Sonnets

Last night I went and checked out The Complete Sonnets Festival, put on by the newly formed Classical Actors Ensemble at Intermedia Arts. The performance I saw was the second half of the two-part festival showcasing all 154 of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Filled with cameos from local favorite performers such as Jennifer Baldwin Peden, Barbra Berlovitz, Bruce A. Young, Sasha Andreev, Karla Grotting, Joe Chvala and Bain Boehlke, the performance was intended to be a fundraiser for the company, although unfortunately the night I went to see the show the house was only moderately attended.

At two and a half hours, the evening ran a little long, although there were definitely some gems. Jennifer Baldwin Peden's lovely sung performance of Sonnet #43 and Sasha Andreev's sung performance of Sonnet #27, (both directed by John Miller-Stephany and composed by Andrew Cooke) were among my favorite moments of the evening. Also, Joe Chvala and Karla Grotting danced a sweet interpretation of Sonnet #60.

For the most part, though, I preferred the performances of sonnets that weren't too "acted". In a number of scenes, sonnets were strung together and turned into a script of sorts. I didn't like these scenes as much because I felt that first of all I wasn't able to really listen to the words of the poem because I was too busy following the action of the scene, and also I felt that in a number of instances the words were misinterpreted in order to fit the put-upon circumstances of the scene.

In fact, by far the most rewarding performance was that of Bain Boehlke, who went on at the very end and just sat in a chair and read his sonnet. More than any of the other versions, Boehlke made me hear the words of the poem, and allowed me to appreciate the beauty of Shakespeare's language.

Trip to the University Archives

Well, I finally made it over to the University Archives to research for The Keys Experiment play. There was much new information that wasn't available to me online or in the books I've read so far. The librarians there were extremely helpful, and nice. They also seemed interested in my play, and want to come see it. Hooray.

Watching the footage from the experiment was extremely helpful, although it is so frustrating that I have limited movement right now. Some of the experiments that the CO's had to go through are such excellent fodder for intesting movement choices. Ah well, I go back into rehearsal tomorrow, so we'll see what I can incorporate.

I'm also thinking of using the video footage itself- perhaps not for the Redeye version, but at a later date. I need to find a video artist to collaborate with who will be able to help me.

Here's the link to find out more information about Redeye Theatre, where I'll be presenting 15 minutes of the solo performance on June 3-6.

by the way

In case you missed it, I wrote a bunch of blog posts for Minnesota Playlist last month on ways that theatre can change the world. They can be found here.

I'm excited because tomorrow I get to interview Caitlin Karolczak and preview her pieces she is showing at Rogue Buddha which opens this weekend. It's for my first article for MNArtists, and I'm pretty excited about it.

In other news, someone wrote a really nasty comment about my review of TTT's My Fair Lady. I guess it kind of goes with the territory that when you write reviews you are going to piss people off and they will say not very nice things about you. Ah well, one of these days I suppose I will have to develop a thicker skin. If I'm going to dish it out, I better learn to take it.

And then everything changed

Well things were going swimmingly with my Redeye piece a couple of weeks ago. I had a showing with Steve and Mirium and my fellow Works in Progress artists, and got some really great feedback about the work that I've been doing. I felt like I was finding some really cool movement with Romina and Maggie was helping me find the shape of the piece.

But a week ago, suddenly, my arm swelled to three times its normal size. I spent about a week in the hospital, had several procedures, and one major operation, and the long and the short of it is- I am currently in absolutely no physical condition to realize the piece as it had been progressing.

I'm going to have to rethink things. Currently, I can barely sit up, let alone roll around on the floor and balance on my shoulder and do various other things I was planning on doing. I'm going to have to go back to the text, go back to the ideas I want to convey, and figure out how to realize those ideas in a way that my body can handle at this time.

It's hard, emotionally. While I know that I could certainly revisit the piece at a later time when my body is healthier, I am sad to find myself with these limitations. This has happened twice in my life before. Once, when I was in college. I was going to be playing Medea and I lost my voice. I went to see a voice therapist and had to figure out a way to play the part without shouting, growling, or doing anything extreme with my voice. In a way it was a great thing to have happened, because I found all kinds of colors to the character that I might not have otherwise found. Another similar experience was when I played Puck, and I had to have knee surgery a couple weeks before opening night. For that performance, I did feel that I lost some of my original character, although I guess I did have to figure out how to act the role without the use of acrobatics.

I emailed Mirium today and told her what happened, and she was very encouraging. She said exactly what I was already thinking: that perhaps this is a good thing, because it will force me to re-examine the piece almost from scratch. Sometimes limitations can be good things.

I'm going to probably take a few days off from thinking about it. I have to get caught up with work, and I still have a lot of resting to do. Hopefully by next week I can begin again. We'll see what happens.