In my other life as a creative director (link to my other life») I often have to become a temporary expert in someone else’s field, their nonprofit, their business. I’ve delved into an enormous array of subjects, ranging from writing simplified explanations of ETFs for Morgan Stanley (so their customers can understand what the heck they are) to writing playful descriptions of spa treatments for Marlene Weber in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Sometimes you do that as an actor also. Industrials. So yes, today I am a renowned expert on web conference set up, management, and etiquette. At least until we wrap.…
Weird things happen when you perform, like you write a solo comedy show and someone who sees it books you as a singer/guitarist. This event looks really fun and the other performers look super talented and interesting. Amanda Miller is the host (she’s been hosting this for five years now) and she and I will both have our shows at Pittsburgh Fringe next month.
Here are the details:
2A
27 Avenue A
NYC
7:30pm
An evening of comedy, literary readings, music & trivia
Hosted by Amanda Miller
Dream themed trivia by Amy Remland
COMEDY!
Amanda Miller & Rachel Evans
READINGS!
Tara Isabella Burton
SheilaJoon Ostadazim
Esra Gaffin Dayani
Helena Smith
“Because attending the Fringe Festival is so much like unearthing buried treasure, it’s important to have a few shows in particular to orbit your Fringe experience around. Xela Batchelder, Pittsburgh Fringe’s executive director, had a few suggestions for me when I had the opportunity to speak to her about the upcoming festival:
Voice of Authority, an autobiographical one man show by Dean Temple, covers a period of the artist’s life in which the US Department of Justice served him with a $19,000,000 lawsuit. It’s comedic in nature, and is somehow also – mysteriously – about music and matzoh ball soup.”
I like would not have considered entering the lottery for this festival, but I met its director in Edinburgh last August and she was pretty cool, and also interested enough in the show’s concept that I was curious to see how it would play in Pittsburgh.
Networking used to be a real struggle for me, and it’s still not so easy, but I’ve been to so many festivals by myself in the past four years, and if you don’t talk to people they get pretty isolating. Better to bite the bullet, and I’ve met many cool people because of it.
And now I’m going to a place I’ve never been before because of it also.…
And I’ve rewritten it again, because that’s what I do over and over again. I had amazing input from several friends who came to the SOLOCOM premiere of the show, as well as my director Courtney, and I knew immediately what they were talking about.
That’s a fascinating aspect of this process, the rewriting, relearning, and reblocking as I ready the show for Edinburgh in August. It’s akin to sculpting, each time a little more is peeled back and I reveal more of the story. More than I’m comfortable with, so we might just be on the right track.…
I’m very lucky to have worked on this project with artist Aviva Rahmani. Her Facebook post is copied and pasted below:
Very pleased to have learned this evening that a portion of The Blued Trees Symphony will be an audio installation for the “Precarious Sounds//Sounding Sanctuary” conference at NYU this February. The submission description was, “During the 2016 American Election, artist Aviva Rahmani wrote the libretto and score for a coda to her project, The Blued Trees Symphony, a work based on legal premises that challenge the right of natural gas corporations to take private property by eminent domain condemnation to expand pipelines. In 2017, lyric sopranos Rahmani, Debra Vanderlinde and actor Dean Temple recorded the vocal portion. That libretto was subsequently integrated with Maile Costa Colbert’s acoustic composition.”…
Okay, so I have been a fan of Martin Guitars since I was in high school and my friend Coop got one. That guitar had something on the low end that no other guitar I’d ever played had, this bold, pronounced boom and trueness in the note that’s stayed with me until now (it was almost that resonant). I scrounged up enough money two years ago to get my first Martin, which I love, so much so that I started playing a lot again, and played out in public for the first time in a while. And then when I posted a video of one of those outings, I hear from Martin themselves. Sometimes social media surprises the heck out of you. (Side note, I’m using the guitar strap I stole from Coop in high school in this video.)
Earlier this year I got it into my head to take a solo show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and it seemed like a great idea except for not having a solo show to perform. Nine months later (what an interesting time frame) my show Voice of Authority has been accepted into SOLOCOM, the solo comedy festival at the People’s Improv Theater. It will premiere November 18 at 2pm.
It’s about getting sued by the US government for $19 million, so you can already tell it’s hilarious. And it has a super hero in it named Zachary. And by superhero I mean he’s an 80-year-old, retired ballet dancer. He saves me.
I have several people to thank. First Peter Michael Marino whose class got me on track to get this written after years of dabbling with it, Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj who made me write the original messy rough draft during my residency with Rebel Theatre, Alisa Kwitney who always gets stuck helping me with my writing and always stays in a good humor anyway, Phoebe Leonard who read all 789 drafts of the thing, Alex Tuller who read none of the drafts at Peter’s advice but has been supportive all along the way, and of course Zachary, who died in 2004. He was my mentor. He changed my life even if he really pissed me off when he did. And they say anger is a good source for comedy, right?…
I love the spontaneous creativity that comes from performing readings of new plays, or any plays for that matter. Monday I got the chance to work with Everyday Inferno Theatre Company again in the gallery space of Access Theater, where Everyday Inferno has its residency. The play, Quicksand by Regina Robbins, based on the novel by Nella Larsen, is about Helga, a woman who is half African American, half Danish, and her struggles with her beliefs, her identity, and the expectations of the world around her in the South, Harlem, and Copenhagen – a fascinating piece with complex characters and surreal elements. It’s an ensemble piece and the company had a lot of fun playing through their various tracks, many of us playing seven or eight characters (not Helga of course).
Everyday Inferno is a smart, inspiring company. I encourage you to see their work.…
A couple of years ago artist and curator Linda Weintraub introduced me to Aviva Rahmani and I got to take part in her Blued Trees installation/performance piece at the International Studio & Curatorial Program. Aviva is an amazing artist who created this work to fight corporations installing pipelines across public and private land, often through the use of eminent domain. It’s critically important work and I’m proud to have taken part.
Aviva recently asked me to record the voiceover track for the piece she has planned for the Queens Museum. I’m very excited to continue my involvement with this project and will update when I know more. In the meantime you can learn more about this work on Aviva’s website and the Blued Trees Facebook page.…
As part of my residency with Rebel Theatre Ensemble, I wrote a solo show about the last two years of my mentor’s life. That mentor was Zachary Solov, choreographer of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and a former dancer with Balanchine’s first touring company and Ballet Theatre.
This coincided with a $19 million lawsuit filed against me (and others) by the FTC and DOJ.
This year I determined to whip what I wrote for Rebel into performance shape and take it to Edinburgh in 2018. With the help of Peter Michael Marino (my workshop teacher at the PIT), Alisa Kwitney (who gives me more writing support than I deserve), Phoebe Leonard (who understands the importance of drinking during a writing meeting), and Alex Tuller (who has supported my every effort on this front), I’ll present a 30 minute version of it tonight at the PIT Loft at 154 W. 29th Street at 7:30pm.
“Here Lies Joe is a successful character driven story which creates the narrative via those characters. It’s not a rich tapestry of characterization, which would be defeating, but elemental, providing just enough to move the story along and provide the viewer with a connection.
“I give it a full 5 Daggers, both for being the wonderful film it is and giving me so much to talk about; now that’s the definition of film.”
I serve on the board of directors of Spark Media Project, which teaches media arts to underserved youth and gives them a forum to create film, television, radio, VR and more. Very excited to repost their recent success from the Tribeca Film Institute:
Spark Media Project’s “Santa Woman” was selected from hundreds of submissions from across the country as one of the top five finalists in the Tribeca Film Institute’s “The America I Am” Competition, which recognizes young filmmakers “that express unique perspectives on the American experience.”
The film was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival red carpet premiere at Ellis Island on April 19th, 2017.
This past Sunday I took part in a reading of MB in White Plains before a crowd of about 150 or so. The play is a hip hop musical, a modern retelling of the Moses story in the context of the intersection of corporate America and hip hop culture. It’s a compelling modern slavery tale, and I feel privileged to have played a part in it.
Pictured above, left to right: Christian Lee Branch, Samantha Clark, Darlene Fontaine, Raven Marie Valentin, Russell Ferguson, Dean Temple, and Adam Mace, director…
The 2017 Draft Film Festival in Derry, New Hampshire gave Here Lies Joe its Outstanding Short Drama Award last week. So in addition to the beautiful letter from a mother posted in a previous blog entry, Mark Battle brings home an award. I love the cast and crew of this film.…
“Temple’s solid, almost soothing, reading voice provides a steady guide through Stone’s text… Overall, though, Temple turns in a proficient performance.”
I’m pretty sure that no one has ever called me soothing before.
As a performing artist your greatest hope is that you will reach your audience in a meaningful way, sharing something with them about what it’s like to be human and trying to find our way through life. This note was passed along to Here Lies Joe’s director Mark Battle at the Draft Film Festival last week. As Mark said, “This is better than any award could ever be.”…
Okay, so I have been a fan of Martin Guitars since I was in high school and my friend Coop got one. That guitar had something on the low end that no other guitar I’d ever played had, this bold, pronounced boom and trueness in the note that’s stayed with me until now (it was almost that resonant). I scrounged up enough money two years ago to get my first Martin, which I love, so much so that I started playing a lot again, and played out in public for the first time in a while. And then when I posted a video of one of those outings, I hear from Martin themselves. Sometimes social media surprises the heck out of you. (Side note, I’m using the guitar strap I stole from Coop in high school in this video.)