I never got around to making the official announcement, I don’t think, but the Theatre company I run, YTG, became a registered NPO this past May. Yay! My fiscal year starts September 1, which means that for the last few months I’ve been doing the taxes. I’ve had a neighbourhood friend helping me, without …
Category Archive: the ol’ gymkata
My life in Theatre
Aug 09
Unexpected Begging
I’ve been gearing up to start a crowd-funding campaign for a while for YTG, but my plan was to fund some rehearsal set pieces that we desperately need, or even one of our upcoming shows! Instead, I’m raising money to save a shed! What happened?! Well, a couple of weeks ago, some idiot rammed …
Apr 15
Week of YTG
It’s been a busy week for YTG. Lots of promising developments, but if I am completely honest, I have to admit that’s all they were: promising. Nothing is in ink yet, and we’ve got a bunch of deadlines on the horizon. *** I had my first interview with our third international intern. That …
Feb 06
Showcase #1 and a Non-Working Gun
Well, here I am in the rehearsal room again. I’ve mopped the floor, put on some Leonard Cohen, and am typing this while I wait for the floor to dry and the others to arrive. The showcase on Saturday was a great success, not in any sense of having put on a polished show …
Jan 31
Fever Dreams
We’re four days from the Yokohama Theatre Ensemble’s first showcase. Yikes. I’ve got a million things to do: memorize lines, find the flashes for my socks, buy a few props, memorize a song, create content for the show’s programme, buy the snacks for post-show party, email people directly to remind them about the showcase, send …
Dec 06
Bonenkai at the GekiSalon
Went to the Gekisalon bonenkai tonight at the Yokohama (Sotetsu) Honda Gekijou. Mari and Takahiko were there as well: Takahiko in his normal capacity as a volunteer staff member at the drinks table (and his less-normal capacity as Santa Claus), and Mari as my wingwoman. I did less mingling than usual: I had …
Dec 03
Website Frustration
The new website for YTG is basically done. However, it’s still not live, because most of the content is still in English. The change of direction of Yokohama Theatre has meant that most of the content on the old site will not be moved to the new site. That means I’ve had to write new …
Dec 01
Back in K-S
That’s right, we were back in the space in Kanagawa-Shinmachi last night for our rehearsal. I’ve been waffling on several things recently. Will we have some kind of showcase/presentation this calendar year? If we do, what will the content be? How much should that content be prepared and polished? At the moment, I’m …
Nov 24
Rehearsal Space Woes
I’m sitting in a tatami room at the Katakuracho Kumin center, waiting for Mari and Takahiko to show up. Hiraku is on sabbatical until the two shows he’s committed to are over (my suggestion, since he was starting to look like he was operating on no sleep); Mayu is on training for work this week; …
Nov 10
A Change of Plan and a Creepy School
I’m quickly rushing to type this off before heading to tonight’s rehearsal. Last night, we met at Nippa (新羽) station on the Yokohama Blue Line and proceeding to walk to our rehearsal space. This was another new one for us, and it was about a 7 minute walk through darkened streets. When we …
Nov 08
Back to the Grind
Last night was the first YT Ensemble Rehearsal for me in just over two weeks. I’d taken a break from rehearsals while my parents were visiting from Canada. It was also nice to give the group a chance to find a dynamic without me, as so far I’d been the only constant. During my …
Oct 17
What Happens When the Sun Comes Out
Sunday’s rehearsal started out as a bit of a disappointment. Due to some schedule adjustments to accommodate one member’s participation in another show, this was our last full-day rehearsal of 2011. By the end of the day, two of the ensemble members had called in sick, one got stuck at work, and one showed …
Oct 03
The Education of an Ensemble
Yesterday was the Yokohama Theatre Ensemble’s first all-day rehearsal (10:00 – 18:00). I had convinced ESL Theatre Project’s Lei Sadakari and voice instructor Graig Russell to come in and run some sessions for us. Lei’s morning session consisted of a movement workshop, using group yoga poses and exercises to get us moving our bodies …
Sep 27
The River is Wide
So the YTheatre Ensemble has started working on our first project. The first official project will still be Wall of Shame: The Musical, but we’re going to start doing a series of mini-projects to get us in the right headspace. The first project is to expand the world that I and a bunch of …
Sep 11
YT Ensemble, Assemble!
The Yokohama Theatre Ensemble met for the first time as a unit this past Friday at the Kanagawa Earth Plaza (or Global Citizens Plaza, or whatever it’s called). In addition to myself, the ensemble includes four brave souls: Hiraku Kawakami, Mari Kawamura, Mayu Cho, and Takahiko Arai. I say brave because we’re doing something …
Sep 08
The Dream I Stole From Sam
(mumble mumble) years ago, I was sitting in an apartment in Toronto, watching the real actors smoke, including Sam Rosenthal, now Artistic Director and General Manager of the Vaughn City Playhouse. This was a party of some sort (my memory is vague), possibly even the closing night party of The Diary of Anne Frank, my …
Aug 27
The Ensemble
I was supposed to have my cast a month ago. It’s taken me a long time to set up auditions, get people to come to them, and then convince them to join. Actually, the auditions are more for the candidates to evaluate whether or not they want to work with me than they are …
May 16
A Class Act, Er, Acting Class
In real life, I run a 111 year-old Theatre company called YTG, which I am in the process of registering as an NPO here in Japan. The first half of the mandate of the company is to bring contemporary Theatre to people in Yokohama and Japan. To fulfill this mandate, we obviously mount shows, …
Feb 05
Respect for Acting
I’m currently nursing an intense headache while trying to come up with a curriculum for the acting class that I intend to teach in the spring. To do this, I’ve pulled my Uta Hagan off the shelf and have started flipping through her acting exercises. It’s amazing how much she and the also-late …
Nov 03
Tartuffe–4th Rehearsal
I’m constantly amazed by what a good group we’ve assembled for this show. I’ve got a huge mix of people with lots of experience, and people with almost none, and they’re working very well together. I’ve heard from several people now that they’re still panicked about not having a script yet, so I gave another …
Oct 30
Tartuffe – Rehearsal #2
Well, we’re on our way. I revealed the outline and the main ideas of the show to the actors after sending out the cast list (with final casting for both parts of the play). I guess I should explain a little bit here what I’m doing so that this and future entries make a …
Oct 05
Callbacks
So tonight I ran callbacks for Tartuffe, the production I’m directing this winter in Tokyo and Yokohama. The people I called back were all definitely people that I plan to cast, the question is just placement. The concept for the show is this: A bunch of passengers, which includes the audience, are stranded …
Sep 10
Victoria – Last Show
So it finally happened: the last show of the tour. I went out with a bang. The tech went smoothly; I rocked the show, I don’t know what else there is to write. What to do except sum up the tour (at least for now)? The Cons Smaller houses than planned …
Sep 05
Fourth Show
There was some scheduling weirdness yesterday, and It’s Raining in Barcelona finished right when we were supposed to load in, leaving only fifteen minutes for both their strike and our setup. Not their fault: like in London, there was some kind of scheduling SNAFU, but it’s a bit maddening. I’m not an actor who is …
Sep 05
Victoria – Fifth Show and Fuck You
Fuck you, Victoria Fringe organizers. Actually, you are generally nice people, and kudos on organizing such a great Fringe. But you’ve hit this performer where it hurts: his house, and he’s upset. For my other readers, let me give you some context: So here I am, doing my show, and other than a …
Sep 03
Third Show
Another great, high energy show today, with an even bigger house than yesterday (at least from what I could see). A few things marred tonight’s show, most of them to do with the show before us taking a fuck of a long time to load out and clear the dressing room for me. Now …
Sep 03
Victoria – second Show
Running on two consecutive nights of 4 hours of sleep or less, and a whole day of zipping all over Victoria, I found myself standing backstage as the clock crept closer and closer to 22:00; our curtain time. I’m still not satisfied with the first few moments of the show. I think I had …
Sep 02
Victoria Review
Monday Magazine has reviewed “39”. Three stars, but I don’t know what the James T. Kirk crack is about, unless it’s the crack the reviewer is smoking. Not a terrible review, though, considering how I felt about Monday’s show. http://www.mondaymag.com/articles/entry/2010-fringe-reviews-f I call this photo “Bones… Spock… you’ve got to help me!”
Sep 02
Opening Night in Victoria
I’m writing this in a Starbucks, in a Chapters, which redeems itself by having free wifi and an occasional Daniel Lanois song playing in the background. It’s taken me two days to get this up (we opened on Monday night), because we tend to get home quite late due to the necessary late night …
Aug 26
BC Ferry RECAP
I’m writing this on the Ferry over to Victoria just to create a quick recap (in pictures) of the Edmonton to Victoria leg of our trip. We drove out of Edmonton two mornings ago in our touring van: Vanessa. We said a fond farewell to our host in Edmonton, Lois Pawl, as she …
little birds