Updates galore!
Well MONTY PYTHON MADNESS was a huge success! We ended up raising over 11,000
for charity! There are already plans for next year's event. Should be pretty
awesome.
My workshops in NYC were amazing! I will go into greater details at some point but needless to say, I am madly in love with New York City and Broadway!
My trip to LA was also fantastic! I am now officially bi-coastal - which I am pretty sure is illegal in Texas.
Rehearsals are underway for "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me." Zac Ramsey and Francis Henry are starring in this play and I have to tell you, it's an honor to be working with these guys. Yes, I am acting this time! The wonderfully talented Stephanie Jackson is directing us and it's going to be an amazing play. I am thrilled about getting a chance to do this show. It's a remarkable play and a fantastic study of human nature. Opens August 29th at ICT Theatre on the Edge in Irving, Texas.
The MONSTER news is what is just around the corner! A staged reading of TITUS ANDRONICUS produced by Project X will be October 18th at the Green Zone Theatre in Dallas. Mark your calendar please. You DO NOT want to miss this. I'd show you the cast list, but it would burn the retinas right out of your skull! More info soon!
Also MONSTER news - my original play "A Head in the Globe" will have a staged reading produced in association with the Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs Night of Theatre and The Met Theatre. Stephanie Jackson will be directing a very talented group of actors as they bring this script to life! October 22nd at Southside at Lamar in Dallas! More soon!
Also, what is all this talk about me writing a musical? What? You hadn't heard that? Oh. Guess I'll start my own danged rumors then.
And Now For Something Completely Different. . . MONTY PYTHON! And those amazing Kids In The Hall!
May 2008
One of the best things about life lately
has been that I am getting the chance to live out some of my childhood dreams!
And YES, one of my childhood dreams was to someday get a chance to bring some of
my favorite Monty Python sketches to life onstage in front of an audience!
The wonderful Sheela and the awesome peeps at British Emporium, along with the great city of Grapevine are giving me that chance! July 18th, 2008 at the AWESOME Palace Theatre in beautiful downtown Grapevine we will be premiering MONTY PYTHON MADNESS LIVE!
It's a loving tribute to all things Python and benefit for a great charity. Who is in it, you ask? Only the most talented actors I have ever had the pleasure of working with! I'll have more details soon!
Did I mention I flew to St. Louis, as a guest of the Kids In The Hall?
In Loving Memory
Bill Fountain
1926 - 2008
I
lost my Dad today. He fought pancreatic cancer and I am happy to tell you that
he won.
No more pain. No more hurt. Just open skies and all the love that I have to
give. Right now, there a thousand brilliant angels listening to my Father's
favorite jokes.
I love you Dad.
"There are only two ways
to live your life. One as though nothing
is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
Albert Einstein
FOOL FOR LOVE
ENDS WITH A GREAT BIG BANG!
Okay, so no one believes me when I tell
them I am really, REALLY, taking a break for a short time! Truthfully I am still
doing three shows with my students and am working on pre-production on two very
big shows for next year, but right this minute I am taking a little break from
it all. It's not forever. But when you consider that I've been involved in some
way, shape or form some show every weekend since April 10th, 2006; that's over
30 something different shows; it's about time. I'm headed to the Stephen
Schwartz Broadway Workshops in July - which will be very cool. And right after
that. . . nah! That would be telling. Needless to say - I shall return. . .
probably a lot sooner than I think!
FOOLPROOF: 'Fool for Love' sets the right tone
THEATER REVIEW: Directors hit right mood with
Shepard
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, March 9, 2008
By MANUEL MENDOZA / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
What really happened to Eddie and May to fuel their volatile relationship? The characters in Sam Shepard's Rashomon-like Fool for Love, including the pair's two-timing father and an innocent bystander, engage in a psychological dance as they come together and pull apart in a shabby motel room on the edge of the desert.
Mr. Shepard wrote Fool during his 1980s heyday, when he regularly used the mythic American West as a metaphor. Riddled with clichés and less than revelatory, it's not his best play of the period. But theater companies keep mounting Fool because it's a good showcase for actors, and it's short and easy to stage.
The latest Dallas version is from a couple of new companies, the MET Theatre and Totally Wow Productions, which debuted last fall with another minor work, David Mamet's Oleanna.
Once again, the depth of local talent appears bottomless, with Randal Scott particularly compelling as Eddie, a cowboy who travels 2,000 miles to rekindle his love affair with half sister May (Haven Powers).
While Ms. Powers wrestles with the difficult task of making an irrational woman seem sane – she keeps retreating to the bathroom, where May keeps all her valuables – Mr. Scott gets to be cool and understated. On the rare occasion when he raises his voice, you listen.
Larry LeMaster and Bill Fountain direct with a sure hand, setting the mood with twangy, old-timey music. They also do a nice job of bringing out the play's humor.
Eventually Eddie and May's dead father, called Old Man (Ken Long), shows up to tell his side of the story. Past traumas are recounted. We learn what's behind their abandonment issues, and how the dramatic circumstances of their first meeting sparked their unconventional relationship.
Mr. Long, who gets the most poetic lines, brings gravity to the stage. His Old Man is both scary and sad. And Don Long, as May's doltish date Martin, is utterly believable. His confusion is palpable. On the other hand, Fool resolves most of its questions even if everyone isn't happy with the answers.
• Through March 29 at the Hampton-Illinois Library, 2951 S. Hampton Road. Runs 75 minutes. $10 to $15. 213-926-9772. www.foolforlovedallas.com.
And Another GREAT Fool For Love Review!
From the Peoples Paper, Dallas (March 19, 2008)
A FOOL FOR OAK CLIFF
It’s always a pleasure to see new theater companies cropping up, and especially with solid productions like Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love by MET Theatre and Totally Wow Productions. They’re using the new black box theater at the Hampton-Illinois Library to stage this complex play and ultimately mythic play about obsessive love.
Randal Scott plays Eddie, a rodeo cowboy and stuntman, who finds his lost love May (Haven Powers) in a motel somewhere in Texas. She left him at some point in the past, for reasons that don’t quite come clear at first, and he’s betrayed her with somebody May calls The Countess. May has a date that night with a local man named Martin (Don Long), with whom Eddie has an exchange that’s both hilarious and threatening. Present throughout as a one-man chorus is the Old Man (Ken Long), whose identity gradually emerges through the course of the play.
Randal Scott’s Eddie is believable from the first scene. Full of desire and rage, Eddie begins the play sitting at a table downstage left, working with his rodeo equipment, straining against a leather strap held under the legs of his chair. It’s as though he were already riding a bronco he might not be able to tame.
Haven Powers also does well, though her May — who turns out to be Eddie half-sister — doesn’t seem quite roadworn enough for the role as Shepard imagined it. Ken Long as the Old Man performs with increasing strength as the play goes on. Afterwards, I find that his monologues resonate most strongly, especially one in which he recalls calming May when she was a child as they were surrounded in a field by unknown animals. Don Long as slow Martin brings a pitch-perfect comic plainness to his role.
2951 S. Hampton Road. 213-926-9772.
— Glenn Arbery
"And
The Winner of the Column Award is....."
"ME?!?! "
It was a big night for
me! I was very honored to win the 2008 Column Award for Best Director of a
Musical (Non-Equity) alongside my co-director Sarah Henderson for HIGH SCHOOL
MUSICAL.
It was an amazing night and we had a blast at the Column Awards. Two of my
incredible actors, Mary and Michelle McElree, also won Columns for their
performances in HSM! Truthfully, the guys who deserve the award were the
incredible cast and crew of HSM - they were amazing!
My sincere and heartfelt thanks to John Garcia, Sheila Rose and all the folks that made this event so wonderful! So much talent in that room!
