Nerve opens June 8

click to enlarge

A pad to scratch on (intermittenly, internetedly) or What is your relation to your blog?

I am in rehearsal, I am rewriting, I am casting. I am pulled in too many directions right now.

I am falling down getting up and falling down again.

I am waking when I can at 5:30 to write a play that's hard to get through. keeps getting stuck.

the dishes are piling up. the cat is yowling from lack of attention.

and they want me to do more work at work. meanwhile everyone is calling about casting about rehearsal and I never get to see K.

Breathe. Breathing.

From an email from Larry Kunofsky:

Stanley Kunitz died. He was 100 years old. I heard him read once and if I live to be 100 I still won't forget that night.

If the following is not my favorite poem of all time, at the very least, I can't love another poem more than this one:

Touch Me Summer is late, my heart. Words plucked out of the air some forty years ago when I was wild with love and torn almost in two scatter like leaves this night of whistling wind and rain. It is my heart that's late, it is my song that's flown. Outdoors all afternoon under a gunmetal sky staking my garden down, I kneeled to the crickets trilling underfoot as if about to burst from their crusty shells; and like a child again marveled to hear so clear and brave a music pour from such a small machine. What makes the engine go? Desire, desire, desire. The longing for the dance stirs in the buried life. One season only, and it's done. So let the battered old willow thrash against the windowpanes and the house timbers creak. Darling, do you remember the man you married? Touch me, remind me who I am.

Stanley Kunitz

my 10 min play Film Noir

sticky @ galapagos friday, may 26th, doors at 7:30 show at 8 pm all new 10 minute plays no cover galapagos 70 n. 6th b/w kent and wythe because anything that can happen can happen in a bar Plays by: Alex Beech, Jennifer Boggs, Elizabeth Emmons, Katya R. Schapiro and Adam Szymkowicz Direction and performances by: Ali Ayala, Damon Boggess, Ann Fidler, Robert Hancock, Neil Hellegers, Rob Hille, Matt Korahais, Jackson Loo, David Marcus, Shira Milikowsky, Sarah Sakann, Eve Udesky, Kara-Lynn Vaeni, Ana Valle, Marisa Viola and John Wu

I am nervous

The Juilliard Scene Night is tonight. I have never attended one of these and don't know what to expect or who will be there. But the theatre is big and apparently they're overbooked. They are reading the first 10 min of my Hamlet cowboy comedy.

Wish me luck.

This coming weekend May 18, 19, 20, 21

In Boston, my 10 min play Snow.

www.devtheatre.com

Devanaughn Theatre proudly presents the

4th Annual Dragonfly Festival

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday Matinees at 3 pm

at the Piano Factory, 791 Tremont Street Rear, In Boston's Historic South End

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at

www.theatermania.com or 1.866.811.4111

dialogue from the film Out Of The Past, 1947

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/o/out-of-the-past-script.html

- Tell me something. - You don't look as though I could.

- You've been a lot of places, haven't you? - One too many. - Which did you like best? - This one right here. - I bet you say that to all the places.

-You were never married before, were you? -Not that I can remember.

-A guy can't even get shot by a dame... ...without the whole town starting to buzz like a... -Like you? Smoke a cigarette, Joe. -You just sit and stay inside yourself. You wait for me to talk. I like that. -I never found out much listening to myself. -You know, you're a curious man. -You're gonna make every guy you meet a little bit curious.

- Don't you like it in here? - I'm just not ready to settle down. -Shall I take you somewhere else? -You're gonna find it very easy to take me anywhere.

-I could have run away last night. - I'd find you. - Yes, I believe you would.

I never saw her in the daytime. We seemed to live by night. What was left of the day went away like a pack of cigarettes you smoked. I didn't know where she lived. I never followed her. All I ever had to go on was a place and time to see her again. I don't know what we were waiting for. Maybe we thought the world would end.

- I didn't know you were so little. - I'm taller than Napoleon. -You're prettier too.

- Did you miss me? - No more than I would my eyes.

-Jeff, I'm glad you're not afraid of him. -I've been afraid of half the things I ever did. - And this time? - I'm only afraid you might not go. -Don't be. I'll be there tomorrow.

Let's go down to the bar. You can cool off while we try to impress each other.

- Look, I got along before this job. I ate good, and I grew as big as you did. If there's something you don't like, say so.

Her name is Meta Carson. You'll find her charming. She may even find you charming. I understand that women have.

-Jeff, I had to come back. What else could I do? -You can never help anything, can you? You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another. You can't help anything you do, even murder. - You can't say it was that. - I can say one thing. I buried him.

-Buddy, you look like you're in trouble. - Why? - Because you don't act like it. -I think I'm in a frame. -Don't sound like you. -I don't know. All I can see is the frame. I'm going in there now to look at the picture.

- Apple martini? - Thanks. -Meta talked about you like you're the ninth wonder of the world. - She skipped one. - Meta must be the eighth. -All women are wonders because they reduce all men to the obvious. -And so do martinis.

- I don't want to die. -Neither do I, baby. But if I have to, I'm gonna die last.

a 3 page play--first draft

The Question by Adam Szymkowicz adamszymkowicz@yahoo.com Characters: GINA STU Setting: Someplace unromantic. A dirty apartment, a fast food joint, a dentist office. Something like that. Time: Now. (GINA is thinking. STU stares at her.) STU So? GINA It’s unfair of you to bring this up. It’s unfair here and now. Everyone’s suffering and I can’t even have any sympathy for them although I have felt from time to time, these windows of feeling for people not like me far away. But even those windows are gone and I march in and out of our world like a zombie on a track and then you come in with your thoughts. STU It’s been four years, Gina GINA I feel everyday I want to cut my hands off or photocopy myself to death. Get caught in the fax machine, the paper shredder. Or the electric stapler. It’s easier to talk to the phone callers or my well-coifed and varied bosses if I swallow antidepressants in expectation of a full day of people throwing stacks of papers at me. STU But— GINA Five years ago I was chasing down suitors like they were wild beasts. And I caught most of them. Most of them I caught. Men, women, men and women. And I fucked regularly, some might say constantly. Sometimes on lunch or cigarette breaks. Always or often with some regret. STU Gina— GINA And the gallons of coffee I drank. Between lines of coke. And tabs of acid. Shrooms. Lots of pot. And the mystery pills my roommate brought home and hid between her toes. I was hung over or strung out all the time. I was always so tired. All the time tired. But that was before my life with you. STU I know, but— GINA And you . . . You have bad breath all the time. You never wash the dishes and when you do, they come out with hair on them and you leave the dirty sponge in the sink. Sometimes you get drunk and you say the most horrible things to my friends, to your friends, to strangers. You temp all day. You are two hundred and twenty thousand dollars in debt from a questionable education. You’re always on the internet. STU What’s wrong with the internet? GINA You hate yourself seventy to eighty percent of the time. The other twenty to thirty percent of the time you hate me. Recently you piled all your laundry into a sort of a nest where you now sleep instead of in the bed with me. STU I have a bad back. GINA You don’t wash. Your face is scratchy when you do touch me, which you rarely do. You never say I love you anymore. And you wear those goddamn pants every fucking day. Except when you come home and walk around in those ratty-ass boxer shorts you probably took from your dad’s hamper last time we visited your folks. STU They’re mine. GINA And it’s not just one or two of these things. It’s a collection of these tiny infractions and flaws and gaps in what there is and what there could be—not that I know or could tell you exactly what could be because everything seems pretty bleak and nothing seems possible in any way. I guess I’m trying to say I think I’m not happy right now. STU OK. (Pause) But what does that mean? Do you want to get married or what? (Pause) GINA I don’t know. Let me think about it. STU OK. Cool. (GINA thinks. STU stares at her.)

The Ultimate Audition Books

You want to read 2 one minute monologues of mine? Wait, would you like to pay approximately $19.95 plus shipping per monologue? Sounds too good to be true? But wait, you also get 220 other one minute monologues to read per book. That's right PER BOOK!!! 221 One Minute Monologues for Men http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157525400X/qid=1147454859/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-5865691-1148723?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 221 One Minute Monologue for Women http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1575254018/qid=1147454859/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-5865691-1148723?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 I got a one time fee for these so no need to buy multiple copies to support me. If you do want to support me however, come see my shows in June and July. Details soon.

Brooklyn Rail Articles

http://brooklynrail.org/2006-05/theater

An excellent article by Ms. Palmer about Ms. Callagahn.

Mike Daisey article--lookit the blogroll. If you don't know this guy you should

Gary Winter--I know you know Gary. Everyone knows Gary, right?

I'm writing slowly now. I've stopped actually. i'm on page 66 of this play called Incendiary and I'm completely stuck. I have some vague ideas about the ending but no idea how to write this next scene. so I'll blog instead I guess.

Our cat Skeezer has developed the habit of knocking water glasses (and most recently a pitcher) on the kitchen floor where they shatter. Then she likes to roll in the broken glass. I can only assume she is trying to revisit an experience from a previous life.

Double P Part II

per my day job, I am invited to the Pulitzer luncheon. What's the point though, really? no one freakin won. I know there are other people who have won awards, journalists, fiction writers etc.

But I am atending for the free food in the middle of my workday.

M F

So Let me tell you about Matthew Freeman http://matthewfreeman.blogspot.com/.

As he blogs, we recently met for the first time. It is true he is tall and young looking. (between 15 and 20 I would say) It is also true I enjoyed talking to him a great deal. His girlfriend (who will remain anonymous to protect her from ravaging online hobos and the such) I found sweet and smart and funny. And she has great taste in literature. As for her choice in men, well let me speak more on this.

What Matthew may or may not have told you is that his father was an Episcopal minister. This for me explains a lot. He has the angelic face one would expect of a minister and to go with that or against that, he has the desire to cause small rifts of strife, or clouds of chaos . . . or something of something.

Those of you who read his blog and comments already know this. I find this kind of charming actually. I hope our paths cross again soon.

schedule for Food For Fish in July

http://www.httheater.org/kraine.html#july

"I just got steamrolled"

A NY Times article about the school where Kristen teaches can be found here. I haven't talked to Kristen about it yet but this article seems pretty biased. There is lots of space given to detractors of the school whereas I know a lot of the parents believe stongly in the school and I wonder why they aren't quoted alongside the detractors and their minions. Also the guy who wrote it was hanging around at the beginning of the year. Some things work differently there now. Land of the Free http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/nyregion/thecity/07free.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

scene I had to delete from Pretty Theft

SCENE 30

(On one side of the stage the WAITRESS sits at a table, a couple of empty glasses in front of her. BARTENDER approaches.)

BARTENDER You want another drink, Lily?

WAITRESS I don’t know. BARTENDER Who does this guy think he is? I mean where did he come from?

WAITRESS I don’t know.

BARTENDER He just shows up and, what, you’re having a drink with him? I mean if he does show up. But where the hell is he?

WAITRESS I don’t know.

BARTENDER Are you going to sleep with him?

WAITRESS I’ll have that drink now.

BARTENDER (Moving to make the drink.) Whatever happened to us?

WAITRESS There never was an us.

BARTENDER You know what I mean. I woulda treated you like a princess.

WAITRESS I’m not a princess, Floyd.

BARTENDER You would’ve drank for free.

WAITRESS He’s not coming.

BARTENDER I never would’ve done that. Standing someone up. Specially not you.

WAITRESS I know.

BARTENDER So . . .

WAITRESS No.

BARTENDER No? Not even on a trial basis?

WAITRESS No.

BARTENDER Oh. You want like a hot dog or something? On the house.

WAITRESS Can I use your phone?

(BARTENDER hands her the phone.)

WAITRESS (on phone) Hello, Tom. I think I have an idea where you can find those girls.

Creepy new weapons from the Bush Administration

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/washington/03laser.html?_r=1&ex=1146974400&en=05ce20f115c14bac&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

The Bush administration is seeking to develop a powerful ground-based laser weapon that would use beams of concentrated light to destroy enemy satellites in orbit.

words for thursday

I got a rash on my hands from living here I'm tired cause my cat wakes me up When I turn my neck it cracks three times When I breathe I wheeze and cough and hack My wrist hurts from this repetitive keyboard my bed looks comfortable but it's hurting my back I am deep in debt I am unkempt I am quiet and little and small

But at night I get to come home to you

at night then you are there

the night is so long so long in coming

and you never read my blog

Here's an article that discusses student loans and job and life choices for our generation. They don't mention the arts but I know my loans are much higher than the kids mentioned (MUCH HIGHER) and NYC is much more expensive than most of the country. I'm in a lot of debt people and I will be paying it off for the next 30 years unless something extraodinary happens. Isn't it amazing what we will do for our art?

Student loans - a life sentence Forget about getting married and buying a home. This generation is thinking about next month's payment.

"Call it a reverse dowry: college debt diverts careers and delays or impedes graduates' plans to get married, buy a home or even to start a family. The effects can last years."

The cumulative effect of such student debt on graduates is unclear, although few would argue that its impact will be positive for the graduates, the economy or society.

"We've never done this to a generation of young people before," said Dr. Heather Boushey, Senior Economist at the progressive Center for Economic and Policy Research. "We've never put a generation in their 20s in debt they can't get out of before they started their work life."

"The normal approach in any healthy society is to help young married couples get started in life through marital gifts, dowries, and the like," Allan Carlson of the socially-conservative Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society said.

"We now burden many young adults with student debt, sometimes massive in nature; the price being paid includes marriages delayed or foregone and fewer children. This is foolish public policy."

** NEW DATES! NEW VENUE! NEW SCHEDULE! **

NERVE June 8 - July 1 at 14th Street Y

Packawallop Productions has teamed up with Hypothetical Theatre Company to present the World Premiere of NERVE, a new play by Adam Szymkowicz. This production, which begins previews June 8 at the 14th Street Y will replace the previously announced production. Directed by Scott Ebersold, the production stars Susan Louise O'Connor and Travis York with sets by Nicholas Vaughn (winner, Best Set Design FringeNYC 2005), costumes by Jessica Watters, sound by Brian Hallas and choreography by Wendy Seyb.

Opening night is now slated for Monday, June 12th.

NERVE is a dark romantic comedy about falling into a relationship on the first date. Elliot has never had an online date before... at least one that showed up. Susan has had plenty but would prefer not to discuss them. When they meet in a bar one night, all their neuroses come out. So do a puppet, some modern dance and surprising twist or two.

NERVE runs June 8 - July 1, Thursday - Saturday at 8pm and Monday at 7pm with an added show Sunday, June 11 at 7pm. The 14th Street Y is located at is located at 344 East 14th Street (between 1st & 2nd Aves., accessible from the L train at 1st Avenue). Tickets are $15, available at 212-868-4444 or www.smarttix.com.

see it yourself here

http://video.freevideoblog.com/video/wm/AAC7FA18-2DDC-4D3E-B1BB-9D6CBD83E27F.htm

COLBERT TAKES ON BUSH

wow. read Chris Durang's comments on Stephen Colbert's fierce and funny criticism at a White House Dinner. The press is ignoring it but if you read it, it's hard to ignore.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-durang/ignoring-colbert-part-tw_b_20130.html

"Now, I know there's some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias."

"And as excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of Fox News. Fox News gives you both sides of every story, the President's side and the Vice President's side."

"Jesse Jackson is here. I had him on the show. Very interesting and challenging interview. You can ask him anything, but he's going to say what he wants at the pace that he wants. It's like boxing a glacier."

"Enjoy that metaphor, because your grandchildren will have no idea what a glacier is."

STRESS

I have to admit I'm getting a little stressed out. All this planning for productions and attending writing groups and school while holding down a 9-5 job is getting to be a bit overwhelming. Not that I'm complaining. Because the Nerve rehearsal I attended recently blew me away. It's all the other stuff--these problems that come up that have to be solved one way or another. How am I going to go to rehearsals in DC and when? Because I maay be rehearsing here at the same time or in Vermont. Also I'm expected to show up to work probably. Not to mention that I have to rewrite for these July productions.

and then the idea of getting reviewed is freaking me out a little. and part of this is my belief that the big paper--you know the one I mean--the big paper doesn't get comedy--and of course that's a generalization and there are some good and even great writers working there but I'm afraid I'm going to get squashed if they come at all. Because every play I've seen in the last two years that I loved--everytime I said Fuck I want to make theatre like that--the play got squashed by the big paper.

From International Herald Tribune

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2006/04/25/opinion/edzbig.php But there are four compelling reasons against a preventive air attack on Iranian nuclear facilities: 1. In the absence of an imminent threat (with the Iranians at least several years away from having a nuclear arsenal), the attack would be a unilateral act of war. If undertaken without formal Congressional declaration, it would be unconstitutional and merit the impeachment of the president. Similarly, if undertaken without the sanction of the UN Security Council either alone by the United States or in complicity with Israel, it would stamp the perpetrator(s) as an international outlaw(s). 2. Likely Iranian reactions would significantly compound ongoing U.S. difficulties in Iraq and in Afghanistan, perhaps precipitate new violence by Hezbollah in Lebanon, and in all probability cause the United States to become bogged down in regional violence for a decade or more to come. Iran is a country of some 70 million people and a conflict with it would make the misadventure in Iraq look trivial. 3. Oil prices would climb steeply, especially if the Iranians cut their production and seek to disrupt the flow of oil from the nearby Saudi oil fields. The world economy would be severely impacted, with America blamed for it. Note that oil prices have already shot above $70 per barrel, in part because of fears of a U.S./Iran clash. 4. America would become an even more likely target of terrorism, with much of the world concluding that America's support for Israel is itself a major cause of the rise in terrorism. America would become more isolated and thus more vulnerable while prospects for an eventual regional accommodation between Israel and its neighbors would be ever more remote.

Come see my play Nerve

Packawallop Productions presents Nerve Tuesday, May 16, 2006 through Saturday, June 03, 2006 A dark romantic comedy about falling into a relationship on the first date. Length: 1 hr 20 mins Elliot has never had an online date before . . . at least one that showed up. Susan has had plenty but would prefer not to discuss them. When they meet in a bar one night, all their neuroses come out. So do a puppet, some modern dance and surprising twist or two. Buy Tickets More Information

From Edward Albee interview

I’ve read that you used to skip your own premieres. Yes—if I could find a Monty Python movie, I would go there. I do think Fawlty Towers is one of the greatest television series. Right now, I’m deeply enamored of a really bad show called That ’70s Show. It’s fucking funny. I’ve been examining the reruns of Seinfeld very, very carefully. I think I admire the skill of what they were doing more than the thing itself.

Read Chris Durang's new article

check the blogroll on the right peeps.

from an email my union sent me

Here are some of the reasons UAW members have expressed in opposition to the war....

* The war has killed 2300 US troops -- children, friends and relatives -- and maimed 20,000 more. * The war has killed 100,000 of the Iraqi people. * We're spending billions on war costs instead on job creation, health care and education. * The war is a smokescreen for an assault on working people: tax breaks for the rich, and cutbacks in health care, pensions and jobs for the rest of us. * Millions of our tax dollars have been spent on Bush's corporate cronies. * Iraqi people have been left unemployed, without schools or hospitals, with women's rights and unions under attack. * National Guard and Reserve members have been taken from their jobs and families for indefinite service. * Our civil liberties and labor rights are threatened and the US constitution undermined.

http://www.madcapplayers.com/

As part of the Capital Fringe Festival Madcap Players presents the world premiere of PRETTY THEFT by Adam Szymkowicz directed by Christopher Snipe

July 23-30, 2006

Canadian Embassy 501 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20001

ALL TICKETS ARE $15

Capital Fringe Festival Box Office Opens Monday, July 10, 2006