Theater-y-ish
Been thinking a lot. About my life. Sorting stuff out in my head. It's good I think.
Not really stuff to write about here. Let's all make coffee dates and I will tell you all about it? And you all can tell me about all the thinking that you've been doing. And we can drink tea from little brew pots and I'll fix mine with milk and sugar and you can fix yours any way you want. Deal?
Isherwood weighed in on the Humana offerings. I wish I could argue with his assessment but I don't altogether disagree with him this time. I will say--his thirty-five word dismissal of the New Paradise piece feels very unfair and hugely subjective. I was certainly having fun.
Fun tidbit I learned from super-one-person-show-director-man at Humana--Isherwood wrote a book. A book about a porn star. A gay porn star who died at the age of twenty-six from a drug overdose. And apparently it's pretty good.
Who knew.
And through various twists and turns I ended up at this entry in James Urbaniak's LiveJournal. Reading people's LiveJournals always feels a bit more invasive than other blog formats so if you didn't want small handfuls of theater folk from DC reading this, Mr. Urbaniak, do let me know.
Anyhow, it's the funniest thing I've read in a while. And too, too apt.
We had a moment in Darwin where an actor clearly reveled in his ability to "Dash Riff". The first time I was a little confused.
"Wait. What he just said? About the daughter's illness? That's TOTALLY not in the script..."
Then I realized what was going on. And I have a confession to make. I don't think I ever said anything. Because it was too much fun: a. watching said dash riffer come in with longer and more elaborate riff's throughout the process and b. watching the actor who was cutting him off jump faster and faster at the bit to actually cut the other actor off so that he didn't have to listen to the increasingly dramatic riffs. I'm sorry. That was bad of me.
I agree with Urbaniak's assessment of how a dash should be interpreted. But the moment made me giggle so I didn't fix it. Yeah, now you all trust me with your work, right?
Mea Culpa, it won't happen again.
posted by SAS @ 5:56 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I have a whole blog about this, that I never finished and published, a response to Urbaniak's post. My biggest issue being with the fact that he never cut her off. I hate it when an actor knows that s/he need to cut someone off, it is scripted that they do, it works for the pace, the energy of the scene, and yet they don't do it. This is not in defence of the dash riffers, just a request that those on the other end pick up their cue.
Lets hang out soon so's I can hear about humana, and the stuff knockin around in your head.
yeah.. I think it's a shared commitment, but I always assume as the dasher that you take a slight pause to think of the next word, or take a breath, and that's when they cut you off. I don't think it's necessary to keep rollicking along, as long as that other person picks up the cue.
yes to tea with milk and honey and stuff
HP-I getcha, but it seems the specific trait of a real pro dash riffer is to move so quickly into ad lib territory that no one else has any idea what hit them--and often the dash-ing ends up over-lapping the next line so it is almost impossible to cut them off in the correct place. That's been my experience. And Yes, let's hang. Humana and other chat awaits.
Gwen- Tea or a veggie dog at black cat, perchance?
FRIES, citymouse, FRIES.
don't you GET IT?? ALL I EAT ARE FRIED POTATO(E)S.
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I gladly admit that I've left many a dash riffer hanging and then had to try to recover from the strange new world to which they've taken me... And done the same to others. All I know is, it's not really worth riffing beyond a couple of words unless your partner knows that there is the threat of horrible, horrible scene-wrecking profanity at the end of the sentence.
Do we have to have tea? Cause I need a drink...
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