Monday, July 02, 2007

Dark Matter...who, what, when where and why...

Dark Matter: Five Gothic Tales of Horror by Don Nigro

Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company takes a journey to the dark side of
romance this summer with five short plays of gothic horror by Don
Nigro.

The plays include:

Lucy and the Mystery of the Vine Encrusted Mansion. An eccentric
comedy that is a "Gorey drawing come to life" in which a girl,
'sixteen and lost', becomes entangled in a tale of her own invention
that may not allow her to return from it sane.

The Malefactor's Bloody Register. A true story of abuse and murder
from the pages of the notorious eighteenth century compendium of
crime...

Joan of Arc in Autumn
July 5th-7th, 9th, 12th-14th, 16th, and July 19th-21st

Midtown Art Center, 3414 LaBranch at Holman

Preview Show: Thursday, July 5th - Pay What you like
Click Here For Tickets
Saturday July 7th, Opening Night Party and Show: $25.00

$10.00 on Thursdays

$12.00 on Fridays and Saturdays.

"Pay as you like" Mondays, July 9th and July 16th


so, at the bar tonight with some other folks who worked on the show...
and a flier is handed to someone who sits at our table...
a flier for the show -
it has who, what, when, where and price...
no why?
he asks, "where is the why?"

I thought about it a lot on the way home,
and there are certain whys to see theatre,
and whys to see this show...
here is a drunk and rambling combination of the two...

theatre,
like all art,
holds a mirror
up to you -
if it is good,
and you are willing
to look -
it can show you
not just things
you've never seen,
but things that you
never would have
imagined were there.

It does some other very specific things too -
and I'm still trying to nail them all down,
but I'll tell you this -

you are watching
real people
go through
real things
on stage
and when we fire
on even half
our cylinders
we can give you things you'll never get
once removed
through a screen...

This show
is about
the nature of time,
the relationship
between power
and gender,
the things one might
be willing
to sacrifice
in order to feel
"in control",
the true nature
of the unseen world,
what it means
to hear voices -
to have vision -
and the horrible things
we are capable of -
how we can break
others as we are
broken and all
in the name of the lord
(have no doubt,
the monsters are human,
even if they claim to be
punishing you for your sins...)

and oh yeah,
it's a helluva show...
funny, creepy, unsettling, thoughtful, beatiful, real,
and yes,
entertaining...

and it's cheap,

inexpensive tickets
mean you can take me out
and buy me a drink after...

how's that for a deal?

Kid Ornery

(mike switzer - stage manager and a.d. on Dark Matter)

Thursday, June 21, 2007

drunk blogging

I.

I am
a hardcore
humanist.
what does that mean?
I believe
the question of God
is unanswerable
and therefore
we must
get better
at handling
this shit
ourselves.

to let go
and let God
is simply to let go...
if that is yr choice,
so be it...
but recognize it.

we are all we've got
and we have
to do better.
if you believe God
helps those who
help themselves
then I assume
to some degree
you agree.

embrace the mystery
we don't know
we can't
get on with it

push past it
to what you can do

jesus christ!
that sounds like just
so much more
mumbo-jumbo

but folks,
it's all I've got.




II.


I don't believe in gurus.

I think everybody
knows their road...
some of us
just need
to learn
how to walk.


i don't believe in the mind/body split really,
but i know that, sometimes,
my body
and
my mind disagree
on everything
from tacos
to sex

why is it
that my tongue
and my brain
like things
that make
my stomach
and my bowels
so unhappy?

I'd rather not
even think
about the
disconnect
and connect
between
my two heads.
Thanks.

I don't believe in anything really

I only know what I experience

but my experience says that my actions
have consequences
and so I must accept that as reality,
be it real or not.



III.

I believe that
even I do not
understand
my own actions

one hemisphere
of my brain
tells the other
stories
about why I do things
and these
stories
then justify
other things I do

the stories grow
and become
a history
with patterns
and cycles
and morals

and then
suddenly
yr lost
and
you surprise yrself
yr capable of something
else

and you tell yrself
a new story.


IV.

by the way,
I am drunk and
more wrong than right

and yet,
I say -
take care of yrself,
nobody else will.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

tonight

going to see these guys:



instead of getting some much needed sleep...

Saturday, June 16, 2007

REAL ART (and politics and culture)

REAL ART (and politics and culture)

Stealing and shitty performance are tried and true methods of resistance that date back to slavery, at least. I mean, what can you do when your options are extremely limited? Easy, do a bad job. The sad thing is that a lot of these workers might actually feel a bit guilty about ripping off their boss, about doing nothing while on the clock. They shouldn't. Wal-Mart treats their employees like shit and this is what they deserve.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

been a while...

moved into the new place

seem to have found a fairly stable internet connection

getting things somewhat back on track...

finished up Lower Depths and had one night off
then started working on the next MU show

stage managing and AD'ing for

Dark Matter - Five Gothic Tales of Horror


Is everyone you know as crazy as everyone I know?
are they all having crazy times?
seems to be what is going round, round here, these days...

hope yr life has some of the good crazy...

Kid Ornery

Monday, May 21, 2007

Bloggin'

Internet is off and the lower depths is over.
Starting work on the mildreds summer show today and working on the move.
Havent talked to one of my best friends in something like a month and
another friend is around a lot after a girlfriend induced absence.
Ran into a friend at tdu's notsuoh show who said she loved me.
Said i had it all together which leads me to believe she doesn't know me at all.
Went on a date - with someone else - which went well but also
highlighted some of the ways i am a mess.
So here i sit
at the candy store
typing on my phone and feeling the confusion fill my head.
Whoohoo!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

HandStamp: Local players crash the art car parade

for those of you what missed us in the parade...

HandStamp: Local players crash the art car parade

look for more pics (Ayn got some great ones) soon...

M

Saturday, May 12, 2007

art car parade

today was great...
we played Lennon's "I don't want to be a soldier"
and Ra's "Space is the Place"
tdu was #87 in the parade
riding around in a loverly
design by ayn
pulled by shelley's "Mpeach" truck...

"Make Noise
Not War -
The Defenestration Unit"

yeehaw!

and now it is off to more lower depths...
playing at notsuoh at 3 am,
working at noon and playing at super happy
4 pm tomorrow

yeehaw

Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Austin Chronicle: Arts: Mr. Not So Frivolous: Wallace Shawn bares all about writing, why he does theatre, and that play he wrote with all the sex

The Austin Chronicle: Arts: Mr. Not So Frivolous: Wallace Shawn bares all about writing, why he does theatre, and that play he wrote with all the sex in it

There was a friend of my parents who was interested in theatre, and a friend was always saying about certain people, "He's a real professional," or in some cases, "Oh, he's not a professional." And from the time I was a boy, I knew there was something about that that I didn't care for because if the people are professional, it sort of implies that it's something they're doing competently, but they don't really care about it that much, and when they go home they can forget about it, and I suppose that's the feeling I had. And I'm not sure that's worth my time as an audience member. If I'm going to spend an evening watching some people, I want to see their soul. I want to see something that's terribly important at least to them. If it isn't that important, just a job, why should I go out and watch them?

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Thursday, May 03, 2007

billy childish interview

The Lower Depths

we opened tonight.
we kicked ass.
really.

there is a lot of great stuff happening in this show.
come see it.

PERFORMANCE DATES
ALL SHOWS BEGIN PROMPTLY AT 8:00 PM
Weekend Shows: Fri/Sat May 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19
Pay-What-You-Want shows - Thursday, May 3 and Thursday, May 10

there is talk of adding a monday pay what you will on the 14th

LOCATION
Freneticore Theater
5102 Navigation
Houston, Tx 77011

TICKETS
$10

RESERVATIONS/INFORMATION
832-283-0858
OR
dccommune@yahoo.com
www.doschicastheatercommune.com
http://myspace.com/doschicascommune

www.DosChicasTheaterCommune.com

Ko and the Knockouts w/ Holly Golightly

Sunday, April 29, 2007

IDWEEK: BILL SIENKIEWICZ TALKS 30 DAYS - NEWSARAMA

IDWEEK: BILL SIENKIEWICZ TALKS 30 DAYS - NEWSARAMA

Nearly 99.9% of the time, the particular piece I'm working on will decide the medium and method, in, or by, which it should be done, not vice-versa. Meaning it will do the courtesy, (so to speak), of letting me know what it needs to convey—emotionally, if not technically—what it's trying to say to the reader and the best way to convey it. I'm really more of the conduit, a collaborator, in the production. Any time I've tried to do it the other way around, to decide how I'm going to do any particular piece, to try to force a piece to be something it's not, it ends up in a fight with the piece with the piece usually winning—thereby showing me how little I ultimately know. That said, I do know that the art is at the service of the story, and works with it, occasionally as reinforcement, occasionally as a counterpoint. In the end, it comes down to the piece knowing what its needs are to do just that, and it knows it far better than I. That much, I do know. So that's the answer to your question: to continue to allow that “evolution” you mentioned to continue. To get out of the way in terms of trying to force a result. one can't force oak to be pine. It's a zen thing.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

rich little...



Rich Little comes on about 2 minutes 10 seconds on...
this is the gig Colbert killed with last year.

dos chicas theater commune Presents "The Lower Depths"

ok...down below there is the "story" but what this play is about is - our common humanity, what it means to be rid of all our trappings and down to just the man, the consoling lie vs. the hard truth, man as animal, what it means to be rootless in society, etc...
every character in this show has something to it and every line speaks volumes....
although first performed in 1902 it feels very modern and relevant.  The big ideas of this play are still big ideas today, and they resonate through our lives...
anyway, think we've got a helluva show on our hands -
don't miss it!

dos chicas theater commune presents

The Lower Depths
by Maxim Gorky

Directed by Mark Carrier

STORY
Subtitled "Scenes from a Russian Life," The Lower Depths premiered on December 18, 1902 at the Moscow Arts Theatre under Stanislavski's direction, and quickly became the hallmark of Russian Socialist Realism. Gorky focuses on the daily tribulations of a group of lower-class citizens forced by their circumstances to rent out mere square feet in a small, squalid tenement. Being denied opportunity and forced into conditions that have killed any faith they had in themselves, they eagerly accept the comforting lies of the newest member of their little community. By pushing aside the harsh truth, they hope to hide themselves from the bleak reality of their conditions. Through the characters' motives and thoughts, Gorky indicts a perverse civilization that dooms thousands as superfluous and unnecessary in society.

CAST
Tony Esparza, Ken Watkins, Jeremy Carlson, Donna Kay Yarborough, John Dunn, Stephen Foulard, Patrick Jennings, Elizabeth Seabolt, Wilson Limpo, Mari Gianukos, Mike Switzer, Jon Harvey, Lee Finch, Kira Vincent, Brian Nichols, Ashley Barker

PERFORMANCE DATES
ALL SHOWS BEGIN PROMPTLY AT 8:00 PM
Weekend Shows: Fri/Sat May 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19
Pay-What-You-Want shows - Thursday, May 3 and Thursday, May 10

LOCATION
Freneticore Theater
5102 Navigation
Houston, Tx 77011

TICKETS
$10

RESERVATIONS/INFORMATION
832-283-0858
OR
dccommune@yahoo.com
www.doschicastheatercommune.com
http://myspace.com/doschicascommune


www.DosChicasTheaterCommune.com

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