Scene Partner Series, batch 1

heads-up:

It's official. Our very first beer is in the fermenter! Andrew and I (clever brewer name to be determined) are super excited to announce:

Wit Washer English Brown Ale by Gower and Fluellen

For our first beer, we chose the recipe kit for an English Brown Ale from Brooklyn Homebrew, and so to follow along with the English tradition, we went straight to the Bard. Sifting through some favorite drinking references, it was clear the Henry plays offered the most ale-centric language, so after investigating each, we were drawn to Gower’s words in Henry V, Act III scene 6:

“...and what a beard of the general’s cut and a horrid suit of the camp will do among foaming bottles and ale-washed wits is wonderful to be thought on.”

It is indeed, and the fooling and the trickery will commence in about 3½ weeks time, at which point Gower and Fluellen (and possibly Pistol) will present you with referenced scene in the comfort of somebody’s (or many-body’s) NYC apartment(s). Since it’s our first try, we’ve no idea how it’s going to taste or even if it will be drinkable. But, we’re gonna go for it anyway (and if it sucks, we’ll have plenty of back-up choices for washing your wits in, don’t worry).

For those of you unfamiliar with the idea of apartment art (or apt.art), I’ve had this desire to work on scenes, famous, infamous, huge, old, challenging scenes and try to figure out how to set them in apartments. But not just one apartment - I want them to travel to the apartment of whoever wants to see them. This way, the end product questions the audience’s understanding of the play as well as their own home (or at least a space that’s already familiar to them as a home-space). Also, the work for the actors becomes about how to create and set a scene for a type of space rather than a specific space, how to be both flexible and follow a set of landmarks so the scene isn’t a complete free-for-all. It’s a grand experiment, ripe for learning and I’m incredibly curious about what we’ll find out - about the scenes, the plays, the people we perform them for, ourselves and so many other things. Much more on this to follow.

So this is your heads-up: 3 weeks from Sunday our very first beer will be bottled and ready for drinking and we’ll have an excerpt from Henry V, scene III.6 ready for viewing. We think the two will make for a smashing good time.

The Return of the Boot

Hellooooooooo out there!!!!!!!!!!!

Well after nearly a year-long hiatus (after only just beginning!), I'm back on my feet and have actually started something. That's right - actually started something. Time to note the differences:

The Glass Boot is no longer purely art-based! Whoa! The alcohol connotation is coming to the fore: I've started brewing beer. That's right - my dear dear friend Andrew Grimm and I have officially jumped in the deep-end and begun homebrewing beer. We started our first batch on Sunday - look out for the announcement to come - and we're super darn excited about it. It was an adventure and who knows how it'll come out, but it's fermenting away and will be ready to taste in about a month. Yeehaw! And since we're both theatre dorks, and since we can't resist an opportunity to show that off, here's the concept, as of now:

Every few weeks, Andrew and I (and guest brewers for real!) will get together to brew some beer. Beers have styles and come from certain cultural traditions. So do plays. And so as that beer brews we'll come up with a name for it that references some piece of theatrical history that comes from a related tradition as the style of beer we're making. Then as the beer ferments, we'll work on a scene from the play/tradition the name comes from. And when it's bottled and ready to drink, we'll perform the scene in some apartment somewhere while we party it up with our beer. Sound like fun? We think so.

Theory. Craft. Energy. They're still there - just different. They're just the 3 components necessary for our success - and we'll work on each as we go further. Who knows where we'll end up. The Glass Boot will provide a home for our research - a place to document our struggles with Theory, our endeavors in Craft, our calls for Energy.

The Glass Boot will still be a place for musing, still a place to give others a head-up, still a place to report whahahappen. It will still provide opportunities to wonder "what if?" or "may i?" or "can we?"

For example...

heads-up - the duet with Erin Cairns is still in the works! We're performing at DNA on February 26 at 4:30 - more details to follow but you should totally come see us!

what if people paid us to brew beer and show them art? Paid us enough to support the projects or even support ourselves? We could make beer and bring it to people's apartments, perform a famous scene, make them change how they think about their own living space, the play, their relationships, the beer(!), who knows what else. What if "apt.art" was a viable, affordable, enjoyable way for new audiences to interact with theater?

can we please see each other more often?

heads-up - I have an idea for whhw (whahahappenwuz) - I have this fabulous new TV and a library card. I want to learn by watching great movies and videos of theater from the past. There is so much available and so much to learn...

can we meet and see old theater or movies or music or art? can we commit to spending once a week investing time in researching what's come before right now and then research what's happening exactly right now?

heads-up - I'm a little bit crazy, with dreams much bigger than my arms or legs or mouth or fingers or belly or eyes.

(delays)

grumble grumble

So the world ate my computer early last week. Awesome. In the meantime, I got myself a little pork chop (read: blackberry) to help me out...and now I'm borrowing John's computer to make up the difference. Anyway. Back to work and plans...

Excitement! I just started rehearsing a duet with Erin Cairns yesterday! She's choreographing it for us and I'm super excited to be back in a studio (or "studio" sometimes, whatever) making work. It feels good, especially to be dancing again. We're hoping to be sharing at least some of it sometime in the fall -- so look out! Meanwhile, I'm back on task (fully equipped and reconnected to the world) to gather a group to start the Viewpoints and Composition workshop.

Presently, it seems like the best times for the workshop will be a weekday from say 7-9:30 or so. I'd really like to work at Triskelion Arts in Williamsburg (the studios are great, I like the woman who runs it, the views I think will provide fantastic architecture and inspiration and they're pretty cheap: $13/hr at most, probably 12). Looking at their availability for April, Wednesdays and Fridays look the most promising. Yea? Nay? If you have other suggestions for time or space, please let me know. I would love the first session to be between 3/30 and 4/9. Let's get it on.

I wanted to write a whahahappenwas for Measure for Measure at the Duke on 42nd...but, I think it actually just closed and I didn't take enough notes (or keep the program) so rather than doing a half-assed, shoddy job, I figured I'll write my first whhw about the new Suzan Lori Parks at the Public that I'm seeing tomorrow night :) awesome-stew. Look out for it.

In the meantime, let's all focus on Craft, and getting this workshop up and started for April. Started work with Erin has made me even more excited to get my creative muscles stretched out and worked out. Lezdoit.

-C

"They have no opening night, no critics, no end in mind--only practice, to keep their creative spirits active and flexible." --Anne Bogart and Tina Landau, from The Viewpoints Book

3 sets of 3

A Plan. This is what I'm thinking...

Theory, Craft and Energy - ideals, values and goals to continue to work on; they are discussion topics and focuses of meetings; how can we invite the mind into our work and bring our work into the dialogue? how can we hone our instruments to create work with facility and strength?how can we develop kineticism and motion surrounding and supporting our work? how can they inform each other to develop an exciting, beautiful, thoughtful body of art?

- these are also the 3 venues in which we meet: Theory looks like a reading group that meets perhaps every other week; Craft is a weekly workshop space that will begin with Viewpoints and Composition; Energy replaces "performances" with a party where art happens.

musing, heads-up and whhw - labels for navigating the Boot and staying involved in the discussion - sometimes all we need is to vent the boiling air that's flying around inside our heads or hearts or bellies or feet. sometimes we need to alert others to moments and events as they are happening or about to happen. sometimes we just need to report on or review something we saw, heard, ate, smelled, read, experienced... whahahappenwuz...

may i? can we? and what if? - diving boards - side-bars: may i interrupt for a second and talk about this totally unrelated item? suggestions: can we do [this] too/instead of that/next time around/faster/only in our dreams/right now? dream projects: what if we could create anything, anywhere, anytime, anyway, anywho?

I want to call them the bottles. Dig?

Mission, Purpose, Raison d'Etre

I'm trying to start something new. Get the ball rolling, if you will. It always seems to take me so long to get going--I like to steep, to plan. I need to do. Do. Doodoo. For sure.

Here's a place. I've found a place to start something new: here. Tada! I've been frustrated--looking around my community, my city--that space comes at such a high premium. There's no space to grow. To experiment. To break rules and be safe without spending money money money money money. Hunny. So, after much debate, much steeping, I look to the only "space" one can find for free: digital space. Seemingly-infinite amounts of it. And I want to use this space to grow inside of and learn from. And I'm calling to you and everyone who feels the need to make mistakes and take risks and...

Ok, let's get down to it.

Make art with me.

Make art with me. Make it free. Make it open. Make it well. Make it.

The Glass Boot, most of all, is a venue. Here we can share and we can work to find other free spaces: spaces for our bodies, where our bodies can meet and make more art. Free art. Open art.

Join the conversation. Or witness it. It's here for everyone.