Jared AxelrodWriter of Adventure

his weekend is the last of the Curio Theatre’s steampunk TWELFTH NIGHT performances.

I know, I know. You’d thought it would go on forever. So did I.

But all good things must come to an end, and gorgeous productions of classic theater is no exception. So if you haven’t seen the show, or want to see it again, now’s the time. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. After that, the beauty, she disappears. Curio will knock down their wondrous stage, return the costumes and props I loaned them, and start rehearsing another show.

This weekend is it, people. See it now or see it not at all.

Actually, that’s not quite true, is it? For the Curio Theatre, in their infinite wisdom, has compiled a souvenir program filled with photographs of the cast the inestimable Kyle Cassidy, and yes, writing by yours truly. The costumes, made by Mayfaire Moon, Feisty Diva, Donna Ricci, Aetna Gallaghe, myself and others, have never looked better:

As Mr. Cassidy himself has said: “Simply possessing it will add a +4 to your steampunk street cred, and your friends will find you smarter and more attractive.”

Several people have approached me with a desire of creating their own steampunk outfits, but have no idea where to start. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a good an inspiration book as you are likely to find.

You can buy one online through Curio’s ticket office, or get one at the door when you come see the show.

It will look fantastic next to your difference engine.

Tonight is all sold out, I’m afraid. Which I did warn you all about.

Luckily, providing costumes and custom jewelry  gives one a certain amount of clout amongst the company, so I was to snag two seats for JR and myself. If you already have your tickets, I expect I will see you there.

If you have not, there are still a few performances to choose from.

-Men are the name of the for this month’s Superheroes Who Are Super. It’s a double feature of sorts, with director Daniel Student taking on both The Uncanny X-Men #127 & #128. This means you get the “The Power of Proteus, The Deadliest Mutant Alive” and “The Day Reality Went Wild!” all in one show, which should be a fantastic time.

What with planning for our upcoming much-belated honeymoon (more on that in a minute), and my responsibilities with as steampunk adviser for Curio Theater’s production of Twelfth Night, I was not able to do as much for them this month. But I think I pulled together some fantastic pieces:

Originally, I had offered my NEW X-MEN style Wolverine costume. But the  jacket is falling apart (I should really remake it), and the claws were broken.  Wolverine’s important to the story they’re doing, so I called upon the help of the fabulous Chrisco, who whipped up some awesome new claws. For my part, I did this spiffy ASTONISHING style jacket.

I also made  a new Cyclops visor, in the classic style. It does not light up (yet), but it does stay on one’s face without ear-pieces.

The show is tomorrow night at Plays & Players theater. JR and I will not be in attendance, as we are leaving on a belated honeymoon cruise to Bermuda.

Which is very exciting, let me tell you!

…A by “touch,” I mean, “a whole heck of alot.”

I am currently working with my “Steampunk Consultant” hat on, helping out Curio Theatre’s upcoming steampunk-themed production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The play opens April 23 and runs until May 15th. As you can see below, “epic” is an understatement for this production:

I’m helping out with, costumes, props  and general steampunk theory alongside a real superteam which includes Russell Collins,  Kambriel, Donna Ricci, Feisty Diva, Jaborwhalky and others.

Now, here’s the important part. Twelfth Night is an incredibly beloved and popular play. With all the fantastic rigmarole this production is mounting, it will surprise me not at all if every performance sells out. Their last run (of No Exit) sold out on all but two nights, and didn’t even have a pipe organ as a set. You can buy tickets now, and you probably should.

Can’t wait until the show? You can see more photos–taken by the great Kyle Cassiday–here. Feel free to repost, retweet, reblog and pass these photos around, with his blessing. Neither he, nor I, nor anyone involved want this show to be missed. Everyone should see it.

Curio Theater’s Blog is also up and running with some details about the show,  new costumes as they come in, the rehearsal process, set building, etc. There’s so much fabulous work by so many talented people going into the show that this look behind the curtain is recommended reading.

I cannot wait until opening night, myself. I wager Willie the Shake himself would be in awe of this production.

ou remember that I time I directed a play that didn’t exist the day before, right? The one with the interesting implications of how our memories define us as people and the musical number at the end? “Latent Memories?” No? Didn’t I mention I directed a piece of theatre a few weeks ago? Seriously? Geez, next you’ll be telling me I’ve been doing a webcomic for a month and haven’t talked about it on the site.

Yeah, I should really get around to talking about that.

I’m not gonna say it’s hard being me, because it isn’t. It is however, apparently difficult to keep up with being me, even for me. And I’m around me ALL THE TIME. Maddening, I tell you.

So, right. “Latent Memories.”

“Latent Memories” was part of Plays & Players 24 Hour Cram project. The idea was, you get a handful of people signed up to be writers, directors or actors. The writers get assigned a director and some actors at 8pm. They have until 8am the next morning to get a brand-spanking new script to their director and actors. The director and actors have until 8pm that day to learn their lines, block the show, work out lighting and sound, acquire costumes and perform the piece. Clearly, insane and awesome, as I stated previously.

JR and I had signed up as writers, but we instead asked to be a directors and an actor, as they had too many writers. I ended up being assigned to Shawn O’Shea, and have Dennis Frazier, Mark Skandera and Wes Frenza as our actors. Shawn gave us a wonderful script that worked with our strengths and was full of laugh-out-loud surprises, and the guys dove in. As you can see for yourself:

This will come as no surprise, but we had the best costumes.The experience itself was nothing short of amazing. The constant rehearsing wasn’t easy. The actors had no time to reflect on their characters, and we had one hour on the actually stage to block, which is not nearly enough time, even for a 10 minute play. We started rehearsal at 10, which was a mistake, becuase at the end of the day I would have killed for two more hours of rehearsal. But as difficult as it was, the rewards of putting on a show in such a short time were monumental. I’d do it again in heartbeat.All thanks to Dennis, Mark, Wes and Shawn. You guys were a blast to work with.

uperheroes Who Are Super, as mentioned previously, decided to do the Harley Quinn-centric comic “Mad Love” for Valentine’s Day. My dear friend Avalon happened to be be the same size (tiny) as the lead actress, and  loaned me her Harley Quinn costume which had been made by her loving husband, Dan.

The family that cosplays together stays together, I always say.

While Avalon’s costume was fantastic, it lacked the trademark hat and mask.  Luckily, all the snow allowed me to fix that problem.

In addition to that hat and mask and loaning my Batsuit to the cause, I whipped up a purple tailcoat (aka the “Project: Murder Clown” I kept referring to on Facebook & Twitter). Unfortunatly, the actor cast as the Joker was stuck in Amsterdam due to the snow, and a new Joker had to be found. The new Joker was fantastic, but, as you see in the pics, an very skinny fellow.  Great for the character, but bad for the costume.  Luckily, he had his own gear.

As you can see, the whole cast looks fantastic.  I’m not sure if there’s video of the show, which is a shame. Joseph Nevin, who directed the Flash & Green Lantern show I also did costumes for, pulled out all the stops on this one, creating so much more than the advertised “staged reading.” When you’ve got Batman lifting the Joker clear off the ground and punching the narrator, I think we’ve need a new title.

After a fantastic dinner with Dan and Avalon to celebrate their recent nuptials, the four of us took in the show. Holly and Steve braved the horrible roads to see the show as well, and I couldn’t think of better group to laugh along with. Despite the difficulty getting there, the show played to a packed house. What does this mean for next one, in April? Get there early, I imagine.

But what do to with the tail coat, then?  I’m sure I’ll think of something…

photo by JR Blackwell

MAD LOVE! 10:30! Plays And Players! My costumes on stage!

Be there!

r, how I spent Snowpocalypse II: Snowmageddon.

As is my want when the outside world turns this inhospitable, I’ve barricaded myself in the basement for much of the day. Much like the tailor in the title, I have spent most of the day crafting supervillian wear.

As you can see, the results have been quite grand:

But why, you may ask? Why, for no other reason than the latest Superheroes Who Are Super offering from Plays & Players! This month they are doing the classic comic “Mad Love,” the inspiration for one of the greatest episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. Show goes up Saturday, at 10:30.

What should you expect to see at a Superheroes Who Are Super production? Here’s taste what happened at one back in November:

You can find more clips here. And yes, I made the costumes for those, too.

R and I have signed up for The 24 Hour Cram, a brilliant idea put on by Plays & Players–who I have done work with before, and indeed, hope to do work with again. Unsurprisingly, the mad minds who gave us “Superheroes Who Are Super” have yet another deliciously quick and dirty theater concept up their collective sleeves.  Here’s how they describe it:

We meet on January 29th at 8pm at Plays & Players 3rd Floor. Everyone is put into teams that each consist of one writer, one director and an equal number of actors.

We chat, we laugh and then we send the writers home to write a 10 minute play by 8am the next morning. Directors receive the hot off the printer plays at 8:01am and meet up with their actors to rehearse until house opens at 8pm on January 30th. For those of you still counting - that is 24 hours of pure cram!

Clearly, I am insane for wanting to try this. Luckily, my wife is too. We are enablers in our insanity.

JR and I have an edge on this, as we have seen the results of a previous 24 Hour Cram and have a pretty good idea of what works (outsized characters, mysteries) and what doesn’t (quiet character, slow builds). We did a practice run last night, to see how long it took us to write a ten-minute scene. Mine, a Mamet-ian exploration of the pros and cons of the iPad, took about an hour. JR’s, an examination of the pitfall of modern supernatural romance via speed dating, took about the same time, but was, as you might imagine, a little more deep.  After that rush job, 12 hours aught to be a luxury.

So, yes, it will be insane. But, the exact type of insanity that we excell at. Which means it will be awesome.

I expect to see you all there.