Life in the LAB (our Back Stage interview)

Excerpts from our recent Back Stage interview:

Rubin: LAB is identified with gritty, urban plays. This show is stylistically different from what we've done before — it's a comedy, inspired by TV sketches — but I don't think LAB has an aesthetic.

Julian: I don't think we have any one subject or style in our plays. But we all kick ass. The company is populated by talented individuals who are committed to a level of excellence, committed like a pit bull with a T-bone steak. What we have in common is that we leave cynicism at the door. At the Intensives, which are where our plays begin, it's a sacred process. Anyone can say what's no good and what doesn't work. We don't do that. We dive in.

Back Stage: What were the challenges in this play?

Michael: We have 10 rehearsals, and that's terrifying, but what makes it okay is that we can lean on each other. Also, it's a very difficult play and it goes to some really deep, intense places, and the stakes are high.

Yetta: But once you accept the world of the play and feel free to break the rules, it makes it easier.

Julian: It's a dark comedy with a lot of absurdity. You can't pre-plan it. The hard part is playing it. Keep what's good and get rid of the crap.

muMs: It's the limited time and the over-the-top comedy that shifts to a very dark place. That's a bit of a challenge.

Liz: It's an emotional roller coaster, and in a way we're rehearsing in front of the audience. So the challenge is to allow ourselves the freedom to explore in front of an audience.

Julian: Whether we're doing knee puppet theatre or a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, everybody is willing to do everything. And that has made me a better actor. It's given me the impetus to show up and think about what I can give rather than what I can take or what's going to be given to me.

Michael: These are all my friends. Even if we were not working together, we'd be playing together. We're in each others' lives.

To read the full interview, click here.

VMA

So we're in the home stretch of P&I. It's been a blast of fun times on and off stage. I got a note from Ruben yesterday (Im not going to say exactly what- that would make this blog just a little too revealing) that Im going to implement with reckless abandon from here on out. hahaha (devious laughter)

muMs

PERFORMANCE #4 Fri 6/13/08

Friday the 13th. Re-rehearsals this afternoon, before the show.

Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes, 57 seconds (3 seconds shorter than last night).

Stage Manager reports: "It was a much better show tonight. Nice audience response, the show tonight really felt like a rollercoaster ... John did not threaten the house with murder tonight and still no cell phones went off. Progress yes. Quote of the day: 'Isn’t he a better actor than that?' –Liz describing Lyle to Michael."

Costume note: Julian needs new kneepads.
Lighting note: one cue needs rebuilding.

If you saw this performance, PLEASE POST A COMMENT!

well...

well... to blog or not when things don't go well.  i would not be being honest if i only blogged when i was gushing over how fabulous the actors are.  so although this is harder to put out there- I must say- i did not love the show last night.  not that there weren't many wonderful moments, scenes, but something was off.   it is so wild how theater does that- well b/c it is live- so there you have it.  it's like having a bad day, or losing your patience with you child when you've been the coolest mom for three days in a row, and then you ask yourself, who am I?  

Here are some thoughts:  It started off with stakes too low, the intensity of scene one was down. the audience was quiet and it wasn't a full house, and it was only their third night in front of an audience, they are still getting used to that, and i still feel they are waiting too long for some stuff, like stairs and entrances.  so not great- but still i didn't lose any hope- let's keep it in perspective- still only 13th rehearsal, so jeez what do we expect. best, r  

One performance in ... the playwright speaks

So, we dropped by Rebecca's kitchen yesterday, just before she was heading down to the theater for performance #2. She said,
"The show was ... "
"Puzzo and Liz in the bar afterward, and they were ... "
"It also makes me glad I'm not acting anymore ... "
Here's the video:

PERFORMANCE #1 Tue 6/10/08

Tuesday 10th June ... First performance

Running time 1 hour 46 minutes ... most agree that we'll cut some time over the next few days, and this'll help both the comedy, and the darker side.

Props note: we're going to move the newspaper (now you know).

Did you see last night's show? If so, please tell us what you thought - just add a comment.

After dress rehearsal, the director speaks

We cornered John yesterday, after a frenetic day, and dress rehearsal (with Monique Carboni, LAB's resident photographer, snapping away - we'll be able to post photos soon) ... here's his description of how it's going.

Dress Rehearsal

Dress rehearsal, bah!!! this is a show.
Im nervous. well, not really but it's always good for me to say that to myself. it's keeps me in check.
I've got my lines and understand my purpose. my confidence is steady....
ahhh.... I can hear over the speaker, it's begun. Puzzo has tossed the mail.

-mums

we almost lost the show...

Well, we almost lost the show. In the end we had a financial catastrophe (with which the season has been replete) and yesterday evening was our deadline to get the money. We didn't have it and I had to go so far (as an official with LAByrinth) to tell Rebecca we were not going to open next week. This was an unpleasant phone conversation; she did not enjoy this news, and I felt at once like a producer giving necessary bad news and an artist getting badly fucked (sort of, by myself!) All too complicated and all too sort of, vaguely, self-hating. Then the money came through in a complicated arrangement of different beneficiaries, I was still in the office, but I was too depleted to feel utterly great. I just felt wrung out; like I'd failed even though we succeeded in the end. How wonderful that we succeeded in saving the show, but how horrible that I hadn't succeeded in doing so without all the sturm unt drang.

Also, the most complicated part, is that I have begun to feel like the show is actually on the right track. This is a difficult assertion to make because I direct under a vaguely mystical belief that failure is seductively elusive; merely lurking somewhere slyly covert in the future, never apparent enough to actually face and combat until the war is actually lost. But the work has been so much fun (perhaps because it's been a drug-like relief from fear of failing financially; which fear reminds me, in it's potency, of my sister, suky's, expression: "dead stomach." This is what your life is like when your stomach hurts so much, almost physically, that you wish you were dead. I've had this for about two weeks. That's the terror in which I've been living. Horrible.) But, the actors seem to have embraced the notion that we could just race along and stage the little bugger in 4 days. Which we did. Since we have 10 rehearsals before a public performance, I determined (since this is a farce) to give them structure. So, I staged, and on the fifth day we ran through (as ordained by the Lord!) All right. Next five on the way! Sigamos con sangre, sudor y lagrimas!

rehearsals

rehearsals have gone extraordinarily well- so well i won't bore you with the blah blah blah of how well.  all i will say is my dreams of having fun in rehearsal have come true.  the actors, as i thought they would, crack me up- i am laughing the loudest at appropriate and inappropriate times.  this might seem conceited; "loud laughing playwright laughs hardest at own play"- i have a fear of this when the show goes up, will people say, gee the playwright really thinks she is so goddamn funny.  but i must say- it is truly b/c the actors are beyond funny, they slay me.  they have been so emotionally available and inventive, and John has so beautifully directed with clarity and space to allow them to do their thing, and discover, while shaping the play precisely.  there i did it, i bored you with the mushy gushyness of my feelings, i shall stop now. Julian told me yesterday that Harvey Korman died.  He was a great comic genius, and so lovely.  Goodbye Harvey, thank you.   

tweaking

tweaking this week, in order to get a final draft to the office to print for first rehearsal next tuesday. the cast and I and staff have been e-mailing back and forth, re: rehearsal schedule, usually or sometimes that can stress me out, wanting everyone to have their needs met, and mine, but i wasn't stressed this time, i knew it would be fine, and i was calm, i think this is me growing up, which feels so good. paula pizzi was the original director for this play in the earlier days of readings and workshops, she is now the dramaturg. she was very helpful with catching things i couldn't see or was too lazy to see. she suggested we meet once more, I was like, "no, it's fine." she said i think you might be missing an opportunity for the script to be really ready, and instead of being in denial mode or I'm not in the mood to be a perfectionist mode which is where i could have gone or have in the past, i got off my arse, and said okay, thanks, lets read it again, wow, it was really helpful. so now i've been tweaking; commas, changing too many mother fuc....to other exciting useful, expletives, but most importantly making sure that i am including small moments to connect the dots of everyone's individual storyline. i like when small changes make big differences. i have a lot of dishes to do, dishes never really stop, they just keep going like laundry- my relationship to dishes and laundry is usually indicative to my relationship with my life at the moment. right now i really don't want to do the dishes, but i am also fine with that it has to get done. and listening to bob dylan while doing dishes is actually really exciting, so that will help. i will have more coffee. peace, rebecca p.s. Obama 08!

first blog ever in my life

This feels a little dangerous. I could write things that are indiscreet, or constitute information delivered too early to the actors, or are thoughts I haven't sufficiently prepared. Or I could write nothing of significance and waste the time of the reader. But then, this is all new to me and my leeriness is based on no less than that I don't know what is expected of me as a blogger. But why should I?

I'll say this (even though it's some thing I haven't yet figured out, but since I'm going to address it at the first rehearsal I'll say it now:) I don't know yet how to prepare the audience to witness a show that's only been rehearsed for two weeks. Since they are automatically accustomed to a certain quality of work that's in front of them, I feel that I have to protect the process, the show, the production, and the work from over-expectation. This is what I worry about today. But is it okay to let the actors know how much the director worries? These days I don't sleep well. I worry.

I didn't sleep last night. I worried. I was at a lovely room in an Inn, a beautiful, lovely old rambling inn, and I couldn't sleep. Worried about my ideas for this play. When I was an actor I assumed the Director knew everything. It's not true. I learned that lesson the first day I directed.

Design meetings tomorrow and the next day. They'll have ideas. Then I'll sleep. Now it's getting late and I should try to sleep. I'll try.

I don't know yet.... But I'll know then.

coffee, the play and my daughter

next day, another glorious coffee morning, things might turn to shit later, but for now, ahh...

i meant to say yesterday that in addition to liz as carol Burnett, puzzo as Tim conway, Yetta Gottesman is my very own Vicky Lawrence, and Julian my Harvey Korman. I recently discovered that the carol burnett show is on you tube- go to youtube.com and punch in carol burnett, they have a lot of the best skits - her show was on from 1973-1977 I believe. anyway, if you see the show, you might not see the carol burnett influence, but it was just inspired by. It is also about loneliness, the choices we make for survival, and other things that I was struggling with at the time. I love working with John Rubin, the director, he is a man who does everything at 200%, I always feel so communicated with and fully responded to, he is also a bit manic and a bit of a genius. Manic is said in a good way, here. I am supposed to talk about process; the first scene came out pretty whole, I wrote the first scene then the last, and they have had very little editing, the middle is always the hardest for me. I have to get my child ready for school, if i don't say "brush hair, teeth, pick out clothes" in a very involved way, it doesn't happen, I can't say it here from the computer, she doesn't take me seriously. best, rebecca

May 15th

i don't particularly like this picture of me, not b/c of the picture, b/c I think Jinn Kim takes great photo's, but of course, b/c it's me, and how many people like a picture of themselves. One eye is sort of bulgy and I look forlorn. anyway, I just had to say that, but it does look like me, and I like Jinn's photos. I am very excited to have Penalties & Interest going up with my beloved theater co. Labyrinth at the Public (a magical place). It is 7:15 a.m. I am drinking coffee, this is my favorite time of day, when the world is quiet. My cats lay, licking themselves peacefully. This play was somewhat inspired by the Carol Burnett Show, i kept seeing Puzzo, and Liz (lab members) as a carol burnett/tim conway team. After many autobiographical pieces I was so enthused to write something beyond my usual fare of diabetes, divorce, depression. so what better escape and change than theater of the absurd, or theater of the absurdish. it has been nothing but fun writing this piece. and writing for specific actors, which i have never done before, was all the more joyful, as I can hear how they would say stuff. i feel like puzzo, yetta, liz, and then a bit later julian acosta and more recently Mums, have been happily spending time with me in my small upper-west side apartment, they make me laugh all the time. The cats don't mind when I talk to myself while writing, they really don't mind much. i always wanted to blog, b/c i like to write stream of consciousness- but i felt too old for myspace and facebook, ha! i am an old 39 in some ways, and young in others. maybe that is how everyone or many people feel. I did 3 units of insulin about an hour ago, so i need to get food in me quick before i up, up there it is, hand starts shaking. i'll be back. bowl of kashi cereal in almond milk, i know, i know, i am so crunchy! see you, rebecca