Filed by Lance at 2:01 pm under General, Hatemail, Pop Culture, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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Start time: 1:00 PM
Media Personnel in attendance: 1
Pounds of Flesh consumed: 15
Kegs we polished off: 1, plus how many bottles??
Hatemail pieces we recorded: about 5
Pounds of vegetables we grilled: 6
True stories about Kelsey Grammer I heard: 1
New friends I made: 3 or 4
Friendships I deepened: several
Cups of coffee we served: 20
Cups of coffee I drank: 3
Twitter updates we sent: 7
End time: I left Trevor’s at about 1:30 AM

Congrats to you, Bil, and to you, Trevor, our gracious host, for another amazing Hatemail Recording Session! The next one takes place just before my birthday, Sunday, August 29th. Be there! Add to the numbers!

Filed by Bil at 11:25 pm under The Arts
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The recent yo-yo of heat followed by relieving rain followed by more heat is like the natural world taunting us. And just when I thought we could relax because the heat had cooled off just a little bit, I get word that the basement at Dream Theatre (like thousands of other basements in Chicago) is flooded. FLOODED.

Needless to say, all the free time I thought I had today was instead spent laboring to clean up the joint before our audience arrived tonight. It was a giant mess, but we were able to clean the visible parts of the theatre before our guests came. This is a victory, considering how much there was. There is also much more to do in the basement playing space, so I’ll be heading down there for a couple hours more before coming back north to the Hatemail recording session.

So, after several hours of covering ourselves in sweat and sewer grime, we somehow found the energy to put on a play to make the cleaning worthwhile. And it was the most amazing performance of this show anyone has ever seen. I mean, seriously, everyone was on fire tonight. It was fantastic. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s the kind of show I wish we could do every single night…without the flood first.

And yeah, this pattern I now find myself in (work hard to clean theatre, do awesome show, work hard again to clean theatre some more) seems very much like the weather itself: hot and miserable, cooling and fun, hot and miserable again. And that’s just life, man. Ups and downs. Bad times and good times. It’s all cyclical in scope.

Filed by Bil at 12:03 pm under Pop Culture, Religion, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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It’s the Monday before the show opens, so you know what that means: FULL ON SHOW PROMOTION MODE!

“Orestes” opens this Thursday down at the Dream Theatre in Pilsen, the Heart of Chicago. “Orestes” completes the Agon Trilogy, which has won Best New Play of 2010 by the Chicago Reader.

Here’s why you should come see it:

1) It takes place in Hell.

In this play, Hell is cold and dark. Forget what you believe about burning fire and torturous machines. Electra finds her way to the black pit in the second act of this show, and there she finds the long suffering of people in their own private sequestered rooms, tortured by themselves and able only to torture Electra once she finds them. This show shows us not the physical pain of Hell, but the mental anguish of loneliness and lost hope.

2) All your questions about Chorus will be answered.

I’m not giving anything else away. You have to be shown by the cast, not told by a blog.

3) The audience matters here.

In this play, moreso than in any other play I’ve experienced (either as an actor or an audience member), the audience are characters. There is a purpose to the actors’ talking to the audience, not for the simple sake of “breaking the 4th wall” or for any kind of shock value. The audience not only has a presence to the characters onstage, but a history. It’s thrilling and it draws you in as completely as possible, and there’s no hokey “audience participation” necessary. (Read: do not shout out occupations for the cast. They will cut you if you do this. Really.) Don’t be fooled by Tryphosia in the lobby before the show, you will actually be scared by the importance you bring as the audience member.

4) Seeing live theatre is awesome.

You can’t get an experience like this staying at home, and you can’t get it at the movies. It’s not expensive, and it’ll make you think things you never thought you’d think. Don’t be shy. Live a little.

Tickets are here:

Filed by Bil at 11:21 pm under Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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We had the most amazing “Orestes” rehearsal today. There was some time spent in fight choreography and practice, wherein Theresa Neef, Anna Weiler, and Alicia Reese flip back and forth between slow-motion and real-time –- sort of like “The Matrix,” but minus the whoa.

This was followed by the most intense (and longest) fragments exercise I’ve ever been involved in. Two people cried. TWO. Hot, human tears. For real.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 7:05 pm under Fightin' Words, Shameless Plugs, The Arts, The Media
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The amazingest news of the week is that Dream Theatre won both Best Off-Loop Theatre Company and Best New Play (for the Agon Trilogy) from the Chicago Reader! The second part is especially amazing since “Orestes,” the third play in the trilogy, hasn’t even opened yet.

And speaking of “Orestes,” it occurs to me that June has flown by and we open in a few short weeks now. I am going to have to memorize my lines at some point.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 11:19 pm under Fightin' Words, The Arts
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It feels pretty strange, I will admit, to switch so suddenly from show mode back into rehearsal mode. Like shifting from fifth gear to first without depressing the clutch. I even make that awful grinding noise. But back into rehearsal mode we must go, ready or not, so onward and upward…or, in this case, downward, since the whole second half of Orestes takes place in hell.

(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 10:31 pm under General, Love, Pop Culture, Social Issues, The Arts, The Media
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In honor of our British opponents in today’s World Cup match, let’s start with some 90’s BritPop:

She’s in a family full of eccentrics
She’s done things I never expected
And I need more time

(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 9:04 pm under Fightin' Words, General, Love, The Arts
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What’s the value of a critic?

What’s the value of criticism?

They’re two completely separate things.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 11:58 pm under General, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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That’s right, world – I may be blogging, and I may be using a Mac, but I am not at Starbuck’s. Not anymore. I was there earlier, with my giant hipster headphones over my ears, typing thoughtfully with one hand and tapping mindlessly in time with the Grateful Dead with my other hand. Yeah, I was working on my novel, not blogging.

That’s when I was discovered by people I know, so I scrambled to look less like some pretentious English major and more like a professional something-or-other, but I’m pretty sure I failed. I’m just glad I didn’t spill (much) coffee on my precious white MacBook.

Whatever.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 6:00 pm under General, Hatemail, Love, Stuff to Read, The Arts, The Media
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I ran across THXTHXTHX [via], and thought it’s really interesting. Thank-you-note-blog. An Anti-Hatemail!