tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78551648591395299872009-12-29T07:54:23.682-08:00Experiences of and relections by Massachusetts-based poet, mime, actor and performance artist, Ian ThalIan Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-47769726560310089682009-12-24T08:02:00.000-08:002009-12-26T07:32:35.980-08:00

More often than not, this blog has focussed on my own activities as an artist, only on occasion discussing larger issues or participating in a larger conversation. This is one of those occasions.There has been an on-going conversation in the theatrical blogosphere about diversity in theatre. I don't intend to do a full survey, but I'll list off a few items of interest:There was, of course,

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-32521010709083694082009-12-18T10:45:00.000-08:002009-12-18T11:29:46.545-08:00

Despite what I now consider to have been an over-reaction to the suggestion that my plays might be made available online, the much deserved ribbing for said over-reaction by fellow blogger 99seats, I still had concerns as to how playwrights could be expected to make their work available online in such a manner that benefits them as well as the potential audience.Though it may have appeared as if

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-54489298946203808462009-12-13T06:42:00.000-08:002009-12-13T07:15:41.783-08:00

This is an excerpt from Spaces/Places: Voiced Reflections a program presented by Somerville Community Access Television in 2003 to coincide with The Windows Art Project. Lisa Smith produced and Doug Holder was the host.My piece, Copley Square Farmers' Market, which was originally published in Poesy Magazine, comes in at about 1:30. Because there was a long line of presenters who were mostly

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-11744575780341553322009-11-07T16:08:00.001-08:002009-11-07T16:39:03.192-08:00

Bill Marx, Editor of The Art Fuse, is conducting a new experiment, the "judicial arts review." To quote Marx:As coverage of the arts in the conventional, mainstream media wanes, critical discussion of the arts online has settled into two extremes: there’s the corporate dream of an omnipotent “Google” reviewer for all and the chaos of opinions fired off in individual blogs of varying quality and

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-30662736120136276142009-11-07T07:16:00.000-08:002009-11-07T08:20:24.436-08:00

On November Third, Brother Blue (Dr, Hugh Morgan Hill) left the land of the living. He took the title of "storyteller" but could be, and often was, described as a shaman, griot, or performance artist avant la lettre. He was a powerful presence in the Boston area as well as internationally for decades, telling stories to children, teenagers, and adults, as well as serving as a friend and mentor

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-37904139056295631462009-11-07T05:21:00.000-08:002009-11-07T06:58:35.679-08:00

I've been following Professor Matthew Isaac Cohen's blog about his course on Bread and Puppet Theatre at Royal Halloway, University of London, with interest in part because my essay "Breaking with Bread and Puppet" which is both a narrative of my decision to stop working with the troupe as well as a critique of the imagery that prompted my decision (for which I've gained a small amount of

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-53108780627860121112009-11-03T07:00:00.000-08:002009-11-03T17:19:36.545-08:00

Last week, Don Hall, Chicago-based actor, director, theatre-observer, and activist (and well-known enough in the theatrical blogosphere that I trust someone will correct me if I left anything out) has been posting a series on the audition process on his blog An Angry White Guy in Chicago. Having recently been in the position of casting actors for Total War, and like Hall, not being "

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-65273391509132630372009-10-29T19:33:00.000-07:002009-10-29T20:06:41.410-07:00

Not only do I use Facebook, but I am in the Facebook movie.Earlier this week I was in a scene in the upcoming film about the creation of Facebook, The Social Network directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. I was hired to play a mime performing in Harvard Square in 2003. Interestingly enough, I did perform mime in Harvard Square in 2003 and since I was using my own costume, it

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-84882581869519474612009-10-29T18:55:00.000-07:002009-10-29T19:26:41.839-07:00

In a recent thread on the Plays and Playwrights Yahoogroup a number of participants asked what it meant when it is written in the body of the play that it takes place in "the present" (presumingly when it was written) but that "present-day" references are often dated by the time of a given production.Of course to my mind, even "the present" is a specific milieu; stories set in "the present"

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-54025529485467816792009-10-25T11:01:00.000-07:002009-10-25T18:41:28.143-07:00

Have you heard the story about the event promoter who advertises a reluctant artist with the full expectation that it will force the artist to perform at an event, even after the artist says, "no?" No? With the internet and just a little bit of insanity, anything is possible! Read on, gentle readers and learn why "to defriend" is such a useful neologism...I have never hidden that my entrance

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-11152468529465954932009-10-19T09:38:00.000-07:002009-10-19T17:59:44.849-07:00

Like many artists, I have a day-job that is not in the arts. One Thursday, I find myself in front of a high school advanced placement economics class, filling in for an absent teacher, and attempting to fill in the missing historical context from the handout that the absent teacher had left behind.One of the students asks, "Mister Thal, are you still a mime?""Yes, I am," I respond, "but I am

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-43101174361182733522009-10-18T09:20:00.000-07:002009-10-18T18:30:24.933-07:00

Cast from left to right: Lou Fuoco, Trudi Goodman, Tom Sprague, Anika Colvin-Hannibal, Savanah Shaughnessy, Daniel Schneider, Kendall Stewart, Mikey DiLoreto), Matthew Zahnzinger (sadly barely visible), and Kate Heffernan. Once again, I forget to take a lot of photographs.And now for the post-reading analysis.The event received blurbs from Art Hennessey's Mirror up to Nature as well as from

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-51830021242487716492009-10-08T05:05:00.000-07:002009-10-08T05:56:44.146-07:00

While roughly half of the actors participating in this weekend's staged reading Total War are happy to print up their own copy of the script if I simply send them the .pdf, others have busier lives-- and so I have been spending evenings binding scripts.My laser printer, which I acquired last year at a yard sale for $10 has proved invaluable for my career as a playwright, and despite the

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-32121886282580424522009-10-03T07:09:00.000-07:002009-10-03T08:33:45.863-07:00

My last post, "Free Play Free-For-All", resulted in more than the usual amount of discussion, not just in this blog's comment section, but on the 99Seats blog and on the Dramatists Yahoogroup. And while it is always a joy to spark debate, it became very clear to me that despite the legitimacy of some of the concerns I expressed, was none-the-less over-the-top; that my reaction was out of

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-30990000495079693562009-09-29T07:12:00.000-07:002009-10-04T06:20:05.690-07:00

N.B.: 10/3/2009: Since writing this piece, I have decided that it is a bit of an over-reaction, but I keep it here for your entertainment.As an artist who cannot consistently rely on large institutions to promote his events, I make use of on social media, so without hesitation, I did what I and many other artists and presenters of my acquaintance do: I posted an event listing for the staged

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-79173764587781078952009-09-26T11:07:00.000-07:002009-09-30T15:02:13.555-07:00

Total War, a semi-finalist in the 2009 Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition, is a five-act play set at a Catholic university where the student newspaper has published a Holocaust denial advertisement. Before faculty, students, and staff can begin the expected dialogue on free speech and religious pluralism, an anarchist-cell using the nom de guerre of “Total War” begins a campaign of guerrilla

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-64648378194323474142009-09-23T14:50:00.000-07:002009-09-30T15:05:14.144-07:00

Sunday, October 11th at 8pm at Outpost 186186 1/2 Hampshire Street, Inman Square, Cambridge MAA staged reading of Total War, a play by Ian ThalCast:Jonah Gringer: Dan SchneiderAndrea Kunst: Savanah ShaughnessyEdith Havilland: Kate HeffernanErica Weiss: Kendall StewartFather Aldobrandini: Lou FuocoFather John Bullock: Tom SpragueRichard Doncaster: John M. CostaDuane McCormack: Matthew

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-46489935034483698772009-08-31T17:25:00.000-07:002009-09-30T15:06:36.310-07:00

N.B.: As of September 1st, Trudi Goodman will be playing the Officer.N.B.: As of September 20th, Kendall Stewart will be playing the role of Erica Weiss. The roles of Jonah and Duane are still open.N.B.: As of September 22nd, Dan Schneider will be playing the role of Jonah Gringer. The role of Duane is still open.N.B.: As of September 30th, Matthew Zahnzinger will be playing the role of

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-2854423291684723742009-08-30T11:49:00.000-07:002009-08-30T12:13:23.640-07:00

Once again, Matthew Isaac Cohen, of the Department of Drama and Theatre at Royal Halloway, University of London, is offering his class on Bread and Puppet Theater. I note this in part because my Breaking with Bread and Puppet is on the reading list. The class focusses on using the techniques Peter Schumann developed in the students' own theatre making, something that, despite my own political

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-28520887973136040812009-08-03T18:05:00.000-07:002009-08-03T19:39:06.414-07:00

The Boston Globe sent photographer Erik Jacobs to cover this past weekend's performances of the Open Air Circus, the Somerville, MA based youth circus where I have been teaching mime and commedia dell'arte for the last four-and-a-half years. Somehow, the The Globe chose to feature two photographs of me in the gallery:Photo by Erik Jacobs for The Boston Globe click here for full size.Jacobs

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-10303650258619760632009-07-20T07:40:00.000-07:002009-07-20T08:32:54.958-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I completed the latest set of rewrites to Total War. It was an intense bit of work that began with a trimming of both the longer passages and more philosophically dense passages and an extension of the more character driven drama, trying to expand upon some of the ironies that Thomas Garvey noted during the talk-back session at the end of the April 26th staged

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-63735467732413162032009-04-30T06:22:00.000-07:002009-05-14T07:08:22.125-07:00

Cast of the April 26th reading of Total War at Outpost 186. Note that Anthony DiBartolomeo has been replaced by Stuart G. Levy. The author regrets not taking more photographs.Despite whatever the lone protester outside of Outpost 186 during the staged reading of Total War was attempting to do, the main event was inside.Over the previous few days of read-throughs with some of the actors, and

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-21991276892021134132009-04-27T10:46:00.000-07:002009-07-20T08:49:52.915-07:00

Before I recap the staged reading of Total War, a process that has helped me immensely as a playwright attempting to develop his first full-length play, I have have to share with you the performance that was going on outside of the venue.The reading had attracted a protestor. Total War is primarily about Jewish-Catholic relations, and secondarily about Holocaust denial, it doesn't portray

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-14312621318927602222009-04-21T06:16:00.000-07:002009-04-21T07:01:55.539-07:00

Agata Stadnik, a graduate student at Mass College of Art and Design, and MIT, initiated the Motionary project as part of her work. She had come to my recent performance at Stone Soup and invited me to participate. Part of that participation was a contest in which I was asked to improvise a definition of four words using only movement.These are all first passes, unrehearsed, and should not be

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-35344697094946808842009-04-17T09:17:00.000-07:002009-04-23T21:15:27.798-07:00

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Sunday, April 26th, 8pm:Ian Thal hosts a staged reading of his play, Total War, at Outpost 186, located at 186 1/2 Hampshire Street, Cambridge MA.Total War was recently named a semi-finalist in the 2009 Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition. The reading is an opportunity both for the author to develop the play through listening and for an audience to experience a

Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com2