The Explorer: I’ve come to believe in the world’s complete and absolute disinterest in me.
Disembodied Voice: Disinterest?
The Explorer: You’re already questioning my word choice. I see where this is going. No! No no no no, not disinterest. Indifference. I see, I see. The world does not have and does not not have interest. Nameless and faceless. I know I am not alone in thinking this way. From all I have seen. And I have seen most of it.
Disembodied Voice: Iquitos?
The Explore: Iquitos. Rome. So on.
I've even been here before.
I rise. No. I am risen. My body is risen above the Lady City and I see her, as I so often imagines others do from a distance, in longing. But I’ve been lifted, lifted from being in and amongst it.
There, and there she lies. With her wide hips and thin, strappy legs, her luscious hair hanging in curls against her arching back – her tummy (her stomach), oh, like a ballerina - pushed forward ever so slightly, held, protruding to suggest contour inside her silver brown grey dress. I reached out to touch her and I am swirled, as if under the influence of a hallucinogenic. I swirl upside down and then twirl back to see her again from a distance. Each time I try to reach out I am taken up and over again. Twirling and twirling. Each reach, I am thrown back up and over myself.
When I land, drunk from my rising, I again am amongst her, in her, and the fervor of loving her but a memory. A memory that had this sort of name: of seeing her at a distance and realizing the Accomplishment in Mounting Her. But the fever remains: knowing what I had seen. Once inside the confines of the Lady City, oh her parallel lines, her spinning wheels, her smoke fumes, and the intersecting sections of the beautiful and wretched: I knew that my dream must be a reality, one I could acheive. To fly with her, this inhumane love of mine, This Lady City: Or I would go absolutely mad.
-------------
I am hearing something and responding to it. I see a man with a cap who they call The Explorer, or maybe they don't call him that, maybe that's what we call him? We know him as the The Explorer, everyone else knows him as Stub.
-Adam
Friday, April 16, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Committing to the Asinine
Reading Werner Herzog's CONQUEST OF THE USELESS, the journal he kept while filming Fitzcarraldo, and I am struck by this notion of obsession. An image or idea that stays with us that we must complete, despite its obvious uselessness or riduculous nature. See, like Nikolas Weir, I hold the notion that it is commiting to the asinine and once you have committed, it doesn't matter - your commitment will create something important, significant, and as we always talk about, rhythm changing.
More to come as we digest all this material....
More to come as we digest all this material....
Saturday, March 27, 2010
The House of Fitzcarraldo Project
The source materials, as it now stands for THE HOUSE OF FITZCARRALDO, include the following:
CONQUESTS OF THE USELESS -Werner Herzog
ALL I NEED IS LOVE - Klaus Kinski
THE CINEMA OF WERNER HERZOG- Brad Prager
FITZCARRALDO: THE ORIGINAL STORY -Werner Herzog
The following films:
FITZCARRALDO- Herzog
BURDEN OF DREAMS
MY BEST FIEND: KLAUS KINSKI
The following songs:
"Fitzcarraldo" - The Frames
"Sudsy" - James Brown
The Cheesy Theme song from the film Fitzcarraldo
"To Dream the Impossible Dream" from Man of LaMancha (I see an frustrated and sweaty Brady Blevins trying to belt this at the audience with such anger.)
ENTRY 1:
Chapter 1 & 2 from Klaus Kinsk's memoir All I Need is Love.
Klaus Kinski's memoir is asinine. (Il ike that word. If anything this project is a study in the commital to the asinine.) I have read numerous reviews that suggest the entire book is a lie, a flight of fancy. But in reading it, how could it be anything but? His ridiculous, often grotesquely fantastic images, as a disgustingly poor child in 1930's Germany - bringing up rancid images of shit-water baths in the street, biting off the notes of a scroungy deranged mutt,sexual encoutners with his mother and sister. And later in his life, the constant and brutal sexual encounters with EVERY single woman he meets.
I do not see these as some longing perversion on his part, at least it's not as interesting as what I want to think: that it is not some more deeply rooted metaphor for his insanity in this ficticious memoir.
He writes: "My mother takes everything off in front of me. Her panties, too. Then she goes to the bed. 'Come to me,' is all she says.' For three days bombs blow the house all around to pieces."
Thris trim paragraph that closes Chapter 1 took my breath away.
These sexual trists are metaphors for the extremes he lived, whether real or imagined. This is what fascinates me so much about this larger than life individual - this man that Werner Herzog made a documentary about, My Best Fiend.
For instance, he on the battlefield during WWII for two days before he was taken as a prisoner of war - his memoir does not reflect this truth, or untruth. We get a story of him wandering aimlessly on the German front, trying to eat a live cow, and yes, fucking nearly everyone he comes in contact with.
Does truth really matter at all?
It is as if he is truly making it up as he goes along. I wish I could commit to my imagination in this way - without censor, any kind of censor in the representation on a thing.
These lies, these constructions, these imagined realities are of him. We are not seeing the man, we are seeing of the man I believe.
Some quotes that have stood out in the first two chapters that might find their way on stage:
"A person might think that I only lie around in bed and pass my time fucking. -That's not true. I often seclude myself from other people for weeks at a time, lock myself into my room, and don't even go out onto the street. During this time I do my voice exercises, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen hours a day. Or all night."
-"What an honor," teases the meat inspector, making his rounds in the clinic, "to have such a great actor with us." I kick him in the balls.
-Why am I a whore? I need love! Always! And I want to give love, because I have so much of it to give. No one understands that I want nothing from my whoring arond but to love.
-I have to paint. I must express myself. Not like actors and pensioners or politicians do. It's mania. Obsession. An urgency, just like a pregnant woman having to give birth...I know that everything about life is erotic, everything that lives. I sculpt as well. Then I smash and tear everything up and burn it all.
-I never think of death. I haven't even begun to live.
Wow.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Pepsi Refresh Project
Last month Buran submitted a proposal to the Pepsi Refresh Project and today we were given approval! The Pepsi Refresh Project awards 10 projects $5,000 to get an inspired idea off the ground. Our submission "Involve Community via the production of a new performance" is now up on their website for voting.
If we get into the top ten we will be awarded $5,000 towards our 2010 Summer programming in north-east Kansas, which includes workshops conducted by company members free of charge to the community, weekly performances in Lawrence and Kansas City during the month of July and a full production to play in Topeka (venue TBA), Kansas City (Fringe Festival) and Lawrence (Lawrence Art Center) from July 22-August 6th.
Vote now at:
http://www.refresheverything.com/burantheatre?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=good_luck
Pass this on to anyone you know who wants to help Buran!
Onward and upward!
Adam
Critical Acclaim for Buran
For Money Buckets!:
“The highlight of the festival. Pleasantly surprised and frequently stunned. . .an audacious act of creativity. It deserves to be seen.” - Robert Trussell, Kansas City Star
“The jewel in the crown of the Fringe Festival...flawless.” - Greg Boyle, KC Active
“Outstanding and seamless performances by the talented cast.” - KC Stage
For Meile be Akcento:
“A standing ovation and a sea of flowers for the actors showed that Meilė be Akcento placed the accents right where they needed to be. ‘A show is alive while it is still being talked about and while an audience is coming to the theatre,’ - said Vytenis Pauliukaitis. It seems that after the premiere of Meile be Akcento the audience will continue to come.” - Dina Sergijenko, Straipsniai
For Nightmares:
“Grand in scope...for what feels like a grand finale, [Buran] is digging where psychological horror and art history meet academic satire .” - Alan Scherstuhl, Pitch Weekly
For A Greater Release:
“With a cast of more than 15 actors...gives the audience something to think about while not neglecting the duty of entertaining. In short, [Buran] means to accomplish, all at once, all the things that professional theaters have such a hard time managing piecemeal.” - Alan Scherstuhl, Pitch Weekly
If we get into the top ten we will be awarded $5,000 towards our 2010 Summer programming in north-east Kansas, which includes workshops conducted by company members free of charge to the community, weekly performances in Lawrence and Kansas City during the month of July and a full production to play in Topeka (venue TBA), Kansas City (Fringe Festival) and Lawrence (Lawrence Art Center) from July 22-August 6th.
Vote now at:
http://www.refresheverything.com/burantheatre?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=good_luck
Pass this on to anyone you know who wants to help Buran!
Onward and upward!
Adam
Critical Acclaim for Buran
For Money Buckets!:
“The highlight of the festival. Pleasantly surprised and frequently stunned. . .an audacious act of creativity. It deserves to be seen.” - Robert Trussell, Kansas City Star
“The jewel in the crown of the Fringe Festival...flawless.” - Greg Boyle, KC Active
“Outstanding and seamless performances by the talented cast.” - KC Stage
For Meile be Akcento:
“A standing ovation and a sea of flowers for the actors showed that Meilė be Akcento placed the accents right where they needed to be. ‘A show is alive while it is still being talked about and while an audience is coming to the theatre,’ - said Vytenis Pauliukaitis. It seems that after the premiere of Meile be Akcento the audience will continue to come.” - Dina Sergijenko, Straipsniai
For Nightmares:
“Grand in scope...for what feels like a grand finale, [Buran] is digging where psychological horror and art history meet academic satire .” - Alan Scherstuhl, Pitch Weekly
For A Greater Release:
“With a cast of more than 15 actors...gives the audience something to think about while not neglecting the duty of entertaining. In short, [Buran] means to accomplish, all at once, all the things that professional theaters have such a hard time managing piecemeal.” - Alan Scherstuhl, Pitch Weekly
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Dreaming can be a Fact in our Life
I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries lately. I blame my unlimited membership to Netflix and the instant play option for these late night sojourns into the fascinating lives of others. [Netflix directs me to "Understated Biographical Documentaries" every time I sign in.] I’ve particularly been fanatical about Werner Herzog as I’m in the midst of taking notes for a project centered on his intense hateful love affair with actor Klaus Kinski.
Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski on set.
What I find most fascinating about the figures documented in these films, whether it’s Phillipe Petit in Man on Wire or Klaus Kinski in My Best Fiend, is the desire to achieve the impossible – to dream wholeheartedly, to believe in its possibility and to actually live that dream, whether or not it’s being recognized, supported or funded.
Philip Glass says in Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts, “People say, ‘I feel like I’m dreaming.’ And the reason they feel like they’re dreaming is because they are. Dreaming can be a fact in our life.”
Dreaming can be a FACT in our life.
Yes, I certainly agree with this. I will be the first to admit that 90% of my day is spent dreaming and acting out upon those dreams.
The notion of dreaming the impossible has always drawn me in. I say time and time again in rehearsals, a notion I garnered from someone else I am sure (I won’t claim credit), that our job as artists is to stage what seemed impossible. When I write stage directions I purposely write movements that cannot possibly be achieved on the stage – at least with the budgets Buran and companies similar to us are dealing with.
I’m intrigued and fascinated to see where this impossible movement will lead. I want the canvas to be as big and as sloppy as possible, with the hope that there might be some poetics in there. If not, there is the honest confrontation when meeting the impossibility of your ideas.
For instance, from Bournijka the Boxer (which will be premiering here in NYC in less than three weeks!):
BOURNIJKA comes out jabbing and punching.
ADAM goes in for a big old kiss – tongue prepped and all.
Bournijka punches Adam square in the face before the kiss can land.
Adam flies across the stage and OFF.
I see this as Adam literally being punched into the air and flying off the stage. This is the only moment this happens in the script. At no other moment does Adam FLY off stage. A literary manager, I am almost certain, would look at this and immediately, “No. I don’t think so.” Am I being stubborn for keeping this in the text? Is my constant day-dreaming deluding me?
I don’t think that’s even worth considering.
I feel very lucky to be the fool. The one with his head in the clouds and feet planted and scuffling about and around the stage.
The title track to Paul Simon’s album Rhythm of The Saints has the following chorus:
Reach in the darkness
A reach in the dark
To overcome an obstacle or an enemy
To glide away from the razor or a knife
To overcome an obstacle or an enemy
To dominate the impossible in your life
Dominating the impossible can only be accomplished by an act – and for me, at least, that act has always found itself achievable on the stage. As asinine as it may seem, I have no interest in staging something I have seen before, I want to tear apart and reconfigure the canvas each time.
How do your dreams manifest? Your aspirations? Your visions of a potential future that involve more participants than your own consciousness?
I want to know.
Onward and upward!
-Adam
Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski on set.
What I find most fascinating about the figures documented in these films, whether it’s Phillipe Petit in Man on Wire or Klaus Kinski in My Best Fiend, is the desire to achieve the impossible – to dream wholeheartedly, to believe in its possibility and to actually live that dream, whether or not it’s being recognized, supported or funded.
Philip Glass says in Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts, “People say, ‘I feel like I’m dreaming.’ And the reason they feel like they’re dreaming is because they are. Dreaming can be a fact in our life.”
Dreaming can be a FACT in our life.
Yes, I certainly agree with this. I will be the first to admit that 90% of my day is spent dreaming and acting out upon those dreams.
The notion of dreaming the impossible has always drawn me in. I say time and time again in rehearsals, a notion I garnered from someone else I am sure (I won’t claim credit), that our job as artists is to stage what seemed impossible. When I write stage directions I purposely write movements that cannot possibly be achieved on the stage – at least with the budgets Buran and companies similar to us are dealing with.
I’m intrigued and fascinated to see where this impossible movement will lead. I want the canvas to be as big and as sloppy as possible, with the hope that there might be some poetics in there. If not, there is the honest confrontation when meeting the impossibility of your ideas.
For instance, from Bournijka the Boxer (which will be premiering here in NYC in less than three weeks!):
BOURNIJKA comes out jabbing and punching.
ADAM goes in for a big old kiss – tongue prepped and all.
Bournijka punches Adam square in the face before the kiss can land.
Adam flies across the stage and OFF.
I see this as Adam literally being punched into the air and flying off the stage. This is the only moment this happens in the script. At no other moment does Adam FLY off stage. A literary manager, I am almost certain, would look at this and immediately, “No. I don’t think so.” Am I being stubborn for keeping this in the text? Is my constant day-dreaming deluding me?
I don’t think that’s even worth considering.
I feel very lucky to be the fool. The one with his head in the clouds and feet planted and scuffling about and around the stage.
The title track to Paul Simon’s album Rhythm of The Saints has the following chorus:
Reach in the darkness
A reach in the dark
To overcome an obstacle or an enemy
To glide away from the razor or a knife
To overcome an obstacle or an enemy
To dominate the impossible in your life
Dominating the impossible can only be accomplished by an act – and for me, at least, that act has always found itself achievable on the stage. As asinine as it may seem, I have no interest in staging something I have seen before, I want to tear apart and reconfigure the canvas each time.
How do your dreams manifest? Your aspirations? Your visions of a potential future that involve more participants than your own consciousness?
I want to know.
Onward and upward!
-Adam
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Your Authentic Obsession
I was watching Charlie Rose last week as I was trying to put myself to sleep and he had half an hour dedicated to discussing the life and work of J.D. Salinger. Charlie Rose asked his guest Adam Gopnick of the New Yorker, who wrote last week’s piece “Remembering J.D. Salinger," what he learned from Salinger as a writer. Gopnick answered:
“I learned that the only thing that matters for a writer is not how clever you are – the only courage that matters is the courage to write the thing you want to read. Not to be afraid of the thing that seems to matter the most to you…the experience of becoming an artist [a writer] is learning to not throw out your authentic obsession, it’s learning to recognize your authentic obsession. Which most the time people don’t want you to write about because it’s embarrassing in some way – that your authentic obsession is your real material.”
This struck me as being extremely profound.
Your authentic obsession IS your material.
As I’ve been working in the past week on material for 2010 Summer Buran I’ve kept this notion close to me.
We so often try to ignore the material that keeps welling up time and time again- whether as actors, composers, musicians, designers - but by ignoring that we suffer the consequences of not doing the work that lives in us most fully, honestly, and whole-heartedly, in a way that makes it individualistic.
It got me thinking about my obsessions, like my obsession to figuratively meet Chekhov in my writing.
Or my obsession with familial situations. Or with the Marx Brothers. Or with Shirley Temple. Or Leonard Cohen. Or sloppy staging. Or people on stage with their mouths full. Or stark colors or no color at all. Or musical moments that have no place on stage. These are things I find myself wanting to bring into the picture time and time again.
Finding your true authentic obsession. I’m surely still figuring that out for myself.
I want to know, what is your true authentic obsession?
Do you find this notion freeing? Or ridiculous?
What does this mean? Your authentic obsession?
Is obsession the right word for it?
How can we share what is singularly our obsession. Is that selfish? Or is it selfish not to embrace it?
Talk amongst yourselves!
-Adam
“I learned that the only thing that matters for a writer is not how clever you are – the only courage that matters is the courage to write the thing you want to read. Not to be afraid of the thing that seems to matter the most to you…the experience of becoming an artist [a writer] is learning to not throw out your authentic obsession, it’s learning to recognize your authentic obsession. Which most the time people don’t want you to write about because it’s embarrassing in some way – that your authentic obsession is your real material.”
This struck me as being extremely profound.
Your authentic obsession IS your material.
As I’ve been working in the past week on material for 2010 Summer Buran I’ve kept this notion close to me.
We so often try to ignore the material that keeps welling up time and time again- whether as actors, composers, musicians, designers - but by ignoring that we suffer the consequences of not doing the work that lives in us most fully, honestly, and whole-heartedly, in a way that makes it individualistic.
It got me thinking about my obsessions, like my obsession to figuratively meet Chekhov in my writing.
Or my obsession with familial situations. Or with the Marx Brothers. Or with Shirley Temple. Or Leonard Cohen. Or sloppy staging. Or people on stage with their mouths full. Or stark colors or no color at all. Or musical moments that have no place on stage. These are things I find myself wanting to bring into the picture time and time again.
Finding your true authentic obsession. I’m surely still figuring that out for myself.
I want to know, what is your true authentic obsession?
Do you find this notion freeing? Or ridiculous?
What does this mean? Your authentic obsession?
Is obsession the right word for it?
How can we share what is singularly our obsession. Is that selfish? Or is it selfish not to embrace it?
Talk amongst yourselves!
-Adam
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Postcards
So my most direct reflection of the Buran Theatre Summit came from the postcards I wrote afterwards. See, I gave both my grandmas an empty photo album for Christmas with the promise that I would send them postcards from all the places I was to work/visit/tour in 2010. And my trip to Albuquerque was the first big trip of 2010. I'm sure I'll have more to say but I thought I would start a dialogue by sharing what I wrote on the postcards to my grandmas. Note: There were five postcards each, so this was not written extremely small on one postcard. Here goes:
Dear Grandma/Meme,
Here’s where this crazy postcard project gets started- Albuquerque, NM. I went down for the Buran Theatre Summit. Yes- this is the Buran of the Marx Brothers show this summer and the naked play from college. I picked up Erik at the train station at 4am and made the long trek to NM- a 10 hour drive. It was nice to get to some warmer weather and it was smooth sailing all the way down Route 66 and finally through the Rockies to arrive in ABQ.
Upon arrival in NM, we immediately fell back into our groove. With friends like these, it seems all you need is Lasagna, 12 bottles of wine, and a drum circle to reconnect (that’s what we did when we got there.) The next day was soaking in the slow paced Southwest with a nice relaxing drive through the desert looking at the beautiful mesas and an unfortunately unsuccessful stop at the Route 66 casino- Meme you’d have been proud. That night we had our first company dinner at the Frontier Restaurant for my first taste of green chile- something we had much of over the week.
The next days were filled with inspiring workshops, everything from Drama in Jazz, a Jam Session, Emotions in Movement, a Monodrama about Lewis and Clark, a Greek trilogy, and clowning. It was a nice reminder of why I love this people and why I love working with them. We are all artists and get the chance to create together. We also talked a lot about family mythologies in anticipation of the show this summer. I wrote one scene about Papa and another about Grandma Grace.
Over the week we had the opportunity to work with the Tricklock Company as they mounted their Revolutions International Theatre Festival. They were so welcoming and hospitable, having us to dinner at their place one night, a fancy kick-off party in downtown ABQ another, and even inviting us to perform in their Reptilian Lounge (more on that later). We also saw a play about the painter Jackson Pollock. The best however was getting to see an established company and how they work and meeting new friends from all over the globe.
The culmination of the summit happened at that Reptilian Lounge performance where we showcased a new short piece- The Buran Interviews. I even got to tell three jokes I came up with. Here goes: What did the Hungarian ghost do to the fly? ---Budapest! What did the lawyer do to the crooked FBI agent with a cold? ---Sudafed! What did the lawyer do to the crooked FBI agent with a cold at nighttime? ---Sudafed PM! Pretty good, huh? The entire piece was really fun and I think well received. It was the great ending to a wonderful week filled with amazing work and some of my best friends. Although I’m of course glad to be back safe and to spend some time with you.
Love,
Brady
Dear Grandma/Meme,
Here’s where this crazy postcard project gets started- Albuquerque, NM. I went down for the Buran Theatre Summit. Yes- this is the Buran of the Marx Brothers show this summer and the naked play from college. I picked up Erik at the train station at 4am and made the long trek to NM- a 10 hour drive. It was nice to get to some warmer weather and it was smooth sailing all the way down Route 66 and finally through the Rockies to arrive in ABQ.
Upon arrival in NM, we immediately fell back into our groove. With friends like these, it seems all you need is Lasagna, 12 bottles of wine, and a drum circle to reconnect (that’s what we did when we got there.) The next day was soaking in the slow paced Southwest with a nice relaxing drive through the desert looking at the beautiful mesas and an unfortunately unsuccessful stop at the Route 66 casino- Meme you’d have been proud. That night we had our first company dinner at the Frontier Restaurant for my first taste of green chile- something we had much of over the week.
The next days were filled with inspiring workshops, everything from Drama in Jazz, a Jam Session, Emotions in Movement, a Monodrama about Lewis and Clark, a Greek trilogy, and clowning. It was a nice reminder of why I love this people and why I love working with them. We are all artists and get the chance to create together. We also talked a lot about family mythologies in anticipation of the show this summer. I wrote one scene about Papa and another about Grandma Grace.
Over the week we had the opportunity to work with the Tricklock Company as they mounted their Revolutions International Theatre Festival. They were so welcoming and hospitable, having us to dinner at their place one night, a fancy kick-off party in downtown ABQ another, and even inviting us to perform in their Reptilian Lounge (more on that later). We also saw a play about the painter Jackson Pollock. The best however was getting to see an established company and how they work and meeting new friends from all over the globe.
The culmination of the summit happened at that Reptilian Lounge performance where we showcased a new short piece- The Buran Interviews. I even got to tell three jokes I came up with. Here goes: What did the Hungarian ghost do to the fly? ---Budapest! What did the lawyer do to the crooked FBI agent with a cold? ---Sudafed! What did the lawyer do to the crooked FBI agent with a cold at nighttime? ---Sudafed PM! Pretty good, huh? The entire piece was really fun and I think well received. It was the great ending to a wonderful week filled with amazing work and some of my best friends. Although I’m of course glad to be back safe and to spend some time with you.
Love,
Brady
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