I just got the online email version of Live Design magazine - with a lot of coverage of the award-winning musical Matilda, now on Broadway. Since I'm going to get to see this fairly soon, I read the lot.
Very interesting. Take a look:
A photo gallery HERE
About the set design HERE
Costume Sketches HERE
And a discussion with the lighting designer HERE.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Monday, May 13, 2013
Progress
I have a lot of projects in progress right now.
Miracle on South Division Street at Circle Theatre is just starting to be built and only requires a few telephone answers from me so far; meanwhile, Se Llama Christina at Kitchen Dog Theater - which I've helped build for the last couple weekends - is now pretty well finished construction, just waiting for me to start adding paint...
But I'm waiting on tile guys and plumbers and, in the mean time, finishing up some writing/publishing projects...
Meanwhile, as those writing projects up-load, I'm negotiating fees for a couple new shows at an exciting new remote location...
And waiting on plumbers...
No immediate resolution of any of this, just Work in Progress...
Miracle on South Division Street at Circle Theatre is just starting to be built and only requires a few telephone answers from me so far; meanwhile, Se Llama Christina at Kitchen Dog Theater - which I've helped build for the last couple weekends - is now pretty well finished construction, just waiting for me to start adding paint...
But I'm waiting on tile guys and plumbers and, in the mean time, finishing up some writing/publishing projects...
Meanwhile, as those writing projects up-load, I'm negotiating fees for a couple new shows at an exciting new remote location...
And waiting on plumbers...
No immediate resolution of any of this, just Work in Progress...
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Stretching...
Today the anonymous-apartment-levitating-limbo set for Kitchen Dog Theater's production of Se Llama Christina is getting closer to finished... streeeeetching the fabric "wallpaper" over the flats and frames. The fabric is necessary partly for texture, but mostly because it hides secrets...
As soon as we get this fabric stapled in place, we'll cut away enough muslin to reveal the windows on the stage left (or SL) wall. And eventually I'll add paint, remains of wallpaper, and years of landlord-neglect.
Here are the Dogs at work (I'm the one behind the levitating baby's crib, almost under the ladder, pulling on the far DS SL corner.)
As soon as we get this fabric stapled in place, we'll cut away enough muslin to reveal the windows on the stage left (or SL) wall. And eventually I'll add paint, remains of wallpaper, and years of landlord-neglect.
Here are the Dogs at work (I'm the one behind the levitating baby's crib, almost under the ladder, pulling on the far DS SL corner.)
Kitchen Dog Theater Se Llama Christina - photo courtesy of Sarah Duc
Come see this world premier new play by Octavio Solis!
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Renderings
In my files I just happened across this image of a gouache rendering by the late Wade Giampa of his set design for Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby.
Gorgeous.
Gorgeous.
Wingspan Theatre Company's production of The Play About the Baby.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Theatrical Sketches
I just discovered over at The Public Domain Review sketches by the famous theater director Stanislavski for Othello. Including a couple of little thumbnail sketches for blocking. HERE.
Fun. Free. Check out the rest of the site for many wonders: fantastic historic maps, illustrations for Robinson Crusoe, a pictorial history of Santa Claus, Charles Babbage's brain...
A sketch by Stanislavski for Othello, Wikimedia / Public Domain Review
Fun. Free. Check out the rest of the site for many wonders: fantastic historic maps, illustrations for Robinson Crusoe, a pictorial history of Santa Claus, Charles Babbage's brain...
Monday, May 6, 2013
Not a Review: Diana Krall and The Angels' Share
Lots of going out lately...
Diana Krall:
Singer Diana Krall's "Glad Rag Doll" tour came through DFW and I got to hear her Friday night: a very good concert. Good music, a warm relaxed stage presence, and an entertaining staging. I'm not musical enough to pretend to critique the music... I can only say I really enjoyed it.
The theme of the tour comes from music of the 1920s (although she included fan favorites too). I thought the set design - reminiscent of theatrical drapes and cinema-sign lights - worked well as an environment for her music. Period cartoons like Betty Boop were played pre-show, film clips were wonderfully integrated with songs, and the intro was a short film where Ms. Krall interacted with an on-screen Steve Buscemi. Kinda trippy. Wonderfully well done.
The Angels' Share:
Playing at the Dallas Angelika, this film started out a bit raw and developed into a really appealing, feel-good movie. I really liked the sad-sack minor-criminal characters - with Glasgow accents so thick that their English was subtitled in English. Quite funny. This film will really appeal to anyone interested in fine liquor or wine-tasting (or general foody tasteyness), since the plot revolves around the discovery of a rare cask of Scotch whiskey.
Diana Krall:
Singer Diana Krall's "Glad Rag Doll" tour came through DFW and I got to hear her Friday night: a very good concert. Good music, a warm relaxed stage presence, and an entertaining staging. I'm not musical enough to pretend to critique the music... I can only say I really enjoyed it.
The theme of the tour comes from music of the 1920s (although she included fan favorites too). I thought the set design - reminiscent of theatrical drapes and cinema-sign lights - worked well as an environment for her music. Period cartoons like Betty Boop were played pre-show, film clips were wonderfully integrated with songs, and the intro was a short film where Ms. Krall interacted with an on-screen Steve Buscemi. Kinda trippy. Wonderfully well done.
The Angels' Share:
Playing at the Dallas Angelika, this film started out a bit raw and developed into a really appealing, feel-good movie. I really liked the sad-sack minor-criminal characters - with Glasgow accents so thick that their English was subtitled in English. Quite funny. This film will really appeal to anyone interested in fine liquor or wine-tasting (or general foody tasteyness), since the plot revolves around the discovery of a rare cask of Scotch whiskey.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Not a Review: Fly by Night
I caught a preview of the Dallas Theater Center's new musical Fly by Night last night.
Some wonderful things onstage! Wit and stagecraft and strong songs with really great lines. Beautifully acted and produced. My impression by intermission was of a fresh, clever, and very theatrical show.
A wee bit too clever? Conventions like rapid flips from location to location (accommodated by a clever set) and use of a narrator (wonderful!) tend to set the audience at a distance from story and characters. Framing it this way added style, but made me so aware I was watching it was hard to emotionally participate. It took a while to warm to the main characters - a love triangle which, we were told explicitly, were the real story.
Unfortunately, the show - for me - unraveled in Act II. The broad comedy earlier was largely replaced by broad gestures toward tragedy in Act II. Shifting gear from the hilarious crystal ball scene, to the touching bath tub scene and then the (I think misfiring) accident-in-the-blackout moment. Serious or touching moments in the first Act work fine alongside comedy - I think there's a good balance there - the second Act didn't feel well balanced.
That blackout!
Beautiful to look at, it's obvious symbolic importance was played too heavy-handedly. By this time, the Themes and Big Thoughts of the show were being over-explained and repeated. (Really? The show-in-the-show is 'The Human Condition'? That was funny until I realized you meant it.) Music was repeated too until the clever sandwich song, for instance, grew tiresome. Pace slowed. The show began to seem too long. Too didactic.
Characters? Loved the main guy with the guitar. Both sisters were well acted, though the actress sister hardly rounded out from a cliche'. Strangely, one third of this explicitly-once-more-explained-to-us main three characters did nothing for much of the second half! Less central characters got too much stage time. The father is good and well acted, but it was a mistake to let him tell his story; that was stronger imagined. The deli-man's traffic bit was satisfying; but...! What that set up?
Hated it.
Partly because I'm on the side of young love etc. etc., mostly because it wimped out on the adult real-drama between the triangle that could have happened. There was a scene I'd have liked to see! The show lost me at that moment. The plot event felt too pat... substituting mechanical tidiness for the messy reality of life. A cheat.
In retrospect, for all the repartee, there were few real clashes of character. It's a solo show for each one. For all the over-explicit stress on making decisions, decisions were few, solo, dreaded, and long procrastinated. I realize that was the point. But when the main character plans to sleep for fifteen hours in the middle of Act II... dramatic movement is kinda, you know, slowed.
Hard to write an active, engaging show about depression and indecision. Admitted. This is a brave and nearly successful attempt. The Turtle Song tackled it brilliantly!
The big problem (if anyone wants my opinion) is that the two halves of the show just don't match.
Personally, I'd go for the sparkle of Act I throughout. You can still have, underneath, all the depression, alienation, indecision, and loneliness you want; as Woody Allen's best films prove, it's possible to wrap a bleak message in a sparkling wrapper. The show already does this with the Turtle Song.
I was impressed with the show as it stands now. Well worth seeing. Huge promise. Another production is planned for next year: go be the best Turtle you can be!
ADDENDUM: Reading the "real" reviews, it seems that all the critics love the show - which goes to show something-or-other. I didn't like August: Osage County when I saw it in Chicago either!
[Caution: trying hard not to Spoiler here, but it's tough.]
Some wonderful things onstage! Wit and stagecraft and strong songs with really great lines. Beautifully acted and produced. My impression by intermission was of a fresh, clever, and very theatrical show.
A wee bit too clever? Conventions like rapid flips from location to location (accommodated by a clever set) and use of a narrator (wonderful!) tend to set the audience at a distance from story and characters. Framing it this way added style, but made me so aware I was watching it was hard to emotionally participate. It took a while to warm to the main characters - a love triangle which, we were told explicitly, were the real story.
Unfortunately, the show - for me - unraveled in Act II. The broad comedy earlier was largely replaced by broad gestures toward tragedy in Act II. Shifting gear from the hilarious crystal ball scene, to the touching bath tub scene and then the (I think misfiring) accident-in-the-blackout moment. Serious or touching moments in the first Act work fine alongside comedy - I think there's a good balance there - the second Act didn't feel well balanced.
That blackout!
Beautiful to look at, it's obvious symbolic importance was played too heavy-handedly. By this time, the Themes and Big Thoughts of the show were being over-explained and repeated. (Really? The show-in-the-show is 'The Human Condition'? That was funny until I realized you meant it.) Music was repeated too until the clever sandwich song, for instance, grew tiresome. Pace slowed. The show began to seem too long. Too didactic.
Characters? Loved the main guy with the guitar. Both sisters were well acted, though the actress sister hardly rounded out from a cliche'. Strangely, one third of this explicitly-once-more-explained-to-us main three characters did nothing for much of the second half! Less central characters got too much stage time. The father is good and well acted, but it was a mistake to let him tell his story; that was stronger imagined. The deli-man's traffic bit was satisfying; but...! What that set up?
Hated it.
Partly because I'm on the side of young love etc. etc., mostly because it wimped out on the adult real-drama between the triangle that could have happened. There was a scene I'd have liked to see! The show lost me at that moment. The plot event felt too pat... substituting mechanical tidiness for the messy reality of life. A cheat.
In retrospect, for all the repartee, there were few real clashes of character. It's a solo show for each one. For all the over-explicit stress on making decisions, decisions were few, solo, dreaded, and long procrastinated. I realize that was the point. But when the main character plans to sleep for fifteen hours in the middle of Act II... dramatic movement is kinda, you know, slowed.
Hard to write an active, engaging show about depression and indecision. Admitted. This is a brave and nearly successful attempt. The Turtle Song tackled it brilliantly!
The big problem (if anyone wants my opinion) is that the two halves of the show just don't match.
Personally, I'd go for the sparkle of Act I throughout. You can still have, underneath, all the depression, alienation, indecision, and loneliness you want; as Woody Allen's best films prove, it's possible to wrap a bleak message in a sparkling wrapper. The show already does this with the Turtle Song.
I was impressed with the show as it stands now. Well worth seeing. Huge promise. Another production is planned for next year: go be the best Turtle you can be!
ADDENDUM: Reading the "real" reviews, it seems that all the critics love the show - which goes to show something-or-other. I didn't like August: Osage County when I saw it in Chicago either!
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Intern-y
My intern's graduating. Cool!
It's kind of fun to work with a student and - depending on your point of view - to either a) enlighten them or b) brainwash 'em. Not that I have any opinions, of course.
As the end-of-semester Ta-Da! my student presented three solutions to me today: set designs for the classic play The Glass Menagerie. Ranging from realistic to completely stylized, I thought they all embodied interesting ideas worth developing further. These will turn into portfolio pieces, the kind of thing designers show to convince theaters and directors that they can pull off their show.
I'm happy with the progress made this semester. Fun and, I hope, educational. We'll be meeting for (unofficial) coffee hereafter.
Just for fun, here are photos from my own version of The Glass Menagerie:
It's kind of fun to work with a student and - depending on your point of view - to either a) enlighten them or b) brainwash 'em. Not that I have any opinions, of course.
As the end-of-semester Ta-Da! my student presented three solutions to me today: set designs for the classic play The Glass Menagerie. Ranging from realistic to completely stylized, I thought they all embodied interesting ideas worth developing further. These will turn into portfolio pieces, the kind of thing designers show to convince theaters and directors that they can pull off their show.
I'm happy with the progress made this semester. Fun and, I hope, educational. We'll be meeting for (unofficial) coffee hereafter.
Just for fun, here are photos from my own version of The Glass Menagerie:
The Glass Menagerie, WaterTower Theater
Photos by Mark Oristano and Scott Guenther
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