P.S.- Hi mom. Love you!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
A Failure's Spellbook: Cut Scene Comics 3
Here's the latest. As I said before, these comics focus on bits of the novel that we won't have time to incorporate into the play, or will have to approach differently. This comic celebrates the spells Schmendrick casts in the book that we had to cut, or will be able to surprise you by doing differently. Would love to hear what everyone thinks in the comments!
P.S.- Hi mom. Love you!
P.S.- Hi mom. Love you!
Friday, March 20, 2009
A Spider Weeping: Cut Scene Comics 2
The inspiration was really flowing this week- here's another bit/character that I think is pretty cool in the novel that we won't be able to fully show onstage. I always feel like this character kind of gets a raw deal in the novel too. Without further ado:
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
A Slight Moral Edge: Cut Scene Comics 1
One thing that quickly became clear to me as I was working on the first draft of my "The Last Unicorn" script was that I wasn't going to be able to include every single scene. Some of them had to fall by the wayside. To help remedy that, I'm starting Cut Scene Comics- a few one-page comics, hand drawn by myself, that help fill in the gaps in the story while also promoting the show. Feel free to circulate- I'd love all fans of "The Last Unicorn" to see these. This is the scene from the novel where the Unicorn and Schmendrick are spotted by a blue jay.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Sitting in on your own grant evaluation is awkward.
But incredibly enlightening. Today I took off work because the DCA was reviewing my CAAP grant application in a public meeting session at the Chicago Cultural Center. The grant is for training with master mask maker and puppeteer Jeff Semmerling to improve my skills at making masks and puppets to build the stuff we'll need for "The Last Unicorn." (I blogged about it a bit earlier here.) I've actually started training with Jeff already and I'm learning a lot (I've got a couple of masks built but have to paint them; I'll be sure to upload photos once they're done. These aren't masks for "The Last Unicorn," but I think my next couple of masks will be used in "Unicorn" if they come out good enough.) Everyone's application for this grant is evaluated by a panel of artists and voted on- and their discussion of every application is public! Anyone who wants to can sit in, and if you show up at the right time you'll hear your own application discussed. While I was a bit nervous about that at first (especially in light of the fact that while I was there, I was decidedly the only observer), it wound up being a tremendously helpful process. I learned a lot about what actually gets discussed by the evaluators in the room- here's some general tips:
- Always be as specific as possible in a grant application. Don't just say what you want to accomplish, be very specific about how you'll accomplish it.
-Avoid hyperbole, but be upbeat and positive. Beware the cliche answer that you can all too easily imagine every other grant applicant using.
-Theatre is a moving, breathing medium. If a grant lets you submit a work sample, as a theatre artist you are making a MUCH stronger case for yourself if you submit video instead of photos.
-And above all: if you plan to use a CAAP grant to fund new headshots, know that many, many, MANY other people are applying for exactly the same thing, and that the CAAP grant isn't necessarily geared very well towards funding that kind of purchase. I swear, I was only there a couple of hours and at least half of the applications were for new headshots! Hooray for whatever two people out of the vast pool of identical applications actually wind up getting a grant for that, but it's not a good way to stand out.
After hearing the discussion of my project, I feel a lot more confident about my chances- hearing the discussion helped me gain confidence in my ability to write a grant application well, and speak clearly and confidently about by goals and the steps I'm taking to achieve them. Most of what they had to say about my application seemed to be very positive- I don't know if any of them were being diplomatic because I was in the room, but I got a really good vibe. Maybe they were just relieved that I wasn't asking for funding for new headshots. I also got a few items I should consider for improving future grant applications. We'll see what happens- the discussion is public but their actual votes and rating are private, and I only got to see a very small portion of the total discussion. Still, it looks like I decidedly remain in the running. Keep your fingers crossed for me! And thanks to the DCA for letting its applicants sit in. I wish everyone whose application was evaluated that day had been there; it would have been tremendously instructive.
- Always be as specific as possible in a grant application. Don't just say what you want to accomplish, be very specific about how you'll accomplish it.
-Avoid hyperbole, but be upbeat and positive. Beware the cliche answer that you can all too easily imagine every other grant applicant using.
-Theatre is a moving, breathing medium. If a grant lets you submit a work sample, as a theatre artist you are making a MUCH stronger case for yourself if you submit video instead of photos.
-And above all: if you plan to use a CAAP grant to fund new headshots, know that many, many, MANY other people are applying for exactly the same thing, and that the CAAP grant isn't necessarily geared very well towards funding that kind of purchase. I swear, I was only there a couple of hours and at least half of the applications were for new headshots! Hooray for whatever two people out of the vast pool of identical applications actually wind up getting a grant for that, but it's not a good way to stand out.
After hearing the discussion of my project, I feel a lot more confident about my chances- hearing the discussion helped me gain confidence in my ability to write a grant application well, and speak clearly and confidently about by goals and the steps I'm taking to achieve them. Most of what they had to say about my application seemed to be very positive- I don't know if any of them were being diplomatic because I was in the room, but I got a really good vibe. Maybe they were just relieved that I wasn't asking for funding for new headshots. I also got a few items I should consider for improving future grant applications. We'll see what happens- the discussion is public but their actual votes and rating are private, and I only got to see a very small portion of the total discussion. Still, it looks like I decidedly remain in the running. Keep your fingers crossed for me! And thanks to the DCA for letting its applicants sit in. I wish everyone whose application was evaluated that day had been there; it would have been tremendously instructive.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Inspirational(ly Creepy) Music, part 4: The Harpy
I'm hoping we'll have found a sound designer and composer soon for "The Last Unicorn," but in the mean time I keep thinking my own thoughts. So I'm thinking about the Harpy, and there's two pieces of music that work really good for incidental music along with her scenes- so try these on for size.
The first is from an animated movie- the whole track is good, but I was thinking the first 1:17 of it work well for when the Harpy is first seen.
And then, the second is from a video game, of all places! But I think it works great for when the Harpy is freed and destroys the Midnight Carnival.
Do any of you have music you feel like works great for "The Last Unicorn." Let me know in the comments below. Music from the movie is cheating!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Haggard
Our ensemble is made up of some enthusiastic and committed performers in their 20s. Many of them will most likely wind up in the cast of "The Last Unicorn." But there's one character that I'm sure will have to come from outside our ensemble (as well as several others; Chicago area actors keep an eye out for audition notices!): someone that HAS to be much older and more experienced than the other characters with whom he shares the stage: King Haggard.
This character is very special- he doesn't show up until (in our adaptation) act two, but once he appears he dominates. It's a tough role to cast and a tough role to play- here are some passages from the novel in which he's described:
"Where all the hills are lean as knives,
And nothing grows, not leaves nor lives;
Where hearts are sour as boiled beer-
Haggard is the ruler here."
"He is an old man, stingy as late November, who rules over a barren land by the sea. Some say that the land was green and soft once, before Haggard came, but he touched it and it withered. There is a saying among farmers, when they look on a field lost to fire or locusts or the wind: As 'blighted as Haggard's heart.' They say that there are no lights in his castle, and no fires...."
"He walks in Hagsgate at night, not often, but now and then. Many of us have seen him- tall Haggard, gray as driftwood, prowling alone under an iron moon, picking up dropped coins, broken dishes, spoons, stones, handkerchiefs, rings, stepped-on apples; anything, everything, no reason to it."
And from his own lips:
"Now I must be old- at least I have picked many more things up than I had then, and put them all down again. But I always knew that nothing was worth the investment of my heart, because nothing lasts, and I was right, and so I was always old."
Quite a lot for an actor to live up to. To be someone grim and utterly bored with life, yet somehow magnetic: bored but not boring. A tough challenge, but when we have auditions hopefully we'll find the right actor. One idea I had for Haggard is for him to wear a crown made of gray paper, maybe even newsprint- why would someone to whom wealth is meaningless, who takes no pleasure even in power, care about the trappings of royalty?
This character is very special- he doesn't show up until (in our adaptation) act two, but once he appears he dominates. It's a tough role to cast and a tough role to play- here are some passages from the novel in which he's described:
"Where all the hills are lean as knives,
And nothing grows, not leaves nor lives;
Where hearts are sour as boiled beer-
Haggard is the ruler here."
"He is an old man, stingy as late November, who rules over a barren land by the sea. Some say that the land was green and soft once, before Haggard came, but he touched it and it withered. There is a saying among farmers, when they look on a field lost to fire or locusts or the wind: As 'blighted as Haggard's heart.' They say that there are no lights in his castle, and no fires...."
"He walks in Hagsgate at night, not often, but now and then. Many of us have seen him- tall Haggard, gray as driftwood, prowling alone under an iron moon, picking up dropped coins, broken dishes, spoons, stones, handkerchiefs, rings, stepped-on apples; anything, everything, no reason to it."
And from his own lips:
"Now I must be old- at least I have picked many more things up than I had then, and put them all down again. But I always knew that nothing was worth the investment of my heart, because nothing lasts, and I was right, and so I was always old."
Quite a lot for an actor to live up to. To be someone grim and utterly bored with life, yet somehow magnetic: bored but not boring. A tough challenge, but when we have auditions hopefully we'll find the right actor. One idea I had for Haggard is for him to wear a crown made of gray paper, maybe even newsprint- why would someone to whom wealth is meaningless, who takes no pleasure even in power, care about the trappings of royalty?
Monday, February 23, 2009
A Confession
I have a confession to make. One that may shock you, considering. OK, deep breath, here goes:
"The Last Unicorn" is actually not my favorite book by Peter S. Beagle.
Now don't misunderstand me, I think "The Last Unicorn" is a masterpiece. I grew up on both it and the animated movie and it will always have a special place in my heart. But as I got older I moved on to devour most of Peter S. Beagle's other works as well, and I have to tell you, this is my favorite one:
What can I say about it? The (extremely oversimplified) premise: Three women who are infinitely more than they seem gather at an inn to help their elderly wizard friend. One is a storyteller, a warrior and a sailor. One seems to be a woman fled from a deadly monastery that will do anything to punish her for forsaking her vows. And one is as pale and strange as death itself. Throw in a man who can transform into a fox (or is a fox who can transform into a man? Or something else entirely?), otherworldly spirits, great dialogue, love that is stronger than death but not stronger than memory, and a host of other nifty things, and you'll only begin to scratch the surface of why I consider this book to be terrific. You see, there's just so much WORLD in it! You can feel the world in which the novel is set (and it is not even remotely like our world) overflowing and spilling past the pages- you can see thousands of other stories set in the world sneaking around just outside your line of sight as you read. Peter has gone on to write many more stories set in the same world as The Innkeeper's Song, and he's perfectly right to do so- the world he creates in this first novel is so vivid and alive that it must have been begging to be used again.
Why, you might ask, aren't you adapting "The Innkeeper's Song" to the stage?
Well, here's the other thing I love about it- it's told from a billion different points of view- pretty much the entire book is in first person, but the perspective shifts every chapter (or every few pages, and sometimes more than once per page)- you get an in depth prose examination of how just about every character, no matter how minor, experiences the events of the plot. It's awesome, but it's also not really suited to dramatic adaptation. I think it's just about a perfect fantasy novel, and to adapt it into another form would mar too much of what makes the novel great in the first place. While there's definitely a lot of prose I admire that isn't going to be able to fit into the stage version of "The Last Unicorn," "Unicorn" lends itself a lot more to the stage in my opinion. So if you haven't yet, I highly recommend giving "The Innkeeper's Song" a read as well- those of you who love "The Last Unicorn" won't regret it.
"The Last Unicorn" is actually not my favorite book by Peter S. Beagle.
Now don't misunderstand me, I think "The Last Unicorn" is a masterpiece. I grew up on both it and the animated movie and it will always have a special place in my heart. But as I got older I moved on to devour most of Peter S. Beagle's other works as well, and I have to tell you, this is my favorite one:
What can I say about it? The (extremely oversimplified) premise: Three women who are infinitely more than they seem gather at an inn to help their elderly wizard friend. One is a storyteller, a warrior and a sailor. One seems to be a woman fled from a deadly monastery that will do anything to punish her for forsaking her vows. And one is as pale and strange as death itself. Throw in a man who can transform into a fox (or is a fox who can transform into a man? Or something else entirely?), otherworldly spirits, great dialogue, love that is stronger than death but not stronger than memory, and a host of other nifty things, and you'll only begin to scratch the surface of why I consider this book to be terrific. You see, there's just so much WORLD in it! You can feel the world in which the novel is set (and it is not even remotely like our world) overflowing and spilling past the pages- you can see thousands of other stories set in the world sneaking around just outside your line of sight as you read. Peter has gone on to write many more stories set in the same world as The Innkeeper's Song, and he's perfectly right to do so- the world he creates in this first novel is so vivid and alive that it must have been begging to be used again.
Why, you might ask, aren't you adapting "The Innkeeper's Song" to the stage?
Well, here's the other thing I love about it- it's told from a billion different points of view- pretty much the entire book is in first person, but the perspective shifts every chapter (or every few pages, and sometimes more than once per page)- you get an in depth prose examination of how just about every character, no matter how minor, experiences the events of the plot. It's awesome, but it's also not really suited to dramatic adaptation. I think it's just about a perfect fantasy novel, and to adapt it into another form would mar too much of what makes the novel great in the first place. While there's definitely a lot of prose I admire that isn't going to be able to fit into the stage version of "The Last Unicorn," "Unicorn" lends itself a lot more to the stage in my opinion. So if you haven't yet, I highly recommend giving "The Innkeeper's Song" a read as well- those of you who love "The Last Unicorn" won't regret it.
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