Here's the interview.
And, don't forget to check out the show, which runs 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday at Stage Left Studios until Aug. 16.
Keeping tabs on Truant |
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Cynthia White with The Independent Actor gave Bob and the rest of the team from No Strings Attached a chance to talk about the making of a play and the craft we are all committed to.
Talking shop is the next best thing to actually making theater, so it is nice to be able to do both Here's the interview. And, don't forget to check out the show, which runs 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday at Stage Left Studios until Aug. 16.
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Got invited to a workshop of Sam Graber's new play What Happened to the Dollar and had my eyes opened. I really like Mr. Graber and his mission (so much so that we are going to figure out a way to read one of his plays next time he jets in from THE HEARTLAND) and Dollar is an interesting piece of work that I'm excited to watch from afar as it develops, so the evening was a good idea from the start.
Things got even better though, as sometimes happens in this fair city, because I was introduced to a new step in the play development process, thanks to Abstract Sentiment Theatre Co. Whilst I fundamentally disagree with spelling theater with the "e" and "r" reversed (Jamie disagrees), I love Abstract's approach to development. I showed up at "The Bridge" -- a great little performance space in Shetler Studios, thinking I was going to see a workshop presentation. Instead, I walked in on a rather intense rehearsal already in progress. SIDE BAR, YOUR HONOR ... Two things: 1) I don't like walking in on anything already in progress, but I was there early, so I didn't realize. 2) Actors, directors and playwrights can be a little freaky about strangers in the rehearsal room. I don't personally care, but there are those who do so I try to avoid being said stranger. NOW, BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOG POST ... So, I walked in on this rehearsal. I tried to slip out, but it was too late. Sam spotted me and came over. Veronika King, one of the Abstract ... ers, came over. I spotted Christopher Kloko, a great actor I've had the opportunity to work with a couple of times during the development of Hal Corley's Convergence. Basically, I disrupted everything. The flopsweats kicked in. I slinked (slunk? slank? skulked? squirmed?) to a seat and tried to disappear. For the next four hours I watched the Abstracts run Mr. Graber's play through it's paces. This was Day Two of the process -- eight hours total in a rehearsal room for a draft version of a play? As a playwright, I got chills. As a director, my mind started racing. As a producer, I thought "This is seriously F*in' cool. We hand new plays over to actors and a director for an open reading every month -- and I think there's value for the playwright in hearing his work and getting feedback, but this was that on steriods. Sam had the chance to hear AND watch his play come to life in fits and starts, like it was actually getting ready to put it's performance suit on. Now, he has time to work before the pressure of actual rehearsals kick in. I'm in love ... with a process. Thanks you Abstract Sentiment. I owe you one. POST SCRIPT: I've heard from Sam that Abstract is planning a full production of What Happened to the Dollar this fall. Congratulations, Sam! We look forward to seeing h Join us in the creation of art! Or something less pretentious?
Two short plays and a brand new stand-up routine will vie for your affection (and will settle happily for honest feedback). Be there and be a part of the fun! There's a $5 suggested donation because that's how we can keep this mad-capped experiment afloat, but if you can only afford subway fares and a cheap beer, we'd still love to see you. Yes, as always at a Truant Arts event, there will be a bar. This month's line up includes: The Wapshot Whatever by Susan WeinsteinDirected by Tatiana Pandiani 365 Last Suppers by Lavinia Roberts (Author of Black Triangle in Chaos Under Construction 2013) Directed by Jason Black Stand-up Comedy* by Caitlin Graham (creator of NO METHOD, the new web series) *This is not the name of a play. Caitlin will literally be debuting a stand-up routine. We're psyched! Where: TheaterLab, 357 west 36th St., 3rd fl. (Between 8th and 9th Avenues) When: 7:30 sharp! We make very small theater. We make very new theater. It hasn't been shipped in from halfway across the world. It is grown right here in the coffeeshops, rehearsal halls and minds of New York City.
It never has more than 60 audience members at a time and when it has that many, it is a miracle. You sit in the house of one of our productions and you know you are in at a show made for love, by love and with love (it sure ain't for the money) ... for you. By talented actors like Sarah, who is so close and so real and so present that you can feel her breathe from your seat. We love this kind of theater, but we often wonder if we can find enough other people who do to keep things rolling. An article in The Wall Street Journal Online by theater critic Terry Teachout points out that maybe we can, even as American audiences become less interested in leaving their houses to take in a show. He believes we need to create a leigon of the theatrical equivelant of "foodies." We are onboard. We would love for you to join us. Make your next entertainment meal something you can't find on Netflix or YouTube. Shop local. Feed your soul, not just your boredom. Playscripts (They are legit. Bob has cashed a couple of royalty checks from them) is looking for funny female playwrights so seriously that they've created a contest that only lets funny female playwrights play.
What you need to write: a one act (20-40 minutes), large cast, heavily weighted female, PG -13 or G (for a high schools to perform), funny as fuck. What you could win: Cash prize, publication, promotion, maybe even royalty checks forever What you should read: This release from Playscripts Good luck. The looking back part ... The Truants spent the Thanksgiving holiday season looking back at what was done in 2013. It seemed appropriate considering how much we have to be thankful for.We met so many new writers, actors and directors last year ... Some of them we may never see again and others we feel have always been and will always be a part of the gang. We are thankful for that. With Chaos Under Construction 2013, we unleashed four short plays and a full-length upon the world. Wow. That is a really short sentence -- "We unleashed four short plays and a full-length upon the world," but the amount of work and the number of dedicated people involved is huge. We are thankful for all and for each. We took stock in what we did right and in what we could do better. We are thankful for the lessons learned ... and the lessons we are going to ignore because we had so much fun screwing up. The peering forward part ... But, one can't look back forever. To do so is to die, which would suck. So, December is the run-up for 2014 and we are looking at what we want to accomplish. We met last week for about five hours (some work and some walk, with work attached) and have a list of things we want to give thanks for when we get to November 2014. This is a list of goals for us as an organization (because we must become an organization, unfortunately) and also a bunch of playground equipment for the truants we know and those we have not yet met. More information will be forthcoming as we work out the details this month but we want to tell you that Truant Arts exists and is worth our while because we get to help build playgrounds for talented people. We want the new. We are thrilled by the possibility of failure and the rush of success. It isn't enough for us to produce a couple of plays a year, if those plays do not swell like zygotes in creative wombs and souls of the people with whom we work. Pull Together Productions (artistic director Brian Gillespie, with whom we have had the pleasure of working) is looking for full-length plays to possibly put into festivals this year.
If you have something that fits their artistic mission, consider sending it their way. But, first, you should read their website under "mission" and "submissions" to see what that mission is. They want theater that doesn't try to do head-to-head battle with film or tv -- "inventive theatricality" but bare-bones asthetic In 2008, the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation studied money spent for off-off Broadway productions. The results point to a real problem for New York's indie theater scene. More than one-third of all the dollars spent to make our kind of theater were spent on space rentals. We can't imagine that number has fallen in the last five years.
This is disturbingly unbalanced and it needs to be rectified somehow. We in the indie scene need to rectify it, otherwise we are just a bunch of coal miners owing our souls to the company store. <Oh no! Bob is humming "The Internationale" -- "Oh, I feel the red in me a'risin'!"> Rise up theater workers of New York! Rise up and join together. We can bargain collectively. We must bargain collectively. So, apparently there's some indication that younger people (16-19) are coming to live theater (at least in the UK) ... if you believe a new study by TicketMaster.
A couple of things to think about here. First, this study is for the United Kingdom and no such study is being/has been done here, or at least not one we can find. Why not? Because we don't have a theater culture in the United States. Do we stand a rat's chance in hell of changing this situation? Second, how? How do we change this (assuming we do stand a rat's chance)? Are we just not presenting theater interesting to young adults? Have we, as theater artists, let them fall through the cracks between children's theater and non-children's theater? In the last couple of decades, the publishing industry figured out there is a big market for YA liturature, provided you provided books that were actually concerned with young adult issues and not those issues adults (insert "parents" here) wished were young adult issues. Our options? 1) Drag young adults to adult theater. Who knows, they might love it. 2) Find a way to create young adult theater (and then sell it). 3) Give up and hope non-theater going young adults magically turn into theater-going adults. Here's an article from The Guardian on the report. We all start with a dream. Then, if we aren't very careful, if we stray from the path, we can get all kinds of lost.
The new documentary, Misfire: The Rise and Fall of The Shooting Gallery, is a great cautionary tale. A bunch of guys get together to make their movies. Ten years later, even with successes like Sling Blade under their belts, the train derails and dreams are scattered across the landscape. Check out the trailer here. The movie will screen Sunday November 17 at 7:00PM at the IFC Center in New York City. |