What I Want To See In August

Now that I’m finally settled in at the new place, I can get back to seeing some theater. Here are some things I’m hoping to see over the next month. I post this mainly so I don’t forget, but it also comes in handy because friends of mine will sometimes see it and say, “Let’s go together.”

I can’t imagine this will be the first month where I make it to all of them, but we’ll see:

• This World Is Good by J.C. Lee, Sleepwalkers Theatre (Aug 5-28). I’ve loved everything these guys have produced, including the ones I wrote. It seems J.C. is about to move to NYC but if enough people go to his trilogy — taking up Sleepwalkers’ entire season — we should be able to get him back.

• Show and Tell by Anthony Clarvoe, Symmetry Theatre (Aug 6-22). I just wrote about this exciting new company (and their mission statement) in the last post, so scroll down.

• Tennessee Williams in Rep, Boxcar Theatre (Jul 23-Aug 28). Cat, Streetcar and Menagerie in rep, by cool directors, in a theater close to The Tempest bar.

• In A World… by Un-Scripted Theatre (Jul 8-Aug 28). Improvised two-hour-long shows where one crucial thing is different from our world. And that crucial thing is suggested by you. (Assuming you yell it out loud enough.)

• SF Improv Festival, Eureka Theater (Aug 12-Aug 21). Speaking of improv, PianoFight hosts opening night of this festival, which also has a panel on The Committee, workshops by Armando Diaz, and tons of improv.

• Pint Sized Plays at SF Theater Pub (Aug 16-30). Nine new plays by local writers (most of whom I know) directed by local directors (most of whom I know) all performed in the time it takes to finish a beer.

• The Norman Conquests by Alan Ayckbourn, Shotgun Players (Aug 6-Sep 5). Another trilogy, another repertory show. I might try to see all three plays in the same day.

• MilkMilkLemonade by Joshua Conkel, Impact Theatre (Aug 22-Oct 2). I was really jealous of everyone in New York who got to see the premiere last year, so I can’t wait to see this one. Desdemona Chiang directs, plus it’s Impact, so beer, pizza, and awesomeness are in store.

What I Want To See In October/November

Because of our surprise New York trip, I only saw 3 out of 8 shows I flagged for September. I’m hoping that I can get to at least some of these early in the run so I can post my thoughts and hopefully hype some of these cool-sounding shows:

• Tore Ingersoll-Thorp’s March to November by Sleepwalkers Theatre (Oct 23 – Nov 8). Inspired by an article Chloe Veltman wrote asking for plays that do more than congratulate liberals for being liberal. Produced by one of my favorite small theatre groups, and starring Ian Riley, who directed my little play a couple months ago.

• Eugene Ionesco’s Victims of Duty by Cutting Ball (Oct 24 – Nov 23). “An unsuspecting couple answers a knock at their door and a detective enters.  What starts as a simple interrogation becomes an incredible journey through their past, present and future.”

• George Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple at Aurora Theatre (Oct 31 – Dec 7). Shaw’s only play set in the U.S. “Set in a New England village during the Revolutionary War, a self-proclaimed devil’s disciple finds himself mistaken for the local reverend…and arrested by the British army as a rebel.”

• Carter W. Lewis’ Evie’s Waltz at Magic Theatre (Nov 8 – Dec 7). Directed by Loretta Greco, who directed all the best stuff at A.C.T. last season. “After their son is expelled for bringing a gun to school, an unexpected visit from their son’s girlfriend turns a couple’s backyard barbecue into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse.”

• Melanie Marnich’s Tallgrass Gothic by Impact Theatre (Nov 14 – Dec 20). Produced by one of my other favorite small theater groups. I read this and lobbied for it back when I was a lit manager in Austin. I lost. Marnich’s Bay Area professional debut.

• Melissa James Gibson’s Current Nobody by Just Theater (Nov 14 – Dec 13). Directed by Jonathan Spector, who is great at directing “fragmented language plays”  or whatever you would call those awesome things Anne Washburn, Sheila Callaghan, and Mac Wellman write. Note: I have no idea if this is actually a “fragmented language play,” but he can direct pretty much anything really, really well.

• The Great Puppet Bollywood Extravaganza by Un-Scripted Theater (Nov 28 – Dec 20). Like that show I was in last year, only this time an extra degree of difficulty because it’s improvised, a musical, with puppets — and in the style of a Bollywood musical. Give me a break! Note: I’m not in it. All the more reason to go. If you haven’t seen puppets improvise, you are in for a treat.

THE K OF D at Magic Theatre

Saturday night, we got to go to opening night of Laura Schellhardt‘s The K of D: An Urban Legend at Magic Theatre, and let me tell you, it’s a brilliant way for Loretta Greco to establish that there’s a new Artistic Director in town.

In a speech after the show, Loretta said that she was moved to produce the show (actually not a world premiere but a second production, and we can get into how important that is later) because the script was “muscular and fierce.” I totally agree; this is a killer script.

For me, the important thing is how theatrical the play is. This isn’t something that could be done as a TV show or a screenplay. It’s completely dependent on a theatre, an actor who can play many characters all at once, and an audience who’s leaning in and listening to the gorgeous language and compelling story.

Rebecca Novick directs Maya Lawson (who’s amazing at creating about 17 different, easily recognizable characters with nothing to distinguish them but her voice and body position) — and what I love love love about Rebecca’s direction and Laura’s script is that scenes flow one from another with NO scenery changes.

Look, you know I come from an improv theatre background, so my bias is for improv-style scene changes. I don’t like a play to grind to a halt as lights come down, some guy walks out and moves a couple of chairs and tables around, and lights finally come up to show we’ve moved from a house to a cafe. I like the way we do it in improv (and the way it was done in this show): the actor says, “Let’s go to a cafe,” takes a step forward, and now we’re in a cafe.

In fact, I think every play I’ve ever written has the line “The set should be simple representations with seamless transitions” on the first page. That, to me, is theatre; and the more my mind fills in, the better.

It’s a great night of theatre when you get an epic story and meet a whole bunch of characters — and all you really saw was one actor, one skateboard, one box, and a basically bare stage.

Man, first Ching Chong Chinaman, then this show…. Whatever I see next has a lot to live up to.

What I Want To See In May

I’ve spent most of April doing rewrites on several plays (and making notes for what may be the next one), so I haven’t seen a whole heck of a lot. But it looks like May is gonna be overflowing with opportunities. I can’t guarantee I’ll have time to see all of these shows, but here’s what I’m hoping to see:

• Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class at A.C.T. (Apr 25 – May 25)

• Steven Epp and Dominique Serrand’s Figaro at Berkeley Rep (Apr 25 – Jun 08)

• The Fully-Improvised Theater: The Musical by Un-Scripted Theater (May 01 – May 31)

• Dan Wilson’s Sweetie Tanya at EXIT Theatre (May 02 – May 24)

• John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore by Impact Theatre (May 02 – Jun 07)

• Best of PlayGround Festival at Thick House (May 08 – May 25)

• Steve Yockey’s Octopus at Magic Theatre (May 10 – Jun 08)

Quick Change Artists

I mentioned in my last post that one of the things I like best about Aaron’s work is the rapid change from seriousness to comedy to serious. Well, I was being a bit disingenuous, because what I actually told Aaron in person was that “one of the things I like best in your work (because I also like it best in my own work) is….” See, it’s all about me.

I hadn’t really thought about why I like that or where it comes from. But then I read an interview with Sarah Ruhl in the May/June Dramatist magazine where she said:

Another influence for me was Joyce Piven, whom I studied with in Chicago. She worked in commedia, Chicago commedia, which is very high-octane. It doesn’t feel Midwestern or Italian. There are four emotional states — happiness, sadness, anger and fear — and the actor has to participate in each emotion to the nth degree and switch to the next with no transition. I became used to actors who could do this, who could be so scared they were trembling and then suddenly be laughing, and it can be weird for me to work with actors who had other training, who don’t understand when I say, “First you’re laughing, then crying, then laughing, then crying.”

Hmm. I have a background in improv and commedia. Is something about the quick change from emotion to emotion embedded into commedia and improv, and making its way into my work, and calling out to me in the work of Aaron and Sarah and others? Is it something I even want to be conscious of? Worth ruminating on….

A Thing I’m In

Preview weekend has come and gone and we’re officially open. I performed in two shows, Friday night and a Saturday matinee. I was going to summarize them, but then Alan did a great job.

Keep in mind that these stories are completely improvised; no one has any idea what’s going to happen, and yet they still end up with satisfying story arcs and fun character journeys.

In the Saturday show, I went into a scene thinking I was setting up the antagonist. Turned out I became the protagonist:

Saturday: Never Enough
Mister Thor (puppet performed by Me) decides to capitalize on global warming by hoarding bottled water, but soon is betrayed and finds himself in jail robbed of everything he held dear. After a post-prison therapy session (where the puppet used his own puppets to work through his issues!), he discovers all he really wanted was the respect of his girlfriend Debbie (puppet performed by Amber) and the love of his long lost brother Hidalgo (puppet performed by Clay).

The show runs Thursdays through Saturdays until June 2 at the SF Playhouse 2nd Stage, 533 Sutter, SF. I’m in some of them. Tickets are here.

Rehearsals Galore

Non-stop rehearsals for the past few weeks, which explains the woeful amount of theater I’ve been able to see of late. But that’s a good reason, yeah?

This weekend was a double-shot of rehearsing for I’LL BE HOME FOR XMAS, my play in the Best of PlayGround Festival. Saturday and Sunday. I tend not to comment on rehearsals of shows in progress because what are you going to say besides “Things are going great”? But I will say this: Things are going great.

I’ve also been rehearsing for the thing I’m in: the improvised theater show I mentioned earlier. Tuesdays and Thursdays for the past month. It’s been a little rough physically since I’m also working a full-time freelance gig, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything (except maybe a better cliche to end this sentence). These guys are top-notch, and every rehearsal has been like a free workshop in Long-Form Improv Best Practices.

I particularly like Un-Scripted’s approach to opening scenes, where everyone is trying to answer the question, “Who’s the protagonist?” It focuses the entire company on finding the story, building an arc and improvising to a fulfilling ending.

It also keeps people from trying to take over the story by jumping in with their own wacky character and hijacking the show. Or from deflecting and trying to NOT be the protagonist, for that matter. If you’re it, you’re it. You better be ready to be affected by things, to change and to have a good journey. (And to make up songs off the top of your head and, oh yeah, to run a puppet. Which explains why someone might try to deflect.)

So, due to all the shows I either am in or wrote, I’ve had to plan out my theatergoing down to the second. I think I won’t be seeing Anne Washburn’s I HAVE LOVED STRANGERS until the closing week. Ditto for Aaron Loeb’s FIRST PERSON SHOOTER. As for all the other worthy shows out there, I’m trying, I’m trying.

Exciting News From A Paranoid Man

Here’s how superstitious I am. I was reluctant to mention this because I didn’t want to jinx it beforehand. Then I got it, and I’ve still been reluctant to mention it because, I don’t know, I didn’t want to have time reverse and be jinxed in retrospect.

So, the deal is this. Back in the day, I was a mainstage improvisor in Austin. Five shows a week, short-form, long-form, the occasional improvised sitcom or improvised musical.

When I got to the Bay Area, I started concentrating on playwriting, figuring I’d get back to improvising “some day.” Cut to several years since I’ve been onstage, and I found myself seriously getting the urge to do something, anything, improvised.

In my wildest dreams, I’d find myself wishing I could work with Un-Scripted Theater. Un-Scripted has been my favorite improv group that I’ve seen since I got here. Their scenes are always fresh, smart, intelligent and surprising. I once saw them do a 2-hour improvised musical about M’s hometown, Kellyville, Oklahoma, with an improvised song we still sing around the house. (“Kellyville, so close to being famous….”)

A couple weeks ago, M saw an audition notice for their Great Puppet Musical. Puppets improvise with humans to create an improvised musical. Holy crap! I dig puppets, I like improvising songs, I love Un-Scripted, and they have guest improvisors?

I auditioned. But I didn’t tell anybody because I didn’t want to jinx it. I got in. But I didn’t tell anybody because I didn’t want to jinx it. We actually had a rehearsal last night, and I’m still worried that mentioning it will somehow make it all go away.

But it looks like I’ll be doing some shows, improvising a long-form story, operating a puppet, and making up songs, all at the same time. More details to come. Unless I just jinxed it.