a poor player

Last Sunday was an unsettling day. Perhaps the fact that the weather all day was blustry and grey with winds of 30+MPH should have tipped me off. It became a day where things were left unsettled, strewn about like so many autumn leaves, within and without the heart and soul.

It started innocently enough. By Sunday’s matinee of Forum I have usually expended enough energy for one week, and look forward to the three days off between weeks. My energy level tends to be down, and my muscles begin to cramp up from the week’s efforts. This seems to be nature’s cruel way of not letting me forget I am getting older. I want to do my best to hide from this reality, but I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I have to do twice as much now to stay physically rested, prepared and in shape than my younger colleagues. The show went well enough, and I was surprised this past week that both the Saturday and Sunday matinee audiences were more lively and responsive than the Saturday night crowd. I also noticed the fact that there were good-sized houses this week, ready to enjoy this mindless bit of fluff.

I had made plans to stay in town Sunday evening to attend an “artists night” performance of The Dodo Bird, one of the plays on my fall preview list. Ofenttimes in Buffalo a production will have a performance on an “off night” such as Sunday evening or Monday evening so that actors in other shows can see work by other companies. It’s a nice touch. I wanted to see the new space built by Road Less Travelled Productions, and was looking forward to socializing with others in the Buffalo theatre community. Continue Reading »

Isaac Butler put out the idea of listing a “fall preview” of upcoming shows in your area that you’re looking forward to seeing. The NYC theatre bloggers have apparently gotten together, responded quickly, and are all kicking around a “fall preview,” listing their choices for what they want to see this coming fall season in NYC. An excellent suggestion, and a big help to those of us who only get to visit now and again. Here’s what I am looking forward to seeing in the upcoming season in Buffalo (no order of importance. Actually, this may become a list of show I would want to see, but can’t, because I’m in another show): Continue Reading »

I would like to extend my very sincere appreciation to everyone who took the time and effort to comment on my last post on NY Centrism, even those who raked me over for it. As an actor, you spend a career being praised and belittled, and I’ve had my fair share of both. It appears the same will be true with blogging. As if to prove my point, take a look at this review of Forum from Buffalo’s arts weekly newspaper ArtVoice as opposed to the last review I linked. Comes with the territory. So any additional comments, barbs, screeds and diatribes are always welcome – just keep my mother out if it!

And any good news about Buffalo, especially if it appears in the NY Times, is most welcome. Philadephia may have its “Avenue of the Arts”, but we have an entire Theatre District in Buffalo. And if you happen to be in town next weekend, come join us for the 26th annual Curtain Up! celebration, marking the official opening of the city’s theatre season. Is there any other city in the US that has an annual celebration of the theatre season’s opening? Or one older than 26 years? If there is, I’d like to know about it. Really!

And a Happy New Year to all my Jewish readers and colleagues! Shalom – for us all.  -twl

Well, now I’m gonna stay up late and write, because after writing the last post below, I began to read some of the other theatre blogs, and after spending some time commenting on them, I figured it was better to get on my own damn blog and write up a piece on NewYorkCentrism.

I have been meaning to write about this issue for some time, actually, but as everyone knows, when you get in a show some things get shoved aside, and for me this blog went AWOL for a bit. So I think my readings tonight are merely the trigger for these thoughts I write, and not the cause.

It did not escape my notice that of the four blogs that got mentioned in the UK CultureVulture piece, three were New York City blogs. Histriomastix has only been around since August 29th, but it gets mentioned because it’s the blog of the TimeOut NY theatre editor. The fourth was Alison Croggon’s blog from Australia. It should also be no secret that the majority of blogs out there now are also based in New York City. Continue Reading »

The good news first – Terry Teachout wrote a very nice piece on his visit to the American Shakespeare Center. I take a little bit of pride in it, owing to my association with the Center last year as a member of the Atomic Fission touring troupe. You can read the whole piece right here without having to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. It’s particularly satisfying since Terry earlier in the summer blasted the ASC’s web site as one of the worst he’s seen. In addition, Terry had a companion for the night, who blogged his visit with Terry to the ASC here.

The bad news – I got panned in the Buffalo News for my performance in Funny Thing. The show did well overall, but I got singled out as having no comedic knack. Here’s the review. In all honesty, I don’t think I’m all that funny either; something has always been missing to me, and I think it’s that comedy is not my forte. It’s not so bad to get a negative review personally – not that it doesn’t sting some, it does – but I do feel as if I’ve let the theatre down somehow, because a review gives to the audience the impression that there will be perhaps one bad performance in the show to lessen their enjoyment. It stings your professional pride. Ah well…moving on….-twl

There was a lot of stuff to catch up on and read/absorb! A lot! I’m nowhere near trying to sort it all out. And it’s hard not to feel the pressure a bit. Once you get into this blogging game it has demands which can be hard to meet at time. I mean, there are only so many hours in a day. But I won’t whine. Instead, let me catch you up on my goings-on before I try to tackle anything else. Continue Reading »

…I’m still tired. This is the first time in some time that I’ve actually tried to carry on with classes and perform at the same time. I think the last time I did this was for The Chosen. Usually Shakespeare in Delaware Park doesn’t conflict with classes. Seems as if either the years, the commute, riding in subcompact cars, or the combination of all three has finally caught up with me. Yesterday I got up at around 9:30 (after getting to bed at 1:00 AM), got to work at 11:15, taught my 12:00 class, ate lunch, went home and went to sleep at 2:00, woke up at 4:30, left for rehearsal at 5:30. Rehearsals have been letting out at 11:00PM or so, which means I get home at around midnight, and after maybe 30-45 minutes of winding down, get to bed.

We open in a week, and perhaps with the three days off a week I’ll be able to get back to some regular posting. In the meantime you’re just going to have to wait it out. I’m getting this in during a Saturday morning sitzprobe/mic check session, with a run-through to follow this afternoon. Theatre in Buffalo is about to heat up, and if you have any interest at all in seeing what happens in this city, follow this link. -twl

“Anyone who likes sausages or musicals shouldn’t see how they are made.” – unknown (by me)

It’s late. I am tired. I will not be writing long. But I do have to tell you that many things have been crossing my mind over the past few days as I have been travelling back and forth from rehearsal in Buffalo to home. Classes have been going on for the week, as have rehearsals, and time for some reason seems to be a shorter commodity than I had anticipated. Continue Reading »