Tag Archive for: www.eelwaxjesus.com

REHEARSAL JOURNAL #3

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Week three at the Festival…we are in the thick of the creative process. Scenery, costumes and props are being constructed. The Frank Stage has bits and parts of scenery from five different shows scattered across the stage. Sculptures for INANA are being fabricated and carved in the sculpture studio. The costume shop is busy with actor fittings, shopping and construction. Our Props dept is raiding the local flea markets, shopping for props and creating props. The electrics crew is hanging three rep lighting plots.The admin staff is preparing for our opening weekend. And the actors are digging into the third week of rehearsal. Needless to say…there is a tsunami of activity throughout the Festival. I can honestly tell you that I am having a BLAST. The work is hard and exhilarating. The work is intense and collaborative. The work is endless and yet full of joy.

I am pleased with the publicity that we are receiving. Elizabeth Blair from National Public Radio visited rehearsals and conducted interviews with Max Baker and Lee Sellars. She is doing a feature story on our 20th Anniversary Season which will air on NRP soon. West Virginia Public Radio did a story on the Festival which aired this week. Wednesday’s Washington Post had an interview with Michele Lowe and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. WYPR Public Radio in Baltimore is doing a story on INANA next week. So the word is getting out…we are creating BUZZ.

So…can I count on you to help me “spread-the-word?”  

Ed Herendeen

REHEARSAL JOURNAL #2

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We are into our second week of rehearsal. The work is intense and the company is responding to this ambitious season. We are confronting the many unanswerable questions that these five plays raise. I agree with David Mamet when he says that the playwright’s highest calling is to wrestle the unanswerable. Help us see it, give us an opportunity to sit in a room together and bear it. Craft something beautiful out of our human mess. The 2010 Repertory meets these challenges…fearlessly. I am proud of the work that we are doing. Our playwrights, directors, designers and actors are not turning away from the world that we live in. These plays burn with intensity and truth. This work reminds us that theater has the power to change us.

Storytelling is thriving at the Contemporary American Theater Festival. We live in a turbulent and dangerous world. We face an uncertain future…yet the theater offers us a public space to come together in a community to ask difficult questions by engaging us and entertaining us with new stories. The CATF rehearsal spaces are buzzing with creative energy. I can hear the EELWAX JESUS Band belting out the music below my office. The shops are working late into the evening preparing the costumes, props and scenery. And there is a constant hum of human emotion and activity coming from the artists residences. The Festival is in high gear. The work has begun.

CHOP DOWN THE FORESTS

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I want to share the lyrics to CHOP DOWN THE FORESTS from The World Premiere of THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW by Max Baker and Lee Sellars:

                    IGNATZ

I’M NOT AFRAID OF ADMITTING

I’M JUST ANOTHER MONKEY ON THE EARTH

I’M ONE IN OVER 6 BILLION

SO WHAT I’VE GOT TO SAY

HAS PROBABLY BEEN HEARD

I’M NOT SO BLIND I CAN’T RECOGONIZE

WE’RE ALL PRETTY MUCH THE SAME

WE THINK WE’RE FREE BUT WE’RE HYPNOTIZED

BY THE PROPAGANDER IN OUR BRAINS

I’M SO WONDERFULLY SPECIAL AND I’M DIFFERENT

WIPE THAT NOTION FROM YOUR HEAD

BEING ALIVE IS SUFFICENT

BUT WE’RE ALL JUST SOON-TO-BE-DEADS

                    CHORUS

SO LET’S CHOP DOWN THE FORESTS

WHILE WE’RE AT IT

LET’S KILL AS MANY SPECIES AS WE CAN

LET’S DESTROY EVERYTHING THAT’S NATURAL AND

ALL…FOR THE GLORY OF MAN

                    IGNATZ

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FOR THE MONEY

GRAB AS MUCH OF IT AS YOU DESIRE

I BELIEVE BEING RICH WILL MAKE ME HAPPY

EVEN IF IT MAKES ME A LIAR

RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT ON THE ISSUES

JUSTIFYING EXCESS IN MY MIND

I CAN’T ESCAPE WHEN I WANT TO

IT’S STILL ILLEGAL TO GET HIGH

I CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF THIS CULTURE

 ADVERTISING EVERTHING I NEED

THE SIMPSONS SELLING WHOPPERS ON THE TV

A BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE OF OUR GREED

                     CHORUS

SO LET’S CHOP DOWN THE FORESTS

WHILE WE’RE AT IT

LET’S KILL AS MANY SPECIES AS WE CAN

LET’S DESTROY EVERYTHING THAT’S NATURAL AND

ALL…FOR THE GLORY OF MAN

                    IGNATZ

LET’S DIVIDE THE WORLD INTO COUNTRIES

LET’S GENETICALLY MODIFY OUR FOOD

LET’S START ANOTHER WAR ABOUT RELIGION

AND TELL EVERONE GOD IS GOOD

                     CHORUS

SO LET’S CHOP DOWN THE FORESTS WHILE WE’RE AT IT

LET’S KILL AS MANY SPECIES AS WE CAN

LET’S DESTROY EVERYTHING THAT’S NATURAL

AND ALL FOR THE GLORY OF MAN

If you want to listen to this song go to www.catf.org and click on the EELWAX JESUS graphic.

Ed Herendeen

EELWAX JESUS IS COMING

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Max Baker and Lee Sellars have written an imaginative, entertaining and original ALTERNATIVE musical. It will blow your mind.

Some backstory:  I have had the pleasure of working with Lee Sellars for over 12 years. We first worked together in 1998 on Tom Strelich’s new play-BAFO. We instantly connected and over the years we have developed an extraordinary artistic relationship. I have such fond memories of working with Lee. Most memorable productions include: COMPLEAT FEMALE STAGE BEAUTY by Jeffrey Hatcher; COYOTE ON A FENCE by Bruce Graham;  SOMETHING IN THE AIR by Richard Dresser; THE PAVILION by Craig Wright; FLAG DAY by Lee Blessing; ROUNDING THIRD by Richard Dresser; and THE GOD OF HELL by Sam Shepard.

Our collaboration continues this summer with the World Premiere of THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW. Lee wrote the music for this amazing new work and Max Baker wrote the Book and Lyrics. Lee introduced me to Max several years ago in New York. Max is an actor, director and playwright and he is directing EELWAX for us this summer. So we have all known each other for many years… and I am thrilled that Max and Lee are giving me the opportunity to produce the Premiere.

If you want to hear the intro song for THE EELWAX JESUS 3-d POP MUSIC SHOW go to our web site www.catf.org  and click on the EELWAX graphic and take a listen. You can also hear more EELWAX JESUS songs on their web site www.eelwaxjesus.com 

After you listen to the songs please share your comments with me. I am looking forward to introducing you to this new ALTERNATIVE THEATRICAL EVENT. Please invite your friends to join you in Shepherdstown to experience the wild imaginations of Baker and Sellars. Please share this blog with your adventurous friends.

Ed Herendeen