Monday, December 22, 2008

Hello again beautiful people. Tory here back and in full effect.

So we are wrapping up our first full week of rehearsals and WOW we are moving really fast. The week started off last Monday when we began to read through the final draft of the script. After that, we began to do what us Theatre folk call "putting it up on its feet". We played around with a lot of different staging ideas and wordplay, and what developed through the rest of the week was the beginnings of what will be the best ARTiculation show ever!

It's kind of funny because i'm just so excited about every aspect of this process from seeing the new postcards, to seeing pictures of us on the C1 web site, or even taking a glance a our brand spankin' new trailer that you'll all see on YouTube very soon. We also got a little glance at our costumes for the run and all I can say, while keeping it under wraps, is a LOT of color. The set can only be described as an emo playground on steroids - I will be the first to say it: Terri D. will hurt herself on this set. It is written.

In addition to adding a lot of new production elements we are also adding a LOT of music - we have turntables, acoustic guitars, lots of singing, electric bass, and tons of movement. This is definitely taking people out of their comfort zones, but it's also opening us up to things we never even thought about performance-wise. THANK YOU LOIS ROACH!

Ok guys and gals that's it for this time around. Good write, good night.

-Tory

Sunday, December 14, 2008

ARTiculation Begins

Hello beautiful people out there in internet world. This is your master of ceremonies, Duke of Linguistics, Commander of Funk, and all around good guy, Tory Bullock. For the duration of these first ever ARTiculation blog entries I will be playing the part of your poetic flight coordinator, weaving you through the ins and outs of the production. While I come with many titles, the one that I am most proud of is "co-founder of ARTiculation". For those of you who don't know, ARTiculation was founded in the steamy hot summer of 2005 by cast members Danny Balel, Terri Deletetsky, Simon Moody, Adobuere Ebiama, Nik Walker, and yours truly. Along the years we have shifted and shaped to form many different variations of which I am as proud of as the one we are currently taking. This is our first mainstage performance run of ARTiculation with four of the original founders performing. Danny, Terri, Nik and I, and new members Mike Cognata, Marvelyn McFarlane, Liz Rimar, and DJ Reazon, will be coming to you guys with 13 powerhouse shows, and we hope you're ready (i.e we hope you all have gone online and purchased your tickets!)
Since I get to talk to you guys well before the show even opens, there will be tons of breaking news (which i will represent by saying *BREAKING NEWS*) about sets, sounds, backstage updates and all of that jazz. Did Nik Walker injure himself in a musical retelling of the grinch that went awry? Did Danny Balel have an unfortunate tongue twister poem accident that resulted in him having to be sidelined for a show or two? These are the juicy gossip details that you will only find here at the C1 blog.
Enough of the small talk - here comes the juicy information that I know you all are dying for. We had our last script / production meeting last Sunday and let me just tell you all how EXCITING it was! We were sitting in our director's apartment, and just looking around the room gave me this intense feeling of "wow, we are really going to have an amazing show." For those of you who are in the dark, this run is, in part, a culmination of four years of tweaking, performing, touring, work-shopping, and testing, so I compare this run to a person who has been training for the Olympics for four years and then finally gets the chance to step onto the world's greatest stage.

That is exactly whatʼs going to happen in January when we set foot on the Boston Playwrights' stage, backed by Bostonʼs most creative and innovative Theatre company, Company One, all the while standing next to great friends who have been building this piece for years. It is going to be amazing, and I look forward to taking everyone through the process with us.

More soon...
Tory