Nov. 8th, 2005

thehefner: (The Four Shoppers of the Apocalypse)
First and foremost and nothing to do at all with zombies, a just-over-the-wire Happy Birthday to [livejournal.com profile] 2sick2pray!!! WOOO!

Ok, so I was helping [livejournal.com profile] fiveseconddelay lose his zombie virginity with a movie night of Night of the Living Dead and the rare European cut of Dawn of the Dead (which warrants an entire post itself, except I don't think anyone'd give a shit), when I off-handedly mentioned to Alan, "I've often thought that you could do Night of the Living Dead as a stage play." And what was always just a musing on my part deeply resonated with him, and by the end of the evening our braiiiins were in high gear. Because, oh god, it could really work.

Think about it. It's just six characters inside a living room. You have the unseen little girl dying in the cellar, the half-eaten corpse unseen upstairs, and outside are ever-growing ranks of the living dead. And with these characters, think about 12 Angry Men, Breakfast Club, and any other stories about what happens when strangers are trapped in a room for hours on end. It's a classic scenario, where walls are broken down and the inner humanity (or lack thereof) of these people is revealed.

Now think about what happens when society is falling apart around them and everything is stripped away save for the basic drive to survive at all costs. As with any great Romero zombie story, the true monsters aren't the zombies. And the play format allows the luxury of fleshing out the characters, pardon the pun, more than they were in the movie(s, if you count the Romero-penned Tom Savini-directed remake with mangod Tony "Candyman" Todd).

That's the thing: you'd never see the zombies. Even the little girl zombie and the people she kills will happen in the cellar, with the right sounds and effects to let the audience's imaginations take it to far more horrible places than we could even stage. Meanwhile, the radio will almost always be on in the background, filling the characters and the audience in on the nature of the zombies and what the authorities are (and aren't) going to do, etc. And then, just as things are quieting down, BAM! The lights go out. The radio is dead. The stage is lit only by patches of moonlight and shadows are everywhere. And this is where the twenty or so extras come in and begin pounding on the doors and windows of the entire theatre itself. And then, for anyone who remembers how the original movie ended, the entire scene will be played out via radio while the character emerges from the cellar and looks out the window.

Oh man oh man. It really frickin' works. And we could totally update the social commentary too. Alan came up with some neat commentary on anti-smoking and anti-homosexuality, and just writing this up now I can see some nice possibilites for Katrina response commentary as well. And the best part about producing this play? The part that almost screams we have no choice but to do this?

The rights are completely free.

Yep, thanks to some horrible legal snafu, Night of the Living Dead is in the public domain. Romero doesn't get a single penny of royalties for the film where he invented flesh-eating zombies. Which sucks, but hey, he's more than made up for it with his subsequent films. And besides, DUDE! Come next Halloween, I dunno, I think we may just have to do Rude Mechanicals' Second Stage production of Night of the Living Dead.

meme

Nov. 8th, 2005 12:31 pm
thehefner: (Blue Beetle plays paddleball)
Mike started this one and everyone's been doing it, and since boredom at the comic shop has hit, here's mine as well. Enjoy or don't.

5 years ago I was...
1. A senior at Washington Waldorf, a private school run by well-meaning but ineffectual hippies, in a grade of 18 students.
2. Lamenting how I didn't get into the production of Hamlet with those odd Rude Somethingorothers.
3. Trying to figure out ways to smuggle my cats into my dorm room when I went to college.
4. Playing a part written in just for me, "Baby Face Lipschultz" in a production of Guys and Dolls.
5. Also lamenting on how I'd remain dateless, virgin, unkissed, and a bit supporting ensemble player in amateur productions of musicals for a long, long time.

1 year ago I was...
1. Playing Misty Peter Gabriel's "Book of Love." She came up to my room, drunk and intent on declaring her love for me, but instead proceeded to ramble about Beethoven for an hour. She tried to pretend she wasn't crying when I played her "Book of Love." It was adorable.
2. In the midst of Hell Week for my thesis Vigil, and loving every second of this dream come true.
3. Wondering what was going to happen when Tammy came to see the show.
4. Trying to figure out who'd win in a fight between Indiana Jones and Mordor.
5. Not finishing my novel or starting to write my drama thesis.

Yesterday I was...
1. Reveling in my day off. No work at the accursed video store all week, woooo!
2. Rehearsing with the Rudes for "Merry Wives of Winsor."
3. At Bennigans and disappointed that the cute young waitress wasn't there. Just when I'd finally gotten the balls to ask her out too...
4. Working out and oggling Carolyn... my god what a woman. Tomorrow I'm getting up at gasp horror 10:30 to train with her. *sigh*
5. Writing the first pages for the first issue of BUB THE ZOMBIE AND JOHNNY GO. Now if only I had an artist...

5 snacks/foods I enjoy...
1. California Tortilla's Blackened Chicken Caesar burrito with chips and queso.
2. A grand plate of nachos with tons of melted cheese, beans, and chili/grilled chicken.
3. Cream cheese and Harry and David's onion and pepper relish makes the greatest dip *ever*. Give me a bowl of that and a bag of tortilla chips (I'm seeing a pattern here) and I'm done.
4. Burgers. Serious burgers, done right, which is harder to find that you might expect. Five Guys, for example.
5. Pie. Everyone loves pie.

5 songs I know the words to are...
1. "Book of Love," The Magnetic Fields (Peter Gabriel version)
2. "Opening Ceremony: The Arbiter/US vs USSR/Merchandisers/Arbiter reprise," Chess (and yes, I sing all parts)
3. "Mack the Knife," Weill and Brecht (Bobby Darin version)
4. "Finishing the Hat," Stephen Sondheim from Sunday in the Park with George.
5. "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow," Mitch and Mickey

5 things I would do with one million dollars are...
1. Buy a small european country and deem it Latveria.
2. Totally become Johnny Go and take an entire year or two off to travel the country in a fire engine red 1960 Cadillac Eldorado. And bring Howard Sherman along for the ride.
3. Fucking relax.
4. Move to London.
5. Focus entirely on getting professional acting and writing work.

5 favorite TV shows are...
1. Justice League Unlimited is as good as anything Joss Whedon does. Yes, I'm serious.
2. Simpsons, seasons 3-9. Nothing will ever touch that brilliance. Not Family Guy, not Futurama. Nothing.
3. Harvey Birdman
4. Twilight Zone
5. Kids in the Hall

5 fictional characters I would date....
1. Grushenka from The Brothers Karamazov. Especially if she were Maria Schell. That woman's smile could destroy a heart.
2. Ice from Justice League.
3. I'm kind of ashamed to admit this... Power Girl. Not because of her mighty gazoongas, but because of the vulnerability and humanity Geoff Johns and Amanda Conner recently gave her in JSA: Classified. For the first time I really gave a shit to this top-heavy Supergirl wannabe. I actually feel sorry for the girl wit da big boobs.
4. Hawkgirl as depicted in Justice League Unlimited. When (and how) she was unmasked for the first time... holy shit, hottest thing in a cartoon ever.
5. Sue Storm. And NOT the Jessica Alba version. Not just because she's the hottest MILF ever, but mainly just to spite Richards.

EDIT**

No, scratch Hawkgirl and replace her with Shego from Kim Possible. Kim/Shego is the only slash fiction I am even tempted to read.
thehefner: (Bub and Johnny Go Drawing)
Frankly, if anyone else is amused by or even "gets" what I'm playing with here, that's just a fringe benefit. Everyone else just excuse this little bit of self-indulgent dorkiness.

Johnny Go's... 'panache'... )

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