ACTIVE EYE

More Chikamatsu

2007-02-13T17:55:00.000-05:00

After a long while, we're getting back to work with our old friend Chikamatsu. Lucas and Jyana have been developing a new script with lots of exciting and strange ideas, which we'll be exploring in a workshop starting on Thursday. It will involve magic and communing with the dead. We'll tell you more as it happens. I mean it.

Edinburgh Lessons

2006-08-04T08:20:00.000-04:00

I'm currently in Edinburgh with another company that I'm a part of, Split Knuckle Theatre (and also blogging here), and it's already a pretty fascinating lesson in how to market your show. That's an area that frankly, Active Eye could do better in. But there are lots of things we could do that I'm seeing in effect here in Edinburgh. Admittedly festival-time is a very different thing than your average February in NYC, but why can't we be parading around in costume in highly-trafficked places, or handing out flyers to the people in lines at TKTS or at other theaters? We'll have to lots to talk about in terms of promotion for the future, and hopefully we can try out some of this stuff for us in New York.

Fancy Web Updates

2006-08-03T12:05:00.000-04:00

Check out our website for new updates made by our resident web guru Rika Iino, including a photo from our February 2006 production of Hard Lovin' Ever After. Link at right.

Fear of what lies within

2006-07-20T13:33:00.000-04:00

For the last 2 weeks we've been workshopping our newest project based on FEAR. You may remember posts from back in March. We're creating this one from scratch instead of doing an adaptation and that's a whole new experience for us. Hence the secrecy!

We have to work on the piece but also discover how to work on the piece. That's been the most challenging thing. What is going to spark the idea, movement, story? Images? Dreams? Situations? We learned that we're far too consensus oriented and had to force ourselves to bite the bullet and go out on limbs. So it's exciting and new and frustrating and hard work.

In the end we found some inspiration in Anne Sexton:
Inside many of us
is a small old man
who wants to get out.
No bigger than a two-year-old
whom you'd call lamb chop
yet this one is old and malformed.
His head is okay
but the rest of him wasn't Sanforized.
He is a monster of despair.
He is all decay.
He speaks up as tiny as an earphone
with Truman's asexual voice:
I am your dwarf.
I am the enemy within.
I am the boss of your dreams.
No. I am not the law in your mind,
the grandfather of watchfulness.
I am the law of our members,
the kindred of blackness and impulse.
See. Your hand shakes.
It is not palsy or booze. I
t is your Doppelganger trying to get out.
Beware....Beware....

So many of our fears are held within ourselves. Who knew they were bundled up in an ugly little old man with Truman's voice? I supposed we'd better watch out.

Revving up Iphigenia

2006-07-18T11:07:00.000-04:00

Emily has a new draft and this one is streamlined and active and rhythmic. We've also chosen our new designer - Zane (www.zanepihlstrom.com) and I think he's going to be great. He's collaborative and fun and has a great sense of play. I hope he's ready for what he's getting into! The budget is small and the cast is going to be HUGE - male chorus and female chorus - and the timeline is tight. So we'll need all hands on deck. But I think the students are going to be a good bunch. Em and I went up to see Dreamgirls at CCNY a few weekends ago and it was really pretty fantastic. Some excellent voices, some good movers, some powerful presences. We walked out dreaming of our cast. Exciting!

Next up we do an informal reading to hear it one more time then design design and music music!

Well, it hasn't been a whole month.

2006-05-04T15:56:00.000-04:00

Lest you think that we at Active Eye had fallen off the face of the earth, I should say that it was merely I, your (semi)dedicated (not lately) blogger, who had been neglecting to post the news, of which there was in fact plenty.

So look for a couple new posts to make up for lost time, and thanks for sticking around, assuming you've stuck around.

Sah!

2006-04-06T15:05:00.000-04:00

Another quote from the koan commentary cited below (we have a clearer translation, but this one's more fun):

Master Ch'ang-sha and Master Yang-shan were good friends. One evening in autumn they were admiring the moon together. Suddenly Master Yang-shan pointed to the sky and said, as if to himself, "This clear bright moon! Though everyone has it, there is scarcely anyone who can freely use it." "Yes, there are some who can use it," said Master Ch'ang-sha, "I can show it to you, if you wish." "That is interesting. I should like to see it," Yang-shan answered. Even as Yang-shan spoke, Ch'ang-sha sprang upon him like lightning and knocked him down. Rising to his feet, Yang-shan commented with admiration, "You are really a tiger!" Hence Master Ch'ang-sha was given the nickname, "Ts'en the Tiger."

No wonder they were such good friends.

Step Forward From the Top of a Pole

2006-04-05T16:42:00.000-04:00

Another good preparatory meeting on our Fear project. Jyana brought in the the text of a Zen koan that we've been talking about. Here it is, followed by commentary*:

Koan

Master Shih-shuang said, "From the top of a pole one hundred feet high, how do you step forward?" An ancient Master also said that one sitting at the top of a pole one hundred feet high, even if he has attained "it," has not yet been truly enlightened. He must step forward from the top of the pole one hundred feet high and manifest his whole body in the ten directions.

Wu-men's Commentary

If you can step forward and turn back, is there anything you dislike as unworthy? But even so, tell me, from the top of a pole one hundred feet high, how do you step forward? Sah!

To those of you who can manifest in ten directions, this is perhaps not too interesting. But I refer you to that "Sah!" which I think we can all appreciate.

Once you've reached a certain level of achievement and preparedness, how do you make the leap back into life--back in to the hustle and scrum of the everyday, with the necessary humility and compassion? Enlightenment is not just in reaching the state of awareness, but in returning back to the world and life--to teach, to live, not to persist in remaining separate from it. That's my rough approximation of the interpretations we've read about the koan.

For us, we're dealing with this image in the context of fear--the fear one must overcome to take that leap. Once you have prepared yourself for what you want to do, what stops you from making the step into it? How do we, individually, respond to the challenge to step forward from a pole one hundred feet high? Do we even climb the pole in the first place? Once there, are we comfortable enough not to risk leaving? Do we scheme to find other less dangerous and less frightening ways to get off the pole? How do we feel about other people and their poles? (To those with dirty minds--Earl, this means you--I say: Sah!)

*This is adapted from case 46 of Zen Comments on the Mumonkan by Zenkei Shibayama

Trying to scare each other

2006-03-24T11:46:00.000-05:00

We had our first rehearsal on Monday for the new project we're developing (code name: fear!) for the fall. This is the small, portable show to involve me and Kristine and a musician (directed of course by Jyana & composed by Rika) hopefully something that we can run for a while and do economically and without much lead-in or fuss. We're devising this show, unlike the work we've done in the past, which has always involved adapting a pre-existing script or story. We're starting with a big concept--fear!--and then honing in from there. We've begun by collecting basic research on what interests us in the subject. The plan is to work for a few weeks now generating ideas/material, and then either bring in a writer or start developing text and narrative ourselves in a more intensive process this summer.

On Monday, we played around with some of the physical symptoms of fear, using a list of them we'd found as a kind of butoh-fu, Kristine and I embodying the images we heard as Jyana read the list. Addressing scale and dosage, we tried being dizzy and being dizziness on a scale from no dizziness at all to as much dizziness as possible. We played around a little with using an object as the fear-inducer, if you will--there was a styrofoam cylinder that we found in the space, which we used to chase each other around. It became the embodiment of scary things. It became clear, though, how much of fear depends on its being unknown. How much is in the anticipation of the bad thing, and how in the event, the bad thing can almost be a relief in that it ends the fear.

The challenge that awaits us (well, one among many) as we develop the piece is to make it personal. To explore our own fears and figure out how to create something dramatic out of them, something that speaks to who we are as people and who we are as a company.

Radio Plays

2006-03-15T11:35:00.000-05:00

We had a great meeting last night with Leigh Crizoe over at Tribeca Radio. It's a new and growing community site, and Leigh's looking to include more arts programming, including snazzy new radio theater.

So we're looking for submissions. If you have any radio plays, or plays that you would be interested in adapting for radio, get in touch with us through our website--. Here are the basic criteria:

It should run about 20-23 minutes
Scenes preferably don't include more than 4 people at once
It should break to allow for 2 station IDs at 7 & 14 minutes, roughly

If you're new to us or to our work, take a look at our website to get a sense of who we are and what we do. In all our work we try to incorporate music, movement and text. While the movement won't be quite such a big factor in radio, we are definitely looking to explore sound and music possibilities.

This is an experiment for us--a way to explore a new genre and to meet new and exciting collaborators. We're looking to record our first sometime in the next month or two. So get in touch, we'd love to hear from you.

Thanks!

Spanish stories

2006-03-08T16:58:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow evening we'll be meeting to plan the next AE project. Jyana has dropped exciting hints about a brilliant Spanish novel she's been reading that she wants to adapt. We'll also be talking about site-specific options and musical sculpture. Details to come...

Theatrical Community

2006-03-06T12:41:00.000-05:00

Out of the blue, we were faced with a thrilling and daunting opportunity: the chance to participate in the purchase of a building. The building was to include performance and office space, as well as a scene shop, and the plan involved a lot of architectural redesign. The money required was terrifying, and frankly, well beyond our fundraising means. It was the kind of choice that we'd love to consider in 5 to 10 years. At the moment, it wasn't really a viable option. That isn't to say that if we had decided this was the right choice, we wouldn't have thrown ourselves completely into the task of finding the cash somewhere. But as we discussed it, we soon realized that this particular opportunity wasn't right. In terms of our work and our needs, what would best benefit the company would be office and rehearsal space, more than a dedicated performance space. Better to have a site where we can get together and make work that we then take to our audience (or prospective audience) than to take on the burden of creating a new performance destination as well as the challenge of getting people to come to it. Resource-wise, that's not ideal for us.

What was great, though, was the other part of this opportunity--the chance to work together with other groups to create a theatrical community. There are so many emerging companies competing for attention, and if you're a theatergoer, or a potential donor, the question is always which things are worth your time. An opportunity to join forces with other companies in a similar situation is appealing to us because it allows us to consolidate resources and present ourselves as a package deal: you like us, check these guys out; you like them, look what we can do. That's the practical consideration. What's even more important is that we have faith in and respect for the work these other groups do. Their missions inspire us, their interests overlap with ours, they're good people, and good artists, and good professionals.

I'm being vague because this group doesn't currently exist, and we don't yet know what form it would take if it did. But the chance to create it and the potential it has is hugely exciting.

More Life and Death to Come

2006-03-02T14:51:00.000-05:00

Jyana's post below about the issues of life and death that we were exploring is also relevant to what we're starting work on next: Iphigenia in Aulis. It's a story that we've been planning to do for some time now, with a new text by Emily Raboteau. There you have the story of a father deciding to sacrifice his daughter to start a war. It's an individual life, to be sure, but it's intimately connected to the lives of thousands of others. The play is all about the value that we place on life. In the sense of the heightened value one person's life can have, it resonates with the awful 'ticking bomb' scenario that's talked about all the time with respect to terrorism. In that case the polarities are reversed--hurting a person to prevent a war, ostensibly--but both example force us to consider the balance between one person and many. And they raise the question of whether there is a limit to what we will subject a human in service of a greater good (whether the greater good is good at all is open to question, of course). To what degree, that is, will we allow a person to cease being a person and become a tool for our use?

What's so great about a Cowboy Monk suicide?

2006-03-01T09:20:00.000-05:00

When we first started working on this piece we faced a very obvious cultural divide: we here in the West often find it just incomprehensible that suicide could be the desired and celebrated outcome. We often joked about how inappropriate our play would seem from you traditional American perspective. One of the biggest challenges was how do we find a bridge so that our audience will get on board with this journey towards suicide. Hence cowboys. We're used to their all-or-nothin' lifestyle.
In thinking of where this piece is going to go next, I feel like this changing of cultural perspective is where we can really dig in deeper. We were so worried in the last draft of creating that bridge so people can get on board with the story. What would happen if we formed a bridge so the audience could really get in touch with that perspective?
Here in the US we have such difficulty coping with death and dying. We simultaneoulsy place enormous weight on each individual life and ignore death when it actually occurs. We are at a complete loss when it comes to facing death, both individually and collectively. If we create a performance piece where for a moment we enter into an alternative way of viewing individual life and death, do we open up that discussion and start to build a means to deal with death in our own lives?

What's Next???

2006-02-27T16:20:00.000-05:00

We are still riding on all the postive feedback and just beginning to explore what's next for our Cowboy Monk. Please do send us comments on the show so we can make it better for round 2!

We're also starting to think of life beyond the Cowboy Monk. We're a small enough company that it's all about taking advantage of opportunities - there are whispers of radio plays and a gift of a bunch of lights (so maybe our future is in non-traditional spaces?). I'm also starting to day dream of a new piece. Maybe something small and tight and thrilling. Jump into our culture's new obsession with fear. So many possibilities!

Thanks, George

2006-02-23T10:23:00.000-05:00

Welcome to any Superfluities fans who followed a link here, and thanks to Mr. Hunka for including us in the blogroll--plenty of motivation to have more (and more interesting) posts here in the future.

Please read on below for more information about our recently closed production of Hard Lovin' Ever After, and you can check out our website for the in-depth scoop on who we are and what we do.

But it's only the beginning...

2006-02-22T16:52:00.000-05:00

Had a great meeting last night--Jyana, Rika, Kristine and I--about how to keep the momentum we've got going after the show. Hard Lovin' went over very well, and now we want to keep in touch with the people who can help us grow and figure out what's next for us artistically.

Big plans at the moment include: Iphigenia workshops (chorus in April, principals in June); possible radio work; a small, i.e. 2-3 person, portable show that we can run and run and run; a 3-part series of plays on the relationship of the living to the dead; etc. It can be tricky when you close a show not to let yourself relax too much. In this case, having such a short run has meant that we're all full of energy for the future.

A Fantastic Weekend

2006-02-21T14:57:00.000-05:00

It all went by so quickly! Just like that, the show's over and struck. After the performance Sunday night, thanks to a large and energetic group of volunteer laborers, we managed to take down the show in about 45 minutes, which was easily the quickest strike I've ever been a part of.

It was a pretty busy weekend for all of us, so posts were (obviously) not happening, but we'll be remedying that over the next several days with show histories and news. For me personally, things went well and smoothly, but with plenty of little problems to set the pulse racing. The coffin figured prominently in my list of minor terrors. It was a plywood box a few feet wide and a couple deep, and I spent most of the second act inside it, alone or with Kristine or Kevin sandwiched in there with me. On Sunday, after the underwear modeling scene (now you're sorry you missed it), I was putting my clothes back on in a hurry. I only had a couple minutes or so before the coffin door would open, which was generally just enough time--you try getting dressed any faster in a coffin--if things went well. This time, I managed to catch the zipper on my fly in my pants. With it being so dark in there, with so little room to move, I couldn't see what it was stuck on (not me, fortunately--that I would have known), so I just decided to give it a tug. Of course that didn't help. Neither did pulling the zipper back down; in fact, that made it worse. The more I tugged and pulled, the lower and more stuck it got. With time running out, I threw on my vest and tried manfully to arrange my chaps to cover my crotch. When I finally came out of the coffin, I spent the rest of the show--i.e. the whole third act--wondering if people were staring at my groins. As inconspicuously as I could, I studied the faces in the audience for looks of shock or delight, but it was a pretty mixed bunch of mugs. In the end, I tried to hunch over a bit and hope for the best. When we came off stage, the first thing I did was look down, only to find that there was a flap covering the zipper. You couldn't see anything. Of course that meant I'd looked like a hunchback for half an hour for no reason, but those, my friends, are the sacrifices we make for our art.

More to come from the show, including Betsy's production notes.

Boffo opening for Hard Lovin'

2006-02-16T16:12:00.000-05:00

Fantastic opening night! There was a sizeable and very enthusiastic crowd, full of friends and collaborators (past and future), plus some VIPs that it was important that we impress. Fortunately, things went pretty smoothly; amazingly so, given that we had two nights of tech and this was our first go in front of any outside audience.

There were a couple of minor hiccups. In my case, I forgot to undo a crucial zipper before the final scene, which meant I had to surreptitiously inch it open with my good hand during a clinch with Kristine. She asked me after the show, "What were you doing with your guts?" A trenchant question. There was also a minor metronome malfunction. But nothing really memorably problematic.

And doing it for an audience for the first time was great, as it always is. Inevitably an audience discovers things that you didn't know were there. We got a lot of unexpected laughs, but none, at least that I heard, where we didn't want them. That's the bad kind of surprise, when your deeply touching moment gets guffaws. But people seemed to really enjoy it, which is fantastic and gratifying.

Sorry you missed the first show? Don't even worry about it. There are 5 more. But they're filling up fast--Friday's show already has a waiting list--so call now to reserve your spots. Information here.

And tonight, we open!

2006-02-15T10:48:00.000-05:00

After two nights of hard work in the theater--re-spacing & re-blocking where necessary, incorporating a major set-piece (come see), negotiating leg-whacking floor fans, fully integrating the musical elements--and countless hours of effort by the design team, we're ready to open the show! Hard to believe, really, how fast it all happens when you get down to it.

And speaking of fast, tickets are flying out the door, especially for Friday night's show, which is almost completely reserved. If you haven't done so yet, get your tickets now while they're still around. Tonight's our pay-what-you-can preview, so if you want to be among the first to see us, or if $10 would put too much of a hurtin on your wallet, get yourself down to Access Theater, 380 Broadway, by 7 pm this evening. Full details at the ACTIVE EYE website.

Break a leg, one and all!

Storm can't stop Hard Lovin

2006-02-13T10:47:00.000-05:00

This dispatch from Director Jyana Gregory (the Shaun referred to is Shaun Fillion, our space/lighting designer):

The storm posed many problems (Home Depot's call to Shaun that it would deliver the lumber Mon. night) but people were very resourceful (Shaun went on Craig's list and rented a pick up truck) and miraculously everything got done. Dressing room up and ready. Piano and fans placed. Seating installed. Looks like a performance space now. So the trekking through the snow to launder the costumes was all worth it. I am very pleased.

We hit the (virtual) airwaves

2006-02-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

Since we've been doing all our rehearsing and will be doing our performing in their neck of the woods, Tribeca Radio is going to play a spot about our show! I'm going there today to record something, so I'll post more info afterwards. In the meantime, check out the station.

UPDATE: We're up and running! No exact times available, but keep one ear glued to your media player and before too long you'll hear the dulcet tones of my voice, shilling for the show.

Notes from the playwright #2

2006-02-08T16:17:00.000-05:00

More from Lucas Hnath:

So if we were to experiment with language
let’s do so minimally

Broken english? Been there done that.
It’s a possibility but let’s leave it.

What words do you really need?
Yes
No
Come here ... that’s a useful one although you could just as easily pull them.
I like that. No respect for how you’re supposed to act with people. You want it? Just pull it over to you. No language. We don’t need this phrase...
Unless the person wasn’t responding. To show non-responsiveness “come here come here”
is interesting.

Okay.
‘Okay’ and ‘okay then’ and ‘okay?’ and ‘yeah okay’ and ‘okay yeah no okay.’ Okay tells you how the mental computer is operating.
A character is registering a thought with okay. They’re giving it a file label.
Sometimes they’re saying okay to make someone else believe they’ve filed that thought when they have absolutely no intention of saving the thought for more than 30 seconds.

Kume/Cowboy says “Okay then.” That’s his thing. “Okay then.” That’s a cowboy thing to say. It also implies action. Okay (the thought has been registered) then (then I will take action on it).

Uhhhhhh
Tells us that the mental computer is working.
A pause plus half tells us the same. A look down to the ground with a pause tells us the same.

Rehearsal Space

2006-02-07T15:14:00.000-05:00

Tonight we're rehearsing in one of the Theater Row spaces; it's one of four that we've used so far. Our spaces have been good. Kristine's done a great job finding and booking all of them (and dealing with all the logistical stuff that requires). We've used a Tribeca space much more than any other, which has been helpful. It makes things easier to have a consistent place to work. Everyone knows where to go, you learn the quirks of a space and how to use/deal with them (in the case of inexpensive spaces, this often means knowing whether they're too hot or too cold; what lighting you'll be working with; how dirty they are, etc.), you can often get better prices because of how often you'll use them.

Still it's hard not to look forward to a day when we'll have our own consistent space, whether it comes via a residency somewhere (the near-term possibility) or a lease/purchase of a place (the longer-term, massive-infusions-of-cash possibility).

If you're interested in our work, why not mosey on over here and support us? We're currently taking bids on the naming rights for our performing arts complex.

AE Videos up on our site

2006-02-07T09:15:00.000-05:00

Just got word from Rika that the videos of three previous ACTIVE EYE productions are up on our website: Dojoji, Senjo, and Woyzeck. Check them out.

Also, be sure to take a look at the Hard Lovin' Ever After page, with new graphic design by Tim Eggert.

Notes from the playwright

2006-02-06T13:11:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of Lucas Hnath, playwright for Hard Lovin' Ever After, here is an excerpt from some of his notes while writing the play:

Why do Jenny and Sam love each other?
Love is too big a word. I don’t like it. Let’s try not to use that word in this play.
The word “love” has lost any meaning. Love suicide.... well I can deal with that because it doesn’t possess the same meaning as love all by its solo.
I actually find the word “like” more compelling. I don’t know if others feel this way.
What do you “like” about me? Oume asks Kume? Or Kume asks Oume.*

I don’t think we need to prove that Oume and Kume’s love is pure. I’m not convinced that it is pure. Who really has pure love? They’re so young. The point is that they’re inexperienced. They don’t know what they’re doing. That’s the tragedy. That’s what is frustrating to everyone around them. Oume and Kume are myopic and there really is no cure for their myopia except to get to that final place where the death moment (maybe?) creates some perspective.

I’m not convinced that the death moment gives everyone a new perspective. Some people yes. Others no.

*Kume and Oume are the lovers' names in Chikamatsu's Love Suicides at the Women's Temple. In Hard Lovin', they are called Sam Nash and Jenny Plummer.

Efficient Incapacitation

2006-02-03T09:21:00.000-05:00

More from JP Higgins:

Today was all about fighting and dying. We took an in-depth look at some of the more complicated physical sequences (i.e. fights). The trick with fights is that there are so many different ways they could go. Thankfully, the team rose to the occasion. The key issues here are convention and style- how realistic/abstract the fight is, what are the objectives of each fighter, etc. In the end, we found constructing the fight in a more naturalistic manner was the best starting point. With this framework, we can move forward with addressing the style of the piece, which will be informed by the music and scene work surrounding the fight. Thankfully, my good buddy Rachel Scott came in and provided invaluable stage combat consulting.

Despite battling a cold, I enjoyed punching, pummeling and generally kicking the @#$% out of Andrew- he has the best grunts and yelps in the business!

Tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday will be about incorporating the music, which can be both exciting and tedious in a process. However, I have every reason to believe that it will prove more of the former rather than the latter.

Soon, soon

2006-02-01T10:37:00.000-05:00

How many times can you fall down in one rehearsal? I've been spending most of the last few days hitting the floor. Lucky me, to have found another character that can't stand up straight. Those of you who know me may remember what happened the last time I needed to collapse on stage.* I'm attempting to be more vigilant this time around.

Fortunately the rest of the team is a stand-up bunch (sorry). Everyone's doing great work. There's always that weird moment when a bunch of scenes begins to become a show, and I can feel it coming on now. It generally happens, unsurprisingly, when you start running larger and larger portions of a play, adding the elements together. With us, it has lots to do with the music. Since all the different parts of the piece fit together so intricately, it isn't until the music connects to the movement and the script that it all makes sense. Then the parts of the story that the music tells arrive. Before then, things tend to feel incomplete. Even though we've been working together for more than 5 years now, I always forget how much it changes things (and, internally, began to freak out about what doesn't feel right) until we bring it in again.

As for now, it won't be until next week that it all really starts to come together, but we've heard enough of what Rika and Pete and Bobby are doing musically that I can sense what it'll be like, and it's exciting.

*For the uninformed--when we were doing Senjo, I had one bad fall when I was tired during photo call. I awoke to find that I'd swelled enormously, but only on one side. From the right, I was as flat-butted as ever, but my left cheek had grown to the size of a volleyball. I was suddenly, seriously half-assed. It was 7 days--and several shades of blue and green--before my ass was normal again.

Introducing JP Higgins

2006-01-30T09:25:00.000-05:00

This from John Patrick Higgins, who plays both the Spanish Envoy Jorge Vasquez and Walter:

Several thoughts.

Today, I got pants!!! A few days later than some of the others but well worth the wait. God, thank God for costumes- I do love them. It reminded me of a production that I did in grad school of As You Like It where the entire cast wore black suits/business casual clothing how terribly dull! I wanted to yack every time I put it on. It is so much more exciting to have cool pants with hidden folds and zippers! And RED!!!! Sure, that other play was about the acting but what a marvelous thing to be excited about every piece of the puzzle. It makes you raise your game, forces you to the next level. (sorry for the sports analogies, but I've been watching the Australian Open all week.)

The rehearsal process to this point has been a very different experience for me. In the past, I usually leave the starting line sprinting. By the second week, I'm ready to open the show and can't understand why everybody isn't off book already. This is completely the reverse. The first week, I felt like the worst actor ever. But every rehearsal I pick up a small (or large) piece of the puzzle. There are so many elements that want to have their say- some demand that you listen right away, others tell you to bugger off and come back on Thursday. It's been a delight to gather the pieces. Today it was the music and pants (if your pants are speaking to you, you should probably listen). Tomorrow, who knows? Thank God for not knowing.

Super impressed by the cast- doing the monk train (don't know what I'm talking about? well, come see the show then), looking at everybody working so hard for 15-30 seconds of stage time.
Lesson of the week- I've heard it before, but never truly believed it- work on one thing at one time. This week- the dialect. When that's solid, then the action. Then the physicality. Not necessarily in that order.

Pants & Fights

2006-01-25T16:02:00.000-05:00

Last night Jessica (Ford, costume designer extraordinaire) stopped by with three pairs of pants for us to try. They're customized rave pants--super-big red numbers with lots of pockets, and they make a delicious swishing sound when you move. In addition to fitting them to our various bodies, Jessica has made them unique to each character, mostly by removing parts--they were full of fabric to begin with. The result is a basic, uniform quality that still expresses something specific for each person. This is really ideal when you're trying to create another world. That way we all fit together, but without blurring the essential differences between individuals. And there's more customizing to come: hidden features, transforming zippers...super-fun stuff. We may post a little teaser up here before long. We need a little visual pizzazz around here.

We've also been working on the fight between Sam Nash and the Envoy from Spain, Jorge Vasquez. We've got it basically blocked, and it's pretty vicious. (Let me say, JP Higgins is not someone to mess with.) I'm excited to see how it changes once the music & sounds are added.

Yesterday's quote of the day

2006-01-24T09:32:00.000-05:00

Kevin, on the Narrator:

"It's almost like I'm a game show host where the contestants, if they win, get to kill themselves."

We have Musical Inspiration!

2006-01-20T12:51:00.000-05:00

A post from Rika, with a wealth of music research:

Music from Tuva

I have just been reading up on the Republic of Tuva, on the boarders of Mongolia, China meets Russia. I have a CD that literally is entitled Cowboy Music from the Wild East. It is FASCINATING (mp3 coming soon). This is truly where east meets west.. As you read you will see why there is a relationship to the show we are doing, and how Pete and I can meld sounds to create multiple layers of "intricate" sounds thanks to the modern technology of looping. The music here is throatsinging meets everything else...but this is a great discovery for me and it's worth a listen. In a way, the loop machine can create sounds that, a Tuvan cowboy can make with a single throat! :) Also, if you type "Tuva" in iTunes you will come up with all kinds of interesting Tuvan music, from traditional to 'explicit' rock.

Several Tuva links here.

Indonesian Monkey Chant aka Kecak - interestingly enough, I discovered the root of this dance/chant is a love story! :)

Bali's Kecak Dance- Of all the dances seen on Bali today, the Kecak dance is perhaps the most dramatic. Taken from the Hindu epic Ramayana, the dance tells the story of Prince Rama and his rescue of Princess Sita, who has been kidnapped by the evil King of Lanka. Unlike other dances, there is no gamelan orchestra accompanying it. Instead, a troupe of over 150 bare-chested men serve as the chorus, making a wondrous cacophany of synchronized "chak-achak-achak" clicking sounds while swaying their bodies and waving their hands.

Indonesian monkey music

Tibetan music and long horns

(Note--when over half your post titles end with an exclamation point, you can be justifiably accused of overexcitement. The madness ends here.)

We have a Graphic Designer!

2006-01-20T12:45:00.000-05:00

The illustrious Tim Eggert will be designing the publicity materials for the show. Check out his online portfolio.

We Have a Title!

2006-01-20T12:26:00.000-05:00

It took a good deal of discussion coming up with a title for the latest play. The title of the original, "The Love Suicides at the Women's Temple," wasn't really appealing or accurate for Lucas's adaptation. Among the choices to replace it were:

Shootout at the Suicide Corral
Love Suicides at Motel 6
Love Suicides at the Heartbreak Motel
Cowboy Monk
The Ballad of Cowboy Monk and his Lady Love
A Girl, A Monk, and a Love Suicide
Tough Lovin' Ever After

This last one was deemed the most promising, but "tough lovin'"was considered a little too pop-psych. Submitted for consideration were "rough," "dead," and the eventual winner, "hard lovin'." We added a subtitle to lend a little more of the show's flavor, and voila:

Hard Lovin' Ever After
The Ballad of Cowboy Monk and His Lady Love

Mark your calendars, folks: February 16-19 at Access Theater's Gallery space, complete with wild theatrical genius.

Character through Gesture

2006-01-17T16:31:00.000-05:00

One of the hallmarks of the work we do is an attentiveness to detail and precision, especially with regard to movement. We spend a lot of time in rehearsal crafting gestures and movements that reflect character. What that builds up to is a movement score that shares space and time with the musical score and the text--the balance of these elements is a major part of our artistic interest.

Last night's rehearsal was primarily about finding gestures for the characters we're playing. We spent time on more general things--how characters move, walk, stop, respond to the world around them--as well as specific ones, i.e. how do you choose to punctuate a piece of your text? How do you move, and where does the movement come? On the words, or between them? Over the course of a line, or sharply? How big a gesture is appropriate to the character and to the situation? And what gestures are just more interesting to watch: more surprising, funnier, more graceful?

The answers we come up with are all intuitive, based on the script, the story, the research we've done (images, sounds), and any number of random things that it would be hard to identify. But somehow they're both personal and entirely germane to the play.

Fancy Yellow Mohawks

2006-01-14T22:24:00.000-05:00

When it comes to headgear, let me say--we are well equipped. Today we all got to try on our monk headpieces for the show, and they are truly incredible. There's a sort of Roman helmet look in yellow felt, with a big muppet mohawk on top. The color is actually closer to ochre. They're amazing, and they make for a compelling bunch of heads. We also got to try on our puffy red pants, apparently acquired from a rave distributor. Sartorially, we're in good shape. Jessica Ford, our costume designer, is doing great work. We thought about posting some costume sketches here (they're wonderful, too), but in the end we decided against it. Come to the show and be surprised.

Rehearsal was highly productive. We did preliminary work on several different parts of the play (or whatever we're making--see below), starting with the opening, which is an introduction to a particular temple's monks, known for their practice of a special endurance test. We spent a lot of time working on the test itself, which will definitely be tough on the quads, as well as on the introductions to several of the characters: Sam and Jenny (the love suicides of the title), the Narrator, the Envoy.

We also got to meet Pete List, who'll be collaborating musically on the show. Pete's a beat-boxer, guitarist and singer, and we got a brief look at the work he does, which involves looping vocal tones and rhythms and then building on them with effects and live vocals to create intricate sounds and really hot beats. Very psyched are we all to have him on board.

I should stop, because I sound like a cheerleader. But it really is very exciting to be back at work with such a great group. It's going to be a thrilling show, I do believe.

Here we go!

2006-01-09T12:32:00.000-05:00

Well, we're on our way. Saturday was our first rehearsal. The whole cast was in attendance, except Bobby, who will be joining us from Cleveland at the end of the month. Also there were Jyana, Lucas, and Sean, who will be doing our "environment design."

It was a great, productive first meeting. We read through the latest script draft, which is very exciting--the elements of the story remain, but transmuted into something contemporary and eclectic and full of room for music and movement to help tell the story. We also got a look at the costume sketches Jessica prepared. They're gorgeous--think cowboy monks in mohawks, with individual unique details for each character. We ended with some performance work--some physical brainstorming on monk endurance tests and character movement.

All in all, a fun and encouraging day. What's especially exciting is the feeling of progress, that we've learned a lot since we were all together last, and yet we've picked up pretty seamlessly from where we left off. Can't wait to meet again...

What do we call what we do?

2006-01-04T09:25:00.000-05:00

It's an incredibly busy time for Active Eye at the moment, as we gear up for work on our latest production (an adaptation of an 18th century Japanese play by Chikatmsu--check it out at the AE home page, link to the right). Part of that process is drafting our fundraising letter, to send out to the people who've been supporting our work for the last few years.

One problem we're having is finding a simple word for what we make. Plays are the traditional choice, but as Rika has pointed out, when people hear the word "play," they think acting, they think dialogue, they think sets and costumes, but they don't think music, and they probably don't think movement either (talking about a general audience here). So what do we use instead? Suggestions have included work, stage productions, and performances, but while they're all adequate, they don't quite give an immediate feeling of what we do.

Any suggestions? Those of you who've seen our work--how would you describe it?

Welcome!

2006-01-02T13:22:00.000-05:00

Hello, everyone, and here's a blog for us! Hopefully this will become a lively place for all of our fans and interested folks to write breathlessly about our latest production. In that spirit, I'm utterly thrilled to have gotten the latest script draft and I can't wait to read it. Hoping you all had a great New Year...