7/26/2006 05:08:00 PM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Going through my Fringe schedule, and noticed that not only have we lost Circumference, but Little Burlesque on the Prairie and Walltalkers are gone as well.|W|P|115395200855416155|W|P|Sucksville|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/27/2006 12:30:00 AM|W|P|Blogger Scrappy|W|P|I know! I'm totally bummed about all three of them as well.

Allegra8/02/2006 09:39:00 AM|W|P|Blogger Bill|W|P|There was another drop out yesterday. Can't quite recall what it was, though.7/25/2006 08:01:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|
Here's a video I shot that I've finally gotten online. Neil Gaiman reads from his novel "Anasi Boys" and does a question and answer session. Taped at the Dreamhaven book store in Minneapolis MN on December 3, 2005.
|W|P|115383273188505941|W|P|Neil Gaiman reading and Q&A|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/20/2006 08:57:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|The musical version of Carrie (yes, adapted from the Stephen King novel) is regarded by some afficianados as the worst Broadway musical ever. The fact that this would make it worse than Rent staggers my imagination, but after watching video excerpts from it, I concede they might be right: This is the number "In," where the cool kids talk about, well, how cool it is to be "in," I suppose. Why yes, that is a kick line in an adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the brutality of high school. Next up is a scene from Solid Gold: Oh, wait, that's from "Wotta Night," another snazzy number from the appeared-on-Broadway musical version of Carrie. Remember the scene where the cool kids who torment Carrie go out to slaughter the pigs? Why can't I stop thinking of the musical in Stayin' Alive? Last one (though there are more clips out there). This is "Destruction," where Carrie finally lashes out, and I'd like to remind you that this was on Broadway: Ha ha ha! No, seriously, let's see the real footage. Oh, that is the real footage, where he just runs in and pours the blood on her, then runs off? Laser lights simulating flames? They must have spent all their money on lamé, and so didn't have any left for special effects in their Broadway musical about a girl with telekinetic powers. A simple oversight. Thank God for the internet, eh?|W|P|115340506479064046|W|P|"Not since Carrie..."|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com8/05/2006 10:33:00 AM|W|P|Blogger trueenough|W|P|Wow. I just threw up in my mouth a little.8/05/2006 08:32:00 PM|W|P|Blogger Susan Gets Native|W|P|Uggg.7/18/2006 10:58:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Fringe Blogger Matthew Everett gives us a plug, says we're in his "Pre-Fringe Top 10," but won't be at the opening night show because he doesn't want to watch Porn with his mother. I can't imagine why not!|W|P|115323874442388837|W|P|(Knock, Knock) What's going on in there?|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/18/2006 09:34:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|It's been rightly said that the great joy of being a pessimist is that you're never disappointed. If things turn out well, you get what you secretly wanted, and if they turn out bad, at least you were proven right. No, the problem with pessimism is that it's a terrible form of cowardice, of protecting yourself because you're afraid of getting hurt. The easiest and most pleasurable thing in the world for me to do is to think about the shows I'm going to do: Sweeney Todd set in a small, claustrophobic space, Hamlet with a guy who actually looks like the Hamlet described in the text. Other shows that exist only in my mind. They're great shows, trust me, you'd love them if you ever saw them. Doing a real show, by comparison, is a series of compromises, of adjustments, of stumbling around in the dark looking for a light switch. In the first place, there's the matter of getting it down on the page. It's absolutely astonishing how hard it is to get an idea out of my head and onto paper successfully. Every time I put it down it looks, well, less good. Then there are the collaborations you do with your other artists, the actors, the designers. Everything that was self-evident now becomes a conversation, a negotiation, as you try to figure out how the script can make sense to everyone. And then you put it in front of a bunch of strangers and ask them what they think. What a weird way to spend your free time. There's never enough time, there's never enough money, and its only saving grace is taht when it works, it's the greatest feeling in the world. When you get the reaction from the audience, when you hear them laugh at a joke you've written, or gasp at an action you've taken, applaud. There's really nothing like it. For a long time, I didn't do any shows. I didn't audition, I didn't write, I didn't direct. I'm not sure what I was doing, but I think I was convincing myself how good my next show was going to be, telling everyone about it, describing it in vague terms. Protecting myself. So, I'm working on this new show, and it's going well, which is to say that I'm worried about how much rehearsal time we have left, I'm scrounging around for props, and I'm completely convinced that my script is crap. And then I remember that a lot of other shows are in the same boat. Business as usual. I don't panic. I take a deep breath, and I look at the challenge that's right in front of me, right now. I remember that the audience doesn't see all the cable ties and chewing gum holding the show together. They see the shiny bits we put up front, so we have to polish those and nail down everything else. I don't think I'm giving away any great secrets here, and the actors, God love 'em, renew my faith in this show at every rehearsal. There was this fantastic description I read online, and I'm going to steal it to describe what doing a show is like. It's like a looking at a photograph of a kid running towards the edge of a roof, a red tablecloth tied around his neck. He is at one moment the pinnacle of human aspiration, imagination, joy, and a testament to our complete idiocy. There! Look at his face, pointed ahead and up, not down, as he runs towards his destiny. And the weird thing is, sometimes he flies.|W|P|115323729252009201|W|P|It's a bird...|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/16/2006 02:38:00 PM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Let's see if that title helps Google find this page. Went to get gas. Wasn't close enough to the pump. Went to pull forward. Key wouldn't go into the ignition. At all. Called Saturn. They had no clue. Closed Sunday. Called AAA. Got towed to service center. Not open today. Tow truck driver instantly diagnoses problem: a small plate has gotten stuck, and needs to be loosened. Recommends I call a locksmith. Call for locksmith. Thinks we should have ignition replaced, can't get parts (from Saturn) until tomorrow. Wedges plate open, sprays it with lubricant, gets our key in. Car back. So, to be clear for those who are searching for a solution to this problem (which is apparently not uncommon): If your SATURN CAR won't let you INSERT or PUT the KEY in the IGNITION, call a LOCKSMITH.|W|P|115307894151240128|W|P|Saturn Key Won't Go In Ignition|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/17/2006 04:18:00 PM|W|P|Blogger Kitty Cat|W|P|locksmiths are wonderful friends to have.
as are you.7/18/2006 11:23:00 AM|W|P|Blogger Bill|W|P|Oh, listen to you.

My best friend that day was AAA+, which paid for itself (once again) on a single problem. But yeah, I was rather relieved to see the 20 year old roll up in his black van and fix the problem with a can of lubricant and a lockpick.7/16/2006 08:52:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|“Gatz’’ will have its American premiere at the Walker Arts Center in Minnesota on Sept. 21, less than two weeks after “The Great Gatsby” closes at the Guthrie. Who's up for six hours of Fitzgerald? Anyone? Anyone?|W|P|115305797628865074|W|P|More on Gatz|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/16/2006 08:45:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|The New York Times has a tale, a tale of two Gatsbys: one the forthcoming new production from our own Guthrie Theatre, which has hopes of moving to Broadway. The other is an unconventional adaptation of the full text of the play, called Gatz, produced by a group called Elevator Repair Service. It's six hours long with three intermissions. ELS is New York-based but because of the potential Guthrie production, they can't perform their adaptation (which has been getting good hype on the indie circuit) in their home town: By taking the show underground, Elevator Repair Service burnished its hipster credentials, especially since the audience was full of industry players like Mr. Eustis; Jim Nicola, the New York Theater Workshop’s artistic director; and Wallace Shawn. “It became the place to go, a secret hit,” said Mr. Russell, who produces the annual Under the Radar festival, a showcase that presented the workshop. “If you were really cool, you had seen ‘Gatz,’ but you had to know someone who knew someone who knew someone.” Unfortunately for Elevator Repair Service, one someone happened to be a trustee of the F. Scott Fitzgerald estate, who alerted Ms. Westberg, who promptly sent a cease-and-desist e-mail message. That was the end of “Gatz” in New York. Read on...|W|P|115305779132369360|W|P|A tale of two Gatsbys|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/16/2006 06:41:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Bad week for tech. Sharon's laptop went kerflooie, the volume structure becoming corrupt, and the tool to fix it ended up hosing it completely. So I've spent the last two days trying to recover what I can. A lot of photos missing. Yesterday we went to a wedding, and on the way down there, we were listening to Sharon's iPod. Now, fortunately before the laptop incident, Sharon had synched all her music onto her iPod. This happened because the iPod was brand new, a replacement for one that had gone into disk failure. Well, just as we were pulling into the parking lot, the iPod froze. Froze hard, and started making weird chirping noises. Last night, while inspecting it on my laptop, I got a "Sad iPod" icon, and instructions to visit Apple's Support page. Thanks, Apple, thanks a lot. It's raining now, a welcome relief from the 100 degree temperatures of the last few days. Maybe it'll wash away the bad tech mojo and allow me to get some creative work done. We open in, what, three weeks?|W|P|115305037908654911|W|P|Things fall apart...|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/20/2006 08:50:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|iPod Woes....Sad indeed. Mine was stolen in the Chiago airport. Got a new one...60G Video. Felt Bad...gave it to jeff for christmas as a surprise got his old one. Real old one. Black and white then it went to the shop. Light out...cried. Jeff loaned me his for one day. I tried to give it back! Left it in my ar in the secluded driveway...by accident(read too much wine) STOLEN!!!
That is bad juju!

Best to Sharon!7/13/2006 11:00:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Eric from Perpetual Motion Theater has a nice blog entry echoing what my sentiments on breaking into a Fringe audience. They're doing a really cool piece in a swimming pool called The Depths of the Ocean. Check it out.|W|P|115280657769733633|W|P||W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/12/2006 10:33:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Unrealted to theatre, but totally related to my groovy wife, I've been working on learning CSS, and have converted most of her site over to it. So far, so good.|W|P|115271844647455592|W|P|Look upon my works, ye mighty...|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/12/2006 08:18:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Here, in no particular order, are some of the shows I'm going to see at the 2006 Fringe. Putting together these lists is always a pain, because my intent is to buzz shows that I'm hyped about. The problem is that I always end up hyping shows that already have hype (hell, you can see that from the "most scheduled shows" list). So, I'll try to avoid putting up shows that I (and probably you) am definitely going to see, like, Die, Clowns, Die (oops). The Rats in the Walls Yeah, okay, I've blown it already. Tim's no. 6 on the Most Scheduled list, but I have a confession to make: I'm not a fan of Lovecraft. You know that bit from the first Simpsons Halloween special where Bart says, "You know what would have been scarier than an empty hallway? Anything!" My relationship with Lovecraft is kind of like that. But I love Tim Uren's shows, and the unique venue for this is just one more reason it's on the schedule. 1926 Pleasant. Environmental theatre based around solving puzzles. Geeking out about this one already. It's been a dream of mine to do an Alternate Reality Game at the Fringe. I wonder if these guys are interested... Carpe the DM This is a gimme. RPGs + Theatre = me in attendance. Bedeviled Eggs This one hooked me at the Fringe For All. The actor playing Satan was hilarious, trying to deal with the problem of conceiving the Antichrist, while dealing with "performance anxiety." A very stylyish, comically overwrought excerpt. Project: Twin Cities American Next Top Idol Search! Ugh, that title! But! It's done by No Refunds Theater, who did the iconic Kung Fu Hamlet and the brilliant Zombie Mania. I'm informed that this is going to be more of an improv show, but I'll always give these guys the benefit of the doubt. Calculus the Musical I'm pretty sure I'm missing an exclamation point there. Calculus! The Musical. The first act at the Fringe for All, this one won me over with its Schoolhouse Rock sensibility. The Cat Came Back Sexy description + Sexy photo. Welcome to Fringe Marketing 101. Porn! Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dong I haven't heard anything about this one, but solidarity between porn shows, you know. Plus, unlike my porn show, this one has nudity in it.|W|P|115271230643752954|W|P|My schedule, part 1|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/11/2006 01:58:00 PM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Ah, crud.|W|P|115264433760623390|W|P||W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/10/2006 02:20:00 PM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Two more plugs from the Fringe Bloggers: Newcomer Rachel Sachs sez: yay improv-a-go-go guy! (Kelvin Hatle, playing "Dave") who doesn't love porn? everything you didn't want to know about sex in a hilarious comedy! And the inimitable Kate Hoff: I missed THACO last year, and Bill Stiteler said that I wouldn't have fully appreciated the show about gamer geeks. I see that he's working on a show that's much more up my alley this year. Er, thanks, Kate.|W|P|115255946810393806|W|P|Two more from the Fringe For All|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/09/2006 02:14:00 PM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Fringe blogger Phillip Low gave our Fringe for All excerpt another glowing review. Phillip liked THACO last year and says: So it seems that they're jumping from one of my great hobbies to another. Truthfully, it wouldn't matter to me how they did at the Fringe-for-All: I trust this group, and the topic has some fairly obvious comic potential, so they'd get my recommendation sight unseen. But their three-minute sendup of educational videos -- punctuated by a woman carrying a giant cardboard sign reading "egg" and intoning "BEHOLD! THE OVUM!" -- killed. Woot.|W|P|115247305861416521|W|P|FFA Plug|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/07/2006 11:23:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|I'm a big fan of creating a catchy title for a show, especially a Fringe show. When you know absolutely nothing about a company (and most of the time you don't), a good title is the best way of drawing in an audience. A great title for a Fringe Show makes you want to go see it, like Kung Fu Hamlet or, (ahem) Watching Porn. Bad titles are vauge, or worse, boring. Why is our theatre company called Council of Doom? Because I hate companies that have wishy-washy names like "Butterfly of Harmony" or "The Poetry of Livingness Ensemble." Nuts to that. One year, while Sharon and I were on a long drive, we came up with a game: invent a bad Fringe title. The idea is to create a title that just tells you the show is going to be hell for an audience to sit through. I had some good ones, but Sharon totally annihilated me at the end:
    Mommy: Do You See ME? Can I Play This Banjo? I was especially proud of this one, and even began writing a review of it as "the show that answers its central question in the first five minutes... I Saw This In the Fringe Last Year! Consider This A Resume Somebody Review Me, Please I'll Show My High School Drama Club Two Tambourines and My Menstrual Cycle Why Can't I Play This Banjo (sequel) Gospel According to Saint You Buddha-Call Take This, Daddy! The Revelations of Saint Cannabis I Am Shakespeare! Have You Ever Really Looked at a Leaf? My Secret Clown Knock Knock! Who's There? Jesus! What's He Gonna Do With That Sausage? This may actually fail as a "bad" title, because it makes me almost want to see it You Decide the Blocking! He's Not My President! Ugh. Just... ugh. www.individual.edu First Cousins. Then Lovers. Drama Minor... in a Major Key!
And of course Shazz won with: My Plantation of Hope Isn't that wonderfully depressing? It just lays there like a marble turd, stinking up the whole theater. If you ever meet Sharon, make sure to ask her to do her impression of the show's last line.|W|P|115229018951103963|W|P|Bad Fringe Titles|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/07/2006 09:07:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|I should probably explain this, because that's me that Matthew is citing as joking about trying to sabotage Kevin Kling's upcoming Fringe show, In Hopes of Claudia. A little background: Joe Scrimshaw and I had a brief conversation at the Fringe For All about whether the Fringe had become, well, "bigger," I believe was the phrase we used. But what we were really talking about was the Fringe Festival has become such a draw, in terms of potential audience (what are we up to now, 30k tickets sold? 35?), as well as the fact that there are so many more companies doing shows, that it sort of creates this pressure cooker situation. You know the audience is out there, you just have to get them to come see your show. So really, it's just like the rest of the year. Except that it's compressed, and the other companies aren't seperated from you by time and space, they're all around you, and in the same building. So, the Fringe is certainly a very competitive environment. And that's a good thing. But back to the conversation with Joe. I said to Joe that even if my show has a lousy attendance and another show has a great crowd, I don't blame that show for "stealing" my audience. "Yes," Joe deadpanned, "But you're a sane person." When a show bombs (and we all know how that feels), it's easy--hell, it's expected--to blame everyone but yourself. Audiences don't want to take risks, the press doesn't understand art, etc, etc. And that's fine for making yourself feel better, but in reality, if people aren't coming to see my show, it's probably my fault. Either artistically or in terms of marketing the show, I've failed to reach the audience. Back to Kevin. The MN Fringe has, over the years, established a group of perfomers who are the gold standard. People will go to see their shows just because they're doing them. Kevin's one of them (others are David Mann (taking his show on the road this year after failing to get drawn in the lottery), and my good friend Ari Hoptman, along with the aforementioned Bros. Scrimshaw). They draw these audiences because they're damn fine performers who have established a level of quality so that audiences feel they can trust them. And so when a new and/or struggling group comes along and sees crowds flocking to these shows, there can be a jealousy that comes out disguised as something else. Last year I spoke to a performer who suggested that either the Fringe exclude performers like Kevin and David, or that they simply shouldn't enter the Fringe anymore, because "they didn't need it." The idea being that this would "free up" the audiences to go see other (i.e. his) show, instead of what would probably actually happen: the audience would just go to see one less show. Or wouldn't come in the first place. And then the rest of us lose part of a potential audience. I think I have a good show this year. I know I have a good title. After three sell-outs last year (in the much, much smaller Acadia Café), I'm emboldened to hope that I might have a similar level of success this year and maybe become one of those artists that some people might come see because, like Kevin Kling, they've established a level of artistic quality. But really, I just want everbody else to be jealous of me.|W|P|115228895055825539|W|P|My Plantation... of Hope!|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/06/2006 12:38:00 PM|W|P|Bill|W|P|Publicity Shot for WP Kelvin Hatle (and friend), in the publicity shot for Watching Porn.|W|P|115220755266739483|W|P|Pub shot|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/06/2006 10:14:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|
                             ED
               No, I work in pictures.  I'm a
               director-actor-writer-producer.

                             NORMA
                       (she laughs)
               Ah, c'mon!  Nobody does all that.

                             ED
               Two people do.  Orson Welles and me.
Dailyscripts, Ed Wood|W|P|115219924344136898|W|P|Pretty much sums it up.|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/06/2006 10:05:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|
Fringe-for-All
Originally uploaded by rrazor.

"Dave" (played with aplomb by Kelvin Hatle) reenacts a micro-camera view of conception and gets a little too excited.

Another shot from the Fringe preview of Watching Porn

|W|P|115219854419622413|W|P|Fringe-for-All|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/06/2006 10:03:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|
Fringe-for-All
Originally uploaded by rrazor.

Christina Frank and I reenact a 50's "Miracle of Life" film.

This picture was taken at the 2006 Fringe-For-All preview, where 30 companies did 3 minutes from their Fringe shows.

I'm standing in for Trevor Hartman (who was on the West Coast at the time); I'm not acting this time 'round.

|W|P|115219842226108456|W|P|Fringe-for-All|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/06/2006 09:31:00 AM|W|P|Bill|W|P|I became a director pretty much by accident. In 1999, the publishers of the Arden Shakespeare collection decided that a previously unattributed play, The Reign of King Edward III, had been written by Shakespeare. There was still some dissent--notably from the Oxford Shakespeare--but for whatever reason, their decision was a Big Deal (as these things go). It was such a big deal, in fact, that it made the news. The News of the Weird section of a website I was reading that day. A new Shakespeare play! Can you imagine! I hunted down a text version of it on Project Gutenberg, but when I told all the theatre people I knew about it, they were interested for a few seconds, and then went back to talking about Rent. So, I decided to stage it. I was going to produce it, but in my typical procrastinating manner, I never got around to actually asking anyone to direct it for me. And so I ended up doing it. I directed the first full text production of Edward III since the authentication, beating the Royal Shakspeare Company by a couple of years. That still puts a smile on my face. The production was a mess, of course; I had no idea what I was doing, directing a cast of about 17, and I use "directing" very loosely. I was a big devotee of André Gregory, having watched Vanya on 42nd Street and reading about his work with the Manhattan Project (theatre group, not the A-bomb creators), and was convinced that the ideal position for a director was to follow the Prime Directive: observe, but do not interfere. Well, that works fine if you're a recognized genius with unlimited rehearsal time. With me, not so much... My poor actors. I apologize. You all deserved better. I did learn, however. For one thing, I learned what it is a director does, and why it can be (maybe) the most fulfilling job in the theatre. And that sink-or-swim mentality of my first "real" show (and we did end up swimming, albeit frantically, to shore) helped me to produce my later shows, rather than waiting for someone else to do the shows I wanted to do. Three years ago, I produced my first adaptation, Signal to Noise. Last year, I did my first original play, THACO, which was a hit, selling out three shows in the (admittedly small) Acadia Cabaret. This year, I'm doing another original work, Watching Porn, which I'm in the middle of rehearsals for. It's going well--very well--but there's still that panic of doing a show. A million things to take care of, trying to figure out where to find a blow-up sex doll (sans head), a bed that can be transported easily, as well as saving broken glass to use in a crash box. It's nuts, I tell you, and it's a hell of a lot of fun.|W|P|115219780950732526|W|P|Let's put on a show!|W|P|dynayellow@gmail.com7/06/2006 03:49:00 PM|W|P|Blogger Kitty Cat|W|P|am tired even reading your mighty accomplishments.
as for porn, i know i am in good hands.
omg, no pun intended.
wish i could see your play, for the play is the thing.