Saturday, February 23, 2013

Friend's in Low Places.

A few oddball thoughts... I was in one of those cool old bookstores flipping through some stuff and I found a program from a showing of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya materials. Included were photographs of shows in Berlin from 1929 and thereabouts. The sets were great. One was a boxing ring in front of a very, very large intricately painted drop - but very casual as were most of the sets. I'm sure there were many times to have been in Berlin but I think that was a prime one! Rhinehardt, Piscator, all those guys, and even a very young Brecht. You know, we all realize that "Brecht" happened way before Brecht the man appropriated credit - but in some ways the official accepted history of Brecht's work and methodology is even more misunderstood and wrong than Stanislavsky's.... My theatre friends are all doing either clown work or storytelling or some such thing. I enjoy it as a spectator. I'm never very highbrow. But it leaves me lonely as an artist... Acting often behind a scrim in the Rogue Theatre's production/adaptation of Kafka's Metamorphosis, we have declared ourselves members of the Scrim Actor's Guild.