Weekend Round-up
Posted on | February 12, 2007 | No Comments
In between doing mounds of laundry (with only one functioning machine – thanks, management company) and clear-cutting unsorted junk-mail, I managed to get out and do a few things this weekend in the way of the artistic and cultural.
Ear Food
I picked up the 2006 offerings from personal favorite The Decemberists (The Crane Wife) and Mates of State (Bring It Back). I went out on a limb for Mates of State because KEXP recommended them so highly. They are my new aural snack food. And, despite his overtures this weekend, I assume Mr. Jobs has nonetheless infused these iTunes-purchased tracks with a healthy dose of DRM.
As an unexpected bonus, I now find that MoS will be performing at the This American Life show on 3/1, that I already have very good seats for. Sweet.
Weekend Fling
On Saturday I managed to slip in to an audition for Playground house team The Fling, who are looking to combat the wasting disease known as Coastal Consumption by adding some new players to their roster. I was a bit nervous going into these, as my last improv audition experience was so abysmal, but with one eye on the Incubator auditions, I figured it would be good practice, at least. To my very great surprise, not only was it not awful, it was actually enjoyable. The Fling folks ran the afternoon efficiently and were incredibly upbeat. Having been on the opposite side of the audition table a time or two, I can tell you it’s not easy to be in a more-or-less judgemental position in relation to your peers. They were very gracious hosts, I thought, which helped everyone relax and do some very solid improv. Which was also impressive – usually in a room of 20 or so improvisers, somebody’s going to be pretty bad. I’m not sure if it was the congenial atmosphere or the necessary product of self-selection on the part of auditionees (i.e. you’ve got to be pretty confident to walk into an open audition), but everyone was solid. I enjoyed watching this random group of strangers more than some house teams elsewhere in Improv City.
I got a very nice note from the team yesterday, saying some very nice things about my audition. However, Our Country’s Good conflicts with a bunch of their upcoming performances. I may get a chance to sit in with them when that’s over, which would fill the gaping hole that has been my improv career for the better part of 12 months.
Rocking the House
I unexpectedly got a chance to see the hot ticket show in town right now, The Sparrow at The House Theatre. Now, I’m going to fess up to this: I, like every other actor/director/designer/etc. I know in town, harbor a tiny piece of resentment for Chicago’s resident theatre rockstars. And I will be the first to admit that the occasional sniffs of scorn or predictions of burn-out that I have been both party to and perpetrator of stems from a relapsing and remitting case of jealousy. But I’m not going to indulge any negativity here.
I will say that The Sparrow is probably the best execution of the House-style I have witnessed (although anyone with an eye for story and theme will have to admit they are again trafficking in the familiar tropes of outsiderism and the bittersweetness of youth that characterize a lot of the other House-original plays.) I thought the score (by Kevin O’Donnell) was beautiful, and pleasingly Sufan Stevensy. As always, the visual conventions used to move us from place to place were clever and fun to watch, and I’m always glad when someone can work dance into a show and have it seem organic, as they have here.
But what’s most important about the House, what I think most people who love them are responding to and what most people who vilify them don’t get, is that they make going to the theatre an event again. Not in the stuffy, get-your-fur-coat-on-Margaret sort of way (although I did see one or two women so bedecked). In a real, “make-some-muthafuckin’-noise” sort of way. They succeed, or at least appear to succeed, in tearing down a lot of the walls between the audience and the performers. And I don’t mean through uncomfortable plays at “audience participation.” The actors wander freely amongst the house before, during, and after the show, they chat with the audience in an unpretentious and comfortable sort of way. And, no matter the relative artistic merits of their work, they have a ton of fun doing it, and give all that energy right back to the audience. It’s hard not to like them; from the minute you enter the theatre, you want the show to succeed because they have made you feel like you are part of it. And Chicago audiences are responding.
So maybe they will fade out in a year, or five. Or maybe the more talented or ambitious of their number will be assumed to the coasts. In fact, the history of Chicago theatre pretty much demands this will happen. But who cares? The most important thing is to enjoy the ride while it lasts and, maybe, for those of us who work in theatre to remember how to find the pleasure in what we do again.
Buy me a beer?Comments
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