art ghetto, so focused I've become narrow

Reading recently in New York Times Magazine excerpts from Susan Sontag's journals. Which were fascinating for several reasons one of which were that she was hanging out with lots of different kinds of artists. the Beats were like that too and I remember also Hemingway's Moveable Feast.

I don't know about you but I basically only know theatre artists. I also don't really see much art besides theatre which I see lots and lots of. I don't know if I am a very good case study but I wonder if there is less mingling of media than there used to be.

And perhaps this is partially caused by how grad school has taken over. The people I know are the people I studied theatre with and the people I work with and a couple of other people. In undergrad I knew a lot of visual artists but now all i really know are theatre people and I think grad school definitely contributed to this.

Not that it is to blame for how small my world is. It's partially my own creation. I wonder if the audiences for other media are lacking because I'm not there. I can't complain that people aren't going to the theatre because I'm not really going anywhere else. I would like to see more visual art if I could but i would have no idea where to even start (and at the moment have no idea when I could do it). I would like to see more dance and hang out with novelists and go to poetry readings but I am consumed by theatre. And my Time Out NY subscription has lapsed.

Really all i wanted to say is that I wish we still lived in the bohemia of the 50s and 60s instead of in this sprawl. The internet has spawned all these subcultures and changed the nature of what was already there. Here is an online community and we can talk and talk about theatre till we die and never run out of people to talk to. And i suppose I could find some blogs from different sorts of artists with a quick google search but really I want to find the real coffeehouse where all these people are stting thinking about art and i want a discourse. Not that i have the time right now. Because I have a full time job to pay for grad school.

I need to quit and let the debt mount and live on scraps of bread stolen from pigeons. But will there be a bohemian community there starving along with me? I don't know.

And what would my cat do without me bringing home the cat food? She's an indoor cat and couldn't catch a pigeon. Also i hear sleeping on a park bench is not much fun when you're 29.

also this

http://openlettertoabc.blogspot.com/

"The Path to 9/11"

From Ripley about the "docudrama" ABC plans to air.

http://rippedblog.blogspot.com/

It's also HIGHLY suspicious that there are only six minutes of commercials. Six hours of prime airtime with six minutes of commercials? Where is the money coming from? We all know that it's highly unlikely that parent company Disney is coughing up / writing off the expense - stockholders won't stand for that. And given the film's executive producer Cyrus Nowrasteh's hyper pro-Republican (and anti-fact) world-view (he claims that the 9/11 Report shows that there was no response at all to the October, 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen where 17 American sailors were killed) it's nearly impossible not to look at this as a national platform for political gain rather than investigating and seeking out reality.

To say that Touchstone should be embarassed for making this and ABC for airing it is an understatement that can not truly be quantified.

Rest

Last night at rehearsal while the director was giving notes, I suddenly figured out which play I should write next. It's a romantic comedy set partially in Paris. I thought it was a screenplay but I think it needs to be a play or at least I need to think of it as a play if I want the scenes to start coming to me in any real way. I think part of my brain shuts down when confronted with having to write a screenplay. When i think of it as a play, suddenly all these possibilities are open and I am excited about writing it instead of daunted.

In any case, I now know (or think I know) the thing to work on when the thing I'm working on is done and I even sort of know when I can start writing it because i sort of have to rewrite a bunch of things and finish the first draft of what I'm writing first and then there is the workshop in Feb. So really it has to be after that and then I'll have the winter to bang out a draft. We'll see if it actually happens this way but at the moment I have such a sense of optimism.

I'm also optimistic about my play this weekend. They took a huge leap forward last night and I think it will really work out. We'll see how the audience responds. We'll see how the dress rehearsal goes tonight.

But first, work and then leave early to see 4 or so hours of actor monologues. I saw 4 hours or so yesterday. It's hard to remember 70 actors by name and I was somewhat comforted that the 4th years we asked didn't know all their names either. So, yeah, first we'll see that in an atmospehre like a pep rally. clapping, pounding their feet shouting out their area codes and class numbers. They are talented all of them and some of them area amazing, but jesus, 4 more hours.

At least after this play is over I can rest. Been rehearsing or in production nonstop since May. I'm tired and getting very little writing or rewriting done. Which is what I have to do next. Which is not at all resting.

From new Chris Durang post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-durang/hoping-for-gore-dreading_b_28663.html

I especially like the comparison of invading Iraq after 9-11 to if we had invaded Mexico after Pearl Harbor.

Look, it is absolutely true that the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists are an enormous danger to the world. But it is clear that Bush's only solution is to kill all Muslim terrorists one by one, and for every one he kills, three more are converted to join the jihad. Then the "collateral damage" - that immoral euphemism for dead bystanders, often women and children - also pushes creates more terrorists anxious to fight the Great Satan.

I mean, imagine if your wife, mother or child were killed by an invading country's bombs - would you be saying, "Oh, I'm so glad they're bringing me Freedom!" I don't for a moment think George Bush has done anything that has not made it all worse. Certainly a western country invading a Muslim country that did not attack us is a superb way to recruit more terrorists - that's the main legacy of George Bush so far.

From NY Times

Many Entry-Level Workers Find a Rough Market By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

This Labor Day, the 45 million young people in the nation’s work force face a choppy job market in which entry-level wages have often trailed inflation, making it hard for many to cope with high housing costs and rising college debt loads.

Entry-level wages for college and high school graduates fell by more than 4 percent from 2001 to 2005, after factoring in inflation, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the Economic Policy Institute. In addition, the percentage of college graduates receiving health and pension benefits in their entry-level jobs has dropped sharply.

Some labor experts say wage stagnation and the sharp increase in housing costs over the past decade have delayed workers ages 20 to 35 from buying their first homes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/us/04labor.html?ex=1157601600&en=1209bcc7c7a5bb41&ei=5087%0A

someone tell me why my blogroll wants to be so far down the page. is there an expert in the house?

Beginning the 9th

You are cordially invited to attend A workshop production of Pretty Theft by Adam Szymkowicz Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel with Stephen Bel Davies, James Patrick Davis, Maxwell Angelo de Paula, Ravenna Fahey, Anna O'Donoghue, Jasmin M. Tavarez, Leigh Wade.

Where: room 306, Juilliard (65th and Broadway) When: Sat, Sept 9 at 1pm and 6pm Sun, Sept 10 at 2pm Mon, Sept 11 at 7pm

There is limited space. Please let me know if you wnat to attend.

http://blog.myspace.com/johnnaadams

From Johnna's notes on Stephen Dietz workshop:

Don't be envious of other playwrights. Especially the ones who have early success. Those writers are the most likely writers to never write again-- if early plays go straight into major productions. Struggling early on teaches you persistence. If you can be persistent in the face of early defeats-- you are more likely to also be persistent in the face of success. What you are working toward now is the ability to be ready for theaters to ask you for commissions. That is the next step. To write something new, perhaps without inspiration, on command. Train for that.

Criticizing others is not an accomplishment. Sometimes getting together and bonding over a camaraderie of shared hatreds feels like you are accomplishing something. You aren't. It is easy and it even feels good, but it doesn't really create anything. Your job when you go to see bad plays is not to tear down the writers, directors, and actors as skillfully as possible with your friends. Instead, think about:

1. Where did it go off track?

2. Was a later entry point needed? Did it start too soon? '

3. Did it go on too long? Should it have ended at a different place in the story?

4. Do the characters work?

5. If this were my play, what would I do to fix it?

Don't be "here to sneer" at anything.

Good plays get done. You have to believe your play will get done. You may need to write 6-8 full length plays that are "teaching plays." These plays are just for you to teach you how to write [Johnna's note: THE MIRACLE OF MARY MACK'S BABY-- my first produced play was my 6th full length-- so he is right on as far as I am concerned]. Write extensively and balance your self-esteem on the back of many plays-- not just one or two.

After 3 months of feeling like I was getting nothing done writing-wise I finished a new draft of a play called Incendiary that I first drafted in early june. I'm also almost a third of the way through something new. it's something short. don't be too impressed.

I also watched a lot of cable tv this weekend. I'm surprised i was able to do anything else. but I did do the dishes. finally. after they sat there for a week.

new arrival

Please welcome to the blogosphere Larry Kunofsky who starts off with his short play the Future of Tra Tra Tra.

http://www.larrykunofsky.blogspot.com/

NY times Article

The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity — the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation’s living standards — has risen steadily over the same period.

Stone Pusher and Bee Eater

Stone Pusher and Bee Eater went walking hand in hand. It is so sad they said to see so many plays panned If only they would stop writing them Wouldn't that be grand?

Ken Urban's group blogging their rehearsal process

http://thecommitteetheatre.blogspot.com/

Ok, so I am started writing something new, a kind of show I've never tried to write before. I don't want to be too specific because I don't want input yet but I am very excited about it and if it works I think it could be very good.

I'm also reading this book "This is not a novel" which is mostly about various artists, when and how they died, what they thought of one another, bizarre facts about them and about art. It's adding up. Part of what I'm getting is that there are so many different specific ways to be an artist. Some people didn't start writing until late in life. Some have a tremendous output and some have very little. Some were hugely successful in their lives and are now unknown and some are famous now but were unknown or poor or both when they died.

It's something to think about. For me it's mostly affirmation. I just have to keep doing it and not care what people think. and work hard on the next one and the next and the next.

PT in Sept

A workshop production of Pretty Theft by Adam Szymkowicz Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel with Stephen Davies, James Patrick Davis, Maxwell Angello De Paula, Ravenna Fahey, Anna O'Donohue, Jasmin M. Tavarez, Leigh Wade

Where: room 306, Juilliard (65th and Broadway) When: Sat, Sept 9 at 1pm and 6pm Sun, Sept 10 at 2pm Mon, Sept 11 at 7pm

There is limited space. Let me know if you want to go and I'll put you down.

I keep discarding what I've written and starting over. I have a couple things I want to write but am not sure I'm ready to sit down at the computer with them yet. Their skeletons are still being built.

Went to a rehearsal last night of the workshop production of Pretty Theft going up at Juilliard Sept 9. It's going really well. Let me know if you want to go and I'll let you know how to get in to see it.

40 yr old

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405422/

I saw the 40 year old virgin and it's really really funny. the previews made it look stupid but it's actually really a progressive comedy in terms of the casting and social criticism not to mention it's really funny. Judd Apatow is a genius. He created Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. Seth Rogen and Steve Carell are also pretty amazing but really it's an ensemble piece. I highly reccomend.

Stop the occupation

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

Get The Motherfucking Snakes Off the Plane

http://impeachbushcoalition.blogspot.com/

Get The Motherfucking Snakes Off the Motherfucking Plane

http://www.impeachbush.tv/

Reprinted with permission—this is part of a message Patrick Gabridge posted in a discussion over at playwrightbinge yahoo group. Very wise words Mr. Gabridge.

“ . . .It's not realistic to expect that your early work will be universally loved and produced. Writing plays is a tough thing, and it takes years to get good at it, and even then you still write stinkers (or at least I do). Also, as you build a body of work, it's so much easier to get productions, because you know which work is better and more likely to get picked (and people notice that you have a track record). I have a pretty sizable collection of short plays, but I don't submit them all with equal frequency. Some are stronger than others.

I would think a beginning writer would be lucky to have an acceptance rate of 5% (1 in 20).

Sometimes I talk to fiction writers, and they talk about how they got so many rejections, 15 or 20, before placing a piece. That must makes me laugh. I just added up the numbers in my database, and I've had about 704 rejections of play submissions since 1990. I don't mind getting a rejection, because I know that I'm doing my job (of sending plays out) and the theatres are doing theirs (reading the scripts and making decisions). I'm much more perturbed by theatres who never respond (I've done my job, but they're shirking theirs). The percentage of folks who respond can be quite high.

I must say, I'm a bit befuddled by the focus so much on rejection. Almost all of a writer's submissions will be rejected. That's just the way it is. If it's going to drive you into deep depression, you're better off being in another business, because it never goes away. My rule with rejection letters is: read them once and file them away. I don't dwell on them or study them. If they say something nice, I put them into a file for follow-ups. If they don't, I put them in a file that doesn't require follow ups.

The best way to stop being bothered by rejections is to get lots of them, because you're sending out lots of scripts. This means you're doing your job. A rejection is not cause to need a shoulder to cry on, it's just a sign that you should send out something new.

By all means, if a script is rejected time after time, maybe you'd better get the message. Maybe it's time to stop sending it out. (Not everything we write is pure genius. Except perhaps Mr. Levine.) Write something new. Write something better.”

Americans are idiots

29 is the new 22

Back in rehearsal. Back to life in NYC. Back to work. I work in administration. Administering. To the photocopier.

Welcome Malachy Walsh, my former roommate and a hell of a writer to the blogroll. (The Lit Dept) I know i don't alphabetize and that makes it hard to find people even for me but I will continue not to alphabetize or organize the blogroll in any way.

Dear Readers,

I have been approached to advertise on my blog for cash money. Should I do this? I did not start blogging as a money making venture but god knows the playwriting is not raking it in for me. ( not that this will allow me to quit my day job either)

What do you think? Is it morally bankrupt? I don't think it would affect my content in the slightest. but it is annoying. Ads annoy me. And I don't like capitalism but i do live in capitalist-daddy america and can't and I enjoy having money to pay rent and I enjoy owning things and being able to eat out sometimes.

Also I've been charging Matt Freeman for sometime to have his link on the blogroll. Sorry Matt.

got to sneak some writing in

I'm not complaining, I swear. It's just that I've been in rehearsal nonstop since may and I just had one week off in the woods sleeping in a tent by the most beautiful lake. At nights it was 50 degrees out and there was the threat of bears and my cell phone didn't work and my computer was home at its desk and it was wonderful relaxing adn it was calm and quiet and peaceful and nice and now back to the day job and now back to rehearsal. not that I'm complaining. this will make 4 full length plays this summer. And I have a stack of unproduced plays that for years I've been trying to get people to do and many of them will still never get done I'm sure but now when it rains... well I'm very tired right now. I don't know that I can stand it. and I love it and I can't handle it...and the day job and the day job, oh that day job. i'm back. how are you?

My friend Enrique got into Brown with a play called The Danger of Bleeding Brown. I feel this is no coincidence and so I am writing a new play called

Princess Grace Strolling Down Cherry Lane with Jerome and MacArthur and Eugene O'Neill and Other New Dramatists On The Way to the Summer Play Festival.

I'm off. See you in a week.

Photos by Zak Szyszko from Food For Fish Production

So yes, I've been busy, it's true, but the writing has gone out the window. It is true I've written a scene or two but I have no idea why I'm writing them or what they're about and I've already discarded one play (for now at least) and I have this problem where if I'm not writing I get edgy. I'm edgy. K and I are going camping for a week in the Adirondacks this next week so you may not hear from me for a while. Partially I'm annoyed because I used to be overflowing with stuff and I would have so much I would just throw stuff up here that was related to nothing, just doodles of words that I enjoyed and now I don't have those available. Not that I know you all were enjoying them, but not only do I have a responsibility to myself to write but I feel a responsibility to you too, misguided though that probably is.