The Metronome Society - Blog

Why I Love New Works

7/12/2015

This could probably be titled “Why I Love Theater,” but working on new plays intensifies everything. I’ve had an unusual opportunity to look at these plays from a lot of different angles. As a playwright, I knew them when they were nothing more than the seeds of the albums that inspired them, as I listened to each album that came out of “the hat" whether I was writing about them or not. I was one of first people to read and hear them out loud. In some cases I read multiple versions as writers sought feedback during the process.

When I became the director of Self-Titled, I ended up having to look at them from a whole new angle: How is the story developed? What is play’s message? What ambiguities has the playwright left me and the cast to mine? What technical or logistical challenges do I have to overcome in production? This was pretty nerve-wracking when the playwrights were so involved in the production process. When I direct new works, I’ve always tried to embrace the work as it exists in the moment, solving problems without challenging or changing what the playwright has written. This time it was pretty important not to screw it up—even more so when directing the play that I wrote. What ridiculous playwright thought it would be a good idea to set a play in a room covered with broken glass? Oh yeah, that was me.

Adding the actors brought a whole new set of perspectives to the process. In the rehearsal process, I consider them experts on their characters’ intentions and tactics, but I have to be sure that those choices play well together and are supported by the script. Sometimes there is more than one right answer and so, together, we wade through the possibilities to find the one with the most dramatic potential. We try different things until something takes flight in rehearsal.

So by this point in time, I feel like I know these plays, and this whole show, pretty damn well. Then at our last group rehearsal, we added music. The Metronome Society Band has been working on their own interpretation of the songs from albums that inspired the plays, and the music ties the work together in a whole new way. Just when I thought there was nothing left to learn about these five plays, everything became new again.

As I write this, I’m getting ready to head into our one complete tech/dress/music rehearsal. I know that we’re ready, but I also know that things will probably go wrong. The day will probably be simultaneously too long and too short. I’m prepared for anything. And the most thrilling thing is that I know that I can still be surprised.

-Rebecca

Acting in your own play

7/1/2015

Me (Carolynne Wilcox). Acting in my own Play. "Pandora & The Box" (c)2008

I’m an actor and a playwright. More often than not, I perform in at least the first production of one of my plays. I never really gave it all that much thought, since part of my evolution into a playwright involved the desire to write better and more roles for myself, and my "gateway drug" was solo performance, after all. Along the way, however, I’ve had people either question or raise an eyebrow to it, which made me wonder if acting in my own work makes me a total narcissist.

I had the great fortune of being able to take not one but TWO of my plays to the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska a couple of weeks ago, one in the Play Lab and another in the ten-minute play slam. I have been fortunate that both of these pieces had been fully staged, prior to the conference, and I had acted in all productions. So it was quite interesting to see other actors take on the roles I had played and to see what they brought to them that perhaps had not occurred to me.

This is where, among my fellow playwrights, I began to have a dialogue, not only with them, but internally, about how useful it can be as a playwright to experience your play from inside its guts like that, rather than the usual playwright’s role of watching others interpreting your work from the sidelines. Both are useful, but the former really allows me to understand the meat of the piece.

At the moment, I’m in rehearsals for my short play Wind Whispers Mary, inspired by the Jimi Hendrix album Are You Experienced, and going up as part of Self-Titled: A Live (Theatrical) MixTape a little later this month at the Rendezvous with The Metronome Society.

It is incredible how acting in my own play informs changes to the script…in rehearsal, I get to see which lines the other actors trip over, and those I trip over – either with my tongue or with my memory. I get the chance to feel, in my body, how a line flows (or DOESN’T), to experience the rhythm of the words (or lack thereof) and to see where a beat is connected (or where it needs more work).

Struggling through early off-book rehearsals is a great clue to this: sometimes it even comes down to one word just flowing better than another, even if they have essentially the same meaning. “You make it sound like a visit to the dentist” for example, is a lot less clunky on both the ears and the tongue if you replace “visit” with “trip”. But I wouldn’t have figured that out unless I had been actively trying to memorize it.

Another awesome thing is when you had intended one thing as a playwright when you wrote it, and you have a great director who, during the rehearsal process, gives you either some sort of idea or specific blocking that changes the meaning entirely from the original intent and makes it stronger. My character has a line, “Oh, sweet Jesus” that I wrote initially, from a playwright’s point of view, as swearing – not quite a “throwaway” line, but something less important before the big climax. In rehearsal, it has actually become a very active invocation of the divine that spurs on a final explosion. And this is now something I actually get to experience physically and viscerally and am now able to take into a potential rewrite/edit with a wholly different take than had I just been sitting in on rehearsal from the sidelines.

So, call me narcissistic, if you will, but I will probably continue to act in my own plays as I am able – it makes me, ultimately, a better playwright…but judge for yourself. Come check out ALL the plays and music in our album-inspired Self-Titled, July 16-18 in the Jewel Box Theatre at the Rendezvous! Tickets available HERE.

-Carolynne

Our Venue Rocks! (a brief history of the Jewelbox theater)

6/12/2015

photo by: Stephanie Mallard Couch Photography

We at The Metronome Society are so psyched to be performing in a venue with such a colorful and notable history as The Rendezvous/Jewelbox Theater. The eclectic artsy vibe is perfect for the fusion of theatre and live musical soundscape that we are creating.

Since 1927 the Rendezvous has been serving up spirits and entertainment. Its location at 2nd and Bell (the heart of Belltown) was smack dab in the middle of what was called “Film Row”. The four block area of 1st and 2nd Ave between Lenora and Wall was designated as a ‘regional exchange’ where all the major studios (MGM,Paramount,Columbia,RKO..etc) and movie theatre managers went to wheel and deal and screen and buy films for distribution. Originally Film Row was confined to one small area because nitrocellulose film was highly flammable and it became a matter of zoning. The Rendezvous is the lone remaining screening room from that bygone era.

During the prohibition era people congregated in the basement speakeasy section of the Rendezvous, The Grotto, where the liquor flowed freely and the music was blasted without the aid of amplifiers. The current decor harkens back to that time of Art Deco decadence. The moment one goes into the space, they are instantly transported back to the jazz age and instinctually look around to find the bouncer to give the secret password to so as to be let in to the swinging joint and imbibe the night away. The Jewelbox Theatre portion of the Rendezvous (where we are lucky enough to get to perform) carries over that same old-timey ambiance. The atmosphere oozes a visceral sense of history and nostalgia. Like any historic building of character the Rendezvous is said to be haunted by several ghosts. There’s the projectionist who loved his job so much he is said to still be trying to do it in the afterlife. Some say there’s a female ghost whose sweet perfumed scent alerts you to her presence. There’s also encounters with a dark swarthy gentlemen who appears at random and odd times as a dark apparition. It is also rumored that the legendary Jimmy Durante (who was famously busted in the Grotto for playing cards) likes to roam the premises of his favorite Seattle haunt.

The Rendezvous has changed ownership many times since B.F. Shearer opened the doors in 1927 and it has gone through many incarnations. Kudos to the team of Jerry Everard, Jane Kaplan, Tia Matthies, and Steve Freeborn for purchasing it in 2002 and restoring the place to earlier glory. Jane Kaplan: There are so few places in Seattle that provide what the Jewelbox provides. We really try to work with all kinds of performers to help them reach their goals as individual artists. This is why the room is so versatile from being able to show films to music performances, fringe theatre productions to cabaret and comedy. We try to have it all available at a very reasonable rate so that the money never gets in the way of the artist’s ability to create, imagine and experiment. This, we feel, is very important…providing a fully functioning theatre, music venue, film screening room, you name it; creating a comfortable and low-risk, artist friendly space so the performers can concentrate on their craft.(Seattle Burlesque Press 2012) Seattle needs more performance spaces like The Jewelbox theatre.

-Carolynne

A challenge to you...

6/8/2015

We’re always being asked about process. I’m sure this has been covered before but the questions still come up: How do you write your plays? What do you do exactly? Do you have to use the titles of the songs in the play? Do you have to use the words of the songs? Do the plays have to be about the songs?

No.

It’s simple: we listen to albums and if we get an idea for some dialogue or a scene - we write it. Sometimes, and I won’t be the only one to admit this, we listen to albums and we get nothing. Sometimes there is no connection, no spark, no epiphany and we’re left looking at the liner notes or album cover art to inspire some kind of emotional connection just to get a few bits of dialogue on the page. If I remember correctly, one album (that will remain unnamed) had me forcing words on a page to the point where one character actually said “I got nothing”. And scene. We walk into these little experiments with vulnerability, excitement, and honesty and sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Sometimes we hear a lyric or a chord progression and we’re writing for days.

But since we keep getting these questions and we’re not writing as much as we normally do since we’re in production mode, I want to put a challenge to you, our patron, if you choose to take it. I am currently working on a longer blog entry waxing poetic on Radiohead’s album Ok Computer because this year, people, that album turns 18. It’s a pretty important album to me and a lot of other folks and while I actually haven’t written anything that has been directly inspired by it, this album has certainly made a difference in how I listen to music and how I approach writing. So, as an experiential introduction to our process, so to speak, I invite you to listen to Ok Computer, write a little scene, and if you like, send it in to us for a read.

You’re invited to: our process.

/mandy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE!!! Self-Titled: A Live (Theatrical Mixtape)

6/6/2015

“Music is my religion.”-Jimi Hendrix

WHAT: The Metronome Society is thrilled to present our inaugural, music-inspired, locally curated and deliciously decadent full-length show: Self-Titled: A Live (Theatrical) MixTape. Inspired by popular albums from the last 50 years, society members have written 5 short theatrical pieces representing the works of Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Sting, and Rufus Wainwright, they, together with The Metronome Society Band (who will be the live soundtrack for the show), promise you a highly entertaining evening of wine, women (a few men) and song.

WHO: The Metronome Society is a collective of multidisciplinary artists who use compelling albums from the past and present as creative stimulus for creating new works. Our mission is to write plays inspired by deep love of auditory pleasure. Something exciting and novel happens when using a musician’s body of work as a springboard for creativity. The short pieces feature a little something for everyone: comedy, post-apocalyptic sci-fi and scathing satire.

WHERE: The Jewel Box Theatre at The Rendezvous Restaurant and Lounge. (21+ only) - 2322 2nd Ave. Seattle, WA.

WHEN: July 16, 17, & 18th @ 7:00 pm

WHY: It is The Metronome Society’s mission to write plays inspired by our deep love of auditory pleasure. Something exciting and novel happens when using a musician’s body of work as a springboard for creativity. We are ready to share some of those results with an audience.

Tickets available HERE.
Donate to our Kickstarter campaign HERE to be part of our extended Metronome Society family!

In The Thick Of IT

6/1/2015

by Carolynne Wilcox

We here at The Metronome Society are *IN THE THICK OF IT*. Just finished our invited auditions last week and are starting rehearsals this week – tonight, in fact – and also immersed in pre-production duties, between advertising, trying to nail down tech dates at the Rendezvous, and coordinate everyone’s schedules long enough to actually have production meetings. I picked up our printing in Portland on Friday and have to deliver it to our beloved Poster Nazi at some point this week. We are in FULL SWING MODE.

Also, we are right in the middle of our Kickstarter fundraising campaign. It has been somewhat slow, though the few people who have donated have given big, which is amazing, and has brought us only $235 shy of our goal at the time of my writing this. It is hard not to have a love-hate relationship with crowdfunding. Theoretically, it’s a great way to nickel-and-dime your way to a modest sum that helps out with production. You get extra word out about your project. It’s a roller-coaster ride. One day you’re riding high on the flood of love from multiple donors and the next several days, it’s all crickets. And the closer you get to your deadline and the further away from your goal, you start to put contingency plans in place to “rescue” the Kickstarter. And then suddenly, everyone comes out of the woodwork in that last day and you get funded. Or not.

We’re in the middle of a stretch of crickets right now. I’ve backed plenty of Kickstarters, Indiegogos, GoFundMe’s, GiveBig’s, you name it, I’ve more often than not given at least 5 bucks. I’ve contributed to baby adoption funds, liver transplant operations and restoring the Pioneer Square pergola, to name a few. I’ve supported the dance, theatre and film projects of a multitude of folks. I always try to give where I can – usually it’s not much, but it makes me happy to support the work that makes other people happy in this country that dictates our worth is measured only in dollars and cents.

It’s hard not to get discouraged as an artist. Opinions, as they say, are like assholes, everyone’s got one, and if you have no financial success, you have no worth in this society. The older I get the more I realize – it’s not money and it’s not fame – SUCCESS as an artist, is simply, DOING IT. Making your art. Working your THANG. And continuing to do it regardless of who notices, what financial gain comes your way, what notoriety. Even if you never, ever become one of the cool kids.

Anyway, I don’t know if I will ever become one of the cool kids, but I feel very lucky that I get to work with a bunch of ‘em in Self-Titled this summer! Even if you think I am a total hack, they are all very much worthy of your time and attention as audience members, and a little Kickstarter love as well. Our goal is to pay everyone, and the more we raise, the more we will be able to give to our actors, musicians and other creatives.

To become a backer of our wild and wooly Kickstarter Campaign, click here.
Tickets to Self-Titled: A Live (Theatrical) Mixtape are available here.

An Ode to The Dresden Dolls

5/26/2015

Now that we’re the chaotic days of pre-production, with never ending to-do lists and obsessively watching the progress of our Kickstarter campaign for Self-Titled, I’m feeling a little nostalgic for those golden days when we were just a writing group. We’d gather in Mandy’s kitchen and eat delicious snacks (sometimes there was champagne). We’d read what we wrote that month and talk about what we discovered while writing it and what our work sparked in each other. And then we’d get to pick a new album out of the hat. This was the best moment of all because I never knew if I was just about to be introduced to my new favorite band.

The very first month that we started writing, either luck or fate sent me Dresden Dolls. I don’t know how I’d missed The Dresden Dolls before that moment because they hooked me from the opening line of the first song. I’d been putting off listening because once I started there was going to be this obligation to find SOMETHING TO WRITE ABOUT and to MAKE IT WORTHWHILE and PROVE MYSELF, but as it turned out, I didn’t even think about writing that first time and the second time I forgot to.

The album is right up my alley: it’s unapologetically feminine, undeniably feminist, twisty, dark, funny, and ridiculously theatrical. When I finally started writing, I didn’t focus on any one song or story, I listened to the style and the rhythm of the album. A character emerged, and then another. A title. An old idea that I’d been wanted to use in a play but never found the story that fit. Somehow Sleeping Beauty got involved. And that delicious tension of more than a minute of silence before the very last line. I wanted to do that on stage. Could I do that on stage?

I wrote a play. Girl Anachronism isn’t going to be part of Self-Titled this summer, and part of me is sad about this (even though I also love Introduction to Experiences based on Are You Experienced?) simply because it was the first time that I saw what music could inspire me to write. Here's a taste of what got me started:

Dresden Dolls is in regular rotation on my iPod, and I still listen to the whole album every single time.

A Salute to the Music we listened to in High School

5/20/2015

  The recent departure of Zayn Malik from One Direction has prompted many tears and cries of “whhhhhhhhhhhy?” from some of the tweenage girls in my acquaintance. Like many, I had to fight my initial impulse to roll my eyes and dismiss their heartbreak for a silly band that most people over the age of 18 probably don’t have much regard for. However, throughout the drama, it forced me to examine my own music history, particularly the music I listened to when I was a wee lass of 12. Excuse me while I hum a few bars of “The Sign” and sing about a boy “who got into an accident and couldn’t go to school”.

    This of course sent me down a nostalgia spiral of examining all of the songs and artists I listened to in Middle School and High School that I’m sure drove my parents to find any excuse to leave the house. I’m looking at you Britney, and you Justin Timberlake while you were still just one of five sexually nonthreatening boys in N’Sync. There were many fine afternoons spent sitting in my room with my girlfriends belting out some Jagged Little Pill or Little Earthquakes. And school dances with Ska music blasting while we all skanked enthusiastically in a circle. Could I even begin to try and explain this to today’s generation? The one time I tried, I learned “Skank” has taken on a very different meaning.

   The music we listen to in our teenage years is sacred. I couldn’t even tell you today how much of it is “good” music because it is so deeply tied to memories from my formative years. I can no more judge these girls their One Direction than I would want to be judge for the elaborate dance we came up with to “I Want it That Way”. No video exists of this dance, so don’t even try and find it. It’s an expression of our budding independence and of course, angst. The idea that no one could understand us, but this band, this artist, touches a chord in me. It might be One Direction. Maybe it was The Beatles, or The Who. Nirvana. Prince. Elvis. Why we love the music we love is not something we should ever have to justify or explain. So the next time you hear a shrieking girl exclaiming over Justin Bieber, resist the automatic snort of disgust and instead, think back to who your Bieber was and send a little love.

BJÖRK is my spirit animal (Part One)

5/19/2015

by Carolynne Wilcox

Whilst frittering time away on meaningless interweb activity yesterday, I came across a quiz on Facebook called "Who is your spirit musician?". Well, of course I had to take it. I had assumed it was going to be musicians of a more mainstream/classic appeal, people like maybe Taylor Swift or Michael Jackson, or lately my newly-beloved Jimi Hendrix and the like, so I was very amused to see which of these folks the quiz would end up choosing for me after I gave all my answers. And I was SOOOO tickled pink to get BJÖRK!

I must admit: I came into my admiration for her kinda late. I'd known who she was, and had heard whichever songs made their way into public consciousness from both her body of solo work as well as from The Sugarcubes, and of course dismissed her weird red-carpet outfits. But she didn't seriously hit my radar as an artist until I saw the movie Dancer in the Dark, back in fall of 2000.

Not only did I enjoy her performance as the main character, Selma, but the absolute BEST THING about the movie was the music, which she'd created specifically for the film. I was fascinated by incredible things she did with non-traditional "instruments", and the music served as a completely delightful soundscape used in an unabashedly Brechtian manner to give audience and Selma alike some reprieve from the decidedly dark and depressing storyline. I immediately ran out to purchase the soundtrack, Selmasongs, and after giving it a few listens, pretty much went out and bought everything of hers I could get my hands on, and was, to say the least, NOT disappointed. Her music became the preferred theme songs of much of my adult life.

Björk, you see, is not merely a vocalist or musician. Though she is a force to be reckoned with as both, she is, more than anything, a consummate multidisciplinary artist who plays with sound, video & lyric in a masterful, unapologetic and creative way. There is simply NO ONE ELSE OUT THERE MAKING ART like her.

I threw her name in our Metronome Society *hat* when we first started this project, but sadly, no one ever picked it. I was secretly hoping I would get it. We weren’t supposed to work with the albums we had offered, but I would have made an impassioned plea! And maybe that’s how I will propose starting off our next round of writings. It would be interesting to use an album I am intimately familiar with as inspiration…to see how it differs from using one I’m hearing for the first time.

As a fellow (though not NEARRRRLY so successful) cross-disciplinary artist, I resonate with her work and aesthetic on sooo many levels. She truly pushes the envelope as an artist whose medium happens to mainly be music. She brings craft, technique, artistry and abundant magic to her A-game, and I totally aspire to those things as an artist. She is my spirit animal for all these reasons, and a couple more, which I will share in Part Two of this blog post…look for it in a few weeks! Until then, if you haven't heard the wider body of her work, you should listen to her!

Music Makes Memories

5/9/2015

Most of my favorite memories have a soundtrack. Road trips with my parents: any and all Jim Croce, Anne Murray, Simon and Garfunkel, or The Beach Boys albums. The hit 1982 album, Mousercise, kept my sister and I dancing with the cousins all night long in someone’s rec-room during an adult party. When I was very little I used to fall asleep to the pop-light station and as a 5 year old could belt out such classics from Christopher Cross, Reo Speedwagon, and Billy Joel. Solo summer train trips at the age of 12 to visit my Grandma was scored with “True Blue”, the next summer “Like a Prayer” (a nod to my maturing tastes). A vacation to Southern California that featured Disneyland and two freshly purchased Monkee’s albums (tapes) that could not be found in Walla Walla (unless one had the gumption to ask Jim McGuinn of Hot Poop Records to special order things, which my 12-year-old self could not). Christmas revelry wouldn’t have been complete without Bing Crosby or off-key carols belted out in the car on the way to Grandpa’s. There was a summer family reunion a few years back on the 4th of July with a mandatory patriotic sing-a-long (I will spare the vocalists the video I have). I remember being with an entire bus full of teenage girls going to a NKOTB concert in Tacoma (from Walla Walla) and predictably screeching out their entire anthology (thus far) on the way up. I remember Larry softly singing Keith Sweat’s “Twisted” to our newborn baby during a midnight feeding, much to my surprise and delight. I remember Mötley Crüe's “Dr. Feelgood” being blared way too loudly from a jerry-rigged amp in a certain boy’s VW bug while on a secret thrill ride to Spokane, which ended up only being as far as 20 minutes out of town until the car broke down. I remember hearing a song dedicated to me by my 7th grade paramour-”Keep your Hands to Yourself” by the Georgia Satellites-a song I do not particularly care for, but one that will forever be intertwined with my memory of that boy and that moment in time.

Songs older than 10 or 15 years trigger a memory of some kind for me...not always good ones, or legal ones for that matter. Any “experimenting” I did involved music, dances, concerts (oh...the concerts) hanging out in moody teenage solitude alone in my room. These moments evoke less specific memories for me now, because it’s how I spent so much of my time, escaping the inescapable pain from traumas real and perceived. To crawl inside the beautiful sadness numbed me to the ugly reality of the world beyond the headphones. This was the time of The Cure, The Smiths, R.E.M...to name a few.

Music is no less important to me now. I get a rush the first time I hear a song I love. It’s like a first kiss. Nostalgia has it’s place, but so does the thrill of discovering something new. I have very specific memories of hearing favorite songs for the first time, a list that is too long and personal for a blog post.

It’s for all these reasons and more that music inspires me and leaves me with a constant soundtrack running in my mind as my memories dance together. All of my favorite memories have a soundtrack.