The official blog of the Dramaturgy Department at Baltimore's CENTERSTAGE. For posts related to our current and upcoming shows, click the links to the right. Alternatively, you could begin at the beginning, and explore our posts in chronological order.
Baltimore Performance Kitchen is hosting world renowned and local choreographer, Liz Lerman, for a two week residency as she explores the US Civil War and the contemporary wars of the past decade through the experiences of the healers involved. There will be two showings of the work, along with several other public events. In partnership with Mobtown Ballroom.
Showings at Mobtown Ballroom
861 Washington Blvd | Baltimore | MD | 21230 |
Thursday, October 25 at 7:30pm & Friday, October 26 at Noon
“Dammit, Mamet”: proud to be a white guy—the American Buffalo rap video
(not for the verbally faint-of-heart)
First Thursdays Concerts in the Park bring thousands of music lovers to West Mt. Vernon Park to experience live music surrounded by historic architecture, family and friends. And all for Free! Just
Look for the Monument and Listen for the Music! The shows start at 5:30 and run till about 8:45. Food, drink are available and you’re welcome to bring lawn chairs, your own food, and friends for these free shows.
Pretty much what the title says.
Mobtown Murder Mystery | What Weekly Magazine
Follow the link, unravel the clues, and find out more about the latest iteration of this novel Baltimore tradition.
The last scene of ‘Tis Pity is a bloodbath, and almost no one gets away unspattered. Check out this video for a backstage peek at the techniques of stage blood: squirting, frothing, and staining—and how we clean up for the next show!
Spoilers, guys, spoilers. There will be blood.
Stand to!
Fight director J. Allen Suddeth and the ‘Tis Pity cast demonstrate the cut-and-thrust cloak-and-dagger world of fight call.
Never really fully understand that Bottom line from Midsummer, though it’s fun. But be that as it may, we’ve reached the critical moment when actual, paying audiences (patrons? customers? collaborators? theater junkies?) get let in to watch the result of a year’s worth of work.
We’ve now had a final dress rehearsal for staff and invited guests, Tuesday night, and that was a riot and a half, a truly vital reception (next time you get an invite from us to attend one of these, say yes!). It also helped fine-tune the production. And now we’ve had a few previews to try some adjustments and work out more kinks.
From our perspective, it’s great to see and hear directly from audiences that the play actually makes sense, that they follow it, that it lands. Great to hear that text revisions we made worked, or that choices the cast and director made to illuminate a relationship or moment, work. We’ve passed on pages and pages of notes for the director to add to her own, everything from large-scale overall narrative observations to minute questions about a piece of jewelry, say. We’ve made a few more line changes to try out tonight (can we really avoid the impression of pregnacy by substituting for “a fullness of the blood” a line from elsewhere in the play—“the overflux of youth?” Amazing how many ways they had in Early Modern England to say Horny!
The added figure of La Morte, the angel of death who glides through the show, came in for some consideration, and it looks as if she’ll be added into a few additional spots and perhaps further conceived just a bit, to help complete the thematic and theatrical notion she conveys. Subtly, we hope.
Subtlety would NOT apply to the gouts and gallons of blood getting used in the play’s gore-loaded finale; audiences have been responding with delicious delight and horror to the macabre, body-strewn climax. Pack a poncho and come check it out.
And if you’re someone who’s been following along and has now seen the show, or comes to see it during its run, you are welcome not only to post a note here but to email us at thaumaturgydept@gmail.com. We’d love to hear your responses or reactions.
-ghw
[ok, a little reward; not to give any/everything away, but here’s one of Richard Anderson’s brilliant production photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/thaumaturgydept/TisPitySheSAWhore#5312800883321613330.
Things, as you can see, get pretty active and violent come the last scene….]
