Speed Demons - Rust In Peace

Last Saturday the Vampire Cowboy's held their final installment of this season's Grand Saloon, including Nosedive's episodic Faustian Road Trip serial, Speed Demons. As always, we had a blast working with the Cowboys on this project. I wanted to take a moment to thank the cast and crew of Speed Demons for making this such an exciting project to work on. Our fantastic cast of actors included Christopher Yustin, Daryl Lathon, Leah Carrell, James Comtois, Jon Hoche, Nick Micozzi, Scott Williams, Christian Toth, Stephanie Cox-Williams and Qui Nguyen.

Additionally, Speed Demons was an interesting new experiment for me as a director. Because of conflicts with Master of Horror, I only directly the first and final episodes of the series. The three episodes in between were directing by Matt Johnston, Abe Goldfarb and Patrick Shearer, each of whom brought their own unique style to the series. It was fantastic to see what each of them made of their episode, and a really unique challenge to try to bring all of the elements they established together for the final episode.

I also wanted to single out several Nosedivians who really went to bat for us on this project. Speed Demons relied heavily on music and sound effects throughout it's run, and Patrick Shearer provided an amazing sound design for each episode (as he always does). Marc Landers, Ben VandenBoom and Qui Nguyen made sure we got a video record of each performance, which we were able to post on our website in more or less real time, so that audience members could catch up on any episodes they had missed. Stephanie Cox-Williams performed triple duty as an actor, stage manager/showrunner and prop and car designer.

And most of all, I want to thank Abby Marcus, Qui Nguyen, Robert Ross-Parker and the rest of the Vampire Cowboys for including Nosedive in this exciting project. We look forward to working with them again in the near future! In the mean time, go check out the Cowboys new full length play, Soul Samurai, which is opening February 14th.

(I've included videos of the Speed Demons episodes below, for your viewing pleasure...)

Speed Demons — Episode 1

Video by Ben VandenBoom

Speed Demons — Episode 2

Video by Marc Landers

Speed Demons — Episode 3

Video by Qui Nguyen

Speed Demons — Episode 4

Video by Marc Landers

Speed Demons — Episode 5

Video by Marc Landers

Review: Chair

It should be no surprise that Chair, the new Edward Bond play freshly opened at the Duke on 42nd Street, is no cheery romp through the Garden of Earthly Pleasures. Bond has a well-earned notoriety for writing brutal, terrifying plays and Chair certainly lives up to that reputation. Bond's theme here is the dehumanization of the individual by the state, and he pursues this theme with a steadfast resolve.

Director and longtime Bond collaborator Robert Woodruff keeps the tone of the play cool and distant throughout. Featuring a brutally minimalist set designed by David Zinn, the stage is stripped down to appear almost naked. Mark Barton's light design complements this bleakness with a cold, crisp palette. Long, blank white walls are broken up by child-like crayon drawings, scribbled on large pieces of paper. A small table and a few chairs give something of an anchor to the set, but the sparse expanse seems to engulf the actors throughout the show.

The horror of Chair doesn't come in spurts of blood or passionate emotion. Rather, the dread imbued in the audience is a barren and empty one. In a play where kindness is a capital offense, our connection to humanity is the first casualty.

(continues here)

Master of Horror Portfolio

Spent the last week or so putting together a final portfolio of scripts, reviews and photos from The Master of Horror to submit to King's people. I have the graphic design pieces posted up on The Master of Horror page on the Nosedive site now.

Next up: Adding show pages for the remaining missing shows (Hellcat, Allston, Ruins, etc) and starting work on the graphic novel projects.

Season's Greetings from Nosedive

No Carol this year, but Scrooge and his spectral buddies wanted to wish all of you happy holidays nonetheless...

Nosedive Site Updates

When I initially relaunched the Nosedive website in August, it included detailed pages for a handful of our most recent shows - all three Blood Brothers installments, Colorful World and Nervous-Boy. I wanted to include more of our previous productions, but I had to shift my focus to directing Master of Horror with Patrick.

Fortunately, since MOH closed a couple of weeks ago I've been fighting off the post-show blues by getting back into the site redesign. Last night I finished up work on new production pages for A Very Nosedive Christmas Carol, Suburban Peepshow, Dying Goldfish, Mayonnaise Sandwiches and The Awaited Visit. It was a lot of fun to go back and look closely at these productions again. Our company photographer Aaron Epstein has always done amazing work for us... I particularly enjoy some of his more surreal photos on Peepshow, Mayo and Awaited Visit.

There are a handful of shows left that are missing production pages, including Hellcat, Ruins and Monkeys. That last one is going to be interesting, as we have no photos, video, reviews or other evidence of production. I hope to get these and all other production pages up by the end of the year. Once those are finished, I'm looking to add expanded company bio pages and a graphic design gallery in the new year.

Election Day

Voted before work this morning. My polling station is PS 375 in Brooklyn, aka Jackie Robinson School. It was pretty packed... the line outside went around the block two corners. There's a large courtyard in front of the school where the poll workers were trying to organize the front of the line by Election District.

Unfortunately, the organization effort didn't go so well and the courtyard quickly filled up completely. The cops had to chain off the gate to the courtyard and let it clear out before letting the rest of us on the street in. I was the cut off, stuck right at the front of the line that was kept waiting. I got to hang out with a handful of annoyed cops who were trying to sort through the school employees and senior citizens who need to get through the line. Everyone seemed in pretty good spirits though, patiently determined to wait the lines out. This is what high turnout looks like...

I believe the election is going to turn on registration, turnout and enthusiasm. In two words: Ground Game. I think Obama is going to do even better than expected.

Found some really interesting Obama art around the web in various places... thought I'd throw a few up here for Election Day. Enjoy!


http://chicagoist.com/2008/02/04/art_design_obam.php
http://animalnewyork.com/news/2008/07/ron-english-inaugurates-oversi.php
http://www.highsnobiety.com/news/2008/08/21/new-obama-prints-from-david-choe-and-upper-playground/