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The Love List: … Go

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Over four weeks of rehearsing The Love List, we had a list of our own to work on.  And with each run-through, we refined and tweaked it, checking and re-checking each item.

It goes without saying – so of course I’m saying it anyway – that the dress rehearsal is one of the last, and therefore most important, steps in that process.  It’s where we take all the pieces we’ve created and collected and put them together to see how they work as a whole.  Set: check.  Props: check.  Costumes: check.  Blocking: check.  Lines memorized: check.  Sound and light: check.  MaMaLu Olivo as our stage manager: check.  It’s our best chance to see how the show will play before we bring the audience into the theater. Continue reading →

The West’s Journey West: Thoughts On Lonely Are the Brave

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Even in my younger days, as I remember them, my favorite Westerns were always the films that dealt with the passing of the West.  I’ve always been drawn to stories of cowboys who struggle to come to terms with a time and place that no longer seem to have time or place for them or their values.  John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and – more subtly – The Searchers are classic examples of this kind of tale.

The one that has really stuck with me, though, is a film that distills that theme to its essence.  Its star still cites it as one of his favorite performances.  It helped launch the career of one of film’s greatest composers.  And it might just be my favorite Western. Continue reading →

The Sci-Fi Epic That Time Never Actually Forgot

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I really should know better by now.

For years I’ve repeatedly been able to convince myself that I’m one of but a happy few who know about Silent Running.  Yet when I try to introduce it to people, the response is almost invariably “Oh, I LOVE that movie!”  If a film screens in the forest and everyone’s there to see it, is it still a cult film?

This time, I think it is… Continue reading →

On Breaking Bad, or: Who Runs When A Bad Man Goes To War?

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I’m sure I’m not the only one who heard the concept and first thought “black comedy”.

A chemistry teacher, beaten down by the myriad sticks and stones of his life, discovers that he’s dying.  Worried for his family’s future, he decides to put his time and skills to use in providing for them after he’s gone… by cooking and selling crystal meth.

In and of itself, the tale of Walter White doesn’t necessary reach out and grab you.  It could be very good.  It could be very bad.  It could be somewhere in the middle.  And so the middle was where I stood for those early episodes.  It wasn’t until late in the second season that I committed to watching it.

What I saw when I did was something far more than a two-sentence logline.  Something that defied, even transcended, the bounds of genre.  Something that, for me, redefined what was possible in scripted television.

What I saw was Breaking Bad. Continue reading →

Not Bad For A Mad Man With A Box

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That I love Doctor Who really isn’t much of a secret – when you wear a Vote Saxon T-shirt to local film events, you’re pretty much earning a reputation for yourself.  And I’m sure you’re wondering why I haven’t written more posts about the show (that one with the Steven Moffat quote doesn’t count, since it just used his thoughts to reflect on my own growth as a writer, with the fringe benefit of earning quite a few page hits for my blog). Continue reading →

So These Kids Walk Into A Comedy Club…

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One of the great things about Stone Oak Youth Theatre is its commitment, the commitment of everyone who works there, to introduce their students to the full arts experience.  Just visit that website and you’ll find programs for drama, programs for musical theatre, programs for improv, programs for film acting (which will start up again tomorrow), programs all about the art, craft, and business of show.

This spring, SOYT added stand-up comedy to the list, with a class called Punchline.  The class was designed to teach kids the ins and outs of being comedians.; it was a great idea for SOYT, and a great opportunity for the kids. Continue reading →

A Fool And His Honey, or: On The Hazards Of Sitting In The Front Row When One Of Your Best Friends Is The Star

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It’s likely an obvious statement I’m about to make, especially if you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, but one of the things I love about my job is getting to follow, chart, even influence the evolution of a creative work.  When the film premieres, when the play opens, that’s the beginning for the audience, but for those of us on the other side of those seats, it’s just one more step in a process that never really ends.

And when you’re in on that process from the beginning, you know that from conception to reception, the slightest change can make all the difference.  Which brings us to the Cameo Theatre.

Continue reading →

Always A Learning Experience

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One of my earliest experiences in the PrimaDonna universe (or could I say “PrimaDonniverse”?) was a table read for a film then known as Dream Healer (which ultimately premiered as Dream Healing).  It was a great experience, and looking back, the foreshadowing of the moment was so blatant only someone like me could have missed it, as I met so many people I’d ultimately come to know as friends and colleagues.

Among those actors (as the Dream Healer herself) was a girl by the name of Gabi Walker.  I was genuinely impressed by the talent she showed at that reading, and even more impressed with her poise and character.  So it was hardly a surprise to learn that she was one of Nikki’s students.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that working with kids was an important part of my PDP experience well before the beginning of it all.  And as you’ve probably figured out from recent posts, that continues today. Continue reading →

On Next Generations, or: Meanwhile…

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As you can likely see from my last couple of posts, the year to date has been one for expanding our creative horizons.  And while I’ve been working on building my résumé as a practicing screenwriter, my boss has also found a new venue for her passions and mission… Continue reading →

Rumors Control, 2nd Weekend: “This is so going in my blog…”

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My apparent secret desire to be an actor has been a subplot in the PDP narrative for a few years, so I suppose it was natural that it would find its way into Rumors, especially after I stepped in during a couple of rehearsals to fill in for unavailable cast members.  With that (to say nothing of the persistence of my boss), my professional stage debut was more or less an Inevitable Fate.

Of course, being inevitable and all that, Fate wasn’t exactly bent on making it easy for me.  Buoyed by enthusiastic opening audiences and strong word of mouth (including a great review from Deborah Martin at the Express-News), our second weekend would see our best crowds yet, with Sunday’s show nearly filling the house.

I’ll let you guess who was scheduled to play Officer Pudney that day. Continue reading →