Last month, Dave reported on a code of ethics for theatre workers that was found among the effects of the late actress Kathleen Freeman. Originally written for LA’s Circle Players (now Players’ Ring), it was republished on the LA StageTimes website, and the Geeks got together this week to discuss its ramifications for amateurs as well as professionals.  Join us for lively conversation about how this interesting list of dos and don’ts still works for all actors, directors and crew.

The full article is here: Theatre Workers’ Code of Ethics from 1945 – LA Stage Times.

Music provided by Music Alley.

Andrew Goffman, playwright, actor and comedian, joins the Geeks

Andrew Goffman is the author and star of the one-man show The Accidental Pervert, now playing at the 13th Street Repertory Company in New York City and simultaneously in Argentina (with an Argentine star).  Although it sounds like an adults only show (and it would probably garner an R-rating as a movie), Andrew says the play has a strong, even poignant message within the many laughs.

From the show’s website: 

An 11-year-old boy finds his father’s collection of X-rated videos hidden in a bedroom closet and subsequently develops an addiction to pornography that continues until the age of 26, when he meets his wife to be, and finds himself struggling to find the balance between fantasy and reality.

Andrew joins the Geeks for this very special interview, which, by the way, is perfectly clean, but probably not for younger audiences.  Besides some of the specifics of the play (no spoilers allowed), Andrew tells us what it’s like to write and appear in his own show, how the collaboration with his director works, why he wrote the play, and more.  It’s a lot of fun.

For more info on the show, visit The Accidental Pervert website. 

Music for Theatre Geeks was provided by Music Alley.

• Theatre Workers’ Code of Ethics from 1945 — LA Stage Times
• Michael Billington on actors — The UK Guardian
• Canadian Arts Funding spared in this parliament — Canadian Theatre Hub
• More on how Shakespeare really sounded — National Public Radio
• L’il Abner revived off-off-Broadway — NYTheatre.com
• Davy Jones Monkees Audition Video — Hollywood Actor Prep
• Lady Gaga and Shakespeare — American Shakespeare Center
• What if Shakespeare was Country –Shakespeare Geek

 AACT Events

Twitter followers of the week:

South Devon Players -- @sdevonplayers -- Our Twitter Followers of the Week

• The South Devon Players Community Theatre Group, Brixham (follow THEM at @sdevonplayers)

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford Ontario and the Shaw Festival in Niagara On the Lake, Ontario are two great theatre events well worth attending this year.  Dave, Marcia and guest geek Randy Zonker discuss the shows planned at these two festivals, all without mentioning Tim Horton Donuts once.

Links to the festivals’ websites:

• Stratford Festival – http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/
• Shaw Festival – http://www.shawfest.com/

Send us YOUR recommendations for great summer theatre and we may be able to mention it on an upcoming episode.

Booboo the Wonder Cat who helps Dave with the News

Theatre News Notes

Watch the video version of this episode here.

• Chris Jones’ review of Death of A Salesman on Broadway in the Chicago Trib — Good, but not great?
• Tennessee Williams’ final play is getting its world premiere in NYC this spring — more information is here.
• Backstage Magazine’s Broadway Power List — Know these names?
• Theatre Resources Unlimited and Back Stage Present Panel About Bringing Diversity to Broadway , from Backstage Magazine — Is this an issue in YOUR theatre?  Send me your feedback from our contact page
• New CD Suggests How Shakespeare Should Really Sound , Backstage Magazine — Sample audio is  here.
• Trade-offs from page to stage:  ”Gatz,” an unusual interpretation of The Great Gatsby, sparked this long but interesting article about the pitfalls of bringing books to the stage.  By New York Times’ Ben Brantley.
• Cute-as-a-button Bernadette Peters will be appearing on NBC’s Smash – TheaterMania reports she’s released a promo video you can see here.
• Playbill Magazine: THE SCREENING ROOM: Watch the Trailer to Upcoming Theatre Documentary “Journey to America” (Video)
• Val Kilmer Will Play Mark Twain in One-Man Show Citizen Twain — Playbill
• Laurence Olivier Award Nominations Announced; Matilda The Musical Leads with 10 — Playbill

Theatre Geeks’ Twitter followers of the week:

• Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City, CA – Currently performing Crimes of the Heart
• Jeremy Kruse  – Jeremy is a working actor, writer and filmmaker. He teaches acting at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and is a certified personal trainer.  follow him @krusejeremy
• The Real William Shakespeare, complete with pithy quotes — follow him at @WmShakespere

AACT Upcoming Events

Dave, Marcia and special guest geek Randy Zonker (sitting in for John Shoup) react to an article Dave reported on from the UK Guardian by Matt Trueman, Does Theatre Leave Too Little to the Imagination? We discuss this in context of both professional shows and shows we’ve had first hand experience with.  Randy hits some technical faux pas, too.

Music provided by Music Alley.

Theatre Geeks Miscellaneous Announcements:

Dave's Granddaughter Anya relaxing in her Theatre Geeks pink t-shirt

• Be a guest on Theatre Geeks Podcast! 
• Pecha Kucha night Chicago is March 6.
• Shameless promotion: check out my granddaughter Anya in her Theatre Geeks T-shirt, then get one for yourself at our online store, which is at theatregeeks.com/store, or click the “Geek Swag” link in the main menu at theatregeeks.com.

Here are the theatre news items referenced in this episode of Theatre Geeks Extra:

• Woody Allen adapting “Bullets Over Broadway” as a musical, set to hit Broadway sometime in 2013:
• Zach Braff’s playing the lead in his own play All New People, in the West End.  Article talks a bit about his enjoyment of the live audience experience:
• http://www.amdram.net/ Interesting UK Forum for what we all call community theatre.
• Found via amdram.net this: UK’s Sky Arts channel is readying a new program that will showcase the best of UK’s am-dram talent.  Show will be called  Britain’s Best Am-Dram, and will be a reality-style competition show.
• Very weird ad for an e-book on acting, supposedly for professionals.
•  Death of Criticism?
• Bard labour: Patrick Stewart and Simon Callow tackle Shakespeare the man: Comments about Shakespeare from two guys who should know a bit about him.
• Stephen Sondheim working on a new musical, but says Broadway has too many musicals. Go figure.
• Death of A Salesman returning to Broadway — New York Times article about this classic’s implications, how we relate to it today, and discussion of playwright Arthur Miller’s plotting and character choices.
• Sing-Along Version of Joseph, Starring Donny Osmond, Will Play U.S. Cinemas
• Playbill’s Chart-toppers for the last week of February
• CBS2′s five best off-Broadway shows
• Chicago top plays, based on aggregated local reviews
• More theatrical superstitions from Wikipedia.

AACT Upcoming Events

Got news?

Are you or your theatre doing anything unusual in the world of theatre?  Send us your press releases and/or other information.  Contact Dave using our contact form here, or e-mail Dave at dave@theatregeeks.com.  We’re not interested in your usual performance announcements, but we ARE interested in unusual projects, special honors for your theatre, major events, educational opportunities that are national/international in scope, etc.  Get in touch with us!

Register Now! early bird rate expires this week!

Experience Great Theatre, Great Times, Great Friends, in a Great City!

• Celebrity Reception with playwright Ken Ludwig
• NYC resources-based workshops and tours: actors panel, royalty house reps, hat-making studio, more!
• War Horse, the 2011 Tony Award winning play is now available for 100 convention registrants!
• Also get your ticket to the hottest show on Broadway, The Book of Mormon! (Only a few tickets left.)
• Theatrical vendor exhibits

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fun article from the tech director of  Toronto’s Praxis Theatre.

• Interesting article about the sometimes thankless job of the librettist, or book writer for musicals: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/159878-An-Open-Book-Explaining-What-Musical-Librettists-Do
• The Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s hit production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice‘s JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, directed by 2-time Tony Award winner Des McAnuff, opens March 22, 2012 (previews begin March 1) at the Neil Simon Theatre. The cast gave a secret performancelast night, and met the press on Tuesday.  Full story at http://broadwayworld.com/article/Saturday-Roundup-This-Week-on-BroadwayWorld-20120218#ixzz1mo50y7OZ
• Speaking of Stratford, their season starts in April with the usual mix of great plays by the Bard and many more.  Full season listing is here: http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/
• The blog Shakespeare Geek has an article about a Shakespeare app for your Android phone or device at http://goo.gl/N8nTX
• The app is called MicroShakespeare and you can learn more about it here: http://goo.gl/X18Kf
• Basketball and Broadway come together in a new play, Magic/Bird, opening on Broadway this spring.  It’s a dual biographical drama about Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.  Playbill has an interview with Johnson about the play and his involvement with the playwright, here: http://goo.gl/4eOBf.
• Last week, members of the cast of Newsies, the upcoming stage adaptation of the 1992 Disney musical, did a live streaming chat on Ustream with Q&A from the viewing audience.  Newsies just finished some initial performances in New Jersey and opens on Broadway March 15.  You can watch the video and read the Playbill.com article here.
• Southeastern Theatre Conference Convention 2012, March 7-11, Chattanooga TN
• TNT Annual Conference, March 16-17, Tyler TX
• PACTFest 2012, March 16-18, Wellsboro, PA
• Theatre New Mexico State Festival, March 23-25, Las Vegas, NM
• Indiana Community Theatre League State Festival 2012, March 23-25, Indianapolis, IN

John, Marcia and Dave will be back in the studio with more shows soon!

When it comes to getting your Geek on, you have a lot of listening optons.  At the Theatre Geeks Website, you can listen directly from the page, or download the mp3 file if you wish, but here are some other choices.

• Subscribe on iTunes
• Subscribe via the Zune Marketplace
• Get the latest episode via the Stitcher app for iPhone or Android
• Find us as well as hundreds of other podcasts on the BluBrry Network
• Listen at the Theatre Geeks Website

We’ve also become aware of an alternative podcatcher app for iOS devices (iPhone/iPad, etc.) called Downcast which looks pretty good to us.  It’s just $1.99  and you can check it out here.

Deirdre Lovejoy (The Wire, Bones, Body of Proof), joins us once again for more fun and conversation about the theatre and its superstitions (some would say traditions).  John and Randy Zonker (one of our audience members) recounts some true ghosts stories that happened in our home theatre, and we again play our gameshow by trying to stump Dede.  We close out with another round of LIMERICKs.

Special thanks to the following folks for making this event possible:

• Kristin-Schwerha Scott
• Kori Fortunato
• Rick Ellis
• Kevin Egelsky
• Amy Pawlosky
• Mark Potuck
• … and Mel Moore for taking some great pix of the event.

Music provided by Music Alley

Deirdre (Dede) Lovejoy, Dave Dufour, John Shoup, Rick Ellis and Kevin Egelsky at the Bristol Opera House.

Actress (and Marcia’s daughter) Deirdre Lovejoy joins us at the Bristol Opera House, Bristol, Indiana for a special series of three podcasts in front of a live audience of fellow Theatre Geeks.  In addition to catching up on Dede’s stage and screen activities, emcee Kevin Egelsky leads us through our radio gameshow, “I Know! I Know!”  Join the fun and see if  you can guess the answers before we do!

Special thanks to the following folks for making this event possible:

• Kristin-Schwerha Scott
• Kori Fortunato
• Rick Ellis
• Kevin Egelsky
• Amy Pawlosky
• Mark Potuck
• … and Mel Moore for taking some great pix of the event.

Music provided by Music Alley

This is going to be a great event so be there or be square!  Be sure to call for reservations!

Stories Come To Life With A Fistful of Scripts.

Rehearsals are the time for casts to bond with their directors and each other, and hone their performances without interference.  But in community theatre, family members, significant others, friends and even casual visitors sometimes feel they have good reason to drop in and even provide feedback.  The Geeks discuss why (and how) to be firm about the “closed rehearsal” rule.

Music provided by Music Alley.

Mevio {Mevio-6c912ad1b44a172f9d3e65ee1f3c044b}

The Theatre Geeks Live Brunchcast at the Bristol Opera House is scheduled for January 14, 2011, and this time we’re sticking to it. Mark your calendar and plan to join us for this fun Saturday Brunch fundraiser for Elkhart Civic Theatre. We’ll be recording several episode of Theatre Geeks, and if the bandwidth gods are with us, we’ll be streaming live for the entire session.

Details are forthcoming about exact time (probably starting around 10:30 am for brunch, with the program starting at 11:30 am) and admission. Watch this space, or the ECT website at http://www.elkhartcivictheatre.org.

Update:

Time: 10:00 am — show starts at 10:30am

Place: Bristol Opera House

Plans are coming together quickly, so keep checking back.

• Ceramic Travel Mug $19.79
• Mug $12.09
• Cap $16.49
• Women's Long Sleeve T-Shirt $22.89
• Long Sleeve T-Shirt $21.89
• Sweatshirt $32.99

Thanks to all of you who nominated and voted for Theatre Geeks.  Keep listening!