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1100 Playwright Interviews

1100 Playwright Interviews A Sean Abley Rob Ackerman E.E. Adams Johnna Adams Liz Duffy Adams Tony Adams David Adjmi Keith Josef Adkins Nicc...

Stageplays.com

Jun 20, 2008

Hilarious

I Am Totally Crushin' on Young McCain

http://www.236.com/blog/w/drew_grant/i_am_totally_crushin_on_young_1_7249.php

good ways to start emails

--hello beneficiary --ATTENTION:HONORABLE BENEFICIARY. --Dear Friend, --Greeting's to you and your entire family! (note the apostrophe) --I know you must be surprised to hear from me. --CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE WON --From the Desk of________ I mean any email coming from an African Banker is one I am sure to respond to. Also, any email that starts talking about my penis immediately. I mean what better way to get someone's attention? Bill Gates emails me a lot. So does Al Gore, though those might actually be from Al Gore. On the internet there are a lot of people who have money who want to share it with me. I have not found this to be true in my day to day life thus far. Why is the internet so different from real life? It's a mystery.

Jun 15, 2008

THTGTSOTA


I saw Isaac and Dan's show on Thurs. It's innovative, a bit meta, a lot of fun (My favorite part is the mole people who sing to us with haunting green lights on their heads.) There are a surprising amount of songs in the play although I wouldn't necessarily call it a musical. I like Dan's description: "an unfair vaudeville" We're constantly being reminded that we're being told a story. Despite this, I was engaged by the story being told. I'm not sure what that says about my own religious beliefs. Something perhaps. Or perhaps it's a credit to Dan's storytelling and the talent of the actors and their director. It's a 90 min play that feels like a 60 minute play which is quite a compliment, in my opinion. I was hooked the whole time. Go if you can.

NE


Today I watched this. I recently went back to rewatch the old Northern Exposure episodes because I remember how much I enjoyed them but wasn't sure whether they would stand up still. Now that I'm on the second season the exciting things about the show are starting to kick in--that inexplicable stuff. In the episode I just saw, Chris, the radio dj loses his voice when a beautiful woman stops by the station to ask for directions. His voice was taken by beauty. Sounds like a Sarah Ruhl play, no? He eventually gets his voice back after Maggie, the most beautiful woman in town kisses him. The B story is that Ed is trying to find out who his parents are and a spirit guide arrives and tries to help him. Th fun thing about it is the clash of cultures--the New York Jewish doctor who is rational and scientific and the small town and american indian cultures who have different belief systems. Joel thinks both Ed is delusional and Chris can't have lost his voice for the reason he thinks he did. This is the episode for me when the characters finally became clear. Earlier, it felt like we (and the writers) were still figuring out who these people are but now, we have strong and clearly drawn characters. One of my favorite parts is Joel's increasing jealousy about Maggie who the town thinks is having sex with Chris to give him his voice back. The entire town waits outside her cabin to see if he will emerge with his voice.

Jun 12, 2008

F4F


I became aware yesterday of two upcoming productions of Food For Fish, the sixth and seventh productions. That is by far more productions than any of my other plays and it's a play that never really went through a development process. I brought it into class a couple times, got advice from friends, but as for Development with a capital D, it had none. And if you read it or see it, you can see it's a play that still contains ambiguities. It's messy in a lot of ways but at the same time it hasn't lost that spark. And it's a play I'm very proud of at times and also at the same time, it seems to have been written by a crazy person. Anyway, I'm glad it is having a life and I hope the same thing happens to the rest of my plays, or at least more of them. The ones I don't show people can die I suppose, at the bottom of the hard drive.

tonight

I'm going to this tonight. Will I see you there?

Jun 9, 2008

Great post by Isaac on uncertainty, theater and the recent Brooklyn blackout

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2008/06/we-interrupt-the-way-your-world-works-to-bring-you-this-very-important-experience.html
moving slowly. down the track. chugging along, blowing steam.

working on a pilot.

headed towards our wedding at the end of the month.

after the wedding, a short honeymoonlet.

after that, back to work, then a theater retreat in Vermont.

then

packing up my belongings for a move end of July.

so much to do. every day a little closer to running out of time.

Jun 3, 2008

not sure how long it's still running, but

I have to reccommend Liz Flahive's beautiful, touching yet funny show From Up Here. Got to see it Sunday. It's pretty great. She's one to watch. Are you watching her? http://www.mtc-nyc.org/current-season/From-Up-Here-site/index.htm

"Playwrights remain theater’s long-suffering heroes."

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-05-21/arts/the-wright-guard/

h/t daisey

http://www.mikedaisey.com/

Isherwood says things I agree with

on large cast size: A true artist, some might argue, can never let canny considerations of production influence his vision. Art must be its own imperative. A high-minded thought, but artists also hunger for their work to be known. A play that is never staged may be a work of genius, sure, but its genius is likely to leave no footprint on the world unless it is produced. and I’m not suggesting that size alone matters, obviously. But if the American theater is to remain an aesthetically robust enterprise, a vital step may be removing the invisible shackles from the imaginations of playwrights, making it natural — making it possible — for them to dream huge once again.