Art & Politics

It's been while since I've written anything on this blog. Maybe I haven't been inspired, maybe life has been so busy it's hard to take the time to look back and reflect. Something inspired me though and I feel the urge to write about it...

A couple of nights ago I watched a film called Battle in Seattle; it is a fictional depiction of the WTO riots that happened in Seattle, cutting in actual footage & balancing that with the multi-character story to tell the story. It was amazing and really made me think about my roots in Seattle. I know I've mentioned it before, but I went to school in Seattle.

I've always had a passion for politics and the world I live in. Though living outside DC for the majority of my life, I surprisingly never actually got a chance to stand up & speak out before I lived in Seattle. When I was at Cornish, the Iraq war was just starting & people started speaking out; I decided to join them.

I don't know how many people know this, but Seattle is a protesters town. People are not afraid to go to the streets and speak out about the things they find wrong in the world. Living in a town like that empowers you to speak your mind, which I also feel is what an artist should do.

I protested the Iraq war many times while in school. There was one day my acting teachers knew a big protest was coming, and to be "politically correct" they said they couldn't allow us to miss class, but understood personally if as artists we felt we would need to. I ended up being the only junior in my department who missed class that day. We started on Capital Hill at SCCC and marched down Pine (I believe, but it might have been Pike) and over to Westlake Center. The same spirit I felt marching down the streets of Seattle was the way I feel when I making collaborative art. It's a beautiful feeling that washes over me. Maybe it's more about being engaged in what I'm doing, but for me the way I feel about art & politics are closely related.

I could go on & on about the link between art & politics, but for me that personal connection was really forged when I was in a place that both existed.

I was told I was too young.

I'm tossing & turning tonight. Can't sleep. Have had a migraine for almost 24 hours, not abnormal, but not a regular thing either. So I'm laying in bed thinking about all that has happened lately and I remembered my senior year at Cornish...

Fall semester I directed & produced Sweet Eros by Terrence McNally. I loved working on that show. It's a story in essence about stockholm syndrome (when the person kidnapped starts to identify with the kidnapper, sometimes they fall in love, etc.) but the entire time the female is supposed to be naked on stage. And she doesn't speak, only sings briefly. We get the whole story from the words of the kidnapper (we never learn his name if I remember correctly) and he takes us on a journey that is a range of emotions. It's a heavy piece no doubt, but then I kind of enjoy the challenge that an intense piece of theatre gives me.

So second semester seniors usually have an internship or a senior project (where they direct/write/act in a piece & produce it). When asked what I was thinking about doing, I said I'd like to work on Sweet Eros again, I think I scratched the surface with the production and would like to try again. My advisors, cocking their heads, told me I was too young to do something like that. That is for old artists with much more experience than I. When you're young you want to expose yourselves to as many projects as possible and get a wide range of experience.

I heeded their advice at the time, accepting a PR/Marketing internship at On The Boards and an "Assistant to the Director" internship at Intiman (because they don't have "assistant directors" that are interns at LORT B theatres from what I've seen). I'm completely grateful for the way it turned out, I learned tons working with B.J. Jones of Northlight Theatre when I was at Intiman, he even gave me my copy of A Director Prepares, which I cherish dearly. At OtB I learned what it takes to market a theatre/performance space and a show, plus I got a healthy dose of experimental international performance-based (as I like to call it) art that I would have probably not been exposed to as much. My taste and sometimes my aesthetic tend to run on the experimental side, and working there taught me a lot about what I liked, what I didn't and what an audience will put up with.

Now that I'm a few years older, I'm trying to strike out and do work that really means something to me. Alex Hewett and myself have been working on a project we call Graves in the Water (based on Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology), which is a generative piece. I guess some don't fully understand generative art because there is no right & wrong in your process, it is all about the process. I love the discoveries we've made along the way, not knowing everything at the on-start may freak some people out, but to me I think it maximizes the potential of what one can do. So I'm not heeding the advice of those wise advisors I had in college and I've taken on a project that will be seen in many iterations. I'm excited to get it up in front of an audience for the first time and see what we learn.

Btw, sad side note: Graves was originally supposed to premiere at The Strand on Halloween weekend. Due to unforeseen circumstances the show has been canceled, but we're in the midst of negotiating for it to be performed in December at another location. More info as it becomes available. I've truly been blessed on this project to work with a group of artists that are so supportive of every path that has been taken. Hope you'll join us for the ride!

Letting go of control.

If there is one thing that will kill an artistic process it can be the need to control what is happening on stage & lock it down. For me this kills inspiration.

Graves in the Water is no different.

Since this Halloween is the first time the piece is being performed, as the director I’ve been struggling with coming up with an order for the piece. We’ve found individual thru lines for each actor, but are missing one for the whole show.

So I said “fuck it” and suggested to my cast that we work off of our own inspiration. Maybe it’s because I spent my birthday weekend at the Baltimore Improv Festival or maybe I just couldn’t make up my mind, but I think having a “no structure” format will make this piece exciting, new & fresh each time it’s performed (for the actors & the audience).

Here’s what I mean by “no structure”:

The evening will start with Mrs. Kessler and end with Edith Conant, but everything in between is not set. The actors work off their own inspiration, they must listen & react to what is being said around them to find who goes next.

There are some challenges with doing the piece this way, mainly sometimes the actors get “stuck” and aren’t sure who should go next, but in rehearsal we are working on that. The first time I actually had them work in this “no structure” format I let them improv the actual pieces, speaking subtext that kind of thing. They worked off of the inspiration provided by the previous character. Now our focus is shifting on to “opposites” or impulses that pull you away from the character previous. This allows the actors to come from a place where they feel comfortable and gives them the freedom not to get stuck.

For some this lack of control may be difficult, but as a director I love the opportunities to let go of that and to just really trust my actors. I mean I hired them for a reason, didn’t I?

We’ll see where it goes from here!

Blog Action Day '09 - Climate Change

This is a tricky topic for me. When I sat down to write this post I really had no idea what I was going to write. When you think of the theatre, you don't exactly think "climate change" as a topic playwrights normally cover in plays.

Nevertheless, theatres can make an impact. Here's a few ways I've seen/heard/dug up that other theatres are making the effort to be a little more "green".

1. If your theatre accepts script submissions, take them electronically only. Save paper and read them on a computer.
   
   
2. Think about the paper products you use. Is it feasible for you to use recycled & eco-friendly paper products?
   
   
3. This one is a bit trickier, but have LD's be conscious of their lighting designs. This is something new that I've seen on a few blogs, but lighting designers have the opportunity to impact energy consumption in a major way. Sure there are the shows that require everything to be bright, light & airy, but does every show the theatre does have to be that way. Is there way to pare down the cues to make them more energy efficient? Food for thought.
   
   
4. Turn up temp on those AC units (or turn them off completely!) when they aren't needed. This one can be tricky b/c for so many theaters there are people in & out all the time. On top of that, if they were turned off and it got really hot, it would take more energy to cool everything down. Just be mindful of ways that you can reduce the use of these energy suckers.
   
   
5. CFLs! Sure it's a bit of an investment, BUT a CFL on average uses 1/4 of the energy of a normal 60 watt bulb. That's quite a bit of savings over the long term AND you don't have to buy light bulbs for like 5 years. Bonus!

Need more information on making your theatre greener? Check out these sites:

Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts
EcoTheatre Blog
50 things you can do towards being a green theater from GreenTheater.org


So I've given a few tips I've found. Are there any others that you are using to reduce your footprint?

What are ways individual theatre artists can make a difference?

This post is a part of Blog Action Day 2009, please consider joining the conversation in 2010!

Playing in the Graveyard.

It's amazing the energy a graveyard gives off. You are surrounded by the history of hundreds that all ended up in their one little plot of land.

Some families have plots or mausoleum, some individuals have large markers or a tomb. What a person's grave site looks like says a lot about the impact they've made on the world around them.

Last Saturday we had rehearsal in Greenmount Cemetery. Normally this might be considered a little strange, but for us it made sense. The piece we're working on takes place in a graveyard, so why not get the visceral experience of speaking with hundreds of souls surrounding you?

What really struck me was how many of those graves we visited never really saw visitors any more. The section we were in seemed to have a lot of graves of individuals that died in the 50's, I even found a family plot for the Mortons, though I don't think there is any relation. I thought about how many of these people laying here no longer receive visitors, no one comes to mourn for them. I wonder if all their family is dead and if not, are they remembered enough to be visited?

We did an exercise to warm up where I had the two actresses tell me the story of a person in the cemetery. It's kind of amazing the information you can gather from such a small plot of land. Our history is written by those that bury us.

Like the Leary's, Thomas Leary's mother was buried there, his wife too. They had a large plot marker, like it was meant to be a family plot, but no children were buried there. They could have had children that were buried elsewhere in the world, but a family plot is usually something that is known about, yes? He died after his wife and is buried between the two women that loved him the most.

We also met a woman, Harriett (I believe was her name), who survived her husband. He was a doctor, died in his 40's or 50's, but poor Harriet lived without him for another 40+ years. She shares his grave site though, they are buried on top of each other, lying together for an eternity. Next to her is where her son is buried, died when he was 21. She survived the two men she loved most and had to live on without them. Someone cared for her and her family though, the have a large stone marker than covers her & her husband's entire site.

It was a really great day, I appreciated the opportunity to get out of the rehearsal space and experience something different. It's amazing what getting out of the normal comfort zone of the rehearsal space will teach you.

Etude it.

Do you know what an etude is?

Neither did I until my Sophomore year at Cornish. That was the year we were introduced to a method of training called Meyerhold's Biomechanics and a crazy man named Gennadi Bogdanov. Gennadi wasn't our teacher, but we learned from those who learned from him.

The reason I'm bringing all this is up is because as of late, my training, that toolbox that I took four years to build and develop, is slowly but surely coming back into play.

I've been picking up books on viewpoints, meisner technique, dusting off my copies of Impro & The Articulate Body (I might actually invest myself in reading them this time). Thinking about how I can bring those techniques into my rehearsal space as I direct. I'm starting to get that thirst to train again. It's been awhile and I see the thick layer of dust that has accumulated on my technique. I'm not saying that I want to go back to school, because I don't. I spent enough money, but what I am looking for are artists to train with. To push me as I push them.

Obviously this isn't feasible at this moment because I'm in production and I have no space to do this in, but to me those are just excuses made not to do something. There is this need growing inside of me to rediscover what it is to move on stage, to move others and be moved myself, both physically & emotionally.

I know that Everyman is starting a Viewpoints workshop some time soon if it hasn't started already. Unfortunately the funding isn't in the cards, but god do I miss being in a rehearsal studio with actors that I trust and allowing myself to say yes. I get a sense of that when I'm in rehearsals for a show, but there is something about the ensemble & the training process that can not be replicated without doing it.

Apprehension melted away into beauty.

Last night I attended the BTA Mixer, a fun little get together before a show that allows the theatre community to talk to each other. I ended up missing the actual discussion (boo on me) because I was starving on my way there and so the boy & I decided to grab a crepe. Bad idea when the crepe place sits right next to Everyman Theatre and they currently have a show running that is selling out. Lesson learned.

Anyways, I did a little chatting before the show started with my fellow theatre people. I have to be honest about something here though... I was very apprehensive about seeing Eurydice. I honestly love this play and had even pitched it to Spots for this current season, so obviously this play is pretty close to my heart and I have some set ideas about the play itself. This was either going to be a really awesome experience or a really bad one. I was going to see the show no matter what, but like I said, I was apprehensive.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Single Carrot's TD was able to figure out how to bring a pool of water into that space (an extreme challenge with this play). There were elements reminiscent of the Williamstown production, but not enough to be accused of biting their style. I love a nice simple set that with the actors & lighting transforms into something completely different. All in all it was an interesting interpretation, though using the rope as the windows of the Interesting Man's apartment caused some focus issues at times b/c when the ropes were illuminated with an actor behind them, I found myself looking at the ropes more.

I think director J. Buck Jabaily made some very nice choices, very different from ones I would have made, which I appreciated. I love when an artist will make me take a look at something that I know intimately and then see it in a new way. Jabaily's Eurydice does just that.

When I had heard that they were using contact improv in their process, I have to admit I was a little scared. Contact Improv is one of those techniques that can either be gorgeous or completely cheesy and out of place. I'm happy to say that Jabaily's restrained use was for the most part right on, there were a few moments where that particular weight share didn't aide the action, but in some cases it was exquisite execution.

I do have to ask wtf was up with the ping pong balls? The original effect was incredible, that cascading beautiful sound, but the after effects became severely distracting when anyone moved around. Sometimes it helped add drama to a moment, but having a couple of hundred ping pong balls bouncing on cement floor because actors need to move around when something else is happening on stage can be quite distracting. I'm trying to remember which part the ping pong balls reflected in the script, but I also quickly realized I'm familiar with a earlier version of the script than the one that was used.

I have a few nit-picks about the acting... Giti Jabaily's vocal choice came off to me as overly child-like, having never heard her speak before though I couldn't tell whether this was her natural voice or a vocal choice to play into the naiveté of Eurydice. Either way it made her come off as just a "silly little girl" at first listen, though as we moved deeper into the play the audience got to experience the depth of Mrs. Jabaily's acting prowess. Also, Brendan Ragan (Eurydice's father) was great when he was interacting with another character, but during those moments where it was just him, the connection between him and his character seemed to fade. Specifically I'm talking about his opening monologue, it didn't come off as fatherly advice on his most precious daughter's wedding day, but more a list of things that weren't really connected to what Eurydice was experiencing. Lastly, the stones; I loved their unison work, but individually I didn't get a clear sense of Big Stone, Loud Stone, Little Stone. I wish their choices had been bigger and more reflective of their character name, though they proved to be a great choral backdrop to this world. I'm torn about the director's choice to have them on the little scooter things from physical education classes, on one hand what an awesome way to have these characters motor around, on the other, the sound is distracting.

I do have to recognize Kaveh Haerian as the Interesting Man/Lord of the Underworld. Awesome, believable, creepy, brilliant. The weight exchanges between him and Eurydice during the dance were pure bliss and I loved his commitment. Not to say that the other actors didn't have the same commitment, because they did. He just stole the show a little bit. ;)

All in all Eurydice is a beautiful play, beautifully staged. You'd be a fool to miss it!
(In fact I'm probably going again next weekend if I can get tickets!)

Good job carrots, keep it up!

Does the age of an actor matter?

So there was a discussion on a Facebook event invite about the age of one of the actresses in the upcoming production of Mercy Seat at the Strand.

It's a interesting question for directors (and I think for actors too), what's the balance between talent and someone fitting the description of the character?

My initial thought is that it doesn't matter that much as long as the actor can portray the character. (Though this next comment might come off as a little ageist, please don't take it that way...) My second thought is that it is easier for an audience to believe a younger actor as a character that is older, than an older actor playing someone obviously younger. Maybe this view is derived from the fact that when I act I usually play an older character (I really rock at the 60 year-old ladies if I do say so myself), but it drives me CRAZY when and actor is cast in a role that they are obviously too old for.

The first example of this I can think of was Spot's version of Hamlet. Hamlet is supposed to be younger, somewhere under 20, and Ophelia the same. Though Michael Leicht and Jen Mikulski are both very capable actors, it drove me nuts that they looked late 20's/early 30's.

So what do you think? Is talent more important than age or do they need to balance each other?

Has John C. Reilly jumped the shark?

So I went and saw 9 this week, I didn't really want to see it, but my boyfriend dragged me along. Well it was better than I thought it was going to be, anyways I digress. During the previews, I saw a trailer for Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. I've never read the books, though with the vampire craze as of late - you know Twilight, True Blood (of which I am a die-hard fan, thank you Alan Ball), CW's Vampire Diaries - it's no surprise that they would make a more kid-friendly version. When I say kid-friendly, I mean like that way Harry Potter is kid-friendly.

Anyways, back to what I was saying... In the trailer John C. Reilly seems to be phoning it in a bit. I heard that same vocal tone from him that he used in Step Brothers, Walk Hard & Talladega Nights. I'm a huge fan of John C. Reilly, but it's really disheartening that such an awesome actor is starting to lose his sparkle. I hate musicals, truly I do, but his rendition of Cellophane in Chicago almost made me cry. He was the main reason I even decided to watch that movie.

I guess what I'm scared of is one of the great actors that can transition from stage to film so easily is falling into type-casting. I just want back the John C. Reilly that could switch off with Philip Seymour Hoffman like there was nothing to it.

I've been very nervous...

Sex & Desperation opened on Thursday and we had two reviewers in the audience. I've found the first review online and when I read it, it brought a smile to my face (even though I got slightly dinged for a few things). I've been nervous leading up to the opening. Though the process has been relatively smooth, there were a few things (like starting the rehearsal process two weeks earlier) that I would have liked to do.

All in all I'm happy though. I was blessed with a very amazing (and drama-free) cast. I had four playwrights that laid their work out there and were very collaborative. I did learn a lot though through this process. Originally I thought 4 one acts wouldn't be any more difficult than a full-length that had a similar running time, boy was I wrong.

Each play provided it's own unique challenges; sometimes I saw things differently than the playwright, one of the shows demanded a lot of tablework to figure out what was going on, one of the shows uses each actor so scheduling around conflicts can be tricky, one of my actors has a thick accent so it took time to make sure we had the clarity we needed (though I think his accent adds a little something special to that piece).

It was a learning experience that I am very grateful for. I'm very excited to jump into next season's BPF submissions and start the process all over again as I am doing the BPF selection at Spots next summer.

Also, I'm about to start work on a generative piece using the text of the Spoon River Anthology called Graves in the Water. Look for it Halloween weekend at The Strand, free to all as a part of Free Fall Baltimore. :)

Are we apologizing for what is in between our legs?

I saw this article shared by Jayme Kilburn, Artistic Director of the Strand Theater about the prejudices that female playwrights receive & how those prejudices negatively affect theatres.

"...reveals that women tend to write plays about women, but plays featuring female protagonists are produced less often than those starring men. And, while the proportion of scripts that get produced is fairly equal between men and women, the total number of productions is inequitable since fewer women write plays (one informal study of nonprofit theaters by the playwright Julia Jordan found that 17 percent of their plays were written by women). One way women have compensated for writing female stories is to write fewer roles, which make their plays accessible to more theaters."

So this quote got me thinking... do we as women artists apologize for what is in between our legs?

I had an experience recently working with two male graphic designers. The initial poster proof had a really interesting design, but at the bottom of the poster was this image of a sweaty belly. My initial reaction was that looked like the belly of some slut. Sure that sounds a little harsh, but I got the image of the girls I used to see out at bars getting trashed and going home with the hottest guy that hit on them that night. She was too skinny, her bones poking out, basically an "ideal" men's fantasy. She was not a real woman to me.

I took objection, saying I loved the design, but had an issue with the belly element. It could be interpreted that I didn't like the belly b/c it was too skinny, but what it really is for me is that I don't want women to be looked at like just a place to make a deposit. It isn't just about what is in between our legs. A woman's sexuality & sensuality starts with the mind & works its way down. I had to remind myself that it was okay for me to have this opinion. As women we are taught by society to apologize for how we feel about something, just go with the flow for fear of being the "crazy bitch".

My art helps me to stop apologizing for what lies between my legs & fully embrace my point of view as a young female.

Btw, the graphic designers I was working with were completely awesome about altering the element. The picture for this post is the end result. I feel it's sexy, sensual & doesn't objectify me as a female, but embraces female sexuality as something powerful.

Good Improv is Better Than Sex.

Good improv is a spiritual experience. It touches down to the core, where you and the character become one. There is no more separation between actor & character, your choices become theirs, their choices become yours.

Good improv fulfills the actor, you walk away fully satisfied, knowing more about yourself, your character and the relationship to the other character.

Good improv is truth on stage.

Good improv will have you asking "What just happened?" because you are so in tune that you just live purely in the moment. Only after trying to remember are you actually able to reflect on what just happened.

Good improv should be uncomfortable at some point. If you're not uncomfortable, you aren't letting enough walls down. But after that comes the pleasure, the pure ecstasy that comes from letting yourself just be there, not knowing what's coming next.

Good improv keeps you wanting more.

God how I love a night of good improv!

P.S. The picture is a Tamara de Lempicka painting. Love her!

Reasons To Be Pretty.

So last weekend I had the pleasure of seeing Neil LaBute's Reasons to be Pretty at the Lyceum in NYC. What a fucking awesome play, the production was good, but the play itself is what really shined. I adore Labute's work, but I do have a love/hate thing going on as well because his male characters are generally so much more developed than the females. It makes me wish I had a cock sometimes. ;P

I wish the production has been done in a smaller theatre, though the Lyceum is beautiful, a play like this I think needed a bit more intimacy. This wasn't served by the set at all, though the set itself was simple and effective to an extent. I also hated one of the females, though came to realize I was supposed to not like her, though I did think she emoted a little too much for my taste as a director. And of course Violet from Coyote Ugly, yes that Coyote Ugly, was also in it.

I think the highlights though were the two men for sure (can't remember the actors names right now & the playbill isn't within reach). Now is this because LaBute writes better men than women, or is it because of the individual actors. Who knows.

I did also pick up a shirt (which says "I might be willing to overlook your general f*ckheadedness") and a mug (which says "Love is blind shithead."). I adore schwag with cuss words on it though was sad that they had run out of scripts.

I think that's one of those shows that I'd love to direct, but it bothers me that LaBute is a go to in this town. I know for at least the past 3 years+ there has been a LaBute play produced. Not saying that that is a bad thing b/c I love his work, but let's go beyond Baltimore and look at some other playwrights as well.

Who I'd like to see on Baltimore stages: Sarah Ruhl (Single Carrot is actually doing Eurydice this coming season), Ellen McLaughlin, Paula Vogel, Sarah Kane, Stephen Aldy Guirgis, Suzan-Lori Parks, Jose Rivera & Robert O'Hara off the top of my head. Not sure why a lot of those are females, but that's okay. ;)

Here's a little from LaBute about this show:



Also here's an article about the interesting advertising campaign they came up with for Reasons To Be Pretty.

I want the two hours back...

I hate to say that when I go see a show, but tonight there were very few moments when I didn't regret sitting in the theatre. I'm not going to say it was horrible, but it needed to go farther. I felt like the director was fighting the nature of the play itself, trying to make it this serious journey into a man's soul, and it does have that in it, BUT the show is written as a farce & that is the beauty of it. There is this juxtaposition between the overstated comedy and the torture that this man goes through and what he puts his family through. That's just my two cents though...

TCG - Day 2

I'm not really sure how I want to phrase this post, so I guess I'll just do a breakdown of my experiences for the day.

I showed up at about noon or so on the 2nd day. Missed my affinity group, but as I said in my previous post, there were just too many people there for me to create some lasting connections. Maybe I missed out though on the second day as Lydia's idea of speed dating seemed fairly inventive and new, especially with a group of artists that have so much to learn from each other. And then I skipped Nadira Hira speak as she spoke at ASAE (American Society for Association Executives) Annual last year and the Membership & Marketing Conference this year. I understand what she's trying to say, but I've heard it before (from her & others) so I don't know what sort of value it would have held for me to see it again.

Then I actually started to participate in the day... The session I went to was the "Trend vs. Trendy: Focusing Your Online Fundraising Efforts". It was actually taught by a person from Beaconfire Consulting, a company that I run into in my "other life". I never realized how much cross-section there was between the two halves as I've always seen them as two totally different things.

So about the session... I tweeted it (of course), but I found myself being more of a student teacher than an active participant. There wasn't really anything new for me to learn and I missed the focus on fundraising - though the title of the session talks about focusing your fundraising online. The fundraising seemed to be an afterthought to the whole session, though I will say that the concepts in the session were nicely laid out and I liked Ali's "hook" for it. The thing that I'm missing is telling people where to start. As I've said on my other blog, NUMEROUS times, the way you start in social media is by listening, figuring out where people are talking about you and then trying to join the conversation. (I think it's soon going to be time for another theatre/social media post, possibly posted to the BTA blog though)

Next up was lunch - kinda ick, the cookie was good though. A question did raise in my mind - Why are all conferences I attend as of late so biased to Pepsi products? This is not the forum to answer this, but I wanted to throw it out there…

The afternoon general session had a really awesome concept based on the Dr. Seuss book “If I Ran The Zoo”. Karen Kandel, Artistic Associate at Mabou Mines read aloud the book to start off the session. Our zookeepers for the afternoon were Andrea Dymond of Victory Gardens Theatre (Zoo: Arkansas Reparatory Theatre), Kate Taylor Davis at Olney Theatre Center (Zoo: Imagination Stage), Joe Salvatore (Zoo: American Conservatory Theatre) and Meiyin Wang of Under the Radar Festival (Zoo: Baltimore Theatre Project).

So the first half of this session was not as engaging as I hoped it would be. I wish the speakers had spoken a little less, though their ideas for invigorating these theatres were very thoughtful and would bring new blood rushing through those veins. I started to tap in more when Mr. Salvatore was speaking. He had this really awesome idea about creating a national theatre that was actually a network of education sites and theatre spaces instead of one single space. I would agree that this is a worthwhile approach for a country with our sprawling landscape because it would help bring a connected diversity to the American Theatre. Right now many things seem so disparate and I don’t think that it can continue if we want the theatre we love to survive.

Another highlight of the zoo session was hearing Meiyin speak. Having a bit of an experimental theatre background, it was nice to hear her opinion on how we can bring more experimental theatre and other performance-based art (as I like to call it) to Baltimore. She kept mentioning PICA and the TBA Festival though and how the Northwest supports that festival, meaning to encourage Baltimore Theatre Project to take more of a festival approach to what they are doing. I think the reason PICA succeeds with the festival is that they already have a venue in the that region (On the Boards in Seattle) who supports season long programming of a similar nature. OtB also has a Northwest New Works Festival and a track in their season that is solely dedicated to Northwest artists. The reason that festival lives is because there is a network there to support it’s existence. In Baltimore, we don’t have that yet and my thoughts are that BTP could become the beginning of that support system to make a Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC experimental theatre corridor, feeding artists from New York venues that are looking for smaller touring houses besides St. Ann’s, the Walker & OtB. This is something that can definitely be pursued farther and I can say that hearing Meiyin speak inspired me to look at how I can help foster more experimental artists in my own backyard and bring the world’s art to Baltimore.

Then after the session were dine-a-rounds which I skipped out on in favor of spending some quality time with quality people, then off to the MICA party. It was great to see Baltimore representing and picking it up for those that could not make it. Thanks to Cara at MICA who is a fabulous actress and the events coordinator there. If you had a good time last night like I did, you should thank her too. ;)

Next up: Day 3 - Seeing Anne Bogart!!!!!!

TCG - Day 1

As the title states, today was the first day of the TCG (Theatre Communications Group) Conference in Baltimore. My take:

My Highlights:

* The totally awesome jump drive they provided us with as well as their effort to go green (Though from being in the industry, kind of, this may be more to save money than to save the planet. The planet is a bonus.)

* Meeting artists from all around - I got to schmooze with artists from Seattle, met someone from the San Francisco Mime Troupe & had members from Mabou Mines in my affinity group. And then I met some of the Single Carrot people as well. All in all a good networking day.

* The TCG bookstore discount - If this is your first TCG conference, you get 50% off your most expensive item and then everyone gets 30% off all items! Amazing! I ended up spending like $50, which could have been way worse had their not been the discount. I'm a total book whore, I admit it. I walked away with:

Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? by Caryl Churchill
Bliss by Olivier Choiniere (translated by Caryl Churchill)
Schiller's Mary Stuart by Peter Oswald
Bad Boy Nietrzche! and other plays by Richard Foreman
The Viewpoints Book by Anne Bogart

* The American Visionary Art Museum - Best party place in Baltimore. If I were to ever get married (though highly unlikely), I would totally do it there with either Devine or the big fluffy poodle/flamingo thingy in the background. They had good food & Sangria too.

* John Waters speaking - I was laughing so hard my face hurt afterwards. I also plugged the Baltimore Theater Alliance "What's Playing" section when someone asked what theatre is happening in Baltimore this weekend. I will say that his keynote was a little schticky, but all in all I loved it.

The Low-Lights:

* The AEA & it's need for control - I totally support Equity, but they need to blow up their internal structure. I was in a session about new media and what that meant for AEA contracts. Everyone is so scared of just letting go, there just seemed to be excuse after excuse after excuse. What people don't realize is when they let go, they actually encourage people to engage and considering the current climate, engagement is what theaters need. You need an audience that makes a bond with the work that you produce, but if you don't let go of your semblance of control, you will fail at engaging your audience before they walk in your doors. I also totally resented the people from AEA people using their committee structure as a reason for moving so slow. I work for non-profits, and if you're having that much trouble with getting things through your governance system, then you need to implode the system and figure out a new way to do things. You aren't serving your members any better by just providing excuses for your slow moving governance.

* The rain - I forgot my umbrella, something to remember for tomorrow!

* The Affinity Groups - I kind of wish there had been another session in the afternoon instead. Though I appreciate the opportunity to network with other individual artists and I think Lydia's idea for "speed dating" with other artists tomorrow is fab, there were just too many people to really make strong connections. I feel like we needed to be broken up into smaller groups, though it was awesome hearing where everyone was from and what they do, even if some were a bit long winded. And the space was WAY too small for us, they are supposed to be moving us tomorrow, but we'll see.

So I need to get to bed since my Affinity Group meets at 9am (*groan*) and it'll be a long day since I am leading one of the bus tours through Baltimore on the way to the party tomorrow night! Hope you make it on my bus (and that I don't mess it up)!

One last thing... Make sure you visit http://search.twitter.com and search for #tcgcon and see what everyone is saying, and you can check out my person thoughts at http://twitter.com/MissLynn13.

Bogart is coming to town & I don't mean Humphrey.

Okay, so Theatre Communications Group is going to be having their annual conference in Baltimore in June. Well, I just actually looked through the registration fees and agenda and I'm geeking. Anne Bogart is going to be in my town... Anne Bogart in Baltimore. Seriously?

She wrote one of my favorite books on directing, A Director Prepares. She's friggin' brilliant. I totally can't wait and now have a reason to get together the cash to go.

Thank god for individual artist prices!

Some wisdom from Bogart:



If you want to see what's going on with Anne Bogart's SITI Company, make sure you check out their CollectiveX groupsite.

Julie say it isn't so...

Julie are you serious about a Spiderman Musical? I know you're a genius and maybe I'll eat these words after I see it, but I still don't get it... This video is like a year old, but I don't see Julie (yeah I say her name I like I know her, but of course I only wish that) as the type to give up on something that moves her. This is just hard for me to wrap my head around. I think I had heard it before as it seems vaguely familiar, but I think I let that thought fly out of my head. We'll see what happens...

Here's an article about it from E!Online.

In the meantime, here's some Julie Taymor awesomeness...

Swimming in the Spoon River

Well I'm soon to be swimming in the Spoon River. Not really though that could be something to try. What I mean by this is that a theatre colleague of mine, Alex Hewett (see the post called "Addicted") and I are going to working on a project we are tentatively calling "The Women of Spoon River".

This all came about when I was working on Watch, A Haunting back in October and one of the books that we used in the show as a prop was The Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. She made a comment about how much she loved it and I told her how I loved it as well. All of a sudden things clicked and a project was born.

So we are going to start working on it now, identifying the poems we would like to work on, as well as recruiting two other actresses to work on the piece once we get into rehearsals. I'm directing, Alex will be acting and we both will be piecing together this piece, writing when needed, etc.

I'm really excited to start working on it! We do know that we will be running Halloween weekend and that we will be a part of Free Fall Baltimore at the Strand.

I'll keep you updated via this blog on our process and what we're doing. Generative work is what feeds my soul and I love that I've found a long term project to work on with an artist I respect immensely. Yes, I did say long term, so though the show goes up in October, that won't be the last time you see this piece.

Feed your creativity.

So this post really isn't about theatre, it's about the creative process.

As artists we are asked to create on demand. Sometimes we feel inspired and sometimes we feel tapped. I know I've encountered this where I just hit a wall when I'm asked to create something that didn't come from an organic place. Here are a few things that I tend to do to feed my creativity. Add your own in the comments.

1. Read a great book - Nothing gets my mind moving faster than a great book that sucks me in.

2. Find music that relates to the project you're working on - Music is a visceral experience, so finding something that relates to your project can help you tap into that pool of inspiration.

3. Immerse yourself in that world - read every scrap of text you can get your hands on that relates to what you are working on, you may find others that are passionate about this topic which can then inspire you. Passion begets passion.

4. Have sex - Seriously. Your second chakra is the one that controls your creativity and also your sexuality, the act of sex and release any pent up tension in this area allowing your creativity to flow more freely. This may sound a little woo-woo to you, but try it before you knock it. Or just wear some orange and see if that frees you up any.

5. Exercise - Moving your body around is a great way to get your blood flowing and you're creativity going. It also allows your body to be engaged in the exercise and allows your mind to wander and dream.

6. Have a conversation - Just make sure it's someone who understands your project and really allow yourself to open fully about the project. Having a sounding board is one of the best ways to engage with your project.

So those are just a few of mine, how do you push past "the wall" and really let your creativity flow?

Smoldering goodness.

So I already told you about the show I saw at Woolly this weekend...

What I neglected to tell you is that I also had a chance to partake in Julie Lewis' Smolder being performed at that Strand.

What a beautifully written play. I'm not usually a fan of plays that have a ton of characters (especially considering it's 75 minute run time) but damn can Julie write a play. I do need to disclose that I have also chosen to direct a short by her later this summer for BPF, but that was way before I saw Smolder or had a chance to meet Julie. In that short/one act she also has a lot of characters, but somehow she knows how to make it work. I envy that a little, though don't tell anyone. ;)

The acting was good, but I think it could have gone farther. There seemed to be a little bit of a disconnect between the two "versions" of Sylvia, like the two actresses needed more time with the director working on the connection between the two. Though their performances were true to what they were experiencing.

I also think that the decoupaging needed to go MUCH further. That room needs to represent Sylvia trying to hold onto the control that she once had over her life. These images she cuts out are her literally trying to piece her life back together to what she thinks it once was. These pictures cover up what has become the pit that Sylvia now lives in. As I was sitting there watching I even figured out how to do it, but hey it's not my show, I'll stop before I cross a line.

And I have one question... Was Reno supposed to be Latino? It threw me off a bit because there were references to Latino culture and the actor was obviously Caucasian.

Anyways, I think Smolder is worth seeing. You've only got one more weekend. You can get tickets here.

Shotguns, death camps & sex, oh my!

Last night I had the pleasure of attending Antebellum at Woolly Mammoth in DC.

As entering the sign said "This performance will contain smoking, nudity & gunshots". I got excited.

I've got a one word reaction - Wow!

The acting was superb and nuanced. A blending of actors in such a way that was worthy of Gone With the Wind (one of my all time favorite movies btw).

The set transformed magically without ever changing. One second it's outside of Atlanta in 1939, the next moment I'm in Germany in the late 1930's. The idea was to meld these two cultures together to see the similarities in the way we treat people who are different than us and I think Tony Cisek's set did just that.

I actually stopped thinking about the directing, the acting, etc. and just enjoyed the show. This means a lot to me because I don't get to do that as often now. It's very rare when I can just sit back and enjoy the ride.

This is a MUST SEE show for me. And I picked up the script for only $10 in the lobby.

Way to go Woolly!

Oh and in case you're wondering, I didn't get yelled at by the House Manager this time, though I did see her. Maybe it's because I didn't have any snacks during intermission.

My closing thought: Andrew Price is an actor to watch. F'ing incredible.

Isn't there a better way?

Alright, I'm sick of monologues. Seriously.

I'm sick of seeing them done, I'm sick of the torturous process it is to pick one out, I'm sick of the falsity that comes out of doing a monologue for an audition.

All a monologue tells me is if you know how to tell a story, which is important, yes. But a monologue doesn't tell me if you are going to work off the unexpected gifts that your partner gives you in a scene. It doesn't tell me that you know how to listen and truly justify your lines based on what has happened before it. It doesn't tell me whether or not you have a sense of the character that I'm looking to cast you in.

I mean in a way they have their purpose, but not all good monologists are great actors, and not all great actors are great at delivering a monologue. I guess that's why I hate seeing them done, because for me the most beautiful moments on stage involve at least two people coming to a realization about who they are and where they've come from.

Sorry, this is just a little pre-audition venting. Not that I really have a solution to this problem for when I'm involved in an audition for more than one theatre or director. I just wish there was a better way.

Shucks. ;P

A Director Prepares.

So the next show I'm directing starts rehearsing in June. I've technically already started my process because I've been reading scripts and deciding which ones I would like to do. I think I've settled on a night of 4 different shorts. Now is the time to focus on the plays and start breaking them down. I have one little step though that I like to do when I have a bit of time before rehearsals start.

The semester I interned at Intiman in Seattle, I had the pleasure of working under BJ Jones. He's the Artistic Director of Northlight Theater outside of Chicago. As an opening night present, he gave me a copy of Anne Bogart's book A Director Prepares. Every time I start to work on a show (and if I have the time) I like to sit down a re-read it. It reminds me that as an artist, my role is to ask questions of society. It reminds me that as a director, my role is to ask questions of my designers and actors. As a human being, my role is to as questions of myself.

This book keeps me hungry for the work ahead and reminds me that the act of creating is a violent act. Killing ideas that you once held so close in favor of something deeper or more specific. You indeed have to go all Medea and "kill your babies" as an acting teacher once told me.

Do you "dare to suck" in your art?

Shakespeare & Twitter... Wha?

So back in February this article was posted on Mashable about a Twitter version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

The idea was to tweet a scene per day, each character having their own Twitter stream, but the lines were cut down into 140 bite-sized chunks. From looking at the stream (they aggregated all posts with the hashtag #tots) they cut words down into the kind of twitter shorthand, so they could minimize the amount of tweets.

I think it's an interesting idea. It allows you to read it from a different perspective, a more passive one where the words come to you. On the other hand, the shorthand is a little hard to read and if you don't know the script or have one near you, it could be difficult to follow.

They were smart by aggregating all the tweets under #tots so that way the reader could get a birds-eye view.

I still kind of compare it like I compare a staged reading and a full production, reading it by tweets just isn't as good.

However, lets say you get a group of talented actors from all over the country and have them improv a new version of it over the net. Talk about an exciting and engaging experience, it's basically workshopping/improving a play over twitter. Get a talented playwright involved who can really harness what the actors tweet out and who knows what the possibilities could be.

What do you think? Am I off my rocker?

Dream Roles.

So everyone has their dream roles right? Here's a list of a few of mine and why they intrigue me so much, in no particular order of course.

1. Martha, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee - Who wouldn't want to play one of the craziest, out-of-control bitches in modern theatre? Yet she is so fragile underneath it all. She has one person who knows the real her, yet she wears her heart on her sleeve.

2. Miss Julie, Miss Julie by August Strindberg - I love that the tables flip on her. She goes from being charge to completely helpless and doesn't understand how to handle that because she isn't used to it. Also, the challenge of playing someone who is pushed so far that she sees taking her own life as the only option is something that you either step up to as an actor, or you just shouldn't do the role.

3. Medea, Medea by Euripides - Do I really need to say anything?

4. Tamora, Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare - On the flip side I'd also love to play Lavinia, but if I had the choice I'd take Tamara in a heart beat. She's seems so heartless on the surface, but honestly she's fueled by revenge, and a rightful revenge at that. Her sons are another matter entirely though.

5. Saint Monica, The Last Days of Judas Isacariot by Stephen Adly Gurgis - I don't think I would be the normal choice for Saint Monica, but would I really be for any of these roles I've picked? Saint Monica is tough & gruff, she doesn't pull up with bullshit. That's not to say that she doesn't have a heart though and a big one at that. Her interaction with Judas cuts through to my core.

6. Natasha, Three Sisters by Anton Chekov - We did scene work my junior year in college and I love how crazy Natasha can be when you find those moments to really let go and then how you recover. She is someone that lives in extremes and though she's the "bitch" of the play, I like the challenge that she brings.

7. Antigone, Antigone by Sophocles or Jean Anouilh - Honestly, I love both portrayals of Antigone. She's strong and a martyr for sure. She will allow herself to die for what she believes in, how could I not be attracted to that?

8. Ophelia, Hamlet by William Shakespeare - Ever since high school I've wanted to play her. Since I'm a larger body type I really think it adds a new level as to why Hamlet wants her. It takes it past a superficial level into finding a true connection between the two.

9. Helen, Fat Pig by Neil LaBute - Out of any character on this list, she is probably the one that on the surface I have the most in common with, but I don't know how to tap into her because everything is so similar. For me, she's a challenge because she would force me to really examine myself and the relationship to my body on a level that I don't think I've explored or have been willing to.

10. Lin, Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill - Okay so I never realized how much I would love to play this character until working on a production of this show recently. I love her depth and how her true nature lies in what she does as opposed to what she says about herself. She is one of those character's whose motives are implied, nothing is that upfront and I love that about her.

I guess I chose all of these roles because I think that between my body type, my perspective & my history, I'd have something new to bring to the table to each role.

So what's your 10?

Mary Zimmerman on creating scripts.

Love her! Her trust in her ensemble is incredible. I think that trust between actors & directors is so crucial to creating an amazing piece of theatre. Thanks to Mary for reminding me as I prepare for the next show!

American Theatre = Walmart

There was an interesting blog post that I saw tweeted out by @balttheatre, the source being a friend of mine, Cole Matson. (link to article)

The author quoted Beth Leavel's keynote at Southeastern Theatre Conference:

"All I know is that if I want to work in Chicago, I have to be in New York; if I want to work in Seattle, which is a great theatre town, I have to be in New York; if I want to work in my home town of Raleigh, I have to be in New York."

He goes on to discuss how American theatre is turning into Wal-Mart and NYC is our distribution center. Theatre schools are teaching students that if they want to work they need to go to NYC. Or at least that's what I got from it.

At least in my experience, it wasn't my school that taught me that, it was the regional theaters themselves. I trained in Seattle and we were afforded the opportunity to go to the regional theaters at least twice a year (I think it was actually more than that). My classmates and I quickly noticed that a lot of the bios had NY credits. This wasn't the case EVERY time, but it happened a lot. In the comments of the post there was an interesting discussion about how it needs to be the responsibility of the AD or MD/ED to have the vision and care enough about the artistic community to cast local talent. I agree completely, though I suggest a mix of talent from other cities (not just NYC) intertwined with local talent. This lets your audience experience a mix of local actors they love, while giving them something new to chew their teeth on.

When I was at On the Boards (OtB)in Seattle, their programming was dedicated to showcasing acts from the Northwest as well as bringing talent from around the world to Seattle audiences. Granted they were a type of performance house that supported contemporary work that pushes artistic boundaries, but their spirit was one that I think regional theatres can take a clue from.

How many times do you go to the theatre and see only actors from out of town?

It's all Greek to me.

So this week I scored $10 tickets to see Ion at The Shakespeare Theatre in DC at their newer Sidney Harman Hall space across from the Verizon Center.

Umm... Wow. What an incredible space. It's large and intimate all at the same time. Structured like a Greek theatron, with the slant down towards the stage being severe. Perfect to see a Greek tragedy in!

I enjoyed the show. I really appreciated Director Ethan McSweeny's use of song with the chorus, which is totally traditional, but he used modern melodies in a way that draws you in. His direction was very purposeful.

I did feel as though there were some inconsistencies in acting styles. All the acting was great, but when you have a very traditional portrayal of a Greek woman (Creusa), mixed with the more modern style of the actor that played Ion, it can start to feel as though they aren't necessarily in the same world.

I loved the director's use of puppetry, I think it's an art form that can be used to solve problems on the stage in a simplistic & beautiful way, especially when you have amazing puppeteers.

Anyways, I enjoyed it. Here's a video from the Shakespeare Theatre Company about Ion.

It's about the work.

I had a discussion with an actor friend of mine who is having a hard time in the show they are currently doing. My advice was with whatever is going on, the focus should always be about the work. It reminds me of a quote from Stanislavski:

"Never come into the theatre with mudd on your feet. Leave your dust and dirt outside. Check your little worries, squabbles, petty difficulties with your outside clothing -- all the things that ruin your life and draw your attention away from your art."

From Stanislavski's Building A Character. Thanks to Hal Ryder for making me read that chapter Freshman year at Cornish.

It's true though. No matter what's going on in your life, if you let that come into the theater your work will suffer. So no matter what happens, just focus on the job you have to get done. Think about the rest later & do what you have to do.

Very stoic, I guess.

Stages.

So I've been noticing that there are four stages whenever you open a show. Here's my theory. This is based on a four week run, but can be adapted to weekend & longer runs as well.

Week 1 - Opening weekend. This is the excited/nervous/tired week. Everyone has been working so hard, pushing their way through hell week to get to this. Where people actually get a chance to get a little bit of satisfaction as a pay off to all the work they've done. It's that exhale after a week of inhaling.

Week 2 - Silly time. Finally you've gotten some rest and this is when the focus can be a little lacking. It's fun, but the experience is unique. The energy can live backstage and die when the actor's take the stage. This week is the hardest to keep yourself connected to what you're working on. Important to know if this is true for you so you can come up with ways to combat this.

Week 3 - The real work. This tends to be the week when people make leaps and bounds in their discoveries. Each show is a little different and you really get a chance to build upon what you've done each night.

Last Week - Senioritis/Bittersweet. Now this week depends on your relationship with the show. Some shows you love doing, some you are just ready for them to be over. There tends to be a freeness to this week in the work that is done, whether that be for good or bad. If you have an attachment to the show, your work can really reach a new level, while if your waiting for the show to just end, your work can become heavy.

Now of course these aren't rules, these are just things that I have seen. What do you think?

Hell was Heaven until it wasn't.

So last night I went to the Woolly Mammoth Theater down in DC to see Hell Meets Henry Halfway. It was originally conceived & created by Pig Iron Theatre Company of Philadelphia, with text by Adriano Shaplin, based on Possessed by Witold Gombrowicz.

It's haunting, it's beautiful and there's a jump rope.

There's big, bold character choices that are expressed to the fullest extent of the actor's greatest tools, their voice & their body.

Steve Cuiffo makes brilliant choices that can be no more than a lift of an eyebrow but echo throughout the space.

James Dunn comes off as a little "playing at" when he first appears, but he slowly relaxed into it. I don't know if it was an off night, just the rhythm of his character or if it has to do with the fact he was replacing the Co-Artistic Director of Pig Iron for the last two weeks of the run. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed his performance, I just had questions about it.

Bel Garcia was just awesome as the Prince. Strong character choice, amazing physical commitment and a great voice to support those choices. There wasn't a need for heavy old age make-up, just enough to suggest age (some bags under the eyes), her choices filled in all the details, i.e. the way it should be.

Sarah Sanford was all that she needed to be. She gave to her partners what they needed and played off of them well. She didn't steal focus, which was weird considering the nature of her character, she's a great partner to share a scene with.

James Sugg puzzled me at first. He was Jon the Ballboy, a very supportive sort of role. When he first started speaking he reminded me of the Stuart Larkin character from MADtv. Similar pitch a breathiness, but he fell into the role enough and made choices that quickly distanced myself from those thoughts.

Dito Van Reigersberg played the title character Henry. Probably the stiffest of them all, but the stiffness came out of choice, not actor. Through some scenes he seemed a little disconnected at moments, but he still made me care in the end.

All in it was an awesome show that actually made me giggle in delight, not an easy thing to accomplish. I felt excited and exhilarated by their work and will be planning to make the trip up to Philly to see their show this Fall.

PLUS! Woolly had $5 scripts available to buy. Not of Hell Meets Henry Halfway, but of other plays, and let's be honest, I'm a script hoarder. Seriously. So I ended up being good and only walking away with 4. Can't wait to dig in! Wonder if I could order them online and not have to make the trip to DC.

During all of this happiness there was one thing that really made doubt whether or not I would go back to Woolly for a show. As intermission was ending (and just after I bought my snacks, I was outside while Greg was smoking during the first part), they had a recording saying don't bring any food or drink in. Cool I get it, new theatre. Let me try to finish the last few bites and I wander towards the door. Then all of a sudden a patron was like "You can't take that in there", I responded with a nice "I know." Course what I really wanted to say was "I'm not fucking deaf, thanks." So I realized I was starting to go in the main door and not the door closest to my seat, so Greg and I walked over to the other door and I tried to finish my last few bites of sugary goodness, when all of a sudden from ACROSS THE ENTIRE LOBBY the House Manager* yells "Ma'am, You can't take that in there!" And yes I mean yell. Well being the brassy broad I can be and having just bit my tongue to a fellow patron, I was getting ready to say "No shit!" when I realized that response might incur me not seeing the rest of the show and always wanting to be respectful of the theatre I told her that I was trying to finish it and was putting it in my purse.

Okay, so I understand it's her job to be on top of what happens, and it's not her fault that another patron had said something quite similar not more than 60 seconds prior. What I DO have issue with is a paid employee of the theater yelling across the lobby at a patron. That is completely unacceptable. I would never in a million years do that to a patron, otherwise they might not come back. In fact after the first act I was thinking about how much a season ticket might cost so that way I could experience this amazing space again and again. Thanks to the bitch with the attitude, that's not happening. I can find contemporary theater in any town, I don't have to make the hour drive to DC and spend a lot more money on a ticket to Woolly to boot. I've always had an affinity for Woolly since I went there when I was in high school for one of their "yard sales". While I probably will go to Woolly again in the future, I'm not really looking to make the season ticket commitment as a result.

So other than that one staff person, my experience was amazing. So yeah for Pig Iron and big boo to the Woolly House Manager*.


*I'm assuming she's the house manager, don't know her official title, but she was in charge of the ushers that night.

Is he faking?

So do you think he's faking?

I'm not sure. You hear reports about how he's being followed around by cameras and that his friends are making a mockumentry, but I think something has really snapped.

I've been a fan of Joaquin since I first saw him in Clay Pigeons. He's one of those actors that I really enjoy seeing on film. He's intense and a bit tortured, but that's one of the reasons I like him so much.

Something seems off though. I think the fact that he never takes off his glasses is really bothering me. A lot can be told through the eyes and he shuts us all out from that.

He's either faking, or doing mass amounts of drugs. I really hope it's the former...

The Arts are getting the shaft from the government... again!

Saw this in my local Theatre Association's newsletter. Please help! Without the arts, there is no culture, there is no life.


Senate Cuts Arts from Economic Stimulus Bill

From Americans for the Arts

Breaking News
This afternoon the U.S. Senate, during their consideration of the economic recovery bill, approved an egregious amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that stated ``None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, art center, and highway beautification project.`` Unfortunately, the amendment passed by a wide vote margin of 73-24, and surprisingly included support from many high profile Senators including Chuck Schumer of New York, Dianne Feinstein of California, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and several other Democratic and Republican Senators.

If the Coburn amendment language is included in the final conference version of this legislation, many arts groups will be prevented from receiving economic recovery funds from any portion of this specific stimulus bill. It is clear that there is still much work to be done in the Senate and in the media about the role that nonprofit arts organizations and artists play in the nation`s economy and workforce.

Plan of Action

1. Arts advocates need to quickly contact Senators who voted for the Coburn Amendment and express your extreme disappointment with their vote. We need these Senators to know that their vote would detrimentally impact nonprofit arts organizations and the jobs they support in their state. We have crafted a customized message for you to send to your Senators based on their vote on the Coburn Amendment. The correct letter, customized to each of your Senators will appear when you enter your zip code. If your Senator voted for this funding prohibition, you can send them a message expressing your disappointment and ask them to work to delete this language in the final conference bill with the House. If your Senator voted against the Coburn Amendment, you can thank them for their support of the arts.

2. We need as many news articles as possible this coming week to publish stories about the economic impact of the nonprofit arts industry and how the recession is negatively affecting arts groups across the country. Please click here to customize an opinion editorial to your local media. We have provided you with easy-to-use talking points.

3. Next week, Americans for the Arts will be sending you another action alert that targets the White House and the soon-to-be-named Senators and Representatives who will serve as conferees to the final economic recovery bill. Please be prepared to take action on this alert as well.

4. Americans for the Arts itself is submitting op-eds to several national newspapers and online blogs. We are enlisting high profile leaders to co-sign these letters as well.

5. Americans for the Arts is purchasing full-page ads titled ``The Arts = Jobs`` in Washington`s top political newspapers in Roll Call, Politico and The Hill on Monday and Tuesday of next week. We encourage you to post the ad on your social network sites.

Please help us continue this important work by becoming an official member of the Arts Action Fund. Play your part by joining the Arts Action Fund today -- it's free and simple.

I still think he's an amazing actor.

Okay so I'm probably one of the few people that will defend Christian Bale in his tirade on the DP of the Terminator movie.

So here's why I'm defending him...

Though now I focus more on my directing, I used to act. I understand how fragile your mind is when you are in the middle of a scene. As actors, we are charged with living truthfully in imaginary circumstances, we must trick our brain into believing what we are saying, doing, who we are is real. For even those most experienced actor this can be a very difficult task.

Christian Bale is a serious actor, I was going to use the term professional, but his outburst kind of struck that word from the vocabulary to describe him. He is intense, he cares about the work he does, sometimes probably more than he should. (I mean did you see the Machinist?) He puts his entire self into a role and while he's in that moment, things like a DP walking through in his line of sight, adjusting lights can be a pretty distracting. It takes you out of the moment, which then can be extremely hard to get fully back in. And the DP didn't do it just once, it happened twice! Let's say you're trying to do something extremely difficult, and someone messes you up twice, wouldn't that frustrate you?

So though I do think it was kind of crappy that it happened (I mean everyone on that set should be professionals, especially considering how much they are getting paid), I understand the frustration that incited that explosion of anger.

We aren't all perfect. And even though he's a celebrity, he's still a human being. My other question is, this incident happened in July, why now was the audio released? That part doesn't sit right with me.

Bermuda @ The Strand

So Sunday I hopped on over to one of my favorite theaters in town, The Strand. It's a small theater in an old Victorian row home which resides in the Station North Arts District. Just up the street from the Everyman and the Charles Theater, it's a great little place to catch a show.

The show I saw was Bermuda by Noah Galuten (famous for his http://manbitesworld.com/ blog). It's a quick little piece, only about an hour long, but a lot happens in a short amount of time. It's about a new married man and wife who have the husband's brother over for dinner. As we all know, nothing ever good happens over the dinner table in theatre. So chaos ensues. The play kind of reminds me of a mix between "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and Dharma & Greg, but without the kookiness.

It's worth a look for sure. Well written and with a strong director. I think sometimes there was a slight disconnect with what the actors were saying, but I also over analyze any piece of theatre I see.

It runs until February 15th, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. More info at http://www.strandtheatercompany.org/.

Other's passion can be inspiring.

It's really nice to be around a group of people that cares as much about theatre as I do.

Let me rewind a little bit for you...

Today was the BTA strategic planning meeting at Towson U and I was invited to attend because I worked up a proposal for how BTA can leverage social media to help bring exposure to the local theatre in Baltimore.

It was a little strange at first. I think people wondered who the hell I was, but once I started contributing and actually sounded like I knew what I was talking about all was good.

These people are not just passionate, but they are passionate about this city and doing theatre in THIS city. They care about the community as a whole and are working to make sure that we ALL survive. No one goes down. In times like these, where arts organizations are folding left and right, that mentality that we are all in this together is extremely refreshing. Finding ways to provide value to the community, an all hands on deck approach, is really awesome. So thanks to all who were in the meeting today, you really made me feel good about my future in this town.

It's always been my goal to own a theatre company in NYC, and don't get me wrong, it's still what I want, but I think I'm doing alright here in Bmore for now.

And not to be all solicitor-like, but if you're looking to get involved and contribute to the community, let BTA know. All hands on deck, right?

Artists using LinkedIn.

So I think it's really important for theatre artists (and artists in general) to market themselves. You must create yourself as a brand, think of what you offer as a product. Sell yourself. Pick the right monologue, pick the right outfit, pick the right paper for your resume. Make yourself stand out and be irresistible.

Since I do social media marketing as my day job, obviously I try to use it as well to market myself. I use my personal Facebook account (I have one for work too, long story) as a way connect with the local Baltimore Theatre scene and know what's going on around town. I tweet about theatre, social media, association stuff, etc. I have a LinkedIn profile as a kind of personal resume for both my theatre stuff and association stuff, I could probably be more specific and create separate profiles for each each... but honestly, I have enough social media profiles to maintain. Anyways, I digress.

So LinkedIn is in a way nothing more than an interactive online resume. So why the hell aren't more theatre artists using it for that?

I just ordered theatre business cards from moo printing with my headshot on one side and my contact info on the other, headshots are too cumbersome to ALWAYS carry around, and I also put my easy to remember LinkedIn URL (http://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnmorton). What an easy way for someone I randomly bump into to view all that I do!

The key is to make it easy for them to remember who you are and what you do.

So basically what I'm saying is sign up for a LinkedIn profile and use it to the best of your ability.

My New Favorite Blog.

That's right, I stumbled across what has fast become my new favorite blog. He's a theatre artist in NYC who is opinionated and fabulous. Okay, I'm a little partial, I went to school with him, but it was only for one year and he's super talented, so it totally negates itself. Anyways, check it out. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Tarhearted.

What I learned from Superheroes...

So lately I've been watching superhero movies. The Incredible Hulk, Ironman, Dark Knight, etc. What can I say? The bar has been raised and superhero movies are a lot better than they used to be. Well I noticed something that they all have in common...

They are honorable, but they are self-loathing as well. I wonder if their self-loathing is directly related to their honor as a human being.

(Please remember this analysis is based off of the movies I've watched, not the comic books)

The Hulk: An anger induced monster who responds only to the woman he loves when he is in that state. When he isn't busting with rage, Bruce tries to keep calm, keep the monster under wraps. He fights his true nature and focuses on maintaining what he sees as the real him, while denying the rage that lies beneath.

The Dark Knight: Bruce Wayne is a playboy who floats through life, his counterpart fights the evil that lies deep within the city he loves. Batman is his true self in a sense, while Bruce is his cover. I feel with that way that it's portrayed that though he hates his "Bruce Wayne" persona, he maintains it to provide a cover for his true passion.

Ironman: Tony Stark comes to loathe the man he once was. Through his alter ego he realizes that there are more important things in this world than lots of money, fast woman and big guns. He learns to see what's right in front of him and that though there are fun toys, people are what's most important.

There are a few others that have similar themes (The Punisher and X-Men come to mind off the top of my head). So what does this mean as artists? I think for an actor that it is one more thing to look at. What does a character hate about themselves? Does that hatred/self-loathing bring honor or is it a source of shame?

Just one thing to think about.

No Bailout for the Arts?

Hey All,

It's been a long awhile. Life has been full with a new job, new challenges and a new project. Then there was the holidays. I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and realize I've been completely ignoring my theatre blog (I really haven't been blogging anywhere). I was going through my Reader today and found an interesting article on Broadway World about a Washington Post article (still following me?).

No Bailout for the Arts? by Michael Kaiser

He talks about how the donors are drying up because their personal portfolios have dwindled amidst economic crisis. Mr. Kaiser also calls for the government to not forget the arts organizations as they pass out the bailout money. A very noble sentiment, but at the same time I get this sinking feeling...

Don't get me wrong, I think it's horrible that the Baltimore Opera went under and that many arts organizations are struggling. But at the same time I can't help but compare them to all these huge companies that spend millions of dollars a year. It's hard to feel sad for theatres that have budgets I could only dream of. Yes, I believe that actors, directors and designers deserve a fair wage, but at the same time aren't there ways to cut back on the budgets? It's hard for me to sympathize when the show I'm currently working on has a budget of $500 and if we need more money we need to fundraise or finance it ourself.

I love beautiful big productions, but having limitations increases your creativity. Like in Watch we didn't have a budget to make sure I had all the equipment I needed to fulfill the playwright's wish of using video in the play. I had to come up with something different, I had to get creative. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. I know that this can come off as a little cold to my fellow artists, but I hope it is taken as a challenge to get creative. I look at these hard economic times as a chance to do things that as artists will take us to the next level. This is an opportunity to go farther. Don't let yourself fall short.