"Another Op'nin', Another Show"

Hello, friends!

As some of you may have seen, I've joined the ensemble at The Green Room Blog as The Rogue Artist. You can check out my latest post "Giving it away for free..."

Since I'll be doing there what I've been doing here, Sterner Stuff is going to become a little more personal. For the next two months, I'm going to chronicle the development of Mark Sanderlin and my new musical "At the Edge" which is going up at The Tank, April 27-29. I also have a reading of a full length play and the performance of a one act going up for Primary Stages' Detention Series so you may hear a bit about that!

So, sit back and enjoy (I hope!) installment #1 of...

"The Road to The Tank"

or "How I Met Your Staged Reading"

or "Are We Produced Yet?"

We have a crack team assembled for this one. McKenna "The Blindfolded Director" Dabbs is back again to direct and she is supported by Christopher "The Blindfolding Stage Manager" Johnston. Mark and I are in lust with these two visions for many reasons but one above all others: THEY ARE HANDLING AUDITIONS! Thank every god in every book for that! Chris is handling all things practical, McKenna is handling all things directorial and Mark and I are... trying desperately to write a new opening number.

Openings plague me. Final numbers, or in straight plays final moments, are never the problem. I know what the last moment of a play or musical is going to be almost immediately but the opening... Here's what I need to consider when writing an opening:

1. You get at most ten minutes to get your audience into the story and you should strive to do it in five. I think Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson did this astonishingly well, with Jackson first asking the band, "You ready?" and then turning to the audience to ask the same question. Within the first second I was riveted.

2. In a musical, the opening number sets the tone, and therefore the audience's expectation, for the whole show. If you don't meet that expectations, you had better exceed them. Urinetown does an exceptional job of this. We know the world we're in and the rules of that world by the end of the first number.

3. Assuming we're writing a full ensemble number for the opening, which we are, there needs to be a central idea they can all connect to. Examples: The opening of Kiss Me, Kate, the title of which is the title of this post: They're all arriving at the theater to open another show. The opening of Ragtime: They sing, "This was the era of something beginning..." Everyone's lives are changing dramatically at that very moment in time.

There are many more considerations I could list and I invite you all to comment and add your own but these are the three points that haunt me. However, we shall persevere through drafts 3, 8, and 52! In the ear-splitting words of Vincent van Gogh (womp, womp): "In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing."

Until my next late night burst of ramblings.

“I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”- Oscar Wilde

I use others' quotes as the titles for my blog entries because they can really distill the message. This quote by Oscar Wilde is such a great example.

A few months ago I went to an event sponsored by the Dramatists Guild Women's Initiative. It was a Q&A with Elliot Fox, Tessa LaNeve and Michelle Bossy of Primary Stages. Now, let me get a note in here real quick: Primary Stages is perhaps the best example I have ever seen of a company that encourages new work and unknown or little known artists. I'm a student and TA at ESPA, the performing arts school housed in Primary Stages, and have received an unprecedented number of artistic opportunities from them.

During the Q&A, the subject of "networking" came up of course. A woman stood up and, with all the righteous indignation of a sufferagette, chastised the panel. She told them that she was an artist and it is not her job to sell herself or spend time rubbing elbows with people that could get her produced. Her place was in front of the keyboard or typewriter or pencil and paper. She told them that the system had to change!

In my first blog entry, I spoke about networking and how it is so necessary in this competitive business. I totally agree that it is unfortunate that as artists we can't just create and let someone else handle the legwork. But instead of growling about an unfair system that literally cannot change due to the sheer volume of plays being submitted to these theaters, producers and directors year-round, why not learn to play ball?

Here's the pitch:
1. It is not "sleazy" to talk to people that can help you about your work. You want your play produced and they want to produce a successful play. Win-win.
2. It is not "selling out" to use your connections to get your work seen. If someone is supporting you it is because they appreciate your work.
3. This is an interdependent business. We all need each other in theater. Playwrights need producers who need directors who need actors who need costume designers who need set designers, etc. etc. etc. Why wouldn't you want to tap into those resources??? The absolute best thing you can do is find a group of artists in different disciplines of theater that are psyched about your work. That's how legends like The Living Theatre and powerhouses like MTC get started. And the way that they stay afloat.

"I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my work." I don't know if Oscar meant it this way but the way I see it is: I expend a great deal of energy finding people that support me and my work and then I sit in a quiet room and make the work worthy of that support.

And also, my soapboxing friend, Primary Stages is one of the few places that accepts unsolicited scripts and actually reads them. So next time, direct your bluster at someone who deserves it.

The camera can photograph thought. ~Dirk Bogarde

So, what were we thinking???

Mark and I spend a morning in "oh, those McKibbin lofts" (as Mark so lovingly calls them) getting some partner shots done. The good ones are getting retouched but here are some BLOOPERS to help you giggle. (Photos by Zachary Hunter Rubin)

We have awkward pictures down to an art.

I had an idea...

Despite the way this picture looks, Mark was still telling me what to do through gestures.

Even with his mouth duct taped he's bossing me around!

De-costuming.

Stay tuned for the good ones!