OK, let's be straight. I really only have one predicament to discuss, but the title of this post wouldn't have been as fun if I couldn't loop in the title of our next production.
If I were to be bold, I would say the introductions I wrote of each Bright Ideas cast member leading up to the production's opening were a success. But A Few Good Men has a much larger cast. Which means I would have to start now in order to get through everyone before we open on September 24th.
So I'll come up with some other way of introducing you to the cast. If you have any fantastic ideas, feel free to get in touch with me. Until then, I am so excited about A Few Good Men and the three shows we've selected for 2011, that I almost can't stand it.
I'll be back next week recharged and ready to gab.
Ryan Grimes
Managing Director
Urban Samurai Productions
Showing posts with label A Few Good Men. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A Few Good Men. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Plotting It Out
So there's a play in rehearsals (Bright Ideas)
And a play in auditions (A Few Good Men)
And then there's the play in development (Leave)
Leave (or The Surface of the World) is moving ahead on two fronts.
Matt Greseth and I sat down over the weekend and mapped out some key dates on the calendar between now and the opening of Season 2011 in February.
April 22, once Matt has auditions and casting for A Few Good Men behind him, the two of us will get together and pick the script apart scene by scene - get an idea where the strengths and weaknesses are in the script as a one act, and where the potential expansions lie, further explorations of character, situation and subject matter.
May 20, once Bright Ideas is open, we'll touch base once again. My writing group will have had its last three meetings before its summer break, so whatever hacking away I've been able to do in the interim will be ready to dig into. It'll also be good to touch base one more time before I head off to Omaha for
The Great Plains Theatre Conference, May 29 to June 5
My reading is first thing, 9am on Monday morning May 31. So, death slot, basically. I'm contenting myself with the thought that
1) I'll get getting out of town and just having the chance to be a writer and nothing else for a week
2) They're paying all my registration fees, putting me up (in a dorm - ah, nostalgia), and feeding me
3) The workshops look interesting - might jumpstart this, or other, ideas for future use.
4) It's not wall to wall events. There's breathing room around the edges and I'll just be able to kick back and scribble, bat Leave around a bit
5) It's an opportunity to work again with my pal Marty Marchitto, a director who's done three of my scripts, and whose instincts about new work I trust implicitly. He'll have a lot of insights to share.
6) Marty works with good actors, so I'll be able to pick their brains, too.
7) Whoever shows up to see the thing (there's gotta be *some*one, right?) will no doubt have their opinions and won't be shy about sharing them.
8) Seeing the script in another context, between the incubator it grew up in during 2008, and the next level it will be entering during 2010/2011, can only be a good thing.
9) Since networking and socializing terrify me, this will be a learning experience. Like auditioning, you only get better by doing. There will be plenty of other scripts being read and writers to meet, and (gasp) gatherings where mingling is kind of the point.
10) Again, I get to be a writer for a week and get the heck out of town.
June 10, a debriefing session with Matt about what I learned about the script at the conference
After the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Matt goes into A Few Good Men mode in earnest.
October 10, A Few Good Men and Season 2010 closes
November 7, a reading of whatever the new version of Leave exists with the company, and of course, more feedback
Early December - auditions, by which time, the bulk of the rewrites should be done, the new structure in place
Of course, in the process of auditioning and other actors getting their hands on the thing, we'll all see things we didn't before, and the tweaking begins.
Early January, rehearsals begin, and the last of the tweaking.
February, Season 2011 and the new version of Leave arrive in front of an audience.
All of which, when I lay it out like that, seems like no time at all.
Tick tock.
Matthew A. Everett
www.matthewaeverett.com
USP Board Member, Resident Playwright
Bright Ideas opens in 28 days
Great Plains Theatre Conference starts in 51 days
Minnesota Fringe Festival arrives in 118 days
Leave, via Urban Samurai, 10 months off
And a play in auditions (A Few Good Men)
And then there's the play in development (Leave)
Leave (or The Surface of the World) is moving ahead on two fronts.
Matt Greseth and I sat down over the weekend and mapped out some key dates on the calendar between now and the opening of Season 2011 in February.
April 22, once Matt has auditions and casting for A Few Good Men behind him, the two of us will get together and pick the script apart scene by scene - get an idea where the strengths and weaknesses are in the script as a one act, and where the potential expansions lie, further explorations of character, situation and subject matter.
May 20, once Bright Ideas is open, we'll touch base once again. My writing group will have had its last three meetings before its summer break, so whatever hacking away I've been able to do in the interim will be ready to dig into. It'll also be good to touch base one more time before I head off to Omaha for
The Great Plains Theatre Conference, May 29 to June 5
My reading is first thing, 9am on Monday morning May 31. So, death slot, basically. I'm contenting myself with the thought that
1) I'll get getting out of town and just having the chance to be a writer and nothing else for a week
2) They're paying all my registration fees, putting me up (in a dorm - ah, nostalgia), and feeding me
3) The workshops look interesting - might jumpstart this, or other, ideas for future use.
4) It's not wall to wall events. There's breathing room around the edges and I'll just be able to kick back and scribble, bat Leave around a bit
5) It's an opportunity to work again with my pal Marty Marchitto, a director who's done three of my scripts, and whose instincts about new work I trust implicitly. He'll have a lot of insights to share.
6) Marty works with good actors, so I'll be able to pick their brains, too.
7) Whoever shows up to see the thing (there's gotta be *some*one, right?) will no doubt have their opinions and won't be shy about sharing them.
8) Seeing the script in another context, between the incubator it grew up in during 2008, and the next level it will be entering during 2010/2011, can only be a good thing.
9) Since networking and socializing terrify me, this will be a learning experience. Like auditioning, you only get better by doing. There will be plenty of other scripts being read and writers to meet, and (gasp) gatherings where mingling is kind of the point.
10) Again, I get to be a writer for a week and get the heck out of town.
June 10, a debriefing session with Matt about what I learned about the script at the conference
After the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Matt goes into A Few Good Men mode in earnest.
October 10, A Few Good Men and Season 2010 closes
November 7, a reading of whatever the new version of Leave exists with the company, and of course, more feedback
Early December - auditions, by which time, the bulk of the rewrites should be done, the new structure in place
Of course, in the process of auditioning and other actors getting their hands on the thing, we'll all see things we didn't before, and the tweaking begins.
Early January, rehearsals begin, and the last of the tweaking.
February, Season 2011 and the new version of Leave arrive in front of an audience.
All of which, when I lay it out like that, seems like no time at all.
Tick tock.
Matthew A. Everett
www.matthewaeverett.com
USP Board Member, Resident Playwright
Bright Ideas opens in 28 days
Great Plains Theatre Conference starts in 51 days
Minnesota Fringe Festival arrives in 118 days
Leave, via Urban Samurai, 10 months off
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Tuesday Samurai - Cutting Edge?
Hey there, it's me, Ryan Grimes, your friendly Tuesday Samurai. I've been working with Urban Samurai Productions since 2006 and became Managing Director in 2008, while we were working on our Fringe Festival hit, Musical the Musical. What do I do for the company? Well, many things, but mostly I try to keep the other Samurai (and that rogue Ninja, Marcia) in line.
So, I'm here to declare officially that Bright Ideas opens in 52 days. Period.
Now that I've laid the proverbial smack down on the little stuff, let's talk about the big stuff. Urban Samurai Productions' mission is "to produce and premiere cutting edge theater and provide a voice to new and upcoming theater artists in the Twin Cities." So, what does that mean, exactly?
Well, there's a few ways to go about that. The definition of "cutting edge" is "a sharp effect or quality." For my fellow Urban Samurai and me, "our sword is the stage." How's that for a sharp effect? But, enough semantics. We focus on new and rarely produced works because we want to present our audiences with stories with which they're likely unfamiliar through perspectives they may not have seen - or may even make them a little uncomfortable.
Take a look at the movie listings at your local cineplex for this weekend. How many of those movies can you predict exactly what will happen? How many of those movies' previews have already given most of the story away? I'm not a psychologist or sociologist, so I can't tell you what exactly it means, but one thing's for sure - people don't want to be surprised anymore. Or maybe that's just what the studio executives think of us. Me? I like surprise. I don't want to figure out the end of a movie 20 minutes in. I don't want to play a game like "Avatar is really just Dances with Wolves meets Fern Gully." I want to be surprised by what I see, and live theater is the best way to attain that goal.
In May, we'll be presenting Bright Ideas. When I read the description, I expected it to be a standard comedic take on two parents trying to get their child into the best preschool. Boy, was I ever wrong. I don't want to give it away - I want you to be surprised, after all - but this isn't traditional comedy. And if you think you know how this one ends, I won't blame you, because I thought so, too. But I'd guess you'll be as surprised as I was.
Then, of course, there's A Few Good Men, which we'll produce this fall. "But, Ryan, how can that show be cutting edge?" Well, let me tell you. We're not putting the famed film on stage. Yes, someone will say, "You can't handle the truth." But that's not the only great line in Aaron Sorkin's brilliant script. He presents a topic that is as poignant as ever, and I can't wait for our audiences to experience that "sharp effect".
And for you actors out there, check out our audition posting for A Few Good Men that we just posted on Minnesota Playlist this afternoon. There are a lot of great roles, and we'd love to see you there! (I'll refrain from stating that we need "a few good men" even though, well, we do...crap, I just did it, didn't I?)
I tend to be long-winded, so I'll take my hands off the keyboard for a week. See you next Tuesday!
Ryan Grimes
Managing Director
Urban Samurai Productions
So, I'm here to declare officially that Bright Ideas opens in 52 days. Period.
Now that I've laid the proverbial smack down on the little stuff, let's talk about the big stuff. Urban Samurai Productions' mission is "to produce and premiere cutting edge theater and provide a voice to new and upcoming theater artists in the Twin Cities." So, what does that mean, exactly?
Well, there's a few ways to go about that. The definition of "cutting edge" is "a sharp effect or quality." For my fellow Urban Samurai and me, "our sword is the stage." How's that for a sharp effect? But, enough semantics. We focus on new and rarely produced works because we want to present our audiences with stories with which they're likely unfamiliar through perspectives they may not have seen - or may even make them a little uncomfortable.
Take a look at the movie listings at your local cineplex for this weekend. How many of those movies can you predict exactly what will happen? How many of those movies' previews have already given most of the story away? I'm not a psychologist or sociologist, so I can't tell you what exactly it means, but one thing's for sure - people don't want to be surprised anymore. Or maybe that's just what the studio executives think of us. Me? I like surprise. I don't want to figure out the end of a movie 20 minutes in. I don't want to play a game like "Avatar is really just Dances with Wolves meets Fern Gully." I want to be surprised by what I see, and live theater is the best way to attain that goal.
In May, we'll be presenting Bright Ideas. When I read the description, I expected it to be a standard comedic take on two parents trying to get their child into the best preschool. Boy, was I ever wrong. I don't want to give it away - I want you to be surprised, after all - but this isn't traditional comedy. And if you think you know how this one ends, I won't blame you, because I thought so, too. But I'd guess you'll be as surprised as I was.
Then, of course, there's A Few Good Men, which we'll produce this fall. "But, Ryan, how can that show be cutting edge?" Well, let me tell you. We're not putting the famed film on stage. Yes, someone will say, "You can't handle the truth." But that's not the only great line in Aaron Sorkin's brilliant script. He presents a topic that is as poignant as ever, and I can't wait for our audiences to experience that "sharp effect".
And for you actors out there, check out our audition posting for A Few Good Men that we just posted on Minnesota Playlist this afternoon. There are a lot of great roles, and we'd love to see you there! (I'll refrain from stating that we need "a few good men" even though, well, we do...crap, I just did it, didn't I?)
I tend to be long-winded, so I'll take my hands off the keyboard for a week. See you next Tuesday!
Ryan Grimes
Managing Director
Urban Samurai Productions
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