Better Living Through Baseball
So, what says Happy Father's Day more than 9 naked actors showering on stage?
Today, the family (all big theatre goers and also major baseball fans) went to see Take Me Out at ART. LOVED it!
"Take Me Out" imagines what might happen to his team if the world’s best baseball player woke up one morning and announced that he is gay. The team? The Empires (gee who could they be talking about?). The player? Awfully Arod-ish although I think that was this particular casting.
So yes, there are nude shower scenes. Three of them. The first one makes a statement, the second (the whole team together) was awfully pretty, but pretty pointless, and by the third (and only one that the play really needs) we were kinda desensitized. Not to mention that I was more interested in the mechanics of a working team shower in a black box thrust stage...
I thought it was very well written. And while a non-baseball fan might enjoy the play I don't see where it would hold much interest for them. My favorite character was the outted player's financial manager. Once assigned to his account he becomes obsessed with baseball. He develops a love for everything about the sport: its numbers, its rules, its rituals. His material is some of the funniest in the play and takes us back to whenever it was that WE discovered our love of baseball and tapped into its collective subconscious ("I'm having memories that aren't even MINE"). It was beautiful.
And then to come home and see the end of the M's sweeping the Mets! Bliss.
Top it off with BBQ ribs and a soap on a rope and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD! I love you!
Today, the family (all big theatre goers and also major baseball fans) went to see Take Me Out at ART. LOVED it!
"Take Me Out" imagines what might happen to his team if the world’s best baseball player woke up one morning and announced that he is gay. The team? The Empires (gee who could they be talking about?). The player? Awfully Arod-ish although I think that was this particular casting.
So yes, there are nude shower scenes. Three of them. The first one makes a statement, the second (the whole team together) was awfully pretty, but pretty pointless, and by the third (and only one that the play really needs) we were kinda desensitized. Not to mention that I was more interested in the mechanics of a working team shower in a black box thrust stage...
I thought it was very well written. And while a non-baseball fan might enjoy the play I don't see where it would hold much interest for them. My favorite character was the outted player's financial manager. Once assigned to his account he becomes obsessed with baseball. He develops a love for everything about the sport: its numbers, its rules, its rituals. His material is some of the funniest in the play and takes us back to whenever it was that WE discovered our love of baseball and tapped into its collective subconscious ("I'm having memories that aren't even MINE"). It was beautiful.
And then to come home and see the end of the M's sweeping the Mets! Bliss.
Top it off with BBQ ribs and a soap on a rope and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD! I love you!
posted by K-Lyn @ 11:25 PM
6 Comments:
At 7:48 PM,
Neel Mehta said…
The lead actor in the San Diego production didn't specifically remind me of any active baseball player, but did have a Tiger Woods vibe.
Nude showering... kind of a novelty at first, but then you understand why it HAD to be there. That whole play is about intimacy, and it wouldn't have worked without a true trusting locker room atmosphere.
At 11:06 PM,
K-Lyn said…
True. I mean, the scene in the movie version would have cut our view at the torso and provided a couple of butt shots on the way out but given that theatre is a different medium it worked.
Stage Manager nightmare:
SM: Standby showers. and go.
(nothing).
At 12:37 AM,
Neel Mehta said…
That's the time to improvise. Get a bucket and sponge, then go on stage and soap 'em up and down. The nightmare becomes a dream?
At 12:02 PM,
Anonymous said…
I DID work on a show this season with an actualy working shower!
(Wash that man right out of my hair....)
Only one tech did it not work.
At 11:16 PM,
K-Lyn said…
The fountain in Romeo and Juliet was my only experience with water features in shows. I'll never forget the smell of the Wisk-based blood.
At 12:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Our trick was getting her out of the microphone, stripping down a little, into the shower, washing her hair, getting her back into the microphone all in a very short dance break. And only a few times did those dancers have to hold the pose a little longer than usual to wait for her.
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