EXTRA CRITICUM

Splenda-Comedy: Built on Prat Falls & Spit Takes Alone

There are a few young men and women who think they've uncovered the key to comedy. These earnest little worker bees, most of whom reside in Los Angeles County, are absolutely certain that to make people laugh one need only have a character fall down or spit out a beverage spontaneously upon hearing some shocking news.

My evidence for this?

The Docu-phlet: Documentary? Or Pamphlet?

I've noticed a trend in documentary filmmaking that I find puzzling.

Most current documentaries feel like filmed pamphlets. By that I mean, the filmmakers have a specific point of view (often political) and they set out to communicate this point of view through the medium of film or video. It's understandable why they would turn to this format. We live in an increasingly visual culture dominated by the moving image so if you've got an idea to propagate, best to do it with moving images.

In previous eras, pamphlets were handed out for free in order to promote a political point of view.

Rickie Lee Jones—Why Small Venues Are the Future

My music supervisor happened to give me a heads-up that Rickie Lee Jones would be playing a series of nights "in residence" at Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker Street located in the space formerly known as The Village Gate. (I used one of her tracks in We Pedal Uphill and I just adore her music as well as her ferocious artistic integrity.) Needless to say, I ran to grab tickets.

If I can't see the show, how do I know it's great?

There's a certain play that shall remain nameless, running in a certain Broadway theatre that has been winning high praise for everything from its text to its actors, director and designers. It's not a bad play and the performances are for the most part quite good. But it's got one glaring problem that no one seems willing to mention and after this season's Tony Awards, it starts to feel as though the emperor has no clothes.

Herzog at the End of the World

Who would choose to live at the bottom of the world? Mad scientists studying a parasite that lives in a worm’s anus, dead-language linguists growing hot house tomatoes, irrepressible absurdist stand up comedians, bankers turned transportation drivers, itinerant welders who are descendants of Aztec royalty, that’s who. What kind of filmmaker chooses to film such people at the bottom of the world? A filmmaker who is obsessed with mankind’s relationship to nature (past, present, and future), a filmmaker who is both kind of kooky and deadly serious.

Viral Marketing Comes to Broadway

I recently stumbled upon the hysterical website CubbyBernstein.com which appears to have been launched as part of a viral marketing campaign in support of Xanadu winning a Best Musical Tony this year.

August: Osage County - Violet Weston vs. Blanche DuBois

I wanted to like August: Osage County. Mostly because it will most certainly sweep the Tony Awards this season and more than one person I like and respect has called it "the greatest American play since Streetcar."

But however entertained I was during its 3+ hours, I have to say: Violet Weston (Traci Letts' central character) she ain't no Blanche DuBois.

Doing It In Your Backyard

Yeah, it's beginning to make more and more sense to me. As I travel around the country and meet more and more artistic directors, literary managers and producers, and I contextualize them in the common cry of most playwrights I know ("We need more productions!"), I'm slowly realizing that if really we want things to change, clearly we'll have to take matters into our own hands.     

I was in Seattle a couple of weeks ago and met with a lot of playwrights and almost twelve (!) members of the producing community there.

Starring: Haaz Sleiman, Danai Jekesai Gurira, Hiam Abbass (with apologies to Richard Jenkins)

A couple of months ago I did a round table discussion for Channel THIRTEEN with three other directors who have made short films. The inevitable question was asked: are you hoping to make feature films? Without exception the answer was yes. One young director elaborated, “Yeah, but I wouldn’t even try without the right names attached. It’s sad, but that’s the world we live in.” (I’m paraphrasing.) Two other young directors nodded in agreement and I, a not so young director, grimaced. I thought of this several times while watching Thomas McCarthy’s excellent film, The Visitor.

A Never-Dark Theatre? (well, maybe sort of)

Just saw this item that captured my imagination. Plans are underway to give the West End's Arts Theatre a total facelift including a new set of retractable seats. The plan being that post-show, the seats would all swiftly disappear by way of hydraulics (please don't ask me to explain this... I'm lucky I can spell it!) thus transforming the house into an open party space. (read: available for rental)

Street Theatre: Watch Where You're Going!!

One of the joys of living in New York City is watching people play out their little dramas in public. I consider it a form of free theatre which I would be deprived of were I to fulfill my now-tired empty threat of moving to a shack in Vermont where I could perform my plays for the cows.

Frequency Hopping

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing a performance of our very own Extra Criticum author Elyse Singer's new show, Frequency Hopping. This show, mounted at the very cool 3-legged Dog space downtown, may mark the first use of a "robotic orchestra" in the history of live theatre.

Savage Race - Our endless obsession with wealth and power

I wanted to run home and write an entry on our seemingly ceaseless obsession with wealth and celebrity.

That's how I felt after wasting 96 minutes on Tom Kalin's meandering Julianne Moore vehicle, Savage Grace. It wasn't until leaving the theatre that I remembered that when I'd read the book on which the movie's based, I'd had a similar sinking feeling.

It seems to me that there are some stories that do not warrant telling. And the story of the Baekeland family and its pitiable dramas may just be one of them. Frankly, there's not much there there.

Sex And The... Shopping?

I was one of those million-odd souls who ran to see Sex And The City (the movie) opening weekend and I had at least two thoughts about it. On the way in, I thought: "Wow! Isn't it amazing that a smart, sexy and very adult comedy can command this kind of opening box office!" On the way out of the theatre, however, making my way past the winding line of (mostly) women waiting four-or-five-rows-deep for their tickets, I wondered: "Isn't it amazing that so many people today will run run run straight into the warm embrace of a commercial!"

Reprise: Homage and Beyond

One of the many reprises in Reprise are the editing and sound techniques embraced by the French New Wave. It is an anti-Hollywood film geek’s dream to experience mismatched sound and image, abrupt cuts to black, handheld camerawork, deliberate discontinuity, and the much maligned voice over narration, all done deftly, lovingly, and meaningfully.

But none of that is why you should see this film.