Touring:

So I'm going on tour.

But first, a quick preview of the summer.

JUNE
Repeat After Me in San Francisco and Portland.
Undine in San Francisco and Portland.
Project X in San Francisco.
Beauty and The Beast auditions in Portland.
NET Festival in San Francisco.

JULY
On The Table workshops in Portland.
JAW/West Festival in Portland

AUGUST
Everyone Who Looks Like You in Portland.


Summer's looking good. Especially "Transformers 2"...for sure!

But here's what I'm excited about: The workshops for "On The Table" include a whole ton of people driving around on buses, trying to see if flat screen televisions and gestural acting styles work on a moving vehicle. You're not ready for THAT show, population. No way.

ALSO: The NET Festival which includes, but is not limited to, THIS:

Tradition Be Damned:
Stage Managing for Ensemble Theatres
Facilitated by: Liam Kaas-Lentz

For decades, the training of stage managers has been based around one fundamental idea: having a script in hand before the rehearsal process starts. But what if you don’t? How does a classically trained stage manager alter his or her craft to fit a rehearsal process from which there is no script-based action? How does a devising company best utilize a stage manager in the creation of a new piece of work? This workshop will explore all that and more, as we look into the ways a stage manager operates in the ensemble setting, as well as how the craft of stage management may be bettered, as a whole, by devising and ensemble methodology.



SMOKE YOU SMOKERS!!!!

(More on that soon.)

It's been awhile

Sorry Team: I've been busy. More on Stage Management in awhile, but FIRST:

I watched a couple of episodes of "He-Man" the other day, HERE.

Did anyone catch this in the opening text?

"Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me, the day I held my sword aloft and said, "By The Power Of Grayskull! I have the power!""

My question:

Why the fuck did he initially hold his sword up and say "By the Power of Grayskull! I have the power!"?

The powers were revealed to him the day he first did that.

Egg before the Chicken, guys. Egg before the chicken.

Natch.

Happy Mother's Day

THE DEAL:

I've been in tech lately, which in this particular process, feels about 6 days long. Which is fine and good and whatever.

But time has been short. And last night when I asked my wife if I'm a bad son because I didn't send a mother's day present, she replied "yes."

Which is true.

I didn't send a mother's day present. And that does make me a bad son. And now I feel horrific about it. Particularly more so this year, for reasons unknown.

Theatre gets in the way sometimes.

So: Mom: If you're reading. I'm only a stage manager because you and dad supported me being a stage manager. And not just in that spiritual, long-distance kind of way, but in a very real, very practical way. The kind of way that allowed me to become the person I am now, due to countless rides to rehearsal, countless late nights, countless blank stares as I explained how exciting the release of the "source-4 junior" was, and countless opening nights in countless cities all across the country.

And mom: I know that most of those opening nights were awful. A-W-F-U-L. But you would never let that show. And I always secretly appreciated it. Thanks for that. And thanks for everything else you've done and do and probably will do in the near future.

So Happy Mother's Day, mom. I'm sorry there's no card in the mail. I promise I'll do better. I love you.

Summertime

Here's what happens when there's a brief (yet fake) interlude of summer, stuck in the middle of April in Portland:

It gets unbearably hot.

The sun comes out in a serious way.

Everyone gets their fixies out of the garage.

Everyone walks their fixies to the nearest bar.

Everyone chains their fixies to a bike rack.

Everyone in Portland sits outside and drinks Session Lager.

The rains come three days later.

No one goes outside again until July when the heat finally returns.

This is a year-after-year phenomenon here. And we're in the waning portion of it as I write this. I imagine tomorrow will bring rain storms again, and I'll have to go back to buying 10-packs of tri-met tickets at the customer service kiosk in Fred Meyer. Dammit.

But here's the thing:

I'm serious about Portland drinking beers all day when it's sunny. No one actually goes to work, which is evident by the number of folks quaffing beers at outdoor tables at 11am. BUT COUPLE THAT, with the fact that the Blazers seem to be surviving the playoffs, and I'm fairly certain our economy has ground to a halt.

We don't WANT our %12.1 We just don't mind it all that much.

Thanks, Blaze!

It's hot out.

Seriously? Let's talk rehearsal halls.

(I twitted the shit out of this earlier in the week)

I've worked a couple of regional theatre jobs, and both of those dudes had rehearsal halls that were uncomfortably cave-like, fashioned out of abandoned basements, empty classrooms, or (in the case of PCPA) old Dunder Mifflin buildings.

The point:

No rehearsal hall I've ever been in had windows.

Serious! Maybe a skylight, or a tiny little guy on the top of the wall whose purpose was to let light in. But nothing you could actually see through.

Which sucks SOMETIMES.

But with weather like this? I fucking hate windows.

And if we're all honest for just a minute. I think everyone would rather be drinking PBR than warming up. Vote anyone?

High School Sets

My friend Devin once said that building sets at a High School is like eating Cheerios with chopsticks. You can do it...but if you just had a FUCKING SPOON!!!!!

Which brings us to:



I've never seen Annie, and only know a little bit about it because of this and because of that song "Tomorrow" which was quite beautiful when I heard it played solo on the piano 10 years back.

(FYI: The Jay-Z thing? That's how I'D reimagine the show)

BUT: THE POINT IS:

I've been helping build the set for the show up at Lincoln High School. If you get a chance, go see it...and here's why:

1) You haven't seen High School Theater in a long time. This will remind you.

2) The more tickets they sell, the more money they raise, the more chances I have of getting hired.

3) Watch the parents watching the show. It's so interesting that the kids can do no wrong. The forgive-ability factor is out of this world. And I think that's fucking FASCINATING.

Plus, there's a dog in it.

Boo-ya.

J-O-B

Didn't get the job.

The one with all the telephone shenanigans.

It was for the Assistant Production Manager position at Steppenwolf.

It would have been cool to live in Chicago for a time, and to jump (full throttle) back into Regional Theatre.

Cause...I have to say...it's hard these days. This ensemble theatre.

But maybe I'm down because it hailed today, in the middle of April. Or because I'm working too much to go out for a good run. Or maybe it's just a down sort of day.

Fuck it.