On to the next round

Amanda Stoddard, one of Satori's associate artists and a dear personal friend, made the trip to Olympia today to testify on behalf of the HB 5958 bill. Without this funding arts in Washington state will be in a dire state.

Please help this cause!

How You're Killing Theater - Pt. 1

There is nothing potentially more obnoxious than a theater person giving a sermon on how we as a theater community are all killing theater.  However, I can only keep my peace for so long and after seeing and being a part of a great deal of theater I thought I would throw in my two cents.

I can't go a week without hearing some sort of hand wringing conversation about how theater has to find a way to keep relevant.  That people don't want to go see theater.  That there is too much bad theater.  That there is plenty of good theater and we are all just over reacting.  Or a hundred other variations on a theme.  Let's just get it out of the way and say that theater, as an art form, will never disappear completely.  But, theater, as we know it now, has the potential to be killed and, indeed, I see people trying to kill it every day.

The ways in which theater people are killing theater are subtle and often over looked.  I think we often like to look out to our audiences for our murders and forget to look around at what we are doing to this poor medium.

Let's start with at the beginning, shall we?

Playwrights,

You kill theater every time you obviously retell a story.  We can all be inspired by a good old tale, but when it's simply a retelling of the same thing why would anyone want to see it?  Leave the overdone remakes to the movies.

You also kill theater when your characters have ridiculous names.  I just saw a play where a character's name was Brodner.  Brodner?  What the hell is that?!  Sure, there are lots of unique and beautiful names out there in the world, and I don't want to see play after play full of Mary's and John's, but when you decide to name a character something far out into left field at least let it have some significance.  When we sit in an audience we want to hear words that mean something.  We don't always have to understand them, but we want to feel their essential meaning, their weight.

Another reason why you shouldn't give your characters ludicrous names?  Because if your play is challenging to me you'll want me to be sitting forward in my seat, attacking the it with my full attention.  Giving your characters crazy names will be just another way for me to become distracted and distanced from your work.

When I googled "Brodner" I got this.  Congratulations, you just named your character after this guy.  And you killed theater.

 You kill theater when you confuse mystery with a lack of logic.  Even illogical plays have their own set of rules.  These days many playwrights find themselves drawn to the magical and the impossible and I am all for it.  However, this seems to often come with a belief that you don't have to let the audience in on the plot.  Just to set the record straight, you do.  Again, we don't have to "understand" everything that goes on, there can be mystery, but we do have to be able to follow it.  When you leave us out of the loop and go off into a tangent that we can't follow, you kill theater.

Ooo, Shakespeare, let's eat it alive!

Finally, you kill theater when you make it long.  Sorry to all you would be Brechts out there, it's over, at least for now.  I am a theater person and I can't handle theater that is much longer than an hour and a half.  Why?  Lots of reasons, I am the product of generation y, impatient and easily distracted.  I want to see your play, I want to think about what you're telling me, but if you make me sit still and watch it for hours on end, I'm gonna want out and probably won't want to take more time to think about it.  Or, even worse, I'll start to decide what I think about the show while I'm still watching it. That is dangerous, dangerous territory.  My advice, get in there and hit them with all you got.  Then, an hour and a half later, drop 'em like it's hot and leave them wanting more.


***

All in all playwrights are amazing.  I have been working with a young playwright right now on a play called Fabulous Prizes.   I think that play does a pretty good job of not killing theater.  But you should decide that for yourself and come see it.

Next on the chopping block for killing theater: actors. 

Stay tuned.

Seen and Heard

It's been a while since I have given myself time to check in here.  I have been on quite the journey these past couple of weeks.  It's been a simultaneously wonderful and exhausting ride.

So, where have I been?

I first departed the internet world when Pig Iron Theater Company came to Seattle to do a weekend long intensive with Satori.  I have to say that the weekend was just as perfect as I expected.  We learned so many wonderful new training and creation techniques that we have already found a way to incorporate into our day to day rooms.

Post-Pig Iron I was immediately swept away into the world of preparing for the bands show at Satori's "Smash Bash."

I have to say, I was awfully nervous about playing in front of all these people that I knew so well.  I knew that they would be rooting for us, but you still want to play your best and show everyone what you've got.  In the end it was great.  People seemed genuinely interested in our music and having a great time!  But, of course, our playing was just a small part of what was one hell of a great party.  See, check it out for yourself.

 

 

 

 

 As you can see, we had one amazing time.  It was the perfect way to celebrate before heading deep into rehearsals for Fabulous Prizes, our next show, which is opening in just a little over two weeks! 

Which, coincidentally, is where I have been most for the last few weeks.  Rehearsal is going well.  We have an excellent team assembled which is making this one of the smoothest processes we've ever had.  I'm having fun with my character, Sally, who is seen very little and says even less.  I've always had fun with parts like that.  They require so much creativity and imagination.  I consider myself lucky when I get a chance to play a small part.

There is more.  There is so much more.  It's amazing how busy one life can be when you look at is closely. 

I promise to share more adventures, such as our trip to the star wars exhibit, soon.  But this will be all for now.  Til then!

some words from the man himself

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value."

-Albert Einstein

I had never heard this quote before a couple of days ago and it truly cut me to the quick.  I suppose I had never thought of it that way, but, in my heart I've been trying to articulate this sentiment for a long time.  Not that I can claim to have achieved it.  But that's really the point, isn't it?  The aspiration toward goals with deeper meaning than recognition.

We all encounter a myriad of people every day with different aspirations, desires, and understandings.  And, through all of this, your goals and focus can become...muddled.  The influence of others can be strong, and it's hard, sometimes, to know if the path you are on is the right one.  To me, this simple statement from the man himself acts as a kind of anchor.

When I'm feeling lost, or anxious about the decisions I am making, about the narrative that's being woven called "my life" (for lack of a less emo phrase), I can grab hold of this anchor that Mr. Einstein has thrown me and simply ask, "does this choice hold with what I value?"

It's a comforting way of looking at things for me.

Of course, we are always moving forward.  And that which we value now, may not see itself into the larger values of our life.  Investments, children, even pets can have great impact in rearranging our lists of values.  My grandmother and I used to talk about this at length.  We came to the conclusion (her at 70 me at 15) that we are all in the process of knowing ourselves, and that we seemed to be able to discover new information every day until the end.

It seems (and this is my Grandmother talking now) that new experiences don't stop at a certain age.  There will always be something you haven't faced yet: a chance to, once again, get to know yourself a little better.

A long journey to be sure, but with a guide post like the quote above, I'm excited for the ride.

Also...Pig Iron Related

Just really quick.

I also wanted to post a link to a wonderful post on the Pig Iron blog about the creation of the characters in the production, Welcome to Yuba City.

I enjoyed reading about the process from the first exercises to the moment where characters began to emerge.

Check it!

From Clown to Characters, or How we Found Yuba City by Quinn Bauriedel.

Pig Iron in Seattle! Hurray!

Chekhov Lizard Brain...how could you not love them?

 
It has long been a dream of mine to get the chance to work with Pig Iron Theater Company.

My first exposure to Pig Iron came in college.  I stumbled upon their website while researching ensemble theater's for a class.  I remember being intrigued by the one of the productions they were advertising and began reading about how they created their work.  My heart skipped a beat!  They made work the way I was! 

Well, "the way I was," might have been a generous way of putting it.  In fact, a small group of my college friends and I had just begun creating an original work that would become the piece iLove:.  We were completely new to the world of generating theater and just following out gut instinct, so when I happened across Pig Iron's website and learned that they were generating new work in the same way as were, I just knew I had to get to meet them.

iLove: @2007 Cincinnati Fringe Festival

 And then, life happened, and I found myself graduating college, moving to Seattle to found The Satori Group, and before I knew it was 2010, and I had yet to meet/train with Pig Iron!  I renewed my efforts and began talking with them.  And, before I knew it, we struck gold.  Pig Iron would be happy to come to Seattle!

It's been an exciting process to get to this coming weekend, and I could not be more pleased with the outcome!

In a way, Pig Iron Theater Company is my unicorn, and I have no idea what to expect when I come face to face with their work, but I can guarantee that it will be magical.

Pig Iron's "Cafeteria."

Expect quite the update, post the workshop weekend!

***

P.S. Come and join us in training with Pig Iron Theater on Thursday, March 31st @On the Boards from 6p.m. to 10p.m.  Click here to reserve your spot!  Or email me at adrienne@satori-group.com with an questions you might have.

This is an amazing opportunity.  I would love to see you there.


 

working on a new piece

Anthony and I got the chance to sit down with our new friend, Mallery, last week to start talking about a new piece we would like to develop.

At this point we only have brief sketches of what the show will be about, but we know that it will deal with nostalgia and a longing to return home, and will have a great deal of music.

We've been spending the past week doing research and looking into various aspect of what these concepts mean to us.  In my researching I stumbled upon a video of my friend, Faith's, one woman song cycle, Undine.  This show was a major inspiration to me in it's form of storytelling.  I love the way in which she creates character and place through song, costume, and simple placement on the stage.  I hope that this new project can learn from what Faith has done here.

I thought I would share her fantastic work with you all.

Undine - by Faith Helma - Highlight video - 9 min from Hand2Mouth Theatre on Vimeo.