making the play
We are nearly two weeks away from the opening of Andy Takes a Husband at Stella Adler, and what a tremendous relief it is to unburden myself of the play that caused me so much grief during its incubation and watch the characters come to life in the hands of the actors. This is the part that makes it all worth it, folks:
Oh Roman, Oh Roman, Oh Roman
ICBINS is Back!
I am thrilled to announce that I Can’t Believe It’s Not Shakespeare has been working on a very (a)rousing new project by our always fruitful writer (not to mention the artistic director of ICBINS), Julia Rae Maldonado.
ICBINS is collaborating with the Stella Adler Studio of Acting for this workshop production of Andy Takes a Husband, a new comedy about a troubled young American sex symbol.
This performance will be FREE to the public!
Our Stella Adler actors include: Jesse Barrera, Isabelle Zufferey Boulton, Julian Conde and Nao Dobashi.
Performances will be the last weekend in July! More details and reservation info to come later this week!
ICBINS to read Trailer Park Special
Next up in our reading series will be Trailer Park Special: A White Trash Black Comedy by Alicia Frank. Collaborators on the project will be: Michael Abourizk, Ronit Aranoff, Matt Berger, Stacey Bone, Alicia Frank, Lauren B. Ferrel, Melissa Lusk, Julia Rae Maldonado, and Manuel Perez.
Schedule to begin work September 26th, 2009.
A Fresh Take on Shakespeare
Occasionally, my facebook wife and fellow ICBINS business partner Julia will invite me along to some off-off-off production or workshop and I’m usually skeptical and almost always half-dreading it in the days preceding. But one thing remains constant: I am ALWAYS proven wrong and end up enjoying the hell out of the performances. Never again will I doubt her. This past weekend Julia asked if I’d come see NYNEO’s workshop performance of William Shakespeare’s Henry VI. To be honest I had never read this play or seen a production of it before and I was a little unsure of how I’d receive it. You see, a few years ago Denzel Washington shot me with a tranquilizer gun, wait no – I saw him in an excruciatingly soporific Broadway rendition of Julius Caesar, and since then I’ve been afraid of falling asleep through Shakespeare. (more…)
college you broke my heart but now i’m over it for real
ahh the 2009 school year approaches. another soul-shaking reminder that we’re out in the real world now. speaking for myself, i still haven’t forgiven College for throwing me out on my ass like an old used up girlfriend when I was always so good to him – so good.
but you know what? you know what, College? i’m glad it’s over. turns out things are pretty all right here out here in the cold. and by cold i mean my 90+ degree non-airconditioned convent cell that I’m forced to live in because i had to pay for you and now i have no money.
just so happens lots of us NYU-exes are keeping busy this august. this friday, I’m planning on catching Dan Moyer’s play Winnemucca at The Fringe which has been getting great reviews. especially looking forward to this because last october, icbins had the pleasure of hosting a reading of an earlier draft as part of our reading series.
also, our pals at new york neo classical continue to be the shit. Yesterday, i saw their workshop of Henry VI (abridged) directed by our favorite, Bill Griffin. i love these guys. even as it continues to evolve, Henry VI was every bit as much of a pleasure as their spring production of Measure for Measure.
more good stuff from us ex-tischies to come in 2009 i’m sure, even as we welcome the freshly dumped class-of-2009 into our comforting open arms.
- j.
You got one more chance to catch Winnemucca at The Fringe – Friday, August 28th at Venue #5, The Lafayette St. Theatre @ Theaters at 45 Bleeker. Performances by Jenni Putney, Grayson DeJesus & Will Brill, written by Dan Moyer & directed by Wren Graves. Buy tickets here.
The Chronicle of the Bed
the infamous bed
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away (Queens), I Can’t Believe It’s Not Shakespeare premiered its first production: The Bros’ Play by our very own artistic director Julia Rae Maldonado. Of all the excitement and goings on of a putting together a production there was one aspect of the entire process that seemed to demand a lot more of our time and attention than we had expected. One word: Bed. The focal point of the stage, the place where sin and filth would merge, and believe me, it did.
All of the other props and set dressings were easy enough to come by and fairly painless to schlep to the theater. But where on Earth do you find a place that sells nice enough beds for dirt cheap AND provides cut-rate transportation in the form of sketchy van rides from “Big Bob” to the Theater? I’ll tell you where: IKEA – the bastard child of capitalism and meatball loving Swedes.
We opted for the second most inexpensive model, the DALSELV. So now all we had to do was put it together and Voilà! A bed for the set, right? Not so fast – the bed frame was made of that inferior pale wood they call pine. So we had to stain it a nice “walnut” color. After hours of toxic fume inhalation and extensive brain cell death (which lead to my commandeering of the downstairs bathroom) we had successfully stained the bed frame “carrot piss”.
But before we stained the bed we made one grave error that would cause many many epic fails in the coming days, namely – during the performances. Word of Advice: Use ALL of the parts that IKEA tells you to in their nice little picture instructions. Do not let the playwright tell you “oh yeah we don’t need THIS part”.
Dramaturge seems like it’s spelled wrong and other observations.
This is the second picture that resulted when I searched "dramaturge." The first was two naked dudes in kneepads. Seriously, google image it.
As mentioned, this weekend we had a table reading of When you Die you Go to Target, over which I presided with both dignity and poise as dramaturge. This was my first experience in this role which can sometimes be a bit nebulous, and it struck me how similar a position it was to a constitutional monarch. Roll with me here. The power is all in the hands of the playwright, director and actors (as it would be with parliament, prime minister and the voters), while the dramaturge’s role is reserved for ensuring that the directive of the play (or a nation’s integrity) is honored all while wearing wonderful clothes and drinking. Like the constitutional monarch, the dramaturge must also make sure to never overstep his boundaries. Especially as a writer, I have to remember to keep my hand out of the pot, but make sure that the ingredients are all available for the chefs. I guess in that sense a dramaturge is more like a restaurateur. No, wait. Okay, the PERFECT analog for a dramaturge is (more…)
a hundred visions and revisions
WHEN YOU DIE, YOU GO TO TARGET
icbins Play Reading, In Numbers
5 actors reading 10 characters
1 casting director, 1 dramaturge, 1 director
94 pages in the script, read in about 70 minutes
2 pizzas
3 phases in the talkback
1 completely disastrous joke about birthing dogs (don’t ask, but it was even worse than it sounds.)
5 retail horror stories shared
2 last names, accidentally given to the one family
1 perfect bengali accent
1 passive protagonist
15 suggestions on how to make protagonist less passive
2 underdog characters everyone seemed to like more than I expected
3 pages, front and back of notes taken during the discussion
100 visions and revisions that I now plan on doing.
Thank you so much to everyone for generously donating their time and talent today. Next step: new draft. I’ll keep you posted!!
In the meantime, does anyone have any funny/interesting/depressing stories from working corporate retail? Share them in the comments!
High Entertainment with a Low Budget, Not Just a Technique for the Film Industry
Last weekend I had the great pleasure of attending a reading of Mariana Carreño King’s play OFELIA’S LOVERS. Not only was the reading free but they also provided the audience with wine, and since I’m not exactly rolling in cash these days and still enjoy the dubious benefits of alcohol, this was most agreeable. There really is nothing quite like live theater, and I certainly don’t require a large production budget to be entertained. Ofelia’s Lovers may not have had the money to construct a detailed set and elaborate costumes but what it did have was a captivating script and actors that captured and performed the characters beautifully.
I may be new to the working world and to my post as managing director of ICBINS but I’m no stranger to theater. Sure - I somewhat enjoy fancy theatrics like actors disappearing in a cloud of smoke or swinging across the stage, but when it really comes down to it and what I will take away with me and ponder for weeks to come is the dialogue. Some of my all time favorite performances had a minimal set with one setting and actors that sat around (they didn’t fly) and just talked. That’s right, they talked – for two hours, and I could have sat through 10 more. Not to say every dialogue heavy performance I’ve seen was spectacular but with the right story and the right cast everything else is just eye candy.
This is good news for a broke ass company like ICBINS.
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