Stage Fog Posted
You know, I hope people actually read the Stage Fog posts. Not because I spend so much time writing them (don't get me wrong, I actually do, a little time anyway), but because I spend more time linking random words to random sites. This week my fav is "Goth boy." Not only that, but running Google searches for "Nicky Hilton" and any of a number of kinky things ("horror" and "bondage") for the Thrillpeddlers review makes for a lot of spyware and other nasty things on my computer. I practically have to disinfect it every week. Especially when I click through and look at photos. OK, it looks like this week at least one person read it, judging from the comment. But maybe he only read the headline. I spend all this time linking "Goth boy," and he comments on Burning Man? Argh, that's too easy, I say! And I still have to post a review, and then next week it's Fringe, Fringe, Fringe!
Hiding the Proof
I just saw a commercial for the film version of Proof, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins. It's advertised, "Based on a Pulitzer Prize winner." A Pulitzer Prize-winning...what? That marketing department has created a very sad day indeed.
On Vacation
One of the few remaining remnants--OK, the only remnant--of my Catholic upbringing is guilt for not sticking to (mostly self-imposed) obligations, like this one. I confess, I took two days off from work--comp days, that is. And I just couldn't manage to post here--I even took a week break from Stage Fog. What pain the season preview issue brings! After Z and I finished it at her studio and watched as the files uploaded to the printer, we headed over to the DeYoung, which had a preview day for the public. So we previewed the cafe and store, the only things open. Frankly, I was impressed with the store, only because of the lower-level book collection. OK, because of the Andy Goldsworthy books. And the building...being no architecture critic, what can I offer? The lines, the angles, quirky and playful. The outdoors with the indoors. The cafe may need some help--it has the feel of a cafeteria, and wonderful as the windows are for bringing in the maximun amount of light, the view of all that fog makes you feel cold, especially in such a modern building.I attended Crowded Fire's Slow Falling Bird and Last Planet's Sore Throats, both during closing weekend. Heidi Wolff (Last Planet) may be one of the best-kept secrets. Cassie Beck continues to be one of CF's best assets--apparently she also landed a role in San Jose Rep's The Haunting of Winchester.Jonathon Keats's article in Wired reminded me to purchase really expensive tickets to SF Opera's Doctor Atomic. At least they weren't as expensive as U2, really. In the meantime, so many things simmering. A said, "Do you need to borrow my copy of A Room of One's Own?" I spent most of my two days off in conundrum. I spent a few hours of one in North Beach, which has, among other things, sun. After living in the Outer Sunset for 10 years, I've become a bit of an expert on fog. You know how there can be hundreds of words for "snow"? It's been foggy for most of the past three months. Today is "lifting light." I just made that up right now. Oh wait, it's actually sunny now. There is hope. I slept in a lot. Trevor took the car to rehearsal again. I'm avoiding the work I brought home. I'm listening to some Dark Sparkle promo CDs S gave me. I'm reading my Bloglines and wondering why I'm subscribed to Gawker, which I blame for influencing me to write this drivel, this, right now. Just without the celebs. I would rather write my reply to The Stranger article JB pointed us to, the reply I promised a while ago. I'm contemplating Ron Jones's When God Winked, which opened the Marsh Berkeley last night. Interesting new space, about 100 seats, in the Gaia Building. Too back there's a jazz club next to it. I mean for noise, not for after-show drinks.I'm going to be back.
The Review
Posted a review for Blood Bucket Ballyhoo yesterday.
700 Sundays=Big $
Today Best of Broadway announced Billy Crystal's Tony Award-winning solo performance will be hitting its SF boards this fall. Too bad you need to subscribe to the whole Best of Broadway series to even be able to buy tickets to this one.
Local Playwright Lands WP With Tim Robbins
Well, I usually wouldn't scoop my own magazine, but because most of the other papers will, if they haven't already, I'll make an exception.I'd been hearing rumors, ever since the Ensemble Theater Festival in Blue Lake (well, actually even before then), that SF Mime Trouper Michael Gene Sullivan was talking with Tim Robbins and The Actors' Gang about a world premiere of his adaptation of Orwell's 1984--which Robbins would direct, of course. This past week it became official--first, Michael e-mailed me at the mag, and then today a press release came through from SoCal (Actors' Gang is at the Ivy Substation Theatre in Culver City).1984 opens in February. Check out The Actors' Gang site.Congratulations, Michael! You rock.
Etched in Stone
Cheshire Dave continues his preoccupation with typefaces in his new animated short, Etched in Stone. Several Impact regulars have contributed voice-over talent.Choose your fonts carefully; your life may depend on it.
Sha Sha Higby
I probably should have mentioned Sha Sha Higby in the week's Stage Fog over at SFist. She's performing this weekend over at Fort Mason. I've never seen her work live, but the images are just so compelling. Perhaps I'll try to swing it Friday night.
Officially a 'Fister
Really, SFist has embraced the name, with SFisters on their softball shirts. I think that's SuperFisters. So, does that mean when I write about a company that I 'fist them?Anyway, here's my first official post. Soon, I think, I'll have a little profile, too.
What's Killing Theater
Special thanks to JB, who pointed me to this editorial by David Schmader in Seattle's The Stranger.Here's a clip:...live theater faces other deadly risks—threats far more insidious than a dumbstruck actor, or a director whose vision consists of transposing The Two Gentlemen of Verona to the antebellum American South. The worst of these threats can abort even the possibility of real theater in utero, and the name of this most heinous threat is romance—specifically, the romanticization of the theatrical form. Here's the full story:http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=22350Read and discuss. I'm still digesting.
What Kulcha?
Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the plethora of theater coverage in the Pink Pages nowadays, thanks to Sam Hurwitt's seemingly unending energy. But, what's with Culture Blog? I can't seem to find any entries for theater, which doesn't have its own link. Art link? No, that's visual/conceptual. Events? Nah. Media? Please! So, if Sam is filing like up to two features for a Sunday, then certainly theater is hopping, yes? Sorry SFGate, I gotta say you're really coming up short.
New Plays Rock
Yes, I still go to theater, and last night was a stop at the Bay Area Playwrights Fest to see Emophiliacs by our good friend—and the guy responsible for getting me into my current day job, so blame him—Prince Gomolvilas.
So, there’s a lot of talk about how to get teenagers into the theater. Answer: Hire a punk band. Especially emo. I never saw so many teenagers at the Magic Theatre, they outnumbered the industry crowd easily.
BAPF offerings are works in progress, and so Emophiliacs had a simple structure: one monologue, then the band plays, another monologue, etc. Four actors playing a bunch of different teenage guys, the premise being that they all feel the same, all their friends blend into the canvas. But what rocked, besides the band (Inverness, from Pacifica), was that the kids in the audience were totally into the monologues, which were really cool and funny and heartbreaking. Prince is really underrated, like, by the whole world, and if you haven’t read his blogs, start reading them. Get some ‘tude. Thank god Melissa Hillman was in the audience—this is prime Impact stuff.
Was also very pleased to see Joseph Parks in the cast—he played the son in The Goat, and was in Prince’s adaptation of Mysterious Skin at New Conservatory a while back. He’s heading off to Yale later this month, making his monologue about writing back to an admissions office thanking them for a rejection letter all the more amusing. Anyway, if you get a chance, check it out.
This weekend I’m checking out Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s entry, which a coworker tells me is fantastic.
