April 25th, 2008
Here we are… April 25, 2008. Time flies so fast it’s amazing.
Back in November, we went to Europe to perform A Christmas Carol. It was a smashing success, sold out, and even the crowned heads of Europe were impressed. I received invitations and strong coercion to return this year, but it was a long, cold trip. And, despite having lived in Europe for almost 7 years, am still a California guy at heart.
This year, I’ll be reprising my award-winning show at the Ross Valley Players Barn Theatre. This time it’s a different show. Before going to Europe, I tightened up the show, shortening it by about 15 minutes. There were some extra bits that I just didn’t feel added to the show and maintained the flow.
I’m also introduction some more magic into the show. I’d really hoped to have more before, but time constraints as well as wearing many hats to produce the show, things were either left out or cut at the last minute. I hope to introduce more into the show this time around.
As in previous years, I’ll be blogging the process…our successes and failures. It’s a different show, different crew, different schedule…and I feel so much older. 
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November 13th, 2007
Well, I’ve neglected this blog for too long and now it’s performance day in Bratislava. The International Theatre Festival opened on Monday and there was a big ceremony as one of the big theatres from Prague came down to perform. The Minister of Culture and a tons of what they call “smotana” here (the famous of the famous) all dressed in their best, showed up to participate in the exciting event.
I’ve been making preparations for the show over the last few days, with Josh’s help, of course. We’ve been to the theatre and organized everything we might need and too a look through their prop storage to find something that would be at least a little similar to what we used last year, but it was hard. One would think that being geographically closer to the UK would be some kind of advantage in finding Victorian-style furniture, but that’s not the case. We’re just going to have to make do with what we’ve got. It isn’t the end of the world because the audience is naturally there to see me and not going to be so detail-oriented as far as the props are concerned.
On Monday afternoon, I went to RadioFM to visit my friend Vera’s radio show and promote my show. On Monday evening, I did a short interview on STV. There have been lots of other bits of advertising out there as well…one we even discovered by accident while sitting in a cafe near a pile of pile of day-old newspapers!
It’s early morning now and the adjustment to European time has been a drag. For the last week, I’ve been falling asleep at 4pm in the afternoon and waking up at 2-3am. But the last day or two has been a bit better and I think I’ll stay awake for tonight’s performance (with plenty of espresso!!!).
We’re off to the theatre this morning set lights & sound and run through the show all day up until the 7pm performance time. For the locals, I hope to see you there!
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November 3rd, 2007
I’m back! I must admit that I was a bit skeptical last year I’d return for another year. But I guess it was fate. I’m taking the show on the road to Europe for three weeks (in case you missed the info on the home page) and it should be fun.
Taking off on Tuesday and I’m spending every minute of my refreshing my memory of this 60+ page script that I struggled with last year. I went through and refined some things based on last year’s performances as well as now having a fresher perspective on the adaptation. More on this and other bits & bobs in the coming weeks. Come back!
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December 31st, 2006
Well, a week has passed since the wrap of the show and it’s been a refreshing week to see that other things exist in the world beside Dickens!
This is my last post on this blog. I’m grateful to eveyrone who contributed to the show and it’s success. I learned tons along the way (I think everyone did) and enjoyed it. I’m not sure I’ll repeat this show next year, but maybe in a few years (adding the long list of things I’d liked to have done but didn’t have time). I have a few other “performance-related interests” over the coming year (some shows I’d really like to be in and roles I’d like to play/reprise). That’s a cryptic expression in order to avoid saying anything and possibly jinxing my chances.
Have a Happy New Year!
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December 24th, 2006
Here we are on the eve of the final performance. It’s been a rough week, ranging in thoughts & emotions like “What the hell am I doing???” to “Hey, this might work out, or be cool…”
The words of many have been very encouraging. I feel like I’m getting more praise than I actually deserve. I guess it’s mainly because I know I can do even better. I guess I have tomorrow’s performance to accomplish that…
I wish I had a few more weeks of performances to really refine some points I’d like to further explore but, alas, “this is the end, my friend…” I have been invitied to perform at an International Theatre Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia next year and perform (in English) the show. I don’t know if I’ll actually do it or not, but we’ll see in another year.
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December 23rd, 2006
Another one down, three more to go.
Tonight’s performance fell into the category of the “Friday Night Lull” for me. People said they enjoyed it, but the energy was off for me personally…not to mention a phlegm attack during the first act which had me choking on my words and random intervals. Where’s that glass of agua when you need it?
I have the strong feeling that the last three shows are going to be better and better, culminating in the best show being the Christmas Eve matinee (which is sold out!). At this point, I wish I had the time (and energy!) to incorporate more ideas I have for the show, but with the tight schedule there just isn’t time to really work out the details. Maybe if I were playing just ONE character instead of 40+, I could do it.
“Behind the complicated details of the world stand the simplicities…”—Graham Greene
(From a card Julian gave me just before the performance)
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December 22nd, 2006
Well, here we are, the day after opening night, and still alive—barely.
It has been a rough ride these last few days. Tons of technical considerations, tons of lines, and tons of production-related issues to resolve (being the guy who’s wearing many hats). It all came down to last night and apparently we pulled it off.
There were a few minor technical glitches in the show last night (not to mention my jumping around a bit on the text, which made the folks in the booth a bit nervous, yet acutely aware of the performance throughout…). We made some last minute changes yesterday to the dances and magic to simplify them. But that was technically our “preview” and tonight is opening night (no difference in the performance…just semantics). There’s so much more I would have to liked to add to the show, but that’s for next year (???).
Now, it’s back to studying lines again. Did you think that because we’d just had opening night, we can rest on our laurels??? Heck no.
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December 19th, 2006
The last show at the Barn closed on Sunday and strike occurred immediately afterwards. The plan was to begin our Q-2-Q run-thru at that time (running thru the show and setting the timing of light/sound cues), but we got a late start and only got through a few pages. We came back again yesterday and only got almost to intermission. Way behind schedule, we’re hoping to get back on track today, and then do a run-thru in the afternoon or tomorrow.
There’s so much crap to sort out and thankfully there are a few great people helping out while I try and concentrate on the massive amount of lines I need to learn. They’re mostly down (with a few rough spots here and there), but I really need to spend more time…which is a luxury that doesn’t exist right now…
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December 13th, 2006
Having not danced for a while, I was a bit rusty for years. But last year’s production of Mame put me back into the swing of things (I was only in one musical number so it was fairly painless). I don’t consider myself a dancer because I’m just not so interested in doing musicals anymore (though I’ve been really thinking that I might want to do Sondheim’s Assassins some time in the future). But now that we have this great dance scene at Fezziwig’s ball, I MUST do something with it, so we gave MaryBeth Cavanaugh over at Berkeley Rep a ring to help out. She’s come up with some great snazzy-stepping for the ball scene at Fezziwig’s. I don’t want to give too much away, but I think the audience will enjoy it…it’s quite clever.
I’ve been talking with other people who have done one man shows for advice on various things. I’m mainly interested in actors who have done solo shows that they didn’t write themselves because they can’t really improvise if they “go up” on their lines (an actor’s term for getting lost or forgetting one’s lines during a performance). I rarely go up during a performance, and when it’s happened (I can’t even remember the last time it did) I’ve always been able to improvise my way out of it since I always know where my character is going. Not the case with Dickens.
Dickens has a particular style of prose that’s similar to Shakespeare, which is VERY difficult to improvise and sound right. There are still 8 days until opening night and that’s barely enough time to get it all right! I think I’ll end up feeling like I’m doing a tightrope act and could fall at any moment!
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December 7th, 2006
Nice article in the Marin IJ today (Thank you, Mark) which focuses mainly on the the process of getting this “Dickensian-Beast-of-a-Christmas-Show” up on stage. I look a bit stupid in the photo (I was really focused.. ) but that’s OK (There’s only so much you can do with by big ol’ lantern-jaw, Meghan Roberts). Because of a weird shadow, it also looks like I have an alien growing out of the left side of my rib cage, but enough analysis for now…
Aside from my role in King Lear being misspelled (”Perillus”…soooooo close….. ), I think it captures well the difficulty of the process. There’s an intensive “back and forth” between Julian & myself that doesn’t normally occur when doing full-cast shows because there are so many details. The article almost made it sound a little like we were at each other’s throats (”There appears to be an uneasy rapport between this actor and director - but a rapport still…”), but that’s not the case at all. I know that when Julian’s directing, he’s used to the director overseeing and having final “say” on every little detail (like most shows!). But since this project is my “baby,” we share in those details. Sometimes I catch things he doesn’t see and sometimes vice-versa (actually, more often the latter). But when we disagree on how something should be presented, we always discuss it and come to an amiable conclusion.
Charlie Varon was really good at this. Sometimes when I’d do a section for him he’d sit there quietly for quite a while, absorbing what I’d just done, and formulate a question or comment which drove to the heart of the problem at hand. Though he had some suggestions for developing the adaptation which I think were in a different direction than I wanted to go, they were great exploratory exercises which almost always revealed something useful. There’s definitely a faint “Charlie Stamp” on the way I’ve been going about things.
But the biggest stamp is Julian’s…followed by my own. I enjoy productions where the director’s vision is crystal clear. The production can fail or succeed, but it almost doesn’t matter to me. I think it can almost entirely overcome a poorly written play if the director makes something out of it. But when you start from something as well-written as A Christmas Carol, how can it fail?
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