Director Catherine Hardwicke's new movie is written by and about women. As an advocate for women in Hollywood she practices what she preaches. Flailing TV shows remain on the air in this new era. Two Chicago institutions bring dance and sketch comedy together.
Hubbard Street Dance and Second City take on 'The Art of Falling'
Creating cultural hybrids happens a lot these days among performing artists. Opera, theater and dance companies, along with music ensembles of all sizes, often collaborate on new works that can attract wider audiences.
But two companies from Chicago — Hubbard Street Dance and the famed Second City comedy troupe — have created something truly original. Their show, “The Art of Falling,” melds modern dance and sketch comedy. Its premiere was last year in Chicago.
Glenn Edgerton is artistic director of Hubbard Street, and Carisa Barreca is a writer and member of Second City. When they joined us at The Frame studios, they talked about the origins of their comedy/modern dance hybrid, and what the two camps had to learn from each other.
Interview Highlights:
Glenn, from the outside this seems like a shotgun marriage, but obviously there was a point of inception where somebody said, Comedy and modern dance go together like a hand and a glove. What was that initial conversation, and what was the inspiration for bringing these two companies together?
Edgerton: Kelly Leonard of Second City approached us. Second City had done a project with the Lyric Opera in Chicago and they had a wonderful experience. From what I understood, Second City wanted to do something like that with dance.
With the Lyric, they created a program that was making fun of opera. But, with us, Second City created story lines. So even though we do poke fun at dance, it's more that they use dance as a vehicle to tell a story.
What convinced you that it could work? Did you have to do a staged reading, or see it up on its feet to make sure that there was a proof of concept?
Edgerton: I had no idea it was going to work, and we didn't know that it was going to work until the preview the day before. The first joke happened and everyone onstage got excited. You could see in everybody's eyes the energy starting to build, and it was really a roller coaster of momentum.
As the show went on, everyone got more and more excited, and it was really fun to see that we did have something that was going to be fun and that the audience was going to be touched by it as well.
Carisa, for this production, what did the Second City members have to do in terms of dance training? How did that introduce you to what it means to be a dancer, and how did it affect your comedy?
Barreca: [laughs] Well, we went to a few of their company classes, but we kind of got thrown in to the mix during rehearsal. Our first day we learned the opening number — that was the first day of rehearsal for all of the actors, and it's a huge opening number with tons of energy. It's lovely and beautiful, and I actually appreciate that there weren't many concessions. He just put us in place, told us what to do, and it was wonderful. [laughs]
Glenn, basically the opposite question for you — what did the dancers in the company learn about comedy? Did they study doing improv or comedy sketches? And, if so, how did that inform their dancing in this piece?
Edgerton: Prior to getting into the process of producing the piece, we had several sittings where we did improv together, where Carisa and several other actors came in and worked with the company. It has enhanced their dancing, because we're both used to doing improv, but in different ways. So we took on their theory and their method for doing improvisation, which is to say, "And yes."
Barecca: Yes, and?
Edgerton: Oh, excuse me! See, I knew I was going to get it wrong. To say, "Yes, and," as opposed to "Yes, but..." or "No," or "I don't know" or "I can't." You just say, "Yes, and," and you have to go with it or fall with it.
And the idea for the title of the piece comes from that. When you're falling, if you try to restrict yourself, you'll hurt yourself. And it's the same in improv — if you try to restrict yourself, if you put a negative on it, you will not roll with it as well and the improv won't be as good.
One thing I noticed when I saw a video from the premiere is the way in which people watch dance and comedy in ways they don't typically. And what I noticed is that people noticed the grace of comedy, and they laughed at the choreography. I assume that's part of the intention.
Barreca: Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's our overall intention just to present an amazing show, which I believe we have. But I think we saw so many parallels between our two art forms that we could draw on. There are so many intricacies of comedy that you wouldn't usually think about, and there's just so much broadness in dance that we also wanted to bring out.
Hubbard Street and Second City's collaborative piece, "The Art of Falling," is at the Ahmanson Theater from Nov. 6-8.
Why are TV networks waiting to pull the trigger on struggling new shows?
They are as familiar a sight in the fall as the World Series, leaves changing color and Halloween trick or treaters: TV show cancellations.
At this point in almost any other TV season, a number of shows on the broadcast networks would have been canceled. But these days it’s not happening. At least not yet.
ABC’s “Blood and Oil,” which has been a true flop in the ratings, but rather than being canceled, it’s still on the air. Instead of canceling the show, ABC has decided to reduce the episode order from 13 to 10.
So why are so many poorly performing shows not getting the hook? To explain, we’re joined by Scott Collins who covers TV for the L.A. Times and wrote about the issue in today’s paper.
Catherine Hardwicke's 'Miss You Already' is just her latest challenging project
Director Catherine Hardwicke has not shied from challenging projects. She collaborated with an actual 13-year-old writer when making the 2003 film, "Thirteen." The short, "Til It Happens to You," addresses sexual assault on college campuses. And let's not forget the first "Twilight" movie: a high-stakes adaptation looking to please die-hard lovers of the book.
Fans should be up to their own challenge, though, when they watch Hardwicke's new movie, "Miss You Already" — it's an emotional ride.
Morwenna Banks' screenplay tells the story of two women, Milly and Jess, played by Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore, respectively. Lifelong friends, their relationship takes a new turn when Milly is diagnosed with cancer.
"Miss You Already" doesn't try to sugarcoat the experience: there are scenes that delve into the details of cancer treatment, and Milly undergoes a double mastectomy, causing her husband to lose sexual interest in her. Moreover, Milly is, in Hardwicke's description, "wild, and does a lot of selfish stuff." But through it all she hopes that Banks' screenplay keeps things "light and funny."
Catherine Hardwicke shared these thoughts and more when she spoke with The Frame's John Horn.
Interview Highlights
This is a movie that stars two women, directed by a woman. Did you try to make sure there was a finger on the scale to make sure there were opportunities for women to work behind the scenes on this film?
Oh yeah. We’ve got a great costume designer, Claire [Finlay]. Our production designer, our sound department. We tried to fill it out and have a beautiful, diverse crew behind the camera.
We couldn’t find too many in the old English system that were in the grip and electric department, but hopefully that’ll change. (Editor's note: the film was shot in England.)
Kind of like the U.S. that way.
Exactly. But worse.
It’s very easy for people in the States at least to label this a chick flick, which I know is completely unfair, but how do we talk about movies like this without putting labels on them?
I’ve seen the movie with quite a few audiences in four different countries now. I’ve seen men really getting into the movie. One critic told me he didn’t want anyone to see him crying. I looked over at the guy next to me and he was really emotional. I looked over at the guys beside me, and even the cheese nacho guy was into it. Tears were dripping into his cheese nachos. Real men cry too. Real men have feelings. There could be a cathartic experience.
And it’s a comedy, too. Morwenna and the actors keep it light and funny. That’s kind of what you hope for in life. When your best friend is having a down moment, you’ve gotta get in there and make them laugh.
This one guy said to me, “I called my best friend and told him, ‘We’ve gotta bury the hatchet.’” People have decided to go on crazy road trips after the movie. So those are some beautiful, human experiences. The movie’s for everybody – family and friends and lovers and husbands. And there are some hot guys in here too that are very dimensional.
There's a scene where you can see a wall on which someone has written: “Before I die…” Does that exist?
We were going to work one day and I looked out of the window and I saw that wall. At lunch I said, “Hey Toni, you want to skip lunch today and shoot a special scene by the wall?" ... I found out that wall is made by this cool artist called Candy Chang. Now people all over the world in 80 different countries have put up that wall.
Toni Colette’s character writes, “I want to fear nothing.” Do you identify with that sentiment as well?
I do. In some ways, even when I read this script, I was kind of scared. Making a movie like this on this subject is a little terrifying and daunting. I thought about what people would say. But then, I like to be scared, in a way. I like to embrace a challenge. My first movie, “Thirteen,” I wrote with a 13-year-old girl. I don’t know if that had ever been done. She was in the story too. Then I tackled beloved books like the Bible [in "The Nativity Story"] and “Twilight.”
I think people probably feel stronger about “Twilight” than the Bible.
More people have quotes from “Twilight” on their butts than the Bible.
That’s sad in so many different ways. The last time we talked, you were very outspoken about gender and pay inequality in Hollywood. I’m curious: as somebody who’s been outspoken, what have people said to you about your stance on this issue?
With this film, I’ve been all around the world. It seems like all these awesome journalists are getting supportive and excited about this issue. There’s just a tidal change that people care. The millennial generation, they care about values. Unconscious gender bias is a term people are talking about now. So I think it’s an exciting time for this. I’m feeling a lot of positivity in the last months. So much has been happening — Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep talking about Rotten Tomatoes and how skewed the critics are. So many are being really supportive. I feel like Hollywood can change.
But will it change?
I think it will change because I’ve been now at these conferences where men in very high-level positions – all the studios and networks – want to change. People realize, Okay, I have had this crazy unconscious gender bias where I labeled men one way and women the other for the same thing. Companies like Google that are doing UGB training sessions and changing the culture of the country, to its advantage, where profits are increasing. It’s easy to change once you make the decision. Where you say, “I’m going to hire an equal amount of women as men.”
I think it’s easy to embrace this new idea. It’s not even new. It’s getting ahead of the curve. Yes we’ve got the ACLU situation and speaking in front of the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission], which I’m doing. We have that stick that might beat people into line. But we also have people getting inspired and wanting to be early adaptors, and not be the last people on the right side of history. So I think there’s a change going on that’s really exciting.