Showing posts with label Sex death and light switches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sex death and light switches. Show all posts
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Pics from SEX DEATH AND LIGHT SWITCHES
Brandon Potter wrapped up his solo show SEX, DEATH NAD LIGHT SWITCHES this past Sunday at the Margo Jones Theatre in Dallas' historic Fair Park. Here's some pics...
Friday, November 14, 2014
SEX, DEATH AND LIGHT SWITCHES
Info... HERE.
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| Brandon Potter performing SEX, DEATH AND LIGHT SWITCHES |
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Q-and-A with Brandon Potter
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| Brandon Potter |
Q: What gave you the idea to do this show?
A: Monologue work has always been of interest to me. It is a fundamental building block of drama. It's everywhere from the first Greeks, to the most famous Shakespearean speeches, to stand-up comics, and of course to the monologue greats that we know today like Spalding Gray and Mike Daisy. So I've had a hankering to do solo work for years. I've done several written solo pieces by Eno, Beckett, and Rivera. It was only a matter of time before I started to write my own. This particular piece came as a result of a solo class I took with Rhonda Blair at SMU.
The process was exploratory. Mainly, we free wrote for hours at a time and looked for themes that presented themselves. Sex, Death, and Light Switches surfaced from those hours of writing and presenting what we had written. I first performed it at grad school to friends and colleagues. I can't help but have the feeling that the gaps in my writing were filled in by an audience who knows me and wanted me to succeed. The goal of this performance is to get a feel for how people who don't know me may receive the work, and heck, how I perform for an audience that isn't full of folks I know on a first name basis. It is my hope that the fear and excitement of a new audience doesn't prevent me from being honest.
Q: What special challenges do you see doing a solo show that are different than ensemble work?
A: I think on the surface there a ton of differences between doing solo work and ensemble work. A short solo show demands as much or more, from a text perspective, than someone playing a lead in an ensemble show. For example, St. Nicholas by Conor McPherson has a the performer memorizing far more lines than the leads in Richard III and Julius Caesar combined. There are also very few breaks in a solo show. Aside from the mechanical demands of line memorization, this can become taxing psychologically. These kinds of differences are pretty clear, even to folks who aren't practitioners. If you look a little closer though, you see there are a ton of similarities.
For example, in ensemble work given circumstances, objective, and action set up a framework, and listening to your partner guides you. The same is true for solo work. If we look any deeper however things start to get real hairy for a performer. Who is your partner in a solo piece is the prime question in my opinion. Your answer can change everything. Is your partner really the audience in front of you, or is it some imagined audience of judges, talk show hosts or best friends? What are the given circumstances? Are you in a theater, or by the Syringa tree? Both? These things consume me. It can be frustrating or enlightening; but it's almost always thrilling. It thrills me as a performer, and as an audience member. Something else that occurs to me: In ensemble work there is a common language learned in the rehearsal process that builds trust, so you can let go in performance and truly exist in the moment knowing that your partner will too. In solo work, you embody the story and build the trust at the same time, which is Herculean if you ask me.
Q: Any particular influences on you as an artist?
A: I'm influenced by whatever I see around me. All of the folks I mentioned in the above answers, but also Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, and Lord Buckley. Oh, and Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakespeare. I know that's a cliched theater person answer, but dang he's good. I'm influenced by my friends, my wife, my family. Whatever makes them laugh I try to take to a stage. I pilfer my personal life.
For information about the show head... HERE.
A: Monologue work has always been of interest to me. It is a fundamental building block of drama. It's everywhere from the first Greeks, to the most famous Shakespearean speeches, to stand-up comics, and of course to the monologue greats that we know today like Spalding Gray and Mike Daisy. So I've had a hankering to do solo work for years. I've done several written solo pieces by Eno, Beckett, and Rivera. It was only a matter of time before I started to write my own. This particular piece came as a result of a solo class I took with Rhonda Blair at SMU.
The process was exploratory. Mainly, we free wrote for hours at a time and looked for themes that presented themselves. Sex, Death, and Light Switches surfaced from those hours of writing and presenting what we had written. I first performed it at grad school to friends and colleagues. I can't help but have the feeling that the gaps in my writing were filled in by an audience who knows me and wanted me to succeed. The goal of this performance is to get a feel for how people who don't know me may receive the work, and heck, how I perform for an audience that isn't full of folks I know on a first name basis. It is my hope that the fear and excitement of a new audience doesn't prevent me from being honest.
Q: What special challenges do you see doing a solo show that are different than ensemble work?
A: I think on the surface there a ton of differences between doing solo work and ensemble work. A short solo show demands as much or more, from a text perspective, than someone playing a lead in an ensemble show. For example, St. Nicholas by Conor McPherson has a the performer memorizing far more lines than the leads in Richard III and Julius Caesar combined. There are also very few breaks in a solo show. Aside from the mechanical demands of line memorization, this can become taxing psychologically. These kinds of differences are pretty clear, even to folks who aren't practitioners. If you look a little closer though, you see there are a ton of similarities.
For example, in ensemble work given circumstances, objective, and action set up a framework, and listening to your partner guides you. The same is true for solo work. If we look any deeper however things start to get real hairy for a performer. Who is your partner in a solo piece is the prime question in my opinion. Your answer can change everything. Is your partner really the audience in front of you, or is it some imagined audience of judges, talk show hosts or best friends? What are the given circumstances? Are you in a theater, or by the Syringa tree? Both? These things consume me. It can be frustrating or enlightening; but it's almost always thrilling. It thrills me as a performer, and as an audience member. Something else that occurs to me: In ensemble work there is a common language learned in the rehearsal process that builds trust, so you can let go in performance and truly exist in the moment knowing that your partner will too. In solo work, you embody the story and build the trust at the same time, which is Herculean if you ask me.
Q: Any particular influences on you as an artist?
A: I'm influenced by whatever I see around me. All of the folks I mentioned in the above answers, but also Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, and Lord Buckley. Oh, and Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakespeare. I know that's a cliched theater person answer, but dang he's good. I'm influenced by my friends, my wife, my family. Whatever makes them laugh I try to take to a stage. I pilfer my personal life.
For information about the show head... HERE.
Monday, October 27, 2014
SEX DEATH AND LIGHT SWITCHES by Brandon Potter
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| Brandon Potter |
Hosted by Audacity Theatre Lab, Dallas actor Brandon Potter presents
his one-person show SEX, DEATH AND LIGHT SWITCHES November 12-16, 2014 at the
Margo Jones Theatre at the Magnolia Lounge (Margo Jones Building), Fair Park, 1121 First Ave., Dallas, TX 75210.
In SEX, DEATH AND LIGHT SWITCHES Brandon traces his own
coming-of-age through a series of life changing moments starting with seeing
himself as a young boy dead in a walk-in mortuary freezer. Things just get
weirder from there. This will be the World Premiere of this darkly comic piece
of storytelling and Mr. Potter’s debut in a solo performance of his own
devising.
Brandon Potter has been heard internationally in cartoons, video
games, and commercials. After graduating from Southern Methodist University
with a Masters degree in Acting (also where he began developing SEX, DEATH AND
LIGHT SWITCHES), he was recently named the newest member of the Diane and Hal
Brierley Resident Acting Company at Dallas Theater Center. He will appear in
several shows this 2014-2015 season.
SEX, DEATH AND LIGHT
SWITCHES plays at the Margo Jones Theatre November 12-16, 2014. Playing
November 12 at 8:00 PM, November 13 at 9:00 PM, November 14 at 8 PM, November
15 at 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM and November 16 at 3:00 PM. Tickets are $12 and will
be available at the door. The Margo Jones Theatre is located within the
Magnolia Lounge, Fair Park, 1121 First Ave., Dallas, TX
75210. For more information visit: www.AudacityTheatreLab.com or call
(214) 888-6650.
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