What’s on tap for 2011?

With the 2010-11 Saloon Series now complete, and a one and done project at the Brick called “Dainty Cadaver” wrapped, I’ve found myself with my evenings relatively free to do things that normal people do, like laundry and occasionally cooking a meal, as opposed to scarfing down whatever passes for nutrients in the immediate vicinity of my rehearsals. It also means I can watch the big glowing rectangle in my living room occasionally. Hi Netflix Instant. Nice to meet you. I’m sure we’ll be fast friends.

A word (or several) about the Dainty Cadaver project though… the idea was based on the Exquisite Corpse game, apparently played by surrealist painters. Essentially, one artist draws an image on a piece of folded paper and a second artist continues the image from the first. The third artist bases their work from the image of the second, without viewing the first, the fourth by viewing the third, fifth from fourth etc etc.

So, the Piper McKenzie folks over at The Brick (where I’ve spent an inordinate amount time in the last year) thought this should work with playwrights too. One writer writes a scene, a second reads it and pens a second scene, the third writer reads the second and continues, writer four reads number three’s and so on until the sixth writer wraps it up based solely on the events of the fifth scene. In theory the resulting play should be a work of surrealist weirdness, with massive shifts in tone and plotting.

In reality, that is in fact exactly what happened. Cool, if you’re into weird surreal theater. For me, since I’m not all that excited by that sort of thing, the script I performed in left me a little at sea. However, under the steady and excellent direction of John Hurley and with a great gang of fellow actors, I think we made something rather nifty out of it.

So far as fight choreography goes, we were sorely pressed for time (maybe 4 solid rehearsals total) but the piece did allow me to stage and perform a very basic murder with a brick. Two strikes to the face - the first a jab and the second a rising arc uppercut. Then to top it all off a final blow to the side of the skull. But wait there’s more - because this was surreal, the Angel of Death comes in... and magically compels me to smash my own head in next. Never done that before.

Bloodless and simple, due to constraints of time and scant resources, however in my head…

I’d have gone with a foam brick. The victim actor (in this case the HUGE compared to me Ryan Andes) would have been prepped with blood bombs and a couple of loose teeth (furnished by the lovely and alluringly skilled Stephanie Cox Williams). I’d have kept the choreography similar to what we did, two main strikes. The first hit would bring Ryan’s hand up to his mouth and nose. Detonating the blood bomb, he’d splutter through some dripping goo, and the second hit would knock him backwards and to the floor, detonating the second bomb, simultaneously while throwing those loose teeth up into the air. As he lays gasping on the floor, maybe a piece of uncooked pasta could be slipped in his mouth. Because when I grab him by the shattered remnants of his face, some crunching and crackling would be nice. I say some utterly creepy things, and then deliver the killing blow. Another blood bomb for me when I smash my own head in and everyone wins.

Basically the audience saw all of that, minus any gore. I’d had loved to make it happen, but then again I also would have preferred to have a script that didn’t have characters dying and being erased every 10 minutes or dancing around with water bottles but that’s just me and my taste for narrative over esoteric.

On the up side, getting to actually hang out with the renowned Ryan Andes and both of us noticing we were each dripping with TAD gear, led to some cool conversations, talking firearms, and the potential to pick up some nifty new skills as well as exchange some of my knife knowledge with some of his performer friends who have sword skills. It’s always good when you find a like minded fellow who also happens to have similar interests and likes. And who is seriously, like 7 feet tall.

So – next up? A review of my new TAD gear FAST PACK EDC and then I’m going to be enrolling in some on camera classes. Time to dust off that skill set and try to make some damned money at this acting thing again. It’s been awhile since a decent paycheck came my way from pretending to be someone else.

There's a little ray of choreography sunshine on the horizon as well, a little cop on criminal beating if it pans out. We'll see...