Stage Play Status Update: Bullet Point Edition

Here's the latest status update on Joel Suzuki and the Wavemakers, the musical stage play adaptation of Volume One.

- A friend had recommended a book called Writing Musical Theater, but it was out of my budget - $106 (!) for the hardcover version and $71 (!!) for the e-book. But then, to my surprise, she sent me her copy! So I've been reading it and learning a lot. Super grateful for her generosity.

- I believe we have our first crew members! One is the makeup artist who worked on Hold My Beer, and the other is a fellow musician with venue production experience who will be running sound and/or lighting (to be determined). I met the latter last year after they found my business card on the ground outside their apartment (not kidding). If you folks are reading this, hi! And thank you for your interest in the project!

- I've been watching more musical stage plays and making-of-musical-stage-plays for educational and inspirational purposes, including Hamilton, Frozen, Diana, and Broadway Idiot (the making of Green Day's American Idiot play, since the play itself isn't available). They were all highly impressive productions; you could tell a TON of work, talent and passion went into each of them. Obviously, we will have a mere fraction of their budgets, but I hope to come at least somewhere close to the amount of joy they were able to generate.

- This coming Sunday, we will have an informal table read of the script! Not with anyone who will be in the actual cast, but just friends and family filling in so I can get a sense of what the script sounds like out loud as well as the total run time. Pictures to follow in a future status update post. Stay tuned!

Inspire Vancouver

If you are an arts-focused nonprofit organization (or an individual creator who can work with such an org) in the Vancouver, WA area, there is good news for you!

A couple of weeks ago, the city officially opened the application window for its new Inspire Vancouver grants program, which provides funding to organizations, schools, and individuals for the purpose of supporting and advancing arts, culture, heritage, and science initiatives in the area. This program replaces the Culture, Arts, and Heritage grant program that helped to fund the production of Hold My Beer (a film project that you may or may not have heard of).

If you think you could benefit from such a program, I encourage you to check out their website here. All the information you need can be found on the site, including eligibility requirements and application questions. There are also a few more grant workshops scheduled for this month that you can attend to learn more before applications close on September 10.

I won't be applying during this year's cycle, but you can bet I will be near the front of the line next year once I have my ducks lined up for the Joel Suzuki and the Wavemakers stage play. If you apply this year, best of luck, and if you heard about the program here first, tell them Brian sent you!*

* It will not help your application

SPS Gig @ Dante’s Tomorrow!

This is a reminder (partly to myself) that yes, my band Second Player Score is sometimes actually still a band.

In fact, we might be even more of a band now than in recent years. By my count, this is our *counts on fingers* THIRD SHOW this year already, which is one more than we played all of last year.

So if you are in the Vancouver, WA/Portland, OR area (or will happen to be passing through), come check us out! The other bands we'll be playing with are great, so it will be a fun night. Plus, Dante's has awesome pizza.

Hope to see you there!

Anime Roundup

It's time for another Anime Roundup!

The Ramparts of Ice

A slice-of-life romantic dramedy about an introverted teenage girl (who, if you ask me, presents as autistic) and her friends and classmates as they navigate typical high school challenges while becoming romantically interested in each other, as teenagers are prone to do. Fun fact: the manga the show is based on started out as a self-published webtoon (H/T: Wikipedia). Go, go, indie creators!

Kill Blue

An action-comedy about a 39-year-old professional assassin who gets transformed into a middle schooler (long story), this one is sort of like, I dunno, 13 Going on 30 (but in reverse) meets Sakamoto Days, perhaps? Still, though, it does its own thing, which is a lot of fun. Speaking of fun, fun fact: apparently, the reason so many anime and manga have the word "blue" in the title (Blue Box, Blue Exorcist, etc.) is because Japanese culture associates the color blue with the concept of youth and adolescence (H/T: Reddit). I had not known that!

My Dress-Up Darling

A slice-of-life romantic comedy about two high school classmates: an attractive and popular "it" girl and a shy, reclusive boy who crafts traditional Japanese dolls. They end up bonding over cosplay and then...fall in love?? Maybe? You'll just have to watch it and find out! Things seemed to have sort-of-more-or-less wrapped up after season two, but there's more to the manga, so I'm hoping they make a third season. Fun fact: this show is one of the few I've seen that use actual brand names, like Canon and Don Quijote (a popular Japanese chain of discount general stores).

Akane-banashi

A coming-of-age dramedy that takes the "daughter avenging her father" trope and adapts it to the world of rakugo, a traditional form of Japanese storytelling (instead of finding and killing the person who killed her father, the protagonist--Akane--goes on a mission to reach the highest rakugo rank that her father failed to achieve after he was unfairly expelled from the profession). Fun fact: the writer of the manga the show is based on had no prior knowledge of rakugo and originally created the character of Akane for a manga about ballet (H/T: Wikipedia).

Scarlet

A feature-length film that takes the "daughter avenging her father" trope and, well...basically plays it straight, sending its titular heroine--a medieval princess--on a quest to kill her uncle who killed her father in order to usurp the throne. It does put its own spin on it by incorporating elements of purgatory, time travel, and surrealism, and it has some pretty stunning visuals. Fun fact: it reminded me a bit of my own manga-style comic book series Glorified with its kick-butt female main character and a companion who starts out as an annoying sidekick but eventually turns into a trusted friend who tries to help the main character overcome her anger.

Until next time, mata ne!