Category Archives: convergence

convergence, the chorus

Switching gears, again.

So, my fellow Convergers are making breakneck progress on getting great meetings with folks in Indianapolis – there is lots of interest and enthusiasm. However, due to this progress, Rob and Caitlin need a draft of the 13 Ways Of Looking At The Chorus script, and they need it tomorrow – just another instance of the universe catapulting me into action. I’ll spend tomorrow hammering it out at the Cornell library. I just have to find the right choruses, and the right translations, and I’m very close to it.

Sometimes when you’re stalling, the real world comes up and smacks you with a deadline, and then you get it done.

I’m working from Collegetown Bagels in downtown Ithaca – and the radio is playing “Proud Mary.” Rolling…rolling…rollling indeed. Rolling with the punches.

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convergence, directing, theater, workstyle

Open Ithaca

In Ithaca, staying with Amina and David. It’s so beautiful here. We had brunch, then walked up the path from the gorges to Collegetown and were overwhelmed by the color yellow. I’m going to do that walk again today, I think, up to the Cornell library to get some chorus information for the Convergence.

I observed part of a Meisner-based acting class yesterday, with all sorts of exercises – the repetition one and the open scene in particular. I was pretty happy to hear beginning actors ask questions like “How ARE you supposed to make your lines sound natural?” and “What’s blocking?”

(In an open scene, you use the lines of a scene to just respond to your partner, and you aren’t supposed to worry about playing the action of the scene or the meaning of the lines. The one I saw reminded me of the technique where you ask actors to burlesque a scene – to play it at a much faster and funnier pace.) I saw Peter do a burlesque run of one of the seduction scenes in Tartuffe, and I’ve seen Ted do it in his acting class, too, but an open scene is a more extreme version of that.

Amina and I discussed, afterwards, what the uses of the “open scene” would be in working on a process with professional actors. We thought of three:
– at the beginning of a process
– at a blocked place in a process
– at an exhausted place (like you’ve been rehearsing a very sad scene for weeks)
All three to help relax the actors, get them listening again, and perhaps discover new areas of blocking.

Amina is considering Converging in February, as is David (her roommate, a filmmaker and actor).

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convergence, the chorus, Uncategorized

Thirteen Ways Of Looking At The Chorus

Here’s a sample from what I wrote about the Umbrella Project in process, for the 2008 Indy Convergence. It’s going to be an exploration of the chorus.

“The texts to be used are still under discussion, but will probably include one chorus from each of the major Greek playwrights – Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides – and one chorus created out of a text which is not a traditional chorus.

We will explore the nature of the chorus in all the different art forms represented by the Converging artists, with lots of emphasis on dance, music, and character acting – but also on using visual art and multimedia to stage the choruses.”

If anyone reading has opinions about what the best Greek choruses are to experiment with, for these purposes, please comment on the wiki for the project. Thanks!

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convergence

This is really going to happen

There really will be, if anyone asks you, a Convergence of experimental theater Makers teaching workshops and presenting choruses, in February, in Indy, laying the groundwork for future Convergences.

I. SUSHI IN INDIANAPOLIS
is better than I would have expected.

II. THERE’S MY AUNT!
We’re driving down the main drag in Broadripple and Caitlin sees her aunt, and we do a U-turn to meet her.

III. WALKING THE DOGS
Rob and I have been walking Macy and Marley on the nearby trail, appreciating the fall leaves, and talking about possibilities for the Convergence, our upcoming conference of experimental theater makers in February. Keywords (all from Convergence brainstorming of late): Original dialect Shakespeare, everyone (all the participants) teaching their own workshops or running their own sessions, visual arts / dance theme, 13 Ways Of Looking At A Chorus, Chorus Variations.
We talk about exploring one chorus from each of the 4 major Greek playwrights, plus a 5th devised one we come up with on our own. Possibly from a Neruda story.

IV. ALL MY DJ EQUIPMENT IS AT OUR DISPOSAL
Do we want a Wiki? A Blog? A combination of both? We can redirect theconvergence.com to whatever it is we have. Everyone could be editing their own pages on their growing workshops and collecting information prior to their February workshops.

V. I’M TRYING TO CONVINCE HER TO WATCH 1408 ON THE BIG SCREEN
We buy Boddington’s, Bitburger’s, and Rogue Dead Guy Ale, in memory of Ashland, and the brainstorming begins. We have a meeting tomorrow afternoon. Tonight we work the details out, and we’re going to watch some of Caitlin’s Graham videos and my DVDS of past productions.

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convergence, directing

le covergence continues

Caitlin, Robert and I spent much of our time in Ashland jamming on The Convergence(TM) (TheaterMark). I can’t tell what this will become, but I have a strong suspicion that I’m going to continue working with those two for a long time.

Some thoughts that came up:

1) We want to have an invite-only group to start and make the actual “convergence”, open to anyone, a free workshop at the end. So we know what we’re working with before we offer it out to everybody.

2) Caitlin is opposed to going too strongly in the direction of postmodern dance (which she described as someone sitting in a chair, clapping 3 times, and walking off stage) Piqued though my curiosity is, I don’t think that’s the immediate direction we’ll be pursuing.

3) Caitlin will bring in some dancers, Rob and I will bring in some actors.

4) Robert and I are going to drive from LA to Indy after 1/24, to begin this work.

5) Whenever it is that we do get a chance to put it all together, we’re going to take it (and by “it” I mean “our fantastic collaborative masterwork” and drive it to Chicago for display.) Which means that I am interested in going after THE PERSIANS or ANTIGONE.

6) Using Caitlin’s photography skills as part of this – camera creating images? Maybe because she doesn’t want to speak her use of the camera is a form of speech?

7) I want to have a chorus focus, because I always do, but I also want to be open to whatever they bring in – which will inform the work. So we may be looking at 2 sessions, one exploratory and one more targeted, or just (ideally) a longer period of time.

8) Planning is on hold until Robert and I learn more about our own lives after 1/24 – some gigs in the works which could change dates.

9) Caitlin has visual artist friends (and possibly also musicians) in Indy who can contribute.

10) We want to draw on everyone’s strengths as a group, as performers of all stripes, which I think means we EACH need to teach workshops and each have agency as co-creators of the piece. Yet I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I really want to work on the chorus, and I want to be a guide for our process, especially nearer to the end.

10.5) So to clarify: starting with all of us teaching, everyone with agency to combine and create, but I do want the eventual focus to be choral. If I’m going to be involved, that’s what I’m most interested in pursuing.

10.75) Caitlin thinks the choral stuff is very similar to stuff she’s done in her own dance classes and she’s down.

11) We want to be open to what we discover. Anything. Which means, despite Dara’s strong preferences for 10-10.75, Dara is STILL open to something new and different. We have to go in like that.

12) A small(er) group may be good – I am so used to working with 6-8 – but we may actually want only 4-5, to start. Seeing the precision of the Graham company brought that home. If we had 4-5 who would be there all the time, that’s one thing – if we drift, perhaps more.

13) Seeing the Graham company made me understand the chorus in one person.

14) We want to keep Converging yearly. Around different texts or themes.

15) Would a more equitable way to run this be that we each get to focus on something in our Convergence – we each create a piece from it? So it’s less about me directing and more about all of us working together? Or are Robert & Caitlin cool with me bringing more focus to this and making it a convergence ON the chorus? Or am I cool enough to let that go and be open?

15.5) I hope I am.

15.75) And yet I do want to be able to show off a chorus piece in Chicago.

15.8) Doubtless all this is possible convergently somehow.

16) I guess I should ask them what they think.

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