The Buck Stops Here

Good Monday morning to all of you freaks and greeks out there in cyberia.

As I awoke on this particularly cold and rainy Monday morning and as I said goodbye to Girlfriend of DCepticon, I was reminded that I haven't given you all nearly enough grief this month. If I am going to suffer I will not do it with either grace or charity. To misquote the man who I am currently endorsing for the Democratic Presidential nomination, "The Bus Stops Here."

Have you voted for Rorschach to be The Best Theatre in Washington every day like I asked. This is the last week and I can't be the only IP address voting for Rorschach otherwise they will think I am a lone lunatic with Rorschach fixation. And as close as that is to being true, you owe me! You may not know why or even care that you owe me one, but I assure you that you do in fact owe me! So click this LINK, jump through every hoop the good folks at The City Paper ask you to every day this week and you can consider our debt settled.

If you don't? Well let's just say, I hope you enjoy messages sent wrapped in newspaper and smelling of halibut.

Happy Monday from you good friends at Rorschach Theatre!

See Its Like a Swap for Ads Instead of Clothing or Wives

See we try and help our friends here at the ol' Rorschach Blog. Got this note from Gwen the afternoon and we begin the eternal cycle of butt scratching (or it might be back scratching I was never good with cliches).

I do love me some Brecht so I think it is all kinds of exciting. Enjoy!


hey DCepticon,

I think we talked about this a long time ago - would you be willing to put something up for the opening of the constellation show today?

Katie Atkinson, Yasmin might be the only rorschachites, also meghan reichelt is running sound board for this first weekend. (Editor: Yvette Ryan also.)

let me know!
thanks darlin,
g

THE GOOD WOMAN OF SETZUAN
by Bertolt Brecht,
directed by Allison Stockman

Performances are March 27th - April 20th. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm

Summary: Three gods descend to earth in search of one good person and discover that kindness and compassion don't pay the rent. Shen Te, a kind and generous prostitute, is driven to disguise herself as a shrewd and unethical male businessman in order to navigate the demands of love, family and hungry neighbors. Bertolt Brecht, the avant-garde father of epic drama, mixes comedy and fantasy to create an exotic world that turns out to be very close to home.

Ensemble: Katie Atkinson, Molly Cahill, Katy Carkuff, Catherine Deadman, John Feist, Kevin Finkelstein, Lewis Freeman, John Geoffrion, Keith Irby, Ashley Ivey, Hilary Kacser, Jenny Leopold, Lisa Lias, Kenny Littlejohn, Beckett Martin, Francisco Reinoso, Joe Thornhill, Meghan Tolmie, Yasmin Tuazon, Ron Ward.

Musician & Composer: Tom Teasley.
Design and Technical Team: A.J. Guban, Yvette M. Ryan, Chris Baine, Francoise Bastien, Brett Abelman, Angelo Merenda, Erica Jean Yeager, Michael Roike

All performances are at Clark Street Playhouse in Crystal City, VA

DIRECTIONS

Discounts:
1) PWYC performance on Thursday, March 27th and Friday, March 28th
2) $15 Student/Senior tickets, $12 Group tickets for groups of 5+
3) $10 "ARTIST" code tickets online for the first two weeks - Sun 3/30 through Sun 4/6.

For more information visit Contellation Theatre's web site.

Hint #2 for May 10th

Here is your second hint for what is happening on May 10th.
Name this Rorschach Company Member while you are it.

Steal This Banner Ad or Print Ad

Please feel free to steal this Banner Ad or Print Ad and use it wherever Banner Ads or Print Ads are used!

Sincerely,

The Management

Riddle Me This Rorschach Fan

What is Black and White and happens on May 1oth?
Leave you guesses in the comments section.

City Paper Best of DC Picks

Here at the Ol' Rorschach Blog we are big believers in lobbying for our place in the sun.

When contests come up where we can lobby you, our 10 or so loyal readers, to vote for us in an on-line poll we will pimp ourselves out like anyone seeking the presidental nod.

This time the City Paper has given us the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the ease and simplicity of on-line voting.

Washington City Paper's 2008 Best of D.C. popularity contest is up and running.

What you ask do I have to do?

Quite simple really. Follow this LINK and where it has a blank next to Best Theatre Company, just type in Rorschach Theatre. If you want you can even copy Rorschach Theatre from this blog and paste it into the appropriate slot.

Just scroll down the list to Best Theatre Company it's right after Best Strip Club (for which I recommend you write in the DAR Constitution Hall).

You can vote for anything else as you see fit. You'll have to hit the Orange Continue to next page button a couple of times to have your vote cast.

Remember it is only with your help that we can hope to oppose the forces of certain companies whose names begin with S, W, and A. Vote now and vote as often as they will let you (which is one a day it turns out). This is not a presidental election so your vote should actually count.

Thank in advance and remember the only payment I can offer is love. Not physical love but the spiritual kind that they talk about in books and world religions.

I Swear, The Green Milk-Shakes at McDonalds taste Minty

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all. The one day a year where we aren't Rorschach Theatre but O'Rorschach Theatre.


Today I would like to salute all the Irish people who make this company possible.

Jenny McConnell Frederick
Randy Fitzbaker
Timmy O'Getman
O'Grady Weatherford
Scott McCormick
Rahaleh "Bridget" Fitznassri
Lauren O'Hyland
Lindsay McAllen
Patrick Bussink
Matt Fredpatrick
David McGhatan
Maggie Glauber
Seamus Guadamuz
Jason Fitzlinkins
Karl Milleriley
Tracy Lynn O'Livera
Melissa McSchwartz
Debra Kim Fitzivigny
Yasmin Tuazon (yeah I ran out of ideas at the end here)!

I Look Into My Crystal Ball and See The Future

I was almost run over by a car this morning.

Anyway this is a message to everyone who is checking in after the beautiful email announcement sent out this morning congratulating Gaby and Shirley on their well deserved Helen Hayes nominations for References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot.

It has long been my belief that smaller theaters in DC are given the shaft when it comes to Helen Hayes nominations. These nominations of course call me on my beliefs but I think of all the fine work that is done by talented people in small spaces all over this town and them hardly getting the recognition they deserve and I still scratch my head.

I am going to make a couple of predictions right now:

Someone at the event will be drunk in the following situations:
- While presenting.
- While receiving their award.
- While arriving.
- While arguing over paying $30 for parking.

Someone at the event will hook-up with someone they shouldn't and cause friction among their friends and co-workers for the year to come.

There will be loud cheers for Signature from Catholic U. alums and grads.

The next day someone will post a complaint on DC Theatre Scene about young people cheering at the Helen Hayes awards and their inability to hear the show.

Someone will utter the following phrase during their acceptance speech for one of the Non-Resident Production Awards "Thank you so much! I didn't even know you all had theater awards here."

There will be a musical parody based on a Kander and Ebb song that only three people in the audience could tell you what show it comes from. All three will laugh very hard.

There will be a Canadian in attendance.

An artistic director of a major theater company will trip and take out an ice sculpture.

There will be a celebrity presenter who will tell us a story about when they were a young actor/actress and their experience of touring a show at the National/Warner/Kennedy Center before it went on to Broadway.

Our two nominees and Tracy Olivera will be the sexiest nominees at the whole damn shabang.

There will be corndogs.

Patrick Hat Trick

Here is a treat for a Tuesday. Patrick Bussink actually answered these questions for the blog in November and like the bubble head that I am I have not gotten around to publishing it until today. Sorry Tricky, but I am not perferct, nor is my grammar (see below).

There is only one Rorschach Company member I have known longer than Patrick, but Patrick and I go back a ways and I think fondly of the time we were stranded in a snow storm on Rt. 70 West and were forced to consider which tour member we would eat first if human predation were the only means of survival. Thank God the road opened up or DC audiences would have been denied the acting talent of Mr. Jesse Terrill.

Patrick has been in three Rorschach shows, and has given three memorable perfomances. A talented comedian and a skilled dramtic actor, he has toured around the world on a bike and was responsible for the one time in the last 10 years when I broke on stage. We are lucky to have added him to the Company this year. Now another Profile to Discourage, Patrick Bussink.

1. Place of birth?
Annapolis, MD, the undisputed boat-people capital of the universe.

2. First experience in theater?
6th grade production of Goin' Buggy, a musical about bugs marching on Washington for equal rights. I played an innocent spider, delivering a stirring monologue about insect oppression after "scaring" Little Miss Muffet away from her tuffet---what a spaz.

3. Where you went to school?
Great grammar, Mr. Decepticon---where YOU went to school? (Editor: Bite Me!) Me: Annapolis High, Anne Arundel Community College and Towson University.

4. What do you do?
Act, write, eat, sleep. Rinse and repeat.

5. What was your first experience with Rorschach?
Grady Weatherford showed up at a party with makeup from Rhinoceros on, it looked like gangrene. And I thought to myself "Wow, I really have to work for these people." My 1st actual show was J.B.

6. Company member you would most like to be if you were not yourself?
Maggie Glauber. 'Cause she's got MOXY.

7. Some story about working on a Rorschach play that either made you laugh or touched you deeply?
Touched me deeply: the backstage conversations during J.B., which opened right after 9-11. I will "never forget" that.

Made me laugh: just about anything that happened backstage, onstage or upstage during The Beard of Avon.

8. Where do you think Rorschach will be in the next ten years?
Hopefully in its very own magically rough space.

9. What is your favorite Rorschach show that you were not in?
A Bright Room Called Day, even though Rahaleh directed it.

10. Scott McCormick harmless adolescent or world conquering super villain?
Scott McWho?

What The Hell Are You Doing?

Annonymous Writes:

What are the Rorschach Company members doing on their time off right now?

Well Anonymous, if that is your real name, we really don't have any time off because we are quite busy preparing for our Exile at Georgetown this summer, but I sent out an email to the Company to see what other things folks are up to and these are the answers I have been able to gather.

From Tracy Lynn Olivera:

Hi! I just started rehearsals for THE HAPPY TIME at Signature, which opens in April as part of the Kander and Ebb festival and runs until the end of may. I miss you guys.

From Tim Getman:

hey bud...doing the miller reps at arena, playing happy in salesman and mike in view from the bridge. then doing in the heart of america at repstage. hope yer well

From Deb Sivigny:

I am opening Chasing George Washington at the Kennedy Center tomorrow night. Then I am working on Crumble with Catalyst Theater and HH nominated Shirley Serotsky. Then Neglect with Journeymen Theater, directed by RT alum Jessie Gallogly some other small things, like YPT's tour and the Source Festival too, but those are the major things...deb

And Cesar Guadamuz, Maggie Glauber, Patrick Bussink (who I just found a profile which I haven't run yet, sorry Foo) and Scott McCormick will be appearing in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot for Forum Theatre and Dance, we started rehearsals in last week and it will open in early April.

If you wish upon a star . . .

Dear Rorschach Blog Readers,

If you have any questions about Rorschach you have always wanted answered send them in.

I would ask that they be at least slightly related to Rorschach shows, company members, actors, directors or designers? Ask about our past our futures and the like and I will get you some answers.

Either leave your questions in the comment section or send them to me by email.

Sincerely,
The Mad Blogger-what-Blogs-at-Midnight

Think and Name the Actor and the Play

WITMWTGE?

We spent a good portion of Saturday sitting in a basement room at Georgetown this weekend, not the cellar but the basement there is a difference, and we worked our way through a draft of Randy Baker's next play Dream Sailors. Don't let the name fool you this play is f to the up crazy, sexy and a little scary.

The premise of Dream Sailors is not as exciting as the way it will unfold, which will be episodically, with a new show in the series premiering each week. Four episodes in all and each one ends with a cliff-hanger for the week to follow.

It tells the story of four friends who wake from their lucid dreaming party to find a dead body. I think I will leave the rest to your imagination.

Randy has got himself something new here. Taking the conventions of television and adapting it back to the roots of dramatic story telling on stage.

In honor of this exciting and promising read through I want to start the shows first catch phrase, sort of along the lines of "Save the Cheerleader. Save the world.", "The Truth is Out There." or "Sit on it Potsy!"

"Who is the Man with the Green Eyes?"

Start using it in conversation, to pick-up members of the opposite or same sex, organize viewing parties and get ready for the excitement.