Family photos

We took some family snapshots a couple days ago ... don't the boys look happy. All these photos are by Thom Kaine.















And there's a story about them on broadwayworld.com here ...

SHAIFER!!

... "Enough Said"

Lighting renderings from LD Kia Rogers

Hi, I'm the LD for MIH. To help facilitate design ideas I like to render some of the intimate moments from the play and then bring them to my design meetings. Some make it to the show, some don't, but the pictures let the director know where my head is creatively and opens dialogue with the other designers. Here are several renderings. I have often been asked why I render on black paper...I simply don't see the picture until my light hits a surface, be it the character's face, a specific piece of furniture, architecture or atmosphere. It feeds my imagination to start in the dark and paint with light.

You can see bigger versions of these renderings by going to my Flickr account, or by clicking on them.

I really wanted to push the idea of starting intimate and then opening up. A gesture of being shy, then trusting the audience with very personal stuff. With the mirror, we allow the boys to "hide" just a little before revealing themselves. The mirror also represents an honesty and willingness on the boys' part that they do accept themselves. A strong angled light would be focused on the mirror to reflect on the boys' faces, and another instrument would light their upstage faces and with a blue wash across the stage we see them but not fully until they move away from the mirror and the room opens up to realistic lighting motivated by table lamps and recessed lighting over the dinning table and bar.

We open the scene with the character action of turning on a lamp, from this motivated light the area around the sofa will softly glow and broaden to see the scene play out.




I wanted to use practicals as much as possible, and then once we established the "look" the stage would open up subtly to see all the action. In this rendering the motivated light is from the table lamp and a blue wash colors the rest of the set to create a late night feeling, but still see the characters. As the scene progresses the light will radiate from the source of the table lamp and fill the surrounding area but the corners will remain darker.

Here we have a moment where I wanted to take us out of reality and highlight the group in an isolated look. There is a front spot that will start on the boys in the middle and then grow larger to incorporate the two new "members" of the family. The audience should feel like this is all going to work out at this moment, and the characters should sparkle. There are dedicated back light and front side light to assist the spotlight.

Adam Szymkowicz interview with Jay Bernzweig

Our first interview!

Playwright and blogger Adam Szymkowicz has interviewed MADE IN HEAVEN's author, Jay Bernzweig, for his ongoing series on contemporary playwrights. Jay is number 71 in the list. 71. Who knows 71 playwrights? READ IT HERE!

On a related note, Jay has a VERY serious, professional-looking photo.

Flying the flag

Here's what the SoHo Playhouse looks like when we've put our posters on it. Shaifer got very excited and clapped his hands when he saw it.





Johanna, our Assistant Stage Manager, gave it the thumbs up. She was very excited.





Next challenge: make a new flag for the venue.

This one isn't doing too well anymore. This question of what to put in its place took an hour to debate in today's strategy meeting. Our publicists, promotions team, branding agency, and producers, on conference call from Costa Rica, all had useful input and got very excited. Only after we'd agreed to construct a large pair of [this comment has been censored] did we learn that the current flag's shape is 'grandfathered in' (SoHo Historic District and all that) and its shape can't be changed. We eventually decided that because it will only cost a few thousand dollars to get a new one - every cent well spent as far as ROI - we should go ahead, provided we hire a union rigger to put it up. We created a mock-up of the new flag pinned onto a styrofoam model of the building, and presented our work to the cast, but they didn't seem to care.

"Outrageously funny" says David Fumero

Here's a clipping from trusted news source, ABC Soaps, talking to audience member and cast favorite David Fumero.

"It was awesome. Outrageously funny. The show went by really fast -- you're so into it the whole time. The actors are amazing, too."

David saw our (Best Play Award-winning) presentation at the Midtown International Theater Festival, a couple months ago ...

Next up: First preview off-Broadway at SOHO PLAYHOUSE, Oct 22nd!

Oh really?

Everybody always asks "is that possible?" Oh yes. And conjoined twins are not always identical ...

[excerpt:]

Conjoined twins are categorized using the suffix "-pagus" from the Greek word for "fixed". Early teratologists such as Ambroise Pare and Geoffrey St. Hillaire were among the first to identify the various types of conjoined twins. Many twins do not fit perfectly into any of these classifications, and the terms are often combined.

Thoracopagus (left). Joined at the upper chest, from the clavicle to the sternum, each with their own separate heads, arms and legs. The heart is always involved in the conjoinment. In a very few cases, twins sharing a heart have survived for several years. Ruthie and Verena Cady of Rhode Island lived to the age of 7 and were healthy, active girls who rode a tricycle, swam, did gymnastics and went to school. Thoracopagus twins are the most common type, accounting for around 35% of all cases.

Omphalopagus (right). Joined at the abdomen, from the sternum to the groin and often sharing a liver and portions of the digestive system. These twins have separate hearts, heads, arms and legs. Ronnie and Donnie Galyon, born in 1951, are the only non-separated omphalopagus twins in the world today. About 30% of cases.

Xiphopagus (left). Joined at the xiphoid process (part of the sternum) and usually linked only by cartilage and soft tissue. These twins share no vital organs but often have conjoined livers. They are by far the easiest to separate. Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874) were xiphopagus twins with conjoined livers. Also called sternopagus. About 3% of cases.

Ischiopagus (right). Joined at the ischium (front pelvis) and lower spine (sacrum), with spines at 180-degree angles to one another. These twins can have three legs (tripus) or four legs (tetrapus). In tripus cases, the third leg is a fusion of two legs that is not controlled by either twin and is therefore useless. Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyopova of Russia (1950-2003?) were ischiopagus tripus twins, their third leg having been removed when they were 16 years old. About 14% of cases.

Ischio-omphalopagus. Combination of ischiopagus and omphalopagus, with spines joined in a "Y"-shape. These twins usually have three legs and a single set of genitalia.

(continued at http://www.phreeque.com/conjoined_twins.html)

Stardom

Check out "The Soapgeist - July20/09 | Sympatico / MSN TV Guide"

and while you're at it, the photos from opening night are here, on Steven Bergman's website ...

enjoy!

Here's a picture of all the thin people in the cast:

XOXO - Eating A Babka By Myself On A Rainy Saturday Night

Underwear Night

I realized that I always have the camera, so I should probably post a picture of myself so you know what I look like.

Tonight we had Underwear Night. That's right, our brilliant and talented costume designer, Jeffrey Wallach, brought us different selections of Man Whore underwear for Wilder to wear.

Despite of the fact that everybody giggled and mocked the slut-tastic underwear that Wilder has to wear, everyone wanted to try a pair.

Except me. I am too fat to wear any of that shit.

Love - More Cushion For The Pushin'

As you know by now, this is a play about conjoined twins that share a dick. (Think Side Show, but funny, and no songs.)

Our brilliant actors Alex Anfanger and Kevin T. Collins rehearse ace-bandaged together, which makes our rehearsals look like an episode of M*A*S*H.

Because he's method, and went to Tisch n' shit, Kevin T. Collins also connects himself to Anfanger's belt buckle with a Carabiner. Tonight, the fucking thing broke. This is when Kevin realized that his climbing and safety hardware was not to be used for load bearing. Not a euphemism.

Anfanger plays a Nelly Queen, as you can see from this picture.

Shaifer usually does something to piss Anfanger off at least once a rehearsal.

Love - Chubby McChubstein