It took several rehearsals, revisions, re-assessments, and more revisions, but the staged production of a series of poems dealing with my addictions and recovery, "Notes of a Bald Cricket" premiered on Saturday, June 16 as part of The [Inside] Performances at the Ford Theatres in Hollywood.
Directed by my old friend Ruben "Funkahuatl" Guevara, who also provided the music, I was able to challenge myself, and pick up my own game, in the performance art aspect of my work.
Also on the bill were two amazing Filipina performance poets, Melinda Corazon Foley with "Second Chances," and Alfie Ebojo who did "Love Letter to Los Angeles."
I was impressed by what seemed like almost a full house in the 87-seat theater. A number of friends, including artist Leo Limon; Organic Soul Movement creator Sara Cruse; Rock & Rap Editor Lee Ballinger; "Monte Carlo 76" DJ and musician, David Gomez; and others were in attendance.
I was also pleased to meet actor Annette Bening, wife of Warren Beatty, who came with her teenaged daughter. Her daughter apparently requested to see my production after having known my book, "Always Running," from school. They came up and shook our hands and had nice things to say about our performances.
Afterwards the audience and performers gathered in the plaza area to enjoy refreshments and a Latin Jazz duo. I was also interviewed by a pair of Australian DJs and radio journalists who were in town for a few days on their way to Mexico.
My daughter Andrea showed up and filmed the performance--which was about 35 minutes long and required my total focus on my words and delivery.
Ruben Guevara and I hope to continue to rework this piece for possible staging in other theaters. It's recommended for mature audiences (we had to make this point to a middle school class, whose teacher had called about possibly coming to see the performance). I hope I can bring "Notes of a Bald Cricket" to more performance spaces in the near future.
I also want to thank Agustin Gurza and the LA Times for doing a good piece in the Calendar section highlighting this show.
Directed by my old friend Ruben "Funkahuatl" Guevara, who also provided the music, I was able to challenge myself, and pick up my own game, in the performance art aspect of my work.
Also on the bill were two amazing Filipina performance poets, Melinda Corazon Foley with "Second Chances," and Alfie Ebojo who did "Love Letter to Los Angeles."
I was impressed by what seemed like almost a full house in the 87-seat theater. A number of friends, including artist Leo Limon; Organic Soul Movement creator Sara Cruse; Rock & Rap Editor Lee Ballinger; "Monte Carlo 76" DJ and musician, David Gomez; and others were in attendance.
I was also pleased to meet actor Annette Bening, wife of Warren Beatty, who came with her teenaged daughter. Her daughter apparently requested to see my production after having known my book, "Always Running," from school. They came up and shook our hands and had nice things to say about our performances.
Afterwards the audience and performers gathered in the plaza area to enjoy refreshments and a Latin Jazz duo. I was also interviewed by a pair of Australian DJs and radio journalists who were in town for a few days on their way to Mexico.
My daughter Andrea showed up and filmed the performance--which was about 35 minutes long and required my total focus on my words and delivery.
Ruben Guevara and I hope to continue to rework this piece for possible staging in other theaters. It's recommended for mature audiences (we had to make this point to a middle school class, whose teacher had called about possibly coming to see the performance). I hope I can bring "Notes of a Bald Cricket" to more performance spaces in the near future.
I also want to thank Agustin Gurza and the LA Times for doing a good piece in the Calendar section highlighting this show.
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