DEAD CITY a view from the booth

If you haven't seen DEAD CITY yet, ya gotta go NOW! The City Paper calls it "gorgeously realized" and I believe everything I read.

So to entice you, we have a fun posting today...

For those of you outside of the "biz" there is a document that Stage Managers put together every night called a "Performance Report." It lets us know what's going on, who messed up what and what how our crazy audiences are responding to this fantastic little show. Here are some exerpts from those performances, a view from the booth if you will...

There was gum thwaping tonight.

Samantha’s hair looked fabulous tonight

There was no gum thwaping tonight but there was extra gum fingering.

Tonight, the smell was coming off of the East River instead of the Hudson.

L 71 and 74 were late. I did not hit the GO button hard enough.

For tonight's run, the actors are only allowed to wear socks on the stage floor.

[Redacted] seemed to forget this lines at the beginning of his scene

We are gonna need a lot of McDonald’s bags.

Are you by chance able to bring an extra pair of socks tonight?

They ran the dance at the top of rehearsal right before the run. They seemed to remember all of it.

Can we issue [Redacted] socks? For some reason, we skipped that.

[Redacted] accidently spit out his gum at the top of the gum sex.

Do we know when [Redacted] can start working with her pregnant belly?

If the door magic is not going to work, are we able to remove the two wires and the crank thing?

Quote (s) of the Night:
“Jane Austen can $%^& me in the $%^hole.”
“It’s not a laugh. It’s an mmmm… a sexy mmmm”
“Channeling, humping or meowing, what would you like me to do?“
“When they run into a wall, they will stop.”
“Not too much I Hope It’s Not Butter.”
“Can she just have an ammo belt of tampons?"

"And this is why we don’t’ have all girl rehearsals."
“I always wanted to grow a beard then put new skin over it then take it off to show up with a full beard in the middle of the show.”
“There is always time to stick your hand in your pants.”

DEAD CITY runs through August 16. For a full schedule and directions please visit www.rorschachtheatre.com. For tickets, go to www.boxofficetickets.com/rorschach or call 1-800-494-TIXS.

TRACY RULES RORSCHACH FOR A DAY

Tracy Lynn Olivera wakes the dead tonight.

Rorschach doesn't sing very often. We're great with the animal noise, stage violence that will make you squirm and all sort of other epic goodness...but the singing here at Rorschach is pretty rare. But all that changes tonight when Tracy takes over. Frankly, she is the perfect person to be doing this. Beautiful, brilliant and talented--with the mouth of a sailor.

She has assembled an outstanding team of guest stars including Gabriel Mangiante on the keys and Monalisa Arias on drums. That's right, you saw Monalisa play Rosemary in BRAINPEOPLE, now come see her bang out a mean rythm. Some other guests include Evan Casey, Robyn Badman, Stephen Gregory Smithand Rachel Zampelli.

So join us tonight for this ONE NIGHT ONLY fundraiser for Rorschach! It's only ten bucks.

Tickets are on sale here or at 1-800-494-TIXS you can try your luck at the door tonight.

(A picture from last night's rehearsal...)

DEAD CITY opens tonight

DEAD CITY
By Sheila Callaghan
Directed by Jenny McConnell Frederick

Now playing through August 16, 2009
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!

FEATURING Company Members Tim Getman and Grady Weatherford. With Wyckham Avery, Rachel Beauregard, Val Fenton, Danny Gavigan and Lee Matthews DESIGNED BY Company Member Matthew Frederick (Sound Designer)with Eric Grims (Set Designer), Frank Labovitz (Costume Designer), Andrew R. Cissna (Lighting Designer) and Becca Dieffenbach (Props Designer) STAGE MANAGED BY Kyle Jean Fisher WITH Emily Levin (Assistant Director), Leah Hamos (Dramaturg), Melissa-Leigh Bustamante (Choreography), Lauren Cucarola (Assistant Costume Designer), Kate Lucibella (Technical Director), Robert Brown (Master Electrician) and Trey Carnley (Master Carpenter) PRODUCED BY Randy Baker and Jenny McConnell Frederick

The Trailer for BRAINPEOPLE

Thanks Grady!

Get to Know the Cast and Director of BRAINPEOPLE

Here is a rainbow of answers to five questions for the cast of BRAINPEOPLE. Get your butts to the theatre tonight after you Get to Know, Director and Company Member Catherine Tripp, and cast members Regina Aquino, Amanda Thickpenny, and Monalisa Arias.

1. Would you decribe yourself as a Brainperson?

Catherine: Uhm no I am the essence of me
Regina: Totally and completely, in every way you can interpret that word.
Amanda: If by Brainperson you mean Nerd, definitely. I have an encylopedic and completely useless knowledge of geography and art history, and I think the brain is the sexiest part of the body.
Monalisa: So totally yes.

2. What makes Brainpeople a good fit for Rorschach?

Catherine: The magic realism and the dark humor
Regina: It’s a story about the inherent human need for connection and communication while it completely dissects the psyche of each character in the play. Total emotional, spiritual and psychological examination - so of course its a good fit for a company named after an actual psychological exam.
Amanda: It's magically realistic and realistically magical - and totally theatrical! And this is my second Rorschach show involving girl-on-girl action. Stay tuned.
Monalisa: It's edgy, sexy, and hopeful. Like all you Rorschachers!

3. Multiple personalities play a big part in this show? Do you have any alternate personas and if so can we meet him/her?

Catherine: I ain't telling.
Regina: No, there's just me. I'm plenty of crazy awesomeness in one personality. Though I am constantly talking to myself. And I mean constantly - people look at me funny.
Amanda: Gemini...
Monalisa: I have hundreds of people in my brain. You can meet 14 of them when you see the show.

4. Small cast shows are a rarity among Rorschach productions? What is it like not to have to keep track of 15 to 20 people during the rehearsal process?

Catherine: It has made process a lot tighter. And I think that the sense of team is a lots stronger. We are definitly in thidefinitelyr. You can't stand in the back of rehearsal and not pay attention. We are all there all the time.
Regina: I LOVE small casts. The shows I'm most proud of had small casts. The intimacy of a three person cast, combined with the fact that everyone in the room on a daily basis is a woman makes for an intensely personal, highly empowering experience. We all spend so much time supporting each other and allowing each other to just be free in the moment that our relationships on stage and off are completely open, honest and trusting. Not only do I totally respect these women professionally, I have made some deep friendships that are truly rare to come across in life. This is one of those shows that has changed me and how I perceive the creation of art, which is a precious thing.
Amanda: It's lovely and exhausting. We're a really tight cast. We support and nurture each other. But we have to give 100% the whole time. In a cast of three people, if you're screwing around upstage, everyone notices.
Monalisa: First time with y'all, so it's awesome for me.

5. What is the most awkward dinner party you have ever attended? And what did you have to eat?

Catherine: I did have to go to a dinner party where we ate beef heart. (It was my parents party and I was a teenager- which is pretty much the longest awkward dinner party any of us go to)
Regina: I've been to so many awkward dinner parties I don't know where to begin. As far as food goes, I've been served a noodle dish with chicken and bits of liver that looked like chicken and no one told me about the liver so when I voraciously ate it, I was stunned by the texture and froze in place, trying to think of a non-rude way to extract the bits of liver from my mouth. I honestly felt violated and duped.
Amanda: My parents had several awkward dinner parties. They weren't really into entertaining, and whenever they did invite someone over, it was usually out of pity: my father's single and lonely clarinet teacher, my mother's nebishy Rabbit Rescue friends, anyone who had recently been through a really bad divorce, home forclosure or natural disaster. So to this day, I feel like something is missing if, at a dinner party, someone isn't regaling everyone with their tale of woe.
Monalisa: Most awkward dinner party...thanksgiving with friends of mine, made awkward because my significant other at the time didn't want to be there. Tons of turkey, mashed potatoes, and most importantly, STUFFING!!!

BRAINPEOPLE reviews and pics

BRAINPEOPLE continues this weekend. Don't miss this beautiful piece that returns us to Jose Rivera's unique brand of magical realism...

Get your tickets here.


"The kind of challenge that Rorschach Theatre loves, of course. The company's pattern has been to embrace dense, intellectually aggressive material"

--Washington Post (For the full review, CLICK HERE)

"When a woman offers two strangers $20,000 to dine with her for an evening, there's naturally got to be a catch. But in Jose Rivera's Brainpeople, being given a thoughtful, intimate staging by Rorschach Theatre Company, none of the cliche scenarios and hypotheticals that may have popped into the mind apply to what's about to happen to this trio of women from disparate, if equally desperate backgrounds."

--DCist (For the full review, CLICK HERE)

Director Catherine Tripp has accomplished a vivid work - disorderly and feverish but making it seem quite plausible. Here is an unconventional journey within the Latin magical realism genre toward an unexpectedly optimistic final chronicle of three women’s search for love and trust.

--Potomac Stages (For the full review, CLICK HERE)

"..the story comes together marvelously and each actress rises to the occasion."

--DCTheatre Scene (For the full review, CLICK HERE)

A Karl Miller Joint

You all remember Karl Miller, the man who now graces the Rorschach homepage and the pages of American Theatre Magazine with his Calvin Klein model good looks and striking pose, the Helen Hayes nominee and Rorschach Company member. Yeah, that Karl Miller!

Well these days in addition to his theatrical pursuits he is haunting the halls of the Davis Center shooting mind bending films about Rorschach. Take a look and be sure to watch out for the cameo by Tim Getman's belly.