COVID Dystopia: Jesus Dropped a Cluster Bomb

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In this shot from COVID Dystopia of a stillborn Jesus, there is no animation, just a depth map and camera pan downward towards the child. It is interesting that a new born is the first to experience zip ties.

I am about to wrap up a series of theater posters for the Shakes and when that is done I will dig back into several scenes to add more animation.

Yesterday was the notification date for the Tampa Film Festival, but they bumped the notification date out to June 30. I always have 20 film festival submissions in the works. This keeps me from spending an insane amount on submission fees for rejections.

I do a small amount of research every day on which film festivals might screen COVID Dystopia. It is a difficult process since the film will easily annoy any COVID minimizer. Any film festival jury will likely have COVID minimizers judging what should be seen.

COVID Dystopia is fast paced, has curses in the lyrics and expects a lot of an audience to keep up with the carnage.

If there is one thing the ongoing pandemic has taught me is that people are slow to react and quick to deflect and deny what is happening.

One audience member at the Cleveland Film Festival asked if I could expand on COVID Dystopia and flesh out a longer story line. It is a fine idea but it means another year of animation at least. I also am aware that everyone but a few are over COVID. The virus is however not done with us. The next story I might animate will be slower paced and hopefully tug at heart strings. That for now is just in the daydreaming stages.

Orlando Fringe: Danny Feedback to the Future

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The Orlando International Fringe Show, Danny Feedback to the Future was unexpected. I think the premise was that Marty and the Doc from Back to the Future are playing guitar and at one point Dick Tracy performed on the drums.

An interactive component of the show consisted of passing out tiny vials that contained a scent. Since I was sketching I never picked up a vial. Besides I was wearing my trusty N95 mask, so that last thing I needed was to removed the mask to take a big whiff of community breath.

At one point doc was stripped down to his drawers. I am not sure why. The Feedback in the title refereed to a shrieking guitar performance where lots of foot pedals on the floor amplified the guitar feedback.

I think the show was part comedy. The audience definitely wanted to laugh. I am not sure what I experienced. It was certainly an unexpected assault on the senses. So, Back to the Future is a great movie, definitely worth seeing again.

I didn’t sketch the Fringe Awards ceremony since I am crunching on next season’s theater poster art for the Shakes, but I am so happy to see so many of the vibrant talented artists I got to sketch winning awards. Fringe is a wrap.

Orlando Fringe: Visual Fringe Storytelling

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Bobby Wesley pulled together a storytelling event in the Visual Fringe. The idea is that the storytellers would pick two pieces of art that related to their story and those would be on the easels as they spoke. The event was held in the round planetarium room inside the Shakes.

I arranged to meet Keith Brown in the venue since he purchased a print of one of my sketches. He peaked over my shoulder as I was sketching. Then it turns out he was one of the story presenters. He told a story about one of his greatest tricks as a teen. He desperately wanted to meet a girl and had an otherworldly number of condoms in his pocket.

Bottom line, he was with teens who were someplace they shouldn’t have been and a policeman was there to catch them.

As the policeman was interrogating and lecturing them,  Keith began clandestinely removing fist fulls of condoms from his pocket and dropping them where they could not be seen. When the policeman pulled him aside, Keith offered to show the policeman a trick. Reluctantly the policeman agreed. When the trick was done the policeman said simply, “Pretty cool, you can go.” So Keith’s greatest trick as to use magic to evade the law.

Kaytlin Baily told a horrifying story of her decision to ride a rodeo bull ride right after a breast reduction surgery. I will not go into the gory details, and I already spoke about Megan Phillips incredible story of revelation and healing in a previous article. I loved the incredible diversity of stories from Fringe artists who come from every walk of live.

Ain’t Misbehavin’ Final Poster

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The final version of the Ain’t Misbehavin’ poster for the Orlando Shakespeare Theater has the two gentlemen smiling instead of singing. Ain’t Misbehavin’ will run at the Shakes from April 10 to 28, 2024. Tickets run from $32.86 to $48.76.

I have a full run of poster designs done for next season and I know there will be some evolution to each design. I try not to fall in love with one particular design since I just know what I like and that isn’t always the image that will sell the most tickets.

With my online Elite Animation students I am always pushing them to loosen up the drawings they do to get more gesture and flow in each pose. My goal is to focus on the action or the verb of any scene. I am not drawing or painting nouns. I want to feel like things are happening and a story is about to unfold.

That is hard to relate to students and even harder to put into practice every day.

On an unrelated note, It is day 1 in the new studio and OUC cut the power before I sat down to start writing.

Several days ago, had set up service online and then spoke to 2 robots who never understood a thing I said. I shouted my responses robotically into the phone but that digital bastard don’t listen. I spoke to 2 separate robots but I assume they are of the same digital hive mind. I finally realized I have to confuse the robots right off the bat and then they are forced to put on a human to answer the call. The human took all my information and did a credit check. She said everything checked out so I was set to go.

Fast forward to this morning and the power cuts off as I am making breakfast. My landlady was shutting off her service but I figured that OUC would be smart enough to roll my service on. After dodging a robot and talking to a human for over an hour she admitted she had all my information but the computer insisted that the service could not be turned on. I was put on hold, having to listen to  horrendous call waiting music. Several service managers finally managed to bypass the computer system. Day one with OUC and I am not happy. I was better off with Duke Energy. What can I do? I have to charge my phone and summer in Florida without AC would be hell on earth.

 

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill: Poster Evolution First Pass

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The first pass of the Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill poster featured the ban high up on a stage and Lady Day down on the floor at the audience level. The title treatment seemed to work right off the bat so I kept it in each variation of the poster design. I was playing with the idea of a very smoky lounge and how that might affect the lighting and even ghostly wisps of smoke rising from the floor.

My favorite detail is of the cello player and yet his cello is hidden behind the piano. The piano player himself is off screen. Even the hands of the drummer are not visible. Clearly I needed to make the musicians more visible and make the act of playing the instruments more clearly visible.

I liked the warm lighting, but wanted to incorporate more cool blues and purples into the painting. As a first pass I was mostly pleased that the title was working.

Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson)

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This play by Rachel Lynett, exists in a “historically inaccurate” world. The playwright asks the audience to imagine that after the election of President Trump in 2016 there was a second Civil War that segregated the country. A member of the all-Black state community raises concerns after a resident’s partner, who is Afro-Latinx, moves to town. This dynamic, funny, and heart-wrenching winner of the 2021 Yale Drama Series Prize was previously seen at Orlando Shakes as a part of PlayFest 2020. Now see this ground-breaking, fully produced production!

In the first act the play seems to do a hard restart with the author changing course and retelling the story from another angle. In every scene there is a sense of exuberance and joy with an underlying fear that the safety of the community can not last. A street party busted out with most of the audience getting up to join in the dancing. I was a stick in the mud since I kept sketching.

My favorite moment came when the author texted the actors and asked them to define what blackness meant to them. Every actor in turn offered a monologue from their personal experience of that blackness meant to them. It was incredibly heartfelt and moving. It has been a long time since I sat in a small theater and fell in love with an entire cast. I will not try and peel away all the layers of judgement and acceptance that made this cast such a joy to watch. I identified with the proud artistic spirits who rose despite never being encouraged to do so.

The show runs approximately one hour and 30 minutes, with no intermission. The show runs through October 30th in the Goldman Theater in the Orlando Shakes (812 E Rollins St Orlando, FL 32803). I highly advise seeing the show, just bring along your KN-95 masks.

Every Brilliant Thing

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Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan MacMillan with Jonny Donahoe runs at the Orlando Shakes (812 E Rollins St, Orlando, FL 32803) runs through October 16, 2021. Suzanne O’Donnell did a magnificent job ass the narrator in this one person play.

The Shakes is coming back with full safety precautions in mind. All cast and crew at the Shakes are fully vaccinated. The theater also insists that the audience bring a vaccination card and photo ID to the performance.

I have had my vaccination card in my wallet for the last six months and this is the first time anyone has asked to see it. I was excited and proud to finally show my vaccination status. Those vaccine cards however are printed with cheap diapering inks. The police officer outside the theater had a hard time making out the faint marks that remained on the card. Ultimately I was waived in and I got to see my theater posters full size for the first time.

Pam and I elected to sit in the socially distanced section of the theater. In every row black lace marked several seats in alternating spots where people should not sit. This would allow for at least 4 feet of social distancing between groups. Everyone was wearing masks. I felt safe and secure to relax and enjoy the show as I sketched. Members of the audience were given numbered cards with list items on them. During he show Suzanne would shout out a number and an audience member would shout out what was written on their card. Pam pointed out that one guy kept removing his mask when he had to shout out his item, which kind of defeated the point of having a mask. One drawback is that the audience wasn’t always on top of their callback game but the actress handed these glitches with grace and humor.

Every brilliant thing has to do with a list the narrator began compiling as a child which was expanded later in life. She started the list because her mother was depressed and felt no desire to live. The list was for her mother to remind her of every brilliant thing that makes life worth living. Number 1 was of course ice cream. Later in life the items became more subtle like lending a book to a friend and actually having them read it. This was a perfect play for these pandemic times. We have all been isolated in some way and the joys in life must be found even through the isolation. Happiness was mixed with a pinch of sadness.

Suzanne exuded joy and passion for life, and in the end as she relaxed on her lounge listening to music I left feeling she would be fine, even though life is bitter sweet.

Three cheers to the Shakes for bringing back theater safely and responsibly. They are a bright light in these dark times.

 

First Fringe Film Festival

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I entered my short animated film Greyhound, in the first Fringe Film Festival going on at the Shakes in Orlando Fl. The screening was on my birthday, May 22, 2021 so I felt I had to go. I have not been documenting this years Fringe due to the ongoing pandemic, but in this instance I decided to make an exception.

The screenings were held at eh Play What You Can Stage in an outdoor tent between the Shakes and the Firehouse museum. Pam and I arrived a bit early and I started sketching the venue right away. We both kept our masks on and other audience members were split with about half wearing masks.

It felt awkward finding a seat with a view of the stage. Finding seats with a full six feet of social distancing was impossible. Before this outing, I liked to keep 4 dead body lengths (about 24 feet) between myself and anyone else. It has been more than a year since I have sketched on location. It seemed like everyone was watching us.

An artist, Gabriella Serralles, was on the stage doing Imprompto Digital Paintings which showed up on the screen. I think she was supposed to be doing pet portraits, but I can’t be sure. There were no dogs in the audience. The staging was all wrong however since she was seated right in front of the screen meaning more than half the audience could not get a clear view of shat she was painting on the screen. When the artist was finished, audience members let and a whole new crowd filled the seats.

The first film was a documentary about a metal working artist who sculpts fish. I didn’t pay close attention since I was frantically trying to finish my sketch. My film was next in line. I kind of assumed my film would be last in the lie up so I was surprised. Up until this night the film had only been screened as part of the Ocoee Exhibition at the Orange County Regional History Center. I am sure people saw it but privately with one or two people at a time. It was therefor a surprise when the audience broke into applause after my film screened. Visual artists aren’t used to that kind of spontaneous affirmation.

My second favorite film for the evening was made by Evan and Christie Miga of Miga Made. It had two robots flying a car through a futuristic world reminiscent of Blade Runner. I love how they take the simplest objects and covert them into props of a high tech world.

We didn’t linger when the screenings were over preferring to remove ourselves from the crowds. I didn’t count how many were in the audience, maybe several dozen, but it was more crowded than I would prefer during a pandemic. The seven day average for deaths in Florida was 58 deaths a day the week of the screening. Which is lower than the several hundred who died every day in January of 2021, but still not reassuring.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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This is the first live theater I have documented in more than a year in my sketchbook. When I first moved to Orlando over 20 years ago, I went to a performance by the Shakes at the Lake Eola Bandshell. Because the the pandemic they have returned to bring live theater to the bandshell.

Across thee street a bar was blasting it music since it was Friday night but thankfully when the show began they turned the music down.

The crowd around the box office was a bit unnerving, but then I was shown that there were markers on the pavement to allow 6 feet of distance while waiting in line. Every other row of the seating was blocked off with yellow ribbons and seating blocks were separated by ribbons as well to maintaining social distancing.

A woman with purple hair had a band aid on her shoulder indicating she had just gotten her vaccine shot. Several other woman wore flower garlands in their hair and bright spring dresses. There was hope in the air. I was exited to finally experience live theater again.

William Shakespeare‘s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is well suited for an outdoor performance. The columns on stage opened up to showcase forest greenery illumined by strings of lights. Unrequited love was turned on it’s head with love potions which resulted in one woman falling in love with an ass. By ass, I don’t mean a Florida Man, but a donkey. The central moon remained illuminated throughout and the forest was at times mysterious and at others joyous thanks to the lighting design. I had considered a tablet to capture the lighting but decided screen glow might be a distraction. I needn’t have worried since there was no one nearby.

Overall it was a fun evening with laughter and caricatured socially distanced acting. When characters were meant to hug, they did it from at least six feet apart. Actors always wore their masks except when they were on stage and they all were tested for COVID-19 three times a week. In return the audience wore masks as well. I admired how well the Shakes promoted social distancing. It was an absolute joy to be in an audience again. The evening signified that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel.

In NYC pop up performances have started outdoors as well. In NYC, The Shakespeare in the Park Stage will feature a free production of Merry Wives, which will run for 8-weeks, starting on July 5, 2021. Adapted from The Merry Wives of Windsor. Tickets for Broadway shows are available for performances in the fall.

These arts revivals will help pull people together, connect people to themselves, and to each other. With vaccines in arms, the arts are also helping the community heal. I felt my lines and washes were documenting a monumental return to a new normal. This too shall pass.