#multi-media performance

Presence – preparation for an interview

I’m being interviewed tomorrow and my topic will be presence. More specifically, if it can be learned or taught. These are my thoughts on the matter, put forth in a sort of interview-y preparatory style, still a little raw. Forgive me if I rattle on or sound pedantic. I’m still working it out.

What does it mean to be present? It means being aware of and responsive to what is actually going on…

Become the Horizon – thanks to John Patrick Shanley

A few weeks ago, I hosted a show whose director is a colleague of John Patrick Shanley. He came to the show, and the next day accepted my friend invite on Facebook. I’m so glad he did that. His posts are often short, and always speak to my heart. This is what he wrote today – “Walk away. Leave it all. Leave your name, your body, your voice. Become the horizon.”

I know he doesn’t write these…

Recommendation: Don’t be so boring – by Anthony Neilson

http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/mar/21/features11.g2

Don’t be so boring

Anthony Neilson

Anthony Neilson

The Guardian, Tuesday 20 March 2007

Theatre is irrelevant to most of the population; audiences have been drifting away for decades. What is to be done? Playwright Anthony Neilson has a suggestion …

I was part of a theatrical movement once. As with most movements, no one…

What can only theater do?

From an article in HowlRound – How Television is Influencing Theatre – ““How good TV has become at doing a certain kind of character-driven long-form storytelling really throws down a gauntlet for playwrights,” Itamar Moses says, “and challenges them to answer the question, with their work: What can only theater do? What can’t we get anywhere else? And there’s no one answer to that, but it…

I am a strict grammarian. I cannot abide bad grammar, poor syntax, misspellings, for God’s sake!

I’ve been reading my way through a pile of scripts – a pile of 29, all to be read and assessed by the end of this week. I read them in batches – three or four in a row, before taking a break to refresh my palate. I don’t want to get jaded or dull, or overcritical. I want to be a fair judge. And I am…

I recently agreed to perform two original monologues in a show – to be performed next Sunday. I was urged by my friend Joe Hutcheson, another act on the bill, to perform the story that I wrote last week and posted in this blog, called “When I was a boy…”

In my writing workshop today, I worked to change that written story into a performance version. I thought it might be instructive to post the…

I just came home from Portland, ME where I was directing a multi-media solo show by Steve Underwood. The show, called Underwater Guy, included about 45 minutes’ worth of beautiful underwater video shot by Steve, in his experience as a free diver. The narrative portion of the show was about 45 minutes also, with about half of that overlaid over the video. So we had multiple elements to deal with,…

I’m in Maine, directing a solo show by my buddy Steve Underwood. Steve is a free diver and the name of the show is Underwater Guy. He’s a smart and funny man, with major skills in many areas, including underwater filmography. We created a multi-media extravaganza and, as with many solo shows, we didn’t allow ourselves enough time to complete all the elements of the show, so Steve was…