We really don't care about theatre do we?

good Irish miserabilism!

When I re-read your post saying "denis o'hare and maggie g in vanya", I started thinking of Denis Leary in Vanya. I'd like to direct that.

It's harder to screw up Gypsy than a John Waters film whose chief asset is the period music THAT'S REMOVED for a new score!

obviously this is going to get me nowhere, but retooling a score to make a commercially viable adaptation (sorry, things don't go to bw unless they have some commercial goals in mind, even w/ the bw not-for-profits, and waters sold rights for it so he had to realize it was going to happen) is one thing that while artistically "questionable" is somewhat justifiable, but putting up a half-assed production (that did not receive good reviews the 1st time it ran at city center) and charging $125 for it is not acceptable to me.

Haven't read the Times review yet, but the summary for Hedda Gabler is

That the director Ian Rickson is responsible for one of the worst revivals I have ever, ever seen has me flummoxed.

i have been trying to figure out how i feel about that production for the past week and i am just not sure. the pacing was REALLY weird. pj harvey's music was neat but i hate trying to put sound design like that in a straight play. it just seems so out of place. i feel like at times it was hard to forget her weeds character because her range was at times very similar to nancy botwin's more sarcastic/frustrated moments. i was really disappointed by peter stormare. i usually love him and expected a lot, but he was pretty awkward, not in a good way.

maybe i should be glad i've seen weeds all of twice. that probably helped. otm re sound design.

i liked it though, had no expectations coming in and was just happy to go for free

you know, i do feel that MLP's range can be very limited.

yeah i have certainly seen a lot worse theater in the past year. i didn't hate it. i don't usually agree w/ brantley anyway. i just haven't been able to say i loved it or hated it... i almost don't have much of an opinion at all.

i'm currently deciding whether or not to spend 3 hours of my life at The Cherry Orchard

can you do so for free? i'd say give it a shot if so.

MLP did plenty of theatre before becoming a cable star, i dunno about her range tho

We care about (musical, mostly) theatre.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45411000/jpg/_45411582__44409308_hair_body_pa-1.jpg

^^what people think of when they think of theater

er, that's
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45411000/jpg/_45411582__44409308_hair_body_pa-1.jpg

RIP Anna Manahan; really strong in The Beauty Queen of Leenane:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/arts/10manahan.html

Trying to figure if I want to gamble on Nathan Lane & Bill Irwin in Godot -- I have a $20 tix email.

i'm currently deciding whether or not to spend 3 hours of my life at The Cherry Orchard

― Surmounter, Monday, January 26, 2009 12:38 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

can you do so for free? i'd say give it a shot if so.

― tehresa, Monday, January 26, 2009 12:41 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i didn't end up doing this. but i have no shame. just not my cup o tea

Morbius just GODOIT

The only WfG prod i've seen was Mike Nichols' 20 years ago w/ Steve Martin & Robin Williams (and Bill Irwin as Lucky)...

this thread is quite frustrating because we all seem to be talking about wildly different things but i'm glad it's here nonetheless.

the next two months in glasgow have some great things upcoming:

anne liv young is bringing her newest thing "the bagwell in me" to the arches theatre festival which is also putting on Belgian troup Ontroerend Goed company's "Once and for All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen". excited for that.

talking of the Belgians, who are undoubtedly creating the best theatre in the world, the Tramway are mounting an international series (4 Belgian companies and none from anywhere else lol) comprising Jan Fabre's "Orgy of Tolerance", Victoria's "Venizke", C de la B's newest large scale work, "Ashes" and Wayne Traub's "Maria-Magdalena" (although i'm pretty meh about Traub).

i'm so psyched.

i was supposed to be heading to Antwerp to see the latest Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui piece but it seems that has been nixed for financial reasons.

my bf has been asked to direct quite a major thing based (loosly) on the early life of Louise Bourgeouis and i'm going to be designing it too. thriled.

still haven't seen anything by anne liv young. keep hearing things about her -- a couple of my friends know her/have worked with her

sur, you just missed "sherry's march madness" which was a performance in the shape of a fucked up cocktail party (or something) in her own apartment in NYC. sonds pretty lol.

if you are interested you should add her company as a friend on facebook. she does lots of small scale things like that and posts invites to them to "fans" through fb.

yeah, i guess she does that fairly often? one of my friends was in one of her apt pieces a little while ago. SHIRTLESS no less :)

haha, her "snow white" ended with her getting two men in the audience to strip off and close-dance with her on stage (she was naked) while she told the rest of the audience to get out of the auditorium (which we duly did, she's not the sort of person you would defy). she was trying to get them naked too but they only went as far as SHIRTLESS.

i've just skimmed some stuff about her shows, and man, they would annoy me

but you are easily annoyed.

well, ive had 25 years to get annoyed by stuff like that.

the line between annoying and innovative is an important one, nonetheless

and long may it continue.

"stuff like that" doesn't really cover it. i've seen a lot of performance, most of it bad, and her work is pretty unique.

xpost

some of my coworkers saw that one where she plays George and Martha Washington. on-stage cunnilingus etc... i was kind of annoyed i missed it

obv I dunno, I'd have to see it. I'm a lot more wary of "innovative" tags than I was 20 years ago.

I'm interested in how performance art isn't called performance art anymore, so folks don't go into it with the same preconceptions.

lol at dance turning into "movement"

i'm wary of "innovative" too, but i still embrace it. we would be at a disadvantage if we didn't have these sorts of extremeties on the spectrum.

dance vs. choreography is an important, tho basic, distinction tho, imo

There's also a lot of literary performance going on now that blurs the line between a reading and theater, but has nothing to do with "spoken word" or "poetry slams" -- much closer to what David Sedaris does. Another case where it's kind of exciting that there isn't terminology for it, just that there's an audience who is drawn to it ("Hey, it's like David Sedaris, but it's free and in the back of a bar"). Groups like this one and this one.

Any Londoners gonna see (or have seen) Mishima's Madame De Sade.

saw two nights of stunning quebecois dance from Sylvain Émard Danse

http://www.ladansesurlesroutes.com/res/photo/Wave_2436.jpg

amd Cas Public

http://www.ubishops.ca/centennial/pictures/program/cas-public-1.jpg
http://www.ubishops.ca/centennial/pictures/program/cas-public-2.jpg

both mindlblowing! i LOVE this stuff.

amd, and, whatever!

hey! update my dance performance thread!!

and i can tell you there how jealous i am of you cuz that looks awesome

Dance performance C/D S/D

such a treat. genuinely thought provoking and life affirming!

xpost was that the dildos, snow white etc thread?

sur, it was gorgeous and (the second one) sexy!!! all of the dancers either on point (the women) or in high hells (the men).and the men were like o_O look at that body.

agree on awesome...

meanwhile Madame de Sade is getting bad reviews, however some of the reasons (that it isn't dramatic and the like) still make me want to see it. xp

julio, sorry about not responding to your email of a month+ ago. i couldn't afford the trip in the end.

That's ok jed, not to worry - do let me know if you come round again.

And if I go to Glasgow/Edinburgh to see a dance company/or a play that you've designed I will let you know :-)

:D

julio, ann liv young at the batterea arts centre from the 15th to the 19th of may.

http://www.annlivyoung.com/performancepage.html

its on

"More recently Young has loosened the reins. "Snow White," in particular, has become indelibly deconstructed. "It got to the point where we didn't even do the show," she recalled. "I would say: 'You know, I really don't feel like doing this. How about let's do a question-and-answer session?' And people would get really angry. They felt cheated.""

this is exactly what happened when i saw it. 2/3rds of the way through she goes "ok, this is shit, this isn't working and i can tell you [the audience] are bored. let's do the radio show" cut to all the perfomers clearing the stage to mount the sub-show followed by getting the audience up on stage and trying to get them to strip off. j, i recommend you sink as far down in your seat as you can so she can't pick you out!