In that phase again

I like piecing together my thoughts, but take no time to do it. My journals end up full of lists and random feelings. So here we are, one more blog for the road. A place to collect my thoughts and hopefully learn something about how I feel about theatre.

So here's entry number one.
Last night I saw the first two-thirds of a preview dress for Theatre Q's Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. Held at the tiny Dragon Theatre in downtown Palo Alto, I thought director George Quick did a fantastic job with as many as (and often) nine actors onstage at once. I loved the muddled line between the characters in the past and the people in the present (or timeless) watching and making judgements, as if questioning whether they too would have drawn the same verdicts. The intimacy of the space lent itself to having the driving action often the most upstage, and onlookers watching from chairs in the downstage corners, almost a part of the audience, but not quite, given their frequent breaks to read from newspapers and other memoirs of the trials. The set was entirely Ikea furniture- 11 chairs and 2 tables. I suppose if you want 11 matching, nondescript chairs, why not?

I loved the portrayal of Oscar Wilde by John Aney, and Kevin Copps (Sir Edward Clarke).
Thomas Azar was my favorite to watch onstage- I would love to meet and/or work with him.
And apparently George Quick is off to Chattanooga, TN- here's the link to his blog!

The play has sat on my shelf partly-read for years, and now I might just have the momentum to pick it up and finish it.

Today I recieved the June/July issue of Theatre Bay Area, which includes Dan Hoyle's Tings Dey Happen and an essay by Dan Hoyle on stretching political theatre. The article is fantastic and really makes me want to go out and explore somewhere exciting and get inspired to do political theatre. And/or just meet director Charlie Varon. I haven't read the show yet, but I have high hopes. I also really enjoyed Brad Erickson (TBA Executive Director)'s note responding to Mike Daisey's show, "How Theater Failed America". Mike Daisey is a good friend of Liz Frankel, who was my supervisor during my literary internship at The Public Theater last summer, so I have met him, and hope to see his show if it's still running when I make it out to New York. For someone who's future is most likely in regional theatre, and having already read the sort of shocked negativism from the critics, I would like to experience first hand what he has to say.

My other goals for said New York trip thusfar are to see In The Heights and Title Of Show. I am to this day not sure where I first stumbled upon TOS; I think my mother may have given it to me for Christmas a couple years ago. If so, she really hit the jackpot, because discovering this wonderful show before it went much of anywhere made an undying fan out of me. You should absolutely check out their [newly updated] website, www.titleofshow.com. And if you're a musical theatre nerd like I am, check out the [tos]words on the page [for fans of show]. I spent many happy hours with them. And if you're in NY after July 5th (when previews start) GO SEE IT ON BROADWAY!!!

That's all for today. Let's see if I can come up with half as much to say tomorrow.