3 Pianos

Wow, Three Pianos...wow, now that is piece of art I have to be apart of making in my lifetime. The brilliant combination of Schubert Lieder, 3 average dudes, a beautiful abstract set, and a raw and simple understand of past present and future equals sheer genius. The New York Theatre Workshop just finished a run of "3 Pianos," and I was fortunate to see a matinee performance this past Sunday. This particular Theatre chooses works that present theatrical experiences that reflect, respond to, and invigorate the world in which we live and work. Three pianos was more than theatre, but it was on a different wave length than musical theatre. It wasn't a concert, yet it was a simpler version of opera, without all the mellow drama and hugely perfectionized classical voices. It was raw, and real. It was a history lesson about Franz Schubert and his collegues, describing the life they live. Or rather, the life they may have lived. These three gentlemen played people of the present day, but would go in and out of history, pretending to be Schubert or his partner Wilhelm Müller. They would go in an out of character, and sometimes it was confusing, but I love it when the audience has to do some work. That is why I go to the theatre, I was to be challenged, i what to enjoy getting somewhere, changing the way I see something. Reaching into a different part of my brain and exploring it on another level. That is also the kinds of projects i want to be apart of. I want to make someone turn around and ask why. If that is all that happens, that will make my job worth it. When you ask why, it is like a doorway to endless possibilities, which is brilliant.
The three actors were amazing: Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy and Dave Malloy. They wrote, arranged and performed three pianos....effing brilliant!! The story followed the song cycle called Winterreise (Op. 89, D 911) There are 24 songs, and they intigrated them all into the show, each outlining or driving forward certain themes, and plot lines. There were literally three upright pianos on stage, and they were like a 4th character, and I would go even further as to say the music was a 5th character and the set was a sixth character (maybe getting a little ridiculous) but they changed the way you listened and viewed everything on stage. There was on moment in which they had the pianos in a triangle, all facing inward with all of them inside the triangle, and they proceeded to play one of the pieces while walking in a circle in the middle of the triangle, all playing different notes on each piano. Kinda confusing to explain, but I think you get the picture. It was incredible! I just love how it brings Classical music, and it's complex lyrics back to life, and makes it accessible for a younger audience. My heart goes out to all who were involved in this production. I will be in this show in my career!!

Onto the rest of my life. Well another week is almost past, wow the time flies when you are having fun! I finally feel settled in my room, which is great. Thank you IKEA, despite the fact that my bank account is a little sore. But a guys gotta live, right? It's one of my many on going questions. When do you suck it up and say, I don't need that, and when do you say, I can have it because I want it. There are certain things that I know I need in order to be as productive and successful as possible. It's not like I NEED NEED NEED this things to survive. I could live without a cellphone, I don't technically need a douvet to sleep at night. But then again, I do need to feel good in my room. That is the place, and the bathroom, where I am me 100 percent of the time. There is no one else there to judge me, and therefore I have no reason to be anything else but me. I am able to have things that help make my space mine! Again, it's an on going question whenever I purchase something. "Do I really need this?" Well, I'm pretty sure it's not going to get easier. you gotta just follow those instincts. And like we discussed in my Improv class...when you are making a decision, basically you waste time wondering things that you have no control over. You plan out a sinerio in your head about what could happen if you make this choice or that choice. But you haven't even made it yet, so you don't know what is going to happen. When you start double guessing yourself, you gotta just pick one and go. The better you get a picking, and knowing that both choices are going to lead you somewhere where you need to go, the faster you can move on from that decision and just live your life. We spend a lot of time wondering! make a choice and go, either way you are going to learn something, and next time your choice may be different!

Okay, ballet in 8 hours. Gotta go!!

Always more to come...