Andrew Hamm: the Bipolar Express

Ruminations on theatre, music, and just about anything else that crosses my bipolar brain.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

What's Next?

Grant Mudge complained today that I hadn't updated this thing in a while, so here's an update with no actual content.

Here's what next for Ange Hamm:

1) I'm thinking about changing the template on this blog. Just a different look for the hell of it. Your thoughts?

2) I'm mastering the very simply-recorded music from The Tempest, which was recorded early-20th-century style. We just set up a stationary mic and gathered around it, all playing at once, no multitracking or punching in. If an instrument was too loud, we moved it away from the mic. Pretty cool in theory, but some of the vocals are pretty rough in actuality. What do I do? Do I release it for sale, and if so, how do I secure the rights to the T-Bone Burnett, Sam Phillips, Mark Heard, Bruce Cockburn, and Tom Waits songs? If you go to my MySpace Music page, you just might hear a track...

3) I think I'm going to record a bunch of new material as a live album in a couple months. More on that as it comes.

4) I'm getting a heavy-duty poke in the brain to finish the musical I've been working on since 1995. Yes, 1995. It's a modern-day interpretation of my favorite play, Turgenev's A Month in the Country called A Week in the Suburbs. Pre-Chekhovian Russian angst meets suburban ennui. It's about half-finished. Then again, it's been about half-finished for about half a decade. What I need is a deadline. So, Grant, when are we producing it? ;-)

5) My back hurts.

6) Gearing up for Richard II. I'd give real money to learn what part I'm playing so I can get off-book. James Ricks is directing, which is really exciting. I enjoyed his work on Henry IV, Part 1 immensely.

7) Starting to work on As You Like It, which I'm directing next Spring. Getting very excited about it, actually. Five actors, lots of music. A bunch of people standing around in the woods talking.

8) The Richmond Shakespeare Training Department for 2007-2008 is looking very exciting indeed! David Sennett and Jennifer Massey will be teaching, and some other local talent with big names are in the hopper getting scheduled. I'm pretty jazzed. I really hope people come out. It's going to take a lot of word-of mouth spreading of the news, and it's really going to take some of the people who say they want to take a class actually doing it, unlike last year.

9) Staged readings? We're looking to assemble a Fall staged reading of Edward III, a play Shakespeare is now believed to have co-written. It deals with the grandfather of Richard II and is considered by an increasing number of scholars to be Shakespearean canon, bringing the total number of History plays to 11; 9 in the "Wars of the Roses" cycle. More on that as it develops.

10) I've been swayed to the Dark Side. That's right, I'm about 100 pages from finishing the fourth Harry Potter book. I totally get what all the fuss is about.

Happy now, Mudge?

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8 Comments:

  • At 8/07/2007 8:47 PM , Blogger Frank Creasy said...

    Well, I'm not sure I can comment on every item Nor should I try lest I be accused of being OCD...and as brevity IS the soul of wit - here goes:

    New look: Why not? But the star should stay!

    Tempest music: We all loved it, but the whole gaining the rights thing...such a hassle.

    Richmond Shakespeare staged reading: I hope I can be involved!

    Richmond Shakespeare indoor season: I hope I can be involved!

    David Sennett and Jennifer Massey teaching: Dear GOD I hope I can be involved!

    Your musical: You've got to bill it as "...over a DECADE in the making"...why, it's Mister Hamm's opus!

    And on that SOUR note, I bid you adieu.

     
  • At 8/08/2007 12:10 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    To be fair, my complaint was that all of my favorite blogs have been silent for a while: Hamm, RichmondVATheater, an aunt/uncle of mine who are touring the great lakes in their trawler (nice) and a one Scott Wichmann online.

     
  • At 8/08/2007 8:24 PM , Blogger Frank Creasy said...

    Grant doesn't seem all that happy, Andre! Methinks the artistic director doth protest too much!

    But soft, o Mudgian one...Dave T. is posting again! Scott, however, is heading up nawth for a wedding, and of course is trying to cast a show...so I wouldn't expect lots of Wichmann blogging for a bit. But, you never know, he's a man of many surprises!

     
  • At 8/09/2007 9:07 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Grant is going through "The Douglas" withdrawal I'm sure! And I am sad that I never got to kick his ass in a sword fight after the show on Sunday! He is just lucky it rained...that's all I can say!

     
  • At 8/09/2007 8:06 PM , Blogger Frank Creasy said...

    Good point Jacquie, benefit of the doubt should be given. Once you've had the adrenaline rush of sword fighting in a kilt, nothing else can compare. Grant, word to the wise: If pulled over by a policeman, keep the anti-Semitic epithets in check, capiche?

     
  • At 8/10/2007 6:56 AM , Blogger Andrew Hamm said...

    Finished Goblet of Fire and started Order of the Phoenix yesterday. Dang, it gets dark in the space of a page turn, doesn't it?

     
  • At 8/14/2007 10:45 PM , Blogger pnlkotula said...

    Andrew, really?? Just turned on to HP? Yay for you!! I can't WAIT for Jamie to be old enough to read them.

     
  • At 8/23/2007 12:55 PM , Blogger Andrew Hamm said...

    Finished Deathly Hallows two days ago. How freaking good is this series??? I'm percolating a long critical piece on all seven books for this blog.

     

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