Green Room On Air with Ray Renati

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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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.

Kelli Colaco - San Francisco Bay Area actor, director, writer, producer

Kelli Colaco’s writing credits include the plays Underbelly, The Meeting, You Are My Sunshine (O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist) and the web series “The Meek Shall Inherit.” She is a founding member of The Independent Shakespeare Company. She is currently a Teaching Artist at Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, CA. She received an M.F.A from the P.T.T.P. (The Professional Theatre Training Program) at the University of Delaware following the actor training program at P.C.P.A (The Pacific Coast Conservatory for The Performing Arts) in Santa Maria, CA. She is a member of the 72nd Street Gang, a collective of dramatists who meet and share work in New York City.Colaco spent the better part of 2016-17 as a writer of the documentary “The Mad Hannans,” directed and co-written by Martin Shore, now circulating film festivals throughout the country. She recently finished a two-and-a-half year periodic Teaching Residency on Acting and Playwriting at Madrone Continuation High School in San Rafael CA. Her senior class writers of the short play The Break made it into the Finals of The Bay Area Young Playwrights Competition produced by The Marin Theatre Company.Colaco and her Alma Theatre Company will produce her play You Are My Sunshine at The Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco in April 2018.Kelli is a member of Equity and British Equity.
 
"You Are My Sunshine" 
by Kelli Colaco
at the
Eureka Theatre in San Francisco, CA
http://www.phoenixtheatresf.org/Preview 4-19-18the show runs through 4-29-18
Possible extension

Emily Corbo - actor, singer, artist based in San Francisco

Emily Corbo is an actor, singer, and art maker based in San Francisco.
A commercial actor by day and theatrical by night, you can find her running to and from auditions and rehearsals throughout the Bay Area. When she's not running to her next audition, she spends her time playing music, teaching figure drawing and scouring her local library for plays and books.Favorite roles include Chrissie in "Religomania The Musical" at SF Fringe Festival and Jean in "Dead Man's Cell Phone" at SF City College.
She holds a BA in Art History and Studio Practice from San Francisco State University. You can catch her in a workshop production of "The Birthday Lottery", a new play by Richard Fouts, opening the last weekend of March at Z Space in San Francisco.
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www.rayrsgreenroom.com

Suze Allen - playwright, director, co-founder of 3Girls Theater Company

Suze Allen is a resident playwright at Three Girls Theatre and a co-founder of the company. 3Girls Theatre Company is proud to be one of the very few theater companies in the nation that produce only plays by women playwrights. 3GT seeks more than “gender parity” in the theater: the company has a vision of a world where stories told by women are heard onstage just as often as stories told by men.  In other words – 3GT wants to help change our cultural mindset!
Suze is a published author, teacher, dramaturg and director with credits on both coasts. She was the creator of Fresh New Works San Francisco, The Maine Playwrights’ Lab and Short Works Festival, Artistic Director for the SF Writers and Actors Lab, Director for Fertile Ground Writing Studio and the resident Dramaturge and playwriting instructor at The Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco. Her work and the work she has directed has played the Dramatists Guild’s SF Footlights, Tides Theatre, Brava Theatre, 450 Geary, The Marsh, Intersection for the Arts, Noh Space, The Phoenix, OutNorth Contemporary Art House in Anchorage Alaska and The San Francisco and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. Her show THE MANIC MAMA DANCE premiered at the Marsh Café and played Birthfest 2008. Suze co-authored the book, The Time-Starved Woman’s Guide to Emotional Well Being with SD Shanti and advises writers through her company Manuscript Mentor.
Suze will be directing a new play called "The Birthday Lottery" by Richard Fouts. The show opens on March 29th, 2017. The location is ZSpace in San Francisco, CA and it runs for 4 nights.
Please visit Ray's Green Room to hear more episodes of this podcast or listen on Itunes.

Kevin Spacey's Downfall, The Right Way to Audition, TV Today

-It looks like Kevin Spacey's career might be over. Apparently, he has used his status to harass numerous people over the years. It's rumored that he might be investigated by British police for other acts of sexual harassment. This is such a sad ending to a great career. Of course, I feel for the victims, and I also feel for Spacey. Everyone has been destroyed by his behavior including himself.
-I also talk about the right way to audition. Is there a right way? I think so.
-Finally, I explore my opinion on the changing state of television right now. In my opinion, the existence too many programs are having a diluting effect on overall quality.
I hope everyone had a spectacular Thanksgiving!
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Web Site: raysgreenroom.com
My Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/raysgreenroom
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Artist: http://audionautix.com/
 

Hamlet at the Arabian Shakespeare Festival

If you have some time this weekend go see Hamlet with the Arabian Shakespeare Festival. It’s playing at the Royce gallery in San Francisco. It’s an excellent production of Hamlet that you will not want to miss. Simply look up Arabian Shakespeare Festival on Google and you’ll be able to purchase your tickets. Also, we had a great staged reading of the play Shooting Star at the Phoenix theater in San Francisco last weekend.

Ray on the Road - Staged Reading

I will be performing in a staged reading of the play called shooting star. The performance begins at 3:30 PM today Saturday, November 11. It will be held at the Phoenix theater on the corner of Mason and or Farrell in San Francisco. It’s right next to the nightclub Ruby Skye. It should be a lot of fun. My website is RayRenati.com.