Critically speaking, Ozma & Harriet has been quite a strange trip.  While Tympanic shows rarely get unanimously praised or panned, the consensus usually at least leans one way or the other.  But Ozma’s been different.  It’s by far the oddest thing Tympanic’s produced, but it also happens to be my favorite show we’ve done.  I don’t know if the polar nature of our reviews is a testament to our team making strong decisions that elicit equally strong responses from our audience or merely proof that the script can’t make up his mind, but whatever the case, I love, love, love this show and everyone involved with it.  We only have one weekend left and I’d love to see you there.

 Theatre In Chicago has always provided a wonderful overview of…well, theatre in Chicago.  One of my favorite things to do is click on the “Review Roundup” section of whatever show I’m working on.  Whether the criticism is positive or negative, there’s always something pleasant about seeing the various editorial opinions on a piece of art you’ve helped create scribbled on the web in one collective splatter.  Read on if you care about reviews, and if you don’t, consider yourself lucky.

 http://www.theatreinchicago.com/review.php?playID=4035

 Or better yet, come see the show.  Then write your own review.  I promise you’ll have something to say.

 OZMA & HARRIET

Through April 18^th at The Side Project (1439 W. Jarvis Ave.)

Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00pm, Sundays at 7:00pm

Tickets are $15 general, $12 student/industry

For tickets and more information, visit www.tympanictheatre.org or e-mail admin@tympanictheatre.org

Thanks for reading!

Dan Caffrey

Artistic Director

"Why is Tympanic Theatre a good fit for you?" 

 After reading the responses of the newest Tympanites, I started thinking to myself, "Why is Tympanic Theatre a good fit for ME?"  Having been a part of Tympanic from the beginning of time, I was slightly embarrassed to admit that I hadn't ever thought about why Tympanic was the PB to my J.   So to make up for lost time I thought I would dedicate today's blog post to the many reasons why I love Tympanic.  After all, love don't come easy.  Without further ado here are the reasons Tympanic sets my heart in motion…

GUERILLA MARKETING

Tympanic is probably one of the few Chicago Theatre's where you will find an Artisitic Director so dedicated to his craft that he'll brave the CTA and down-town Chicago in a Lion-O costume in order to promote a show.  Anything in the name of Marketing!

 Honestly.  What's not to love about folks who take reaching the masses this seriously?

WE LIKE OUR MAKE-UP HEAVY, UGLY, AND BLOODY

It's become somewhat of an unspoken Tympanic tradition to have at least one make-believe, out of this world, type of mythological creature in our season.  Call us a one trick pony!  Call us geeks! But I DOUBLE, TRIPLE, DOG DARE you to tell me these aren't faces to love.

Trocino as Olga (Musing 2009)

Gotz and Martinez (Gregor and the Squonk 2008)

Gregg as Moss Lady (House of Weird Death 2008)

 THESE AIN'T YOUR MAMA'S BEDTIME STORIES

At Tympanic, we dedicated ourselves to producing new work with fantastical, frightening, or absurd subject matter that provokes as well as entertains.  We invite our audience to explore new theatrical worlds of fresh, visceral storytelling, and extraordinary characters.  While doing all of this our goal is to foster the young voices of today's playwrights.  That's a tall order, but with a band of  multi-talented, theatre loving, hooligans by your side it's an easy order to fill. 

HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS

I don't know if you've heard, but apperantly we're in an recession?  Time's are hard and finding funding for the arts is even harder.  It's times like these that make me wish the bartering system was still an acceptable means of survival.  Unfortunately, that ship sailed back in 500 B.C.  So what is a green theatre company to do when they're in need a rehearsal space?  They make the best out of their resources.  Yep, that's right folks!  At Tympanic we rehearse right out of Artistic Director, Daniel Caffrey, basement.  Throw some paint on the wall, sprinkle some production photo's, and add a few black boxes and…TADA! You've got yourself a rehearsal space! 

 DO YOU HEAR WHAT I 'EAR'? 

When your name is Tympanic and your logo is an ear, you better be damned if you don't know a thing or two about killer soundtracks.  Tympanic's shows are always chock-n-block full of awesome tunes (old ones and new ones) that help set the tone of the piece.  Hell, we even named our upcoming short play festival after a replacement song, BASTARDS OF YOUNG.  We believe in stimulating all the senses and our soundtracks arejsut one of the ways we aim to please. 

PASSION IS SO IN FASHION

Bottom line…these cats have a true, hot blooded P-A-S-S-I-O-N for what they do.  I can't feel luckier that they have branded me as one the clan.  It's family, ya'll!  There's something special about gathering in a room full of folks and knowing just by the pure energy in the room that these folks are here for the same reason…to put on a killer show while having a killer time!

Thanks for reading!

Susan 

Endstation is a collective of theatre artists run by Tympanic friend and fellow FSU alumni Geoffrey Kershner, and focuses on the development and promotion of theatrical arts in Central Virginia.  Most of their shows are centered around the scenic, history-rich locale, even their Shakespeare series, which is pretty rad.  On top of a killer, dynamic outdoor production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, this year’s festival also includes two new scripts: THE BLUEST WATER: A HURRICANE CAMILLE STORY (written and developed by Jason Chimonides and Endstation about the 1969 storm that devastated Nelson County) and MY BROTHER’S KNIFE: A MADISON HEIGHTS ODYSSEY, a creepy/hilarious Southern gothic tale written by Tympanic stalwart Joshua Mikel.  On top of the shows themselves, this year’s festival features their first ever Playwrights’ Intensive, which is the gig I’m here for.

FSU alums gone Endstation

The Playwrights’ Intensive is made up of two components: Ad Hoc and Posthaste.  Ad Hoc is pretty basic; a workshop and staged reading of a pre-existing work from each playwright, while Posthaste is a bit more intense (no pun intended.  No, screw that, pun intended.  I mean who doesn’t like puns, right?).  Here’s how it works:

At the beginning of the week, all of the playwrights (there are four of us) get together and write down several elements they think might be fun to have in a new script.  We put all of the elements into a box and draw out five.  Each playwright has to use all of those elements in a new script that they start working on right away.  We meet for private readings throughout the week, workshopping the script before a public reading at the end of the festival.  The format is derived from the 24-Hour Play Bake-Offs used at various theatre festivals and grad programs throughout the country to kick off their academic year.  This year’s elements are:

-Atlantis

-The Sword In The Stone

-A character who doesn’t speak for the first half of the play

-A talking pumpkin

-Incest

A pretty tall, but colorful order.  The playwrights can use the elements as literally or as metaphorically as they like, as long as they pop up somewhere, serving as more of a springboard for story ideas than a strict outline for plot.  As a result of the exercise, I’m cooking up a full length called ORANGE ORBS that I’m pretty proud of, so we’ll see what happens with it in the future.

Soltero and Kmiec in My Brother's Knife

Not to get all maudlin on you, but being up here really puts things in perspective.  At the end of the day, you should be doing theatre because you love it, and being isolated in the mountains with a merry band of fellow artists and friends with nothing to do but focus on their art really takes it back to that.  It’s been such a rewarding experience so far and I hope to do it again next year.

Bottom line: Endstation Theatre turns out some stellar work and truly has the theatre artist’s best interest at heart.  For more information, definitely check out www.endstationtheatre.org or http://endstationtheatre.blogspot.com/

I hope you’re all having a fantastic week.  See you when I get back!

Just something to think about.

Dan

Courtesy Reuters, from 103 floors up in the Sears Tower

Did you see this? On Thursday, Sears Tower unveiled a 103rd floor glass balcony. According to the article, "Visitors to the Sears Tower's new glass balconies all seem to agree: The first step is the hardest." It makes you wonder why, doesn't it? I think it's because deep down inside, even though the glass is an inch-and-a-half thick, and the balconies can hold up to 5 tons, there's a chance it'll fail. Failure sucks, especially when you can see it coming.

The same can be said of any aspiring actor, playwright, or director. Getting your face out there, and/or getting your work out there can be the most difficult thing in the world. It's easy enough to move to a new place, find your new group of friends, and never get your face out there. I was talking to a coworker of mine who was an aspiring novelist. Yes, that's right, I said "was". Anyway, he moved to Chicago to get away from everything – isolate himself – and write "the great American novel." Didn't work. As he started making new (non-author) friends, he started focusing less and less on the novel, and then he met a girl, and one thing led to another and now he's been working in IT for the last 10 years, on the cusp of starting "yet another" great American novel. What drives that? I'll argue it's fear. Fear that all your hard work, dedication and sweat and tears will yield nothing. If you're in it alone, that fear will be paralyzing. Who can you run to if you fail? But you can't fail if you never fully try, right?

Chicago Theater

One of the things I love most about Chicago (at least it's theater scene, dunno about the writers-of-the-great-American-novel scene) is that everyone knows this, and everyone there is trying to help everyone else succeed. Larger companies are willing to help out smaller companies, friends will tell other friends about auditions, and we'll recommend other actors and directors when we can. For example Tympanic has auditioned countless people with just a handful of acting credits (myself being one of them, in much-too-long-ago Splintered Crosses) knowing that talent isn't just in those with an BFA from Tisch, but in anyone with enough passion and drive to make themselves better. I mean, even our company embraces what I feel to be the Chicago aesthetic – we're dedicated to producing new work. All new work is a roll of the dice. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's not, but one thing's for sure: it's always exciting. And that's what we love to do: create exciting new worlds for everyone to enjoy.

But I digress. All I'm saying is so many people arrive in Chicago and just forget about their dreams. They never go on auditions, or they never take a class. They move to their first apartment in the Ukranian Village, and rather than go out on auditions, they spend their days in a temp job in the West Loop, and nights at Darkroom buying PBRs for a buck (oh Chicago prices, how I miss thee!). What people need to accept is it's not you against the world – there's a community of people in Chicago that need (and want) to help you succeed. While we all love to give a great performance, we also love to see one… y'know, the one that only you can deliver. But, if you never get out there, how can we ever see your fantastic interpretation of Anne Sexton's life?

I know, I know, this is all like one big motivational speech to get you off your ass and start auditioning. Whatever, I can't make you step on the balcony. But how will you know what it's really like to be 103 floors above River West, if you never try?

In case you can't find auditions, here are a couple good places to start.
http://www.performink.com
http://www.chicagoplays.com
http://www.chicagoreader.com

Also, if you use a news reader I've created a small little aggregator that checks about 12 or 13 different sites around Chicago (including League of Chicago Theatres and Chicago Reader) and makes it simple to keep track of what you've submitted for and what you haven't. It is, of course, free and always will be.

http://auditionlists.appspot.com/index.rss

Want a video showing you how to use it in Google reader? Check out this dated video  at http://imaginaryfriendschicago.com/audition-lists.swf on how to set it up. If anything, you'll get to hear me talk a little flamboyantly.

Break legs and hearts.

Greetings!  A lame way to start a blog, I know.  How about the Charlotte’s Web approach?  Salutations! 

 Welcome to our first (well, kind of first) blog entry.  This thing will be pretty informal, but hopefully will give you some insight into our little theatre company, as well as some of our personal views on theatre in general.

 Tympanic had a great second season of new work with two full length plays, Gregor And The Squonk, written by myself and directed by Susan Myburgh, and Musing, written and directed by Amy Whittenberger.  However, for our third season, we’re delving back into the world of shorter pieces, something we tackled in our first season with the short play collections, Splintered Crosses and The House Of Weird Death.  The dates, location, and directors are being hammered out as I write this sucker, and will be unveiled very shortly.  I can tell you that the festival will take place sometime in mid-Fall, and you can also check out the script summaries on our homepage.  We’re working with nine fantastic playwrights, some new faces and some old ones, and it’s going to be a great time for all involved, and hopefully for the audience as well. 

 Now that the business stuff is out of the way, let’s talk about…I don’t know what you’d call it…issues?  Opinions?  Either way, let’s spark a debate.  I recently saw Redtwist’s production of The Ride Down Mt. Morgan by Arthur Miller.  The play – as the majority of Miller’s plays do – deals a lot with morality, in this case, a man who’s discovered to have two families after wrecking his car driving down a mountain.  Miller’s always considered himself or been considered a “moralist,” a word that gets thrown around a lot with some of those old guy playwrights.  After seeing the play, I started researching some aspects of Miller’s own life.  His resume is checkered with lots of socially responsible photo journals, plays, novels, and essays.  Regardless of the medium, this guy was frequently fighting for a cause, and justifiably so.  The Crucible (once again, if done right) still resonates today.  However, when I took a gander at some of his personal choices, they seemed a bit questionable.  Miller had a son with Down’s Syndrome, whom immediately after his birth, was institutionalized at Miller’s insistence.  Miller wanted nothing to do with the kid until much, much later when his son-in-law Daniel Day Lewis convinced him to reestablish connections with him.

This seems pretty despicable to me.  Now keep in mind that I didn’t know Arthur Miller.  I don’t know the exact circumstances of the situation, and I don’t have a kid with Down’s Syndrome.  I imagine it’s one of the toughest things in the world to deal with.  However, I can’t really see any good reason in my mind to just sever all connections with your child.

 The whole scenario is extremely familiar when looking at “moralist” artists in history.  A lot of the time, insanely talented people who champion a greater global cause or change can’t seem to keep from doing pretty awful things in their personal lives.  Nobody’s perfect, I know, but if you take a look at Miller and say, John Lennon, both of them fought for huge causes (and inspired a lot of people to change in the process) while doing sublimely dickish things in their own lives.  People usually defend them by saying something along the lines of “they were aware of their own faults,” but to me, just recognizing that you’re being an asshole doesn’t make it okay.

 I’m not disputing their talent or the impact they had or anything like that, but for me, change should start on a personal level.  I don’t mean to be on a high horse about it or anything, but something as simple as being kind to those around you goes a long way.

And now…here’s what some Tympanites are doing around town:

 Ensemble member Chris Acevedo can currently be seen in

fracture/mechanics  

By Mallery Avidon

Directed by David Perez

Through June 27^th: Fri-Sat. 8:00pm, Sun. 3:00pm

Presented by The Pavement Group at Red Tape Theatre

621 W. Belmont

For tickets, call 312-733-9283 or visit www.pavementgroup.org

Ensemble member Susan Myburgh can currently be seen in

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan

By Arthur Miller

Directed by Alex Levy

Through July 3^rd: Thurs-Sat. 8:00pm,

Sun. 3:00pm

Presented by The Redtwist Theatre

1044 W. Bryn Mawr

For tickets, call 773-728-7529 or visit www.redtwist.org

Just something to think about.

Dan