AT Phoenix Summer Book Club - Opening Weekend and Fifty Shades of Grey

What are you reading next? In preparation for OPENING WEEKEND of Actors Theatre of Phoenix's upcoming production THE BOOK CLUB PLAY (running June 20 - August 17 2014), cast member Joseph Kremer wrote a book report on one of the mentioned books in the play:

Fifty Shades of Grey…One Million Shades of Ugh

A Book Report by Joseph Kremer

Fifty Shades of Grey is an erotic romance novel by E.L. James (published by Vintage Publications) that describes a brief sex affair between hot, clumsy college girl Anastasia Steele and the wealthy former crack baby Christian Grey.

The story takes place in Oregon and Washington with a slight detour through “Stupid Town." Anastasia is a privileged Caucasian virgin that works in a hardware store and drives a Volkswagen Beetle. Her daily battles filled with nothing but boring generation Y angst until ONE DAY her roommate becomes ill and can’t interview the “self-made” super-rich, piano playing, and helicopter flying Christian Grey for the college paper. Anastasia conducts this interview for her roommate, in which afterwards Christian becomes bewitched by this dopey fawn of a girl and decides that he’s going to seduce her and bring her into his world of…spanking and Gregorian chant (I’m not kidding).

Christian emails Anastasia a contract saying that she will be “submissive” to his “dominant” for a whole bunch of erotic play. The proposed contract fills her with incredulity, upon which, she whines about endlessly. Their affair boils over into an anti-climactic (irony!) argument and makes the reader wonder: “Will the couple survive this tragic occurrence? And more importantly…does anyone care?”

Here’s a concise review of this novel: The author’s prose is child-like at best, which forces the reader to slowly crawl through hundreds of poorly described situations and scenes. The story and its characters are completely two-dimensional and predictable, with some of the characters acting simply as filler for a pathetic little plot that goes nowhere. While I was reading it I found myself constantly forcing my eyes to the page because they kept rolling to the back of my head.

HOWEVER, there is a dark and mysterious element that is lurking in the pages of this novel, touching female readers and giving them an impetus to read on. And that element is the feeling of NOT HAVING TO MAKE A DECISION. The biggest fans of this novel are those that want to be swept up in a sexual fantasy that involves them not having to answer their boyfriend or husband endlessly asking, “I dunno. What do you want to do?” The fans of this novel are those that want to be seduced, desire to be flirted with, and simply want an A personality in not only their day-to-day lives, but in the bedroom as well. That is the ONLY explanation I have for this publication selling over 100 million copies since 2012.


In conclusion, there’s really nothing of depth in this book, so don’t waste your time reading it. Do yourself a favor and go see The Book Club Play instead. I hear it’s funny.

- Joseph Kremer

Get your tickets for THE BOOK CLUB PLAY - 

OPENING THIS WEEKEND!!!

Follow Actors Theatre of Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter for schedules, promotions and show news.

http://actorstheatrephx.org/Event/7/The-Book-Club-Play/

Actors Theatre of Phoenix Summer Season - Meet the Cast

Add some comic relief to the hot Arizona summer with Actors Theatre of Phoenix's upcoming season:

Get ready for some rollicking comedy and thought-provoking theatre with a kick-ass cast that will double up for two productions.

From June 20 - August 17, THE BOOK CLUB PLAY will kick-off the first weekend and THE COTTAGE the following weekend.

Meet the cast for Actors Theatre of Phoenix's Summer Season productions of THE BOOK CLUB PLAY and THE COTTAGE:

Maren Maclean, who will perform as Ana in THE BOOK CLUB PLAY and Sylvia in THE COTTAGE:

Maren Maclean feels thrilled/thankful to return to Actors Theatre after playing Pamela in Fox on the Fairway.

Favorite productions include Belinda in Noises Off at Phoenix Theatre, Kate in Shrew at Southwest Shakespeare Co. and Hilda in Venus Observed at Verse Theatre Manhattan.

Angelica Howland, performing as Jen in THE BOOK CLUB PLAY and Marjorie in THE COTTAGE:

Angelica Howland makes her home in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband, Brian, son, Harrison and two wagging piles of furry love, Charlotte and Hansel.

Some of her recent theatrical credits include: At Birth with The Hormel Festival of New Plays and Musicals 2014, All New People with Stray Cat Theatre, The 39 Steps with Phoenix Theatre, In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) with Actor’s Theatre (ariZoni Award, Actress in a Major Role).

Alexis Green, performing as Lily in THE BOOK CLUB PLAY and Dierdre in THE COTTAGE:

Alexis Green graduated from ASU in 2013 with her BA in Theatre Arts.

While at ASU, Alexis produced and performed in their first ever black theater festival which included four plays and almost thirty performers. Her recent credits include Life in the Cancer Lane with Inkwellchick Productions, Wedding Band with The Black Theatre Troupe, and the National Geographic film American Blackout. In the fall, Alexis will be pursuing her MFA in Acting at Brown University.

Joe Kremer, who will perform as Rob in THE BOOK CLUB PLAY and Beau in THE COTTAGE:

Joseph  feels incredibly proud and humbled to join in these two productions at Actors Theatre.

Kremer’s most recent role at Actors Theatre was Denny in A Steady Rain. Recent productions in the valley include Love's Labour's Lost at Southwest Shakespeare, All New People at Stray Cat Theatre and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at Phoenix Theatre. "

Tyler Eglen, who will perform as Will in THE BOOK CLUB PLAY and Clarke in THE COTTAGE:

Tyler returns again to Actor’s Theatre after playing as Stevie in GOOD PEOPLE.

Tyler’s many work hats include actor, educator, fight choreographer and media designer and an ASU MFA graduate. Tyler’s past work includes productions with Arizona Theatre Company, Straycat, Childsplay, Actors Youth Theatre and other theatres outside of Arizona.

Ian Christiansen, who will perform as Alex in THE BOOK CLUB PLAY and Richard in THE COTTAGE:

Ian feels ecstatic about joining Actors Theatre and this marvelous group of artists.

Previously he played Frank in Body Awareness and Dorian in OPUS. Other appearances in other companies include Love's Labour's Lost (Southwest Shakespeare), Sons of the Prophet (Stray Cat Theatre), The Light in the Piazza (Phoenix Theatre).  Ian holds a BFA in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama and participates as a proud member in Actor's Equity Association.

Purchase your tickets for Actors Theatre of Phoenix Summer Season at http://actorstheatrephx.org/

And be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for schedules, promotions and show news. 

A STEADY RAIN - Opening Weekend

Joseph Kremer in A STEADY RAIN

“Opening Weekend” is always a fun few days in the theatre world. It’s filled with exhaustion, weird energy,

rehearsal line flubs, and beer in the dressing room. I’ll explain the booze in the dressing room at the end.

Opening Weekend is the name for the days of Preview, Opening Night, and the Sunday Matinee. The Preview (first performance in front of an audience) is always fun, but extremely nerve-racking. However, when the audience gave what felt like a 5 minute standing ovation to Matthew Wiener (Producing Artistic Director) and Erica Black (Managing Director) before their curtain speech, any trepidation Chris and I felt suddenly went away. That was a pretty magical moment to experience backstage.

Opening Night was especially incredible since this was the first show for Actors Theatre since their triumphant return. There was a feeling in the air as if we were all experiencing a very special moment together at the same time. Sure, I was a little tired and I messed up a couple of lines, but it didn’t matter. The warm compliments I received after the show made me forget all about it and that’s all that’s really important.

In fact, Opening Night was so busy that they actually had to refill the beer …which was being stored in the storage space in our dressing room. So to recap, there was beer within close proximity, great audiences, and an “unpaused” theatre company. What a great weekend.

A STEADY RAIN - blog #3

TECH.

In case you don’t know: “Tech” is what we in the theatre biz affectionately call the span of 5 days before the opening night. These days are usually full of stress, jokes, aggravation, and weariness as the lighting designer, sound designer, director, and stage manager all sit in the house and create the picture of what the show will look like. But what do the actors do? Well the actors run through the show and of course have their lines and emotional moments carefully choreographed and perfected in order to facilitate the process.

LOL.

Ok, the truth is, as an actor I have a pretty good idea of what I’m going to do. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stepped into the performance space and my character or emotional beats change quite a bit because of the change in environment.

Did you hear that sound? That was the sound of Anthony (our director) ripping his gorgeous hair out of his head.

Don’t worry Anthony, it doesn’t change THAT much.  In fact, you probably won’t even notice it. But it’s definitely something that registers inside of me. The acoustics in the space are usually the first thing that has an effect on me. Most rehearsal spaces are small, enclosed rooms with low ceilings and tile floors, which are absolutely NOTHING like the actual performance space. If the acoustics aren’t great your volume has to go up so the back seats can hear you, which can have a profound effect on what sort of emotion you’re trying to portray. It’s frustrating, but challenging. And sometimes…SOMETIMES it actually helps change things for the better.

A STEADY RAIN - blog #2

So here’s a quiz for you:

In the last 72 hours, Joe Kremer has:

A) Drank heavily

B) Visited deep dark areas of his mind and soul

C) Sat in a room memorizing lines for 7 hours straight

D) Called for line 196,524 times

E) All of the above

If you chose E, you’re correct.

It may seem crazy but all of the items I mentioned above are absolutely necessary.

But I’m sure right now you’re asking me, “Hey Joe, if you’re spending 7 hours memorizing, why are you calling for line 196,524 times?”  The answer to that is very simple, I have stage fright.

In case you don’t know, “calling for line” is when you’re rehearsing a scene and you say to the wonderful stage manager, “line?” When you do that, the wonderful stage manager, who has the script in front of them, says the first part of the line to you, you then say the rest of the line, and then you continue on with the scene. But here’s the thing with me: When I’m in my tiny little office at home, I can have a scene DOWN COLD…and I mean like, know it forwards and backwards. As soon as I have to do it in front of someone such as Anthony (our fearless leader) or Amy (our amazing stage manager), it goes RIGHT OUT OF MY HEAD. So, I just keep “calling for line” and we do it over and over and over, no matter how annoyed my awesome fellow actor (Chris) gets. And believe me, he has every right to be annoyed. I swear, you’d rather go over to dinner at Jeffrey Dahmer’s house instead of listening to me say the word “line” 196,254 times. But the good news is that once I go through a scene all the way in front of someone, it just gets better from there. It’s always that first step that’s always the hardest. But isn’t that the case for most of life’s challenges?