Bacon Flu

The soldiers going to battle. Half Walgreens, Half Herb Bar. Reflecting my dubious nature.

At the worst possible time, our flawed but mostly loveable heroine is struck down by what can only be called, the Nasty.  Anything in her life that once qualified as an activity has been postponed until further notice.  The only verbs that now figure into her once robust existence are ones that you really don’t want to hear about. So I will spare you.  My homeopathic Austin hippie meds seem to be working the best.  If this happens to you, proceed straight to Herb Bar for the healing magic.  I’m not kidding.

Wallace Shawn

EVIL DEAD the poster

There she is folks, the official Evil Dead poster.

It took forever but I’m finally done.  I can’t say I’m done with it, I can only say I’ve stopped working on it.  It could go on forever in photoshop purgatory.  Working on it was fun though – I cannot wait to see this show. Keep reading if you want to see the source photo…

TOUCH – B. Iden Payne Nominations

This image will make sense to you if you saw the show.

So excited to see these names on the list:

Susie Gidseg, Outstanding Director of a Drama

Andrew Varenhorst, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama

Lots of my friends received much deserved nominations.  See the full list here.

Keep Austin Evil

This is the teaser poster for Evil Dead the Musical.   I’m hoping to have the “official” poster by the end of the week.  There will be blood. And t-shirts.

Back to School

We are located on S. Congress, right next to Uncommon Objects. Photo by Jake Holt.

For the first time since April, I have a week with no rehearsal of any kind.  HOLY SHIT I HAVE A WEEK WITH NO REHEARSAL OF ANY KIND!!! What is my life going to be like?  What will I do?  Will it be yoga or happy hour that claims victory over my post-workhours?  Actually, we have so much work on our plate at my little design co. FS77 that it may not make a difference that I don’t have evening obligations. Free time and my life seem to be mutually exclusive.  Its exciting stuff though, work I want to be able to share with you soon.  Some of it overlaps with the theatre world.  I’m going to silkscreen a limited edition run of posters for Evil Dead the Musical.  And if that goes well, I’ll probably do that for future shows as well.  And yes, I am in another show… I’ll tell you about that later too.  Right now though, I need to get back to work.

Dan’s Final Thoughts on No One Else

Dan published his final observations on directing and the whole experience of producing a piece of theatre.  He also says some wonderful things about each of his actors.  I’m going to post what he said about me, because this is my blog, and my parents read it sometimes.

Jennymarie Jemison, as the lead and clear protagonist, had the toughest role, as she’s playing a character who’s largely absent in the script. All of the actors had a few key defining characteristics that were clear from their first appearance on the page to work from, and Jenny’s character is defined by her tendency to shrink, which is difficult to perform while still maintaining the role of the protagonist. I think she could play every role in everything. If I got a press release tomorrow from someone who announced that they were doing a production of Twelve Angry Men as a one-person solo show, and Jenny were playing every part, I’d be like, that’s a fucking good idea. She takes a part that could have easily been played as a shrinking violet and turns her into a reflection of what’s going on with the characters around her. You can follow the entire through-line of the play by watching her eyes. Every actor pushed both him- or herself – and me – to look beyond the obvious, surface interpretation of these people as airheads, or assholes, or pretentious goofballs, and turn them into living people whose choices, while sometimes inexcusable, are nonetheless understandable. Jenny’s character had no surface interpretation – she was given very little definition as a choice made by the script, and the way that she turned her into a real person, confined by the fact that she’s been unable to define herself, is what makes the entire play work for me.

The Experiment Ends..

"If you're in, I'm in." We made a pact and a play happened.

THE BEGINNING: Bastion, Spencer and I were standing around Spencer’s car.  We’d just met at Dan Solomon’s house and had a few beers and read the script.  Karina wasn’t yet a part of the project so it was just us three. The following dialogue is unattributed for a reason.

No One Else reviewed by Austin Live Theatre

Michael Miegs is back to work after the long weekend.  He’s just posted our first real review, and despite what the picture above would have you believe,  its a good one:

“Two couples, crossed relationships, some dissembling, some gloating, incomprehension and resentment. . . this one could have turned into lengthy exercise in trivialities and clichés. It could equally have turned into a facile push into violent aggression; a lesser writer might have been tempted to bring on a weapon toward the end, in order to clip these complications clean.

Instead, Craft uses two principal strengths: dialogue that’s sharp, responsive and credible, and plotting that pushes these individuals together in encounters, both as a group of four and by threes and twos, calculated to reveal gradually to us their assumptions, their characters, and their relationships. There is, indeed, violence, but it is principally psychological…”

Added Late Night No One Else Performance

See the drama unfold from about 4 feet away.

We are adding a second show to accommodate those that weren’t able to get tickets before the run sold out.  With so limited seating,  not that many people will get to see this UNCOMFORTABLY REAL AND UNBEARABLY CLOSE performance.  People are telling me that they are afraid that their relationship will not survive seeing this show, or that they are afraid that their tenuous feelings of self-worth will be affected for the worse.  I disagree.  I think you’ll probably think that by comparison, you aren’t nearly as bad as these people. I know, I know, you aren’t supposed to judge your character. And I’m not, I meant the other characters. Judging by the number of lingering hugs I get after the show, people either feel compassion for my character, Nora, or maybe just for me personally having to inhabit her inside the power struggle between these two men that definitely gets ugly.  It really doesn’t matter, when the play is over, I REALLY need a hug.  After two shows in a row, I’ll probably need a Valium.  Please come bearing pharmaceuticals or Irish whiskey.  Reserve your tickets here.