What We're Seeing: Grasses of a Thousand Colors

Artistic Associate and co-founder of Fault Line Theatre Tristan Jeffers has assisted set designer Eugene Lee on Grasses of a Thousand Colors by Wallace Shawn, a co-production between The Public Theatre and Theatre for a New Audience.  The play is part of a retrospective celebrating the 40 year artistic collaboration between Wallace Shawn and André Gregory that also includes the first New York revival of Shawn’s The Designated Mourner.

October 7 – November 24, 2013.
The Public Theatre
425 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10003
212-539-8500

A LITTLE ABOUT THE PLAY

Shawn’s most outlandish work to date, GRASSES OF A THOUSAND COLORS, is a disturbing and anomalously beautiful play that explores the role of human beings in nature and the role of nature in human beings, sexuality being as Shawn says, “nature’s most obvious footprint in the human soul.” The play’s central character is a doctor who believes he has solved world hunger when he figures out how to rejigger the metabolisms of animals to tolerate eating their own kind. This has unexpected consequences. The play tells a story about the doctor, his wife, and his lovers, that is also a story about human beings and animals and the planet we live on.

CAST:

• Julie Hagerty
• Emily Cass McDonnell
• Kristina Mueller
• Wallace Shawn
• Jennifer Tilly

PRODUCTION TEAM:

• Playwright - Wallace Shawn
• Director - André Gregory

4th of July

From everyone here at Fault Line Theatre, have a glorious Independence Day!

Happy Canada Day!

“I’ve been to Canada, and I’ve always gotten the impression that I could take the country over in about two days.”

- Jon Stewart

As the lone Canadian in Fault Line Theatre, I just wanted to wish everyone a very happy Canada Day, especially to those fellow Canadians who couldn’t be at home celebrating with us in the Great White North!

What We're Seeing: rogerandtom

Our friends at Personal Space Theatrics present Julien Schwab’s critically acclaimed, mind-bending comedy rogerandtom on the Mainstage at HERE for an extended summer engagement. rogerandtom is a comedy whose only boundaries are between imagination and infinity. The play uses a twist to challenge the conventions of theatre while raising a series of profound questions about the role of theatre in theatre itself. PREVIEWS BEGIN SATURDAY JULY 6TH, OPENING SATURDAY JULY 13. Join them for an opening night reception immediately following the performance. Half price tickets available during previews July 6 – 12 use promo code “Preview2013″. Here are some more details about the show:

July 6 – August 24, 2013.
HERE MainStage Theatre
145 6th Ave. (enter on Dominick)
New York, NY
212-352-3101

Fault Line Theatre mailing list subscribers receive a $10 discount on tickets!

CAST:

• Suzy Jane Hunt*  (Dead Accounts)
• Eric T. Miller*  (Sweet Storm)
• Richard Thieriot*  (Clybourne Park)

PRODUCTION TEAM:

• Playwright - Julien Schwab
• Director - Nicholas Cotz
• Stage Manager - Taylor Alyssa Marun*
• Scenic Design - David Esler
• Lighting Design - Nastassia Jimenez
• Sound Design - Chris Rummel
• Costume Designer - Holly Rihn
• Properties Design - C. Alexander Smith
• Production General Manager - Rachel McMullin

*Appears courtesy of the Actor’s Equity Association

 

• Nicholas Cotz – Artistic Director
• Mel Wadle – Production Director
• Jacob Boller – Marketing Manager
• Ethan Van Auken – Business Manager

A LITTLE ABOUT THE PLAY

Julien Schwab’s rogerandtom was first produced by Personal Space Theatrics in 2003, as the company’s inaugural production. Since then, the show has been produced in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, at the Edinburgh Fringe, and, most recently, at the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre at HERE. Director Nicholas Cotz has worked with Schwab on many versions of the show, helping him polish the script and preparing it for its return to NYC.

“The writing and direction is brilliant and the production is flawlessly executed. I highly recommend checking this one out before it slips into a reality that we’re not privy to.”

- NYtheater.com

Samuel Beckett and Andre the Giant

A couple fun facts about Samuel Beckett to get you through to the end of the work day:

First, Fault Line Theatre co-artistic director and co-founder, Craig Wesley Divino, has a framed quote from the famous playwright in his New York apartment. The quote reads:

“Ever tried.  Ever failed.  No matter.  Try again.  Fail again.  Fail better.”

Second, I came across this article today by James Plafke at geekosystem.com about the unlikely friendship between Beckett and Andre the Giant.

“We don’t normally post many “today I learned” posts, but this one is just too awesome. Anyone who has ever watched wrestling back in the good ol’ days or has seen The Princess Bride knows that André the Giant was a massive, humongous — ahem, giant — guy. The famous Hulk Hogan was billed as 6 feet 7 inches tall, and everyone should remember this iconic moment between he and André, in which André made a guy who billed as the average height of an NBA player look tiny. When André was 12, he was already over 6 feet tall and weighed 240 pounds. He was too big to fit on the local school bus and his family didn’t have the money to buy a car that could deal with his weight if it drove him to and from school.

Samuel Beckett, Nobel Prize winner (literature) and esteemed playwright, probably most noted for Waiting for Godot, bought some land in 1953 near a hamlet around forty miles northeast of Paris and built a cottage for himself with the help of some locals. One of the locals that helped him build the cottage was a Bulgarian-born farmer named Boris Rousimoff, who Beckett befriended and would sometimes play cards with. As you might’ve been able to guess, Rousimoff’s son was André the Giant, and when Beckett found out that Rousimoff was having trouble getting his son to school, Beckett offered to drive André to school in his truck — a vehicle that could fit André — to repay Rousimoff for helping to build Beckett’s cottage. Adorably, when André recounted the drives with Beckett, he revealed they rarely talked about anything other than cricket.”

I think it’s safe to say we can now all rest easy knowing that Fezzik from The Princess Bride and the Irish eccentric who wrote Waiting for Godot were at one time close friends.

Happy Monday everyone!

Congratulations Class of 2013!

As you may have noticed, our website has unfortunately been down the last couple weeks.  This problem was sadly out of our control, but we’re excited to be back up and running again.

It seems like Summer has finally set in upon New York City.  Aside from unbearably humid heat and sweaty subway stations, Summer in NYC means a flood of young, excited graduates from all around the world.

Recently, I visited Providence, RI to attend the commencement weekend of Brown University.  Many of Fault Line’s founders are graduates of the MFA program at Brown (I, myself, was an undergraduate in the theatre department).  So it is with great excitement that we would like to congratulate the new crop of talented actors and directors who graduated this year!

From all of us here at Fault Line Theatre: Congratulations Class of 2013!

10 Rules for Students and Teachers

INSPIRATION FOR THOSE WHO STRUGGLE THROUGH THURSDAYS

If you’re anything like our friend Arthur from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (“This must be Thursday,’ said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. ‘I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”), sometimes Thursdays can be difficult.  With the weekend fast approaching, he are “10 Rules for Students and Teachers” from the enigmatic John Cage to motivate you.

(I would argue that these rules could apply to everyone, not just students and teachers…. but then, I would also argue that everyone is also both a student and a teacher…)

“RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then, try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student – pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher – pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined.  This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Follow the leader.  Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail.  There is only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.  You can fool the fans – but not the players.

RULE EIGHT: Do not try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: We are breaking all the rules, even our own rules, and how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for ‘x’ qualities.

HELPFUL HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read everything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully and often. SAVE EVERYTHING – it might come in handy later.”

A Shakespearean Weekend

Happy Friday everyone!  It’s finally starting to feel a little like Spring and we hope everyone is looking forward to a lovely holiday weekend.

Here at Fault Line Theatre, we love our Shakespeare (and his contemporaries). To celebrate the weekend, here is a fabulous link to Sir Ian McKellan leading a virtual, interactive workshop on the opening speech of Richard III.  He goes through line by line text analysis, general questions about context, and much, much more!  It’s a blast to watch one of the great Shakespeare actors of our time break down an equally brilliant piece of text.

On Regional Theatre

I’ve spent the last few days in snowy Madison, WI visiting friends, eating delicious food, and drinking a wide array of local brews.  It’s been a lovely, relaxing few days.  Over the weekend, I caught a Saturday matinee of a touring ‘live-action graphic novel’ called The Intergalactic Nemesis Book One: Target Earth.  It was a fun production that was not dissimilar to our production back in October of the staged radio-play The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

The Intergalactic Nemesis played to a crowded house at the Overture Center for the Arts right in the heart of downtown Madison.  This was the first time I can remember seeing a regional theatre production in a smaller city.  I’m so accustomed to attending shows in booming metropolises (like Toronto, London, or New York City) where the audiences are often critical observers rather than excited participants.  The excited audience (young and old) in Madison helped to remind me what is at the core of theatre.

Theatre is, first and foremost, for audiences.

One could say that the process leading up to a performance is for the artists; the rehearsal room is a place for actors/directors/designers to question everything, let their imaginations run wild, and make discoveries.  However, a performance is an offering.  It is an invitation to an audience to participate in the telling of a story.

I think this fact can sometimes get lost in big cities.  Perhaps it’s an issue of over-saturation.  Maybe there are so many theatres vying for an audience’s attention, that it becomes a competition to see who can do it better.  I certainly find myself often entering playhouses with the mind of a critic.  I’ll catch myself judging a production while I’m watching it, rather than allowing myself to be immersed in it.  I am not in any way saying that reflection and thought are to be frowned upon.  On the contrary, I believe they are necessary!  But, I think they should come after the fact.  Hindsight is, after all, 20:20.  The audience in Madison reminded me how to bask in the warm glow of the moment instead of shading myself with the wall of my critical intellect.

A performance is a two-way street.  The theatre should not be pretentious.  It should guide an audience on a journey through the story.  On the other side of the footlights, audiences should come with open minds and, more importantly, open hearts.

I will strive to keep this in mind as I head back to the big city tomorrow.

So long Madison!

GLAAD Media Awards

We have some very exciting news from this past weekend! 

On Saturday, Fault Line Theatre headed to the New York Marriott Marquis for the GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Awards.  Celebrities in attendance included Madonna, Anderson Cooper, and hosts Sam Champion, Lara Spencer, and Josh Elliott of ABC’s Good Morning America.  We are thrilled to announce that the original production of From White Plains won the award for best New York Theatre: Off-Off Broadway!  It was an incredible night and we were honored to be in the company of such inspiring artists and activists.