The Blog of Abel Horwitz

On Friday evening I went to Zombie Joe’s Underground to see the opening night of “Richard III”.

Director Denise Devin has taken Shakespeare’s 3 hour epic and condensed it into a tightly wound hour of deception, backstabbing and power grabbing in the tiny Zombie Joe’s Theater.

I give all credit to Devin, who has clearly done her homework. Prior to going to see the show, I read an interview with Devin in which she explained her research into the real-life Richard III, and had made the decision to cast an age-accurate actor for the part.

Richard was 32 when he died, yet most productions have cast older actors to play the part (Ian McKellan was 56 when he played Richard, Laurence Olivier was 47). 

My biggest compliment for the play would be for Devin’s adept casting of the title role. W. Lochridge O’Bryan plays Richard so with such malice and such passion that it is impossible to take your eyes off of him.

Of note was his scene with Anne Neville, played by Anna Gillcrist, where he attempts to seduce her, despite his previous murder of her father and husband.

The scene was as delightfully complex as it could be, and O’Bryan and Gilcrist play it with such a myriad of feelings and emotions throughout. I was stunned by how good they were.

Producing Shakespearian drama, to me, feels like a hard sell. While I must commend Zombie Joe’s Underground and Devin for mounting such a complex piece, it was hard for me to sit there for an hour and be fully captivated. Often times, Shakespeare can feel like homework.

Shakespeare can be a delight if one is studied and educated on his plays and the context of the time in which he wrote them, but as I was watching actors attempt to get their mouths around difficult words it felt like watching a bunch of actors recite memorized lines, rather than truly perform. I would like to chalk this up to opening night jitters, and hope they get better as the play continues forward.

Furthermore, seeing the same actor wearing a slightly different costume to indicate that they’re a different character was so maddeningly confusing that I had difficulty with the continuity of the show.

I knew, overall, where we were heading, but had a hard time following the performances, scratching my head over who was supposed to be on Richard’s side or on that of his opposition.

Often times an actor would come into a scene to speak poorly of Richard, only to turn around and come back out wearing a different top, playing a character who was on Richard’s side.

One such example of this was actress Tina Preston, who walked onstage as Queen Margaret, cursed Richard, left, and came back a few moments later portraying the more sympathetic Queen Elizabeth.

It was fascinating to see the play now, in context to the remains of Richard being unearthed earlier this year. 

All and all, I am happy to have seen the show. It was challenging, but forced me to go do some research into both the play and the actual history of Richard III. 

And perhaps that is the mark of good theater – the kind where you walk out hungry for more.  

THIS IS WATER (by SeeTheGlossary)

In 2005, author David Foster Wallace was asked to give the commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College. However, the resulting speech didn’t become widely known until 3 years later, after his tragic death. It is, without a doubt, some of the best life advice we’ve ever come across, and perhaps the most simple and elegant explanation of the real value of education.

We made this video, built around an abridged version of the original audio recording, with the hopes that the core message of the speech could reach a wider audience who might not have otherwise been interested. However, we encourage everyone to seek out the full speech (because, in this case, the book is definitely better than the movie).
-The Glossary

Full speech here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/12/this-is-water-david-foster-wallace/

emilytea10:

seek-agreatperhaps:

invisiblecashews:

Actually,  the photographs are spaced ten years apart, not sixteen.

1912 to 1922.

The young, homeless (but no less dapper) wanderer shown in the first survived the sinking of the Titanic and swam to the shores of West Egg. There he built a life and a large, empty house, in an effort to win the heart of the wealthy, upper class woman he’d fallen in love with a decade earlier and had been separated from against his will.

He shed his earlier identity, and changed his name to reflect his new station. Jack was now known as Jay Gatzby, the eccentric millionaire who threw parties every night in the hopes that one day his love would show up and spin with him as they had long ago in the dance hall of the lower decks.

Ehr-Mah-Gehrd.

#and he still ends up dead floating in the water

Go to your room.

 

(Source: margaritka2005)

BBC News ‘Queen’ Helen Mirren scolds London street drummers (by BBCWorldNewsWatch)

Yes! Helen Mirren — dressed as Queen Elizabeth — walked outside of the theater where she was acting and scolded drummers for being loud while her play was being performed.

I’ve written about her before. I had the utter pleasure of being Mrs. Mirren’s personal assistant during the filming of Love Ranch in 2008.

She was an outstanding boss, and the experience was an absolute joy from start to finish.

I remember a moment during production where an extra was taking video phone pictures of some of our young actresses, making them feel uncomfortable.

No one knew what to do about the guy, but Helen walked into the middle of the crowd — full costume, hair, makeup — and scolded him for being rude and leering at the girls.

She’s fearless. Unstoppable. A force to be reckoned with. 

Go Helen, go!

Basil Twist - Puppets Alive (by USAArtists)

I have won a dinner tomorrow night from Craig Thornton and Miles Thompson, which will make it incredibly hard for me to go to sleep tonight.

I first published this on Murder Motels. Check them out. I dig their website. -A

On the weekend of April 12 – 14, horror fans descended en masse to Burbank, California, to take part in Monsterpalooza.

Monsterpalooza, the convention celebrating all things horror, is the brainchild of –

Stop the fucking presses; I met Big Bird.

…ok…ok…and breathe.

Monsterpalooza was started in 2008 by Eliot Brodsky. It was originally called Maskapalooza, and was put together as a celebration of the art of mask making.

Seven months later, Mr. Brodsky brought his vision to the Burbank Marriott Hotel and called it “Monsterpalooza”. The fans have been coming out every since.

Now in it’s fifth year, the line stretches around the block to get in. Once in, you are bombarded with the freaks who are lucky enough to earn their living constructing masks, prosthetics, props, and more for the world of gore, horror, and the wicked. On display was everything from $10 Do-It-Yourself latex masks, to fine art priced in the thousands of dollars.

It was my first time there, and it was nuts.

Halloween, and the world of horror, is a multi-billion dollar industry, and this becomes very apparent at Monsterpalooza. The detail found in the props and costumes on display were so high that sometimes it was hard to tell where the monster ended and the person began.

Off the convention floor, there were panel talks covering various aspects of the world of monsters.

The first panel I attended was hosted by the two non-HAL 9000 actors from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kier Dullea and Gary Lockwood.

These old men laughed and bantered back and fourth. They had nothing but positive things to say about Stanley Kubrick, and looked back at their time on that groundbreaking film with the same awe and wonder that the rest of us have.

Following the 2001 panel was a talk by Jon Murdy, lead creative, and Chris Williams, lead designer, for Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights.

The two men scrolled through various slides of illustrations, final mazes, and pictures of inspiration from both movies and real life that have made their way into Murdy and William’s insanely detailed Horror Night’s mazes. Like the 2001 actors before them, the pair have the great chemistry that comes from a successful creative collaboration, and they worked hard to give the audience a peak into their creative process.

The seats were filled with fans of the Universal Studios haunted houses. We laughed at all the in-jokes, applauded at the detail put into the mazes, and in the end, Murdy announced a contest that will culminate with a fan getting to design a 2013 monster for the park. Details can be found on Murdy’s Twitter account.

Beyond the panels, there was an autograph area, where celebrities with connections to the horror industry sold their pictures and autographs for cash. Among the crowd I spotted Danny Glover, Martin Landau, and Virginia Madsen.

The biggest draw by far was Linda Blair, who played the possessed Regan in The Exorcist. Her line was so long it was sectioned off from the other actors.

Wandering through the convention area, I was bombarded with monsters, demons, and makeup demonstrations from schools offering to teach you the craft of monster making. I repeat, THIS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS, PEOPLE.

There was some cosplay, but mostly it consisted of people showing off their original designs rather than wearing the masks of familiar horror characters.

The monster museum featured insanely detailed creatures such as a gorgeous velociraptor, a giant King Kong, the aliens from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and an eerily accurate recreation of the trio of Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw from Jaws.

I wandered back to the convention area to marvel at the booths and then HOLY FUCKING SHIT — IT’S BIG BIRD.

Okay, okay, not actually Big Bird, but Caroll Spinney, who puppets and voices both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.

Now that was an autograph I wanted.

I approached with the wide-eyed wonder of a child meeting…well…Big Bird. Spinney was sweet and gentle, and happily jumped between the voices of his two Sesame Street Muppets.

The couple in front of me had brought Spinney and his wife flowers. Another couple brought their baby, as if to be blessed by the Pope.

The moment was so special that afterwards I had to sit down, overcome with childhood emotions.

Everything after that moment was icing on the cake. Really, truly, a wonderful convention and I cannot wait until it comes around again. It was a great day spent among some bizarre creatures, some very creative people, and the fans who love them. I left with a smile on my face and a skip in my step.

Sunny day, sweepin’ the clouds away.

Oh my.

Punchdrunk, the theater company responsible for Sleep No More in NYC, are releasing their follow up show The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable in London this summer.

Right now there is a secret trailer for the show found in a storefront somewhere on Kingsland High Road in London…which excites me to no end how creative of an idea that is.

Really, truly, hope there’s a way I can get to see this show. Come to Hollywood, Punchdrunk!