EVERYMAN & JUDGMENT DAY set

During our wanderings through Paris's Monmartre district last September, Marynell wanted to wet her whistle on a Coca-Cola. She popped into a drug store and I wandered into a strange looking cathedral that stood nearby--the Eglise-Saint-Jean-de-Monmartre, to be exact.

The church was designed by architect Anatole de Baudot in an Art Nouveau style (built 1894 - 1904). And it was pure dumb luck to look up and discover this stained glass window:



The stained glass is "Le cheval blanc de l'Apocalyse" (The White Horse of the Apocalypse) designed by Pascal Blanchard and executed by Jac Galland.

Marynell and I loved the imagery, colors, and power so much that we decided to make it the center piece of our spring production, EVERYMAN & JUDGMENT DAY. Both plays emerged from liturgical drama (religious stained glass connection), they address the incredibly human concern of death (figure of death), and JUDGMENT DAY specifically deals with the apocalypse (Death as one of the Four Horsemen).

I'll be constructing a facsimile of this wonderful window and will hang it over center stage. It will be back lit, of course, to really get those colors to pop.

Script-in-Hand Series, Installment 2

Meat & Potato is a proud partner with Plan B Theatre in the management of the Playwrights' Laboratory and the Directors' Laboratory. One of the goals of the Labs is to translate the classroom work and exercises into practical experiences by trying to find directors opportunities to direct and playwrights the chance to hear their plays read publicly. Jerry Rapier produces the Script-in-Hand series as a way to ensure both of those goals are met: lab directors direct new one-acts plays written by the lab playwrights.

The first, very successful, Script-in-Hand went up in March 2010, and we are to see the second installment this Wednesday. Debora Threedy and Elaine Jarvik had their plays directed by Mark Fossen and Andra Harbolt, respectively. And now:

SEVEN DAYS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE by Megan Crivello (dir. Bud Perry)
BETWEEN THE HOUR Deborah DeVos (dir. Mark Fossen)
MALICE AFORETHOUGHT Jenifer Nii (dir. Jason Bowcutt)

The actors for this round are: Colleen Baum, Daniel Beecher, Tracie Merrill, JJ Peeler, Jason Tatom.

Review for second Script-in-Hand series from Selective Echo is here.

Admiration for DJ Earworm

Marynell met this incredible talent last February as the keynote speaker at a tech convention in downtown Salt Lake City. She brought home his promotional cd and we've worn it out listening to it. Mr. Earworm is a classically trained musician whose highest aspiration was to conduct symphony orchestras. Fate presented him another road to take. He has become so respected as a master of a new art form, the mashup, that Annie Lennox personally sought him out and requested that he create a mashup for her new Greatest Hits album. Now...what would a mashup of Shakespeare's plays look like? Titus vs. Midsummer?...Hmmm...

Jason Bruffy

We had the good fortune to meet this incredibly charming, capable, and intelligent gentleman when he was hired to head the Salt Lake Acting Company in the fall of 2009. Unfortunately, Salt Lake Acting Company fired him less than 4 months later, which was a real loss for the entire Salt Lake theatre scene as Jason's vibrant theatrical vision was clearly going to make us all work a lot harder in order to avoid looking like amateurs.

We miss Jason, wish him the best of luck in his adventures, and will be watching his career with interest--stealing his inspiring ideas whenever possible (wink).

Jason Bruffy website

Pictures: Jason Bruffy, Euridice, Hamlet, Pillowman

Admiration for WAR HORSE

The mission of Meat & Potato is to tell compelling stories in the most powerful ways possible and we are constantly looking for inspiration from other sources. One particular production that has recently captured our attention is the London hit WAR HORSE. It is a clear and powerful story told through the use of some amazing puppetry. While we don't have the resources to produce productions of the magnitude or majesty of WAR HORSE, it is productions like this that encourage us to raise our work from mere "plays" to theatrical adventures.









Link to WAR HORSE at the National, with video.

1st Script-n-Hand Series

Meat & Potato is a very proud partner with Plan B Theatre Company in managing the Playwrights' and Directors' Laboratories. Jerry Rapier of Plan B produced the Labs' first ever Script-in-Hand series where Mark Fossen and Andra Harbolt direct two new plays by Debora Threedy and Elaine Jarvik. They were performed by actors I've all directed before and greatly respect: Josh Thoemke, Deena Marie Manzanares, Colleen Lewis and Stephanie Howell.

It was wonderful to have experienced these plays in their infancy as a scene or a writing exercise, and now to see them as completed pieces. It was also a very wonderful feeling to see actors going full out, and an audience hanging on their every word, all without ever really seeing the director's hand in the process--which is a great credit to Andra and Mark, who have obviously taken the to heart the opening line of William Ball's book A SENSE OF DIRECTION: "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain".

Here is the review.

SAMPLER Tickets Still Available

5 theatre companies, 5 different production, one low price! Meat & Potato, Plan B, Wasatch, Pygmalion, & Utah Contemporary theatre companies on a single bill? How cool is that?

Check it out!

Sampler Link