Tympanic Theater Company Blog

On today's blog post one of the directors from Bastards of Young, Timothy Bambara, shares some sentimental value behind his excitement for directing May Is A Special Time of Year.  Timothy talks about some of his challenges with the piece while teaching us that you're never too old to have "play-time." 

When I was a kid, between 3 and 7, I loved to play with action figures and Legos.  I grew up on He-Man's, as well as Legos (only themed "Castle". "Land" and Space" back in the day, nothing as elaborate as Harry Potter or Indiana Jones themes).  I have to admit to the world that when I make a Wal-Mart or Target trip I always find myself wandering by the toy aisles, perusing the latest fad, always happy to see old staples in new forms, i.e. reincarnations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  One thing I am amazed at is how specific toys and play sets have become and how, I believe, when I was a child, they didn't have the technology or perhaps the play sets were not affordable to be that exact, leaving me to my own devices to create the settings for my adventures.  These were my first experiences, role playing, acting, and directing; all in one enchanting process my father likes to refer to as “Mr. Bill-ing”.

“Mr. Bill-ing” is my father’s self-created verb, referring to the infamous “Mr. Bill Show”, an adult stop action clay-mation short, made popular by Saturday Night Live in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.  If you are not familiar with the show, it is basically a predecessor to Seth Green’s “Robot Chicken” on Cartoon Network (a show that uses many popular action figures from the eighties as well.)  Now, with your “Mr. Bill” you create your own scene, you provide your own script, you do all the voices of any characters involved, you play each character and you direct the whole show.  You are, essentially all of the actors, designers and the director of the drama that you are putting on for your own entertainment, which actually, also makes you the audience (unless you choose to do the show for your younger brother.)  My father tells a story about how we were on a layover for a couple hours and he was able to keep me completely occupied the entire time because fortunately, he had a He-Man and a ball of string.   Apparently, I created a giant ropes course for my action figure that took up a good amount of space in the terminal.  When you are a child you are not aware that you are doing all of this, you are just under the impression that you are “playing” and when you are a kid, it’s your favorite thing to do.  You look forward to 3 things, Christmas, Halloween and play-time…maybe Chuck E. Cheese.  “Mr. Bill-ing” also requires a great imagination, especially due to the fact that you need to be able to create everything except the plastic figurine which you control, in Legos’ case, the plastic blocks that you build.  As a director, especially one in his early professional career, you hope to tap back into that ability when working in minimalist settings and storefront theatres.

 When reading Rob Matsushita’s May is a Special Time of Year I saw a real opportunity to play with some action figures again.  Rob’s play about two assassins flirting with the idea of dating each other, could be a run of the mill romantic comedy coffee table scene, if it weren’t for the fact that yes, they indeed, are on the job, perched on two separate positions with several hundred feet of distance between them, locked and loaded.  Rob’s ability to combine some truly witty dialogue into a very unusual setting with some serious emotions at stake is what immediately attracted me to the piece. 

 The challenge of the piece is telling the story and showing the action between the two protagonists, Megan and Connor, while keeping true to the convention of their professions.  In the script they talk over radio with a lot physical space in between them.  They are also interrupted by work several times and their focus is constantly being split between their flirtations and their targets.  The key for the actors is to breach, not only the physical gap, but also the emotional gap that lies between them.  So really, the challenge lies in establishing a wide physical distance between the characters, in a small black box theatre, and what better way to do this than to use our imaginations and get back to playing action figures. We turn 30 feet of distance into 300.  We focus on imaginary targets, we talk into ipod earphones that are not connected to anything, we put our energy into believing, and creating disbelief amongst the audience, and voila, we are all of a sudden on top of a 10 story building hunting a target with a laser scope and flirting with each other and the edge of danger.

 I’m just about at the point with my actors where all of our heavy lifting is done, lines are learned, scenes are blocked, and we are getting into the truly fun part of rehearsal where you start to explore all of the possibilities and all the smaller choices you can make from moment to moment.  The best part about “Mr. Bill-ing” now is that the action figures talk back, they have independent thoughts, and they can collaborate with you to make the story pop in ways you could never imagine yourself.  I’m very thankful that both society and Tympanic Theatre have given me the opportunity to continue to play with action figures well past twenty years since the time I should have stopped.

- Timothy Bambara

 MAY IS A SPECIAL TIME OF YEAR is one of the eight short plays in Tympanic's upcoming BASTARDS OF YOUNG.  For more information and tickets click here!