Some Very Silly Videos
Occasionally in the course of my work, or whenever that ever elusive “down time” actually manifests, I get to indulge in some writing doodles- songs, short sketches, and the like. And when I’m lucky, through the work of some of my insanely talented friends and colleagues, I get to see those doodles elevated into…well, elevated doodles. With these, I’m hoping to eventually accumulate enough internet points to finally get that jet ski.
Mac Rap
I don’t exactly remember the impetus for this one, other than that I was in rehearsal for my somethingth production of Macbeth, playing the Thane of Something, and when my mind would wander in a completely professional manner, I thought some Scottish inspired hip hop could be fun. Penned some lyrics, then turned to the brilliant Cary Davenport for music, and was lucky enough to rope in amazing filmmaker and all around great human Ryan Lewis to shoot and edit. Ever thankful to members of the cast who gamely gave up a day off to do something ridiculous. Especially the Kid to my Play, the inimitable Billy Chace.
Tur-Mohel
If you were lucky enough to be alive and a nerd back in the glorious aughts, you may remember an internet phenomenon called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It was a three part web series starring the great and good Neil Patrick Harris as the titular Dr Horrible, an aspiring supervillain hoping to make the big time by getting accepted to the legendary Evil League of Evil. Also, it’s a musical. It was so popular that after its web release, they decided to issue a DVD jam packed with special features. Leading up to the DVD release, they announced a contest where fans could submit their own video applications to join the Evil League of Evil. The top ten would be featured on the DVD. I decided that if I could come up with a good supervillain name, I’d toss my hat in the ring. Well, done and done. And won and won! “Tur-Mohel” (once again shot and edited by the amazing Ryan Lewis), was one of the videos selected. Still waiting on my official League decoder ring.
Cincinnati!
Every year the Shakespeare Theatre Association holds its annual conference. Representatives from Shakespeare theatres all over the world get together for workshops, panel discussions, schmoozing and general conference-y stuff. It is tradition that at the closing banquet, whichever theatre will be hosting the following year's conference presents a video. The video usually talks a bit about the host organization and city, and officially invites members of the Association to join them for the next year's conference. When it was CSC's turn to host (which coincided with the opening of our new space), we decided to diverge a bit from the usually respectable tone and have some fun. Those Shakespeare nerds ate it up. Lyrics by me, music again by the brilliant Cary Davenport, and video & editing by the endlessly impressive Cal Harris.
(If you're bothered by violence against Mark Twain,
you can skip to 1:20 where the song begins)
Anything Goes...
in Quarantine
Hey, you all remember the pandemic? What a crazy time, amirite? Lock down had started not too long before Cincy Shakes annual fundraising gala, The Revel, had been scheduled to occur. Like the rest of the world, we were trying to figure out ways to shift everything online, and so endeavored to host a "Virtual Revel" that year. At previous Revels, it was always my job to put together a tongue-in-cheek musical number for the ensemble to perform, and so it was with the the Virtual Revel. This provided some challenges- the biggest being that none of us could leave our houses. But some creative editing from Cal Harris (who was bombarded with audio and video files of varying formats and competence from a slew of technically inept actors) and it all came together pretty well. Watching this again took me right back to the utter surreality of those early lock down days. Lyrics by me, music by Cole Porter (he's no Cary Davenport, but he got the job done).