Lauren makes things. @wecandance-blog - Tumblr Blog

Lost Moon Radio goes to Broad Stage in October

Lost Moon Radio has two shows Oct 7th at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. I’m directing. It stars Raina and Jenna aka The Sapphire Sisters. It’s going to be rad. TICKETS HERE >>

#lostmoonradio

Ex-Girlfiend is all online

Hey! The web series I directed, ex-girlfiend, is now all online. You can check out all the episodes here. I’m really stoked about it. It’s like a ghosty version of the odd couple.

Hamlet-Mobile is running now around LA!

Hey friends. My immersive show Hamlet-Mobile is currently running around LA through November 19. It’s Hamlet in a cargo van and it’s nuts. Learn more about it and snag tickets at hamletmobile.com.

#hamletmobile shakespeare hamlet losangelestheater immersivetheater

Tickets are onsale for the fall LA run of my show Hamlet-Mobile

Hamlet-Mobile is back and tickets for our Los Angeles run are on sale now. They’re extremely limited. Snag ‘em today to ensure a ride in the van.

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

If you don’t know about Hamlet-Mobile, go here.

Viva la van.

#movingshadow hamlet van capitalw

Movies were experimenting with color at least a century ago, and the 1930s saw the rise of the Technicolor process in films like Gone With The Wind and The Wizard Of Oz. But color did not really become an industry standard until about the 1960s or so. That was the last decade when movie trailers and

I obsessed with this!

Lauren Ludwig (Hamlet-Mobile, Lost Moon Radio) is the director and adaptor of And The Drum, a movement based immersive in LA's Koreatown that is one part dinner party and two parts exploration of the poetry of Martha Marion. The piece, performed at Marion's own home, is one of the more stunning pieces of work to be staged on LA's immersive scene in the past year. Ludwig speaks with host Noah Nelson (@noahjnelson) about her process for And The Drum in this fast paced, insightful discussion. All that and the usual news and notes.

Noah Nelson of No Proscenium has me back on his excellent podcast about immersive theater. We talk about And The Drum and go deep into process. Fun times!

My first TV direction premieres March 3rd on truTV

Hey -- I directed a series of comedy shorts for truTV’s new show Late Night Snack. They premiere March 3rd. For those who haven’t cut the cord, check when the show is on. I did them with my sketch group Lost Moon Radio. We’re having a premiere party on the 3rd. You should come! Info here.

My new immersive show is open!

Hey guys! I just directed a new immersive show in LA. Here’re all the details:

Come Over For Dinner. And The Drum is immersive dance theater fused with a dinner party. LA-based performer and writer Martha Marion’s poetry is the main dish, served up in the rooms of her real life home in Koreatown. As you eat, drink, and connect with the performers, poetry echoes in every corner of the house, juxtaposed with contemporary choreography, improvisation, and original music. Brought to you by the award-winning team behind Hamlet-Mobile, And The Drum is a new site-specific experience that invites you to unlock secrets, share your own, and participate in an unexpectedly intimate evening. Dinner + drinks served 21+ February 26 - March 19 Koreatown, Los Angeles Exact location revealed when you buy your ticket. Tickets and more information: www.capitalwperformance.com

dartyhall

“5 Pilgrims” Fundraising Screening + After-Party!

Darty Hall cordially invites you to a screening of its first feature film 5 Pilgrims, the story of a group of thirty-somethings who are knocked out of complacency when one of them announces he’s becoming a Catholic priest.

Come support the filmmaking ensemble Darty Hall at this fundraising screening and after-party, featuring music from the band All Walls. After two years of hard work, we’re thrilled to share our movie with you at this afternoon of drinks, music, and cinema.

Our film is finished, but its journey is just starting. Through this fundraising screening and party, you will help us raise the money needed to get 5 Pilgrims into festivals and find distribution. For your generosity in supporting our company, let us entertain you with this unique film and a concert by the band who provided much of the music featured in 5 Pilgrims.

Doors open at 2:30pm Screening at 3pm After-party from 4:30-6pm

Parking available on the street for $5 in the lot behind the theater.

FOR TICKETS GO HERE.

wecandance-blog

I’m pleased to announce that the feature I directed will be shared with the world. I’m really proud of this film and excited to raise the funds needed to keep sharing it. Hope you can come Feb 13th!

“I am not a maker.”

Super interesting article about the people who consciously do not make stuff: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/why-i-am-not-a-maker/384767/

Moving Posters

These are awesome...

dartyhall

Start. Stop. Start Again.

I am best at beginnings. When I was single, I loved the fluttery first weeks of dating. I have a million old screenplays that stop on page 30. I adore TV pilots, but rarely finish a series. I crave newness. When I worked a 9-to-5, I would regularly take different routes home so I wouldn’t get bored. I don’t listen to albums the whole way through – I prefer mix tapes where the artist and genre radically change from track to track. I crave surprises.

This is why I’m naturally suited to film sets. A wise director, Joan Darling, once told me that film sets are the “Super Bowl of serendipity.” If you stay nimble, you’ll find unexpected presents and epiphanies around every corner. Each day presents a fresh set of impossible challenges waiting to be turned into gifts. If you’re someone who is able to harness the power of the unexpected, you’ll see your film evolve into something spontaneous and fresh. I get high on that process. I duck, spin, and dodge through the set, eyes on the end zone, glory in my sights.

If shooting a movie is like playing in the Super Bowl, then editing a movie is being dragged off the field, shoved into a cubicle and told you can’t see other human beings until you analyze all the game statistics by hand with no calculator. Or rather, that’s how it started to feel 9 months into working on 5 Pilgrims. Once we had the film in the can, I fell into a well of exhaustion and resistance. How was I ever going to sort through all that footage, much of which was improvised? Once I dragged myself off the floor and started editing, I realized this was to be a marathon, not a sprint. My spirited on-set energy was no help to me now. I needed another kind of energy.

My friend who practices Ayurveda talks about humans having three kinds of energy – creation, destruction, and sustenance. Creation energy helps begin things (see above.) Destruction energy helps end things; as anyone who dated me in my twenties knows, I have no problem with this kind of energy. Sustenance…that’s the hard one. I’m the person who doesn’t remember to eat and would pay someone else to brush my teeth every night if that was a thing. I’ve had some of my worst fights with Frank, my fiancée, about how often I do (or don’t do) the laundry. Habits and regular patterns don’t come naturally to me.

Editing is all sustenance energy. Day after day, you have to go into the dark cave, stare at the screen and chip away. You do a screening, get notes, and go back into the cave the again. Day after day. On and on.

When I was actually editing, I loved it. I’ve got a secret introvert inside of me, so I enjoyed the quiet collaging of putting shots together. What I didn’t enjoy was dragging myself back to the same computer every morning to face the same challenges as the day before. What I didn’t enjoy was focusing on only one project for almost two years. Where does the spark that inspired you back at the beginning go after two years?

My relationship with Frank is the longest I’ve ever had. I remember the year where we shifted from the honeymoon phase to something deeper. When our delusions and projections about the other person cracked – as they must – and we both had to look at who the other one really was and fall in love with that person. I understand why couples break up at this point.

Creative groups have the same trajectory. I developed 5 Pilgrims with Darty Hall on a rush of excitement. It was our first major project together. I loved the actors, I loved the creation process, I loved the characters we were developing, I loved driving up to a mountain together…and then things got harder. We had a rough and tumble time on set. We learned about each other in new contexts. Projections broke. Now we’re past the honeymoon phase – what comes next?

It’s the same with 5 Pilgrims. It began as a beautiful ideal in my head. Then we shot it, and I was excited about all the surprising, wonderful things we filmed. And then I got into the editing room, saw what we’d really captured – strengths and flaws – and I had to mourn the loss of the movie I thought I was making. I had to dig in for the harder, longer work of putting together a real film. Ideas and dreams are easy. Crafting something tangible and good is nearly impossible.

But somehow you do it. Somehow I did it. Scene by scene. Day by day. Hard won lesson after hard won lesson. I got a lot of help, support, guidance, and pep talks from generous friends and Darty Hall members. And somehow that well of sustenance energy started to fill up.

I’m happy to report that the movie is finished, Darty Hall is still together, and Frank and I are getting married this January. And when I look at all these things – the real versions, not the ideals I started with – I am surprised. It’s a different kind of surprise. It’s not the fluttery rush of something new, but the deeper joy of discovering that people can change, grow, and evolve. Art can change, grow, and evolve. If the movie I saw in my head at the start was the same one that existed now, why would I have bothered to make it?

Now it’s time to walk 5 Pilgrims into the world and get people to watch it. The challenge feels overwhelming. Endless.

So I take it one person at a time. And after that person, another. Chipping away viewer by viewer, day by day, on and on.

Lauren Ludwig

Director, 5 Pilgrims

dartyhall.com

wecandance-blog

This is an essay I wrote for my filmmaking ensemble Darty Hall’s tumblr. It’s a pretty honest assessment of my own experience editing the feature I just finished. Hopefully it provides some catharsis for anyone who's ever tried to make something over a long period of time. Christ, it's hard. (You can check out the feature's trailer here: https://vimeo.com/104942461)

#darty hall #5 pilgrims

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW for my digital series Ex-Girlfiend which is screening the first 3 episodes at the New York TV Festival. Come hang with up in NYC and get your funny on. Tickets available here.

All the reels of Lawrence of Arabia packed up to lave the Castro Theater in SF.

Good new and bad news

Latest report on female employment in television has some up sides (female showrunners hire more women and are key to increasing diversity in television) and some down sides (hiring of women in all aspects of TV has plateaued).

Here’s the full report.

I’m in this podcast talking Hamlet-Mobile.

Hey friends, my pal Noah Nelson recently featured producer Monica Miklas and I (as well as the cast of Hamlet-Mobile) on an episode of his excellent No Proscenium Podcast. If you dug Hamlet-Mobile or just want to brain jam on the state of immersive theater, check it out here.

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Lauren makes things.