer." And that's the way life should be. My friend Anne, who's playing Nanny, said to me the other night "you're probably ready to play a bigger role now, right?" And thinking about it, I've made so many little discoveries with the music from night to night, and with my few little interactions on stage, as "small" as my part has been I've got nothing to complain about. Especially with my guitar playing... I've gotten to be so much better of a musician from this show. There's something very pure and simple about jamming out on a few russian folk tunes for thirty minutes every night, solo on stage. You really do develop a different level of chops playing in front of people, which despite the fact that I've been playing since I was 17 (which is what, six or seven years now?) I haven't done that much of in my guitar playing career. So that's been really satisfying. And hearing myself develop and change how I approach the music night after night, finding new nuances, new variations, new ideas in these simple melodies. Again, totally solo. And in front of crowds of thirty people, which forces you to focus and when an idea gets tired move on from it because even though it's a very private moment on stage, ultimately I'm performing for a room full of people. Among other things, I hope it's really solidified my confidence as a musician. As an actor, I have no problem doing my thing in front of people because that's what it's all about. But like I said, I haven't done a lot of live music performance before this and the times in the past when I had I used to get surprisingly nervous, believe it or not. But I think I have my sea legs under me. And it helps I played these tunes for the entire duration of the last run of the show, and now coming back to them and playing them for four more weeks I really know them in and out.
And I've discovered so many new things in the process about playing the classical guitar, for the first three weeks of the run completely with my fingers, a technique I've become light years more comfortable with (again that thing of chops from playing in front of people) and now this week I've started bringing my very anachronistic plastic, bright red "jazz" style guitar pick on stage with me (jazz style in this case refers to the dimensions of the pick which are very small and subsequently make it ideal for the kind of precise technical stuff you'd be doing in a jazz setting, that's it) and discovering brand new things in the process.
So that's all been very fun. Don't tell the cast, but I've been meaning to sit down and record all of this music at home to make a nice CD to give everyone as a memento of our experience. Oh wait probably some of my cast will read this... well don't tell those other people! Or do, and then they'll be expecting it and I'll be forced to put up or shut up and get it done this week because only five more shows to go, oh my god!
In other news, I've begun auditioning for things as opportunities that fit within my schedule have been springing up. In between the relatively close proximity of this show with Rosencratz and Guildenstern and that show with Three Sisters, I haven't been able to audition for a lot of things I would have liked to have gone out for, but oh well. And now I'm doing the winter intensive at Shakespeare and Company, which is very, very exciting, but limits even further what I'm able to audition for. But, now things are coming down the pipeline that don't start rehearsing until February, and as they trickle through Stagesource I've been responding. What are they? I don't feel like saying, because two of them I didn't get and the third isn't until next weekend and I don't want to go and jinx it!
Other than that, with Uncle Vanya wrapping up I can look forward to getting out and seeing more of the local theatre (with a Boston accent, theatuh)! This afternoon, I made it out to 44 Plays for 44 Presidents from Bad Habit Productions and directed by my buddy, Jeff Mosser! Who I interviewed about it! So I was pretty excited, because the last show I saw from Bad Habit in this same space, Much Ado About Nothing With A Twist was awesome so I'm a fan of the company and of Jeff. How was it?Well, I can't be critically distant because it's Jeff, but I liked it! It brought up some really interesting questions about how we interpret history and also the darker epochs that reveal themselves of colonial aggression, genocide, racism and war that make up the fabric of American history. I mean, have you ever thought that essentially the entire political climate beginning from the decision to allow slavery to be abolished in the North and continue in the South was one big build up to the Civil War? One of the most violent conflicts in world history up that point? Have you? Well I did after seeing this show! Oh and it was very funny and entertaining. So I recommend checking it out! Here's a tagline for Bad Habit, "Both fun and thought provoking, 44 Plays for 44 Presidents is a People's HILARIOUS History of the United States!" There you go! Use it, I dare you.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Audience Response
After seeing two pretty high profile shows these past two weeks (Hamlet at Arts Emerson, and the Lily's Revenge at ART) and also being on the receiving end of various audience reactions as part of Uncle Vanya... it seems like there should be a blog post in here somewhere, no?
I don't like to write reviews (except if it's of a show I'm in, in which case it will be unabashedly and acknowledgedly positive... I think I may keep doing that) because well, I'm not a critic! But I am a theatre person, so of course when I see things I inevitably respond to them as such. On the one hand, I am inherently aware of the artifice involved and try as hard as I can to go a long with it's intended effect while appreciating it as such.
One thing to be said about Hamlet and the Lily's Revenge, both of them had a lot of that going on. And both of them I enjoyed throughly, while parts of them I was less crazy about.
My Uncle Vanya cast mate Kate said something really profound after seeing the Old Globe's production of Hamlet... something to the effect of "it reminded me that even though it's a very famous/important company from a very famous/important city, things can still not work in a production and those things don't necessarily circumvent or prevent that or make that any less likely to happen" only she said it much more eloquently and profoundly and specifically in the context of our ensemble, a fundamentally fringe company making theatre in a place that is decidedly not a theatre destination or important place. But still, tonight we had audience members saying to us "that was the most incredible theatre experience I've ever been to or been a part of" so there you go!
How did I respond to those big productions from big fancy companies? Let's start with Hamlet. Other people's reviews I've read have said their Ophelia was problematic. Now, I don't know and I don't expect I'm likely ever to meet the actress who played Ophelia so I feel OK nodding generally in agreement with that assessment... but I mean, I don't know. What's Ophelia supposed to be like that she wasn't? OK well I guess a more compelling performer in the role... she could have been more intense. Other things she could have been too I'm sure that I can't think of. The point is, I don't claim to know Hamlet all that well. I guess I know it better than a lot of Shakespeare's plays, because I was sort of in a production of it in college (the anti-Hamlet I've blogged about previously) and for me the best way to become actually familiar with any theatrical work is to do it. Or probably to see it a bunch of times, and I think I'd only seen Hamlet performed once before, and watched the Ethan Hawke version... that's about my experience with the piece.
So who am I to try and deconstruct what did or didn't work about it? Other people have opinions based on past experience with the work. I only have my experience seeing it this one particular time. Ophelia feels easy to point out, because I read that in a review before seeing the show so I'm sure it colored my response to an extent. An had I known the actress playing her, or had a personal connection of some kind to her (as is often the case when I see plays) I'm sure I would have felt differently!
Anyway, how did I actually feel about the show separate from the meta context of the event itself which was as I was watching it bringing attention to the meta contextualization taking place *pause for breath*? Like I said, I liked it! It was funny. My Dad is fond of arguing that Hamlet shouldn't qualify as a tragedy because it's so full of funny lines. And I like the idea of staging Shakespeare in such a way that is entertaining while not undercutting or underselling the text or the story itself, because Shakespeare was fundamentally writing to entertain people, and so the profundity of violence and coarse Elizabethan phrases, along with the ruminations on human nature and inventing the human or whatever (also not whatever, he was a pretty great writer).
I had two favorite parts about the production, one was the sound design, specifically the use of foleys (which is a way of saying old timey sound effects) and the music. All of the players played their own instruments and sang, just like an old timey troupe of players would have done back up until the death of vaudeville more or less. The other was the conceit of a young Hamlet, Ophelia and Laertes. Hamlet was really good. All of the ensemble was awesome in their different parts, but Hamlet was really good. And I don't know, I know some versions of the text suggest he's in his 30s, but that never made sense to me. Insert argument for Hamlet being a teenager or whatever here. I don't care about the dramaturgy. I guess just as a still young person, with comparatively little distance between now and being 17 (although of course that gap is growing, it was an especially visceral experience) it elevated the stakes for me, somehow. And it gave the sense for me that the characters were more existentially trapped than if they'd been older people more able to reason. It made Hamlet's mistakes more justifiable as an inability to handle the sensory overload of his father's death/murder and his mother's incest. He's like, 17, of course he's going crazy at all this shit! Oh, and of course Ophelia doesn't know how to handle it either. Oh fuck and now her boyfriend killed her father, oh and she drowned herself (question mark?) oh no poor thing...
But then at the end, the players play their instruments, and Hamlet gets up and so does Ophelia and they dance together. And sincerely, that was my favorite moment of the play. I felt my eyes water just a little bit. It was so sweet and moving, their dancing in the afterlife or whatever it was or wasn't, and the audience clapping/applauding to the beat of the music.
I also liked Lily's Revenge. I'm even less able to be objective of the production, because I actually know people who worked on it. But I'm happy to say I throughly enjoyed it. I loved the costume and production design, which is clearly where most of those Harvard/ART "dollar-dollar bills y'all" went, and especially the movement (which was done by my dance teacher Yo-el, hi Yo-el!) and I thought it was really fun and engaging.
Was it innovative? That's a deeper and trickier question. I was talking to a friend of mine after the show who has much more history than I do with queer theatre, and was around when the various performance art aspects it was integrating were being conceived, and in that department he wasn't particularly impressed and for the sake of not misquoting him I won't go any further. I did recognize the constituent cultural studies materials around gender and cultural and societal norms being referenced and accessed throughout the piece... more or less, I think. And I guess it didn't read to me as a member of generation Y as an attempt to "shock" ala Rocky Horror, the popular reference template for this genre of work, although it did clearly gesture flamboyantly towards Brecht and all the verse and meta theatricality reminded me of Marat/Sade and Peter Weiss. So in that sense, it was of a piece for me of our current cultural landscape of repurposing and remixing. German post modernist theatre technique meets Japanese Noh theatre meets a drag show. The significance of which I'm still processing.
Anyhow, one way or the other it was definitely a spectacle, and an event I'm glad I experienced. As for the length, that didn't really bother me too much. The pacing and placement of intermissions was such that I didn't feel a compelling need to check my phone's clock and I'd been encouraged against doing so by being given a wax paper baggie thing to place my deactivated phone in to. Given the interactive nature of the production, I was concerned what significance that would harbor later on, but it was essentially a gimmick meant to remind you to engage with the "here and now" of the performance, one of the play's themes.
And of this moment, those are my responses as an audience member and "theatre person" to the plays I've been able to see when I haven't been in the theatre myself, doing my own show! I think I like this format, maybe I'll try revisiting it... maybe.
I don't like to write reviews (except if it's of a show I'm in, in which case it will be unabashedly and acknowledgedly positive... I think I may keep doing that) because well, I'm not a critic! But I am a theatre person, so of course when I see things I inevitably respond to them as such. On the one hand, I am inherently aware of the artifice involved and try as hard as I can to go a long with it's intended effect while appreciating it as such.
One thing to be said about Hamlet and the Lily's Revenge, both of them had a lot of that going on. And both of them I enjoyed throughly, while parts of them I was less crazy about.
My Uncle Vanya cast mate Kate said something really profound after seeing the Old Globe's production of Hamlet... something to the effect of "it reminded me that even though it's a very famous/important company from a very famous/important city, things can still not work in a production and those things don't necessarily circumvent or prevent that or make that any less likely to happen" only she said it much more eloquently and profoundly and specifically in the context of our ensemble, a fundamentally fringe company making theatre in a place that is decidedly not a theatre destination or important place. But still, tonight we had audience members saying to us "that was the most incredible theatre experience I've ever been to or been a part of" so there you go!
How did I respond to those big productions from big fancy companies? Let's start with Hamlet. Other people's reviews I've read have said their Ophelia was problematic. Now, I don't know and I don't expect I'm likely ever to meet the actress who played Ophelia so I feel OK nodding generally in agreement with that assessment... but I mean, I don't know. What's Ophelia supposed to be like that she wasn't? OK well I guess a more compelling performer in the role... she could have been more intense. Other things she could have been too I'm sure that I can't think of. The point is, I don't claim to know Hamlet all that well. I guess I know it better than a lot of Shakespeare's plays, because I was sort of in a production of it in college (the anti-Hamlet I've blogged about previously) and for me the best way to become actually familiar with any theatrical work is to do it. Or probably to see it a bunch of times, and I think I'd only seen Hamlet performed once before, and watched the Ethan Hawke version... that's about my experience with the piece.
So who am I to try and deconstruct what did or didn't work about it? Other people have opinions based on past experience with the work. I only have my experience seeing it this one particular time. Ophelia feels easy to point out, because I read that in a review before seeing the show so I'm sure it colored my response to an extent. An had I known the actress playing her, or had a personal connection of some kind to her (as is often the case when I see plays) I'm sure I would have felt differently!
Anyway, how did I actually feel about the show separate from the meta context of the event itself which was as I was watching it bringing attention to the meta contextualization taking place *pause for breath*? Like I said, I liked it! It was funny. My Dad is fond of arguing that Hamlet shouldn't qualify as a tragedy because it's so full of funny lines. And I like the idea of staging Shakespeare in such a way that is entertaining while not undercutting or underselling the text or the story itself, because Shakespeare was fundamentally writing to entertain people, and so the profundity of violence and coarse Elizabethan phrases, along with the ruminations on human nature and inventing the human or whatever (also not whatever, he was a pretty great writer).
I had two favorite parts about the production, one was the sound design, specifically the use of foleys (which is a way of saying old timey sound effects) and the music. All of the players played their own instruments and sang, just like an old timey troupe of players would have done back up until the death of vaudeville more or less. The other was the conceit of a young Hamlet, Ophelia and Laertes. Hamlet was really good. All of the ensemble was awesome in their different parts, but Hamlet was really good. And I don't know, I know some versions of the text suggest he's in his 30s, but that never made sense to me. Insert argument for Hamlet being a teenager or whatever here. I don't care about the dramaturgy. I guess just as a still young person, with comparatively little distance between now and being 17 (although of course that gap is growing, it was an especially visceral experience) it elevated the stakes for me, somehow. And it gave the sense for me that the characters were more existentially trapped than if they'd been older people more able to reason. It made Hamlet's mistakes more justifiable as an inability to handle the sensory overload of his father's death/murder and his mother's incest. He's like, 17, of course he's going crazy at all this shit! Oh, and of course Ophelia doesn't know how to handle it either. Oh fuck and now her boyfriend killed her father, oh and she drowned herself (question mark?) oh no poor thing...
But then at the end, the players play their instruments, and Hamlet gets up and so does Ophelia and they dance together. And sincerely, that was my favorite moment of the play. I felt my eyes water just a little bit. It was so sweet and moving, their dancing in the afterlife or whatever it was or wasn't, and the audience clapping/applauding to the beat of the music.
I also liked Lily's Revenge. I'm even less able to be objective of the production, because I actually know people who worked on it. But I'm happy to say I throughly enjoyed it. I loved the costume and production design, which is clearly where most of those Harvard/ART "dollar-dollar bills y'all" went, and especially the movement (which was done by my dance teacher Yo-el, hi Yo-el!) and I thought it was really fun and engaging.
Was it innovative? That's a deeper and trickier question. I was talking to a friend of mine after the show who has much more history than I do with queer theatre, and was around when the various performance art aspects it was integrating were being conceived, and in that department he wasn't particularly impressed and for the sake of not misquoting him I won't go any further. I did recognize the constituent cultural studies materials around gender and cultural and societal norms being referenced and accessed throughout the piece... more or less, I think. And I guess it didn't read to me as a member of generation Y as an attempt to "shock" ala Rocky Horror, the popular reference template for this genre of work, although it did clearly gesture flamboyantly towards Brecht and all the verse and meta theatricality reminded me of Marat/Sade and Peter Weiss. So in that sense, it was of a piece for me of our current cultural landscape of repurposing and remixing. German post modernist theatre technique meets Japanese Noh theatre meets a drag show. The significance of which I'm still processing.
Anyhow, one way or the other it was definitely a spectacle, and an event I'm glad I experienced. As for the length, that didn't really bother me too much. The pacing and placement of intermissions was such that I didn't feel a compelling need to check my phone's clock and I'd been encouraged against doing so by being given a wax paper baggie thing to place my deactivated phone in to. Given the interactive nature of the production, I was concerned what significance that would harbor later on, but it was essentially a gimmick meant to remind you to engage with the "here and now" of the performance, one of the play's themes.
And of this moment, those are my responses as an audience member and "theatre person" to the plays I've been able to see when I haven't been in the theatre myself, doing my own show! I think I like this format, maybe I'll try revisiting it... maybe.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
To Train Or Not To Train? (it's a rhetorical question)
Hello blog. I'm writing this chunk of blog post from backstage at Uncle Vanya. Which, have you bought your ticket to yet? Its pretty great. Anyway this is week two, and we've been extended through November 11th! So there goes your excuse to miss this once in a life time piece of theatrical inspiration.
So speaking of which, I saw the Globe Theatre's production of Hamlet today at Emerson. How was it? I liked it. I enjoyed having such a young Hamlet, it put the play in a context that made sense for me. My closest connection to the text was from doing that sort of anti Hamlet in college that I've referenced which actually had a vaguely similar conceit. And I liked all the minimal staging and the effort to bring some of the atmosphere of the old globe to the Paramount. Anyway, I'm going to try and read it this week and come up with more of a response.
During intermission, I got an email confirming I'd been accepted to the month long intensive training with Shakespeare and Company, out in Lenox. Before you congratulate me on anything, it's not an accomplishment so much as an inevitably of my application. Which is to say, it's $4000, for the month of January in Western Mass, and considering the economic situation of most actors I don't imagine it's especially competitive. But it's sort of ironic that I received my official acceptance while watching a Shakespeare play, and since I wasn't cast in that show I blogged about going up in that same time frame, I'll probably do it.
And I'm looking forward to it. All of the people I know who've gone through the training speak very highly of it, and this will be my first exposure to a conservatory-esque environment, as opposed to all the evening and extension classes that have made up my training, I'll live and breath acting and Shakespeare for at least a month, and that's exciting, right? It'll be hard too, being away from home and my friends and family and especially my girlfriend. But worth it, I hope.
So thats where I'm at, and also figuring out what to do next. The trouble is it will keep me from doing a show until March or April, which will leave December relatively barren, and that kind of worries me, as I always feel my best when I'm active creatively and doing stuff and having a reason to leave my apartment. Especially during the winter time, which is always tough, with the cold and reduced day light, etc.
But I have this blog, my music, oh and my podcast which has been going actually pretty well. It took me a few tries after the first one to get in a groove but I released a new one and have another on the editing dock I'm happy with. So far I've had three "guests", one of them recurring in the form of my friend Jesse, and some other peeps I have in mind to invite on. My goal starting out was just to get to where I dont suck and I feel I'm accomplishing that. The question now is, when do I go on iTunes? Usually in your first day or two on the service you get listed as a new show and with that some base number of downloads which then drops off. How much it drops off depends on how good your product is. I've moved to a new, higher quality recording method, and have gotten much slicker at editing. Sooner or later I've gotta bite the bullet and take those steps. Which, actually I'm excited to do.
And excited for what the future holds! Which, well, is anxiety until I get cast in my next thing. But there auditions, and since I keep booking things I must be doing something right. Whatever that is, I've just got to keep on keeping on, doing what I do.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Dealing with Disappointment (And remaining grateful)
So, I had an audition and was called back for a local educational Shakespeare theatre company this week. You know the one. For the callback, I was asked to prepare sides for Mercutio and Bottom, two of my dream roles. Normally in these situations, I've learned to distance myself from the possibility of being cast, but seeing as I really wanted the gig, and also to work with the director, someone I know and respect quite a lot, I didnt. I allowed myself to want it, to think about getting it and that maybe i could and would. I really tried to prep the sides as best as i could.
I found out from a friend at the callback, while waiting to do last night's performance of Vanya, that he'd gotten the role and my heart sunk. It was offficial. I tried not to wallow in my disappointment but it was with me through preshow and the first act. I think my castmates sensed it and tried to indirectly cheer me up which was very sweet of them. By the time of act 4, I was busy doing show stuff I have to, and feeling better. After a beer, a glass of wine and some cathartic guitar playing at the reception my spirits were feeling buyoed. Such is the power of music, theatre, and alcohol, right? Oh and of course, the most important of all, friendship.
Of the sides, one was Queen Mab, which I actually mostly know having learned it for another audition at Stoneham, previously blogged about. So i tried to relearn it. In addition, we were given the first scene between Demitrius and Helena. But the thing that really took me was Bottom's Dream, and what a dream of a piece it is.
I read Midsummer Night's Dream when I was in middle school and then saw it in the round at Northshore music theatre, as we would do with Romeo and Juliet the next year. It was my first real exposure to Shakespeare. I remember liking the production, and Puck in particular. I'd hadn't given much thought to Midsummer since, it's one of those plays everybody does that theatre people poo poo as being safe or redundant as a production choice. I always figured, being a comedic actor, I'd do Bottom sooner or later. I did all the clowns in Shakespeare plays in college and at one time sort of aspired to make them my bread and butter. Little did I know just what a role Bottom is, and realizing that sucked me down the rabbit hole of desire that often leads to disappointment.
I don't often indulge myself that way, of really wanting something like that, unless it's something with someone I know pretty well and can count on getting something in, and even then I temper my expectations. Because disappointment is painful. We've all been tnere, it's nothing new.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I maybe focused too much on Bottom and not enough on the two person scene that i did first and which was really my audition. My scene partner was great, she played the role and attacked it with a lot of energy, which I responded to and we improvised all sorts of fun stuff, it was really cool. But who knows how good I actually was, I don't, and it doesn't really matter. What they needed were people to drive to schools and do stage combat (the shows were Midsummer, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, far amount of sword fighting), I have neither a car or stage combat experience, so there you go. I shouldn't say that, of course they needed talented people, and there were plenty of them at the callback to choose from (who did have cars and stage combat experience). After that reading, I was released and I basically knew what that meant. But another girl in that position asked to read her second piece and they let her. I'm sure it didnt matter in the long run but if nothing else I wanted to show someone my Bottom (haha I'd already gotten into the character!) so i asked to stay and read it. They were very kind in indulging me, and laughed politely and complimented the piece. I thought it was pretty funny, but who ever knows, and ultimately irrelevant.
No, not irrelevant, being defeatist about it doesn't accomplish anything. The optimistic rationalist in me, the voice of other people who maybe don't work in this business for example is saying "but maybe they saw something and will think of you for something else because of it" and yeah, maybe. And of course it didn't hurt. And it gave me something else to take away, another layer to the experience, in that I was at the audition and I did my best to get in the most auditioning while I was there and try out this piece I'd been working on. One of the auditioners even said, when I expressed my delight at discovering Bottom, "if nothing else you have a new audition piece".
And now its on to the next thing. I have an audition Monday, oh and three more weeks of Vanya to do. I thought of writing "to get through" but the show's such a pleasure to be a part of, get through what? Perform in a beautiful production of a play i love by my favorite writer ever with people I like and enjoy being around? To quote the Vanya, "what a rough deal. Where's the rough part?" And furthermore "to gratitude!"
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Review! Uncle Vanya at Apollinaire Theatre through November 6th (putting on my critic's hat for once)
Well, hello! Lately I've been thinking about reviews, seeing as I just opened a show and my cast mates and I have been hoping that someone would come over the river for a second time to give our revival of Uncle Vanya a write up, and move us closer to the goal of a sold out run like last time.
So I thought to myself, "I have a blog, why don't I review the show?" Normally, I don't use this space for theatrical criticism of local work, because being a part of the local theatre community and inevitably having personal relationships to someone or something or some aspect to any given production I see, I can't hope to be critically objective. Nor do I want to be when I go to the theatre. I always go into a show, no matter what it is or who I know in it or what I know about it, really wanting to like it, right? Don't we all want to see something worthwhile? Especially when we have friends involved! Then you have even more impetus to authentically enjoy the work! Well, I'm friends with everyone in the Vanya cast and crew, and getting to watch them work night after night through rehearsals, tech and now performances with an audience and all that entails... it's simply a delight. And it deserves to be written up in review form, so that's what I'm going to do, throwing any and all pretense of critical objectivity right out the window where it belongs.
Thus far, audience reactions have been uniformly, profoundly positive, as they should be, because it's a beautiful production. Comparing the current iteration of the production to last year's, is apples and oranges. And I say that with a strong sense of objective conviction. But I can say assuredly that the performances of my compatriots from that previous version, Ron Lacey as Astrov, Ann Marie Shea as Marie, Kevin Fennessy as Telegin, Ann Carpenter as Nanny and Erin Eva Butcher as Sonya, have only grown deeper with time and continue to grow new, subtle and wonderful levels of meaning while also shifting to accomodate the new energies brought by Kate Paulsen as Yelena, Jack Schultz as the Professor and Diego Arciniegas in the title role. I've seen these performers go through the process of first rediscovering everything about the previous production while also exploring everything new brought by the additional cast. Whom for their part have enhanced the existing frame work of the production by bringing their new discoveries which then combined with the expansion of the work laid out... is simply breathtaking. I wrote previously of how conscious this time around of the play's sense of breath, and how perfectly laid out every beat of the story is. Danielle Fauteux Jacques has explicitly directed each and every beat of that story, and Chekhov's poetic contrasts and flawed characters feel as modern as the moment we are living in with her skilled and subtle hand.
This is to say nothing of the production's design, with elegantly constructed, period accurate costumes by Toni Bratton Elliott, effective sound design by Emily Ledger which takes advantage of the buildings natural acoustics... which brings us to the productions most novel and perhaps brilliant aspect which ties all of these parts together, it's site specific staging with set designs by Nathan K. Lee which make you feel the three dimensional weight of the estate around you as you travel from room to room.
Guiding you on this journey, and periodically serenading you, while making occasional appearances in the action... is Mike Handelman. Who is writing this blog post (it just got meta). It's all pretty effective, the whole effect of him playing music through the preshow, leading the audience from room to room and acting as the bridge between the audience and the world of the estate. And you know, he does an OK job at it. Alright he's pretty good. (I can't give myself too high praise, now can I?) (Oh no I accidentally gave myself most of a paragraph)
This is truly a marvelous and unique piece of the theatre the likes of which have never been seen in Boston to my knowledge. It is truly a once in a lifetime production... revived! And maybe made even better. Miss out at your own risk, last time the run sold out quickly and it's due to do so again!
PHEW that was really difficult. Just like, coming up with different adjectives for everything and stuff... that's the last time I try to write a review. But I felt it was necessary to celebrate the work being done in this production by my friends, the cast and crew, and I feel a review is a fitting extension of the experiential nature of this blogging endeavor. Wouldn't you agree?
Well that's my exercise in self promotion. Oh if you want tickets, go here: http://www.apollinairetheatre.com/productions/productions.html
So I thought to myself, "I have a blog, why don't I review the show?" Normally, I don't use this space for theatrical criticism of local work, because being a part of the local theatre community and inevitably having personal relationships to someone or something or some aspect to any given production I see, I can't hope to be critically objective. Nor do I want to be when I go to the theatre. I always go into a show, no matter what it is or who I know in it or what I know about it, really wanting to like it, right? Don't we all want to see something worthwhile? Especially when we have friends involved! Then you have even more impetus to authentically enjoy the work! Well, I'm friends with everyone in the Vanya cast and crew, and getting to watch them work night after night through rehearsals, tech and now performances with an audience and all that entails... it's simply a delight. And it deserves to be written up in review form, so that's what I'm going to do, throwing any and all pretense of critical objectivity right out the window where it belongs.
Thus far, audience reactions have been uniformly, profoundly positive, as they should be, because it's a beautiful production. Comparing the current iteration of the production to last year's, is apples and oranges. And I say that with a strong sense of objective conviction. But I can say assuredly that the performances of my compatriots from that previous version, Ron Lacey as Astrov, Ann Marie Shea as Marie, Kevin Fennessy as Telegin, Ann Carpenter as Nanny and Erin Eva Butcher as Sonya, have only grown deeper with time and continue to grow new, subtle and wonderful levels of meaning while also shifting to accomodate the new energies brought by Kate Paulsen as Yelena, Jack Schultz as the Professor and Diego Arciniegas in the title role. I've seen these performers go through the process of first rediscovering everything about the previous production while also exploring everything new brought by the additional cast. Whom for their part have enhanced the existing frame work of the production by bringing their new discoveries which then combined with the expansion of the work laid out... is simply breathtaking. I wrote previously of how conscious this time around of the play's sense of breath, and how perfectly laid out every beat of the story is. Danielle Fauteux Jacques has explicitly directed each and every beat of that story, and Chekhov's poetic contrasts and flawed characters feel as modern as the moment we are living in with her skilled and subtle hand.
This is to say nothing of the production's design, with elegantly constructed, period accurate costumes by Toni Bratton Elliott, effective sound design by Emily Ledger which takes advantage of the buildings natural acoustics... which brings us to the productions most novel and perhaps brilliant aspect which ties all of these parts together, it's site specific staging with set designs by Nathan K. Lee which make you feel the three dimensional weight of the estate around you as you travel from room to room.
Guiding you on this journey, and periodically serenading you, while making occasional appearances in the action... is Mike Handelman. Who is writing this blog post (it just got meta). It's all pretty effective, the whole effect of him playing music through the preshow, leading the audience from room to room and acting as the bridge between the audience and the world of the estate. And you know, he does an OK job at it. Alright he's pretty good. (I can't give myself too high praise, now can I?) (Oh no I accidentally gave myself most of a paragraph)
This is truly a marvelous and unique piece of the theatre the likes of which have never been seen in Boston to my knowledge. It is truly a once in a lifetime production... revived! And maybe made even better. Miss out at your own risk, last time the run sold out quickly and it's due to do so again!
PHEW that was really difficult. Just like, coming up with different adjectives for everything and stuff... that's the last time I try to write a review. But I felt it was necessary to celebrate the work being done in this production by my friends, the cast and crew, and I feel a review is a fitting extension of the experiential nature of this blogging endeavor. Wouldn't you agree?
Well that's my exercise in self promotion. Oh if you want tickets, go here: http://www.apollinairetheatre.com/productions/productions.html
Monday, October 8, 2012
Acknowledgement (I turned 24 among other things)
It's Columbus Day! By which I mean to say Indigenous People's Day. In my old days of blogging on Livejournal, recently revisited in a conversation recollecting my ten year friendship with my friend Vinny, this would call for some serious politicizing in the vein of Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States". But I don't know, just go read that.
And since it's Columbus Day, that means it was recently my birthday. I guess depending on the year I would have approached that negatively or positively. But let's remember a positive memory.
Like my 19th birthday, following the debacle that were my attempts to get into college (my admissions list Bard, Hampshire, Sarah Laurence, Eugene Lang, and Emerson, uh yeah not exactly too many safety schools) I was doing an eight week workshop in acting for film at New York Film Academy, and living with my brother's friend on the Upper East Side. For my birthday, all of my classmates came to my apartment, surprised me with a birthday cake and sang to me (something about that always gets me) and celebrated. Considering how difficult a year 18 had been, it was the best birthday ever, feeling the love and warmth of being surrounded by new friends and my brother, it made the future seem more possible.
Which turned out to be true, as things are definitely going pretty well. I guess I want to acknowledge how happy I am with where I'm at. It's taken me a long time to get here, but as my friend Steven pointed out over birthday observance beers "I've grown up". I have friends. A steady relationship. The beginning of a career. I have so much to be thankful for.
The friends and the relationship in particular come as something of a surprise, as their both things I struggled with as a younger person. But I'm not that person, I guess I'm a grown up now, sort of.
And this is a good time to acknowledge that. Hey, it's another "I feel good about myself" post, but this one is birthday themed. So yeah, happy fucking birthday to me.
There's a bunch of other stuff, but I need to go grocery shopping so let's him them quickly.
First, did you buy your tickets to Uncle Vanya? It's been great seeing this show come together, and if you missed it last time, don't make that mistake again! Get your tickets on Goldstar http://www.goldstar.com/events/chelsea-ma/uncle-vanya or from http://www.apollinairetheatre.com/!
After that, listen to my podcast, which I need to blog about since I feel like I've made a lot of progress as a broadcaster and audio engineer which will soon be reflected in the episodes I'll posting in the near future. Find it here! http://www.buzzsprout.com/7119
And while we've been doing podcast stuff, we've been recording music so check that out too. http://soundcloud.com/mike_handelman
Have a happy holiday! Just don't go oppressing any more indigenous people's. Read Howard Zinn instead.
And since it's Columbus Day, that means it was recently my birthday. I guess depending on the year I would have approached that negatively or positively. But let's remember a positive memory.
Like my 19th birthday, following the debacle that were my attempts to get into college (my admissions list Bard, Hampshire, Sarah Laurence, Eugene Lang, and Emerson, uh yeah not exactly too many safety schools) I was doing an eight week workshop in acting for film at New York Film Academy, and living with my brother's friend on the Upper East Side. For my birthday, all of my classmates came to my apartment, surprised me with a birthday cake and sang to me (something about that always gets me) and celebrated. Considering how difficult a year 18 had been, it was the best birthday ever, feeling the love and warmth of being surrounded by new friends and my brother, it made the future seem more possible.
Which turned out to be true, as things are definitely going pretty well. I guess I want to acknowledge how happy I am with where I'm at. It's taken me a long time to get here, but as my friend Steven pointed out over birthday observance beers "I've grown up". I have friends. A steady relationship. The beginning of a career. I have so much to be thankful for.
The friends and the relationship in particular come as something of a surprise, as their both things I struggled with as a younger person. But I'm not that person, I guess I'm a grown up now, sort of.
And this is a good time to acknowledge that. Hey, it's another "I feel good about myself" post, but this one is birthday themed. So yeah, happy fucking birthday to me.
There's a bunch of other stuff, but I need to go grocery shopping so let's him them quickly.
First, did you buy your tickets to Uncle Vanya? It's been great seeing this show come together, and if you missed it last time, don't make that mistake again! Get your tickets on Goldstar http://www.goldstar.com/events/chelsea-ma/uncle-vanya or from http://www.apollinairetheatre.com/!
After that, listen to my podcast, which I need to blog about since I feel like I've made a lot of progress as a broadcaster and audio engineer which will soon be reflected in the episodes I'll posting in the near future. Find it here! http://www.buzzsprout.com/7119
And while we've been doing podcast stuff, we've been recording music so check that out too. http://soundcloud.com/mike_handelman
Have a happy holiday! Just don't go oppressing any more indigenous people's. Read Howard Zinn instead.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Revisiting Friends at the Serebryakov Estate
Well, hello there blogosphere! God I hate that word. Well, hello there people who read my blog! I realize it's been a while, my posts have become much more erratic since I was writing like a man possessed this past summer... well, I'll try to be better about it. Even though I still owe a post, partially written down the pipeline, on the intensive in Lecoq technique I took two, almost three weekends ago and also my foray into modern dance at Boston Ballet with my dance teacher... after tonight's rehearsal of the revival of Uncle Vanya, I just can't help blogging about it!
This is my second time revisiting a previously mounted production with an altered cast, the previous time having been when we did The Muse for Turtle Lane's Young Actor's Winter Festival and then it was accepted into the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and because the actor who'd played my counterpart had to work all that summer, we recast the role, with the other actor out of the cast of three remaining constant. And that was quite an interesting experience seeing how the play changed but fundamentally remained the same production.
It was also in many ways like visiting with an old friend, especially when we did it again for another festival the play was in consideration for where we quickly rehearsed and filmed it, again with another actor. Relearning the lines was like putting on a familiar suit, or I don't know something else you only wear for specific occasions, you come up with a metaphor.
In this case, I am reconnecting with old friends, specifically all the returning cast from our previous go around with this show, a few of whom I've had the pleasure of working with in the intervening time. It's also meant revisiting the music I learned to play on the guitar for the show last December, which is coming at a quite a good time for me musically actually, as in the last few months I've gotten back into guitar playing in a way I hadn't felt for sometime.
In addition of course I'm being reunited with Chekov's play... have I written enough about Chekhov in this blog? Frankly I have not! I remember being introduced to Chekhov in I guess what was basically my junior year of college, right before turning 21. In fact, it would have been right around this time that I would have been starting my Chekhov themed acting class with my teacher Scott Zigler whom I credit for first giving me many of the tools I use in my work today, much of it coming through that class.
I remember vividly how stuck I'd become in my work the previous year after working for two semesters with a very, very far out college director on productions of Suddenly, Last Summer in the autumn (which I actually thought was very good and nearly could have been disaster) and then Hamlet in the Spring (which was, in fact, a complete disaster and was the worst experience working in theatre I've ever had and if anything ever eclipses it God help me). This kid was super duper artsy and avant garde, I mean seriously, and I was 19 or 20 or whatever at the time so of course I was super into it and it came at a time when I'd been away from doing theatre for over a year, but that particular semester was when I discovered Common Casting at Harvard. Since Harvard doesn't have a proper theatre department, all of the shows on campus are completely extra curricular and run by volunteer students with support from technical and administrative staff at the American Repertory Theatre and the Office for the Fine Arts at Harvard. This applies to the casting process as well, which is completely open to anyone who wanders into the Loeb or other spaces where auditions are held and wants to sign up. After going through this process half a dozen times through my time at the Extension school, it's usually Harvard College kids who get parts. To be cast as a non Harvard College student (being part of the Extension school, I was not one of them) you needed to be very talented or very lucky or happen to audition for someone very much on the fringe of the theatre scene aka somebody craaaazy, which I later realized this director was, in a very particular way that was in part a response but stemming from the Ivy League environment and his own desire to be an artistic rebel. Ah, college! Anyway, working with this kid was an exercise in extreme stylization, which I was into at the time, and it's possible you've subsequently seen me give some pretty big performances, and that's what he was all about. The bigger, the crazier, the better. Anyway, to make a long story short, after two semesters working with this guy I'd practically forgotten how to act naturalistically. Mind you, before working with him in the first place I was still really figuring out how exactly to do that like you do when you're a teenager and I think in high school I came pretty close but who's to say?
Don't you wish sometimes you had footage of your high school plays? I'm thinking of one in particular where I was the lead, my first time doing anything dramatic. I felt at the time, even being about as self critical back then as I am now, that I did pretty well and I received some very positive feedback but oh wait Chekhov...
So anyway, working in that really crazy stylized environment I'd lost sight of what it meant to act like a human being after two semesters of doing crazy voices and crawling around on the floor. Being exposed to Chekhov at that time, who wrote for people to act like real people on stage and did so as beautifully as anyone has ever done, I think, from my limited exposure to world drama. At the time, I appreciated as an actor how wonderfully nuanced his scenes are. A case study in this was the first week of presented work, myself and two other groups presented the "seduction" scene from Uncle Vanya, featuring three very different pairs of Astrovs and Yelenas presenting three very different interpretations of the scene and final products later on. In fact, they were completely different, and maybe the juiciest thing for me about Chekhov is the sheer geometry of his writing, you can come at every line and character from so many different angles there's no one direction in the text, it's wide open to whatever you find within it. And that's what I needed to rediscover, being in a real moment and finding the things that make them real to you and to the characters and stepping away from the crutch of silly voices, like I'd been doing.
And in Vanya particularly, there are so many beautiful things to be found. Today for the first time I watched the full, new cast in action, as we rehearsed Act III, the play's climatic act with the seduction and the gun shot and it was the first time I'd seen my cast mates working largely off book and the first time I'd seen the act from start to finish, ever, come to think of it. Seeing it done, and connecting it with when I'd recently watched acts I and II I saw how our production came to be so popular, but also really came to appreciate Chekhov's skill with dramatic structure in a way that made me really want to go back and reread the major plays. Uncle Vanya in particular breathes and arcs so incredibly beautifully. Diego Arciniegas (maybe you've heard of him? He'll be playing Vanya this time) commented tonight in rehearsal the way that the lines of the play are so well distributed and it's true, it's really an ensemble piece. And that speaks to the way that each act begins with an intimate spark, with just a few characters on stage, which builds to a fire involving most of the cast and then disperses and settles again into another moment of sublime intimacy.
This Russian guy really knew what he was doing when he wrote these plays. And let me take a moment and point out the same is true for our cast and director, who are really crafting a unique and electric piece of theatre which I could not be prouder to be a part of. It's been really cool to watch, because basically the whole play had been staged ahead of time, so we've been working at a much more accelerated pace then I've become accustomed to, not that I really have all that much acting work but it's still cool to compare. Especially doing the play again with three new actors in leads, everything being in one way the same but also being so new and different, wow what an experience.
And that's why I just had to blog about it, because the experience will continue to evolve as we rapidly throttle towards opening... Yikes! October 10th! By which time I'll be 24. Did you know that? It's true. Lots of other things have been going on, I've had lots of ideas for blog posts, but lacked the focus and energy to put them down. Well, here's this one! Boom! Don't worry, I'll be back blogging at you soon.
This is my second time revisiting a previously mounted production with an altered cast, the previous time having been when we did The Muse for Turtle Lane's Young Actor's Winter Festival and then it was accepted into the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and because the actor who'd played my counterpart had to work all that summer, we recast the role, with the other actor out of the cast of three remaining constant. And that was quite an interesting experience seeing how the play changed but fundamentally remained the same production.
It was also in many ways like visiting with an old friend, especially when we did it again for another festival the play was in consideration for where we quickly rehearsed and filmed it, again with another actor. Relearning the lines was like putting on a familiar suit, or I don't know something else you only wear for specific occasions, you come up with a metaphor.
In this case, I am reconnecting with old friends, specifically all the returning cast from our previous go around with this show, a few of whom I've had the pleasure of working with in the intervening time. It's also meant revisiting the music I learned to play on the guitar for the show last December, which is coming at a quite a good time for me musically actually, as in the last few months I've gotten back into guitar playing in a way I hadn't felt for sometime.
In addition of course I'm being reunited with Chekov's play... have I written enough about Chekhov in this blog? Frankly I have not! I remember being introduced to Chekhov in I guess what was basically my junior year of college, right before turning 21. In fact, it would have been right around this time that I would have been starting my Chekhov themed acting class with my teacher Scott Zigler whom I credit for first giving me many of the tools I use in my work today, much of it coming through that class.
I remember vividly how stuck I'd become in my work the previous year after working for two semesters with a very, very far out college director on productions of Suddenly, Last Summer in the autumn (which I actually thought was very good and nearly could have been disaster) and then Hamlet in the Spring (which was, in fact, a complete disaster and was the worst experience working in theatre I've ever had and if anything ever eclipses it God help me). This kid was super duper artsy and avant garde, I mean seriously, and I was 19 or 20 or whatever at the time so of course I was super into it and it came at a time when I'd been away from doing theatre for over a year, but that particular semester was when I discovered Common Casting at Harvard. Since Harvard doesn't have a proper theatre department, all of the shows on campus are completely extra curricular and run by volunteer students with support from technical and administrative staff at the American Repertory Theatre and the Office for the Fine Arts at Harvard. This applies to the casting process as well, which is completely open to anyone who wanders into the Loeb or other spaces where auditions are held and wants to sign up. After going through this process half a dozen times through my time at the Extension school, it's usually Harvard College kids who get parts. To be cast as a non Harvard College student (being part of the Extension school, I was not one of them) you needed to be very talented or very lucky or happen to audition for someone very much on the fringe of the theatre scene aka somebody craaaazy, which I later realized this director was, in a very particular way that was in part a response but stemming from the Ivy League environment and his own desire to be an artistic rebel. Ah, college! Anyway, working with this kid was an exercise in extreme stylization, which I was into at the time, and it's possible you've subsequently seen me give some pretty big performances, and that's what he was all about. The bigger, the crazier, the better. Anyway, to make a long story short, after two semesters working with this guy I'd practically forgotten how to act naturalistically. Mind you, before working with him in the first place I was still really figuring out how exactly to do that like you do when you're a teenager and I think in high school I came pretty close but who's to say?
Don't you wish sometimes you had footage of your high school plays? I'm thinking of one in particular where I was the lead, my first time doing anything dramatic. I felt at the time, even being about as self critical back then as I am now, that I did pretty well and I received some very positive feedback but oh wait Chekhov...
So anyway, working in that really crazy stylized environment I'd lost sight of what it meant to act like a human being after two semesters of doing crazy voices and crawling around on the floor. Being exposed to Chekhov at that time, who wrote for people to act like real people on stage and did so as beautifully as anyone has ever done, I think, from my limited exposure to world drama. At the time, I appreciated as an actor how wonderfully nuanced his scenes are. A case study in this was the first week of presented work, myself and two other groups presented the "seduction" scene from Uncle Vanya, featuring three very different pairs of Astrovs and Yelenas presenting three very different interpretations of the scene and final products later on. In fact, they were completely different, and maybe the juiciest thing for me about Chekhov is the sheer geometry of his writing, you can come at every line and character from so many different angles there's no one direction in the text, it's wide open to whatever you find within it. And that's what I needed to rediscover, being in a real moment and finding the things that make them real to you and to the characters and stepping away from the crutch of silly voices, like I'd been doing.
And in Vanya particularly, there are so many beautiful things to be found. Today for the first time I watched the full, new cast in action, as we rehearsed Act III, the play's climatic act with the seduction and the gun shot and it was the first time I'd seen my cast mates working largely off book and the first time I'd seen the act from start to finish, ever, come to think of it. Seeing it done, and connecting it with when I'd recently watched acts I and II I saw how our production came to be so popular, but also really came to appreciate Chekhov's skill with dramatic structure in a way that made me really want to go back and reread the major plays. Uncle Vanya in particular breathes and arcs so incredibly beautifully. Diego Arciniegas (maybe you've heard of him? He'll be playing Vanya this time) commented tonight in rehearsal the way that the lines of the play are so well distributed and it's true, it's really an ensemble piece. And that speaks to the way that each act begins with an intimate spark, with just a few characters on stage, which builds to a fire involving most of the cast and then disperses and settles again into another moment of sublime intimacy.
This Russian guy really knew what he was doing when he wrote these plays. And let me take a moment and point out the same is true for our cast and director, who are really crafting a unique and electric piece of theatre which I could not be prouder to be a part of. It's been really cool to watch, because basically the whole play had been staged ahead of time, so we've been working at a much more accelerated pace then I've become accustomed to, not that I really have all that much acting work but it's still cool to compare. Especially doing the play again with three new actors in leads, everything being in one way the same but also being so new and different, wow what an experience.
And that's why I just had to blog about it, because the experience will continue to evolve as we rapidly throttle towards opening... Yikes! October 10th! By which time I'll be 24. Did you know that? It's true. Lots of other things have been going on, I've had lots of ideas for blog posts, but lacked the focus and energy to put them down. Well, here's this one! Boom! Don't worry, I'll be back blogging at you soon.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Making It Work For You (!)
Tonight was a return of sorts to my work with my teacher from this summer, the wonderful Yo-el Cassell. I was in a position to take one class this fall, and I thought about doing the Company One acting workshop I did last fall, but I really wanted to continue the work I started in my movement class so Modern Dance at Boston Ballet on Thursdays seemed like the correct choice for where I'm at right now.
A decision which was reaffirmed during our session tonight. It was myself, seven or eight other students (including my friend Mary from Swimming in the Shallows whom I turned onto the class), Yo-el, and a percussionist to provide accompaniment. Just being in the room with Yo-el is fun and inspiring. He brings a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm to his classes, and just a general sense of fun which makes it easy to leave wanting more... unless you're exhausted and dripping with sweat, as I was at the end of this particular session.
It was very interesting seeing Yo-el work in this new context. Over the summer I was in movement for actors which brought with it a particular emphasis and energy from the presence of that particular group, whereas this is modern dance as offered by the sort of continuing education extension of Boston Ballet. So it was clear we had some serious ballet students, some more intermediate people and of course myself the stumbling beginner with near to none dance experience. And the emphasis on this class, in this session, was definitely on dance. We did some free work certainly, which as usual came most easily to me, but much of the class was taken up learning sequences of movements in sort of a Laban mode, neither of which are my forte but I made myself push forward and give it my best shot.
Because one of the key phrases to Yo-el's teachings is "make it work for you" and I think I started to do that. Rather than trying to imitate the sequence of movements as closely as possible and focus on the specifics I allowed myself to give over to the general flow of the actions... or I sort of started to, anyway. Part of the problem I've always had executing dance routines is they put me in my head. "OK feet there, turn like that, arms... where? Oh we're at the part where we kneel OK now wait how do I get up? OK just get up, keep going" and that's more or less where I was at because unlike text I can't hold in a lot of movements on short notice and I'm simply not familiar with the vocabulary. But then after a few go rounds I was comfortable enough to say "fuck it" and just go with it.
Fuck it, just go with it. That's a mantra. A good mantra. One which I'll need as I continue my work. I did feel myself getting some things I struggled with over the summer, particularly in the area of Laban work. And I'm sure I'll continue to do so when I'm able to make it to the class.
And then this weekend, I'm taking a two day intensive training in Lecoq movement technique which I know next to nothing about but will know more about very soon. Here we go! Fuck it, just go with it. Fuck it go with it. Fuck it just go...
A decision which was reaffirmed during our session tonight. It was myself, seven or eight other students (including my friend Mary from Swimming in the Shallows whom I turned onto the class), Yo-el, and a percussionist to provide accompaniment. Just being in the room with Yo-el is fun and inspiring. He brings a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm to his classes, and just a general sense of fun which makes it easy to leave wanting more... unless you're exhausted and dripping with sweat, as I was at the end of this particular session.
It was very interesting seeing Yo-el work in this new context. Over the summer I was in movement for actors which brought with it a particular emphasis and energy from the presence of that particular group, whereas this is modern dance as offered by the sort of continuing education extension of Boston Ballet. So it was clear we had some serious ballet students, some more intermediate people and of course myself the stumbling beginner with near to none dance experience. And the emphasis on this class, in this session, was definitely on dance. We did some free work certainly, which as usual came most easily to me, but much of the class was taken up learning sequences of movements in sort of a Laban mode, neither of which are my forte but I made myself push forward and give it my best shot.
Because one of the key phrases to Yo-el's teachings is "make it work for you" and I think I started to do that. Rather than trying to imitate the sequence of movements as closely as possible and focus on the specifics I allowed myself to give over to the general flow of the actions... or I sort of started to, anyway. Part of the problem I've always had executing dance routines is they put me in my head. "OK feet there, turn like that, arms... where? Oh we're at the part where we kneel OK now wait how do I get up? OK just get up, keep going" and that's more or less where I was at because unlike text I can't hold in a lot of movements on short notice and I'm simply not familiar with the vocabulary. But then after a few go rounds I was comfortable enough to say "fuck it" and just go with it.
Fuck it, just go with it. That's a mantra. A good mantra. One which I'll need as I continue my work. I did feel myself getting some things I struggled with over the summer, particularly in the area of Laban work. And I'm sure I'll continue to do so when I'm able to make it to the class.
And then this weekend, I'm taking a two day intensive training in Lecoq movement technique which I know next to nothing about but will know more about very soon. Here we go! Fuck it, just go with it. Fuck it go with it. Fuck it just go...
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Banding Together!
In the spirit of collaboration and collaboration, check out my buddy's site, The Awesome Cave! It's being maintained and edited by an Emerson Alumni I met on set a few weeks ago, and it's pretty cool. He approached about a "link share" as the kids are calling it these days, and I thought "hey yeah cool that's a neat idea".
Because the internet isn't about competition, really. And neither is the entertainment business. The more people we can find who like the stuff we do, the better, and no better way to do that than to share readership and subsequently eye balls, right?
In a similar spirit, I recorded a podcast tonight with my friend Jeff Mosser so that we could talk about his play he's directing as part of a festival he's been involved with, 44 Plays For 44 Presidents which is being put on by Bad Habit Productions and was just featured in The Boston Globe! Cool, huh? In addition to that, we chatted about his new group, Project:Project and their Indie Gogo campaign which which just started and you should give money too.
While you're at it, contribute to my friend Anna Callahan's Indiegogo campaign for her startup ZoomTilt which aims to partner brands with production companies to produce original content on Youtube, oh and I have a little part in their promotional video, so check that out too.
While you're at it, here they are on Facebook, The Awesome Cave, Project: Project and ZoomTilt. At some point I'll write a more personal blog post about where I'm at, but until then!
Because the internet isn't about competition, really. And neither is the entertainment business. The more people we can find who like the stuff we do, the better, and no better way to do that than to share readership and subsequently eye balls, right?
In a similar spirit, I recorded a podcast tonight with my friend Jeff Mosser so that we could talk about his play he's directing as part of a festival he's been involved with, 44 Plays For 44 Presidents which is being put on by Bad Habit Productions and was just featured in The Boston Globe! Cool, huh? In addition to that, we chatted about his new group, Project:Project and their Indie Gogo campaign which which just started and you should give money too.
While you're at it, contribute to my friend Anna Callahan's Indiegogo campaign for her startup ZoomTilt which aims to partner brands with production companies to produce original content on Youtube, oh and I have a little part in their promotional video, so check that out too.
While you're at it, here they are on Facebook, The Awesome Cave, Project: Project and ZoomTilt. At some point I'll write a more personal blog post about where I'm at, but until then!
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Getting Better At Stuff, Thoughts on Self Criticism
I've been thinking a lot about how to be better, as a person, a friend, a cast member and especially an artist. I think I deserve a pat on the back for everything I've accomplished this year. Did you notice the weight I've lost? Or the work I've put into this blog? Did you know I've been trying to better myself as a musician and find more focus for composing? Or that I've slowly started doing my own podcast? Probably you've read about all the acting I've been doing. Since Rosencratz and Guildenstern ended, I accomplished one of my goals which had been to book some more film work and I've had several roles of varying smallness in a music video, a promotional video for a friend's company, a student film and an independent feature, all of which was from being on the lookout on Craigslist and New England Film. I've been making it out to a ton of theatre. And I helped my improv troupe find our way to our first paying gigs since I've been in it with my contacts I made doing theatre, and generally have been trying to improve as an improvisor and troupe member.
So let me stop and do that pat on the back thing. *Pat pat pat*. OK now there's still more I could and should be doing. Like, I've lost about twenty pounds, alright! One of my big weight loss goals was strictly getting my BMI to a healthy place and now I've done that. How? As I said to a friend when asked that, "I don't know working out a lot and being twenty three". That is to say going to the gym regularly, in addition to the weight I've put on a noticeable but not grandiose amount of muscle, eating less and not as terribly (fewer starbucks pastries and burritos) combined with my increased metabolism did most of the work. But I'd like to lose more weight, like ten or fifteen pounds, hopefully. Since getting around 205 though, my weight has more or less flat lined. Which is partially to be expected, usually in weight loss the first twenty pounds or whatever are largely water weight and drop off pretty easily. After that it becomes more challenging. If I want to lose the rest of that weight, I've got to get serious about my exercise routine, like working out at home on days that I'm not able to make it to the gym while making a point to still get to the gym at least three times a week and really work out when I get there not just for twenty minutes and then call it a day.
And I need to be serious about what I eat. As an actor, sometimes you find yourself surrounded by food, oftentimes with nothing really to do. When I was on the set of that feature film, I was there for maybe an hour or two before they ordered like ten pizzas, more than the cast and crew was able to eat and for the rest of the day there was just a bunch of pizza in addition to the sugary sodas and everything else the people on craft services had laid out. My part of the shoot took less than an hour, but was physically incredibly exhausting and mentally draining (it was a torture scene, maybe I'll blog about it at some point later) and then I was there all day with all this food, so I just hung out and snacked on pizza and drank more regular Coke than I normally would in a week, etc.
Point being to accomplish that goal I need to become focused. To become a better blogger, I need to focus and try to write at least once a week. To be a better podcaster, I need to make sure I come prepared and always be looking for ways to be doing better work. With everything I do, I need to be prepared to do my best work and be looking for the ways I can improve it.
This can be frustrating though, because putting time and focus into improving things is difficult and it's hard to keep sight of the big picture. With this blog, am I creating any tangible, immediate benefit? No, but I'm creating a series of reference points for my future self. I'm improving as a writer. I'm developing a good habit. And I'm engaging with the local community, which is something I know people appreciate. I'm struggling with similar issues with my podcast, but I think in addition to my comedic aspirations I may be able to start finding ways towards a deeper way of contributing to Boston theatre... keep an eye out for that.
And I'll just keep trying to focus on bettering myself, and recognizing everything I accomplish, one by one, it's all about keeping that balance.
So let me stop and do that pat on the back thing. *Pat pat pat*. OK now there's still more I could and should be doing. Like, I've lost about twenty pounds, alright! One of my big weight loss goals was strictly getting my BMI to a healthy place and now I've done that. How? As I said to a friend when asked that, "I don't know working out a lot and being twenty three". That is to say going to the gym regularly, in addition to the weight I've put on a noticeable but not grandiose amount of muscle, eating less and not as terribly (fewer starbucks pastries and burritos) combined with my increased metabolism did most of the work. But I'd like to lose more weight, like ten or fifteen pounds, hopefully. Since getting around 205 though, my weight has more or less flat lined. Which is partially to be expected, usually in weight loss the first twenty pounds or whatever are largely water weight and drop off pretty easily. After that it becomes more challenging. If I want to lose the rest of that weight, I've got to get serious about my exercise routine, like working out at home on days that I'm not able to make it to the gym while making a point to still get to the gym at least three times a week and really work out when I get there not just for twenty minutes and then call it a day.
And I need to be serious about what I eat. As an actor, sometimes you find yourself surrounded by food, oftentimes with nothing really to do. When I was on the set of that feature film, I was there for maybe an hour or two before they ordered like ten pizzas, more than the cast and crew was able to eat and for the rest of the day there was just a bunch of pizza in addition to the sugary sodas and everything else the people on craft services had laid out. My part of the shoot took less than an hour, but was physically incredibly exhausting and mentally draining (it was a torture scene, maybe I'll blog about it at some point later) and then I was there all day with all this food, so I just hung out and snacked on pizza and drank more regular Coke than I normally would in a week, etc.
Point being to accomplish that goal I need to become focused. To become a better blogger, I need to focus and try to write at least once a week. To be a better podcaster, I need to make sure I come prepared and always be looking for ways to be doing better work. With everything I do, I need to be prepared to do my best work and be looking for the ways I can improve it.
This can be frustrating though, because putting time and focus into improving things is difficult and it's hard to keep sight of the big picture. With this blog, am I creating any tangible, immediate benefit? No, but I'm creating a series of reference points for my future self. I'm improving as a writer. I'm developing a good habit. And I'm engaging with the local community, which is something I know people appreciate. I'm struggling with similar issues with my podcast, but I think in addition to my comedic aspirations I may be able to start finding ways towards a deeper way of contributing to Boston theatre... keep an eye out for that.
And I'll just keep trying to focus on bettering myself, and recognizing everything I accomplish, one by one, it's all about keeping that balance.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Road Blocks
I find not being actively engaged with a show frustrating, I've realized. I think is one of the longest, possibly the longest, breaks from theatre I've taken in about two years. The other substantial lapse of not rehearsing or performing anything must have been May of 2011, I think. I remember right after finishing The Mousetrap I was feeling kind of burnt out after having done something like five or six plays of varying sizes so far that year, mind you three of them were small productions with very limited engagements, but it still had wore me down by that point.
After a week or two of not reporting to rehearsals, I remember feeling more or less ready to go again, and from there I went to New York for the Samuel French Festival, booked Crooked Arrows, and it was generally good crazy from there on out, going at a pace of every time a show would be wrapping up I would be just getting started on a new one. This was a satisfying pace for me to be working at, and I'd pretty much maintained it through Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead until now.
Since then, I've been intermittently successful in filling my theatre hole with other stuff. I've had four or five improv shows this past month, worked on music (including a new song) tried and mostly failed to blog (I have a whole bunch of incomplete blog posts in my blogger), auditioned for and booked some film stuff as well as had some fall into my lap, sort of started a podcast (for which I have one episode done, and a bunch of material recorded which I'm still figuring out what to do with) oh and have gone to see a lot of shows.
Despite all that, I can't get over a sense aimlessness. I've been finding it very hard to finish the things I start or start the things I'd like to finish. It's weird for example with the podcast, the strange alchemy we found with the first episode which at first appearance looked like a train wreck I was able to craft into something sort of remarkable, I think. Maybe one of the funniest things I've made just with my two hands. Which isn't necessarily saying too much, I haven't made too many things like that (some songs and poems, a few bits of stories, a few pages of a screen play much of which I was ripping off at the time, etc). But I haven't felt us recapturing that yet, which is understandable we're still figuring it out. But more importantly, I've made about half way through editing both recording sessions and still haven't finished either! And then when I sit down to work on them, I find myself lamenting that the sessions weren't more successful, but that's not really a productive way of working.
Something I took away from Making It, the podcast I tend to reference, and also from when I attended "If I Knew Then" back in February or whenever that was, is that as an actor you need something else fulfilling in your life. For me, I really want to find to find a creative outlet that does that and ties back in to my acting pursuits, like hopefully helps get more acting stuff. Music is good, but doesn't accomplish that as directly as I would prefer. Improv also is good, but is very dependent on the presence and participation of other people and also various gatekeepers between you and having shows, etc. Maybe it could be writing eventually, but I can't get my head to go that way right now. So I really wanted it to be podcasting. And I hope it still can be. And I still have this blog, as much as I've been neglecting it.
I guess it's OK to feel like I'm in a little bit of a slump, these things happen and I'll come out of it then back into another one, inevitably. Such is part of the life of an actor. Success and disappointment, agony and ecstasy, and part of growing as an artist is learning to deal with all that stuff. So I'm spinning this frustration into a learning experience. And I've got some film stuff coming up this week that will hopefully challenge and energize me in a meaningful way. And then Vanya, of course. And everything else I can't foresee. And I feel better having written about it. Maybe that's what I've been missing, writing, so I'll try and do more of that too. Talk to you soon, I hope.
After a week or two of not reporting to rehearsals, I remember feeling more or less ready to go again, and from there I went to New York for the Samuel French Festival, booked Crooked Arrows, and it was generally good crazy from there on out, going at a pace of every time a show would be wrapping up I would be just getting started on a new one. This was a satisfying pace for me to be working at, and I'd pretty much maintained it through Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead until now.
Since then, I've been intermittently successful in filling my theatre hole with other stuff. I've had four or five improv shows this past month, worked on music (including a new song) tried and mostly failed to blog (I have a whole bunch of incomplete blog posts in my blogger), auditioned for and booked some film stuff as well as had some fall into my lap, sort of started a podcast (for which I have one episode done, and a bunch of material recorded which I'm still figuring out what to do with) oh and have gone to see a lot of shows.
Despite all that, I can't get over a sense aimlessness. I've been finding it very hard to finish the things I start or start the things I'd like to finish. It's weird for example with the podcast, the strange alchemy we found with the first episode which at first appearance looked like a train wreck I was able to craft into something sort of remarkable, I think. Maybe one of the funniest things I've made just with my two hands. Which isn't necessarily saying too much, I haven't made too many things like that (some songs and poems, a few bits of stories, a few pages of a screen play much of which I was ripping off at the time, etc). But I haven't felt us recapturing that yet, which is understandable we're still figuring it out. But more importantly, I've made about half way through editing both recording sessions and still haven't finished either! And then when I sit down to work on them, I find myself lamenting that the sessions weren't more successful, but that's not really a productive way of working.
Something I took away from Making It, the podcast I tend to reference, and also from when I attended "If I Knew Then" back in February or whenever that was, is that as an actor you need something else fulfilling in your life. For me, I really want to find to find a creative outlet that does that and ties back in to my acting pursuits, like hopefully helps get more acting stuff. Music is good, but doesn't accomplish that as directly as I would prefer. Improv also is good, but is very dependent on the presence and participation of other people and also various gatekeepers between you and having shows, etc. Maybe it could be writing eventually, but I can't get my head to go that way right now. So I really wanted it to be podcasting. And I hope it still can be. And I still have this blog, as much as I've been neglecting it.
I guess it's OK to feel like I'm in a little bit of a slump, these things happen and I'll come out of it then back into another one, inevitably. Such is part of the life of an actor. Success and disappointment, agony and ecstasy, and part of growing as an artist is learning to deal with all that stuff. So I'm spinning this frustration into a learning experience. And I've got some film stuff coming up this week that will hopefully challenge and energize me in a meaningful way. And then Vanya, of course. And everything else I can't foresee. And I feel better having written about it. Maybe that's what I've been missing, writing, so I'll try and do more of that too. Talk to you soon, I hope.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Getting Back to Blogging
Dear Blog,
I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated you, especially compared to June and July when I'd been updating with such frequency. I guess it's beacause blogging for me is about processing, and when I have things to process I enjoy doing it in a public way, much of the time, while also flexing the old writing muscles which otherwise are neglected. Then again, since R&G closed I've had a lot to process. I've seen a bunch of theatre, gone on some auditions, did another reading of The Last Jews (which included my first visit to the Berkshires, my first King Lear, and getting to know my collaborators that much better) and performed a bunch of improv after over a month's hiatus.
None of which though has really satisfied me like I'd hoped it might, and one thing I've tried to avoid processing is dissatisfaction because that's much less fun to read about then vicariously experiencing an artist who is satisfied by their art, and ultimately that is the product I'm trying to manufacture for your consumption, dear reader.
Well goddamnit I'm going to update today (there are several unfinished drafts of things laying around) I'm over an hour early to a film shoot at CDIA plenty of time to tap on my iPhone.
And I have a topic worth processing, my first significant audition in some time is this Wednesday for Stoneham Theatre's production of It's A Wonderful Life for it's ensemble. I've never seen the film version, I should probably watch it. Or at least skim the screenplay. So they want a monologue... What do I do? I have a few that might work, like my ancient standby Tom from Glass Menagerie. Or that piece from Crossing Delancey I've never quite gotten to work like I wanted. I'm thinking of learning something new, before Wednesday, for a part in a show somewhat in my reach (I think) that would constitute kind of an important break, my first Equity show. So it's kind of stupid to learn something in three days and use this audition to test the waters. But you have to be working on stuff and trying it out and overall be taking risks.
So that's what I'm processing. I brought some plays with me to Waltham, where I am killing time before a shoot, writing this blog, watching a father and daughter feed ducks. I realized writing this, I need to get back into blogging for the sake of process and the experience and joy of writing. Writing and creative output is like mining a river for gold I feel like sometimes. You need to keep going back to it and you'll get ounces of dirt for every gram of gold but so be it, that's how you get at the good stuff.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Week filled with theater!
This has been and will continue to be a theater filled week. Not what I was expecting after wrapping up Rosencratz and Guildenstern just this past weekend, but so it goes!
Starting Monday was the beginning of living a dream in miniature... that being, playing the role of Konstantin in the Seagull. I say in miniature, because the context was that of a presentation for my friend Thomas' directing class. He needed someone on short notice who wouldn't require a great deal of directing to pull off a Chekhov role, which I fit the bill for, and inadvertently served as sort of an assistant director filling in gaps from the play and helping to shape the staging.
And you know what? It was overall one of the most artistically satisfied experiences I've had in a long time, in a weird way kind of on par with actually getting to play Tuzenbach (my favorite role after Konstantine, followed by what's-his-face that young socialist in Cherry Orchard, actually these are just Chekhov roles I can play before my mid 30s but because it's Chekhov I still love all of them). The reason being that unlike my other recent theater experiences, all of which were wonderful in their own ways... I felt a degree of freedom and also input, of true collaboration, like I was able to come in and really just do my own thing where the scene was concerned and give input without fear of overstepping a boundary (generally speaking, giving notes to other actors or on the piece as a whole as opposed to your part in it is a faux pas). And then it went from being one thing, to another, much more beautiful thing, in just three days and it was wonderful to watch that develop and feel like I took a real part in it, as more than just an actor, but again a true collaborator. (It actually got me thinking that I might be ready now to try my hand at directing, but that's for another blog post).
So that was Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday I had an audition in Melrose of all places for someone I knew in high school's exploitation film, which I'll probably do some kind of a part in, depending on what they offer me (I don't really want to do anything super explicit, and was offered the role of "naked hippy" on the spot and which I declined, so we'll see). Again, that could be a blog post in itself.
Last night I went and saw All In The Timing by David Ives at The Factory, the first production from Amazing Moustache, a new theater company founded by someone I sort of know through Improv Boston and featuring various people I know through working with them, and although I found the sketches kind of uneven throughly enjoyed it and had fun seeing the work of my peers in the theater and improv communities combined. I'm looking forward to seeing what's next from Amazing Moustache, and would definitely audition for them in the future (I totally would have gone out for this, but it conflicted with R&G, ces la vie).
And then tonight, I saw Commonwealth's Coriolanus... not the most typical play to do a big budget out door staging of, but very well acted, very well teched, and very possible to follow, with some particularly strong performances I thought from Remo Airaldi, Karen Macdonald, Maurice Parent... oh and everybody else, they were all good. And it was also pretty cool seeing people I know from Boston theater acting in the ensemble/citizen roles, as well as my classmates from Yo-el's movement class.
When I had planned on auditioning for the production (which I ultimately wasn't able to do, due to a scheduling thing the day) I illegally downloaded and watch (nobody tell the MPAA or Comcast on me!) the recent Ralph Fiennes film adaptation, which I think will actually be coming out on DVD fairly soon and when it does... oh man, Nextflix that shit, it's really fantastic. Ralph Fiennes sets in modern day Eastern Europe, which makes certain scenes extra trippy in that you could see how a crowd would go on a riot due to a food shortage and then more so when he goes cross country, hitch hiking to Volumnia and he's just completely unconcerned with making Coriolanus sympathetic he just plays him with such brutality... it's something to see.
So anyway, I think somewhat unfairly (although it also helped enhance my experience because I knew better what was going on) I spent a lot of the time that I was watching it comparing the two, and of course film is a completely different medium from theater so there's not much point in going in to the differences. This production was much more invested in giving Coriolanus a sympathetic level of depth, and was much more sparing on the text, whereas of course the movie version cut it down to shreds and back. And the actor playing Coriolanus was much more explicitly charismatic and less psychotic then Ralph Fiennes, and this version idolized Coriolanus in a way the movie didn't. I could go down the list, but even though I didn't enjoy it as much as last year's All's Well That End's Well, I think it's very worth seeing before it closes next Saturday especially because who the hell ever stages Coriolanus? Practically nobody, so check it out.
The cap to this weekend filled with theater is that I'm waking up at 8 AM to meet my collaborator on The Last Jews, Larry Jay Tish who will be driving with me out to Lenox for the next stage of the project, a staged, filmed reading, footage from which will be used in conjunction with Kickstarter to fund a full production some later this year or next, which is exciting. In addition, this particular round of readings are being hosted by my friend and also collaborator on the project, Chuck Schwager's new theater company, Pythagoras Theater Company. So I'll be hanging out in Lenox for two days, Chuck, Larry, Bobbie Steinbach and myself. We'll be doing a reading tomorrow afternoon, then seeing King Lear at Shakespeare and Company (my first time seeing it) and doing another reading on Monday before coming back.
Theater! Oh yeah! OK I should go to sleep, check you later, blogosphere.
Starting Monday was the beginning of living a dream in miniature... that being, playing the role of Konstantin in the Seagull. I say in miniature, because the context was that of a presentation for my friend Thomas' directing class. He needed someone on short notice who wouldn't require a great deal of directing to pull off a Chekhov role, which I fit the bill for, and inadvertently served as sort of an assistant director filling in gaps from the play and helping to shape the staging.
And you know what? It was overall one of the most artistically satisfied experiences I've had in a long time, in a weird way kind of on par with actually getting to play Tuzenbach (my favorite role after Konstantine, followed by what's-his-face that young socialist in Cherry Orchard, actually these are just Chekhov roles I can play before my mid 30s but because it's Chekhov I still love all of them). The reason being that unlike my other recent theater experiences, all of which were wonderful in their own ways... I felt a degree of freedom and also input, of true collaboration, like I was able to come in and really just do my own thing where the scene was concerned and give input without fear of overstepping a boundary (generally speaking, giving notes to other actors or on the piece as a whole as opposed to your part in it is a faux pas). And then it went from being one thing, to another, much more beautiful thing, in just three days and it was wonderful to watch that develop and feel like I took a real part in it, as more than just an actor, but again a true collaborator. (It actually got me thinking that I might be ready now to try my hand at directing, but that's for another blog post).
So that was Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday I had an audition in Melrose of all places for someone I knew in high school's exploitation film, which I'll probably do some kind of a part in, depending on what they offer me (I don't really want to do anything super explicit, and was offered the role of "naked hippy" on the spot and which I declined, so we'll see). Again, that could be a blog post in itself.
Last night I went and saw All In The Timing by David Ives at The Factory, the first production from Amazing Moustache, a new theater company founded by someone I sort of know through Improv Boston and featuring various people I know through working with them, and although I found the sketches kind of uneven throughly enjoyed it and had fun seeing the work of my peers in the theater and improv communities combined. I'm looking forward to seeing what's next from Amazing Moustache, and would definitely audition for them in the future (I totally would have gone out for this, but it conflicted with R&G, ces la vie).
And then tonight, I saw Commonwealth's Coriolanus... not the most typical play to do a big budget out door staging of, but very well acted, very well teched, and very possible to follow, with some particularly strong performances I thought from Remo Airaldi, Karen Macdonald, Maurice Parent... oh and everybody else, they were all good. And it was also pretty cool seeing people I know from Boston theater acting in the ensemble/citizen roles, as well as my classmates from Yo-el's movement class.
When I had planned on auditioning for the production (which I ultimately wasn't able to do, due to a scheduling thing the day) I illegally downloaded and watch (nobody tell the MPAA or Comcast on me!) the recent Ralph Fiennes film adaptation, which I think will actually be coming out on DVD fairly soon and when it does... oh man, Nextflix that shit, it's really fantastic. Ralph Fiennes sets in modern day Eastern Europe, which makes certain scenes extra trippy in that you could see how a crowd would go on a riot due to a food shortage and then more so when he goes cross country, hitch hiking to Volumnia and he's just completely unconcerned with making Coriolanus sympathetic he just plays him with such brutality... it's something to see.
So anyway, I think somewhat unfairly (although it also helped enhance my experience because I knew better what was going on) I spent a lot of the time that I was watching it comparing the two, and of course film is a completely different medium from theater so there's not much point in going in to the differences. This production was much more invested in giving Coriolanus a sympathetic level of depth, and was much more sparing on the text, whereas of course the movie version cut it down to shreds and back. And the actor playing Coriolanus was much more explicitly charismatic and less psychotic then Ralph Fiennes, and this version idolized Coriolanus in a way the movie didn't. I could go down the list, but even though I didn't enjoy it as much as last year's All's Well That End's Well, I think it's very worth seeing before it closes next Saturday especially because who the hell ever stages Coriolanus? Practically nobody, so check it out.
The cap to this weekend filled with theater is that I'm waking up at 8 AM to meet my collaborator on The Last Jews, Larry Jay Tish who will be driving with me out to Lenox for the next stage of the project, a staged, filmed reading, footage from which will be used in conjunction with Kickstarter to fund a full production some later this year or next, which is exciting. In addition, this particular round of readings are being hosted by my friend and also collaborator on the project, Chuck Schwager's new theater company, Pythagoras Theater Company. So I'll be hanging out in Lenox for two days, Chuck, Larry, Bobbie Steinbach and myself. We'll be doing a reading tomorrow afternoon, then seeing King Lear at Shakespeare and Company (my first time seeing it) and doing another reading on Monday before coming back.
Theater! Oh yeah! OK I should go to sleep, check you later, blogosphere.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Judging Your Own Work
...From an objective perspective is very difficult, or even trying to appreciate it from the subjective perspective of a potential audience member or consumer, "if I were stumbling upon this, how would I react?" and I think if you're goal is to create good work, as opposed to work that's explicitly commercial (nothing wrong with that) the main question should be "is this something I would enjoy?"
But of course, you want other people to enjoy it too, and probably if you and your friends have a long list of convoluted inside jokes that have taken on various lives of their own inside and out of their original contexts hearing them parroted back and forth would be entertaining, it would sound like a conversation between you and your friends. Which is not an unworthy goal for something like a Podcast (that by the way is what I'm going to be talking about, get ready) to make something that sounds like an authentic and fun conversation between friends, because doing that is actually pretty difficult, especially doing it in such a way that would be compelling and entertaining to an outside listener.
I've been gradually realizing things like this throughout the process of editing down the recording session of July 22nd, going through various incarnations, finding what works, whittling things down, removing the pauses, adding background music, mixing, etc, etc and now listening to what I'm calling the finished product (while resisting the urge to go back and fix this bit of mixing or cut that piece of dead air I'd missed before) and trying to decide for my self "is this good?" Well yeah actually, for a first attempt ever at this medium, I'd say it's pretty good but then "really how good is it?" my id asks my ego or whatever model we use for the voices in our heads that doubt.
(Side note, I actually spoke to my Mom about it, and even though she's my Mom so of course she did she said she liked it, and specifically the bits I'm going to get into in a moment of a more philosophical nature. This actually made me happier than she probably realized, because I believe that if you can make something which appeals to 60 something baby boomers and people in your peer group, or any wide audience like that, you are really truly doing something right.)
Something I didn't do which is my goal in future recording sessions was to respond from a completely earnest, thoughtful and honest place (as myself, basically). Something that I tend to do in improv/comedy stuff is make a game of tossing curveballs at my partner, which is something I did a lot during our recording session. Like if someone is doing something to enhance the atmosphere of the scene, or has allowed a changed in their character or given circumstances based on a failed communication (like if you, my theoretical scene partner, or I establish one thing, say we're partners in a detective agency but then one of us changes it to make us siblings which doesn't break the scene but inexplicably changes it pointing that out or whatever) or even when something like that hasn't happened, just to see how the other person reacts.
As audience members, we get served that a lot in our contemporary "absurdist" comedy in the vein of Tim & Eric or much of the current Adult Swim programming block, and it's a perfectly valid aesthetic which is much easier to pull off than something like Louie which is completely dependent on the strength of Louis C.K's actual point of view on things as refracted through a semi realist depiction of his world and real life. Doing absurdist comedy well sounds easy but is difficult, depictions of life and adding to them the lens or angle of a specific comedic viewpoint sounds difficult but is actually nigh impossible.
And then again, at this moment I'm focusing on film and television, which is what I'm working on, I'm working on a podcast. In that respect, let's say two analogues entities to the Tim and Eric/Louis paradigm might be Comedy Bang Bang and WTF with Marc Maron, two extremely popular very different podcasts. Comedy Bang Bang sets it self as an interview show, and then becomes absurd (and is one of my primary inspirations for the model I'm trying to work out) and WTF is actually an interview show, which oftentimes becomes as much about it's host and his weird and compellingly specific world view as it does about the person he's interviewing. In the case of Comedy Bang Bang it works because usually all involved are world class improvisors who've been doing it in various forms for years and years, and have had a while to develop the specific voice of their show and Marc Maron is an incredibly compelling interviewer and for that other stuff he draws on 20 plus years of life as a stand up comedian and more than that as a thoughtful but doubting human being. Really, you should just go listen to them to see what I'm talking about.
Anyway, in response to those two archetypes, tons and tons of imitators have inevitably sprung up. One of my favorites from the WTF mold is You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes, which has much of the same structure as WTF where Holmes talks to a guest about his or her career in show business or whatever but often spirals off into very heady discussions about sex or religion or whatever.
I'd like to think that where my goal had been to do something purely resembling Comedy Bang Bang with just lots of comedy bits and improvised sketch type things (which are present in the pilot) we added up going into a lot of You Made it Weird-esque territory, and I actually kind of like that, but doubt my own ability to consistently make something like that work.
But at the same time, what am I gaining by doubting myself? I've only done one of these, and it developed organically and in the process of my editing it into this particular thing, next time will probably be something different and the time after that. And the reason why I'm trying this out is to scratch that creative itch to be making my own stuff that I've blogged about, and to just start learning how to do this thing. Certainly none of the podcast people I admire were doing their shows at the level they do them over night, no one does that, it takes time and practice and dedication. Well, right now I've got some time, so let's see how long I can keep this dedication going and where it takes me.
But of course, you want other people to enjoy it too, and probably if you and your friends have a long list of convoluted inside jokes that have taken on various lives of their own inside and out of their original contexts hearing them parroted back and forth would be entertaining, it would sound like a conversation between you and your friends. Which is not an unworthy goal for something like a Podcast (that by the way is what I'm going to be talking about, get ready) to make something that sounds like an authentic and fun conversation between friends, because doing that is actually pretty difficult, especially doing it in such a way that would be compelling and entertaining to an outside listener.
I've been gradually realizing things like this throughout the process of editing down the recording session of July 22nd, going through various incarnations, finding what works, whittling things down, removing the pauses, adding background music, mixing, etc, etc and now listening to what I'm calling the finished product (while resisting the urge to go back and fix this bit of mixing or cut that piece of dead air I'd missed before) and trying to decide for my self "is this good?" Well yeah actually, for a first attempt ever at this medium, I'd say it's pretty good but then "really how good is it?" my id asks my ego or whatever model we use for the voices in our heads that doubt.
(Side note, I actually spoke to my Mom about it, and even though she's my Mom so of course she did she said she liked it, and specifically the bits I'm going to get into in a moment of a more philosophical nature. This actually made me happier than she probably realized, because I believe that if you can make something which appeals to 60 something baby boomers and people in your peer group, or any wide audience like that, you are really truly doing something right.)
Something I didn't do which is my goal in future recording sessions was to respond from a completely earnest, thoughtful and honest place (as myself, basically). Something that I tend to do in improv/comedy stuff is make a game of tossing curveballs at my partner, which is something I did a lot during our recording session. Like if someone is doing something to enhance the atmosphere of the scene, or has allowed a changed in their character or given circumstances based on a failed communication (like if you, my theoretical scene partner, or I establish one thing, say we're partners in a detective agency but then one of us changes it to make us siblings which doesn't break the scene but inexplicably changes it pointing that out or whatever) or even when something like that hasn't happened, just to see how the other person reacts.
As audience members, we get served that a lot in our contemporary "absurdist" comedy in the vein of Tim & Eric or much of the current Adult Swim programming block, and it's a perfectly valid aesthetic which is much easier to pull off than something like Louie which is completely dependent on the strength of Louis C.K's actual point of view on things as refracted through a semi realist depiction of his world and real life. Doing absurdist comedy well sounds easy but is difficult, depictions of life and adding to them the lens or angle of a specific comedic viewpoint sounds difficult but is actually nigh impossible.
And then again, at this moment I'm focusing on film and television, which is what I'm working on, I'm working on a podcast. In that respect, let's say two analogues entities to the Tim and Eric/Louis paradigm might be Comedy Bang Bang and WTF with Marc Maron, two extremely popular very different podcasts. Comedy Bang Bang sets it self as an interview show, and then becomes absurd (and is one of my primary inspirations for the model I'm trying to work out) and WTF is actually an interview show, which oftentimes becomes as much about it's host and his weird and compellingly specific world view as it does about the person he's interviewing. In the case of Comedy Bang Bang it works because usually all involved are world class improvisors who've been doing it in various forms for years and years, and have had a while to develop the specific voice of their show and Marc Maron is an incredibly compelling interviewer and for that other stuff he draws on 20 plus years of life as a stand up comedian and more than that as a thoughtful but doubting human being. Really, you should just go listen to them to see what I'm talking about.
Anyway, in response to those two archetypes, tons and tons of imitators have inevitably sprung up. One of my favorites from the WTF mold is You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes, which has much of the same structure as WTF where Holmes talks to a guest about his or her career in show business or whatever but often spirals off into very heady discussions about sex or religion or whatever.
I'd like to think that where my goal had been to do something purely resembling Comedy Bang Bang with just lots of comedy bits and improvised sketch type things (which are present in the pilot) we added up going into a lot of You Made it Weird-esque territory, and I actually kind of like that, but doubt my own ability to consistently make something like that work.
But at the same time, what am I gaining by doubting myself? I've only done one of these, and it developed organically and in the process of my editing it into this particular thing, next time will probably be something different and the time after that. And the reason why I'm trying this out is to scratch that creative itch to be making my own stuff that I've blogged about, and to just start learning how to do this thing. Certainly none of the podcast people I admire were doing their shows at the level they do them over night, no one does that, it takes time and practice and dedication. Well, right now I've got some time, so let's see how long I can keep this dedication going and where it takes me.
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