Your Travalanche Daily Digest for October 4, 2026
16 hours ago
Friday, September 29, 2006
what I got
Hi everyone,
I don't allow prospective students to come and watch my classes, as I go to great lengths to attain consistency in attendance in the class and to establish a safe environment for serious work and risk-taking, and I feel that having people drop in to watch would potentially undermine this. I take a hit for this, as there are a lot of students who are curious about the class but don't want to try it out without coming to see it first.
Well, now you have your chance. You still can't come to a class, but you can come and see a production I have directed. My colleague from the Yale School of Drama, David Koppel, asked me to direct him and another actor in a production of Edward Albee's first play, The Zoo Story. The show opens in three weeks (October 19). I am cautiously optimistic that it is going to be a strong show. Full information below. Please come and take a look!
September 19, 2006
Following its popular and critically acclaimed production of Shakespeare's As You Like It, Arclight Repertory Theatre will present Edward Albee's suspenseful tale of isolation and complacency: The Zoo Story . The play runs from Oct. 19th – 28th at the Off Market Theatre Stage 250 in San Francisco. Performances are Thursday through Saturday evenings at 8pm. On Thursday, October 19 th , Arclight Repertory will participate in Theatre Bay Area's "Free Night of Theater" program.
Performances continue Nov 2nd – 18th at the Exit Stage on Taylor Street in San Francisco. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm. Tickets are $20 general admission and $15 for students and seniors (62+). Tickets may be reserved by calling: Brown Paper Tickets (800) 838. 3006. Additional information is available online at www.arclightrep.org .
First performed in New York in 1960, The Zoo Story was Edward Albee's first play, and constitutued a radical departure from the realism dominant in America at the time. In the spirit of European surrealism and the plays of Eugene Ionesco, Albee forged a new kind of drama out of the pain and disorientation inherent in the urban experience in America at mid-century. The play has inspired writers as different from each other as David Mamet and Maria Irene Fornes.
The Zoo Story takes place in New York's Central Park, and presents a gripping encounter between Peter, a well-off, well-intentioned family man leading a life of quiet desperation, and Jerry, a rootless drifter seething with resentment in the face of what Albert Camus has called "the infinite silence of the world." With savage, hard-bitten humor, the play makes plain the costs of complacency and compromise on the one hand, and of an unyielding commitment to the naked truth on the other. As a play which raises questions about the price of head-in-the-sand complacency, it is more timely than ever given world events since the millennium.
The production is directed by Andrew Utter, founder of San Francisco's Mother of Invention Acting School and graduate of the Yale School of Drama's MFA directing program. Andrew has directed professionally for Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, New York, and at universities such as Fordham, Fairfield and Clark. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Fox and Benenson Foundations.
Arclight Repertory founder and artistic director David Koppel, and managing director Ted Barker, will play Peter and Jerry respectively. Dana Ashby, the artistic coordinator, will be acting as stage manager on the production.
Ian Marsh of Marin Shakespeare Theatre serves as set/lighting designer and technical director of the production. Norman Kern is the production's sound designer.
Arclight Repertory Theatre is a professional, nonprofit theatre company based in Alameda, California. Arclight's mission is to use the medium of live performance to pose challenging questions about the complexities of shared, human experience. Arclight strives to produce provocative, engaging, and imaginative plays; to develop new voices for the stage; to adapt challenging, literary material for live performance; and to present previously produced plays in innovative and illuminating ways; and to provide theatrical "outreach" to local middle and high schools which have suffered significant cutbacks in funding for performing arts programs.
About Our Name
Arc lights provided the first electric lighting for theatrical productions and movie sets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, replacing older, much dimmer gas lamps. Light was produced when electricity jumped or 'arced' across the gap between two charged electrodes Arc lighting is very bright and very powerful--essentially, it is illumination through the production of controlled lightning.
For additional information on Arclight Repertory Theatre or The Zoo Story,contact David Koppel at 510-825-2993 or by email at david.koppel@arclightrep.org . You may also visit our website at www.arclightrep.org .
Sunday, September 03, 2006
the ghost of john casssavetes
Friday, August 18, 2006
Miklos' film goes international, and another film rec...
Mother of Invention alum Miklos Philips' short film The Enfolding has been accepted into two more festivals, one the NewFilmMakers NY festival in October, and a festival in Tricase, Italy. Congrats Miklos! Best of luck at both! This makes six festivals for this film!
Also, I saw a movie last weekend called Quinceañera that I wanted to pass the word about. "Quinceañera" is the Spanish word for a kind of religiously-tinted debut that a young girl makes on her fifteenth birthday. It's a a big family event, and, well, let's say that the girl in this movie gets some upsetting news just prior to hers. She leaves home to live with a benevolent great-grandfather, who is also sheltering a gay Latino hood cast out from his home. It's a simple story about the double-edged sword that is tradition, that is carefully and patiently developed. It takes place in Echo Park in L.A., and the camera work beautifully captures the life of that neighborhood. Some fine acting. Won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, I believe I read somewhere. Worth catching.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
the movie everybody wants to have seen
And we saw what all the fuss was about.
The premise is that the 11-year old daughter in a (very) dysfunctional Arizona family has been named a finalist in a national pageant called Little Miss Sunshine. So the family : mom, pop, a heroin snorting grandad, a recently suicidal uncle, and the brother pile into the VW bus to drive from Arizona to Redondo Beach, where the pageant is to be held. The script is savagely funny, in a way that is a little reminiscent of Howard Korder's plays, which we sometimes work on in the class. There is some first-rate acting as well. The story is not without some flaws and misfires, but the piece as a whole has great heart and inventiveness, and an anarchic streak a mile wide. My vote: not to be missed!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
As You Like It A Lot!!!
Last night, I saw something I couldn't wait to come home and spread the word about. And how! It was a production of As You Like It produced by a new company called the ARClight Theater Company. The show is running at the Altarena Playhouse in Alameda. Where to begin! The piece was inventively staged, the acting was very good and some of it was stupendous, the company was extremely well-spoken, so the verse was a pleasure to listen to, and the cast had a real sense of ownership of the production. The strength of the direction is visible in the assurance and ease with which the whole thing comes off. And the theater itself is a gem: built in 1938, at the tail end of the Little Theater movement in this country, it stirringly evokes the idealism of that period. Hop on the BART and go there now!!!
More info at http://www.arclightrep.com/
PS I posted the audtions for this show in this blog in an entry entitled "Get Your Shakespeare On" a while back. This is a company to get involved with on the ground floor. They are doing work with a freshness and vitality that is the rarest of commodities. So stay tuned!
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