Joshual Fischel, founder and Artistic Director of RIOTstage, may be best known, locally, for fronting the fantastic band, Bargain Music, or his current creative outlet, Josh Fischel & The Fiction. He grew up in Southern California, and left for New York when he was 21. In 1997, he returned, and came to Long Beach with ambitions to be a film maker and immediately fell in with Sublime and The Ziggens.
“I looked all over So Cal for a place to live but nothing compared to Long Beach. I already had a good core of friends here, loved the small- town-in-a-big-city vibe and the cultural diversity. The fact that there was a good food scene here–I’m an avid cook and eater–didn’t hurt either.
“I had directed some music videos by bands like Sublime and The Ziggens and had made some friends in the area. I like Long Beach more than L.A. That was back when the music video scene was booming. I wrote treatments for a lot of pop artists. No Doubt, Toni Braxton, Cherry Poppin Daddies, Blues Traveler, TLC, Bone, Thugs and Harmony, Save Ferris, etc.
“I was a child of the Indie and foreign film scene in New York. I worked at Kim’s Video in Alphabet City, for those of you in the know. So, all my video treatments would have all these references that made perfect sense to me, like Von Trier, The Singing Detective, Jacques Demy, Michael Powell, and they didn’t get it at all. It made it clear I wasn’t a part of that world.
“I ended up starting a band in Long Beach called Bargain Music, which was a vastly eclectic collective with the idea that you could make simple music in many styles and have it all make sense. We did pretty well for a while, toured extensively and I still play music. I tour semi-regularly as a solo act and have a band called The Fiction. “
In March of this year, RIOTstage presented their first production, The Storyteller, at the Expo Arts Center in Bixby Knolls. It was massively ambitious, featuring two hours of songs, a huge cast of musicians and singers, spectacular lighting and sound.
“I’ve been involved in the arts my whole life. I’ve acted, directed and did a lot of touring in bands. I’ve also seen how the live music scene in Long Beach has been, compared to the size of the city. It is very small. I was getting to the point where touring so much was not possible for me anymore, and I wanted to combine all my talents. The scale of the project came about because that’s just how I think. I also wanted to get as many people involved as possible and offer them a venue to showcase their talents.
“The Storyteller was a group of songs that were all self-contained stories. You know, little plays or monologues. We did songs by Flaming Lips, David Bowie, The Andrews Sisters, Lyle Lovett, Frank Ocean, Randy Newman, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Who and the entire Bohemian Rhapsody with 20 people singing and playing. We also put together the greatest group of talent I’ve ever worked with. We also had amazingly talented sound and lighting designers. It was huge to have them on board.
“It was four months of 18 hour work days. It was pretty intense. For the first three months it was pretty much just me. I started off with about 500 song ideas and spent every night walking the beach with headphones on, trying every imaginable combination of set lists. Once I narrowed it down to 40, it all came together quickly. It was important that the songs would fit together thematically in some way, and that the transition from one key to the next went smoothly.
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“Months before, I had a good idea of half of the cast. A few people, especially one of our musical directors, Ellen Warkentine, were recommended by friends. Ellen and our other musical director, Mark Torromeo, were so important to the success of the concert. It was cool because Ellen comes from an experimental theater background and Mark is a rocker, so it was an interesting and successful mix. Our sound designer, Kelly Kisow, is one of the sound mixers at DiPiazza’s and I knew her from there. She was a no-brainer, as was Matt Collier, our lighting designer. He’s a master.
“Our producer joined us ten days before the concert and worked his butt off. Jonelle Holden was there for the last month, curating our art show, promoting and keeping things together.
“To be honest, I was really confident about the show. Everybody was so prepared and, once again, so talented. As always, the first time doing an artistic endeavor kinda gives you some anxiety: 1) because of ticket sales and, 2) because I know it was something I wanted to see and I knew it was really high quality. The question was: Would other people feel the same way. As it turned out, a lot of people we there and many people said it was one of the best concerts they’ve ever seen.”
By any standard, The Storyteller was a smash success. Unbridled ambition now broke free of all restraint, and two new productions were discussed, specifically The Who’s Tommy, and Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
“Well, we had a couple of plays in mind, which we are still planning to do, but we had to push them back. I had such a great time with The Storyteller, and wanted to keep going. I threw around a few concepts. I want all of our concerts to have a theme, and the one thing I really wanted to do was the Abbey Road album by The Beatles. It’s one of my favorite albums, and I knew we had the people to pull it off. Abbey Road is only 45 minutes long. We needed more material to round out the night, and it made sense to have all the songs be by British artists.”
Thus, The Brit was born. The production is being presented on Friday, December 13, and Saturday, December 14, at the Expo Arts Center in Bixby Knolls. The cast includes some of the best talent the city has to offer, and songs by Queen, Radiohead, The Clash, Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode, Squeeze, and many more. The show is being billed as a fundraiser. Tickets are $25 (cheap).
“The money will be used to secure rights for the plays we want to do next year, buy sound equipment so we don’t have to rent it every time we do an event, and hire a person full time to raise money for our productions. One thing that’s really important at RIOTstage is that everybody gets paid for their time. A lot of theaters don’t even give a gas stipend. I just don’t find that fair. As for a goal, $20,000 is our ceiling. That would be amazing, but I’m not expecting that much. $7,000 would be a great start in the right direction.”
Fischel admits that The Expo Arts Center, and the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association, have made these efforts possible.
“Blair [Cohn] has been amazing. He has such love for Long Beach art. Just giving people the chance to use such a fun space is incredible. He really has respect for the artists, the city and the residents surrounding The Expo. One of the reasons Long Beach has had such a hard time opening live venues is because of noise complaints. Blair doesn’t let that happen. I can’t say enough good thing about him.”
As with The Storyteller, RIOTstage is presenting an exibition of art in conjunction with The Brit.
“I know a lot of talented artists that don’t get to show their work very often. I also feel it makes the night a more complete experience. When we do the plays, the theme of the art show will correlate with the play. As we do more productions we are going to use more of the whole space of the Expo to create a little universe relating to the piece. We will also have live painting, and Mack Hayden will be doing a short acoustic set of British songs at 7pm every night.”
The EXPO Arts Center is located at 4321 Atlantic Ave. To find tickets and other information about this and future RIOTstage productions, visit RIOTstageLB.com, or ‘friend’ them on facebook.
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