About a week ago, I attended rehearsal for the Flournoy Playwright Festival play, The Apotheosis of Vaclav Drda. Here are some digital camera "video" shots of playwright and director Christopher Cartmill instructing the cast.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Let's start at the very beginning...
My intention is that this "blog" should serve as a resource to help those passionate about theater and for those who have growing curiosity.
For those of you unfamiliar with theater, acting or stage terms, the "fourth wall" may not have any meaning for you, but I hope to remedy that.
Theater, essentially, is living art. You, the audience, have the opportunity to spy on another, to peer through the invisible "fourth wall." This window is broken when the actors make contact with the audience.
Breaking the “fourth wall” refers to the acknowledgment of the superficiality of stage-world. This can occur when actors talk directly to the audience, talk to stage-hands, unveil a hidden device or physically venture out into the audience.
But enough with the theater terminology…Let’s get to the true gist of this post.
Personally, I have more experience with “straight plays,” so the stylized world of musicals is unfamiliar territory.
Yet, in the spirit of learning, I registered to take a musical theater class based around Broadway: The American Musical, a roughly 10 lb. book (think, small dog), $60 retail, full-color history of the “Great White Way” and 20th Century American musicals.
If you already know this book and accompanying PBS series by heart, I still hope you find the following review insightful. Note: I am only saying this because the other four people in my musical theater class have read the book cover-to-cover. On top of that, they can all sing beautifully while I will not be auditioning for American Idol anytime soon.
Starting with the Ziegfeld Follies and wrapping up with modern-day Wicked and Rent, the lustrous photos are fun to peruse. For instance, when left lying on my bed or desk, visiting friends are eager to crack the cover and investigate. After a brief series of questions ("Is this for a class?! Which class?!") they pick it up and attempt to follow the hodgepodge of flashy photos and tight font. After a few seconds of turning pages, they abandon their momentary interest.
I read the assigned chapters and must agree that the writing is more "textbook" than "quick-read." During class we often watch clips from the PBS documentary, and I noticed that sections of the book follow the six-part series verbatim, which gets tedious.
However, I can open B-Way to any page and learn something new. Generally, I found that the text enhances the audio/visual with additional tidbits not included in the film version. Part of what makes the class and the book so interesting are the profiles of the actors’ personal lives.
As a coffee-table book, the text is too convoluted for a casual read. Yet, with enough photos to rival a magazine, the detailed historical commentary sometimes gets lost.
However, the combination of text and visuals manages to skillfully record an American art form in the same way an art history text would.
Overall, theater-goers and theater-lovers will appreciate this book for what it is: a documentation of 20th Century America via theater and other media.
For those of you unfamiliar with theater, acting or stage terms, the "fourth wall" may not have any meaning for you, but I hope to remedy that.
Theater, essentially, is living art. You, the audience, have the opportunity to spy on another, to peer through the invisible "fourth wall." This window is broken when the actors make contact with the audience.
Breaking the “fourth wall” refers to the acknowledgment of the superficiality of stage-world. This can occur when actors talk directly to the audience, talk to stage-hands, unveil a hidden device or physically venture out into the audience.
But enough with the theater terminology…Let’s get to the true gist of this post.
Personally, I have more experience with “straight plays,” so the stylized world of musicals is unfamiliar territory.
Yet, in the spirit of learning, I registered to take a musical theater class based around Broadway: The American Musical, a roughly 10 lb. book (think, small dog), $60 retail, full-color history of the “Great White Way” and 20th Century American musicals.
If you already know this book and accompanying PBS series by heart, I still hope you find the following review insightful. Note: I am only saying this because the other four people in my musical theater class have read the book cover-to-cover. On top of that, they can all sing beautifully while I will not be auditioning for American Idol anytime soon.
Starting with the Ziegfeld Follies and wrapping up with modern-day Wicked and Rent, the lustrous photos are fun to peruse. For instance, when left lying on my bed or desk, visiting friends are eager to crack the cover and investigate. After a brief series of questions ("Is this for a class?! Which class?!") they pick it up and attempt to follow the hodgepodge of flashy photos and tight font. After a few seconds of turning pages, they abandon their momentary interest.
I read the assigned chapters and must agree that the writing is more "textbook" than "quick-read." During class we often watch clips from the PBS documentary, and I noticed that sections of the book follow the six-part series verbatim, which gets tedious.
However, I can open B-Way to any page and learn something new. Generally, I found that the text enhances the audio/visual with additional tidbits not included in the film version. Part of what makes the class and the book so interesting are the profiles of the actors’ personal lives.
As a coffee-table book, the text is too convoluted for a casual read. Yet, with enough photos to rival a magazine, the detailed historical commentary sometimes gets lost.
However, the combination of text and visuals manages to skillfully record an American art form in the same way an art history text would.
Overall, theater-goers and theater-lovers will appreciate this book for what it is: a documentation of 20th Century America via theater and other media.
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