Extra Criticum

Interview with Filmmaker Aimee Madsen

In the spring of 2010, a Google Alert mentioned a documentary in production about Paolo Soleri that wasn't A Life's Work. I was curious and reached out to the filmmaker, Aimee Madsen. We've communicated since about each others' work and supported each others' efforts the way filmmakers do, or at least should. I'm thrilled that she agreed to answer a few questions about her film, Before Form.

Tell me about your documentary, Before Form.

Putting the Hurt on Beckett

John Hurt, the superb British actor, gave an entertaining and enlightening interview this week on the “Charlie Rose Show.”  Hurt is currently appearing in Samuel Beckett’s play Krapp’s Last Tape at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  For a taste of his performance see this 90-second New York Times video.  The Times review was a rave.

This production comes from Britain’s Gate Theater and is directed by Michael Colgan.  Hard to believe but this is Hurt’s debut on a New York stage.  He also stars in a movie just coming out, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. 

Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods

If you're going to be in Pittsburgh in the next few weeks, you absolutely must run and see Tammy Ryan's play, Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods. Below, I'm posting a little promotional video of the playwright being interviewed about her play. The odd thing about the video is, it's very calm and centered and rational, just as the play's writer, Tammy Ryan tends to be. The promotional video discusses themes in the play and the origins of its creation. What the video cannot capture is the velocity of the play, the energy and pathos and fear and terror and love and heart of this wonderful play. For that, you'd have to go see the play.

But it makes me wonder in general about this mode of promoting new plays online. Sit the playwright and/or director down for a sensible chat about the work and videotape it and post it on the web to sell tickets. But if the tone of these very reasoned measured videos is so completely at odds with the tone of the play, are these promos going to bring in the right audience? When I read Tammy's script, I wept, almost from beginning to end. And I also laughed quite a bit too. But the overall effect of the play is to rip your heart in two. Makes me wonder. What's the smartest way to promote a beautiful and painful new play? What do you think? Here's the video:

Two Masters Discuss "Master Class"

A terrific interview with playwright Terrance McNally and actress Tyne Daly (musical Gypsy; television Cagney & Lacey, Judging Amy) recently aired on the Charlie Rose show.  The 30-minute program is well worth seeing for anyone passionate about theatre or opera or really any of the arts.  The occasion of the interview is the current extended revival of McNally’s play The Master Class at Manhattan Theatre Club, starring Daly as the diva Maria Callas.

A Bit of the Old Ultra-Violence

I’m reading The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors on Their Epiphanies in the Dark by Robert K. Elder. I’m enjoying it and I'll write a post about the whole book here soon. But I came across a passage I wanted to share. Here Elder and the fine director John Dahl (Red Rock West, The Last Seduction, Rounders, You Kill Me) discuss one aspect of the film that changed Dahl’s life, A Clockwork Orange.

Out on a Limb: Interview with Filmmaker Daria Price

To support this film, please visit the Indiegogo page.

Full disclosure: I’m being compensated by filmmaker Daria Price to help the crowdfunding campaign for her film, Out on a Limb. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on with the good stuff.

Daria Price is a filmmaker with a diverse background who works in both documentary and fiction films. She was a field producer and videographer on Canada's Vision TV documentary series, Twist of Faith, and on HDnet's World Report documentary, The Silent Epidemic: Diabetes in Kids, and she has produced, directed, and shot science and tech stories with Elsash-TV for APTN, BBC, and HDnet. Daria’s current project is a documentary called Out on a Limb.

Point Counterpoint: Kelly & Teco on Trapnell

E.C.author Duane Kelly recently hosted a public conversation for the Dramatists Guild with arts consultant Susan Trapnell and members of the Seattle theatre community. Rolando Teco posed a few follow-up questions. Here's their cyber conversation:

Interview on Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts

John Gaspard interviews Roland on his first feature film, All the Rage, today on the popular site, Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts. Check it out.

If you want to bump it...go to Philly! (For the Peek-A-Boo Revue)

 Ah, Paris…home of the Moulin Rouge, the Folies Bergere, the Crazy Horse Saloon, where Josephine Baker shook her bananas, and where artists and poets chased the green fairy in the Belle Epoque and beyond…providing much art and merriment in a time that inspired this year’s Philadelphia International Arts Festival. 
 
Ah, Philadelphia, home of the world-famous Trocadero, a Victorian-era theater, once a vaudeville and burlesque house, where the likes of Gypsy Rose Lee and Tempest Storm strutted their stuff, now a performing arts center. Sister cities, indeed!

New plays a-cookin in Philly (it's a bake-off!)

Plays & Players' homestage, on Delancey St. in Center City (left)

 What’s better than a 72-hour play? Well, a 24-hour play, but then I’m hardcore.

In fact, the “bake-off” (a term used for a writing exercise popularized by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel), in which dramatists are given several “ingredients” they must incorporate into a play that has to be written in 72 hours or less, has become a popular genre-within-the-genre of live theater.

Going to "Hell" and back...in Philly

Hell was sitting on Lane Savadove’s bookshelf for years.

Savadove, artistic director of Philadelphia’s EgoPo Classic Theatre, has adapted, with EgoPo actor Ross Beschler, the Henri Barbusse 1908 novel Hell. The play will have its world premier at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, opening April 27 at the German Society of Pennsylvania, 611 Spring Garden Street, running through May 15.  Tickets are $15-$30.

“Hell, the novel, was actually handed to me years ago by an associate, just a friend who thought it fit my interests,” Savadove said. “It sat on my bookshelf for close to 8 years.”

Hallman's "Raving Beauty" sings songs of playwright, poet, lover...

 
First the important question: does being an artist in residence at the Rosenbach Museum and Library  in Philadelphia (pictured at left) involve actually staying in the two 1865 townhouses where the collection resides? Because that would be very cool.

Wanamaker's Pursuit: from Philadelphia to Paris

"Meet me at the Eagle" is a Philadelphia tradition.

When I was a little girl, my mother used to take me to John Wanamaker’s department store in downtown Philadelphia. It was a special treat to go down and see the great bronze eagle in the lobby, to eat at the Crystal Tearoom, and to stop by the founder’s office…left exactly as it was the day John Wanamaker died, behind a wall of glass, the day of his death outlined in red on the office calendar. To me, Wanamaker’s was one of the things that made Philadelphia a great city. A great city should have a fine department store, a world-class symphony orchestra, beautiful art museums, and a mediocre team in the National League.

Seattle Playwright Grows a National Reputation the Local Way

Yussef El Guindi’s star is in the ascendant.  The Seattle playwright’s new comedy Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World is receiving a mainstage, world premier production at Seattle’s ACT Theatre this summer.  Yussef’s career has also been gaining traction on the national scene.  For playwrights in Seattle, when one of us gets full productions and national notice it is heartening for all, and most definitely cause to celebrate.