Ryan's Feelings

A few cookies later, I’m back!  As you know, I’ve been in a bit of a rut lately…a creative slump if you will.  But today several things happened that made me pick up and reinvigorate:

 

1. I made crepes
2. I got a hair cut
3. I went to a play
4. I had rehearsal

 

On point 1 I have never made crepes before and they were delicious, not only for myself but for my friends as well.  It always feels good to create something (even food) that people appreciate.   

 

On point 2 it was special because my sister cut my hair and it turned out great.  This was the first time I have let her cut my hair (she’s a hair dresser in training) and I’m pleased to say she’s my new hairdresser!  Something about the art of cutting hair and the imagery of it inspired me.  I have been really interested in the idea that you need to destroy something in order to create something new.  Cutting hair seems a perfect and simple example of this concept.

 

On point 3, the play shall remain nameless because I did not think it was very good.  But, even bad theatre can inspire. 

 

On point 4, there comes a time in every rehearsal where the winds change and things start to make a bit of sense.  It’s easy to feel like this moment will not come, but my advice is that it will.  Keep going.  Go see theatre and movies and read books and get your haircut.  Life will ultimately inspire and push you in the right direction.  This has always been true for me and it is something I easily forget.  I hope in writing it down it somehow becomes more certain.

 

Ryan Emmons    

The Conway Corner

I've decided to post some of the sounds I made for We Three onto the blog for you to download:

Mattress Discounters 1
(0:11, 111 KB mp3)

Mattress Discounters 2
(0:14, 150 KB mp3)

Mattress Discounters 3
(First sound in the play, 0:14, 147 KB mp3)

Mattress Discounters 4
(sine wave chorus, 0:13, 135 KB mp3)

Pills Sound
(0:41, 433 KB mp3)

Strange 1
(2:09, 1.25 MB mp3)

Strange 2
(3:33, 2.06 MB mp3)

Strange 3
(1:01, 623 KB mp3)

Strange Arabic
(5:20, 6.73 MB mp3)

Strange All
(1-3 and Arabic together, with some other unused sounds, 5:20, 6.74 MB mp3)

Motion Picture Soundtrack
(preshow song, 2:04, 974 KB mp3)


The Mattress Discounters and Strange sounds 1-3 I created using static and sine waves and messing with them in various ways. Sorry that some of the Strange sounds have a bunch of extra space at the end of the track. I used various sounds of pills and sped them up and put them on top of each other to create the Pills Sound. Strange Arabic is an Arabic Techno song, "Moi Et Toi" by Abdel Ali Slimani on the compilation album "Arabic Groove," slowed down quite a bit, and with a few other tweeks. NTI alumni will get a kick out of that. Motion Picture Soundtrack is a recording of me playing the Radiohead song, overlayering a bunch of guitar tracks.

I know these aren't songs you would put onto your ipod, but I figured I would make them available since I have them laying around. I put up the time and size of the files, just so you know what you're getting yourself into. In most cases they aren't very large. Let me know if you come up with any good uses for this stuff. You never know when you'll need some spooky noises. Or you just might be a Mattress Discounters junky.

I'm working on some stuff for the shadow play right now that may be more appealing to the ear. I'll throw some of it up here once it's more developed.

Written by Mitchell Conway

A Beckett Full of Wine or Albee Alright in the Morning

Two nights ago, I had the honor of attending the New York Innovative Theatre Awards which celebrates Off-Off-Broadway theatre. The Blue Man Group performed, Lisa Kron hosted, and presenters included Olympia Dukakis, Tina Howe, Bill Irwin, and Edward Albee. Judith Malina, co-founder of The Living Theatre, received an honorary award as did nytheatre.com.

The event was very fancy, exciting and brought legitimacy to Indie theatre. Albee said “There are two types of theatre. Commercial theatre and the theatre that matters. This is the theatre that matters.”

The celebration was extra special because it celebrated the 50th anniversary of Off-Off-Broadway theatre. I kept hearing one name over and over again that I had never heard before. I’ve done some research into it now, and I’d like to share it with you. The name is Café Cino.

In 1958, a man named Joseph Cino opened a coffee shop on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village with the intention of presenting poetry, art, and folk music. By December of that year, plays were being performed. Cino introduced every act by saying, “It’s magic time!” This was the birth of Off-Off-Broadway theatre (and gay theatre). Along with performing plays by Tennessee Williams and Jean Giraudoux, there were a number of new playwrights that found a home and at Café Cino. These included John Guare, Sam Shepherd, Jean-Claude Van Itallie, Lanford Wilson, and Doric Wilson (who Mitch and I had the honor of meeting at the NYIT Awards – he laughed when we told him we were starting a company, telling us in colorful metaphors how difficult it is to do such a thing).

When Café Cino started, there wasn’t even a stage. And when Joe Cino finally put one in, it was only 8’ by 8’ and made of milk crates. This is the legacy and challenge that Cino and Off-Off-Broadway have given us. How can we create theatre with no resources?

No. 11 Productions is an Indie theatre company. We have no money and we have no venue. But we do have perhaps five of the most valuable assets: time, creativity, energy, talent, and passion. So, armed with these, all that’s left to say is “It’s magic time!”

Written by Julie Congress

Congress In Session

Distinguished Colleagues and Esteemed Opponents,

Today I present a rather lofty claim. Give me leave to present my case. I propose that:

Theatre is the highest art form because it holds the potentiality to incorporate all other art forms.

Granted, not every piece of theatre uses every other art form in it, but there is substantial precedent for all of the following:

• The Two- and Three-Dimensional Visual Arts – the set and lighting designs of a play are crucial elements in telling the story and bringing the director’s vision to life. Picasso, Dali, and Matisse all designed theatrical sets and/or costumes during their careers. In addition, the blocking of actors on the stage is a form of spatial arrangement and sculpture, albeit moving sculpture.
• Literary Arts – prose and poetry are brought to life onstage as the text of a play.
• Film and Multimedia – projections (clips of existing films, live feeds, original footage, etc.) are used frequently in theatrical endeavors as another means of telling a story to a modern, tech-savvy audience.
• Fashion – costume design is an inherent design component of a play.
• Music – this does not just go for musicals. As Mitchell Conway, my honored colleague from Massachusetts, once pointed out, it is exceedingly rare to see a production that does not utilize either canned or live music as part of the experience.
• Dance and Movement – again, not just for musicals. Movement is an intrinsic part of most theatrical training and “physical theatre” is very popular.
• The Culinary Art – disagree with me? I humbly offer you the examples of Brecht’s Baal or Killer Joe by Tracy Letts.

Undoubtedly, this is a cursory look at the other art forms and perhaps I have missed some. Yet I cannot think of any other art form that is so inclusive of the others (save Opera, but I am considering that a close sister of theatre and grouping them somewhat together). Challenge me if you wish, but in my mind, theatre will always be the Super Art.*

*Super Art: The Art that invites all of the other arts over for parties, that never forgets a birthday, and is all around the friendliest and best art form.

Written by Julie Congress

The Conway Corner

Hey! Everyone notice the staged readings "11 Celebrates 10" that we're doing to for the 10th anniversary of the "Play and Playwrights" anthology series? The dates are posted on the main page of the website. We really hope you can make it some of them. They're all free!

But we also want your feedback. What more information could we provide for you on the site that would make you more interested on our readings and our other endeavors? Please comment on the posting with your suggestions!

The new piece No. 11 is creating has a lot to do with shadows. My last semester at Skidmore I was in Carolyn Anderson's Advanced Directing class, and most of my first projects with that class revolved around shadows. So I'm going back to my resources for inspiration. I've been taking "Jung on Evil" and "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" on the subway. Carl Jung has a lot of great quotes about his conception of the shadow as a component of the psyche. Here are some good ones:

"The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real."

"...it is quite within the bounds of possibility for a man to recognize the relative evil of his nature, but it is a rare and shattering experience for him to gaze into the face of absolute evil."

Also, Jung references a good quote from Faust, after he has confront Mephistopheles:

"That was my other side, my alter ego, my all too palpable shadow which can no longer be denied."

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is lengthy, and will require a great deal further study before it becomes truly useful. As of now, I see a lot about the shadow of ignorance. A huge part of ignorance is fear of death, which one should not have. Death and life are one. Learning how to die is a major mission of life which is often ignored in favor of the enjoyments of life. In the West, we usually think of shadow as associated with death. But their shadow is an attitude towards life. To see a difference between life and death, means to forever remain in the cycle of life. The life-death cycle, which are one, is negative, and the goal is to be liberated from it. Light is the pure reality beyond this shadow reality of life and death. I guess as Macbeth would put it, "life's but a walking shadow."

Some people on blogs do this music playlist thing, so here's what I've been listening to: "Shadowplay" by Joy Division, "Hidden Shadows" by Herbie Hancock, "Pictures At An Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky, "Blue in Green" by Miles Davis.

I know I am all over the place. Sometimes it feels like I'm grabbing at everything with the word shadow. But I'm really trying to think about what shadows mean to people. Beyond exploring about they mean to me, and asking others, I feel the need to build up these references to the idea. Jung's shadow is quite specific (or quite vague considering it is a supposed component of the quite indefinite psyche), and the Tibetan’s shadow is very different, but there are many shadows to look at. I should probably look at my own on the wall for a while longer.

Written by Mitchell Conway

Ryan's Feelings

I just taught Samantha how to post on the blog!

Written by Ryan Emmons

The Conway Corner

I've been auditioning a good amount here in the city, and I'll pretty much audition for anything. I go from waiting around at AEA (Actor's Equity Association) for a Broadway show and never ever being seen one day, to disorganized unpaid student films where I'm the only auditioner the next. So my first or second week in New York, I got an e-mail from a student film maker who seemed really excited for me to have sent him my headshot and resume, and sent his script as an attachment.

I believe whole-heartedly in going into an audition prepared to the point of bleeding, but that doesn't mean I always put it into practice. I was busy working on We Three, auditioning elsewhere, and going to my real job, so I only read the first scene of this film script. It consisted of a scene involving some character I would be playing and his friends at Coney Island riding the Cyclone. I was excited about the prospect of filming at Coney Island, but not excited enough the go to the next page of the script.

Anyway, I told the director I would meet him in Union Square one day. I waited around for a while, and after calling him incessantly, he finally answered and apologetically said there had been a mix up and he thought we had agreed to meet a different day. So we then arranged to meet after I finished working in Williamsburg one afternoon. I trot over to the Roebling Tea room to conduct the audition/interview without any idea what I was doing. Normally a director will make sure to say 'bring a classical monologue' or 'there will be sides at the audition.' I had no clue.

I'm a little early, so I take a seat and order a sandwich. Shortly, a tall, thin, quite gay, twenty something in short shorts recognizes me from my headshot and sits down across from me. After the obligatory introductions he asks how I liked the script. Maintaining my cool, I mention how I'd be interested in filming at Coney Island, and how I thought the dialogue was distinct yet genuine. But, not wanting to reveal my neglect, I smoothly transition into my own endeavors with No. 11 and so forth.

After humoring a number of my tangents, the director says, "Well. I just want you to know that everyone else who I've talked to has been really passionate about this script. Do you have any other thoughts you'd like to share about it?" I realize that I'm about to slip and fall in a mound of horseshit. All I have to cling to is my previous nonsense about the script being genuine, and liking Coney Island.

The director has obviously picked up that I have not gotten past the second page of his masterpiece and says, "You know, I met with an eighteen year old earlier today. After a few minutes, I realized that he hadn't even read the script I send him. So I asked myself, 'why were we even meeting?' " He waited expecting some type of response from me. I let out a short panicked laugh, and said something like "Huh. Yeah."

The director out of nowhere asked where I had been before this meeting. I responded that I was just a few blocks away at a real estate office where I worked. He responded, "Well, good. I'm glad I haven't made you go too far out of your way." Luckily for me at this point the director took the initiative to close our interview/audition, and said he would give me a call. Without bothering to wait for the check for the tea he ordered, he handed the waitress cash on the way out. I finished my sandwich.

At the rehearsal for We Three that night I told my fellow company members about my experience that afternoon. After which Ryan asked, "What was the film called?" I said, "Glory Holes." The company burst out in laughter while I smiled in confusion. I had no clue what a 'glory hole' was, but apparently everyone else did. Barely holding back his feverish giggling, Ryan informed me that a glory hole was a whole in a bathroom stall through which men stick their phallus and engage in felatio with other men anonymously. Upon further investigation, we discovered that the script was about precisely this matter. The character I was auditioning for ended up having anonymous oral sex in the bathroom at Coney Island, featuring my penis rather prominently. Its involvement was intricately described in the stage directions. I am left wondering what the remainder of my audition would have consisted of, had I demonstrated familiarity with the material.

Embarrassed, and a little terrified, I learned my lesson. Acting is pornography.

Written by Mitchell Conway

A Beckett Full of Wine or Albee Alright in the Morning

There are many different schools of acting. Be it Hagan, Artaud or Stan the Man (née Stanislavksy), it seems that everyone has their own acting guru. Everyone in No. 11 Productions has there own: Samantha is Stella Adler all the way, Anne Bogart is Ryan’s lady, and Mitch, well…Mitch just seems to be obsessed with Nietzsche. Today, I would like to introduce you to mine.

Michael Chekhov was born in 1891 in St. Petersburg, Russia and died in 1955 in Los Angeles. He was the nephew of playwright Anton Chekhov and a star pupil of Stanislavsky. He was the best (or one of the two best, if you are a Meyerholdian) actors at the Moscow Art Theatre. In the late 1920s, Michael Chekhov emigrated to the United States and worked on Broadway and in Hollywood (you can see him in Hitchcock’s Spellbound). His students included Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, Gregory Peck, and Anthony Quinn.

One of his most distinctive ideas is that of the Psychological Gesture (PG) and the idea that our bodies are linked to our minds and emotions. The PG of a character is a physical representation of how the character feels inside. Every character also has a specific body part they lead from and identifying this body part is a really great way, I have found, to start discovering the physicality (or “plastics” as the Russians say). You can read much more about PGs in Michael Chekhov’s book To the Actor.

Why I like Misha Chekhov:

• His emphasis on GAMES. An atmosphere must be playful and free to produce the best, most creative work.
• The importance of IMAGINATION. Stanislavksy believes that every part you play comes out of who you are as a human. M.C. puts more weight on the power of imagination.
• My Michael Chekhov teacher in Moscow was one of the warmest, most encouraging, playful, lovely human beings ever.

Some quotes from To the Actor:

• “Although creative images are independent and changeable…they will require your active collaboration…You must ask questions of these images, as you would ask questions of a friend.”
• “The real task of the creative artist is not merely to copy the outer appearance of life but to interpret life in all its facets and profoundness, to show what is behind the phenomena of life, to let the spectator look beyond life’s surfaces and meanings.”
• “There is no human being who is obvious and easy to comprehend.”
• “It will be a good starting point for an actor, in order to grasp the initial idea about the character, to ask himself: ‘What is the difference between myself and the character?’”
• “The audience is an active co-creator of the performance.”
• “For acting should ever be a joyous art and never enforced labor.”

So thank you, Michael Chekhov, for showing me how my art can be "a joyous art".

Written by Julie Congress

11 Be or Not 11 Be

No. 11 Productions is a very new company. Here’s a brief status update of what we’ve done so far and what we plan to accomplish in the near future.

Already Done:

• We had a very successful production of our original adaptation of Lysistrata in the SaratogaArtsFest
• We had great runs of Will Goldberg’s We Three in the Capital Fringe and New York International Fringe Festivals
• Obtained a Tax ID Number
• Have begun planning our next two productions (tentative show dates in November/December and February/March)
• Sent out our first email newsletter (didn’t get it? Email us at no.11productions@gmail.com to subscribe)
• Created a website and blog!

Still to Happen:

• Form a legal General Partnership
• Procure a venue for our next production
• Write our mission statement
• Find a park that will let us perform Lysistrata
• Start a facebook group
• Open a bank account
• Become a self-sustaining repertory theatre company (okay, maybe this is a little further down the line. But it’s gonna happen, just you watch!)

Written by Julie Congress

Ryan's Feelings

Good Evening. Another one. I worked for 8 hours today and not in the theatre. I wish I didn't need a day job, but I do. Oh well. Sorry, I don't mean to get you down or to wallow in my own thoughts. That's why when I'm feeling down and out and I need to be feeling creative and work on what I really want to be working on (theatre) I like to bake delicious cookies. Here's one of my favorite recipes:

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
¾ cup light brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
2 ½ cups quick cook oats
1 cup peanut butter chips (Reese’s are my favorite and I use the whole bag when I really need it*)

Preheat the oven to 350˚.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until smooth. Then add the vanilla and the eggs and mix until it is all blended in. Next add the dry ingredients and mix well. Finally stir in the oats and peanut butter chips. By this point you should start feeling a little better. Drop teaspoon sized balls of dough on an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes.

Now you can of course use an electric mixer but I find the power, energy and strength needed to cream the butter by hand is exhilarating and picks me right up. Don’t feel bad if it doesn’t pick you up entirely…the cookies will be out the oven soon to finish the job.

Good cookies lead to creative genius. I know it just seems like more of your precious time (because it is). But, 30 minutes baking is better that 2 hours of uncreative frustration. As an artist, I hope this helps you feel good and have at least one revelation about whatever it may be that you are currently working on. Feeling down is normal, especially when you need to be cramming in a day job, family and other obligations around your art. There are positives to these things as well which I will discuss at a later date. Remember that most of the time it is better to bake than to be half-baked while making art.

*you know what I mean and if you don’t then just stick to the cup

Written by Ryan Emmons

Congress In Session

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen:

I stand before you today with great excitement and hope. Hope for the future of No. 11 Productions. Allow me to digress, so I may get to my point most directly.

My favorite word is asymptotic. You may recall this term from mathematics classes. In layman’s terms, an asymptote is a curve that gets perpetually nearer to a number without ever reaching it.

In this diagram, note how the curve keeps getting closer to the dashed line. The x-axis represents time. So as time passes, the curves gets closer. Yet even if the curve had an infinite amount of time, it would never touch (or go higher than) that dashed line. That is what makes it an asymptote. It will never reach its goal exactly, but will get infinitely closer. Suppose the dashed line was at 2. Then as time passed, the curve would go from 0 to 1 to 1.5 to 1.9 to 1.99 to 1.999 to 1.9999999999 into infinity.

At No. 11 Productions, we are on an asymptotic quest. We want to do Perfect Theatre. We want to attain Truth and Beauty. Yet we know that these are abstract concepts. These ideals are our asymptotes. With every production we do, we will get closer and closer. We will learn more and we will grow.

That is why we chose to work as part of a company, so that the next play could pick up from where the previous one left off. For us, that “x-axis” is our productions. Rather than each play starting from zero and being an isolated line, all of our pieces will be going further and further on the “Great Parabola to Truth”.

It may not always be easy, but we will find strength because we are forever working towards, and getting infinitely closer to, a higher aspiration.

Written by Julie Congress

Direct Consequences

Yesterday, well this morning, we applied to the New York Frigid Festival with one of our next projects. Fingers are crossed all around that we get in and then we can announce exactly what we are planning. What I can say is that the next two projects planned have a very high “create from scratch” component. Risky for a director, actors and company perhaps, but one thing that is sure is that the experience and overall production will be entirely unique, fresh and new.

In this I see great benefits.

• Rights and royalties are not a problem
• A larger creative process
• More opportunity for collaboration

To name a few. For me, as a director, the greatest experiences I have had directing have been the most collaborative. I am looking forward to two such projects in a row and I feel that these shows will be an excellent opportunity for No. 11 Productions to establish a greater sense of it’s own aesthetic. I think it is critical for a new company to know what kind of theatre they are trying to make and to establish its style boldly and up front.

Written by Ryan Emmons