( continues...) damage actual teenage hormone bombs could do to each other in their puppyish excitement.
Profile addy good, Juliana? I am going to play with contacts and see if I can get someone to help out with the stage fights; I am auditioning girls and guys for the beginning scenes with the Montagues v. Capulets, and I am not making Benvolio or Mercutio gender-specific roles, since I am setting R+J in 2007 Lat-urban society…and my girls as well as guys are little scrappers. I have two junior girls who are BFF’s who REALLY want to be C v. M in the opening scene so they can insult and fight each other!
Do you have anyone who has any experience (adults or kids) with the technical side of staging a production? I'd be tempted to start off by sitting down with the kids and identifying specifically what all the backstage jobs involve and getting your stage crew sorted out, because it sounds like that's the bit you're daunted by - they may already have experience and/or transferable skills that they can bring to the table. (When I was in R & J our drama teacher/director made 3 of us into co-directors and we each took responsibilty for directing individual scenes, which she oversaw - it spread her workload a bit, while giving us experience in directing and making us reflect on our own performances too...) Plus if you have a bossy and anal and efficient responsible kid to be the Stage Manager, that's going to make life one hell of a lot easier.
Fay, I have two very responsible, take-charge junior girls (they are the one who also want to have bit roles in the opening scene) who are my AD’s. I am making all the kids who want to be on the crew write a paragraph about their skills, and come in for a brief interview where I can query them about their skills, contacts (dad’s a carpenter? AWESOME!) and schedule. I like the idea of giving them all a scene to direct.
If you want to have proper set changes, then maybe sit down with the script and try to group scenes into locations so you know how many different looks you're going to need to create, and then decide how you can make the scene changes simple - you'll need something to represent Juliet's bed/tomb, you'll need some way of presenting the split level for the balcony scene, you'll could probably use chairs several times, but you don't have to have them...if you want to go with a very simple set, with a black curtain and blocks or something, you could do that. Or not. Do you have a particular idea of the 'look' you want to aim for?
I plan to do this tomorrow. The stage I will be using already has a backdrop of a painted Mexican courtyard with a fountain, so I’m going to use that as the backdrop for the party scene (I am making the ball a quincenera) and as the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene. I need a “street” backdrop (I’m thinking a neighborhood scene – front porch of a house, front yard thing) for the opening scene, and also the Romeo is wandering lonelyasacloud scene, the MErc/Tyb/Rom fight-death scene, and the opening scene. Also need a churchy looking scene, which I hope to use for Rom/Laurence-wedding-suicide.
I have a VERY small stage to work with.
Erin, my step-mother has had her high school students do a Shakespeare performance pretty much every year for the last 20 years - I could hook you guys up via email if you want; I'm sure she'd love to help.
Raq, that would be awesome. Would you? And re: the guns…I would rather do that than fist/knife fights, but I think timing the sound effects would be tricky with our limited resources. I think I am going to stage fist fights, and use knife-fighting with Tybalt, Mercutio and Romeo. I might tweak some lines. (Gasp! Tweaking Shakespeare!)
And in this pic note the cowering Trinian kitty as she spies her nemesis bee-lining for her.
Oh the poor silly thing. Trin, not the Boo.
Erin, ND probably isn't caught up in thread but could also help you out. Ping his profile adyd.
Hey Ple! The Castro Theater is running triple-feature that's right up your alley.
February 9
“MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS” presents
SO STRAIGHT, IT’S GAY TRIPLE FEATURE! ALL THREE FILMS for only $10.00!
Hosted by Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
When misogyny and homophobia in the 1980s reached their most extreme, a new genre was born, oozing with confused sexual repression: “So Straight, It’s Gay.”
F 7:30p: Road House
Directed by Rowdy Herrington (Jack’s Back); Containing: Sir Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch, Sam Elliott, Ben Gazzara; 1989, 114 mins, ‘SCOPE
This mean-spirited knuckle- bruiser of a film crowns Sir Patrick Swayze as the head bouncer in a small town bar named the Double Deuce Club (except I swear they keep saying the “Double Douche Club!”) What follows are the most over-the-top, ultra violent bar fights ever filmed! But nothing will prepare you for the countless confusing one-liners, the amazingly awkward straight sex scenes and Swayze’s ultimate oily Tai-Chi routine, epitomizing the most sexually confused decade of all… The 1980s.
F 9:45p: Top Gun
Directed by Tony Scott (Days of Thunder); Containing: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt, Michael Ironside, Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan; 1986, 110 mins, ‘SCOPE
Many joined the Air Force after watching this pinnacle “So Straight, It’s Gay” 80s film. But for the rest of us, we started to pick up on some of the undertones (that only co-star Val Kilmer seems aware of.) This slick, bare-chested macho fest follows Maverick, who finds himself in the danger zone as he cruises to achieve Top Dawg in the fleet. But oddly enough, the dynamics between Cruise and Kilmer (The Iceman) are much more breathtaking than any scenes with his intended heartthrob, Kelly McGillis. Come re-live those tighty-whitey, synth-pop glory-days (all hail Giorgio Morodor!) except this time, you’ll be rooting for the other side of Tom Cruise.
F 11:59p (midnite): Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
Directed by Jack Sholder (The Hidden); Containing: Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Clu Gulager, Robert England; 1985, 87 mins
With the tagline “You’ve got the body, I’ve got the brains,” Freddy takes a different approach in this infamous installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. This time Mr. Kruger “inhabits” Jesse, a sexually frustrated teenage boy (Mark Patton gives the performance of his career… literally!) As Jesse confronts Freddy and his inner most fears, a sexual dilemma emerges from him (as well as a very high-pitched scream), resulting in an abundance of teen murders. This highly interesting, subversive (by default?) slasher film asks many more questions (of course) than it understands the answers to. But what would you expect from writers that also concocted sequences including killer basketballs and psychotic parrots who unexplainably self-destruct?! Preceeded by a gaggle of slasher trailers from the 80s!
Aimee. I share the amazement. The whole redefining of slavery thing makes me wonder if they are on crack.
I mean there are tiny absolutely miniscule grains of truth is some of this. There are cases of slavery in the U.S. today - taking place illegally, but none the less happening, and some of those cases are housekeepers or nannies. (Others are sweatshops, farms, and prositution.) But is is a long and crazy leap from "a very few people are kept as slaves and made to do x" to "all (or most) people working at x are slaves".
Top Gun really IS one of the gayest movies of the 1980s.
And, almost 20 years later (good god! it can't be 20!), I still find the volleyball scene totally drool-worthy.
t pokes thread
I have a few minutes to kill. Anyone around to kill them with me? And what is our weapon of choice?
You know what's gay?
Tango and Cash.
Damn, that's some quality queer RIGHT THERE.
