LONELYPOND PRESENTS

Haven’t talked Shakespeare in a bit, but the calls about Merchant of Venice (#merven) auditions are already starting so it’s moving back into the mull over space in my brain. And my holdover obsession from my last reading is RINGS. Three of them: Portia’s, Nerissa’s and Shylock’s.

Shylock has a ring, you say, I missed that. If you did, go back, because I can’t get the thought out of my head that it is THE pivotal moment for his character. As Shylock is having a meltdown over his daughter’s disappearance with his goods, having only just paused that to finish his meltdown over the unfair treatment of Jews and moneylenders, his fellow moneylender Tubal reports he saw a ring Jessica traded for a monkey. Shylock’s wife had given him that particular turquoise ring before their bethrothal. Tubal’s revelation comes at the end of a scene mixing Shylock’s rage and thirst for revenge over his daughter’s betrayal with Antonio’s ill fortune and the opportunity it affords Shylock to settle a lifetime of grievances (III i) This scene changes the whole tone of the play and Shylock’s interaction with the world around him. And Shakespeare tosses in this moment of sentiment/personal history/real emotion(?) after Shylock’s totally over the top, playing to the balcony seats, possibly staged and well rehearsed rant*. So we come to the make or break scene, but while most seem to focus on the big dramatic “Hath a Jew not eyes” speech, I find myself focusing on what Shylock says after, when left alone with his only peer in the play and discussing the trigger of his raging sorrow (Jessica’s betrayal). Taming of The Shrew (#tamingshakespeare) taught me to only pay as much attention to the “BIG” speeches as the play actually requires so what I find myself wondering is not does Shylock bleed but does he shed a turquoise tear over wife’s loss and daughter’s treason.

And now to the shredding. Well, it’s going to take an exceptional actress to convince me that Portia’s not just a bubbling fountain of egocentric, self important, smart ass cruelty. What she does to Shylock could be justified as over protectiveness of Bassiano but then I stumble over the cruel trick she and Nerissa play on their newlywed husbands. First, they give Bassiano and Graziano rings and make them swear never to take them off, give them away, etc. Then, Portia and Nerissa, disguised as learned doctor of laws and his clerk, demand the men give them the rings as payment. Later in the final act, Portia and Nerissa claim to have lain with the doctor and the clerk by virtue of their possession of said rings. Oy. I must say the men show remarkable forbearance. Almost (only almost) more than finding a Portia, I worry about finding a Bassiano who can make Portia seem lovable. And Portia never bothers to explain that it might be a response to some of Bassiano’s protests of his loyalty to Antonio during the trial. Shakespeare often leaves a kick in the teeth for directors in Act V (if he hasn’t earlier aka Act I, sc ii of The Tempest, which should just be a prequel titled The Duke Of Milan).

So while many people focus on the three caskets, gold, silver and lead, that challenge Portia’s suitors, I find myself obsessed with three rings.

*I admit to pre prepping the occasional rant while pacing in my office/backyard/empty theatre; haven’t you?

Howdy…

Can you guess the character?

Haiti: such a terrible week. Fortunately, most of the world is acting in a compassionate fashion. We donated through Episcopal Relief and Development, which has a strong ground presence through the Diocese of Haiti, and will continue to do so after the immediate crisis is over. I hope you will consider donating if you haven’t yet.

AAll right, so I’m miserable at actually taking time off; what I really need is a vacation in a city with museums, theatres + public transportation. I did get to catch up on a few web series while stressing about relaxing though.

My Movies You May Have Missed (@MYMHM) buddies reviewed one of my favorite movies to watch and laugh at: Noises Off.

Congratulations to @TheWebFiles for their Clicker Award Win as “Best Web Original Non Fiction Show” and to @SPWrite for her series Life With Kat & McKay qualifying as a Finalist in the “Best Web Original Comedy” category.

Web find: BJ Fletcher, Private Eye — very funny, very gay, very Canadian detective series — one of the characters is named Georgia Drew so that might tell you how much fun creator Regan Latimer has with all your favorite detective cliches/memories while bringing something very fresh + funny to the web series world. Plus, I finally get to work a long lost Lois Lane reference into a blog entry since George, the loyal sidekick, is going to journalism school to be an investigative journalist like LL. Great cast, great fun, watch it.

This was going to continue into a discussion of the differences between the YouTube, web series and indie film world from my experiences with each, but I’m saving that for another day when it’s not 1:33 a.m. Good night all.

Saturn picture.

Stefan Stern on underappreciated management thinker Russ Ackoff; next time I hit the library, I’ll track down Management f-Laws.

Do The Chump, yes do The Chump, chump (amusing myself, no offense intended)…my friends @TheWebFiles interviewed Jeremy Redleaf of Odd Job Nation last week so I checked out his show and darn funny. Watched all three episodes and by the time they were doing The Chump at the end, I wanted more.

James Altucher, yes James Altucher has not disappeared; he has immigrated from the FT to a column for the New York Post, Huffington Post and various other venues. You can also find him on Twitter.

And I’m in the middle of a conversation about Shakespeare with new Twitter friend @feignedmischief who reviews plays and other fancies here.

So, this’ll have to cover you for a bit…TV reviews later. The Big Bang Theory both hits and misses (or should I say fumbles) and has iCarly lost all of its charms in a cloud of mean mischief and shouting. You’ll want to know. Stay tuned.

Have been meaning to write a post about Merchant of Venice (#merven) and costuming thoughts for awhile, definitely since Vanessa Friedman’s excellent coverage of this year’s Paris + Milan Fashion Weeks. Gayle and I have been talking clothes. We’re thinking very modern so we may have to add an iron to our usual touring gear and hit up consignment shops in Baltimore and Philadelphia for some suitable ties, if not entire suits. I can imagine the thrill that will be felt by the actors wearing business suits outdoors in the end of July heat.

Merchant of Venice is striking me more and more as a sleek, ruthless play of marble chess pieces in sharp edged modern suits, always on the go, accumulating, communicating, sifting, betting, collecting, judging. I ordered the Oxford edition . The Pelican, my choice in the past, is only available as a Kindle download. And there is always the Riverside as a constant, but it’s not portable. So the Oxford is my carrying around copy. I don’t remember liking the Arden or the Folger and I won’t have anything to do with an edition that has anything to do with Harold Bloom. I do not like his commentaries. I’m a Northrop Frye kind of director.

The Oxford’s simple cover graphic — a balance/scales — also appealed. From a quick perusal of the commentary, that item is an excellent choice because Merchant seems to be more about capital letter CONCEPTS: Justice, Mercy and their cousins, than it is about any of the individual characters. Perhaps that’s another reason for Portia’s disguise: not only can she save the day, she can represent a quality.

I am directing/exploring Merchant because I have had so many reactions to it. As a child, Portia was my favorite Shakespearean heroine. I loved how she manipulated logic and legal concepts while riding in to save the day (I also loved the Lone Ranger). So I had good memories of Portia. Then, several years ago, I reread Merchant as a possible choice for the next summer’s Theatre Under The Trees (”yes, sir, that’s my baby”) and was repulsed by Portia’s cruelty. I had this sudden vision of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless and Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde but without any warmth or heart or humor — shearing sharpened pink sabers.

Plus, there’s the Jew thing. You can’t get around the “gentle Jew” problem. Once I had a vision of doing an indoor adaptation titled Merchant of Hong Kong, with dark woods, harbor motifs, Chinese Mandarin robes and a British Shylock. Jew switched for Brit. There’s high concept for you.

York has a troubled history with racial and other forms of discrimination so the inciting a race/religious war concern will remain present. I know I’ll have to be prepared for cast questions/discussions. And honestly, I don’t know what to say. That’s why I want to direct Merchant. Shylock has this incredible speech that not only humanizes him but explains his behavior is as the Christians taught him. Gayle’s theory is that the play is anti-banker, although she hasn’t read it recently. Bankers are right now, here in 2009, the villians of nearly every piece. The only way I know to figure out if my first or second impression of Portia is the more accurate one is to direct the play, with no idea how it will turn out. Shakespeare’s truths show in performance.

I think Merchant might turn on Bassiano, the character I’d forgotten. There’s always a character who matters more than you think, the way in for the audience, the point everything pivots around, the weather for the play. In Twelfth Night, it’s Olivia; in Midsummer, it’s Oberon. They’re the characters who bring all the pieces together. And I had forgotten Bassiano. You remember Shylock, Portia, even Antonio. But I think Bassiano might be the one who makes it all work. But that’s just my first THIRD impression, after a quick read. I’m sure there’s a few more to come.

The FT’s* exploring mentoring and how artists learn w/ the sponsorship of Rolex and the two articles so far on participants in the program have been good.

Martin Scorsese talks about how he works, what movies inspire him and how he was treated when he was trying to learn the craft of movies.

Kate Valk describes the interesting and masked approach The Wooster Group takes to theatre as they develop performances.

Peter Aspden has been knocking out excellent columns. This week he talks to Martha Wainwright about interpreting Edith Piaf, Wainwright’s musical family and how she maintains her individual drift.

Several weeks ago (yes, I still have a pile of newspapers I’m working through), Peter Aspden wrote aboutPatti Smith now, and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe then. I remember seeing “The Perfect Moment” Mapplethorpe exhibit - there was a clarity and an aggression that made them more vivid than any other photos I’d seen to that point. I think that’s when I realized photography could be art.

*Financial Times, my current newspaper of choice.

Because that’s what you’re here for, right?

Robots: my friend @kristynburtt, the creator and host half of my friends @TheWebFiles (@SPWrite the director + producer half) is in Texas at the Texas State Fair running across robot + bird sculptures. So, of course, someone helped her solve the mystery + we have a link to The Traveling Man.

Shakespeare + Sarah Hemming, because those two names seem to go together, here and in The Financial Times. This past weekend she interviewed Mark Rylance, director, actor and theatre extraordinaire type. The interview made me nostalgic for The Tempest, which I swore I would never direct again (just read Act I, scene ii and you’ll know why — Shakespeare should have just written a prequel titled The Duke of Milan instead of that scene.) The actress playing Biondello this summer told Gayle she wanted us to do it + now I’m getting the urge again. We far exceeded our reach for the second year of a program + I got to put magic tricks in — remind me to tell you sometime about a half ton trunk, small children dressed as dogs and why they should never be combined in the same scene. Or about the 15′ tall mast that was magnetically attracted to swimming pools or the producer who had to hold down half our set by clinging to a rope thrown down from the stage…The Tempest seems conducive to epic stories, as the Rylance article reminded me. Hmmmm……

This afternoon’s alternate office discovery (thanks to Wired magazine): How about The Elements — yes, of the Table of Perodic fame. Theodore Gray has written a book about them and it looks great.

And @flyingmonkeyair linked to the site he did for Mizna, the Arab American arts journal/events promoter, where I found a book I must track down, The Night Counter.

What else…Great Vanessa Friedman article about fashion, Rio, Paris runways, no more one liner designs and everything else.

That should keep you busy for a bit. Bon soir.

Missed smallVille premiere because I caught Fame, then we went for a walk + talk.

FAME — great numbers, phenomenal singing performances by Naturi Naughton, a great dance number focusing on Kherington Payne, solid performances by all the cast, all teachers excellent — Charles S. Dutton offered an education in theatre, Bebe Neuwirth convincing, Megan Mullally rocked the karoake scene and the absolutely ONLY time I have ever thought there should have been more Kelsey Grammer (I wanted to see his reaction to Naughton’s character’s story arc) — nice directing moments — yes, we zing through 4 years of moments with multiple characters, but there was a very nice choice of moments. I do wonder if the marketing campaign was different in more ethnically diverse areas than here.

In a restless mood, so FINALLY watched iFight Shelby Marx — and yes, I enjoyed it. Dan Schneider can still knock out a funny iCarly + Victoria Justice did a nice guest turn. So much better than iDate A Bad Boy. Good Gibby moments + Neville w/ a contraband porcupine works. Might catch tomorrow’s Date Night one two iCarly-True Jackson knockout punch.

Anything else to review — oh, caught a second episode of Nick’s new show, The Troop and didn’t think about The Power Rangers at all. Cheerleading scenes brought back Buffy but not really in a comparing way, just in an I haven’t watched a Buffy episode in too long way — BuffyFest for Halloween, baby. Liked this episode of The Troop better, the guys seem to be developing a rapport and the idea is neat. Might give it a tie breaker.

Wooting actually…Shirt.Wooting + designing for the latest design derby #107 Bags. Check out + vote (please) for my design here.

Saw G.I. Joe on Friday in Theatre 1…loud. But worth it for Marlon Wayans + Rachel Nichols. Their acting and the Ripcord/Scarlet chemistry rode away with the movie. Channing Tatum has lost my Captain America vote; I say we put Mr. Wayans in an action movie and have some fun. Too big, too loud, too noisy with leads who couldn’t carry the emotions required by the backstory. Some nice transitions and shots (glass roof), but also a lot of Star Wars, Sky Captain and The Mummy touches. Looking forward to maybe catching (500) Days of Summer tomorrow and next weekend: BANDSLAM!

Wizards of Waverly Place Vampire vs. Wizards event has wrapped. It gained momentum as it went along. Still very impressed with what the Russo Clan is doing; Jennifer Stone’s Harper is getting better/funnier every week and Bridgit Mendler is a good addition as vampire Juliet. Actual appearance of a zombie prom was fun. It was also good to have Dean closure for Alex, but I’ll be glad when Wizards gets back to regular episodes (and the movie).

Two articles in the local papers about Taming of the Shrew and Theatre Under the Trees. The Dispatch’s does a great job of giving you a sense of what the Theatre Under The Trees experience is like and the Record’s article is a fairly lively overview of the play.

Newest internet finds:

Have been having fun with Shirt.Woot — a new t-shirt for $10 posted each night at 12:01 a.m. They have a Derby every week with new designs — this week’s theme was Tatoo (finalists); it’s a fun and relaxing way to get a look at (and vote for) some cool art. @apelad tipped me to it and his was the Monday shirt.

The Cabonauts starting following me — new web series — and I got to thinking that I might want to find out more about what’s out there. And then The Web Files starting following me, I caught their trailer, I’m a sucker for a good hat and a trenchcoat, I followed back, watched their first interview with Tay Zonday, liked the questions and thought this is a good way to get to know what’s out there…They’re up to 3 episodes so far — Safety Geeks SVI looks like a fun and funny show.

A flash of enthusiasm/inspiration visited and I decided it might be fun to put host Kristyn Burtt in a Blink Kitty Love episode and we exchanged a few e-mails. They are hoping to cover animation at some point, they’re just not sure how. I don’t think Blink Kitty Love is ready for the big time yet, but I am mulling over how to increase your favorite crazy crushing band’s fan base (as well as redesign their website) and it was nice to be taken seriously. So best of luck to The Web Files…I’m looking forward to picking up some tips from your future episodes. And maybe Ms. Burtt and Tammy can go out in their hats + trenchcoats for cupcakes and coffee (yes, in the next episode, Tammy puts on the hat + trenchcoat disguise to find out more about Ty’s girlfriend –TY HAS A GIRLFRIEND??????? Don’t worry, you’ll find out more about it after #tamingshakespeare’s over. Until then, check out your favorite episodes –and drop some redesign comments PLEASE — on the Blink Kitty Love site. Tomorrow (Friday), we do a special Guess or Sneak the 80’s Sax Solos.

And I really enjoyed the Apollo 11 rebroadcast. Thanks and props to John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for the experience. And NASA for joining in on Twitter.

And the Fourth Plinth is still happening. I pop in a couple of times a day — random bits of weirdness and/or mopping. Right now, very energetic guy with a guitar who just turned in his doctoral thesis.

Miss The Big Bang Theory, haven’t really had a chance to watch Eureka — although S.A.R.A.H. is tweeting about TIRDS?, still looking forward to the Wizards movie but can’t catch the first half of the vampire saga as we have SHOWS (very exciting; see articles above), haven’t see the newest Harry Potter yet, annoyed that (500) Days of Summer isn’t in town, a little excited about G.I. Joe, and tired. Don’t forget to pick up your Middleman DVDs next week and take care! I’ll miss you, but SHOWS! Taming of The Shrew rocks a park maybe not near you, but you’ll hear the laughter.

Have a great afternoon — and wish me nice weather.