Another Tear For Rome - Production Blog

Fanfare as the curtains part to reveal a tableau of the entire cast engaged in “debaucherous” acts, feeding one another grapes, pouring pitchers of diet wine into one another’s mouths, and..well, you know..stuff. Shameful things! No dignity will remain intact! Several constables will be called. The fire marshal will suffer a stroke. This week's rehearsal brought our first contact with the Goths. A subplot of the play involves soldiers in a lonely outpost trying to finish off the barbarous Goth army. As a surprise for the audience, they also get to meet the enemy. They're intended to look like club kids and behave like dark clowns. There are two, and one has the unfortunate inability to make sound effects.  Characters need a flaw to overcome, and that's his. He says "sip" instead of making sipping sounds or "swordsword"in battle instead of "Yeeaaah!" In the reading, the actor filling in played him as an enthusiastic dolt, but that dy...

"I am gold, mother. I am gold itself. The finest of ladies wear me on their wrists, and the finest of men as a crown." We plan a lot of extra time during our rehearsal process, since so many of the actors work long hours and have side-hustles on top of that and we're just a casual organization. It's always been like this, the Brooklyn crew used to rehearse during various happy hours in the backs of various bars.  It all worked out. And this play will survive the week we just lost to a crazy snowstorm that cost us three rehearsals. Total pioneer stuff, fat flakes from the lord's cereal box. He just filled this old bowl with layers and layers of his favorite powder. Which then turned to ice. Actors trapped in their homes, dancers trapped at the tops of their driveways. It's a hilly old town.  So, I went a little stir-crazy for a while but finished up some logistic stuff, working out a "column map." Some of the actors playing columns a...

"Enter Versus holding the leash for the collars of two men dressed as leopards." During the week, to save money, we rehearse in the Seattle Center Armory on a giant chess set. This is a practice we started during a play called King Beard, and it felt thematically appropriate. It's also a great way to max out a community space. It legitimately feels that this is why the building is here, to provide space for people to meet and create. It's also often full of people sleeping there, but they are happy to share. It's open late. And there is coffee. This week we went through scenes with the military characters and the artists exiled to Exile Isle. The soldiers are on the front of a war with The Goths, and because of some poor decisions back in Rome, they are running out of equipment just as they are poised to finish off those meddlesome Goths. One of the soldiers is organizing the remaining swords with a color-coding system, and his captain has requested he...

"Tonight we fly like ravens to feast on Roman bones." There is a marvelous moment in the 1951 version of Quo Vadis where Nero, played by Peter Ustinov, calls for his "weeping vase" while the city burns. He is shedding "another tear for Rome." The implication being, perhaps, his divine tears are worthy of preserving even if the city itself is not.  It's such an eccentric performance and such a funny moment I've never forgotten it, and when it came time to do a play about ancient Rome, the title was waiting. Many years ago, back in Brooklyn, I set out to complete a "Pulp Cycle" of plays, with a script for each famous genre of B-Films.  It's ongoing, though I've made great progress.  In the last twelve years, we've done a jungle play, a retro sci-fi play, several war plays (with talking animals and a radioactive Dutch woman), a crime-fighting magician play, a fantasy play, a drugsploitation play, a women in p...