Although Eljon, Paul and I all met together last Friday, today was our official first rehearsal. In fact, the reason we were all together last Friday was to hold the auditions where we met and cast Paul. I’m very excited about both of our actors. In fact, there are many facets about this show that excite me.
We’re putting together A Good Day in less than two weeks, which is a moderately short time even for a twenty minute one-act. However, it’s thrilling because it’s going to make for tight and creative rehearsals with a fire under them. Also, our writer has been one of my best friends since high school and I used to read her screenplays and say, “Jane, PLEASE write a play so that I can direct it.” Jane has a knack for writing believable dialogue and an eye for catching familiar, true-to-life details.
Today’s rehearsal was held at Paul’s apartment downtown on Eldridge Street. I’ve lived in New York all my life and have never heard of Eldridge Street, but I’ve apparently walked right past it for years. Eldridge is a nice little street right off Houston, and it only took me 20 minutes to get there from my place in Long Island City (granted, the V train was finally on my side).
Eldridge street, NYC
His apartment had a nice open space area- enough space so that we could get some decent warm up stretching, and even running, in. It was convenient for us to rehearse in an apartment because that’s where this particular show takes place, so we barely had to improvise any props. It was a short rehearsal, only an hour today, but we got a lot accomplished. We were able to read through the show, run the show and talk through some joint backstory questions.
Well, the last week of rehearsals has certainly been dramatic.
I met up with Josh, Julie and our new addition, Samantha, last Thursday to rehearse Dumpster Dive, the scene I wrote. We had decided to rent rehearsal space because we live far too far apart to rehearse in anyone’s apartment. Josh said he would make a same-day booking (which is a lot cheaper) at the Ripley Grier Studios but, unfortunately they ended up not having anything left by the time he called. Maybe I let my initial frustration show more than I should have.
Luckily, there was space for us at William Esper, where Josh, Julie and I are taking classes.
(l-r: outside the rehearsal studio, inside, and view from within)
We began the rehearsal with some Meisner repetition exercises to get the actors in the moment and working off of each other. Then we did a read-through of the text without movement blocking so the actors could concentrate on acting. Both seemed to go pretty well. Next, we set up an approximation of the set and added props, which still left a lot to the imagination. In my view, the incompleteness of the set was a virtue: it left room for experimentation. I tried to just let this experimentation take it’s course as much as possible, but I interrupted whenever I noticed a physical cue or glitch that we hadn’t had a chance to notice, let alone iron out, during table readings.
In general, I was happy with how everything was going. The scene felt a little flat, but there was a lot of new material for the actors to deal with and they were still a little unsure of the lines. I thought once we talked about raising the stakes and considering their motivations more carefully, everything would be fine. Then, I made a comment which seemed to offend Josh and he confessed that he wasn’t comfortable with the degree of openness and lack of structure in my direction style. He told me he thought he might need to drop the project. This made me really nervous, but there wasn’t much I could do.
Luckily, during a break in our class the next day, he told me that he did still want to be a part of the project, but he asked if he could rehearse with Julie and Samantha alone for awhile and just have me step in at a later stage to make sure everything was OK. It actually sounded totally fine to me. I was trying to give the actors the space to make their own creative discoveries anyway. I just wanted to see the scene got performed. They rehearsed this weekend, while I was in DC with my parents. I’m excited to see what they come up with.
Natalya wrote previously about her recce to Glasslands but I felt the finalizing of our new space for our performance (on Oct 5th) deserved a post in itself.
As co-founders we work very differently. Night and day: literally. Often I’ll work till 6am on my projects – Silence! Concentration! Bliss! – while for her it’s all about early bird catches the worm. On the venue and timing front for our new show this was no exception. Coming from a theatre background, for her it was important to work backwards, venue and date first give you a solid goal that you work toward. Sensible.
For me, however, coming from film – and having lost a key and very specific location in the morning, then rallied all non-working cast and crew to get on their cells, call friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, and found a replacement by the afternoon – on the day of a shoot, this process was more fluid for me.
My approach is promotion, brand and visible content first – website, making people understand what we’re trying to achieve via an online presence (a link is the best way to cut your workload of email and phone explanation over and over to participators, contributors, venues, press, etc) while working and documenting, knowing that the right time and place would present itself, or at least the odds of finding it would be improved once you had all of the above.
However, while a great approach in some respects, obviously this tightrope tactic is risky, with the cons being that it makes team confidence and overall time-management a little harder to manage.
As such when Brooke at Glasslands offered us the 5th Oct slot we jumped, given that Natalya starts a new acting school shortly after and I am returning to London to speak at Power to the Pixel, so anything after would be problematic. The pressure is now on to make it happen in a short period of time. And, unlike a film shoot, even in case of emergency, it can’t be pushed. I was going to put a countdown timer on the blog, a la Studio 60 but it felt too mean.
Studio 60 show countdown timer
The reason I held out for Glasslands is its standing. Getting the venue was a big coup for me as I’ve been following what they’ve been doing for a while. The space came to my attention back in the spring, when new to the area – NYC, but Williamsburg & Greenpoint, Brooklyn in particular – and starting to become assimilated to the scene I heard about the space from a friend, Conor, one part of gay rap duo Butch & Bellie. He mentioned a space run by musician Rolyn Hu and artist Brooke Baxter -who ran underground events before opening Glasslands in 06- and my interest was peaked.
It’s been termed a “experiential community art space” The word experiential meaning “to create for the purpose of the experience, not the final product, utilizing art as a form of communication.”
Though drawing names such as Thurston Moore, their curatorial sense expands further than music to include lectures, interactive art exhibits, film screenings, poetry readings, events like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs video shoot there last year (see below) parties, installations, murals (list of contributor artists) and afterschool music/art mentoring program for neighborhood kids – where musicians, painters, sculptors and writers support and nuture kids’ interest in creative expression. They also donate a portion of the door to local Brooklyn organizations that strengthen the community. Calendar of upcoming events.
Karen O taking the performance outside
For me, I just loved that people could write on the walls. Felt like home.
Painting room
While in London I lived in Shoreditch / Hoxton / Old Street and it was an extremely hard place to leave in terms of its creative atmosphere.
Shoreditch square
Any given day meant bumping into a fashion designer, graffiti artist, graphic designer, musician, DJ, party planner, photographer or model. Those who made it stayed in the area, and drank and lived with, and next to, those on their way up.
For my group loyalty was not to a venue per se but to the East London based DIY ‘vintage hedonist’ crews or promoters like the Dolly Rockers, David Piper, Sean McClusky, Miss Pixi, White Mischief, or Viktor Wynd that curate/d music/art parties, often with everyone in wild dress, with themed spaces or heavily dressed sets, that moved from one place to another, be it bowling lane, club, parlor, music venue, basement, hotel, pub, church, members bar, stables, gallery, car park, ballroom, working man’s club or listed building, with the word of mouth crowd jumping about weekly.
Dolly rockers & Goldtooth zombie event – more photos on Goldtooth site
The ideas of community & location are an ongoing interest, something I tackled in my last short film Bullet For Your Gun which was designed around specific venues & places like Jaguar Shoes and Hoxton square bar & grill – and I’ve been toying with the idea of doing some kind of geo-location release with it.
But now my home is NYC, and I was excited to go see Glasslands again – but this time with a director’s hat on – and dragged an understandably whiny Andy – who had expected a late-night chilled out drink at my house, post late work on my part, rehearsals on his – down there at 3am on Friday night. It’s five minutes away from my house, I said. The next street, even. I reassured. Really close. Half an hour into our walk he insisted on checking google maps on his Nokia N95.
This is this is your apartment, this is the venue. This, he said, pointing to our mid-point on the map, is where we are. Oops. May have had a little to drink the previous times I’d been there. He looked back, then forward, then paused for quite sometime before continuing to walk on, shaking his head.
Glasslands entrance
We could hear the crowd from two blocks away. While the venue entrance is a simple warehouse door, the Friday night exuberance could not be missed. Twenty or so people scattered the pavement outside, smoking, shouting, pissing and making out. Ah, Brooklyn. Hipsterville. We pushed our way in and the scene looked something like this, except everyone was in sunglasses:
Best Fwends at Bikes In the Kitchen
A worried looking Andy looked back at me. Don’t worry I reassured him, we’re on on a Sunday. While I stared, fascinated by a zombie-like man in bad drag, make-up smeared down a sweat-drenched face, Andy nudged past a couple in matching sweat band, sports socks and satin short outfits. He walked round the stage abruptly, made mental calculations of some kind and nodded. Good, he said.
Me & Them is a collective of writers, directors, actors and assorted creatives who put on events comprising of original one-act plays, performed in art spaces in Brooklyn. Many of the group have interactive marketing backgrounds from agencies such as R/GA, Organic and Deep Focus. The onus of the collective is a focus on openness, experimentation and a do-it-now mentality.
Luckily, there was space for us at 
