Living the Chifferobe
An OG, Robert Townsend, comes to one of our stages and kills it in his show. Living the Shuffle’. This is what I saw through my lens.
Over the years, one of my “go-to” jokes has been a reference to a throwaway line in Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle. I used it when I’m running late for something and get called on it. “Where you been?”, they say and my response a thousand times over has been that I was out back bustin’ up a chifferobe.
The first thing I thought when I heard that Robert Townsend may be performing at our theater is that I’d probably owe him some royalty money. My crack team of lawyers told me that I’m fine because his line is a parody of the reference in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ where Mayela Ewell asks Tom Robinson to bust up said chifferobe.
Over the years, I’ve been pretty cool about meeting an odd celebrity here and there, but this dude was different. He’s not only a genuine OG in his field, but he also provided me with years of excellent comedy content. Now, I get to meet him and help promote his show, ‘Living the Shuffle.’
FUN FACT - He has such a strong social media game and such a huge following that between that and the social mojo of his co-Producer, Don Reed, I just held on for the ride. His popularity and skill as a performer sold the show.
As happens in theater, we needed some media shots to help spread the word of the show. So, a week before the first performance, Robert came to town for a quick tech run and to work out a few quirks in the show. He had been rehearsing plenty for this, but he needed to get a feel for the space where it was to be performed. During that time, he was kind enough to let me drag him around downtown Berkeley to grab a few shots.
The whole time, he was pleasant and present, engaging with passers-by that recognized him and bullsh*tting with his friend, Don Reed, who was with us. Dude was totally comfortable in front of a camera and gave me everything that I could have hoped for with my tight deadline.
We did take some shots on the stage, but it was so bare and unfinished for the images to be of use. So, we waited until a few days until the tech stuff was more ready and had another go at it. Now keep in mind these images were taken during a cue-to-cue. That’s an unsexy term that means it was a run specifically for the tech team to get their light cues and image cues ready for specific points in the show. It’s perhaps the most stressful part of a show’s development, more technicians and artists have fought to the death during this stage of production than any other. This day, though, no one was murdered.
I’ve met enough artists in my time to get a good feel of the kind of person they are within only a few interactions. From day one, Robert and his whole team were super pleasant, their responses to requests were prompted, and their gratitude for our actions was quick and warm. Just a pleasure! Honestly, in this field, I’ve met very few folks that I’d consider a bad person. The worst thing I usually encounter is someone who is just concerned with himself. Robert is the opposite of that. His whole career has been an example of pushing others towards success. The grand number of folks that flew up from Southern California to see him on opening night was a testament to that.
About the show itself? Let some of these quotes do the talking…
90 minutes of captivating tales and good humor - Broadway World
Townsend’s imagination catapults him forward in life again and again. It’s there when he reads “Oedipus” in class in school with such Royal Shakespeare Company panache that the other kids scramble to one corner of the classroom as if they’ve discovered a fox in the henhouse. It’s there when he almost bombs his first audition, for a Chicago troupe called the Experimental Black Actors Guild, but then demonstrates the improv skills he first honed in his bathroom — all before he even knows the term “improv.” It’s there when he’s cast as extras in a Pepsi commercial and an action movie but then so thoroughly envisions his character and situation that directors give him meatier roles. - Lily Janiak, SF Chronicle
There are plenty more great reviews here, and here, and here.
In brief, it’s a show that has legs. It’s a high-quality piece of art with a huge market that is certainly going onto greater things. We’ve already extended him once, there’s some talk of other extensions or shows but it’s all up in the air. You can totally expect more from this show.
“Living the Shuffle”: Written and directed by Robert Townsend. Through Dec. 15. 95 minutes. $30-$100. The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 415-282-3055. www.themarsh.org
The Ladies Foursome - Character Portraits
The Modern-Spokane opens another one tonight. I so enjoy being behind the scenes and seeing all the work that goes into making a show ... and the portraits, of course!
FORE! Here we go again ... my 29th show for The Modern Theater ... The Ladies Foursome!
A couple weekends back, the cast and director of The Ladies Foursome headed to The Links Golf Course in Post Falls, ID to create some imagery for the upcoming show. It was the perfect morning to do so while having the cast learn more about golf ... especially the finer points of course etiquette. Replacing divots, how/when to wait for or begin the next hole and where or where NOT to drive the really fun carts were among the lessons learned.
The Ladies were champs when it came to the images, too. A majority of the production occurs, like in golf, when they're waiting for one of their group to take their shot. It seemed a perfect chance for a cool series.
Though there was some sun and blue skies when we started, soon after we began play, the cloud cover increased and the chilly, early spring wind put a slight damper on the morning. Extra layers of clothing were added but when it came time to create the portraits, no one blinked. Everyone was on board to help make these portraits.
Practice swings were taken, form was critiqued by the other Ladies (sometimes quite bluntly) and many attempts were made to find just the right way to capture them at 1/500th of a second. You'll notice that 'Margot' has a different pose than the others. I really did want to capture an image where all the Ladies are in a position similar to the excellent graphic created by David Clemons. Marianne, though, looked so strong and proud and regal in the one I finally chose, it was great enough for me to break the template. If you've ever seen her on stage, you know full well that she's worth making any trifling exception like that.
Theatre (or theater) isn't merely the two hours or so of a production that you see on stage. It's the months of preparations. It's the weeks of rehearsals. It's the countless hours of administration and 'house' prep. For me, it's time spent researching a production to find a style of imagery that I feel works for the piece and a lot of time editing them and find a place in the 'web' for them.
Once the pics are created, it doesn't end there. In a world where Netflix, Hulu and Youtube are content kings, we have to put our stage in front of folks that have countless hours of programming at their fingertips. We at The Modern Theater try our very best to create a production that reaches past the edge of the stage and far into the daily lives of our patrons and community.
A community can be measured by the questions its theater asks
- Liviu Ciulei
A community NEEDS good theater. I do what I can to make certain that the playwright, creative crew and cast are seen in the best light possible by as many people as possible in an attempt to stir interest. I WANT my friends colleagues to have an audience to see their work, to FEEL it.
The Wild Party - Character Portraits
Directed by Troy Nickerson, Andrew Lippa's 'The Wild Party' was the wildest thing to hit Spokane in a long, long time!
I normally wait until after a show has finished its run before I post the images on my site ... but this show is so awesome, I couldn't wait. The Wild Party was the coolest thing that I've seen come through Spokane in quite a while. Based on a book-length poem by Joseph Moncure March, the story of the musical comes directly off the page and onto the stage. We shot these images at The Baby Bar, the same place I shot the cool Halloween images for their staff. It's a great location (and a great bar) that suited our needs perfectly; dark, a bit well-worn and the rich, red was perfect. Our idea was to capture the cast of characters as they'd be on an evening on the town.
How'd we do?
Plus a few other promo images we created...
Rock of Ages - Character Portraits
'Rock of Ages' - Big bands with big egos playing big guitar solos and big hair!
For a season-opening show as big as this one, I had to try something different, something bigger. Rock of Ages is big and loud and fun and the portraits had to be big and loud, too. The movie had a great series of portraits but I didn't want to just copy them. We shot against a white wall, I edited the base images, then each image got about an hour of additional layering and painting .... with the help of a few actions that I had saved up for this shoot. I did my best to give each image a distinct look and color.
The reaction to the images from the cast was astounding, exactly what I hoped for. Those talented folks spend so much time and effort making these shows come alive, I'm more than pleased to make them look as good as I possibly can.
Halloween at The Baby Bar
Halloween at The Baby Bar - 2015
You may have noticed that it's getting quite Halloween-ish around town. My friend, Dan Anderson, asked me to help capture the ghoulish faces of the Baby Bar staff for their Halloween season festivities. He liked the work that I did for he and his mates in Glengarry Glen Ross a few months back and I was flattered that he called on me to help with this project.
He did an awesome job of gathering all the parts needed: hair, make-up, subjects .... all the legwork needed to make a shoot like this go smoothly. Smoothest shoot ever. Fun, too. I think I mentioned all the artists in each picture but to be sure, a shout out to Nirvana Marie, Amy Calkins from Wild Angel FX Make-UP, Dani Wiyrich from Thunder Kiss Makeup and Art, and Elizabeth from Strata Salon Spokane for their excellent artistry.
All these images are up on the walls of the Baby Bar through October. Go see them in all their gory glory!
MCM1940 at The Modern-CDA
Another show closes and all we have are the memories and images!
The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 just finished its run at The Modern-CDA. Though I'm sure you've seen me post about it before, its cast was so warm and funny, their show such a pleasant surprise and the images so cool, I thought I'd show a few last images! As all of the players, save the Maid and the Detective, were in the theater business in the 40s, I decided to have all of their portraits should have a stylized look from the era. Plus, what says theater more than the red velvet curtain and a spotlight?
First, the ladies....
The show is a silly farce. With folks coming and going, bodies dropping left and right, power outages and false identities, the audience is kept on their toes about who the killer is ... or rather who the killerS are.
The gentlemen, scoundrels ... all of them.
As I've already shared plenty about this show, I won't rehash too much and I'm certainly not an impartial patron so I won't bother with a thorough review. I just enjoyed the show, enjoyed creating the images and certainly enjoyed meeting new people.
My hat goes off to the Director, Heath Bingman. MCM1940 is a tough show to lead under any circumstances but this one had more than its share of administrative hurdles. I won't get into details but I'll just say that, in some ways, she had the deck stacked against her. Regardless, she managed it all very well and came through with a winner!
Well done, ma'am.
