Archive for March, 2010

AVT Artistic Director Nalin Ratnayake in his makeup and costume for a speech from Shakespeare's "Henry V". (Photo credit: Tom Bunce).

On March 13 and 14, AVT participated in the 61st annual Quartz Hill Almond Blossom Festival. It being our first festival of any kind ever, we had some adventures.  Like being up until 12:30am the night before building our set.  Or being relegated to a mysteriously ill-defined, narrow corner.  Or not knowing where the parade assembly point was and completely missing it.

But hey!  We totally had our own parade on Avenue L-14, unfurling our sign and waving in costume to incredibly confused local citizens looking for parking.  AND we got the word out about AVT to hundreds while entertaining many an attendee of the festival at our booth with sonnets, speeches, and professional face painting by our resident makeup designer, Kara McCollum!

All in all, we had a great time.  Check out the podcast below for some sound clips from the festival fun!

 Podcast #8: Almond Blossom Festival [6:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (228)

More photos are on our Facebook Page.

I really love first readthroughs.  The cast meets each other, some for the first time and with others there’s an old familiarity.  We talk about the work, explore it at a very conceptual level.  We get to play with ideas as hearing the words makes it something suddenly very real; even having read the script several times, as director, that readthrough is a major turning point.  It seems so fresh.  Oh yeah, and the cast doesn’t hate me yet.

It is said that at least half of the director’s job is solely in the casting… “If you have a good script and you cast it well, it’ll be good on stage,” remarked directing great Alan Schneider.  ”If you don’t, it won’t.”  After tonight, I know this is going to be a great ride.  Thank you Cam, Derric, Joe, and Karen for your work tonight.  The real work is just beginning, and some parts of it are going to strain us – but the result is going to be electrifying, on an audience barely a few feet away.

Do not miss this production.

Congratulations to Derric Neal (Kenneth Hayes), Courtney Marietta (Ruth Ballard), and Joe Gruca (Guard) for earning spots in “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt”! A big THANK YOU to all who auditioned; we were in the enviable but tough spot of having a 4:1 ratio of candidates to available roles. We were impressed with the quantity and variety of talent out there.

We will be diving right in; rehearsals will start Wednesday.

AVT is proud to support ScriptFrenzy 2010!  For those of you familiar with National Novel Writing Month (or “NaNoWriMo”), the format of ScriptFrenzy will seem quite familiar.  In fact, it’s run by the same organization!

So what is ScriptFrenzy?  The basic concept is that you write 100 pages of scripted material in 30 days.  Simple right?  For the month of April, join those of us who are theatre geeks, writing nerds, have no life, or are just plain insane, and live out your lifelong dream (or passing fancy) of being a playwright.  It’s exciting, glamorous, loads of fun, highly masochistic, and pays absolutely nothing.  Just like being a real writer.

Similar to NaNoWriMo, the theory is that the major hurdle in writing is just getting something out there, no matter how trite or inane.  There will be time for editing later.  For now, get that story and those killer (or God-awful) lines down, and give yourself a starting point for later refinement.

And need we remind you that AVT is constantly on the lookout for quality original work?  One of our goals is to be able to produce at least one full-length play by a local playwright every single year.  We have annual calls-for-scripts on specific themes, host irregular playwrights expos, and we also accept work on any subject at any time for production consideration.  Oh yeah, and we pay.  Like, money.  Yeah, I know.  Intrigued? Check out our Playwrights Page for more info.

And if you’re looking for the perfect place to find your muse and mingle with other over-caffeinated nerds, then why not head over to Sagebrush Cafe in Quartz Hill?  Our one-and-only business patron boasts fine coffee, an arsty atmosphere, and free WiFi for all your wrighting needs.

This April, stop watching.  Start writing.  Register now at ScriptFrenzy.org.

Monthly podcast for our fans and the local community. A text summary will be posted a few days after the podcast goes live.

In this episode:

*Social events from last month – Moving Arts’ production of “Blood and Thunder”, makeup tradeshow.

*Almond Blossom Festival this month! Preview of our booth and what we will have available. Box seat ticket giveaway. New AVT merchandise… you know you want some.

*Auditions for “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” are March 20th.

*Updates for playwrights – $300 bounty continues, three playwrights are wrighting furiously as we speak. AVT is supporting ScriptFrenzy in the month of April! Next playwrights expo sometime in August. AVT willing to talk about paying for original work at any time.

*Local musicians night coming up in April.

*We depend on your support – make a tax-deductible donation easily by credit card on our website today.

 Podcast #7: AVT March 2010 Update [14:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (260)

AVT is on an ongoing mission to post spontaneous interviews with cast, crew, fans, and innocent bystanders.  This episode continues our series of (what we hope are) interesting podcasts, focused on personal experiences with the project.

Want to hear more? View all posts with embedded podcasts, or search for “Antelope Valley Thespians” on the iTunes podcast directory to subscribe for automatic updates.  Enjoy!