To Do or Not To Do
I love Shakespeare. The man has told some of the most enduring stories in the English language. 400 years later, his work is THE most commonly produced in theatres world-wide. There are countless actors out there who have played Juliet or Hamlet and countless more who are coming into your auditions with those monologues. Thus, I ask the eternal question of theatres everywhere: to do, or to not do Shakespeare?
To do:
- The obvious reason: his plays are really good. And between all thirty-seven of his works, I believe that there is a Shakespeare play out there for everyone, even for my Shakespeare-hating roommate.
- This is a personal reason for me, but Shakespeare has written some of the most phenomenal female characters. Lady Macbeth, Gonreil, Regan and Cordelia, even stock ingénues like Juliet are fleshed leading roles.
- Bonus: Shakespeare also wrote in many of his plays the line “They fight”. Fighting plays with great female characters. Let’s do the Shakespeare!
- As a budding poet who cannot write rhymes or in verse to save her life, I have to give grudging respect to William Shakespeare. One point for Team To Do.
- Audience recognition. Who doesn’t know Hamlet? These plays are right up there with The Sound of Music when it comes to having a built-in audience. I saw Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth done in kids’ cartoons long before I saw them onstage or even in English class.
- No pesky copyright laws. Will isn’t going to come around to your theatre and insist that instagramming his show is a violation. He’s not going to argue about your gender-bent, disco-themed, butoh interpretation of Henry V.
To not do:
- Can you name one other playwright from Shakespeare’s time? Where are the productions of The Changeling? Lope de Vega wrote some great female roles as well! Read more…
One of my goals this year was to take bigger risks creatively. A mini goal within that – create Video Cover Letters, or VCLs at Dallas Travers calls them. A quick authentic video to introduce yourself to a casting director or producer. It sounded like a cool, new take on a traditional cover letter and also a little scary…so I knew I had to do it! We are already approaching the end of the first quarter of 2014…… and no VCLs so far…
The college capstone experience
In order to graduate with a B.A. in Theatre, I am required to fulfill some senior capstone project, in which I put the skills I have gained over the last four years to the test. Some people direct a one act play; a few will write up journals about a role they have been cast in/backstage experience. I decided to organize/perform the campus production of The Vagina Monologues.
I have spent the last year (and money) working alongside the directors and my co-organizer as we prepared for February 2014. We planned it all out: held auditions, cast over fifty women, ran rehearsals every Sunday since September. In six months, we organized several major fund-raising events all leading up to the show itself. I carried a seven foot model of a vagina across campus through the snow and made VagPops to sell. Then I learned my lines for my monologue and performed in the show.
This was my third year doing The Vagina Monologues and I bet most of the people reading this blog are cringing every time I use the word “vagina”. Yes, this is the show that is the biggest female sex joke since Meg Ryan was at the deli and it’s the show that is part of the V-Day campaign. Until the violence stops is their motto – they are focused on raising money and awareness of sexual and domestic violence against women. This is a personal cause for me and I can’t imagine a better way to support it than by doing theatre and bringing these issues to a new audience every night. I remember seeing the show my freshman year and then walking out yelling and crying. The next year, I was in the show and my mom was in the audience. Read more…
More Ways To Review Theatre
This week, the Publicity Associate at my company wanted the Box Office Manager to find out if a particular reviewer did actually attend a performance of the current show because a questionable review appeared on her blog. Not really sure how looking up ticketing history could establish if this reviewer attended or not – she could have passed the tickets to someone else. But that’s not the point.
What perked my interest in this event was how concerned we were over someone who reviewed through her personal blog and has never written for any publication in her life. This is the same person who attends every show at this company and has “special needs” for where she sits. When she arrived late to a performance of another production, she was given the choice to attend another performance and she cried foul because the curtain wasn’t held for her to begin with. This is also the same reviewer who spoke highly of a Shakespeare production that I stage managed except for one actor. This actor happened to find her review and he was a mess afterwards. So I’m clearly not keen on this woman. And while I acknowledge and respect that everyone has their own opinion, this woman’s writing demonstrates a huge ego which is hard to overlook.
I generally pay no attention to reviews of any sort and don’t go out of my way to read them unless there is something to note – like why one of my actors is upset. And so keeping the golden rule to never talk about them is essentially easy for me. But I get that they are important for theatres and the artists that are mentioned in them. What I don’t get is how a review that is blogged by someone with a small readership can matter so much and how a theatre company can justify giving comps to a writer who has no notable writing credentials other than a blog.
Lights, Camera, Re-Enaction
The Washington-area film and television world has its peculiarities. Due to security concerns (and inflated worries), very few “D.C.” shows are actually filmed primarily in D.C.; Baltimore — close enough and similar enough, more or less — is the national capital’s usual stunt double.
The coming of HBO’s “Veep” and Netflix’s “House of Cards” have been manna from greenlight Heaven for the region’s actors, and it’s become a common game to look for one’s friends and former co-stars in the background of a scene. Someone who once played my wife on stage can be seen firmly nodding during a Capitol hallway meeting on Season Three of “Cards”; a director who turned me down for a role can be seen walking down the hall near Vice President Louis-Dreyfus in her show’s Season One. (It takes a bit more to actually get a line — D.C. theatrical institution Holly Twyford scored a brief speaking role on “Cards”.)
But there is before-the-camera hope for the rest of us in the D.C. region as well, thanks to the presence of Discovery Communications in Silver Spring, Maryland. While that company started off as simply the Discovery Channel, it now includes networks like Animal Planet, TLC, and — to the benefit of us performers — Investigation Discovery.
Why devise?
This semester, I’m finally taking a class I have been waiting for: Devising. The waiting was worth it – I’m doing the kind of theatre I’ve been craving and the results astound me in every class.
Instead of starting with a text, we skip the script and we play. Isn’t that what we are? Players? Through improv and collaboration, a simple exercise found itself focused in on the word “protect” and the idea of daddy issues was turned into planets orbiting and eventually became a scene about public transportation. I couldn’t tell you how we went from daddy issues to the subway, but we devised.
But WHY? Why devise theatre? What’s wrong with pulling some good old Shakespeare off the shelf, or following the stage directions?
Success….or failure?
Since I’ve moved to London I’ve started to take a greater interest in the West End, especially new shows that come in and how they do. Obviously a number of factors contribute to whether a show will be a success or failure, however it seems from paying close attention there is a kind of pattern going on. So let’s split this into categories:
Broadway Transfer: The Book of Mormon opened a year ago to rave reviews, and has mainly sold out since then. I have yet to see it however was lucky enough to go backstage; the simple set and costumes but with some quirky props does seem to lead to a success. Everyone I know who has seen has loved it and I can see it running for a long time. I’m sure some of its success is to do with the South Park connection and the fact there was such a hype before it even came over. The second Broadway transfer we received was Once, based off the 2006 film, and yet again received brilliant reviews. I’ve yet to see this either but the actor-musician aspect really intrigues me so it’s definitely on my list. However I can’t see why it’s such a hit when similar musicals from similar basis material have failed.
It’s Only Words
A recent string of gigs have revealed some choice Scottish phrases that I feel are essential to the successful running of any technical rehearsal. If only to lighten the mood when, for the fifteenth time in the day, the SAME DIMMER SWITCH HAS TRIPPED FOR NO APARRENT REASON!?! And that adorable picture of Ryan Gosling from standbyheygirl just isn’t doing it for you anymore.
photo credit: http://standbyheygirl.tumblr.com/
You may, in situations such as these, be forced to shout out some words of frustration. Therefore my Green-Roomies I present to you some hilarious expressions from my hometown of Dundee, Scotland for you to use in your own theatrical endeavours. Or just in day-to-day life really. At the checkout line in Trader Joes. Trying to squeeze yourself and your backpack onto the N train at 6pm. Walking into Starbucks and joining a line that’s longer than the wait at Disneyworld…
1) Belter (noun)
A person causing frustration: Debbie, stop being a Belter and get on with the line reading please.
NB: Commonly mistaken in other parts of Scotland for a person who provides humour/ amusement.
2) Sake (exclamation)
Used alone as a noun. Taken from the expression “For God’s Sake”: The lunch order will be late again! Sake!
The Green Room 