Long time, no chat

News, n' stuff.
Wow, it's been a long time since I posted a blog. Remember when I said I'd post a blog like, every day. Yes. We both knew I was fibbing, so let's not dwell, eh?

Lots going on now, which would be, in part, why I've not posted in a while. Busy, busy, blah-blah.

New girlfriend.
I started dating this girl, Hope, about three weeks ago. First time in a long time I've really been into a girl. She's smart, funny, sarcastic, gorgeous, and very easy to be around. I found myself, Saturday, realizing I'd blocked off part of the day to clean the apartment (for no particular reason other than it needed to be done), which, in the light of day, seemed absurd. I called Hope, and we spent the day together, which we've only got to do a couple times, but which has been really great. Much better than doing the dishes, of course.

So, if you see me acting like a bit of a grinning idiot, that'd be why.

Contacts
I did it. Actually, the day before I met Hope. Finally got contact lenses, quickly learned that you can put them on inside out, apparently, and slowly got used to wearing them. I've still got glasses as a backup, but in truth, I don't see myself putting them on very much. It's nice to have a full field of vision. Huzzah, sight.

Auditions!
Oh, baby, this is finally getting off the ground. Theatre Momentum (the "board" of which is, at the moment, more or less me n' my shadow) is holding our auditions for the next round of shows. We did showcases last year that had three shows apiece, and frankly, that was a lot to work on.

This year, we're aiming at a new setup. We're auditioning two shows at a time- this round is Jigsaw and Mixtape, directed by Rob Kozlowski (author of The Art of Chicago Improv), and Amanda Rountree (from Seattle), respectively. I'm feeling optimistic about the prospects of these shows. Conceptually, they lend themselves very much to the smart, complex style of play that I want TM to be recognized for, and that's keen.

I've been in talks with the Bailiwick about their spaces- they have a loft space I'm hoping to rent in the long-term, so we have place to actually take shows after the 8-week runs of a showcase are over. After talking with Don about Fugue, it looks like we'll be remounting it later this year (holding auditions at the same time as the TM IV auditions, for which I've yet to choose shows or directors...!). But, here's my hope- we run Jigsaw and Mixtape for 8 weeks. A little bit into the run, we see that the shows have legs enough to continue in an extended run. If the casts need to be expanded to have enough players to continue (schedules sometimes suck for extending shows), we either invite people who auditioned in this round of auditions, or we keep a lookout in the upcoming round of auditions (TM V, at this point, auditioning about 4 weeks into the TM III run- I know!), and invite some of those folks to join the extended runs.

Jigsaw and Mixtape move to Thursday and Friday nights, 10:30. Fugue runs Saturdays, 10:30. TM IV drops into its slot in the Wednesday night showcase. Since we'll be renting the loft space, making it our own little home (it's only about a 40-seat theater, just about perfect for our needs) 4 nights a week, we'll have the same space for all our shows, which makes for a nice brand identity/home base sort of thing. If all goes well, who knows, maybe we move Jigsaw and Mixtape into other, more prime-time slots, and start renting at other theaters, too. Eventually, TM becomes mighty.

Something like that. But, it's all contingent upon me keeping my focus on the long-term goals, rather than getting caught up (as I have in the past) in instant-gratification and popularity. We shall see.

WiP
All of TM's shows get spawned in WiP. Thus has it always been, and I'm sure this will be how it'll go for the majority of our shows for quite a while. But the tenor of WiP has changed in the past handful of months, so we spend a good portion of the workshop with Don coaching the workshoppers about their individual improv skills. We end up going an hour and a half before we even get to a break, and it's sometimes almost 5 PM before we've begun performing a form at all.

It's tough. I know that Don's no-holds-barred, tough-love approach to improv coaching is something people value (myself included), but that's not WiP's purpose, technically. Its purpose is to generate cohesive, interesting, unique shows for TM to possibly produce, and, in the process, improve people's improv skills. It's sort of shifted the other way, so the show creation has become more secondary.

I don't want to force the evolution of the workshop, but I need it as a specific tool to TM's development, more so than I need it to be a cool classroom. I'll probably chat with Don about it, see what his thoughts are (I've actually considered asking him if he wants to work up a curriculum and teach a short, TM-backed workshop series that gives him a bit more of a free hand than WiP, but that's down the road, if it is to happen).

See, as a producer, I have to look at the shows WiP develops from a certain mindset. I have to look toward the end-product and say to myself, "will this be marketable?" "will it be recognizable to an audience that ____ show actually is ___?" "does this format serve the style of play TM wants to be known for?"

And that's a lot to worry about. I try to shut up that part of my brain, but we're still a young group, trying to make an identity. I don't want to fuck with the workshop too much, but I want auditioners and audiences to be able to look at "Jigsaw" and say, "oh, a puzzle! I get it!" and want to come to the audition or the show. If it's something that I have to explain at length, and the reason it's cool is only because the person I'm talking to is an improvisor who doesn't get to play anything but a Harold- then that's not much of a hook.

The other thing, though, which drives me nuts because it goes against the "marketability" mindset (which might be a good thing) is that specific forms lend themselves to intellectual, layer, complex, theatrical performance, where humor comes from much more than punchlines or funny voices. I need to pull away a bit from the marketing mindset, and find a manner in which to market those shows that happen to be structurally good for the TM aesthetic.

[Anecdotal whining moment]
A few weeks back, before WiP started, Don was chatting with Lisa about the upcoming auditions for the SKALD storytelling competition with WNEP. Lisa had mentioned that she really wanted to work on monologues, to prepare for this. Don, sensing opportunity, said he'd work it into whatever form we did today.

I sort of took issue with this, and said so- it seemed a little unfair to lump in the lesson of monologues in with a form that might not necessarily call for it. Seemed like the show formation would take a backseat to the lesson (like I mentioned above). Bugged me a little bit, but I figured it'd work out somehow.

One of the forms I'd dropped in the bowl, "Placebo Effect", got pulled. When I'd come up with this idea, I thought it would be something rife with possibilities for TM show production- it's a recognizable idea to most people, has the potential for some sort of layered, intelligent play, and we could really muck around with style. In discussion, the idea that "perception + authority becomes reality" was thrown about, and I was prepared to do something cool.

But, as I'd worried, the form took a backseat to monologue-lessons. As Don began to describe the form, I said, half-jokingly, "oh, so you're just gonna stuff monologues onto my form? Sheesh!" (or some such). Don's response- "You don't have a form. You have an idea. I have the form."
Ouch.

The form worked out, but had considerably more to do with using monologues than it had to do with the Placebo Effect. It was a three-person scene, with people stepping out at intervals to monologue on a time when they'd experience a placebo effect, in some form or another. And that monologue's information was to feed the scene development. As I mentioned to Don, halfway through the process, the monologues could have been about any subject matter- this didn't really speak to the idea of "the placebo effect" at all.

Usually, Don will ask the person who originated the nugget of the form idea if the form we came up with speaks to thus-and-so concept. I didn't really feel I'd been afforded this courtesy, and it kinda stank. I didn't think my format got the full "Don Hall" treatment.

Boo-hoo.
[/Anecdotal whining moment]

I've moved on. It's not like we developed a shitty show, or like Don was intentionally trying to be disrespectful or anything. There's no point in wallowing in it. We've developed a ton of shows, and as Don has admitted to, sometimes the formats are just what he wants to watch that particular day. Given that I owe him for creating lots of terrific formats, I can't deny him a bit of free rein, now can I?

15HP
The 15 Hour Project looms. I'm still trying to get together the last little details of stuff, but it looks like we have a couple directors lined up already, and the tentative date is June 28th. Boom. Can't wait to see how this one plays out. It's been over a year since the last one, and people have constantly bugged me to put together another one.

Open Court
I went to Open Court at The Playground last week, and got pulled into coaching one of the three teams. I tossed out an idea that I thought would be pretty straightforward, and which would lend itself to some smart performances. I should have been a little more explicit, I guess, because it didn't turn out quite as I'd hoped.

The concept was "invisible man". It's something I pretty much stole from a Joe Bill workshop. One player begins a scene, solo, speaking to a second character. No actor is portraying that character, but the first player assumes responses from this "invisible" character, and the audience hears one half of the conversation, interpolating the rest of the dialogue in their minds, based on the reactions of the first player. Eventually (this is supposed to be like 30 seconds to a minute, but ended up as an average of about 5 seconds), a second player enters, assuming the character of the "invisible" character and continuing the scene.

Simple-ish. Didn't work out, and the scenes were rife with denials, cheesy reactions, and jokey dialogue. I felt bad for the two players from International Stinger, because they definitely got the concept, and tried to run with it, but not everyone was on the same page.

Alas. I guess I wouldn't have felt so lousy about it, but the other two teams that night did especially well, considerably well, given that it was Open Court. Ah, well, whatcha gonna do?

Obama
Hurry up and get those superdelegates together, so we can move on to the general election campaign. Sheesh.

I want a candidate people perceive as "elite". I'd like the leader of the free world to be amazingly mind-boggling more intelligent than I am. Be a better person than I am, think more in the long-term than I'm capable of fathoming. Don't ever change, Barack. Take it home.