I've been a bad blogger...

I'll try to be better. Honest.

Today I start my position as assistant director of the VCU Mainstage Production of "Shakespeare's R and J" by Joe Calarco. Mostly I will just be taking notes for the director Stephen Fried. It should be a good learning experiance, and a good chance to get an Assistant Director credit on my CV.

This year I'm teaching three classes, so I'm spending a great deal of time grading and prepping. Taking classes on top of teaching a full load is a little stressful, but hey, it's what I signed up for after all. This is why I came to grad school. The experiace teaching has really been incredible the past few weeks. I feel like i'm making a good connection with the students and it seems they are responding well to both the material and how I have organized my classes.

Here is to a good semester, and more blogging.

The 9th Inning: SF Giants closer Brian "THE BEARD" Wilson and notions of performance

Anybody who knows anything about me knows I love baseball. Sports on the whole are not my thing, but this is the one sport that has capture my attention. There is just something about it. I could watch baseball all day long. Partially this is because in my mind Baseball is singularly the best sport ever. But also because I think its a big performance.

Each baseball team has their season long story lines and because the baseball season starts in March and ends in late october with the World Series we get to see these story lines unfold to fruition. Many times these stories are archetypal. There is always the young rookie trying to make the team, who comes up for short stints, but finally comes up to stay. There is the rugged experienced veteran who finds a second wind that he rides to greatness once again. There is the overpaid veteran who sucks up money and playing time from the youngsters. There is the young phenom. The slugger. The Ace. And finally, my favorite: The Closer.

The closer is the guy who comes on to close out the 9th inning. His goal is to slam the door shut when the game is tight. Not only does he have to have good stuff, good command, he also has to have a presence on the mound. Some are more subtle. Some are more extravagant.

If you have ever talked to me about baseball, you know I am a huge San Francisco Giants fan. They won the world series this past year. It's been a good year for me. The Giants run to the World Series was very theatrical. They were the ragtag underdogs who made the unheralded run to the Fall Classic. They giants were lead by all the archetypal characters, but it is their closer that I want to draw your attention to.

Brian Wilson. Brian "The Beard" Wilson became a national story this past year. This is why: He puts on an act. This past year Wilson grew a massive beard, dyed it black, and wore his signature mohawk high. His piercing blue eyes appear to cut into the soul of the batter waiting on his pitch. He throws a high 90s fastball (sometimes hitting 100pmh), a slider, and a cut fastball, and this season he's worked on a 2-seam fastball as well. He is an imposing presence on the mound, inciting fans to start a campaign last season for opponents to : "FEAR THE BEARD." But it's all an act. It's all made up. He does it partially for the intimidation factor, to mess with his opponent. But it's all this huge performance, Brian Wilson is one of the friendliest guys on the team.

As of late, Wilson's act hasn't stopped when he steps off the field.
Here are some links:

Wilson and The Machine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ckloLGOgVo&feature=related
Wilson on Jim Rome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhi3SX0TAmw&feature=related
Wilson on George Lopez: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQesL-G4jPE
Wilson on Leno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrMsJTwG04k&feature=related
Wilson's ESPN Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4BO26nqPmM&feature=related

Wilson really is a performer. He is a theater artist. He is performing, we all know he is. He knows he is. But yet we cannot look away. He's entertaining. He's one of the reasons I love watching the Giants play. He's just a fun guy. I hope he continues his antics, his performance, and his style of play.

Clearly Brian Wilson enjoys the performance.

A cynic's view on the epic and social theater.

I have a big internal struggle within me. I believe that theater can be used for social change. However, I am also a huge skeptic. I have a cynicism about our art form. I look at the world around us and all of the issues it holds. Of course I would love to create a work of art that speaks to the socio-political-economic state of our world. A piece that forces my audience to observe and then urges them to act. However, I also realize that I will probably work in college theater for the rest of my life. (I am perfectly happy with that, and in fact thats where I WANT to work.) If i create this amazing show, there might be a couple of hundred people who will see it. Maybe a tenth of them will actually try to do anything about it. If that. However, they will be constrained by their circumstances and probably will have little effect on actually changing anything.

Later in my life, after said issue is taken care of, I will look back on that production and say, "Look what I did. Look what I started. A small seed that spread and actually changed the world." I will be doing nothing but lying to myself. In essence all I did was masturbate in the corner so I could feel better about myself and "change the world."

This creates a huge issue. How can we change the world with our theater. Forget even the notion of "changing the world," How do we affect those around us in any way? Affect our small communities, how do we do that?

Now don't get me wrong. I think we can affect smaller communities and push people to change, but once they leave the theater… how much of it will really stick. I worked on a production that did wondrous things… for those who saw the show. For those in the room. It helped heal their wounds within the community. But beyond that… it did very little.

How is it possible that I have this intensive love affair with theater, but I am also so skeptical about it's effects?

Artaud: Reinscribing Artistic Theoretical Binaries Since 1938

While I agree with much of what Artaud puts forth in his "The Theater and it's double" I cannot help but notice that all Artaud really ends up doing is re-inscribing a binary of what he calls Occidental and Oriental theater. He set's the two up as fundamentally diametrically oppositional to each other, arguing that the Oriental should be the more preferable theater because it uses physical action as its primary and exalted language instead of the spoken/written word. While historically this binary has existed, Artaud is not really challenging it, he simply just points it out, and then argues for one side. The side he feels is preferable.

With my background in English I am a sucker for a good text. A good written text. Although I agree with Artaud about the issues that present themselves with a text author and a director translator of that language into the visual/physical. Regardless, a good script is necessary for good theater. Many of my theater friends disagree with me vehemently. Urging that a good script can be just movement. I do not disagree with them

I would like to challenge our notion of written text to perhaps a more Marxist theoretical notion of what a text is. You could also argue a more Brect-ian notion of text. For Brect, the text was the combination of the written word and the visuals on stage. He changed his script for every production of the show. Marxists would propose that a text is "anything that can be read." When we go to the theater we see, i would hope, a "text" that is the perfect marriage of the Occident and the Orient. A theater that transcends these binaries of verbal and physical and combines both to become the script. The text.

I believe the words that the Dah Theatre use is the "score." They work to combine a verbal score and a physical score. I am in favor of theater that does this. Theater that works with a playwright in the company to create a marriage of written text and visual text. Of the physical score and the verbal score. With this combination we find that that we escape the pendulum swing between the theater of the Occident and of the Orient.

I like Artaud. I'd just like him to push a little further. Do a little more.

The Show Must Go On

I'm beginning to think this is a cliche now.

This is the second time since coming to VCU that a show has been greatly affected by sickness. That is a problem. These shows get a very limited run. To loose two shows out of a four or a five show run is HUGE. Thats such a letdown to the other cast members who have worked so hard on their role. Granted in the real world you would have understudies, but this is not the real world. This is guerilla, academic theater. You take care of your self, but you also have to take care of your cast and crew. I would rather go on if I was sick and put on a show of theater than sit at home miserable. Drink some tea, get some sleep, take care of yourself and get on stage.

Hell, if worst comes to worst, you send somebody else out onstage with a script. You get it done.

The show must go on.
No matter what.

Emmanuelle Challet | ENERGIZE

Last month I had the privilege to participate in a series of workshops conducted by Energy specialist Emmanuelle Challet. She teaches a holistic approach to acting and to theater. Mind, body, and spirit are all vital to the artistic process. I just thought I would give her a bump here on my blog. Her work is really beautiful and powerful. Check her out if you ever get the chance. Also buy and read her book Balancing Act. It's quite the book.

Her website.

News From The Front #6 | Standing Ovations.

I'm not going to lie: standing ovations drive me crazy. It seems like everybody here in the Richmond area gives them out willy-nilly. I go into a theater and sit through a mediocre to good show. The lights go down as the last act comes to a close. The lights come back up and the performers come out for a curtain call. The audience claps and stands in approval. Meanwhile I'm stuck behind a lot of guys standing. I can no longer see the performers because of the people standing in front of me. Why didn't I stand you ask? The answer: I don't believe in just handing out standing ovations. I appreciate the show and the effort that all involved gave, but I just don't think it deserves that high a praise. There is always room for improvement.  (Yes I'm a director who will continue to give small technical notes after opening night. I work in an education setting for goodness sake. Even though you did GREAT. There is always someplace else to take the performance. There is something else to learn. It's about the process rather than the product.)

After seeing a show recently I was discussing this with a good friend and graduate school colleague. She told me that a wise theater person once told her this: "You only get three standing ovations in your life to give out. Use them wisely." This sounds like a good mantra for me to live the rest of my life by. I have handed out a few standing ovations in my life, but they were when I was young and naivete. I'm going to be stingy with them. Realistically I will probably only give out two because when it comes time to give out the third I will find myself unable to give it out in fear that I might come across something better and not be able to give it one.

So from here on out. I'm making a commitment. Three standing ovations. That's it. I'll try to use them wisely.

Cross posted from  (The Backstage Door.)