post-preview/pre-opening thoughts

Our first two previews have been two different shows, w/two different audiences, and two different casts(thanks Ellen;  good to have you back Jason); but I want to share what I feel is the constant which is the story being told and the heartbreaking honesty behind it. The story is nothing w/o each person on stage and in the booth, and nothing still w/o the audience. Wed we were focused on being there for our stand-in actor and were blessed w/a vocally giving audience. Thurs our audience was more intellectual than vocal and our start was disjointed; we did however come together in a concentrated focus on connecting w/the audience.

So between now and opening curtain please be encouraged and let go of any and all mishaps from the nights prior, and remember you're not alone. A great observation from a cast member tonight was that it's impossible to name any characters as "leads"; we are truly an ensemble, we are one. We fall flat or soar together, and I'd bet my paycheck(all 12 cents) that we will do the latter. 

Youth Preview

Tonight we performed a dress rehearsal for more than 150 students. Young audiences let you know exactly when they're engaged and when they're bored. Raise the frickin' roof.

Thanks to Project Success and all you people who made it happen. It was great to have you in the house.

Tomorrow is fixes and preview. We'll be ready.

It's Happening

We are in at The Southern! Marquee full of errors! Dirt under the fingernails! Hope I don't make many spelling or grammatical errors in the program! Please get people to come see this show!

Goodbye Ivy Building, And Thanks For All The Echoes

Animal Farm is on the move. Tonight marked our final rehearsal in the Ivy Arts building, working in Bob Rosen's space. It was a great place for us, in spite of the cavernous tin-can sound quality. Monday we move to The Southern. Anybody want to volunteer? I'll give you comps!

I'll reiterate what I said to the cast tonight: we are NOT behind. We are where we should be. The show is GOOD. Next week we have the opportunity to make it GREAT.

For the few souls who read this blog: I offer you 2-for-1 tickets on opening night (Halloween). Use the code [ORWELL].

Executions

There's a moment in Orwell's novel that strikes even the most astute reader as perplexing. Why in the world do the animals commit (presumably) false admissions of guilt after they've seen the four dissident porkers executed by Napoleon's dogs? Has he threatened them in some way? Could they possibly be so entranced by the cycle of guilt to give themselves up to the chopping block? Are they just brainwashed dimwits?

Well, I'm happy to say now that I think our production addresses all of these possibilities without too much heavy handedness. Thanks to HHB for jumping in there tonight at rehearsal and refining this puzzling moment.

Thank You

To all our donors, raffle peeps, beer-drinkers, nacho-eaters, silent auctioners, and supporters who made last night at the Town Hall such a tremendous success . . .

I hate asking people for money. I spent a summer as a door-to-door salesman selling coupons for car washes and oil changes to people who didn't need them. It's a bit easier when you're asking people to give money for your art; and prizes like homemade apple pie and bacon flavored toothpicks make it easier yet, but it's still a hard thing for me to do.

Thank You.

Once More

I feel the need to ask again . . .

Why shouldn't we be required to vote in a democracy? Assuming we had much better means of making voting accessible for everyone, what if US citizens had to pay a fine for not voting? Is part of our right to choose the right not to make a choice?

Not About Politics

So, I've taken a little heat for straying too far from the path of the MAIN subject of this blog, which is Animal Farm. Guilty as charged. I've been swept up in the current political maelstrom of America, yes. So, to get back . . .

We're in week 3 already. How the bleep did that happen? Incredibly enough, things feel right on schedule to me. Even though our cast has been plagued by the autumnal viruses, we're plugging away, developing the physical language of this play and creating those crucial transitional moments that make the book such a bullet to the chest. And I can't say enough good about our sound designer Tim Cameron, who has been 110% committed to this project since forever ago. He's brought a fantastic score to the rehearsal hall and now I can't imagine doing this project without him.

Random Thoughts:
-I think 85% of my job as a producer is done at the computer. The other 15% is primarily spent lying awake at night creating anxiety-driven to-do lists that lead me back to my computer.
-14 is ginormous number of actors. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
-I've spent too much time thinking about the psychology of raffles.
-What does it really mean when somebody replies either "attending," "not attending," or "maybe attending" on Facebook?
-I heard the first 15 seconds of Paul Simon's song "Obvious Child" off of his Rhythm of The Saints album and thought to myself, "Hell yes, this is Animal Farm."
-Part of the way our show is shaping up reminds me of a really good old-skool Rainer Maria song. Think Past Worn Searching era: intermittent swaths of chaos/noise with tension-filled blankets of quiet.
-This show is not for elementary school kids.
-Does Bob Rosen mind if I use his tea kettle?

Way To Go Connecticut!!!

The 3rd state to overturn a ban on same-sex marriage!
Will Minnesota be next?
(read about it here.)

Likability

There's that old thing about choosing our politicians:

Who would you feel comfortable sitting down with for a beer? Or, Who would you rather be stuck with in an elevator?

The Likability Factor. Or, The Narcissist Factor.

I'm not going to talk about being stuck in an elevator with either candidate on the GOP ticket. Those imaginary minutes/hours frighten me.

I imagine Barack Obama as one of those guys who has at least a little something to say about any topic, so while we probably wouldn't talk about the White Sox, I think we could have a conversation. I think we're both good listeners and he's a pretty good talker, so we'd be all right.

But I'm oddly convinced that sharing a beer or being stuck in an elevator with Michelle Obama would be GREAT. Rarely has a public figure ever seemed as sane or genuine as Michelle Obama. Her husband has been accused of not having that touchy-feely-Bill-Clintonesque warmth, and maybe that's tactical, maybe not. But his wife is just so ... on this frickin' planet.

Check out The Daily Show's October 8th episode. She's talking to Jon Stewart like a human being. Incredible. She even makes the responses she's been coached on sound like her own thoughts. During the interview she also talks with Stewart about how the image of First Lady has evolved as a result of our 24-hour news culture. These days we're not just voting for a President, but for a Presidential Family.

You Handsome Devil

And they dont even get to vote

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1070975/Man-shot-times-street-racist-gunman--wearing-Barack-Obama-T-shirt.html

Debate 2

On nydailynews.com they're running a story about how McCain referred to Obama as "that one" in last night's presidential debate. "Was it rude or not," reads the second half of the article's title. The Obama camp has suggested that it might have been rude, but Biden chalked it up to McCain's "style." Either way, here's one reader's comment in response to the article:

onlycriminalshaverights Oct 8, 2008 1:21:17 PM Report Offensive Post
obama is a terrorist and a HORRIBLE father. You never see him with his kids. Michelle is also one of the UGLIEST women I have ever seen. Those are the truths people dont want to say. You can almost feel the tension between him and her. Its so obvious

What? Really? . . . Really?
This person is encouraging me to learn how to throw ninja stars.

On another note, here's a tally I kept last night while listening to the debate. It's called,

The Number of Times John McCain Said . . .
"cronyism" / "cronies": 3
"steady hand at the tiller": 2
"greed and excess": 3
"overhead projector": 3
"my friend" / "my friends": 19

(that means that if we take the total # of mintues for the debate (90), subtract roughly 10 minutes for the moderator and the audience, and estimate that each candidate talked for about half of the remaining time, John McCain used the phrase "my friend(s)" an average of once every 48 seconds that he was talking.)

{and the kicker . . . the number of times he misquoted his "hero" Teddy Roosevelt's most famous saying: 2. "WALK softly and carry a big stick," not "SPEAK softly and carry a big stick."}

Hypotheticals

Here are two hypotheticals posed by friends in recent days.

1. What would happen if a presidential candidate said, "Hey, I'm not going to buy any television ads. Instead I'm going to use that money to do some good in the world"? Would they even have a chance at winning? Is television advertising more important than the media machine?

2. Can anyone think of one damn reason why voting should NOT be mandatory for citizens of a democracy?

It's 4am...or... Here's hoping this post's coherent

For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to sign in and contribute to the blog. Having stared at the 'dashboard' page for the last couple hours clicking on any and everything clickable, rage and frustration building, it occured to me to check my email and search for the invite Catron sent out a couple months ago. I assume you can decipher the result my revelation. 

Here's what I wanted to share. I think it was Wed night mid rehearsal when my internal monologue sounded a bit like this 

Oh what I wouldn't do for a straightforward and complete script....I like this physical stuff but I don't really do this like everyone else...we open when?!?

Only week 1, I know, but I wanted to let anyone else who may have also already experienced these feelings know that they're not alone. Soon after my mini mind meltdown I remembered(like Catron's post prior)that the challenge is the reason I'm here. I get the chance to work w/artists I admire from whom I have much to learn. This story especially at this time of life will start conversations-it already has w/us; and this show wouldn't be worth doing if we made it easy for us. Oh yeah, and it is fun.Like Jon said, this show will be great if we do the work necessary to flesh out and bring life(joy, hunger, hope, fear, loss...) to these characters. I agree, moreover I trust all of us are willing to do that. 

Hard Work If You Can Get It

There are many actors who join in the refrain of "I love ensemble work." The reality, though, is that true ensemble work is frickin difficult and rare. Few actors ever have the opportunity to work collaboratively. It's a dangerous process that seems to perpetually toe the line between inspired success and egotistical disaster. It's unsettling. It can be rejuvenating and it can be demoralizing. Oftentimes it's both in the same five minutes.

I'm nervous, yes. I'm petrified. This whole ship might sink in flames. But if we don't do work that scares us we're not artists. If we continually live comfortably in our work we are no more than sedintary shmucks.

We're attempting something big. I think that's important. I think that's healthy. I think that's necessary.

"Instead of art aspiring towards lifelikeness what if life aspires towards art, towards a creative, controlled focus of freedom, outside of the tyranny of matter? What if the joke about life imitating art were a better joke than we think?"

-Jeanette Winterson, Art Objects

Old Major

He represents Marx/Engels. He's all the philosophy behind the revolution. Pure ideal, the precursor to action.

We started staging in tonight's rehearsal and I had a mini moment of clarity/epiphany during the staging of Old Major's speech. The direction we're headed in is anti-deification. That's amazing, I think. Instead of elevating Old Major with some glowing halo, instead of imitating the bread and butter Communist propaganda images, bring Old Major down to the ground. Watch the prophet communicate and inspire the animals from the dirt and the dust. That's truth, and as a result, it's surprising. Our heroes, our prophets, they are regular folks. Joe Six Pack, I guess (as much as I hate to lend credibility to that character). Ghandi, MLK, etc: these are exceptional individuals. They are not the stuff of which most heroes are made. Get down in the dirt and tell it like it is, Old Major. Yes. Revolution begins in the dust, not on the pedastal.

5-3-8

The most comprehensive polling (leftist) compilation site you could ask for:
www.fivethirtyeight.com