Hey, look! Posters.

"Reach For The Stars" 'bout to get raw like a monkey knife fight

Whatitdo, holmes? We know all of y'all are getting hype for our short play at the Houston Fringe Fest, Dream Date. But you know we're presenting a short film too, right? You're probably thinking "Hey, these kids are a theatre company. Why for are they doing a film?" Well, first of all you have terrible grammar. Secondly, we aren't just a theatre; we're an actor's lab, son! We have just entered phase two of Doorman's rise as a multi-national entertainment powerhouse. Come witness the awesome. Here's the quick scoop on the soon to be modern classic, Reach For The Stars, as told to Emily J. Hynds of The Houston Fringe Festival:

(from the houstonfringefestival.org website)

Show Feature: “Reach For The Stars”

May 4th, 2010 · No Comments · Participants, Shows

Hey Fringe Breads,

This year’s Short Film Showcase will include “Reach For The Stars,” presented by Doorman Actors Lab and HTX Media Production in association with Pen15 Productions.

It stars Houston’s hottest up and coming talent, The Lovely Lydia Lara, fresh off of a whirlwind trip around Mexico where she interviewed locals, experienced the regional cultural traditions, and communed with the spirits of the Aztec empire…all in preparation for this role.

“Reach For The Stars” also reunites two of Houston’s most infamous actors, Will Morgan and Salvador Chevez (infamous El Guapo style). When clashes of this magnitude occur between two titans of celluloid, you can be sure that someone in the audience will wind up pregnant.

Lydia and Will run producing theatre company Doorman Actors Lab. They’ve even got a play in the Festival too!

The film is produced by international fugitive Jo Hamna, who was recently freed from protective custody specifically to see this film completed.

“Reach For The Stars” is the directorial debut of Nathan Beattie. Nathan just completed his degree in film with a minor in droppin’ mofos who get in his face. Nathan is an active member of the international, clandestine organization known as Pen15 and heads up their media wing. He’s also the love child of Martin Scorsese and Leni Riefenstahl.

“Reach For The Stars” (or RFTS to the fanboys) was written by William Louis Jinajosa, whose mystery is only exceeded by his charm and edited by Dennis Perez. Dennis is cool.

Also appearing are Robbie, Mike and Edie, Sandi and Russell, Bear, Nozomi, and Simple Justin. Each one has a fascinating story that we could not be bothered to learn.

In this film, the “definitive narrative of our generation,” a looming financial crisis forces a man to face the demons of his past in order to achieve his once dormant dream. But first he must convince his loving, yet put-upon wife to forgive his past and stand by his side. Will he save his marriage and achieve his dream? Or will the failings of the past be the present and forever haunt his future? The only way to know for sure is to reach for the stars.

According to star (El Guapo-style) Will Morgan, the film “approaches the commonality of the subject from an outsider’s view, appropriating the ethos of the current indie cinematic conventions of the intimate domestic drama told through the prism of the mumblecore sub-genre; by doing so it forces a critical re-evaluation of every choice we have made in our lives… and, with absolutely no hyperbole, this film is the first step toward world peace.”

Wow, sounds like a good time!

Don’t miss Doorman Actors Lab’s “Reach for the Stars” as part of the Short Film Showcase at the Houston Fringe Festival!

8:00pm, Wednesday, May 19 @ Dean’s Credit Clothing Montrose
8:00pm, Thursday, May 20 @ Dean’s Credit Clothing Montrose
8:00pm, Sunday, May 23 @ Dean’s Credit Clothing Montrose

New shows, son!

Greetings Doormanskateers! It's been a while. We hope that you all have had enough time to recovery from our last show and are ready to hop back on that Doorman train, because we're all up in your face with not one, but two shows at the Houston Fringe Festival! First up is Dream Date, a short play written by Doorman's homey, Osvaldo Esparza. It can be seen at 8:00pm, Thursday May 20, 5:00pm, Saturday May 22, 5:00pm Sunday, May 23 Obsidian Art Space. Our other offering is Doorman's first foray into film. It is a short written by our own Will Morgan, titled Reach For The Starrs. It can be seen Wednesday May 19th, Thursday May 20th, and Sunday May 23rd. All film showings are at 8:00pm at Dean's Credit Clothing Montrose. Go to the Fringe website for the full schedule, and to read up on all the shows.

Opening Weekend Done! Up next: Closing Weekend

Thank you everyone who helped make our opening weekend a success! Please spread the word about the show, and if you haven't seen it yet, come out to Midtown sometime this weekend: Thurs - Sun.
Listen for us on The Front Row, Thurs, Sept 10th between Noon and 1 pm on kuhf 88.7 fm.
You can read a review from Houston Chronicle theatre blogger, Buzz Bellmont here.

Whatitdo?

We're down to a little under two weeks until go time, and things are kicking into overdrive. Right now I am splitting my time between rehearsal, promoting the show, and the Clark Kent job, and getting a little sleep in there when I can. In case you haven't noticed, we have a new header at the top of the blog as well as a classy new logo. I like them both, a lot. When I look at them, they say "Hey I'm a hip new theatre company; watch me, buy tickets to see my shows, and donate to me". I think it's the door. The door says it all. Once again, we owe these wonderments of design to the graphic prowess of Chelsea Aldrich. It's a lot better that the GIS and MS Paint hack job I did originally.

We finally got our posters and postcards in, and will be papering the town in the following days. If anyone wants some promo materials or know of a place we should put them, then by all means, holla. Also, if anyone out there would like to volunteer, we could use ushers and ticket takers, and people to dance for our entertainment during the tech-in. Volunteers will receive a free, prison-style, amateur tattoo from Will Morgan, as well as a monster taco. Please, keep getting the word out, and come see Mud. Everything's coming up Doorman!

Getting muddier

Man, that old expression sure is true. Time sure flies when you're under an inordinate amount of pressure to assure the high quality of every facet of a theatrical production as well as alert the public to its existence and convince them that they will somehow be enriched by their presence at said production, all in an extraordinarily minute time allotment. I'm not too worried. I do hope that people show up, however. I can't imagine performing this show to an empty house every night. Please help out and spread the word. If you are reading this, consider it a chain letter. If you approach 50 strangers and tell them to come see Mud, then good fortune will come your way. An angel will follow you for three days, pooping lollipops, or something of that nature. If you're on the Facebook, join the Doorman Actors Lab group. Go to the Mud Facebook event page and click that you'll attend, then send some invitations out. If you want some posters or postcards, or know somewhere to put them, holla. We're going to be doing some good work and I think it should be a positive contribution to the local theatre scene as well as initiate some dialogue regarding the style we are trying to promote. The trick is getting people there to see it.





Speaking of the local theatre scene, it has been a pretty active summer in Houston. This weekend sees the closing of Mildred's Umbrella production of Last Easter and Texas Repertory Theatre Company's Thoroughly Modern Millie. Also playing this weekend are The Catastrophic Theatre's Tamarie Cooper Show, The 10 x 10 festival at Country Playhouse, The Freneticore Fringe Festival, and the Bootown's Grown-Up Storytime on Tue. night. I'm sure I'm leaving someone out, and I'm not even mentioning the big kids. This is a huge, eclectic community of artists that Houston audiences are supporting. Granted, there could always be more support and it would be good to see more new faces in the audience and more crossing over of audiences. But there is a diversity present in the theatre community here that we should collectively celebrate; so many different theatres serving so many different audiences. I wish I had the time and the money to see everything, but alas, I have none of the former and little of the latter. I always get confused as to which is which on the former and latter thing, but it works either way.



I hope that there is room in this crowded collective for us to find a niche. Ideally, we want to produce shows that challenge audiences, but we don't want to drive them away. There was a time that I only wanted to do work so confrontational that the ultimate success would be to drive the audience to flee the theatre in indignation and rage. But where would it go from there? Unless one could come up with some ultimate message, one that an audience would only need to hear once and have their lives forever changed, what's the point in driving them away? It seems to be the equivalent of calling someone Nazis or Fascists in an argument: it ends the dialogue immediately and invalidates any point that follows. So it is a fine line that must be walked. Confront the audience, make them consider something they may not want to, but entice them to make the consideration.
Doorman is striving to work following the philosophy and ideas put forth by Howard Barker. Whereas many playwrights wish for a single shared, collective response from the audience, Barker believes a fragmented response is ideal. We shouldn't work to manipulate an audience. We should simply present the actions on the stage and let the observers take from it what they will.

"To chant together, to hum banal tunes together, is not collectivity."
-Howard Barker

Barker coined the term "Theatre of Catastrophe" for his brand of theatre and these are the principles we work with (unless we break them, in which case we probably meant it in an ironic way, which would violate the rules anyway unless we...forget it. We just admire the dude.) We hope to continue what Barker set forth as well as evolve with his ideas and develop our own tradition. If there is one thing I hope everyone takes from this it is this idea: come see our show. Seriously. I'll get you some Teddy-Grahams, and an EctoCooler. Just come. Rant over.

Here are a couple of links for those who aren't familiar with Mud or Fornes. Make sure to read all pertinent material as there will be a test.

The Fornes Wiki entry

A little about the Play (spoiler alert)