References to Tennessee Williams . . .

I wake up and it is already dark. Oh the darkness and the cold. Dark. Oh so very dark! And cold, have I gotten around to mentioning the cold yet? The cold that surrounds me is eternal and vast. And the dark is pretty damn all inclusive as well. So there I am in the dark and cold. It is airless as well. Dark, cold and airless. Any warmth that I know is therefore exponential in its nature.

Oh the sweet warmth that comes from my Mother the Earth. My sweet nurturing, smothering, cloying "Big Momma" of an Earth. I circle her in some sort of endless dance. Since the dance is circular in nature I can only assume it is some sort of cake walk. I do like cake. Sweet, sweet cake iced like a woman's bossom that is frosted with a light layer of talcum powder and sweat on a hot Mississippi night. People love cake. The only appreciation I will ever know comes from the ants that scurry across Momma's rugged flesh as they marvel at my now scarred beauty. I was a beautiful boy once. Smooth skin. No signs of the impact that eons of neglect can leave on a lunar surface. So I take comfort from these ants.

I look down on a small fishing village in Mexico and see lovers. If love ever had anything to do with the acts in which they engage. Then again maybe it is love. Or maybe it isn't? Wait, I think it is.

Wait!

Sorry I have to sneeze. All this dust.

Where was I?

Love or maybe not, maybe it is, and then maybe it isn't again. I will stick with maybe it is, check back with me later, I may change my mind.

I turn my head to a southern platation and here I find a man and woman who will never touch. Not in a way that is real. Not the touch of lovers but the touch of liers and the self deluded. He drinks and she tries wearing different costumes to please him. She has put on a set of football shoulder pads, cleats and a helmet. He keeps drinking. And drinking. She asks him to call her "Skipper" and he just keeps drinking. I could use a drink about now as well. And where is that cake I ordered?

Suddenly my attention is drawn to a fellow yelling in an alley somewhere in New Orleans. My light shines down on him. "He loves the light ! See how the light shines through him ? ... I shouldn't be partial, but he is my favorite one." I just wish he would stop mumbling. How can you scream and mumble at the same time? Damn odd!

I'm sorry did you offer me a drink? No? I thought I heard someone offer me a drink. You sure you don't want a drink?

The night is moving on and I have places I need to be. By the way those two in Mexico, I am pretty sure they love one another.

One last stop to make. I must be a gentleman and pay a call on the Wingfields. I hate the mother.

My sister is about to rise now. We only see one another in passing these days. See I call her Rose because she rises. She is the one woman I love. I miss not being able to spend time with her, but I suppose that reflecting her light down on those ants is some comfort. All those kind strangers who look up at me and find beauty in a scarred, wandering soul.

To paraphrase myself, "Why did I shine? Because I found life unsatisfactory."

Southern Gothic

First off, as promised here is the link to the full City Paper review for References . . .

Great audience last night for References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot. Would love to see you all tonight and tomorrow night at 8pm. Tickets are still available.

I now draw your attention to a recurring references to a certain Southern Playwright and a certain DC Actor and Blogger:

. . . under a smirking, white-suited moon, who—while we’re on the topic of oddities—looks and sounds like Tennessee Williams in his later, boozier days. (Who else but Rorschach Theatre regular Scott McCormick?) -Trey Graham-The City Paper

How else would you describe a play that quickly introduces the Moon, played by the purring Scott McCormick in a white suit standing on top of a refrigerator? With his pencil mustache and smutty way with purple prose, the figure's resemblance to Tennessee Williams seems wholly intentional. - Nelson Pressley -The Washington Post

Now I am still not clear if Trey is complimenting me or saying I might have a drinking problem.

Yet this idea of the Moon being my attempt at channeling Tennessee Williams does intrigue. For the record I have never heard a recording of Mr. Williams and the surface resemblence can be chalked up to my nifty white suit and mustache. Alright I will admit the mustache is kind of a cool coincidence.

Where did I go for my inspiration? Vocally, not sure. Didn't occur to me until I read the review that I was putting a twang in my voice. Physically, I watched Ricardo Montalban in an old episode of Columbo (A Matter of Honor-1976) where he played a bull fighter who had lost his nerve. Costume, Pei told me she was drawing inspiration from Maurice Chevalier.

So all this has inspired me to do some thinking and some writing. I am going to run a profile on Monday of our Sound Designer Matt Nielson and then Tuesday ala Diary of Morataka (also known as Orson Welles/Godzilla: A Day in the Life) we will see what kind of life Tennessee Williams would have if he were the Moon. So its:

Fingers crossed it will be funny. If my luck holds however I will be happy not to offend anyone. So get ready for a ride over Mount Morgan as Tennessee Williams becomes La Luna.

Remember When

Jenny McConnell Frederick dug out a role of film the other day and had it developed. What was on it were pictures of some very young people creating. Here is the link to all of the pictures but I thought I would give you all a taste.

It was the summer of 2001. It was a different world for Rorschach, almost all of us were in our twenties. There was no war to protest and it was hot as hell in the confines of an art gallery in Blagden Alley, NW.

Rorschach was doing its fourth production. The Illusion, adapted by our old friend Tony Kushner from the play by Pierre Corneille. It was so long ago that it hard to remember anything but the heat. I do remember the audiences though. Making their way down the alley. Walking up to the door of an old stable which had been converted into an art gallery. This was when Rorschach was still finding spaces. Being homeless we turned whatever space we could into a performance space. We had spent time in greenhouses, theater lobbies, and abandoned high school auditoriums before we found our way to Casa.

And I remember the people. Jason Stiles, Mike Glenn, Yasmin Tuazon, Grady Weatherford, Jesse Terrill, Rahaleh Nassri, Tim Marone and Scott McCormick. All of us still feeling our way through the bottom of DC theater. Before any of us had found any of the success that we would on stages like Woolly, Arena, Shakespeare, The Folger and Studio. We were all fresh off of tours, or classes and we were all looking for the next big thing. The Illusion was that thing.

It was a success with both the crowds and the press. That oft used quote from Delores Whiskeyman at the Washington Post:

It's not hard to find talent among the more than 80 theater companies in Washington. But brilliance -- that rare confluence of perfect design, direction and performance -- that's something else again… The Rorschach Theatre achieves it with The Illusion, Tony Kushner's adaptation of the Pierre Corneille classic. It's sharp and sexy, brilliantly played by a strong ensemble cast, smartly directed and crafty in its design -- and all the more exciting because it is not performed in a theater.

That review helped bring people into a part of the City they wouldn't have visited, unless they got lost. Here was the show that Rorschach did on its own. No Theater J looking over our shoulder in case we stumbled. No Art-o-Matic support to help with the advertizing. This was the show that meant we could do it all on our own.

During the rehearsal the other day for References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot the other day I had a flashback to The Illusion. My character Matamore having shown himself to be a phony as a lover and a fighter has decided to leave this world behind and go to the moon. After the play a young lady, well known to many of you but I will protect her identity here by just saying she is an actress around town and leave it at that, came up to me in tears. She had loved the play and had her own take on why Matamore wanted to leave earth for the moon.

She thought that as actors we all were reaching for something beyond ourselves, something higher than the world that surrounds us. Matamore reaches for the moon because he wants to be more than he is.

I am now playing the moon.

Hope you all enjoy this blast from the past as much as I.

Pei Day

Would it really be a Rorschach play if something surreal or metaphysical wasn't taking place somewhere on stage? My answer is no. If it isn't the devil making an appearance (which has happened three times) or people dying and coming back to life (which happened about a dozen times in one show) would our audiences even know they were watching a show at Rorschach?

References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot has a lot of things going on that make it a Rorschach show. Today I introduce you to the cast of characters that inhabit Acts I and IV. This time the meta comes from a talking cat (second time we have had one of those prowling Casa), a talking coyote (first time for that one) and the anthropomorphic moon (Rahaleh was the last one to take a stab at that one). What does it take to make these wonderfully weird creations of Jose Rivera come to life? Well costumes and research have a big part to play in allowing the actors to be the very best talking, walking and acting creatures of dream that they can be.

Today's entry will borrow heavily from other peoples research and work so the drawings are Pei Lee's our Costume Designer and the words come from Jacqueline Lawton's Dramaturgy.

Danny Gavigan returns after his Rorschach Debut in Rough Magic to play our coyote.

Coyote:

The coyote has grayish-brown to yellowish-brown fur on top and whitish fur on its underparts. It has large triangular ears on the top of its head and a long, narrow muzzle. It has a black nose, yellow eyes and a long, bushy tail. One way to tell the coyote apart from wolves and dogs is to watch its tail when it runs. The coyote runs with its tail down. Dogs run with their tails up and wolves run with their tails straight out.

Coyote often plays the role of trickster, although in some stories he is a buffoon and the butt of jokes and in a few is outright evil. His personality strengths are humor and sometimes cleverness. His personality weaknesses are usually greed or desire, recklessness, impulsiveness and jealousy. Coyote is often the antagonist of his brother Wolf, who is wise and good natured but prone to giving in to Coyote's incessant demands. In Tongva Mythology, it is Coyote who is tricked. Coyote challenges "The River" to a race. Coyote is victorious, but collapses from fatigue. The river laughs at him and takes the name "Hahamongna," which is said to explain the noise made by the upper Arroyo Seco which sounds similar to laughing.


Yasmin Tuazon joins the Rorschach five timers club in her role of the cat.

Cats:

A cat believes in itself, her walk can assure you that much. She is independent, has a mind of her own yet she is gentle enough to be liked by all. A number of myths have surrounded this animal since ages. In ancient Europe, she was believed to be an evil spirit. Those were the bad days for cats. Now, cats have become a part of almost every household. They have the power to win the hearts of their owners through their elegance, dignity and off course, their soft purrs and mews can have effect on you almost instantly.

· Myth: Cats always land on their feet.
· Fact: While cats instinctively fall feet first but that does not mean that they will not receive any injuries.

· Myth: Cats should be given milk everyday.
· Fact: Some cats have lactose intolerance. So, they should not be forced to have milk. A grown up cat can have its nutrients even without having milk.

· Myth: A cat's sense of balance is in its whiskers.
· Fact: Cats have whiskers as "feelers" and not to have balance.

· Myth: Cats smother babies
· Fact: Nothing can be more false than this. There has not been even a single case in the whole world so far.

And Scott McCormick is the moon.

The Moon:

The Full Moon seems to have some odd effects on both people and animals. They go bananas! Did you know that the word "lunacy" comes from lunar? Did you know that once people thought there were little green men living on the moon? Take a look at some of these superstitions:
· A full Moon on Christmas day brings bad luck.
· Two full moons in the same month will cause severe weather in the following month. It's also called a blue moon!
· The moon is made of green cheese!
· It is unlucky to look at the new Moon through a window for the first time.
· Chickens lay more eggs under a Moon in its last quarter.
· A full Moon during harvest means a good crop.
· A new Moon brings good fortune.
· Blowing nine times on a wart while the Moon is full will make the wart go away.
· A wish while looking up at a new Moon is thought to come true within the year.
· It is best to cut your hair when the Moon is waxing; it grows strong and healthy.
· It is unlucky for a child to be born when the Moon is waning.
· A ring around the Moon is a warning of rain to come.
· Bowing to a new Moon and turning over silver coins will result in doubling your money by the end of the next cycle.