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 | This Jugglemail was delivered to you by Kevin Six. You can take your email address off Kevin Six's email list, or update your preferences and/or send comments to Kevin Six. If you request to be taken off Kevin Six's email list, Kevin Six will honor your request pursuant to Jugglemail's permission-based email terms and conditions. Postal address: 3276-B Ashford Street, San Diego, CA 92111 |
| Sorry to those of you who recently committed but I have to postpone the play for scheduling reasons. Not only was I not able to get the people I wanted into the cast but now I have a conflict... So! I will be starting the process over in the spring. Thanks for your help and support thus far and I hope we can work together soon! Kevin Kevin Six 619-818-1131 My Website My Reel My Play, Love Negotiated |
Here's what Pat Launer says about my upcoming reading:
READING ROOM
… Fightin’ Women: “The Rules of Engagement,”
a new play by local writer/actor Kevin Six, will have a preliminary
reading with voluntary “safe sword play” for observer-participants. The
piece, about women in conflict, was written for Babes With Blades, a
Chicago theater group dedicated to providing opportunities for female
stage combat. The author is interested in audience input. 12/11 at 6
p.m. in Swedenborg Hall, 1531 Tyler Ave.
Sales of the book, Mother/Daughter Monologues, benefit the ICWP and its programs. The book will be available online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble soon but is already up on the Center's Lulu Website. See it here
.
My monologue was written for my friend Miriam Neigus and is featured in Volume 1: Babes and Beginnings.
Hope you like it.
Next
came Kevin Six’s LOVE UNREQUITED: AFTERNOON (ASIAN GALLERY). This
piece was the second of three of Six’s gallery pieces spread out over
the festival, one per program. While I’ve heard that the other two
galleries – MORNING (AMERICAN MASTERS) and EVENING (EUROPEAN GALLERY) –
are contenders for Best of Fest honours when the votes are tallied at
the close of the festival, this one was unfortunately not well served
by a set of four actors with utterly different acting styles ranging
from the understated and breathy, through the monotone, and into the
over-emoted.
More here: http://sites.google.com/site/perspectivefest/review-of-program-two
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| | This Jugglemail was delivered to you by Talent to aMUSE. You can take your email address off Talent to aMUSE's email list, or update your preferences and/or send comments to Talent to aMUSE. If you request to be taken off Talent to aMUSE's email list, Talent to aMUSE will honor your request pursuant to Jugglemail's permission-based email terms and conditions. Postal address: 3276-B Ashford Street, San Diego, CA 92111 |
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| | This Jugglemail was delivered to you by Lotus Theatre Collective. You can take your email address off Lotus Theatre Collective's email list, or update your preferences and/or send comments to Lotus Theatre Collective. If you request to be taken off Lotus Theatre Collective's email list, Lotus Theatre Collective will honor your request pursuant to Jugglemail's permission-based email terms and conditions. Postal address: 3276-B Ashford Street, San Diego, CA 92111 |
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| | This Jugglemail was delivered to you by Lotus Theatre Collective. You can take your email address off Lotus Theatre Collective's email list, or update your preferences and/or send comments to Lotus Theatre Collective. If you request to be taken off Lotus Theatre Collective's email list, Lotus Theatre Collective will honor your request pursuant to Jugglemail's permission-based email terms and conditions. Postal address: 3276-B Ashford Street, San Diego, CA 92111 |
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged]
Swedenborg Hall
1531 Tyler Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103
By Jeff Smith
Hey, this one's fun. I've seen several versions of speed-read Shakespeare, including the original, by the Reduced Shakespeare Company (who'd performed it so many times the trio just tried to entertain each other). The Lotus Theatre/Talent to aMuse version stands up to any and all. They blast through the plays, often with updated references (Chernobyl Kinsmen, Titus Androgynous - as a cooking show). Director Sophie Anderson Ziebell stresses the sheer impossibility of the task, and the cast (Kevin Six, Tyler Richard Hewes, and Tom Hall) performs with an urgency that stays funny: i.e. when asked to do an insane task, go loopy (the only questionable choice: four-letter language narrows the potential audience). The Swedenborg Hall has never been lit better (Marie Miller), and the sound design/background music (Blair Robert Nelson) is a real plus as well.
Worth a try.
August 6 Through August 29
When:
* Thursdays at 8 p.m.
* Fridays at 8 p.m.
* Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Satire the sincerest accolade for The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
It will be difficult to see Kevin Six, Tom Hall, or Tyler Richards Hewes in a serious play without remembering that they crucified the works of The Bard in The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)*, which can be seen Thursday thru Saturday at Swedenborg Hall thru August 29th. The show is produced by Lotus Theatre Collective and Talent to aMuse.
Writers Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield have reduced the body of The Bard’s work to about 80 minutes. The result is often just a mention of a play’s name. However, Romeo and Juliet, Titus Andronicus, Othello, and Hamlet receive much more than a mere mention.
The three actors, all marvels of fast costume changes, easily take on Shakespeare’s various characters. This includes some hilarious cross-gender situations. Their scripted ad libs were convincing. The script does call for personalizing the performance to the local venue. In Othello the intrepid trio rapped their abridged version. This pretty much rapped up Act One. Well, except for the football game carried on by the cast in the audience area.
Act II is devoted primarily to their abbreviated Hamlet. The script calls for the mention of Sir Laurence Olivier; however, they opted to mention a well known local actor with a strong Scottish brogue.
Warning to Shakespeare purist: You will hate “compleat.” To the rest of, have a blast, laugh and cry at this brutalization. It is one of the best spoofs on the honored one. I was fortunate, a few years ago, to see the three playwrights do the show. While a slightly different take on the script, Lotus Theatre Collective’s production is just as funny. In fact, I liked their less than elegant costumes even more the rather elegant costumes of the former production.
I do hope you have room on your calendar to take in The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Swedenborg Hall is located at 1531 Tyler in Hillcrest. All shows are at 8 p.m. I truly hope that Shakespeare is laughing heartily in his grave. Oh, there is one point of contention: The playwrights spelled it “compleat” not as in the program ‘complete.’
Review by Hitch
[Note: The spelling of “Complete” (or Hitch’s “Compleat”) in the title of the play, as found on the authors’ website (www.reducedshakespeare.com/shakespeare.php), is indeed “Complete”]
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
is a rollicking and irreverent spoof of well, yes, the complete works. Produced by the Lotus Theatre Company and ably acted by a cast of only three people, this high energy and quick paced tongue in cheek homage is clever and funny.
The play was written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield and opened at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1987. It has been a popular show ever since, performed in various languages around the globe.
Directed by Sophie Anderson-Ziebell, the founder of Lotus Theatre Collective, the San Diego production stars Kevin Six, Tom Hall, and Tyler Richard Hewes. They overact, sing, dance, and cavort to perfection, but do get chances to demonstrate their Shakespearean chops a time or two, and to their credit. Each of them plays many roles and the action is constant as they grab prop swords and don wigs, running on and off stage and physically working hard to successfully keep up a frenetic pace throughout.
They have to move fast to work in all 38 works included, however briefly, in this satire.
There is a little bit of every piece written by Will in here, and the ways the various bits are woven into the play are imaginative, with a lot of verbal interaction between the players and the audience, and some physical audience participation as well. Pay attention closely or you could miss some of the rapid fire dialogue.
Although the costuming, by Abigail Hughes (wife of actor Tyler) is traditional, the music is contemporary and provides the perfect backdrop when the company lapses into a couple of very funny musical numbers.
If you check your reverence for the bard at the door, and let yourself go in this over the top theatrical experience, you will enjoy yourself.
The play is stage[managed]d by Lizzie Silverman, assisted by Kirsten Turkle. The Sound design is provided by Blair Nelson and Lighting Design is by Marie Miller. It runs 1 hour and 38 minutes, including an intermission.
Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), produced by the Lotus Theatre Collective (www.lotustheatrecollective.com), is running August 6 – 29 at Swedenborg Hall in San Diego. The Hall is at 1531 Tyler Avenue, San Diego, Ca.
Review by Kathleen Downs
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| | This Jugglemail was delivered to you by Lotus Theatre Collective. You can take your email address off Lotus Theatre Collective's email list, or update your preferences and/or send comments to Lotus Theatre Collective. If you request to be taken off Lotus Theatre Collective's email list, Lotus Theatre Collective will honor your request pursuant to Jugglemail's permission-based email terms and conditions. Postal address: 3276-B Ashford Street, San Diego, CA 92111 |
From SanDiego.com:
"Don’t expect major insights. Six’s characters, however, do offer some
lesser ones, like Ronnie’s observation that 'Dancing and drinking were
invented for sex' or Rich’s philosophy: 'Truth is better than lying.
You have to remember less.' And Six’s script cleverly milks a gag about
how obvious a couple’s surreptitious kiss was."
Read the full review here. Photo by Kathleen Masse, quote by Don Braunagel, San Diego.com.
From Total Theater:
"The 'bargaining' begins almost immediately. Are these established relationships fixed or are they variable? Does love need redefinition every so often? Just what is love? The playwright explores a variety of love options in this 90-minute laugh riot."
Photo by Kymri Wilt, quote by Robert Hitchcox, Total Theater.
From the San Diego Reader:
"The Lotus Theatre Collective has given the play a lively production in which the entire cast contributes (Marc Biagi, as Richard, Jennie Olson, as Veronica, and Melanie Sutherlin, as Maria, merit special mention). Sheila Rosen's costumes define character to a T. And Marie Miller's lighting's the best I've ever seen at Swedenborg Hall."
Photo by Kathleen Masse, quote by Jeff Smith, San Diego Reader.
From San Diego City Beat:
"But this play contains little about law, at least the kind you find between the covers of a stupid book. We can lay down all the rules we want, and we can modify them as our conduct requires, but romantic love—often against its better judgment—is the central force of nature in our public lives. That’s what makes playwright Kevin Six’s concept (i.e., lawyers in love) so appropriate. He’s got an ideal partner in director D.J. Sullivan, probably the best all-around drama coach in the city. The story takes it from there—and while it occasionally backs into its characters, it’s a spirited tale, blessedly devoid of cliché, that augurs well for Six and, importantly, for University Heights’ Swedenborg Hall."
Photo by Kymri Wilt, quote by Martin Jones-Westlin, San Diego City Beat.
From San Diego News Service, Feb. 15, 2009:
"If you want to experience a really funny look at love, this play Love Negotiated is an absolute must."
Photo by Kathleen Masse, Quote by Leo E. Laurence, San Diego News Service.
The opening scene of Lotus Theatre Collective’s Love Negotiated is apparently set in the early evening, which makes it a little late in the day for a nooner. Richard and Veronica squeezed it in a few minutes ago anyhow, and that says a lot about the persistence that marks their lives. They’re divorce and family attorneys, after all. As such, it’s not stretching things to presume they’ve nooned their share of clients and then some, a few of whom probably had it coming.
But this play contains little about law, at least the kind you find between the covers of a stupid book. We can lay down all the rules we want, and we can modify them as our conduct requires, but romantic love—often against its better judgment—is the central force of nature in our public lives. That’s what makes playwright Kevin Six’s concept (i.e., lawyers in love) so appropriate. He’s got an ideal partner in director D.J. Sullivan, probably the best all-around drama coach in the city. The story takes it from there—and while it occasionally backs into its characters, it’s a spirited tale, blessedly devoid of cliché, that augurs well for Six and, importantly, for University Heights’ Swedenborg Hall.
The headstrong Dick and Ronnie (Mark Biagi and Jennie Olson) fuel history’s most grueling love relationship (their own); ironically, they stay together amid the maelstrom that descends on their stylish home. Before the play’s over, three other couples weigh in on sex, lifestyles, family and every other element so crucial to romantic foundations. Some (like Ann, played by the hilarious Savvy Scopelleti) will begrudgingly draw their own conclusions about the gay experience. All will agree that romantic involvement raises more questions than it answers.
Six would likely be the first to note that this show breaks nothing near new ground. Playwrights from Aeschylus to Philip King have tackled love and its intimacies from every conceivable angle, with every conceivable result. That’s where Sullivan comes in with a vengeance—her uncanny sense of style keeps the interludes interesting, creating happy distractions as she adjusts body languages to fit the rising and falling action. Sullivan is truly a San Diego treasure; the fact that she’s coached two Tony winners and an Oscar nominee is but a whisper amid her accomplishments.
She and Six do tend to falter a bit on the use of the set. Much is made of Richard and Veronica’s front door as part of the action, with the couples posing in the frame as it opens. Some scenelets might have gone better if some of the principals had let themselves in instead of ringing that blasted bell. That may seem like a quibble, but it’s not. Doors are highly metaphorical in middle farces like these; that’s why they’re always getting slammed, poor things.
In any event, please do enjoy this taut, well-executed piece on a topic that never seems to go away. It’s earnestly funny, and it’s also a feather in Swedenborg Hall’s cap; more and more, the venue is holding itself out as a major public performance space. Nice to think that eclectic University Heights has a little arts district in the making, with the acclaimed Diversionary Theatre as its flagship.
This review is based on the opening-night performance of Feb. 14. Love Negotiated runs through March 1 at Swedenborg Hall, 1531 Tyler Ave., University Heights. $12-$15. 619-952-1416, www.lovenegotiated.com
.
Write to marty@edarts.info and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
"The Lotus Theatre Collective has given the play a lively production in which the entire cast contributes (Marc Biagi, as Richard, Jennie Olson, as Veronica, and Melanie Sutherlin, as Maria, merit special mention). Sheila Rosen's costumes define character to a T. And Marie Miller's lighting's the best I've ever seen at Swedenborg Hall."
Photo by Kathleen Masse, quote by Jeff Smith, San Diego Reader.
"PHOTO shows gay kissing scene, rare in San Diego theatre, as policeman
Mark (Tyler Josua Herdklotz, left) embraces soap-opera star Luke
(Thomas Hall), in the new and very funny stage play Love Negotiated. It opened on Valentine’s Day at the Swedenborg Hall theatre."
Photo, caption and quotes by Leo E. Laurence, San Diego News Service.
