July 15, 2004 - 12:56 AM

The Play's The Thing

For those who are curious, Ramayana 2k4 did well. We had a handful of sellouts the final week, and most of the other showings had between 150 and 250 patrons in the 350 seat El Portal theater. During the first week when we ran the dress rehearsals, I had some worries that the show wouldn't all come together. While there were a few mishaps during the opening weekend, my worries were proven wrong as the cast and crew clicked into place. Each performance ran more smoothly and professionally than the last; the little kinks were worked out quickly, and when there were no more pieces to tighten, new, more daring and more spectacular ideas were introduced to raise the ante. The final product we ended up with was dynamite. Too bad most of you missed it.

Uma Thurman's brother stopped by for a few shows (he'd been a big supporter when it ran in New York last year); Margaret Cho was at one of the earlier dates; I think I saw the guy who plays Michel on the Gilmore Girls the final week; and word has it that Tom Cruise caught a performance with producer Peter Guber. There were positive reviews in the L.A. Times, Variety Magazine, and the L.A. Weekly which helped boost our attendance.

We constantly had people who were friends of the performers or hired by them standing next to the soundboard, videotaping the show, sometimes for posterity, other times for video resumes that they could shop around to get acting/dancing work. One night, the night I happened to be wearing my Amherst Club Volleyball shirt, a friend of three of the performers set up a camera next to me. She remarked on my shirt, noting that she was a graduate of Amherst. It turns out that she was of the class of '96, meaning she was there when I was a freshman. We chatted before the show and during intermission (surprisingly, besides running into an ex-volleyball teammate on the Boston T Subway in 2000, she was the first Amherst grad I'd met since attending graduation in '99), and discovered that we both had siblings who went to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and we were both from the Maryland area (her family actually lives IN Washington D.C.). She assured me that I didn't miss alot by leaving Amherst to pursue my passion in music at Berklee, even lamenting the fact that she had stayed there to finish her degree when she really had wanted to study film. Apparently, she performed Aerial Theater in NYC for quite some time before moving out here to L.A. earlier this year, and is now looking forward to film-studies at one of the local universities.

I saw her again at the wrap party on July 3rd, which was held after the final performance at a warehouse in Downtown L.A. where some of the dancers live. It was a really cool space, and I kept thinking that, if I lived there, I could use it as a great sounding recording studio. I talked with some of the cast and got to know them a little better (a little too late, sadly); drank some beers, did some shots, danced a bit (they had hired a friend who is a DJ to set up a soundsystem and play beats all night). At one point, some of the cast and their friends put on a fire-dancing demonstration while in the parking lot- they lit sticks and skewers and balls on chains and hula hoops on fire and did some amazing moves while tracing fiery patterns around their bodies. Wicked stuff.

Amanda, the Amherst girl, and I swapped some more stories, and she told me about a play that she was in that was running through the 18th of this month. It's called "The Tower", and is an avant-garde performance piece that explores the story of and implications behind the Tower of Babel in a contemporary setting. With the recent rash of freetime I've experienced since the end of Ramayana, I decided to see the show last Thursday evening at The Cell 2 playhouse in Silverlake. What a brain-spraining experience...I don't know if I can even give a description or summary. There was a LOT of information to digest and I was only able to grasp about 40% of it, but it really fired up my braincells (a welcome yet far too rare experience lately for me, having the cerebrum triggered). The two lead actors were excellent, and they each delivered a stunning, passionate monologue that grabbed my attention and shook it violently. I can't say that it was good or bad...it's not quantifiable that way for me...all I know is that it was mind-joggling.

Now Listening To : Sarah Slean-Blue Parade
Random Thought : Phil and Jen's 1 year anniversary was this week. Congratulations!

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