like a good colon blow. release.
Aug. 15th, 2005 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
duchess_of_pieREVIEWS OF THE DUCHESS #132: VALIANT
so, disney spent millions on voice talent on this one. ewan mcgregor. ricky gervais. john cleese. hugh laurie. jim broadbent. to name about half of the A-listers. and they will not make that money back. sad really, since this one was on my "must see movies of the summer" list. how wrong i was. poor ewan. (the only laughs come from ricky...but that's only riding on his "office" persona. if you don't know that, then the whole movie's sunk.) in fact, i can't even tell you much of the story because i kept falling asleep. truly.
even sadder still: disney's gotten rid of their 2-D department, making the full switch to computer-animated features. unfortunately, this comes right as pixar has had it up to here with disney (and rightly so) and skidaddled for the hills. by the production values of the writers and animators they were able to retain, disney is not long for this world. dreamworks and pixar are going to bury them in the 3-D realm, anime's growing popularity will keep them from retreating to their tried and true 2-D, and even their attempts at pulling off a popular franchise by way of "narnia" will not catch up with WB. buh-bye disney. in the future you will only be known as an amusement park.
REVIEWS OF THE DUCHESS #133: O'FLAHERTY, V.C. (amber's 38th production)
i haven't hated doing a show this much since "great god brown" and "rush limbaugh in night school." this was almost as painful as "laughing at grave matters." almost. performing on the showboat was fun. getting free food and cider and irish music was good. but i will never ever set foot in a lex-ham audition again. lesson learned. free at last, free at last. thank god almighty, i'm free at last.
REVIEWS OF THE DUCHESS #134: 2005 MINNESOTA FRINGE FESTIVAL--12TH ANNUAL (event)
and now, as some would store away their christmas trees after twelfth night, so do i pack away my fringe buttons for another year. *sigh* my most favorite week has come to a close, and i am satisfied for another 12 months. 10 stars (out of 5). i still wanna produce my own, and i've got 5 months to brainstorm before the applications begin again. *dream*
#10: "sea peach" a one-woman piece like a dr. seuss for adults. the text was amazing, but it was presented a little too performance-arty for me. i would have been fine with just sitting for a reading, but why'd the chick have to run around in her lepoard underwear and be so bendy?
#9: "pentecostal, wisconsin" one-man comic piece about growing up uber-pentecostal in eau claire, WI. i'm sure it read better in nyc where his aw-shucks midwestern attitude is a little more exotic. but still cute.
#8: "why actors can't love" as performed by the love of my life, mr. jim litchitsl and new favorite, maggie chennowith. straigtforward comedy about two former lovers come together for an evening to remember good times.
#7: "shut up and kiss me, herchel gertz" one-woman show by minneapolis artist, amy salloway, based on her teenage experience at a jewish summer camp. amy does a one-woman show every year for fringe and has a huge following in the cities for it. she also has an lj. she's also fucking hilarious. the fact that there were tons of jews in the audience made it even more fun.
#6: "press play" this piece is also part of two finge sub categories: dance fringe, and teen fringe. all dances were choreographed by a 17-year old kid, and 'though none of the dancers were over 20, they all kicked their heels up like pros. dances were inspired by chinese dance (lots of silk fans, elongated sleeves, swords, silk ribbon work), infused with modern and ballet, and set to provokiev, taiko drum music, and the "amelie" sdtk. beautiful. fun.
#5: "a tempest...for two" shakespeare's "tempest" as a two-person cast. no props. actors switching between characters with amazing clairity and acrobatics. the chemistry was amazing and charged; i cried when prospero and ariel released each other. (met the philly actors for a drink afterward. nice couple.)
#4: "corleone" guthrie regulars do "the godfather" in 50 minutes in shakespearian verse and sensibilities. exposition done chorus style. mobsters with swords. sonny giving a postmortem message to michael a la banquo. 5 seperate "acts." brilliant.
#3: "never surrender's greatest adventure" the greatest lip-sync air-band foils the evil commander conglomerate as he tries to take over locally owned and operated record stores. the entire show, songs, dialogue, sound effects and all are pre-recorded and synced to. all props mimed. fucking hilarious.
#2: "mythed" 8 actors my age from all over the world who met in london became a lecoq-based acting troupe. "mythed" is the welsh fairytale of doomed bledeowyth, the girl made of flowers and her immortal husband. musical, comedy, bittersweet, lecoq-style clowining, and paritally in welsh, with charaters to love and songs that get stuck in your head for hours afterward. i have a very soft spot for this little show.
#1: "i'm sorry & i'm sorry" a two-man vaudeville/clowning/acrobatic troupe from montana. very dark ('though gut-busting)comedy as one character spends the entire show with a knife in his back and the both of them arguing as to how it got there, ending finally in the death of both characters as they slowly bleed out. fast-paced back-and-forth abbot and costello type dialogue, mixed with the buster keaton style stumbles and clowining. the only standing ovation i witnessed for the entire fringe, and recommended by almost every other artist i saw during the festival. hilarious. shocking. amazing.
so, disney spent millions on voice talent on this one. ewan mcgregor. ricky gervais. john cleese. hugh laurie. jim broadbent. to name about half of the A-listers. and they will not make that money back. sad really, since this one was on my "must see movies of the summer" list. how wrong i was. poor ewan. (the only laughs come from ricky...but that's only riding on his "office" persona. if you don't know that, then the whole movie's sunk.) in fact, i can't even tell you much of the story because i kept falling asleep. truly.
even sadder still: disney's gotten rid of their 2-D department, making the full switch to computer-animated features. unfortunately, this comes right as pixar has had it up to here with disney (and rightly so) and skidaddled for the hills. by the production values of the writers and animators they were able to retain, disney is not long for this world. dreamworks and pixar are going to bury them in the 3-D realm, anime's growing popularity will keep them from retreating to their tried and true 2-D, and even their attempts at pulling off a popular franchise by way of "narnia" will not catch up with WB. buh-bye disney. in the future you will only be known as an amusement park.
REVIEWS OF THE DUCHESS #133: O'FLAHERTY, V.C. (amber's 38th production)
i haven't hated doing a show this much since "great god brown" and "rush limbaugh in night school." this was almost as painful as "laughing at grave matters." almost. performing on the showboat was fun. getting free food and cider and irish music was good. but i will never ever set foot in a lex-ham audition again. lesson learned. free at last, free at last. thank god almighty, i'm free at last.
REVIEWS OF THE DUCHESS #134: 2005 MINNESOTA FRINGE FESTIVAL--12TH ANNUAL (event)
and now, as some would store away their christmas trees after twelfth night, so do i pack away my fringe buttons for another year. *sigh* my most favorite week has come to a close, and i am satisfied for another 12 months. 10 stars (out of 5). i still wanna produce my own, and i've got 5 months to brainstorm before the applications begin again. *dream*
#10: "sea peach" a one-woman piece like a dr. seuss for adults. the text was amazing, but it was presented a little too performance-arty for me. i would have been fine with just sitting for a reading, but why'd the chick have to run around in her lepoard underwear and be so bendy?
#9: "pentecostal, wisconsin" one-man comic piece about growing up uber-pentecostal in eau claire, WI. i'm sure it read better in nyc where his aw-shucks midwestern attitude is a little more exotic. but still cute.
#8: "why actors can't love" as performed by the love of my life, mr. jim litchitsl and new favorite, maggie chennowith. straigtforward comedy about two former lovers come together for an evening to remember good times.
#7: "shut up and kiss me, herchel gertz" one-woman show by minneapolis artist, amy salloway, based on her teenage experience at a jewish summer camp. amy does a one-woman show every year for fringe and has a huge following in the cities for it. she also has an lj. she's also fucking hilarious. the fact that there were tons of jews in the audience made it even more fun.
#6: "press play" this piece is also part of two finge sub categories: dance fringe, and teen fringe. all dances were choreographed by a 17-year old kid, and 'though none of the dancers were over 20, they all kicked their heels up like pros. dances were inspired by chinese dance (lots of silk fans, elongated sleeves, swords, silk ribbon work), infused with modern and ballet, and set to provokiev, taiko drum music, and the "amelie" sdtk. beautiful. fun.
#5: "a tempest...for two" shakespeare's "tempest" as a two-person cast. no props. actors switching between characters with amazing clairity and acrobatics. the chemistry was amazing and charged; i cried when prospero and ariel released each other. (met the philly actors for a drink afterward. nice couple.)
#4: "corleone" guthrie regulars do "the godfather" in 50 minutes in shakespearian verse and sensibilities. exposition done chorus style. mobsters with swords. sonny giving a postmortem message to michael a la banquo. 5 seperate "acts." brilliant.
#3: "never surrender's greatest adventure" the greatest lip-sync air-band foils the evil commander conglomerate as he tries to take over locally owned and operated record stores. the entire show, songs, dialogue, sound effects and all are pre-recorded and synced to. all props mimed. fucking hilarious.
#2: "mythed" 8 actors my age from all over the world who met in london became a lecoq-based acting troupe. "mythed" is the welsh fairytale of doomed bledeowyth, the girl made of flowers and her immortal husband. musical, comedy, bittersweet, lecoq-style clowining, and paritally in welsh, with charaters to love and songs that get stuck in your head for hours afterward. i have a very soft spot for this little show.
#1: "i'm sorry & i'm sorry" a two-man vaudeville/clowning/acrobatic troupe from montana. very dark ('though gut-busting)comedy as one character spends the entire show with a knife in his back and the both of them arguing as to how it got there, ending finally in the death of both characters as they slowly bleed out. fast-paced back-and-forth abbot and costello type dialogue, mixed with the buster keaton style stumbles and clowining. the only standing ovation i witnessed for the entire fringe, and recommended by almost every other artist i saw during the festival. hilarious. shocking. amazing.
