Check out this great interview with Adam and Alan on CET

Featuring insights into the creative process, the mission of NSC, Adam's acting process as he prepared to play Keith Haring, and Alan talking really fast!

Talkin' Broadway review

Launch of Collective Perspectives

Radiant Baby composer/co-lyricist Debra Barsha is coming in from New York to chat with us about 80s music and, of course, Radiant Baby! The talkback, moderated by Ink Tank board president Jeff Syroney, will feature a discussion with Debra, director Alan Kenny, and Adam Standley, who plays the fabulous 80s pop artist Keith Haring in the show.

This is the first in a new series we are launching called Collective Perspectives, which is designed to allow audience members and fellow artists to get a closer look at how shows are developed and to further explore the issues raised in the provocative pieces we choose to perform. It's also a great opportunity to hear from the artists themselves and ask any questions.

The talkback will follow the 3:00 performance this Sunday, July 1.
Come check it out!

Cincinnati Enquirer: 'Radiant Baby shines!

I'm terribly sorry that we have fallen so far behind in our blog posts! Everyone is working busily to make sure that Radiant Baby is absolutely as amazing as possible. As if that was enough to look forward to, we start rehearsals for our next show, Hello Again (another musical), on Monday!

Did everyone else know that they don't make mail slots anymore? Not the large mailboxes that can be mounted on a door, but the little slits that push the mail right through the door onto the floor on the other side. Apparently this method of delivering mail, tried and true through many generations, is no longer cool enough. Mailmen (Mail people? What's the gender neutral of that term?) don't want to walk all the way up to your front door anymore, possibly running the risk of having to socialize with the person who lives there, no chance to chat, sit down with a cup of coffee, or have scandalous affairs with the bored housewife with perfect hair who dreams of being ravished by a man wearing shorts and knee socks. What is the world coming to?

Okay, I don't really care that much about how mail is delivered. But we did need a mail slot for the set of Hello Again and they're really hard to find! I drove all the way out to Sharonville and got hopelessly lost trying to find the one tiny hardware store that had one. And then I got back and now they might not even use it.

Sigh. The life of a theatrical underling.

Becoming Keith Haring

Radiant chalk mural

Radiant Baby was out in full colorful force at Second Sunday on Main this weekend. We created a huge chalk mural on the street, drawn mainly by NSC designer Caitlin Kane, with a lot of inspiration from Keith Haring! (I helped color in the lines- about the most help I can be in an artistic endeavor.) For anyone who missed it, here are some pictures, though they hardly do it justice:

iLove was an innovating experience- I've never hated something so much that i eventually loved. Great work to all involved.

Music Rehearsal and Birthin' Babies

Hello all...the production team of Radiant Baby have threatened the cast with bodily harm if we didn't start posting on this blog so here goes...Last night (Thur)all of the actors who play instruments in the show had a music rehearsal with Steve our musical director. Usually directors just throw in the occasional guitar playing actor to add a little ambience, but the RB cast is going all out. We have three violinists, a guitarist, a bass player and yours truly on flute/saxophone. I must say i was impressed. Most singers usually play some instrument a little, but we've got some serious musicians in the cast. If they hadn't been cast in the show, they could've been hired for the orchestra. So when you come see the show (which everyone reading this blog better do) you should know those actors really are playing those instruments. No air guitar at NSC.

On a completely unrelated note I'm including a picture of the lovely and talented Julie Wacksman giving birth to the Radiant Baby on a sidewalk on Main Street. It was a completely natural childbirth.

Sneak peek at Radiant Baby

Sneak peeks from last night's rehearsal for Radiant Baby, which opens in just two weeks!

I love iLove:!

Congratulations to iLove for selling out on a Monday evening! More than just sold out, people were sitting on the floor, people were turned away! And how very sad for them that they had to miss this beautiful piece of theatre.

Beautiful has been the only suitable word I can find to describe the show. It is also thought-provoking, inspiring, philosophical, creative, and well-performed, but those are only aspects of the larger creation. Since I have watched it from backstage, once again I see from a slightly different angle than the rest of the audience. This show is not just performed, but also deeply felt. The Satori Group are not just actors, or writers, but creators in a very holistic sense. Even when individual characters leave the stage, the artists themselves are still present in the words and actions, the lights and music that still remain. I'm sure that there must have been disagreements about subject matter or direction at some point throughout the process, but I have only ever witnessed Satori as a group earnestly united in their purpose with a genuine faith in each other that spreads to those around them.

My favorite part of the show is the breathing- it starts out with just two characters on stage, drawing deep breaths together, and then those breaths are joined by others, offstage. The room swells with the communal intake of breath, and then gently releases, and again. I can't resist joining in as I sit on my box tucked behind the curtain. The connection between these artists- with each other, with their audience, with the complex topic they present- I want to be a part of it for those brief seconds when it all becomes simple.

Other shoutouts to Lora Beth Barr's fabulous white dress (it twirls!), Adam Standley's impressive ability to maintain repetitive dance moves while the Fringe officials laugh at him during their curtain speeches, and the return of the white canvas that is now being used in its third season of NSC shows.

iLove: has only three more performances left- go see it.

Radiant Baby Video Podcast 1 - Costumes

Radiant Baby storefront

Check out our awesome new Keith-Haring inspired storefront, created by Anthony Darnell:

Saturday on the fringes

How fun have the last couple days been?

Thursday night marked the opening of iLove: and my first night of fringing. I got to see some of my friends in Wet Dream at the Know as well that night. When Jeremy and I bartended together in a past life, he was always telling me about his aerial dancing, but it was great to finally see it in the flesh...or rather, in the cat fur.

I was very proud of my iLove:ers on Thursday. Despite a few technical glitches (and with only 3 hours of tech, how could their not be any?), it was a really beautiful show that night, and I hope that people latch on to this very fascinating piece of adult, thought-provoking AND entertaining piece.

Friday I was fringeless due to radBaby. We finished staging the show (basically). We have so much work to do, but at least we have a sketch, a groundplan if you will, so we can see what our base is. This show is so massive, so eclectic in terms of all of its ingredients, that it can be a little overwhelming at times for all of us to make sense of it on its feet. I'm so thankful that I have such great collaborators with me behind the table in Anthony, Steve, Adrienne, and now Casey, so we can all sort of divide and conquer on all of the various aspects.

By the end of the weekend, we'll have worked/hopefully ran thru the entire show for the first time. I usually call it a slop thru on the rehearsal schedule rather than a work or run thru, because that's always what it is at this point in the process. I'm excited for all of us to finally get a sense of the show as a whole during this process, so we can really pinpoint what needs our attention the most.

One final unrelated note -

I got to catch True and False this afternoon at the Fringe, and it was fantastic. A really beguiling concept, appealing performers and performances, and truly awesome video and multimedia work. It only runs through this tomorrow, so don't miss it!

iLove: Enquirer Review: "iLove: worth the risk"

iLove: CityBeat Review