Scott Bradley's first sketches of A Christmas Story are trickling in....

FIREWORK

Just finished up a remarkable time @ the O'Neill - Wendy Goldberg is running THE place for new developmental workshops. (it didn't hurt that the Scissor Sisters were there working on a new musical). Amazing artists, delightful view and a little bar that knows what it's doing = total adult theater camp. It also may have been the fact that i was working on a stunning new play - FIREWORK by Lauren Gunderson - it's a sexy/funny/political three-hander (programming gold).

Fun fact - I have known Lauren Gunderson since she was in high school, coming to Dad's Garage as a young lass. I even saw her perform as the lead role in "The Snow Queen" for Onstage Atlanta when she was in 11th grade - ah, our little Lauren is all grown up now, and luckily I have stayed the exact same age.

We were outside, and during our opening night, there was a giant drunken beach frat party AND the special needs camp next door was playing TAPS - as you might guess, our sound designer, Ryan "i'm lying' Rumery, had what looked like cardiac arrest, but I think it made the audience listen even harder....a little us vs. them never hurts a piece of theater.

A pretty great time.

Playbill Notice

Brooks and I attempt to raise money for the theater....and only end up shaming ourselves.

BRINK!

So, I have been remiss in posting about one of my favorite theatrical experiences ever. BRINK! Written by Greg Kotis, Deborah Stein, Peter Nachtrieb, Deb Laufer, Lydia Diamon and Kristoffer Diaz.

I have long been obsessed with rights of passage, and what does that mean in today’s American culture. I’m also curious about rights of passage thru time – what did it mean to finally be a man in Mesopotamia? Did you get some new exciting spices? So, I tossed that prompt out to our writers and they ran with it….and created one of the most endearing and charming pieces I’ve gotten to work on.

I think probably the best thing to come out of it was getting to know that these writers are really my people – we preach a lot about how, as artists, you are supposed to find “your people” – and as a director, you’re always trying to find playwrights who you share a common language with What was really great about this, is by the end of this, I totally felt like all six of these writers were my people.

Granted, they are all very twisted, and I wouldn’t trust them around children. But I would have a hell of a lot of fun making shows with them.

Listen To Songs From The Show
Diaz hits some of the reviews
Scroll down for Peter's thoughts

reviews

Review #1
Review #2

Some tidbits from opening weekend:

Friday: Davids guitar went down at the end of Act One during Thunder Road - during
intermission Paul Doyle actually took his guitar apart and sautered parts of it then put it back together to be ready by the start of Act Two. Rather impressive.

Saturday: My parents came, which was incredibly sweet as the Parkinson's monologue is my Dad. And true to form, at the end of the show, he was the first person to stand up and start dancing. He said he was tempted to toss his cane on stage!

A little light press

Defining Rock and Roll

Amazing Animation for Rock and Roll

Created by Clunky Robot
Narrated by Fatt Stampon

Banned Artists

First day in the space

Johnny's Guitar Skool featuring tech guy Gary

Episode Two

Every band needs a logo

Danger 7 makes it's debut

Pirate Johnny's Guitar Class for those of you that want to learn how to shred 80's style

Episode One

The early rockings

Can I have this dance?

Will make a lot more sense after you see the show

A rendering of the set - except where you see album covers on the back wall - that's the rock altars - WHICH LOOK AMAZING

Rendering

Previews

A couple quick things - if you wanna come see us do a preview of the show, you can check it out at:

2 p.m. at ear X-tacy (1532 Bardstown Rd)
9:30 p.m. at 21C Museum Hotel (700 W Main St)

Should be a grand old time - if by grand you mean full of amps, then yes.....

Some Rock and Roll Links

How The Show Came Together

How You Can Help Us Design The Set

The 100 Albums Covers That Were Censored

Our song list for Rock and Roll: The Reunion Tour

1. School’s Out

2. That’s All Right

3. Low Self Opinion

4. Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today)

5. White Rabbit

6. Us And Them

7. Proud Mary

8. Earn Enough For Us

9. Barracuda

10. Autumn Comes to Those Unprepared and Unrequited Far Too Quickly

11. Lust For Life

12. London Calling

13. Thunder Road

14. Only You (And You Alone)

15. Street Fighting Man

Our Tiny Tim's Blog (6 year old Hero)

Brilliance

Oh, lord it's been so long, I disappeared in tech, but here's our review!

Classy