We really don't care about theatre do we?

My friend's (well, close family friend really) play got a pretty great review in Variety!

Wasn't quite as enthusiastic about it as this reviewer was - it's definitely got a few wholes that I hope will get patched up before it gets, as I'm fairly sure it will, a transfer to a bigger space - but was thoroughly entertained all the same.

Kinda interesting to see H4nna directing something with such a populist, contemporay feel given that her background is more Harold Barker, Pinter, Stoppard and the RSC, but really really impressive how well she pulled it off.

Sry if this seems a bit spammy, just really pleased!

aw, my friend's play is a winner!
http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/theater/81553/the-ten-best-plays-in-chicago-in-2009

so proud!
wish i could have seen it.

my most recent set design, forgive the indulgence!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/memcell1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/memcell3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/memcell5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/memcell8.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/memcell6.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/memcell7.jpg

there were people in it too!

what was the show?

"Memory Cells" - a new play by a scottish writer called Louise Welsh. Her starting point was one of Louise Bourgeuis' Cells, hence the heavily LB influenced set.

Nice. Last play I saw was Pains of Youth at the National last month, the music was kinda interestingly early 20th century inspired classical-electronic interludes in between the scenes. It had a suicide, but that is no spoiler as you could tell five mins in :-)

Katie Mitchell's thing? i really wanted to see that. there's something - a video - on the guardian website about the sound design for it. it looked really interesting.

memory cells was good as ws the set design

I've seen that doors-as-wall in a couple of places now, ur a pioneer jed! unless u stole it from elsewhere

i stole it from louise bourgeois!

jed - Yeah, that's it. For anybody else, the link to the page at the Guardian site.

i've been working on a theatrical clowning show and it's pretty impossible to convince people to go, but i saw it last night and it was incredibly entertaining and actually quite touching at times! one of the clowns did an entire piece in japanese and was able to convey everything perfectly, which is pretty freaking impressive to me!

Non-circus clowns are the best.

Intriguing B'way cast for the new Martin McDonagh play (movie stars, of course): Walken, Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie, Zoe Kazan.

well, even if no one i know personally would go, we sold out last night! also makes me wish i had more $ to go see more shows. i miss theatre/opera/etc.

Does anyone if/when Tom Paulin's Medea might be coming to London?

no, but it's in glasgow in a couple of weeks so thanks for the tip!

one star from lynn gardner in the guardian, maybe not...

Which theatre crtics do you trust, innit? I liked the readings I heard of it on Night Waves.

Anyone see The White Guard at the NT? Was impressed about how funny it was. Only till the end it emphasized how nasty the whole deal was.

hey chilxors, my grad school colleague's play is being staged in this victory gardens season preview. it's free. you should check it out and tell me how it is!

― tehresa, Friday, September 11, 2009 9:09 PM

y'allllll! dude got a pulitzer nom for this and it's off-broadway now! <3

Anyone see The White Guard at the NT? Was impressed about how funny it was. Only till the end it emphasized how nasty the whole deal was.

don't think it was just the end - there was the end of act 1 bit about fighting against the future which was pretty bleak (and wrongheaded); and acts 3 and 4 were both pretty harsh. but yeah, funny and entertaining too, and amazing set design, the act 1-2 transition really took me by surprise.

tza, what title?

the elaborate entrance of chad deity

That bit in act 1 was v much prophetic. Really liked it. The fears it expressed are analogous to many writers (whether progressive or not) welcoming (but also showing anxious concerns) about what that future would bring.

Just saw Reasons To Be Pretty by Neil LaBute. A bit heavy-handed in the first act, but hit the spot for me in the second. The actors looked so little like their pics in the programme that my friend initially claimed the whole thing was understudies because it was a matinee.

I think labute's photo would come up on a gis for 'heavy-handed'.

I saw the National Theatre's production of 'The White Guard' by Bulgakov the weekend before last. It was excellent.

Last week on the train I sat near a couple who just came back from a performance. They seemed confused by all the factions. I had one or two (minor) questions myself but the programme (which I didn't get hold of) should be able to answer them.

The program was exhaustive, if anything. The factions were essentially:

The Hetmanate, a German propped-up, conservative distatorship under Skoropadsky who antagonized the peasantry and increasingly relied on Russians and was close to Deniken;

Petlyura's Ukrainian peasantry-supported Ukrainian National Republic (which had essentially preceded the Hetmanate) and which expelled Skoropadsky;

The Ukrainian and Russian Bolsheviks who, by the end, everybody figures will end up the final victors.

Btw, fun book:

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Prince-Secret-Habsburg-Archduke/dp/0465002374

I had planned to retire from theatrical projects for the year, but as of last night joined the cast of a local production of The Crucible as Hathorne. It was already in progress and it opens next Friday. I get to learn 20-30 lines really fast! But I'm a quick memorizer.

It's like getting to skip right to the fun part!

Nice! I played Cheever in high school and spied a poppet.

hey chilxors, my grad school colleague's play is being staged in this victory gardens season preview. it's free. you should check it out and tell me how it is!

y'allllll! dude got a pulitzer nom for this and it's off-broadway now! <3

― tehresa, Friday, September 11, 2009 9:09 PM

Oh, that dude's a good writer! Saw another play of his in Chicago earlier this year.

oh cool, which one?

Welcome to Arroyo's. The thing I liked the most about it was that, versus being about hip-hop, it really was able to embody hip-hop in language, storytelling, etc.

learned 70% of my lines in one night and didn't do too horribly bad on the blocking. the one benefit of being a good memorizer is that you can do things like this.

now to do things like creating a character and learning the rest of my lines in a day or two. oh and also one of our castmates went to the hospital with chest pains last night :(.

opening night tonight. learned all of my lines in two nights, I'm ready to go...w00t

break a leg!

Eazy and I just had a good chat over beer about the latest Steppenwolf production.

I am definitely seeing a play tonight about robot sex.

wd like to see NYC revival of Angels in America if it didnt, uh, cost money

Good opening tonite I'm in the bag atm

three reviews in for my show, all positive. that has to be a first!

whoever knew wearing a big hot wig would be so much fun?

Our Rebecca Nurse didn't show tonight. I'm backstage right now, nobody knows where she is, we worked around her lines. This is the SECOND time this has happened in a show I've been in during the last year. We're all worried atm...but the show goes on.

Have you ever seen that play where its all naked women strutting about? But no talking. It was very artsy. I felt kind of ashamed of people's "outer body parts".

castmate showed up at intermission, distraught. didn't find out the cause, we were just all relieved as she has a heart condition. worked around her not being there in the first act.

Panic Patterns @ The Citizens Theatre, Glasgow.

i have to say i'm really quite proud of this design so please forgive the indulgence. the show happens in the round, just over 100 seats. there are people in it but they aren't in the photos (too messy!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/pp28-1.jpg?t=1288308488

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/pp25.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/pp23.jpg?t=1288308488

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/pp11.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/pp7-1.jpg?t=1288308392

Just seeing these photos now -- nice ^.

I'm restaging a show I did last summer, opening next weekend, in case anyone is passing through Chicago.