The production of "Legend Of Sleepy Hollow" that I directed goes up this weekend. Here are my confessions:
I cast the lead from outside the original round of auditioners. Nobody in that original round would have been able to play Ichabod, so I called two actors who I knew could, and put them up during the callbacks and chose the best of those.
I permitted myself to become flustered at callbacks, telling one Ichabod callback kid (not one of the two mentioned above) to "not bother." I should have put him up and thanked him and then chosen who I wanted. I gravely hurt that person's feelings and completely pissed off another friend who was outraged on that person's behalf.
I gave up on several gags during the rehearsal process.
I gave line readings to actors on several occasions, even though they didn't ask for them. This is a cardinal rule that I have broken.
Two weeks ago, I hoped that audiences would stay away from the show. (I'm very, very pleased with it now.)
I approached this show with far less energy than my last directorial effort, which was a true labor of love. I frequently wonder if I did enough.
I forgot to thank my Asst. Director and crew in my program bio.
I think that the shows I direct are far better than the other shows that my company does, including the ones that I act in. (If I'm directing, I avoid casting myself unless there just aren't enough people to do the roles.)
Nevertheless, I believe I'm one of the better actors in our company. This is not really a director's confession, more of an actor's confession.
I largely failed to work with the actors individually on their characters, letting them find their way even when it seemed obvious they were lost. I focused instead on smoothing the blocking and making sure the "look" of the show was right, and fleshing out the action on stage where the script didn't have much to say.
I lost focus on the mainstage show when it was decided to take the show to a theatre conference. Worse, I lost focus on the actors who were unable to make it to the conference, so they got no attention whatsoever during the two weeks we were intensively preparing for the conference.
(Word of advice: if you decide to go to a conference, make sure it's with a show you've got in the bag if at all possible. Taking the current mainstage production is an invitation to disaster.)
I neglected to schedule extra rehearsals when it was obvious the show was in trouble.
I have a lot of crowd scenes that feature actors standing around shouting across the stage at one another. I have little or no idea how to improve this.
My crowd scenes lack focus. I have no idea how to improve this.
I didn't thank my producer and tech director enough for the work they did.
I got defensive when I referred (jokingly) to "stage magic" and my tech director responded by pointing out that it takes a lot of work to make that magic.
I let the lighting designer run roughshod over me, including installing a cyc for the show after we'd blocked some scenes upstage.
The lighting designer was correct.
I demurred when an actress asked me whether I preferred her "with the corset or without." Yes, I am an utter coward.
I sometimes forget that if not for the stage manager, costumer, props mistress, tech director, and lighting designer, this show would have been impossible.
I'll probably remember 20 more items after I post this.
*UPDATE* I deleted a few items that might have seemed harsh in the extremely unlikely event any cast or crew read this post. My brother is absolutely correct in the comments: the show rocked beyond all comprehension. I only hope enough people see it.
Way to go, Mitch! Everybody pop on over and wish him well. Tell him Bovious sent you!
Is it just me, or is satire that requires one to ignore the deaths of 3,000 office workers actually more "stupid" than "funny?"
Isn't it a tad disingenuous to take Bush to task for changes in his foreign policy brought about by 9/11? I'm not picking on the blogger in question here, and I'm pleased to note that he points out that the world has changed since then. I just read about this in Entertainment Weekly and wanted to post on it.
I just got hit with a comment spam. Something about a hot stock tip. I deleted it, but I'm probably going to have to do some work to prevent more of this crap. And it won't be this week, because I'm kind of busy.
David Bernstein clears the fog from a New York Times editorial:
Justice Brown's record as a judge is also cause for alarm. She regularly stakes out extreme positions, often dissenting alone. In one case, her court ordered a rental car company to stop its supervisor from calling Hispanic employees by racial epithets. Justice Brown dissented, arguing that doing so violated the company's free speech rights.The Times implies here that Brown dissented alone. Actually, the decision was 4-3.
I'm just a lowly reader of newspapers and other media output, so I'm surely not qualified to answer this.
For all you journalists out there, was the Times:
1. Perfectly justified in strongly implying that the Avis dissent was a solo?
2. Lying when they strongly implied it?
or
3. Just careless when they strongly implied it?
(Link via the Instapundit.)
I know what I believe...
While I was home sick last week, I watched a wonderful movie on DVD, "The Man Without A Past." I recommend it highly. As a bonus, I watched it with my 10-year-old, who was also home sick. He enjoyed it immensely, which surprised me as it features subtitles and no explosions. He seemed right in tune with the quirky humor of the film.
How does a movie that's so boring and looooong come up with such a full page of memorable quotes? I admit that I laughed at nearly every one of these, both when I saw them and on the page. But there sure are some dry patches in there, too. Strange.
For those of you reading this in the Atlanta area and environs, here's what I've been up to lately.
That's right, I'm directing New London Theatre's "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow," which goes up next weekend (Halloween weekend.) Don't miss the funny/creepy story of Ichabod Crane and his adventure with the mysterious Headless Horseman! Fun for the whole family. If I haven't met you in person, be sure to introduce yourself.
It's been a lot of fun. I've got a great cast & crew - possibly a better cast than the last show I directed (and adapted), The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer. We took the show to the Georgia Theatre Conference's Community Theatre Festival last week (no link due to my current Google-less status). We didn't win the competition, but we got called back for an encore. No, wait, that was School Of Rock. No encores, but it was an overwhelmingly gratifying experience. The chapel where the festival took place was a neat old craftsmanly space where you could picture Mark Twain doing one of his shows.
I've been battling a bug of some kind since last Wednesday and that has hurt my energy for the show, but we managed to make it through the festival without me dragging anything down. Next week's Tech Rehearsals should be pretty smooth and I hope to work with some of the actors to tighten up their performances. That's something that I'm always giving short shrift in these large cast shows.
Wish me luck!
The "Stomach-Turning Pro-Palestinian Rally" link below has been updated.
Today's Bleat mentions the hostingmatters DOS attack:
[...]A large portion of the blogworld has been crippled by attacks on the company that hosted a pro-Israel website, and the attacks are coming from servers that host Al Qaeda groups. This makes me uneasy; there's something else going on here, I think. It's like hearing reports from Alaska radar stations of peculiar blips on the screen. Someone's testing something.
Now, I considered a posting yesterday in which I referred to the hackers as "pig-fuckers," which means that Lileks & I are thinking much the same thing. However, I'm not as nervous as he is. Unlike the radar blip in Alaska, a remote outpost in a '50's sci fi movie, this is obviously aimed directly at the pro-Israeli site. This is the invasion, not a precursor.
Whoop te doo.
Pig-fuckers.
I've long regarded the Darwin Fish largely as a symbol of derision toward religion. Even before I became a Christian, I regarded the hijacking of an explicitly religious symbol as an act of spiritual hostility.
It appears I may have been correct:
It is my way of saying, "Creationists are [expletive] idiots. Get a [expletive] education. Humans are no better than chickens, redwoods, fireflies, earthworms, goldfish, algae or infectious salmonella, just because we walk upright and have opposable thumbs."
Nice fella. Of course, he's talking about creationists here, but the article lends much support to my original impression. Recommended reading.
Link via The Volokh Conspiracy
I was once thrilled to see a reference to myself on Instapundit:
Q: "What's the quickest way to shut Noam Chomsky up?"A: "Ask him a linguistics question."
Now, my assertion seems to have at least some validity: although I'm not qualified to comment on Chomsky's linguistics work, it would appear that at least some of his linguistics work bears remarkable similarities to his political discourse:
Chomsky's typically confident conclusion is both extraordinarily broad -- "in any statistical model for grammaticalness, these sentences will be ruled out on identical grounds" -- and also unsupported by any argument other than assertion.
Score one for Boviosity!
I normally avoid reading Ann Coulter's columns, but this one on Rush Limbaugh's drug addiction nails something that I've noticed for quite awhile:
Hypocrisy is the only sin that really inflames them. Inasmuch as liberals have no morals, they can sit back and criticize other people for failing to meet the standards that liberals simply renounce.
I'm sure many liberals do have morals, including some whose favorite taunt is "hypocrisy!" But...I was once called a hypocrite by a liberal because of behaviors I engaged in before I learned better.
Actually, more than once.
Hopeless.
Read this and then help me understand why I should think these people are right, or even rational:
For a brief time, I was able to tape the rally speakers without intimidation. But then someone came up behind me and whispered a question in my ear. "Are you nervous?" he asked. He pointed out how many people were at the rally, and continued to ask me whether I was afraid. Again, under the circumstances, I took this as a threat.When I turned the camera around, I asked him if I had anything to be nervous about. He said nothing, staying perfectly still and staring straight at me. I kept pressing him, asking him whether I should interpret his questions as some sort of threat. Again, he kept quiet, and didn't say anything more to me, although it turned out later that he was one of the speakers at the rally.
Read it all. The thing that this most reminds me of is Michael Moore's attempt to visit a white supremacist enclave. But at least those pinheads were kind enough to hide out in the woods. This makes me wonder what they're hiding in the woods, if this is the way they behave under the public eye.
Hey, I wonder if Jorn Barger was there!
Update: The video mentioned in the above-linked post is now available here. Is it just me, or does the skinny broad with the '80s perm put out a weary sort of, "I can't believe they're buying this crap, but at least I have dozens of people listening to me, only 1/3 of whom are doing so because I promised them extra credit on the final." vibe?
Yahoo! News - World Photos - Reuters
Herbert London: Looking for America in Chicago
In pidgeon spanish, I pleaded for assistance.
Check out the Atlanta Journal Constitution Personals
im a great liar when it comes to returning goods i bought... but otherwise I don't lie very much...
I'll bet.
Hold on - she also says she looks like Jennifer Aniston "if I dye my hair lighter." LIAR! You could dye it white and not even come close, sister.
My favorite was the guy who was featured last week, whose reason to get to know him was, "I have a very active social conscience." Yeah, way to drag in the Democrat chicks, dude!
(This post brought to you by the new "MT it!" bookmarklet I installed. Testing...testing...)
I'm surprised not to see Tracy Ullman's name anywhere near this:
"Bridget Loves Bernie" is alive and well, only this time blond Bridget is the "daughter" of two gay life partners
One of Tracy's characters was a little hippy dippy girl whose parents were two gay men. It was revelatory to me, both in the clear-headed portrayal of a clueless young girl, and of the two men.
And, just so that everything's clear here: Tracy is so hot. Talent, humor, hot body, cute face...roow.
If she's not getting royalties for this, she should.
