We've spent the last 24 hours or so in tech for The Balcony. Here's some pics. Beautiful set by Christina Todesco. Beautiful Bishop costume by Gail Buckley. Insanely gorgeous lighting by Jeff Adelberg.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Balcony - Images
When I knew I was going to direct The Balcony, I started amassing and taking pictures of what I thought might be in this weird world of Genet's brothel. Here are a few. We go into tech this weekend!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
The Balcony
We go into tech this weekend for The Balcony, Jean Genet's rarely-produced opus of sex and corruption at the Boston Conservatory.
I can't say what an amazing experience it's been working on this project! Very proud of the fearless cast, and a design team to die for: Jeff, Gail, Cristina and David! I am very lucky indeed.
It's only one weekend. I hope you can make it!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
A krinkle PUBLIC krinkle krinkle SERVICE krinkle ANNOUNCEMENT
So, there's this new addition to seeing a play that I guess I'm going to have to get used to: people sitting behind me, loudly eating out of plastic bags.
Theatres now allow you to bring their concessions into the theatre.
This means we all get to enjoy listening to some moron crinkle their candy wrapper during the entire length of the play.
Recently, I strained to hear Audra McDonald sing over this lady eating a bag of rice crackers behind me.
Seriously. RICE CRACKERS. Does a more noisy snack exist in the universe?
Now, I suppose I really can't blame these people for eating the foods that the theatres have told them are OK to bring into the house.
And I understand that theatres need to make money on concessions.
But after TWO shows in a row being ruined by plastic bags crinkling, I would really like to take a moment to beg BEG the theatres to think carefully about the foods they are selling to their audience.
Sell QUIET foods. PLEASE.
Fig Newtons. Licorice. Bananas.
No Rice crackers. No Pop Rocks. No unshelled nuts.
And, under NO circumstances should you allow PLASTIC CRINKLEY BAGS into the theatre.
Here's what you should do: when they buy the food, take it out of the bag FOR them and put it on a paper plate, or in a cup, or a napkin.
BUT NO PLASTIC BAGS. SERIOUSLY. There is nothing worse than a plastic bag in an audience.
And I'm speaking as a performer too.
The last thing you want to hear during your big death scene is someone digging thru their Cheeto bag.
Theatres now allow you to bring their concessions into the theatre.
This means we all get to enjoy listening to some moron crinkle their candy wrapper during the entire length of the play.
Recently, I strained to hear Audra McDonald sing over this lady eating a bag of rice crackers behind me.
Seriously. RICE CRACKERS. Does a more noisy snack exist in the universe?
Now, I suppose I really can't blame these people for eating the foods that the theatres have told them are OK to bring into the house.
And I understand that theatres need to make money on concessions.
But after TWO shows in a row being ruined by plastic bags crinkling, I would really like to take a moment to beg BEG the theatres to think carefully about the foods they are selling to their audience.
Sell QUIET foods. PLEASE.
Fig Newtons. Licorice. Bananas.
No Rice crackers. No Pop Rocks. No unshelled nuts.
And, under NO circumstances should you allow PLASTIC CRINKLEY BAGS into the theatre.
Here's what you should do: when they buy the food, take it out of the bag FOR them and put it on a paper plate, or in a cup, or a napkin.
BUT NO PLASTIC BAGS. SERIOUSLY. There is nothing worse than a plastic bag in an audience.
And I'm speaking as a performer too.
The last thing you want to hear during your big death scene is someone digging thru their Cheeto bag.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Hotel Nepenthe - The ebook
So, this is so cool: here is the "ebook" of The Hotel Nepenthe courtesy of Concord Free Press! You can use the link below to find and purchase it on Amazon.
It's a mere $7.77, the price of a really fancy latte.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Hotel-Nepenthe-ebook/dp/B005WF40TA/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318901108&sr=1-9
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Hotel Nepenthe is going to be published!
This is exciting news: my newest play, The Hotel Nepenthe, is going to be published this Fall by Concord Free Press.
Concord Free Press has an interesting approach to publishing: they literally give books away, asking only that readers make a voluntary donation to a cause, someone in need, or a stranger.
As of early 2010, this model has inspired more than $130,000 in donations by thousands of readers.
It's a real honor to be the first play to be published by them!
The publishers also sent me another wonderful surprise: novelist Gregory Maguire (Wicked), who is among the writers they've published (and who came to see the show back in February) has written a wonderful quote for the cover.
Here it is:
Concord Free Press has an interesting approach to publishing: they literally give books away, asking only that readers make a voluntary donation to a cause, someone in need, or a stranger.
As of early 2010, this model has inspired more than $130,000 in donations by thousands of readers.
It's a real honor to be the first play to be published by them!
The publishers also sent me another wonderful surprise: novelist Gregory Maguire (Wicked), who is among the writers they've published (and who came to see the show back in February) has written a wonderful quote for the cover.
Here it is:
“Hotel Nepenthe is a splintered autopsy of cinema noir, skewering egomania and isolation in fin-de-dementia America. Comic? True. True? Tragically so.”
-- Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked
Very overwhelmed and excited!
Catch Up
So much for blogging about "Mortal Terror, as I promised. The time between then and now just vanished.
So: We closed Sunday, it was quite fun.
Some backstage impressions:
Formula for exiting the stage at the Modern:
1. Exit to wings.
2. Heavy door #1 (do not slam!)
3. Heavy door #2 (see above)
4. Heavy door #3 (ditto)
5. Descend flight of stairs #1
6. Descend flight of stairs #2
7. Heavy door #4
8. Heavy door #5
9. Whew! You've made it to the dressing room, and it only took 15 minutes! But now it's time to run back up again, because that's your cue on the monitor! Yikes!
10. Repeat. I think I lost about 3 pounds running up and down those stairs.
Shared the ladies dressing room with Georgia. (As the only gay guy in the cast, I guess I was sort of an honorary lady!) Georgia could care less: we'd seen anything we might see during Nepenthe, where the four of us shared a dressing room the size of a postage stamp.
My Guy Fawkes beard was made with real human hair, which was really scraggly and sort of freaked me out. It was like wearing a Brillo pad on your face. One performance the strap holding the beard was too loose, and my moustache kept falling into my mouth whenever I spoke. I kept holding my hand to my chin during the scene, like I was listening really hard to Catesby's plot.
I thought I was liberal until I met Stafford Clark-Price, who makes me look like a venture Capitalist. (He's the one who told me about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, among other hair-curling items). He's awesome.
You can play human bocce ball using the wheeled hassocks in the green room.
I drank a lot of coffee during this run. I mean, a LOT. Jerry Kissel makes coffee like rocket fuel. We were all bouncing off the walls.
I somehow cast "The Balcony" and rehearsed/opened Mortal Terror at the same time.
Some of my former Suffolk students were our back-stage crew, that was fun!
The peanut butter brownie next door at Common Grounds is to die for.
It's really hard to get around on your bike downtown.
That's it off the top of my head. It was fun being in a new play. I love new plays. They're like this rare, almost extinct species in Boston.
Actually, right now, plays - new or old or otherwise - are pretty rare: everything is a musical. It feels like Spring! New Rep did Rent, Lyric is doing Big River, ART is doing Porgy and Bess (which I managed to see: marvelous singing) and Huntington is doing Candide (which I'm seeing tonight), Gold Dust Orphans are doing Rocky Horror at Oberon.
I better learn how to sing quick!
Meanwhile, ASP has opened 12th Night (which I can't wait to see sometime this week!) and my good friend David Gammons has directed the world premiere of The Farm at BPT. (BPT is responsible for pretty much all new plays being born here. I'm not sure what we would do without them.)
I start rehearsing The Balcony next week at the Boston Conservatory, where I work. I would love to say that I'll blog about the whole experience. I'll try. It would be fun.
But then the time disappears...
So: We closed Sunday, it was quite fun.
Some backstage impressions:
Formula for exiting the stage at the Modern:
1. Exit to wings.
2. Heavy door #1 (do not slam!)
3. Heavy door #2 (see above)
4. Heavy door #3 (ditto)
5. Descend flight of stairs #1
6. Descend flight of stairs #2
7. Heavy door #4
8. Heavy door #5
9. Whew! You've made it to the dressing room, and it only took 15 minutes! But now it's time to run back up again, because that's your cue on the monitor! Yikes!
10. Repeat. I think I lost about 3 pounds running up and down those stairs.
Shared the ladies dressing room with Georgia. (As the only gay guy in the cast, I guess I was sort of an honorary lady!) Georgia could care less: we'd seen anything we might see during Nepenthe, where the four of us shared a dressing room the size of a postage stamp.
My Guy Fawkes beard was made with real human hair, which was really scraggly and sort of freaked me out. It was like wearing a Brillo pad on your face. One performance the strap holding the beard was too loose, and my moustache kept falling into my mouth whenever I spoke. I kept holding my hand to my chin during the scene, like I was listening really hard to Catesby's plot.
I thought I was liberal until I met Stafford Clark-Price, who makes me look like a venture Capitalist. (He's the one who told me about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, among other hair-curling items). He's awesome.
You can play human bocce ball using the wheeled hassocks in the green room.
I drank a lot of coffee during this run. I mean, a LOT. Jerry Kissel makes coffee like rocket fuel. We were all bouncing off the walls.
I somehow cast "The Balcony" and rehearsed/opened Mortal Terror at the same time.
Some of my former Suffolk students were our back-stage crew, that was fun!
The peanut butter brownie next door at Common Grounds is to die for.
It's really hard to get around on your bike downtown.
That's it off the top of my head. It was fun being in a new play. I love new plays. They're like this rare, almost extinct species in Boston.
Actually, right now, plays - new or old or otherwise - are pretty rare: everything is a musical. It feels like Spring! New Rep did Rent, Lyric is doing Big River, ART is doing Porgy and Bess (which I managed to see: marvelous singing) and Huntington is doing Candide (which I'm seeing tonight), Gold Dust Orphans are doing Rocky Horror at Oberon.
I better learn how to sing quick!
Meanwhile, ASP has opened 12th Night (which I can't wait to see sometime this week!) and my good friend David Gammons has directed the world premiere of The Farm at BPT. (BPT is responsible for pretty much all new plays being born here. I'm not sure what we would do without them.)
I start rehearsing The Balcony next week at the Boston Conservatory, where I work. I would love to say that I'll blog about the whole experience. I'll try. It would be fun.
But then the time disappears...
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