Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Singing and Dancing and Acting, Oh My!
We, the brave Urban Samurai, along with our merry cast, have begun the rehearsal process for Musical the Musical - an charming and funny little ditty for the Fringe Festival. I'm sorry to say there are no ninjas in it, but we can't always have everything we want. The good news is we have the best production team ever, and the cast is furiously awesome. Furiously, you ask? That's right. Furiously. As in so good you wonder if maybe the shock wave of it will harm you and/or your future unborn children. The first read thru was a real treat, laugh out loud funny, and the first singing rehearsal knocked our socks off. Their first dance rehearsal was this evening, and I'm so jazzed I can't sit still. Not to be outdone, our guest designer samurais have been busy writing music, making sets, and finding costumes. They are stealthy and efficient, two qualities I admire greatly. And so we continue building Musical the Musical towards its world premiere, a show that I feel will be something really special. Not special with ninjas. A different and equally awesome kind of special. Yay for Urban Samurai's first musical!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Good News!! + American Apathy Update
First, the good news...we made it into the Fringe Festival this year!! We will be performing a locally written show called Musical: The Musical. It is written by a gentleman from CSZ named Doug Neithercott and is extremely funny. It is a send up of musicals while at the same time being a pretty darn good musical in itself. It is crude, irreverent, and coy. It will be good times had by all! Stay tuned for further updates on that.
American Apathy is coming along nicely. We have our Set, costumes, and props all figured out for the most part. Since the theme of the play revolves around American consumerism, we decided to make the set fairly bare. The two main characters are overly materialistic and we thought it would play cool to have everything they interact with be nothing special. We are building cubes to represent much of the set and the props will be mostly two-dimensional and also built of wood. It should really help build the absurdity of the play. I think it is going to look cool and I can't wait for you all to see it.
Rehearsals began last night and we have a stellar cast. It stars two core members; Marcia and myself, and a regular to USP, Ryan Grimes. Also we have two new comers to the group; Melissa Bechthold and Tim Reddy. There is a lot of talent in this cast and I'm excited to work with all of them.
American Apathy is coming along nicely. We have our Set, costumes, and props all figured out for the most part. Since the theme of the play revolves around American consumerism, we decided to make the set fairly bare. The two main characters are overly materialistic and we thought it would play cool to have everything they interact with be nothing special. We are building cubes to represent much of the set and the props will be mostly two-dimensional and also built of wood. It should really help build the absurdity of the play. I think it is going to look cool and I can't wait for you all to see it.
Rehearsals began last night and we have a stellar cast. It stars two core members; Marcia and myself, and a regular to USP, Ryan Grimes. Also we have two new comers to the group; Melissa Bechthold and Tim Reddy. There is a lot of talent in this cast and I'm excited to work with all of them.
Monday, February 11, 2008
AA Auditions
Auditions are done and we have our cast. Our cast is diverse and very talented. We have a couple of core members, a returning regular and two completely new people to add to the Urban Samurai family.
It was also really refreshing to see many new faces at the first round of auditions. I am constantly amazed at the consistent quality of actors in this town.
Rehearsals will begin March 2nd. Cry HAVOC and let lose the dogs of war!!!!!
It was also really refreshing to see many new faces at the first round of auditions. I am constantly amazed at the consistent quality of actors in this town.
Rehearsals will begin March 2nd. Cry HAVOC and let lose the dogs of war!!!!!
Friday, February 8, 2008
Non-Profit Hell
Well it's official, we at Urban Samurai Productions have finally passed through the seventh level of hell. Hell being the incredibly ardouous process of applying for Non-Profit status. According to our lawyer (and she could be lying) our 1023 application for 501 c3 Non-Profit status was shipped out in the year of our lord twenty-O-eight on a dim and gray but mostly dim February afternoon.
This marks an enormous mile-stone for our company that started with me back in 2005 when I was living in my friend's parents basement staring blankly at mounds of legal forms and thinking "Mmm...grunt....non-profit good! Me like free money!" Oh how young and simean I was back then. Now three years and countless gray hairs later we have completed what was begining to seem like an unending process. Of course it's not over yet. We still have to wait for the IRS to "File" our application. Evidently it takes about 6 months, though our lawyer warned that it may take longer because the IRS is "really behind right now".
We're really only at the mid-point of the process so allow me to explain what steps are involved next. We take you to the IRS headquarters where we find a short, stocky, and fairly grungy man (Who we will call Jorge) wandering the halls. Jorge is wearing mostly leather and a dishevled hat stained with grime and his own blood. He is leading a wretched looking burro with mange and dissentery that is pulling a rickety wooden cart through the halls of the seventh floor of the IRS that for some reason looks very much like a Hormel packing plant. He arrives at a battered office door that has the name "Charles W. Turt" on it but this is crossed out and below it written in blood is "Kenneth C. Tainter". He knocks on the door...there is no sound. The door flies open revealing nothing but complete darkness, a veritable black hole. Jorge, now shaking uncontrolably, timidly extends a tattered slightly charred manila envelope toward the void as he averts his eyes. Though the lable is marred to the point of being almost illegible if one were to look closely they would make out the words"Urban-Samurai Non-Profit App. Please file". Suddenly a grisly almost inhuman hand and arm shoot forth from the darkness grasping the envelope and Jorge's wrist and pulls both he and his delievery into the nothingness. And then there is silence...for a moment you think you may have heard the screaming plea's of Jorge or our Non-Profit Application but it is only the wind. What happens after this no-mortal knows.
All I can ask of you is to pray. Pray for our application that it might survive countless indescribable horrors and come back to us in one piece and approved.
This marks an enormous mile-stone for our company that started with me back in 2005 when I was living in my friend's parents basement staring blankly at mounds of legal forms and thinking "Mmm...grunt....non-profit good! Me like free money!" Oh how young and simean I was back then. Now three years and countless gray hairs later we have completed what was begining to seem like an unending process. Of course it's not over yet. We still have to wait for the IRS to "File" our application. Evidently it takes about 6 months, though our lawyer warned that it may take longer because the IRS is "really behind right now".
We're really only at the mid-point of the process so allow me to explain what steps are involved next. We take you to the IRS headquarters where we find a short, stocky, and fairly grungy man (Who we will call Jorge) wandering the halls. Jorge is wearing mostly leather and a dishevled hat stained with grime and his own blood. He is leading a wretched looking burro with mange and dissentery that is pulling a rickety wooden cart through the halls of the seventh floor of the IRS that for some reason looks very much like a Hormel packing plant. He arrives at a battered office door that has the name "Charles W. Turt" on it but this is crossed out and below it written in blood is "Kenneth C. Tainter". He knocks on the door...there is no sound. The door flies open revealing nothing but complete darkness, a veritable black hole. Jorge, now shaking uncontrolably, timidly extends a tattered slightly charred manila envelope toward the void as he averts his eyes. Though the lable is marred to the point of being almost illegible if one were to look closely they would make out the words"Urban-Samurai Non-Profit App. Please file". Suddenly a grisly almost inhuman hand and arm shoot forth from the darkness grasping the envelope and Jorge's wrist and pulls both he and his delievery into the nothingness. And then there is silence...for a moment you think you may have heard the screaming plea's of Jorge or our Non-Profit Application but it is only the wind. What happens after this no-mortal knows.
All I can ask of you is to pray. Pray for our application that it might survive countless indescribable horrors and come back to us in one piece and approved.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
No "Apathy" for our next show!!
Now just to be clear, we ARE doing "American Apathy" as our next show. I just wanted everyone to know that the ball is rolling along quite quickly and things are coming together well. Make sure you check out the "Current Productions" page for audition info! I would love to see all you actor types at the audition.
The show's design is currently in discussion and I must say it is fairly hush, hush...for now! I hope to give you guys a sneak peak about what is going on behind the scenes for this one. I was a terrible liar and said I would do that for our last show. Well, this time it will be different, I promise.
The show's design is currently in discussion and I must say it is fairly hush, hush...for now! I hope to give you guys a sneak peak about what is going on behind the scenes for this one. I was a terrible liar and said I would do that for our last show. Well, this time it will be different, I promise.
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