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.