LA Weekly article on Joe Frank’s one-man play “Just an Ordinary Man” (opens Oct 1 & 8 Largo’s LA), along with a bio of Joe’s career: “Off the Radio.” Sez Joe:
“I particularly loved listening to baseball because the announcer wouldn’t just say, ‘He hit the ball to third base.’ He’d talk about the history of baseball, the weather, the lives of the different players – it was like being with somebody I liked. So I started thinking about being on the radio myself.”
“I’d take actors into a studio, tell them what a scene required and have them improvise, then I’d edit the best of what we’d produced into a show that also incorporated music and monologues of me speaking. It was unreal, yet real, and people didn’t know what to make of it.”
I caught his last stage performance, “The Blue Room.” Was everything you’d expect from a Frank-en-story: LOL funny, absurd, disturbing. What more could you want from a night out?
“Just an Ordinary Man” is a new theatre piece with dancer Argentina’s Carolina Cerisola, vocalist Julie Christensen, and musicians David Ralicke, Kenny Lyon, Mike Boito, Lorca Hart, Danny Frankel, Mark Harris and Mike Bolger.
The Salt Lake Tribune profiles Jeff Metcalf “Writing for the stage” about his prostate cancer diagnosis:
He didn’t talk about it. Not to his grown daughter, who was heading off for an Italian adventure. Not to his best tennis buddies. Not to his wife of 20-some years, Alana, a decision he now describes as “the greatest moment of stupidity in my married life.”
His play is “A Slight Discomfort.” Jeff calls it “sort of a comedy about cancer.” The theatre performance opens in early October. Our radio version is online now.
“Advanced Beauty is an ongoing exploration of digital artworks born and influenced by sound…is an ever-growing collaboration between programmers, artists, animators and architects. The first release will be a collection of Audio-Visual Sound Sculptures, on High Definition DVD and 5:1 Surround Sound. “
And, if you happen to be in Sheffield England in early May, you can attend a premier of these sound sculptures at the Showroom Cinema.
I’ve included a preview of the sound sculptures below:
NPR is back into radio drama, at least for a couple minutes. Today’s NPR Day to Day premieres the ZBS series, 2 Minute Film Noir. An American private eye falls in love with a French woman who is more than mysterious, she’s ethereal, in “Chez Tootsie” (3:26 mp3):