moving on

Another Athol Fugard for me. With under four weeks of rehearsal (if I can get it cast before the holidays) and an opening on January 30.

First show for my (mission-less, structure-less) theatre company (vicious trap) and my first major directing gig in Denver.

The Immorality Act was an apartheid law making interracial sex illegal. Love-litigation seemed relevant to me again in light of prop 8 (and others across the country). So here I go, already in an Athol Fugard rut. This should be fun. And darker than the last one - if that’s possible.

I needed some new T-shirts, so I designed a few. They are all available from cafepress:

• dragons
• strange birds
• symbiosis

I think you and everyone you know needs a T-shirt with a dragon on it. No?

It’s Boulder International Fringe Festival time. What a busy summer. This is following the (decidedly uninteresting) Theatre Communications Group and National Performing Arts joint convention and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference (which only Michelle can report on appropriately, if interested). All here in Denver.

Next week is the DNC, which will be crazy. We have Arturo Ui going back up, as well as the San Francisco Mime Troupe using our space, and possibly more - All part of our own Artistic | Political Convergence 2008. Who knows what else might happen.

But this week is Boulder Fringe, so Julie and I went up for two shows last night. The second, advertised as a Butoh piece, was a sloppy bit of performance resembling improv-style exercises more than anything. You win some, you lose some. The first piece, however was brilliant (and also butoh-influenced).

Performed by One Continuous Mistake (founded in Chicago by two MFA students of Naropa University here in Boulder), it was a Two-man production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, as de- and re-constructed with help from Shakespeare, Beckett, Sacher-Masoch, Sophocles, Genet, Camus, and Hitler.

It was the perfect mix of Three Sisters and Waiting for Godot (or Masha, to be accurate), to bring the dark subtlety of Chekhov’s piece into it’s absurd and broken proper light. Absolutely beautiful in conception and performance, with live sound/music from a third performer and an overall precision I haven’t seen in a while.

Inspired once again to create something, Julie and I decided there was no better time than the present to start a (third) theatre company. And thus: Vicious Trap, a theatre collective without a mission, vision, leadership, venue, budget, structure or plan for the future (save the whims of two “executive suckers”) is preparing to announce it’s first ever production. We are reading two scripts, and will start rehearsal on one of them as soon as we can get the Democrats out of our city and the hippies out of our warehouse in a few weeks. You’ll be the first to know what we decide on.

The blog looks great, Eric! You’ve inspired me! (plus, I realize that some of you don’t know exactly what I’m doing these days, etc.) So..

Danny and I are leaving in ONE WEEK (oh God, that’s a little terrifying) for Boca Raton, FL, where I will be entering the MFA acting program at Florida Atlantic University. (so their website isn’t the prettiest, but it’ll give you an idea) I’m really pumped about it - especially after reading Nicole’s comment about actors taking classes regularly (doesn’t Anne Bogart make that same point in one of her books?), I feel really energized (and lucky) to be spending the next three years of my life learning more about how to do what I love!

The program is a fairly standard one, grounded in Alexander for movement and Linklatter for voice, though the faculty - as well as visiting artists - draw upon a variety of other techniques as well. One of my favorite characteristics of the program is that it works intensively on campus at FAU for the first two years and then features a professional internship for the final year. So if you’re interested in a more performance-oriented career, FAU works to hook you up with a theatre somewhere in the country for you to perform with during that final year; if you’re more academic-oriented, they will place you with a college or university where you can teach. The program accepts ten students (5 men and 5 women) every two years, so basically while you’re on campus, you get all their attention. Isn’t that nice?

I could say lots more, but I unfortunately am still working and I have to be there in 20 minutes, so my time for today is up. But know that my email and phone number will be the same, so you know how to reach me if you need me! Good luck with your various projects/auditions, etc. I love hearing about what everyone is doing!

Because this is what I do with my days, I thought it was time to re-design this site for easier use. If you log in, you’ll notice I upgraded the back-end as well. hope you like it. I’m considering a switch from categories (which we are using now) to tags. What do you all think?

I’ll also be adding a few new features as I can get to it.

Only the index page is done as of 6:34, Sunday, Aug 10. The rest will be up and running soon.

Feel free to leave your comments on this post. What do you like? What don’t you like? What else should the site do?

update: everything should work. let me know if it doesn’t. still may be some features to come.

Alright kids, I know we’ve not been updating this, but I think we should try and do it again. I’m getting back into the theater world and would love to share and be shared with about experiences and tips and whatnot.

First off, I created my new acting website which I’m decently proud of. Still have some work to be done - mainly on the digital press kit I’m creating. Why don’t more actors have those? Seems like it’s a good thing to send out. I’ll be including everything that’s on my site plus a few mp3s for listening enjoyment. The only other thing I feel I’m really lacking is a film reel. But maybe that’s cause I’ve not done any film. Hopefully that will change soon with a student film or something.

I’m been auditioning (7 in the past 2 weeks) and it’s not been frustrating at all. In fact, it’s been empowering - I’m thinking of it as free practice. Had a great one tonight, but who’s to say if anything will come from it. I’m also taking voice lessons again and am contemplating dance classes. Also working to get in better shape for some potential modeling.

So I’m working hard at getting back into this - though I know it will take time. I’m finally ready to put in the work effort of constantly scanning Backstage, Mandy, Actor’s Access, etc., and am ready to make the commitment to being an actor. It feels good. It feels amazing. I can’t wait to book my first job.

How’s it going for you kiddies?

Respond now.

I’m back from tour in time for tech week on Brecht’s Hitler-analogy play. Looks like I’ll be Tech Directing (or some such) for this show as well. Good thing I have a whole week to build the ’set’ (15 dress forms, 15 hanging practicals, and 15 large banners). Should be a fun show if I survive till opening.

Tomorrow morning we pick up a trailer at 7AM, load up our set and head off for Estherville, IA. The first leg of the tour is just over two weeks through Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and back to Denver. After a day to relax, we’ll be at it again with a west coast schedule that isn’t settled yet.

The point is, we’re coming to you (unless you are Nicole or Kyle). We will be in Chicago all next weekend, with a performance on Sunday night. Then we will be based out of Goshen for the next week, performing in Fort Wayne on Tuesday and Goshen on Thursday.

Now I am going to go back and build the set. It seems about time to get that done.

So a friend of mine and I want to start a play reading group with some people that we work with (so we can more easily get together)–something to just keep us up on our theater life and get to know plays that we might not otherwise have read.  Does anyone have any suggestions for plays that must be read?  Honestly, I’m not much of a play reader when I don’t need to be reading them; I think she’s a little more read than I am as far as the ‘classic’ contemporary plays go since she’s attending an acting conservatory right now.  So does anyone have any good ones that have come out more recently (last 10 years or so…) or others that are just a little bit under the radar/ones that wouldn’t really be taught in school settings?  Let me know!!  Oh, and I just saw August Osage County and if it comes back to Chicago or goes wherever you happen to be, you should go see it.  It’s incredible (although the original cast will soon be done).  I’m also hoping to see Rapunzel by Kneehigh Theater this week, so I’ll let you know how that is!

So, the report. Nicole mentioned that I had a big audition in Washington DC this past weekend. It’s true. The audition was for 1776, a musical that hit Broadway in the late 60’s and was made into a movie in 1972. It’s known for having an extremely strong book, while the music is less known. This particular production would be at the Ford’s Theater (yes, the theater Lincoln was shot in), and I know the director, Coy, from previous city interactions.

Coy seemed to think this would be a great chance for me to get my feet wet, as there’s a small part (the Courier), that would fit me perfectly. While the courier doesn’t have a ton of action, he does have a somewhat heartbreaking solo in the second act. Long story short, Coy brought me down for the audition and call back. I saw him last night - we went for sushi - and he told me the good (sort of) news. I had been cast in the role of the Courier! I was one of the first people cast, and rocked my vocal audition.

Then came the bad news. He had just heard from the artistic director that the show… is not happening. The theater is in a $4 million hole, and they’re finishing over $40 million in renovations on the space. 1776 was to be the huge expensive show next year (around $2 million), so they cut it. It’s not official yet, but barring a miracle it will become official this week.

Though it’s a bummer, it’s a nice boost to know that although I had the advantage of knowing the director, I got cast in a large scale production. Hopefully I can take that momentum with me as I re-start my auditioning motor.