Pretty Pieces

Five years ago I wrote Pretty Pieces.

It is a very difficult and demanding play.

Pretty Pieces is a dark and twisted domestic tragedy. A brother and sister find themselves living in desperate circumstances. The past is a puzzle. Dark and threatening, the family history looms over the present. Something horrible happened a long time ago. The audience never finds out what that horrible thing is. What they do find out is the impact this post traumatic stress condition has on the doomed couple. The play chronicles their destruction and not the simplistic reasons for it. Incapable of saving themselves, the brother and sister are marched to their terrifying destiny. The girl is trapped by her anxieties in her run down apartment. She tries to unlock the door to the past. She can't remember why she turned out the way she did. The boy remembers all to well and runs away to drugs and street sex.

The girl becomes unhinged when the boy tells her he is moving out of the apartment to live with an older man.

Filmmaker Leigh Ann Bellamy of Curious You Productions is directing and starring in the filmed version of the play.

Leigh Ann and Zorba Dravillas starred in the original version of the stage play.

To purchase a copy of the script please go to Pretty Pieces or to find a royalty free monologue from Pretty Pieces please check out Teen Monologues or go to Amazon Buy Pretty Pieces from Amazon

To Purchase Performance Rights

Click the paypal button below to purchase as many performances as you need. By clicking on the paypal button you are saying yes to the Royalty agreement spelled out below

1.1 The Author (Charles Robertson) is sole owner and Author of the play of which is wholly original with the Author and has not been otherwise copied in whole part from any other work; the play and use of the play as herein contemplated do not violate, conflict with, or infringe upon any intellectual property rights of any person, firm, organization, corporation, or any other entity.
1.2 The Author (Charles Robertson)has sole and exclusive rights to enter this Agreement and has the rights authority to grant the rights granted by Author herein
2.1 The Author (Charles Robertson)hereby grants to the Producer the right to produce and present the play
3.1 In consideration for the right to produce the play, the Producer agrees to pay the Publisher (Bottle Tree Productions) $20.00 per performance. Upon payment the contract shall be considered signed.
3.2 The Producer shall not have the right to produce any additional performances of the play unless paid for.
4.1 The Producer, recognizing that the play is the exclusive creation of the Author (Charles Robertson), agrees that it will not make or permit to be made any additions, omissions and/or alterations of the play, including dialogue, and stage directions without prior written consent of the Author. Any violation of this paragraph will be sufficient cause for Author to immediately terminate all rights of the Producer hereunder.
4.2 The Producer acknowledges it is the Producers responsibility to obtain the the rights to any music mentioned in the text of the play. The granting of the rights to produce the play does not include the rights to the music mentioned in the stage directions of the play.
5.1 The Author (Charles Robertson) shall receive billing credit in all programs, posters, flyers, advertising and publicity of the play under the control of the Producer. The Author shall be accorded billing with the respect to the play on a line by itself, immediately following the title of the play. Said billing shall be in a type size no less than 50% of the size of the title. No other person receiving billing shall receive larger type than Author.
5.2 The Publisher (Bottle Tree Productions) will be sent a copy of all promotional materials as part of the agreed to contract. Any digital recording of the play must be granted by the Publisher before any performances. The Publisher upon permission will be sent a copy of the video-
6.1 All rights in the play not expressly granted by the Producer in this agreement are reserved to the Author (Charles Robertson) for the Author’s uncontrolled disposition and use.
6.2 The Producer acknowledges and agrees that any copyright of the play, including any extensions or renewals thereof throughout the world, shall be exclusively in the name of the Author. (Charles Robertson)
7.1 The Producer agrees to the purchase of three scripts from Bottle Tree Productions (www.bottletreeinc.com)or (amazon.com or amazon.uk)
8.1 The Producer shall email info (at) bottletreeinc (dot)com with the show dates, times and location.
8.2 The Producer shall pay for scripts and performance rights before the first rehearsal. (amount/($20 per performance) no later than date of first rehearsal.

We will email you once you purchase performance rights to ask for times and dates

Movie Acting and Theatre Acting

What are the differences between acting for the camera and acting on stage? On stage an actor has to be big. On stage an actor looks small, so the actor has to reach the back of the theatre, to the last seat in the house to be heard. Visually their movements must be big. They must be 'on' for the entire time they are onstage. When they are speaking, they must cheat out towards the audience to be seen and heard. I have a little demonstration video that shows the differences.

Acting for the camera involves stillness. Every movement is magnified. In film, when 24 frames/second are used, any sudden movements can be jarring. An eye blink can send audience members into nausea. There is a narrow vocal range, compared to the stage, for film actors. The sound is edited into a narrow decibel range.

Onstage, you need to be loud. In film-no. 

Acting for film usually involves a bunch of takes of a particular scene. They are usually short, and your best acting bit will not likely be used. The reason for this is that there are so many variables affecting the shot, that it is likely how you look in a particular clip as opposed to your acting.

In stage acting, you need to know the whole play if you have a lead. Having a lead in film means a bunch of unconnected scenes. On stage you would have one chance that night. Your focus for two hours has to be very strong. You have to remember a lot of lines and deal with the mistakes that invariably occur during a performance. 

If you make a mistake or someone else does in filming, the director will just reshoot.

One thing that film and stage acting have in common, is that the actor usually has to 'face out' when delivering lines. In film the camera will acts as the audience, and the angle is shot from where the audience would be. On stage, the audience is the camera, and since they can't move, the actor has to cheat towards them when delivering lines.

In both medium, the audience wants to see the actor's face. They don't want to see the back of their heads because the back of people's heads are usually not very entertaining. 

There are obviously many more differences and similarities, but I thought it would be interesting to give a demonstration of a monologue by Shakespeare. One delivered for the stage and one delivered for film by the same actor. On film, stage acting looks very exaggerated. On stage, film acting looks very boring. But the techniques and art of stage acting is much easier to transfer to film than the other way around.  It is always easier to pull it back than to ramp it up. 

Film is the director's medium with the actor only one small part of the process. On stage the actor has a much bigger role to play. 

For the actor, film is a series of repetitive sequences of acting. For the actor, stage acting is a rush of excitement for two hours, buoyed by the instant gratification of audience response. There is no audience response in filming. The actor needs to wait months or even years to see themselves in front of an audience. 

On film your performance can be relived again and again. On stage, it is only a memory to those people that were there at that particular time.

Film acting

Theatre acting

Articulation-Bottle Tree Productions

A comment was made about my obsession with articulation at the expense of other forms of acting techniques. I certainly appreciate the dialogue. The comment suggested that articulation alone does not work in big theatres. It sure doesn't hurt. An audience wants to hear the story. They want to hear the words the writer wrote. At least I do. Sometimes, a small theatre can have worse acoustics than a large one. Sometimes the theatre has an echo, or dead spots. The audience can affect the actors words, often swallowing them up with their presence. What sounds good in rehearsal can be inaudible during performance.

But what to do in a big theatre, assuming that the acoustics are fine. Well, turning out is a good start. Turning out aims the voice at the audience. Use your diaphragm, the muscle below your rib cage, to push the words out. You can't move your upper jaw but you can certainly drop your lower jaw when speaking. An open mouth will effortlessly take your words throughout the theatre. Imagine an egg in the back of your throat to keep it open during speaking(singing as well). Learn to breathe and to relax so that there is no tightness in the avenue of your vocal arsenal that will inhibit speech.

Practice in the theatre, on stage, before the show. Warm up vocally. This will allow you to be able to find the range of the house. If you have lines gto be delivered to the wings, or to the back of the stage, make sure you are that much stronger in vocal delivery. One reason, working on your consonants is important in theatre is that articulation of the words with emphasis on the consonants takes a lot of breath and energy. It is a workout in itself. This trains you for work in bigger theatres.

And one simple trick to let your voice carry to the back row, is to look at the back row when you are delivering your lines. We all know about actors looking over the audiences heads. One reason is to keep in the moment without succumbing to an inadvertent connection with an audience member. Another reason is to aim that voice at the back row. It is like throwing a ball. If you do not look at the person you are throwing the ball to, it is very difficult to get the ball to your partner, unless your name is Dan Marino. We look at who we are talking to, and our brain alters our vocal volume without us really knowing it. If you want to reach the back row of a big theatre, make sure you are warmed up, you articulate, drop your bottom jaw, use your diaphragm, keep that egg in the bag of your throat, face the audience and look over their heads to the back of the theatre.

What is ironic is that more amateurs will likely play in big theatres than professionals, at least in Ontario as 800 seat old opera houses have been converted to community theatres, while professionals work in smaller venues due to the unfortunate costs in maintaining professional theatres.

The Black Swan struggles to keep afloat. Bottle Tree Productions Movie Review

The Darren Aranofsky directed The Black Swan is a fascinating look at the disintegration of a personality.
The ugliness inside the beautiful cover was made memorable in Roman Polanski's disturbing 1965 film; Repulsion which starred Catherine Deneuve. Natalie Portman's beautiful ballerina Nina has a repressed personality which cracks under the stress of her playing two different leads in a ballet; The Black Swan and the White Swan. The camera is close up on Portman's beautiful face creating a claustrophobic feeling. Her careful control slowly cracks, like the mirrors she is obsessed with. Barbara Hershey is a wonderful worn beauty as the controlling stage mother. You can see why Portman is drowning psychologically.

Mila Kunis is charismatic as Nina's rival. Vincent Cassel is wonderfully narcissistic as Thomas Leroy, the Artistic Director. Perhaps more of a stereotype than a fully fleshed-out character, but compelling nonetheless.

The film is a horror film with special effects, but it is psychological horror, an interior horror. Nina is running from herself.  We see the world through Portman's eyes, and so the audience cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is not. As she is overwhelmed with dark fantasies that threaten to destroy her, Nina battles for her life against the monster within. Portman portrays Nina's obsessive compulsive behaviour with scratching and her eating disorder truthfully. For dancers, the person in the mirror is so important and so controlling, that it owns them, it can destroy them. In the end that piece of mirrored glass makes Nina's performance as The Black Swan a once in a lifetime experience.

Though I liked this film there are caveats.

This film is more film than movie, more art than craft. While Portman walks a psychological tightrope between sanity and the abyss, the film walks a tightrope between silliness and wonderfully disturbing. As an audience member you will make the decision whether the film is laughable or whether it works as a personal horror story. For me, Nina's transformation at the end, into a bird is pretty unbelievable. The end as well is very stagy. However it was compelling until it actually dealt with the performance on the stage.

The film seems to have some great ideas that remain only great ideas, perhaps because they weren't carried out as well as they could have been, weren't as convincingly realized on the screen as they might have been. They had a tight schedule for filming and it shows.


Rating ***stars

Group Sales for Romeo and Juliet

The Wellington Street Theatre Project is offering discounts to groups of 6 or more that wish to attend Romeo and Juliet at Sydenham Street United Church, Wednesday July 27th at 7:30 pm.

William Shakespeare's popular story of young love as told by many of Kingston's top young actors. Take part in this great event by gathering a group of friends and saving up to 50 percent on ticket prices.

Live Theatre is a great opportunity to get out in the community, see old friends and make new ones. To get started go to Group Sales  Live Theatre is a great opportunity to get out of the house and check out some of the best young talent Kingston has to offer.

Stay after the show and meet with the actors!

We have general seating. Doors open at 7 pm.