Don John- Kneehigh Theatre

buschovski again

buschovski too

benji is rad

Gurdjieff (Peter Brook 1979)

well we're stuck out here in portland with little money, no food, and my ear infection medicine is dwindling.
there are scheduling problems all over the place, the in-laws are stressed and we're all craving intimacy.
there are four giant dogs living in this house, and two cats-one of whom screams...seriously holding notes for extended periods. it would be impressive if it were not so grating. brother runs to the airport at least once a day to drop off or pick up his wife, who is some sort of drug runner. I stay here with the dogs and watch youtube, plotting my next great victory.

let's all come to piece with the rowdy and roughhewn nature of this project. let's hope a week is enough rehearsal. please god let's hope.

True West-Steppenwolf (Malkovich and Sinise)

bidness

i need a managing director, stat.

mi hermano manana

my horoscope is weird for the month of june. strange threats of horsy archers disturbing me and mine. and then there is the whole immanent houseless sitch. and the lack of paperskrill, and the huge task of building an army with which to build the always and aforementioned empire.

well...not that you mention it but...the army is coming along well. a small core of active initiative takers are emerging. gangsters who specialize in making things happen. this will be good. hard work and crazy-making but good good good. the first thing, the ionesco, i have total faith in. i have faith it will be good and i have faith it will be fun. the next thing, the thomthom, i am feeling stuck on. need to generate material but...brickwall and no helmet.

at present i am sitting on a terrace in british columbia. mi hermano joins me on the morrow. goodie goodie.

ok. shut up and go to sleep, right?

"goodnight moon" at Seattle Children's Theatre
-high quality, straightforward production with a cast o triple threats (4 of 'em). simple and elegant effects in a teeny tiny space. didn't feel like any crazy leaps were taken conceptually but that is not always required.

"a thousand clowns" at the Intiman Playhouse
-as per usual fantastico. imaginative and well realized design elements, stellar acting, clean-sharp direction. the ideal "regional theatre" experience. the trajectory of the last act leading to what should be a soaring final image was a bit off, but felt like a circumstantial thing and not a flaw built into the production. I love the work they do.

now i am awake in the guest room in gig harbor, wondering why i am so keyed up. going to be tired tomorrow but that is ok, as nothing is expected of me. I intend to at least take a few days of real vacation before i start doing anymore work.

cheers,
Douglas

NO TITLE!!!

heading out to the pacNW for a grand bebauch with me grandma, and also fancy pants talks with chris coleman and storm large about hyperreality, deviled eggs and pacman. these will be the bread surrounding a week of quiet time in the mountains of british columbia where i will sit and think about what i've done.

ooh ooh ooh girl that's right.
please ride my bike while i am gone
and keep the home fires warm
ooh ooh ooh girl that's right.

the secret history

is one of my favorite novels. so there.

i will get on an airplane on wednesday morning to leave on a three week tour of the pacific northwest. Seattle, Portland, Vancouver.

on the agenda is: hang out with my granny, sleep with my brother's four dogs, meet and greet with chris coleman at Portland Center Stage seeking sage advice, see some magi mageen at Seattle Children's Theatre, finish a draft of ThomThom (if that bird won't sing), commit preliminary staging of "the bald soprano" to paper, get press release for the company to appropriate media channels, find a minute or two to relax and climb a primeval mountain.

ok. ok. ok.

taking my mom out for her 69th birthday dinner tonight. my mother turns 70 next year. a little more than I a prepared to deal with at present.

what is the matter, my lord?

reading sam shepherd's plays now. curse of the starving class, buried child, the tooth of crime. these things were new and so are new and care only for themselves. really outstanding artistry and a true voice. not shackled to objective truth but rather made free by honesty. there is a difference.

making plans for the summer. a month of meetings in the pacific northwest with mountain biking and hottubbing wedged in whereever it will fit. then it is back and into the work of staging the bald soprano and creating thomthom(if that bird won't sing)
feeling inspired by people who feel inspired. not so interested in sitting around tearing people down, would rather fly up and up and out of self and into something altogether small simpler grander and more real.

the cats are skulking around on the porch but i won't let them in. too bad for them, born muffin and vinny.

ok ok ok I will go read some more now.

did I mention that I finished the raymond carver and it made me want to cry by being so complete?

really rather incredibly involved.

today is a day off at last!
i am going top have coffee with kush before he and his family return to kosovo. I wish i had spent more time with kush while he was here but he was understandably pretty occupied with having a baby. he did great work on hamlet and is still my favorite albanian entrepreneur. I just wish he was going to be around to work with us on the new company.

today I will also do a mountain of laundry. this will be incredibly glamorous.

i also hope to check out the duggdugg gallery. it seems very cool and might be a possible partner in the future. very interested in performing in gallerys and other non-traditional venues as opposed to theatres.

ok. maybe I'll shower now. or eat breakfast. or go back to bed.

no names

we have a wonderful crew coming together: intelligent and talented, excited about the work.
we have a great roster of cool projects to be excited about.

there is so much more to do and that is awesome!

End of Days Ensemble

it is for woodwinds, and strings, and a honking brass section.
it is for friends in the right now and long lost ones too.
it is for an ecstatic growling to signal signs of life.

all your crazy conservative relatives are invited.

tika

dinner tonight:
chicken breasts with redwine and portobello mushroom sauce
gorgonzola polenta
pan seared brussel sprouts

yumyum yuuuummmm!!!!


tomorrow i have tech for the preschool show. i have not seen it since i sent it out on the road. um...I hope it's good!

erase eratta

i need a two person musical and two actor/singers who want to do it. that is one thing that i need.

gargantuaI and pantagruel is, predictably, AWESOME. so far chapters have consisted of: eloquent envisionings of an ideal humanist education, lists of card games, epic wine drinking sessions, and a lot of poop. literally. poop.

i don't know if audiences are liking "alice" very much. it is hard to tell. I think it is beautifully designed and performed, with great staging and wonderful songs. I am just having a hard time finding the audiences way into the performance. I think there might be some sort of wall between the performance and the audience but I am at a loss to identify it. anyway...we'll see.

Don't Panic!

taxes are done sent off and we hope all is well with that.

alice inches closer to being a coherent solid thing. we have two more shows in the morning before our public opening tmrw night.

updated reading list: "where i'm calling from - selected stories" by raymond carver
"gargantua and pantagruel" by rabelais
"othello" (slowly, arduously) by william shakespeare
"a thousand plateaus" (para inspirado) by delauze and guatarri

the work list includes the bald soprano and I am looking for a two person musical that is interesting and could be done on the minimal.

i can't wait to sleep in a bit on saturday and to have a sort of day off on monday.

april 13th 2009

"whatever the public blames you for, cultivate it, because it is yourself."
-jean cocteau
quoted in "the lyre of orpheus" by the always delightful robertson davies.

this is my "fun" reading right now, a novel about a charitable trust that is funding the completion and production of an unfinished opera by Hoffman. hijinks ensue and it is a delight.

still working on othello, but very slowly now, beat by beat.
also still reading the history text about shakespeare, marlowe, middleton and their ilk.

soon I shall break into Gargantua and Pantagruel, which i am fairly certain shall be right up my alley.

i don't want to go to work tomorrow. I want a vacation. no rest allowed though as we open alice this coming week and I go into major prep time for summer projects. this prep has to be finished by the time I go west in May so that we can jump right into the work late june. pretty simple, un-assuming projects but exciting none-the-less and hopefully a good foundation for lots of fun and work for us all.

"the polypoids were burning in the wood
a stone caught fire
the castle caught fire
the forest caught fire
the men caught fire
the women caught fire
the birds caught fire
the fish caught fire
the water caught fire
the sky caught fire
the ashes caught fire
the smoke caught fire
the fire caught fire
everything caught fire
caught fire, caught fire."
-Eugene Ionesco
the bald soprano

gargantua and pantagruel

it's 11:11 make a wish.

interesting to read about shakespeare's contemporaries. men like marlowe, middleton, johnson and such. when theatre was a viable, popular artform, and not a dead language, to be studied in tombs, like latin. there was a pretty close knit network of playwrights working together on producing a staggering amount of new work. inspiring to see how active they were.

all day in the theatre today, tech for "alice in concert". i love the music and design and there are some really strong performances happening. i hope it goes over well and sells to a wide age range.

work on the new play is slow but i dream about it and so consider that some kind of work.

brunch with mom and caroline tmrw and then i think some sort of easter party with people in the sticks.

bunnys and such, bring on the warm weather!

threes

some thoughts for the general public
-you can only put a hex on yourself.
- karma is real.
- four plays DOES a season make.
- poverty stew is good when not eaten alone.
- i like my new shirt. it is green.


updated reading list:
shakespeare: the invention of the human - Harold Bloom
Othello - william shakespeare
four plays - eugene ionesco
the book of lies - alistair crowley

pushing the platform forward, out of the dark, while they sing around me in their picture frames, is lovely.

please

we demand rigor and terror and cunning and delight. we demand softness' that seem self possessed and free standing.
we request that your art and your love please rearrange our molecules.

no more than that, yes, that is all.

THOMTHOM

there is jean louise finch
there is arthur radley
begins with a funeral
ends with a wedding
there is a chorus of cowboys and indians
also, i imagine a one eyed witch in the mix.

there is a scene where savage red (the leader of the chorus) weeps openly and bitterly because JL and Arthur just can't get it together enough to befriend him. he even made them a pot of beans to show his love but they didn't like the beans. they just sort of shrugged and rolled their heads and hummed to themselves and so did savage red begin to weep.

reading list

these are the books i am reading at present.

lush life- richard price. this guy wrote "clockers" and wrote/writes for the series "the wire". pretty good crime story set in the lower east side of manhattan a few years ago.

meyerhold at work- a collection of russian theatre director v. meyerhold's letters and notes. myerhold was killed in one of the stalinist purges of the 1930's. boo on that cuz he was a genius and a visionary.

the trojan women- i am reading lattimore's translation, trying to make myself adapt it for production here in charlotte but i am rapidly losing interest.

they cannot compare to the dogs in here who make me wander out into the dark. wandering out onto a slab of dusty rock in the late night or early morning, looking for spiritual violence looking for water or sleep. red rimmed horizon stretching into a harsh and shameful daylight. i am standing, antsy on the rocks, our quadrant still layered in night. still humming with dark and silent energies while the suns bright band races into our country.

i just want a house in the mountains. i want to sit by the fire and read with my wife. and then, on my terms, not as a complusive behavior, to make art. this is what i see when i see my quiet and most happy future.

and until then it is desert nightmares and ropey, sandled, bellicose demons manning the concierge's booth here in aisle 8, or the wild wild west.