Writer’s groups are a dime a dozen these days and very few distinguish themselves.  Inkslingers, based out of Madison, WI, is one of the very few who do and manage to have their work produced.  I have been lucky enough to act for them on and off throughout the past three years at their staged readings.  However this year, I was asked to direct two of their short plays to be produced in a small theater in Madison.  The kicker with Inkslingers is that the playwrights are the producers of the show.  So the pressure was on.

Four directors had about four weeks to find actors and direct a show of twelve short plays.  The diversity of voices in the works had us scrambling for actresses over 50 and other types of actors you normally don’t have to worry about in mainstream theater.  However, the quality of the work written gave the directors in particular a myriad of was to go with their production.  The writer’s were faced with finally letting go of their work and allowing someone else to bring their voice to fruition.  Which I have to say they all handled very gracefully (more so than I would have).  The actors were given an opportunity to do original work, written and produced in their home town.

My actors met for once a week, due to schedules and not having a whole cast until a week before the show.  We did two plays one by Jan Levine Thal “Identity” and one by George Farah “Tech Support”.  Luckily, I had actors that could do both so I didn’t have to worry about separate casts.  I also had the fortune to work with actors ranging in age from late 30’s to mid 70’s.  One of the writers was at first skeptical of casting decision but once that writer came to rehearsal, all fears were allayed.  The other writer was did not come to rehearsal but was very open to suggestions about wording and other ideas on the play in general.  There were four performances and I am happy to say they were sold out each time.

Madison is fortunate to have a glut of artists that live in town and show their work here.  I am pleased that I have had the opportunity to work with one of the gems in this artistic community and bring quality writing and acting to life.

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Dana Pellebon is also known as “Ms. Behavin’” with Foxy Veronica’s Peach Pies Caburlesque Show

and also blogs about her son, Cobain, at www.loveformyson.blogspot.com

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I had expected to write, today, about the revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, featuring Tony-award winning actors such as Phylicia Rashad, James Earl Jones, and Anika Noni Rose (all of whom are also TV and movie stars, but it does my luddite heart good to only list them as being paragons of the theatre). It’s a production that has sparked some controversy due to the cast being entirely African American. However, living in the midwest, I can’t actually go and see it – so I was going to look online for some reviews and such.

Podcasting and Time-Shifting

There’s a great show on CUNY called Theatre Talk which interviews Broadway stars and producers and directors and in general indulges in punditry about the craft of the show. I noticed, via the Barksdale Theatre Blog, that there was going to be an episode where actress Elizabeth Ashley and critic Tom Lahr discuss the implications of the casting of Tennessee Williams‘ play. Unfortunately, not only do I tend to be sleeping at 7:30am EST (when the show was on), but I also don’t get CUNY on my cable channels.

Conveniently enough, though, there is a podcast version of the show offered, so that I’ll be able to hear the show later on (and probably write about it; I do, believe it or not, prefer to write about things that I’ve some familiarity with). While on the iTunes subscription page, though, there’s also a little sidebar listing what “Other listeners to this podcast subscribe to…”

Going Down Under

One of the shows that caught my eye was “Broadway at Bedtime“, a show from JOY 94.9 in Melbourne, Australia. It had nothing to do with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof…but I did notice that a recent episode covered the opening of Spamalot in their city, which is why right now I’m listening to King Arthur sing about the round table with a team of cheerleaders. I see other episodes include bits with Chazz Palmintieri, one of my other favorite actors.

Prior episodes of Theatre Talk feature guests like the playwrights Tom Stoppard and Edward Albee,  actors Ian McShane and Raul Esparza…it just goes on. The wealth of material freely available online is mind-boggling, and enables anyone to feel connected to the shows in spite of distance, time, or financial limitations.

Try them out: Theatre Talk and Broadway at Bedtime.

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And that did it – I needed to find out more, not that I’ll get to actually see it any time soon. But surely I can catch glimpses of it via the web?

Stalking Passing Strange

Starting at the website of the show, I’m glad to see that they are making excellent use of Web 2.0 style marketing: they don’t make you pay for the songs, they give it away. Within seconds I had

• Arlington Hill – Slow, electronic mellowness reminiscent of Strawberry Fields
• Amsterdam – a folk rock ensemble piece as clear and bright as an espresso
• Come Down Now - Reminded me of Indigo Girls (minus guitars) with a R&B feel.
• Keys – This one seemed the most like a typical Broadway musical song – more oratorical in feel.

I went from there to look at the “behind the scenes” video, and then the photos, and then the story of Stew…the backstage blog was a bit of a disappointment, as it consisted of little one line messages from the cast and low-quality candid pics.

What’s it all about?

The show itself is “…A rock ’n’ roll autobiography of an artist in search of himself,” according to this rave review from the New York Times That artist would be Stew, the moving force behind this musical that’s not really a musical, a show that seems to have breathed fresh life into the genre by keeping to its roots – not, as you might think, traditional African-American culture, but rather to a young man raised on Zen Buddhism and world travel. Stew is the leader of the L.A. based music group The Negro Problem, and he seems to have taken his musical skills successfully across the country to land unconventionally in the middle of a tired musical theatre scene, where even the rebel musicals like RENT! still cleaved to the standard two-act song-filled formula.

But you can see for yourself: enjoy the songs from the site and see how it develops. Parts of the site are still coming, but there’s a lot to enjoy. And I suspect we’ll see a lot of them at the Tony’s, as well.

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Let me beam with pride at being a citizen of the fine city of Madison.

Last night there was a disturbance – worried neighbors called the police to say that they could see people with guns silhouetted through a window. The police responded as they would to any hostage situation, with multiple officers and ready to take action – until they learned that it was actually a local theatre group rehearsing a play about Irish terrorism called the “Lieutenant of Inishmore.”

The police issued no tickets, no warnings, not even a “hey, maybe you should use more fake guns.” They simply said “Oh, it’s a rehearsal.” and went on their way.

How to Look Like You’re Doing Something

Contrast this attitude with the policy of Arkansas Tech, which chose to ban a production of Sondheim’s “Assassins”, a play about the various men in history who have tried (or succeeded) in assassinating presidents. The Administration – no one actually took responsibility, and indeed, the faculty seems downright scared of commenting on the ban – decided that they would let the actors and crew do a dress reheasal, but only if the fake wooden guns were sawed in half and no actual sound effects of gunshots were done.

Read the whole article to learn about the extent of the decision, the reactions, and the potential ramifications. The fact that football parties, where real gunshots are apparently going off, are fine but that musical theatre is perceived as a danger just…boggles the mind. Makes me want to buy the soundtrack of Assassins just to see if it is more violent than, say, the History Channel.

But the bard said it best:

“Write me a prologue, and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed; and for the more better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not Pyramus but Bottom the weaver. That will put them out of fear.”

—A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 3.1

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Last night’s presentation on Great Performances was as good as promised. Anyone who has ever liked Seinfeld or Sex and the City will appreciate it – in fact, you might think the play was a rip-off of those ouvres until you realized that Sondheim wrote it in the 70’s. The music is also melodic enough that I was able to appreciate it more than the wandering tunes of Sweeney Todd, and included one of my favorites: “Not Getting Married“, a hilarious patter song sung by a nervous bride on her wedding day.

Raul Azara had an understated elegance to being the lead, content to be the lens through which the ensemble could explore their talents of acting, singing, and playing instruments (there’s something quite hilarious about a wide-eyed flight attendant with perfectly-coiffed blonde hair puffing away on a baritone in the middle of a large number). He really let his talent shine in the final number, though, “Being Alive“, and “Marry Me…a Little“.

One of the more difficult challenges in any production like this is the translation of the play from the intimacy of a theatre – an immersive experience – to a tiny screen in a living room. The directors met this challenge beautifully – the lighting, focusing our attention, giving dimly- seen presence to the ensemble at times, as well as the choreography of the camera served to augment the script and acting rather than simply documenting it.  And you were able to see Stephen Sondheim interviewed at the end and it really brought home the ground-breaking nature of this musical.

So I’m relieved to see the DVD is available through PBS.ORG, and I plan on purchasing it soon. It’s something I can see coming back to and enjoying again and again.

Blue Man Group: How To Be A Megastar LIVE! 

Not much to say about this, except that the bridge between the fine arts and the young new kid on the block, Performance Art, is Blue Man Group. Not just the music, but the entire commitment of their performances to this identity of alien-yet-familiar forms. So the idea of a DVD-CD-Book set coming out on March 25th, 2008 is pretty damn cool. The fact that this avant-garde group was performing in Dallas, TX, in front of over 40,000 Blue Man fans is even more astonishing – a great example of how cutting-edge art can support himself.

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