High 5's Q-Box

If you go to the BUZZ section of the High 5 website you'll find a link for the Q-Box:

The Q-Box is the place where an artist or performer fields a few questions from High 5 to give you an insider's look at soon-to-be stars. Check out the Q-Box every other week for extra info on a High 5 show before you head out to see it.

This week, we've got Waterwell's Tom Ridgely in the box!

Here's the link....
http://highfivetix.org/Aspx/Buzz/QBoxRidgley.aspx

Puerto Rican Reggae at el Museo

July 26, 2007	Cultura Profética
Cultura Profética mixes up a smooth sound rooted in reggae with touches of salsa, bomba, ska, jazz, funk, hip hop and other Afro-Caribbean rhythms. Hailing from Puerto Rico , this group of six was the only invited band performing in Spanish at the prestigious Bob Marley Festival in California in 2003, 2004 and 2006, and they have worked in Jamaica with Errol Brown, Bob Marley’s legendary producer. Click the poster to enlarge The show is from 7 p.m - 9 p.m. Tickets are first-come, first-serve, so you should arrive between 6:15 and 6:30 at el Museo del Barrio to get in line for your tix! Directions to el Museo are at elmuseo.org. It'll be difficult to coordinate a meeting point/time - as some of you arrive later that others - so get your ticket on your own and we'll meet up inside, if possible. If it's assigned seating and we can't meet up, we won't worry about it and we'll just see each other next Tuesday. :) Remember: as this is a FREE show you can bring along however many people you want. As many friends, family...whoever... as you like.... Looking forward to it! ~eric

the first M.L. speech we hear in THE/KING/OPERETTA

A clip from "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. In this video, the speech has been edited for Amy Goodman's program Democracy Now! on 99.5 FM, WBAI community radio. The full, un-edited text of the speech is here.

April 4, 1967 is one year to the date before Dr. King's assassination. The whole action of the play takes place during that year, thus, the full title: The Last Year in the Life of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As Devised by Waterwell: A Rock Operetta.


Read Waterwell's mission statement and about their process. What do you think they were trying to acheive with THE/KING/OPERETTA? Did they succeed?

Lyndon Johnson political ad

This is a classic ad to give some context to the political climate when Johnson won the presidency. He doesn't say much (not even the name of his opponent), but not so subtly suggests that if Barry Goldwater wins the election, our daisy picking daughters will be nuked. :)
Enjoy!

in class tomorrow...

We welcome Wellwater cast member:

Tom Ridgely











check out his bio here.

He'll be joining us from 6 - 7 p.m. I found out last minute he could come so we'll have to shorten our writing workshop. It will certainly be worth it. Be sure to think about (and jot down, if necessary) what you'd like to ask him. Be informed about the company! Links to their site are below....

Assignment!
Make sure to bring your revisions of TOO MUCH LIGHT, or your first draft of THE/KING/OPERETTA. (Four copies if you can.) If you haven't already, take a look at some of the Wellwater reviews and bring one or two in with you. Be ready to critique the critique. Highlight strengths and weaknesses of the review - ideas you like, sentences that are strong, points of contention..... You can find some linked reviews in the right column on the THE/KING/OPERETTA page. For reference, the Wellwater website is www.wellwater.org.

See you tomorrow!

~eric

piggybacking on Kim, Ivana and Khatiya's comments...

Brevity is not necessarily Meaning's inhibitor! Two minutes could be a lifetime, even if it does make a short play. (Imagine a date with a two minute silence. How many things could that mean?)

How about a six-word story?
like this one, for instance:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

-by Ernest Hemmingway
He called it his greatest work.


Or a two-word (parenthetical) story?

My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three.

- from Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

Here are some more very short stories.
Consider how to be more economical in your writing. Your first draft is the time to run wild. In draft 2 and 3 it's time to trim the excess word-fat.

(comments? some six-word stories of your own?)

something that isn't a talking dog on YouTube

The New York Neo-Futurists have a channel on YouTube, though it so far has only two videos. Here's one called "Twisted Hipster."





Also, if you have the time, check out Four Eyed Monsters, the first feature-length film ever posted on YouTube, up until August 15. (kind of nsfw.)

This Thursday's Show

THE/KING/OPERETTA




















We're meeting outside the BARROW STREET THEATER at 9:10 p.m. The show runs from 9:30 until about 11:00.

The theater is located at:

27 Barrow Street
New York, NY 10014

(at 7th Avenue, South of Christopher Street)

subway directions:

to Christopher Street
1 block south on 7th Avenue to Barrow

OR

to West 4th Street
West on 4th Street, left on Barrow

Check out Waterwell's website to learn more about the show. Some press about the company:

Waterwell was founded in 2002 and since then has created eight original plays, one cabaret and a staged reading. Using a combination of research, improvisation and source texts, the ensemble devises each drop over the course of an extended rehearsal period. The resulting mixture of drama and vaudeville uses music and comedy as access points to address larger issues of power, class and race. The New York Times hails the work as, "Brilliant, original and inspired. Alive enough to surprise even the performers themselves," and Theatermania writes, "Waterwell has artfully staked a claim on our collective conscience."

what'd you think?

I've been thinking about Rob's visit yesterday and wondering, now having met the man in charge (and a writer/actor for) the company, how has your experience of the show changed, if at all...

What did you think was the most interesting thing he talked about?

let's get some comments on the board!

~eric

all of you can now post!

i sent everyone an invitation to be an author for this blog. the catch is that you have to create a gmail account. if you have gmail already, you're good to go. if not, take a minute and set it up. your account will be your log-in.

POST FREELY!
write on anything: your writing process, something about the show we saw, a quote, an event in the city no one should miss.... any and all things TRaC. posting on the BLOG is pretty intuitive, so even if you've never done it before, it's not too hard to figure out. shoot me an email if you have questions...

moving on!

(<---this is Deborah Artman. click the picture for her bio. she wrote this:)

One of the best fiction teachers I had was a writer named Lore Segal, who perhaps still often teachers at the 92nd Street Y in NYC. She was a phenomenal teacher. I remember her first wquestions when looking at a piece of fiction one of us had written was very simple: What is this story about? And then: What do you think the author was trying to achieve here? Did s/he successfully convey that idea? And, because it was a workshop of works-in-progress: How can we assist in the effort?

I think this way of approching fiction can be expanded to the other art forms. What is the piece about? What do you think the artist was trying to achieve? Why did the creator of a piece include this or that element or image? Do the details add up to a satisfying whole?

In any work of art, there is a kind of conversation between the maker and the viewer/reader. I've always thought of it as this: The creator assembles elements into a form that feels right to him/her and presents it to the world, like a gift. The viewer/reader encounters this form and unwraps it, projecting their own self onto what they see. I think it is important for critics/reviewers especially to be mindful of both sides of the equation -- both the making and the receiving/interpreting. It's not only: how am I receiving this (because that can change depending on things as varied as whether you just had a fight with a loved one or the weather is bad or someone bumped you the wrong way on the train). It's also: where did this spring from? What was the artist hoping to do?

some food for thought. consider these questions whenever you go see anything: a play, movie, art exhibition, concert... whateva....

Also, with this in mind, jot down a few questions you'd like to ask Rob Neill today at our workshop! And make sure to bring a 3 or 4 copies of your review!!!

We went, we saw, we write....

Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
check out the NeoFuturists' website
check out Too Much Light on High 5's website

Next Tuesday, at our workshop....

We will speak with the managing director of the show Rob Neill. He was interviewed by a TRaCer last year: read the interview!

your hosts...

Click the logo and check out the Event Calendar at High 5's website for a list of all the events you can go to for FREE.

The deal...
As High 5’s Teen Reviewers and Critics, you are eligible for two complementary tix to any High 5 show on the events calendar at www.high5tix.org. All you have to do is contact the High 5 ticketing guru, Colin (cpd@high5tix.org), and let him know your name, the TRaC class you are taking and the date/show you want to see. He’ll email you a voucher. Easy as pie.



AND the Public Theater's homepage.
Can you believe they only pay $1 a year to rent that space?
Incredible.