Before we arrived in London, the hashtag #MissionDrift was more likely to turn up conversation about, you know, actual mission drift. Of the organizational variety.
As of June 5, however, we’ve witnessed a complete and utter hashtag takeover by our audiences at the National Theatre Shed, with overwhelmingly positive (and often profanely so) comments about the show. Here’s a collection of some of our favorites thus far (in truth, they all make us blush):
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And best of all, every bid supports the life and work of the TEAM artists.
During the final week of the Mission Drift run in New York City, Heather Christian and I went over to the NPR Studios. We were both extremely excited, but Heather can testify to the fact that my face almost shattered I was so giddy. With eyes wide we followed Margot Adler as she gave us a tour of the studio. Almost everyone was out to lunch, but it didn’t matter. I saw the desk of Robert Krulwich. And we even waved at Zoe Chace and Chana Joffe-Walt from Planet Money.
We sat down with Margot and discussed the work, which she’d seen previously.
CLICK HERE to listen to the awesome story that she put together.
-Rachel
Here we are, a little past the halfway point of our 4-week NYC run. If you haven’t seen the show yet, or are wondering what your opinion of the show should be, here’s a roundup of some of the things that have been written about Mission Drift so far in the New York City press:
Of all of the art inspired by the global economic crisis, perhaps none is as lusty and energetic as Mission Drift, the new musical by New York theater company the TEAM.
Drifting Into American Myth, The Wall Street Journal
Mission Drift…succeeds in staging a staggeringly ambitious saga. The liveliest lesson on desire, destruction, and economics that you’ll see in many a year.
There’s a lot about the company’s new project to take heedless, heady pleasure in… Pleasures aplenty.
The New York Times
Mission Drift examines heady concepts without ever losing its heart. Thanks to strong writing and powerful performances, the TEAM never forgets to have empathy for their subjects… Mission Drift captures the zeitgeist while daring to suggest hope for the future.
An example of a theatre company at their most muscular, tackling what theatre should be tackling… to the hauntingly remarkable musical atmosphere of Heather Christian.
Exactly what I want the theatre to do to me: take me someplace I don’t know how to get to on my own.
And a great little piece about the trials and tribulations during the genesis of Mission Drift in the New York Observer: After Three Years at Sea, the TEAM Drifts Home
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a fast and furious, crowded and amazing haboob of theatre and live performance of all varieties. There are, literally, 2,500 acts ranging from stand-up comedy to modern dance, bagpipe rock groups to sword swallowers. And of course, theatre ranging from highly compelling nearly wordless solo shows to (several) productions of Nunsense The Musical to Shakespeare and everything in between.
For the casual Fringe attendee, it can be daunting. More than likely, it feels, the show with the catchy title and interesting postcard graphics that you’re considering seeing this afternoon because they’re aggressively papering the house in an effort to convince reviewers that it is already popular and well liked so get on the right side of history–is going to be a painful way to spend a seemingly endless hour and ten minutes. But there are gems out there. You know there are. You have friends who have seen them. Or you’ve heard about them in the international press, or perhaps even caught one in it’s post-Fringe afterlife courtesy of a gem-hunting theatre producer. But where are they? They could be anywhere.
And thus there arose such a demand for reviews and other wheat-from-chaff sorting mechanisms that a reasonably well covered show running the duration of the festival might walk away from Edinburgh with a dozen or two published opinions of their hard work. Because there are in fact dozens of organizations, newspapers, magazines, websites, bloggers, leaflets, etc., who are in the business of trying to help a choice-weary public fill their afternoons with fringe fair. But now, of course, instead of having 2,500 shows to choose from, the casual observer may have 10,000 reviews to sort through. If only there was some further level of filtration, some triple-distilled extra-smooth way of learning what, at the end of the doggone day, is worth seeing…
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me, your humble TEAM blog, to be of service:
Mission Drift review in London’s Daily Telegraph
Mission Drift review in London’s The Guardian
Mission Drift review in Scotland’s (Glasgow’s) The Herald (MD starts five paragraphs down)
If you are hungry for more reviews of Mission Drift or other Fringe fare, the printing presses and the internets are your oysters. More postings and filtrations will live here as they come in, and of course there is always the “Press” section of this very website with a perhaps more complete list of things people have written.
Happy Hunting!
the TEAM
We’ve been rehearsing for Heartland at ART’s Emerging America Festival. Watching the video of the piece from Toronto I was struck by how different we all look. I guess just younger, but also different somehow . . .
It is wonderful to be revisiting this play. The themes we were grappling with then seem just as relevant now as they did in 2005 – same war, same red state blue state divide (which Rachel Shukert who worked on Heartland in London at it’s earliest stages and who is from Omaha insisted back then was actually a urban/rural divide). Some of my lines as Bobby Kennedy have taken on a different meaning after the death of Edward.
We’ve changed the last lines of the Christmas Carol sequence. We’ve changed those lines literally every time we’ve put the play up, which feels fitting considering that the first part of Heartland that we ever put on its feet was the Christmas Carol section for Rachel’s Grad Directing class with Anne Bogart.
And now it’s on to Boston! (where I’ll probably get tomato-ed for my Bobby Kennedy accent)
-Jake
I always write the name of the show in all caps. This is the way I feel about this amazing crazy journey we have titled ARCHITECTING ( among other things ).
The past few months have been the most exhausting and exciting months of my life, and I dare say, the company’s life ( and in these past few months, there hasn’t been much difference between the two ).
Some select memories:
Setting up our dressing room at The Public. At THE PUBLIC. Looking at Jess and saying out loud WE ARE AT THE PUBLIC. Doing a play we made. That we care about. Does it get much better? For those of you who don’t know, Jessie and I met on the first day of NYU, at The Freshmen Ice Cream Social. Ten years later, here we are. To be cliche and to not, we’re living the dream.
Playing a set with Frank at the LuEsther Lounge late night. A couple years ago, Frank didn’t play guitar. And I haven’t sung for anyone besides my shampoo bottle in ages. One rainy night in Dublin, in a college dormitory room and on tour, fed on frozen lasagne and British beers we watched Neil Young’s Heart of Gold movie. The we had some more beers and started making up songs. Writing songs and singing with Frank has been joy and wonder filled for me. Learning something completely new, and sharing it has been such a huge lesson. Oh there are so many new things I can learn to do! ( to be cliche or not ).
Living through the cough plague that swept the city and the cast. When I get sick, I get it bad. And let me tell you people, opening a show with twenty minutes of singing and then corset coughing is pretty painful. But the TEAM is a family, and there were cough drops of six different sorts hidden all over the set, and six different sets of hands ready to pass you one. I will always remember Carrie Campbell offering Melly a sip of her Makers Mark in the middle of a scene when I had a particularly wretched feather stuck in my throat.
It felt beautifully full circle to have so many NYU students see the show (Thank you Michael Krass!) and to hear their questions and comments. It was stunning to sell out in New York City, sometimes to audiences of total strangers. It was satisfying to share this piece we’ve worked on for well over two years with the friends, family, and peers that have been hearing all about it for ever and ever.
I ate a lot of vegetarian Matzoh Ball soup. Thanks, B+H.
It was great to be back at PS122. It felt like home, and what a feeling. Thank you, Vallejo.
It was magical to stand in the Anspacher, and feel the ghosts of its history, and then get to be part of the incredible list of shows that have opened there. Thank you, Mark.
I cannot thank enough all the crew and volunteers and helpers. Often I’m so distracted and tired I don’t get to thank properly the people who really really deserve it.Thank you. Properly and wholeheartedly.
jill