WOW....

I WANT "ANGELS ALLEY" ONSTAGE.


So, I have actors that are interested. I have a potential dramaturg who is interested. My script is almost done. And I still have no producer and or director and I don't want to do it myself, for several reasons.


Frustrated? I think yes.

DUCT UP: My First Review

So one of my shows got put on stage! Yea! Read review below.  I have my own opinions, but that's what they are, so whatever. Text below from Utah Theatre Bloggers.

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATRE has some diamonds in the rough

April 5, 2013 by Russell Warne | 11 Comments

OREM — “A new play every ten minutes.” That’s the promise of Utah Valley University’s Short Attention Span Theatre, an evening of short plays playing in the Exbox Theatre this week only. The promise of a different story every 600 seconds is fulfilled, although I found that my satisfaction of the evening often changed as frequently as the program did.

Show closes April 6, 2013.

Writers Workshop, written by Stefan Oberlander

The evening started off with what I believe is the weakest of the plays. A playwright gets two friends and his former professor together to read a new script he has written. Soon the actors realize that the story sounds veryfamiliar. The play started out with clunky exposition, including the always-clumsy technique of one character reminding another of what the latter already knows. (i.e., “You know that . . .”) Oberlander’s script also suffered characters who did not act like normal people would in that situation. I didn’t understand, for example, why the actors in the play would stay around and keep reading a script that they knew was about them; the only purpose sticking around would serve would be to humiliate them.

Moreover, Coral Chambers‘s directing is without focus. I didn’t understand why she had the characters read the play within the play in such extreme acting styles (very wooden, excessively melodramatic, etc.). Chambers also had her actors wonder aimlessly around the stage, and many actors didn’t make eye contact with their fellow castmates that they were talking to. I suppose that the delivery could be a performance problem, but I have seen one of the cast members (William Kalmar, who played Philbin) in several other productions, and I know that at least he can produce a university-quality performance. Writers Workshop felt, however, like a high school show.

One and Two, written by Luci MacNair

MacNair’s script has the least traditional structure of the eight plays of the evening. It features people’s reminiscences of a traumatic event, the nature of which is gradually unveiled to the audience. The method of delivery is not terribly original, but it is effective. I found myself curious about the event, and interested in how the characters reacted to it. Director Shawn Saunderseffectively created stage pictures as the mood of the script grew more intense, and I like how crisp the cast of six actors executed Saunders’s blocking. The ending especially makes this play the most poignant of the evening. It’s not often that a play preaches a message while simultaneously practicing it.

Duct Up, written by Chelsea “Chex” Frandsen

Two co-workers who have been fired from their jobs break into their former place of employment by infiltrating the building’s air conditioning ducts. I feel like this script suffers from a lack of the most basic ingredients needed in a story: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Instead, Duct Up feels like a premise that has been stretched to 10 minutes. The conflict in the plot feels very contrived, and (like Writers Workshop) has a character who chooses to remain in an unpleasant situation for no apparent reason.

Although the flaws of Duct Up are obvious, it still served as a nice vehicle for Brian Kocherhans (as Justin) and Briana Lindsay (as Cody). Thanks to the talents of both performers and the work of director Jordan Hall, the characters are some of the best defined of the evening. Both performers delivered their lines in believable ways, which helped me feel better about this play than some of the others in the evening. Kocherhans and Lindsay did their best to create a nice tension between their characters; unfortunately the conflict in the story was too trivial and diffuse to let them display the full extent of their talents.

Trial of Artemisia, written by Megan Flox-Lambert

Based on the real-life trial of Artemisia Gentileschi, a renown female Renaissance painter who was a rape victim that was placed on trial for the act because of the sexist and convoluted laws of the time,Trial of Artemisia has the potential to pack a powerful punch. Yet, it falls short. I think that the 10-minute limit is just too constraining for the courtroom drama format, and I often felt like the actors (especially Adam Hutchinson as the judge) were rushing through their lines as quickly as possible in order to not let the play go over time. The result is a dilemma that is resolved almost as quickly as it is set up. There are some nice moments from Maddy Forsyth (as the besieged Artemisia) and Alexander Woods (as Agostino) that director Ashley Ramsey effective fosters, but because of the rushed pacing, the story feels less like a historical drama than a caricature of antiquated legal practices and customs.

Pantheon, written by Jordan Cummings

Pantheon was one of my least favorite performances in Short Attention Span Theatre. Zeus and Yahweh meet to discuss a crisis in their family after their sister Allah has harmed herself. Cummings’s premise in this play is that the many deities worshiped by human civilization are all members of a large family of gods who (much like ancient Greek or Roman gods) have human failings and problems. It’s a nice premise, but Cummings never develops it beyond that—a premise. The script has a couple of nice lines in it that are a natural outgrowth of this central idea, but nothing that is fully developed as a story worth telling. Add in some potentially offensive Jewish stereotypes and telegraphic dialogue, and Pantheon becomes almost too much to bear.

Another problem with Pantheon is the directing from Coral Chambers. Just like Writers Workshop, the directing in Pantheon is full of characters who don’t act in any natural way. There is lots of affected posing, melodramatic actions, and expansive acting (the latter of which doesn’t work well for a domestic drama in the intimate setting of a black box theater). Overall, Pantheon taught me that sometimes even 10 minutes can be too long for a play.

Rocket Man, written by Scott Olsen

Olsen’s script provides a great showcase for Clarissa Lavon Knotts’s portrayal as a woman who recently lost her husband to a space travel accident. The story seems to take place in the not-too-distant future, but some of the details seem contradictory, such as cheap interplanetary travel that still seems to be unusual for everyday people. Nevertheless, I like a good science fiction story, and it’s a genre that I believe is not explored sufficiently on stage. Like all good science fiction, Rocket Man, is really about a human experience, in this case how to deal with sudden loss—a theme that director Heather Ashton seemed eager to explore.

I felt like Rocket Man, though was too quiet and subtle to take on a life of its own in just 10 minutes. Rather, it felt like the last scene of a independent film. I don’t mean this as an insult; instead, I think that the story would work better in a different genre (just like Trial of Artemisia).

One, written by Alex Barlow

One was the most successful play of the evening. In this play a loner receives two visitors in one night with shocking results. Barlow’s script was a example of what every beginning playwright needs to have in a story: well defined characters with clear wants, conflicting goals among characters, and the classic Aristotelean structure (i.e., exposition, rising action, climax, denouement). Moreover, this horror story fit into the short play genre better than any of the other plays in Short Attention Span Theatre.

A wonderful strength of One is Barlow’s direction, which carefully introduces the three characters one at a time. Barlow also created genuinely creepy stage pictures that are almost certainly the most endearing images of the night. And I appreciated Josh Brown’s performance as the somewhat elderly loner Roger. Brown’s character was accessible in the first few minutes of the play, which made his later actions appropriately disturbing. Samantha Pace (as the Spectre) and Briana Lindsay (as the girl) had much smaller parts, but appropriately played off Brown’s character’s insecurities (which led to devastating results). I hope that Barlow keeps the script of One handy for the Halloween season.

May He Rest in Peace, written by Megan Flox-Lambert

The final play of the evening, May He Rest in Peace, is also the one that I wish most to see as a full-length play. Two feuding elderly women, Helen (played by Clarissa Lavon Knotts) and Mrs. Snable (played by Briana Lindsay) feud over a necklace that is to be buried with Helen’s brother, who also was Mrs. Snable’s lover. The rivalry between Helen and Mrs. Snable was a hoot to watch, and the combination of the witty dialogue and the terrific physicality of the two women (especially Knotts, who plays a convincing senior citizen without the aid of makeup or a frumpy costume) made this play the funniest of the night Flox-Lambert has created lovable characters that clearly have decades of trying to best one another. I enjoyed imaging other encounters they had in the past, which is why I think this play would work well if lengthened. I strongly urge Flox-Lambert to expand this script so that others may learn these two hilarious characters’ histories and the root of their enmity towards one another. Director Brooke Grant was superb also at establishing the tone of the play quickly and moving the story along naturally, despite the absurdity of the action.

My overall impression of Short Attention Span Theatre is that it is uneven, but that doesn’t concern be terribly. As I have stated before, creative staff on university productions sometimes have academic goals that other theatre artists don’t share. Short Attention Span Theatre is a great venue for developing stories, skills, and talent that Utah Valley University can later use in other productions. Some of these scripts will probably languish and die, but, in a sort of artistic evolution, the fittest will survive and flourish. Short Attention Span Theatre as a whole won’t rank among my favorite theatrical events of the year, but there are some jewels—especially the final two plays—that are quite commendable.

from: http://utahtheatrebloggers.com/15165/short-attention-span-theatre-has-some-diamonds-in-the-rought

On Playwrights, Directors and Their Work

Ok, so ordinarily  I try REALLY hard not to rant about thing that are out of my control, but this time, I've got to, so here goes.

I want to say something about playwrights: what they do, the risk they take and how dumb it is when their work is not presented exactly as written. Because that's what happens sometimes, which sucks.  I also want to say something about directors, and the risks they take and why it is important to have as close a relationship with a playwright if possible. More on that later.

It is my personal belief that when a playwright writes something, it is written in that specific way for a Specific  Reason. The classics are classics for a reason. Each character is written in a specific gender with a specific purpose and all of these characters lend themselves to the plot in a way that the playwright chooses to convey it. I am a playwright, and I know this. When a playwright sends his play out into the ravenous world of wolves aka theatres, directors and competitions, they are basically laying naked in from of them and saying "here, take me now and have your wicked way with me". It's scary. And it's so hard when the message you put on paper isn't necessarily what you put on the page. Granted, there are times that what goes on in the playwright's head doesn't read on stage. Then, the problem is to trust the director to make the best of what he has been given. Sometimes you got no other choice.

However, directors have some of the same problems sometimes. I know this, because I am a director too. There are times when they lose actors, or get more actors than they want(been there, both times). When a director gets a script, he is also taking a risk because all he's got is the words on the page and he somehow has to take those words and paint a picture for his audience. However, what directors need to be careful of, is spoiling the picture already created by the playwright. Not to say that playwrights have to write every single teen tiny action for the director(Shakespeare only wrote dialogue), but directors do need to pay attention to things like character relationships, motivations, written blocking, if any, and set design. That set description, if it's there, and the entrances and exits are particularly helpful to the tech crew. If the director tells the tech crew to screw and directs it the way he wants, there are bound to be problems run into by the time Tech Hell Week comes around(not to mention the headache the poor PSM has to go through--and I've been there too, at least once).

The other thing that both playwrights and directors will run into and have to be careful of is meshing and communicating with each other as much as is possible. See, playwrights have reasons for making the characters male or female; they have reasons for setting their story in a specific place and time; they have reasons that the character relationships are the way they are(see above). You know what the biggest and simplest reason for this is? It doesn't work any other way.

I did a production of ROMEO AND JULIET a couple of years ago. The director wanted to try and make Mercutio a girl. It was an interesting concept because in the beginning it created a little love triangle between Benvolio, Mercutio and Tybalt. The downside was that half of Mercutio's lines--and one entire scene--looked and sounded terrible. Mercutio has a scene with Juliet's Nurse in the beginning of the play. In the original text, it is clear that he is trying to A)flirt with her B) seduce her and/ or C)bed her. And the Nurse is charmed and attracted to him. That's clear. When it was tried with a female Mercutio, it crashed and burned. Now, I am not saying that this girl was not a good actress, nor am I saying that our director was bad. The problem was that what the playwright wrote and what the director wanted didn't mesh. It felt weird and awkward and sometimes just plain wrong. Mercutio is male and should be played by a male in order for his character to work.

 Now, there are exceptions to this rule. In that same show, Romeo's messenger was made into a female. This character is relatively minor so it shouldn't matter. But on my goodness, it did! The scene where the messenger brings Romeo news of Juliet's "death" is sad enough, but seeing a woman deliver that message was heartbreaking.

There are also times when a director has very little choice in the matter. Currently, I am directing MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. This is a children's production, so naturally I have more kids than parts. What did I do? I took every guy that was not already romantically attached(except the members of the Watch and the Friar.) and gave him a female counterpart. I did not invent lines for these new characters. Instead, I split the bigger lines between the two of them. There are a couple of times when it feels weird, but there is something rather satisfying in making Don John and Conrade more human by giving them a little more of a home life. And for some reason, seeing Hero's mother go ballistic after Hero's "death" has more of an emotional impact than when her uncle does.

Now, Shakespeare is not around to let us know what he is and isn't ok with when directors do his stuff. But it is the role of a director to research that playwright as much as possible to convey the message he wants to give. It's defiantly easier when the playwright is alive, or in both the role as playwright and director. One of my favorite playwrights--Sidney Kingsley--wrote and directed nearly all of his works so that he didn't have to worry about what the director would do to his precious baby when it was put on the stage.

I guess my whole point is this: being director is HARD. And being a playwright is HARD. And when the possible communication channels between these two are broken down, or ignored, or non-existent, that's HARD. So directors, if possible, keep an open communication channel between you that the playwright who's work you're doing.
And playwrights, cut the directors some slack, but don't let them chop up your baby.