Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Theaters should have apps with their playbills



When you move you get rid of things. It just happens. You look at your belongings as they pile up and wonder when you got all of this stuff. You also wonder if you need it. I move enough that I do a cleanse fairly often. As a result most of it I will need, just not until the season changes or an adventure happens.

There are some things I don't need to keep. As much as it pains me to say it, this includes playbills. It is fun to walk down memory lane, but I have so many memory lanes paved for me, I need to limit them. Unless I retire next year I'll never have time to walk down them all. ...that's a joke.

Anyways, I don't want to lose them altogether. I just want them to stop taking up space, so until the internet becomes too crowded, I'm going to write them here. THey won't include all the information, obvious. But, I'll trust that somewhere on the internet I can find who all the dancers were in that musical I saw with that girl I knew when I was young. That was my imitation of myself at 80. Oh dear... that was a weird thought. Confession. I don't know if I want to live to 80. That's a lot of loss to incur, unless The Monkey House comes true. I've been reading a lot of Vonnegut...

The playbills meeting their demise this round include:
Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring the Rockettes. My former roommate, Lindsay had free tickets so we went. The Rockettes were pretty cool. We could've done without the 3D glasses, but we understand not all kids have our standards. It was also really weird to be at a performance where people were allowed to video and take pictures. I hated that. I hope it never becomes the norm. Put your screen down and watch, my friends. Exhausting. And they make it hard to look at the real people.

Brilliant Traces I hate to admit this, but I can't figure out when this was from. Did I see this play? I don't remember much these days though, so I'm not surprised.

Sweeney Todd Instead of flowers I brought single bottles of beer to the actresses I knew in this show. I don't know why I thought that was a great plan, but it was nice all the same. It was a fun show to see and one of those theatre knowledge thigns I'd been missing

Hamlet and Taming of the Shrew presented by the Plimoth Players this summer. Okay, I'm only getting rid of one of these programs because it was a recent enough show to keep. Also, my name is referenced in one of the bios and I don't know when else that's happened to me.. so I felt pretty cool.

Love, Loss, and What I Wore A WONDERFUL show I saw with my good friend, Rachel Anderson. We both cried our fair shares and missed the beautiful women in our lives instantly. We're some blessed people.

The Bald Soprano at The Pearl Theatre. This was one of the many wonderful shows Sally has invited me to see. It was a fun way to spend an evening. Also, the post opening snacks were scrumptious!

Stomp Jesse and I saw this together during the Summer of 2011 after Blue Man did a ticket exchange. It looked just like the video from elementary school music class. We watched it in the 5th or 6th grade. I have an unusually clear visual of sitting in Shupe and being fascinated by the idea.

Leap of Faith LeeAnn, a friend from work, got me 2 tickets to see Leap of Faith. I bought a third and went with Anna Jo and Jeff when they visited. I always like going to shows when family members visit. I like it best when I can treat. There's a lot a life in theater will stop you from doing, so I like to share and explore as much of it with friends and family as I can

"DeerHunter" release party. I went to a cd release party. It happened once. Let that be noted.

Tell the Way at St. Ann's Warehouse. That happened. They make beautiful programs. I need to up my assistant skills.

Brooklyn Philharmonic as part of the Bryant Park Fall Festival. They were lovely. I went with Cameron & Lindsay. I love Bryant Park's programming. They do an amazing job.

Lysistrata Jones. Not a bad Lysistrata remake, quite honestly. Also, way cuter and with a lot more talent than the posters let on. The posters seemed far too niche-y for the giant house the show was played in.

The Dudleys! was a cute show that was part of the Dream Up Festival. One of the talent management agency's clients I was working with was also in it. I think with a higher budget and more workshopping it could be a really good show. It was a great beginning.

Seymour or The Last Fallen Angel was also part of the Dream Up Festival. I wish it had a bigger audience. I was working box office for the festival and they had an audience of 4 so they had me sit in. It was funny and interesting. The problem was it was such a small cast and production team that it's difficult to create a buzz.

Spiderman Turn off the Dark I think we know that I saw it. It would've been better if I'd had had no expectations. Putting things on Broadway with names and hoopla makes it difficult to be anything. I agreed with the press about the set looking like cardboard cut-ups. Of course, that was the idea... sigh

The Frick Collection. I went to a museum with Kathryn, the assistant costume designer for the show I produced February '11. I wish we theater people had more time and know-how for how to develop friendships. It was really great and I think if we were to have meet in college or anywhere other than here we would've kept doing awesome things. That said, The Frick Collection was pretty solid.

Brief Encounter I have the playbill... I googled it to make sure I saw it. Wow, 2010 was so long ago: http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/theater/reviews/29brief.html?pagewanted=all
I did see it and it was quite aesthetically pleasing. I'd like to see the movie too. I imagine it's a very different experience. They used a lot of the stage. It was very intriguing.

Extraction I went to a play reading that was hosted by a producer whose blog I used to follow. The play was okay. I always want more out of readings. I don't really like music stands and binders.

Sound and Vision: At War was a really cool performance at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater. Visual and performance art seem like far more practical ways of discussing war (compared to our usual discussions).

Spoon River Anthology... an 100 person adaptation done by a graduate student at Columbia his final year. Having a cast of 100 is one solid way to sell your houses. I went to see Sloan in it. I loved parts of it and felt like a lot of it was more exploratory than final product. I don't know how everyone else felt, but being sponsored by the University I felt good about that.

Middletown felt like a modern twist on Our Town. Also, I'm tempted to save this program as a reminder to go see things at the Vineyard. I love that theater.

Washington Walks. I don't remember going on any Washington Walks, but I do miss my DC friends.


That's it for this round! So much more to rid myself of!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Again.




I know I'm not truly back to blogging as the time just isn't there, but there are some things that need documenting.

I am, however, moving. In the time between high school and college graduation, I moved my main belongings 13 times, 14 if you count the month in Czech Republic.

Since graduating from Hope I have:
moved back to Ohio
moved to East Harlem (New York, NY)
moved to South Slope (Brooklyn, NY)
and this Sunday... to Red Hook (more Brooklyn, NY... it's a big place)

Hopefully someday in the next 5 years I'll have one of those homes you stay in. But for now I'm moving into a 3 story building. Our entrance goes to the second and third floors. There are four awkward and nice boys on that floor. On my floor there are four bedrooms, one bathroom, and one common area with the kitchen and living space. There'll be me, 2 girls and one guy. I have yet to meet the guy, but he sounds pretty alright. It'll be an adventure. I'm a little nervous to begin! It's the first time I've lived with people I didn't really know since college. Wish me luck!