Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Even Dirtier
Okay, so we've established that I have an unhealthy inability to regulate my caloric intake and a most unfortunate fixation on "Lost", right? Good. Now that we're on the same page...
Lets take a look at the cast of "Truculentus," a motley hodgepodge of familiar faces, derelicts and deviants (and that's just Markitwia and Robin!).
So, when you're casting the title role of a show, you've got to be aware of the weight and responsibility you're placing on the actor. You can't just pull a name out of the hat for that one. So, after weighing my options, I went with a man of substance for the role of a surly servant given to using malaprops, when in full furor. I've worked with Richard Redman a number of times and each time it has been an adventure. I first cast him in the Bella Legosi [sic] role of Jonathan in "Arsenic & Old Lace." (No, Rick didn't have to wear the lace. We let him go commando.) I later got to work with him on one of my favorite scripts and a show that I have a soft spot for inspite of the train wreck it was and became, "Dr. Faustus." There too he played the title role and took a roller coaster ride to and through hell both in performance and during rehearsal. In spite of a scholarly troupe clad in combat boots and Catholic schoolgirl outfits, Rick managed to soldier onward only to be ridden by a hybrid Good/Bad Angel clad in half a white teddy and a unitard (the angel not Rick).
(Oops, look at the time, I guess we'll continue the expose of the cast in the next edition of "Truculentus: Thank You, No Penicillin")
Lets take a look at the cast of "Truculentus," a motley hodgepodge of familiar faces, derelicts and deviants (and that's just Markitwia and Robin!).
So, when you're casting the title role of a show, you've got to be aware of the weight and responsibility you're placing on the actor. You can't just pull a name out of the hat for that one. So, after weighing my options, I went with a man of substance for the role of a surly servant given to using malaprops, when in full furor. I've worked with Richard Redman a number of times and each time it has been an adventure. I first cast him in the Bella Legosi [sic] role of Jonathan in "Arsenic & Old Lace." (No, Rick didn't have to wear the lace. We let him go commando.) I later got to work with him on one of my favorite scripts and a show that I have a soft spot for inspite of the train wreck it was and became, "Dr. Faustus." There too he played the title role and took a roller coaster ride to and through hell both in performance and during rehearsal. In spite of a scholarly troupe clad in combat boots and Catholic schoolgirl outfits, Rick managed to soldier onward only to be ridden by a hybrid Good/Bad Angel clad in half a white teddy and a unitard (the angel not Rick).
(Oops, look at the time, I guess we'll continue the expose of the cast in the next edition of "Truculentus: Thank You, No Penicillin")
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
The Dirt
Well, I'm back from the caloric atom bomb that was my holiday weekend. Looking like an inverted mushroom cloud, I've shoe horned my way into the computer desk and continue to reel in a triptophanic haze, visions of sugar plums and that third slice of mincemeat pie dancing in my head.
In between helpings that could save an entire tsunami ravaged village, I managed to begin exploration of my premo, best Christmas present, "Lost", the first season on DVD. Yes, I know I could have just watched it all last year or waited for the inevitable deluge of reruns, but this show is the equivalent of storytelling crack. I've got to have each and every episode so that the Kennedy conspiracy can look like a reasonable and sane dinner conversation.
As I found myself plumbing every nook and cranny of the first DVD like Mario looking for secret worlds, I realized that I am obsessed with useless information. What the hell does it matter that the original explosion failed to truly capture the cataclysmic arrival of the survivors to the island? Do I really care what the audition tapes were like for the cast members? Unfortunately, I found that invariably the answer is/was, yes.
Instead of self-flagellating in front of the TV for lack of a life or interactive interests, it struck me that metaphorically, I wasn't alone (in fact, I was up alone late at night jumping forward and back on the DVD like a forty year old with his first VCR and a copy of Blue Lagoon). Surely, I wasn't the only one watching to see the critical flashback of Hurley winning the lottery and wondering whether it matters that the numbers are all retired Yankee jerseys? If the hype is to be believed, the "Lost" DVD was selling like hot cakes. Which led me to an epiphany in the wee hours of the night (no I wasn't imagining a prison scene between Kate and Ana Lucia), a lot of people enjoy the excess information and background nuggets. We've all become obsessed with that one little tidbit that makes us the geekiest member of any social gathering, in which our preferred story, movie or TV series comes up. Thank you VH-1 and "Pop-Up Video".
So, what does this sleep-deprived recognition of the obvious have to do with IF (aside from a desperate need to fill a blog entry)?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
During this production of "Truculentus" I will endeavor to give you the inside scoop on the process, the people and the drama (on and off stage). No, I'm not looking to usurp the Star, but hey maybe one more person will read these meanderings in hopes of learning who wears ducks on his feet to get into character.
So, get ready you ardent miners of the trivial, here we go.
Lets start with the show itself. The play was written in 200 B.C. by a Roman named Plautus. He was known for his earthy and satirical plays that poked at socially acceptable norms of the day. For the most part, while he and a few others produced a number of plays that survive until today, the Roman playwrights have gotten short shrift versus their Greek predecessors. Some of this was due to the Romans unabashedly stealing story lines from the Greeks, but part was also due to the more base stories lacking the philosophical nature of the Greeks. Though that hasn't precluded even the greatest of writers from stealing storylines from Plautus. Shakespeare drew Comedy of Errors strongly from Plautus.
Like most of his plays, Truculentus demonstrates Plautus's exploration of iconic characters. In fact, this show created some of the characters which have become the stock & trade of both Commedia del Arte and our modern day comedies. The arrogant soldier, the surly servant, the quick-witted strumpet all populate this earthy story of how willingly men part with their money for the illusion of the perfect woman.
Well, that's a beginning. Be sure to watch for the next installment of "All Things Banal." Thanks for playing.
(By the way the actor doesn't really wear ducks strapped to his feet. They are quail."
In between helpings that could save an entire tsunami ravaged village, I managed to begin exploration of my premo, best Christmas present, "Lost", the first season on DVD. Yes, I know I could have just watched it all last year or waited for the inevitable deluge of reruns, but this show is the equivalent of storytelling crack. I've got to have each and every episode so that the Kennedy conspiracy can look like a reasonable and sane dinner conversation.
As I found myself plumbing every nook and cranny of the first DVD like Mario looking for secret worlds, I realized that I am obsessed with useless information. What the hell does it matter that the original explosion failed to truly capture the cataclysmic arrival of the survivors to the island? Do I really care what the audition tapes were like for the cast members? Unfortunately, I found that invariably the answer is/was, yes.
Instead of self-flagellating in front of the TV for lack of a life or interactive interests, it struck me that metaphorically, I wasn't alone (in fact, I was up alone late at night jumping forward and back on the DVD like a forty year old with his first VCR and a copy of Blue Lagoon). Surely, I wasn't the only one watching to see the critical flashback of Hurley winning the lottery and wondering whether it matters that the numbers are all retired Yankee jerseys? If the hype is to be believed, the "Lost" DVD was selling like hot cakes. Which led me to an epiphany in the wee hours of the night (no I wasn't imagining a prison scene between Kate and Ana Lucia), a lot of people enjoy the excess information and background nuggets. We've all become obsessed with that one little tidbit that makes us the geekiest member of any social gathering, in which our preferred story, movie or TV series comes up. Thank you VH-1 and "Pop-Up Video".
So, what does this sleep-deprived recognition of the obvious have to do with IF (aside from a desperate need to fill a blog entry)?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
During this production of "Truculentus" I will endeavor to give you the inside scoop on the process, the people and the drama (on and off stage). No, I'm not looking to usurp the Star, but hey maybe one more person will read these meanderings in hopes of learning who wears ducks on his feet to get into character.
So, get ready you ardent miners of the trivial, here we go.
Lets start with the show itself. The play was written in 200 B.C. by a Roman named Plautus. He was known for his earthy and satirical plays that poked at socially acceptable norms of the day. For the most part, while he and a few others produced a number of plays that survive until today, the Roman playwrights have gotten short shrift versus their Greek predecessors. Some of this was due to the Romans unabashedly stealing story lines from the Greeks, but part was also due to the more base stories lacking the philosophical nature of the Greeks. Though that hasn't precluded even the greatest of writers from stealing storylines from Plautus. Shakespeare drew Comedy of Errors strongly from Plautus.
Like most of his plays, Truculentus demonstrates Plautus's exploration of iconic characters. In fact, this show created some of the characters which have become the stock & trade of both Commedia del Arte and our modern day comedies. The arrogant soldier, the surly servant, the quick-witted strumpet all populate this earthy story of how willingly men part with their money for the illusion of the perfect woman.
Well, that's a beginning. Be sure to watch for the next installment of "All Things Banal." Thanks for playing.
(By the way the actor doesn't really wear ducks strapped to his feet. They are quail."
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Absence
May make the heart grow fonder, but it sure as hell doesn't help to write another blog entry. After an extended hiatus owed to sloth, distraction and an incoherent thought process, I thought I might try and drop another line...
Yah, I got nothing.
Okay, you're stuck with the free-associative dreck that qualifies as my mind.
One, Truculentus has begun. No, I'm not taking penicillin for it. That's the name of our next show. Though I'm betting the characters ought to take a full battery of tests and medications to ensure that their only sharing the same partner.
This looks like it's going to be a lot of fun for us. What it's going to be for the audience, well, shit that's months away. By then we should have either totally elevated a 2200 year old script to an entertaining evening or proven that even the dead can be killed again.
Speaking of dead, did anyone else realize that the director of "Fear.com" and the remake of "House on Haunted Hill" is from Lansing? Not sure what that has to do with anything, but I thought it was interesting until I just wrote it down.
But that does remind me. If anyone reading this blog has an obscene amount of cash and can't find the blow or hookers to fritter it away on, then why not give IF a call and we'll make our very first movie. We've definitely got a couple of ideas that couldn't be half as bad as two thirds of the industry that accounts for 90% of the world film market. Okay, so that was a desperate fixation on fractions (and percentages), but you get the idea. I will even guarantee you a cameo. Course that might be as a fluffer in the requisite substory of a jaded porn star turned to a life in politics.
All joking aside, why hasn't anyone made Michigan the real third coast for film? We've got everything, but really big damn mountains and that's what CGI is for. We should be the spot for a picture that requires a multitude of settings. Why you could even make a post-apolcolyptic story and travel from the idyllic north to the shell-shocked southeast.
Or maybe a couple of film students could just run out and shoot their own expose on Michael Moore's frightening nude sunbathing habits near his mondo house?
Ah, well, questions, questions.
I'm back, for better or worse.
Yah, I got nothing.
Okay, you're stuck with the free-associative dreck that qualifies as my mind.
One, Truculentus has begun. No, I'm not taking penicillin for it. That's the name of our next show. Though I'm betting the characters ought to take a full battery of tests and medications to ensure that their only sharing the same partner.
This looks like it's going to be a lot of fun for us. What it's going to be for the audience, well, shit that's months away. By then we should have either totally elevated a 2200 year old script to an entertaining evening or proven that even the dead can be killed again.
Speaking of dead, did anyone else realize that the director of "Fear.com" and the remake of "House on Haunted Hill" is from Lansing? Not sure what that has to do with anything, but I thought it was interesting until I just wrote it down.
But that does remind me. If anyone reading this blog has an obscene amount of cash and can't find the blow or hookers to fritter it away on, then why not give IF a call and we'll make our very first movie. We've definitely got a couple of ideas that couldn't be half as bad as two thirds of the industry that accounts for 90% of the world film market. Okay, so that was a desperate fixation on fractions (and percentages), but you get the idea. I will even guarantee you a cameo. Course that might be as a fluffer in the requisite substory of a jaded porn star turned to a life in politics.
All joking aside, why hasn't anyone made Michigan the real third coast for film? We've got everything, but really big damn mountains and that's what CGI is for. We should be the spot for a picture that requires a multitude of settings. Why you could even make a post-apolcolyptic story and travel from the idyllic north to the shell-shocked southeast.
Or maybe a couple of film students could just run out and shoot their own expose on Michael Moore's frightening nude sunbathing habits near his mondo house?
Ah, well, questions, questions.
I'm back, for better or worse.
