Mirror Mates: A Two Faced Farce - The New Synopsis

by Bill Toscano

Mirror Mates is set in twin, crumbling locations placed side by side on stage.

On one side is Dressing Room “A” backstage at Maxie’s ^Fabulous Dinner Theater.

On the other is The Rec Room at Mega House: Home for the Chronically Mentally Ill.

Identical, opposite… and the hallways overlap.

 Each of the actors in Mirror Mates plays two parts; one on each side, except for the actor playing “Wiley,” who works in both locations.  By day, he serves up lunch, meds and advice to the residents of Mega House; and by night, he’s the Emergency Stage Manager at Maxie’s

…again.

These "families" are have fallen on trying times.

It’s tech week at Maxie’s (which is only three days long) and their new director’s original version of a famous musical is nowhere near ready, but is sold out!  There’s been a flood in the dressing room, which is suddenly locked!  But the cast is determined to carry on, in spite of the mocktails, except for Rupert, who's “broken his foot” …and bought plane tickets to France.  

Over at the home, second lunch is off to a rocky start, which is now being served in the Rec Room, due to the “dishwasher-dining room-deep-sea-disaster,” and the residents are up in arms! And their meds are about to change, but the new night shift guy is finally coming in! …perhaps?   

And everyone’s unhappy about the quality of desert!

Yet, Wiley keeps it all together; but what he doesn’t know about a deep-seated connection between the two enterprises …is vast.  And over the course of the next three days, things go from bad to impossible ...at the speed of light.  Madness runs rampant; people are not who they seem, and the secrets run deep.  

But revelations do come, with nuts on top, in a series of startling twists…

When a Mega House quest for Ice Cream crash lands backstage at Maxie’s

…spot on cue for opening night!

Everybody standby…

Everybody…Go!

See me in "Bert's Plan" ~ Manhattan Film Festival

Come see me in

Bert's Plan

@ the Manhattan Film Festival! 

Saturday 07-30-2011 at 04:45 & 06:35 PM 

Award Winning Short Film!  

Get Tickets: http://www.screenbooker.com/ev​ents/view/69/vjz090fing

I play Victor, Bert's best friend & agent.

Poster details... & Is that really a Wrap?

Dear Mirror Mates Backers!

Thank You for backing this Staged Reading of

“Mirror Mates: A Two Faced Farce”!

I learned a lot about the show from doing this reading… but most importantly I learned that the concept and the script really do work very well. I’m very excited for the play’s next stage of development… whatever shape that takes. Maybe you’ll be able to join us on that journey as well? ~I’ll be in touch.

And with the next leg of the journey in mind, I’m currently deep back in the script, making cuts and doing rewrites… it’s going really well. Thank you for all the great feedback! If you have any other thoughts please let me know. I’m happy to listen.

Tending to one of the final details of this Kickstarter adventure is sending posters (signed and unsigned) to all the backers who were supposed to receive them. Just so you know, I went to the post office last Tuesday and sent them all out. I have heard reports, from as far away as Tucson, AZ. that they are indeed reaching their destinations. If you haven’t received yours yet, it should be arriving soon.

However, if you know you’re suppose to receive one and it doesn’t arrive within a week or so, please let me know. If need be I will send you another. If you opted out of the “rewards,” then you’re not supposed to receive one. If that was a mistaken selection, and you’d still really like one, I do have some extras, so, please let me know that, as well, and I’ll send one out to you. (Of course, that will be on a first come first served basis… when they’re gone; they’re gone!)

There may well turn out to be a few more project updates… but I do think that is the bulk of it. So, I want to thank you all again for your time, energy, support, money and interest.

Thank you for supporting Mirror Mates and the arts in general. You truly have been wonderful. I hope you enjoyed following the process.

Our Best to You!


Much Love,
Bill, Colleen & Team LionSnax


Thanks again! ...Is that really a Wrap?

The Program from the Mirror Mates reading...

For those of you who weren't able to attend the reading of Mirror Mates... We present "The Program" in .jpg form. If the bios are too small to read... they're posted over on the LionSnax website: http://lionsnaxtheatricals.com/?page_id=97

Wish you could have been there!

Maybe we'll get to do full production soon!

Stay tuned...



A Successful Reading, A Delicious Cake & a 2nd Logo!

A Successful and Hilarious Reading of

Mirror Mates: A Two Faced Farce!

A Delicious New LionSnax Cake by Patrick Wenning!

Becomes an additional new LionSnax Logo!

May there be many, many more!

Thank You, All!

Bill

The Unexpected Twist!

So…
...where to begin? Mirror Mates is a relentless high speed bullet train which needs to barrel down the tracks like a Kitty on Fire! (Okay that’s a bizarre metaphor but it makes sense when you see the show!) --So, we taped out the floor, staged it, and walked it all out (trotted & ran) through the course of the show as we read it! (No easy feat within limited union rules!) There’s a lot of action and a lot of craziness!


And since the last scene ramps up the insanity by adding a considerable tech, we decided that for clarity sake, we would stop the running, drag chairs to the edge of the stage, add some sound effects and finish the play as a “Radio-Theater” event! After all, understanding the story is the most important part of a play. So, this was the best of all possible worlds.


6pm actor call time… all is well. A little rehearsal, last minute details, cards, pay, gifts, edible arrangements, so on and so forth… things are good! One of the actors arrives later than the rest every day because of a job, but that is known… he arrives; all is well. 7:30pm the House opens. The audience starts to arrive; the actors mill about preparing. The audience sits, chats and settles in… most everyone arrives. Good! ~Good, good, good.


A few people still need to arrive to the 12th floor; the elevators are notoriously slow in this building… it’s to be expected… everyone arrives and finally the show begins. About 8:10… this is all within the realm of the normal course of events. Good.


We greet the audience, make a few announcements and at last the show begins… excellent. The first scene develops and the crowd starts to titter… they’re figuring it out… and before long the audience is up to speed, laughing hard and the show is barreling along. It’s going a little slower than Thursday’s rehearsal, but it’s really connecting with the crowd.


End of the first act! Large applause! It took an hour and thirteen minutes. Thursday took an hour and six minutes… okay, but they’re laughing a lot; that takes time. And we’re loving it. Intermission comes and goes and we launch into Act 2! It’s going great! -We’re on top of it, mostly. A few little line mishaps, and it’s clearly going a bit slower than Thursday, but it’s still really connecting. So, good. Good, good, good!


Again, the audience is howling! And we finally reach the moment where Johanna is suppose to come on stage and stop the action and tell the audience how we plan to play the end! And she does! But, I think adds a the words “We would have…” and I’m thinking: “What did she just say?” And then I hear something like: “But they close the building at 11pm sharp and we all have to leave.”


“What?!?! What?!?!? What the hell time is it?!?! She brings me back on stage and says something like: “Please, Bill, explain to them the rest of the show.”


Now, I’m a little stunned, and the audience is a little stunned but, clearly very eager to hear how it all wraps up. And I’m thinking: “I have no idea what happens next! ” Clearly a bit flummoxed, I start talking and Johanna joins in, and apparently we manage to explain the ending well enough that there is a huge round of applause, and impromptu bows, and the crew starts flying around me ripping tape up off the floor. “What the hell just happened?!”


But, I don’t think the audience is left wanting. They clearly seem very happy, a little stunned, but happy. And I’m not upset; I think it’s hilarious. This show, about crazy theater stories and odd human behavior suddenly has left me with another crazy theater story! (And some odd human behavior.)


But, clearly, I gained enough information from mounting this thing to know that it works really well. And I can see where the next round of editing and trimming needs to happen… and it is very close to ready for a big, full out production! I’m very excited for its’ future and can’t wait to get started! Whatever shape that takes!


So, ultimately, it was a great success!


And I Thank You! I Thank You All!


They’ll be more updates soon… we still need to know where to send some of your posters! We have some addresses, but not all. And they’ll be more details to wrap up… but this was an awesome journey and I am very pleased.


But for tonight… more sleep is needed.


Much Love to you all!


Bill, Colleen & Team LionSnax!


PS: I’m sure everyone in the room has a different version of what happened that night… so, if you’re up to it, please post and share your version of the events! And thank you for being there!!

Amazing & Hilarious w/ an Unexpected Twist!

Friday Night's Staged Reading of Mirror Mates: A Two Faced Farce was Amazing and Hilarious, the audience roared with laughter throughout, but it ended with an Unexpected Twist that surprised everyone!

And, I'll tell you more about that later, tomorrow, today ~um, Sunday.

Because, Saturday, was filled with Family and Friends and food and festivities which all wound up with "The Book of Mormon!"  (Which was also Hilarious.)

So, right now it's pretty late... but I wanted to get the word out that, ultimately, the Mirror Mates Reading was a great success! ...except for a few things. (Which make me laugh.)


Goodnight for now... More soon,
Much Love & Gratitude,
Bill & Team LionSnax