Usually, when one talks about "tech rehearsals" in the theater, it refers to the chunk of rehearsal time when lights, sound, etc are all being worked out. However, as detailed in a New York Times article today, a new production of the musical Companydirected by Lonny Price is taking the term to a whole different level.
The show, which is gearing up for four performances with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall starting on Thursday, April 7th, 2011, features a cast of A-listers who it's been problematic to get in the same room together. The solution? Technology! For example, Neil Patrick Harris Skypes with his voice teacher and rehearses songs listening to MP3 tracks while driving (and there's always an abundance of drive time in Los Angeles). Jon Cryer relied on the video capability of the iPhone to learn some of his dance routines (and according to the article, has now developed the unique skill of beimg able to hoof it while looking down at his phone). Other cast members include Stephen Colbert, Patti LuPone, Craig Bierko, Anika Noni Rose and Christina Hendricks.
One of the joys of theater is usually working with the other actors, refining and deepening your work through the rehearsal period. It'll be intereseting to see how this process works for the show, as many of the actors come together at the last minute for Thursday's performance. Curious? You'll be able to check it out when Company is shown in movie theaters in June. Yep, that's right...in today's all-screens, all-the-time world, even live theater gets captured by the camera for a larger audience.
Cracked open a new book this week - Jonah Lehrer's Proust Was a Neuroscientist. Deals with one of my favorite topics, the link between art and science. I'm looking forward to spending the next several weeks (or months depending on how busy the work schedule is) diving into the worlds of Proust, George Eliot, Cezanne, Gertrude Stein and others as Lehrer attempts to connect their artistic methodologies to scientific discoveries.
I'm already intrigued by the introduction, which includes this food for thought:
Every method, even the experimental method, has limits. Take the human mind. Scientists describe our brain in terms of physical details; they say we are nothing but a loom of electrical cells and synaptic spaces. What science forgets is that this isn't how we experience the world. (We feel like the ghost, not like the machine.) It is ironic but true: the one reality science cannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know. This is why we need art. By expressing our actual experience, the artist reminds us that our science is incomplete, that no map of matter will ever explain the immateriality of our consciousness.
Though I know a few Cylons who might disagree with the statement above, I think it's an interesting statement about the different needs that art and science fill. There's nothing quite like that moment of catharsis in the theater when you recognize your own life in what is happening on stage.
Just started reading Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.'s My Stroke of Insight, which I am loving. It's about the Harvard-trained brain scientist's experience of her own stroke, and combines a personal and clinical look at what she went through both the morning of her stroke and during the eight years of recovery.
I'm that rare artist who likes to make lists and gets a bizarre satisfaction out of constructing project timelines. Reading Taylor's breakdown of right and left brain functions has given me a lot of food for thought, and is inspiring me to make a list of topics to research when I'm done with her book (told ya' I like the lists). It's making me think about how I think. And how I feel. I'm about 1/4 through the book and here's the passage that's got my brain doing backflips at the moment:
Although most of us are rarely aware of it, our sensory receptors are designed to detect information at the energy level. Because everything around us - the air we breathe, even the materials we use to build with - are composed of spinning and vibrating atomic particles, you and I are literally swimming in a turbulent sea of electromagnetic fields. We are part of it. We are enveloped within it, and through our sensory apparatus we experience what it is.
When doing theater, we often talk about 'feeling' the energy of the audience, about how there's a very real interchange between what's happening onstage and the peeps in the seats. At times this can take on on a very lofty, hi-falutin' tone...something my artsy right brain loves, but my left brain mocks a bit. However, this passage from Taylor's book soothes my analytical left brain, let's it know that there's actual theory and reason for some of the magic that happens onstage. And that in itself is pretty amazing.
Thanks to the folks in the Coronet Writers Lab for turning me onto this competition. I'm not familiar with STAGE (Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration), but as it's right at the crossroads of my passion for theater and science, I'm looking forward to learning more.
The description of the group states:
STAGE is a unique collaboration between the Professional Artists
Lab - a dynamic artistic laboratory - and the California NanoSystems
Institute - an esteemed science institute – both housed at the
University of California, Santa Barbara.
STAGE endeavors to:
- foster new and imaginative voices and methods of storytelling;
- catalyze the development of art that depicts the technological age in which we live;
- cultivate appreciation and collaboration between the two cultures of science and art;
- promote understanding of the sciences in the public arena;
- accomplish all of the above within an international community.
A bit about the history of STAGE from their site:
STAGE grew out of efforts to catalyze the development of theatre that depicts the technological age in which we live and to foster new and imaginative voices and methods of storytelling, as well as to promote understanding of the sciences in the public arena. Nancy Kawalek, the founder and director of the Professional Artists Lab, approached the California NanoSystems Institute a few years ago with the idea of collaborating on these mutual interests. The partnership began with the STAGE International Script Competition. “We wanted to encourage playwrights – and scientists, for that matter – to write plays relevant to the lives we lead, lives influenced at nearly every moment by incredibly sophisticated technological and scientific advances,” said Kawalek.
Here's the competition info...
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA’S 4th ROUND OF THE STAGE INTERNATIONAL SCRIPT COMPETITION
$10,000 PRIZE TO BE GIVEN FOR THE BEST NEW PLAY ABOUT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Submitted plays must explore scientific and/or technological
stories, themes, issues or events. Multi-media theatre pieces,
non-traditional plays and new forms are encouraged.
The winner of the Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating
Exploration (STAGE) Competition will receive a $10,000 USD prize, along
with possible opportunities for developing and promoting the winning
script.
THE DEADLINE IS DECEMBER 15, 2009. For guidelines, an entry form and all details, please visit: www.stage.cnsi.ucsb.edu.
Current and previous STAGE judges include Pulitzer, Tony, Olivier
& Nobel-winning judges David Auburn, John Guare, David
Lindsay-Abaire, Sir Anthony Leggett & Dr. Douglas Osheroff.
STAGE Script Competition
Professional Artists Lab
CNSI - MC 6105
3241 Elings Hall - Bldg. 266
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6105
E-mail: stage@cnsi.ucsb.edu
URL: www.stage.cnsi.ucsb.edu
THE LUSH LIST An irregularly, posted list of SciCultureTech that catches my eye...
1. Quote of the Week: Iran and Science Sometimes I find I have to go backwards to go forwards. As part of my attempt to better understand what's been happening in Iran this week, I went back and re-read "Tehran or Bust: A Journey Through the Heart of Iran," a piece by Hooman Majd in the June 1st issue of Newsweek. I found an interesting comment about Iran's attitude towards scientists. Discussing current events with his driver, an off-duty policeman from Isfahan, Madj writes:
"He [the driver] felt he should leave the big political issues to the experts, for he had only a high-school diploma. That Iranian scientists have mastered enrichment technology at Natanz is not only a source of pride for Isfahani policemen, but also for almost all Iranians, who place a premium on scientific study and who rigorously apply an honorific - "Mohandes" - to anyone who has a degree in engineering."
While the resurgence of "geek culture" seems to be giving a boost to the American public's view of scientists, we still have a long way to go before spending time in the lab becomes a source of national U.S. pride.
2. Back to the Moon: Step 1 The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) successfully blasted off on June 18th from Cape Canaveral, FL. According to NASA's website, the goal of the unmanned mission is to create a comprehensive atlas of the Moon’s features and resources to aid in the design of a lunar outpost. If we're going to send astronaut's back to the moon by 2020, we gotta pick out a nice, comfy landing spot.
For a look back at our earlier efforts to get to the moon, check out "From the Archives to the Moon," a collection from the the US National Archives on YouTube. Right now there are three films up, including a biography of Astronaut John Glenn, a piece about Dr. Robert Goddard, the "father of rocketry," and this piece from 1967 about trying to get photos of the surface of the moon so they could figure out whether it was safe for a man to land there. Where's Google Sky when you need it?
3. Opera in Space I was lucky enough to catch the Wooster Group's performance of La Didone at the Redcat theater this week. The show is a mashup of Francesco Cavalli's 17th century Baroque opera La Didone and Mario Bava's 1965 cult sci-fi movie Terrore nello spazio (Planet of the Vampires). The combo of the mythological story of Dido and Aeneas and a the crew of a spaceship who makes a crash landing on a planet full of body snatchers is exquisite and surprisingly funny. As past and future collide, Wooster uses a variety of multi-media elements to help tell the story, leaving the audience in a rapturous limbo of time and space. For more on the show and the history of the company, the review in The New York Timeshas a good write up.
4. SNEEZE and DNA Games I stumbled across RoutesGame.com thanks to a post from the ERV blog on scienceblogs.com. The collection of casual flash games includes fun stuff like a "viral" game that challenges you to infect as many peeps as possible with your sneeze, and a take off of Guitar Hero called DNA Heroes. After wasting far too much time playing the Sneeze game, I delved a bit further into the Routes site, which aims to take players into a world of genetics, evolution and the human genome using a variety of new media tools. For example, there's an interactive murder mystery that makes use of video, blogs and links across the web to help solve the crime. In another section, Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan embarks on a genetic testing quest to explore pressing issues such as whether her hangovers are caused by genes or gin.
According to the description on the site, Routes is a project of Channel 4 Education in association
with the Wellcome Trust. The game was live from January 26th through to March 26th, 2009, but full archives are available so viewers can see the scope of the project.
5. Don't Be a Twit When It Comes to Safety A piece in The Washington Post reminds folks to be mindful when tweeting on vacation. The great thing about social networking tools is they allow you to share your experiences with friends. But sometimes those 'friends' turn out to be thieves who capitalize on the fact that by posting pics & status updates, you've let it be known that you're out of town. As tempting as it can be to post the shot of you swimming with the Dolphins or partying in Prague, if no one else is at home, leave the vacation updates til you've returned. It's no fun getting away for some R&R, only to come back and find all your stuff gone.
