So, I often say that directing a show is like throwing a party:

For months you agonize over every decision–the napkin color, the ice sculpture, the well crafted blend of pop/hip-hop/Romania youtube sensations on the playlist–and you imagine how great it’s going to be–”Everyone’s going to love that I’m serving Courvoisier during the song Pass the Courvoisier!”–all so that someone else can come to the party and enjoy it. The fun part is planning and imagining the party, then the party starts…

No one has even noticed there are napkins. The ice sculpture was knocked over by a drunk guy, possibly named Ben. Someone else plugged in their iPod cause they thought “the music was bad” so now you’re listening to Michael Jackson’s Thriller album on repeat. By the time the courvoisier was passed, people were on the verge of passing out and their brain barely sensed that there was liquid in their mouth, let alone discerning the quality or country of origin of that liquid. And you know what? You can’t do anything about it while it’s happen. Welcome to what directing feels like.

(Pass it.)

Yes, sometimes the party is amazing. It’s great when, yes, there is planning, but also when the creator has a much fun as the guests. That is what we call an art.party. Fun begets fun.

The point is: we often stand back and want to wait until every detail is in place before moving forward on a project. But, truth be told, we only ever need the bare elements of a production to make a production–space, people, and (optional) text. The rest will come out of pressure, sleepless nights, and the anxiety attacks that create great art.

Perfectionism is soooooo college.

Lots of love,

JB

“Art is whatever you can get away with.” - John Cage

Watch out because I’m popping my blog cherry!

One of our fearless leaders, Jess Burkle once introduced Art.Party.Theater.Company as a bunch of twenty somethings coming together to create art and theatre because “that’s what twenty somethings do”. I smiled at the time and thought “how silly”…how silly and yet how essential.

I came upon a documentary on The Group Theatre this weekend and it started me thinking… collaboration.training.relaxation.actor.designer.wages.socialism.methods. TheMethod.TheDepression.therecession.Broadway.stars.collaboration.benevolent dictatorship.leaders.pioneers.

The Group was comprised of some twenty somethings including Lee Strasberg, Harold Clurman, Stella Adler, Robert Lewis and Elia Kazan to name a few. Their mission was to create theatre that reflected the times. A theatre for change.

A bunch of twenty somethings that changed the way we see the theatre forever. In the 30’s Broadway was booming with successful bubble gum musicals and commercial entertainment for the masses. (Sound familiar?) The Group Theatre fought against this, inspired by the Moscow Art Theatre, the group held society and their actors to a higher standard.

Sadly, the theatre community is slipping away from this rich history. Our community is falling back into bad habits of dumbing their audience down instead of raising them up, of creating stars instead of collaborators and of producing theatre that numbs rather than nurtures. When you watch the Tony’s tonight, notice that there will be no mention of excellence in Costume, Lighting or Set design. These sections will not be televised. Nuts, huh. These guys don’t sell tickets. But doesn’t the audience deserve to know what goes on when they’re not looking? At least once a year?

So on with the party! A group of twenty somethings with a vision. That’s sexy.

I won’t be able to be there on Tuesday. Tell the Duchess I say hi.

Come see me play a Catholic School girl in:

Monetizing Emma by Felipe Ossa
Planet Connections Theatre Festivity
www.monetizingemma.com
Wednesday June 17, 2009 @ 8pm
Friday June 19, 2009 @ 6p
Monday June 22, 2009 @ 4p
Tuesday June 23, 2009 @ 6p
Thurs June 25, 2009 @ 8p
Friday June 26, 2009 @8p

It’s a really funny piece.
With all of my love and anticipation to work with you very soon, dani

Tuesday evening I went to support my classmate, who was performing with Shen Wei Dance Arts in their site-specific dance response to Ernesto Neto’s anthropodino installation at the Park Avenue Armory. It was awesome–a huge installation exploring the human body that assaulted the senses with various smells (spices filled in these dripping shapes) and textures (there was a gigantic bean bag structure and a plastic ball pit). The dancers navigated the space and weaved through audience members (there were 900 people in the first show!) It reminded me of SCHOOLED because at first spectators anxiously shuffled out of the way when dancers approached them. I  was struck by the level of focus it required–I saw several dancers stop immediately with startling precision when a spectator accidentally cut off their path. If the dancer faced an obstacle, he or she would stop and jump in front of it before changing direction. By the end, when dancers walked up to audience members and jumped before them, several people started jumping back as a ritualistic greeting or response. It was a cool lesson on the willingness of an audience to improvise when thrown into the performance space. Very relevant! 

Here’s a picture of the anthropodino exhibit:

CAM

Sitting in the Theatre de l’Odeon in Paris, which is very oblong- so much so that from the nearest balcony seats to the stage, you miss about half of the action- I was reminded that theatergoing experiences in the “olden days” were as much about seeing the audience as seeing the play. Today, we should go to the theater for the same reason. If you want to just have art wash over you, you can get enough of it on the internet. To go to the theater is to commit to a night out, a celebration as important as a fancy meal or a night bar hopping. We should expect that it will be as fun, exciting and (on some occasions) scary or even ugly. 

Another quick note on subverting expectations. The show was a Feydeau farce, and I had described it to people as, “you know, lots of doors”. I got there and the doors were planks on the floor attached to a pully system that made them rise up only when necessary. fantastic. I did want the doors to spin in the air though, which they didn’t do. 

score 1, theatre de l’odeon, which says: 

The theater, a temporal art, is first and foremost an art of the times, our times. It exists through the encounter between its actors and its audience, the voices that emanate from the stage and the eyes of the spectator. The theater is a space of sharing.

nice.

I was inspired during my trip last weekend to Philadelphia by the strange light in our cab.

(Light and darkness, anyone?)

-AT

Most of the time spent in a rehearsal, in a meeting, in an email chain, in a conversation, in any exchange is spent trying to achieve a common vocabulary.

How do directors get actors to hit emotional notes?

How do designers articulate ideas to directors?

How to writers connect with an audience?

It takes so long to understand each other like family members. (Even my family and I struggle to communicate occasionally.) It can be very frustrating, but it can also be inspiring.

What does Mary mean by “generous”?

What does Kyle mean by “ugly”?

What do I mean by “Yeah, that happened!”?

Finding out, and agreeing on what to call it, is what makes us artists.

Lots of love,

JB

Artistic inspiration, for me, sometimes comes from others’ work. I can’t stop looking at these absolutely beautiful Nina Jua Klein images of The Dreamweaver.

-L