New Year’s Optimism

I stopped myself just now.

Throughout this week I’ve thought, “people seem to be more optimistic this year than previous new year’s.” Then I stopped myself. I realized I was wrong. The thought itself is a symptom of not holding onto the new year optimism. We forget. Too quickly. What is a “New Year” besides one month becoming the next? There are twelve of those, and no one says to you, “Happy New Month!” One week becoming the next? Fifty-two of those. One day becoming the next? That’s where it gets fun. There are three hundred sixty-five of those (and one extra this year). Now this is not going to be a rant about there always being tomorrow. “There’s always tomorrow” is essentially giving up on today. But a year seems so full, so large, and the celebration to ring it in has to be fittingly grand. Nobody loads up on cheap champagne for April turning into May. Why not? May is pretty great. I’d pop a confetti cannon and get drunk for May. And why isn’t a midnight kiss something you get when August 20th becomes the 21st?

Obviously you’re not going to throw a NYE caliber party every night of your life. But if the optimism stems from celebrating the year’s immeasurable potential, how do we celebrate the same for each day? How do we celebrate life the way we celebrate years?

For me this year it will be live theatre. Our Artistic Director Mikey Laird had a New Year’s Resolution to see more theatre as well as create more theatre. Sounds good to me Mikey. Live theatre inherently celebrates life. Nobody sees a play and says “I’d love to see them act in a movie.” It’s always the other way around. People crave life. Not many people clap after seeing a film at the cinema, but it’s even rarer to see someone refuse to do so after a play.

I look forward to 2012, a year full of potential, and I relish the opportunity to see and tell stories that live up to that potential on all of the wonderful stages that fill this city with life.

-C. A. Burke

telling stories not as important as listening to them

This may be too controversial a topic for my first blog post, but the news coming out of State College, PA has occupied my mind more forcefully than any story in recent memory. It made me think about the importance of telling stories which helped me bring it around to my theatrical brain, but it made me discover that listening to stories and being affected by them is the true measure of a story’s worth.

The story in question is the Grand Jury Report on the allegations against Jerry Sandusky. It’s probably the most painful piece of writing I’ve come across, and mostly because of the amount of people that need to read it and have yet to do so. Students rioted not because of the numerous children sexually assaulted and/or raped by this twisted man, but because their beloved football coach was fired. If Joe Paterno had the integrity he has preached in his 45 years of coaching, then he’d still have a job.

But Joe Paterno isn’t on trial; not in court nor in this blog; the riotous students are the focus of this rant. Normally I don’t fault a person for ignorance, and would much rather teach than preach, but the story is available. It’s been told numerous times in countless ways, by a broad spectrum of people: National nightly newscasts, your friends’ Facebook statuses, a highly emotional commentary by Matt Millen on ESPN, and most importantly the Grand Jury Report itself (public record). It’s hard to claim ignorance at this point.

The story is available but it needs an audience. An audience’s job is to listen…and anyone that has been audience to this story should not be upset that Joe Paterno was fired. Penn State students can still possess the integrity that they’ve recently had pulled from underneath them, but they have to do it on their own. They have to react accordingly to this story. If they do, then the integrity of the school will be built from its students, professors, staff, and alumni, not ride on the coattails of one man.

I now understand that a story’s importance can only be measured in the audience’s reception and reaction. It’s unfortunate something like this had to happen for me to make that realization.

-C. A. Burke

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What’s In A Name?

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Superheroes and Super Villains

While sitting in our apartment the other day, Steve and I determined that our apartment was inhabited by two superheroes and one super villain (our roommate Rio).  This was a pretty hilarious discovery, as it led to thoughts and discussions of how the three of us would co-exist in that world (Rio attempting to build a superbomb while Steve and I sit in the next room, plotting to take over the world when we can hear him chatting with other villains, etc.).  Ultimately, we began trying to come up with superhero/villain names for the three of us.  My questions to the world are:

• Are you a superhero or villain?
• Do you live with people of the same ilk (heroes with heroes and villains with villains)?
• What is your superhero or villain name?

FEAR NOT! It's SUPERJEW!!!

To get the ball rolling, I’m a superhero, and my hero name is SuperJew.

A Memory

In the summer of 2006 after our sophomore year of college, we produced The Nerd by Larry Shue. The space we had rented was a nice, four-row, sixty-something seat theater in St. Charles, IL. The show had a great deal of challenges in the ways of many props and a whole lot of messy comedy concerning food. Due to all these tech challenges, the first time we were physically able to work with the food and run through the whole show was our final dress.

Cue worst thunderstorm of that summer.

The roof of our nice little four-row, sixty-something seat theater began to leak on the center of the first and second row. Needless to say, we were too busy creating a makeshift drain-way to worry about food or running any “show.” Ten failed attempts at a drain-way later, we decided to at least give ourselves one full run through, food and leakage be damned. Everything was running great until…

In the climactic scene of Act 1 the character of the unbearable nerd, played by our Executive Director Nick Cardiff, comically rattles off three impressions as he tries to force games upon a few very confused dinner guests. The impressions in the script were rather dated so Nick, being the lovely individual he is, would make up the third impression every night with something different and more… topical. During our very stressful final dress, this is what came out:

Nick jumps up off of couch and throws his arms out in cross-like fashion.

NICK: (Pleasantly) Peace on Earth! Peace on Earth! My wrists hurt!

Nick awaits guesses from the group. After long silence…

NICK: It’s Jesus!!!

"Jesus!"

Alright, kids. A Jesus joke. Not uncommon coming from our noble leader. Fast forward ten minutes later during our intermission break. Everyone’s feeling good in spite of the leaky roof and having to mime food. Backstage laughter fills the-

BOOM!!!

Everyone pauses. The dripping sound of the half-filled bucket in the center of the second row resonates through the theater. Our sound designer Leland sits only a foot away from the roof in the booth. We ask him if the sound came from up by him. He replies with, “What sound? Everything just shorted out for a second, but I didn’t hear any sound.” It was a really loud boom. Everyone laughs at the eeriness but then goes back to work. A few minutes later as we were to begin Act 2, a firefighter in full out gear walks into the theater.

FIREMAN: Excuse me. You all need to evacuate the building.

ACTOR: What happened.

FIREMAN: You were struck by lightning. Power’s out on the whole block.

ACTOR: Power’s on in here.

FIREMAN: Weird. Please exit the building.

Ten minutes later we were informed we were unable to return inside the building for the rest of the night, therefore making our first run through of the show on opening night. As we all contemplated how to fix the situation, Leland simply stated:

“Game over. We got struck by lighting.”

A Few Things You Should Know About Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson:

The first thing to know about Ben Jonson is that he came up hard: his father died when he was young, his stepfather was a bricklayer, and the man himself spent some time as both a bricklayer and a soldier. The second thing is that he killed an actor in a duel, only escaping execution because of an arcane law about executing the literate. (He was, however, branded on his left thumb with the letter “T” for “Tyburn,” a place where criminals were executed). He also did prison time for a couple of his plays which were deemed too lewd and offensive for the public. The third thing–the one that ties it all together–is that Jonson was a monumental misanthrope, a man able to hate with every fiber of his being: William Drummond described Jonson as “a great lover and praiser of himself, a contempter and scorner of others, given rather to lose a friend than a jest.” He devoted entire eras in his career to plays whose only purpose was to savage his own critics – the guy just couldn’t get out of his own way. While Shakespeare was busy sucking off the powerful by lionizing their ancestors and sucking up to the masses with tales of noble men and noble deeds, Jonson was pissing off the powerful and the people by portraying them all as fools and hypocrites. While Shakespeare was writing about good and evil, power and love, Jonson was writing about short cons and easy marks, lust and greed. The characters that populate his plays tend not to be kings and great men, but folks from the neighborhood – small-time crooks, minor knights, merchants, prostitutes, clerks, and performers. The result is a playwright whose work is particularly suited to our own time, when irony, anger, hypocrisy, selfishness, and snark seem to dominate the social and political discourse.

Ben Jonson’s text: The Alchemist

Jonson’s texts are challenging not because of their complexity or high-mindedness, but because they were designed to be so contemporary and are therefore packed wall-to-wall with in-jokes, political satire, and cultural allusions. Imagine someone watching a Saturday Night Live sketch 400 years from now – are they going to know who The Real Housewives of New Jersey are? This fidelity to the real world is part of what makes his work resonant and universal, but it’s also what makes it difficult sometimes for a modern audience to process. Our approach to editing and cutting The Alchemist was to unearth its universal comic truths while honoring the flavor of the language and wordplay, and at the same time filtering out jokes and references to people perhaps even Elizabethan scholars have never heard of. The result is a distillation of this masterpiece that is potent and very much alive for us today: we don’t have to understand who the Anabaptists are in order to recognize religious hypocrites obsessed with gold– we’ve got plenty of those still. Jonson’s characters are vividly sketched and immediately recognizable types which transcend the centuries and illustrate what Jonson was saying in the 17th century and remains true today: that people are gullible, greedy assholes.

Brief Encounter

This is a show I saw in NYC so it may not be readily available, but if it ever goes on tour YOU MUST SEE IT!  I pretty much think it is the most perfect show I have ever seen, and one I would love to see NSP do someday.  My whole family even liked it (2 brothers, 1 sister, mom and dad) and that’s saying something.

The show is based on a movie by Noel Coward of the same name.  The movie is black and white and beautiful as far as those movies go.  It tells the story of Laura, an average English housewife who takes the train to do some shopping each Thursday.  One day she gets some coal dust in her eye at the train station, and Alec, a married doctor who happened to be in the station on his way home, comes to the rescue.  Their relationship blooms over the next several weeks during their meetings each Thursday.

I first saw this show in London with my Mom on a whim.  We had no idea what we were getting into.  The show was done in an old movie theatre, so we halfway thought we were going to see the movie, which was partially true.  The show incorporates video elements into the live show in the most seamless way I have ever seen.  None of it ever seems over done or out of place.  The show manages to be totally realistic one moment, and metaphorical the next.  They even manage to bring a full sized train on stage through their brilliant projections.  Other surprising technical elements include puppets and flying actors.

The main part of the show and the movie is the forbidden love story between Laura and Alec, but the stage show beefs up the comedic roles of the train station employees.  This brings some much needed relief from the seriousness of the rest of the show.  The ensemble also incorporates a number of Noel Coward songs into the story.  These songs aren’t exactly part of the storyline (no actors inexplicably breaking into song like musical theatre), but they do enhance the mood.  And they all play instruments!  There is not pit or band on stage.  All of the music for these songs are played and sung and actors on stage.

If any of this sounds confusing, or like it wouldn’t make sense all together, trust me.  It so does.  This is a true ensemble show.  All set changes happen through actor power, and so seamlessly you almost don’t realize you are in another place until you are there.  The love story is absolutely beautiful and totally fulfills every hopeless romantics dreams.  And if you are not the romantic type, there is plenty of comedy to keep you entertained.  Not to mention some great music.  If you get a chance, see this show.  Don’t think about whether or not it sounds like something you would like.  Just go.  It’s a quick show, but you will wish it would last forever.  I can’t say enough about how much I love this show.  It has unfortunately closed in NYC, but I see good things in its future.  It made it from a small theatre in London to a big one, and then to Studio 54 in New York.  Maybe next….Chicago?

Alchemist Cast

Congratulations to the cast of The Alchemist!!! 

The Alchemist by Ben Jonson is set to open this April at Boho Theater! See the season page for more information. 

CAST
FACE: Sean McGill
SUBTLE: Andrew Marchetti
DOLL: Melissa Imbrogno
DAPPER/ (also THE OFFICER): Tony Kaehny
DRUGGER: Scott Sawa
ANANIAS: Chad Brown
MAMMON: Matt Castellvi
SURLY: Conor Burke
TRIBULATION: Patrick Byrnes
KASTRIL: Ken Miller
PLIANT: KaCee J. Hudson
LOVEWIT: Joshua Razavi 

Coming up roses

Still rocking this blog.  It’s so close…