Devoted & Disgruntled NYC

What are we going to do about theater?

I’ve been wanting to go to Devoted and Disgruntled since I read about the invitation and results five years ago on the Improbable Theater Company’s website. We learned about Improbable when we saw a performance of Shockheaded Peter in London. Since then, Kevin and I have been following the yearly D & D meetings in London via technology. The first D & D meeting’s transcripts may even be one source for our mission statement. Community, teamwork, support systems… these words were sprinkled throughout the meeting and inspire us with our own theater work. So, I’ve been eager for D & D to come to America. Finally it happened on January 16 and 17, a weekend meeting for New York to figure out what to do about theater.

D & D uses a technique called Open Space Technology. Open Space is a way to enable a diverse group of people to create and manage their own agenda. Over the past 20 plus years, it has inspired organizations to get ordinary people to work together to create extraordinary results. I’ve been curious about this technique, but I didn’t really look into it until a week or two before the D & D meeting last weekend. I’ve been inspired and will write another blog explaining what I learned about Open Space and the how-to book I read.

It’s hard to go to the center of a circle of strangers and tell everyone what you feel passionate about. It was great to see people just run up there and state their session and pick a time! Our friend, Jess Hooks, a designer, took a minute to formulate her session and bravely walked forward. Encouraged, I also went up there. I managed to run my own session on Sunday and I was very pleased with the results. I believe that everyone that took responsibility for a question or topic was able to walk away with a feeling of accomplishment. I think both Kevin’s and my mind were exploding by the end of the first day; we needed some Tylenol after to keep our heads from throbbing. What I loved about this weekend was that we get to read about all of the sessions that we didn’t get to go to. If you’re reading this blog, you can too. Read the transcripts of the event right here. It might inspire you as much as it did me.

Due to this weekend we found kindred spirits in search of creating a theater community. Happily there will be a monthly D & D meeting starting March. Kevin and I are excited to go to it. I’ve made some connections; met people that I probably won’t meet again but they gave me hope that we’re all supporting each other. What a great experience.

Getting Aboard the Bandwagon: Business Cards

Alert the IBCM! Playlab NYC has got business cards!

Playlab NYC is here to stay and to prove it we got business cards. Actually business card is more appropriate, since Jennifer and I opted for a shared card that had both of our names on it.(Playlab NYC may be here to stay but we still have no money.)

We got the cards for two reasons:

1. During THE ARRESTING DILEMMA OF MISTER K, I would be asked, “Hey, can I get your card?” And of course I didn’t have one.

2. As we head into DEVOTED & DISGRUNTLED NEW YORK this weekend, Jennifer and I thought we should be armed with cards.

So go ahead ask me. “Hey, can I get your card?” Because the answer is, “Yes.”

CHECK IT OUT!

Making an Icon: Mister K

A month ago I interviewed with Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) to have Playlab NYC put together a presentation of a show in December. The show, called The Arresting Dilemma of Mr. K, is a musical based on Franz Kafka's The Trial. It was written by John Sparks, former artistic director of the Theatre Building Chicago, and Playlab NYC Lab Assistant, Jon Steinhagen.

Shortly after it was agreed that Playlab NYC would produce the reading with TRU, they asked me to get them a piece of artwork for the show in a week. Of course I ran right to our graphic designer/illustrator Rob Ullman.

I passed along a few images to get the ball rolling and show him what was floating around in my head. What I was thinking of was a silhouette of a man running with a gavel coming down on him. Something that recalled the work of Saul Bass.

High contrast, black and white with maybe one color.

I also passed along to an image from the Orson Welles 1962 adaptation of the same book.

Rob soon came back with a sketch of the guy and gavel in white, against a black background. He suggested that the title would be done in blocky Saul Bass-inspired lettering, in a combo of a second color and white.


I liked where Rob was going with the image. I thought that the gavel needed to be more imposing. I found the piece clip art below that I forwarded to Rob.


Looking at the clip art image I wondered if the Saul Bass letters could be over the handle in the top left at an angle that paralleled the gavel. Then in the area under the gavel where that black curve is could be the man running. Bigger gavel. Smaller man.

Whereas our other show graphics were enclosed in a circle, I liked that this time the image was a rectangle. Because the show was a reading being presented by TRU, the image allowed us to keep with Rob's usual visual style while keeping it separate from our more fully produced shows.

Thankfully this image came together very quickly. Once again Rob stepped up with a great design that we love to splash all over anything we can find, T-shirts, postcards, programs, and the internet.

Thanks again, Rob.

ourtube.com: "In One Take"

At Playlab NYC we like to spend our time surfing the internet like everyone else. Sometimes we stumble across a video that strikes a chord and we just have to share.

There are a few "In One Minute, In One Take" videos out there, Forrest Gump, Kill Bill 1 & 2, and Star Wars.

My Favorite one though is a recreation of Danny Boyle's zombie movie, 28 Days Later.

Enjoy.

In the Works: The Velvet Gentleman

Last Monday, playlab NYC got a group of friends together to have an informal reading of a new play, The Velvet Gentleman: Being the Unusual Life of Erik Satie as performed by what's left of The West Scranton Dada Society by Jon Steinhagen.

Erik Satie was a colorful avant-garde composer and pianist in early twentieth century Paris. In the play, a struggling group of artists from Pennsylvania creates a show that examines Satie's life and work.

Reading for us were: Kate Erin Gibson, the artistic director of The Red Door Theater Company; Katie Kozlowski; Amanita Heird; long time friends John Pieza and Todd Courson, who took part in last year's Loss of Breath workshop; from Playlab NYC's production of The Tempest, Molly Garber and Jonathan Wiener. And finally joining us as Erik Satie was Ted Schneider.

The reading was a productive one and we received great feedback from everyone involved. A couple days ago I passed along the actors' thoughts and comments to the author. Playlab NYC looks forward to continuing to develop this new piece.