28 Months Later...

THEN:
It was September 18th when I wrote my last Blog post, twenty-eight months ago to the day.
I saw a T-shirt once that read: "MORE PEOPLE HAVE READ THIS T-SHIRT THAN YOUR BLOG." FUNNY.

Anyway...
My last post was written just after I had learned that I was cast as Varney the Vampire in Bryan Enk & Matt Gray's Penny Dreadful. In the time since, I have performed in Penny Dreadful (#7: The Peril of Penny - a Damsel Lost in Time, #10: The Science and The Seance, #11: The House Where Bad Things Happen, #12: The Last Century) for Third Lows, Adventure Quest and A Brief History of Murder (Detectives & Victims) for Sneaky Snake, Suspicious Package Rx for Gyda Arber, George Bataille's Bathrobe, The Wedding of Berit Johnson and Ian W. Hill, and The Devils for Gemini CollisionWorks, Rudolf II for Untitled Theatre Company, Kinderspiel and Quantum Poetics for Stolen Chair Theatre Company , Bethlehem or Bust! for Piper McKenzie, STARBOAT for Nosedive Productions at Vampire Cowboys Saturday Night Saloon, and in Bryan Enk and Jessi Gotta's feature-length horror film, The Big Bad (which I hear is close to a screening date).

In the past 28 months, I have had the great gift and pleasure of working with the following slew of talented Artists and Artistic Companies, none of whom I had worked with before:
Mischa Auzins, Olivia Basemen, Ben Beckley, Adam Belvo, David Bengali, Lynn Berg, Alexis Black, Eric Bland, Pete Boisvert, Bob Brader, Sal Brienik, Becky Byers, Anne Carlisle, Hope Cartelli, Lindsey Carter, Josephine Cashman, Chris Chappelle, James Comtois, Rebecca Comtois, Joshua Conkle, Stephanie Cox-Williams, Audrey Crabtree, Kimberly Craven, Michael Criscuolo, Adri Disman, Liz Eckert, Bryan Enk, Saara Falk, Dorothy Fortenberry, Joe Gately, Dina Rose Gray, Matthew Gray, Liza Wade Green, Dave Gochfeld, Romo Hallahan, Mike Hill, Jon Hoche, James Isaac, Ishah Janssen-Faith, Sheila Joon, Michael Karp, Gavin Starr Kendall, Jeremiah Kipp, Julianne Kroboth, Daryl Lathon, Candace Lawrence, Kathryn Lawson, Jeff Lewonczyk, Miriam Lipner, Rich Lovejoy, Doug MacKrell, Jessica McVea, Chelsea Manifold, Justin Maruri, Samantha Mason, Rocio Mendez, Aviva Meyer, Patrice Miller, Mateo Moreno, Brian Morvant, Steve Munoz, Kevn Myers, Eric Oleson, Emily Otto, Robert Pinnock, Kiran Rikhye, Jane Rose, Trav S.D., Jessica Savage,Jack Schaub, Alley Scott, Parker Scott, Vanessa Shealey-Younger, Patrick Shearer, Noah Shultz, Dominick Sivilli, Jon Stancato, Anna Stromberg, Sara Thigpen, Christian Toth, Eve Udesky, Michael Vaccaro, Ben VandenBoom, Darlene Violette, Viet Vo, Art Wallace, David Watson, Jesse Paul Wilson, Mike Yahn, Christopher Yustin, Morgan Anne Zipf
ARTISTIC COMPANIES:
Nosedive Productions, Piper McKenzie, Sneaky Snake, Stolen Chair Theatre Company, and Third Lows.

I was also happy to work again with these people:
Henry Akona, Gyda Arber, Fred Backus, Aaron Baker, Danny Bowes, Katherine Boynton, Maggie Cino, Ivanna Cullinan, Edward Einhorn, Sarah Malinda Engelke, Karen Flood, Carla Gant, Jessi Gotta, Stephen Heskett, Ian W. Hill, Justin R.G. Holcomb, Berit Johnson, Bob Laine, Roger Nasser, Karen Ott, Shelley Ray, Phoebe Silva, Bill Weeden, and Sandy York.

I designed settings and props for Penny Dreadful (#7: The Peril of Penny- a Damsel lost in Time, #9: The Terrible Tale of the Black Dragon, #11: The House Where Bad Things Happen,#12: The Last Century), settings for Caitlin and the Swan for The Management, props for Adventure Quest, and a murderous crucifix (The CRUCIFILER) for Roger Nasser's short horror film Leviticus 26.

In other areas of my life during the last 28, my maternal grandmother, Lucille Curry McCown, passed away in the Summer of 2009, and I went down to be there for my mother. It was my first funeral. I stayed for a week and helped my Mom get things settled. Surreal and natural.

Moved into Bushwick from the Burg, getting much more space for much less money. (The rent is still too damn high) The goal has been to create a rehearsal/performance space out of the new homestead. With the help of Abariss Culjak and Danny Pudelek, I built a big loft, which is 90% complete (is construction/home improvement ever finished?). Building well is its own reward.

I will say that the past 28 months has seen:

• The development of my design/builder skill set -
• An increased trust in my intuition, and the development of that trust into a practice -
• A clearing away of obstacles - both deliberate and happenstantially
• The broadening and deepening of my artistic community -
• A return to visual art as a practice -

TODAY:
I went to the Actor's Equity Audition Center today to audition for Pennsylvania Shakespeare, but arrived far too late to be seen (#141 on the alternate list). I have been lucky at the last few auditions that I have been to at the AEA Center, strolling in at 10 or 11am and getting an appointment. Not so today: the first person on line today got there at 5:30am, The call opened at 8am, and they were out of appointments by 8:30am.
Rumour has it that they will have another date in February (here's hoping), and - lesson learned - I will be up early for the next call and all hereafter.
The venture was not without reward, however, as I was fortunate to see a few friends at Equity - Alexis Black, Amy Liszka, Josh Silverman, and Sheila Joon to name a few - which is always nice, but I also had a bit of a breakthrough concerning the piece I had chosen for today's audition while working through it as I waited. I look forward to doing it soon! More auditions are coming up on the 27th (The Bridge Project's Richard III) and on February 28th there is Hudson Valley Shakespeare, with more Summer Stock opportunities posting every day, so we shall see.

COMING UP:
I will be performing in The Universal Rundle, one of 4 one-acts that comprise Trav S.D.'s Tent Show Tetragrammaton running at La Mama E.T.C. from March 17th - April 3rd (my Birthday!)

ONGOING:
Writing:
Blue-beard Part I: The Angel - in process
Blue-beard Part II: The Devil - in process

A 3-part Dungeons & Dragons adventure to be hopefully sold freelance to WOTC - all in process:
I: The Rooted Court
II: The Shardstones of the PhaseQueen's Horde
III: The Mage of the Silver Tower

As above so below,

Timothy

∞ ♥
"per artem facit Magiam, arte faciendi magick"

Morning Meditation

I sit up here drinking coffee at this early hour, watching the sun come up, listening to We're Only In It For The Money by Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention, while Jasmine lay by my feet grooming herself on the carpet, and I consider current irons in the fire:

• The ongoing writing process for Blue-beard - Part Two is almost at its primary seal, and Part One grows steadily...and I find myself beginning to think of actors for both parts now. I have been seeing a lot of shows lately, and have had the pleasure of discovering some performers whose work was heretofore unknown to me.


• I may direct a workshop of one of Kirk Wood Bromley's new plays, When I met Juliet, beginning sometime sometime soon (as soon as I get the play from him), but he is busy with the rehearsals for another new play, "Untitled', that he is directing, himself.


• Researching a film role as a supernatural predator (!) - this prospect excites me more than anything I've done in a long while...


• The development of Fork YES! as an artistic entity, including the development of Work, and the deepening of relationships with Peers in the community of Work.

Ate too, tooth ows and ate.

The Rain brings rumination, seemingly, without fail. Writing and cleaning today, a welcome day "off" from the day-job (but never a day off from the A-job. The trick: make sure every day-job is an A-job). Working with good people in the open air under the sun by the water to erect a Forum for the burlesque circus that is Spiegelworld. I have been informed by Kevin Bartlett that the Fringe is using the Second Tent space during the Festival for the Burlesque-y acts presented by them this year, while Spiegelworld gets its Big Top together in the Big Tent...The job has been a gift, certainly, and not only for me - I have been able to get work for three others besides myself (Artists and loved ones, all three) - and work in the Summer for such freelancers as we is a blessed precious thing, indeed.

As far as Writing is concerned, the story goes on, deepens, and progresses. The Shape of Part Two from beginning to end (and linking both) came in inspiration and proceeds to inform in intuition as I go on. It will be read-ready very soon. Part One, too, becomes more distinct as I deepen Part Two. They are designed to work independently as individual plays that are also two halves of a greater whole. That design is beginning to be palpable in its manifestation. The Air is thick with It, and I just may have both ready for workshop rehearsal by Winter. Hot.

Up with the Sun

...or at 730am, which is when I noticed its rays enough to distract me from my slumber. Brewing the bean and facing the day ahead with easy expectation. Writing continues (and will continue to continue), with definite forward progress palpable. After much has been researched and osmosed and after much has been written, and after much time off from writing - during whichtime of non-writing, much rumination on the writing has occurred - I am now simply Getting On With It, finishing scenes dangling in composition, and crafting new ones, trimming and cutting, and moving it forward, and "hooray" say I that I am. Most of the day will be writing, then off to see Coyote Love at Under St. Marks tonight.

Saturday Update

A return to work upon the pair of plays I have been writing, Blue-beard, Parts I & II. I am further along with the second part than I am with the first. I am viewing them as very different plays in that their respective worlds are mixed somewhat differently in terms of what forces are dominantly portrayed as having sway. The first shows earthly forces excercising a kind of victory over spiritual, then the second shows the emptiness of such a world driving spirit to the test. Seeming and Being. I would like them to be complete by the End of the Summer. We'll see. Already thinking about casting as I write, which is a good thing, I think. When I wrote my last full-length, I wrote three parts with specific actors in mind, and those actors excelled in their eventual manifestations of the roles thus written, so...

At any rate, it helps me to visualize as I write, which makes the writing come faster.

At the very beginning stages of rehearsals for Ian W. Hill's adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons, which will go up for four days in June for "The Film Festival: A Theatre Festival" at the Brick. We will screen the version that the Studio released this coming Monday at the Brick.

In the past month I saw The Optimist, Hooray For What?, Di Ksube (The Marriage Contract), Tristan und Isolde, Hiroshima: Crucible of Light, The Taste of Blue, and The Boy That Wanted to Be a Robot.