Future Future Dear God 5 (The Crunch Time Edition)

Yeah it's that crunch time Leo

Whew what have I been doing? Is it the end of week 9 already? We perform Wednesday. AH. I will try to maintain my composure and produce a legitimate blog that isn't just some wandering consciousness of panic. Something to calm down, I know just what I need. Yeah a bag of goldfish...

OH YEAH BABY I'M ROLLING IN THIS CHEESY FLAVOR LET'S DO IT.

The crunch of these goldfish is symbolic crunching that happens in the last few days of rehearsal leading up to this performance. A lot of things need to finished that haven't been. Costumes, the set, my lines, if only there was some way to travel back in time so that we could accomplish these farther from the deadline with our new frenzied productivity. Well, I mean there is the time machine, but right now it's just a silver tarp that goes over a couch, we still need to glue clocks and other hokey shit on it.

But readers, fear not, if you think these symptoms of procrastination will make the performance a flop, I have merely accomplished my mission of luring you into a false sense of skepticism. In reality, after watching run-through after run-through I am quite confident in the cast's ability to carry the show to success. Although the jokes definitely aren't funny at all to me anymore, I have to remember the rule of 3 and 1000. A joke is only funny 3 times, until you get to the 1000th time and then it's funny again. So think on that next time you're chatting up a pretty man/woman at the bar, that although they aren't laughing at all at your jokes it's only because they've heard them a few times, they haven't yet experienced the hilarity of the 1000th time. So just stay the course and keep trying, you will get there eventually.

To be fair, I've been dropping the "I'm a director" line quite often to up my level of swag. I can't say that it's been much of a hit with the ladies, but I'm waiting for that perfect moment in a loud club when she doesn't hear my following explanation that it's a One Act Festival at OSU and naively assumes that I'm in charge of some big budget Hollywood production.

It'll happen. Dear God those goldfish were good.

Until next time, remember: 3 and 1000.

Billner 6

I'm not sure what to write for this blog, so I'll go into depth on something..

How about...

My writing process!

I don't think I'd ever be comfortable enough to call myself a writer. Although I have written quite a few things, both for school purposes and for other personal projects. So I have developed a process I usually follow when I write something, which I applied to The Unfortunate Case of Mr. Billner.

Step 1: Holy shit I have to/want to write something
The first step, the one I usually dread the most. This is the point where all the insecurities I developed as a kid comes out. I'll never forget pouring my little soul into the state writing projects and turning them in, only to get them back with low grades (mostly due to my awful handwriting). For whatever reason I always think far in advance to someone smugly looking at my writing and throwing it into the trash. I may stay in this phase for quite awhile, until the drive to create/drive to not fail sends my fingers to the keyboard.

Step 2: Alright idea time.
Sometimes I have an idea just come to me, other times it will be a funny image or even a title that flowers into something else. Most of the time I just have to open up a blank document and write. Usually it will take two or three different starts before I get into the groove of something I enjoy. Billner started with a simple idea of seeing Morgan Freeman on a chair reading a children's book that plays out in the background. Eventually it ended in tasteless jokes and my favorite line's "Narrator: Mr. Billner! Think of the children! Billner: Fuck the Children!"

Step 3: Finish the First draft
I remember reading this off a list of Joss Whedon quotes. It seems pretty obvious, but the reality of how many people, including myself, waste so much time abandoning a difficult project, or trying to rewrite a section in the infant stage. If there was one thing that really influenced me and how I approach writing it is this simple message. Depending on what i'm writing and when it's due, I'll usually do 5 pages a day until finished.

Step 4: Sit on it for a couple days
I don't like being late, I hate it more than anything. Even being right on time drives me nuts. So for writing I usually get an assignment done way in advance, so I can take a few days to leave it out of my mind so when I go back to it I can read it objectively. If i'm running out of time, I'll usually give myself a couple hours away from it and get back to it.

Step 5: First read through
This is where I just read through it trying my best not to cringe at the mistakes. Even after 26 years I still have trouble motivating my self to do this stage. Even though this is usually where my best ideas come out, I'll read a segment and think, hey! Wouldn't this be funnier/better?

Step 6: Editing phase
This is the kill my darlings part. Sometimes jokes, sequences, characters, or events just kill the flow. If something is pretty good, but just out of place for that particular story, I usually copy/paste it to a different document I keep all my ideas in. It's like putting your grandparents in a retirement home, you can revisit them any time you want, even though you probably wont. Speaking of I should go visit my grandparents, and open that document and see what's in it. I usually settle on the third revision, sometimes more. (I think Billner took about 5)

Step 7: Submission
This is where I submit the paper to where it needs to go, whether to my friends whom I film with, or a class. I'll also print off a hard copy of anything creative I've done for my own personal records.

Oh Run-throughs...

So last night (5/28) we had our first full run-through for the whole one act festival for the first time!

It was... nice... and a bit stressful. As the first time with any kind of an audience, aside from myself and Abbey (the director), the actors were a bit flustered, but that's to be expected. For me, as the writer, it, quite frankly, was nearly unbearable... This is not to say that the actors weren't great, but my stress was high.

It's hard to pull away and even at the beginning when the actors still had scripts in hand, I got a little worried when lines were changed, but it's ok and the whole process has gone really well, it's just first times are always the hardest.

One more hiccup in the kick off to the run-throughs was a box...

Thanks to Alexa Johnson for the pic.

 

This box is met to be in the show, but it was the first time anyone had seen the box and for some reason, my mind had always pictured it to be... smaller. Really it's fine and Abbey has to figure out how to make the thing easier for the actor who uses it to handle.

On a plus side we now have street signs which abbey and I got ourselves, and they look absolutely wonderful. One sign has "Styx" on it and the other reads "Damascus" both have meaning, one within Greek mythology and the other in Christian belief, I'll write about those stories in another blog, so as to keep you hangin'.

Future Future Dear God Entry 4 (The Dear God I'm now an Understudy Edition)

Hello friends.

It's no secret that we've had a rocky, revolutionary road in terms of casting. We had a Ronny, then shortly lost a Ronny, and then got a new Ronny. We had a Brian, and then the actor portraying Brian misinterpreted "break a leg" as a literal suggestion. So we had Bryan play Brian as well as the doctor, which eerily worked out in ways that nobody expected, and we assumed that our bad luck had run out. However, it recently came to our attention that new Ronny would be unable to make the first performance (Wednesday of next week) due to an unchangeable final.

DEAR GOD.

Naturally, it would be quite a hard sell to approach someone and say: "Hey man, would you like to learn all these lines and blocking and rehearse like mad for the next week so that you can do a single cobbled-together performance?"  And seeing that we've had a shortage of male leads, possibilities of snaring a new actor seemed dismal. After briefly looking into the bleak options and seeking advice, there seems to be a (maybe) acceptable solution.

So I'm doing it. Whatever, it's cool, I took a class on acting once... It's going to be interesting, memorizing these lines and being the lead character in a play that I'm directing (thankfully only for opening). However, we've done a run-through with me and since I've seen the thing about a hundred times it comes together pretty easily. I am however, put in that awkward position of not wanting to give any direction or notes after my own run-through because that seems like a really douchey thing to do. I almost want to set up new Ronny or Mike (the playwright) as pseudo-director so that I can have a different perspective along with some much needed humility.

Well, I'm off to memorize. Make sure you attend opening night on Wednesday for my director-actor debut.

Remember, when you're on the Titanic, make sure you don't stay on the ship but rather grab a cabinet or something, and then sink and die.

The Run Through...

Tonight we had our first run through off script in front of an audience (Well, sort of in front of an audience. It was all the other actors, directors, and play-writers). I am very proud of all the actors and feel they did a wonderful job. It was also exciting to watch the performance from the viewpoint of an audience member. Alex (the Director) has done a very good job of keeping us all on task and that was demonstrated tonight with this practice performance. I was very pleased how the audience responded as well. Usually with comedies the smaller the crowd the less comfortable people feel laughing at jokes and gags. And although our audience was fairly small tonight, the responses were still quite palpable. It was a relief for me as the writer of the play to hear people laughing at things I intended to be funny and not laughing at things that were intended to not be funny. In other words everything went as planned.
We still have a lot of work to do before next week, and soon we will begin focusing more on the 'tech' aspects of the play, which will yet again be a new experience for me. I am really excited for the One Act Festival! All the other plays are looking great and each one brings its' own unique flavor to the festival. There will be comedy (hopefully), drama (definitively), violence (sparsely), romance (sort of), and a box! It is going to get real...
-Mike 

The Box...

The Box...

Photo courtesy of Alexa Jonson (thanks sweetie!)

It's funny.

Very funny..

Almost too funny...

...?...

Time to re-block a huge section of my play.

(sigh)

Oh well.

Now on to other things.

Tonight was the first run through with all the plays, directors, writers, actors, techies, costumers and supervisors in the audience.

Wow. 

Kind of intense. 

The audience... (in black and orange!)

It was also my actors first time on stage since this weekend and being off book. 

It went better then I thought it would.

But...

The stress of watching the actors you have directed, laughed with, and adore; get completely lost while trying to work around a huge brand new obstacle (The Box) as new people who have never seen the play watch and (since the SM <--- stage manager was there for the first time tonight too) try to help, is excruciating. 

They were so wonderful. 

They calmed the laughter they couldn't help but feel (again The Box) and plowed through the trouble sections while accepting a new voice (the SM) giving information (line anyone?) with grace. 

George Caldwell was there and I can't wait to see what he does with the lighting. 

I might need to modify my blocking a little once he is done, but it will be worth it because the lights will be beautiful. 

An early evening feel to my play.  

With maybe just a little top light on 'The Box'.

To give nothing away while telling the audience that it's there. 

I love the art of lighting a stage. 

I miss it. 

One outfit is down(ish).

Brittany Potter, my actress who plays Bertha Botis, was a fantastic person and found the perfect summer dress for her character.

Now tomorrow I just need to get the rest of the outfits figured out. 

Yay!

And silly little things like props.

It is all coming together.

And before I close this post I want to thank Ken Richardson for 'The Box'. 

(For those of you who don't know Ken, he is O.S.U.'s very own magic worker! He can do the impossible in very little time.)

It was so much fun having 'The Box' tonight. 

And once the hiccups are worked out, it will be amazing.

This is so much fun!

We're getting close!

You should all come and see it!

Because Dachshunds make everything even better!

Being in Charge

It's the final stretch of rehearsals before the performances of the One Acts on June 5th and things are wrapping up quite well.  Even though La Vie en Rose is right on track, the upcoming premiere has me anxious as well as excited, a combination of feelings that I have felt many times in my life.  In fact directing Rose has made me feel a wide variety of emotions ranging from dictatorial euphoria to executive nervousness.  This of course have been a result of me being in charge and responsible for the majority of decisions regarding the production.  Being in charge is not a position that I am used to being in very often, and though I may at first like the idea of leading people, it takes me a while to get over my initial nervousness to be successful.  This reminds me of a time in my life when I had the same feelings. 

Before I came to school at Oregon State I had the opportunity to be an assistant coach of a 7th grade football team.  Having never coached before all I had was my few years of experience as a player and the memories of all the coaches that I had during that time. I remembered my great coaches as well as the bad coaches, what they did that made them successful or unsuccessful and how it affected me and the other athletes that they led.  What my coaches did had a direct effect on what I did and it helped my success in turn.  With this knowledge I did my best to coach the 7th graders.  I was friendly let stern and kept up the enthusiasm while teaching the importance of discipline and hard work.  I will say I made a few mistakes, was maybe too harsh or maybe too easy sometimes, but overall it was an enjoyable and rewarding experience.  The team had a terrific winning season, and I was thanked and congratulated for my help with the team.

Directing has been the very similar to my time coaching the 7th graders, only this time it's my experiences with directors instead of coaches that is helping me.  Relying on the techniques and strategies of other directors has helped me discover and shape my own techniques and strategies for directing.  It hasn't been easy, and like coaching I will admit that I've made a few mistakes and had some obstacles along the way.  The amount work that has to go into scheduling has been an real eye opener and positions are much easier to replace in football when someone gets hurt.  Lessons have been learned by these trials though, and they will help make me a better director in the future if I chose to direct other shows. Taking part of this new experience like coaching has been rewarding and I'm confident that the production of La Vie en Rose is also on it's way to a winning season.