Saturday, August 21, 2010

START SPREADIN' THE NEWS!!!!!!! (Liza wind up!!!!!!)

This past week James and I hopped a plane and went to NYC for three days. Now that the craziness of our Ohlook summer is over we decided to take advantage of a little down time to get out of town and take in some different scenery. Not that New York is new to us, been there, done that, but the chance to see a few shows and wander through a couple of museums always gets the creative juices flowing again.

Having taken the creativity workshop with Susan Blackwell earlier in the summer, the thought that came to mind during this trip was "grounded, specific and self-expressed". These words come from Susan Blackwell herself and they/it/this phrase has been the theme of my summer, or at least the last half of my summer. Susan Blackwell was a co-writer of [title of show] and as we were going through the rehearsal process for our little production I kept this phrase close by, repeating it to myself whenever I wasn't sure what path to take. Keep it simple! This harder than it sounds. I'm happy to say that our "Little Show" turned out beautifully. James and I were so lucky to get the AMAZING cast we had in Marianne Galloway, Jennifer Pasion, Marshall Warren and John Davenport. From day one their performances were focused, self-aware, and incredibly honest and real. I ran the light bored for all 8 performances of our too brief run and for all 8 I sat there with a huge, gleeful grin on my face! What a wonderful gift to be given this cast and this show. As a result of the wonderful cast and their deep understanding of the characters, we got lots of WONDERFUL comments from our audiences and managed to get a fantastic review from a local critic. Our plan now is to take the show to the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival next summer. We have a lot of money to raise to make that dream a reality but I know we can do it. The cast is totally behind us and I think we'll discover that there are a lot of folks who believe in us and what we want to do. Crossies!

All of this recent activity came to mind during our trip this past week. While in NYC two of the four shows we saw reminded me specifically of Susan Blackwell's words. We FINALLY saw South Pacific at Lincoln Center. We were lucky enough to get to see Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot reprise their roles only a week before the show closes. A large number of the original cast were still with the show so it was as though we were seeing it soon after opening. We all know what a hit this show has been so I don't have to tell you that it was STUNNING to look at! Michael Yeargin took advantage of the vast stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater and created both intimate and wide open spaces within the same production. Most impressive! The show sounded amazing! It was such a refreshing change to see a show that didn't hit you over the head with amplified sound and which had actors who SING OUT with big, booming voices! WOW!!!!

But what really impressed me was how REAL Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot were in their performances. There were no histrionics, there was no "I'm a big, big star playing an iconic role so I'm going to over-do everything and be self-indulgent" performances. Just real, connected, grounded, specific and self-expressed. Inspiration!

The big surprise of the week and what really brought Susan Blackwell's words home to me in a big way was the off broadway revival of Our Town at the Barrow Street Theater which is also closing soon. This production was performed in a small, makeshift space on a very, VERY intimate thrust stage, so intimate that you could easily, at any time, reach out and touch the actors. Everyone on stage wore only rehearsal clothes and a bare minimum of props and furniture were used. The house lights never went down and, in fact, it seemed as though no stage lights were used although there were times when the lights seemed to get brighter and in the third act the lights were definitely dimmer than in the previous two.

Basically, this is a play about small town life. I have seen it twice before. the words boring, soporific, long, dull, excruciating, inconsequential come to mind. This was anything but! There was such an incredible focus and urgency in the performances, such a depth of understanding and connection between the characters that it was palpable. We, the audience, felt what the characters felt. If they cried, I found myself crying. If they laughed, I laughed. The first and second acts seemed to go by in an instant. They weren't dull or slow or boring at all! I was riveted, hanging in every word.

BUT, the most profound and moving moment came in the third act. Emily has died and is in the graveyard where she encounters the other characters who have also died. She asks the stage manager if she can go back and experience one day from her life. He finally agrees and draws back a curtain that I for one had not really noticed before this moment. After all the rehearsal clothes and rehearsal props, the curtain revealed an amazingly detailed set of a turn of the century kitchen. Emily's mother was fully costumed, hair done, make up on. When she went to cook bacon it sizzled in a VERY hot cast iron skillet! We could smell it! She then scrambled eggs in that same pan. The coffee had steam rising from it. The water pump pumped water! The point was made by Emily and driven home by this moment in the production. As we go through our lives we don't pay attention to what we do on a day to day basis. We don't see and observe. At this moment, after Emily has died, she sees everything clearly.

My question after seeing this production was this: Why aren't we doing this in Dallas? Every production, every performance could be just as immediate, just as moving, just as deeply felt and understood by both the actors and the audience and yet we don't seem to get that here. Instead we are forced to settle for work that doesn't trust it's material, misses the point completely and settles for simply "good enough" rather than "right".

Trust the material! Understand the material and what point it's trying to make! Don't settle for "good enough"!!!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

I could not have asked for a better evening!

Things are always busy at Ohlook PAC. I went with James to a 1030am performance of The Secret Garden. It's the children's show. By a mix of kids and adults and for kids. HUGE highschool auditorium but not a huge audience. Then over to Plano to see the garden and out to Grapevine for the opening of Little Shop of Horrors and the late night show of [title of show].

Little Shop has come together much faster than it should have and everything felt as though it waited until the last minute to settle. Tonight was wild. I have stepped in at the last minute to play the voice of Audrey II which is no big deal. I have listened to the cast album since I was about twelve so it's safe to say I am familiar with the part. I have a music stand and a stand light tucked away in the crawl space behind the set but I was not prepared for the doo-wap girls when they also had to be crawling around back there! It's already a tight space and they didn't help! Anyway, I think I finally found a spot to stand that's out of the way but I can do what I have to do.

It's such fun playing this part! It is a role I've never gotten to do and, frankly, never thought I'd get to do. AND there is no pressure because I'm never on stage! I have a freedom I don't usually experience when performing. YAY!!!

As soon as we were done with our Little Shop performance the turn around had to happen so we could do [title of show]. I thought it was going to be a nightmare but amazingly everyone was able to get all the accoutrament including the plants moved out so that our little show could move in. A lot of the Ohlook kids hung around but we had a lot of folks just coming to the show. So much so that the show was sold out!!!!

I had pretty much given up on Alexandra Binfield coming to review the show. She said she might but I hadn't heard anything else from her so I assumed she wasn't coming. Just as I was about to go make the curtain speech Jill came and found me and said, "the critic is here!" I went outside, shook her hand, welcomed her and ushered her into the theater. Of course, she managed to find a seat on the front row where the actors could see her plain as day. I made a point of not telling anyone she was there so they wouldn't be nervous. I gave my curtain speech and we started the show. I noticed that the Ms. Benifield never cracked a smile. Not once! I was later told she chuckled a time or two but I didn't see it.

The audience LOVED the show!!! They didn't just laugh, they HOWLED, and a couple of times there was seriously prolonged laughter. When Jeff asked Hunter if he had his hands down the back of his pants and Hunter replied no I thought the audience would never stop laughing! I think there were three rolls of laughter but it was hard to tell because the audience didn't want to stop! Of course, it was a fantastic performance. How could it not be? What I loved about the show tonight was that it really felt like an event and the actors really rose to the occasion. I must say, I can't imagine doing this show with anyone else. The cast is so connected and is having such fun! I couldn't have asked for more! I hope next weekend goes even better and we have big audiences again!

More to come!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

The garden and the theater



Well, the garden looks great! Today we went to North Haven Gardens and bought Garret juice, concentrated vinegar and compost tea. The garret juice keeps the aphids away from the cucumbers, the concentrated vinegar is good for killing weeds and the compost tea is a good fertilizer. We could actually make our own compost tea with our compost which I think we can finally go ahead and do now that we have enough. While we were at North Haven we took a stroll through their display vegetable garden. We were thrilled to see that they are also growing melons, egg plants, peppers, cucumbers, melons, squash and okra.

Everything in the garden seems to be doing great. We decided to pull out the corn because upon inspection we realized that the plants were unevenly pollinated. The corn stopped growing when it was only waist high and the ears never got very big. When we pulled back the husks on several ears we discovered tiny kernels and big kernels unevenly spaced. Pollination has to be airborn where corn is concerned so it's really the luck of the draw. We are probably going to plant more and see what happens. Can't hurt.

The melons, on the other hand, are doing great! We are starting to see little tiny nodules develop under the blossoms that are going to turn into yummy melons here in a few weeks. The new squash is just beginning to appear above the dirt. This time, we're going to try to be careful and keep the squash bore worms away.

Turning to things theatrical, [title of show] is going great!!! We had very good, very demonstrative audiences and the cast did a fantastic job! I think now that The Wedding Singer is over the Ohlook kids will be coming to the show and doing their part to fill seats. I have been trying to get a reviewer out to see the show but it's been tough. Part of the problem has been the fact that a lot of critics have ten million summer shows to review around Dallas right now so it's just a matter of finding time in their schedules. Also, I think critics are hesitant to review our show because it was just done at Theater Three. I guess it seems like old news to them. I want a review to include in our materials when we apply to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It can improve our chances of getting into a good venue which increases our chances of good audiences at the Fringe. I'm still working on it so we'll see.

I guess that's about it. Stay cool! Stay tuned in! Stay inspired!

More to come!