Green Room On Air with Ray Renati

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!
A little help please: if you enjoy this podcast, or even if you don't, please consider, becoming a patron by subscribing for $5 a month. I will be providing exclusive content to all of my subscribers!
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.

Kevin Spacey's Foibles, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld

This week I take a peak, so to speak, at Kevin Spacey and his recent debacle. Since I recorded this episode yesterday, many people are now saying that Spacey regularly abused his power on the set of House of Cards and created a “toxic” work environment on the set through a pattern of sexual harassment and assault. I don't want to believe this. Kevin has been a great representative for all actors for many years. To think that he may have behaved in ways that hurt numerous people is difficult for me to accept. 
On a lighter note, this episode also talks about the return of Curb Your Enthusiasm to HBO! After a six-year absence, the half hour program has been resurrected by Larry David and the executives at Home Box Office. I also take a look at the iconic sit-com, Seinfeld and analyze the similarities and differences with Curb. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David have created multi-million dollar enterprises with the two comedies. So, you better listen, or NO SOUP for YOU!
 
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