So a gig kinda just fell into my lap. I got asked to do a couple short sequences for a music video by an up and coming artist. Danny Blu has a VERY specific aesthetic, think Adam Lambert meets Lady Gaga. Out there/aggressive. And because this musical theater guy believes in being chameleonic, I thought...absolutely. Let's go there. So I got busy in the studio and came up with something fierce. And we shot in a church. A CHURCH! Full-throttle dance throw-down on the alter! It was insanity. Second day of the shoot we did some work in a stairwell and I got to do some visual texturing. Brief movement moments that looked great on camera but weren't quite 'ography.' It was an incredible experience working in a completely different medium and getting to play in that world. I want more!
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
I'm a bad blogger.
My last post was about directing for the Insomniac's 24-hour play festival. That happened about a year ago. I'm clearly massively behind. I'll try to do better. In the meantime, this blog is a little more current. It's only 3 months behind. Ugh. On the plus side, I've been busy!
http://www.sidneyerik.com/Blog/Blog.html
http://www.sidneyerik.com/Blog/Blog.html
Friday, February 1, 2013
Sidney Erik Wright...Director
It's February 1st. How did that happen?
This summer I took a giant step forward. I directed my first play. No singing, no dancing, no choreography of any kind. I was accepted into the Insomniac's 24-hour Play Festival produced by the Grex Group Theatre. At 6pm on July 19th, I made my way into a room full of strangers...
A woman from the Grex Group opened a mystery folder and I was given 3 names and a prompt. I was assigned author Mila Golubov, actors Matthew Wise and Mary Fuller, and a twisted line about a man who wanted to keep a girl's tooth to 'remember her by.' Bizarro. Then, we four had a pow-wow.
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This summer I took a giant step forward. I directed my first play. No singing, no dancing, no choreography of any kind. I was accepted into the Insomniac's 24-hour Play Festival produced by the Grex Group Theatre. At 6pm on July 19th, I made my way into a room full of strangers...
A woman from the Grex Group opened a mystery folder and I was given 3 names and a prompt. I was assigned author Mila Golubov, actors Matthew Wise and Mary Fuller, and a twisted line about a man who wanted to keep a girl's tooth to 'remember her by.' Bizarro. Then, we four had a pow-wow.
I put on my director hat. I told our author to be bold. I got to know my actors, what their strengths and special skills were. We set a time to reconvene. I went home. Read a draft. Sent back some dramaturgical notes. Got another draft. Sent back more notes. Booked rehearsal space. Did table work at Starbucks early in the morning. Got in the studio and blocked the play. Bought props. Found costumes. Made sound cues. And, lo and behold, 24 hours later we premiered Good Men. Bad Men. Very Bad Men. as part of the festival at the historic Player's Club Theater in the West Village. For our 10-minute-play, a woman goes to a speed dating event. Mary Fuller played the lead going on a series of truly spectacular bad dates with a range of insanely inappropriate suitors. Matthew Wise played 10 different men courting her. It was hilarious, disturbing, and incredibly fun. Loved breaking out of my 'musical theater' box and tackling a new challenge! Fun step forward for this dancer dude!
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Friday, January 4, 2013
Double-duty on "Pharmaceutical: The Musical"
Theatrical drinking games. Apparently this is a thing. And I'm a fan. After my SDC Observership on Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, I had a brunch recap with a few other director/choreographer people who had done the observership program. And I met the amazingly talented Katie Lupica, the SDC Observer to Daniel Goldstein on Broadway's Godspell. She was putting together a ten-minute musical for TinyRhino. We wanted to work together. And we made a little magic.
TinyRhino is a monthly festival of ten-minute plays/musicals at the Brooklyn Lyceum under the umbrella of UglyRhino. With the festival, authors are given 5 prompts at which the audience is instructed to drink from their beverage of choice. Those prompts are then incorporated into brand-spankin'-new plays and mounted as a theatrical free-for-all evening of drinking and art. For the July edition of the show, the audience had to drink whenever 1) someone analyzed a dream 2) someone had a pratfall 3) someone impersonated a celebrity 4) someone flipped off the audience or 5) someone mentions the temperature of the room. Katie shepherded the blending of these prompts into the total awesomeness that was Pharmaceutical: The Musical.
In the show, I played Mr. Worthington, a suburban drone unhappy with his life. I was being psychoanalyzed by a therapist, but instead of treatment I got a prescription. Returning home, I was confronted by my unhappy housewife and, upon taking my medication, we entered a trippy fantasy finale with a kickline of dancing pills. It was out there. It was fabulous. And it was so much fun being both the lead role actor guy and the dance-making choreographer guy. The show was a hit and a new collaboration was a total success!
TinyRhino is a monthly festival of ten-minute plays/musicals at the Brooklyn Lyceum under the umbrella of UglyRhino. With the festival, authors are given 5 prompts at which the audience is instructed to drink from their beverage of choice. Those prompts are then incorporated into brand-spankin'-new plays and mounted as a theatrical free-for-all evening of drinking and art. For the July edition of the show, the audience had to drink whenever 1) someone analyzed a dream 2) someone had a pratfall 3) someone impersonated a celebrity 4) someone flipped off the audience or 5) someone mentions the temperature of the room. Katie shepherded the blending of these prompts into the total awesomeness that was Pharmaceutical: The Musical.
In the show, I played Mr. Worthington, a suburban drone unhappy with his life. I was being psychoanalyzed by a therapist, but instead of treatment I got a prescription. Returning home, I was confronted by my unhappy housewife and, upon taking my medication, we entered a trippy fantasy finale with a kickline of dancing pills. It was out there. It was fabulous. And it was so much fun being both the lead role actor guy and the dance-making choreographer guy. The show was a hit and a new collaboration was a total success!
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