A New Gathering

Greetings all and Happy New Year! I was thinking it's about time for a gathering of sorts. Here are two options if you all are up for it. One, we could gather at one of our favorite pubs (Beer Works or Old Spot) and reminisce over a few ales. Two, I've secured a relatively inexpensive copy of the '96 Crucible film and thought it might be fun to gather and watch together. If the former, let's set a place and time. If the latter, would anyone like to volunteer their home for a viewing?

Hope you all are well,

-james

Happy Christmas Eve to all!

May you all be safe, happy and surrounded by loved ones "in the bleak midwinter." (That way, you won't need firewood. By the way, where IS my wood? ;-D )

- parris

A Christmas Child

Hey gang,

I know we've tossed around a few dates concerning a viewing of STC's Christmas Child over at the Salem Town Hall. Jason and I are heading over this evening as it is the only night in which we can attend [ Sorry Linda :( ]. If any of you are able we would love to see you there! And i know Mr Butterfield and Mr Cooper would love to have your support. Break a leg fellas!

- james

Holiday Favorites

Since Ive been forced to watch lots o christmas specials with my 6 year old, I was wondering if y'all had favorites that you watch,listen to or run from every year.

I love"Santa Claus is Comin to Town" love the poppets! I think at the end of Crucible- as John leaves for the gallows,we all should have broke out into song"Put One Foot in Front of the Other"

Christmas Story- besides the fact that my son looks like Ralphie, I never get tired of watching it!

The Grinch who stole christmas-Welcome Christmas Yahoo Yahoo

I always hated the animation of Frosty-

but the Heat Miser and the Snow Miser Rock!

Love Actually is a great movie-feel bad for Laura Liney's character

Does anyone remeber Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol-Classic

"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" hate this song, for reasons that it reminds of drunk Jersey guys in Santa hats singing it at the top of their lungs-

so Im all down blogging to myself.....its the newest way of talking to yourself without anyone noticing.

HO HO HO-who you callin HO

Lesser-known Crucible Facts

LKC Fact # 237 - Rev. Hale was also dancing naked in the woods that evening but nobody noticed.

The Glass Half Empty - reading for the playwrite

Hey, all.

I've been lurking the last few days, enjoying the vitality of this blog - really cool! Seems to be taking on more notes than just performance, too... Nice.

I've been contacted by Shari Frost, a playwrite who is organizing a reading of her latest piece, "The Glass Half Empty" on December 12th. She's still looking for 3 of the 7 roles to be filled - 2 men, 1 woman. I'll let her words describe the piece and the reading:

I've been working on a play, "The Glass Half Empty", for the past few years, and the Salem Theatre Company has kindly agreed to do a staged reading of it in February. Before I tackle another set of revisions, I'd really like to hear the play out loud.

On Wednesday, December 12, I'm gathering a group of actors together to do a read-through (with pizza and wine...).

The play, a full-length with 2 acts, has 7 characters -- 4 women and 3 men. Loosely, it's a look at the biblical origins of the Arab/Israeli conflict, and mother/son and father/son relationships, all juxtaposed against a suicide bombing that actually occurred in 2002. The setting for the first act is a bar/restaurant in New York City. The second act travels to the Palestinian city of Tulkarm and the living room of the suicide bomber.

The characters include biblical icons Isaac, Ishmael, Sarah and Hagar (no hokey biblical talk, I promise!) along with Abdel Basset-Odeh, a suicide bomber, his mother and a female bartender.

The play we're going to read is my second full-length play and one I've been working on (and off...) for about five years. Last June I had the opportunity to take it down to a Playwrighting Intensive at Sarah Lawrence College where I developed it further with the guidance of faculty members, actors and writing groups. Now it's scheduled for a reading with STC in February, the next in their series following "BOYS OF WINTER."

I am not an actor myself, so I greatly value input from actors and try to work collaboratively. My goal for Wednesday is to collect thoughts and suggestions from all of you to polish the script for February.

We'll be meeting at 7:30, I'm still working on a location. FYI, I still have 3 roles (there are 7 in all) I'm trying to fill -- 2 men and 1 woman. I have 2 definite maybes, but they won't be able to confirm until next week. So... if you have any friends who might be interested in joining us, that would be great! Casting for February is open and we can talk more about that on Wednesday.

Anyone interested? Shari can be reached at shariandalan@msn.com.

Cave Dog out!

Pimpin' My Wife

I mentioned to a few of you that my wife is in her final year of grad school studying opera performance, and I recall some of you expressing interest in hearing her sing. Well, this Friday evening at 8pm she is participating in her school's semester ending opera scenes. The cost is free and there will be complimentary adult beverages and hors d'oeuvres to follow. Head down to the Longy School of Music off of the Cambridge Common (1 Follen Street) for an evening of some of the best no-cost opera the city can offer. If you're familiar with the Sheraton Commander hotel, start there and walk away from the common for just a few blocks and Longy will be on the right-hand side.

Brooke will be performing in the following scenes:

*Die Fledermaus Trio, by Johann Strauss
*Flavio Duet, by G. F. Handel
*Lakme Duet, by Leo Delibes

Hope you're able to make it. T'would be wonderful to see you again.

Crucible DVD

I spoke to John (Fogle) last night and he said the DVD of our performance was GRRRRRREAT! He said the guy(dont know his name) really did a nice job and it came out very professional. So......................if you havent got one -

FEMA-

Ok so just need to rant for a moment- Front page article in the NY Times(www.nytimes.com for full article)FEMA annouced they will close all FEMA trailer camps set up for Katrinia victims. About 900 families are living in these camps and will be displaced. Homelessness has risen 50 percent since Katrinia and what these people can afford is uninhabitable.

Where can they go? They were living in houses that had been passed down from generation to generation and the neighborhood watched was a real community. It took me going down to Nawlins to understand the sense of place and pride that they have in being born and raised in Nawlins. It s there home and leaving is just not what they ever considered. I have moved so many times that I really dont have have the roots and sense of place that New Orleans natives have. My heart aches for the hardships they have lived though and continued heartlessnes they are faced with.

phew - done-

sorry for the rant

Upcoming: A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES

... by the redoubtable Dylan Thomas, will be read for two nights and one matinée during the weekend of December 14-16 at Old Town Hall in Salem.

The cast includes Henry MacLean (brother of Our Own Emma), Jim Butterfield and yours truly, and is directed by Catherine Bertrand, our producer for The Crucible.

Dates are:
Friday, 12/14 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, 12/15 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, 12/16 at 2 p.m.

More details to follow.

The reading is hypnotic and lush -- and brief. It lasts less than an hour.

Thomas was a lush, too, but that's another story. ;-D

Parris is in da house!

Fellow Salemites and Salem Villagers,

Mark this! It's so cool to stay connect with you all via this blog. Sorry I didn't subscribe before, but things are insane.

I miss you all, but I don't miss the cold of the church basement, which this weekend would seem almost Arctic-like. Also, the urine-influenced odour of the men's dressing room is something I can live without.

Anyway, I guts to run but I will post tomorrow regarding A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES, and catch up on the favourite lines and films of mine, in keeping with earlier posts.

But I want to give a huge shout out to Hannah "Goody Purse" LaBonde for the CDs of the photos (I hope you paid for them out of the kitty we contributed to) and for setting up this blog. Also, thanks to photog Ashley, who was entertained, I hope, by the backstage shenaniganza last Saturday night.

I do think the world of you all!

- Parris, Sam'l, Rev.

The Making & Unmaking of a Hollywood Remake

First let me turn your attention to this and then to this.

Freakin' ridiculous! Each of these films is less than 25 years in age, yet both are being remade for the probable reason that Hollywood likely stands to make millions off either and both of these probable cinematic dungheaps, not to mention the overwhelming decline of creative influence in this playhouse of plenty. As is becoming more and more frequent among blockbuster features, screenwriters and producers are selling out local theaters with their on-screen renditions of musicals, video games and movie remakes that truly original screenplays are unfortunately transitioning into slow fade.

Allow me for a moment to apologize. As i read over my words, I recognize I may be coming off as somewhat of a cinematic elitist. This is not my intention. Though I suppose if were truly sorry, I would delete all of the above and refrain from publishing this post. But that would eliminate the reason I undertook this draft to begin with, so (my hypocrisy aside) allow me to ask what your qualifications would be were you given the sole decision making process in allowing a film to be remade. Would there be a list of purely untouchable films that no one, regardless of stature or clout, would be permitted to touch (say Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Godfather)? What other films outside of this "untouchable" realm would be granted "remake" status? How would you judge what could be remade and what could not?

...Proctor out.

To Be or Not To Be

Ok, here's another question.

Say someone came to you and offered you the chance to portray any character, any role, what character would that be?

A few other photos

Sorry to push your post down, Linda, but I wanted to point folks to a few other photos backstage... Not necessarily anything new and only a few, but if you're interested:

http://gallery.mac.com/cavedog#100020

All time favorites-and all time not so favorites

Ok- so now that Ive discovered this blog thing(thanks Hannah) its all over for you guys.
Im just curious about what some of your favorite movies are and what some of your not so favorite movies are. Feel free to comment why and why not- love this stuff.

Here are some of mine at the present time

Boogie Nights- the writing is brilliant and the acting is amazing(Don Cheadle-Mark Wahlberg- pretty much everyone in the movie)

Pulp Fiction- again brilliant writing and acting-still cant watch the "gimp" scene.

American Beauty- when Kevin Spacey tells off his boss- amazing!

Fargo

Legend of Sleepy Hollow-great storytelling- brilliant character by Johnny Depp

My Left Foot-wow-
Jesus of Montreal- saw this movie in college and still think about it
Walk the Line- love Johnny Cash!!!

Sid and Nancy -but only up to certain point- cant watch the final scene

and now for some really bad movies

Show Girls-soooooooooo bad but i still manage to watch everytime its on

Crawl Space- I saw this movie years ago and it still gives me the creeps

Scarlet Letter-

Grease 2-but I can sing all the songs from it!

Weekend at Bernies- I know some people loved it but not I


Eyes Wide Shut- should have been Eyes Very Shut

People under the stairs-gives my the creeps

When a stranger call- saw the orginal and Im still scared

Cat People- yep, I think the name says it all
Blair Witch Project-YIKES

thats all I can think of but Im sure the list will grow

It Was the Best of Lines, It Was the Worst of Lines

So a few of us discussed during the strike yesterday evening what were our favorites lines from the show, and what lines we hated speaking the most. Click on the comments below and chime in which lines you disliked most while portraying your character, and which lines you most enjoyed.

What say you?

It's hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful group of people. I feel honored to have spent time telling such an important story, and telling it well. Bonus - it was a BLAST! I had almost forgotten how fun it can be to hang out backstage.

So, beloved friends, let's keep "spreading our claws" by blogging from time to time! Possible uses for the Crucible blog:
1. Reminisce
2. Share what you're up to (in your performance life or your "real" life)
3. Plan get-togethers

Blogger is pretty easy to navigate. If you have any questions, send me an e-mail at hannah.labonde@gmail.com.

Happy blogging!

Goody Nurse

p.s. If anyone has e-mail addresses for Cheever (Chris), Mary (Erin) or Willard (Jonathan), please let me know so that I can invite them to join the blog!