Thursday, December 31, 2009

How you can help us

Conflict of Interest theater company is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Conflict of Interest theater company may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Go here to donate.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Marlene Clary


Sadly, we have to report that founding board member and spiritual guide to the company Marlene Clary passed away this morning after a long illness. Marlene was a teacher, director, actor, choirmistress, wife, mother, and lover of art and theater.

It's not easy to distill into a single post what she meant to this company, and to its members, so I wont insult her memory and even try, not just yet. She will be missed.

A wake will be held on Saturday, December 26 at Duffy's funeral home (9th Street, just east of 4th Avenue in Park Slope) from 12pm to 3pm and from 5pm to 7pm. A funeral service will be held on Monday, December 28 at 4pm at Old First Church (7th Avenue and President Street in Park Slope), followed by a reception at the church.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

it's all about perspective...

...and keeping a safe distance until they use the airport showers.

From the NYTimes City Room blog:
Two German tourists, Steffen Bromberger, 31 and Simone Ziebell, 29, were among the passengers who had been camped out at Kennedy Airport since Sunday night, when their return flight to Germany was abruptly canceled. Their luggage, however, did make it to Frankfurt — leaving them without provisions –- and the airline did not provide food or lodging. “In five years, we’ll be laughing about this,” Mr. Bromberger said. “But I do think it’s important to get home and get new underwear.”

another cherished memory takes a bruising

Oh, Olivia. You will be missed.

Monday, December 21, 2009

thought food

The Economist examines the phenomenon of, er, pop culture phenomena:
In “Formal Theories of Mass Behaviour”, William McPhee noted that a disproportionate share of the audience for a hit was made up of people who consumed few products of that type. (Many other studies have since reached the same conclusion.) A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read “The Lost Symbol”, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it.
So we can take solace in the fact that the six people who came to see Wrestling the Alligator this summer were aficionados. (But since The Third Seat sold out, those people were all idiots.)

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

new podcast episode

There's a new episode of the COI podcast available for streaming and download! Giverny Petitmermet returns to present two original works: Computer and Cleopatra. There are three ways to listen:

(1) Stream the episode below
(2) Visit our podcast page and listen online: conflicttheater.podOmatic.com
(3) iTunes users can click this link



Friday, December 11, 2009

Bresson week part 5

The distance Racine demands is the impassable distance which separates the stage from the audience. Distance of the play from reality, and not the distance of the writer from his model(s).
[Robert Bresson]


*(In his journals, "models" = actors.)

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Bresson week part 4

Not to shoot a film in order to illustrate a thesis, or to display men and women confined to their external aspect, but to discover the matter they are made of. To attain that “heart of the heart” which does not let itself be caught either by poetry, or by philosophy, or by drama.
[Robert Bresson]

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Bresson week part 3

In a mixture of true and false, the true brings out the false, the false hinders the belief in the true. An actor simulating fear of shipwreck on the deck of a real ship battered by a real storm – we believe neither in the actor, nor in the ship nor in the storm.
[Robert Bresson]

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Bresson week part 2

CINEMA films are historical documents whose place is in the archives: how a play was acted in 19… by Mr. X, Ms. Y.
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An actor in cinematography might as well be in a foreign country. He does not speak its language.
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To think it more natural for a movement to be made or a phrase to be said like this than like that is absurd, is meaningless in cinematography.
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No marriage of theatre and cinematography without both being exterminated.

[Robert Bresson]

Monday, December 7, 2009

random french art quotes

It's French cinematography week here at conflicted, and we'll be featuring the thoughts of Robert Bresson. Here's your thought of the day:
A film cannot be a stage show, because a stage show requires flesh-and-blood presence. But it can be, as photographed theatre or CINEMA is, the photographic reproduction of a stage show. The photographic reproduction of a stage show is comparable to the photographic reproduction of a painting or a sculpture. But a photographic reproduction of Donatello’s Saint John the Baptist or of Vermeer’s Young Woman with a Necklace has not the power, the value or the price of that sculpture or that painting. It does not create it. Does not create anything.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

the coi podcast -- new episode available now

The latest episode of the COI podcast, available today, features Ben Sampson's short story "Liquid Paper Love Crush."







Listen right above, or you can download the episode (and subscribe) here. If you have iTunes, click here.