Macau, China – Just announced to the cast and crew of the Cirque Du Soleil show Zaia that it is closing in Macau and last performance date will be Feb 19, 2012. Official announcements are currently being made by Cirque publicly. Zaia opened [...]
ZED had it’s last performance December 31, 2011 at Tokyo Disneyland. I was lucky to travel to Tokyo in October 2011 to see this Cirque Du Soleil show and meet the artists and musicians. The show and music were so fantastic. Consensus is that this was one of Cirque’s best shows. It’s an artistic crime [...]
Barbara Walters interviews Cirque Du Soleil founder Guy LaLiberte. “One of the things that makes billionaires successful is their reaction to failure.” – Robert Frank, Wall Street Journal That is such a great quote. Maybe not in the context of billionaires, but in the context that to be successful there is usually a lot of [...]
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Great interview with Danny Elfman on his music scoring of the Cirque Du Soleil show “IRIS” showing at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, CA.
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Cirque Du Soleil ZAIA Performance on China TV. This was a promo excerpt shot for Chinese television — it is not a live shot from the ZAIA theater in Macau.
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Email question received: Hi Mr. Askland, I am trying to break down the storytelling structure of Fiddler on The Roof. I would like to talk to you, briefly, about who is the antagonist. What is Tevya’s want. What’s his need. What you think the filmmaker’s statement is. Norm Jewison said Fiddler’s about trying to maintain [...]
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Cirque Du Soleil’s ZAIA show promotional video released September 2011. Zaia is the resident show that opened in August 2008 at the Venetian in Macau (SAR) China. Acts in the video include Straps, Trapeze, Hand to Hand, Gypsy, Skate, X Board, Aerial Bamboo, Lion Dance, Firedance and of course Zaia’s dragon. Music composed by Violaine [...]
August 28, 2011 was the 3rd anniversary of Cirque Du Soleil’s ZAIA show in Macau (SAR), China. Above is one of the new promotional posters. You can click it for a larger view. Cirque Du Soleil ZAIA band Maria Elena Medina (cello, viol), Olivier Milchberg (guitar, plucked strings, flutes), Gabriel Cloutier (singer), George Manz (key [...]
I’m working on a theater piece and developing plot points between scenes and characters. It’s like being a detective going through the dramatic arcs of a scene and bridging the scenes together. Then matching motivation and obstacles so they are balanced and realistic.
Oriental Land Co., Ltd. Cirque du Soleil Theatre Tokyo “ZED” to Close URAYASU, CHIBA—Oriental Land Co., Ltd. and Cirque du Soleil have reached anagreement to indefinitely close the Cirque du Soleil Theatre Tokyo, located in Tokyo Disney Resort®. Performances of ZED will end on December 31, 2011.
I was looking up information about setting up a staged reading for a new musical. Found these staged reading guidelines from Actor’s Equity. http://www.actorsequity.org/docs/codes/Stage_Reading_Guidelines.pdf Actors’ Equity Association will permit Equity Actors (“Actors”) to participate in Stage Readings upon completion of the attached forms and under the following guidelines:
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Great Stephen Schwartz interview with Ernie Manouse. Lots of insight into musical theater and composition for music theater.
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June 23, 2011 I had the experience of watching Cirque Du Soleil’s show VAREKAI in Manila, Philippines. I’m familiar with the music and had seen videos of the show but to watch it in person was electrifying. My favorite parts were of course the music (another Violaine Corradi creation), the guy with the lightbulb on [...]
Cirque Du Soleil celebrates it’s 27th anniversary.
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Sesame Street roasts the Spiderman Musical with their own “Spidermonster”. They make light of the many technical problems and also a reference that the music is Bono’s first Broadway musical. Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark opened on Broadway to bad reviews, then closed for a revamp and reopened to somewhat better reviews.
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Neil Patrick Harris’ 2011 Tony Awards Opening Number.
Continue reading about Neil Patrick Harris’ 2011 Tony Awards Opening Number
Zarkana opens in mid June 2011 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. “Merde” to all the cast and crew over there. We’re all very excited to see what the New York critics say. Looks like a fantastic show!
Sunday March 20, 2011 artists and techs from the Cirque Du Soleil shows ZAIA, KOOZA and ZED took a group photo on the ZAIA stage at the Venetian in Macau, China. We (the ZAIA crew) were happy to host them in Macau while they awaited updated reports on current events in Japan following the tsunami. [...]
Email question received: Dear Conrad – I enjoy your blog. It’s a great chance for outsiders to get an inside look at what it’s like to be in a Cirque production. I write because I recently posted a video on Cirque’s Facebook Casting page and have two questions with respect to the use of various flutes in ZAIA. [...]
Continue reading about Email Q&A: ZAIA and Cirque Flute Scores
On Sunday March 20, 2011 the Cirque Du Soleil show ZAIA celebrated it’s 1,000th performance. The ZAIA cast had a big party at the Venetian casino in Macau along many of the artists and crew from the ZED and KOOZA shows. Here are some videos from Aomen (Macau) TV that I believe were released in [...]
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