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Conducive to Magic

Posted by Still Life actor, Halley Feiffer -

It is hard to believe we have less than one week left of "Still Life." This makes me want to cry. I am crying, in fact; don't tell anyone, please.

Last night's performance was very exciting, in a surprising way. We were all aware -- including the audience, I think -- that it was our last Tuesday performance; the air in the room had a certain electricity, the feeling of "This is one of the the last times we will be doing this!"

I don't remember feeling this way in other shows I have done. Often I feel: "Oh good, it's almost over!" or "I can't believe this is ending; what the heck will I do with my life?!", and these two feelings are so overwhelming that I have little time to think, "Oh, it is the last Tuesday we will be performing this show; how strange and sort of magical."

There is something about Still Life that is conducive to magic. From the first day of rehearsal, there was a certain buzz in the air. We were all here because we loved the play, I think; and that is a rarity. It has been such an immense gift to get to work on a play that I love in the way I love this play. I feel, now, the way I felt during the first read-through, or watching the first run-though: "I can't believe I get to be a part of this! I can't believe we are all here, working on this piece we love so much, and I can't believe it's this good!" What an unusual, thrilling feeling.

Thank you, MCC, for this experience. I don't think any of us will forget this magic any time soon.

"Still Life" Opening Night Party

Click here to check out photos of fancy folks and listen to DJ Randyhate's amazing playlist from the opening night soirée for Still Life. (Above: DJ Randyhate catches a glimpse of Still Life actor Kelly McAndrew and Kristina Valada-Viars. Photo by Sung An.)

Death Takes a "Sentimental Journey"

Posted by photographer Tamara Staples, whose photos are used in Still Life-

Using the dark rich palette of the 15th century Flemish painters, "Sentimental Journey" is a series of photographic still lives portrays rotting fruit, dead animals in repose and ephemera like candle smoke. These are the symbols of the Vanitas painters, whose opulent assemblages served to remind the viewer of the fleeting quality of life and all its entertainments and accomplishments. In my work, these objects embody my reckoning with the passing of my own youth, a passage of death and rebirth that contemporary culture by and large fails to recognize or celebrate.

The unabashed gaze at death in this series serves as a visual counterpoint to the death-denying, youth-worshipping culture that pours into our consciousness from the popular culture: advertising fetishizes youth, plastic surgery creates artificial ingenues from those who should be doyennes, and medical procedures prolong life and rob death of its dignity. While around me the thrust is to cling to the blossom of life, I am interested in the fruit, the decay of the fruit, which ultimately yields a new seed.

My work approaches death and decay with a gentle awe as well as the mournful loss evoked by even the kindest change. In this sense, the animal portraits among these pictures harken back to Victorian Memorial portraits, where a loved one was often photographed in the coffin. To the modern, death denying eye, these death portraits can appear grotesque; but to the 19th century eye, they represented the loved one in a state of grace, having gone on to a better world. Thus by portraying the death of innocent woodland creatures, I mean to suggest the cusp of a new phase of development, a maturity beyond the naivete of youth.

I hope that by portraying death as a peaceful finality and decay as irrevocable yet sensuous, that these images invite the viewer to contemplate mortality, loss of youth, and all the inevitable change that life brings with a sense of acceptance and serenity.

Click here to view the full series of photographs, under the tab "Personal."

For the Birds!

Posted by J. Michael Grey, Head Treasurer at The Lucille Lortel Theatre-

A woman who has tickets to see Still Life just saw the photo of the deceased bird on the theater marquee and came into the box office in a panic - wanting to make sure that there were no real birds in the show. I told her, "Only one, but they kill it in the first scene." She laughed. (Glad she could at least tell I was joking.)

Week Four

Posted by Still Life actor Ian Kahn--

We’re now in the fourth week of rehearsals for Still Life… I always find this period to be an interesting one, and in some ways, the most fun and fruitful part of the rehearsal process. We've got the whole show blocked, and we're doing full runs of the play in the afternoons. It is the time where we can all start to get an idea of the piece as a whole, and where each of our characters fit into it. Can be tricky, too, though. You can get your hands around a scene or a moment, and you feel like you’ve really "got it", and then the next time through it just seems to slip away. Reconnect with your partner, look to your director, and get back on that horse. That's the advice I was given and I try to keep in mind.

I am feeling really fortunate to be working with this company of actors, this director, playwright, stage management, and MCC. We are up here swinging with everything we’ve got. Here's hoping we knock it out of the park like Derek Jeter. Or at least a double off the wall.

Editor’s note: Ian has had many roles you may recognize him from – including major roles on ABC's The Unusuals and Dawson’s Creek and – although he’s now a married man – a number of rolls in the hay with some top-shelf leading ladies, including Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw – Check it out ...

From "Red Dog" to "Still Life"

Posted by Still Life actor Matthew Rauch--

Working with Alexander Dinelaris on his play, Red Dog Howls, was similar in many ways to my experience with Still Life so far. We have an amazing friendship, and I have been privileged to participate in the early stages of Alex's process on several pieces - to read early drafts, to talk through arcs and themes and structure with him. It's exciting to work closely with a writer whose voice I admire, and who speaks to his audience with such honesty and without a hint of irony. I find his use of muscular emotion to be tremendously refreshing. His words just seem to fit me, and when we are grooving, it's really really fun. Of course, Alex explores painful and profound themes in his plays, and with Red Dog Howls, we were dealing with some extremely delicate issues of collective shame and discovered identity. It was a difficult and rewarding process - incredibly emotional and cathartic. I consider myself very lucky to have been in that play, and of course this one, too. It's thrilling and a great honor to be a part of my friend's journey as a writer, and to be his companion on this path.

Photo (L-R): Darcie Siciliano, Alexander Dinelaris, Kathleen Chalfant, Matthew Rauch at the LA premiere of Dinelaris' Red Dog Howls.

Photos from "Still Life" First Rehearsal

Actors Adriane Lenox and Ian Kahn.

MCC Artistic Director Bernard Telsey with
Scenic Designer David Korins.

Actors Frederick Weller and Dominic Chianese with
MCC Associate Artistic Director Will Cantler.

Joy and All Out Pleasure

Posted by Cullen Golden, 18, MCC Theater Youth Company Member --

Over the past few weeks of FreshPlay rehearsals three plays have been rewritten, staged, lit, sprinkled with sound and acted out with such love and dedication.


These photos show just one of the plays being produced, Taking Leave. I hope that they give you a glimpse into the joy and all out pleasure that is this year's Fresh Play Festival.
http://tinyurl.com/kpgk3y

Click here for show info. Tickets $5/$10.

Swoon

MCC Company Manager Kristina Bramhall was at the Tony Awards ceremony last month to support our Broadway production of reasons to be pretty (nominated for three awards). But, apparently there was also some swooning going on and the LA Times was there to catch it. Sadly, she wasn't credited. (Although in fairness, Susan Sarandon, who sat next to her, wasn't credited either.)

Click here to read the LA Times'
feature on Hair's Gavin Creel.

Playwrights' Coalition Productions All Over Town

Posted by Stephen Willems, Literary Manager--

Our developmental support group for 27 of New York’s most exciting early and mid-career writers, The Playwrights’ Coalition, is all over town – with three separate productions happening now or about to happen soon:

David Adjmi’s wonderful Stunning is currently playing to great notices and audience response at The Duke Theater as a Lincoln Center LC3 production. It boasts an incredible artistic team of director, actors, and designers … a great theater experience.

Lucy Thurber’s sprawling, futuristic play Monstrosity with a staggering cast of 30 will be opening soon at The Connolly Theatre. Raw energy and great storytelling.

Ann Marie Healy’s funny and haunting play What Once We Felt is another Lincoln Center LC3 choice for next season.

Congratulations to these founding members of The Playwrights’ Coalition!

(Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times. Cristin Milioti and Danny Mastrogiorgio in Stunning.)

Opening Night: Sights and Sounds

Last night was the opening night party for Coraline. DJ Randyhate spun for the evening's revelers as well as streaming live on the internet via blip.fm.

Click HERE to listen to his set list. And, be sure to click the photo links of Neil Gaiman, David Greenspan, Stephin Merritt, Jayne Houdyshell, Aaron Tviet, Lisa Kron, Thomas Sadoski, and more!

(Above: DJ Randyhate with Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls. Photos by Sung An.)

A Plethora of Pianos

Posted by Phyllis Chen, pianist--

We are now in our last week of previews of Coraline! What a truly unique collaboration it’s been so far. As a musician, I work mostly with other musicians and composers, but for this show, the experience has given me a glimpse into a different world.  It’s demanded the creativity and talents of so many different artists. It’s been truly amazing to see. 

Since Coraline’s arrival at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, the multiple-piano set-up that I perform on has become a very comfortable playground for me. I love having access to a prepared piano, adult piano, and three toy pianos all at once. Actually, it reminds me of my own apartment. I have been playing toy and prepared pianos for more than ten years. Stephin Merritt's prepared piano, however, is probably the most intricate and detailed I’ve ever worked on. 

It’s also rare for me to work with a prepared piano for such a long period of time. Certain preparations move around or pop out during performance and these adjustments need to be repaired and maintained on an ongoing basis. Twisting a screw or other item in the piano’s strings by even a tiny bit is enough to change the pitch of the note. And for Coraline, it’s very important to maintain the instruments, since they are both playing tonal music and accompanying the show’s singers! The scoring is sparse but detailed and beautiful. There are really no words to describe it. 

Click here for more info about Phyllis and her music.

Photos from the "Coraline" Set in "Vanity Fair"

OH, and a great interview with Stephin Merritt...

Click HERE to view.

Rehearsal, Technically Speaking

Posted by January LaVoy, actor--

Whew! We've just completed the first 40-some-odd hours of Coraline tech rehearsals (with a few more to come). It's left me feeling simultaneously exhausted and compelled to blog a bit about the experience. 

I've been doing theatre for some time now, and have been fortunate enough to act in a number of new plays.  But I've never felt the type of creative energy and commitment that I feel from our Coraline tech and design crew. Each day of tech rehearsal has brought new delights - incredible and intricate set dressing, unbelievably gorgeous and inventive props, mind-blowingly beautiful lighting effects, fabulous and innovative costume designs... I could go on and on!  But I won't, because you simply must see it for yourself! 

I also wanted to send out some mighty props (not the stage kind) to the folks who are helping us put it all together backstage - our wardrobe crew, dressers, deck carpenters, ASM, PA's, et al... There is a huge group of people putting this show together, and they are doing it with amazing generosity and good humor. I'm so grateful to everyone involved.  Every night this week, as I fell into bed, thoroughly exhausted, I thought about how lucky I feel to be a part of this show, at this moment in my life.

Onward, now, to our first public performance tomorrow night...

A Censored Sneak Peek at "UnCensored 09"

Posted by Amy Leon, 16, MCC Theater Youth Company member--

We stay on the same issues making no progress 

And the only ones we blame is f--kin’ congress

Why the hell can’t we see the change needs to be me needs to be you

Needs to be us

Cuz seriously we can’t keep relying on those whose faces lie on the side of a f--kin’ bus

Look at me

A teen damned to be nothing

Yet I’m up here telling you 

So listen up cuz though my mothers gone and my dad never met me

I’m gonna get my sh-t together and be something

Click here for show info. Tickets $5/$10.

reasons to be glamorous

Posted by Kristina Bramhall, Company Manager--

Last night was the Broadway opening of our production of reasons to be pretty by Neil LaBute.  Check out this picture of the fancy custom lite-brite-y chandelier that was suspended above the revelers at the after-party at Hudson Terrace.  This morning, the reviews came in and (drum roll, please) ... and the critics are raving!  Everyone here is very excited, grateful, and humbled by it all.

'Coraline' Podcast

MCC Theater's brand new podcast, with a series of interviews with the artistic staff of Coraline, kicked off last week. The first episode is available now.

Our Coraline series will air weekly through April 30. Guests will include Stephin Merritt, Jayne Houdyshell, David Greenspan and more. Check out a new episode each Thursday!

Click here to subscribe through iTunes.
Click here to download episodes to your desktop.

All Meetings Are Not Created Equal

Posted by Ted Rounsaville, General Manager--

Though this picture does it ZERO justice, our first production meeting for Coraline was the perfect way to wrap up our weeklong workshop.  During the workshop, everyone came together to tweak the music, script, and staging of the show, as we all head off toward our first performance on May 7.  Listening to an artistic team describe their initial design is one of my favorite parts of the production process, but this Coraline meeting was even better than usual. Director Leigh Silverman, composer Stephin Merritt, playwright/performer David Greenspan, set designer Christine Jones, costume designer Anita Yavich, and lighting designer Ben Stanton have created such a unique artistic universe that it's startling at times. The concept of an altered, dangerous version of reality (jumping from Neil Gaiman’s brilliant book) is given truly expert treatment in the proposed designs. Don't want to spoil anything, but, highlights include pianos that have been chopped up, shrunken, or modified in the extreme; puppet versions of Scottish highland terriers made from Slinkys; and rats with shining, red LED eyes. This is going to be a fun musical to work on.

Miscast 09 Photos

Click here to view photos from Miscast 09 on Broadwayworld.com

Does This Play Make Me Look Fat?

MCC's production of Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty begins its Broadway run on Friday! Check out the great short film from the site...

As "The Third Story" Wraps Up, a Look Back

Posted by Carl Andress, Director—

When I was a kid, I first became infatuated by the theater because I was fortunate enough to have parents who were infatuated by it. This love affair with make believe worlds continued to grow in my heart as I got older and was allowed to take part in local theater productions where I grew up in Nashua, NH. To this day, I vividly remember every "load-in weekend" that we had with the Nashua Actorsingers at the Elm Street Auditorium (a 1,600 seat theater!) as the best holidays I could imagine. To be a part of all the bustle of lights being hung, scenery being painted and costumes getting fitted filled my head with the smell of the greasepaint -- most certainly bitten by "the bug." I was always right at home and to this day, I continue to look forward to the load-in and tech rehearsals with great anticipation. Everyone is focused and working very diligently to stay on schedule and solve all issues that arise. But there is also a tremendous amount of fun and joy to be had by all, even as tensions mount and public performances get closer. Below are some pictures I was able to sneak during breaks during the tech rehearsals for MCC's The Third Story at the Lucille Lortel Theater. Great fun was indeed had by all!

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Here's the set as seen from the balcony of the Lortel. We had just placed the furniture on the stage so that lighting designer, David Weiner could focus his instruments... hence all the ladders and scaffolding. All the pieces, starting to come together...

This is one of the first moments during tech when David Weiner showed me how he would light scenic designer David Gallo's incredible two-sided, hand-painted backdrop with LED strip lights. Dave Gallo and I found inspiration for the design of The Third Story from the great American scenic designer, Jo Mielziner, of whom we both are great admirers. We make use of one backdrop in the play, upstage of what we refer to as our "boarding house scrim walls." This drop is painted on two sides. Why they don't bleed together has something to do with a starch treatment -- old school theatrical know-how! This is how Mielziner achieved the sudden appearance of "Bali Hai" in his designs for the original production of South Pacific. When our drop is lit from the front, we are in our "reality" or "home base" -- Omaha, Nebraska -- where Peg and Drew, our protagonists, exist. When the same drop is lit from behind, we go into "the movie world" -- into the imaginations of our play's screenwriters and the movie that that may write together after the action of their story reaches it's conclusion.

Here we see "Omaha" in silhouette as the drop is lit from the front, a look we occasionally use in the show for transitions into and out of our three stories. Here it's great to see our scrim walls. When these are lit from the front, you can see all the realistic details Dave Gallo painted in, such as a radiator, pictures on the wall, stained wall paper, etc. When the scrim walls have no light on them from the front, they become transparent and you only can see the architectural details which are partly structural framework as well as solidly and intentionally painted in. Another technique pioneered by Mielziner in his designs for the original productions of such plays as Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire.

Here, we are upstage of the two-sided drop, experimenting with how the LED strip lights would make people look in photographs! Kelly Glasow and Paddle Henson, our crackerjack stage management team, pose for the director...looking like characters in a Toulouse-Lautrec painting! 

Here we see Sarah Rafferty as "Verna," Scott Parkinson as "Zygote," Charles Busch as "Queenie Bartlett" and Jonathan Walker as "Steve Bartlett"  working through the staging of a scene, alternately referred to as either "The Slap Scene" or the "Damn Her! Scene" for the first time in costume, on set and in light. Sarah and her dresser weren't quite sure if the little hat costume designer Gregory Gale had given her to wear here would actually stay on her head. After a few slaps, Sarah was able to make it work! Shortly after this shot was taken we undoubtedly were ready to grab a bite to eat on our dinner break during this first "ten out of twelve" -- meaning on a given day we would rehearse for ten out of twelve hours, with a two-hour dinner break. We often found ourselves at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame right around the corner from the theater. Those dinners during "ten out of twelves" make for some of the best show-biz memories one can have.

Creating a Monster

Posted by Scott Parkinson, actor -

The Third Story is a loving and zany homage to the movies. In one of the play’s subplots, a storyline that turns out to be the first draft of a “lady-scientist-meets-Queen-of-the-Mob” screenplay written by our leading characters, we meet Zygote. There is one short stage direction that acts as our introduction to him: he is an “ageless” being, “eerily beautiful” and “frightening”. Beyond that description we glean from the script that he is a botched laboratory experiment grown from a test tube, dependent for survival (or so he thinks) on a secret formula that helped him age thirty years in three hours, that he was designed to last only a decade, that he is angry about the circumstances of his “birth” and his creator’s inability to show him true love and care, and that he possesses a distinctive anatomy that includes seven nipples and a “very original intestinal tract”...(more)

Opening Night Photos

Click here to view photos from the opening night party 

for The Third Story on Broadway.com. 

Down Front again with the Lady in Question

Posted by John Catania and Charles Ignacio, Filmmakers—

Actors and directors who have been fortunate enough to be part of Charles Busch’s long career came to know us lovingly as “the documentarians” (first coined by actor Julie Halston), for our work producing and directing the feature length documentary, The Lady in Question is Charles Busch. From 2000 to 2005 we dogged Charles and the people in his life to find out the real story behind the talented writer/actor/director/leading lady who we felt was one of the greatest and most enduring theater artists of our time.

We first came to know Charles Busch through the TV lens when as producers we turned to him often throughout the 1990’s to contribute his talent to the long-running PBS series "In the Life." So when Charles was set to open his first Broadway venture as a playwright in November of 2000, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, we came to him with our documentary idea and started our cameras rolling. We hardly knew what we were in for that mild autumn night as we discovered over the next several years that the man beneath the wigs was far more complex, charming, driven, and devoted than any of his celebrated heroines.

Photo: L-R, Charles Igancio, John Catania and Charles Busch.

Now that he brings a new work to the stage with The Third Story, we welcome the event as another highlight in our theater-going lives, and we only regret that, having completed our film about his life and work, we were not there behind-the-scenes to document the process of another Charles Busch production. We always knew during our five years on his story that we were witness to the workings of a national treasure, and whether we were hearing his side-splitting and sometimes wrenching life-stories unfold in his Village apartment or backstage at some dusty New York theater, we had the time of our lives. We think that fun spirit of discovery is captured in our film.

After finishing The Lady Question is Charles Busch we traveled the film festival circuit with Charles to take questions from audiences eager to learn more, many of them wondering how he was able to break out in NY Theater in the 1980’s against impossible odds. We conducted our last post-screening discussion some two years ago, and so we are thrilled to once again be down front with the inimitable Charles Busch on February 10th in a post-performance discussion after The Third Story with MCC Theater. As Charles' story continues we can't wait to take our place in the darkened theater among his eager audience.

Score!

Posted by Lewis Flinn, composer—

The music in The Third Story is an exercise in theme and development.  The first trick was composing a theme, a short melodic hook, that sounded at home in all the various worlds of this play - a nineteenth century Russian fairy tale, a 1940's Hollywood gangster film, and the lab of a mad scientist.  It needed to be able to be reinterpreted for both romantic scenes and action scenes.  Once that melody was discovered, the next trick was making it all sound authentic (not a pastiche) and believably orchestral.  Of course, there is no budget to hire an orchestra, so it all had to be done by me on my computer, using samples of real players and some music production tricks.  Finally, there was the challenge of the scope of the score - there are over 120 music cues, ranging from short transitions to long underscores.  The latter is often compromised of several overlapping elements that blend in and out at particular points in a scene so that the music remains specific to the dramatic moment.  Just like a real film score.  Hopefully.

Click here to listen:

Slap Happy

Posted by Sarah Rafferty, actor—

I must admit, I leap out of bed every day in anticipation of being slapped around by Charles Busch in "The Third Story." Seeing this photo in the New Yorker made my day. The cat is finally out of the bag. Charles Busch is a brute and a bruiser.  I'm afraid, though, that this fabulous photographer must have Photoshopped my flying prosthetic tooth out of the shot.  (And to think, neither Charles nor I could get an audition for "The Wrestler"!) 

'The Third Story' - Playwright's Note

Posted by Charles Busch, playwright-

Writing and storytelling have always been a major part of my life, even though my second-grade teacher, Mrs. Laspina, refused to tack any of my stories on the wall with the other kids’ work. My spelling was awful, my grammar hopeless and my penmanship illegible. Still, she was forced to admit, my stories were the most creative in the class.

Where did I get this love of narrative? At a very early age, I began watching old movies on television. My father loved romantic films, and together we shed a tear over Greer Garson and Ronald Colman in Random Harvest and Bette Davis in Now Voyager and Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette. Like most kids, I also loved fairy tales. The Disney animated Sleeping Beauty was an early obsession of mine. The stories that so perplexed Mrs. Laspina tended to combine the Brothers Grimm with Warner Brothers. There was usually a gentle Princess who was kidnapped away from her enchanted castle and ended up a hard-boiled dame working in a whorehouse...(more)

Expose Yourself to MCC Theater!

Posted by Ian Allen, Director of Marketing—

Hundreds of aspiring models showed up yesterday and exposed themselves to MCC Theater...  Well, sort of.  They were actually just looking to secure their place in Broadway history as the poster boys, girls and body parts of the upcoming ad campaign for reasons to be pretty. 

Click to watch!