Patrick Lord!

Hello!

This is it folks, the big meta episode where a projection designer (or . . . whatever, we get into it) talks to another projection designer. It was a huge pleasure for me to sit down with Patrick Lord in the comfy confines of the Silver Spring library.

This was aaaaaaalll the way back in August and I’ve been keeping it in my pocket for a rainy month, which is November. This year it’s thanks to A Wonder in My Soul over at Center Stage in Baltimore and not to my usual November squeeze of the Washington Ballet’s version of The Nutcracker at the Warner, which you should definitely check out because it is still pretty great.

Patrick is a busy busy guy these days, so I’m very glad I could squeeze this chat in with him before the season got away from us both. We might have recorded this in the summer, but we talk about evergreen topics like growing the capacity for our corner of the design world in DC and just what it means to be a media/video/projection design person in the world.

It’s good stuff, IMO, biased as I am. Enjoy!

Welcome to Season 3: THE MUSICAL!

Hello! Welcome back and thanks for joining me on this new trip through the world of theater. And to keep the ball rolling and finally get to what we didn’t touch on in last month’s introduction to the Washington DC 2018/2019 theatrical season, it’s time to talk about the musicals!

I am completely useless on the question of musicals, as you will soon, discover, so I knew I needed someone to guide me through the thicket of the ones being produced this season and who else should that someone be but Patrick Flynn, connoisseur of bad movies and what we can learn from them, playwright, and most importantly for this episode, host of The Original Cast, a podcast where folks talk about original cast recordings of musicals! It’s perfect. We cover a lot of ground in this episode because it turns out that musicals are kind of a big deal. We (and be we, I mean, Patrick, who is awesome) cover them all from Arena to Ford’s to Baltimore Center Stage and of course, Olney and Signature Theatre. Special shout out to Theatre Alliance for the first ever double seal of approval for the upcoming (long upcoming but keep your eye on it) Klytemnestra: An Epic Slam Poem, written and performed by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi and directed by Danielle Drakes. That one is coming in May, put it in your calendars now.

Patrick has a lot of irons going in a lot of fires. He just returned from Samuel French’s Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival with The Ferberizing of Coral, directed by Courtney Lane Self who will also direct his upcoming show with Flying V called Sheila and Moby and you should by no means miss that one. It runs from October 25 through November 18 at the The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. If you’re a fan of Tinkerbell, recently of Adventure Theatre, that show has got more to go with productions in Milwaukee and (fingers crossed) Maine.

Well the rest of this post is for those of you who have heard the episode, but if you haven’t, here’s an eclectic collection of links!

Donnie Hathaway’s “The Ghetto” in anticipation of Twisted Melodies at Atlas by Mosaic (and at Baltimore Center Stage).

A reminder that a lot of theaters are doing Fun Home this season: LMGTFY edition (I wish there was a map, that would be, um, fun).

A reminder of just how terrible a pirate movie and a movie in general Cutthroat Island is: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cutthroat_island/

“There’s something about word ‘bounce’ that’s inherently cursed.”

Here’s that interview with Heidi Blickenstaff we talk about from the Interval.

And Miranda After the Storm or What Happens to Savage Little Whores, which sounds like a doozy of a show and here’s hoping you can see it soon

Welcome to Season 3!

Exit the Stage Door has spent a long time away from the game, I admit, but we're back! And with a bang, if I do say so myself.

First thing's first, welcome to dcp creative, the technical home of Exit the Stage Door for iTunes RSS feed related reasons, but for the full show notes and access to the Google Sheet of the 2018/19 theatrical season as well as links to Linda Lombardi's latest joint with Taffety Punk and a peak at what Lauren Halvorsen and Studio Theatre are up to this year, you will need to head to Mixed/Media, the creative home of Exit the Stage Door, dcp creative's movie reviews, and hopefully a host of other great content from critics and theatre practitioners. 

In the meantime, you can still enjoy an old fashioned download link for this and every episode of Exit the Stage Door. Welcome to the 2018/2019 play season in the regional theatre and storefront theatre scene in Washington DC, a guided tour with Lauren Halvorsen and Linda Lombardi! Check back in with us in September for a look at the musicals that will grace Washington area stages. 

It's good to be back, y'all!

The Arsonists!

Ok, I did not actually sit down for a chat with any arsonists (not even the amazing actors who play the arsonists, Kimberly Gilbert and Tim Getman), but I did have a fantastic conversation with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's Connectivity Director, Kristen Jackson, Civic Organizer Laurenellen McCann, and Literary Director Kirsten Bowen to talk about Woolly's incredibly trenchant production of Max Frisch's classic The Arsonists. One of the excellent things that we talk about is all the many events and conversations that Woolly is organizing around the show (including open rehearsals and design jams in the run up to technical rehearsals). There are post-show discussions after every show, not as talk backs, but as opportunities for audience members to talk to each other about what they thought. You can find all of these events at the Related Events page on Woolly's main show page for The Arsonists. Coming up next you can be talking Violence and Power with Collective Action for Safe Spaces Executive Director Jessica Raven on the 23rd of September and Complicity and Creating Dialogue with theatre practitioner Elena Velasco on the 30th of September, among others. The Arsonists is already in previews. It opens September 12 and runs through October 8, click here for performance dates.

It was truly excellent have this chat about a great production of play I love that absolutely speaks to our (all too interesting) times. I'm hoping to see you at some of these events, but if not, I hope you check out this production and fight on. #Resist

Naked Theatre!

When I was doing my research on this year's Capital Fringe, I stumbled across one theater company in particular that got my attention: Naked Theatre Company. I was absolutely fascinated by their desire to create a 21st century theatre company that understood the open source community and that wanted to bring people into the company, not just to see the shows, but to be a part of the devising process and to give them some stake in those shows. On top of that, they wanted to organize as an LLC rather than register as a non-profit, which comes with a whole host of expectations and obligations for a theatre company. I was fortunate enough that Rachael Murray, one of the co-founders and a co-director, had some energy left after her Fringe tech rehearsal for Clickb@it, a devised show featuring live, in-person, recreation of Internet memes, to chat about the company, the show, and what it's like to be on the cutting edge of dreaming up what theatre could be. 

I hope you enjoy our conversation and I hope you support Naked theatre by checking out Clickba@it: it premieres on July 11  at 7:00 PM in the Sprenger at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (ticket info). Check it out!

The Nasty Women!

Hello again! My gosh, it's a been awhile, since last Fringe in fact and what better way to end a hiatus than to dive back into the deep waters and strong current of the Capital Fringe Festival. 

First up, I talked to the creative team behind The Nasty Women of the Ecstatic Rainbow Mystical Retreat (get all your ticket info for CapFringe here), who were generous enough to let me borrow some of their rehearsal time to talk about the show, the female gaze, Capital Fringe, finding a place in our lives for theater, and a whole lot more. The Nasty Women is an adaptation of Euripides' Bacchae written by Lisa Alapick. It is directed by Shari Lewis, and produced by Catherine Aselford, of Guillotine Theatre (formerly The Georgetown Theatre Company) and stars Tony Greenberg as King Pentheus. The Nasty Women of the Ecstatic Rainbow Mystical Retreat premieres on July 11 at 5 PM in the Sprenger Theater at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.

I had a great time talking to this group. I think we all wanted to have a longer conversation but they had  that whole rehearsal thing, so I am happy to be able to bring what we got to y'all. Enjoy!

Poe, Times Two!

Twitter keeps being a source of wonder and surprise connections. Richard Byrne reached out to me after I sent the bat-signal for more Fringe producers and put me in touch with Greg Oliver Bodine, author and star of Poe, Times Two and we put together a podcast with Greg and DeLisa White, director and frequent collaborator, in between his rehearsal and the opening gala for the 2016 Capital Fringe Festival. My recording venue fell through, so we adjourned to Plan b for burgers and beer and a chance to talk about Poe, Times Two and the advantages of living with a show for a long time in a Fringe setting and directing philosophies. It's a packed 32 minutes (and it's at a bar, so the audio is a bit different, set your volume accordingly). Please check out Poe, Times Two, which opens on July 9th and check out an amazing event at Eat the Rich on July 13 from 5 - 7 PM (it would have been at Mockingbird Hill, because amontillado is sherry and that's what you drink at Mockingbird Hill, but they are doing some work on the place). You can find the Poe, Times Two schedule and get tickets here. Enjoy!

Helen Aberger!

Well, the delightfully small world of DC Theatre keeps on giving (as does the amazing Kate Robards, who you might have heard of, if not from me, then from this awesome review). One bat-signal goes out and several more answers are received and here we are, talking to Helen Aberger of Victorian Lyric Opera Company out of Rockville, who is directing a brand new opera called Do Not Disturb with VLOC's experimental company, Forgotten Opera Company. Helen was an absolute delight and I hope y'all see her show, which opens July 9th and you can find the rest of the dates (and tickets!) here. Please check the opera out, either before or after you check this out, whatever suits your fancy.

Kate Robards!

It's Fringe time in the Capital (not to be confused with the Capitol, which is looking mighty fine these days) and we are kicking it off right: with podcasting. First, we had The Real World: Kabul's Emily Liner and now we have Studio Theatre alum and world-class human being, Kate Robards! Her (second!) solo Fringe show is called Ain't That Rich and you can catch it starting on July 7th at the MLK Library on 9th and G (among other times, but always in that place). 

This one was really fun, and not just because Kate is fantastic person and charming AF, but also because it was recorded over the Interwebs instead of face to face! I'm new to that area of audio life and my audio sounds like an echo chamber (for, like, reasons), but Kate sounds fantastic, so don't let my inadequacies keep you from listening her talk about the DC theatre scene, what it meant to go through Studio Theatre's apprenticeship program, and the joys of self-producing.

The Real World: Kabul!

We are kicking off some Capital Fringe (buy your buttons!) coverage this week with not one but two chats with folks who are producing their own work, which is a celebration of what Fringe is all about: self-producing!

First up, the playwright and producer of The Real World: Kabul, who is inspired by the story of the lonely satellite channel in Kabul, Tolo TV, (that's the one in Afghanistan, if you are wondering) that dreamed up Afghan Star, among other delights. That playwright and producer is Emily Liner! And she is a pretty cool cat, as you would expect from a go-getting self-producing theatrical neophyte.  The Real World: Kabul has its premiere on July 7th at the Atlas Performing Arts Center's Lab II at 9:00 PM (once again the Capital Fringe folk have you covered). Check The Real World: Kabul out and check this out!