How I became 100 artists

So this guy is the latest TED speaker to blow my mind. This is an amazing project that crosses so many boundaries:

Between visual art and theatre, between satire and celebration, between the business of art and the creative process. Basically, this guy made up 100 artists, complete with names, histories and philosophies, and created individual artworks made by these imaginary artists for a biennial show for which he is the "curator". This inspires me for three reasons. First, this is the creative entrepreneurial spirit at its best. If it doesn't exist, you invent it - fearlessly, with wit, love and passion. Second, it is an ingenious way not only to make interesting art, but at the same time to examine the process by which art is made. Third, I think a lot of the art is pretty damn good. Watch this:

Shea Hembrey: How I became 100 artists | Video on TED.com

I love actors

We had auditions for Rent today. For those of you who haven't heard yet, I have somehow found myself in the position of directing Rent at the New Rep. I'm not quite sure how this happened. It's a good thing, as it has shown me once again that it is never a good idea to dismiss anyone or anything because you just don't know. This musical, that I had dismissed out of hand as being smug, self-important and uninteresting is proving to offer an exciting world, strong characters, drop-dead gorgeous moments, and an opportunity to tell a story that has suddenly become incredibly relevant to my own life.

And actors. They drive me so crazy sometimes, as those of you have read this blog have seen, but after a day like today I just love them. People putting themselves, their dreams, their ideas of themselves out there with no protection, with guts, wit, good humor, charm and a total willingness to do whatever. It was so much fun watching them all go after it with such verve and what-the-hell commitment.

I am so grateful to all the auditioners, they have once again re-affirmed my belief in the worthiness of this ridiculous profession. I wish I could cast them all.

Brains! Brains!

There was a very interesting show on either WBUR or WGBH this weekend, not sure which (I poked around some trying to figure it out, to know avail) about the brain. Specifically, it was an interview with Oliver Sacks, the great neuroscientist, and another guy, a painter, both of whom suffer from Face Blindness, or Prosopagnosia - the difficulty that a surprisingly large number of people have recognizing faces. It was a fascinating conversation, that dealt with the issue of recognition, and how we get by in a world where we don't recognize the things in front of us.

Anyhow, I was so tired today, after hoisting furniture into and out trucks for two days, that on a whim I Googled "Face Blindness". It lead me to this really neat website filled with really interesting cognitive tests. It's called:

Testmybrain.org and I spent the rest of the evening taking all the tests. Do I have Face Blindness (no), how good am I at visually picking things out of clutter (lousy), how good am I at reading faces (better than average)? It was really interesting and a fantastic time-waster. Check it out.

Master of None

Back soon. Promise. Three weeks of 18 hour days. I haven't worked this hard since we started ASP. But I'm having so much fun. I love playing around in a theater. At this point on this project I am: Creator, Producer, Director, Writer, Publicist, Marketer, Sound Designer, Video Designer, Asst. Lighting Designer, Asst. Set Designer, Props Master, Costume Coordinator, Electrician, Event Manager, and Light Board Op. And I couldn't be happier. It is true. Theater can be fun.

Tina Hey

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I am at the wall with Blood Rose Rising: the workshop, and we haven't even started rehearsals yet. Next week is going to be something else, let me tell you.

In the meantime, I wanna talk about Tina Fey. I didn't watch Saturday Night Live in the early 2000s. I am one of those annoying old farts she refers to derisively in her book (yeah, I read her book), who "thinks the show hasn't been good since the seventies". And I totally missed 30 Rock until recently. It wasn't until I saw her do her Sarah Palin on SNL during the election that I even knew who she was. And I was impressed. And I thought she was kinda cute. Not as Sarah Palin, as herself. So when we breezed by Date Night on Netflix a few months back, with all-time fav Steve Carell, I was open. And she was fabulous. So the interest gets piqued a little more. So when I get my awesome little iPad for Christmas, and Kelli and I are looking for something light to watch on it while we are snuggling up in bed, I thought, "hey, Tina Fey, what's this 30 Rock I've heard so little about?" So we watch.

I am in love. I admit it. I am in love. I wanted to enter into a polygamous marriage with Tina Fey and her husband. I don't know him, but I'm sure he's great. First of all, the show is laugh out loud funny - every few lines. I don't remember laughing so hard at a sitcom in, probably ever. And it's wonderfully weird. It manages to pull off the silly weirdness of real people in a way that Arrested Development never quite did for me. Liz Lemon is lovable, horrible, selfish and idealistic all at the same time in a totally improbable and completely believable way. And of course Alec Baldwin is a genius. Who knew? The whole cast is hilarious, and Jane Krakowski as Jenna does such brilliant satire on a subject that you all know has caused me more than my fair share of pain and frustration. We're just starting season 4 now, and I can't get enough!

So I read her book, Bossypants. That woman is 1)hilarious; 2)smart; 3)so honest; 4)just adorable. It's a great read, you should get it.

So yeah, Tina, if you want to move to Utah with me and Kelli and Jeff and all the kids and animals, just say the word. I'm there.

The World

This story really got me. A children's theatre in a refugee camp. If you didn't hear about this, you should read this.

How I got that story

It's finally happening, as many of you know. Blood Rose Rising will be doing a workshop production on April 23, April 30 and May 6 in Harvard Square at Zero Church St. It's a fitting venue, since I spent almost every minute of every working day in that room from 1993 to 2003, while I was at the ART. It's going to be amazing. Come and see it.

I have been working on this show for 22 months now. The idea came to me while I was at the 2009 TCG conference in Baltimore. I'd just been given my walking papers by the ASP, and was trying to decide what crazy thing I would do next. The conference was supposed to be about "Roots, Renaissance and Revolution" but it was really just about the Revolution. It was dominated by the under 40 crowd, both in terms of the subject of discussion and in who was getting the floor. The big takeaway from that conference was that we need to allowing drinking and texting in the theater. That may sound flippant, but it's pretty true. The new theater has to recognize that people want both a more multi-faceted kind of entertainment experience, and a place where they can express themselves as they see fit.

So I started thinking about how to do that. Having a theater that was more like a club was the first piece. That was obvious. Make it a fun place to be. A place you want to go and hang out with your friends, just as much as a place to see "art". Then you want something that will make people want to keep coming back. My first thought on that was to start a one-act club, where you'd do a new one act every weekend. It's kind of a cool idea, but the work would be insane, and I'm not the one to do it, because I hate reading plays; and logistically, organizing, rehearsing, and marketing all those plays would be a killer. Somebody should definitely do it, but not me.

So then it hit me that it could the story that made people want to keep coming back for more. Episodic drama had redefined television over the last 10 years, maybe it was time for the theater to follow suit. I floated the idea to a couple of friends at the conference, and they really liked it.

I was driving home a few days later, listening to Pandora. A song called "Is there a Ghost?" by Band of Horses came on. It's a great freaking song. I'm listening to this song, and I'm suddenly reminded of a story I had written during my last desperate period, when I had been let go from ART and just before I founded ASP. I wrote 3 1/2 screenplays during that period, all of which were pretty bad, but the stories were good. They had similar themes: One was about a man who becomes enamored by a strange mermaid in lake in Canada; one was about a pair of lost young people who decide to live their lies as characters from a 30s screwball comedy and end up killing each other in a film processing lab; and one was the story that has now become Blood Rose Rising. They all deal with the fascination we feel for the unobtainable. Oh, and one was about 4 middle aged guys who decide to start a rock band.

So I hear this song streaming on my iPod, and I remember this story, which was pretty neat, and I think to myself - "that's it. That's the tale we should tell."

And almost two years later, here we are. Here's the song, though we're not using it for the show. We have something much better, by awesome local band Alchemilla. But by way of tribute for a good idea. Here's Band of Horses: