NaNoWriMo Update #1: Hey, I Decided to Write A Play While I’m At It!

I’m presently at 6,000 words with my novel simply because I’ve been a bit busy recently. So, I’m a bit behind, but I’ve been trying to write whenever I have the time. Which sometimes means that I end up writing at, oh, 3 a.m..

But Saturday night, I was sitting in an Argo Tea with my MacBook, working on my novel while simultaneously reading Bilal Dardai’s live-tweeting from a performance of “The Man Who Was Thursday” when an idea hit me.

What if I decided to switch the narration from third-person omniscient to first-person point of view for the very final chapter?

This would be to simply show how destructive the relationship that the two characters were in for most of the novel was to them personally. (I’m presently a bit fascinated by what love, infatuation, lust and obsession does to people and to their relationships by others. Those themes are not only explored in my novel, but also in the play that I managed to start working on. Only, the stories told in both of them are very, very different and the ending for one is a bit downbeat while the other one is a bloody tragedy at the end.)

So far, I think that it is effective and manages to tie up the plot lines very well. I’m not sure if I will change the narration for the entire novel to first-person point of view for this secondary character. I’ll figure that out later and was in the process of debating that when I was kicked out of Argo Tea. (The staff decided to close early.)

In other news, I started writing a play too. At this moment, the play is coming along better than the novel. But I had a realization today that an actor can’t be hogtied on his back and have his facial expressions visible to the audience in most possible stagings. So, I’ll fix that in my stage directions. (Long story short: Obsessive ex-girlfriend of the protagonist kidnaps the protagonist’s best friend.)

The Great Cupcake Project

I am not ashamed to admit that I love food.

I love both the preparation of food and the consumption of it; to me, spending two hours in the kitchen preparing mushroom and parmesan risotto is one of the most rewarding things in the world because it tastes so wonderful.

And among the various different dishes and items I enjoy are pastries. But since coming to Chicago, the only places I had consumed wonderful pastries at were Ann Sather’s (cinnamon rolls) and Medici’s on 57th (spinach and feta crossaint).

A couple of weeks ago, someone on Twitter had commented about cupcakes in Chicago. I knew of places with cupcakes, but I hadn’t been to any. Wednesday, while walking to the Greenhouse Theatre Center to see “The Pillowman,” I noticed that there was a cupcake place called Swirlz located at Lincoln and Belmont. Saturday, I was on the bus to get to the brunch and noticed that there was another cupcake place called Molly’s Cupcakes that was on Clark. I suddenly felt fairly stupid because I didn’t know that those places existed in my neighborhood.

Sunday, I was walking around my neighborhood because it was absolutely beautiful outside and I was a bit annoyed and needed to talk a walk. I decided to go to Molly’s Cupcakes, where I ordered a chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting and gummy bears. (Don’t worry; I had milk with my whole wheat couscous that evening.) It was delicious and an idea hit me.

What if I went to various cupcake shops in the city, tried their cupcakes, and then decided on which place had the best cupcakes? I would write about the cupcakes here and basically review them.

This isn’t the first time I’ve done this; a couple of years ago I went to all of the sub shops in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area to figure out who had the best meatball sub. (The answer: Sub City on College Hill in Cedar Falls. They keep their meatballs in a crockpot all day.) But this is a bit more practical because cupcakes are much less expensive than meatball subs.

I have a list seven places that I know of where I can get cupcakes in Chicago: More Cupcakes, Twisted Bakery, Sarah’s Pastries and Candies, Phoebe’s Cupcakes, Meatloaf Bakery, Molly’s Cupcakes and Swirlz Cupcakes. If anyone would like to add to this list, feel free to do so.

I might also have some people aid me in this, simply so I don’t have a sugar overdose. I’m debating that though. Although, More Cupcakes apparently has a BLT cupcake and I want to find someone to try it for me. (When reviewing food, it tends to be better to bring someone with you so they can taste other items.)

But, the Great Cupcake Project will begin later this week and I’ll report back either before I leave for winter break, which is next weekend, or after I get to Iowa when I finish this. So, check back here for an update on the project later.

Reading Susan-Lori Parks

A couple of weeks ago, I twisted my ankle walking home from a play because I am a klutz. This resulted in me spending a bit more time sitting around my room than I normally do, so I decided to read Venus and Topdog/Underdog by Susan-Lori Parks.

For my script analysis class this semester, I had read The America Play and “Elements of Style.” I enjoyed Parks’ style of writing and her approach to telling a story, not to mention an appreciation for some of the points that she made in “Elements of Style.” But, after reading The America Play, I felt as though I didn’t fully appreciate the work; that I might appreciate and enjoy it more if I saw a full-fledged production of one of her plays.

What I actually needed to do was read The America Play aloud, because that’s what I did with Venus and Topdog/Underdog and I enjoyed them immensely. This is probably because of how Parks writes her plays. For example, “the” is “thuh” in her plays. “The” could either be pronounced with a short e sound or a long e sound, but when you see “thuh” on paper, you know how it is pronounced.

Parks addresses why she does this in “Elements of Style,” by writing that, “Language is a physical act. it’s something which involves your entire body–not just your head. Words are spells which an actor consumes and digests–and through digesting creates a performance on stage. Each word is configured to give the actor a clue to their physical life. Look at the difference between ‘the’ and ‘thuh.’ The “uh” requires the actor to employ a different physical, emotional, vocal attack.”

As an actor and a playwright, I can’t argue with this; language is a way of informing the reader of a play about their character. And the emotion that goes into how different words might be pronounced is powerful.

So, if you have not read any of Susan-Lori Parks’ plays, I recommend that you do. And when you do, try reading them out loud.

Review: “The Pillowman”–The Theatre School at DePaul University

Martin McDonagh is a playwright that doesn’t skimp on blood and swearwords in his plays. His play, “The Pillowman,” certainly is filed with these elements as it chronicles the final hours of Katurian Katurian (Derek Gasper), a writer who’s stories frequently feature gruesome fates that befall children, as he is interrogated by Detective Tupolski (Chris Rickett) and Officer Ariel (James Gasber) for crimes being committed that resemble the fates in his stories.

The production that is presently being performed at the Greenhouse Theatre Center under the direction of Jenn BeVard features a terrific set designed by Williams G. Wever, which utilizes the entire space and transforms it into a dark, dank cell that looks unkept. Even the pillars in the mainstage space at the Greenhouse have been made to look like rough gray and blue concrete structures.

Unlike the set, which remains constant throughout the entire play, BeVard’s production is rather uneven. For most of the first scene, Gasber and Gasper are very stiff onstage and while Gasber is very cold and menacing in the first scene (bad cop) and Rickett is not very menacing (good cop), we never get to see any depth from Gasber until the final scene, where we learn a bit about Ariel’s personal life. The problem with Gasper’s performance is that when Katurian does three murders before the audience’s own eyes, it is difficult to believe that he would actually kill those people because he never seems repulsed or enraged by the actions of his victims to be capable of killing them. The third scene of the first half, which is Act Two, Scene One in McDonagh’s text, begins with Katurian being tortured offstage. The screams heard offstage aren’t terrifying and Gasper seems perfectly fine after being tortured, except for some blood coming from his ear, which doesn’t make sense because of how cruel and tough Ariel seems.

The second scene in the first half, or Act One, Scene Two, is a brilliantly staged scene as Katurian tells the story “The Writer and the Writer’s Brother,” a semi-autobiographical story about a boy who is nurtured by his parents to be a good writer while his parents torture his brother (Kaitlyn Griggs). BeVard has the mother (Kelsey Jorissen) and father (Daniel Dvorkin) moving in an almost dance-like manner as they wheel around a bright bed with toys underneath and another bed that has machines underneath it and smile, making the characters appear to be lacking in remorse as they torture one of their children. The final scene is also very well done as the actors show more sides of their characters.

But the show falls flat on its face in the third scene of the first half, where most of the action occurs between Katurian and his brother Michal (Michael Olavson), who is brain-damaged due to the torture he endured as a child. Olavson plays the role as though Michal is a stereotypical individual with Down Syndrome, which is not the same thing as having brain damage and being mentally and developmentally behind. This portrayal, due to its one-dimensional nature, also fails to make the scene work and only has emotion being shown from Katurian.

Another stumbling block also results from Mike Ross’ sound design. While the sounds heard before the show are terrifying, the noises that he adds during the stories that are told by the characters are only distracting, particularly during “The Little Jesus,” which is acted out at the beginning of the second half of the show. While what is occurring in the story is revolting, the sound of “Ave Maria” on the speakers is distracting and makes the actions less horrific.

Although BeVard’s production has some weak points, the final scene is so well done, particularly in the last few minutes, that it makes it a satisfying evening of theater that also manages to be engaging for an entire two-and-a-half hours.

Review: “parades and changes, replays” at Museum of Contemporary Art

In the 1950’s, choreographer Anna Halprin developed her show “Parades and Changes,” which was subsequently banned from performance in New York in 1965 due to nudity. Halprin had put together “Parades and Changes” by writing dance scores, sets of instructions for the dancers, but allowed the dancers to decide how to perform them. “parades and changes, replays,” which is running at the Museum of Contemporary Art until Sunday, is a reinterpretation of Halprin’s original productions, headed by French choreographer Anne Collod. The physical movements of the six performers as they perform the sequences to Morton Subotnick’s chilling score results in a fascinating 90-minute performance.

While the first moments of the show involve a man onstage conducting the six performers, who are seated among the audience, to speak–five of them speak in French and one in English–the rest is silent, save for the score that is being performed, which at some moments has an industrial and mechanical sound to it. The first 30 minutes of the performance involves the performers undressing and dressing, which is what caused “Parades and Changes” to be banned in 1965. In spite of the different movements that the performers incorporate into the stripping and dressing, the repetition causes it to become a bit dull. The performers, nude, then tear up large sheets of brown paper and crumple the paper, throwing it around, swirling the paper around. The movements of the performers as they throw the paper up in the air and move it around has a quality reminiscent of a storm occurring onstage. The next portion involves the performers, now wearing underwear underneath black jackets, rhythmically stomping on brightly colored cubes. After removing their shoes, the performers run to different blocks and yell before embracing other performers. The different embraces and the alienation of those still standing on blocks, alone, caused this portion to be the most powerful aspect of the performance.

The final sequence involves an odd fashion show of sorts where the performers create outfits out of the various elements scattered on the stage. At the end, four of the performers put as many objects as possible on a male and female performer. This has an odd, monster-like quality to it as the performers walk up the aisle, to the lobby outside of the MCA theater, and then let outside to roam outside of the museum, the images of which are captured on film and shown on a screen inside of the theater. (I am happy to report that the performers got back to the theater okay.)

These sequences and the performances from the ensemble are brave and interesting. It is truly a shame that Halprin’s original production was banned from performance in 1965 because of how human yet alienating Collod’s reinterpretation of the original “Parades and Changes” is.

“parades and changes, replays” has performances at the MCA stage on Saturday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 8 at 3 p.m.. Tickets are $25 and are available by calling 312-397-4010 or visiting mcachicago.org. The performance is recommended for mature audiences.

NaNoWriMo or NaPlaWriMo?

The month of November happens to be the month for the annual National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, and National Playwriting Month, NaPlaWriMo. (It also happens to be NaBloPoMo, but I don’t have something to blog about everyday and I feel like writing every day might be a stretch for me.)

Now, which one of these might I participate in? You might think that I would be participating in NaPlaWriMo because of how much I love the theater. But I’ve decided to participate in NaNoWriMo since the idea that I have for a story to be told would be best told in a novel format rather than in the format of a play.

I have thirty days to write 50,000 words. I already have 1,734 words written, so writing 50,000 words seems like a goal that is possibly achievable.

What will make participating in NaNoWriMo will be that in the month of November, I have finals. I also have entrance essays to work on for two colleges that I’m apply to. (I’m trying to transfer.) So, in addition to those things, I will be trying to write a novel. But, after November 16, I begin my Winter Break, so I should have plenty of time to write.

Well, wish me luck. I won’t abandon this, I promise.

Review: “Holes”–Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences

Louis Sachar’s novel “Holes” is about a boy named Stanley Yelnats who is sent to Camp Greenlake to dig holes with other delinquents after he steals a pair of famous sneakers. Sachar wrote a stage adaptation of his terrific, award-winning novel, which is presently being staged until December 5 at the Merle Reskin Theatre as part of the Theatre School at DePaul University’s Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences’ season. While Sachar’s adatation is faithful to his novel, John Jenkins’ production is, at its finest moments, a campy mess.

The actors give performances that are either stiff, notably in the instance of Andrew Goetten, who plays Stanley; or are cartoonish, unrealistic portrayals of the characters. The sole exception to this is Katherine Cobb, who plays Kate Barlow, the infamous Western outlaw. Cobb manages to show us a proper schoolmarm, to a devastated woman after the murder of the man she loves, to a ruthless, vengeful woman with a twinkle in her eye that is terrifying and reminiscent of Jack Nicholson in “The Shining.” Unfortunately, Cobb is not onstage that much and she is not the main focus of the plot and thus the audience must try to cope with the lackluster performances the other actors deliver. Ross Hoppe’s set is cartoonish and effects to try to illustrate points come off as campy. The deadly yellow-spotted lizards are simply large lizards that look like plush toys on stick, which fails to illicit the fear that the characters would probably be feeling at the sight of these creatures. To illustrate that two characters are on a lake, an actor ran across the stage with a piece of blue fabric. Sadly, these occur at moments that are fairly intense in the play and kill the intensity.

Hopefully, young audiences are not turned off by the production of this play and will still read Sachar’s novel because the plot line and dialogue is well written, just very poorly delivered.

Now That’s Not Funny

Last week Friday, before the revival of “Brighton Beach Memoirs” had opened, it was announced that David Cromer’s production of William Inge’s “Picnic” will head to Broadway next fall. “Picnic” was seen last year at Writer’s Theatre in Glencoe, and since Cromer seems to be the wunderkind of theater at the moment, I was very excited for this.

Then, Sunday night, “Brighton Beach Memoirs” opened on Broadway to fairly positive reviews. I was very pleased to see this since I wanted to go see both “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Broadway Bound” when my father and I eventually get around to going to New York since I’ve been a huge fan of Neil Simon’s comedies since I was a preteen and the idea of the plays being directed in a manner that seemed more realistic made me really excited.

But then last night, at intermission for “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety,” I was checking my Blackberry when I saw, on Twitter, that “Brighton Beach Memoirs” had put up a closing notice for Sunday and that “Broadway Bound” was cancelled.

I was deeply saddened and shocked by this news. (To be honest, I had to refrain from yelling “NO!” at the top of my lungs, which was my gut reaction.) For starters, the show had just opened and it had opened to fairly positive reviews. I would like to think that the show might’ve picked up some steam after the reviews–although with the way that everyone talks about the death of the critic’s influence, I’m crazy to be thinking of such a thing.

Still, I’m shocked that this show was not doing well commercially. Neil Simon is not an unknown playwright, David Cromer is not a nobody director, Laurie Metcalf is in the cast. I’d like to think that those might draw in audiences, but evidently they didn’t.

I really can’t say much about the play because I never got to and won’t be able to see it. But, there are other bloggers that have seen the show and have some terrific thoughts on the premature closing of this show. (I highly recommend you read these two posts from Esther at Gratuitous Violins.)

The biggest question that is looming in my mind with this whole matter is what this will do to the planned revival of “Picnic.” I would have to say that William Inge and “Picnic” are not as well known as Neil Simon and “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” so I wonder if that revival is going to go on and whether or not producers will do something like put big stars in it. I hope it does go on and it is successful because…well, I think that it is a production that should happen go to Broadway.

Kabam! Pow! Slam!

Friday night, I went and saw The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety at the Biograph Theatre, which is being done by Victory Gardens Theatre in association with Teatro Vista Theatre. Kristoffer Diaz’s new play, which is directed by Edward Torres, is the only time I will ever enjoy watching men in spandex.

The play focuses primarily on the world of professional wrestling with T.H.E. wrestling, who’s champion is Chad Diety (Kamal Angelo Bolden). Diaz’s play is narrated by Macedonio Guerra (Desmin Borges, who is lively and entertaining onstage), who is known more commonly as “Mace.” Macedonio grew up in the Bronx, watching wrestling with his brothers, and has a personal connection with the “sport.” However, he is a mid-level wrestler and explains to the audience that he is the man that makes Chad Diety look good.

But then, Macedonio’s brothers find a talented Indian man in Brooklyn named Vigneshwar Paduar (Usman Ally), and Mace recruits him to join T.H.E–if you’re curious, the acronym is pronounced the same way as in the word “the.” To make money, Everett K. Olson (James Krag), the man behind T.H.E., decides that Vigneshwar Paduar will be a Middle Eastern terrorist because Olson doesn’t really know the difference between an Indian and a Pakistani. He becomes The Fundamentalist, who’s signature move is first called the Kabbalah Koran Kick before becoming the Sleeper Cell. Mace becomes Che Chavez Castro, a Mexican who comes here for the American dream, only to find he hates it. And the two begin to fight other opponents in the ring such as Billy Heartland and Old Glory (Christian Litke plays both roles) in a metaphor for the American fear of being taken over by terrorists and Mexicans.

Professional wrestling is a topic that I know little about because it is senselessly loud and overly theatrical without having a point. The overt theatrical elements are key in this play; the title itself refers to the entrance of Chad Diety into the ring, which, in the production, involves Bolden walking up and down the aisle to blaring hip-hop music while throwing money in the air. And while Mace liked the more naturalistic, less dramatic wrestling when he was a boy in the Bronx, he is in a profession where he has to run around in a red and yellow sombrerro, even though he himself is Puerto Rican.

The play is filled with stereotypes of all of the characters, which skewers our views of race and provides insight into our views. Olson is the rich white man who has someone to feed steak to his dog; everything to him is a matter of money. Deity makes assumptions about Guerra and Paduar because of their ethnicities and the other two make assumptions about the other characters because of their ethnicities. The show features strong language and the racial views that the characters have are offensive–at least, they were to the couple seated next to me. But by giving a played up version of our views on race, it actually provides a mirror to what we think. It is mentioned in the play that wrestling is a metaphor and in the world of Diaz’s play, this is certainly true.

The play also features some terrific fight scenes, directed by David Woolley, both in and out of the ring. Which helps make the show work very well; a play about professional wrestling wouldn’t be very good if there were poorly done fight scenes.

I really wish I had seen this show earlier in its run, which concludes on Sunday. You don’t find plays that look at race and professional wrestling in such a well done manner that even uptight theatergoers like me leave the theater absolutely excited by what they have seen.

Things That Should Not Exist: Musical Theater Edition

This post could also be entitled, “If any atheists are looking for good arguments as to why there is no supreme being, I have one.”

If you’re not familiar Dan Goggin’s musical “Nunsense,” then I’ll fill you in. The first “Nunsense” musical is about a group of nuns in Hoboken that put on a variety show to be able to raise money to bury their dead sisters. The audience for the musical, as in the audience in the theater, is also the audience for the variety show, and there are also some scenes involving an audience quiz and bingo.

Now, I hope you’ve noticed that I used the word first in that previous sentence when referring to “Nunsense.” That’s because there are multiple sequels to “Nunsense.” There is “Nunsense 2,” “Sister Amnesia’s Country Western Nunsense Jamboree,” “Nuncrackers,” “Meshuggah-Nuns,” “Nunsations: The Nunsense Vegas Revue.” There’s also “Nunsense A-Men,” which is apparently the original show, but the nuns are men in drag. If you would like summaries of the sequels, then I suggest looking at Wikipedia, since it will do a better job of explaining than I will.

Wednesday, Theatermania.com reported that Dan Goggin is going to direct a new “Nunsense” musical at the Fireside Theatre in Minnesota. This will be entitled “Nunset Boulevard: The Nunsense Hollywood Bowl Show.”

I understand that Goggin might want audiences to enjoy in the success of the nuns, but “Nunset Boulevard” will be the sixth show. And just because a show is successful shouldn’t mean that you should make or keep making sequels.

I don’t think that the first musical is really good. The plot is horribly contrived and none of the numbers are memorable. But, evidently, people do think that it is good because the “Nunsense” musicals keep getting done.

But, really, Dan Goggin, could you stop after “Nunset Boulevard”? Please?