Be thankful we're almost done here.

 Crappy link but go read:  You might have heard about the latest cultural outrage incident: Vice President-Elect Mike Pence attended a performance of the

HELPING TO RE-ELECT TRUMP, ONE SMUG SNEER AT A TIME: ‘You’re Too Poor To Buy Tickets Anyway’: Wealthy Celebs Sneer at ‘Hamilton’ Boycotters.

MARC THIESSEN: ‘Hamilton’ and the implosion of the American left.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: Here’s How the ‘Hamilton’ Cast Reacted When Hillary Clinton Attended their Show.

This may become a continuing series

NEW RIOT IDEOLOGY: RESULTS THROUGH COERCION:

BALTIMORE AND THE RIOT IDEOLOGY, REBORN. At City Journal, Fred Siegel writes:

and on a larger scale: THE COCKROACH OF IDEOLOGIES: Socialism As A Species Of Fraud. “Only under socialism could Fidel Castro become the richest warlord, relative to his subjects’ wealth, in recorded history. (And that was the least of his sins.) Only under socialism could Maria Gabriela Chavez, daughter of socialist tribune of the people Hugo Chavez, beloved by the American left, waltz off with a $4 billion fortune. But then, she was a piker: Chavez’s Minister of the Treasury stashed $11 billion in Swiss bank accounts. Charles Ponzi’s mistake was that he should have gone into politics. He could have gone far as a socialist politician, and could have avoided prison.”

I had this discussion with a fellow actor over a decade ago when we tried to mount a production.  Nice to see great minds think alike:

The Crucible: a Parable of the Red Scare or the Totalitarian State?

Three takes.

First night of auditions for Li'l Abner last night ...... got about half the numbers I needed.  Some talented people who will be cast in principle roles, soe good stage fillers but not enough .... and a few folks that for various reasons I just CAN'T use.

Query: why don't people under 25 come to auditions prepared?  It's a freakin MUSICAL!  And you didn't think you'd be asked to SING?  The aucition notice called for 1 minute of music.  Pick the meat of the song.  NOBODY did.  Not one person started in the middle so I could hear a specific run or big finish.  Over HALF didn't have music.  A capella won't cut it (with a few exceptions.)

Shoes.  ONE woman wore dance shoes.  Guys?  Didn't expect any.  This isn't a big dance show - more about movement.  But for the femmes there are several parts that require "sex appeal" ..... so SHOW me some.  Instead I got mucklucks and bulky sweaters.

Learn to read.  I had two people who i WANTED to give principle parts to but I can't simply because they are only slightly above functional illiteracy.   Find out what the show's about at LEAST a little!  Know plot, setting, period.  It takes 15 seconds.  At least ASK about it!

My staff is solid .... lots of good input and flexability.  Hopefully tonight's turnout is better otherwise we're ovder a serious barrell.

The 48 Hour Theater Project for Theater Daedalus has come and gone.  Quick rundown.  Deborah and Remy participated as actors and I was again priveledge to be a director.  Eleven writers met were given instructions at 8pm Thursday:  write a 10-15 minute play, cast of 4 (2 men, 2 women, one of each over 35 and one of each under 35.)  They had to include the following actions: one character told a lie, one tells the truth and one laughs inappropriately.  They also had to include at least one of three lines: "What kind of day has it been?". "It all comes down to good guys and bad guys" or the exchange "What do you hear?  Nothing but the rain."

Twelve hours later the scripts were delivered to the five directors.  We read (and reread) the scripts, then ranked them 1-11 and submitted our results to our Stage Manager.  We ALSO ranked the 5 shows we'd most like to direct top to bottom.  After doing much math the top 5 shows were selected and assigned to the directors.  We met at 6pm to give our evaluations to the authors and to "draft" our casts.  

A couple hours of table work were followed by a rousing few hours of comraderie at Dirty Franks on S High Street (HIGHLY recommended for GREAT dogs and even greater prices.)   The REAL work began thenext day at 8am.  Warmups then blocking and serious workof developing and producing this scripts - creating new works and breathing live into previously non-existant characters.Lunch break at noon.  Twenty minutes of tech work on the stage.  A little more work on the "rough spots" ... a dry run, giving us a chance to see each other's work ... a dinner break ... curtain at 7pm... GREAT house of almost 100 ... and finally retreating to Planks on S High for much winding down and reverie.

What GREAT work.  Words can really not descrive the excellance that is brought to bear on this weekend.  Authors from Maint to Alaska ... mainly Ohio actors but a few returning from New York or Chicago to grace out Central Ohio stage again.  Directors from two states.

I can't begin to tell you how small and insignificant I feel in this program.  My thanks to all for your love and dedication to the project.  And for those of you stumbling across this missive, go to the site, http://www.theatredaedalus.com/ , see what they're doing, and become a part of it

Opening Night

One of my worst ever.

1. Pirates first entrance. We've always pushed the tempo....last night we finished about a measure and a half before the orchestra. Hook is to take a tumble from a bier. He fell wrong and wrenched his back. As a result, his lines, timing and lyrics went out the window. Our first funny bit was totally lost and thus failed the other two times it was performed in the show. The tango lyrics were only sung about 1/3 of the time. Nagging feeling that something else is missing.

2. Second entrance: Lost boys built Wendy's House crooked so our dance area was greatly reduced. Dance fine. Lines fine. Lyrics fine. Comedy bits lost – timing off. And costume bits flying apart on stage (only two, but still) Nagging feeling continues....can't put my finger on it.

3. Tiger Lily scene. Starkey got tangled up backstage and missed the entrance. It's his big scene. I'd done the bit before so I grabbed TL and Smee and I went ahead with the scene....about halfway through the initial cross (all Smee lines) Starkey came up behind us. I placed TL in her spot, went back to mine and the scene played out just fine. Nagging feeling lingers. WHAT'S MISSING?

4. Abduction scene: Somebody spilled bubble solution downstage. Seemed to concern the Indians quite a bit but nobody really plays that scene in the DS area so not an issue. Lost Boys have been playing the scene too far up and too far right so the abduction looses it's surprise. Otherwise this scene came off fine

5. Waltz: not bad. Except. Went to grab the lapels of my vest in the middle of the song when I realized what the nagging feeling was and what was missing. My vest! Did the whole show w/o it. And nobody noticed. Although Smee mentioned at one point I looked a little “Luke Skywalker-ish” due to the off white tunic I was wearing. Battle on the ship. Not bad. I Gotta Crow: not bad.

Margret Qwamme wrote the review. More of a rundown. All very “factual.” Cast wasn't happy as we retired to the Jury Room to lick our wounds. BG seemed OK with it all … audience seemed to enjoy it. Tonight we fix it and do it right.

One down four to go.

Mood:  down

Interesting project. Twenty four hour theater. Actors, writers and directors get together Friday night at 8pm to discuss procedures, themes, etc. Subject matter drawn from a hat, directors and actors adjourn to drinking and bitch about writers and scripts.....writers adjourn to bitch about actors and directors and write a script, due at 8am.

Saturday morning at 7am (!) Breakfast. I (a director in this little project) didn't attend. No self respecting theater person WOULD unless they'd been up all night. At 8 am scripts were matched with directors and actors were matched with parts. I'd say 95% of the participating actors in this project were among the top 10-15% of the field in Columbus community theater. Several have done substantial equity work. So there's no “speak carriers” in the bunch. And I got two of the best. I mean no disrespect to the three other fine actors in my cast but let me just say that getting to spend 4 hours or so developing characters and blocking a script with Joyce Leahy and Jane Mowder was well worth getting up early on a cold freezing rainy January Ohio morning. We spent about 2 hours reading the script, making some changes (with the author's approval) and discussing all those “theatrical” things like character development and motivation. This is WAY out of my realm. In a “normal” main stage production I rely on my actors to do their own homework and then fir the pieces together. I deal a LOT more in pictures, rhythm, pace and tempo. What a dream it was doing the nuts and bolts work with Jane and Joyce. The effort, skill and attention to detail they brought to this little 15 minute piece was phenominal, and I KNEW the work being done in the other rooms by the other cast was equally impressive.

4:00: Tech/run. Spike the sets, run light cues and run the show. I wasn't happy. We didn't have the set pieces we thought we'd have, I spiked two pieces “wrong” and the run of the show seemed clunky. Timing issues...blocking “changes”....just enough to weaken it a little. I made notes to “adjust” the spikes when I got the chance, and to address the other issues with the actors involved individually. At this stage I don't like making anybody “look bad” in front of the others. Plus I got to see the other three shows. Being VERY familiar with the playwrights I was used to their bag of tricks and saw them on display. IMHO we might have had the weakest script. Perhaps it was just the nature of the project....the 12 hour immersion and line by line sped up analysis that's done, but I just wasn't happy.

8:00 Curtain. We went up first. The changed spiked were an improvement. A couple set pieces had arrived and been added. Nice. The “acting” issues of the dry run had been fixed. My cast did exactly what we had agreed they should do. Did we reach the audience. I don't think so. The three other pices were a little more entertaining, a little more “gotcha.” A second act was added: the producer doing a staged reading of a script written by his grad school professor about the pains of being an Indians fan. Well presented and entertaining. Act III was a combination of four stories by these same playwrights, all set in the same restaurant and going on at once. Nice story ideas, well acted, but it made for a VERY late evening after a VERY long day.

I left the theater about 11:15 and didn't go to the party. I'm one of the Grand Old Men of the group so “the kids” won't really miss me. They say you're only as good as your next show. Hope my next show comes soon because this wasn't my best work. In this community if the masses get a sniff that you might be loosing your game it is VERY hard to turn that around. Actors won't audition for you....tech people have “conflicts” when you call on them. Your product suffers from the self fulfilling prophecy and in a few years you're a reminiscence at the party – “Remember old what's his name? I worked with him when he was GOOD.”