Shiny Objects Updates

Here it is the middle of summer 2011.  We can’t believe it’s been a whole year since we premiered THE EXILE OF PETIE DELARGE at REDCAT in Los Angeles!

And what a difference a year has made!  The company is now based in Brooklyn, NY.   We have expanded our artistic team to include Co-Artistic Director Jesse Geiger and Artistic Associate Nathan Leigh in addition to founder and Co-Artistic Director Elizabeth R. English.  Jesse joins the company after recently completing his MFA in Directing at Brown University and brings experience running companies in New York and Chicago.   Composer and musician Nathan Leigh originally comes from the Boston area, where he has multiple IRNE awards for sound design; as a composer his work has been workshopped and performed in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, and he is a solo artist and member of the bands A Thousand Ships and Super Mirage (with writer/composer Kyle Jarrow).  Liz received her MFA in Producing from the California Institute of the Arts, is currently a member of the 2010-12 Women’s Project’s Producers Lab, and has produced work in Chicago, LA, New York, and at the Edinburgh Fringe.

We’re very excited to let you know that A Collection of Shiny Objects is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of A Collection of Shiny Objects must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.  To make a donation, click here.

It has been a busy spring and summer for us.  For those of you who are in New York next week, we’re thrilled to announce our participation in the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival, where we will be presenting a ten minute play, THE GOLDEN TICKET, another collaboration with ‘EXILE’ playwright Jennifer Barclay and directed by Jesse.  We’d love for you to come.  The festival runs July 19th-24th, and our presentation will be on the 23rd at 4:30 pm.  For more information and tickets visit: Samuel French OOB website.

And last, but certainly not least, A Collection of Shiny Objects has been given a September residency at SPACE on Ryder Farm to workshop GOODS AND SERVICES, our collaboration with playwright Greg Moss. Part coming of age story and part consumerist fantasia, GOODS AND SERVICES looks at a recent college grad and aspiring journalist who decides to live in a 24-hour Walmart as a 21st century right of passage. We’ll be using our time at SPACE to explore the physical life of our Walmart world, including an object theatre component, choreography and gesture work.  We plan to bring an ensemble of actors, puppeteer, design, and the playwright with us to this fully functioning organic farm in Brewster, NY, for five days of intensive work on the production.  In addition to spending time on the play, we’ll have the opportunity to be a part of the day-to-day working of the farm.  We can’t wait to get in there and get our hands dirty!

So that’s what’s new with us.  If you’d like to see more of the work we’ve been doing, please check out the pictures and music demos of past and current work we’ve got up on our website: www.collectshinyobjects.org  We’d love to keep in touch, you can subscribe to our newsletter on the site, be our friend by “Liking” us on Facebook, or following us on Twitter.

Much love from us,

Liz, Jesse and Nathan
The Shiny Objects Team

Liz writes a rebuttal to Ken Davenport's Rant: 'Stop Telling Me You Can't Afford Theater Tickets!'

 I think this is a rebuttal to @kendavenport, although I agree with him:

So the next time you find yourself saying “Theater tickets are too expensive,” stop yourself.  Man up and admit it.  Say, “I don’t find enough value in going to the theater.”

(via The Producer’s Perspective: ‘Stop Telling Me You Can’t Afford Theater Tickets!’)

I am totally guilty of this. But this week I actually am paying to go to the theater - twice.  Paying more than I usually pay.  And right now I am making less than I need to live on at my “survival” job, so $20/week to see theater is $20/week I don’t have to do something else, like, say, buy groceries or keep the electricity on in my apartment.

I wanted to see ‘American Idiot’ before it closed. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Do I think it was an important piece of theater that will change the American stage? No. Did I think the aerial dream ballet featuring a woman in a burqa was ridiculous? Absolutely. Do I think Jesse was smarter than me by rushing the show and saving $30? Yes, but sometimes you (and by that I mean I) pay for the convenience of not busting my ass to get to Midtown to wait in line and then hang around for a couple of hours instead of going to the gym.

I also just got a ticket to see Lynn Nottage’s latest ‘By the Way, Meet Vera Stark’ at 2nd Stage thanks to the Works By Women Meet Up group.  I work all day Sunday in Brooklyn, so I am not looking forward to rushing over to Manhattan after work, but I love Nottage’s work, and a $32.50 is probably the best deal I am likely to get, particularly if the reviews are good.  Nottage is one of my favorite living playwrights right now, and I feel confident that this new production, directed by Jo Bonney, will be engaging, smart, poignant and enjoyable.  I was really glad I got to see ‘Ruined’ at MTC. It is a performance that has stayed with me, and I regret that I have not had the opportunity to see ‘Intimate Apparel’ or ‘Fabulation’ on stage because they literally leaped into my mind when I read them on the page.

The rest of this post is on tumblr here.

Vacation All We Ever Wanted

Ok, no it's not actually a vacation.

It's the A Collection of Shiny Objects' First Semi-Irregular Creative Retreat!  

The boys and I have traveled to a semi-secret and fairly secluded location (aka Nathan's parents' vacation house in Chatham, MA) for some artistic and company development time.  We've spent most of our time working on the plot and music of DARLING, our hipster/feminist/video game-inspired adaptation of Peter Pan.

There has also been a lot of tea drinking, catching up on sleep, watching YouTube clips, Nathan mashed-up Madonna's 'Express Yourself' and Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' (here), and we even went to the beach (it was cold).  This is our creative process.

We'll be back in the BK in a few days and hope to get to some recording soon.  Be on the lookout for some DARLING demos!

-- Liz E

Guest Blog from Co-Artistic Director Jesse Geiger

Hi guys and gals! Pleased to meet you. I’ll be guesting on the Shiny Objects blog from time to time. Exciting developments are in the works….

First: We have a new website! www.collectshinyobjects.org. Check it out to learn a bit more about where we’ve been and where we’re going. Like all things Shiny, it’s a fabulous work-in-progress. Expect further evolutions, make-overs and re-inventions in the months ahead.

Second: We’re in the throws of planning for this spring’s workshop of THE WALMART PROJECT, the new piece we’re creating with playwright Greg Moss. We’ve begun assembling design collaborators and look forward to announcing more information soon!

Third: If you haven’t already, check out The Momentum, the exciting new piece on self help by our friends at Collaborationtown.  Winner of the Fringe, it’s having a mid-winter revival for the next several Wednesdays. We were extremely fortunate to have a bunch of the CTownies join us for our December workshop of THE HERCULINE/CASTER PROJECT, including our fearless playwright Jordan Seavey. They’ll also be producing THE PLAY ABOUT MY DAD, a new piece by Herc/Caster alum, Townie, and all-round charmer, Boo Killabrew in the spring. We can’t wait to check it out.

And finally: If you haven’t already, buy your tickets for The Wii Plays at Ars Nova, featuring the musical talents of Shiny Object Collector Nathan Leigh and his fantastic band, Super Mirage. Video game theatre at it’s finest.

More soon!    -- Jesse

Happy 2011 from Shiny Objects

Happy New Year from A Collection of Shiny Objects!

It has been an incredibly busy first year for the company. Our first production, THE EXILE OF PETIE DELARGE, had a successful run in Los Angeles at Son of Semele Theater, and an exciting transfer to the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) to kick-off their 2010 New Original Works Festival (NOW Fest).

A Collection of Shiny Objects and I are back in New York and back in development with new work. I have asked one of my closest friends and favorite collaborators, director Jesse Geiger, to become my partner and Co-Artistic Director. Jesse has directed shows for The Hangar Theatre and Fordham University, among others, and developed work with The Public Theatre’s Emerging Writers Group and The American Repertory Theatre Institute. Recent projects include: THE MISANTHROPE, THE BACCHAE, THORNWILDE (World Premiere) and Chuck Mee’s FULL CIRCLE. He is the recipient of a 2009 Drama League Fellowship, a 2010 New Directors New Works Seed Grant and was a finalist for the 2010 SDC Sir John Gielgud Fellowship. His production of FAN-BOY was a finalist in the 2010 Samuel French Festival.

Jesse and I have multiple projects that we are excited about in development. This December we had an intensive workshop of a project whose working title is the ‘Herculine/Caster Project’ with the support of the Drama League and The Women’s Project. ‘Herculine/Caster’ is an exploration of gender and identity that Jesse is developing with playwright Jordan Seavey, which takes its source material from the memoirs of a 19th century intersex person and the recent investigation by an international athletic body into the gender of South African track and field star, Caster Sermenya.

We are looking for a summer residency for another project, currently entitled ‘The WalMart Project’, which we are developing with playwright Gregory Moss.  We hope to incorporate object theater to explore consumerism, the individual and the new American dream by following the experiences of a young man camping out in a big box store that slowly comes to life.

Additionally, we have applied for fiscal sponsorship from Fractured Atlas. So hopefully soon we will be able to offer you a tax deduction when we ask you for a donation to support our work. In the meantime, we want you to know that we could not have had such a productive and successful first year without your support. We thank you, and hope you will continue to follow our progress!

Best Wishes for a Happy and Prosperous 2011!

Love, Liz E (and now Jesse too!)