Once in a while, loyal blog readers, something I post on my "regular" blog nicely cross-relates to this blog. Today is one of those times.
On my regular blog, every other Thursday this year, I have endeavored to write an open letter to someone I either do not speak to anymore, or could never possibly find. Partly to gain closure, and partly to show gratitude where it is due in retrospect. This week, being the 450th "birth week" of Shakespeare, I wrote an open letter to the man who first truly complimented my abilities to perform Shakespeare well. He was an audience member in one of my first quasi-performances of Shakespeare. (Read the letter to find out what I mean by that.)
And, Happy (Belated) Birthday, Shakespeare.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Here and There...and a Poem!
I write poems and post them on a website. I go by forms, and I'm currently working on acrostics. Today's was particularly appropriate for the subject of this blog, so I thought I'd post a link to it. Do tell me what you think, either there, or there. Check it out.
In the last month since I posted here, several theatre balls have been rolling with me. To begin with, I am off book for the first section of my Shakespeare-based one man show. For the most part. The lines are partially ad-libbed each time, so an exact timing is difficult to determine, but the average seems to be about 40 minutes. Truth be told that is running a bit longer than I thought it would. I may be able to trim some off of it, but it seems to be in love with that 40 minute presentation. So what I'll probably do is leave it as it is, and make sure the second section, which is shorter, takes no more than 20 minutes. Then I'll throw in an intermission. I hadn't planned to use an intermission, but given how long the first section is, it clearly needs one.
The first section should be the longest by a few minutes. So with some trimming and practice, all of the others should be much faster. Better to open with the longer section, I dare say. It needs to set the tone for what I'm doing. Then once that ball is rolling the other sections should go by quicker. And intermission won't hurt anything, and I have a natural breaking point for one. I won't be sure if it works until I am off book with section two. I'll start memorizing the Shakespeare speeches for that section sometimes in the next week.
The good news is that the show is starting to come alive to me. There will be tweaks along the way, of course. I'm still trying to find a good presence for the one-man I'm portraying between the Shakespeare. But now that I can recite all of the Shakespeare for section one, and can present the other speeches and commentary in an organic way, I have for the last week or so felt like I'm truly performing it. There's a lot of work left to be done, but I've gotten over a major hurdle...the end of the beginning, as it were.
Speaking of beginnings, I have also in the last ten days or so begun writing the script for a conventional stage play, that is to say one that is not a one-man show. There are in fact five characters in this play, and I've been kicking the idea around in my head for about a year or so. It will explore art and acting. Performing. What parts of art we do and do not own when we create them. That sort of thing. This will be my first sincere attempt at writing a full length stage play, so I'm in uncharted ground here. But I like what I have so far, and thanks to some tips online, I've created a script format template for Word that makes it look like a script as I write it. Believe it or not, seeing it in script format helps. I get the sense I am creating something to be acted. I can see future actors highlighting the words as I am typing them, and that's a satisfying thought.
I have about 5,000 words of that project done as well. I have some fear that the material may be too thin for a full length play, but I have a lot of room to play with for now. The goal is to have at least a first draft of the play completed before the end of 2014.
I've also just started to gather theatre related articles or blog posts from elsewhere that I can use for future commentary here on the blog. I mentioned I planned to expand the scope a bit by commenting on certain things and I mean to do so. I just want a bit of a collection of potential topics to build up before I launch into that in earnest. (If you have any ideas or questions or links you think I should check out, do let me know in the comments!)
That's all for now, loyal blog readers. If you're still out there, please let me know it. I'd very much appreciate a comment here and there to let me know I'm still reaching somebody.
In the last month since I posted here, several theatre balls have been rolling with me. To begin with, I am off book for the first section of my Shakespeare-based one man show. For the most part. The lines are partially ad-libbed each time, so an exact timing is difficult to determine, but the average seems to be about 40 minutes. Truth be told that is running a bit longer than I thought it would. I may be able to trim some off of it, but it seems to be in love with that 40 minute presentation. So what I'll probably do is leave it as it is, and make sure the second section, which is shorter, takes no more than 20 minutes. Then I'll throw in an intermission. I hadn't planned to use an intermission, but given how long the first section is, it clearly needs one.
The first section should be the longest by a few minutes. So with some trimming and practice, all of the others should be much faster. Better to open with the longer section, I dare say. It needs to set the tone for what I'm doing. Then once that ball is rolling the other sections should go by quicker. And intermission won't hurt anything, and I have a natural breaking point for one. I won't be sure if it works until I am off book with section two. I'll start memorizing the Shakespeare speeches for that section sometimes in the next week.
The good news is that the show is starting to come alive to me. There will be tweaks along the way, of course. I'm still trying to find a good presence for the one-man I'm portraying between the Shakespeare. But now that I can recite all of the Shakespeare for section one, and can present the other speeches and commentary in an organic way, I have for the last week or so felt like I'm truly performing it. There's a lot of work left to be done, but I've gotten over a major hurdle...the end of the beginning, as it were.
Speaking of beginnings, I have also in the last ten days or so begun writing the script for a conventional stage play, that is to say one that is not a one-man show. There are in fact five characters in this play, and I've been kicking the idea around in my head for about a year or so. It will explore art and acting. Performing. What parts of art we do and do not own when we create them. That sort of thing. This will be my first sincere attempt at writing a full length stage play, so I'm in uncharted ground here. But I like what I have so far, and thanks to some tips online, I've created a script format template for Word that makes it look like a script as I write it. Believe it or not, seeing it in script format helps. I get the sense I am creating something to be acted. I can see future actors highlighting the words as I am typing them, and that's a satisfying thought.
I have about 5,000 words of that project done as well. I have some fear that the material may be too thin for a full length play, but I have a lot of room to play with for now. The goal is to have at least a first draft of the play completed before the end of 2014.
I've also just started to gather theatre related articles or blog posts from elsewhere that I can use for future commentary here on the blog. I mentioned I planned to expand the scope a bit by commenting on certain things and I mean to do so. I just want a bit of a collection of potential topics to build up before I launch into that in earnest. (If you have any ideas or questions or links you think I should check out, do let me know in the comments!)
That's all for now, loyal blog readers. If you're still out there, please let me know it. I'd very much appreciate a comment here and there to let me know I'm still reaching somebody.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Broadening Horizons.
I know it must be difficult for anyone who reads this blog to believe, but I am still around. In fact, if you visit my main website, TyUnglebower.com or if you follow me on Twitter (@TyUnglebower) you know I haven't disappeared. but as my time off the stage begins to stretch into a two year period, (which would be approaching my personal record since I first started acting), I have fewer things to write on this pages.
I often have mentioned my intention to start posting more opinion pieces regarding theater and acting in general, to make up for my time off stage. I have yet to make 100% good on that plan, but I have not abandoned that goal, either. It may just mean that I have to work extra hard to cull material for such things, and to include the time in my regular writing schedule for same.
Reviews of plays may also be on the docket in the future. While I have done that here and there on this blog, it hasn't been a regular feature. I won't be able to attend live performances as often as I may like, but I do plan to read more plays this year, and I can review the scripts at times, even if not actual performances. I continue to consider that.
Then I have also pondered writing my own analysis of more classic plays. That of course takes time, so I won't be able to crank those out weekly or anything like that. But it may be a source for features in the future here, if I continue to not have a play to appear in.
Truth be told it's probably a good idea that I expand some of the scope of Always Off Book even if I do get back on stage more regularly. This blog has been around for quite a while, and I have no plans to shut it down any time soon, but it may call for more than a few pieces of acting advice, and a running report on any given play I happen to be appearing in or directing. The commentary I do give on actual plays when the time comes may also change somewhat, but I can't exactly explore that possibility until I am in the midst of a play again.
Whatever it is I do with this blog in the coming months or years, it will remain a place for my honest, passionate and at times unorthodox take on acting and theatre from the trenches. Jackasses will always complain, as they have often on this blog before I turned off anonymous posting, that I am not a real actor. But in fact, I, and people like me, am more of a real actor than they, and many others, simply because I wish to be. I strive to be. I seek to improve, explore, and challenge myself and others through my presence in the theatre, and I hope to reflect that here on the blog in a broader fashion in the coming months and years, and I hope that you will join me for that journey. (And comment a bit a long the way...I measure comments by the year around here...a polite conversation would certainly help out around here sometimes. But we'll get into that in due course.)
So it may take some adjustment time on my part, but I hope to hit a new rhythm here on this blog. Until then, stay tuned and check out my adventures elsewhere as well!
I often have mentioned my intention to start posting more opinion pieces regarding theater and acting in general, to make up for my time off stage. I have yet to make 100% good on that plan, but I have not abandoned that goal, either. It may just mean that I have to work extra hard to cull material for such things, and to include the time in my regular writing schedule for same.
Reviews of plays may also be on the docket in the future. While I have done that here and there on this blog, it hasn't been a regular feature. I won't be able to attend live performances as often as I may like, but I do plan to read more plays this year, and I can review the scripts at times, even if not actual performances. I continue to consider that.
Then I have also pondered writing my own analysis of more classic plays. That of course takes time, so I won't be able to crank those out weekly or anything like that. But it may be a source for features in the future here, if I continue to not have a play to appear in.
Truth be told it's probably a good idea that I expand some of the scope of Always Off Book even if I do get back on stage more regularly. This blog has been around for quite a while, and I have no plans to shut it down any time soon, but it may call for more than a few pieces of acting advice, and a running report on any given play I happen to be appearing in or directing. The commentary I do give on actual plays when the time comes may also change somewhat, but I can't exactly explore that possibility until I am in the midst of a play again.
Whatever it is I do with this blog in the coming months or years, it will remain a place for my honest, passionate and at times unorthodox take on acting and theatre from the trenches. Jackasses will always complain, as they have often on this blog before I turned off anonymous posting, that I am not a real actor. But in fact, I, and people like me, am more of a real actor than they, and many others, simply because I wish to be. I strive to be. I seek to improve, explore, and challenge myself and others through my presence in the theatre, and I hope to reflect that here on the blog in a broader fashion in the coming months and years, and I hope that you will join me for that journey. (And comment a bit a long the way...I measure comments by the year around here...a polite conversation would certainly help out around here sometimes. But we'll get into that in due course.)
So it may take some adjustment time on my part, but I hope to hit a new rhythm here on this blog. Until then, stay tuned and check out my adventures elsewhere as well!
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