Thursday, August 25, 2011

Hamlet verdict: Wow

I just lost my Hamlet virginity as an audience member at Fools for Tragedy's performance of In My Mind's Eye, a production of Shakespeare's most famous tragedy at Bay View's Alchemist Theatre.

I've read the play before and am familiar with it, but never before this have I seen a live production. I was blown away. On another day I might lament how this is a reflection of the emotional impoverishment of my life to this point; but today, now, I will simply state my joy at experiencing the artistic conversion of the darkest of human emotions and direst of relational predicaments into a story that resonates with the core of our humanity.

I was amazed at the pure human emotion channeled.

I write not as a drama critic, but as a human being, that this was a tremendous show.

This edit of the play divides Hamlet's psyche into multiple characters portrayed by actors and actresses who divy up his lines. When multiple fragments of the psyche were present on stage, a balance was achieved that both respected the writer's language and served to multiply Hamlet's power with respect to the other characters. I was most impressed with the actress who portrays Hamlet the Fool, Jennifer Gaul, for her sheer unhingedness. Binding it all together was Jordan Gwiazdowski, Mad Hamlet, who was spellbinding and also directed the performance.

More information about the show is found below.

http://www.alchemisttheatre.com/index.cfm?fuse=viewShow&showId=149
http://fools4tragedy.weebly.com/index.html

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

More Recent Haiku

0111082011
Mosquitoes exist
to feed hungry dragonflies.
Why does pain exist?

0123072011
Poets and saints know,
Wilder concludes in Our Town,
what life is about.

0221072011
Forty-two summers
since that boot made that print there
we walk no farther.

0119072011
Light that fades away
returns again in morning
penetrating air.

0219072011
Furry fireflies
drum my sweaty bare body
sentinels of dark.

0421072011
I took my shirt off
running a mile in the heat.
Women looked at me.

0124082011
Millipede couple:
double stack locomotion.
Sex, transit, sans love.

0224082011
Bark-hewn initials
record our undying love,
beech scars changed with time.

Link to Lucas in Love

I have my friend Scott to thank for this funny short film spoofing Shakespeare in Love and imagining the genesis of George Lucas' Star Wars saga in the frustration of a lonely male's writer's block.

Lucas in Love
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81256481/

Best, memorable interchange:

"I'm just beginning to think that Space Oats isn't the answer." --George
"Well, maybe you just weren't meant to write agricultural space tragedies." --Marian

Monday, August 22, 2011

Murder Mystery Cast & Crew Bios Now Online

Who killed the Ghost of Christmas Past?

That's the mystery you get to solve this December at Bay View's Alchemist Theatre in an original murder mystery set on Christmas Eve of 1929.

Check out the recently updated FAQ page along with our cast/crew bios.

http://www.bayviewlounge.com/christmasmurdermystery.htm

And go to www.alchemisttheatre.com to order your tickets today. The show runs for the first three weekends (Thursday through Saturday) of December.

Coming Soon: Original Bumper Stickers

Check back in September for original bumper stickers.

Recent Original Haiku

0116082011
Geese do not obey
lot lines, fence lines, marks of man,
No Trespassing signs.

0216082011
Splitting the atom
not nearly as powerful
as breaking the heart.

0316082011
Bioretention
pond heron stalks murkily
into concrete shade.

0119082011
Cormorant beats wings
black low over the water
flying into wind.

0219082011
Japanese beetle
gold green black and ravenous
consumes leaves on trees.

0319082011
Sulfur streaked cloud line
the cost of A/C and heat
Faustian bargain.