|
Post by Wyndham on Dec 10, 2006 8:24:15 GMT -5
Tenarke: you'll be staring in The Midnight Cowboy soon. I'll fly out to California to see that one!
|
|
|
Post by Tenarke on Dec 13, 2006 19:29:16 GMT -5
Which part; the cowboy or "Ratso" Rizzo?
|
|
|
Post by Wyndham on Dec 13, 2006 19:41:07 GMT -5
Choices . . . choices . . . choices. I'd come out for either!
|
|
|
Post by Tenarke on Mar 12, 2007 18:58:54 GMT -5
“I Ought To Be In Pictures” ran and we finished it up this Sunday matinee. The cast party was so-so. Maybe I was just tired.
Neil Simon continues to remind me of Chekhov and the director continues to believe that I’m nuts. I mentioned that I had worked with her before on a couple of other shows and thought that she had done well with these.
This director was a little disappointing to me this time. I learned later that the person originally scheduled to direct this left and that she had this dumped on her at fairly short notice. She confided in me that she didn’t like the play very much to begin with, though it grew on her later. I suppose that as a result she did not do the kind of study that should have been done and had not developed her own vision of what the play was about and what we should be bringing to our audience.
As a result she missed the “meat” of what the story was about and got very bogged down on the more external and superficial details of hand position, hair styling, costume and so forth. Like a lot of actors of my generation I tend to work from the inside out and am not necessarily aware of how I am standing, where my hands or eyebrows are; my focus is more on what is really going on between me and the other guy.
Fortunately the young actress who played my daughter and who was a third of this three character cast; is a very talented “natural”. We were definitely on the same page and rescued a show despite the director; though I’m still not sure she understands what happened.
At any rate my “itch” has been scratched for a while. Maybe I can now catch up with some of the work that needs doing around this place.
|
|
|
Post by Tenarke on Sept 10, 2007 19:04:48 GMT -5
I went to an awards banquet last Saturday night, (pasta, salad and a piece of cake) and collected another gong. The theater I work at is located on Bird St. and is called; you guessed it, “The Birdcage”. Every year awards are given known as “Birdies”. So I got another “Birdie”.
To remind you; last year I did two plays, “Three Bags Full”, which was a fairly lightweight comedy and “I Ought To Be In Pictures”, which was a bit more substantial by Neil Simon. The first role required only a pretty simple character, but lots and lots of “shtick”. The Simon play had quite a bit more depth and required a quite a bit more of “real” acting.
Naturally I got the award for the lightweight “Three Bags Full” performance.
Well, I guess you got to give ‘em hoke – and a gong is a gong.
I talked to another director with whom I’ve worked before. He wants to do “Once More With Feeling”. I’m too old for the lead, a temperamental conductor but he may use me for a supporting part, an agent. This was played by Walter Matthau in the movie some time back.
If so, I’ll be going from one Matthau Part last year in “I Ought To Be In Pictures” to another one this year.
A supporting role will be fine. I’ll get my “itch” scratched without too many lines to learn.
This one happens sometime in February. I’ll keep in touch.
|
|
|
Post by RobertGraves on Sept 10, 2007 23:38:28 GMT -5
Remarkable effort - well done, Tenarke! You got photos?
|
|
|
Post by Wyndham on Sept 11, 2007 17:22:08 GMT -5
Yes, congratulations Tenarke. Last prize I won was in grade school, so I'm jealous.
|
|
|
Post by Tenarke on Sept 11, 2007 19:03:00 GMT -5
Sorry, Robert, no photos. I was kind of busy on stage at the time and didn't get any.
The only one was a newspaper shot on one of the Three Bags reviews - very poor quality. Having gone from color analog to black and white newsprint pixels, I don't think that it would digitize worth a damn.
Thanks Wynham. Case of a large splash in a very small pond I fear. Still appreciation feels good, however you come by it.
|
|
|
Post by Tenarke on Dec 26, 2007 19:38:26 GMT -5
Here we go again!
Last September I posted that I had spoken to a director (named Herman, by the way) who wanted me for “Once More With Feeling”. Try-outs are this coming Monday through Wednesday. There is nothing to sweat as I am already pre-cast but I will go down to read against parts yet to be filled.
This was a successful Broadway play in 1958 that was later made into a movie. It is a comedy about a very gifted and extremely temperamental conductor, his estranged wife and his deeply stressed-out manager (me).
The two leads, also pre-cast, will be played by a Hungarian couple who have had some professional experience in that country. I worked with the wife before and she knows her stuff. I also know her husband but haven’t worked with him. But, I also hear that he is good.
Looks promising. I’ll keep you informed.
|
|
|
Post by RobertGraves on Dec 27, 2007 23:57:19 GMT -5
Tenarke, as soon as I read the titke this episode of Buffy came to mind: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_More,_with_Feeling_(Buffy_episode) (The link wont work unless you copy and paste it)
|
|
|
Post by Tenarke on Dec 28, 2007 0:50:24 GMT -5
Sorry Robert, no singing, no dancing, no spontaneous combustion.
Just a few bite marks on the scenery and the faint aroma of ham.
|
|
|
Post by Tenarke on Dec 29, 2007 18:32:34 GMT -5
Oops! I looked at my calendar wrong. Try-outs are not this Monday, but a week from this monday.
|
|
|
Post by Tenarke on Feb 26, 2008 14:59:41 GMT -5
Reviewing this I see that my last post was before try-outs. Yes, I did get the part.
The Hungarian couple playing the husband and wife leads have worked out well. She is delightful. The Husband, Laslo, is something of a wild man which is appropriate to the part. It is unusual in community theater to have someone willing to go “over the top” which he tended to do in rehearsal. He has however toned it down a bit in performance and is doing just fine.
“Once More With Feeling” opened this past Friday and did three performances over the weekend. I think that the play went well but due to some really foul weather and a competing event in town we played to fairly small houses. This is a comedy and small houses frequently feel awkward about laughing too loudly. Perhaps they don’t want to disturb their neighbors.
No reviews as yet. I won’t see those until next weekend.
|
|
|
Post by Tenarke on Mar 1, 2008 17:00:31 GMT -5
The reviews are in and are good.
Our houses are still not very full which is not too helpful for playing comedy; the audience is too lonely to laugh much.
Maybe the rest of this weekend will improve.
|
|
|
Post by Tenarke on Mar 10, 2008 18:19:46 GMT -5
"Once More" is now done. It was finished with Sunday's matinee. The houses did get better and more responsive.
Beyond that there is little to say. The cast was good, though Lazlo, our Hungarian wild man tended to up-stage and to make it into his own vehicle rather than playing into the ensemble. There are ways of dealing with this, however, and I must confess to employing some of them.
I suppose that I found this script a bit thin, in spite of the fact that it had a good Broadway run and was later successful as a movie. Mainly a series of gags tied together with a fairly thin hypothesis and plot line.
Well that gets it done for this season.
Not a bad experience, but I wonder if it was worth the gas money to get up and down the hill to do.
|
|