Thursday, October 19, 2006

Raindrops On Roses ... Whiskers on Kittens

These Are a Few Of My Favorite Things ...
Current mood: Pondering

Instead of hearing Julie Andrews in your head ... switch it to Bjork's heartwrenching version in Dancer in the Dark ...

I'm on the hunt for the next inspiration ... I'm hoping to get an itch for something original, but need something to hit me over the head and I'm closing my eyes and waiting for that BONK!

So, I'll make a list ... I'll check it twice ... see which sparks are naughty or nice ...

* Crisp water
* A crystal sky
* A turkey buzzard's shadow
* Gaiman's World
* Tori's World
* Reality TV always makes me smile ....
* Rock and Roll / the Punk Mentality / DIY / natural rebelliousness with all out commitment

What else .... what else ....

GreyZelda friends and foes - let me know what makes your eye sparkle and your heart race! I'm at such an open place right now that the sky's the limit!

Yours,
reb zella

Friday, October 13, 2006

Women's Voices in Theatre

Hi, Dear Readers -

So, I just posted the following to the message board at Performink in response to an article written by Becky Brett.

What do you think about this issue, if anything? And, even if you don't think about it, why not? I'd love to start a discussion.

"I was so happy to see this article today as I think it's an excellent topic to open a discussion on.

'Why is it that so many theatres stick with the tried-and-true, when the medium has so much more to offer its audiences? Dare we ask the question and risk the flaming response: Are women..s stories just not as compelling as men..s?'

'Why do these female audiences not demand to see plays that look like them and speak to their experience?'

'No one interviewed pretends to be able to reach any conclusions, but it is important to raise the questions and re-start the discussion. However, many people had advice about how we may begin to develop more roles for women.'

I think that this subject is very touchy ... which is why no one wanted to answer conclusively probably. All the answers are going to be relative ... in my personal experience with Chicago theatre, I've often wondered what would happen if I was a man, based on reviews I've received where the term "feminist" was thrown around like a dirty word by male reviewers when our plays offered strong female leads that considered themselves equal to the men they were dealing with. My coartistic director and husband, Chris Riter, and I have often wondered what would happen if we had switched our names on the different directing projects we've worked on, what type of critical response we would have received ... would it have been the same, regardless of the director's gender? What would have happened if Chris had been the one to write the little opinionated blog that was penned in August that, unfortunately, was reproduced here in Performink and discussed for a spell ... with only males responding with a tone of wrist slapping - (it, honestly, made me feel about five years old at times) ... I've often thought of myself as an equalist, but I'm finding out quickly that it may be more important to continue the good fight of being a feminist.

So, yes, let's talk about this!

Naomi Wallace and Caryl Churchill are two playwrights that I can read tirelessly, by the way ...

Excellent article, Becky!

Sincerely,
Rebecca

Sunday, October 08, 2006

On This Day

On This Day Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

Hello, friends of GreyZelda ...

The founding and producing members of GreyZelda, Chris Riter and me, Rebecca Zellar, have been living the calm life the last couple of weeks ... we closed The Scarlet Letter and are going to take a long awaited resting spell. We hope to have our annual GreyZelda meeting in the next few weeks, where we'll talk with our members about how this last year has gone, what we hope to do next year, and how we'll be able to go about achieving the goals we lay out.

GreyZelda's mission is probably going to go through a bit of an overhaul because of the insights and clarifications that were revealed this year. We're going to take a look at the audience we're hoping to reach and will really focus in on the influences that have helped shape us as artists.
There are a lot of ideas floating around in our brains that we're excited to share with our company members and Chicago ... so, stay tuned to our GreyZelda channel.

And, if you're wondering what to do here in this fine city of Chicago, may we suggest ...

1. Support the local, fringe theatre scene. See what you want to see. What you think will get your juices going. We're planning on seeing Midnight Hellhouse soon, which is happening at the Playground theatre (Halsted and Belmont) every October Friday night at midnight. Go get your souls saved.

2. Read a book that you want to read. To quote my high school english teacher, if you can't get into it after the first three pages, put it down, but for god's sake, Read!

3. See a flick with your favorite people ... Rebecca's current favorites are Little Miss Sunshine, Donnie Darko, and Dead Man.

4. Go see a concert .... we were supposed to go see a friend's band, Welcome to Ashley, last night, but became very cozy in our pad .... we mean to see more concerts in our GreyZelda hiatus.

5. Go see the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus. They're in town.

6. Get the hell out of Chicago if you can and see what the rest of the country has to offer, naturally and culturally.

Take care,
Rebecca and Chris