Toby has just finished the intensive German program at Middlebury that I was going to do with her this summer, except I ended up ADing TARTUFFE at OSF. She wants to go to Germany in 08 and work together on a production – we’re thinking Von Kleist’s PENTHESILEA, with an all-transgendered cast.
And, more marvellously, she was in an all-German production, at Middlebury, of Max Frisch’s ANDORRA.
Will wonders never cease?
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.
I did my last scheduled Crossover Interview today, with Ben Cameron. It was one of the best. He, like Tony Taccone, only became a director when it was thrust upon him. He drove across the country for a stage management job and showed up to find out he was directing – and writing – the show in question, a Cole Porter cabaret revue. I’ve heard of last-minute, but this is ridiculous. This is not a profession for people who need stability in their lives.
Here’s a great quote from it:
“Early on, I didn’t perceive that intellectual fulfillment and a true connection to your values are not the same thing.”
I dreamed last night that someone was asking me about the chorus being still and I was saying “Yes, of course, erfroren (frozen), they can become that as well..” but the fact is, it’s been awhile since I’ve worked with those concepts. Gestaffelt (staggered) seems to emerge as easily as not…but frozen is tough. The work does tend to encourage a kind of lassitude of constant movement. Finding stillness is a good key.
Sometimes your dreams tell you exactly what you should be focusing on.
I made the German actors do all kinds of choral improv / imitation exercises but without the freedom of being able to unleash it over the whole piece, it was boring to them. Also, since Helma (who was mostly who they imitated) was blocked so exactly herself, they were imitating something totally fixed.
The chorus work is only truly generative if both the imitated and the imitators are free to follow their impulses.
Trying to remember those terms I had:
zusammen (together)
gestaffelt (staggered)
erfroren (frozen)
And there was one for the mini-choruses, the monsters – Paare – Gruppen – I don’t remember.
I’ll be doing a workshop in Portland with the director and choreographer Jessica Wallenfels. We talked last night about how to integrate our different methods of choral work.
We have a group of 12-15 people, mostly unknown to us, showing up on Tuesday the 28th for this.
I’m going to start with my basic exercises: imitation with me controlling who the leader is, imitation with a shifting leader but only one at a time, and then imitation with the leader freely shifting.
Then Jessica’s going to attempt to incorporate a scene into it, and we’ll let the rest of the actors do my choral improv stuff as a response to the text of that scene – using the text as the backdrop instead of the music. Since they’ll all have learned the same scene, they can join in the text as easily as anything else.
I’m very excited about this – it’s exactly the kind of thing I’ve been saying I’d do for years, but never have. I’m hoping this can lead to more workshops elsewhere.
Jessica’s work is really on the cutting edge of narrative choreography. She did a site-specific piece in a restroom recently, called RESTROOM, for PCS‘s JAW/West Festival, about women and drugs.
Mark sent this to the NOTE list this morning.
“Not surprisingly, a good portion of what’s presented at the smaller venues is actor-driven. The sub-100-seat houses, granted a special dispensation by Actors’ Equity to accommodate the desire of many of its members to work regardless of wage scale, provide an endless stream of opportunities. Yet something seems missing. Time and again, I leave one of these magical mouse holes marveling at the quality and commitment of the actors on display but desperately wishing they were in more adept directorial hands. “
Full article is here.
Just finished with Michael Rohd. Great interview. Having started as an actor/director and taken more and more responsibility for his own life and artmaking as his career went on, his story should be particularly significant to young actors. One of his stories was about not going to a commercial callback as a turning point in his life.
We discussed the possibility of doing a workshop later this year, which is exciting. And he may be devising work at OSF.
Michael also had a great list of possible dream collaborators for the Stage 2 5th Wall Interviews: Liz LeCompte, Ping Chong (who he’s working with on a project about Buffalo Bill) Robert Lepage, Peter Brook.
He’d looked at this blog before and mentioned that the actual interviews weren’t up yet – I need to learn more about publication details before I can do that – but I do hope I’m able to put them online and archive them, either here or at Upstage.
I picked up Shiyan at SFO this morning, and we discussed the methods of getting hired in our very different fields. (Er: venture capitalism meets freelance directing…) Came back and dove right into more interviews. Just talked to Jason Loewith. Calling Michael Rohd in 5 minutes.
OEDIPUS is not for NEXT (thereby destroying my dream of OEDIPUS NEXT, a beautiful but short-lived paradise) but the projects he might be interested in include, but are not limited to:
Antigone
The Persons (I meant to type “The Persians.” But that’s a great title. I need to start a titles page.)
Imaginary Invalid
Volpone
The Alchemist
Aphra Benn’s The Rover
It was so great to talk with Jason about directing theory. He’s one of the most conversant people in the field today, after all those interviews for THE DIRECTOR’S VOICE. One of his anecdotes, about actors who won’t stop screaming, went directly to one of my (directly, Dara? You have to never use that adverb again. NEVER! ) greatest fears as a director. Screaming people.
It was nice to hear that it plagues others as well.
The boundary between the technical note and the psychological note. I remember talking with Jonathan Haugen about this.
Also read FUNNY IN FARSI, after years of watching it. I found it to be sad, but I’m finding every damn thing to be sad these days.
Robert and Caitlin want to meet in Indiana, taking some advantage of the DK dancers and studio space, and do a three-week workshop on physical theater. This was partially inspired by, but not exclusively, the chorus workshop that I did earlier this year. Dates are tough to work out but we really want to do it.
We also want to make it a yearly thing – like that dream I’ve mentioned to Robert before about having chorus work come back together for all the scattered participants once a year. This is it. And I didn’t even initiate the idea! I love this!
Here are some of the rejected names for the project that we came up with while at Martino’s last night.
The Grievance Committee (no one but me was into this. Someone: “Do you have to START by being negative?” I need to keep this in mind for that future “What’s Wrong With Theater” article…)
The Indianapolis Clusterfuck (Caitlin was not into it)
The Indy Convention
The Indy Gathering
Burning Man Of Indianapolis
Summer of Indianapolis
Indiana Winter
IndyCore
But we think CONVERGing, like a bunch of people converging on a place to make wacky theater together, is best.
I’m nervous but super-excited. If I was to dream of the one thing I wanted most in the world for my future, it would be this for sure. A way to reunite everyone I love working with, and a way to keep the room open for play and experimentation. The fact is that this chorus work can only grow if I remain open to all its permutations.
Everyone doing their own workshop and all those workshops feeding into Chorus-World.
YEAH, BABY!
“Have you been to the Indy Convergence?”
“Where’s the Indy Convergence happening this year?”
“I’ve been going to the Indy Convergence since 2008…”
Caitlin is going to design a logo. We’re for real. I’m creating a new category for this, superstars.
It’s not that Slate has no theater coverage, just sporadic coverage, mostly centered around New York. They’re doing better than many news sources. There’s an article every few months. They cover the Tonys. They mention Spring Awakening. Obviously I think there’s more writing to be done on the topic, and more coverage of the regional world, but at least they’ve started.
I particularly enjoyed segments of Daniel Sullivan‘s diary during MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN, in 2000. The whole thing‘s worth reading, but here are a couple of good excerpts from the life of a stressed freelancer:
Daniel: 5:00 p.m.: A meeting with set designer John Lee Beatty on another play, Spinning Into Butter, by Rebecca Gilman. To be produced by Lincoln Center Theater in the summer. We sat in the theater and talked about where things should go. The play takes place in an office in a New England college. John Lee said, “What do I do so it won’t look boring?” He always gets right to the point. I was at a bit of a loss. “Windows?” I said. “Oh!” he said, surprised. But he always acts surprised by even the dullest idea. He’s very nice. “Maybe it should be a very tall room,” he said. “How tall?” “16 feet.” “That’s tall. Do they have rooms that tall in New England?” “Victorian rooms are tall.” “But Victorian doesn’t give you the typical New England school.” And so it went for an hour or so. I don’t know what initial design meetings are like for other directors, but this is par for the course for me. And at the end we agree to meet again soon since neither of us knows what the hell we’re doing.
And again:
Daniel: “The press department calls to ask where they should seat the chief theater critic of the New York Times. I suggest a local restaurant. “No, really, where?” I suggest Row J. “Why J?” “Because if he’s any closer he’ll see the side light we haven’t been able to hide.” ”
Dara Weinberg 