Green Room On Air with Ray Renati

Being the Best - The Seduction of Popularity

What does it mean to you to be successful? Must you be well known? 
Music Intro by Carly Ozard
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An Actor on the Road - Auditions in San Francisco - The Goat and Others

My day in San Francisco auditioning for plays including the goat by Edward Albee.
 
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Ray on the Road- an Actor Tells All

Tonight we had our preview of you are my sunshine at the Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco. I tell you the ins and outs of all the BackStage. shenanigans, and why one should avoid Thai food right before going on stage.
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My Rant about Trump - Heisenberg at A.C.T. - You are my Sunshine at The Phoenix Theatre

My Web Site: Rayrenati.com
Wave Radio Web Site: Raysgreenroom.com
DONATE to Wave Radio: https://www.patreon.com/raysgreenroom
ALL MUSIC BY the MAGNIFICENT CARLY OZARD: http://carlyozard.com/
 
 1) A special Trump Rant - Enjoy
 
 
2) HEISENBERG
At A.C.T.
by Simon Stephens
Directed by Hal Brooks
March 14 – April 8, 2018 (closed)
A.C.T.’s Geary Theater
415 Geary Street
 
Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes, with no intermission
 
In a bustling London train station, free-spirited American Georgie unexpectedly kisses mid-70s British butcher Alex, and sets his world reeling. When she turns up in his shop a few days later, he is suspicious. Is she really attracted to him, or is there a longer con on the cards? As Alex is drawn into Georgie’s anarchic world, his conventional life becomes chaotic, uncertain, and undeniably richer.
In this “vibrant and emotionally charged” (The New York Times) new play, Tony Award–winning playwright Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) crafts a comedy that rethinks the polar magnetism of opposites attracting, as well as the conventions of modern-day playwriting. With its perfect collision of strangers and strangeness, Heisenberg was an electric hit on Broadway from one of theater’s most original voices.
 
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3) YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE
You Are My Sunshine is a fact-inspired, multi-decade character study of a man of mythic American proportions whose passions and demons lead to tragedy, narrated in Woody Guthrie-style folk songs, accompanied by Bay Area music favorites Chris Haugen (guitar) and Trevor Marcom (vocals/guitar). This ensemble drama was spurned from a long-worn, much-hushed rumor in Kelli Kerslake Colaco's family that her great grandfather, Ernest Fletcher Hodge (a semi-pro baseball player with the Detroit Tigers), lost his mind one hot summer night in Blytheville, Arkansas and killed his wife, his mother-in-law and then himself. Part John Steinbeck, part Coen Brothers, this intriguing play focuses on the search for truth behind a dark family legend vis-à-vis an ancestor and the women and children in his life. See You Are My Sunshine at San Francisco's Phoenix Theatre.
Written by: Kelli Kerslake Colaco
Music and lyrics by: Kelli Kerslake Colaco
Music Arranged by: Chris Haugen
Directed by Kelli K. Colaco and Cristina Anselmo
An Equity Workshop Production
A fact inspired, (Steinbeck/Coen Brothers tinged,) multi-decade character study of a man of mythic American proportions whose passions and demons lead to tragedy, narrated in Woody Guthrie style folk songs. #The truth will set you free.
Cast/Company:
Tim Fullerton, Andrea J. Love, *Trevor Marcom, *Valerie Weak, *Kelli Kerslake Colaco, *Ray Renati and Elliott Hanson, and Chris Haugen
Chris Haugen on Acoustic Guitar
http://www.youaremysunshine.brownpapertickets.com
 
 *Members of Actors' Equity, the union of professional actors and stage managers.
 
 

A Day in the Life of a Thin Skinned Man

Listen to me reminisce about the last 24 hours of my life. RayRenati.com RaysGreenRoom.com

An Actors Travels and Troubles

This is my first podcast delivered straight from my car as I drive to an audition. I tell you about my experiences over the weekend in local theater and local additions. RaysGreenRoom.com RayRenati.com thePear.org

Bonnie Raitt Live in Concert and "Hamlet" at National Theatre London

This week I saw two shows I loved!
The GREAT "Bonnie Raitt" at the San Jose Civic
"Hamlet" with National Theatre London
 
BONNIE RAITT
 
In March of 2000, Bonnie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; this was followed by her welcome into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame, along with her father, in June 2001.
After the Fundamental tour, she went back into the studio with her veteran road band to record 'Silver Lining', released in 2002. Featuring Bonnie's stunning interpretation of the David Gray-penned title track, the Grammy-nominated "Gnawin' On It," and the hit single "I Can't Help You Now," 'Silver Lining' was considered by many critics to be one of the best albums of her career. She promoted the album with a lengthy world tour that included her Green Highway Festival and an eco-partnership promoting BioDiesel fuel, the environment, and alternative energy solutions at shows and benefits along the way. In 2003, she released the retrospective 'The Best of Bonnie Raitt' on Capitol.
Raitt stayed busy with more guest appearances, including the stunning duet "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" on Ray Charles' final release 'Genius Loves Company', which won the Grammy award for Album of the Year, and a duet on the Grammy-winning album 'True Love' by Toots & The Maytals. Her 1989 breakthrough album 'Nick of Time', was remixed for surround sound, and released by Capitol Records in 2004 as a DVD-Audio, garnering a Grammy nomination in the newly created category, Best Surround Sound Album.
In 2003, she also participated in Martin Scorsese's acclaimed PBS series, 'The Blue's, performing two songs in Wim Wenders' film, 'The Soul of a Man', and joining the all-star cast of 'Lightning in a Bottle', the live feature concert film on the Blues directed by Antoine Fuqua. She also contributed songs for two Disney movies, 'The Country Bears' and 'Home on the Range'. She played guitar on a track on Stevie Wonder's album 'A Time To Love', and appeared in the TV/DVD tribute 'Music l0l: Al Green'.
'Souls Alike', her first album ever to bear the credit "Produced by Bonnie Raitt," debuted at #19 on the Billboard 200 in September 2005, eliciting widespread critical acclaim and propelling Raitt back onto the road. She was also selected as the inaugural artist for the VH1 'Classic Decades Rock Live!' CD/DVD series. 'Bonnie Raitt and Friends' featuring Norah Jones, Ben Harper, Alison Krauss and Keb' Mo' was released in August of 2006.
In the years in and around the release of 'Souls Alike', she co-headlined with Jackson Browne and Keb Mo' part of the historic "Vote For Change" tour leading up to the 2004 Presidential election, and then again for the 2008 election, staged a series of benefit concerts and fundraising receptions to help get out the vote and encourage voting in key Democratic Senate races. In 2007, Bonnie joined her MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) friends Jackson Browne and Graham Nash to launch a campaign to prevent the legislative bailout of the nuclear industry and developed www.nukefree.org, a website that serves as an information and networking hub for safe energy activists. In August 2011, MUSE mounted a very successful benefit concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre to raise funds for Japan disaster relief (following the devastating earthquake, tsunami and meltdown of the Daichi-Fukushima nuclear reactors earlier in the year), as well as non-nuclear organizations worldwide.
https://www.bonnieraitt.com/
 
HAMLET
by William Shakespeare
Academy Award® nominee Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s Sherlock, The Imitation Game) takes on the title role of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. 
Now seen by over 750,000 people worldwide, the original 2015 NT Live broadcast returns to cinemas.
As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father’s death but paralyzed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state. Directed by Lyndsey Turner (Posh, Chimerica) and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions.
One of the most visually and atmospherically stunning productions I’ve ever seen, of anything, ever. - Time Out
http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
 
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For Alex Bennett's Ramble go to gabnet.net. 
Much Love!
Ray Renati
rayrenati.comraysgreenroom.com

Richard Fouts - Author of "The Birthday Lottery"

SYNOPSIS of "The Birthday Lottery"
 
On December 1, 1969, five fraternity brothers gather together to listen to the U.S. Army's draft lottery, which uses birth dates to determine the order in which they will be called to serve in Vietnam. Broadcast on national television and radio, the brothers anxiously listen as dates are drawn, one-by-one, over an excruciating 90-minute period. When the last date is drawn, the brothers react to the realization that their lives have been changed forever. They also begin to turn on each other.
 
Richard Fouts' THE BIRTHDAY LOTTERY Opens At Z Space, 3/29
Today's teenage boys worry about a lot of things, but being drafted to serve in a foreign war isn't one of them. At least, not yet. The Birthday Lottery, Richard Fouts' new play about the Vietnam draft, opens on March 29, 2018, directed by Suze Allen. It runs for four performances only, March 29-April 1 at Z Space, 450 Florida Street in San Francisco.
"This play highlights, in real time, what young men felt as they listened for their birth date to be announced over radio and television on the night of December lst, 1969" said playwright Fouts in a recent interview. "The order your
birthday was drawn became your draft number. A young Roger Mudd was the only broadcast journalist who covered the event, who calmly told America's young men that if they had been born on September 14th, they'd be the first to go."
Actor Nick Coleus, who plays David, commented in the play's background video, "You can feel the tension of what it must have been like to live through that excruciating night. Though it occurred 50 years ago, it feels relevant for today's young men, especially since there appears to be no end in sight around Iraq and Afghanistan. And now North Korea is in the news every day."
Playwright Richard Fouts recalls the moment when he decided to write the play. "With the 50th anniversary of the draft approaching, I've been listening to Vietnam vets tell their stories of how their lives were abruptly interrupted with the Army's sudden draft. Many of them were just 19 years old at the time. Hearing their vivid memories of that night convinced me that their stories belonged on the stage, in an intimate setting that only live theater can deliver."
Place: Z Space Main Stage, 450 Florida Street, San Francisco 94110
Opens: Thursday, March 29, 8:00 pm.
Runs: March 29, 30, 31, at 8:00 pm, Sunday, April 1 at 2:00 pm.
Tickets: $25 general admission, $15 seniors and students, $10 veterans (of any war, not just Vietnam)
Learn more & buy tickets at 866-811-4111 or https://www.thebirthdaylotteryplay.com/
All shows at Z Space are ADA accessible
For details, go to http://www.zspace.org/birthdaylottery
 
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"Ragtime" at Berkeley Playhouse: https://tickets.berkeleyplayhouse.org
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Music by CARLY OZARD: http://carlyozard.com/
 

An Actor's Life - As Good as it Gets, a scene from the film

This week I am working on a scene from the film "As Good as it Gets". We are working on it in a very in conventional way: mimicking as closely as possible the actor in the film. In my case it's Jack Nicholson. rayrenati.com

An Actor’s Day

Rehearsing for acting class. Today in in class we will each be performing a monologue From a movie. The interesting thing is that each of us have been assigned to mimic the actor in the movie as much as possible. Usually acting teachers want you to make everything around and not to mimic anyone. But this is a different exercise and I am looking forward to it a lot. I have chosen to do a monologue from the movie the Big Lebowski from the Coen brothers.