First reviews and my hopes for a New World Order

A review from Backstage West

and the following review didn't have a direct link so here is the full text.

PLACEMENT

In her new play, Blair Singer employs a very literary device — a trio of isolated monologues — to convey the cultural and psychological displacement of desperate people trying to buy infants. Jane Anderson’s The Baby Dance comes to mind, as does a much earlier play on the theme of infertility, David Rudkin’s Ashes. Those, however, employed dramas among characters. The tensions here unfold between each character, and us — the placement agency that’s invited to judge the merits of the characters’ appeals, and their souls, like insects on glass. The structure is very much like Brian Friel’s Faith Healer, which justifies its form by being a literary play about literature, about the transference of experiences into stories. However, the sagas behind Friel’s monologues eventually converge. Not so here: These are recitatives on a theme, and the event feels like something between a play and an etude — improvisations on the theme of isolation. Matt Shakman directs a perfect production of these beautifully written and performed arias. Lee Garlington possesses a hypnotically droll undercurrent of sarcasm as her wealthy matron tries to fathom the rage of her estranged teen daughter. Blake Robbins’ Ronnie struggles to contain his mania in a story about his sexually perverse exploits, undertaken to please his wife — if that’s really his motive. And Katie Firth’s Tess tells a comedy-tinged saga of sacrificing her future for an alcoholic, with whom she managed an apartment complex near Magic Mountain. As theater and literature, this is topflight. As drama, the question remains open. Black Dahlia Theater, 5453 W. Pico Blvd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m. (no perfs July 1-3); thru July 31. (866) 468-3399. Written 07/01/2005 (Steven Leigh Morris)


enjoy? you know what's funny? the playwright is a guy. No mention of moi in either review, which is fine, it is said that a lighting designers best work is the work that is unonotcied and unobtrusive, helping to tell the story without drawing attention to itself. We'll see what else gets written, I'm really curious about what the LA times says.

oh this review is from the LA weeky, the LA eqvialent of the Washington City Paper.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT


My thoughts on a New World Order are in no way related to my show or the review, they are instead inspired by a review of the freedom tower in the International Herald Tribune. I think I could respect Bush if he could really embrace a true socialist neo-fascist policy at home. He has done such a half ass job at it, it's kind of sad. He has given us The Department of Homeland Security and The Patriot Act, one a wonderfully Orwellian named Byzantine bureaucracy and the other a tool for the state to enforce its crackdown on dissent and blind obedience to the all seeing big brother, John Poindexter we thank you for trying. My point is this, Bush has yet to initiate the socialist national building spree to unite the populace while simultaneously alienating them against the world. I think the Freedom Tower is a wonderful first step in this direction. I'm not saying he needs to be erecting statues to Terri Schivao, the American public isn't so credulous as to accept that level of ideological hamfistedness. It's time to start reshaping our physical world to represent the psychological space we are living in. Our nation's capital with it's open monuments and sprawling mall have been rendered a lie, and are now nothing but a painful nagging reminder of what our life was like pre-911. It's time to start eroding the memory of life before 911 and make sure that future generations don't have any concept of another reality where you could walk amongst the national treasures and monuments without having to skirt amongst concrete barriers while being stared down by jack booted government thugs with assault weapons. The time has come for oppressive monoliths that stand for "Freedom and Democracy" we have the war now we want the monument.

Next: the emperor needs new clothes.

I would just like to say that spell check fucked up this entire post somehow.

Insomniac (sort of) Blogging

courtesy of my camera phone..

I'm not really an insomniac, like Alley, just tonight. I thought I'd swallowed enough beer and hydrocodone to knock me out so I could get back on schedule. I was asleep until my roommate slammed the front door coming home at 4am, thanks K, usually I fall right back to sleep after this sort of thing. Our place has very heavy front doors that don't shut well, but it can be done quietly if you're conscientious. But tonight that slam popped me right awake and now that it's 5am I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. You see my schedule is all out of whack because the last two nights I spent working from sundown until sunup outside, so that kind of fucks with your internal clock a little. Though there is nothing like seeing the sun come up over Hollywood Blvd. as you're standing on the red carpet in the street in front of the kodak theatre, even if it is for the BET Awards. Ok, actually it's pretty lame cuz you're tired, sore, and you just want to go home. Because if you're going to be on the red carpet this is not the way to get there.

Well god damnit now for the third day in a row i've watched the sun come up... I hope i have some Ambien left somewhere.

ALLEY RAT

I MISS YOU TOO!

it hurts.. and other reasons work sucks.

Howdy all, all two of you that is. Sorry it has been a while. There have been a myriad of reasons for neglecting this blog; first off I was busy designing a show that has now finally opened, I'll post reviews when they come out. Second, my computer imploded. The cooling fan on my laptop failed and in the process fried the video card and god knows what else. It was already barely a laptop as the screen and failed a couple of months ago and i've had it hooked up to a honkin huge CRT monitor, not very portable anymore. Well now the computer isn't sending any signal to the CRT, but at least it still turns on so maybe one day when I have some cash I can rescue my life from the hardrive, until then i'm making use of the plethora of mac laptops in my house. Why am I the only one without a mac laptop and an ipod? *Le Sigh*

So today I'm nursing my wounds and killing some time inbetween jobs. Do you know what it is like to work out for 12 hours straight only taking a 30min lunch in the process.. I do. Not that I was at the gym mind you... I'm not a gym person at all. I prefer to get my exercise by carrying, lifting, and pushing things of extreme weight in the most unergonomic fashion. This way when you wake up after getting home at 3am you feel like you've been beat up severely, and moan cuz you realize you have to be back at 10:30 tonight and do it all again until sometime the next morning. Last night was for the BET awards, tonight I'll have the pleasure of removing all the dreck they'll have set up for the War of the Worlds premiere. This kind of work really feels like forced labor, the compensation isn't bad, but i'm just not physically cut out for this stuff. I'm always the smallest guy on the crew and have to keep with guys sometimes twice my weight, girth, and strength. Which is why I try and stay away from these gigs as much as possible, but I need the cash right now so I'm selling out my body and future physical health.

God i'm sore... need more ibuprofen..

I'll let you know how the aftermath of War of the Worlds turns out... if you're still wanting some good insight into the Tom Cruise scientology thing check out the top story at Salon.com.

The funny thing about being on the bottom of the entertainment food chain is that even at this level there is still a hierarchy and stratification of labor pools. The very bottom level consists of the folks who do the party rentals and just above them are the guys who do the decking and building of stages. These two groups are made up of mostly Hispanics of unkown origin and legal status. There jobs are the most physically grueling and brutal dealing with the heaviest and most grueling of materials and tasks. Ever been to a concert in a park or a dinner reception in some novel location? Ever wonder how it all magically appeared so your/or the person on tv's lilly white rich ass could have a good time? At the expense of some workers back.. Anyway, I digress, above these folks comes the crew i work for which is the lighting dept. Our crews run the gamut of racial, ethnic, and social backgrounds. I've worked with former rock and roll roadies, guys with MFAs from prestigious film schools, high school drop outs, you name it.

ok guys i'm to tired to finish this post/rant... i'll do it later... let me know if this is something you want to hear more about.

I had a real good weekend though... Saturday night my show opened.. went and had drinks with the cast, playwright, director, and some friends of the theatre. From the bar I went by another theatre's fundraiser for their new space just down the street from where my show just opened. After that wound down, and I wound up, I went to go catch my friend's band www.captain-ahab.com at a very underground perormance space in a sketchy part of downtown that I love. This is a place where the only way you know something is going on is because there was a spray painted sign propped against the door and if the people weren't homeless you know they were just visting the 'hood. I missed ths show sadly but had arrived just in time to run into some friends from San Diego that I didn't expect to see, it's a small world after all, and my friends band,we all decided to come back to my place after the seedy strip club next door to sketchy performance space wanted to charge us a $10 cover each.. we (about 9 people 4guys 5girls) decided the kitch value wasn't worth it if there wasn't any alcohol inside. This was one of those all nude, no booze joints. So we all headed back to my house. And in a moment straight out of Swingers there was a line of four or five cars following me down the street on to the freeway and snaking back to my house in the most circuitous route due to a closed exit ramp and detour. fun was had by all..

ok now i'm really signing off.

Stupid Fucking Media

I can't believe this story. http://www.fox21.com/Global/story.asp?S=3456745

The fact that they start by saying this kid rapes 2 girls and a dog, and then spends the whole story talking about the damn dog. Like whatever about these two little girls, no story there, but this guy fucks a dog and it may have died as a result, boo hoo. Don't get me wrong it's a real shame about the dog, but lets keep things in perspective.

The other insufferable thing is that by the end of the article the girls go from being raped to being molested. I just can't stand the inibillity of the media to really deal with the problem of rape in a responsible manner.

ugh..

sleep?

sleep or coke, whats it going to be? more to follow.

you think writing about theatre is hard, try producing it.

mmmmmmmm beer

to drunk/tired to post, but check back later for a post entitled "what commencement means to me, and the socioeconomic ramifications of purchasing alcohol".

The water is rising the water is rising

As I'm sure you have all heard by now, there was a tsunami warning issued for the west coast tonight. (I'd put a link to the story but the damn mac dosen't have the quickie html button) So anyway... This news came as a surprise to me this evening as I was in the process of hanging some lights for my next show. It should be fabulous, I'll tell you all (all two of you) about it later. I got a phone call from my roommate "R" who informed me that he was in the process of evacuating Venice with a couple of friends. My first thought was "R, are you drunk again, and why wasn't I invited"? Our conversaton didn't last long as it was cut off by the rapidly rising water, or bad reception i'm not sure which. I wandered back into the theatre to inform the director and scene designer of this odd bit of news, they thought I was full of shit. I tried to warn everyone of our impending doom (15 miles from the coast) why wouldn't they listen to me, I had compelling evidence of seismic activity from top notch gay alcoholics. Is this how Jake Gyllenhal felt in the Day After Tomorrow, not being as cute I guess I'll never know.

Doing my part for Rock 'n Roll

Hello gentle reader. If you are here it is probably due to a search error or you figured Alley Rat had posted another fabulous link. Well, not so this time. I would like you to take a moment and view the following link to the new video by the The Faint. If you are not familiar with this band, you should be and soon will be i'm sure. Unless of course you are a no taste hack who should crawl away and die with your 3 Doors Down, or whatever it is that you people listen to, CD ringing in your ears. But I digress, The Faint is currently opening for Bright Eyes, and I know how much you ladies love Connor, so please take a moment to rock out before you swoon out.

This video, which I am assuming you have watched by this point, stars my humble abode. I was out of town during the filming of the video, thank god because they totally took over the entire loft. My poor roommates had to endure a week of this crew spread out over the entire place, and they couldn't touch any of the setups because it was all stop animation. I didn't realize the extent of the chaos until I saw the video and realized the reason my books were all out of order (note the dancing figurines in the bookshelves and the books moving about rapidly). I mean "hello, scene design and costume design do not go back on the same shelf", I was finding books weeks later on the wrong bookshelves on the other side of the loft. We have lots, and I mean thousands (yes I'm showing off, but it's true), of books between the three of us but come on put the stuff back on the set of shelves it came off of. Anyway, lucky me away out of town in beautiful northern cali while this went down. I would have been bummed had the band been there to film, but they didn't so it wasn't so painful.

I have still yet to see the gay porn filmed in our place, but that's another story for another day. I'll say this though, they didn't leave any stains on my pool table.

Who says there is no Gay marriage.

Ok, here we go two days later, another installment

I'll pick up where I left off with my roommates and their sham marriages.

"R" : 31, gay, formerly an architect and intellectual who chucked it all (not that you stop being so wickedly smart) to go into art direction and production design. He does mainly fashion, which is how we ended up with Dita Von Teese naked in our place for a photo shoot,#2,#3,#4. But I digress, R's wife is a German national who needed her green card to stay in the U.S., and R wanted EU/German citizenship, gay with a German fetish who would have guessed. The irony of course is that R is gay and his wife is a lesbian.

"K" : 28, lesbian, tatoo artist. Has been a friend since we were in high school in the 22nd Congressional district of Texas , go on see who our congressman was/is. K's sham marriage is to a member of the Armed forces. It was actually his idea, no he's not gay. Soldier boy is another good friend from high school who knew that if he got married the government would up his pay and provide full benies for his spouse. Lord knows that as a tattoo artist there isn't exactly a great benefits package. The thing that is so unusal about this situation isn't the marriage but the fact that soldier boy is in the service at all. This is someone who broke out of the Marine military high school his parents sent him to because of the subverisve, unchristian literature and music he was reading and listening to. He certainly hasn't changed in that regard, but wanted some stability/structure in his life. Of course I'm sure the only thing you all are asking yourselves is "you still have friends from highschool"? I must say though that I highly recommend a vegas wedding/party with 20 of your closest friends from the past 10years crammed into one massive suite at the Hard Rock.

The fabulous lives of everyone but me.

I'm feeling a little morose these days as I look around and see how wonderful and exciting everyone elses life is. I was at "work" last night, final dress rehersal for a production of Measure for Measure in an itty bitty theater in Hollywood, when my roommate "K" calls me frantically wanting to know when I'll be home. "Not till after 11" I say. "What's up"? She proceeds to tell me she got a courrier gig to Japan and has to catch a flight that evening. Apparently our other roommate, "R", his German lesbian wife (I only mention the German Lesbian thing because R is gay, American born, and his marriage is one of convience)* had called asking "R" if he could do this courrier gig because she couldn't or wouldn't do. Well R couldn't because he had a photoshoot today with Owen Wilson for LIFE magazine. So K volunteered to go, she loves Japan and has never been. I guess she found someone to take her, cuz she was gone when I got home.

I arrived to find the house looking like a pool party had exploded across the pool table and floor of our space. R had purchased $2000 worth of inflatables in the shape of stealth bombers, spy planes, vulvas, sea creatures, as well as everyother imaginable toy or swimming pool related acessory for merriement and enjoyment. He left early this morning for the swimming pool of the gods located somewhere in our fair metropolis. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Anyway, more with other people's fabuslousness... A former roommate just returned to spend the weekend with her girlfriend, our third roommate "B". This former roommate has just returned from Vancouer where she is working on the L Word for Showtime. She had been living with us here in LA LA land working on the show during preproduction, but for production they all head up to Vancouver for filming. It's cheaper there don't ya know.

Then there is the case of my "friend" Alleyrat who you all know and love. She is moving on to the greater glory of Northern California where her bright though unclear future awaits her. She is fabulous for so many reasons, but in this case for taking on monumental life altering change.

So all this has me wondering when the hell am I going to take things to the next level. Gradschool was supposed to do that, but that plan didn't quite work out, so I'm getting to old and to poor to continue doing this small scale shit. Who the hell is going to come see Measure for Measure in some back alley theatre in Hollywood? Where do I sign up for some movie $$$$? I don't mind small scale stuff when it's quality, but the quality of this production of Measure does not justify the crappy pay and long hours.

I just wish my life was as interesting as the people's around me.

I'm done brooding.

more again soon, I promise.





*Remind me to do another post on my roommates (yes thats plural, not singular possesive) and their sham/marriages of convience.