Rich And Famous

by John Guare

• Directed by John Rando
• Sets by Scott Bradley
• Costumes by Gregory Gale
• Lights by Alex Nichols
• Sound by Jeremy J Lee
• Music Direction by Laura Burton
• Produced by American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco
  

Cast:

• Brooks Ashmanskas
• Mary Birdsong
• Stephen DeRosa
• Gregory Wallace

It was a wonderful production of a wonderful play with wonderful people.  What more could you ask for?  I liked the Lectrosonics wireless system so much, that they did a press release on it:

Jeremy J Lee & Lectrosonics

Then it was straight on to Iowa…

Here’s the work in progress that is Song For New York. It’s a project with Mabou Mines that I’m co-designing with Rob Kaplowitz. I love the water, but doing a show on a barge is proving to be challenging indeed! Nothing like water, electricity, metal, rain, and lightning to kick start the creative process.

Come out to Gantry Park in LIC the first week of September to see how it all turns out. It should be quite a good show.

So, dear readers, I’m continuing the Ape Man saga in the Netherlands! Tarzan is moving to Holland to bask in the glories of Scheveningen!

Maybe I’ll even have time to post some pictures. But I doubt it!

Wish me luck. Luckily for me, I’m a whitey. Otherwise, I might have some problems…

So, the reviews are starting to come in for The Thugs. Looks like people like it. The Voice even bothered to mention sound:

In his introduction to the script, Bock suggests “that the sounds and lighting in the office be treated both as background and as character.” Designers Ben Stanton (lights) and Robert Kaplowitz and Jeremy J. Lee (sound) and director Anne Kauffman are in keen agreement. The buzzing of the fluorescents, the clanking of pipes, the scratching of pencils, the ding and thrum of the elevator all create a sinister, layered atmosphere. Atop this, conversations churn and whirl and collide.

Village Voice

The Time Out New York review was at least as good, although they didn’t bother so much with us, even though they mentioned all of the other designers by name. Such is the life of a Sound Designer!

The Times was somewhere in between:

Few sentences make their way to completion in Mr. Bock’s staccato script, filled with stops, starts and long pauses, which seem intended to turn your attention to other sounds: footsteps, raindrops, everyday noise. In Anne Kauffman’s meticulous and affecting staging, this ominous music seems more articulate and fully expressed than the mysterious plot; it’s like a movie in which the background is more in focus than the foreground. The result is to dehumanize the characters, who seem less defined than the mounting feeling of dread.

NY Times

So there you have it. I don’t normally pay much attention to reviews, but it’s nice to know now and then that someone’s actually listening.

Last night saw the opening of The Thugs by Adam Bock. It really turned out great, and is a fantastic example of what downtown theatre can be. Come see it! Be a THUGGITE! It’s only 55 minutes long!