Tuesday, December 20, 2005

 

'Prison Break' Picked Up for Another Season

I believe Prison Break is cast locally by Claire Simon.

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League of Chicago Theatres Raises Price of 'Chicago Plays' Playbills

Chicago-area theatres who have contracts with Chicago Plays started getting notices in mid-November that their costs would go up, beginning with the December playbills
At least one theatre balked at that. Jeremy Wechsler of Theatre Wit (who writes the Space Odyssey column for PerformInk) thinks that asking theatres who have already signed a contract to pay more is a classic bait and switch.
I don't think any of her reasons are untrue, you just can't legally do it, said Wechsler. I think they can charge whatever they need to charge, but the have to charge it for January.
(from PerformInk).

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

 

David Mamet Discusses the Nature of Drama

First: plays are written to be performed. This may seem a tautology, but consider: description of the character's eye colour, hair colour, history and rationale cannot be performed. An actor can perform only a physical action. Any stage description more abstract than she takes out a revolver cannot be performed. Try it.
Second: in a good play, the character's intentions are conveyed to the actor, through him to his antagonist, and through them, to the audience, through the words he speaks. Any dialogue that is not calculated to advance the intentions of the character (in the case of Othello, for instance, to find out if his wife is cheating on him) is pointless. If the dialogue does not advance the objective of the character, then why would he say it?
The character in the play wants something from someone else on stage; in this, he is like the appliance salesman. The prospect comes into the appliance store, and the salesman has a severely limited amount of time in which to convince him to make a purchase. Any dialogue on the salesman's part that does not tend clearly toward closing the sale is worse than wasted: it is destructive. The prospect, just like the audience, once allowed to revert to his previous state of inattention, is lost for ever.
What of dramatic poetry? Well and good. It is my contention that drama is essentially a poetic form - that the dramatic line should be written to convince primarily through its rhyme and rhythm and only secondarily, if at all, through an appeal to reason. Note that the truly determined individual - swain, salesman, discovered adulterer etc - confects spontaneous poetry. All sounds he utters are directed towards winning his point; and his speech, should reason desert him, will devolve to a pre-literate poetry of pure intention.
(from Guardian Unlimited).

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

 

So Many Acting B.A.'s, So Few Paying Gigs

At a time when more colleges are producing more actors than ever and the job market is stagnating, Ms. Hoffman's class is emblematic of how the training of American actors has shifted in the 21st century. Instead of the pure education-of-an-artist approach that dominated in undergraduate acting programs through the 1980's and 90's, there is now a growing emphasis on helping students find work in a famously competitive field.
The result is something of a confounding dilemma both for educators and for some professionals, who fear, on the one hand, that vocational training robs student actors of necessary artistic exploration and, on the other, that schools have to do a better job of preparing actors for the grim realities of professional life
(from The New York Times).

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Monday, December 05, 2005

 

Do-It-Yourself Grant Research Workshop

Learn how to do basic grant research using the internet and other resources. Develop creative strategies for pursuing funding and gain an in-depth knowledge of how to find and interpret information that will help you assess whether a prospective funder is a good match. Although some resources for independent artists will be discussed, this workshop is geared towards artists who have incorporated or are thinking of incorporating as a non-profit.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
9am-12pm
$30
Location: Links Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield [google map]
For more information: Links Hall, http://www.linkshall.org
773.281.0824 or info@linkshall.org
This is all I know about this; caveat actor (i.e., call and confirm everything).

Thursday, December 01, 2005

 

Midwest Independent Film Festival December 6th

The Midwest Independent Film Festival takes place Tuesday, December 6th at 6 p.m. at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema, 2828 North Clark Street [Google Map].