Nerve closes on the 1st.

Food For Fish opens on the 6th.

Hope you can come.

I'm very happy with the Nerve production and very happy with how rehearsals are going for F4F. And they are VERY different kinds of plays. One is nothing like the other so I think assumptions about one based on the other just aren't going to work. The only solution is to see both.

HIBERNATE

I am in a sort of self-imposed hibernation. Trying to write something new. Trying to see my show--trying to get other people to see my show and trying to go to rehearsals for other show.

I had yesterday and today off and used it to write letters and start a new play--you know that crazy ubu santa thing I've been offhandedly mentioning? Oh, you don't? Remember those crazy pictures a few months back? Well, I'm working on that. And I need to write a one man show and a film. i have what I think is a great film idea and I'm dying to work it through but there are only so many hours in the day and 8 of them are at work (and two of them are to and from work)

and then there are the plays I saw that were great (Dead City, Quail, the new Anne Wasburn...) and the ones I still have to see (off the top of my head, Jason Grote's Walmart play, James Comtois' show, The Most Wonderful Love, Gary Winter play, Hunka play coming up and I'm sorry if I'm forgetting someone. Plays at EST? The Production Company has a bunch of shorts. Did I miss those?) I'm in a fog still.

They tell me the Times review was very positive today. I am not reading it but I am very happy to hear this. Especially after so so many theatres rejected this play.

Also come see Pretty Theft in DC

F4F

Chekhov-Inspired Play Food for Fish Opens Off-Bway,7/8 On the heels of Nerve, Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre will premiere the second play by Adam Szymkowicz when Food for Fish debuts. Under the direction of Alexis Poledouris, the play will begin previews on July 6th at the Kraine Theater and open on July 8th.

Food for Fish is loosely inspired by Chekhov's Three Sisters. In the play, "young Bobbie drops pages from his novel into the Hudson River. The pages tell a story of three sisters: a stalker, an agoraphobe and a scientist with a secret plan to isolate and eliminate the gene for love. It is set in a world where men became women and women became men. But how far do you have to bend a gender before it breaks?"

...A current Juilliard Lila Acheson Wallace Fellow, his romantic comedy Nerve recently premiered at the 14th Street Y (where it plays through July 1) and his play Pretty Theft premieres July 22 at the first Annual Capitol City Fringe in Washington DC.

The show is going really well. Although I'm not reading reviews. Don't talk to me about reviews please.

But do come see the show if you can. It's called Nerve. Runs until July 1 and you can get tix on www.smarttix.com.

Charge Them With a Crime or Let Them Go

WASHINGTON, June 10 — Three detainees being held at the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, committed suicide early on Saturday, the first deaths of detainees to be reported at the military prison since it opened in early 2002, United States military officials said.

Lawyers for the detainees, human rights groups and legal associations have increasingly questioned whether many of the prisoners can even rightfully be called terrorists. They note that only 10 of the roughly 465 men held at Guantánamo have been charged before military tribunals, and that recently released documents indicate that many have never been accused even in administrative proceedings of belonging to Al Qaeda or attacking the United States.

Advocates for the detainees said they believed the suicides resulted from the deep despair felt by inmates who are being held indefinitely

The Show went REALLY well last night. Hope you can all make it out. I'm quite proud of it.

Nerve today until July 1

Please come and bring everyone you know. Buy Tickets FREE BEER with each full price ticket purchased

A play for the subscribers

Eduardo (see post below) encouraged us to write what we were afraid of-- he encouraged us to go someplace scary and to not worry about what our family or friends or lovers would say but to write the individual perhaps strange things that make us unique and to tell the stories that come from us. And sometimes this was successful and sometimes not but I think we were encouraged to write in the realm of dangerous--in other words write the kinds of plays that are not being produced off broadway these days.

And I want to hold onto this but I want to have a play off broadway too. How do we write true and not dampen too much the weirdness about ourselves and still succeed in this theatrical world? It's something I'm wrestling with.

Because I think the audience should be challenged. But does my work even do that? Should it? Is that the way I should be writing and if so how do I go about that? Or am I already writing that way? It's hard to tell from the inside.

I wrote a play called Open Minds that I thought was political and fierce but I couldn't get anyone to do it although it was a finalist in a couple of contests. Was it not a good enough play or did I not send it to the right places or was it in fact too dangerous?

I need to write another dangerous play now. The time has come. I'm too angry at Bush, at where the country is going, too afraid for the future. And then after I'll go back to writing the other kinds of plays I write, about love and relationships and gender roles.

Of course is this really a dangerous play I have in mind? What is it? A political satire/allegory. Will that help at all? Will that change anything or even make me feel better? Does it need to be out there? I want to write the play that needs to be out there.

Go Eduardo!!

Parabasis Posts Eduardo Machado's recent speech. he was my prof a couple years ago for 3 years. Some highlights: I don't feel we are brave enough. I feel the theatre that I see for the most part is watered down. It's getting ugly out there. Let's show it as much as we can on our stages. And I beg you let us stop being afraid of the audience. They are supposed to be afraid of us. But ever since the National Endowment got cut down to barely nothing we have had to follow a corporate model. We have to show profit in non-profit. Isn't that ridiculous? It's like an Ionesco play. We have become Rhinoceri. I know we feel we have to go along with it to survive... by it I mean pandering. Because we think we need a certain amount to make it. But how much are those dollars worth? And exactly how much do we need to survive? Non profits theatres should not sell tickets for a hundred dollars a seat. That's criminal. How are we ever going to find a new vital audience at those prices? Even sixty five to forty-five is unrealistic. Not everyone has a trust fund. Not everyone in New York City is rich. The audience we're missing can barely afford 20 dollars. But if we gave them a reason to, they'd get the money together. I did. We have given into the worst kind of greed. The corporate model. And I'm sorry but our work has suffered because of it. Let me be frank, I teach at Columbia because I need the money, there is no grand scheme or noble purpose, just dollars and cents. And I try very hard to do a good, professional job. But is that mentorship? Is it inspirational? I do my best, but I don't think so. As for that last part, it was not mentorship for me though I wanted it to be. It was at times inspirational. And I did learn about writing, and I wrote a lot for 3 years, but fuck am I in a lot of debt right now.

in chicago/Brown Couch Theatre

That's right! It's time for BCTC's 4th annual ten-minute play festival! BUY TICKETS NOW! This year's theme is mating rituals...

We have ten great plays and 21 really talented (and hot!) actors. Comedy...drama...sex...there's something for everyone, every ten minutes. We hope to see you there!

The Mating Game @ the Viaduct Theatre 3111 N. Western Ave. Friday, June 9th - Saturday, June 24th

Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm Sundays at 3:00pm

Call 312.409.2010 to make reservations or BUY TICKETS ONLINE!

$15 on Fridays and Saturdays $12 on Thursdays and Sundays

For more info, or to see slide shows from our previous festivals, please visit our website.

Hey! Check out all these people involved with the show! That's a lot. You probably know at least one of them...

Jenn Adams � Torey Adkins � Shea Bredenkamp � Alex Broun � Kate Cares � Kyle Cobb � John C. Davenport � Robert Dennison � Heather Durham � Trey Edge � Marc Friedman � Colette Friedman � Kendall Gray � Andy Grigg � Charles Hall � Jennifer Hawk � Marcus Kamie � Dan Kennedy � Peter Kersten � Anne Korajczyk � Morgan Leavitt � Eric Lee � Kyra Lewandowski � E. M. Lewis � Kate McDermott � Dane Mehringer � Lydia Milman � Firestone Mulvaney � Frank Murphy � Beth Novick � John Oster � Mark Pracht � Lisa Joy Raffety � Sara Ritz � Denise Santomauro � Adam Szymkowicz � Pam Tierney � Bryan White � Carol White

from voice article

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0622,nelson,73375,20.html

If Linklater leaves the big questions of his movies to their audiences, how does he think they'll respond when Scanner opens in July and Fast Food in the fall? "You can never prove or predict the cause and effect of anything, whatever its purpose," he says. "When The Jungle was published a hundred years ago, they enacted the FDA. But in today's world, we're more likely to see legislation enacted to prevent us from criticizing the way things are. In Texas, it's against the law to criticize an agricultural product—even though this [fast food] industry is potentially harming us. I guess Fast Food Nation would be immune to this law for being 'fiction.' Or would it? Kind of interesting, isn't it? I mean, can Fox Searchlight enact legislation to prevent you from writing a bad review of my movie?"

An Inconvenient Truth

You need to see this film. I was a little dissapointed that the message was linked with Gore so much but it's an important film all the same.

Global warming is a real thing and when politicians pretend it isn't they are guilty of causing what could be a huge catastrophe very soon.

Here's what you can do.

sign a petition http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/default.asp

Become active http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/becomeactive/

Help in small ways with large impact daily http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando/

www.climatecrisis.net

Musicals i would like to see

The Wasteland ( think of how successful Cats was) Catcher in the Rye, the Musical Long Day's Journey into Night, the long musical The Lord of the Rings X-Men The Sound and the Fury Glengarry Glenross Farenheit 9/11

Bush for Impeachment

What kind of law does a president have to break to be impeached? Purposefully lying to the public, bringing them to war and causing the death of thousands? Holding and abusing people in hidden prisons without ever accusing them of anything? Illegally tapping phones? Rigging two elections? Apparently all of the above and more are allowed and will not lead to impeachment. I want the last 8 years back. Was the 2004 Election Stolen? Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House. But despite the media blackout, indications continued to emerge that something deeply troubling had taken place in 2004. Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad(3) never received their ballots -- or received them too late to vote(4) -- after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations.(5) A consulting firm called Sproul & Associates, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battleground states,(6) was discovered shredding Democratic registrations.(7) In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes,(8) malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots.(9) Nationwide, according to the federal commission charged with implementing election reforms, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting equipment -- roughly one for every 100 cast.(10) The reports were especially disturbing in Ohio, the critical battleground state that clinched Bush's victory in the electoral college. Officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, shortchanged Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency. A precinct in an evangelical church in Miami County recorded an impossibly high turnout of ninety-eight percent, while a polling place in inner-city Cleveland recorded an equally impossible turnout of only seven percent. In Warren County, GOP election officials even invented a nonexistent terrorist threat to bar the media from monitoring the official vote count.(11)

overheard on subway platform

Girl in long skirt, large brimmed black hat overburdened with bags. sits down on the bench, takes out her cell phone.

--Hi, Mom,. i'm going to make this quick because i'm going to lose reception. Eric is alive. He's at ______ Memorial Hospital. OK. Bye.

I had a great time at the clubbed thumb event last night and met lots of great people and talked to lots of great people I already knew and yet somehow didn't get to meet MattJ. Another time I hope.

But I thought my show went really well and was impressed with those shows I was able to see, many which I was unable to find on the program before rushing off to the next show so I have no idea what I even saw and didn't see for the most part. But damn was it cool.

I love clubbed thumb. And all of you.

NERVE JUNE 8

Please come to see nerve the first week if you can june 8-11. Did I mention a free beer with every ticket?

www.smarttix.com

Fwd: If you were in the street on fire, I'd put you out with gasoline

I got this email today from a company selling viagra etc. I find it completely insane. Look at the subject of the email. Sounds like a death threat, doesn't it? there's a play in here somewhere, I swear.

Fwd: If you were in the street on fire, I'd put you out with gasoline

ruinerHullo!

upadukadel[dot]com

---- only just married, could not decline the gift. His mother, whohad her own separate property, had allowed Alexey every yeartwenty thousand in addition to the twenty-five thousand he hadreserved, and Alexey had spent it all. Of late his mother,incensed with him on account of his love affair and his leavingMoscow, had given up sending him the money. And in consequenceof this, Vronsky, who had been in the habit of living on thescale of forty-five thousand a year, having only received twentythousand that year, found himself now in difficulties. To getout of these difficulties, he could not apply to his mother formoney. Her last letter, which he had received the day before,had particularly exasperated him by the hints in it that she wasquite ready to help him to succeed in the world and in the army,but not to lead a life which was a scandal to all good society.His mother's attempt to buy him stung him to the quick and madehim feel colder than ever to her. But he could not draw backfrom the generous word when it was once uttered, even though hefelt now, vaguely foreseeing certain eventualities in hisintrigue with Madame Karenina, that this generous word had beenspoken thoughtlessly, and that even though he were not married hemight need all the hundred thousand of income. But it wasimpossible to draw back. He had only to recall his brother'swife, to remember how that sweet, delightful Varya sought, atevery convenient opportunity, to remind him that she rememberedhis generosity and appreciated it, to grasp the impossibility oftaking back his gift. It was as impossible as beating a woman,stealing, or lying. One thing only could and ought to be done,and Vronsky determined upon it without an instant's hesitation:

Don't miss this wed 5/31at Clubbed Thumb

http://www.clubbedthumb.org/upcoming/take5.php

Take 5 Wednesday, May 31

We ring in the festival on Wednesday, May 31st at 8pm with TAKE 5, featuring 16 five-minute playlets based on the last half-decade. These past five years have included more change than most, but in the shadow of all the Time Magazine-sized events are equally interesting stories, from the papers as well as from our own lives. People lose all their hair, paper fortunes are lost, waves of diet programs sweep the nation, seemingly ubiquitous celebrities disappear from view, extreme weather cycles shift. Come to the Ohio by 8pm on the 31st for this special (and we mean that in a slightly mysterious way) presentation, and help us usher in our 11th festival of new work.

Featuring the works of David Adjmi, Scott Adkins, Deron Bos, Andy Bragen, Kirsten Greenidge, Jason Grote, Kristin Kosmas, Julie Marie Myatt, Kristen Palmer, Molly Rice, Sonya Sobieski, Adam Szymkowicz, Alison Tatlock, Chris Wells, Gary Winter, and Anna Ziegler.

Direction by Scott Adkins, Sarah Benson, Sam Buggeln, Mallory Catlett, Shana Gold, Maria Goyanes, Josh Hecht, Kristin Kosmas, Brooke O'Harra, Katie Pearl, Mike Shapiro, Sarah Sunde, Chris Wells, and Paul Willis.

From F Britchcraft

"And that's why I love theatre. You can tell people what to do and make them love you."

from playbill

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/99843.html

Susan O'Connor Stars in Nerve World Premiere in NYC, June 8 By Ernio Hernandez 22 May 2006

Downtown favorite Susan Louise O'Connor stars in the world premiere of Adam Szymkowicz's Nerve to be presented June 8-July 1 at New York City's 14th Street Y.

Packawallop Productions teams with Hypothetical Theatre Company to present the new play which begins previews June 8 and opens June 12 at the 14th Street Y. Scott Ebersold directs the work which will run through July 1.

Susan Louise O'Connor appears with Travis York in the work billed as "dark romantic comedy about falling into a relationship on the first date," according to a release. "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."

O'Connor has trod the boards of downtown Manhattan for a number of years, appearing in Daniel MacIvor's Never Swim Alone, See Bob Run and Marion Bridge, Julia Jordan's St. Scarlet, Brad Fraser's Snake in Fridge and Alejandro Morales' The Silent Concerto (which is slated to return in July with O'Connor and director Ebersold).

The design team for Nerve includes Nicholas Vaughn (set), Jessica Watters (costumes), Josh Bradford (lighting) and Brian Hallas (sound). Choreography is by Wendy Seyb and Caitlin Baird is stage manager.

For tickets to Nerve at the 14th Street Y, 344 East 14 St. (between First and Second Ave.), call (212) 868-4444. For more information, visit www.packawallop.org.

Just went to the pulitzer prizes where of course no one won for drama. I ate the free fish, got a little tipsy and then headed back here to my desk to work.

I think it's good to remember that all our heroes and super duper prize winners are just humans who sit in a room and eat their fish and drink their wine and then the award ceremony is over and they go home.

Perhaps they have their small role in changing the world (or not) but then they go home to their husbands or their cats.

Please note in the posting below the award I won this weekend. I am also only human.

Last night at Lorraine (I'm gonna make some coffee) and Jason's (Jason Grote) I was presented by Dan (Venal Scene) with the Emerging Brooklyn Playwright Award. It was a 25 cent award. There was no trophy but the quarter itself is quite nice and it will be displayed quite proudly on my mantle. PS The links don't work on this computer but if you're willing to do a little work, you can find the individulas mentioned above in no particular order on the blogroll.

overheard on the street

-They're trying to get kids off Myspace.

-Really?

-Yeah. There have actually been murders.

buy tickets to Nerve

https://www.smarttix.com/Show.aspx?ShowCode=NER1

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