Google map of Bavaria |
Saturday, September 14, 2024
Summer vacation in Bavaria
Thursday, August 15, 2024
BANNED performance video from Edinburgh Fringe
Miss our Edinburgh fringe show? No worries, we got you! Here's the next best thing to being there.
BANNED Cast & Crew |
Each night we setup a video camera in a different location in Greenside's Willow Studio at Riddles Court. Our performance run was from August 2nd through August 10th, 2024. The timing of the show was sixty minutes to fit the Fringe format. The theater is an immersive black box with a 3/4 thrust. The stage size is 4x3 meters so there isn't a lot of room. We brought the piano façade to double as the bar and used 6 rehearsal blocks instead of chairs. At the end of the run we donated the set and props to a local theatrical school.
Thursday, August 08, 2024
The Scotsman review of BANNED the Musical
There’s no denying the sheer ambition of April Alsup’s big, bold musical, in terms of its web of intertwining storylines, its eclectic and diverse characters, and the sensitive issues of gender and sexuality it attempts to address. There’s no denying, either, the sheer panache and energy with which it’s pulled off by its eager, energetic, ten-piece Denver-based company – no fewer than nine actor/singers, plus Alsup delivering an impassioned keyboard part.
Alsup’s songs are strong and memorable, in nicely complex arrangements too – tunes are swapped back and forth in complicated ensemble numbers, and the cast offers glowing harmonies as well as vivid solos. Eli Harvey is a troubled and vulnerable Ana, with a voice as honest and open as their character, while Tracy Denver makes a petulant Denise, at first horrified at her husband’s new apparel interests though later easing reluctantly towards acceptance. Online dating gets a merciless take-down, while the pleasures of sex are dutifully celebrated.
Despite the stage-filling collection of disparate characters – nicely choreographed by Heather Westenskow – there’s nonetheless a convincing overall story arc, as well as fulfilling individual plotlines for several of them (even if others inevitably feel a little underwritten). Best of all, however, BANNED offers a deeply human perspective on issues of gender and sexual identity, its flawed characters navigating their own mistake-filled routes through pronouns, preferences and plenty more. It’s a complex, compassionate show of missteps and misunderstandings, and one that warmly applies the tolerance it requests of others onto its own damaged but likeable characters.
By David Kettle
Read the complete review
Friday, August 02, 2024
Opening the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival
This year we were given the honor of opening the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the song 'All we want is S.E.X' from my new musical BANNED. The event took place at the Greenside press launch on George Street and I was able to snap this picture right before the cast took the stage. There were twenty acts in the showcase and we were lucky enough to be given the opening slot this year. 🎭
Friday, June 21, 2024
Program for BANNED Musical at Fringe
Monday, June 03, 2024
Growing up in a small town
4202 3rd Avenue, Vienna, WV 26105 |
Friday, May 17, 2024
Green screens are fun
Chroma keying, is a visual effects technique of putting two or more images together based on their color range. The technique is used to remove a background from the subject of a photo or video. This technique can be referred to as color keying where a green (or blue) screen is used because they differ from the hue of human skin, but at the end of the day no part of the subject should have the color used as the background.
BANNED cast spotted at the Cavern in Liverpool |
We recently used a green screen to create a cast announcement for the musical BANNED! Going along with the shows theme of a group of individuals being banned, the green screen technique allowed us to create a "mugshot" of each of the cast members, as well as, to spot the cast in various locations in and around the United Kingdom leading to the Edinburgh fringe festival where the show will debut this Summer.
BANNED! cast announcement |