Even More Big News from Forum

Just in time for all of your holiday shopping needs we have opened up an e-store. The link will remain on the right side of front page of the blog. Look to your right. See it. Just above the search function. It will always be there. Whenever you want to buy a script for one of our productions, click that link. Whenever you can’t get a song out of your head that you heard in one of our productions, click that link. Whenever you want a new book on theater to read, click that link. Whenever you a wondering what the Forum Company members like, click that link. Seriously, whenever you want, click that link.

For every item purchased through our e-store Forum Theatre will make some money. So purchase and give.

Click here to start your shopping or just look over to your right and click over there.

A Little Love for Judas

This year’s Audience Choice Awards nominations just came out, over at DCTheatreScene and our production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was nominated 3 times, in 2 categories: Favorite Play and Favorite Actor in a Play (both Jim Jorgenson and Brian Hemmingsen get noms in this category).

So, loyal Forum-ites, head over and cast your vote today. Also, check out Tim Treanor’s season wrap-ups on shows and performers. JUDAS gets good mentions in both articles, with our show being Tim’s #1:

1. Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Forum Theater. In future years, those who saw this show will speak of it in terms of reverence. Seldom does a play, or any artistic work, so fully challenge our hearts, and almost never successfully. Last Days was more than a play: it was an act of grace.

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We’ve been a little quiet around here, taking a break after Marat/Sade closed its successful run, and getting ready for the 5th season. Big announcements for that any day now, so stay tuned.

Thank you all, for making this past season so great.

–Michael

Opening Weekend

Well, first weekend is over and I’m even more excited for more people to see this show.  It has been, by far, the most challenging production Forum and I, have ever done.  With all the songs, dance, and multiple story levels, I’ve had some serious brain pain over this past month, but it has been a labor most worthy as we have this incredible show (if I may say so–and I do) on our hands.  Strangely enough, we have never been more ready for audiences as we were for Marat/Sade, but before I start trying my luck and claiming that we must be getting better at this whole thing, I should point out the tremendous efforts of the cast and crew for really bringing their “A” game on this show.  There is a real, palpable effort on that stage that is all due to each actor, designer, technician and company member giving a little of themselves to make it all come together.  Thanks, guys—it really shows.

Katy Carkuff as CORDAY, on bench.

We had a bit of a rolling opening for this show as we opened to the public and Fringe go-ers on Thursday, had a performance on Friday, then had most of our alumni and special guests on Saturday.  I would have thought that after 2 previews and 2 regular performances, my nerves would have subsided, but Saturday night still had me all nervy.   Even after 12 productions, 6 of which I have directed, I am still every bit as pins-and-needles on these opening nights.  You have 4-5 weeks where it’s just you, the cast, and various production teammates in the rehearsal room and no matter how much you anticipate the audience seeing the show, nothing prepares you.  I try to drill the idea that certain moments must be played to the audience and continually remind the actors and designers where people will be sitting, but it’s those first nights when you actually see and hear them in the room that can change everything.  The production had felt so private and intimate when it was just the small group and here we are, opening our doors and inviting all these people in to see what we have done.

Jonathon Church, as SADE, with cabbage as…Mr. Cabbage.

At first, I find myself watching the people in the audience more than the show.  Seeing how they react, what they look at, what they respond to.  Inevitably, there is always a moment of “why did they laugh at that?  Should it be funny?” Or even the moments that were funny to the cast 4 weeks ago resurface and remind us of its humor.  After that, I am able to relax somewhat and start prepping for certain moments, hoping they play the way we intended, hoping they delight/shock/titillate where needed.  Based on the crowds this weekend, I’d say we were very successful.  Thank you to all who have attended and have sent/said such kind words–they are much appreciated.

–Michael

Notes from the Cast: Patrick Bussink

Photo Credit: Melissa Blackall Photography

Patrick is a company member here at Forum and is playing our Lord and Savior Himself, Jesus of Nazareth.

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I figured since it takes me about 2 1/2 hours to mosey out and join the cast onstage, I’d take a couple of weeks to make my entrance to these here cyber-procedings. Better late than never…

So please the court, my name is Patrick and I too am a Catho-hol-ic. Yes, like Guirgis himself and almost half the cast, I also hail from the mothership. I went to Catholic school, did all the sacraments, went to church every week, went to youth group meetings and summer camps building houses for the poor, and I worked in the parish rectory for a couple of years in High School before heading off to College, where all good Catholics go to fall away from the flock.

But despite my pious youth, there were always those pesky questions to wrestle. Questions which got me into trouble in grade school. Questions like: if God is all powerful and merciful and He gave me the capacity for sin and a mind to question his existence, then how could he burn me eternally for acting as He created me (or however I said it when I was 10)? Saint Thomas doubted and he was there. Now 2,000 years later, aren’t I allowed the same measure of doubt, if not more? A LOT more? And one other question: would god strike me down if I didn’t capitalize his name?

Owning my doubt and skepticism has been a huge part of deepening my faith—even though I rarely use the words “my faith”; it’s an ongoing challenge of reconciling what’s been passed down with what actually resonates deep down. Somewhere early on I heard that “faith is not faith unless it’s questioned,” which became my motto. And yet despite my beef with all the dogma, the core teachings of Christ have always been a guiding force: Love thy neighbor as thyself…Judge not lest ye be judged…Blessed are the peacemakers. Those are the big 3 as far as I’m concerned—they’re also the 3 that so many “Christians” seem to forget, which is one of the reasons people get turned off walk away.

As I grew away from the Church in my early 20’s, I went off on a sort of spiritual shopping spree and like a lot of people, I dabbled in eastern traditions—I got into Taoism, Buddhism, meditation & yoga and devoured a slew of new-agey books that rocked my world. All this searching continued to challenge the hogwash of institutional Christianity, while deepening my belief in all the good stuff that stuck with me. And it raised even more questions: is there really a difference between: prayer and meditation? salvation and enlightenment? the holy spirit and the Dharma? Do Jesus and Buddha hang out?

What I’ve come around to is that regardless of country or culture, the real point of religion is to raise our consciousness and bring us into the presence of the eternal, the divine, the universal mind, God, whatever you want to call it. That’s why I’m always drawn to the mystical traditions of any faith—the Sufi poets of Islam, Francis of Assisi and the Jesuits, the Gnostics, and even some pagan traditions. Every religion has its mystics and saints and every religion has its fundamentalists for whom their faith is no more than a battleground and a weapon of fear. Because religion is ultimately a language to communicate with God, and just as no language can rid the world of miscommunication and confusion, no religion is a direct and perfect channel to the divine.

And religion is definitely not the only channel we have. The arts—storytelling, poetry, music, painting, dance—all share the goal of reaching a higher consciousness. That’s why religion has always incorporated the arts, because they help us communicate with the intangible and what’s more intangible than this thing we call God? In our modern culture, we often separate art and religion—there’s a mutual contempt that’s sadly grown between the two. This show has been a beautiful meeting of those two worlds for me, a place where storytelling, poetry and a little music come together in a room to wrestle with some really big questions.

Manipulating the Past

Alexander Strain and Jesse Terrill in The Memorandum

Just read this article in the NY Times that I found very interesting; especially in context to the discussions that are surrounding our current season’s shows.  The article is about how historical context and presentation can be manipulated in “historical” plays.  This is something that I, as a director, am very interested in lately.  In Antigone, we played with time period in a way that left us open for a more broad interpretation of its political/social meanings.  The same technique was applied to The Memorandum and Hamletmachine, as well.  My feeling is that when you “shoehorn” a play with over-bearing concept (“koncept”, with a “k”, as we often refer to it~), you limit the possibilities of what the story can achieve and how it can reach an individual.

The same thoughts, I’m sure, went in to the writing of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, as it turns our conceptions of historical accuracy on its head by finding new, and often un-orthodox (pardon the term) means of representation.  The same can be said for our summer show, Marat/Sade, where the time period is merely a jumping-off point for a broader discussion of social injustice throughout time.

Check it out—what do you guys think?