Notes on Fringe (Day Five)

What to do on a day off? Sightseeing! Emily, Diana and I made the journey all the way past Washington Heights to Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters.

This was my first journey to Ft. Tryon without my wife, which was a little bittersweet. It is a very special place to her, and I proposed to her there on her birthday in 1998, overlooking the Hudson River. But it was a great joy to share it with some new folks.

Emily also likes to take pictures of flowers.

The Cloisters continues to fascinate and inspire. It's not even very big, but even time I visit I am drawn to something new and different, something else to linger over. Emily found the herb garden fascinating. I never realized how many artifacts involve unicorns. Lots of unicorns.  

DID YOU KNOW ..? The unicorn was not, in fact, left off Noah's Ark, some Irishman made that up. They were hunted to extinction. Duh.

This is an actual pear tree.

The evening was spent with our company diverging once again, taking in a variety of performance the downtown area has to offer. We had celebrated our opening night (Saturday) by traveling as a team to see True False Theatre perform Slaughterhouse-Five in a new adaptation written by Daria Tavana. 

It's a book familiar to everyone like me, must have read it as a freshman in high school. Yes, the movie isn't very good, and I think in spite of cinema's ability to instantly take you from one place and time to another, theater in its way can be even better than that.

Tavana's script does a really good job of condensing Vonnegut's story to its essence, its point, and kept a lot of his absurd humor, which the company brought out in some surprising ways. For it to really fly, however, the transitions were far too long, with the large company moving camp beds around and ugly set pieces. I think convergence-continuum back home could do, should do this script. It's right in their wheel-well.

Friday's Variety Power Hour, featuring the company of Double Heart!
Tonight Annie and Diana ventured to see Gertrude Stein Saints, performed by students from Carnegie Mellon, while James and Emily went to see -- and perhaps, perform with -- the Upright Citizen Brigade (not a Fringe show) which is right next to where we are performing our show.

I went on my own to see Beast of Festive Skin, a one-woman absurdist vaudeville in Hell, featuring the astonishing Alexandra Tatarsky, who isn't actually Russian. The 32-seat venue was entirely packed, a dinky space pouring with sweat, red light, accordion and her. One hour of ridiculous physical comedy and word-play and I was a happy man.

Private note to the Bachelorette Party: I am so sorry, you should not have come to see our show.

Notes on Fringe (Day Four)

Cheers.

Whew. Okay, two down, three to go. And yet it feels as though the most hugest part of our work here is done. We got here. We were prepared. We set everything up professionally and in good time. We promoted the show. We performed the show. And then we did it again, with no issues. Just good, solid work. And now, two entire days -- two and a half entire days, really -- with no obligations whatsoever except to be in New York City.

What will happen?

We ride.

It is now a science. Most of what we need is stored in the theater, and bless the gods we have an apartment that is only three blocks away. We haul our costumes, which can be aired and Frebreezed in the safety of our apartment, down five flights and put them on a rack and wheel them to the Connelly.

As you can see, we even wear parts of them to save time and energy. This is New York. Nobody cares.

Hauling sets and props out of storage, getting the costumes on stage, and putting everything together in preparation for the house to open now takes less than ten minutes. So does tearing it down.

We had another great show today, with some 25 people in attendance. Not bad for an out-of-town company. We have already received a few very positive notices. Adam Bertocci, author of Two Gentlemen of Lebowski sent a message to his 16,000+ Facebook followers a message which included the statement, "I recommend it because the author actually knows what the hell he's talking about."

We also received our obligatory notice from nytheatre.org, which said, "The strong, ingenuous work done by the two lead actors and the joy of exploring the romantic-history-that-might-have-been make the show well worth the hour of your time." 

This writer also pointed out that she was "puzzled" that a play set in Italy would have two characters with cockney accents, though the fact that the other six characters had American accents and that they all speak English didn't confuse her at all.

Magdalyn & Nathan (and Lisa)

Following today's matinee our dear friends Magdalyn and Nathan threw us a cast party at their Brooklyn apartment. It was a great treat to unwind, get caught up with old friends and just relax after what (to me) felt like six months of effort.

Former Great Lakes Theater actor-teachers!

Jeffrey, Magdalyn, David, Annie, Lisa & Nathan

Notes on Fringe (Day Three)

First things first ... we opened! Very nice opening production, very happy. Relaxed, too. Our set-up takes, I kid you not, less than ten minutes. Whole thing. We have this part nailed. There were 42 people in attendance, which is the largest single audience I have ever performed before in New York City.

Following the show we had the opportunity to unwind a little with the dozen or so people who chose to remain for the talkback, which was also extremely pleasant.

Star alert: We were joined this afternoon by Adam Bertocci, screenwriter and the author of Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, who introduced himself after the talkback. Pretty sweet. He told me he appreciated the hidden jokes in the script that only a Shakespeare enthusiastic like himself would get, which was pretty flattering.

Also, too: This one gentleman in the front row asked if I had intended the play to be feminist. Of course, I asked why he believed that it was and we had a very positive discussion about that. The tenor of the entire talkback was joyful and positive.

Another question: How is the FringeNYC run different from the tour? Good question. While I mentioned that it's more sweaty, I did not go into details, like how much more difficult it is to get my boots on and off with damp socks, or that my big hat is sliding down my head over my ears. But we did mention the beautiful space, and the fact that we have proper stage lighting!



And so, we have opened. Four more shows to go. Tell your friends!

Speaking of which, while Annie and I took a five mile run/walk through Lower Manhattan, Diana, James and Emily took a box of cards to the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park to pique the interest of those waiting for free tickets to see Love's Labour's Lost.

Later, I also walked to fifteen of 18 different FringeNYC sites to drop palm cards. Five mile run, two mile walk around the Lower East Side, and an hour-long performance. So I am very tired, and unlike the last several days, I am not waking up tomorrow morning for any reason whatsoever.

Notes on Fringe (Day Two)

Tech Rehearsal at the Connelly

Okay. So? Maybe instead of going to Central Park to hand out palm cards to people on line to see Love's Labour's Lost, the morning should have instead be spent sprucing up our things so the women of the company would have a place to be, drinking coffee and generally relaxing because we were up until 1:30 AM and had a big day ahead of us.

Anyway, that's what happened.

Company meeting!

The company came together at 12:30 for a meeting, hauled everything down five flights of stairs, and schlepped it (as they say in New York) to the Connelly Theatre, where we met up with lighting designer Cris and our most awesome Venue Director Kimille.

While I admit there was a lot of energy, rushing about and bolts stuck totally the wrong way into the set frame (thanks for pointing that out, James, we won't get that wrong again, sorry) we managed, in two hours, to set everything up, tear it down, set it up again, run the entire show, tear it down and put it away. Because that is what we do.

We open tomorrow. Deep breath. Awesome.

Emily rocks this hat much harder than I do.

After notes from Lisa and a somewhat leisurely dinner, we headed over the FringeCENTRAL for FringeTEASERS. FringeCENTRAL is the main office for the festival, always in a different place each year. This year it's a nice big room on 2nd Av, with a lot of couches and chairs for people to hang out, look over their guides, choose their shows and purchase tickets.

A dozen or so productions were invited to perform five minutes for whoever walked in -- and all the other artists performing this afternoon. Several of the artists from last night were in attendance who were also at  last night's gig at The Cutting Room. It was much more enjoyable to see them here, much more conducive, just projecting and not relying on microphones, everybody seemed really loose and comfortable, and the audience was so supportive!

Big crowd!

There was some majestic singing (Gertrude Stein Saints) and hilarious, funky, creepy, sexy, physical comedy (Beast of Festival Skin) and a freaky dance troupe who has got to tell me what their soundtrack is because it must become part of my running mix (Kinematik).

The evening was defined by the Variety Power Hour, a late-night variety show, bacchanal, though this evening seemed a little low-key by VPH standards. This was not a surprise, as it was the first of FringeNYC '13. Tomorrow's crowd may be bigger, and will surely build as the festival continues.

However, it was a good crowd, a spirited crowd, and this time (unlike, say, last night) I took time to think through and actually rehearse what we were going to present or more to the point, how we were going to present it, using microphones. This show is podcast, and so I suggested we perform the post-dance dialogue as though it were a radio drama; no blocking (or not much) with people moving towards and away from the mic to suggest leaving the scene.

Emily and Annie at the C.O.W.

I will share when it goes up, we'll see how successful our efforts were. One thing went particularly weird was when I was instructed to create a Shakespearean sonnet based on anything I could find in the FringeNYC Program Guide. I composed a halting reinterpretation of the synopsis for Naked In Alaska. James liked it.

Afterwards we got pizza at Famous Original Ray's.

Notes on Fringe (Day One)

FringeNYC 2013 is now open.

James and I just got back into our cozy L.E.S. apartment after spending an evening at Opening Night ceremonies for FringeNYC at The Cutting Room. We met many other Fringe performers and took in scenes from over a dozen different shows. We even did The Privy Song shortly after midnight.

Jen Bosworth w/Briar Rabbit from Why Not Me

This early morning begins almost 36 hours ago, when stage manager Diana and I loaded Andrew's van with the set for Double Heart. The forecast called for rain, so we bagged and double-bagged everything, and tarped the larger pieces.

Oh yes we did.

I did not sleep well last night, and James reported the same thing. We met downtown at 6 AM and made it safely to Manhattan in time to check into our apartment by 3 PM, except that it started raining like hell once we emerged from the Holland Tunnel. Rest assured, all was successfully waterproofed, and the folks at the Connelly were kind enough to let us load in the larger pieces before Tech (tomorrow -- er, today) so we did not need to haul them up our five story walkup. Thank you, Kimille!

 That makes me sweat.

From that point on it was merely matter of meeting up with Director/ACR Lisa and her husband Patrick at FringeCENTRAL to receive our Participant Badges, and then we were free to wander downtown and get some dinner before walking thirty blocks to the Cutting Room.

After midnight, we got our Metrocards, and took a subway back. Tomorrow ... handing out cards, welcoming the women company members to the apartment, Tech Rehearsal and a few other public performances. Also, picking up a couple copies of the New York Times.

Venue Prep

Hot and able.

There are only FOUR days until Double Heart opens at the Connelly Theater in New York City!

Yesterday "Venue Prep" was held at each of the participating venues, where each production performing at that venue sent hands to prepare the space. Our company sent three, former Great Lakes Theater actor-teachers Nathan Gurr and Magdalyn Donnelly (pictured, a selfie taken today at the theater) and the most recent addition to our production company, Lighting Designer Cris Dopher.

I first met Cris at the 2009 Fringe when performing And Then You Die (How I Ran A Marathon in 26.2 Years) at the Robert Moss. An avid runner in addition to being a professional designer, Cris and I have stayed in touch and both are thrilled to finally have this opportunity to work together.

Cris has designed for shows off-Broadway, at Lincoln Center, and assisting on the original New York productions of Full Monty and Batboy. He lights extensively for dance and also spends a good part of the year conceiving and creating major retailers’ Christmas windows including lighLord and Taylor, Hudson Bay, Macy’s on State. The entire Double Heart company is so happy to have Cris lighting this production.

Cris's running blog: Live To Run - Run To Live

Salem, MA

Driving home from our vacation in Maine, the family stopped in to see my wife’s colleague Kim in Salem, MA. They had met at Goddard College, and Kim even moved to Cleveland for all of 2012 to work as my wife’s associate before getting a plum job as a creative writing instructor much closer to her hometown of Boston.

We have been to Salem before but once, long before the kids were born, back in 1996. That was a brief excursion, arriving in the mid-afternoon and only just hitting a few tourist attractions before evening. Like most people, we were there for the witches, but didn’t really explore the town very much before bedding down after dinner and leaving early.

Today we had even less time available, as we wanted to make Utica by dinner, but this time had a guide. I knew there was some serious witch-inspired honky tonk to be seen, but I had no idea how much. Fun’s fun, but it is clear that Salem may be the second-worst American city to enjoy Halloween.

Sometimes I work a little too hard to provide context to my children … I am only trying to help. My own parents would take me historical places without really explaining their significance or what I was doing there. Places like like Canterbury Cathedral, Versailles, or my grandparents’ house.

Paranorman was a good jumping off point -- my daughter liked that move a lot, it just scared the boy, but when I told them Salem is basically the inspiration for the witch-attraction-based economy town in that movie, it made both the movie and where we were make a lot more sense.

This is not actually a picture of our house.

Kim explained the basics of the witch trial over lunch at Gulu-Gulu, and then we walked down the main promenade, taking in an amazing bookstore (see photo above) and Wyknott’s (Harry Potter-licensed) Wands. The girl was in Hogwarts heaven. If the man were not out of the Hermione model, she would have one in her truss right now.

Our last stop was at the Salem Witch Trial Memorial. Some other year, when the kids are older and have a bit more perspective we may take in the “witch dungeons” and wax museums. For me it was enough to rediscover one of the few spaces of quiet and respect in the midst of all the historical reenactors, and Nosferatu buskers.

Seventeen years ago we approached at twilight. Here in broad daylight it was still silent, there were few tothers around, but they did not speak. The boy and I went around, and he read all of the names, to himself. It is a troubling space, accusatory in its design. Others sat on the stones, two or three, but they all sat to one end, not in the middle, certainly not on the names.

And when you stand, on the path, these present figures in these emtpy seats, they look to you. You may not forget.

It were a fearsome man.