"....signifying nothing"

Wow. I called it. The Cleveland critics HATE the show. With vitriol. With uptmost contempt. Ok, Christine Howey (Scene Magazine and her blog Rave and Pan) thought it was mediocre. Fran Heller (Cleveland Jewish News) was the only one who enjoyed herself. But Tony Brown couldn't make his hate-note short enough and Bob Abelman couldn't talk about how "The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged" is soooooo much better than "Kill Will" enough. I really want to find the first reviews of Complete Works sometime......

Apparently we didn't take Shakespeare seriously enough. Or funny enough. We are massacring The Bard's great works. The audience participation is outshines the rest of the show.... or is it painful to watch?

I am satisfied. With the exception of Christine's review they either hated it or thought is was mindless fun (what we've only ever set out for). On the whole, I would rather have vitriol than apathy. The audiences are having fun. We are selling the houses pretty well. People who don't read Shakespeare at all are telling us that they can't wait to start reading. That alone makes this show completely worth it.

These weapons are all of a length?

That's not really an appropriate quote for this post, but whatever.  I like it.

First dress run went very well.  We actually did it in random order tonight, and it felt good.  I think it'll be fun to do a different order every night.  My fraternity brother Ethan was in town for a wedding, and he came to watch the show tonight.  He laughed, which is a good thing.  Can't wait until we have a full house to play to.

In other news, the Kill Will website is finally updated.  It only took me two months.  Are you happy now, David?

Bedtime!

Dun dun daaaaaah...Tech Week

Ok. I love this play. I have never worked on a play before that had a paper tech in under 3 hours, and a cue to cue in just over 3 hours. I am, of course, only considering full production techs here, not fringe festival ones. The video op picked up everything quickly, the lights look awesome...it was a good teching.

I know that's not a word.

We are sold out for both our previews! Opening night is selling fast. And the rest of the weeks are already getting booked. This is a small house people....reserve them soon.

We will definitely have t-shirts for the scene volunteers again!!! We will also be selling them every night. CPT will also be selling beer in the space, which they don't do for every show. Good times, folks. Good times.

How could I forget???

So, duh, this is me hitting my hand on my forehead....Josh and I were interviewed for the Cleveland Magazine! Here's our little article!!

We will be buying all the hardcopies soon, so you might as well read it online!

Finally! Gah!

OK, so I lied....we have not been writing about our rehearsal process. We have not been giving you little tidbits if wit and insight to our artistic process. Will you forgive us if we say that now we have all the elements and we're shifting into high gear?

We wrote the song we've been talking about adding to the show. We have approval from Ali that it doesn't stink outright, so we are moving forward! Does this mean we can now bill ourselves as a musical or just a variety show?

This past weekend, Josh and I had a house guest from The Purple Rose Theater in Michigan. Their fight choreographer Nate Mitchell agreed to come down to Cleveland and help us out with the fights. He gave us some great improvements! And then we had time on Sunday just to play a little. I look forward to figuring out how to incorporate what I learned this weekend into my fights in the future.

So...suffice it to say we are tired, we are busy but we are also moving forward and adding more to our little show. I'll try to add more later!

Rehearsal #3

Sarah (stage manager) and I should probably not be allowed in the same room when creativity is supposed to happen. Ok, maybe not creativity, but productivity. But hell if we don't come up with some great ideas! Sadly, they aren't ideas that will be realized unless someone would be willing to pay us to have the Sarah and Kelly Awesome Random Show.

Josh and Ali despaired of ever coming up with a good idea for Richard III until Josh started giggling. And then he couldn't stop giggling while he told us his idea. When I came up with a way to end the scene, he laughed out loud for a solid minute before he shared with us what was playing in his head. I think we have a working idea for Richard III.

What is it? You will have to come see the show.

One thing that Ali showed us yesterday was a blog from Tony Brown (critic for the Plain Dealer) for CPT's season. What graphic did he use, you might ask. I might tell you it was our postcard for the Fringe! Go Josh with the graphic designing skills!!!! http://www.cleveland.com/onstage/index.ssf/2010/09/cleveland_public_theatre_has_a.html

Cleveland Magazine comes out soon with our interview.....woohoo!

...a new Beginning.

Here we are again.....starting a new production. Not bad to have three-ish runs in one year, I think. The good thing is that the show is getting stronger and better. I think. Cleveland: You ready for this?!?!?

We had our first production meeting. Thank goodness this show is low maintenance! Raymond and the tech director Mike were both surprised when they asked if there was anything else for the set and we said no. Those were great faces. Great responses when we said we wanted to do the show in a random order every night. Yay!

Pandemonium is before the rehearsals though. For those who might not know what Pandemonium is - I am not talking about general chaos, or a kindergarten classroom after lunch. Pandemonium is only the most awesome theater benefit ever. Cleveland Public Theatre's theater is actually a campus. There are several spaces taking up almost a whole city block. Only two of the spaces are traditional theaters though. One space is an old church, another is the church's reception hall, another is a converted bookstore (where we are performing). Every inch of the campus will be taken up with stages/platforms with dancers, singers, actors, poets, musicians, etc. (I literally mean etc. You never know what you will find walking or standing around at the benefit!) What space is not being being used for performance is being used by food and alcohol. Oh, how I look forward to this night every year.

Josh and I are performing a few scenes from Kill Will there and will be conducting a couple of stage combat workshops. Come and have fun on September 11! Seriously, the tickets are only $125 and they are worth every penny.