Showing posts with label Final Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Final Project. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

First Reading of EXILE

Last Sunday afternoon we gathered together some actors at director Maureen Huskey's home in Los Feliz and heard the script of The Exile of Petie DeLarge for the very first time.  Our composer, Colin, and designers Kit Stolen and Martin Gimenez were also there and we started to play.

It was a very promising first reading and we are excited to continue the workshop in May.


























Pictured above (from left): Jennifer Barclay (playwright) & actors: Julian Evens, Ann Yatco, Liam Springthorpe & Erica Bitton
  
Pictured below (from left): Kathleen Heverin, Julian Evens, Liam Springthorpe, Erica Bitton, Ann Yatco, Alexandra Kustin

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Announcing the Director for THE EXILE OF PETIE DELARGE

Beautiful, exciting, ground-breaking Maureen Huskey, who I had the pleasure of working with previously at CalArts, has agreed to lead the workshop of The Exile of Petie DeLarge by Jennifer Barclay!

More about Maureen:

Maureen Huskey is an award-winning theater director based in Los Angeles since 2006.   Most recently, she was the Assistant Director for Lenka Udovicki for UCLA Live's Medea starring Annette Bening. Maureen received the 2008-09 Princess Grace Honorarium Award for Theater Directing.  As co-creator and director of the New York based, site-specific theater group Red Dive (1996-2006), she brought audiences down Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal via pontoon boat (Peripheral City), through narrow streets of Lower Manhattan, and to historic landmarks like the Lower East Side Tenement Building to re-envision the buried stories of New York landscapes.  This cross-disciplinary, experimental work that incorporated the work of dozens of New York's emerging artists garnered her a Bessie Award for 'performance installation and new media' and support by the Creative Capital Foundation, Franklin Furnace Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Meet the Composer's Fund, The Heathcote Foundation, and the Foundry Theatre's Emerging Artist Award among others.
 
Maureen's original movement-theater projects in New York have been supported by Voice & Vision's Envision Development Program for Women theater artists, New Dance Alliance, The Brooklyn Arts Exchange and the New York State Council for the Arts, BRIC Studios, the Brooklyn Arts Council and through independent artist residencies through The Field, and others. Her New York directing collaborations with dance artists and small companies have been presented in such venues as The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, Joe's Pub, Joyce SOHO, PS122, New Dance Alliance and HERE Arts Center.  In addition to New York and Los Angeles, Maureen's directing work has been presented in festivals in Chicago, Vancouver, San Francisco and Vienna, Austria.  She is currently a national workshop leader for the Creative Capital Foundation's Professional Development Program.  As a Rotary Fellow she received a Diploma with Merit in Drama from the University of Kent at Canterbury in England.  She holds a MFA in Theater Directing from California Institute of the Arts (2009).

Maureen has taught directing to undergraduate and graduate students at the California Institute for the Arts and led workshops in acting, movement/voice and site-specific installation to students at Western State College in Colorado, Bard College in New York through the Voice & Vision Envision Retreat, and the Brooklyn Arts Exchange.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm tellin' you folks, when we get this whole thing together, it's gonna be a show you ain't gonna wanna miss.   
I'm not sayin', but I'm just sayin'.  -- Liz E

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Progress Report, Week #9

Final Project, Week of November 16th:

- Still hashing out a few little details with a director for "Exile" re: duties & responsibilities. I know, developing new work can raise a lot of questions about who owes what to whom, and who is willing to commit what. Trying to lay that out in writing for "Exile" so there will not be miscommunications later. Call me "little-miss-responsible".

- Submitted my first application for some grant money. Hoping for an interdisciplinary grant from the CalArts' Provost's Office for the "Exile" workshop. Every little bit helps.

- Approached video designer Roz Fulton for "Exile" and to engineer and oversee the project as a whole. She's up for it. Now I just need to find her some LA housing/transportation for the workshop & performance period.

- The Hollywood Fringe's application site went live this week. Deadline for applications is April.


And then I came down with some lingering sickness that I could not shake for days and days and days.

Next week is Thanksgiving so I am not optimistic about getting very much accomplished. Mostly thinking of ways to ask people for money.

"for the vision" -- Liz E

Friday, November 13, 2009

Progress Report Week #8

Final Project, Week of November 9th:

This has felt a bit like a "phone tag" week.

- I have engaged in multiple rounds of phone/email tag with various collaborators since last week. Good news is that we have stuff to talk about and want to talk about it. The tricky part is actually reaching each other on top of busy lives and a 3 hour time difference. I hope to actually have some substantive conversations over the weekend.

- I continued researching venues in earnest, and began inquiring about availability and fees. My working assumption is that I am looking for a venue that I can program for the Hollywood Fringe in June. Not necessarily exclusively, but that is the scope. One location, multiple presentatations within it.

- I drafted the following working "Problem Statement" (not that it's a problem, that's just my preferred method of attack) along with a Goals & Objectives/Timetable:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Project: MFA Final Project, Tentatively Collectively Titled "Elektra, Petie & Other Misunderstood Girls"

Problem Statement: Artists of multiple performance disciplines sometimes need a reason to reach beyond their comfort zone, to collaborate with other artists whom they might not have known or with whom they might not have imagined working. Audiences may not realize that they have an interest in new and experimental work unless something gives them a point of entry, and audience members tastes will vary. Will a variety of offerings stimulate their interest, and encourage their participation?

Questions I Seek to Answer: How can I as a creative producer jump-start new collaboration partnerships and set a tangible destination for a "work-in-progress"? What is a comfortable environment to create and present new work, and to invite participation from audiences at an early stage? And conversely, how can I program multiple performances by artists of different mediums in a "tasting menu" of sorts that an audience will find engaging enough to explore and visit repeatedly? Is this a presentation model that will encourage dialogue and participation across disciplines, backgrounds and the spectator-spectacle divide?

Goal: To commission and collaboratively develop new experimental performances through a workshop process, organized around a theme. To present these new performance pieces together as "works-in-progress" in a shared performance space, along with pre-show art installation and post-show musical entertainment to create a total experience for the audience. To use this informal workshop and presentation model as a means of encouraging interaction and dialogue between the artists working on different projects and between the artists and the audience, and give all a sense of participation in the ultimate event.


Objectives/Timetable:

  • Commission of 3 Performance Pieces + 2 Performance Art Installations, Fall 2009-Winter 2010

  • One workshop per performance piece to take place April-May 2010
-- Includes Writer (for each), Director/Creator (for each), Video Designer, Ensembles of Performer/Musician /Puppeteers (for each)

  • Inclusion of post-performance programming (Musical Acts), Spring 2010

  • Presentation of All Pieces & Installations together in one venue (possibly as part of Hollywood Fringe), June 2010
-- Rotating schedule of performances, presented over the course of approx. 2 weeks


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I continue to be a work-in-progress
-- Liz E

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Progress Report, Week #7

Final Project, Week of November 2nd:

- I have working title for the project, "Elektra, Petie & Other Misunderstood Girls". That seems to encapsulate the themes behind the pieces in the project in a way that I can communicate clearly.

- I have a lead on a venue. Need to follow up.

- Jen Barclay (Exile playwright) has a suggestion for a composer/songwriter she has just shared with me. Plan to look him up. I realized that some of my hesitation about working with people I don't know at all, is about expectation. 1) Getting them on-board with my vision, and 2) getting them to go along without any guarantee of financial resources. This has proven to be a stumbling block in confirming a director for "Exile".

- Now I'm working with a tentative budget. That's good, I guess, since now I have a clearer idea of the real scope of the project. And now I need to find away to raise the money. Sean (Rogue Artists) and I have been sending each other messages but haven't had a chance to talk. My assumption has been that we will be able to share the cost of producing their project. I also need to have a budget talk with Katie (puppetry project).

- Fundraising: Years ago I raised some money for a film project with a friend of mine. We never made the film, and we've held onto the money thinking maybe some day we would. It's only a few hundred dollars, but I have been told I can have what's left of the money. Baby steps.

- I've looked into setting up a small business account and made a comparison about creating a "Fictitious Business Name" (aka a D.B.A.) in either Los Angeles County of Kings County, NY. Considering I don't need a fictitious name to open a small business account as a sole proprietor I think it's more hassle to do now than it would be worth. I may change my mind in a few months, who knows?

- Working on a well-written project description to use for potential fundraisers and grant proposals.


That's all for now -- Liz E

Friday, October 30, 2009

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

Sunday, October 25, 2009

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

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

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.

Friday, October 9, 2009

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.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

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.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

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.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Progress Report Wk#1

Final Project, week of Sept. 21:

- Exchanged emails with Juli Crockett. She is still reading the draft of 'Exile' I sent her. I plan to give her a little more time and then check back in. I need to think of plan B for director and lyricist/composer. Maybe 2 people.

- Exchanged emails with Sean Cawelti. He's still interested in workshopping a piece on California history/women's mythology. I had been thinking "Ramona" and he's thinking "Elektra". Interesting. The plan is to talk on the phone tomorrow.

- Exchanged emails with Aaron Link about incorporating an art installation of his, and whether or not he is still interested. He is on a leave-of-absence from CalArts, but he is interested. To be honest, the art installations are of lower concern to me now than securing the performance pieces, but I hadn't spoken to Aaron since May and I wanted to re-open the lines of communication.

- Had a very interesting phone conversation with playwright/performer, Karole Foreman, who is currently based in LA. She sent me a couple of scripts with accompanying demo tracks to listen to. Don't know if I can fit a workshop of one of her pieces in.

- Still need to get in touch with Poor Dog. Struggling with saying "hello".

- Really gravitating towards working this final project of mine into the Hollywood Fringe. The dates are complimentary. My vision is very fringe-like, and it could get me a larger audience and a larger context for presentation. However, it might change the structure of the project. The Fringe hasn't opened its submission process yet. I need to write a letter of inquiry to Ben who is running the Fringe and get us into conversation.

- Need to compile bios of potential artists (and myself) and synopses of potential projects as soon as possible.

- I'm finding that the more I have to talk about my final project; what it is, what I want to do with it, the easier it's becoming to talk about it. I hope that writing about it feels the same way.