WORKING WITH HOMER

[flerk]

I just thought I'd mention a project I am working on.

I just got cast in a play here in L.A. called NIGHTHAWKS, based on the Edward Hopper painting of the same name. (It is the iconic painting of a diner late at night, in N.Y. during the forties).
Our set is the painting and I'll be the guy in the fedora, talking to the gal. It is a pretty clever play that the writer got inspiration from the painting and wrote a world around it.
Well, I just found out today that Dan Castellenata is going to be playing the owner of the diner. And if you don't recognize the name. . .D'OH!
Yes, it is none other than the voice of Homer Simpson.
It is going to take every ounce of my being to not say D'OH! the whole time I'll be around him.

Here is a link: http://www.taperahmanson.com/show.asp?id=351

Cheers!

[JCVaughn]

I just thought I'd mention a project I am working on.

I just got cast in a play here in L.A. called NIGHTHAWKS, based on the Edward Hopper painting of the same name. (It is the iconic painting of a diner late at night, in N.Y. during the forties).
Our set is the painting and I'll be the guy in the fedora, talking to the gal. It is a pretty clever play that the writer got inspiration from the painting and wrote a world around it.
Well, I just found out today that Dan Castellenata is going to be playing the owner of the diner. And if you don't recognize the name. . .D'OH!
Yes, it is none other than the voice of Homer Simpson.
It is going to take every ounce of my being to not say D'OH! the whole time I'll be around him.

Here is a link: http://www.taperahmanson.com/show.asp?id=351

Cheers!

Flerk, old bean, this is incredibly cool!

It was great to see you in San Diego, even if just for a few moments. Thanks so much for being persistant in stopping by the booth! It's really appreciated!

[flerk]

Thanks JC!

It was a pleasure seeing you too.

I enjoyed that Antiques book you gave me very much and look forward to more of them.

[Steve]

A looooonnnnng time ago in gradeschool they brought a copy of that painting in on "Art Day", so I know about it.  Nighthawks is actually one of the few paintings that stuck in my mind all these years.  I bought a mini replica of it for my mom(because she likes the painting too).  Long Story Short = Thats Kewl!
Steve

[Steve]

P.S.  I keep waiting for the caddy full of gangsters to drive by the diner.  Am I the only one that thinks thats a logical next scene (if it was a movie)?
Steve

[flerk]

P.S.  I keep waiting for the caddy full of gangsters to drive by the diner.  Am I the only one that thinks thats a logical next scene (if it was a movie)?
Steve

It is a logical conclusion, and there is a gangster in this play. No car though.

I start rehearsals on Tuesday and am actually getting excited.

[flerk]

Well, I let out my first "D'oh!", today.

Just my second day working with Castelenetta and it slips just before we start rehearsing.

He is sitting  beside me and drops his pencil and without thinking, just reacting verbally the way that the whole world has since the Simpsons phenom has become a vocabulary, I utter, "D'oh!"

Oh, the heat of embarrassment rises in me as he reaches for the pencil on the floor and I close my eyes and say, "I can't believe I just said that."

It was a bit of an ice-breaker in away, because he has certaiinly been a bit of an "elephant in the room".

(The sad thing with people that are famous is that people either fawn over them or ignore them, and in situations like this where it is a work situation in this industry town, it is usually the former way in which the famous are treated.)

So, he picks up his pencil and I say, " You have to understand, you created a vocabulary, it is part of me."

By the way, he is an incredibly quiet man.

I was feeling guilty on the way to rehearsal because, he had asked me if I had done "1984" at the Actors' Gang, which I had and he had actually seen and really liked and really liked me and I just stood there like a jerk wanting to say, "Dude! You're like HOMER! DUDE!".

Anyway, I said, "Thank you."

He said, "You're Welcome".

After a break a little later I told him, "You know, there was a sketch you did in the 'Tracy Ullman' show, where you were robbing Julie Kavner at a drug store and you broke into the song, "Mama told me there would be days like these", and he smiled and said that was one of two sketches that are most remembered.

The point of my rant is that I really like what I'm doing and I'm trying to enjoy it and share it. He and I ended up talking about comic art and such and decided that we should exchange the stuff we like in the comic world.And so we shall. . .

SHI being one of them. . .

To Be Continued. . . .  

[silent_observer]

Thank you for sharing and will be looking forward to more.

[flerk]

Well, things have been very busy with getting this show ready, so I have not been able to record the events.  (But, honestly, 'process' is kind of boring after you dig in).

Anyway, here is a link to this Sundays paper. It is a three page spread in the Sunday paper. THREE full pages.
http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-ca-nighthawks3sep03,0,4347209.story?coll=cl-home-more-channels

If anyone knows how to post photo's, I'd love ya' for putting them up here. I don't have a mouse anymore, I'm on a laptop, and don't know what buttons to push.

The paper has a series of paintings that are homage's to the painting and unfortunately, online there is no picture of the print of The Simpsons, with the diner being a donut shop and homer sitting in front of a pile of donuts, and the irony of having Homer in the play.

I told him today that my favorite episode of the Simpsons was the one where they do the musical of "The Planet of the Apes".

I was laughing my ass off at him doing songs from the show.
Honestly, I'm not sure I understand why it isn't on Broadway right now. I'd pay $150.00 a ticket right now to see that show.


We open on Wednesday and it is looking great. We are already almost all sold out for the run.

[pctchuck]

A sold out run?  That's great! Hope the show goes well, so break a leg.

[flerk]

A sold out run?  That's great! Hope the show goes well, so break a leg.

Almost sold out, about 75%.

It should be fun.

[Delvie]

Here ya go Flerk



Misery on the menu

"Nighthawks" takes on a third dimension at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City with, from left, Morgan Rusler, Brian T. Finney, Colette Kilroy and Dan Castellaneta.
(Ken Hively / LAT)

Back stories

At Steinberg's counter sit Mae and Sam, "the guy who is saddest." Quig working the night shift as a new character, Jimmy Nickels, left, enters the scene.
(Lori Shepler / LAT)

Moved by the moment

"I didn't realize that I was messing with an American icon. I just went after it emotionally," Steinberg says.
(Carlos Chavez / LAT)

[flerk]

That is AWESOME Delvie.

Thanks.

[The Frankster]

You ever seen this painting befoe it's a knock off the original.

The Characters is replaced with James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe. and Elvis.  It's entitled "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

[flerk]

You ever seen this painting befoe it's a knock off the original.

The Characters is replaced with James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe. and Elvis.  It's entitled "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

This one may be more famous than the original.
There is also a version with the Simpsons.

[flerk]

Here is a review from the Hollywood Reporter:


Sep. 08, 2006

Nighthawks

By Laurence Vittes
Kirk Douglas Theatre, Culver City
Through Sept. 24

The audience gasps when the opening curtain rises on a re-creation of Edward Hopper's iconic 1942 painting of four people in a lonely diner, stranded in solitude. As Douglas Steinberg's new play swings slowly from a disjointed confrontation between dramatic and visual art to one between art in general and reality, the audience follows closely on each word and action.

Despite self-conscious attempts to give the play a period feel, Steinberg's language has a rough-edged swing to it, a Dos Passos kind of unpredictable vitality and volatility that provides a powerful central role in the character of Mae, a woman torn between two men, resentfully resigned to living in the past, and suddenly forced by the presence of a silent stranger into confronting the terrible dimensions of her here and now.

Colette Kilroy takes Mae by the throat and wrings every bit of life out of her that is possible, given how much she has been used up. In doing so, she sets the tone for the rest of cast and dominates it, though without domineering. She also finds the sex appeal in the very tough and wounded woman she plays, subtly recapturing the physical pleasures of her past with just a wiggle and a glance. Steinberg has given her some great moments, like a confrontation with a freshly dressed side of beef that has the potential to become a classic moment of the theater. Initially, it seems that she will be primarily be restricted either to an Archie Bunker pugnacity or mawkish sentimentality, as Mae is hammered from all sides, she begins to generate and ride an amazing emotional crescendo.

Dan Castellaneta is the evening's other astonishing performance, taking on the role of that great American institution, the proprietor, and investing him with such a convincing core of guts that he provides the emotional heart and soul not only for the rest of the cast but for the play itself.

Brian T. Finney as the best friend and other man shows great patience and it pays off; his description of "quiet guys" is one of the play's rare moments of pure beauty. Although adorable to a fault, Kelly Karbacz's attempt at girlish frivolity as the ingenue headed for a fall falls short of eliciting the sympathy that we need to feel. Joe Fria as a young rake with twinkles in his toes gets the fancy stuff right but misses the proper psychopathic note. Dennis Cockrum's cartoonish gangster gets it totally right, brutally blunt to the point of missing his own ironic observations, reflecting something elemental about the play, as primitive and loaded with premonitions of violence as we come to believe the painting has.

There are some obstacles to a truly great performance. The story comes out too neatly at the end, and is rushed besides, so that the central tragedy and horror of the play get shunted to the side. Nor is it clear whether the uncertain ensemble work is intentionally meant to underline Steinberg's disjointed and the characters' lack of connectivity. Otherwise, Nighthawks would be a runaway hit. As it is, it's already something you just have to see.

NIGHTHAWKS
Presented by Center Theatre Group
Credits:
Playwright: Douglas Steinberg
Director: Stefan Novinski
Set designer: Donna Marquet
Costume designer: A. Jeffrey Schoenberg
Lighting designer: Rand Ryan
Original music: Michael Roth
Casting: Erika Sellin
Associate producer: Neel Keller
Production stage manager: Scott Harrison
Cast:
Mae: Colette Kilroy
Quig: Dan Castellaneta
Sam: Brian T. Finney
Lucy: Kelly Karbacz
Clive: Joe Fria
Jimmy Nickels: Dennis Cockrum
The Customer: Morgan Rusler

[jsniderfamily]

Flerk, which one are you playing?

[pctchuck]

The review makes it sound like a play that I want to see.  Too bad it is so far away. Hope the box office is as good or better than the review!

[Delvie]

He plays Sam

[Delvie]

CONGRATS SAM!

[flerk]

Thanks, folks!

[JCVaughn]

Thanks, folks!

Just mailed your HFH #1, old bean. Enjoy it.

Sounds like a great play and a very nice review for you.

[flerk]

AWESOME! Thanks old bean!