Back in November of 2004, I directed a production of All In the Timing by David Ives. Some of you may remember this play for its surprise ending on our closing night when I proposed to Jan in front of a sold out audience (ah, memories). Well, it’s just 575 days later and I feel like talking about it.
This is the poster that I designed for the run.
Beauty, isn’t she?
One of the six short pieces that made up that riotous evening of theatre was called Philip Glass Buys A Loaf Of Bread – a parodic musical vignette in trademark Glassian style, with the celebrated composer having a moment of existential crisis in a bakery.
Now, I make it a rule to only direct pieces that I have never seen produced before. I find this eliminates the urge to “borrow” from other productions and challenges the creative juices. I can usually read a script for the first time and just “see” it. Or “hear” it. Well, I must have been blind and deaf when I saw this script for the first time:
WTF?
I mean, what the heck are you supposed to do with that? There’s no music, no choreography, no rhythm, and no stage direction. I searched the internet for ideas but only found photos of other productions. No audio and no video. I guess this was a blessing in disguise because it forced us to create the whole thing ourselves. With the help of some very talented actors, I immersed myself in Philip Glass’ music until the script made sense. That took awhile. To this day, I still have not seen another production of this piece. I imagine every company has the same challenge and every production must come out completely different!
As a public service, I’ve decided to release a copy of our work into the wild. So for all of you who couldn’t make it to the theatre 575 days ago, here’s a recording of our final dress rehearsal of Philip Glass. Nobody commented on the short film I directed, so I’m just gonna put this new video right here in my blog to make it a little easier for you.
Like a mother standing in the wings during
a ballet recital, my heart still races everytime I see this!
I loved that! made me laugh out loud! but how the hell did you remember it all?!
Ah… the art of the actor. Lemme just say it wasn’t easy. To answer your question: practice, practice, practice. I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I remember reading this from the script when I was there to visit in 2003. I pictured it all in my head but your production was better than I ever imagined.
A local theatre group did All In the Timing here in Orlando, but I didn’t see the flyer for it until the day after the last performance!
I haven’t had a chance to watch either video you’ve posted yet, but I do still have the mini-poster from All in the Timing on my bulletin board. 🙂
Just watched it, and I really like it.
I saw a horrible production of it a few years ago (the actors were fantastic, but the director was atrocious). He had an interesting concept, though – the actors played it like an acting game, where each line had to be repeated in a different manner, different inflection at each repetition.
I like yours better, though.
I really enjoyed that. To be there in the audience must have been great, to get drawn in and in stereo. Neat!
Like an old vinyl I wanted to nudge the needle :0)
i must find the copy of mine when i was in philip glass…
Did you say loaf of love, what an appropriate way to propose, wish I had been there. Really wish I could see all your works. You are simply fabulous daahling
My version kept stopping so I couldn’t get all the way through. what am I doing wrong? but i found myself laughing at what I saw and enjoying it.
sxxx
If you’ve got a slow internet connection (like many of those in South America) you may have to hit the pause button once it starts and allow it to download the majority of the video before letting it play. Computers aren’t that smart.
That was so good Josh. Very Glassian. What I really liked was your use of music and musicallity. When i directed this we didn’t do any actual singing. We just used cadances and rythmic differences to tell the story. Very cool. The staging was also a lot of fun, especially the part when they stole the loaf and played monkey in the middle with it (very Noises Off). I’d love for you to see the one Steve was in so we could compare and contrast. It was totally a fun project though
Did you find any of Philip Glass’s music in particular helpful in understanding the concept? I’m looking at directing All in the Timing myself, and I have no idea where to start.
I remember listening to a varied selection of Glass’ music until I found some thing that “spoke” to me, but I can’t for the life of me remember which pieces. Einstein on the Beach, maybe? It was a great challenge (to both compose and rehearse!) and I’m so glad we did it. Good luck with your project, if you do it, and please post a video if you can. It’s always amazing to see what different people do with this piece 🙂