Crawling out of the Deep Freeze

DFW is still in the grips of this kaiju storm that keeps hitting us and many of our friends have had to postpone openings of shows. We've got at least one interview this weekend with local actor, director, playwright, comedien and educator Steven Young who is working with a number of local companies and is the Assistant Professor of Acting at Texas Woman's University. We are also working on a couple of projects that are further ahead in the future so keep looking for those things and some surprises. 

Check out Theater Jones for postponed show openings, they have the time and resources to list that kind of stuff. 

In the meantime, our friends at Nouveau 47 have a couple of things coming up with their next installment in the Theatre Appresh series on Monday AND Measure For Measure opening on 16 February. Hopefully we can bring you something from them as well in the coming weeks. 

BGPT is another group we are working on getting together with, they have built up their space and have some pretty exciting things coming down the pike.

Stay warm and if you are bored, look through our archive of posts! (like you don't do that anyway)

CDT

UPDATE! Guest Contributor Brad McEntire has an interview he did with John Rawley of The Alternative Comedy Theatre. Brad, John and Jeff Sweringen are doing a new format of improv on Saturday night at Cafe Bohemia in Plano called "Monologue Jam." Check this out if you are in the area and had tickets to something that got pushed back due to weather. No missed rehearsals here, I'd wager. 

If You are in New York City

Our good friend Lake Simons is running her solo show ETIQUETTE UNRAVELED which she premiered here in Fort Worth last summer. The show is running at One Arm Red's Red Space (10 Jay Street, 9th Floor, Brooklyn) beginning on 5 Feb. 

For those of you who didn't get to see our interview, which was our first interview for this blog, I'm going to put it up again!

Enjoy!

Photo by Michael Bodycomb

Podcast of the "Being Harold Pinter" Reading in DFW

This morning when I went to get all the video and audio downloaded onto the computer I made a sad discovery. The video files were corrupted somehow and so all we have is audio. Don't despair, however, because the audio was more than what I needed to put together this great snapshot of the evening and we also have some images from before the reading so here it is.

Dan and I drove over from Uptown Dallas to Irving in the thick of rush hour traffic to get to the hidden away venue that is ICT's Rudy Seppy Rehearsal studio. We heard from Scott Nixon, a board member there, that the space was an old Conestoga wagon factory, it's a really unique space to say the least. There is a big opening over the floor of the space where the tops of the wagons could be worked on, it really reminded me of the kind of space you might see in Edinburgh during the Fringe.

When we got there, the actors were already there doing a read through before the staged reading. It was gratifying to see so many actors (14!) from around the Metroplex gathered in one space for the cause of Belarus Free Theatre. 

Dan and I got our gear set up (even though the images were lost in the end...have to figure that one out) and as eight o'clock rolled around the audience trickled in and we began our reading.

Podcast

Thanks again to everyone who attended and participated!

A big thanks to Bill Fountain for getting the actors together and directing the reading. The list of people who read is below this and if any of you have a reaction to the reading either as a participant or an audience member, please feel free to respond in the comments section. 

Readers:

(I hope this is everyone)

Josh Glover
Brad McEntire
Whitney Holotick
Zach Kinon
Rhonda Durant
Shane Hurst
Audra Howard
Dan Schmoker
Alex Wade
Alexis Nabors
Melody Jones
Brad Smith
Chris Sykes
Liz Woodcock
Andi Allen
Hank Henry

Thanks!

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who participated or attended last night's reading of "Being Harold Pinter" at ICT's Rudy Seppy Rehearsal Studio. Special thanks to Scott Nixon who was the board rep from ICT who let us use the space and Bill Fountain for directing. We had members from five companies involved!

Full podcast and video coming tomorrow or Monday.

You can still sign the petition or look for a reading in your city. You could probably even organize one where you are.

CDT

Dallas Reading of "Being Harold Pinter" in support of Belarus Free Theatre

Stage Directions Blog in conjunction with Level Ground Arts presents a staged reading of the Belarus Free Theatre’s original adaptation, “Being Harold Pinter.” This reading is a part of a national movement supporting the work of the Belarus Free Theatre and to raise awareness of the human rights crisis now happening in the country. After the 19 December elections in Belarus, over 600 people were imprisoned as political prisoners, including members of BFT, for protesting apparent fraud in the election process. This “last true dictatorship in Europe” has continued to hold a number of these political prisoners.

“Being Harold Pinter” is composed of Pinter’s Nobel Laureate speech and his plays “The Homecoming”, “Ashes to Ashes”, “The New World Order”, “One For The Road”, “Mountain Language”, “Old Times” and documentary monologues of political captives from Belarusian prisons. Adapted by Vladimir Shcherban, this reading is directed by Bill Fountain and features DFW actors from around the Metroplex. The reading will be held at the ICT Rudy Seppy Rehearsal Studio, 2333 Rochelle Rd, Irving, TX 75062 on 21 January 2011 at 8pm. There is no cost to attend but reservations are encouraged. Email stage.directions.blog@gmail.com for reservations or more information.