Things Less Heady and Not Of Things Being Fucked Up

As much as I love the conversation going on below, and will play as long as others want to play, it's time for an obligatory non-intellectual, what's Paul doing post. This one goes out to my mom (My mom reads my blog. I find that to kick ass. Sorry mom... I find that to kick patoot.), who is not of the theatrical inclination and found The Art Of Goofing (this one's for you, ma) Things Up a bit not of her particular bent. So here's what's up with me:

Yesterday I received a confirmation that I have been enrolled in the 500 Clown class at Actor's Gymnasium. Apparently I snuck into one of the last couple spots. I would brag, but rumor has it a second session will be added if the interest is there, making my last second entry a little less envy-producing.

The class doesn't start until October, but I'm quite excited -- excited enough to enroll despite it cutting into the Chicago Film Festival. (Alright, it's only cutting into two nights of the Film Festival, but those are normally two weeks of utter Paul Rekk unavailability.) I had been meaning to look into some Actor's Gym classes anyway, but having Paul Kalina running the show was an easy decision.

I've been interested in movement-based and other sorts of 'alternative' theatre for a long time; I was relatively successful as a mime in high school speech competitions -- and not that invisible box, tug on a rope shit. This was real mime or as close to real mime as a bunch of teenagers with no formal training can get. (Ironically enough, the piece we performed to great success was a telling of Shelley's Frankenstein.) My college training was woefully inadequate in terms of movement training, and by woefully inadequate I mean no training at all to speak of. I took a quick clowning workshop in association with a summer internship I had during college and my roommate has quite extensive Butoh training, of which I've picked his brain plenty. But that's about it. For an area that is of major interest to me (I say without hesitation that the two most influential theatrical experiences of my life have been Slava's Snowshow and Lookingglass Alice), I don't really know all that much. Time to rectify that.

It's been a good week in general -- on Monday I was called in to audition for an upcoming show at a well-respected Equity house. I'm loathe to do audition details on my blog because I'm superstitious like that, but it was for a role that would be nothing to scoff at, especially considering I'm non-Eq. I was happy with the audition, and considering the competition I'll probably have for it, that's about all I'm asking for.

I've got lots of shows lined up for the next couple of weeks -- a combination of catching up and trying to not fall behind again. This weekend is Speaking Ring's Vitality Festival, Signal's Fool For Love, and closing night of The Right Brain Project's The Designated Mourner, I'm bringing a friend to Lookingglass Alice (my second of three) on Tuesday, and next week is August: Osage County, opening of Theatre Seven's Killing Women, and BoHo's Gross Indecency, all followed by the bringing of a (different) friend to my third and final Lookingglass Alice the next Tuesday. Hold onto yr butts, folks.

And, finally, a request for the Chicagoans: I am in the process of looking at spaces for Per Diem's first show, with a tentative time frame for an opening somewhere from late spring to mid-summer. The tech is quite minimal, so I am especially interested in nonconventional spaces -- a traditional theatre isn't a necessity. I'm looking at a black box equivalent space; something similar to the Chopin's studio space (although I could use some more ceiling clearance). An industrial feel would be great, but isn't required either. Anybody got any recommendations of places that might get otherwise passed over? Like I said, tech requirements are flexible, so we're pretty wide open. Many thanks in advance!

(The aforepromised lolcats will be the subject of their very own post next time. My work setup is not conducive to cute kittehs sprawled across my screen. My home setup, on the other hand...)

P.Rekk
2007