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Big Night Out
Seattle
Seattle Channel 2 Jul 2008
Seattle's TV variety show filmed in front a live studio audience at the Columbia City Theater. This month features Jason Webley, Macha Monkey, Steffon Moody, the Valone Sisters, KT Niehoff and more. Hosted by the irrepressible Kevin Joyce.
Helsinki Syndrome
New York
Ontological-Hysteric Theater 18-22 Jun 2008
Set in the arctic landscape, TRUE NORTH is a non-linear performance that explores obsession and isolation, including: the sounds that things make when you break them, Cole Porter songs, the constellations, recycled stuffed animal skins, hundreds of paper snowflakes, blood, glitter, and polar bears. Day and Night, Night and Day, You are the One. Part of Ontological-Hysteric's Incubator series.
POST FACTUM 25JU08:
                                                                                                   
POST FACTUM 27JU08: culturebot
VAUD RATS
Charleston, SC
Piccolo Spoleto 27 may - 1 jun 2008
Performing in Lance Hall as part of the Theatre Series (duh), hosted by the gracious folks at PURE THEATRE
MID FACTUM 22MY08: The bad news: Sunday's press preview is most likely going to be cancelled due to space issues. The good news: Our first press write-ups are in. A lovely advance article in the Charleston City Paper (3 stars is as high as it goes!), and a recommendation in the Post & Courier. (See if you can find the glitch.) I don't know yet news: the show will be performed in arena seating. Freaks me out, but who knows, I may never go back to proscenium again.
MID FACTUM 24MY08: Bronte and I arrived in Charleston late last night. After grabbing a Checkered burger on the go, we got lost on our way to our producers' house on James Island. Rodney and Sharon of PURE THEATRE are giving us their abode for the week and we plan on trashing it. I've learned that's how to make a good impression. And by good impression, I mean, a rock-n-roll impression. Today started off mellow. The cold I've been fighting for a couple weeks hit me full square in the chest day before yesterday and I'm coughing up science experiments. After coffee and a pastry, we thrift-stored two costume coats to replace the one's I forgot to bring. Then we drove into the center of the quaint and amazing town of Charleston, met Rodney, and toured the space -- a modest hall behind the Circular Congregational Church right in the center of town. The building reminded Bronte and I of the Bedlam Theater where we performed in Edinburgh. The performance space is is long, thin, and surrounded by windows, which may not get covered. But I think the seating rising off each side of the stage is going to work. I anticipate some scenes are going to be more amazing than ever, and some are going to be a challenge (feet puppets!). Then we headed to lunch, then off to poster the heck outa town, then to rest, then to our first show of the festival: Eurydice. Performed in a naval warehouse, audience facing two open garage doors, events surrounding the audience, it still managed to be intimate and affecting. Great first show of the tour. Giddy up.
MID FACTUM 25MY08: Charleston is like Bangkok in exactly two ways: property boundaries are flexible and the people are very friendly. Friendly in that they treat boundaries with flexibility, wandering through yards and into buildings as though they are public property. There are so many historic buildings and churches and quaint (there's that word again) alleys and graveyards--so many graveyards--that people must feel that every door may hide a magnificent educational and/or scenic opportunity. It's really neat. On another note: there's a sign on the vent hood at the Waffle house that reads: "After the last customer, put out the flame, and get into the game." The signs at Kinkos weren't as clever, but we had chores there. And a handful of cheerful spectators appeared for the "preview performance" which was cancelled through official channels; luckily the word on the street is stronger than the email. I was questionably prepared in costume and played a handful of songs from the show and a couple from without. Then we chatted for a bit. I promised to buy each and every one of them a drink later in the week. Then, Bronte and I re-staged the show and rehearsed until famished, then wandered the streets in search of Justine's restaurant. Oh, we found it. By this time it was too late to see anything that was on our A-list. We were going to see some improv, but we saw a young woman get hit by a car and then exhaustion brainwashed us to the cineplex where we saw the newest installment of the numbing Indiana Jones. I do love visiting movie theaters on tour. No regrets.
MID FACTUM 26MY08: Had to cancel plans to see the "monkey" show because I'm weak, feverish, congested. Must take it easy for first big show tomorrow.
MID FACTUM 27MY08: The theater was built in the afternoon, with a slight alley, sort of v-shaped. I think some of the show is brilliant in this setting, but it's weird not having a vaudeville proscenium. We've stolen this pretty cool effect from Rodney Rogers who'se doing a show called The Tragedian, about Edwin Booth, one of the greatest American actors of all time, and incidentally the brother of John Wilkes. Anyway, the effect is using this three-mirror vanity for the gypsy song, Madame Flora. That way the audience views me through the mirror. Wild. On a lesser note, I feel incredibly ill. At 3:00 today, I spaced two of the physical scenes and literally collapsed on the front row, laying in the seats for an hour before recovering. We almost cancelled the show. Bronte, bless her, was a trouper. And Jennifer had the patience of a saint, calming me over the phone, whilst layovered in Atlanta on her way here. We decided to give it until 6:30 to make the call. In the end, I chose the show must go on option. My voice was bizarre--able to reach some mighty low lows, like in La Ci. But it was touch and go for a bit, I tell ya. Dizziness came over me in Vulcano, so I stopped singing for a bit before resuming. In the end I think I pulled it off. There were two reviewers in the house. One, Elizabeth Pandolfi who did the preview article in the City Paper, came up after and said she loved the show. Then Bronte and I drove to the airport to pick up Jennifer and Rowan at the airport. And then to Tbonz for chow and more hacking.
MID FACTUM 28MY08: And more hacking, more sickly day. But the reviews are in from last night! City Paper: "Vaud Rats, Neel's one-man ukelele operetta which he wrote and stars in, is dynamic, engrossing, funny, heartbreaking, poignant, unique -- all those things that make a night at the theater the thrillingly consuming experience that only a couple shows in a hundred can create." Post and Courier: "...This ambitious one-man-show deserved a full house. ...Neel channeled Robert Downey Jr. playing Charlie Chaplin. He had all the comedic moves, pantomine, facial expressions, and voices... This handsome young entertainer literally sweated up a storm to entertain us." Oh, and my favorite from the same review: "...comfortable seats..."
MID FACTUM 28MY08: I still felt like gick going into the second show, and my voice feels worse from continuous coughing and wheezing. Poor, poor me. Again, the show went on. Again, it went well. Though for some reason, Vulcano seems to be the screw up. I actually went into audience participation mode to get through it. What could have been devastating became a highlight. And... I just found a very complimentary write-up that was just writ on the City Paper blog (by the arts editor of the paper!): "I've never been touched by the sight of a grown man singing to his foot, but indeed I got all vaklempt during Vaud Rats tonight..."
MID FACTUM 29MY08: Jennifer and I saw Taylor Mac perform. He's this audacious New York based performer whose show is a combination stand-up comedy, political ukulele, dramatic scenes, spoken word and audience interaction, all taking place while wearing dizzyingly gaudy woman's clothes and colorful sequins pasted over his face. The content speaks of his experiences being viewed by "normal" folk around the world in said outfits. It was touching at times, very fun, and a bit dated. The Charleston crowd, I think, was more stretched viewing the exposed/frank gay content than Jennifer and I, mostly because we have friends who are like this on a daily basis. Still, he had some great humor and poignant moments. (Can I make it sound any more dry? It actually wasn't.) During the day we visited Boone Plantation. I chose it because the slave quarters were well-excavated and there was a presentation in Gullah. Very interesting.
MID FACTUM 30MY08: Audiences have been modest but responsive. But tonight's was absolutely tough, like Shreveport. There was this one couple, stone-faced through the entire thing, then at the end told Jennifer they loved the show. "Laughed the whole time," they said. Goes to show, you can never read em. I would have liked the laughs to be external though. The highlight of the day was floating in the ocean water all afternoon. Bronte has caught my cold, so chose to mellow in the house. The rest of us let the warm waves badger us about like pale giddy schoolgirls. Rowan is such a water baby. And I missed Bronte shouting "Rrrrr" out the car window at all the pirate tour groups.
MID FACTUM 01MY08: The City Paper review is finally up: "A Piccolo Must See! A+."
POST FACTUM 02MY08: We're packing for the flight home right now. I'm gonna miss this huge house. Yesterday we met Rodney and Sharon for brunch at the Fat Hen off Maybank Highway on one of the many islands around here. All the food here has been deliciously Southern. Greasy mounds of gullet-filling satisfaction. My delicate Pacific Northwest digestive system is the only part of me looking forward to returning home. My taste buds have turned Republican. Conversation with PURE folk is so wonderful--we're simpatico in our theatrical tastes and have gleaned much off each other's experiences living and producing our art. Also at brunch we met Marshall, David's kid. David is the associate artistic director of PURE. Marshall is the coolest kid ever. He knows about all the old Vaudeville greats, mostly from the Muppet Show. It was clear his dynamism when the waitresses surrounded him like he was a star. Then, Bronte and I tried again to get into the Monkey show, but due to Spoleto box office miss-management our hopes were shattered. Well, not shattered, because frankly the hugely ballooned hype was souring our excitement. Oh, and Last night's VAUD show was the best ever! Audience clapping and cheering, savoring. Great end to the run. Then J-Girl and I daiquiried our brains in celebration at the first place Andrew and Lyssa of theater simple took me my first day in Charleston in 2001. Awe, memories of 190 proof booze! Y'all. Ciao Charleston.
The True Story of The Three Little Pigs & The Stinky Cheese Man
Pacific NW
Book It Theatre Jan-May 2008
John Scieszka's classics in schools, libraries, and theaters all over the region. Directed by Andy Jensen. You can't catch me...
MID FACTUM 4DE07: Best directoral note I've ever been given, while reading the character of the Stinky Cheeze Man: Make it more Herbie Hancock, less Thelonious Monk. MID FACTUM 10JA08:The preview public show has been confirmed: 26 January 2008, 11:00 am at the Ballard Library, 5614 - 22nd Ave. N.W. Run, Run, Run...
MID FACTUM 27JA08: Ballard Library Show: At 10:45 am Don, Samara and I set up the backdrop between the large print and the unregistered free-exchange stacks. We put out the props and pondered Samara's mirky bottled water while two families with younger-than-recommended-age children settled into the front row. Over the next forty five minutes many chairs were added to accommodate the arriving hordes, reaching all the way back to the cd and video isles. The show started with the boom of our syncopated voices: "Introduction!" and we were off... ...then, forty minutes later we were done. They had laughed a lot, and only a few had cried. See, there are two sections in the epic show when characters die: the stinky cheese man falls apart in the water, and the wolf eats two pigs. Hey, we didn't make this stuff up. But we did stage the moments in an hysterically gruesome way. But the kids ate it up -- the whole meal. Even those in the younger-than-recommended age group. Reports are two young children cried due to natural causes and were escorted away by responsible parties; and the boy Don accidentally smacked with the river was okay too. And he didn't cry. Can't wait to perform in a bigger space.
MID FACTUM 21MA08: In fifteen minutes I'll be on my way to the Ronald McDonald House to perform a Friday supper-time performance in the cafeteria. We've done about half the shows so far booked, though I'm told more will surely be added. The experience has ranged the gambit -- from performing in dilapidated venues to well-designed, audacious venues in affluent neighborhoods (I swear we did a show at Hogwarts in Tacoma!); workshops with clever, inspiring children, and workshops with frustratingly difficult little $#^%*. Though sometimes the desire to run away is palpable (ah, to lounge in front of the tele chillin' with BSG season three). By the time I appear in front of the crowd as the first dumb pig pummeled and skewered by straw-house fragments, it never fails to be joyous. The only disappointment is loosing our staggeringly talented compatriot, Don Darryl Rivera, who leaves us today for other creative pastures. Cheers and Ciao.
POST FACTUM 11JU08: Cancelled my part in my scheduled last show today due to pneumonia. (See: Charleston tour.) All in all I performed 73 shows out of 110 total booked. This is remarkable, right? I mean, they anticipated scheduling 40, and their average outreach show books 30. So 110 is impressive. The highlights of the tour were performing in Astoria, Oregon (where Goonies was filmed) at the magnificent LIberty Theater, which was once part of vaudeville of course. Our three shows there had audiences upwards of 600 and we rocked em.
Also, the Omak Arts Council Eastern WA tour was fun. Well, the tour itself was rocky, beginning with a Zip Car debacle at five in the morning, to debilitated performance facilities, aka: crappy gyms, to long three-show days. But the resort they put us up in made up for it all -- gorgeous rooms, hot tubs on the top of the mountain, stellar taxidermy. We learned that French Brandy isn't the liquor you want to drink in quantity, no matter how clear the stars are and how warm the jacuzzi waters flow. Through the course of the six months, I have photo-snippets of memories: the autistic boy disappointed that we'd messed up a few lines of the book, telling us we should actually read the books before we performed again. The garlic burgers in Maple Valley. The first time the kids booed me for railroading the other two actors during Little Red Running Shorts, and not being able to calm them down. The On a personal, teary-eyed note, it's been an honor performing with Samara Lehrman, Trick Danneker, Don Darryl Rivera and Kate Jaeger. Trick's homosexual cow. Kate's rock'n'roll second pig. Samara's sneezing wolf. Don's little dinosaur-dancing wolf. All of you are performers par excellence. You're family now, so get me a beer from the fridge and fix me turkey pot pie!
SPF:2 - Sweatproof!
Seattle, WA
Theatre Off Jackson 29 Feb, 7 Mar 2008
Solo Performance Festival, year two! Part of the Unicycle Collective of solo performers Friday nights of shorts called MonoLodge 4. Confused? Attendance will remedy that. I got ten minutes of Russian cold war moon landing alongside Keith Hitchcock's hip hop 80's rock tribute, Jennifer Jasper's horse girl, Troy Mink's Kentuckian uncle, Becky Poole's six year old subconscious romp, Mary Purdy's whimsical Twilight Zone-esque seaweed search, Mark Siano's stealing, and more. Still confused? Good. I urge attendance for clarity and/or otherwise.
MID FACTUM 1MAR08: This is how I interpret appreciation of my work: after a show, if a person looks in my eyes, they probably liked it; if they avoid looking at me, they probably didn't like it. Weigh the statistics of responses. Find the median of appreciation. Seems an accurate system. Simple. Scientific. Over the years I've discovered a recurring theme in the appreciation of my solo work: audiences, a.k.a. "real" people, love it, industry people don't so much. I'm okay with this. (I mean, if everyone bowed at my feet in praise... well, frankly I'd most likely still be complaining about something.) Now, in a situation like last night, I can't rely on these statistics. Think about it: a backstage full of solo performers. Too many factors to rely on eye contact as litmus, my insecurity not in the least. Een so, post-show in the lobby found wondrous responses to the content of my short piece. It's more politically pertinent than had occurred to me. How does one resolve oneself to blind patriotism? Russia during the cold war vs. the U.S. today? Next week in class be prepared to discuss these issues. As for the whole SPF:2 Unicycle MonoLodge shorts night: it's a dynamic, entertaining evening. All the work is consistently well done and made stronger in gestalt of the well-constructed running order. Troy's delusional character piece is worth the price of admission. Brilliant.
Ukelooza! 7
Seattle, WA
Re-bar 29 Jan 2008
Oh my gosh, it's back! That shining ray of tropicalia to brighten these dark Winter days. Kate Jaeger (giggle) is emceeing. Performances by the likes of the astonishing Cody Rivers Show and yours truly (another gipsy song... no way). Auction items galore.
POST FACTUM 31JA08: Best lineup yet! Becky Poole's saw-bow rendition of Rainbow Connection was erie and yet somehow made that sweet song even sweeter. Linda Severt proved her ukulele prowess in an awesome instrumental display of finger-picking, and then yanked the rug from under us with a jolly original kid's tune. Cody Rivers altered reality with humor that actually cracked a fissure in the space-time continuum that is at this moment still hovering above the Re-bar stage. And Carmaig de Forest is my new hero. He uses his super punk ukulele powers for chaotic neutral. Welcome to Seattle, Carmaig. And what can be said of good friend Scot Augustson's work that hasn't already. See the film we saw, Lethal Cotillion, which won the national 48 Hour Film Festival shootout, and is about to play the Cannes Film Festival. The small yet robust crowd had obviously learned this is the event to get massive deals: the auction blew the roof off. If you didn't make it this year, as a fan, player and board member, I highly recommend you don't make the same mistake next time around. Oh yeah, Meghan and I shook em up with with a uke adaptation of a Joan Jett song, and my new solo creation Humpty Dumpty was well received. Thanks for asking
14/48 Festival
Seattle, WA
Capitol Hill Arts Center Jan 4-5, 2008
The world's quickest theater festival -- 14 plays conceived, written, designed, scored, rehearsed and performed in 48 hours! This will be my second time playwrighting -- teaming up with my old writing buddy, Paul Shipp. Scroll down if you'd like to hear about my previous experience in July 07 and read the two plays that arose from my deliriously pressurized brain. Wonder how the cookie will crumble this time... POST FACTUM 7JA08:Paul and I have written together on several projects in the past, so we have the give-and-take thing down. Our process this weekend went expectedly swell. In general, some things were easier and some harder by collaborating: The grasp for an initial concept was more harried, but less freaked out, if that makes sense. (Fridays show concept was essentially my idea, while Saturday's was mostly Paul's.) The writing itself took longer with two people because of the back and forth, and the tight overnight time-frame is harried enough without this stress. On the good side, the checks-and-balances of being able to weigh ideas off another person is a great advantage. We had no re-writes either morning. As for the performances... Alan Bryce directed Friday night's piece titled Look of Love, based on the theme Ancient Knowledge. He chose to make it a full fledged musical, which was a bit harried in the first performance, but more sold in the second. We scored with a solid cast: Morgan Rowe as the love-torture victim, Erin Kraft as the love-torturer, and James Weidman as the love-patsy/redeemer. Second night's theme was Reason to Believe, so we went with nuns at a pancake breakfast of course: Only to Penny. I felt a tad guilty that we supplied our randomly picked director and old friend, Kibby MacKinnon, with a piece very similar to a play of ours we'd written a couple years back that she'd also directed, The Devil's Mile. She did a marvelous job. I got chills hearing the band sing the opening hymnal (composed earlier that afternoon), and a warm, syrupy feeling dripped over my heart seeing the piping-hot pancakes (complete with chocolate chip crosses) delivered to the audience. Kate Jaeger sold the innocent, blessed nun with bittersweet solemnity; Juniper Berolzheimer, who's becoming one of my favorite local actors, barreled out Mother Superior with comedic timing you-know-who would be proud of; and Audrey Bates and Cory Herndon were brash and divine. Oh, and over 200 pancakes were grilled at the cast party. Very special. (Yes, I know I used the word "harried" a bunch.)
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