Week #6 - Week of Budgeting

Week of October 26th

It's not that writing a budget takes a week in itself. Although for me, I admit, there is a lot of staring at the wall. And rubbing my forehead or temples. It's like if I rub my brain just right I will think better.

I also find that I need an hour or so of decompression from other concerns (read: my day job) that muddy my thinking before I actually can write down anything useful.

First there are my assumptions. You know what they say happens when one assumes. Except that making assumptions about the project is really helpful in shaping my thinking.

There's also the deciding which line item goes where. This is a non-traditional project that breaks down into smaller projects. I feel that differentiating between them in "micro" and then putting them together under one "macro" umbrella is the way to go. Knowing the budget of each component should make it easier to target fundraising, and hopefully make the accounting easier in the long run.

It's just that right now it makes my head hurt.

So there you have it, it's just me duking it out with a spreadsheet this week. My ideals vs my parsimony. I've posted my weekly blog early this week because it somehow makes me feel better. I don't have a budget completely written down yet, but I plan to my the end of the weekend.

Pass the ibuproefen -- Liz E

Progress Report Weeks #4 & #5

Final Project, weeks of October 12 - October 19

Week of October 12th I had practically nothing to report. Some weeks are like that. I'd sent out letters of inquiry and follow-up emails and just hadn't gotten any response.

This past week things picked up.

- Katie Shook, puppet princess, is officially on board. She has two pieces she is currently working on, one with playwright Sibyl O'Malley, who I love and would like to work with. Having worked with Katie before I more or less know what to expect from her, so having her committed to the project was for me the important thing. We will talk in a few months about which project she is gravitating towards and focus on its specifics then.

- Closer to a director/collaborator for Jennifer Barclay on THE EXILE OF PETIE DELARGE. Maureen Huskey is interested in the piece. She and I are in discussion about the play and its parameters. Feeling optimistic.

- Got confirmation that Rogue Artists Ensemble is definitely in. That's exciting! And apparently THE GOGOL PROJECT which they are doing now is doing very well and they have extended.

- I've begun a dialogue with the Hollywood Fringe Executive Director, Ben Hill. The Fringe is still not open for submissions. What I am proposing essentially is to program a venue, and now I am on their radar. Ben gave me a list of suggestions, and a geographic guideline for where the venue would need to be located for inclusion. Like Edinburgh the Fringe organizers will do what they can to help me find and secure a venue, however also like Edinburgh I am 100% responsible for the cost. I'm just not sure that a rental is something I can afford, even in an alternative space. Or should I say, especially in an alternative space where I may have to provide lighting, sound & video equipment.

- Dates for the Hollywood Fringe are June 17-27, 2010.

- Next steps. For me, I just need to keep all these conversations going. I need to spend some time researching potential venues in the Hollywood area and see what looks like a good fit. I need to write out a preliminary budget and start strategizing my fundraising. You know, if anyone has a couple of thousand dollars lying around that they're not using, I'm a worthy cause.

More later -- Liz E

Progress Report Wk #3

Final Project, week of Oct. 5:

Feeling a little stalled. Trying not to fall behind on my timetable.

- Sent letter of inquiry to Jesse S. at Poor Dog Group, still waiting to hear back.

- Rogue Artists Ensemble was supposed to have met last week and Sean to present my proposal for collaboration. Haven't heard back.

- Did have some more in-depth exchange with Jen Barclay re: "Exile". Sharing ideas about directors, music, video, and other directions we would like to see the project go.

- Have part of a letter of inquiry to the Hollywood Fringe that I *have* to finish and send off. Every time I sit down to finish it something interrupts.

- Read through Karole Foreman's "Venus Hottentot" draft and I need to give her some feedback.

- Wrote a bio/artistic statement to add to this blog page, with the intention of sharing this blog with more people and using it as a tool to communicate about this project.

Alternate EXILE Blurb

Courtesy of the playwright --

Petie DeLarge, the great leader of the campus coup, has been exiled and the faculty of BumBums has once again taken their corrupted control of the Rummy student body. If Petie and her gang of Borgies and Bessies are going to regain leadership, they must first infiltrate campus under cover and get to bottom of the splattering suicide of sweet, flighty Wendy. An ensemble of actor/musicians rocks this tale of revolt. A Peter Pan/ Lord of the Flies/ Clockwork Orange remix with live music, mask and video.

Collaborator Bios & Project Synopses

Jennifer Barclay

Jennifer is a playwright and screenwriter. She presented her one-woman show based on the life of Olympian and professional golfer Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Clearing Hedges, at the San Francsico Fringe, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the International Theatre of Vienna, Austria. Her play Red Helen received a Kennedy Center workshop in 2009. Her plays have been produced and/or developed at Steppenwolf, Northlight, Piven, Remy Bumppo, Teatro Vista, Stage Left, American Theatre Company, Dog and Pony, among others. Jennifer has also had residencies at the Hawthornden International Writers Retreat in Scotland and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Recently she has been named a finalist for the Samuel Goldwyn Award for screenwriting. Jennifer has an MFA in Playwriting from the University of California at San Diego and is a graduate of Northwestern University. She is currently the Playwright-in-Residence at South Coast Repertory Theater.

Sean Cawelti & Rogue Artists Ensemble

Rogue Artists Ensemble is a collective of multi-disciplinary artists who create “Hyper-theater”, an innovative hybrid of theater traditions, puppetry, mask work, dance, music, and modern technology. Through a collaborative development process, with an emphasis on design and storytelling, the Rogues create original, thought-provoking performances. Since its inception in 2001, Rogue Artists Ensemble has garnered critical acclaim, being dubbed "the most buzzed about new arrival on the Orange County theater scene" by the Los Angeles Times in 2004 and called by the OC Weekly “a genuinely imaginative and gleefully creative troupe of theater artists.” Their 2008 production of Mr. Punch received three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, and is featured in a book on novelist and comic book writer, Neil Gaiman. The Rogues were nominated by the Los Angeles Weekly for an award for Mask Design for their production HYPERBOLE: epiphany, and presented with a special award for “Theater Oriented Puppet Design” by the Orange County Weekly. Their mission is to deliver storytelling and spectacle that piques the interest of theatergoers and non-theatergoers alike.

Designer and Director Sean Cawelti graduated from the University of California Irvine, where he received his BA in Drama with honors in Stage Direction. Sean studied puppetry at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and has been a puppeteer since he was just a boy. In 2006 Sean was awarded the Technical Achievement Honor for Puppet Oriented Theater Design by the OC Weekly, and was nominated for a Los Angeles Ovation Award for his mask design work on HYPERBOLE: epiphany. He serves as the Artistic Director for the performance group the Rogue Artists Ensemble, which creates “Hyper-theatrical“ productions, incorporating puppetry, masked acting, original music scores and theatrical effects. Sean has designed puppets and masks for Cornerstone Theatre Company, International City Theater, The Rude Guerrilla Theater, Opera Pacific, NYU and many others. He has been awarded a Puppeteers of America 2003 National Festival scholarship and his articles have been featured in several national journals.


Aaron Raz Link

Aaron is a writer, a traveler, a philosopher, a performance artist, an educator, and the Director of the Museum of Nature. His memoir, What Becomes You, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in 2008. He has studied physical theater at the Dell'Arte School and Creative Writing at the California Institute of the Arts. His interactive traveling exhibition on the Outremer people was originally presented in Seattle, Washington, but the project is continuing to grow.


Katie Shook

Katie is a puppet and performance artist. She has a background in visual art, dance and physical theater, and is active in the movement toward more ecologically sustainable theatrical practice. Her production of Erik Ehn’s adaptation of the Godzilla myth, One Eye Gone, was presented at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe. Katie designed and created the puppets for Oh My Tiger! at Highways Performance Space. As a performer she has worked with the Manual Archives, the Velaslavasay Panorama and with the Little Fakers, as well as at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Toy Theater Festival and the New York Toy Theater Festival. Katie holds an MFA in Puppetry and Integrated Media from the California Institute of the Arts.

Elizabeth English

Elizabeth produces theater and multidisciplinary performance with the intention of transcending boundaries and subverting paradigms. In her artistic life she has pursued many interests from punk rock radio dj to opera stage manager. In 2009 she produced Erik Ehn and Katie Shook’s object theater and multimedia adaptation of Godzilla, One Eye Gone, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She produced the Chicago premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s The Big Funk, nominated for two Joseph Jefferson Awards, and the Los Angeles premiere of Thomas Bradshaw’s Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist, which The Village Voice described as “wickedly shocking” and “unapologetically flaunts racial conflict”. Elizabeth has a BS in Theater from Northwestern University and is about to complete her MFA in Producing at the California Institute of the Arts.

THE EXILE OF PETIE DELARGE by Jennifer Barclay

In The Exile of Petie DeLarge a student protest takes an unexpectedly violent turn with deadly consequences in a dystopian near-future. A young woman finds herself thrust from the role of student agitator into that of a revolutionary outlaw and potential murderer. When Wendy fell from the window was it suicide or was she pushed? An ensemble of actor/musicians rocks this tale of revolt playing both students and faculty, with live music, mask and video.

THE COWBOY ELEKTRA adapted by Rogue Artists Ensemble

Set in a nineteenth century bordello, The Cowboy Elektra juxtaposes the classical Greek story of Elektra, who conspired with her brother Orestes to murder her mother and avenge her father’s death, against the backdrop of Spanish/Mexican colonial California. It is a fanciful exploration of the forgotten histories and myths of old Los Angeles centered around a young woman torn between family loyalty and revenge. To be told through Rogue Artists’ signature technique of combining music, mask, puppetry and multimedia.

Just Cuz

I got up this morning and read 2 Lynn Nottage plays. Just cuz. Because they were there.

It was refreshing. I read so many new scripts, plays-in-development. I was reminded what a play I really like and can zip through feels like.

And Lynn is also a total sweetheart of a person.

Phone chat with Sean

Just got off the phone with Sean from Rogue Artists. Great chat, especially about the 'Elektra' project. Sounds right up my alley, and a workshop of it in May/June might be a really good opportunity for them. I was worried that they wanted to save it for the Autry, but with current budget constraints for the museum, this might be a collaboration that benefits everybody.