My friends making stupid for good

VOTE IN NC

Anthology: The Beginning

Last week we had our Anthology playwrights in town. And, I would say this even if didn’t know that Peter read this blog, that it was truly one of the more delightful workshop weekends I have ever been a part of.

Perhaps it was subconscious, but in choosing the playwright, I really pushed for people that had come up doing small theater.

Scrappy, collaborative theater. The kind I like. And the mix worked brilliantly. Greg Kotis and Kristopher Diaz worked together to create a 10 minute musical about cologne and rejection – Peter Nachtrieb and Deborah Stein are working on a dream ballet - what more could a director want?

In my hopes to create an ensemble of writers to write for our ensemble of actors and create an actor-driven piece of theater, I couldn’t be happier – I feel like we’re not only make a piece of theater, we have the potential to make a really strong piece of theater.

And I know I get accused of being excitable – but I can’t actually remember a time that I was so excited about the three shows I have coming up. If my excitement was dollars, this economy would be fine. Until I had a few too many drinks, got sick and then the bubble burst. Oh, wait, maybe my excitement is the economy.

Rock and Roll hits Chicago

We did the workshop of our Rock and Roll show this weekend – it was a blast, very inspiring, and a little bit of the old school.

One of the things I’ve been trying to figure out at ATL, is can that “small theater, bunch of people putting on a show theater brilliance vibe” live in a large regional institution. Can you create work in the room, full of risk, that’s about the people in the show? Can you really create collaborative work – or does collaboration in a regional theater sense mean the lighting designer and the sound designer share the space above the stage? With both this show and the anthology, I feel like we’re going the small theater route – putting together a great team, building excitement and making sure we write down our best ideas on bar napkins.

So, we did a reading of the show – with a band – the actors volunteered their time, came in and read it cold. The band practiced for 30 minutes and then was good to go. This was old old school. Brian Lilllienthal drove six hours, played in the band, drank at the Green Mill, slept on a floor and then drove back – allright, we’re actually so old school, we’re back in college.

But it was rather inspiring. Walking up the stairs at DePaul, I could see theater students – who were trying to work on breathing exercises – wondering why “London Calling” was playing above them. I wonder if it’s easier or harder to breather to the Clash?

I spent Sunday afternoon with my good friends Sean and Noelle – two of my favorite people - they have a young son Jack, who is 4 months old and having a tough time, after going thru several surgeries, still needs a major liver transplant. It’s almost impossible to spend time in a situation like that and not be amazingly clear about what’s actually important in the world. As I left them and went to our reading – I couldn’t help but be thankful for all these people that had made so many sacrifices to help us do our little skit. I even got a little teary at the end, as we told our sweeter stories and the band played Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” to bring the show home.

For today, the little theater vibe reigns supreme. Of course, as I finish typing this, I’m late for a meeting – so we’ll see how the rest of the day goes.

PS - on the way we stopped at the most amazing dinner shack in Indiana. 'Nuff said.

Just finished up my director's notes for Christmas Carol

One of the first things I ever noticed about Christmas Carol was what a nice man Jacob Marley is.

No seriously.

He’s doomed to walk the earth forever. No chance of redemption. And yet, he still goes out of his way to try to convince his old ally to do better. He comes back as a ghost (which I can’t imagine is easy), gets three other associates together (I have to think magical spirits are busy, and on Christmas Eve this was a scheduling nightmare), and works to help out his friend. How many buddies do you have like that?

For me, this will equally be a play about reuniting old friends. I met David Keeton in the fall of 1992, and 3 years later we founded Dad’s Garage Theater. In 1996 I met Trent Blanton, and together, Dave, Trent and I worked on what would be the first show to put Dad's on the map. It turned out to be the show that launched all of our careers. As foolish, headstrong men we worked great together for a few years and then split up – I went off to a director career, Trent went on to tour with Les Mis for 10 years, and Dave went on to play music in Vegas and around the world – until now. This year’s Carol brings us back together for the first time. Same roles, just perhaps a year or two (or fifteen) older and wiser, but still with a decent amount of foolish headstrong rebellion under our belts.

They are good friends of mine, artists I deeply admire, but mainly, the reason I'm most excited to have them here: I trust that any of us would come back from the dead to warn the others.

Sean

pictures of me playing David Dow Jones at the Dad's Garage kids show

Plan For The Next Two Weekends

The Anthology playwrights arrive today: Greg Kotis, Peter Nachtrieb, Lydia Diamond, Deborah Stein, Kristopher Diaz, and Deb Laufer. 6 of the most charming people I know will descend upon us for a weekend of workshopping, writing, and perhaps a touch of bourbon. Just a touch

After that, we (Julie, Matt, David and I) are heading to Chicago to workshop our show ROCK AND ROLL: THE REUNION TOUR– so far the songs we’ve gotten approved are:
Low Self Opinion
Lust for Life
Proud Mary
School’s Out
Street Fighting Man
Thunder Road
Us and Them
Earn Enough for Us
That’s All Right (Mama)
London Calling
Only You
White Rabbit

And we’ll be looking to mix in them with the many many interviews we’ve gotten. We also have to deal with the self esteem issue of being turned down by Prince. Springsteen said yes with no hesitation - Prince, his purple highness would have none of it. Sigh.

So, if you’re in the Chicago area – wanna grab a drink next weekend?

I suddenly got nervous when I saw the poster

The Late Seating

my past weekend in hotlanta, ga.

Dow Jones and a little Steve Yockey