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...