holidays

So... Thanksgiving was good. We went to Sara's mom's house, and stuffed ourselves. Then, we did the sales. Crazy....
The only one I participated in was the outlet mall that opened up at midnight on Thanksgiving. I did that and then was dropped of at Sara's sister's and I went to sleep. They then proceeded to go to a store opening at 4, and another at 6.....
crazy....

Christmas is around the corner... some of the presents have been bought already but there is a shit-ton more to get. Every year, I always say "We need to start buying earlier", but we never do...

Coronado, I hardly knew thee...

Well, tonight begins the closing weekend of Coronado, my first venture into the "Assistant Director" domain. And, probably the most artistically satisfying experience I've had in Chicago in a long time (Sorry Kevin - #1 will still be working on LaBute's Bash: Latterday Plays with About Face)

A lot of the reason the show rocked for me was being able to work with one of the best groups I've talent I've ever been associated with. These actors, pardon my Boston, are fucking wicked pissah (although, Lehane would be pleased with colloquialism). Bergen Anderson, Jessica Jane Childs, Jeremy Fisher, Trey Maclin, Peter Moore, Karyn Morris, Caroline Neff, Brian Parry & John WIlson. If you ever have a chance to work with ANY of them I implore you to do so.

New thought

Ok, so I read a bunch of the local theatre blogs - most of the time I don't feel intellectual enough to join in on the discussion, and lately its only been worse.

Pretty much everyone has gotten into this long-winded discussion about "what is art?", and some of the discussion has gotten into that "story vs. spectacle" area. (Wicked vs. Death of a Salesman, if you will) Now while I cant expound with notions about neo-classical and modern art and the like, I can give the facts about MYSELF.

So here's the question (and BE HONEST):
For the theatre folk, what was the show that "hooked" you? the one that made you stare up at the stage with your mouth open like a goon and the only thoughts going through your mind is "wowwwwww....."?

The show that hooked me? My high school's production of Anything Goes.


Whats my point?
Next time you talk about the lack of artistic merit in shows like Wicked or Jersey Boys, try to remember the steaming pile of shit you fell in love with when you were 10.

So - what's yours?

audtions

I think I have finally discovered the only way to live through auditions.
No monologues, only readings....

This is the second set of auditions in a row I've been involved in where that has been the format, and I really like it.
Taking actors out of their element of "prepared" and throwing into the fire with cold readings is a bettrer assessment of their skills, i feel. I mean, I'm a sucky actor, but I can memorize a monologue just fine. But would I make interesting and creative choices during a cold read? probably not - I don't have that bag of tricks.
Actors do certainly need to memorize, but they also need to be totally comfortable "in the moment". In live theater, anything can happen (and usually does). If you're not ready to take it as it comes, then you're not right for me.

stupid is as stupid does

Back on Oct. 31st, The Trib posted a 4 page article called Theatre 101 (article is here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-1102_c_theater101nov02,1,7510413.story?page=1)


I understand the intent was to be funny and informative - and they succeded at both....occasionally. A majority of the tone was very condescending, though. Seriously, telling people when they're supposed to clap? (the part that offended me was the rebuke to house managers - I got a little huffy in the comment I left... what can I say, I get emotional)

The best comment left was from Marcus, who wrote:

"Hm, I'm trying to think if the NYT would run an article like this in their
Arts section...... Nope. I don't believe they would. Unlike the Tribune's
editors, the editors of the Times probably recognize that their readers are
smart enough to figure out how to go to a play all on their own.

You gonna print an article telling us not to be scared of the Art Institute
next week? "

hilarious.

Morose vs. downright cute

So Sara said my blog had been getting a little morose (I believe she said my blog was getting like an obituary page...)

Observe if you will the last 2 entries.... my uncle Marty and my brother Sean.

Okay, okay, maybe they were getting a little macabre... whatever.

So today I will instead celebrate LIFE.

This is a picture of my sister-in-law Melissa, and me & Sara's new nephew Riley Louis.

How cute is he? He develops hiccuping fits when Sara holds him, but when I hold him, he snuggles down into my chest and falls asleep.

The next set of "new baby" pics will likely be when Sara and I have one.

on my desk...

I keep this picture on my desk at work....

Its a great pic of me and my younger brother Sean. I taped his obituary to it, and I look at it every day.

I have a few regrets in my life. He is my biggest. I wasnt close to my brother (we were 9 years apart), and then, unfortunately, we lost our Dad to cancer when Sean was 4 and I was 13. It pretty much tore the family apart. So, years go by, and I dont spend time with him (or my sister either). There's that misguided notion of "No worries - we have YEARS..."

Not so much. My brother went back and forth with some drug issues over the years, but was on a fairly good path going into May of 2005. He was on methadone to try and kick the habit, and things (according to my sis) were going good. He went to bed the night of May 25 and on the morning of the 26th, his girlfriend found him unresponsive. He died of a methadone overdose - he was only 20 years old. (the anniversary of his death is 15 days after the annivrsary of our Dad's death - 5.11.88)

Sean Joseph Driscoll -- 7.21.84-5.26.05

My Uncle Marty

In 1979, my mom's youngest brother, my Unlce Marty, drowned at a local beach after deciding to go for a late-night swim. He was found by a woman walking her dog along the beach the next morning. He was only 21.

Now, I was only 4 1/2 at the time, but I totally remember my uncle Marty. He liked picking up my brother Danny and carrying him on his shoulders. He also taught me how to tie my shoes. He was young, and he was fun and he ALWAYS had a smile on his face. I actually got to see him in his coffin and he still looked amazingly handsome.

The most lasting legacy of him though?

Minus the cleft in the chin, he is the relative I look the most like. (in my opinion).

Now, if only I could get a stylin' 1970's denim VEST to wear with my favorite outfits, then I'd be as cool as he was. :)

too damn WET

stupid storm raining out the Red SOx / white sox game

to fly or not to fly

I was taking the train home tonight and I was struck by something. I hate flying...HATE it. All I can ever do the whole time is worry about whether or not I'm going to crash and die. But, I am completely transfixed whenever a plane flies overhead - I could sit and watch planes fly over for hours. Whenever I'm on the highway going past that spot by O'Hare where the flight path goes over the highway... I love it, the whole thing excites the hell outta me.

Now why can't I take that enthusiasm over how amazing the mechanics and engineering of flying are and apply it to when I'm actually ON the plane???

less than 2 weeks...

...until our road trip!


I love when you're planning something - an event, an evening out, or a vacation, and you've planned the thing months in advance, and at the time all you can think is "I can't wait until X happens!". Then, the time ghoes by and you're in the position I'm in now... where all I can think, after 5 months of planning, is "I can't beleieve we leave in less than 2 weeks!"





I plan on trying to blog from the road so I can keep everyone up to date on our travels.





The plan for the trip (so far) is to leave the Chicago area around 2pm on Friday the 31st (Sara is picking me up straight from work). We are planning on having a cooler of food so we dont have to stop as much (just for the occasional pee-break). Our goal Friday is to make it AT LEAST as far as Erie, PA. This is completely do-able: I made that far driving back to Mass. with my mom back in 2001.


Sara is actually going to be OFF on that Friday, so she's planning on sleeping in as much as she can so that she can just keep driving until she can't anymore.


(Erie, PA is the goal, but if we can POSSIBLY make it into NY, we're going to try)





Then, on Saturday the 1st, we'll get up around 8ish and be on the road by 830-9am. Depending on where we stopped the night before, we should get to my mom's neck of the woods by 5pm - 7pm - hopefully just in time for dinner :)


We're staying at a cabin just a short 10 miles away (in Maine, you would call that "down the road a piece").


Here's a shot from the back porch of the cabin:

How can you NOT get excited about someplace that cool looking?

I can smell the pine trees already...

color question

Tony has raised the question on his blog today about color http://jayraskolnikov.blogspot.com/2007/08/race-and-theatre.html , and it's something I've thought about a bunch lately.

There's lots of discussion going on in "blog-land" about community and theatre's place in it, and this is certainly something that is a part of that argument.

For SRT, we have never done what one could identify as an "African American Play" or a "Hispanic or Latino Play", etc. , however we have certainly have had several different minorities be a part of some color-blind casting over the years. (Not a pat on the back, just laying out the facts)
Unless we happen to have an artist of color join the company as a company member, I don't think we'll actually DO an "African American Play" etc and here's why - we are an ensemble-based theatre company, so we choose a season that will not only challenge us but also reflect the ensemble.

Recently, though, we had our annual playwrighting festival, which we now have a panel of theatre professional sit in on and help choose a "best play" - we also ask for these panelists opinions on the festival as a whole, things they liked, things we can improve. And one panelist said that they wished they had seen some more "diversity" to the evening. I agree with him - at a festival we should certainly be making our best efforts to showcase diversity, HOWEVER... here are some challenges we have with that.

First, as we don't recieve pictures of the playwrights with the submissions, we simply need to select the BEST plays we can, and hope for diversity amongst those. This past festival, we recieved 3 plays that featured characters of color. One, that featured some Asian characters, and two that featured African American characters.
The one that featured Asian characters almost made it into the festival, but the technical requirements of the piece forced us to say no in the long run.
The 2 that featured African American charcters were simply not good plays. We have no idea of the race of the playwrights, but in my opinion, the way the charcters were written - if the playwright was white, then they were racist, and if they were black, then they were just perpetuationg some of the worst African American racial stereotypes - and I'm not about to be a part of that.

So, now, on to auditions and casting.
For the 6 plays that were chosen by the 6 directors, only ONE play really had any kind of NEED for white characters. The premise of the play was a middle aged couple who goes on a trip to India and to really capture the "fish out of water" sense of the play, a white couple would certainly capture that BEST, but if the director had seen actors of color who were BETTER, I'm sure she would have chosen the quality of the acting over the skin color.
For the remaining 5 plays? No racial or ethnic "needs" of any kind. Just a mixture of relationship plays and 2 that both had some fantastic surreal qualities. Any of the characters in the shows could have been played by anyone of any color or look. (I directed one of the 6, and I can personally say that I didn't care about what colors walked through the door.)

For the auditions, we had a handful hispanic and latino actors come, one African American (I think) and one asian american.

This happens all the time.

We put out the audition notice, and we always say that we enourage all ages, all races, colors, ethnicities... and then we get no more than 5 or 6.

We did cast ONE hispanic/latino male (because he's GREAT! He's actually so great he was in 2 of the 6 shows) and the rest was the usual. White women, white men 20's to 30's.

How do we change this? I feel as though we need to broaden our audition advertising , but how do we do that?

This is not something I know the answer to - I'm looking for the guidance - and looking for other people's experiences.

Sean looking all powerful and shit....

I was looking for a picture to write another story about, and I came across this one, which I LOVE. This is a great shot that Michael took of Sean during tech for our last show, "The Past's Present". I don't know what it is... the rich colors in the background... the intense stare on Sean's face... I can't explain it... this picture just...MOVES me.

It's kind of like that song you can't put into words what it means... thats what this picture is to me.

great picture... great memory

My stepfather Timo was in no uncertain terms, a right bastard. But thats an entirely different post. However, his only shining quality was his love of hockey, and he loved to play with my brother and some of the neighborhood guys.

When he was younger, Timo was an accomplished swimmer and won a bunch of medals for his swimming back in his homeland of Finland.

What you are seeing in the picture is the end of a great game of Everett street hockey, where Timo let all the guys wear one of his medals, so they could act like they'd won the olympics or something. He had a really soft side for the kids (when he wasn''t drinking -- again, for another day I promise), and this picture is just such a great representation of my youth. (My brother Danny is all the way to the left... even in winter he's wearing his Little League championship jacket).

regret

Have you ever looked back at something you did, and feel such an overwhelming wave of regret….but not be in a position to actually do anything about it effectively?

Have you ever done something that was so completely out of character, for truly selfish and stupid reasons, and not been able to take it back?

Have you ever been in a position where you chose one path, and you wish that you could go back and get a different option? And now its too far along to make any change, because you don’t want to hurt the ones you chose but you can’t believe the hurt you caused to those you didn’t choose?

I wish…..

I wish there was a way to go back
I wish there was a way to CHANGE what I did.
I wish I could write all of this without needing to speak in code :)
(although, no one ever reads my blog, so I guess it doesn't really matter)


So, without sounding all flowery and poetic – I hurt someone. This was a few years ago. Whether or not the person “deserved what was coming to them” is open to personal interpretation and opinion, and I’m not about to debate that. The manner in which it was done? Hands down – it sucked. It was underhanded and slick and over-all it was unprofessional. When the main argument against the person in question was a matter of professionalism, then one would think the matter should have been presented to them professionally. Yeah…one would think…

So how does one express regret to someone who a.) isn’t speaking to them at present and b.) will likely scorn everything you say?

Also, how do I make it sound like it’s genuine without sounding like a total ass-hat?


And if I try to express regret, is it solely to make myself feel better? Is that too selfish a reason? What if that other person could care LESS if I have regret? Perhaps they have moved on completely and I don’t even enter their mind, not even in a bad way? If that’s the case is it even worth the effort?


This sucks. I made a choice and it was wrong. Sure, we’ve all done it before, but did it change the fabric of a large part of your life? It did for mine.
It sucks that I can’t DO anything about it and I can’t SAY anything about it. (too many people involved)

thank GOD its Friday

This was a LONG week at work, lots of crap to do. I'm so jazzed its Friday, and that I'll be able to sleep in a WEE bit tomorrow.

Vitality closes tomorrow, and I would have to say that my first foray into the world of direction was successful (at least to me). My actors are happy with the piece and the audience has defintely responded to it... what else can you ask for?

Also, the first read-thru for Coronado is this Sunday evening. I cannot WAIT to hear it aloud from the actors!

August 9th

wow... 2 posts in one day, Brownlee will be beside himself...

August 9th is a GREAT combination of days.

FIRST - My baby sister ( I guess not so baby anymore) was born 27 years ago today. Man, I remember that like it was yesterday - she was like a little doll with dark brown hair. Some of my BEST memories of childhood are with Heather. Watching "Annie" for the millionth time, listening to Madonna songs together and signing along, playing with barbie's (yes, I was a girl once), going camping... the list goes on.
Happy Birthday baby sister! You're a treasure, and I wish you happiness and love.

SECOND -
Well, today is ALSO me & Sara's 6 year anniversary.
HOLY CRAP! 6 YEARS? really?!?!?!??

Yes, really. I was 26 when we first met and fell in love (and Sara was a mere 22). Now, 6 years later, we own a car, we're making small plans for a condo (within a year, hopefully...), plus Sara wants be pregnant before 30 if possible....
We did that "live apart" thing for a year, and without voicing it, I know that our friends were wary - they probably thought we wouldn't make it. Strangely enough, it made us stronger and all the best ways. We appreciate each other more, we don't take each other for granted anymore and we TALK about what we're feeling. We hardly ever argue anymore even! We take the time to say not only that we love each other, but whatever's on our mind at that moment (things like "Your hair looks really cute today - I love it" or "I love your smile", etc).

She's the best thing that has ever happened to me.
hands down.

Vitality V

FINAL WEEKEND ! Tickets are GOING FAST!

Speaking Ring Theatre Company
proudly presents
Vitality V
This is the 5th year for our annual playwrighting festival. This year's theme is 'Breaking Out: The Moments when we Shake Free of our Constraints and Eclipse the Past'

For this year’s festival, the following plays were chosen:
I Want You to Find Me by Ryan Burkett * The Madness of Sophie by Tanya M. Chase
Kamasutra by Tom Coash * Kings of Cabbage by Thurston Cobb
Rising by Kristyn Leigh Robinson * Submerged by Kristyn Leigh Robinson

The playwrights are also competing for an audience award of
"Best Play" which is voted on by YOU!

This year's directing team includes:
Dianna Driscoll (Rising), Brian Troyan (I Want You to Find Me),
Lydia Millman (Submerged), Adam Webster (The Madness of Sophie),
Lavina Jadhwani (Kamasutra), and Erin Rooney (Kings of Cabbage)

• This is the final weekend! August 9, 10, & 11.
• All shows are at 8pm and all tickets are just 15$
• All performances are at American Theatre Company, located at 1909 W. Byron, Chicago (corner of Byron & Lincoln)
• Ticket reservations are available by calling the SRT Box Office Hotline (312.458.9374) and leaving a message or by emailing at info@speakingringtheatre.org.
  

Please come out and celebrate
NEW WORKS!

take that, Brownlee

Ok, so Brownlee is impressed that I've done 2 blogger posts in a month...

Why don't I just make it three and give the poor bastard a heart attack?

So, the play finalists for our playwrighting festival have all been chosen... and I don't know how this happened, but I volunteered to direct one of the plays for the festival. I have NEVER directed before. I think I'm a smart person, but dircting takes a different train of thought... here's hoping I can tap into that! So, of the 13 finalists that were chosen, me and my 5 fellow directors read the 13, decide on our top 3, then we write a directors proposal for each of our top 3, and then the producers and the reading committee will select which directiong proposals sounmd best and choose the festival program based on that.
I already have 1 or 2 that I like, but I need to approach the 13 with the eyes of a director and what speaks to ME the best. So, wish me luck!

Next weekend is auditions - and hile I've sat through countless auditions as a stage manager and as a producer, I've never sat auditions as a director. I know what to look for, but it doesn't make me any less nervous about the process.

I think it's funny that in my last post I mentioned that I really wanted a copy of Deadwood season one, and on Friday Sara and I were at Costco, and it was available for 49, which is a great price for that.....
Yay for Deadwood!!!!

I'm doing a focus group this evening (lip care products I think?) - and I get 100$ cash for that... woo hoo!!!!! This is only the 2nd one I've done for this company - They've called a couple of other times, but you have to "qualify" - so if they're looking for people who use Athlete Foot cream on a regular basis, and I don't (which BTW, I DON'T), then I don't qualify.

random stuff

• It's "hell-week" for our annual playwrighting fest. This is the week that we have to complete the playreading, comile all of our votes and then fight out the finalists. We didn't get ad many entys this year as in years past (last year we got close to 140). I would conservatively say we got about 75 or 80 this year? I haven't checked in recently with the person collecting the plays - hopefully that number has risen. I'll keep you updated {grin}

• random - the "naked bike ride' happened over the weekend and they drove right past Briar Street theatre, but I was busy inside the theatre, and didn't see ANYTHING. I come out to the lobby, and all of the staff are like "dude, I just saw bunch of breasts and penis'. And then we had a discussion about whether the plural of penis is "penises" or "penii". I prefer "penii", myself (not literally, of course...)

• The Soprano's ended last night. It was a LITERAL "ftb". Very nice.

• I ache to own the seasons of "Deadwood" and I can't explain why.... maybe the end of ONE of my favorite foul-mouthed shows makes me yearn for another? I'm watching an auction on eBay for season one. cross your fingers.

• I'm supposed to bring in LOST:Season One for my co-worker Lizette, and I KEEP FORGETTING. It's obviously a sign of age.

• I am excited beyond explanation about me and Sara's road trip for Labor Day weekend.

• I keep trying to come up with a plan that would allow me to work at BMG full-time. The thing that keeps me chained to the hotel are the benefits. They don't emply a LOT of administrative people, so it's a tight fit there... I'm hoping if maybe someone gets an opportunity at another BMG theatre I could slide in there (company management feels the most natural, I think). But, I don't want to get ahead of myself, I'm just BARELY at the end of my 90-day period for crying out loud :)

• Thats all the news thats fit to print today.