More Fantasticks

A Fantastick Show

My kudos go to all the students who made "The Fantasticks" a success. With all due respect to my former students, it was the most perfect show I have directed. I have thought a lot about this statement in the weeks since the show has ended. If something is perfect is it my favorite? Was the show perfect? Do we even want perfection? Every show I have directed has been a learning experience. Each succeeding show has benefited from what I learned from the previous. I have made mistakes. I have ruined moments. I have let things go that I should have fixed. But all of it has led to the quality show that was "The Fantasticks"
"Beauty and the Beast" taught me to take into account the confines of our space when designing a show. "Servant of Two Masters" taught me how to implement commedia in a show. "Pirates of Penzance" taught me no matter how funny a moment is, it must be focused to be successful. "Comedy of Errors" taught me that if the audience can't understand you, it's not funny. "Fiddler on the Roof" taught me to have faith in the abilities of my cast. "The Crucible" helped delve into character like I never had. "Joseph" taught me that even "fun" shows have messages. "Mother Courage" honed my ability to genuinely mix comedy and tragedy. (and puppets) "Henry V" showed me how to make the story arc from beginning to end. (and fighting with swords, lets not forget that) So with all that behind me, (and all the students as well) how could it not be the best?
Each show has had it's high points. Things that make it stand out in my memory as special. "The Fantasticks" is no different. I will remember it as the show that ran for longer than any show in PHS history. It is the show that gave McKenna Austin the chance to show what she could really do, and she did. It is the show with James, who took character at the high school level and pushed it to the stratosphere. It's the show where Steven and Brian stole the show and then gave it back when they're turn was over. It had Dexter look a cold in the face and say "You won't take this away from me!" It was a cast that could make an audience laugh till it hurt and then hurt till they cried. It's the show that we threw together in 6 weeks (musicals usually take 2-3 months) It is the show where my romantic lead broke his ankle and performed anyway. It's the show nobody saw but everybody loved. It's the show in which everyone came together and everything came together. It's the show that made me remember and follow.

Some Photos of Henry the V.

Love, Serve, Honor, and Obey

As we have worked to develop a Shakespeare Ensemble scene that is true to the nature of the bard as well as contemporary and socially conscious, we have created perhaps the most compelling and agressive piece of my directing career. Something that I have brought with me from my college days is a propensity to find damaging attitudes about women in classical works. Shakespeare is not immune to this scrutiny and, if anything, his "Taming of the Shrew" is the flagship of sexism on stage of the period. It is appaling to me that this play is still performed straight in this day and age. The final speech indicates attitudes about women that are misogynistic, plain and simple. So, I felt that we needed to discuss those issues, both as a critique of the Bard himself, and as a commentary on the current state of affairs. I have chosen 3 scenes from other Shakespeare plays to revolve around Katherine's speech, that represent the 3 types of abuse. Hamlet chides Ophelia to a nunnery is emotional abuse. Chiron and Demetrius in the rape of Lavinia is sexual abuse. And Othello strangling Desdemona is physical abuse. As we have put this scene together it has become apparent that all of the types of abuse are interrelated. There is something of sexuality and violence in Hamlet's maddening emotional teasing. When Chiron and Demetrius are done with Lavinia they violently abuse her by cutting her and then are not finished until they have emotionally crushed her. Othello has much of the same. What it leads me to believe is that abuse is abuse, and it is not long before one who emotionally abuses moves on to other things. My hope is that the kids in the class have gained a greater respect for women (if they are men) and for themselves (if they are women). Next Friday will show if we are a success.

Theatre of Consumption

I’ve noticed a pattern in my work, and it surprises me. Looking back on the year and the productions we have done I see some striking similarities. I assure you that they are coincidental and yet, it might be wise for me to do as I was instructed in college and say “Absolutely. That is exactly what I trying to do.” Alas it is too late, for I have already given away my lack of genius and revealed it as mere kismet. Yet my myopic hindsight leads me to interpret the consistencies in said shows as having some higher meaning. Not unlike Robert Wilson’s synthesis: when the various, and assuredly random, elements work together to create an apparent whole. Like the waves of wheat in the breeze seem to move to the strains of Mozart on the car radio as you drive by, and it seems so...intentional.
Initially the similarities are fairly obvious. All productions, from “Romeo and Juliet” through “Joseph” and “Mother Courage” and ending with “Of Zombies and Commies”, are decidedly non-realistic, in presentational form as I taught my Drama 3 students this year i.e. presenting a play as opposed to representing reality. All had an episodic structure, some more disconnected than others, and expected the audience to follow them on a journey into the abstract, the bizarre, and at times the surreal. “Romeo and Juliet” repeated the same scene 5 times. Each repetition changing and diminishing the understandability of the text. “Joseph” took us on a post-modern journey into the story of Joseph of Egypt, with its breaking of the 4th wall and genre hopping it is surprising to me that it has become a staple of the last bastion of realism in America. “Mother Courage” well... “Mother Courage” was “Mother Courage” wasn’t it? Who would have thought that a play that leaves out much of the story in favor of socio-political ranting and had giant puppets with guns for hands would be so well received? And a One-act written by students, that has a bunch of Zombies (in all their gory glory) interspersed with Megalomaniacal marxists as the bloody coda. All of this seems to point to an unhealthy obsession with experimental theatre. Truly I do what I love.
But upon closer inspection, there is a more subtle and, perhaps, more striking similarity amongst these works. “Romeo and Juliet” showed the words of one of the greatest playwrights in the history of the world being consumed (literally devoured in the end) by vivid visual imagery. “Joseph” was an attempt to create to most artfully digestible musical in my time at PHS. As one of the most popular Musicals in Utah I wished to see if the patronage would consume it with the same vigor and zeal as they have the other gazillion times before. Like how people like to eat pizza, even though they have eaten it at least once a month since they were two. (p.s. mission accomplished) “Mother Courage” deals with a family that is assimilated (as in the case of Eilif becoming, visually, just like the robotic soldiers) and ultimately devoured by war. The One-Act (whose title “Of Zombies and Commies” makes me giggle) portrays one group, that is the Zombies, literally consuming others and another, the Commies, consuming American Pop Culture (from Celebrity Trivia to shopping at Wal-mart). Ultimately leading to a showdown in which the Zombies eat all the Commies, showing perhaps how American zeal of consumerism ultimately leaves us mindless copycats even in our appropriation of one of the most dangerous ideologies in history.
The fact of the matter is that all of these coincidences reflect upon me, and what I believe theatre is for. I am fascinated with the idea of consumption. We consume all day. Air, water, food, love, and probably most of all, the media. We literally glut ourselves virtually every moment with little regard as to what it is that we are consuming. Do we consider what it is that we view? Or has our appetite for cheap, copious, entertainment become a terrifying doppleganger of our ever expanding waistlines? Have we Americans become so enabled and addicted as to incapacitate ourselves with an overabundance of media lard. One of my goals for these students has always been to have them become more wise consumer, more informed on the possibilities artistic nutrition. Not just eating the intellectual Twinkie simply because they are unaware of the enormous variety of healthier and more deeply satisfying options available. Entertainment once meant “to engage the mind”, now it is hardly uttered without its companion “mindless”.
So as I reflect on my serendipitous artistry and, perhaps more accurately, my oft quixotic venture into the bizarrosphere, my hope is that in our search for truth, we will open our eyes a little wider, tune our ears a little more finely, chew a little more slowly on the things that pass before us. Perhaps we will find a delicate flavor we have missed, or maybe it’s just indigestion.

State Drama

Several students participated in the Utah State Drama Festival (yes, festival. They did away with competition a few years ago.) I was much impressed with the kids performance. This is my fourth year and many are kids that I have taught since my first year and have come along with me as I have made efforts to change the way drama is done at PHS. It was exciting to see them be so successful after 4 years. (I suppose I should mention that the scores were all "Straight Superior" which is the highest any student can score at the festival.) So in the interest of me taking all of the credit for this I Pat myself on the back >pat pat<. In all seriousness, i count myself lucky to have such wonderful kids. Jeers.

Zombies are dead...really.

Our One-act "Of Zombies and Commies" performed at the Region Festival and drenched the stage in blood. While I admit the effect is very cool and the play was very funny, I feel that the gore overshadowed the actual value of the production (Which was to draw into question our consumerism and its unstoppable power) and I think that the Judges felt the same way.