Art Absorbed in March 2009: The Sights, Sounds, and Ideas.

READ

NOVELS

The Adventures of Pinocchio

SHORT FICTION

The Dragon Master (Alex Thompson)

The Horse Dealer’s Daughter

The Garden Party

CHILDREN’S

Barbie’s Busy Day

DRAMA

The Handsomest Man in the World (David Brendan Hopes)

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Watchmen

NON-FICTION

The Art of War

POETRY

Dover Beach

Crossing the Bar

Andrea del Sarto

My Last Duchess

God’s Grandeur

The Windhover

Pied Beauty

Felix Randal

(Various Blogs)

HEARD

POP/ROCK

Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You

A Hard Day’s Night

A Night At The Opera

Zooropa

Get Behind Me Satan

The Essential Bob Dylan

MUSICALS

Whisper House

Evening Primrose

(Various Podcasts)

WATCHED

MOVIES

Watchmen

Titus

Harvey

Trade

MUSIC VIDEOS

Killer Queen

Bohemian Rhapsody

Dope Show

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Somebody To Love

Don’t Stop Me Now

The Show Must Go On

Radio Ga Ga

I Want To Break Free

Earthbound Starlight

Womanizer

SPEECHES

One of the Boys - Sy Rodgers

WITNESSED

THEATRE

Offending the Audience - Corpus Theatre Collective

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - NC Stage

Student Recital - Montreat College

Stones in His Pockets - NC Stage

No Shame Theatre Asheville March 2009

What’s LYLAS Got To Do With It? - NC Stage Catalyst

The Spitfire Grill - Asheville Christian Academy

SPEECHES

William P. Young, Author of “The Shack”

Paul Owens, A Theological Analysis of “The Shack” by William P. Young

MULTIMEDIA

The Rocky Horror Picture Show Audience Participation

SAW

ART SHOWS

Synthesis: The Art of Joanna King

The Spitfire Grill

On Saturday, I went back to my old High School, Asheville Christian Academy to see there Spring musical, "The Spitfire Grill." "The Spitfire Grill" is a musical based off the movie off the same name. I had heard of the show, and knew vaguely what it was about, but other than that I had no exposure to the musical. The musical was wonderfully written, and it was a wonderful first introduction to the material.

The show was wonderful, much better than last year's show, "Annie." It was a much smaller, more ensemble show, and that really worked to the show's advantage. I am really pleased to see a theatre department growing at ACA, as there are obviously theatre classes going on.

Just about everything in this show was fantastic. The music was great, the leads were fantastic, the set and technical aspects were wonderful. I can't wait to see ACA's musical next year. Things there are great, and I hope they keep improving.

Yours ending March,
Nathan H. A.

What's LYLAS Got To Do With It?

On Thursday I saw the new show from the LYLAS ("Love Ya Like A Sister") show, "What's LYLAS Got To Do With It?" as a part of the Catalyst Series. LYLAS is a local all-female comedy group. The show was one of the best examples of well made theatre I have ever seen. The production was beautiful. Everyone in the cast was good, and the show was very funny. Some of my favorite sketches were "Martini Mom," the Asheville tourists sketch, and the "Soapbox Derby." The show was very good, and I look forward to the next LYLAS show.

http://www.lylas.org/

Love you like a reader,
Nathan H.

No Shame Theatre March

To put an end to my week of Spring Break, I went to No Shame Theatre. The most interesting pat of last night's No Shame was that there was no one there. I mean, there where some people, enough to have a really good time, but there were definitely less people there than usual.

I had a piece about a local news show reviewing the movie "Watchmen." I won't spoil the joke, I plan to post the link once the show is on Google Video. It was called, "Asheville at the Movies," and my actors did a great job.

This month, I also acted in Casey Morris' piece "Burning Brothers." It was a serious piece, which was an interesting change of pace. It was fun to do, it was nice working with the other actor, Todd. Because it was a serious piece, and because we had to do some cutting to it to make it fit in five minutes, it felt more collaborative then usual, more of a creative effort, which was very nice.

There were some very unconventional pieces last night. One was done by a woman named Claire. She took a few minutes to set the stage, and then proceeded to break all the rules of No Shame Theatre. recited unoriginal work (Little Miss Muffet), broke things (boxes), and refused to leave the stage (Darren eventually carried her off).

Another piece could possibly be best described as "Non-Fiction Theatre." It was called, "Steve Shell's Response to 'Twilight,' the pop culture phenomenon." And Steve basically ranted about "Twilight" for five minutes, and it was very entertaining. I think it was something that Steve signed up to do because they didn't have enough pieces. It was then followed by "Jamie Shell's Response to 'Steve Shell's Response to "Twilight," the pop culture phenominon.'" While brief, it also had bite.

Another unexpected piece was Greg R-Gassler's "Misplaced Vagina Monologue." He was not planning to do it, but was coerced into doing it when he was told there were not enough pieces. It basically functions as a regular Vagina Monologue, except that it is about transsexual in Iran. In Iran, there are no homosexuals, because they are all forced to undergo sex changes. It was a brilliant piece, and it I have never seen the audience at No Shame so entranced by a serious piece.

It was a wonderful No Shame Theatre, despite, perhaps because of, the small crowd. I look forward to next month.

Yours without guilt or shame,
Nathan H. A.

No Shame February / The Rocky Horror Picture Show March Madness

As predicted, I had much more fun at No Shame February. Since I was so busy trying to get into the swing of things at school, I was not as prepared as I usually am for No Shame. Thus my pieces were much smaller in scope than usual. First I read my "Hamster Sonnet," while acting out the part of the hamster. The sonnet is based on the true story of a friend of mine taking a hamster to school in her cleavage. I was so pleased to get the chance to finally perform it, even though my voice was about to give out from screaming my head off in "Titus Andronicus." Later in the night, I did a structured improv piece I put together with Joseph Barcia and a bunch of other people. It was called "Walking On Beggshells." It was about this guy who got approached by all these bums, who somehow had every single problem the bums were using as excuses for needing money. It was a lot of fun, the other pieces were great, and I walked away very pleased with life.

Also, in March, I popped my Rocky cherry. I finally went to see "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" that the Montford Park Players have been putting up with Carolina Cinemas. It was loads of fun. I was a little out of the loop with the callbacks, but that will be remedied over time. The best part was how much there was to look at. If the movie was boring, I looked at the shadow cast, if the shadow cast had nothing to do I listened to the audience. Next time I hope to participate, maybe I could pull off Dr. Scott . . .

Stones In His Pockets

Continuing my trend of blogging about shows after they have closed, I will now tell you about "Stones In His Pockets" by Marie Jones. This play is about two Irish guys who are extras on a movie set in Ireland. Charles McIver and Scott Treadway portrayed these two, along with everyone else on the Emerald Isle. Directed by Christopher Burns (seen on Broadway in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"), these two did a marvelous job of switching back and forth between the characters and I was never confused about who they were. Every character was filled with life, intention, and a physical style all their own. The play was touching and hilarious, and I'm so glad I got a chance to see it.

Neil Gaiman vs. Stephen Colbert

I don't know how many of you know this, but Neil Gaiman recently won the Newberry Medal for his book "The Graveyard Book." Following this, Gaiman appeared on "The Colbert Report." I have never seen two men go so brilliantly toe to toe. "Lord of the Rings" fans will get a special treat about halfway through.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

I had the great fortune of catching the final performance of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" at North Carolina Stage Company. This play is a classic of modern western theatre, and very popular when performed. This rang true in Asheville, as a ring of excitement seemed to buzz around this production. This is one of the few NC Stage produced shows these season, and I am glad I did not miss it.

The play concerns the actions of the rather minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from the rather major epic of "Hamlet." Most of the main characters from Hamlet make appearances in the play, with the largest role going to Player King, who serves as a sort of narrator/guide for the bumbling duo.

Hans Meyer (director of "Doubt" and a member of the Immediate Theatre Project) and Willie Repoley played the titular dead characters. The two of them worked together brilliantly. They perfectly embodied two blundering brilliant idiot swept away by the waves of change and probability. Also amazing was Michael MacCauley as the Player King. His portrayal had the perfect combination of presence, necessary for us to believe that this character could pass for an actor, and sleaze, necessary for us to believe that he is not an actor. Also of note was the young actor who played Alfred, the boy player, played by Colin Stone. He had amazing presence for what is essentially a mute role.

This show is LONG. Three acts and two intermissions. Yet, time flies when you're having fun, and everyone in the audience was having lots of fun. Really, my only complaint was that I wished certain things had been made smoother. Nothing specific, but you could tell where certain rough spots were. And the only reason you could tell was because they were performing a play that asks the audience to think so very hard that you really notice when things get even stranger.

It was a marvelous production, and I am so glad I dragged myself away from school to go see it.

Yours, in all probability,
Nathan H. A.

Offending the Audience

This weekend, I had the extreme please to go see two excellent plays (well, sort of). Today, I will tell you about the "sort of."

On Thursday, I saw the Corpus Theatre Collective's production of "Offending the Audience." This is best described as an anti-play. There is no plot and no characters. It is simply people talking to (and offending) you, the audience. This is a very good production, as the ensemble is a well chosen group of people who are excellent public speakers (which is really all this "play" needs). The "set" is only a series of stools and barricades to hook some lamps on. The show is the ultimate in meta-theatre. It is so meta, I'm sure some would even argue that it isn't even theatre.

I had some issues with it though. My biggest issue was that the production did not seem to present the spirit of the piece as effectively as it could have. The whole point of the piece (or it least, the presented point of the piece) is to present no artifice, no symbolism, nothing but the text. Now whether or not that is possible is another matter entirely. But there were certain things present in the production that certainly symbolised something. Now, the text also states that the text will contradict itself, but I feel that it would have been more interesting to show even less and present the audience with an even more conflicting question about whether it is possible to present artifice, without tipping the scales in either direction. (Of course, given how confusing this whole play/show/idea is, I freely admit I might be missing something.)

The best part of this play (and the fact that Corpus is presenting it) is just how mind spinning it is. While it is from the 60's and does have a little dust on it, it FORCES you to think about the basic concepts of the threatre, and your view on them. Articfice, shows vs plays, actors, the fourth wall, etc. This play gets you thinking.

As a theatre person, I loved this show. I have heard that many non theatre folk also loved the show. Go see it. It's high quality, cheap, and the best theatre mind f*ck I have ever seen.

Here's the info on the show.

Art Absorbed in February 2009: The Liturature, the Music, the Movies, and the Theatre.

Here's what I read, heard, watch, and witnessed this month . . .

READ

FICTION
CHILDREN’S
The Deliverers of Their Nation

NON FICTION
ESSAYS
What The Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Homosexuality
BIBLE
Jude
Philemon
Song of Songs
JOURNALISM
The Whetstone February 2009

POETRY
Lines - Tintern Abbey
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
Ozymandias
Ode to the West Wind
On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer
Ode to a Nightingale
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Ode on Melancholy
Crossing the Bar
Dover Beach
My Last Duchess

DRAMA
MODERN
All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten
Playthings (Rob Taylor)
The House of Bernada Alba
The Busy World Is Hushed
Picasso at the Lapine Angile
A Life in the Theatre
Our Lady of 121st Street
SHORT PLAYS
Riders to the Sea
Workout (Seven One-Act Plays)
The Man in the Case (Seven One-Act Plays)
Tender Offer (Seven One-Act Plays)
Medea (Seven One-Act Plays)
Boy Meets Girl (Seven One-Act Plays)
The Zig-Zag Woman
Patter for the Floating Lady
WASP

(Various Blogs)

HEARD

MUSIC
POP/ROCK
American Idiot
Abbey Road
The Beatles [The White Album]
THEATRE
The Phantom of the Opera OLCR

(Various Podcasts)

WATCHED

FILMS
The Matrix Revolutions
The Phantom of the Opera
Peter Pan
High Tension
Twilight
Amazing Grace
SHORT FILMS
Frankenweenie
Vincent
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Original Poem
MUSIC VIDEOS
Heart Shaped Glasses
Mobscene
Get On Your Boots
TELEVISION
The 81st Annual Academy Awards’
THEATRE
RENT: Filmed Live on Broadway

WITNESSED

THEATRE
King of Hearts - Montreat College
No Shame Theatre Asheville February 2009 -NC Stage

Yours reflective,
Nathan.