Updates from April, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Jessica Jackson 12:20 pm on April 23, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: A Wonderful Noise, Barbershop, , Michael Hollinger, Vance Lehmkuhl   

    Dramaturkeys: A Wonderful Noise 

    Now that the commencement of our 2009 season is nigh, and oh, how nigh it is, I thought I’d give our faithful blog-readers a sneak peak (read: exerpt) at the interviews with playwrights, translators, composers, directors and actors that will appear in this season’s program.  Up first, A Wonderful Noise:

    An Interview with Michael Hollinger (Book, Music, Lyrics & Story) and Vance Lehmkuhl (Music, Lyrics & Story)

    A Wonderful Noise takes place on the cusp of America’s involvement in World War II. This time is often cited as an end to innocence for this country. Why did you choose it?
    The various characters in A Wonderful Noise are all on a coming-of-age journey that parallels the journey our country is about to take at that point — from a comparatively rural population and agrarian economy to an urban population and industrial economy, from a rather isolationist nation to one that becomes the most prominent player on the global stage.

    During the 1940s, America experienced a revival in the popularity of Barbershop Quartet singing. What about this music inspired this story?
    It probably starts from a fascination with the human voice, a cappella, in a group of voices – the “wonderful noise” referred to in the title. Among genres of a cappella ensemble singing, barbershop is the one that springs most readily to mind for most Americans. The time period around 1940 was a singular moment for barbershop. The genre, having flourished in the 1900s and teens, had largely died out in the 20s and 30s…The establishment in 1939 of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA) and the concept of national competitions not only provided the overall setting for our story, but poised the characters in a moment of balance between looking nostalgically back at past traditions as well as forward to future uncertainties.

    See our 2009 program this summer for the full interview.

     

    • avery 2:52 pm on April 29, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I had no idea that there was an SPEBSQSA. It’s amazing the things you can learn from this blog. Creede could start a SPEHABBPB, the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of High Altitude Bowling Ball Projectile Ballistics. I like acronyms with lots of letters that can’t be pronounced.

    • Thomas Rea 9:02 am on November 21, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Two years ago my wife and I were at the theater when nothing was happening but we looked at the schedule and, because I am a Barbershopper, I was interested in “A wonderful noise”. I am still interested and would like to know who I should contact to get more information on its availability.

  • jonathandallsup 8:09 pm on April 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: black box,   

    More work at CRT’s “2nd Stage Theatre”! 

    Concrete work continues at CRT’s 2nd Stage Theatre!

    As you visit Creede throughout the summer you will see the exterior of the building being fabricated.  And soon you will see a side with a rendering of the finished facade on site.

    Here are pictures of the concrete pour in this week’s work.  Check back often for more updates and if you have questions don’t hesitate to post a comment…I’m sure other probably have the same question.

     

     

    • avery 8:51 pm on April 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      do you know when the exterior is supposed to be finished?

    • creederep 10:45 am on April 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      The exterior shell will be constructed throughout the summer. Check back for details throughout the summer and fall and look for final Exterior around mid-September. Then throughout the fall the interior will take shape for a 2010 opening!

    • avery 4:49 pm on April 23, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Awesome. I can’t wait to see it go up. This is going to be such a fantastic addition to the streetscape in Creede.

  • Jessica Jackson 3:02 pm on April 13, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , SFMOMA, William Kentridge   

    The Ritual Be-joining of Rachel and Michael 

    Ryan Prince and I just returned from the wedding of Rachel Rogers Bouchard and Michael Bouchard.  It took place at the beautiful home of the groom’s mom and stepdad in Placerville, CA.  As soon as Ryan brings his camera home,  I will politely ask the gnomes to carry the pictures from his camera to the InterWebs and make them appear in this post.  Stay tuned.

    I also want to blog about the amazing William Kentridge exhibit Ryan and I saw at SFMOMA.   Part of the exhibit included studies he did for set designs for two operas.  Very rarely does a museum exhibit make me want to stay there all day and never leave.   This one did that.

     

    • Michael Bouchard 12:50 am on April 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Makes sure the gnomes carry all the pictures of my good side. Don’t worry about Rachel. Every side is her good side.

  • reneestynchula 9:53 am on April 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    What do you want? 

    I spend most of my time these days saying the following:  What is your intention?  What verb are you playing?  Play your objective!  What response do you want from your scene partner?

    I am directing the Creede High School play, and this experience has blessed me with the opportunity to revisit the basics of acting and why I’ve dedicated so much of my life to theatre.   It is quite rewarding to watch young people start to understand the power of actively pursuing an objective.  They often start the acting process with self-conscious questions like:  How should this line sound?  Should I stand this way?  What should I do with my hands? As we discuss and work with playing an objective, the students are empowered with an effective tool they can use to be active onstage.  This ”action” leads to exploring other theatrical tools like: picking up cues, energizing the ends of lines, listening intently and responding honestly,  and the delicate nature of energy.  BUT without objective, we are sunk…we cannot move forward…and the play becomes a lot of people onstage focused on themselves instead of their scene partners.

    When teenagers learn that intentions are so powerful that they will almost always change the course of a person’s life, they have learned a very important lesson.  However, when they learn that their objective and their part in the play is no more or less imporant than another person’s part, I feel I have witnessed a revolution.  I feel that humanity could possibly, eventually, one day, stop killing each other.

     

    • Michael Bouchard 12:48 am on April 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I spent all winter drilling this into kids at a talent agency in California. The one thing I never had time for at my results oriented agency is the idea that acting informs life. How we go after what we want effects those around us. It is a lesson that cannot be relearned enough times.

  • mauricelamee 9:29 pm on April 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Harold Clurman, Terry Teachout, theatre critic, Wall Street Journal   

    On Harold Clurman 

    I’m still looking in my fly box for something to cast into the fast waters of blog stream. In the meantime, here is a link to an article in the Wall Street Journal by the excellent drama critic, Terry Teachout. The article is about the slow disappearance of Harold Clurman from the sphere of knowledge of many theatre people. I am surprised and somewhat skeptical of Mr. Teachout’s expressed opinion, but it may be because Harold Clurman penned one of the few books that I reread every few years as a theatre director. It is his marvelous book titled simply, On Directing. It is a must read for every theatre aficionado.

    The link to Mr. Teachout’s article is http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123879644745588081.html

     

    • Becky G. 10:25 am on January 5, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Hey Mo,
      Just read this article. Fantastic. Ordering Clurman’s collected reviews used off Amazon.

      Thanks!

      BG

  • jonathandallsup 12:20 am on April 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , humanity, PVC pipe, silliness,   

    Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. 

    There’s lots of ways this could relate to theatre or the art of production, but I’ll let you figure out how it best fits for you…

    Today, while on the road, in a town, a truck pulled out in front of me.  The back of the truck had one of those covers on it with a hatch in the rear.  This particular rear hatch was opened slightly by two pieces of long PVC pipe.  As the truck pulled out in front of me, the centrifugal force of the turn caused one piece of PVC pipe to slide out of the truck and then bounce and roll its way across the intersection.  (Imagine a poorly thrown bowling ball).  Thankfully I was stopped at a stop light watching this occur.  I say “Thankfully” because this fortune allowed me to not be in movement while traversing through the path of the runaway plumbing, and also, perhaps more importantly, allowed me to see what happened next.  The driver of the truck, realizing the loss of an item completed the turn into the shoulder of the road and backed up (a good 40 yards) to retrieve the piece of pipe.  The driver then got out of the vehicle and reloaded the PVC pipe into the back of the truck….IN THE EXACT SAME MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS LOADED BEFORE!  By this time, the stop light had turned green and I was again in motion as was the hasty driver of the truck, whom I saw for the last time out of the passenger side window, as he was again pulling over to restore the piece of PVC pipe to the truck only  a few hundred yards from the aforementioned intersection.  Generally this kind of awkward silliness in humanity makes me angry.  I’ve recently learned (although it has been a lesson in the learning for quite some time) that I don’t need to be effected (or affected) by actions that others take.  I can choose to live my own life.  So, today, this particular truck driver with the PVC dilemma made me shake my head and hope I never had to transport two pieces of 12 foot long PVC pipe in a 7 foot truck bed without a bungee cable.

     

  • Jessica Jackson 6:46 pm on April 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , My Fair Lady, Patrick Ryan Sullivan, Pygmalion   

    It’s best if you don’t ask how I found this 

    Patrick Ryan Sullivan is a great performer.  And beyond that, he’s really fun to hang with after a show.  Also, he has one of the most dedicated, avid fans I’ve ever met.  That fan’s name is Steve and he lives in New York (Albany, I think).  Anyway, Steve put this together for his myspace page.  It struck me as very sweet and sort of cute.

    http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=18877569

    I could have daaaaaanced all night….I could have daaaaaanced all night…..

     

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