A Picture is Worth 1000 Words - DAGNABBIT!

I had my first "getting to know you" phone call this week with the young director who will be staging my play THREE THE HARD WAY at East Tennessee State University this fall. She's a student, and very excited to be working on the play.

We had more words than usual about the set design -- because she is working with a student designer, for whom this is the first set. It was a relief to her that we were on the same page -- very spare set, non-realistic -- rather than a stage full of literal furniture. She was particularly relieved to know I definitely agreed there shouldn't be a real pool table, even though it says so in my author notes. I told her that the only production I know of where they put a real table on stage, it was problematic -- the audience kept wondering whether Albert could make the shots, when his near-Zen artistry with the cue should seem unbearably natural. And anyway, the audience's attention should be on the relationships, not the shot-making.

"But there's a real pool table in the picture on the cover of the script," she said. Cripes! I'd forgotten that! I told her that the photo isn't from the actual Dobama production, which didn't use a real pool table, but from the pre-production publicity shots taken at our Cleveland Heights Jillian's -- the billiard hall where Mark Maryo, a nationally ranked pro, gave our actors several crucial lessons on stance and cue handling.

As our production consultant, Mark also choreographed the pool practice in Scene 1 -- and because he did, it was the most convincing pool game in any production I've seen. There were times where you could have sworn you saw the balls move, even though there were none!

I'm glad we got that straightened out. I wonder how many other directors and/or designers have sweat over the decision of pool table/no pool table because of that picture...

More TEN BY TEN Ink

I heard from Chris Swanson, another of the playwrights participating in Ten by Ten in the Triangle, that my comedy OPTIONAL got plenty of laughs on Saturday night. She sent me a review, which makes it sound like the whole evening went well.

I'm writing this from Minneapolis, where I'm at the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) conference. Spent all day with playwrights and 'turgs, seeing the new Guthrie Theatre (impressive, huge building with lots of public space in it), hearing Kevin Kling tell marvelous stories, and going to a new play reading at the PlayLabs by Jordan Harrison. Busman's holiday...

The Cell Phone Sing-Along

I had a blast at the Ingenuity Festival on Friday afternoon, doing my Cell Phone Sing-Along. The sing-along part included placards so the audience could sing along with the chorus, to the tune of "My Darling Clementine":

O MY CELL PHONE, DARLING CELL PHONE,
MODEL OF TECHNOLOGY --
IF I LOST YOU IN A CYCLONE,
IT WOULD BE THE END OF ME.

I also asked people to take pictures with their cell phone and to send them to our Dark Room email address. Somebody actually did -- it's blurry, but there I am with my accordion.

The Ingenuity tech folks did INCREDIBLE things to that space in one week! They created a beautiful stage with color washes on backdrop screens and comfortable, raked seating for the audience. And with the 90-some degree heat + humidity outside, it was surprisingly cool inside.

I think the combo platter of comedy, drama, poetry, and songs plus patter by host Chris Johnston gave the audience a really good feel for the kind of work we do in the Dark Room.

I spent plenty of time Thursday evening at Ingenuity as well. I loved the Symphony of 1000 Drums, the sound installation, and particularly the large-format photos by Jenny Jones. I think the All-Go Signs events at the McCrory building are pretty cool, too.

On Thursday night Prospect Avenue was quite the community crossroads. I got a chance to talk to everybody from Mayor Frank Jackson to little kids to foundation mavens to a tattooed biker-trucker from the old CPT "Brew Crew", plus a bunch of artists and performers I haven't seen in a while. That's one of the things I love about events that local impressario-art genius James Levin runs -- there's always an intriguing, populist slant to things.

OPTIONAL Opens at Ten By Ten This Weekend

Here is a link to a preview article about the Ten by Ten Festival in North Carolina. A couple of playwrights I know are traveling there for their "Playwrights Weekend", so I know I'll get to hear about how OPTIONAL turned out.

INGENUITY INK

The Ingenuity Festival opens tonight, with a percussion spectacular called SYMPHONY FOR 1,000 DRUMS. My son Dave has been helping the Ingenuity folks, networking with local drum circles trying to organize drummers. ("Organize drummers?": sounds like an oxymoron. More like herding cats...)

The piece is being put together by the ultimately cool Egyptian-born composer Halim El-Dabh, who has been a fixture in NE Ohio thanks to his decades teaching at Kent State. Halim is one of the most righteous dudes you could ever meet -- eighty-some years young. He stayed on my futon one night when he had a premiere at CPT. Hearing him talk about his career -- everything from working with Martha Graham to his desert encounters with Berber tribesmen -- was fabulous.

Today I tinkered some more with my accordion piece, the Cell Phone Sing-Along -- changing some lyrics, adding a bridge so it's more musically interesting. Here's a link to an article about Ingenuity, including some ink about our show, Tech-Yes! Tech-No! -- look under "Cleveland Theater Collective". Also, check out "Lost Prospect", a collective creation by a group of area writers, including my Holiday Hotline collaborator Mike Sepesy.

MY TV INTERVIEW AIRS THIS WEEK

I heard from Sue Johnson, director of Wake Up and Live Studio, that the TV interview I did for "Wake Up and Live with the Arts" a few weeks ago will air on cable this week.

The first play dates are: Wed., July 12 @ 7:30 PM, and Sat., July 15 @ 7 pm. That's on the Cleveland area Adelphia stations, which are channel 21 (eastern suburbs) and channel 23 (western suburbs). Sue tells me that it will then rotate to Cox Cable and the Cleveland access channel.

I know I can't see it tomorrow -- I'll be seeing DAS BARBECU at Lyric Opera -- but I'll try to catch it later. I discovered Monday that our VCR is busted. I had wanted to tape a new movie on Lifetime written by my pal Jamie Pachino that premiered during our Ingenuity tech, but no dice. I'll try to hatch some taping plan by Saturday.

TECH REHEARSAL - INGENUITY

Just got back from our tech rehearsal for TECH-YES! TECH-NO!, the series of pieces the Dark Room writers created for the Ingenuity Festival this weekend. It'll be performed in the back end of the old May Company building, with an entrance on Prospect Avenue just off Ontario, around the corner from Fat Fish Blue. The show performs once, on Friday July 14 at 2 pm. Don't miss it.

The old building is a wreck inside -- kind of like bombed-out Dresden. Those of us who have been in Cleveland long enough to remember shopping there (yes, Virginia, there WERE local department stores downtown once) were shocked to see how deteriorated things had become. But the Ingenuity folks have set up a very cool stage area inside.

I will be performing THE CELL PHONE SING-ALONG, a comic song that I wrote for the occasion, accompanying myself on (ahem) the accordion. I wrote it for the squeeze-box because (a) the accordion is funny; (b) it's low-tech and doesn't need amplification (it really carries in that subterranean space); and (c) I didn't want to perform to recorded music since there needs to be some interaction with the audience.

I picked it up back in '92, when director James Slowiak wanted an accordion player for his CPT production of Jean Genet's THE BALCONY. I said I'd learn how to play if I could compose the score. I taught myself by practicing in front of a mirror.

So I spent 8 weeks in Grotowski-inspired rehearsals (I found Slowiak's rehearsal process endlessly fascinating, lots of creative input from the actors) culminating in 3 weeks on-stage as Genet's brothel accordionist. I wandered through the CPT performance space blind as a bat because the costumer thought my glasses didn't look period enough. After the production closed, I'd grown fond enough of the instrument that I couldn't bring myself to return it, so I bought it.

I don't play it much, but I like to use it for occasional comic purposes. I wrote a monologue for CPT's Pandemonium! last year, WELCOME TO THE VESTIBULE, playing the Purgatory exam proctor who administers the Eternity Entrance Exam. Among other irritating things, I sang pieces of Emily Dickinson poems to the tunes of "The Yellow Rose of Texas" and the "Theme from Gilligan's Island". (Try it sometime -- most of them fit.)

BUMMER - A cancellation

Wild Plum just informed me that they didn't raise enough money to take MARLA'S DEVOTION to NYC. So they're cancelling their appearance at Fresh Fruit. Major bummer.

Now I'm especially glad I had already committed to performing at Ingenuity on the 14th. Oh, well. Onward to other things.

LIVE GIRLS! - TV SPOT

I got an email from Meghan Arnette, AD of Live Girls! Theater in Seattle, which is running my one act PIG PATTER. There's a cool streaming video about their Quickies series from "City A Go Go", a monthly arts video feature that is a project of the Seattle Channel.

One of the things I like most about the interview it is the way they identify all the artists who work with this small company: "actor/handyman", "actor/furniture mover", "associate artistic director/concession specialist", "artistic director/plumber". That's totally the reality of feisty small theater companies. You do all these day jobs to fund your art, then in your "spare time" you also do everything that needs to be done for your theater, including mopping the john. It's a life of 80 hour weeks, or more, keeping the place afloat, totally a labor of love.

It reminds me of the carnivalesque piece I created with our experimental ensemble when Cleveland Public Theatre was trying to buy the building we'd renovated for years: The Chapel of Perpetual Desire Presents a Liturgical Circus of Religious Fervor and Live Sex on Stage! It included a blues number I wrote and sung called "I Hate My Day Job". During the guitar solo, I read from a list of all the day jobs by the people who created the piece: "Jim (the A.D.) works in the so-called criminal justice system", "Amanda (the director) sells advertising over the phone". I ended it with "and Linda -- takes money -- from her parents!" It always got a huge laugh.

MARLA'S DEVOTION PICS


The Wild Plum benefit performances for MARLA'S DEVOTION closed yesterday. I got a chance to see it a second time at the Sunday matinee -- a surprising number of people there, too.

Thanks to all who showed up to support it.

Here are a couple of pictures from the production. The first is Denise Astorino as Marla, in a contemplative moment.



The next is Maria Miranda as lawyer Joey.

Thanks to WP2 photog Terry Michelle.

ONE MORE YOSEMITE ENTRY

I finally found the John Muir quote about Yosemite National Park I read when we were up in the high country.

"The park is a paradise that makes even the loss of Eden seem insignificant. " - John Muir, 1900

It still is.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GEORGE SAND

Just got an email from my BECOMING GEORGE book/lyrics collaborator Patti McKenny reminding me that today is George Sand's birthday. She writes:

"George Sand was born 202 years ago today. There was a party; her father was fiddling a dance; her mother was dancing in a rose-colored dress, and suddenly said "Excuse me." A short time later George's aunt came down and said "Maurice, you have a daughter. She was born to music and roses, she'll love a life of beauty.""

This is from the Delacroix portrait of Sand, which used to be a double portrait of Sand and her lover Frederic Chopin, until an unscrupulous art dealer thought he could make more money if he cut it down the middle. Our whizbang set designer Jen Price recreated a version of the double portrait for Sand's study in BECOMING GEORGE, for the scene where she hears Chopin's music (is it his ghost playing the piano?) and sings the ballad "Letters to the Night". It's one of the scenes/songs in the show that everyone remembers and loves best.

Our MetroStage producer Carolyn Griffin said that whenever Kat' Taylor sung it, the whole crew would stop whatever they were doing and stand in the wings to listen -- usually with tears running down their face. Every night. For six weeks.

WILD PLUM BENEFIT

Last night I went to the Friday night benefit for Wild Plum Productions' trip to NYC to the Fresh Fruit Festival. It started with a production of my comedy MARLA'S DEVOTION, which they will be taking on the road, then morphed into free food, wine, music by Maura Rogers and local grrrl band Slackjaw, and a raffle for funky jewelry by Chris Sweiger and a kickass photo of Slackjaw taken by WP2 photographer Terry Michelle.

CPT's Gordon Square Theatre was packed! A huge bunch of women -- an amazing turnout considering that the event didn't end up in either the PD Friday magazine or in Cool Cleveland. Viral queer marketing, my babes! Emails sent from grrrl to grrrl to grrrl, and suddenly they're crawling out of the wall. Most impressive.

A big shoutout to Cleveland Public Theatre AD Raymond Bobgan who let WP2 use its big Gordon Square Theatre space rent-free for all 4 performances. Mad love, Raymond! It looks like by the end of the weekend they'll make enough to fund the trip, and that's even at the low $10 ticket.

I wish I could go with them -- they're going to enjoy the Festival a lot, I know. But between Ingenuity, finishing a book contract (more on that later), just coming back from California, and going to Minneapolis the following weekend for the LMDA conference, I just couldn't squeeze in one more hit-and-run trip.