nights best unspoken

The Wild Things

2009-11-13T19:40:41Z

Saw the movie last night and really enjoyed it. It's beautiful and melancholy. It definitely feels like there is a lot of Dave Eggers in the screenplay.

I thought it was interesting how the real world of the movie seems to be set no later than mid-1990's: the cars, the computer, Max's sister's disc man, Max's legos. I suspect that's in part because contemporary accoutrements would cause a disconnect for viewers of my generation: it wouldn't feel like childhood to us.

Anyway, thought it was a lovely tone poem about fear, understanding, love.

And it didn't give me the raging fantods like Star Trek did.

Criticism.

2009-10-28T03:44:07Z

If you thought my rant on Star Trek was intense, don't get me started on The Three Sisters at Playhouse in the Park.

Thirty.

2009-10-13T03:20:59Z

Melancholy. Frustrated. Tired. Overworked. Underpaid.

But also hopeful. And, on the whole, happy.

The Absent Garden

2009-10-10T05:13:28Z

The last time I was at my grandfather's house was in the middle of August.

It's a peculiar house: he built it himself, and it shows. It sits in a neighborhood just north of 8 mile, at one time surrounded by fields, now abutted by a parking lots and auto plants.

The backyard was always an exciting place when I was growing up. Full of storybook possibilities. Frightening like a fairytale. It was an isolated patch of green in a swath of industry. When I was very small, there was a pool: the first in ground pool in Warren when installed, by the early 80's somewhat decrepit. Unusable. Dangerous.

The backyard had several distinct areas that felt like separate worlds. There was the vine-twined swing set in one back corner, a metal, imposing shed further along the property line. The black walnut standing alone in the lawn because no other large plants would grow near. On the other side of the pool, the apple tree, the pear tree. And all along one edge, was the garden.

I used to walk the rows of plants when we visited, picking green beans, tomatoes. Seeing the vines go from flower to fruit. In the back of the garden was a compost pile, and a dark overgrown shed, where I would never venture. Too dark, too jungled.

In 1984, the new pool was installed, my and my brother's initials written in the concrete. It gave the yard a bright center to complement the garden, now two living spaces surrounded by a periphery of mystery. An 8 year old could float in that pool and look up as planes flew overhead to or from Detroit Metro, look into that sky crosshatched by power lines and dream of all the places in the world capped by blue, bounded by green.

Even as I got older and the yard went through changes, the pool once again falling into dis-use nearly a decade ago, it was still a place that seemed full of stories. Though giving up the pool, my grandpa kept the garden going.

A few years ago, the pool was filled in, becoming a large plane of dirt where grass stubbornly refused to grow. And still there were new crops of green beans.

Just over three years ago, as fall arrived, my grandmother died in the house. But the next summer, there were tomatoes, my grandpa puttering through.

And every time I visited as a young adult, I would be sent home with a bag full of produce. I would drive the tomatoes with me five hours down I-75, and they would taste like summer and Detroit and the Tigers and fireworks and swimming in the pool and sitting wrapped in towels playing on an Atari 2600 in the breezeway while my grandpa filmed us, shirt off, shorts hiked up, with his enormous "portable" video camera. And his tractor resting in the corner of the yard, and the moped he was tinkering with lying on its side behind the garage and the tomato plants high in the sunlight and us getting ready for watermelon in just a few minutes, as soon as we finished this game.

The last time I was in my grandfather's house, I walked through the backyard. The pool's shadow finally filled in by some hopeful vegetation, the rusting debris safely cleared from the corners. And the garden gone. Not a trace. Not a line in the struggling turf.

I had never realized how this piece of fenced land could feel so small. So empty.

Now two months later, the house is truly empty, and it's doubtful that my grandpa will go back. I don't expect to hear his voice again.

But 300 miles to the south, I have a pear from his tree on my kitchen counter, waiting. In the morning I will eat it and remember.

Overheard at Coffee Emporium

2009-05-26T15:15:05Z

Barista #1: Has she told you the new requirements?

Barista #2: Yeah. I feel like we should just ask everyone, "What size coffee do you want? Do you have a black belt and are you currently seeking employment?"

Barista #1: 95% of this job is cleaning, but the other 5 is self defense.

Star Trek

2009-05-13T04:57:33Z

Most of my thoughts on the movie are contained in a SPOILER FILLED post over at Counterfictionals. You have been warned.

All this said, I did like it.

I want to see it again now that my initial response is out of the way. This time I will just sit back and enjoy it. I promise.

In a few captured minutes a day

2009-04-01T20:00:39Z

I'm reading Harold Bloom's Jesus and Yaweh: The Names Divine which analyzes the aforenamed deities from the standpoint of literary criticism.

He tends to ramble a bit, as is his wont, but there's some fascinating stuff.

I'm currently in the chapter where he discusses the poetry of the Trinity: "its sublime ambition is to convert polytheism into monotheism, which is possible only by rendering the Holy Spirit into a vacuum, and by evading the flamboyant personality of Yahweh," as well as it's transformation to an identity of substance from an analogy.

A goodly portion of the book thus far is devoted to the tension between the Christian theology and the original Yahweh in the rearrangement/reinterpretation of Jewish texts into the "Old" testament. When talking about the adoption of Christian theology, "Jesus Christ is a new God on the Greco-Roman model of Zeus-Jove usurping his father, Chronos-Saturn." Taking this usurpation trope further, he contends that because of the Christian "misreading" and appropriation of Jewish texts, the term "Judeo-Christian tradition" is really pretty meaningless: there's a clear break between the religions, not an evolution.

He also discusses the divide between St. Augustine's Latin culture and the Greek Trinity: "The Greeks saw one essence and three substances, while the Latins proclaimed one essence and three persons."

Also (as can be expected from Bloom) tons of Hamlet references. Fun reading.

The shows I saw: 2008

2009-03-11T23:21:37Z

Working on my taxes today has meant that I've spent the past few hours looking back on 2008, my travel schedules, etc.

I realized that I never found the time to do my normal review of the previous year's media consumption in January. Now I'll try to emend that.

The following list is in roughly chronological order and, as is my standard practice, omits shows with which I was in any way involved.

Sweeney Todd - Aronoff Center (national tour)
Crime and Punishment - Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
Mortem Capiendum - Cincy Fringe
Body Language: A Radical Truth - Cincy Fringe
The Dance: The history of American Minstrelsy - Cincy Fringe
Southwest Ohio Society of Badasses - Cincy Fringe
RSVP - Cincy Fringe
Giving up Later - Cincy Fringe
then after water - Cincy Fringe
Fricative - Cincy Fringe
Car/Street - Cincy Fringe
Next to Not - Cincy Fringe
Burning Man Redux - Cincy Fringe
What's the Point?! - Know Theatre
Jerry Springer: The Opera - New Stage Collective
An Actor's Nightmare - Ed Fringe
Plauge! The Musical - Ed Fringe
Apocalypse the Musical - Ed Fringe
The Highwayman - Ed Fringe
The Boom Jennies - Ed Fringe
Global Warming is Gay - Ed Fringe
The Improhecy Chronicles - Ed Fringe
Feast of the Ants - Ed Fringe
Upstart Crows - Ed Fringe
The Lie of the Land - Ed Fringe
This Must be the Place - Ed Fringe
Dear Theo - Ed Fringe
Strippers and Gentlemen - Ed Fringe
The Sword of Maximum Damage - Ed Fringe
All Dressed up to Go Dreaming - Ed Fringe
21:13 - Ed Fringe
Silence in C Minor - Ed Fringe
Face in the Crowd - Ed Fringe
The Judgment of Paris - Ed Fringe
The Miller's tale - Ed Fringe
Mort - Ed Fringe
Boys of the Empire - Ed Fringe
The Search for Sunshine - Ed Fringe
My Grandfather's Great War - Ed Fringe
Samauri Spirit - Ed Fringe
How it Ended - Ed Fringe
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Ed Fringe
The 39 Steps - West End
Lion King - West End
Zorro: the Musical - West End
Emma (the musical) - Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
Shining City - New Stage Collective
Spring Awakening (the drama) - UC CCM
Spring Awakening (the musical) - Ahmanson Theatre (national tour)
The Blue Dragon - ex Machina @ UCLA

2009-02-26T04:26:08Z

By the way, I'm on twitter now, if you're into that sort of thing.

http://twitter.com/hungerf9

I update over there much more frequently than here.

Which, admittedly, isn't that hard.

Upcoming Project

2009-02-24T01:47:45Z

Coverage

2009-01-18T22:48:03Z

The design for Militant Language at the Know was featured in the December issue of Stage Directions Magazine.

A post meant to be from the end of 2008

2009-01-03T05:26:42Z

After sitting on the tarmac in Detroit for an hour with a perceived temperature of 20 below

1. take off

As the plane pulls up into the headwinds
I can feel the turbine
I've been staring at it for twenty minutes,
its too cold for ice bulk filling the window
along with a small berg of wing.
I feel the engine
take in its great gulp of air
I feel my chest open with it
together we are pulling the wind chill in through
our ribs tilting up
shaking.

The woman asleep in 21E has no idea
but the dark nacelle out the window and me,
we are swallowing it all
the blowing snow
the baggage equipment frozen inoperable
the stalled truck out the window
the shortest day of the year
and then we are up into that solstice night,
we are up into that glassy cold
and we are out of there
we are gone.

2. airborne

Before the night fades into black
the ground lights snake across the
dark gleam of the engine
could be called electric tinsel
but it's not
festive in spite of the season:
too alive, too serpentine, too other.
It's not narrative,
but the lights speak
their own kind of story as they slither
past cold metal
and twist
before flicking out.

3. aloft

Staring across into the night sky
we are among the stars
I could reach out to them and with a chilled finger
trace my face.
I take a moment to thank Bernoulli and
whatother gods may have made all this

and know that every story I've ever heard is true.

Stating the Obvious

2008-12-15T17:57:19Z

Audience for Straight Plays Is Declining, N.E.A. Finds

Everyone reading this, go see a play in the new year. Please. They're good. It's fun. They can be cheap.

In Ann Arbor, Performance Network is having a 3 day sale, offering all tickets for the rest of the season for $15. Upcoming shows include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and A Feminine Ending (the second of which I'm lighting). Their current show is an original comedy called Geoffrey and Jeffrey, based on the life of beloved Ann Arbor director Jim Posante, who died suddenly at the beginning of this year.

In Cincinnati, tickets at the Know Theatre are always only $12. Come see kids make fun of Scientology, playing through the end of the year.

Please support live, local arts.

oblivion

2008-12-14T04:48:26Z

Halfway through DFW's final collection of short stories, Oblivion. Much of it is brilliant, and much of it very hard to read.

On reflection, I probably should've finished reading the story "Good Old Neon" before I went to see the joyous Twelfth Night at Cincy Shakes this evening.

Maybe drafting will lighten my mood. But probably not.

reviews...

2008-12-11T04:11:26Z

From Curtainup's review of The Winter's Tale at STNJ:

"after the play's first half in which we see how a distressingly paranoid monarch wittingly slanders, humiliates, alienates, and even destroys most everyone he holds dear, we are treated to a second half all bathed in sweetness and light (with a significant assist from lighting designer Andrew Hungerford)"

The Winter's Tale.

2008-12-06T07:01:32Z

A couple of photos from my current show at New Jersey shakes are up at Playbill On-line.

More info to follow.

Once on This Island - Review #1

2008-11-04T00:18:07Z

Once on this Island
Northern Kentucky University
October 30-November 9, 2008

Talkin' Broadway by Scott Cain.

The Northern Kentucky University (NKU) Department of Theatre & Dance is currently presenting a thoroughly delightful and ingenious production of this gem of a show.

[...]

An extremely positive asset of this production is the sure-handed, suitable and creative direction by Daryl Harris. The organic approach to his staging is a perfect fit for the material, and the use of dance and props to represent items such as a car, rain, waves and trees is effective.

[...]

Lighting by Andrew Hungerford adds to the atmosphere of the ecological setting of the show.

Northern Kentucky University's production of Once On This Island is a splendid fit of material to creative staff. Wonderfully suited direction, choreography and design provide the foundation for a solid cast of student performers and a successfully entertaining theater experience.

Militant Language - Review #1

2008-10-13T19:03:21Z

Cincinnati Enquirer

'Language' speaks energetically

By Jackie Demaline

Know Theatre continues to look very good this season – the world premiere of savage contemporary fable “Militant Language: A Play with Sand” has entered the rep through Nov. 16, and with “Reefer Madness” it marks a big step forward for the small pro company.

[...]

Energy and focus is what this Know production is about. Jason Bruffy directs like a man with a mission; the cast is capable, with Ipaye, Groh and Hines all standing out, as they add flesh to their characters’ bones. Vandit Bhatt is solid as a townsman caught up in the madness.

The design team does stellar work here. Scenic designer Andrew Hungerford has beautifully established a sense of place – sand, sand everywhere, with oil drums here and there and debris that suggests a vehicle’s run-in with an IED. There’s also that hauntingly falling sand; Steve Schofield gets a credit as ‘technical consultant’; nice job by everyone involved.

Applause, too, to sound designer Doug Borntrager delivers a terrific soundtrack for this nightmare life. The show’s original songs, by the way, have lyrics by Lewis and music by Casey Apgar and Hines.

Twenty-nine

2008-10-13T04:11:57Z

My birthday present for this year was that Militant Language: A play with sand got up and running without killing me. The sand works, and I think the show is a great success visually.

Opening night went very well, and at midnight the Know Theatre gave me a birthday card. Also free drinks.

Today I spent the morning doing laundry, the afternoon at the show, to check on a couple of cues that I changed. Also, a reviewer was there today, and I like being able to see the show at the same time as reviewers... to put what they've written into proper context.

Just before the show Sara Vaught and her husband John drove by with a birthday cupcake for me... they pulled to the side of the road, used a lighter for the candle and passed it to me through the open door.

After the show I took myself out to a Cincinnati style birthday dinner on Ludlow: Skyline and Graeters. Ate black raspberry chip ice cream from a waffle cone while watching the sunset through Burnett woods.

Now I'm trying to get done a light plot for Once on this Island at NKU...

There's always another show.

Even though it seems I'm perpetually exhausted, I'm happy and doing work that I love.

And now I'm the titular age from one of my favorite Gin Blossoms songs:

"Time won't stand by forever if I know it's true
And I've learned not to say never
Or else I'll seem the fool
Twenty-nine you'd think I'd know better
Living like a kid
When my lies may seem less than clever
Is when I fall for it
Only time will tell if wishing wells
Can bring us anything
Or fade like scenes from childhood dreams
Forgotten memories
Some rides don't have much of a finish
That's the ride I took
Through good and bad and straight through indifference
Without a second look
There's no intentions worthy of mention
If we never try
So hang your hopes on rusted-out hinges
Take 'em for a ride
Only time will tell if wishing wells
Can bring us anything
Or fade like scenes from childhood dreams
Forgotten memories
Only time will tell..."

There's no way I could have seen where I am now from where I was when I first heard that song ca. 1994.

Chris Rock Breaks it Down

2008-09-27T03:21:20Z

From an interview with Larry King:

ROCK: The choice isn't Republican or Democrat. The choice is you got a guy that's worth $150 million with 12 houses against a guy who's worth a million dollars with one house.

KING: Well --

ROCK: The guy with one house really cares about losing a house, because he is homeless. The other guy can lose five houses and still got a bunch of houses. Does this make any sense? Am I the only one that sees this?

KING: It's unique way of ...

ROCK: I'm just saying, John McCain could lose half his houses.

KING: You got a point.

ROCK: And sleep well.

[...]

ROCK: You know, I hope Obama wins just because, you know, the country needs it. The country needs a change. We kind of seen what this whole McCain thing is. And I'll go with the guy with one house. The guy with one house is scared about losing his house.

KING: I never thought of it that way.

ROCK: It is that simple

Reefer Madness - Review #3

2008-09-24T04:37:00Z

Talkin' Broadway

This campy look at the 1930s conservative backlash against marijuana is a fun-filled and entertaining romp deserving of attendance.

[...]

The purposely corny set by Andrew J. Hungerford consists primarily of cardboard props representing the low-budget production values of the high school drama department and does much to advance the camp appeal. The costumes by Laura Franzini are fun, sexy and attractive.

Reefer Madness - Review #2

2008-09-24T04:32:25Z

Citybeat

Onstage, the musical's business is mockery, and much of it is quite good fun. A lecturer (Ty Yadzinski) explains that some Benjamin Harrison High School students have a story to tell, a story of drugs, degradation, murder and redemption.

Evil Jack (Fang Du) and reluctant but hooked henchpersons Sally (Jordan Schramka), Mae (Jenny Guy) and Ralph (Babs Ipaye) expose clean-living Jimmy (Daniel Hines) to reefer, and he takes right to it. Sex-crazed as well as weed-hooked, he embarks on a life of crime that includes stealing a car from his girlfriend, Mary (Courtney Brown). She flirts with reefer and heads for trouble.

Whether Jesus (also Fang Du), who comes down from his cross to sing and dance in the show's best-staged and funniest sequence, can salvage Jimmy's life must remain the show's secret to reveal.

[...]

Unlike sung-through musical plays such as See What I Want to See and Thrill Me that Know has presented so effectively, Reefer Madness is, behind its mocking attitude, an old-fashioned musical comedy. Stretches of comic dialogue alternate with solos, duets and go-for-broke production numbers, which Liz Vosmeier choreographed and Laura Franzini costumed with a tongue-in-cheek attitude matching the script.

Andrew Hungerford designed and lit properly tacky sets and amusing two-dimensional props. An airplane and a rickshaw are especially effective.

This Morning's iTunes Genius Playlist

2008-09-23T14:56:58Z

Tom Traubert's Blues - Tom Waits
Everybody's Talkin' - Harry Nilsson
Everyday I Write the Book - Elvis Costello
America - Simon & Garfunkel
Glósóli - Sigur Rós
Fake Palindromes - Andrew Bird
Leningrad - Billy Joel
Angels Of The Silences - Counting Crows
Three Marlenas - The Wallflowers
Running To Stand Still - U2
Another Sunny Day - Belle and Sebastian
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 - Bob Dylan
Radio Song - R.E.M.
Just A Thought - Gnarls Barkley
Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing - Chris Isaak
The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) - Tom Waits
Search and Destory - Iggy And The Stooges
Six O'Clock News - Kathleen Edwards
Lodi - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Blind Willie McTell - Bob Dylan
Border Song - Elton John
Why Does It Always Rain On Me? - Travis
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville - R.E.M.
A Hazy Shade Of Winter - Simon & Garfunkel

Reefer Madness - Review #1

2008-09-22T20:06:21Z

'Reefer Madness' appropriately dopey

Theater review

By Jackie Demaline

Know Theatre opens 2008-09 with gleefully dopey musical “Reeder Madness,” a slight entertainment about Demon Weed, based on the cult propaganda film from the ’30s.

The show is bright and savvy, and wisely doesn’t aim high and therefore hits the bulls-eye. There are worse things than being entertained.

[...]

The cartoony show gets a swell cartoony design by Andrew Hungerford, with everything in cut-outs, from coffee cups to church pews to cars and boats and planes. I don’t know how Hungerford and prop designer Mindy Griffin divvied up the work, but it all contributes enormously to the spirit of fun, as do Laura Franzini’s nutty costumes. Mindy Heithaus stands out as the “placard girl,” generally outfitted as an usherette in a '30s movie palace and strutting across stage with a blinding smile and signs carrying admonishing warnings about how bad dope is for you.

More Fringe

2008-08-21T13:29:03Z

Sword of Maximum Damage
The Miller's Tale
Mort
Dear Theo
All Dressed up to go Dreaming
The Lie of the Land
Silence in C Minor
This Must be the Place
Improphecy Chronicles
Strippers and Gentlemen
The Search for Sunshine