Opportunity

Listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Winter. Going to work at Playwrights later on today for the first time in a long while. There are a great many auditions coming up at Equity as tis the time of year when companies cast for the upcoming Season. I am happy about all of the opportunity coming up for Work, and am grateful for that it is a week until those auditions start in earnest, which allows for plenty of time to prepare.

Summer now. If only. Actually, I quite enjoy this time of year, despite the cold and blizzarding. Winter weather during wintertime grants me a measure of comfort that things are happening in accordance with the rhythms of Nature: it is supposed to be cold right now in this part of the World.

Taking actions, letting go of results...

Times have been hard, economically speaking, very very hard indeed. The interesting thing about the way thngs have gone with respect to work (there is none) and money (there is precious little of it coming in), is that I am finding an increased self-sufficiency and a sharpened impetus to action.
I am walking more often when I travel within Brooklyn and in some cases into the city from home, as well, mainly depending on timing. My cooking craft has increased in terms of what I cook and how often I cook. I am happy to say that making soups and stews is becoming second nature.

I have been finding interesting creative implements in my path as I make my various ways to and from, namely pens, pencils, and even a paintbrush! I take this to mean something about making things, about creating, and about finding my way using creativity as a vessel.

I created an original piece of artwork entitled Traveler's Vessel: Destination 1805 (above), a pastel drawing for the Pernod Absinthe "Creator Of.." Art Contest. I missed their deadline last year, ecoming aware of the contest only after it had passed. This year I was on FB and saw that it was going on again, but this time I had 5 days to the January 31st deadline. I decided to enter, since there is nothing to lose by doing it. I did it in 3 sessions, beginning late Thursday night, again late Sunday night, and spent the morning of Monday the 31st finishing it up and electronically submitting it around 3pm, well before the Midnight deadline. HOORAY!

After finding the paintbrush on Tuesday, I arrived home and made up 60 cinnamon spice sugar cookies. I have baked pies, but had never before made cookies from scratch on my own. Yes, I have "helped" my Mother and Grandmother make up batches of baked goods while growing up, but the kind of assistance that was required of me in those instances was of the "lick the spoon" variety.

How did they turn out? Well, the cookies were eaten too quickly to be photographed, I'm afraid, falling prey to the appetites of the blonde and myself within a 24 hour period. YUM.

The week prior to this I was priveleged to work with a talented crew of actors (Gyda Arber, Steve Burns, Lex Friedman, Gavin Starr Kendall, Jeff Lewonczyk, Douglas Mackrell, Megan McGowan, Ben VandenBoom, Stephanie Willing, Morgan Anne Zipf) under the able and delighful direction of Hope Cartelli as part of "Team B" for "Piper McKenzie's Dainty Cadaver". There were 3 teams ("A", "B", & "C") each enacting an original play constructed Exquisite Corpse style by 6 different authors per team (18 in total), each of whom were responsible for 10 minutes of stage time after only having read the prior author's 10 minutes, and nothing before that. The results were CRAZY PANTS and excellently performed and directed. The culture surrounding the event was highly enjoyable, and palpably RICH in spirit, in joy, and in creativity. That's the kind of wealth that grants nourishment that sticks to your ribs. A "slice" of nice!

Also this week I began rehearsals for The Universal Rundle, one of 4 one-acts in Trav S.D.'s Tent Show Tetragrammaton. I am REALLY excited about this, and our initial meetings are pregnant with possibility...research deepens into Voudoun, cajun dialects, and the Blues...

∞ ♥

"per artem facit Magiam, arte faciendi magick"

OSCARS

Nina: I want to be perfect.
Thomas: Perfection is not just about control. It's also about letting go. Surprise yourself so you can surprise the audience. Transcendence! Very few have it in them.
Nina: I think I do have it in me.

My picks out of the nominations:

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actor: Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Best Picture: Black Swan, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, & Scott Franklin
Best Short: Wish 143, Ian Barnes & Samantha Waite
Best Documentary Feature: Gasland, Josh Fox & Trish Adlesic
Best Documentary Short: Warriors of Qiugang, Rachel Yang & Thomas Lennon
Best Animated Picture: The Illusionist, Sylvain Chomet
Best Animated Short: Day & Night, Teddy Newton
Best Foreign Feature: Mexico: Biutiful
Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Best Cinematographer: Roger Deakins, True Grit
Best Editor: Andrew Weisblum, Black Swan
Best Screenplay: David Seidler, The King's Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Best Original Score: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Social Network
Best Song: Randy Newman, "We Belong Together", Toy Story 3
Best Sound Editing: Gwendolyn Yates Whittle & Addison Teague, Tron: Legacy
Best Sound Mixing: Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, & Mark Weingarten, The Social Network
Best Art Direction: Eve Stewart - Production Design, Judy Farr - Set Decoration, The King's Speech
Best Costumes: Jenny Beavan, The King's Speech
Best Make-up: Rick Baker & Dave Elsey, The Wolf-man
Best Visual Effects: Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright, Daniel Sudlick, Iron Man 2

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"

The Evening's Research Reading Yield: Bloody Hell

vampire

1. The reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from the grave at night and suck the blood of persons asleep.

2. One who lives by preying on others.


Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary

"One sign of the vampire is the power of the hand. The slender hand of Mircalla closed like a vise of steel on the General's wrist when he raised the hatchet to strike. But its power is not confined to its grasp; it leaves a numbness in the limb it seizes, which is slowly, if ever, recovered from.
"I may mention, in passing, that the deadly pallor attributed to that sort of revenant is a mere melodramatic fiction. They present, in the grave, and when they show themselves in human society, the appearance of healthy life.
"Its horrible lust for living blood supplies the vigour of its waking existence. The vampire is prone to be fascinated with an engrossing vehemence, resembling the passion of love by particular persons. In pursuit of these it will excercise inexhaustible patience and stratagem, for access to a particular object may be obstructed in a hundred ways. It will never desist until it has satiated its passion, and drained the very life of its coveted victim. But it will in these cases husband and protract its murderous enjoyment with the refinement of an epicure, and heighten it by the gradual approaches of an artful courtship. In these cases it seems to yearn for something like sympathy and consent. In ordinary cases it goes direct to its object, overpowers with violence, and strangles and exhausts often at a single feast."

-from Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu (1871)

I think it best to treat the subject of this research as if it were not one with which I am already very familiar, so in support of that interest I do consult the dictionary for a sort of no-nonsense literality, and aim to fill in the holes in my reading on the topic with an anthology of Vampire-fiction (The Dracula Book of Great Vampire Stories) including, and beginning with Carmilla.

I really enjoyed Carmilla. The writing was dripping with Gothic atmosphere (The Introduction to the collection noted that Le Fanu and Bram Stoker were both Dubliners who infused the landscapes of their novels with the brooding gloomy beauty of Ireland), and the Vampire-attacks were put forth with eerie surreality. I was also struck by the way that Carmilla/Millarca/Mircalla was literally charming all who she preyed upon, with very few instances of anger or ferocity displayed. I remember in the folk-stories I read as a child, of the Ban-sidhe, of the Wurdulak, the Vrykolakas, all of them have the Vampires charming their way into their goals, very rarely reacting with ire or fear except when caught in the act and crossed from feeding or returning to its place of rest.

In most current and recent portrayals of Vampires, The Charm aspect is all too often set aside in favour of the "MTV-hiss Factor", which needless to say, dilutes the Magick and gives Vampires a cheezy name...

There is also this from The Giaour (1813), by George Gordon, Lord Byron:

But first, on earth as vampire sent,

Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent:

Then ghastly haunt thy native place,

And suck the blood of all thy race;

There from thy daughter, sister, wife,

At midnight drain the stream of life;

Yet loathe the banquet which perforce

Must feed thy livid living corse:

Thy victims ere they yet expire

Shall know the demon for their sire,

As cursing thee, thou cursing them,

Thy flowers are withered on the stem.

Twos-dy

I have had a four-day weekend of social and cultural activity. Friday night I attended a Baby Shower for April Vidal that went late into the evening (those Mothers-to-be sure do like to party!), Saturday I saw Oh What War at HERE (Which was EXCELLENT), and attended a fine after-theatre snack and schmack-fest with tasty treats and an open bar, Sunday we attended a lovely garden party with grilling and Margaritas among cast members of Everything Must Go at Dina Rivera and Matt Gray's place, and Monday (Last Night) was well-spent at The Brick, attending the Penny Dreadful Season Two Fundraiser. Entertainment featured Burlesque by Rita Menweep, Opera by Matt Curran, and Magic by Nelson Lugo, with Fred Backus as The Amazing Viernik, and culminating with the one-night only presentation of Penny Dreadful Episode 6.5: The Future Ain't What It Used To Be with Eric Bland, Gavin Starr Kendall, Katie Brack, Samantha Mason, V. Orion Delwaterman, and Jessica Savage as "Penny". The "mini-episode" was set entirely in 2012 and took place both in the Maximum Security Prison that Penny materialized into from the year 1907 as a result of "The Great Switcheroo", and in an "underground labyrinth" beneath the Prison, the final moments being Penny recoiling in horror from a fresh corpse as a disembodied voice whispered, "Run, Penny, run.", and she did, slipping into darkness... It set the tone of the Serial's Second Season, continued deeply in the vein of its "horror suspense adventure mystery", and definitely created anticipation for the next full installment, Episode 7, due out in October 18th & 19th. I, for one, will Mark my Calendar...

http://www.thirdlows.com/pennydreadful/main.htm

Saturn-day

Home today much of the day until the evening when I will go see Juggernaut Theatre's presentation of Oh What War (conceived and directed by Mallory Catlett, script by Jason Craig of Banana Bag and Bodice, and featuring Craig and fellow BBB'er Jessica Jelliffe performing) @ HERE Arts Centre. It is a riff off of Joan Littlewood's Oh What A Lovely War, and has been in development for some time now. I had occasion to see the earlier version of it a couple years ago (also @ HERE).

Writing today.

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.