words....words...words...

Well hello there.

I know. I know. I've been away for a million years. When I started this blog I had essentially no job. And then suddenly I had 2 jobs and a new theatre company. So despite my best intentions I just couldn't find the time to write.

Well, I'm coming back. Don't be scared.

I'll be writing again on a regular basis.

I've been thinking a lot about this blog and what I want to do with it.

A lot has happened. I've directed 2 new shows, and I'm teaching full time now--so just the one job. I took 52 Man Pickup to the Edinburg Festival with Desiree Burch. Or rather I should say, we took 52 to Scotland with a lot of fantastic help from friends and supporters. Especially Jack Sharkey--who is an incredible supporter of new theatre.

So thanks for that help. The festival was incredible and we got a 4 star review in THE SCOTSMAN which is like the NY Times of Scotland. Great houses. And we learned so much. Really incredible.

And Dan Kitrosser and I have been plotting a good many things for T4TP.

There are some things underway that I can't talk about just yet, but I do want to share something that has been on my mind a lot since I started teaching.

Something that I started to address in my classes. It hearkens back to something that Freddy Kareman used say in his (absolutely amazing) acting class over and over again:

"Lines have nothing to with acting. "

always closely followed by,

"But they are VERY important!!"

Which is to say the following, I think:

Words by themselves are inadequate to the cause of communication.

They are wonderful things. Powerful. Just saying certain words can do a great many things to you. "I love you" is great example of words that tend to affect both the speaker and the listener. Try telling someone that something about them is beautiful and watch what it does to both you and to them. Or that something about them is ugly or wrong.

Words hold great power over us.

But they don't mean anything.

How many different times and ways have you said "I love you" with completely different meanings?

To how many different people?

Love means so many different things to different people about so many different topics (lovers, friends, family members, food, jobs, sports, and so on) that it really doesn't mean anything.

As I tell my students, words are icebergs. The tip isn't what matters. It's the unseen mass underneath the water that is important.

Why does this matter?

Because words alone are not our only form or even our best communication.

Why do we need art? Why is music, film, theater, painting, and so on--so important to us?

Because we are filled with things that we need to communicate that words alone cannot do.

Why do we have complicated, stressful, and often expensive weddings? Because all of that

ritual, pomp, and circumstance helps fill in the rest of what "I take you" cannot communicate by itself to each other and to our family and friends.

As I've said before, I am not surprised that Arts funding was dramatically slashed, that artists have been priced out of their neighborhoods, and many artistic venues have been shuttered in the decade leading up to the 2008 crash. Dead places create dead people. And dead people have no morals or values.

And NY isn't dead, but it is fighting for it's life.

Communication is really a combination of understanding and connection.

And without understanding and connection, we become capable of terrible things.

Sadly a lot of the theatre, tv, and film that I've seen recently is really focused on so many other things and not on that deeper communication. The type of communication that requires so much more than just words or pretty pictures. The type of communications that requires real courage. It requires real work as well.

One of the projects I am working on will deal with communication beyond words. This coming World Theatre Day I have another shakespeare project that will explore this in more depth.

And while we're on the subject of words,

I've seen a lot of theatre companies doing some great things. Promenade theatre and site specific theatre are on the rise, and I've seen some companies doing some interesting things trying to integrate the internet into their theatrical productions.

And I want to talk to them.

So I plan on doing some interviews with some of these innovators and maybe doing some checking in with some varied critical opinions about theatre that is out and about the city.

I'm not looking to turn this into a review or critical blog, but I want to really give a shout out to the theatre that I've seen that deserves some real praise.

Speaking of deserved praise, The Terry Schreiber Studios won a NYIT award about a week ago for OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY for their revival of BALM IN GILEAD by Lanford Wilson.

Lanford Wilson is one of my favorite playwrights and that play is one of his early masterpieces.

And you'd have to be crazy to try and produce it. The cast was 29 people.

I managed to catch a performance--with expectations as high as they could be for one of my favorite plays.

And it was brilliant. Beautiful. Shattering.

Three of my favorite moments:

1) My favorite monologue in the play by a nodding heroin junkie--the lines that spring to mind when I think of the play--being mumbled almost but not quite inaudibly from the back of the stage during a quiet but powerful moment of silent behavior between other characters. Instead of the whole monologue being the center piece it came sprinkling in like poetic music from another room. Somehow even more powerful that way.

2) and 3) two of the longest monologues in the play where the words don't really say that much. Just kind of a seemingly mundane avalanche of words, but onstage there was so much underneath those words that they became incredibly powerful. One devastating. The other hilarious and still heartbreaking. What the two brave actresses did with those speeches was dig waaaay past the words and found what was buried deep underneath. Inexpressible by any other means, I would wager. Chills just thinking about it.

Well done to all involved. That production communicated things to me that I never knew were in that beautiful play and all of its words words words. It was a courageous production, well crafted, and I was proud to vote for it. So kudos to the T.S. Studio and to the good judgement of the NYIT Judges and the other audience members who voted.

It's good to be back.

Here's your quote:

It's one thing to say it. It's a whole 'nother thing to really mean it. I'm not just talking about actions. To just really know what you're saying to someone else, to understand what those words mean in that moment, what you mean, and what that means to them, well, that's the hard part. And the most important.

-Amy Lynn Higgs

Many new things and "A Grimm Reality"

Well,

I'm not a very good blogger.

Sorry bout that. You're probably all gone now.

Maybe that's for the best.

I was starting to feel pressure about doing this for people to read. Like this needed to be a really good blog.

But I've missed doing this and I think it does me good.

So maybe now I'll keep doing this but for me.

No offense, if anyone else is still listening.

So what has happened in the the last 3 months?

Well I have a respectable day job.

2 in fact.

One of them is teaching Meisner at NYFA. I love it. Love it, love it, love it.

It's great in many many ways, but not the least of which is that I get to teach MEISNER. Not just acting or scene study, but strict regimented Meisner.

It's been rejuvenating. Teaching others the principles and beliefs that shaped me as an artist has helped me reconnect to them again in a deeper way.

It's fantastic. And I love my students. Being around people who are truly just concerned with the art of acting is a wonderful change of pace from trying to get money or a job.


A Grimm Reality is a reality now.

Bryant Park gave us final approval, finally.

July 24, 31, August 7, and 14.

Right now we've had a few meetings with an ever expanding group of people. Actors, writers, designers, and others.

It's a big beautiful mess right now, but I think it's going to be something truly truly special. Something created by a group, and experienced in an immersive environment. And free. Couldn't fit the principles I laid out much better than that. Thanks to, well, everyone for their support and helping things fall in place for this.

Theatre 4the People is also a reality now. We've applied for fiscal sponsorship with Fractured Atlas, should be approved soon.

We also had our first "prequel" kind of performance. Robert Lyons offered us a week at the OHIO and we threw together a festival of short plays in a couple of weeks. SHORT LOVE at the OHIO was a success and yours truly was onstage in a real live show for the first time in 6 years.

Felt good. Couldn't have done it without Adam Belvo carrying me through most of it. And Justin Swain's fantastic NEW CAR PLAY...it was a really great experience. To get to act with such a great actor and good friend, and to speak such wonderful words--and I got work again with Jake Witlen, who is a damn fine director. The kind of director who lets you be the best actor you can be. Swain, Witlen, and Belvo, I can never repay you guys enough.

Bekah Brunstetter gave us a short play and bunch of monologues--we made the evening a little bit interactive with some pieces happening in the audience--and it just me made hungry to do more. I got to work with a lovely actress, Julia Davis who is a very sincere and very very brave actress...my friend Kara Ayn got to direct her boyfriend Edward (my Lee from TRUE WEST last year) in Bekah's short play. And they were all awesome.

Erin McCarson reprised her role in DRAMA PLAY or as it's often called the "God Bless Harry Potter" monologue. Which is so amazingly fantastic that everyone who sees her do it, immediately becomes enamored with both Erin and Bekah. For good reason, it's the best monologue I've ever seen. There's been some discussion of Bekah writing a whole show for Erin as that character. I love the idea, but I'm also terrified of messing with something so damn good. I think it might be too tempting not to see if we can't do it. It's worth a try.

I'm still heartbroken about the OHIO, but I thank God for the opportunity to perform in that hallowed space one last time. It was magical. We had a great group of people and plays and everything was really fun and inspiring.

Dan Kitrosser made a splash with a new song by a character he created for Desiree Birch's bday party a while back: BIG GAY STORYTELLING FROG is everyone's new favorite character. Dan and I will have to create a whole show for him. The people demand it.

To think that was Dan's companion contribution to his poetic and affecting play ON THE WAY TO MY ABORTION which despite the jolting title was a lovely, touching piece of nonpolitical of theatre. I'm glad you're on my side Dan, cause you're a formidable talent. Not many people can write nonpolitical abortion plays. Even fewer can write good ones. And I doubt anyone else has the juice to bring BIG GAY STORYTELLING FROG to life. I just don't see how.

Also, my good friend Roberta Colindrez (hope that's spelled right, 'Bert) got to do a piece written just for her by Bekah. And she was great. That was her first performance in NYC, I think, and she got to do it at the OHIO and with Bekah's words. I was incredibly proud. ('Bert also just became a Neo-Futurist, so again I am proud and feeling damn lucky to have such talented friends!)

Anyway, it was a great time and raised a little cash for THEATRE 4the People.

I also got to work on Donnetta Gray's play THE NEW NORMAL with Coyote Rep. I don't know yet if I'm directing the fall production of it. I think her old professor is supposed to, but maybe not. Anyway, it was great to work on, and I think Donnetta is becoming a pretty good playwright. (She's on a new show called Rubicon-I think that's the title-so she's pretty much kicking ass) Whatever happens, I think the play is going to be great and I'm glad to be a part of it in whatever way I can. Got to work with an old friend, Michael Mason, as a director on that and it felt like coming home again to work with such a talented guy I've known for over a decade. Need to do that again soon Mikey.

So yeah. Busy. Good. Friends kicking ass. Good things all around.

Now it's time to buckle down and start getting Grimm Reality built.

I'll write again soon.

Maybe I can keep up a weekly thing. Like every Saturday or something.

We'll see. Right now, I don't really know what I'm doing. Everything seems suddenly fast and furious, like a roller coaster or a car joy ride spinning just out of control. Like I should be scared, but instead I am having a fine, fine time doing what I'm doing.

Guess we'll see how it all plays out.

"Alan: I mean just imagine it, see the car wrapped around it, the sap pouring out slowly, the smell of the inside of the tree, like the forest, the real forest, like wilderness...and and no more this beautiful clean new car smell. No more of this fakey fake processed pine tree, and fake fakey life. No more. We will have blood dripping from our mouths. We will taste death. We will walk with the Whales. We will ride the High End Rooster.

Adam: What!?

Alan: I'm reaching for something, c'mon let's do it."

Excerpt from New Car Play by Justin Swain

Understatements. (________was right.)

Next September The Ohio will no longer be a theater. You can read about it here.

It could rain all day everyday for a year and I couldn't feel any worse.

To say that the Ohio is an irreplaceable home for NYC theatre artists would be an understatement.

To say that the Ohio is one of the few places left in NYC where theatre artists who took big, grand scale risks were encouraged, nourished, and rewarded by both the space itself and by the good people of Soho Think Tank would be an understatement.

To say that the Ohio is my favorite theatre (or maybe even just my favorite place) in NY would be an understatement.

To say that I was always both giddy and inspired when I got the chance to work there would be yet another understatement.

I'd say that this September, NYC is going lose another big piece of what makes this city special.

But that would be just another understatement in a long list.

Well, NYC let's just keep this going. We let the Provincetown Playhouse (the birthplace of all of Eugene O'Neill's plays) be remade into another part of NYU Inc.' s image***, we're going to let the Ohio become god only knows what (a Banana Republic? Condos?), and we've let theaters and other homes for artists close down by the dozen in the last decade.

You know, I can't help but wonder when I read about soulless moneysuits that ruin people's lives, the welfare of entire nations, the physical health of entire communities, and the livelihoods of their own countrymen all for the sake of making more money...if maybe it's because we're creating these people.

When we deaden the soul of our city, our community, our home--how are we not deadening our own souls?

A dead city of chain restaurants, condos, corporations, and banks.

Dead cities breed dead people.

Two good things to come out of this.

The movement to get the tax credit for landlords that rent to non-profits is an important one. As disheartening as loosing the Ohio, we must strengthen our resolve and not lose the new found power we've created in working together.

The unity and dedication that is taking hold in the Indie/Off-off community is a good, good thing.

A lot of people are a part of that, but I have to to give a big, big shout out to the NY Innovative Theatre foundation. I feel like they're really doing so much to help the community--Keep it up guys.

United we will grow; divided we will wither and die.

The other positive is that theatre is going to have to evolve and adapt to new spaces and venues. It's going to have to become "immersive" or as I've started calling it "3-D".

But I can't help remembering the hyperbolic graffiti slogan of my good friend scrawled everywhere they went, ___________(name left blank for their protection), and how it used to infuriate me.

But maybe it's time to call a spade a spade. Without a proper diagnosis, we can't fix this.

And fix it we must, because we're fighting for our lives now.

Two quotes today.

One to remind us why the work we do is so important.

'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. "
(Maya Angelou, Professor of English Literature Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC )

The other because it's time to call it like it is.

"New York is Dead"
(_________)




***Correction: NYU did not tear down the Provincetown Playhouse entirely as I originally wrote. They are"building around it." Thanks to Joshua Hill for correcting me.

I assumed they were tearing it down because the last time I walked by it they were obviously tearing down one of the walls. Which as it turns out they did even though they weren't supposed to.

I'm not trying to nitpick here or play the inconsolable extremist. But whatever the "reconstruction" of the playhouse is or is supposed to be, the fact remains that I personally have very high doubts that any real remnant of what it was and what it represented will remain. Some old bricks and a plaque on the wall just isn't quite the same thing. At the end of the day, NYU bought it so it could tear it down and build more office space. If they keep 3 of the old walls and the floor and build an office building around it, it's not really gonna be the Provincetown Playhouse in spirit anymore. Not that it has been for years. I hope I'm proven wrong.

Back from the Future

Hi there!

Been a while.

Over a month actually.

Why the gap? Well, I have actually had a little more employment, plus my Bday, plus my childhood favorite football team finally went to the big dance and won it all, plus....

I can't write 9,000 word essays all the time.

So now I have to actually restrain myself and talk less and say more. I don't know if this is possible yet. I'll do my best.

Oh yeah.

One other thing happened.

One other little time eating distraction....


Dan Kitrosser (you remember Dan, he of the "AWESOME conversation?) and I are starting a company.


Theatre for the People


We're doing a show this summer in Bryant Park.

A Grimm Reality

Modern adaptations of Grimm's fairytales, in Bryant Park, free of charge.

We have a ton of of work to do.

But yeah. It's on.

So I guess this just became my actual Work/Company blog.

Thanks for reading my long rambling rant and giving me a place to turn my thoughts into something real. Who'd have thought that a blog of all things would have given rise to a whole new company.

Guess it's time now for me to walk the walk. Time to put up or shut up.

Man, I am excited. I have no idea how to do what we're going to try and do, but it's gonna be fun figuring it all out.

Click on the subscribe to this feed button and you'll get a notice when the new shorter (I promise, I promise) entries show up.

Well, that seems long enough.

Time to go actually work on the future.

(Cue the quote)

Be the change you want to see in the world--Gandhi

A must read

Read this article.

Different topic from what I've been railing on and on about, but it's exactly the same kind of thinking applied to a different part of theater.

Read!

Batman Stunt shows and "The Word that changed Theater forever"

A few revelations already about what I've been saying.

As I was talking about development and audience involvement, I realized that was actually a key part of Accessibility.

I am going to need to revisit that principle later because I think what I'm ultimately looking for is a way to build theater that is a part of the community--accessibility not just economically but throughout the life of the theater.

The next item on the list is what I originally termed "authenticity."

I have a problem with using this word for several reasons.

1. It's part of the catch phrase for WMC. "Authentic. Original. Theater."

Which is an awesome catchphrase. But it's WMC's catchphrase.

I'd rather not start a new venture using part of the old terminology.

2. What does it actually mean?

The dirty little secret about that catchphrase and WMC is that everyone had a different idea about what it meant.

The phrase actually came from Brenda a friend of WMC that worked in Nonprofit fundraising/marketing.

That's why it has such a great ring. Original simply meant New Works--everyone agreed on that. But "Authentic?"

It meant different things to different people in WMC. I tried to nail down what Authentic meant to us but I got so tired of hearing everyone else turn it towards to what they liked or wanted it to mean--whenever someone asked me what it meant I just found ways of avoiding any definitive answer.

(One thing I really like about the direction WMC is heading now is that I think as a group they have a clearer more singular vision of the type of work WMC should do is. They can probably all agree on what "authentic" means to them now)

3. Authentic is a buzzword now.

Of course it is. People take classes in how to be on reality TV shows. Even worse, we all know this. So now, any Reality TV, Documentaries, Youtube videos--are all under immediate suspicion and scrutiny. It's fake until proven real these days.

And everywhere around us the word authentic is popping up and is used as high praise.

Which means over saturation and diffusion of meaning for the word "authentic" is just a short while away. Remember when every book/movie/tv special/article was about

"The ____ that changed _____ forever"?

Whatever that means.

So what does Authentic mean to me?

So part of what authentic theater always meant to me was, as a friend of mine recently said, "theater from the gut."

Visceral.

As in not solely reliant on intellectual ideas.

It also meant that to be visceral it required emotionally honest, organic acting.

Part of what it meant to me was, problematic. That is, not a neatly tied up story that serves as a lesson.

But rather a story that is viciously honest with the audience and deals with a honest, human problem and does not give predigested answers designed to "better" the audience.

So let's combine those two ideas and see what we come up with.

We put emotionally honest actors in problematic stories that wrestle with difficult issues.

I suppose what I meant by authentic is "honest"

But "honest theater" is a bit of an oxymoron if you think about it.

And you can't really escape the fact that any storyteller or group of storytellers are going to have a point of view that will color their narrative.

But I don't think that that means we can't have a real struggle. But it can't be too finely choreographed.

When I was in highschool I went to Six Flags Theme Park and saw a "Batman Stunt Spectacular."

Spectacular isn't the word I used to describe it then.

It was a mildy entertaining live show that featured a few stunts that I'm sure were very dangerous to attempt in a time sensitive manner in a live show twice a day, but compared to what we see on tv and in film everyday--not very exciting or impressive. Definitely not spectacular.

Even worse, some of the stunts were obviously faked. Physically different actors doubling each other, smoke and mirror tricks that weren't very tricky, and some BAD stage combat.

Now I don't advocate dangerous physical situations for actors, but I do want to see actors take emotional journeys onstage. Ones with high stakes. In stories that have fair fights--not fixed outcomes.

I'm not talking about improvised endings, but honest stories about real issues. No propaganda.

If everyone walks out of play with the exact same experience and feeling about what they just experienced--I'd rather just skip it.

I believe that if everyone working on a play actually investigates the story that they're telling--writer, director, actor, designer--that they will find an honest way to tell the story each time.

To be sure this requires a vigilant commitment to honesty and self awareness. We must be objective investigators and careful creators; we cannot make ourselves into wise prophets and glamorous heroes.

Authentic Theater:

A theater where genuine conflicts and real human problems are honestly and sincerely wrestled and struggled with by all the artists involved.

Or as Sandy said about acting: Living truthfully in imaginary circumstances.

That's (in my opinion) the most perfect definition of acting and damn close to what I'm getting at...okay...round 2...

Authentic Theater:

A place where imaginary circumstances are both created and lived out truthfully.

Oof.

That's as close as I'm going to get today.

Any feedback or suggestions are welcome.

"I hear a blue heaven crying

Some folks just call it a bird

Call it what you will, I'm heartbroken still

Words are just words

Some call an end a beginning

For right now they'll go unheard

Call it what you will, I'm heartbroken still

Words are just words"

Joe Pug, Call it what you will

A Gift.

Reduction #1

So far if we were to boil all these words words words (why am I so damn longwinded??) down to simple sentences what would we have?

1: I want to create non-proscenium theatre productions using both traditional and nontraditional approaces that are designed to give people a full, 3Dimensional experience.

2. I want to create a deeper relationship between artists and their community by relying on a Pay What You Can ticket price to insure accessibility to all people, and a profit sharing approach to compensating the artists.

3. I want to develop new works and new productions with a holistic, integrated approach to all aspects of a production in an artist driven system.

I also talked about training actors. I think that may actually belong in this section.

Authenticity. Or Problematic.

I'm not really sure what the title is yet.

But I know what I'm after.

I think.

But since I've been entirely too long winded I thought I'd just post this short little bit of thought as a gift--a breather--before I return to my normal long windedness.

You're welcome.

If you're in NYC, enjoy the snow.

Isaac

"Brevity is the soul of wit"