Thursday, December 14, 2017

OPENING SHOUT OUTS


While we're up to our creative cortex in some major stage and screen projects, our blog update game has been virtually nonexistent.  We work largely in the quiet (as our current banner suggests) on new projects but TRUST, great strides are being made on our film "HOTFOOT," our flagship musical "ROOFLESS," a re-tooling of our musical "A SONG OF GREENWOOD" for a possible Centennial staging as part of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 commemoration, 2 brand new musicals, a miniseries and a handful of short films. All under wraps. So.....we're going to try to share some more of our social media posts here to keep the page from appearing so neglected while we're hard at work. 


We pulled out our TuTchT IMAGING toolbox and matched the "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" campaign vibe to celebrate three of our favorite Brit brothers in the Industry for their OPENINGS tonight.

JOHN BOYEGA opens tonight in STAR WARS across the country; MALACHI KIRBY opens tonight in London's West End in "BELLEVILLE;" and the man who "discovered" both of these men in their formative young teen years, poured into them, and now represents them as their agent, MR. FEMI OGUNS is constantly opening doors and minds. 
Mr. Oguns was awarded the prestigious "Special Jury Award" earlier this week from the British Independent Film Awards honoring his creation of the Identity School of Acting and Identity Agency Group in London.  "Identity" was Mr. Ogun's answer to the burning question of why there were so few actors of color in British films, on British stages, and among the ranks of young actors being admitted into the UK's prestigious acting schools.  His former students and clients are now a MASSIVE part of the Industry.  Respect, brother!  

What a night in the history of these three men!   










Monday, November 20, 2017

HOLIDAY LOCK-DOWN

This year's holiday situation in the LoJoLab.  Sage & Buck in HotFoot! 
(For anyone who wants a more verbose exploration... 
of course, I got you. hahaha. Read on.) 

LIFE IMITATES ART - Quick, reflective LoJoWerkz Update.
(copied from our Facebook page.)

Been spending 18-hrs-a-day in the dark, cramped cell-like LoJolab, faced with a pile of raw, unformed rocks waiting to be broken down into manageable chunks. Sun up to sun down (and more often vice-versa if I'ma be real) I'm here, pixel-breaking pick axe in hand, writing, composing & editing like a collared maniac on a table full of films, musicals and all manner of production art. Do I get hella tired and sore sometimes? Believe dat! But do I get homesick for "life on the outside?" Never! This is home. And this is life! This imprisonment of my own choosing feels exactly like this scene from “HotFoot” (our first film, now in production) This cell is teeming with talent of the “can’t take your eyes off” variety, hazy visuals that hint at intriguing worlds beyond the bars, and brainstorms of plot twists and hair-brained schemes both of which produce an endless supply of impish grins. >:-) Decades ago, when I became aware of my purpose in life and fully embraced it, I was handed a life sentence by the Universe. And theres no where I’d rather be locked than here!  

Screen capture of HotFoot stars Sage Johnson & Charles “Lil Buck” Riley with a lil post production TuTchTness. S/O to our shooting squad: Mike Williams of Aces High Studios and James Sims of Blue Flame Productions & our skeleton production crew of  Nita SmothersJillian Marie & Jerome Johnson (half of LoJoWerkz and half of Sage's parentage.)





Wednesday, November 1, 2017

ROOFLESS resurrection

We'll knock a couple of "h"s off of our current mantra of "Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!" and quietly let you know we've updated our top banner for the Rooflessthamusical.com website with a few minor art tweaks and new quotes & industry props.

We have a feeling it will be getting some traffic in 2018. Shhhhhhhh!













Sunday, June 11, 2017

TONYS NIGHT

ITS TONYS NIGHT!
There's been so much going on in the LoJoLab lately we haven't had much time to keep fresh posts on our social media sites. Good thing, right? hahaha.  Great things in the werkz! - S/O to all our Bway fam who made it to the musical theatre superbowl this year!
(hmmmmm, a Tony Award on the LoJoLogo looks kinda dope, huh?)













Wednesday, May 31, 2017

THE IMPACT of THE TULSA RACE RIOT OF 1921 on our WERKz

20 YEARS AGO TODAY… 
…Jerome and I were 2 youngish, greenish aspiring musical playwrights hard at work on our very first book musical, “A Song of Greenwood” based on the a topic that has always resonated very deeply in our souls, the events surrounding the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Our storytelling work has taken us to many different places in the last two decades but we’ve never strayed far from the topics of exploring America’s difficult racial history and the internal and external journey of the young black male. We have chosen to stay rooted in Tulsa as our home base because we know that the richness of this historic, blood-soaked, oil-saturated soil enables our creative ideas to gestate and bloom in a unique and percipient way. The Tulsa Race Riot history has woven itself into our work, our lives, and our souls. 

Big S/O to Shari Tisdale, Frances Jordan-Rakestraw,  Mechelle BrownHannibal B. Johnson, Eddie Faye Gates, Dr. Scott Ellsworth, Dr. John Hope Franklin, Chuck Cissel, Cindy Driver, Carmen Pettie, Greenwood Cultural Center, and all those who gave us the support and the platform to spread our wings with this musical. A huge thanks as well to the hundreds of cast & crew members who helped us bring the show to life in 1998 & 2001.
When the foremost historian of the Riots, Dr. Scott Ellsworth, called “A Song of Greenwood” “Tulsa’s most effective effort yet to heal the wounds of the 1921 Riots,” we were not only honored, but we truly felt the weight of that mantle. Every several years, we pull the musical out again and do a round of rewrites based on the knowledge we’ve gained in our years working under the tutelage of the great Broadway luminary Stephen Schwartz. Our continued efforts to create a highly entertaining & well-crafted work of musical theatre which adds just the right balance of human Truth and overarching reflection are ongoing. We have long hoped to stage a Broadway-quality Centennial Anniversary version of the show in 2021. The workload and expense of such an undertaking are monumental and honestly, it was beginning to look unattainable… until we learned a few weeks ago that someone had been going to bat for us (totally without our knowledge) trying to secure some funding to make it possible. It is still far from certain whether we’ll be able to mount the show in 2021 or not, but this level of support from our Tulsa family is a beautiful testament to the best qualities of our fellow Tulsans! 
We’ll keep you informed on the future of "A Song of Greenwood," meanwhile, our LoJoLab is overflowing with those odd magical and mystical “development” trappings of several new projects, including another piece directly related to Tulsa’s 1920’s history, "HotFoot" - a unique Silent Comedy short film starring superstar dancer Charles "Lil Buck" Riley.  
PLEASE spend some time over the next 48 hours to look into the history of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921!!!

"History is for human self-knowledge... the only clue to what man can do is what man has done.  The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is."
- R. G. Collingwood