a big big big catch-up
hello, folks.
this is my attempt to get caught up with everything since i've moved here to chicago. i'll try to keep it slanted to theatre and improv but i may tangent off. just for future reference, when i'm talking about a show i saw, i'll only mention the names of things i liked. i certainly don't want to offend and i'm sure nobody considers me enough of an expert to take criticism as constructive instead of just jealous bashings.
QUICK NOTE: i just got an idea. every time i do an entry i'll tell you what cd i'm listening to, because i always am.
CD: Extra ACME by the jon spencer blues explosion
that being said if you're reading this and you discover i'm talking poorly about you, it's only in the interest of improvement. i know people that refuse to watch bad theatre or amateurs or look at bad art, etc. they only want to watch stuff that is entertaining. i say that watching something that misses the mark is merely educational. watching a bad standup, or looking at modern art, or going to see a high school production of steel magnolias should be considered research, and in a sense the "work" part of your job as a performer. they always taught you in school to learn from your mistakes. so why not learn from the mistakes of someone else? you can cast a more critical eye when in the audience and see what's going wrong.
there is just as much to be learned from watching something poorly done as in watching something that really impresses. so, make yourself available for bad performance. go see a high school play. don't get me wrong, i have seen plenty of high school plays that were good, but let's be honest, most of them have problems. and that's just a product of inexperience, budgets, or forced content. most of the time they don't pick the plays, the teacher does. and even if the students were allowed to pick their play they wouldn't have enough experience to know where to start for their selection. so, in general, these high school plays are shotty. but go see them. support people you know, people that may have supported you in the past. sometimes they'll surprise you anyhow and you can learn a lot just from treating it like research.
so in an effort to catch some nuhs up, here's my chicago experiences up to now:
the first thing i saw was a show that didn't impress me. i talked to the performers and they seem like great people. in fact, they seemed as though this was a bit of a chore or favor they were doing for someone. the show itself was a completely unoriginal idea. something that has been popularized and then decayed in front of thousands of viewers on the television. the fact that it was a hack job would be overlookable if it were done better. a lot of the jokes were old and cliche, something that drives me crazy. it was publicized poorly and therefore lacked a decent audience size, something that is hard to overcome, does effect the show greatly, and should be looked at as part of the performance. the performer's job extends into PR (public relations) more than they care to realize. it is someone's job to get the house (audience) peopled. and when we're talking about indie theatre, as i mostly am, that usually falls on the performers and director. the job starts long before the curtain opens and if the actors aren't willing to do that exra work, the show suffers immensely. therefore, in this specific case, their inability to put butts in seats tarnished their performance. i could talk all day about other things that unfortunately made this a lack-luster show, but i'm feeling too negative, so i'll move onto something i enjoyed.
NEW CD: Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt by John Frusciante
this does take me out of chronological order but i really want to talk about it. i saw the Neo-Futurists' long running show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. This was a really impressive piece of theatre. the theatre is very close to my house, which is such a great thing about chicago. i can live in a nice, affordable, urban neighborhood that's right around the corner from really good art. so anyway, i saw a sunday installment (the show runs friday, saturday, and sunday and has been up since 1988) and the audience was about half full. i'm guessing they seat about 125 or so. they have an excellent sense of "extras." when you go to the show the whole thing is an experience, from checking out the hall of presidents in the lobby (an exhibit of mostly paintings done in honor of each US president) to rolling a die to determine your total admission fee, to being given a nametag after they've asked for your name that is definitely not your name, they immerse you in performance and art. for the evening i was known as "Lube Job." they understand that these little extras can really help to enhance the experience. you get to your seat having been given a taste of the show, a bit of fun. and i really hate the word fun in relation to theatre and improv, but it really applies here, and i don't mean to discount or trivialize it in any way. anyway, the show started and it's obvious that the performers are being very real. they do 30 plays in 60 minutes complete with a clock to time the whole show. they present a series of original plays written by the actors complete with lighting and sound cues, and most importantly good acting. the actors really have a chance to show off their versatility as the plays range from dramatic and personal to hysterical all the way to completely strange. some of them are so visually striking that the images stick in your head and form a moving canvas. it can be as if it's a painting in real life. real good art. the show ends and they roll a die to determine how many plays they must write and rehearse for the next week's show. subbing out ones that they are tired of or feel didn't work i guess. the actors then take to the lobby where one of them handles the gift shop, a cavalcade of TMLMTBGB merchandise (i bought a button), the refreshment stand, and one hands out flyers for another show happening at another venue produced by the neo-futurists. all the house and door work is done by the actors enforcing my belief that a good show requires work from all the performers. i can't imagine trying to get my old performace buddies to work as hard as they did on such a consistent basis. it would have been a near impossibility. well, anyway, i enjoyed the show immensely and it's one of the rare pieces of theatre that i've seen ever where the admission price was worth the show. i went back recently with the bebe to see a friday show and it was sold out at 11pm, 30 minutes before the show starts. there was a long line of peeps standing around in freezing weather waiting to get their fix. we didn't get in.
well, that feels like a pretty good, balanced entry. i still have a lot to talk about to get myself caught up, but it will have to wait as my fingers hurt.
bl
