OPENING NIGHT – PICTURES
FROM CLOSING NIGHT BY BRIAN Z. KELLY
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The weather looked bleak. Last week, the outlook for the first week
of the show looked awful. Cold. Rainy.
Something shifted. After a cold
– rainy dress rehearsal on Tuesday, where I had the cast perform Yes-No,
Genes and Back to Back in the space we use for a dressing room. So last night, we went ahead,
without having to actually perform these pieces in the spaces they were going
to be. Such is theatre. And Back to Back requires more props than
any other play, and two of the actors in that play, are in the play previous
to it. At There is a nice big space to
hover for the audience. Many of the ‘audience’
were actually actors, ready for action.
I set up the ‘box office’ on a lovely heavy wooden table covered with
a purple sparkly cloth (which was somehow snagged by the second week). Naturally.
Much to my feigned chagrin, some yoga girl plunks herself onto the
table, sitting in the lotus position for the fifteen minutes before the show
started. I pretend to be
annoyed...confining my ticket taking area to about two square feet.
At The mime gives me a pretend
flower. I toss it over my shoulder and
tell her to go with the stage manager.
I begin packing up the box
office, when a women starts talking to different audience members about her
sorry life as a librarian. The show is
afoot. After boring the audience with
her stories, she tries the yoga girl, still meditating on the table. Within a few minutes, the yoga girl has the
librarian tied up in knots and groaning with pain looking for a scarf to
sling her arm. That would be part I of
Quests, by Catharine Frid of
Pieces of Mime, which happens
in several parts, was written by Lee H. Grant of The mime lead the audience down
the several flights of rickety stairs.
A mouse decided to join the fray.
An audience member screams and a glass shattering falcetto, “A Mouse!”
I think it was a guy. The poor
thing was bouncing down the stairs like a kangaroo, bouncing up the
walls. Finally, he made his escape
running right over one of the actors shoes. I swear we didn’t put him in the
show.
Once outside...beautiful sun
starting to set, there’s a street guitar player, playing badly and wailing
out some romantic song in an angry voice.
The mime imitates him. He
scowls. She pretends to take out a
bill to put in his hat – changes her mind, and puts in a pretend penny. They have words. He starts to walk away, and two floors up,
a women, one foot out of a large window, starts accosting the crowd. “Just walk on by! They always do. Go on!”
This is Francesca Sanders piece, A Big Front Porch. It’s
really thoughtful piece about a maybe jumper. It was really interesting to
watch the crowd – completely engaged by this woman and her story. It’s one of the two very poignant pieces in
the show. After she moves everyone on,
the mime following the guitar player, the audience is lead to a corner, then
up a half a block to the KW Bookstore.
A wonderful big bookstore where last year we started the show. Note –
this location was changed, as was the order, and ended up on the balcony of
the City Hall, where the pictures were taken.
By the time they arrive, the
guitar player has set up there, playing his very bad music. The mime, starts to ‘play’ guitar beside
him. He’s not thrilled. Finally, after having had enough, he
watches in disgust as the mime builds a wall between them, grinning
away.
When he finally lunges for the
mime, he is thwarted by the imaginary wall.
He tried to get through, hurting himself of the imagined stone. No to be out done by a goofy mime, he feels
his way along the wall to the edge, and moves his hand around the edge of the
wall. The mime takes off into the
store. The audience, being very smart
by now, follows. Once inside, a couple are
reading magazines. He starts to rattle
on about who in his screen play he should name what and why. She’s barely listening. It’s a fast paced piece written by Henry W.
Kimmel of
What he’s really trying to tell
his friend, is he loves her. But she
has become lost in a magazine, and when he spills his love to the carpeted
floor of the book store, she does not reply.
Thinking she is ignoring him – he couldn’t look at her when he
confessed, he exits in a hurry.
Finally, finding something amusing in the magazine, she turns around
to find he’s gone.
The mime then leads the
audience along the sidewalk on
Once we crossed the street and
turned the corner, were beside the
City Hall on the sidewalk. The mime
stopped on a very large grate there....maybe twelve by fifteen feet, maybe
bigger, to do some bad mime tricks...juggling, etc. One of the audience members’ wacky
girlfriend had gone ahead, and he takes that moment to show the audience the
engagement ring he’s bought. Asking
for advice regarding asking her the big question, etc.
The audience was very
forthcoming with suggestions that ranged from hide it in a fortune cookie, to
hide it in ravioli. The guitar player,
makes some cynical comments about marriage, and why don’t you ask her tonight
so we can all witness this wondrous occasion – sarcasm dripping like
venom. Gord, the guy, is confused, and
then realizes what the guitar guy has misunderstood. “Why would I... (looking back to where the girl has gone)...ah. You see she isn’t...” He stops.
Everyone is watching him and he’s suddenly embarrassed. He whispers in the guitar players ear, the
ring is for his girlfriend – the one he’s with...well, only a sex thing...you
know? No one, or one person would hear
this whisper. Then, while still waving
the ring around, he drops it down the grate.
NOooooooooooooo. With his face
pressed against the metal, the girl returns asking what he’s doing. “Dropped ri...key ring.....my car
keys....yeah.” She says they should go
to the security desk in the City Hall.
He doesn’t want her help, of course.
He sees the grinning face of the guitar player, and hauls her along to
go see what they can do. This is Ring
Tone, written by myself. The audience
continues their journey, while the guitar player tells anyone who will listen
that the guy didn’t buy the ring for the girl he’s with, but for another
girl. It is the new millennium... The audience reaches the back
of the City Hall to a stone bench, in
between two sconces. Really nice
setting. To the right and up a few stairs
is a green space. Totem, written by
Yohanan Kaldi of
“I need to leak.” Says, Stomp, the dog. And he bounds up the stairs to find a good
place, not the same pole as the last time.
Swanky, the blind women feels the same need, and squats in her long
skirt.
It was such fun to see the
audience groan when a stream started moving away from Swanky. I haven’t seen it, but it’s some kind of
bladder thing under her skirt. The
audience groaned even louder when the dog returned from his business and
stopped to sniff the puddle, while chiding her for peeing there. I really love this piece, and the actors
are really wonderful. The actors go back the way they
came, and once on the great, hear a noise from below. “Look!
I’m a disembodied head!”
Imagine the audience’s surprise when the look down to see the ‘happy’ couple
about twenty feet down, searching for the ring (keys)
Of course she finds it, and squeals
with delight and makes him ask her right there....and so he does...and the
audience marches on.” They turn into an alcove area
in the courtyard of the city hall for the mime and the guitar player
showdown. Sick of her imitating him
and making fun of him, he finally pulls out a gun to shoot the mime. Thank God.
But the mime laughs at him, prancing around...and he looks at the gun,
and a smile plays upon his lips.
He puts away the ‘real’ gun,
and mimes taking out a gun, mimes putting a silencer on the gun...the
audience loved that, and the mime, looking horrified, pleads, but to no
avail. The guitar player shoots the
mime. The mime takes a bit of time to
die, and as her last annoying thing, throws an imaginary rope around the
guitar player and dies. Everyone
stares. Then, the guitar player tries
to walk away, jerking the arm of the dead mime. Ha.
The librarian from the first
play checks the pulse...shakes her head, not too sadly, and dons the mime’s
hat. She looks suddenly in the know,
and announces that now she knows the way to go. And on they go. As they walk by the fountain, a guy
standing there spits into it. One of
the audience members, our actor, Jennifer, is disgusted. He tries to explain why it’s okay to spit
in the fountain.
She walks up, and lets a very
log string of spit fall into his coffee, and walks away. He looks mortified, and throws the coffee
into the garbage. That was Spit,
written by Werner Trieschmann of The audience – a little greener
– head down King St. Right at NYC
Pita Co, at an outside table and chairs, two of our actors perform a piece
called Yes-No, written by German Munoz, from near They audience crosses another
street, turns a corner, and finds a rough looking man outside the entrance to
the parking garage. He lights up a
‘fag’. Another guy, a bit punkish
standing by looking for a light for his cigarette... George (to
Wesley) ‘Scuse me
mate, can I get a light? Wesley looks at him. Wesley Hmm… (he searches his pockets, pretending not to find a lighter) Sorry
mate, came out without one. Pause. Wesley takes another drag from his cigarette. George What? Wesley Didn’t come out with one. Pause. Another drag. George Yes you did. Wesley No I didn’t. George You just had one. Wesley (Looking
around) Who, me? George Yeah, you. You just lit that fag. Wesley What fag? George That fag. Wesley Oh. Yeah. I did.
This is a wonderful bit written
by Tom Jacob-Ewles – Around the corner the audience
comes upon a green space where two actors are tied and blind-folded to a tree
in the midst of some shrubbery...tied with bungee cords and skipping ropes of
bright colours, and any other things inept robbers might steal while robbing
a convenience store.
On the ground, are the wrappers
from these things, with price tags.
Earl the dead cat, from the poster, is duct-taped to a beef jerky box
with an egg timer taped to him. The bomb. They don’t know it’s not a bomb. They were taken from the convenience
store. They believe they are in the
country somewhere, and they only have ten minutes to live...or so. The conversation goes from what do you look
like to I could write a play...to I’m in someone else’s play! It’s lovely how this piece is layered, and it
took us a while to know when she was talking about how wonderful this play
could be...if they survive, and when she is in the moment. This play, Back to Back, was written by J.
J. Steinfeld from As the audience is leaving the
green space, a couple come through the crowd – a snatch of conversation. She doesn’t want to have an affair,
although there is a lot of sexual attraction.
He’s trying to barter, she parries, and says, “I won’t fuck you without your wife’s
permission.” He can barely contain his
enthusiasm for that idea, as they keep walking out of earshot. This is Permit me Please written by our own
Jennifer Cornish. The audience heads toward
warmth and alcohol. They reach the
front doors of the hotel where the bar is housed,
...but the librarian keeps on
walking....past the doors. Sitting in
my car was Arlene....one of the actors.
Looking straight ahead, she opens all the windows (electric) and turns
on her stereo. Sugar Sugar by the
Archies blasts on the stereo, and as we needed to buy a little time for setting up the
bar, we added this music interlude, which had ever single person in the
audience dancing and singing on the busiest intersection in downtown
The librarian does a short
monologue about finding her path, her true self, and informs the audience
while she’s going to call her ex, maybe they can work it out, they can all
order a drink and relax for a fifteen minute intermission. They did. Last night, for some reason
there was a mix up, and we weren’t able to get the back room like we were
supposed to...like we rehearsed for....like we set the lights for. The show went on. When the audience arrives, a
bride, in full regalia, is sitting at the shooter bar slinging back shots of
something. We don’t see her face. She has maybe three before she notices the
audience and challenges...
“What are you looking at?” It was like the Ferris Bueller moment at
the end of that movie. The bride, left
at the alter, the bartender, trying to cheer her up. This was performed beautifully by Tracey,
David. Really funny, and sweet and
tender....all the things I’m sure you saw it as. Bride on the Rocks was written by David
Wiener from San Deigo. I especially
love when she goes on to describe how her life will end up. It was wonderful. The play ends with her losing a bet to the
bartender, and agreeing to go home, sleep it off and go on the cruise
herself. She exits, pulling a suitcase
behind her.
The bartender tidies up, then
walk to a high table with a beautiful woman sitting on a stool. Some people may have noticed her eyeing the
guy in the tie. Some, may not have. The bartender leaves and the shark moves in
for the kill...or is it a kill? This
play, Quarks, written by William Bolden of Royse City TX., has many of the
things I love. Lots of sexual innuendo
and gestures, overtly sexual moments and physics. A couple that engages in a mating ritual,
but are equally armed. She’s a
theoretical physicist and he sells the very computer that she uses. She studies quarks and he works for a
Japanese firm, although, according to her, does not look Japanese. For me, the play was equal, close hot,
sexy....he asks her to take off her panties, she does – quite expertly
letting them slide down her legs, and into her hands where she deftly puts it
into his jacket pocket making a pouf.
There is this beautiful moment.
He backs away...just a tiny bit, and she takes it and runs.
JOSEPH Listen, I— VERONICA I have to go. JOSEPH I don't even know your name. VERONICA Veronica. JOSEPH Now? VERONICA Life is waiting for me. JOSEPH But what about me? VERONICA You're waiting for life. JOSEPH You have my tie. VERONICA You have my panties. JOSEPH My wife gave me that tie. VERONICA My husband gave me those panties.
She threw the last line over
her shoulder, while exiting the bar.
And that was the first night. People had drinks in place. And everything in the world was as it
should be. I won’t be there tonight,
as I have to work at the Stratford Festival, but I’m confident it will be
just fine. The end.
Hope this helps you get a sense
of what we’re doing. Paddy |
There are more
pictures on face book. Look up Asphalt
Jungle Shorts.
Take a walking tour of Asphalt Jungle Shorts IV