Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
The Power of Pain
Pain is a powerful force. It can make a grown man howl like an animal in the middle of the night, a child cry until she chokes to death on her own tears, the best of friends betray each other as their eyes are gouged from their sockets, a broken heart leaps to freedom, another slashes the object of rejection while still another eats his own dog to sate the gnaw of starvation.
Agony -- Egon Schiele, 1912
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Solstice
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The actual moment of the Sun's lowest latitude in the sky is December 22 -- 6:08 am Universal Time (EST: Dec 22, 1:08 am; CST: Dec 22, 12:08 am; MST: Dec 21, 11:08 pm; and PST: Dec 21, 10:08 pm.
Welcome Yule!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Hold It!
Ozzie Guillen and Alex Rodriguez, from the YouTube video The Way I Are: An Alex Rodriguez Slideshow.
Monday, December 03, 2007
11.24.07
Full moon rising, photograph taken from my mother's window on her 88th birthday, November 24, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
11.16.07
In search of the youth with no face, a tear falls as I remember.
Sunset on Fire Island, November 16, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
10.22.07
Halloween
Annual Theater for the New City Halloween Ball --
"Zombies on Parade" will be performed that evening, October 31, 2007
(a one-act musical satire of horror)
Annual Theater for the New City Halloween Ball --
"Zombies on Parade" will be performed that evening, October 31, 2007
(a one-act musical satire of horror)
Monday, October 15, 2007
TNC Halloween
Annual Theater for the New City Halloween Ball -- "Zombies on Parade" sketch in Cabaret (Donald L. Brooks)
Monday, September 24, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Monday, July 09, 2007
07.09.07
The Off-Off Broadway Experience
as Our Lady of 42nd Street in Donald L. Brooks' "Xircus, the Private Life of Jesus Christ" at the Performing Garage, NYC -- 1971
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I am overwhelmed with memorabilia from the underground of the 60’s and 70’s theatre, and there is no way in hell I can catalogue and publish it all before I kick the bucket -- perhaps someone is interested in a project of that magnitude -- however, that is another tale.
The first play in which Harvey Fierstein was cast outside of Brooklyn was “Xircus, the Private Life of Jesus Christ” for the dual role of the Clown and Our Lady of 42nd Street. Harvey had arrived with resume and photo in hand to an open non-Equity call (the Equity cast was leaving because I would not sign a contract to turn the show over to an Off-Broadway production) for replacements of the original cast.
I had been totally unsatisfied with certain aspects of the play, and this development offered a chance to correct all of them -- one being the casting of Our Lady of 42nd Street, who at the end of the play gives a rambling monologue to the audience amidst the gaudiness of a pornographic Times Square blaring “God Bless America”.
The actress who had played the role had decided (most likely with the director’s blessing) that it was her moment -- long drawn out moment, introspective and feel-sorry-for-me moment, all-wrong moment! The end of the play and its monologue felt like a giant pause before the curtain call, instead of a steady mad swirl to the conclusion of the evening’s can-can dance to a film of the atomic bomb!
Harvey showed up at the audition with faux credits and a convincing monologue -- I spoke to him about playing the madwoman and the all-out-stops energy that builds to the conclusion -- he understood. He wanted the part. Well, he’s always blamed “Xircus” and me for his rasping voice because he insisted his lines be heard -- I could not impress upon him that they were not important -- that the mad raving should not be coherent. His screaming was excellent, but he did hurt his voice -- I will not take the blame, one should have vocal training in order to perform an aria -- however, it did make for a great finale!
Harvey and I went on to over a dozen collaborations -- Euripides “The Trojan Women” (Andromache), Aeschylus “Prometheus Bound”, Sheridan’s “The Rivals”, H. M. Koutoukas’ “Christopher at Sheridan Squared”, two Megan Terry plays, and finally, upon my advice, became a playwright with “In Search of the Cobra Jewels” which I directed, continuing on with “Freaky Pussy” and “Flatbush Tosca”.
We went our ways, so to speak, upon the first installment of “Torch Song Trilogy” I have enjoyed watching the monster I created balloon to stardom!
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Thursday, July 05, 2007
07.05.07
The Off-Off Broadway Experience
Second in a series of articles on theatre, especially the birth and growing pains of the Off-Off Broadway theatre movement with links, memorabilia and illustrations, on theatre productions and individuals with which I have been associated or met in theater. The views are strictly my personal experience and do not represent any other individual's life and experience outside of our mutual association.
Your comments in the Comments section provided will be more than welcome. If you find errors or omissions, please make note of same in the Comments section of the post in which they appear -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification, and all Comments will be acknowledged and left as Archive.
ODETTA
In 1971, producer Richard Briggs (who was stage manager of "The David Frost Show" at that time) began a series called “Monday Nights at the Performing Garage”, enlisting performers he had met on the Frost Show, or knew from the past. Odetta would perform on September 13, 1971. The Performing Garage was the space on Wooster Street that had housed “Dionysus in 69” which was on tour, and Richard Scheckner, it’s director and producer had rented the space to the controversial production of “Xircus, the Private Life of Jesus Christ” which was now in its fourth month of a then unheard of six-month Off-Off Broadway run. So Odetta was certainly going downtown that evening!
I set up the lighting that day, which was fairly simple, utilizing the existing instruments with minimal refocus -- Odetta, with her guitar, was the solo performer.When the performance began, one could hear some sort of large vehicles arriving outside of the theatre (sound came through easily as the Performing Garage was just that, a garage with a metal roll-down door). It could not have been ten minutes when the unbelievable sound of a jackhammer began in front of the garage in the street. Consolidated Edison, at 9:00 o’clock in the evening had decided to dig up the street.
Odetta is a very subtle performer -- folk songs rarely get raucous! When the jackhammer started, she simply kept performing for the remainder of the song she had begun. At the end of the song, Richard Briggs made an announcement to the effect that we would pause to find out what was happening -- the jackhammer resumed.There was a conversation outside the theater and Richard Briggs returned, and so did the jackhammer! Richard Briggs went back outside again and when he returned, all was silent, the performance resumed and continued to a successful conclusion minus the accompaniment of a jackhammer.
It was some time later that I found out that Richard had taken the entire box office and dropped it in the hole that Consolidated Edison was in the process of excavating -- telling the workers something to the effect “If you can get that for me in the next hour, let me know by starting that jackhammer again -- I’ll come back out -- otherwise, take a break fellas, we won’t be long.”
Upon the conclusion of the performance, the audience left to the sound of a jackhammer!
Second in a series of articles on theatre, especially the birth and growing pains of the Off-Off Broadway theatre movement with links, memorabilia and illustrations, on theatre productions and individuals with which I have been associated or met in theater. The views are strictly my personal experience and do not represent any other individual's life and experience outside of our mutual association.
Your comments in the Comments section provided will be more than welcome. If you find errors or omissions, please make note of same in the Comments section of the post in which they appear -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification, and all Comments will be acknowledged and left as Archive.
ODETTAIn today’s New York Times crossword puzzle, the 1-Down entry clue is “Gonna Let It Shine” singer -- the answer, of course, is ODETTA. Odetta's name is a frequent entry in crossword puzzles due to the crossword-friendly letters in her name. So today is as good a day as any for her appearance in "The Off-Off Broadway Experience".
In 1971, producer Richard Briggs (who was stage manager of "The David Frost Show" at that time) began a series called “Monday Nights at the Performing Garage”, enlisting performers he had met on the Frost Show, or knew from the past. Odetta would perform on September 13, 1971. The Performing Garage was the space on Wooster Street that had housed “Dionysus in 69” which was on tour, and Richard Scheckner, it’s director and producer had rented the space to the controversial production of “Xircus, the Private Life of Jesus Christ” which was now in its fourth month of a then unheard of six-month Off-Off Broadway run. So Odetta was certainly going downtown that evening!
I set up the lighting that day, which was fairly simple, utilizing the existing instruments with minimal refocus -- Odetta, with her guitar, was the solo performer.When the performance began, one could hear some sort of large vehicles arriving outside of the theatre (sound came through easily as the Performing Garage was just that, a garage with a metal roll-down door). It could not have been ten minutes when the unbelievable sound of a jackhammer began in front of the garage in the street. Consolidated Edison, at 9:00 o’clock in the evening had decided to dig up the street.
Odetta is a very subtle performer -- folk songs rarely get raucous! When the jackhammer started, she simply kept performing for the remainder of the song she had begun. At the end of the song, Richard Briggs made an announcement to the effect that we would pause to find out what was happening -- the jackhammer resumed.There was a conversation outside the theater and Richard Briggs returned, and so did the jackhammer! Richard Briggs went back outside again and when he returned, all was silent, the performance resumed and continued to a successful conclusion minus the accompaniment of a jackhammer.
It was some time later that I found out that Richard had taken the entire box office and dropped it in the hole that Consolidated Edison was in the process of excavating -- telling the workers something to the effect “If you can get that for me in the next hour, let me know by starting that jackhammer again -- I’ll come back out -- otherwise, take a break fellas, we won’t be long.”
Upon the conclusion of the performance, the audience left to the sound of a jackhammer!
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