I know that at this point I don't really have a solid audience on this blog and therefore posing a question for debate will yield no response... But I've decided to post one here anyways.
While researching my assigned congresswoman for my Politics of Theatre class (Lucille Roybal-Allard CA-D House of Rep 34th District Downtown LA, Downey, etc) I came across a very interesting website called On The Issues:
www.ontheissues.org
This website breaks down how congresspeople vote on various issues and even has a quiz, which I'm currently working my way through quite arduously, which matches your responses, opinions, and stances on various issues with those of congresspeople up for election. I think this is pretty cool. The quiz is forcing me to think about issues I try to avoid thinking about most of the time because it's hard brain work and isn't a whole lot of fun. I realize this kind of attitude is probably detrimental to my development as a knowledgeable, responsible, and politically active constituent so maybe by sharing something cool I've found on the Internet with a faceless audience I can quasi-justify myself. Anyways, as I'm making my way through this quiz:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Quiz/Quiz2010.asp?quiz=Pres2012
I came across the issue of "Make taxes more progressive." Clicking on the issue itself takes me to an information page that spells out for me "Strongly supporting this issue means that you believe..." and other statements that are meant to help me clarify how I stand. Essentially these are pages that should be entitled "On the Issues For Dummies." The information page on this particular issue had a link to another website about a proposed tax reformation called FairTax. So I went there because I had never heard of it before:
http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=HowFairTaxWorks
In a nutshell the idea is to abolish the IRS and income tax and instead create a national sales tax that will fund all of our federal programs. The effect of simplifying the tax code and encouraging consumption is beneficial for individuals as well as businesses because people are only taxed on what they buy instead of being taxed on what they make. According to the information on their website. There is also a pre-bate program (in the sense of being opposite of a rebate or reimbursement) meant to support low-income families by allocating money to be spent on costs of living up to the poverty level to counteract the economic burden of paying tax on everyday goods.
The FairTax website makes this sound like a great idea but I'm open to hearing potential problems. Obviously this means that everything becomes more expensive due to the added tax but theoretically we earn more money because we keep our entire paycheck. As a soon-to-be-graduate this is only slightly terrifying because my future prospects of a steady substantial paycheck in the theatre and entertainment industries are slim. The FairTax website also seems to omit any plans for how each of the individual states will get their necessary funding out of this new proposed plan:
http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=grassroots_state_sites
(note that California is not listed here)...
Food for thought. What do you think?
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Begotten at the Arena Stage
This evening I went to see a production called Begotten: O'Neill and the Harbor of Masks at the Arena Stage. I got my free comp ticket through The Studio Theatre and I ended up sitting right behind one of my co-workers from the Studio's PR Department. He decided to redeem his comp ticket this evening as well.
Putting all coincidences aside, I've never experienced Eugene O'Neill in this way before. This production was an original workshop collaboration between Arena Stage and Georgetown University. It told the story of the story-teller. The script manifested the experimental nature of the work from which it derived and I felt that its nonconventional structure was not only artistic but transcendental in nature. Begotten is a presentation of some of Eugene O'Neill's most obscure writings which include a short play entitled Fog, his poetry, biographies, journals, letters, material from interviews, and other related sources. The director adapted these materials for the stage and stitched them together into a cohesive narrative embodying not only the work but the legacy and philosophical turmoils of the American dramatist. This production is part of the Eugene O'Neill Festival which also includes performances of Ah, Wilderness! (a play in which I myself acted back in high school understudying Essie Miller), Strange Interlude, Long Day's Journey into Night, and other lectures, workshops, discussions, and readings continuing into next month.
Although the entire show was very well done I'd say my favorite scene was the last. My professor from the Arts Core Seminar had seen this production and told me that this scene was intriguing. O'Neill wrote a monologue from the perspective of his dying dalmatian which he called Last Will and Testament of Silverdene Emblem O'Neill (An Extremely Distinguished Dog). At first I wasn't sure how this piece would fit into the rest of the play because it seemed so bizzarre and absurd. Yet the way that this piece was performed was incredibly rich, dynamic, and effective and still fit within the framework of the show overall. The actor playing Son (Eugene O'Neill) performed the dog while the actor playing Father (James O'Neill) spoke the words that the dog was communicating through his canine body and thoughts as they were originally written by the playwright. Clark Young and Rick Foucheux's depiction of this piece was stunningly well-crafted. Father, Foucheux, created the illusion of Son being his loyal dalmatian with head-scratches and affectionate pettings in exactly the same manner one expects to observe between a man and his companion dog. Clark Young's portrayal of the dalmatian was so convincing (in the complete absence of any telling props or costumes by the way) that his death at the feet of his master made me choke up quite a bit.
I'd say that this evening was another wonderful night at the theatre and hopefully next time I go to see something I will successfully convince a friend to come with me. I'm thinking The Big Meal at the Studio is up next.
Putting all coincidences aside, I've never experienced Eugene O'Neill in this way before. This production was an original workshop collaboration between Arena Stage and Georgetown University. It told the story of the story-teller. The script manifested the experimental nature of the work from which it derived and I felt that its nonconventional structure was not only artistic but transcendental in nature. Begotten is a presentation of some of Eugene O'Neill's most obscure writings which include a short play entitled Fog, his poetry, biographies, journals, letters, material from interviews, and other related sources. The director adapted these materials for the stage and stitched them together into a cohesive narrative embodying not only the work but the legacy and philosophical turmoils of the American dramatist. This production is part of the Eugene O'Neill Festival which also includes performances of Ah, Wilderness! (a play in which I myself acted back in high school understudying Essie Miller), Strange Interlude, Long Day's Journey into Night, and other lectures, workshops, discussions, and readings continuing into next month.
Although the entire show was very well done I'd say my favorite scene was the last. My professor from the Arts Core Seminar had seen this production and told me that this scene was intriguing. O'Neill wrote a monologue from the perspective of his dying dalmatian which he called Last Will and Testament of Silverdene Emblem O'Neill (An Extremely Distinguished Dog). At first I wasn't sure how this piece would fit into the rest of the play because it seemed so bizzarre and absurd. Yet the way that this piece was performed was incredibly rich, dynamic, and effective and still fit within the framework of the show overall. The actor playing Son (Eugene O'Neill) performed the dog while the actor playing Father (James O'Neill) spoke the words that the dog was communicating through his canine body and thoughts as they were originally written by the playwright. Clark Young and Rick Foucheux's depiction of this piece was stunningly well-crafted. Father, Foucheux, created the illusion of Son being his loyal dalmatian with head-scratches and affectionate pettings in exactly the same manner one expects to observe between a man and his companion dog. Clark Young's portrayal of the dalmatian was so convincing (in the complete absence of any telling props or costumes by the way) that his death at the feet of his master made me choke up quite a bit.
I'd say that this evening was another wonderful night at the theatre and hopefully next time I go to see something I will successfully convince a friend to come with me. I'm thinking The Big Meal at the Studio is up next.
Being an EPA Proctor
Describe your internship engagement:
(4.28.12)
Yesterday I got to play with cool software in the PR department and hang out with actors who came to visit the Studio for the EPA (Equity Principal Auditions). I was sitting behind the table asking for headshots and resumes for a couple hours indicating the Audition Forms and rehearsal calendars.
(4.28.12)
Yesterday I got to play with cool software in the PR department and hang out with actors who came to visit the Studio for the EPA (Equity Principal Auditions). I was sitting behind the table asking for headshots and resumes for a couple hours indicating the Audition Forms and rehearsal calendars.
Actors are a lot of fun to watch. Some are very quiet, some are not, most of them were very polite to me. One of them was a little weird, probably because she was nervous. I particularly enjoyed watching how the behavior of our Casting Coordinator changed as she floated between situations with actors verses her co-workers in the office.
What struck me the most about the EPA was how actors with AEA (Actors Equity Association) membership were treated compared to those who were non-union or EMC (Equity Membership Candidate). I know that being part of Equity comes with perks and benefits but the AEA tag next to certain names seemed a little arbitrary. I was always under the impression that AEA was so illustrious and such a milestone mark of one's professionalism that anyone that was a bonafide union member would be at the top of their game. But the two hours I was audition proctoring told me otherwise. For a lack of anything else to do I took the liberty to glance at resumes and see what people have been up to and how they chose to represent themselves and their work on paper. The prettiest resume I saw was from the last actor to audition before we were all done for the day. This resume was well-organized, readable, done with normal font and normal paper, and most importantly it was dense. A dense resume tells me that you are busy. I think it's better to have a dense resume that I don't have time to read all the way through than have something that looks too light or too padded. My only suggestion might have been to consider moving his Education section closer to the bottom so that all his Theatre credits would be the first thing I see after his name/contact/basic info. Although he did go to Tisch School of the Arts at NYU so that does leave quite an impression...
In addition to having a sharp-looking resume this actor also decided to talk to me and save me from dire boredom. He was friendly and I enjoyed the random networking opportunity. He was confident and down-to-earth and I hope that this carried with him into his audition.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Interviewing SCR pt. 2
I think my phone interview went pretty well last Friday. The Production Stage Manager didn't ask me any funky questions that I didn't know how to answer. He wanted to know what I was doing in DC, my strengths/weaknesses, how I got into stage management, my "management style", and my biggest pet peeve. I thought the most interesting question was "Assuming that you get the year-long stage management internship here at South Coast Repertory what will you do afterwards?"... well... June 2013 is a long ways off for me and I haven't gotten that far in my planning. So I gave him the first backup plan I could think of and said I'd get a job on a cruise ship and sail the world. Surely my resume screams that I like traveling, what with seven months in Italy and DC and such. I suppose cruise ship is a half-step better than saying "I'll run away and join the circus" but I suppose it's still in the same school of thought.
At the very end he told me that he personally knows one of the people that wrote me a letter of recommendation. He told me to tell this person that he said hi and he wanted to let me know that this person gave him his Actors Equity card back in the 90's. Small world. I think I'd like to have one of those someday.
At the very end he told me that he personally knows one of the people that wrote me a letter of recommendation. He told me to tell this person that he said hi and he wanted to let me know that this person gave him his Actors Equity card back in the 90's. Small world. I think I'd like to have one of those someday.
Arts Core Log #1
Right now I'm taking an "Arts Core Seminar" class at the UCDC Center. Everyone takes a seminar and because I'm participating in the Arts Initiative program this quarter I'm taking a seminar course that's only partially political in nature. The theme is arts activism. Our professor wants us to look at the mission statement of the institution for which we are interning and compare it to our day-to-day work routines. The idea is to examine how each of us as individuals fit into the greater picture of what our internship sites claim to be doing. Basically throughout the quarter I will be critically determining whether or not the Studio Theatre is living up to its proposed goals. I'm supposed to journal everyday... Which I haven't been... So this will be the first.
The mission statement can be found here: http://www.studiotheatre.org/about/
In summary, the Studio Theatre is all about producing exceptional contemporary plays (oftentimes world or US premieres) in small blackbox-style playing spaces. From the two shows I've seen so far this seems to be the case. The close proximity between the actors and the audience demands a level of theatrical craft that can't be faked. The lighting design and fight choreography in Sucker Punch were phenomenal. There was a scene where the two actors were fighting each other back to back, each one reacting to the movements of the other. It made me appreciate just how much training and rehearsal the actors put into the execution and exact timings of their boxing choreography. The final fight scene was done on a rotating platform so that added another aspect of drama and intensity. Overall the play went by very quickly. It started abruptly with the sound of a speed bag being hit and rebounding. Then the house lights went down and the stage was set. The ending felt very much like a sucker punch. A lot of it had to do with the actors' believable portrayal of their characters' struggles and it really hit me in the gut. I don't think that experience could have happened without the feeling of intimate connectedness that the Studio manifests in all 4 of their performances spaces.
The other show I've seen was more like performance art. It was called Dogugaeshi and it was one of the five or so performances comprising the Basil Twist Festival hosted by The Wolly Mammoth and Folger Shakespeare Theatre Companies. The show was based off of an ancient Japanese art form which draws upon puppetry and visual art. The illusion was that the paintings coming on and off stage seemed to be receding into the distance when really the set was only 10 feet deep. The most exciting part for me was a scene where the entire set seemed to deconstruct as a result of some external factor. A storm? The concept of chaos? This show was a little bizarre. All of it was in Japanese but I did get a few subtitles during a scene where people were being interviewed. The video footage of this was projected onto one of the many canvases. The use of two-dimensional projections in this performance was interesting to watch as it overlapped hand-painted images drawn to three-dimensional linear perspective running on and off stage. The project was aesthetically beautiful and cleverly done (I got to have the pleasure of waltzing backstage to check it out) but the context and purpose was a little unclear to me. The reception afterwards with the rest of the cool people that got to go on opening night was pretty fun though.
The mission statement can be found here: http://www.studiotheatre.org/about/
In summary, the Studio Theatre is all about producing exceptional contemporary plays (oftentimes world or US premieres) in small blackbox-style playing spaces. From the two shows I've seen so far this seems to be the case. The close proximity between the actors and the audience demands a level of theatrical craft that can't be faked. The lighting design and fight choreography in Sucker Punch were phenomenal. There was a scene where the two actors were fighting each other back to back, each one reacting to the movements of the other. It made me appreciate just how much training and rehearsal the actors put into the execution and exact timings of their boxing choreography. The final fight scene was done on a rotating platform so that added another aspect of drama and intensity. Overall the play went by very quickly. It started abruptly with the sound of a speed bag being hit and rebounding. Then the house lights went down and the stage was set. The ending felt very much like a sucker punch. A lot of it had to do with the actors' believable portrayal of their characters' struggles and it really hit me in the gut. I don't think that experience could have happened without the feeling of intimate connectedness that the Studio manifests in all 4 of their performances spaces.
The other show I've seen was more like performance art. It was called Dogugaeshi and it was one of the five or so performances comprising the Basil Twist Festival hosted by The Wolly Mammoth and Folger Shakespeare Theatre Companies. The show was based off of an ancient Japanese art form which draws upon puppetry and visual art. The illusion was that the paintings coming on and off stage seemed to be receding into the distance when really the set was only 10 feet deep. The most exciting part for me was a scene where the entire set seemed to deconstruct as a result of some external factor. A storm? The concept of chaos? This show was a little bizarre. All of it was in Japanese but I did get a few subtitles during a scene where people were being interviewed. The video footage of this was projected onto one of the many canvases. The use of two-dimensional projections in this performance was interesting to watch as it overlapped hand-painted images drawn to three-dimensional linear perspective running on and off stage. The project was aesthetically beautiful and cleverly done (I got to have the pleasure of waltzing backstage to check it out) but the context and purpose was a little unclear to me. The reception afterwards with the rest of the cool people that got to go on opening night was pretty fun though.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Highlights From the Helen Hayes Awards
I just got back from the Helen Hayes Awards. I think it ended around 10:45 but then there was a big after-party at a hotel nearby. It felt like Prom. There was an open bar, free food, a photobooth, and a dance floor. I have work in the morning at The Studio so I didn't have too much fun, but it was still really cool going to the awards ceremony. I'm a little tired so I'm going to keep this to bullet points and maybe talk more about them later.
-A guy from The Washington, DC Council came in to read to us the official recognition of Theatre Week in DC this week as approved by the District of Columbia Council something or other. (More intersection of politics and the arts)
-Kevin Spacey made a live appearance. Bill Clinton via a pre-recorded video introduced him and talked about how worthy Kevin is of receiving the Helen Hayes Recognition Award. That was nifty.
-Almost everyone said "wow" and "I wasn't expecting this" or "I didn't prepare a speech because I didn't think I would be receiving this honor" when they gave their acceptance speil.
-Diversity of theaters and shows being presented for nominations and awards
-The song about Thank You to our Corporate Sponsors was amusing. It was to the tune of a song from a musical but I can't recall the name right now.
All in all it was similar to the Tonys but with special shout-outs to DC and the people who make theater in DC possible.
I'm going to bed now. But if I think of anything else I'll write it down in the morning or after I get back from work.
-A guy from The Washington, DC Council came in to read to us the official recognition of Theatre Week in DC this week as approved by the District of Columbia Council something or other. (More intersection of politics and the arts)
-Kevin Spacey made a live appearance. Bill Clinton via a pre-recorded video introduced him and talked about how worthy Kevin is of receiving the Helen Hayes Recognition Award. That was nifty.
-Almost everyone said "wow" and "I wasn't expecting this" or "I didn't prepare a speech because I didn't think I would be receiving this honor" when they gave their acceptance speil.
-Diversity of theaters and shows being presented for nominations and awards
-The song about Thank You to our Corporate Sponsors was amusing. It was to the tune of a song from a musical but I can't recall the name right now.
All in all it was similar to the Tonys but with special shout-outs to DC and the people who make theater in DC possible.
I'm going to bed now. But if I think of anything else I'll write it down in the morning or after I get back from work.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Interviewing SCR pt. 1
Today is another productive and work-filled day for me in DC because I have a phone interview with South Coast Repertory this afternoon and a casual networking opportunity to look forward to tomorrow. I recently applied to the SCR Stage Management Internship for their upcoming 2012-2013 season. The question of why I'm doing so hardly needs to be asked, in my opinion at least. I think I'm a good match for this. Not to mention the fact that I've seen the quality of work being produced there for several years now and I heard about the stage management and production assistant opportunities through the grad students and faulty at UCI. So why wouldn't I want to work for SCR?
When I got an email from the Production Stage Manager to set up a time and date I turned to one of the professors for help with my preparation and for a mock interview. Professor Clark is a career development specialist and he's in the process of coordinating a UC Alumni Mentorship Program for the UCDC students who expressed interest... (more to come later on how that pans out for me). I showed up at Professor Clark's office on the 3rd floor feeling unprepared because I'm not well-versed in answering "Tell me a time when..." types of questions. The entire mock interview took about an hour so that he could give me feedback throughout. He said that he got the impression I was knowledgeable and that I seemed to have reflected upon his questions before. I was surprised by his use of the words "sophisticated" and "well-articulated" because that's not what I hear when I listen to myself. Several of the questions were pertaining to the nature of stage management which were easy because I have put a decent amount of time and thought into that. But I still can't help but doubt the questions I will get will be difficult because they will be coming from someone who already knows what stage management is and what skills, experiences, and qualities are necessary.
After finishing this interview I was reminded of how powerful a medium theatre is. He asked me to talk about my experience studying abroad in Italy and I told him about a production I'd seen called I Cavalli alla Finestra (Horses at the Window). I told him that in spite of the obvious language barrier I was impacted emotionally by the circumstances in which the actors were playing. I had picked up cues from their reactions and the design of technical aspects in addition to whichever phrases of dialogue I had managed to catch. The performance overall had overtaken my understanding of the language and transcended the importance of relying upon words in my engagement with the art.
In the end I told him that I want to be a stage manager because I want to assure my cast and crew that their efforts will be rewarded when the show opens and that their challenges are meaningful in the eyes and readings of their future audience. Not in those words exactly but something like that.
When I got an email from the Production Stage Manager to set up a time and date I turned to one of the professors for help with my preparation and for a mock interview. Professor Clark is a career development specialist and he's in the process of coordinating a UC Alumni Mentorship Program for the UCDC students who expressed interest... (more to come later on how that pans out for me). I showed up at Professor Clark's office on the 3rd floor feeling unprepared because I'm not well-versed in answering "Tell me a time when..." types of questions. The entire mock interview took about an hour so that he could give me feedback throughout. He said that he got the impression I was knowledgeable and that I seemed to have reflected upon his questions before. I was surprised by his use of the words "sophisticated" and "well-articulated" because that's not what I hear when I listen to myself. Several of the questions were pertaining to the nature of stage management which were easy because I have put a decent amount of time and thought into that. But I still can't help but doubt the questions I will get will be difficult because they will be coming from someone who already knows what stage management is and what skills, experiences, and qualities are necessary.
After finishing this interview I was reminded of how powerful a medium theatre is. He asked me to talk about my experience studying abroad in Italy and I told him about a production I'd seen called I Cavalli alla Finestra (Horses at the Window). I told him that in spite of the obvious language barrier I was impacted emotionally by the circumstances in which the actors were playing. I had picked up cues from their reactions and the design of technical aspects in addition to whichever phrases of dialogue I had managed to catch. The performance overall had overtaken my understanding of the language and transcended the importance of relying upon words in my engagement with the art.
In the end I told him that I want to be a stage manager because I want to assure my cast and crew that their efforts will be rewarded when the show opens and that their challenges are meaningful in the eyes and readings of their future audience. Not in those words exactly but something like that.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
The Theatre of the Congresswomen
For those of you who don't know I'm currently in Washington, DC as part of the University of California's Washington DC Academic Internship Program (UCDC). The University of California owns a building here up the street from the White House on 16th street and we all live here and pretend like we are still in school. But honestly it doesn't feel like school. For me at least. I'm only taking a few classes and none of them require hard political research.
Most of my time thus far has been divided between going to my internship at The Studio Theatre and stage managing a production of The Congresswomen with a group of other drama kids, mostly from UC Santa Cruz. Our version of The Congresswomen is loosely based on the play by Aristophanes but in reality it is a devised theatre piece inspired by Aristophanes' appreciation and development of political satire. So far our original script consists of an interview between Michelle and Marcus Bachmann discussing their counseling clinic and a song in which the congresswoman sings, "I am the very Model of a Tea Party Republican" to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's classic Major-General's song. We are particularly interested in exploring issues surrounding the congresswomen of California including Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Loretta Sanchez.
My role in this process is making some form of order out of the chaos. The collaborative nature of this project is both exciting and daunting artistically. We are without the safety net of someone else's script and our director is engaged in projects outside of class leaving him less available to workshop his and our ideas in any structured way. This is easily the most risky project I've ever been a part of. What if this show doesn't end up being very successful because we had too many ideas and never brought it into focus? What if the Board of Administration doesn't like what we are doing? What if the UC Center decides not to continue the Arts Initiative Program which we are so fortunate to have this quarter? These are the questions I've been asking myself lately when I think about how this production will progress in the next few weeks. I'm optimistic about the director's vision and sense of purpose but doubtful of its reception amongst "the higher ups". So far I've met with the producer twice whose real job is to serve as the Manager of Business and Information Services at the UCDC Center. We've met informally to begin the discussion of our production's artistic direction and two days ago we had our first official production meeting with the rest of the designers and collaborators... While our director was in San Francisco. Overall I think it went smoothly.
Next week I'm going to a Picnic with UC Alumni at a vineyard in Virginia and then I'm pulling out my fancy cocktail dress for the Helen Hayes Awards. The Studio Theatre has been nominated for several so it'll be fun to see my coworkers outside the office.
Most of my time thus far has been divided between going to my internship at The Studio Theatre and stage managing a production of The Congresswomen with a group of other drama kids, mostly from UC Santa Cruz. Our version of The Congresswomen is loosely based on the play by Aristophanes but in reality it is a devised theatre piece inspired by Aristophanes' appreciation and development of political satire. So far our original script consists of an interview between Michelle and Marcus Bachmann discussing their counseling clinic and a song in which the congresswoman sings, "I am the very Model of a Tea Party Republican" to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's classic Major-General's song. We are particularly interested in exploring issues surrounding the congresswomen of California including Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Loretta Sanchez.
My role in this process is making some form of order out of the chaos. The collaborative nature of this project is both exciting and daunting artistically. We are without the safety net of someone else's script and our director is engaged in projects outside of class leaving him less available to workshop his and our ideas in any structured way. This is easily the most risky project I've ever been a part of. What if this show doesn't end up being very successful because we had too many ideas and never brought it into focus? What if the Board of Administration doesn't like what we are doing? What if the UC Center decides not to continue the Arts Initiative Program which we are so fortunate to have this quarter? These are the questions I've been asking myself lately when I think about how this production will progress in the next few weeks. I'm optimistic about the director's vision and sense of purpose but doubtful of its reception amongst "the higher ups". So far I've met with the producer twice whose real job is to serve as the Manager of Business and Information Services at the UCDC Center. We've met informally to begin the discussion of our production's artistic direction and two days ago we had our first official production meeting with the rest of the designers and collaborators... While our director was in San Francisco. Overall I think it went smoothly.
Next week I'm going to a Picnic with UC Alumni at a vineyard in Virginia and then I'm pulling out my fancy cocktail dress for the Helen Hayes Awards. The Studio Theatre has been nominated for several so it'll be fun to see my coworkers outside the office.
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