Four Shows

Here are those details I have been promising you about the season:

ANNOUNCING SEASON 7!

Rorschach Theatre announces its hotly anticipated SEASON 7, opening on Halloween with a terrifying contemporary adaptation of Frankenstein, an area premiere of Roberto Aguirre Sacasa’s genre-bending meld of Shakespeare’s TEMPEST, comic-book fantasy and contemporary New-York, an area premiere of a Jose Rivera magical realist masterpiece and a world premiere urban fantasy adaptation of a Grimm fairy tale developed by Rorschach Theatre’s Magic in Rough Spaces.


Building on their recent successes Rorschach Theatre has chosen four plays that are uniquely suited to the company’s style and vision, with epic plays whose themes connect past and present, explore the form and purpose of myth and storytelling and focus on dynamic ensemble performances.

Rorschach Theatre is a fierce young company known for their inventive use of space, performances of feverish intensity and a passion for epic stories told in new ways.

MONSTER
BY NEAL BELL
From Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN
Directed by Randy Baker
Opens Halloween 2006

MONSTER has been hailed as one of the most inventive and frightening adaptations of Frankenstein ever to be put on stage. Drawing parallels between our modern science and morals and those of Shelley's characters, playwright Neal Bell has created a unique and chilling telling of this Gothic Classic. Take away the Hollywood lens, and the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creation becomes a lean, terrifying tale of morality and immortality.

ROUGH MAGIC

BY ROBERTO AGUIRRE-SACASA
Directed by Jenny McConnell Frederick
February 2007
(Washington Premiere)

Caliban has escaped from Prospero's island after being imprisoned for 500 years. On the run from his sadistic and powerful master, he finds himself in modern-day New York where he joins forces with a dramaturg with magical powers and a love-struck lifeguard who might be the child warrior fated to save the world. Taking his cues from many of today’s most popular comic and graphic novel writers like Neil Gaiman (SANDMAN), Bill Willingham (FABLE) and Warren Ellis (PLANETARY), Aguirre-Sacasa, a writer for Marvel Comics and one of America's hottest young playwrights, melds a very real New York with Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST, creating a modern tale of thrills, chills and drag queen furies.

REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT
BY JOSE RIVERA
April/May 2007
(Washington Premiere)

Strange things happen in a moonlit backyard on the edge of the California Desert. The cat talks with a dangerously seductive coyote and the moon plays his violin for a lonely woman awaiting her husband's return from war. When he arrives, broken and distant, the reality of their relationship seems as strange as the apparitions in the desert night. Jose Rivera, a contemporary master of magical realism and the painful and gritty realities of human relationships, has created a suddenly relevant play that explores the scars of war both on those who fight it and those who get left behind.

birds.

BY JENNIFER MAISEL
Directed by Wendy McClellan
July 2007
(World Premiere)

A woman caught between the world of her past and the present she has made for herself falls into the city’s urban underbelly when she gives a homeless man her lover’s coat. A series of unbelievable events are set in motion that are at once are at once magical and at the same time grounded in the realities of modern-day New York. Jennifer Maisel’s adaptation of a Grimm fairytale is a dark circus of lost lives and magic charms where the lives of the homeless man, the prostitute and the stockbroker are inextricably intertwined.

BIRDS was developed by Rorschach Theatre’s MAGIC IN ROUGH SPACES new-play program.

Things to Ponder Edition

I know you guys love it when I go off topic but I will do it any way. I present the following in the list style pioneered by our Big Brother Blog the Dceiver.

1. Following up on the comments left by Marc "Moon Knight" Spectre regarding whether fairweathfordfriend comment on needing to know which shows Grady would be involved in because they needed to schedule their vacation:

Marc, if that is your real name, which I doubt but cool screen name either way, fwf was of course saying that they did not want to miss Mr. Weatherford if he was going to be on the Rorschach stage. Speaking as someone who knows Mr. Weatherford he would have probably have preferred it if the opposite were the case.

2. This comes to us by way of Co-Artistic Director Randy Baker, who as many of you know will be directing Season 7's upcoming Monster by Neal Bell. It turns out that they have trouble not having their shows reviewed in Chicago. Randy forwards us a letter written by the Dramatists Guild of America, where in they take the Chicago Sun-Times to task for publishing a review by Hedy Weiss.

What is the problem you might be wondering? Well Ms. Weiss reviewed 8 musicals that were being workshopped at Stages 2006, something she was specifically asked not to do. For those of you not aware of what a workshop is supposed to be, it is where playwrights, and composer in this case, get to see and hear their show in front of an audience for perhaps the first time. These are not finished shows. For Ms. Weiss to review the show it would be like an art critic coming in and critiquing the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel when Michelangelo had just started mixing his paint.

Here is the link to the letter from the Dramatists.

Here is a link to the review by Ms. Weiss.

And then take a look at what some American playwrights like Tony Kushner, Marsha Norman, Christopher Durang, Edward Albee and many others said about it here.

3. This weekend there will be a Page-to-Stage Reading of Rorschach Season 7 Show Number 4 this at the Kennedy Center, Wendy Maisel's birds. Here are the details:

birds.

Directed by Wendy McClellan
Sunday, September 3 at 2pm
The Kennedy Center FAMILY THEATER
Part of the Kennedy Center's PAGE TO STAGE FESTIVAL

A woman caught between her past and the present she has made for herself takes a ride into the city’s underbelly when she gives a homeless man her lover’s coat. A series of unbelievable events are set in motion that at once are at once magical and at the same time grounded in the realities of modern-day New York. Jennifer Maisel’s adaptation of a Grimms fairytale is a dark circus of lost lives and magic charms where the homeless man, the prostitute and the stockbroker are inextricably intertwined.

Random Messages on the Rorschach BB

You may not be aware of this but Rorschach has long been on the cutting edge of technology. Before blogs became all of the rage Rorschach was one of the few theater companies in America to actually have a Message Board on the interweb. Mostly a place for actors to gripe and designers to complain about actors and directors to complain about thier student loans, our BB has been up and running for several years now and I sometimes take a break from my busy schedule to check in and see what the kids are grumbling about out there in Cyberia.

kalel7 writes:

What kind of crap do they think they are pulling posting a season and not telling us what any of the shows are about? I read the title Monster and all I could of think is that they are probably going to put McCormick in a furry suit and have him jump around the stage for two hours. Yeah I already saw that play and I didn't like it. Why won't you tell us what the show's are for Christ's sake?

fluffykitten79 says:

References to Salvador Dali make me hot too. I remember my first time seeing Persistence of Memory and I began to feel these little tingles all up and down my spine. It was like a million tiny firecrackers were being set off and I couldn't stop seeing those melting clocks for days. Thank you Rorschach for doing a play that will help me through my lonely life of isolation.

magnolialover left us this message:

Once again Rorschach makes a mockary of the English langauage. Please note how the title to Birds is not capatalized in the advertisement nor should there be a period at the end of the title as that would denote that it was in fact a sentance and not a title. For shame Rorschach, once again you corrupt langauge to your own ends. You SUCK!

Finally here is a message from fairweatherfordfriend:

Could some one please tell me which shows Grady will be appearing in or directing? I really need to know so I can schedule my vacation.

Season 7

Now stop saying I never do anything for you!

Year in Review: Summer Time

Tomorrow the City Paper will have a spread with some very interesting information. Check here tomorrow to see the ad and all of the wonder it means for Season 7.

Jordan Suderman has requested that we continue with the Year in Review and ignore the fact that the Channel 9 Poll has not changed in two days and we are still hovering at 12%. I am nothing if not responsive so here we go with the year in review. Please vote!

Summer means two things in this city; heat and Rorschach's sells out shows. Think back on some of our biggest hits; The Illusion and Master and Margarita. Both shows sold like flat things made in a pan out of batter and both of them were very warm to both watch and perform in. The same could have been said for this summer's contribution to the history of Rorschach, The Arabian Night.

Let us be honest how did this show ever end up at Rorschach. With a cast of five and a very European and non-epic style of story telling, The Arabian Night would have found a more comfortable home at one of those European theaters that are all over DC. But Rorschach got there first and with some pretty hot performances, our first foray into the world of nudity on stage and a two floor set, it probably could not have found a better home than Casa. Many people left the show scratching their heads and others fell in love with the 90 minute no intermission. We did learn one thing for future summer outings, fans over the head of the audience help.

Here are some blog highlights from The Arabian Night. Enjoy!


Jordan and German Fairy Tales (conatins links to Jordan's Other Dramaturg Work)

Missed Connections

Our Matt Dunphy

Run Baby Run

There May Be Actual News Later This Week

There seems to be some worry that all I am going to do for the next two weeks is talk about the Channel 9 Poll. And you should be worried. I was never an athlete and therefore all of my competitive nature was channeled into elections. I was class president for three years in high school and then Student Government President my Senior Year, so as you can see I like winning elections. As many of you know I was in fact a political science major in college and therefore the nature of elections has long held a keen, if not unhealthy, fascination for me.

I remember the first time I won a school wide election, the thrill of my name be announced over the PA and all the kids in the band room coming up and saying, "How you doing Mr. President?" See that is what happens when you win elections people give you titles and you get to lord it over the whole freshman class, people who used to laugh at you in middle school now look at you and go he must be more popular than I thought he was, you know you have made it.

So excuse me if I am a little fixated. Pardon me if a popularity contest on a local CBS affiliate holds the same fascination for me as winning not one but three class presidencies and a SGA election. I will apologize to no human, man or woman, for my desire to see the other theaters of DC crushed beneath the heal of Rorschachian Supremacy. We may not be able to impress the Helen Hayes judges with our passionate performance style and our inventive ways of stretching a dollar bill into three, but we will pick away at the lead of Classika, Arena and Signature until we stand as equals on the battle field of cyber space. We will let loose our barbaric YAWP from the battlements of our blog and say "Here we are, come and get us! We are Rorschach Theatre and our fans are smart enough to vote on line."

By the way we jumped another 1% so we are at 12% now. Good work and keep voting.

Two Number Ones

I thank you. I thank you from the bottom of my shrivelled little heart. I ask and you deliver. It also helps that we have got a mention on Jason Linkins, Dceiver blog which gets a whole hell of a lot more traffic than this one.

11% People! In under a week we have crawled our way up to the top four vote getters. Beating Shakespeare Theatre and eating steadily into Arena and Signature. I would talk about Classika-Synetic but it just isn't good form. They are small and in Virginia and if they win more power to them for using the same weapons at their disposal as we, trying to take down the big boys. But make no mistake I want them to go down as well, with Rorschach holding the bloody knife at the top of the Channel 9 Heap, our enemies lying before us in a mound of death.

As a disclaimer I hope you all realize that I am of course speaking in Metaphor and while I abhor death in the normal sense I use it all the time in every day speech, like I would kill for a bagel or I could rip the guts out of some soup right about now. No one should kill any theater for me! Please remember my most sacred vow, first do no harm. I know that is a doctor's oath but I played a doctor once and thought it made good sense.

Keep voting until we are ahead of Arena by the end of the week! We only have until September 7th. Follow the link.

Now I want a Pony

See this is what I call action people. When I posted the first notice about this little experiment in being the popular kid, Rorschach wasn't even in the top five. Then we knocked Roundhouse off the list. Second time I mentioned this I told you all I wanted to move ahead of Shakespeare Theatre and once again you all delivered. Thank you! Special thank you also to SAS over at City Mouse for giving this groound swell a plug. If you have never visited City Mouse do it today.

Now today is a Friday in August and our readership falls like a Led Zeppelin on Fridays so I am expecting no miracles, but a big little boy typing on Wisconsin Ave. can wish, can't he? Here is my wish, I want to eat into Arena's 19% as much as possible between now and Monday. I know all of you have at least one or two extra email addresses you use when you are entering forbiden sites. I want you to use them all. You may be asking yourself is that fair? Voting twice isn't that some sort of violation of the spirit of our Constitution? Yes, in fact I feel it is very fair. I feel it is the fairest thing any of us can do. Look at the competition people do you think Synetic is relying on the precept of one man one vote? Do you know how large the subscriber base is at Arena and Signature and Shakespeare? We at the little theater that can are merely using all of the tools in our box people.

So if you haven't voted people vote as many times as you possibly can. You know the drill follow the link and then make those big theaters pay for every time they haven't called you in for a show you would have been perfect for. Make them pay for every lame ass show they have ever put up just because the tourists will love it. Make them pay for every Helen Hayes nomination that they stole away from you and the $100 budget you had for costuming a cast of 15. And then we will know who truly is better at fixing an election.

Only Make Believe

First off thank you to everyone who took the time to vote at the Channel 9 A List yesterday. Thanks to you all we have broken into the top five with 8% of the vote. This puts us just one point down from the Shakespeare Theatre Company. I think that if we all try a little harder we can knock those guys down to fifth and take over fourth place. Here is my goal, it looks like Classika/Synetic has the same idea we do, lobbying hard people, and they are just behind Signature. If we could beat Shakespeare and Arena in this popularity contest I would be pleased as punch, so keep sending your friends to the site and have them use every email address in their arsenal to win one for the plucky little theatre with a heart of gold.

There comes a point in a young man or woman's life where they stop playing. They put away their toys, comic books, fairy wands and crayolas and start acting like adults. And as the toys go away so do games like make believe.

When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s all the neighborhood would participate in cross neighborhood games of Superfriends, Star Wars or GI Joe, much in the same way that my neice and nephews apparently now pretend to be Yu-gi-oh! or Dragon Ball Z. Eventually they will stop playing these games of make believe and settle down and be grown-ups. Actors on the other hand never really stop playing make believe and that is what makes us the objects of so much curiosity in the real world.

As an actor I can't tell you how many conversations I have had where I tell someone what I do and they say, "Oh I did a little acting in high school." These people see acting and pretending as something you give up when you grow up.

Here is what I believe, actors keep pretending so those without the desire or the talent can go on and do the big grown-up important stuff in the world. Do things like runs stores, fix things or start wars. Actors allow everyone else to grow up so that they can go to the theatre, watch a movie or tv and experience someone doing something they loved to do when they were younger, pretend.

For me the real world creeps in all the time, issues like rent and health insurance have made in necessary for me to grow-up just a little. To balance that I purchase toys, comic books, watch cartoons and every chance I get I go up on stage and play pretend, so that someone else can run a multi-national corporation or look for a cure for cancer. Actors and artists make it possible for those who have grown up to keep a little bit of that child they were alive.

You can thank us later.

Rorschach: We Are Good at Filling Out Things

It has been on my mind as of late that Rorschach as a whole has not received the kind of grass root support it has needed as of late. Yes you all are doing your job; you have been visiting the blog, you come to all of the shows and you show up when we ask for your help. And believe me despite what you might hear we appreciate it. Here is the thing though we have no stupid awards to flash around.

Recently the Washington Post published their Best of Picks for 2006 and the winner in the best theater catagory was the Kennedy Center. I make no commentary on this choice, it was a fine choice for a group of people who chose the Best Place to Get Coffee as being Starbucks. Am I comparing a large Federally Supported building that has hosted a certain hair themed murder mystery that is fun to send your out of town visitors to when you are sick of them to a chain coffee places that has all the character of a rest stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike? Me no, but there has been talk.

Where is all of this leading me? Well you ever think what would happen if one of us gutsey little theater companies got the gumption together to actually turn out the vote for one of these rediculous little exercises in vanity? And make no mistake we are vain and we would shove it in everybody's face if we ever won one of these Best Bets. Well here is our chance to take a test run at the this for next year.

Channel 9 has a similiar poll going on right now. A List 2006 is their way of getting into the listing of things based on how many people bother to vote on a web site. The contest has been going on since July and we just got our names in the poll yesterday, so I have no illusions in my mind that we can win, but what if we could? What if we got really good at voting on-line and next year, we beat out the Kennedy Center? What if people saw the name Rorschach and realized how very very good we were at fixing on-line polls and contests.

So I ask you to please vote for Rorschach. Follow the link and cast your vote in this rediculous contest that seems to think that the Uptown Movie Theater should be listed in the Theatre Catagory. And then mail this link to all of your friends and tell them to vote for Rorschach. And then next year we will rule the Best Bets at the Post. We will parade our ability to get people to fill out silly polls before the world and bring the Best Bet back to the people who need it most, not the people who are drinking their coffee at Starbucks but at funky places like Sparky's.

Rise up people and show how much better Rorschach is at filling out on-line polls!

Because Ben Hill Keeps Calling Me

We interrupt this year in review to tell you about something going on that has Rorschach's finger prints all over it.

While we are not sponsoring the Hatchery Festival we do have numerous company members and alumni working their own unique brand of edge of your seat, magic in small spaces mojo on this thing.
This is their final weekend and I have been a bad friend for not mentioning this before. I would tell them to sue me but I hooked them up with Wee Jane for a sweet article in the Post a couple of weeks back, so most of my guilt is assuaged if not trodden into the earth. So without further eloquence here is a message from one of the producers of this little endeavor who also happens to have directed Rorschach Theatre's smash hit The Beard of Avon, Ms. Jessi Burgess.

Hello friends,

This weekend will be the inaugural Hatchery Festival's final weekend!

We're closing with a workshop production of Samuel Brett William's scathing & hilarious political satire, THE WOODPECKER. It's a fantastic cast paired with a terrific director - you're guaranteed one hell of a night out if you're able to make it!

We are offering two PWYC performances, Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m. Last weekend our PWYC performances were nearly sold-out, so be sure to arrive early to guarantee a seat! Feel free to distribute/post the email below.

If you're interested in coming but can't make it to a PWYC (or if you want to guarantee yourself a seat), tickets are only $15! Visit www.hatcheryfestival.org or call Box Office Tickets at 800-494-TIXS to reserve now!

xoxo

jessi

THE WOODPECKER

by Samuel Brett Williams

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN PERFORMANCES on Saturday 8/19 and Sunday 8/20 at 3 p.m. Just mention Pay-What-You-Can at the door!

August 16 through August 20
7:30pm Wednesday through Sunday, 3:30pm Saturday & Sunday

workshop directed by Grady Weatherford (Director of Lord of the Flies, Family Stories and Accidental Death of an Anarchist) , dramaturged by John Baker, produced by David McKeever (Sound Designer for After the Flood, Accidental Death of an Anarchist and A Clearing in the Woods); featuring Katie Atkinson (A Bright Room Called Day), Frank Britton (After the Flood and Accidental Death of an Anarchist), Richard Pelzman, Andrew Price (The Hairy Ape, Rhinoceros and Family Stories), and Clay Steakley; design by Alex Cooper, David Ghatan (Ubu Roi, Family Stories, Master and Margarita, The Scarlett Letter, The Beard of Avon and The Arabian Night)Susan Mason (Family Stories and The Arabian Night), David McKeever and Jenni Tardiff.

The Woodpecker is a tale of two worlds: the small town of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and the grim reality of Guantanamo Bay. It's Jimmy's last day before joining the military, he's addicted to glue, his mom is seeing visions in the sweet potato casserole, and his wheelchair-bound dad can kick his ass. He turns to God for answers, and finds . . . an ivory-billed woodpecker. Playwright Samuel Brett Williams explores family, faith, and freedom in a dark comedy that blurs the lines between black and white and right and wrong.

Year in Review: Bright Room

A Bright Room Called Day did something that every good play should do, it shook things up. The positive review we received from the Post has people on the internet buzzing about how they could possibly give a positive review to a show that equated Hitler and Reagan.

Integrating video and live action a way that I have never seen carried off successfully in a theater with an unlimited budget let alone one with Rorschach's resources, A Bright Room Called Day was the product of a group of passionate artists working to tell the story of another group of artists waiting for the greatest tragedy of the 20th Century to take place.

Everyone involved met their challenges head on brilliant lighting and set. Costumes that transported you to Germany just before the fall. Acting which took the characters from mere words on a page to being living breathing people in the midst of life and death struggles. Made this one of my favorite shows ever.

Some great Blog Entries about Bright Room:

Welcome to the Culture Wars

Message from the Director

A Poli Sci Major Spouts a Little

Peeking In

Year in Review: A Note To Future Playwrights

In the past six season, we at Rorschach have worked tirelessly at upping our game with each passing show. Never content to rest on our laurels, we've striven to learn the lessons from the past and to continue challengings ourselves with each new season--indeed, with each new show. Over the years there have been things we've done well (such as marrying one another) and things we've worked hard to improve upon (increasing the number of publicity photographs that contain women in various states of undress/carrying deadly swords). Over the past season, we've hit some new high water marks, such as successfully incorporating multi-media effects into performances and building taller, more complicated sets.

Of course, in the theatre game, it's best to remain unsatisfied with what you did before and always find ways to improve your game. Nevertheless, if there's one thing that we ave managed to master--to become known for over the past year--is that Rorschach is, without a doubt, DC's number one theatre company for plays that take place in German apartment buildings. I mean, when you think "German apartment drama", you think us, obvs.

In order to honor our mission statement, Rorschach looks for plays that are imbue with certain "epic" qualities and which contain elements of the mystic or the mythological. What a lot of people don't know is that by setting you play within a German apartment complex, you automatically bequeath these qualities to your story. It all goes back to a well-regarded piece of dramatic theory, first espoused by Bertolt Brecht's younger second cousin Detmar, of the Deutschewohnungeffekt, which correctly identified German apartment buildings as the premiere nexus of both existential angst and psychohistorical tension.

The German apartment is like a vehicle capable of containing both the entirety of time and relative dimension inside a single space. To put it in layman's terms: there is no facet of human experience that cannot be contained within a German apartment, and, furthermore, any story that is told inside a German apartment automatically expands--like gas filling a vessel--to epic breadths and depths, thus allowing a story which would look simple and routine set within, say, a townhouse in Alexandria, to inflate to such a broad degree that it could automatically stand in for the sum and summa of human experience.

Therefore, playwrights, you should take note. Let the next play you write take place inside a German apartment, send it to Rorschach and WE WILL STAGE IT. That's a firm guarantee. Heck, if you've sent us a play for consideration in the past, only to be told that it didn't fit our mission, pull it out, reframe the story so that it takes place inside a German apartment building, send it back to us and WATCH WHAT HAPPENS.

It's all a part of our new advertising slogan: "Rorschach Theatre: if you've got a play about a German apartment, then we have a generous lease agreement for you to sign."

That's No Lady . . .

I was scolded at one point for talking about how hot the cast of Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards was. Mostly because Randy was doing the same thing. As a marketer of all things Rorschach I have to repeat the mantra that all things sexy sell, better than those things not sexy. I know it seems like I learned marketing off the same people who hid the naked lady in the ice cube on the side of a Coke machine, but are they necessarily wrong.

I mean look at those four on your left, can you find a better looking group of people willing to work for next to slave wages in a non-Equity show in a church in DC? And if you could would they be as talented and dedicated at those four. Possibly, but no way they could be as fun to be around and whip cracking smart.

For me Fair Ladies marked is without a doubt the most beautiful show we ever produced. All due respect to the other shows, but the simplicity of the set, the fantastically inventive costumes, the haunting lighting effects and the killer sword fights all added up to a show that kind of made me weep a little bit everytime I was there.

Add to that a script with passages of haunting beauty, a killer sound track, and some of not just my favorite actors but some of my favorite people in the world working on it and Fair Ladies may not be the show that made the biggest splash this season, but it is the one that people talk to me about the most. And I got to be evil, which for me is the high point of any show.

Here are some of my favorite blog entries from Fair Ladies. Enjoy!

Diary for Morotaka

Wonder of the Capital

Owned

Tanka You

Tomorrow A Bright Room Called Day.

Year in Review

We are creeping up on our announcement of Season Seven for Rorschach. Before we hit you all with the big news I thought it might be nice to take a look back at one of our most successful seasons to date. Over the next couple of days we will take a look back at Season Six and why it was so damn good!

Season 6 began with what is in fact Rorschach's best selling show ever. You all remember the wait lists, the sell outs and the added shows. The Beard of Avon was not just critically praised and well received by audiences it was also a hell of a good time. All of the actors and designers were happy to be involved in a show that was a sweet Valentine to the playwright who brought many of us to the theater in the first place. This highly intelligent comedy asked the question many scholars on both sides of the Shakespeare Authorship debate, never seem to ask, which is more important who wrote the plays or that the plays were written? I don't know if Beard of Avon answered that question, but it made many people who probably never even thought about who wrote the plays ask that question and come up with their own answer.

I think that it was the show that best showed what we as a company are capable of with all of us pitching in and creating a world that transports and fulfills peoples ideas about the theater and their ideas about what Rorschach is capable of.

Here are some highlights from the blog from the time of The Beard of Avon. Enjoy!

Another Word from the Director

Word from Will

The Play is a Thing

P.A.I.S.

The Earl


Next Fair Ladies

Then They Really Got Married

Many of the pictures you are about to see are stolen from our friend Gwen G. Thanks Gwen for sharing things on the internets for me to steal.

Deb and Randy tied the knot on Saturday and there was much rejoicing, quaffing and merriment. Setting the scene big house tucked back in a corner off of Connecticut Ave, NW. About 100 people milling about drinking lemonade with strawberries and black berries floating in it. Numerous Rorschach related folks mingling with relative related folks and childhood friend related folks. All waiting for Deb and Randy to make their appearance.

Paper lanterns hung everywhere and paper flowers poking out of various corners. Bride beautiful. Groom, don't know couldn't see him from where I was standing. Brides maids lovely, grooms men and ladies once again hidden from view.

You know you are at a theater wedding when the program features bios of the wedding party and the minister starts the ceremony off with a bible passage which is also the lyrics to a song from God Spell. The Minister was was pretty hip and I really think that it was a ceremony that truly relflected the kind of people that Deb and Randy are.

After the ceremony, there was the drinking and the nibbling. The gathering of the family together for photos and at one point Randy's Aunt Rita sang a Norwegian Song about tears and going off to sea and never returning. No one sings about being lost at seas like the Norwegians.

Quick note, I can not think of no event other than perhaps Helen Hayes Awards where you would have seen that many Costume Designers in one place. If a tornado had hit that wedding on Saturday there would have been naked people walking Washington, DC stages for at least a month.

Overall, the wedding was a success. When that many friends gather round and celebrate the love of two people, you know that something special has taken place.

Randy's Night Out

I could try and explain the following pictures but I am sure all of your imaginations are much more active than mine. Simply note the strawberry Margaritas in front of the Groom, the monkey that was roped around his neck for the evening and the hat.

Marriage

I had a couple of drinks last night, as is indicated to your right. The one at the bottom is actually a flan I ate early in the evening. And after all of that I some how managed to perform a fake wedding ceremony for Deb and Randy. It's called stamina my friends. That and a complete disregard for drinking on a school night. Any way the fake wedding went off without a hitch and for lack of a better word the fake minister got a couple of zingers in there. Here is the transcript for those of you who missed the ceremony:

Oh great Memnoch accept this sacrifice of blood from our hands... Sorry that is for the Baptism I am doing at midnight.

Ladies, Gentlemen and Andrew Price, we are gathered here tonight before God and some really hot looking people, to celebrate the fake nuptials of this man Randy Baker and this woman Deb Sivigny.

Can I have an Amen!

Marriage is not something for the faint of heart, why I know of at least three guys who faked their own death rather than walk down the aisle. I also know of a couple of brides who hired hit men rather than get married. What can I say I hang out with a pretty messed up bunch of people?

It should surprise none of us that Deb and Randy are getting married, mostly because Randy decided to make it impossible for her to say no by asking her in front of a room of 80 or so complete strangers. You have all seen the pictures. Randy down on one knee, Deb trying desperately not to cry … or laugh, I have never been clear on which it was and I was standing right next to them when it happened. It was like one of those glorious car crashes that you try not to watch but just can’t seem to work up the will to look away.

I remember the first time I tried to hit on Deb, it was before she or I had met Randy, so it’s cool. Bros before Hos, man!

And I’ll never forget what she said to me. She said “I’m sorry Scott, as handsome and as talented as I know you to be, I am saving myself for a special man. A man who writes plays, changes his hairstyle and facial hair on a weekly basis and uses the words dude, cool and rad way too often in casual conversation.” As much as I regret the fact that Deb and I will not be marrying on Saturday, I think we can all agree she found her special man.

I also the remember Randy telling me in an over long phone conversation the first time I was cast in a Rorschach show what he was looking for in a woman.

I know it struck me strange at the time as well, that he would call me up to offer me a role in a show and tell me what he was looking for in an ideal woman, but for the sake of this fake wedding we will pretend that this is exactly what happened. It’s called poetic licenses, look it up.

He said “Sam”, because at the time he thought my name was Sam. He said “Sam, I am looking for a woman who feels deeply, designs costumes, can drive me places and doesn’t wear bras.”

Usually during fake pre-wedding counseling session with a young couple I try and talk them out of it. I mean come on people if you want to marry someone you should at least be able to defend your position against a guy standing there yelling at the top of his lungs “It’s never going to work! You don’t love each other! Think of all of the misery in the world!” Deb and Randy on the other hand and I have to be honest here should be together. As a matter of fact if they don’t marry one another I truly believe that it will create a time paradox of stellar proportions which will eventually lead to the destruction of not just the earth but the entire Universe. Or even worse it could lead to a future where the world is ruled by apes. Damn dirty apes! I may be overstating the case but I have never been one for understatement. So for the love of God Randy and Deb do not ruin this, the future of the Federation depends on your marrying one another!

Now it’s the audience participation portion of our wedding. Can any one show just cause why this couple should not be joined in fake matrimony? Speak now, but keep in mind if you stop this wedding you could well be dooming the very fabric of reality and creating an alternative time line where Super Intelligent Hairless Squirrels will be our overlords and whip us every day and feed us a paste made of acorns?

Thank you, now keep your mouths shut at the real ceremony.

Now for the blessing of the rings. What are these plastic? I can’t believe it, 3 years of fake divinity school and I am blessing plastic rings.

Alright here comes the part we have all been waiting for, (I’m excited, are you excited?) we shall now proceed to the vows.

Do you Debra Kim Sivingy take this man Edmund Randolph Baker as your unlawfully wedded husband? Do you promise to love him and honor him, indulge him and drive him, let him watch whatever Sci-Fi show he currently is infatuated with whether it be Star Trek related or Galactica based, in sickness and health for richer and poorer, as long as at least one of you still lives?

-I do-

And do you Edmund Randolph Baker take this woman Debra Kim Sivigny to be your unlawfully wedded wife? Do you promise to love her and honor her, occasionally not send her home alone after a party because you want to hang with the cool kids until all hours of the morning, in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer, as long as one of you still lives?

-I do.-

Now by the authority vested in me by the great lord Zool.

Can I get a hail Zool?

I now pronounce you man and wife.

You may now kiss the bride, but no tongue this is a fake wedding after all.

Now everyone join with me and all the choirs of angels in singing the eternal song of praise.

Look into my eyes - you will see
What you mean to me
Search your heart - search your soul
And when you find me there you'll search no more

Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for
You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for
You know it's true Everything I do - I do it for you

Look into your heart - you will find
There's nothin' there to hide
Take me as I am - take my life
I would give it all - I would sacrifice

Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for
I can't help it - there's nothin' I want more
Ya know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

There's no love - like your love
And no other - could give more love
There's nowhere - unless you're there
All the time - all the way

Oh - you can't tell me it's not worth tryin' for
I can't help it - there's nothin' I want more
I would fight for you - I'd lie for you
Walk the wire for you - ya I'd die for you

Ya know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

Last Time I Married People

The last time I fake married an Artistic Director, it was Jenny McConnell and Matt Frederick. Here is a transcript of the blessed event for those of you who missed it. Many of these lines may or may not reflect what was actually said on the roof of Willard Street two years ago, but for all intents in purposes this is how it went down. Please forgive me if I steal anything for the ceremony tonight.

Ladies, Gentleman and various others, we are gathered here tonight before God and a group of people waiting to see how long this thing is going to take. To join this man Matthew Humphrey Frederick and this woman Jennifer Florence McConnell in fake matrimony.

Can I have an Amen!

Marriage is an institution. It can not be entered into soberly. It can not be entered into lightly either, because we all carry a lot of baggage. Many of us standing here tonight are the result of a marriage ourselves. For others marriage was a quick result of us.

In ancient times marriages were arranged and there were no divorces. Today we take our chances. We choose for ourselves and there is always the chance that by another act of choice or an act of the California Supreme Court or the Massachusetts Legislature a marriage might end.
Yet each year millions of perfectly happy couples put their relationships at risk by making them permanent. Jenny and Matt tonight you are taking such a risk.

During my pre-wedding counseling session with these two, I offered them this piece of advice, “Why ruin it?” And for better or worse they did not take that advantage of those wise words and we are here standing on a roof tonight.

Now it’s the audience participation portion of our wedding. Can any one show just cause why this couple should or should not be joined in fake matrimony speak now or wait until they ask next week?

Thank you now keep your mouths shut at the real ceremony.

Now for the blessing of the rings, in days gone by rings were often used to mark their property. I have nothing to add to that.

So without further ado, or continued delay, we shall proceed to the vows.

Do you Jennifer Francine McConnell take this man Matthew Herbert Frederick as your unlawfully wedded husband. Do you promise to love him and honor him, indulge him and drive him, let him win a fight every now and then even when you know in your heart you are always right, in sickness and health for richer and poorer, as long as at least one of you still lives?

-I do-

And do you Matthew Ulysses Frederick take this woman Jennifer Gertrude McConnell to be your unlawfully wedded wife? Do you promise to love her and honor her, placate her and humor her not see her four to six nights a week when she is in production, in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer, as long as one of you still lives?

-I do.-

Now by the authority vested in me by the state of unconsciousness which is sure to follow whatever drinking I will be doing after the ceremony, I now pronounce you man and wife.

You may now molest the bride.

Now everyone join with me and all the choir’s of angels in singing the eternal song of praise.

Tonight it's very clear
as we're both standing here
There's so many things I want to say
I will always love you
I will never leave you alone

Sometimes I just forget
say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying
I don't want to lose you
I could never make it alone

I am a man who would fight for your honor
I'll be the hero you're dreaming of
We'll live forever knowing together
That we did it all for the glory of love

You keep me standing tall
You help me through it all
I'm always strong when you're beside me
I have always needed you
I could never make it alone

I am a man who would fight for your honor
I'll be the hero you're dreaming of
We'll live forever knowing together
That we did it all for the glory of love

Just like a knight in shining armor
From a long time ago
Just in time I will save the day
Take you to my castle far away

I am a man who would fight for your honor
I'll be the hero you're dreaming of
We'll live forever knowing together
That we did it all for the glory of love
We'll live forever knowing together
That we did it all for the glory of love
We did it all for love.

DCeiver Edition

With the season over and us not quite ready to announce the monster of a Season 7 that we have planned to make you hot next year. I have decided to use this as a venue to give you all a taste of how intricately linked the lives of us Rorschachians truly are. This weekend will provide plenty of opportunity for such high jinx as Co-Artistic Director Randy Baker weds his beautiful child bride, Rorschach Resident Company Member, costume designer to the stars and French Candian Sympathizer, Debra Kim Sivigny. The Bachelor and Bachelorette parties are tomorrow night and once again your's truly has been called on to help with a little pre-wedding wedding. Stay tuned for more on these and other wedding related events. If you want to read of the first time I met Deb follow this link and learn how I felt when I was called INFAMOUS.

Now to the part that will make this entry a DCeiver like entry. As many of you know Company Member and gad about Jason Linkins who has guest blogged here lately has a blog called the DCeiver and most of the time it is filled with references so cool and dense with music and politics related references you would need a year and a MacArthur Grant to figure out what the hell he is talking about. I know that he may have once been banned from the Black Cat and his rants against the DC music scene are the stuff of legend. He makes his way around town with his better half Wife of DCeiver making merry at the foibles and follies of the D.C. Club scene. Well last night for the first time I made my way out into the world of music. Didn't hit a club but me and my best girl made our way up the Dulles Toll Road to Wolf Trap to see hot little band called Guster.

Here is my report:

God damn it was hot last night. Band was the bomb. Ran into Jenn Miller (costume designer for The Beard of Avon) she made a comment about how hot it was and I agreed. Band rocked my sh*t, for real y'all. It was hotter than the debate on the floor of the Senate over that Flag Burning Amendment that has been in the news as of late. Both Jillian and I keep getting whiffs of the guy standing in front of us. He smells like the pit where they throw dead animals from the highway.

Thank you that is my attempt at Linkinsian Humor and as you can see I am not very good at it. But the band gave a great show and it was fun to run into Jenn Miller. This once again proves that I am one step away from running into everyone I have ever known in the course of one day.

Come back tomorrow and I will give you a taste of what a Scott presided wedding will entail.

Final Collage

Daddy's Back

Alright enough of this tooling around America trying to find myself for at least a little while. I know who I am and what I was meant to do and here I am doing it. All I can tell you about my week in Ohio is that they have huge Walmarts and they love them some Shakespeare in the 90 degree heat of July.

Now we move on to the business at hand. Sold out final weekend of The Arabian Night! I told you so, doesn't seem to be strong enough language, so I will say that I am a fricken predictor of future events and all of you should bow down before me.

I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who helped make Season 6 of Rorschach one of our best ever. I want to thank Jason Linkins for at least making an attempt fill my shoes here on the blog. To Jordan for his dramaturigcal insights which I simply lifted and published here and they are now the intellectual property of the Rorschach Theatre blog.

As is our tradition here on the blog we give a final thank you to all the people who made this show a success and we wish them all well in the future. Even the one who is fleeing the country to move to a Nuclear-Free island for a while to find herself.

THE ARABIAN NIGHT

By Roland Schimmelpfennig

Translated by Melanie Dreyer

Directed by Jenny McConnell Frederick

PRODUCED BY Randy Baker and Jenny McConnell Frederick

FEATURING Matt Dunphy, Nelina Giridhar, Jessica Hansen, Jason McCool, Edwin Xavier

DESIGNED BY Matthew Frederick (Sound), David C. Ghatan (Lights), Tim Getman (Set), Suzen Mason (props), Yvette Ryan (Costumes)

DRAMATURGY BY Jordan Sudermann and Rachel Miller

STAGE MANAGED BY Jessie Gallogly