Really Really... stressed out about the "me" generation...

Really, Really

written by Paul Downs Colaizzo (who's 27 years old...Dang!)
directed by David Cromer (I loved his Our Town and Tribes)

I have mixed feelings about this show and it's hard to put fingers to keyboard to make sense of it all. It's almost been a week since I saw the production... Maybe it's been the recent hype about rape-culture in America, especially with the Ohio State University stuff... oy.

here's a great article my roommate forwarded to me about Nouveau Feminism for our generation and how it relates to rape in the news:

http://bellejarblog.wordpress.com/tag/feminism/

Things I liked:
* Surprised by Zosia Mamet's performance. I was expecting her high pitched fast talking Shoshana GIRL's characterization instead was shocked by her monotone deep voice. Even her hunched over physicality marked a specific actor choice. Work it Zosia!
* Set seamlessly changing. At first I was shocked to see stage hands maneuvering the infamous couch and wooden frame, but the scene changes grew on me. They became a relief from the intense dramatic moments. The couch was set differently for every scene even if they were in the same space, which helped me connect that we must look at this story from all different angles.
* Clever playwriting techniques. I loved that a couple of times the characters talked directly to the audience, especially in Grace's speech to Future Leaders. I thoroughly enjoyed the final address to the audience by all the future selves of the characters.

Things I think could have been better:
*When Zosia acted in a heightened moment in the play she would yell, it lowered her status and seemed like a cheap actor choice. I think she could have found a stronger way to portray her frustration in the scenes.
* Blocking... sometimes I couldn't see an actor's face. Is this a choice Mr.Cromer? In the second scene an actor is slouched on the couch hidden to the left side of the audience... poetic or just poor staging...
* Jumpy. The play jumps from scene to scene. I guess this is a personal problem. I want a good old fashioned play set in modern times that doesn't have to jump from one place to the other. I think this is due to our cinema enriched lifestyles. I do appreciate the fact that the show seemed to span a 2 day period instead of trying to be an epic movie where people have whole lifetimes on stage...

I would recommend this show to young actors. There are plenty of good MONOLOGUES for young women. I hope to snatch a couple of them myself.

Maybe my problem with the play is that I am apart of this "Me Generation" and it scares ME to death that I'm losing what it means to be Human.  Ben Brantley calls us, millennials, living on the set of “Lord of the Flies” with smartphones." I don't want my hand glued to my phone, or my eyes stuck to Facebook statuses, or my mind relentlessly worried about how to advance my social positioning...

Be Merry and Drink while you see some CREATIVE theatre pieces this St. Paddy's Weekend! (Did I mention FREE BEER too?!)

The Pocahontas, and/or America Museum by Little Lord (a theater company)

Written and adapted by Michael Levinton and Laura von Holt
Directed by Michael Levinton

Performances March 5-23, Wednesdays – Saturdays at 8pm
The Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street
Brooklyn, NY 11237
With over 400 years of history, legend, and pop culture as its sources, Little Lord reconstructs the American myth of Pocahontas in their fifth full-length stage work, Pocahontas, and/or America. Taking up the mantle of the early 19th-century dramatists who invented the American theater, Pocahontas, and/or America recreates our country’s origins through the lens of the immortal Indian princess, belle sauvage, Pocahontas. Using contemporary historical accounts, 19th-century melodramas, YMCA Indian Guides, archaeological research, and more, Little Lord digs into disputed histories to find out if it’s still even possible to make a patriotic piece of theater.

Part historical pageant, part roadside attraction, Little Lord corrupts over 400 years of fact and fiction to grant America the founding myth we all deserve.

http://www.littlelordpocahontas.com/

I will be attending this Wednesday 3/13. (Discounted Tickets are available on Wednesdays for Artists). Shout out to my friend Kaitlin Nemeth, a Muhlenberg grad., who is the stage manager for this production!



Foreplays 2013: Spring Fever by Fullstop Collective

Co-Produced by Inception to Exhibition

 Thursday, March 14
Friday, March 15
Performance @ 8pm, Doors Open @ 7pm

Galapagos Art Space
16 Main Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Metro: A, C to High St; 2, 3 to Clark St; F to York St

Tickets are $17 in advance/$20 at the door
$15 with the code ITE

HORNY ORDERLY A Symphony of Sex and Sorrow
written by J. Julian Christopher
directed by Leta Tremblay
assistant directed by Anna Strasser
featuring:
Lindsey Austen, Katelyn Collins, Charity Schubert, Gwen Sisco, and Hannah Vaughn

H.E.
written by Nic Grelli
directed by Trent Anderson
featuring:
Joey Lozada and Christopher Norwood

SPRING FLING ’98
written by Sarah Bernstein
directed by Lillian Meredith
featuring:
Emily Daly, Sam Plattus, Harrison Unger, and Kristie Wortman

THE FEVER
written by Alexandra Bassett and Claytie Mason
directed by Wheaton Simis
featuring:
Brian Dunlop, Matt McDonald, Cari McHugh, Lillian Meredith, Nessa Norich, and Christopher Norwood

Featuring Musical Guest: Boy Girl Party

And preshow performance by: Diana Oh is GOING ROGUE at 7:30pm each night

For more information and tickets:
www.fullstopcollective.org
www.galapagosartspace.com

 Shoutout to Lillian Meredith and Emily Daly!



Mass by Daivd Ian Lee presented by On the Square Productions

Directed by Candace Cihocki   Mass by David Ian Lee Monday March 18th at 7:30pm as part of our Write... Angle Reading Series Speyer Hall at University Settlement 184 Eldridge Street $10 at the door Kay Hitchens abandons her life for an adventure, and finds what she's looking for in Leo, a brilliant cosmologist who believes a mutation in Kay's genetic code can unlock all secrets of creation. In an abandoned corner of the Arizona desert, Kay and Leo confront life-threatening forces -- and the unexpected arrival of Kay's husband, Tom -- in a search for meaning at the edge of time and at the end of all things. Also, there are orgasms.   Featuring: Duncan Burgin, Mike DiSalvo*, Kane Prestenback* & Logan Tracey* * Actors Appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association   www.OntheSquareProductions.com   Shoutout to Rachel McPhee Benson and Jackie LaVanway, who greeted me with open arms to this concrete jungle!       TinyRhino Productions by UglyRhino Productions TinyRhino: Hangover Edition is the perfect remedy for your post-St. Patty’s Day hangover. Come join us for six brand new plays that take “the hair of the dog” very, very seriously. **TinyRhino is: The Theatrical Drinking Game.** Monday, March 18th @ 8pm at The Brooklyn Lyceum Tickets are $10 and include one FREE beer! It is also UglyRhino's take on the ten-minute play festival. Every month we commission six playwrights to write new plays, each including the same five dramatic elements. If you join us for TinyRhino, you'll be given a list of these elements. They might show up at any time, in any... order, and with any frequency. When they do show up, do you know what that means?! DRINK!! Every TinyRhino also features live music, drink specials and giveaways, and a cocktail hour following the performance. ~THIS MONTH'S ELEMENTS~ someone uses the phrase "hair of the dog" someone asks for medicine someone eats a McRib someone draws on someone else someone complains about the light ~THE PLAYWRIGHTS~ Jon Bass Boo Killebrew Emily Lazzaro Eric Lockley Catya McMullen Susan Soon He Stanton ~THE DIRECTORS~ Axel Avin Jr. Lee Sunday Evans Noelle Ghoussaini Adam Scott Mazer Jason McDowell-Green Lillian Meredith **GUEST CURATOR: Craig Mungavin** http://uglyrhinonyc.com/ Shoutout to Nicole Rosner and Danny Sharron, both of whom I met at Old Vic/New Voices Site Specific Workshop! They are now spreading UglyRhino to L.A., (Bi-Coastal Company baby). Also, Nicole is opening up a show that started as an idea  we collaborated on at the workshop, called Mindspin.  Congrats!

Mama's first critique

Mama's Critique of BELLEVILLE

I went to see Belleville on the advice of my daughter Rachel. Belleville is described as a Hitchcock type of play in the review, but that was not quite what I experienced. The only Hitchcock aspect is that the play takes many twists and turns, and one won’t be able to guess how it unfolds from the first scene.

Things I liked. The dialogue was so realistic and authentic. It seemed as if the actors were just naturally
speaking to one another. The play reveals powerful stories of how this couple seemed to communicate
at times, but at other times they didn’t communicate at all. To me, the story was about, how sometimes
relationships are based on what we want the other person to be, rather than on what they really are.
I also liked the brutal honesty that they displayed in some scenes, regardless of how hurtful the words
might be.

Things I wasn’t sure if I liked. There was quite a bit of semi nudity that I found a little uncomfortable.
Maybe I projected my worry, that if my daughter were half clothed, would I be able to handle it. There
were themes that dealt with drugs and alcohol, smoking pot, and porn. As someone from the baby
boomer generation, I’m not always comfortable with these things especially when done in excess,
although I would be naïve to think that these activities are uncommon.

Would I recommend this play? To my friends in their 50’s and 60’s---yes. To people in their 20’s, 30’s,
and 40’s---yes, definitely. To my mother—probably not unless she liked things that were edgy.

Was I glad I saw it? Yes, I loved 4000 miles and I think Amy Herzog is a great playwright. The actors
in Belleville were terrific and I was very moved by the play and at times even stunned. While I like to
see plays like this that are insightful, provocative and pithy, I can’t watch too many serious plays one
after another. So, I like to intersperse plays like Belleville with plays that are light, fun and feel good, even musicals.

~Mama

(Mama doesn't know how to post on the website, yet. Eventually we'll get technologically savvy enough were she can do it all by herself!)

(DE-construct) your notion of theatrical realism

(DE-construct) your notion of theatrical realism with Theatre Reconstruction Ensemble's production of

SET IN THE LIVING ROOM OF A SMALL TOWN AMERICAN PLAY

Last night, I got one of the only ticktes available to see SET IN THE LIVING ROOM... at the Soho Rep's Walkerspace. My mind was blown by the precision and specificity of this performance. Kudos to TRE's playwright-in-residence, Jaclyn Backhaus, for her ability to create a play where it evolves seemlessly from a "first read-through rehearsal" into a "realistic play of the 21st century." I also want to commend John Kurzynowski (TRE's artistic director) for creating an ACCESSIBLE as well as ENGAGING experimental theatre show. If only the show were runnning a couple more weeks, I would see it again to pick up pieces that I still have lingering questions about. I applaud Kurzynowski for keeping the action moving even if the stage directions were being read aloud and the actors were instensely staring at each other. The play is packed with layers upon layers of symbolism, like an onion, each layer exposes another layer that leaves me questioning something else about the themes and the production.

One sentence synoposis: I believe the play is about... a theatre company putting up a classic American play, until the lines get blurred and the actors become the characters and the play becomes the audience's reality.

The mission of the play:
Direct quote from playbill, "By examining different methods of acting developed in that era (30s, 40s, 50s), various works written for and about the American theater, and our own struggle to create and present a new 'classic American drama,' we seek to create a unique original process of building a theatrical event that expresses our ensemble's relatiosnhip to 'American realsim' as an abstract notion inherent in what we now consider the American stage, as presented by a group of men struggling to identify with such canonical methods and break through them in order to create new forms of theatricality."


Moments I wish were more developed:

1. I wish the play developed Penny's relationship to her mother. The majority of the time, the play centers around the father/son dynamic leaving Penny's mystery absence from performing onstage a bit unclear.

2. I wish the father's dramatic climax scene was kept in the same vein as the rest of the show.  Throughout the play, the actors seemed to specifically choose a counter action to what the stage manager reads, to layer the performance. But at this climatic point in the play, we (the audience) is forced to follow Frank's (the father)  emotional journey, which seemed like a complete stretch for this young actor to play, like he was grasping for tears that never exsisted for him.

I look foward to TRE's project this fall 2013, SALESMEN: A MEDITATION ON MASCULINITY AND THE AMERICAN REAL!

http://www.reconstructionensemble.org/


On a different note: Go see WOMEN OF WILL if you are a Shakespeare buff and a feminist! It will knock your socks off! There are a bunch of discounted tickets available under 20 bucks! Tina Packer is a legend who shouldn't be missed!

I've beaten the famed NYTIMES theatre critic, Isherwood, in telling you why you should go see BELLEVILLE and THE FLICK.

Here's a quotation:

‎"I feel like I’m flogging a dead horse at this point, but I would urge you to check out Amy Herzog's 'Belleville' at New York Theatre Workshop and Annie Baker’s 'The Flick' at Playwrights Horizons if you’re looking for noteworthy new plays to see in the next couple of months." - Charles Isherwood


Check out the article below:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/charles-isherwood-answers-questions-about-the-spring-theater-season/?ref=theater