Summer of '99

Hello there Z Space Blog Readers!

Peter Nachtrieb here.

Do you remember what you were doing the summer of 1999? It was a time of optimism and innocence, of dot com dreams and when Florida was just a place to vacation as opposed to an electoral disaster. It was also the summer that my brother George and I embarked on the insane task of shooting the feature length wacky film, Welcome Space Brothers, written and directed by George, shot in West Marin and San Francisco and featuring a stellar cast and crew of Bay Area talent (well they were all living here at the time). After an eleven year journey of filming, editing, finding a composer, running out of money, dealing with other life issues, moving, and assembling the final crucial elements and contributors, we are thrilled to be sharing the COMPLETED film in its World Premiere Screening at Z Space on June 12 at 8PM. And you should totally come.

So, yeah yeah, it took a while and it's pretty wild to consider how much the world has changed politically, technologically and personally. A couple different presidents, some horrendous events and wars and crashes and popping bubbles. Yet, despite the gap between its writing, filming and it's screening, the movie still feels relevant to our modern state of affairs. We have a deputy/nurse totally preoccupied with the spread of disease (you know, like swine flu). We have a rancher couple suspicious of aliens talking to their cow (you know, like Arizona). We have a cult eagerly waiting for the arrival of their Messiah (you know, like the Tea Party). And I won't even get started on the Tobacco researchers. It's interesting to see a particular type of American-ness reflected in the movie that feels timeless. And it's still funny (especially if you like your comedy a little weird).

On the technology side, we shot the movie on one of the first 3 chip (old school) digital video camera. We edited on the first (and many subsequent) version of Final Cut Pro (which is actually now providing a challenge with our weird animation sequences. Damn you, fonts!). The acceptance of video in the movie world has radically spread since we shot. Not to mention the entire universe of film distribution has changed. The indie film world of the 90's has essentially disappeared, but filmmakers can now share their work directly through the Internet. (And that's something we're planning to do as well. )

On the personal side, it's bizarre to think how much has changed in our own lives over a decade, as well as in the lives of those who worked on the film. George was living in LA at the time we shot. Since then, he's moved to SF, worked at a startup, and is now working as a freelance video producer and internet community manager. I was mostly an actor and sketch comedian, and since then I have become a full time playwright (Now working on my 6th and 7th full length plays). Actors and crew have moved, or moved and returned, married, had babies, or have continuously toured the nation performing in a solo show as a nun (that's you Kim Richards!) A number of long lasting, deep friendships grew from that summer in 1999.

Needless to say, it's about time we got this thing out there. We are so happy and thrilled to be at this moment. And we couldn't be happier to do it at Z Space and hopefully raise a little money for them in the process. This is the beginning of our sharing of the film and we hope we can give audiences as much a taste of the fun we had making it. So, yeah, you should totally come.

Join us on June 12 for Welcome Space Brothers! Click here for tickets.

Click here to purchase tickets!

Devised Companions

Mark Jackson here, still feeling fresh from a weekend workshop with the folks from Creative Capital, hosted by Z Space. Twenty-four Bay Area artists from a variety of disciplines participated in an informative, inspiring, at times eye-opening series of lectures and discussions geared toward making better, more efficient, more effective business people of us all. As individual artists we are indeed our own business, and yet the chaos natural to making art often tangles up our ability to devise the best business practices for ourselves. The Creative Capital team came with loads of experience and ideas for articulating intentions, organizing time, making efficient and effective financial decisions, and staying true to ones art in the process.

Somehow this experience fits neatly into what has become a kind of theme in my career lately: devising.

This term, “devising,” is the trendy label for something that’s quite ancient, really. With regard to theater it means, in the most basic sense, not starting with a script. Generally speaking, with a “devised” piece a group will get in a room for a period of time and improvise in a variety of ways around a given theme, subject, or other source material. Eventually they’ll have made a show.

Summed up that way, it sounds easy. It’s actually the most physically, emotionally and intellectually demanding way to go about making theater that I am aware of. With no script laid out in advance to provide a basic map that everyone can point to in order to identify points A to Z, the collaborators have to draw this map on their feet, together. How exactly this is done can take many, many forms. For myself, the Viewpoints and Composition work as taught by SITI Company is a major tool. I also look to the examples of Théâtre du Soleil, Robert Lepage

and Forced Entertainment. Sometimes methods present themselves spontaneously, arising out of the needs of the moment. But whatever the formal approach, the key ingredients for success are openness, honesty, trust, daring, will, patience and compassion. One must cast aside pride

and ego at the threshold and leap into the dark hand-in-hand with everyone else.

Over this 2009/10 season I’ve been involved in three devised projects. The only one that Bay Area audiences might have seen would be JULIET, a piece I directed at San Francisco State University. JULIET used the second of the two title characters of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet as its starting point. From there the designers, cast and I started to make stuff up and eventually we had our show. It went off very well and even nabbed a mention in the New York Times.

This summer I’ll disappear into the creative cavern of Theater Artaud for two weeks with Beth Wilmurt, Jud Williford and Jakes Rodriguez in order to start working on The Companion Piece, a devised work commissioned by Z Space that is slated to open in late January, 2011.

Our starting points are American Vaudeville and the question as to what extent ones individual survival and identity depend on other people.

We workshopped The Companion Piece with students of the American Conservatory Theater MFA Program back in January 2009, and this helped give shape to the basic questions and structure of the piece. Lisa Steindler attended the final showing of that leg of the work and

decided to take it on at Z Space. So, this summer we’ll begin the sweaty process of filling out those basics we found in the previous workshop. And eventually we’ll have a show.

Again, sounds easy. But it’s always a scary moment, standing at the front edge of a process like this. So many questions hover and loom. So many possibilities dangle in the air. It feels like crisp cold wind in bright, hot sunlight. Such a contradiction gets the blood pumping, to

say the least. But it’s good to feel alive!

Wish us luck!

On and up.

Mark J

'tii next year, Tour de France!

Word for Word Artistic Director Sue Harloe writes to us from overseas, where the acclaimed Tour de France tour of "Two On A Party" has just wrapped.

We saw the trees in the Luxembourg Gardens turn from skeletally brown to lacy green to a verdant canopy during Word for Word's latest Tour de France. Tennessee Williams is all the rage here this Spring (I've seen 4 productions, each a different play, two in French and two in English--ranging from Isabelle Huppert in a tour de force of a deconstructed "Tramway" to a fantastic production of "Spring Storm" Group's), so we were, in essence, part of a European Williams festival. Our "Two on A Party" was tremendously received; people loved the story, the actors, the staging, the set. Full houses everywere. All the elements combined to make a terrific evening of theater.

Our venues were wildly disparate--from a tiny postage stamp of a stage, to a large auditorium with a painting of Pope John Paul II overlooking our valiant company, to Paris' Salle Adyar (housed in the 1912 theater building shared by the Theosophist Society)--and each provided a home, a stage for our actors to bring "Two On A Party" once again to life. The post-show question and answer sessions were intelligent and mostly thoughtful--people wanted to know about Theater Rhino (and Rhino's Artistic Director, John Fisher, was able to join us onstage for these talks in Paris), always about Word for Word and how we select our stories, who makes up the company, etc. etc. Our wonderful technician in Paris, Lillia, pointed out how unusual it is for audiences in France to have such intimate contact with the actors. This contact creates a further bond and expression of our mission: French-American amity. (This is also the mission of the Florence Gould Foundation, which provides our funding and without whom we could never make this tour). We performed for everyone: anglophones, francophones, and a suprising number of high school students (some entirely French speaking) who had studied the story and were completely enthralled by the production. (I did give brief vocabulary lessons to some of our hosts regarding Williams' more colloquial terms, like queen, fairy, lush, old bag, and the inimitable "glory hole".)

We were well cared for in every city we visited (Angers, Nantes, Nancy, Paris), with great city tours, long meals, wonderful wine, and endlessly thoughtful, gracious, and fascinated hosts. We are so lucky to be able to share this experience with them: really, it is our hosts and our loyal audiences who make the tour shine as it does.

Then came the Ash Cloud! The night of our final performance in Paris, April 15, was the night of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption. Suddenly Europe is in a panic, planes can't get in or out, the words "ash cloud" are everywhere. Fortunately, the Icelandic gods were smiling on us, because our company members had each made plans to leave several days after the show, and so had booked later flights, all of which left more or less as scheduled. And so we had a place to stay (the lovely large apartment that we rent each on rue de Vaugirard), food, water, wine, and some of the most gorgeous weather Paris has had. We did experience long and arduous lines at the airport, and Jeri Lynn's flight even took off, flew, turned around, and came back to Paris. But all arrived home, safe and sound, and we are all very grateful for that.

Boundless thanks to all who make this tour possible, both here and abroad. It brings so much to so many people.

dance, poetry, and our fragile planet

Today’s post comes to us from Jayne Wenger, co-director/dramaturg for Deborah Slater’s production of Men Think They Are Better Than Grass, and last seen at Z Space directing Anne Galjour’s You Can’t Get There From Here. We’re glad to have her back!

First day In the theater! After years of planning and thinking (and dreaming) this is exhilarating.

Really.

We have a crack design and technical team when we walked into the theater it was already amazing! Mikiko's set is starting to emerge and fill the huge space that is Theater Artaud. I love working here, this space is venerable and the vibe is great. Welcoming and professional, and fun too. I wonder who won that ping pong game that was happening in the lobby?

The space itself can feel so vast and empty, but suddenly, as we are doing a work through with all of the elements, music, environmental sound, video and most importantly, the dancers - the space is filled with their movement and it is no longer empty feeling. It is warm, and rocking and alive. Our 'script' - consisting of 17 poems written by deep ecologist W.S. Merwin is filling the space with words, and Mattias Bossi and Carla Khilsted's musical compositions are beautiful and evocative. For Deborah and myself - it is the culmination of a long journey.

This week is National Dance Week, so we had company in the theater on our first rehearsal! I grumbled a little (yep, just a little) when I realized that we would have guests, but - It turned out to be great to have on-lookers and when Deborah and I took a break and did a brief Q and A with them, it was rewarding to hear their sincere response to the work. They seemed to get what we were up to, and it was clear that they really enjoyed being with us in the very early stages of tech rehearsal.

We heard from several people that they loved the movement and choreography and that they were moved by the poetry. That was heartening for us, and i'm glad that they came and shared those hours with us. Their presence was a bonus!

After more than two years of working with ideas, it is rewarding to get some feedback - and not from friends! One man told me that he was deeply moved during several of the poems. That is what we are striving for, to make our audience feel deeply, think deeply about our fragile planet.

We have the benefit of brilliant poetry read by some of the Bay Area's finest talent. Each week in rehearsal I've had a different favorite poem! Brenda Wong Aoki's reading of "Calling To A Distant Animal" moves me every time I hear it.

Technically, things are in better shape than we might have expected for a show with so many elements. Thanks in large part to Joanne Bender, the production and company manager and her knack for getting people in the right place at the right time. We had the expected glitches with equipment along the way, a video snafu here and there, but nothing that Elaine Buckholtz can't handle!

I'm looking forward to the continuation of Tech Week, it really beats the hell out of American Idol. Extreme Talent, Focus and Imagination! More to come!

-Jayne Wenger

Men Think They Are Better Than Grass runs now through May 9. Click here for tickets.