More Life!

Greetings Prophet! Ok so it's been a while...life (and temp jobs) intervened and the 'Angels' part of my brain got turned off. But I'm back, and excited to get back into it. I missed month 3 update, and skipped ahead. But I have news... Project book has a publisher!  Yes that's right this 'Tomb of Immobility' has a home! The as-yet-untitled Angels book is being published by McFarland, probably in early 2019. I don't actually have much more of an update than that. Other than to say finding a publisher was the hardest thing until it wasn't. And I think that's a sign you've got it right. From first contacting the team there it felt 'right' and was really smooth and easy discussion. So while I'm still the slightly unhinged one in two-day-old clothes waving research at Mormons...maybe someone is listening. The only other thing I have to say is this; firstly there's no 'right' or 'wrong' way to go about pu...

It's 25 years since the Angel first flew at the Mark Taper Forum so this is blog 1 of 2 on 'Angels and me' of sorts to 'celebrate'  Two years ago this week I was doing this: Throwing pennies into Bethesda to celebrate the end of the PhD   Making peace with the Angel. As the caption says, I’d always sworn that once the PhD was done and dusted I was going to that Angel to mark it somehow. (I still kind of wish I’d thrown the whole damn thing in there). And while that milestone was important to me, it also brings up some important things related to location, and physical attachment to the play. It wasn't just that I'd finished, but I marked that by interacting with the 'real world' part of the fictional world my head lived in for so long. And what's more it's a place I keep going back to, keep re-enacting that physical expression of the fictional.  “It’s my favourite place in New York City, no in the whole Uni...

I often get asked 'why' just in life 'why' but in terms of this work, 'Why this play?' or 'Why so much dedication to it?'. It either comes with incredulity from someone who doesn't rate the play 

The Epilogue is perhaps the richest of all scenes in the entire two plays. It divides people with some believing the whole thing would be better left at the point of the final ‘real time’ scenes. (So Prior and Louis’ final exchange and Harper’s monologue).  And while there’s a case for that- nothing is left entirely resolved and open to interpretation- the Epilogue only gives us clues that the respective directors and actors can play with. There’s also an important theatrical point to be made with the style of the Epilogue as well- and all this combines to really change the sense of the ending. It’s a short (by Kushner standards) scene but also dialogue heavy. It is five years later- January 1990, and Prior, Louis, Belize and Hannah visit the Bethesda fountain. In the film version it is Prior’s Birthday (he reminds us Thomas Jefferson died on his Birthday, Belize reminds him he isn’t Thomas Jefferson) In the play version, there’s no scripted reason for them to assemb...

This picture continues to be the visual representation of Project Book. Me in two day old clothes raving at people who don't want to listen (you dear, reader mainly) Another 'research update' that's more about the state of things than the plays...having abandoned my former PhD blog this seems the place to dump such thoughts. The last couple of weeks have been hard. The ongoing job situation (or lack of one) and the bigger questions about what I'm doing and why continue to hang over me. A week or so ago someone told me (in not so many words) that I 'Might as well give up.' and that basically very few people 'make it' anyway and I'd probably be better off giving up. This was offset a couple of days later by someone else telling me, absolutely not to give up and that I had a talent for a lot of the things I'm trying to do. So which one to believe? I'm always inclined to quote not Kushner for a change but Pretty Woman 'The bad ...

And finally, after much ado, notes on Andrew Garfield as Prior... Garfield was the performer I saw evolve most across the run. Although some might critique this, thinking he should have been ‘set’ as Prior by opening night, it’s testament to an actor still working, still discovering. For an actor who has worked predominantly on film as well, it seems precisely the point of taking on a theatre role- to have something continuously evolving to work with. This also sums up his approach (as I observed it) as an actor who was ‘living’ or ‘experiencing’ the whole thing every night, and as a technique for Prior that’s hard, but something that can really pay off. His Prior grew as he as an actor grew into the role. That was, as Kushner might say realising a bit of theatrical magic happening right there. Emotionally played to the core, from up close an often-painful watch as he goes through not just the physical trials but faces Prior's emotional challenges (and a few angels). I...