Oh look, it's Dietrich

Hey all,

1. If I wanted to make my blog posts appear in a feed on LJ without my having to worry about it, is there an easy way to do that? My blog is on Wordpress.

2. Are you someone, or do you know someone, who would be willing to be an ASL coach for a play? It's minor - like, not Children of a Lesser God - but you need to be able to coach three actors to make them believable to varying levels of fluency.

You'll get invited to all the awesome parties...

Hi everyone -

We still need some help with As You Like It! Come be a part of the fabulousness and run crew with us! We need folks before and after each dress rehearsal and performance to load things in and out, and folks during the show to move things like benches and rocks (made of paper!) (with scissors!! (wait, no...)))!!!11!

The time commitment:

THIS WEEK:
Monday: 6:30-11
Tuesday: 6:30-11
Thursday: 6:30-11
Friday: 6:30-11
Saturday: 6:30-11
Sunday: 1:30-5

Even if you can't do all the days - please come help out! Email tech at theatreatfirst dot org for more details!

Guys, you may have already heard too much about our revival of 2010: Our Hideous Future: The Musical at the Oberon July 28 and 29.

But I'm betting you haven't seen this amazing promotional video that was recently created for it, complete with the "In a world..." voice.



The new production will have 2 new amazing songs by the talented Andy Hicks, 2010 backup dancers and actual proper dancing courtesy of Alex Nemiroski, and of course, a bar. :) Dance party afterwards in the Oberon tradition, and new art exhibit MC's Hall of Interactive Hideousity!

Do come - it's gonna be freakin' awesome.

Hi, everyone!

As rehearsals and preparations continue for As You Like It, we are doing a Shakespeare Slam as a promotional party and fundraiser!

Last September, Michael Anderson, an absolutely awesome spoken word guy, hosted "Free Will," a Shakespeare slam event at the Burren. imlad and the other two Shatners revived Theatre@First's "Food of Love" for the event:



The witches of the Scottish play made three appearances, one as sadistic playground tots:



And Anderson himself appeared as a disaffected, punk rock Hamlet in the 80s:



So much creativity was displayed here, from a zombie Hamlet to middle-school kids reading Romeo and Juliet to Kevin Brooks telling an incredible story about Othello and race to Sean Cody giving one of the funniest interpretations of Peter Quince I've seen.

I hope to revive this event, with everyone free to do as they please, including reading a monologue off a page at random with no preparation. (Yes, I also appeared, as the great Camilla Villanova!)

So please join us!

Shakespeare Slam!
Featuring Michael Anderson, cast members of As You Like It, and You!

Sunday, August 7, 2-5 pm
The Burren, Davis Square, Somerville
Just $5 if you want to get up and do something; $10 to come and watch. More is welcome, of course, and if you can't make it but still want to help out, here's a handy Paypal button:

Audition slots for As You Like It are still available! Come out and have fun with us!

The form is here:

http://www.theatreatfirst.org/shows/ayli/auditions.shtml


Pass it on!

Hey all,

muffyjo is in need of someone to help her live-video the Thursday, June 16 performance of Equus at Theatre@First. It's fun, it requires very little training, and you get to see a performance of the show for free.

Please help her out! I can't really do it, but I did it for The Lady's Not For Burning, and it was pretty neat!

Comment here if you think you might be able to do this!

The time is nearing! The permitting has passed, and As You Like It will indeed happen in Seven Hills Park, from September 8-11!

Now all we need is actors!

What: Auditions for Theatre@First's As You Like It, directed by yours truly
When: June 20 and 21st, 7pm
Where: Unity Church of God, 6 William Street, Somerville, downstairs
Who: You!
Why: Because whatever the operabots tell you, theatre can't happen without actors!
How: Keep an eye on the Theatre@First auditions page, which should be updated by the end of the week! Until then:
-Prepare a 1 minute monologue
-Be prepared to do cold readings
-Keep checking back and sign up for an audition slot!

This is long in coming! But it's been a busy time, and writing about theatre hasn't been at the top of my list, sadly. But I've seen a lot of it! So, hopefully I can remember what I thought.

First up, The Winter's Tale, at the Guthrie in Minneapolis.

In part, I timed my last visit to Minneapolis, when it was really still too cold and ridiculous to go there, in order to see this production. It probably hasn't escaped my readers' notice that it's one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and it's been experiencing something of a renaissance of late: it seems everyone wants to produce it these days. I adored the Guthrie's Midsummer when I saw it a few years ago, and was excited to visit the venerable institution again.

This production was set, initially, in what looked like an early '50s America: slightly post-war, celebratory, a New Year's Eve party. This put the second act squarely in the flower child era, which made a lot of sense for the Bohemia country scenes and added a delightful element to them; I don't think I've ever seen Bohemia done so well. The director's notes made it clear that this director loved Bohemia best about the play, and it showed.

The performances were mostly marvelous - all professional level, of course - but there was a problem in the center of the play, which was Leontes. Someone - probably the director - made a fatally wrong choice about Leontes' behavior, which is a common mistake: making him just plumb crazy. He seems a bit mentally unbalanced from the beginning, and his jealous fits and sleepless nights have a fugue-state quality to them, his voice dissociated, far away and childlike. Making his horrible behavior in the first act the result of mental illness is a pretty bad choice, serving as it does to take responsibility from him; it's also an easy choice for a director who is not willing to face the idea of Leontes behaving like a monster and still being able to be forgiven.

The choice is salvageable, if one decides that the deaths at the end of the first half and the revelation of the truth snaps Leontes out of it, and into a cold reality where he can recognize where his actions have led him and his family. Sadly, this production fails here, too: Leontes seems to simply sink from a slightly schizoid behavior pattern into a shell shocked kind of depression, which carries over 16 years into the second act. When we return to Sicilia we see Paulina treating him like a child who needs special care, and at the end of the play, when Polixenes and Hermione are in the same room again, Leontes again reacts jealously, flinching at the sight. A lovely moment and image that ends the play (the ending images of both acts made me gasp and tear up suddenly) has everyone pouring out of the chapel upstage except Leontes, who stands behind looking troubled. Hermione turns back for him and takes his face in her hands and kisses him, and the lights bump out. It's a beautiful moment that allows us to see, with this choice made, that Hermione has chosen to return to a broken man, and to take care of him for the rest of their days. But I very much dislike this reading: that Leontes after all this time has regained no strength, has learned nothing from his errors except for endless grief, and cannot be a full partner to Hermione the way she so richly deserves - and the only way, I think, that she would agree to finally leave Paulina's care and take her place again as queen. Instead, she comes out of her long hiding to return to a man who ultimately still doesn't trust her.

Polixenes was only so-so (srakkt was better); I don't think I saw him make a single powerful choice in the whole play. Paulina was magnificent, as were many of the bit players; young Mamillius was absolutely wonderful - a little older and more aware. And Florizel and Perdita - along with Autolycus and pretty much everyone in Bohemia - were magical and full of life. And the settings were gorgeous, the worlds believable. It's just such a shame about Leontes - as Bard in Boston so generously said about my own production, the choices that you make about Leontes are the engine that drive this play and make it either sink or fly - and the actor who plays him has to seem like a man worthy of love and respect even as he behaves monstrously. Jason managed it; Michael Hayden, sadly, doesn't.

Think I'll post these one at a time; less daunting that way. Next: Hamlet!

Hi everyone!

Thank you all for being so supportive with this project so far; I can't tell you how encouraging it is to see that so many of you are as excited about this as I am.

Now we're getting down to the wire, with less than $250 needed to reach our goal by April 16!

In reality, we'll need quite a bit more than $5,500 to make this happen, but if we don't raise our stated goal amount with Kickstarter, we won't get any of the funding at all.

So if you haven't given yet and you can, please do! If you haven't told your friends yet and you can, do that too! Help us get over the top - and if you see us get there, don't be afraid to pitch in a bit more!

And thanks so much.

(Hee hee. Yay!)

Go here to watch the video and make a pledge.

Hey everyone,

It's about a month until the deadline for my Kickstarter for As You Like It project!

If you've already given and/or spread the word - my endless gratitude. If you don't know what I"m talking about, please go to the page and check it out. The short version? Theatre@First is making a bold attempt to put on Shakespeare's As You Like It outdoors, in Seven Hills Park, for free. (I'm gonna direct it. Hee!)

Kickstarter is this awesome site that allows creatives to crowdsource support for the projects. The project only happens if all the money gets raised by the deadline date!

Please check it out, and please spread the message to anyone you know who's interested in the arts using this link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/555988002/free-shakespeare-in-the-park-in-somervilles-davis

If you're short on cash but would go and see such a play anyway, consider donating what you'd pay for a ticket (usually $10-15 at Theatre@First).

Thanks again!