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.

Making Your Own Stuff

I was listening to one of my podcasts the other day, and one of the hosts, I think it might have been Kevin Pollak, said something to the effect of "if you're not creating, you're waiting". And you know, it's true. If you're a creative person, you're either waiting for someone to give you an opportunity to do something (which can take a long time as an actor) or you're making your own opportunities. Right now is the best time ever to be any kind of an amateur musician, the internet and digital technology have so throughly leveled the playing field that no matter what your vision is, you can find a way to achieve it. That's music though, and the nature modern of musicianship and today's digital recording and synth technology is you can collaborate purely with yourself and a computer and no one else to make just about anything.

Less so with acting, which is inherently both interpretive and collaborative. Generally as an actor you're pulling from some kind of material either in the literal or metaphorical sense, which you interpret through your performance into art. Usually that mean's a script. But I think it can be defined even more generally as just a medium. You need some kind of physical medium in addition to an intellectual or spiritual starting point of some kind. It used be that film making was incredibly prohibitively expensive because of the cost of film stock, to say nothing of editing and communicating all that material to the outside world. Of course no longer so with the internet and Youtube so thousands and millions of aspiring creators are as we speak slaving away at their attempt to get beyond the confines of their physical reality and touch someone far away, and maybe feel something back. And maybe make a life out of doing that, of connecting with an audience, because isn't the truest and purest nature of acting? Just connecting with another person, either on stage or on camera (or on a microphone) who's either their with you in the work or seeing it happen or what you made it into. An audience. And the internet is a giant access hub to the entire world.

So if you want to be a professionally creative person, like I do and maybe you do as well, you have to be channeling that creativity somehow right now and getting it to the outside world of you're making a big mistake and missing out on the opportunity to find out what you do and get as good as you can at it. Did how I mention how easy the internet makes it to receive criticism of your work? If it's constructive or not is completely besides the point.

I'm frustrated at myself for making that mistake every day that I don't pursue developing and sharing my own voice as an actor, by writing and performing my own stuff into a camera or a microphone and out into the world. I've been making that mistake quite frequently, exceptions being when I write this blog, or the little bit of music making I've been doing. Or my foray into video blogging, which I have to continue but am still intimidated by the naked feeling of being on camera.

What I really think could be personal medium though, might be podcasting. Ever since I was very young, and I was just a goofy little kid and then adolescent, I've liked making characters and a lot of that was always in my voice. That practice was what ultimately lead to me booking Crooked Arrows, and a number of the other creative experiences I've had in my life. One of my favorite things to do because I get to make those kinds of goofy voices, is improv comedy. Improv is great for me because it removes the pressure I feel when I try to write my own stuff to act out, and instead I just get my brain working in real time and enact all the different parts in the moment through the inherent sensibility of my own voice and mind.

All you need to put out a podcast is a microphone and an internet connection. As it so happens, left over from when in late high school I fancied myself an amateur producer and audio engineer, I have a collection of rather nice microphones and a nice 4 channel mixing board, and also a very effective USB input to my computer's sound card. And an internet connection. Everything needed to make well... a podcast. Even if it's just me talking to myself. But I would like it to be with other people.

So I posted to Facebook, I'm supposed to be meeting with someone next week, and now that I sort of have an idea that I think could work I've written some emails. Exciting, I know! I'm posting this to my blog so that I will accountability... I am starting a podcast! Look it for it in your iTunes or RSS feed in the near future!

PS This might have been the most pretentious post I've ever written DEAL WITH IT