Meet The Fourteen - Andy Talen

Hey! You know how I'vebeen promising more interviews for months!?  Well, guess what?  Here's one featuring one of my favorite people on the planet, Mr Andrew Talen.

Live by Principle!

-Nix

And Andrew!

Video Killed the Blog Star.

Back to Work.

I discovered a few weeks back that having NOTHING to do doesn't agree with me well.  I apparently have  some serious issues with relaxing and enjoying the times where there are no responsibilities and obligations.  I did a lot of cleaning.  A lot.

But now all of this awful nothing is over with!!!  Andy and I start back up with rehearsals for a little project that we've been working on with one of our fellow first year writers, Bryan Quick.  Careful, there's a shameless plug approaching.  Here's some information in case you want to come check out Quick's One-act play at Manhattan Repertory:

Manhattan Repertory Theatre Presents:

A DREAM... 

As Part of it’s WINTER ONE-ACT COMPETITION (Series F)

DATES/ TIMES
Wednesday, January 18 at 9pm
Friday, January 20 at 9pm
Saturday, January 21 at 4pm

at Manhattan Repertory Theatre
303 W. 42nd St. Suite 308
New York, NY 10036

(Take any train to Times Square and walk over to 8th ave and 42nd st)

PERFORMED BY AND IN COLLABORATION WITH:
Malcolm Douglas Brown
Ryan Nicolls
Andy Talen

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY:
Bryan Quick

SYNOPSIS:
Gray, a white man, awakens in a small cell to the sound of Martin Luther King's, "I Have a Dream" speech. He is confronted by Mr. X, the self proclaimed "Negro Magic," who is charged with getting Gray to admit that he is a racist. Stereotypes and misconceptions are brought front and center. Are you a racist? Are you not a racist? Gray is forced to confront the hidden tendencies that we all to often ignore.

TICKETS:
$20 dollars

Email mrtreserve@gmail.com, to reserve a seat.

Tell them you would like to see A Dream…in PERFORMANCE SERIES F,
And give them the date you want to attend.
You will receive an email back within 24 hours to confirm. 


So now that that's done, I can get back to trying to make sure these lines are crammed into my brain.  I probably shouldn't be this excited to be going back to being ridiculously busy...  I really shouldn't.


"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
-  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


Cheers!


-R

Blackbird.

This last week was exhausting.  That's a solid fact.  Friday met us with a bit of bad news and a wonderful opportunity; our afternoon class was cancelled, but the room was free for use.  Actually there's no bad news in there, the idea of the week ending four hours earlier than we had expected was a gift.  If you see me in the video below and you claim that I don't look haggard, you're being kind.

I'm working on a project right now that I hope we can stage before the beginning of the next semester.  Andy, Phillip and myself met up in the church to rehearse some of the music that we want to use, and after a few hours of rehearsal, we came out with three solid songs under our collective belts, including the one below, which Mr. Dunivan was happy enough to record for us after stumbling on our little musical coterie. He was even kind enough to employ his eye for dynamic composition to make us look good, enjoy!

He's probably going to attempt to hire an assassin to rub me out for this, but Matt's a really incredible photographer with an excellent eye, you can check some of his work here.

The few hours that we spent rehearsing was really rejuvenating and really got me excited to continue working on the project as well as taking some of the edge off of the week.  I'm really looking forward to getting together again next week to continue.

"Nothing pleases me more than to go into a room and come out with a piece of music."
- Paul McCartney

-R

Pop-Tarts & Dr. Pepper.

I should mention right now that I am on a sugar HIGH.  Yeah, I'm a grown-up.

It's the only way I'm going to make it through tonight.  I have some lines to cram into my head before tomorrow, but the encroaching arms of Morpheus beckon me to join those that dwell in the land of slumber.  I.  Am.  Knackered.

I'm going to work backwards.  I had a truly wonderful dinner tonight.  Great company and some wonderful conversation can really make the soul... effervescent.

We did some work in Livia's dance class today that blew my mind.  We partnered up.  I got together with Bro-Shinn;  one-at-a-time blindfolded up, and blindly danced throughout the space with the other groups while the "seeing" partner Witnessed; Guided: Directed the impulses of the blind dancer.  I really want to pour through the notes that we were made to take during the mid-phases and share with you the experience from my point of view, perhaps this weekend, whenI can steal some time to do so  It was incredible.

We fought a little bit today in stage combat.  Fake-fighting, mind you.  I get a chance to work with Andy again, and though he spends most of the time beating me senseless, the chance to work with the guy again is my favorite part.  They will never keep us apart... never!!!  I did notice today that I had almost no focus to speak of and a sense of being piqued during both classes.  I feel like I may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew.  Was it only two days ago that I was talking about falling in to the groove?  Ha!  possibly because my mind keeps wandering to my personal affairs tart need managing, or that I'd rather be writing.  Perhaps it's because I've only been getting three hours of sleep for the past several nights.  Maybe a healthy mixture of the three (dosed now with ample amounts of caffeine and sugar!).

I couldn't knick some time to interview Daniela today, so unfortunately, I have no new Meet The Fourteen videos to share with you tonight.  Tomorrow for sure; look for it.

I'm off to cram.


"Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down."
-Richard M. Sherman


Off to the races.

-R

Gardening.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity for a little development outside of our prescribed curriculum.  Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Andy Talen, we were able to begin the first of three special Alexander classes instructed by Nina D'Abbracci from the Linklater Center.  I've never experienced Alexander training before.  At CSUF, we sort of dabbled in a few different techniques, but straying from Fitzmaurice was akin to sin.  I was really amazed at the simplicity of the beginning exercises and the immense reward delivered in freedom and ease of movement.  I'm really excited to continue next Saturday, and see what else is in store for us.

I was able to post the first of the Meet The Fourteen interviews yesterday.  From what I can tell, between impressions from Blogspot and YouTube, you seem to like it.  I'll be interviewing Daniela Mastropietro, (and if I'm very lucky, Mr. Kevin Tobias Johnston) tomorrow.  The interview with Daniela should be up for your viewing pleasure tomorrow.

I realized this weekend that "the groove" has finally been achieved.  I didn't feel that the transition back into school full-time was a difficult one, but I'm realizing that I've hit a good stride wherein I can really start planting the seeds of some extra-curricular projects that I've been wanting to work on.  I've sent out some feelers to get some stories from some of the class for a music and story-telling (I'm dreading the use of the word cabaret) evening that I'm hoping to develop the "script" for over the next few weeks.  If I can just make time this week to get down to NYU, I think I might be able to get the ball rolling on a charity fundraiser that's been kicking around my brain since the dayI got my acceptance call.  The excitement inside me is really buzzing right now.  The world is full of possibilities.

Sunday is always a great day to take care of all of the odds and ends that get glossed over during the week (laundry and cleaning, anyone?).  It's a bit like plucking up all of the weeds that come in while you're not paying attention, today is no different, UNLESS you count the fact that I got an opportunity to finally get down to the most recently opened BareBurger around the corner for brunch with fellow my fellow Titans, Jessica Kausen; Carly Menkin; and Graham Forden.  I hadn't seen Graham in a few weeks, butI think that at the surprise of seeing him walk through my front door this morning, I embraced him so hard that I almost broke him.  Getting a chance to catch up with some old, wonderful friends and just stroll through the neighborhood on a crisp Autumn afternoon was a sweet rejuvenation for the soul.


Since I've been out of California, I've found myself missing having a yard, a garden, a patio, anything where I can grow something.  There's something really zen about caring for plants; tending to them; letting them speak to you and tell you their needs; helping them grow.  I suppose that my loose analogy of personal cultivation got me thinking about that again and I felt I should share that.  But even though I'm not physically growing anything right now, I'm anticipating sharing with you some of these artistic projects again when the sprigs begin to poke through the surface of their fallow soil.


Now the gardener is the one who has seen everything ruined so many time
that (even as his pain increases with each loss) he comprehends - truly
knows - that where there was a garden once, it can be again, or where
there never was, there can yet be a garden."
- Henry Mitchell


Splish, splash.  Splish, splash.  I'm my own best gardener!

- Nix

True West.

I know I've promised a highly controversial posting about race in American Theater, but it's been a long day.  Excuses, excuses I know.

I got to work with Ariel today in Larry Singer's class; I'm really excited for where that's going to go.  Perhaps more interestingly, we had to present our first batch of scenes for the 2013 class this evening.  They shared with us some of the adaptions of Chekhov's short stories that they had been working on before we dove in to showing them our work from Andrei's class.  I may have mentioned in an earlier post, but we were working on Sam Shepard... nifty stuff.  I wanted to give you a peek at what it is that we do in class.  Our whole program is set around actors on boxes and really working relationships.  I have a feeling that, like the upperclassmen, we'll start building some craftier sets pieces, but for right now, what you see is what you get.  The video quality is a bit poor and I tried to boost the audio for what I could on iMovie before uploading it here.  Next time we'll grab some better resolution material, but, in the mean time, enjoy the fruits of our labors.

"I feel like I've never had a home, you know? I feel related to the country, to this country, and yet I don't know exactly where I fit in... There's always this kind of nostalgia for a place, a place where you can reckon with yourself."
- Sam Shepard


ZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZz


-R

A Lasting Impression.

This one will be short, I promise.  Before I launch in, I want to mention a few things.

1)  I got a chance to sit down and talk over a scene with Ariel today.  More importantly, I got to peel a few layers back off of her onion of mystique.  I am totally in love with intelligent people when they are genuine and generally awesome all around.  I'm excited to continue working with her.

2)  I got to do, what may be, a final rehearsal with Mr. Andy Talen for 'True West'.  Andy is an pretty spectacular human being; I encourage you to read about my first impressions of him, if you haven't already, and know that he in locked in some sort of state of perpetual awesomeness.

3)  I'm totally listening to Alice in Chains MTV Unplugged session from 1996 on Spotify right now.  I cannot count how many times I listened to this album on repeat in my teenage years.  It is incredible.  If you've never heard it, listen to it now.  It's pretty much the soundtrack of my pubescent years.

4)  According to the stats on my blog dashboard I'm pretty big with users from Russia right now.  So thanks, Russia; stay classy!!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steve Jobs lost his battle with cancer today.  I'm sure you may have already seen one of the many posts about it on the interwebs already. Facebook and Twitter seem to be common grieving grounds for whenever a celebrity passes away, but upon exiting rehearsal and checking the feed whilst waiting for the bus, posts about Jobs' death was the only thing there for me to scroll through.  It hit me.  I was affected.  I thought about how he had stepped down as CEO of Apple only a little over a month ago and how he must have known that he only had a few weeks to live.  How final that is.  How much there would be to do before the inevitable end.  He started and resuscitated Apple Computers, he helped pioneer PIXAR in it's infancy, he was a philanthropist; from a technological standpoint he was a revolutionary artist.  He brought us products that, admittedly, I sometimes deride (too much iPod makes the baby go socially inept); but these products were developed to make our lives better  They were developed to connect us; to give us greater facility to perform the tasks of our day; to make our ives just bait more 'Trek'.  Seriously, go back and watch J.J. Abrams' re-imagined Star Trek and tell me that you don't half expect to see the Apple logo emblazoned somewhere, everywhere on the U.S.S. Enterprise.

I started thinking about my experience at MotMI Sunday, and the Jim Henson exhibit and how similar both of these guys were.  They accomplished notoriety through passion and commitment; they worked to improve life for future generations; they died of cancer too soon, yet their work lived on through the people that they inspired.  That passion and commitment; that drive to make things better; that inspiration lives on. That's a legacy for humanity.  It absolutely astonishes me.  I feel it can be very easy to get caught up in the rigors of the day, to have drive to make it through as nearly unscathed as possible.  Our work becomes about a paycheck, bills, rent, a mushroom quiche with a pretty lady.  It becomes selfish without the intention of becoming selfish, and it becomes easy, for me at least, to forget that what we do here in this world has the possibility to change the world, which is at all points entirely possible except for one: when we forget.  I hope this isn't coming across as megalomaniacal, I don't know if I'm so bold to run in to the street and loudly proclaim that I'm going to save the world, but I think that I am so intrepid as to furtively strive to make it a slightly better place.

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."  
-Edmund Burke


Breathe in.  Beathe out.


-Nix

LIFE 501 - Laboratory (Independent Study).

It's really hard to break the blog cycle over the weekends.  Especially when you've like me lately, and blogging like SOMEBODY is reading.  I've decided to break this up by day since the outside world has proven more fruitful for revelation than the classroom was today.  This by no means is me saying that today's studies were not worth the effort to get out of bed, but the the things outside of the basement have been far more meaningful to my heart.

SATURDAY

I should tell you that I've already lied to you.  I know, it sucks, but I'm just discovering it myself.  WE had a pick-up class for Larry Singer Saturday morning where we continued to examine some scenes and exercise in sharing  a turning point moment with a classmate that we've had little contact with and having them breakdown the story into ten words.  I, admittedly was surprised when Jeena Yi asked me to partner up with her.  It's exciting to feel wanted, but I wouldn't consider her the person that I have the least contact with in the class.  She shared something personal and deeply meaningful with me, and I was in a position where I needed to share a story that I don't like telling people about.  It was a bit tough, because I figured when this thing came out, it would be with one of the brothers and maybe a few more months down the line.  But there we were, sharing, and although it was forced (in that it may not have been something willfully shared outside of an exercise) there is a sort of serenity in understanding something about someone and having them understand something about me.  It's like giving them a very small, beautiful, injured bird and knowing that they'll care for it.  We got to continue this particular exercise this morning, which I'll share with you later, because, you know... chronology.

Saturday night was set aside for some quality bonding time with the dudes of the class.  A time to relax, let loose, not talk about the program and get to know each other a bit more seriously outside of what we see of each other in class.  Only Phillip, Andy, and Ethan could make it out, but some classic moments happened.  The kind that only a good sense of humor and a bit of alcohol can induce.  Also, this happened:

We have some immensely talented musicians in our class, and honestly, sometimes it boggles my mind that we didn't all end up in some sort of twisted musical threater program.  There's a lot of love for these guys (and the ones who couldn't make it out).  Hopefully there will be much more of this over the next few years.

SUNDAY

Sunday's usually my day of rest.  The Lord's day, as I like to call it... despite some serious irreligiousness on my behalf.  It serves as a nice day of reflection and a chance to get things done.   Domesticity is key.  Yesterday however, I made an opportunity to steal away with room-mate Jessica, her co-worker Sarah, and the always amazing Graham Forden to the Museum of the Moving Image where they have this incredible temporary installation dedicated to the work of Jim Henson.  If you are like me and you grew up during the eighties (or maybe even after, I'm not sure) you have fond memories of seeing heroes like Steve Martin and Elton John on The Muppet Show, learning to count on Sesame Street, getting scared shitless at Dark Crystal, dancing your cares away to Fraggle Rock, or (in a very special admission from me to you) discovering the amazingness of, the Thin White Duke, David Bowie and maybe also learning that your sexual orientation thanks to miss Jennifer Connely in the 1986 movie Labyrinth.  Yeah, that statement just happened.  Good lord she's.... psssssshhhhhhhhhhhh!  Yikes.

See the exhibit, if you are in NYC.  If you're not, plan a trip.  Looking through sketchbooks and documentary footage and costumes and puppets and archive footage was not only an amazing trip down memory lane, but also a chance to get into the mind of a man who wanted to change the world for the better while making great and innovative art.  The man was the Jason Bourne of storytelling: anything on hand could be used to communicate an idea in a visually stunning and breathtaking way.  He respected children, and felt an obligation to enlighten them to the lessons that grown-ups had learned in a way that would be remembered. I guarantee anyone reading this can hum or sing a few bars of something that they learned from "The Street" or recount a sketch that taught something to them before it was taught to them in school.  That's a special kind of magic.  As I was looking at all of this stuff and swimming in a euphoric wonder at the work of this prolific man and his company, I was saddened at the thought that that time is gone, and I couldn't summon any one contemporary person to mind who has an artistic mission pursued with such a fervent passion.

I also found a quote amongst that many signs and pages telling of this man's work that stuck with me, because it gave me a bit of comfort from a burgeoning doubt in my mind.  I think it draws upon some ancient gestalt that only shamans and healers can tap into with such ease.  I'd like to share it with you:

"I believe that we form our lives, that we create our own reality, and that everything works out for the best.  I know I drive some people crazy with what seems to be ridiculous optimism, but it has always worked out for me."

-Jim Henson

That was the closest I could come to Kermit Green, which I think is totally appropriate!

I left the museum, (which you should also check out if you are interested, as an artist, in motion picture and television, because there lies your history) fully inspired by the sense of experimentation and exploration and passion.  I can only hope to apply it from here on in.

MONDAY

I've been riding the train in to school as of late because the M60 has been so horrendously unreliable as of late.  I'll take the NQ down to Times Square and hop the 123 back up to 116th.  I was fortunate enough to witness something today that really grabbed me.  There was a foreign girl on the 2 train who was asking for directions from the woman across from her.  The woman began to yell at the girl about not being from here and not being worth the time.  I should tell you that there was another woman who ended up giving the poor girl directions, before I forget.  The angry woman launched herself into a diatribe against all foreigners, the ruin of the country, terrorism, Obama's "failures", and 9/11.  I feel she must have lost somebody on September Eleventh, but the amount of pain and anger and violence was truly stunning.  I was stunned.  I looked around the car and I wasn't the only one.  Some people shifted uncomfortably, some looked down, some grimaced and continued to read there papers, while others still wheeled up the volume on their iPods.  No one was doing anything to stop it; neither was I.  I felt as if I should speak up; speak out against it, but I was a dumbstruck mute.  I felt shame as I looked around the car and found the eyes of other people who seemed to be personally wounded by the angry woman's xenophobic onslaught.  I so desperately wanted to lash back out, but the train had stopped at 96th street, we both exited, her to the surface, me to the 1 train, and I was left thinking that perhaps it was better to remain mum.  After all, can one fight ingnorance with complementary volume?  Does the harmonious discord of clashing opinions do anything but resonate a greater fury?  What is the best way to change a heart?  Can it be done, or do old hatreds run too deep?  The questions from the whole experience was something that continued to beleaguer me for the rest of the day.

We continued on Larry's class from where we had left off on Saturday.  I learned that I may internalize too much, and that I don't let much out.  It's something I've become practiced at, but it troubles me that I may be so shielded to others, even the people I consider myself comfortable with, that I may be coming off as aloof and unappreciative of the relationships that I share with them.  We concluded with the reading of the ten words written about or life-defining experience.  The person who had the experience simply stood and breathed in front of the class while the partner read the words from behind everyone.  I tried my best to take care of Jeena, as she did with me.  My experience is more a statement of facts to me now than an occurrence.  I thought that the fact that I feel little over the matter was a part of the healing process, but in light of everything that has been examined in myself over these last few weeks, I questioned myself today the possibility that perhaps I have shielded myself from myself as well, and what that means.  I suppose the only thing to do is to continue to examine and explore and try harder and better tomorrow to be better; more genuine; more honest to myself and the people around me.

"There is work in the world, man, and it is not by hiding behind stone walls that we shall do it."

-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Bro-in', and bro-in', and bro-in' it UP!

-R

Talen.

I ordered a computer of my own last night.  Hopefully I'll be able to update this thing as much as I'd like.  I feel like there are just sooooooo many thoughts running through my head that simply deserve to be immortalized in blog form for your viewing pleasure.  It's a strange thing, thoughts grow stale when they go unwritten and they don't seem worthy of the keystrokes needed to put them to the virtual page.

I go to school with some pretty amazing and inspiring people.  I thought tonight might be a good opportunity to introduce you to some of the characters that will more than likely be reoccurring herein.  I mentioned in one of my first posts that the bromance that has developed within The Fourteen is a beautiful thing.  Sleep soundly knowing that it only continues to grow in new and amazing ways.

I'm working on a scene from "True West" right now with Mr. Andy Talen.  He's from Wisconsin, which seems to produce some of my favorite actor-people (Zack Kraus, anyone).  We've started off with a little Sam Shepard intensive for Andrei Serban's class, and I wanted to tackle this for a few reasons:

1) It's an exploration in brotherhood.  Being an only child, I don't have much experience with actual brothers.
2) And this is why I love grad school, I get to go against type and not play the dweeby writer, but the older, drunker, larcenous bully-brother.  Fun times.

But back to Andy, I like this dude a lot... I may even love him (and as they say here on the East Coast, "No homo.")  Not only is the dude tremendously genuine, but incredibly generous as well.  I had harbored some fears that coming and working with people in an environment with a bunch of over-achieving twenty-something actors might lead to some problems of ego... and it still might, just not here.  I left our rehearsal tonight feeling pumped on just doing the work.  For the first time in a long time, I really remembered why I fell in love with this particular craft in the first place.  There's really nothing like getting together with another artist, particularly one who holds some great talent and an open mind and a willingness to open up and experience and collaborate, and dive head first into a great scene.  Every time we finished a section we hopped right back into it, sometimes after a few words of concepts; thoughts; or ideas, but, still, hopped right back into it... enthused.  It all just clicked.  There's still plenty of work to be done, but I don't think that I could possibly feel any more confident going into Andrei's class tomorrow, and couldn't have drawn a better first partner to kick things off with.  So thank you, sir.

I am going to decompress by watching some Netflix for about a half an hour before tackling some last-minute revisions to a one page scene for Kristin and heading to bed.  I hope you are enjoying the blog.  If you have any questions, or anything you'd like to hear about, please leave them in the comments section below, or on my Facebook page.

-Nix