some useful information

Halloween is coming up and here is some useful information for all those of you who do not want to spend eternity burning in hellfire away from God's love.

http://www.landoverbaptist.org/sermons/halloween.html

"Will Jesus Sling Little Children Into Hell For Celebrating Halloween? A Word From Our Pastor

Quite frankly, the answer is, absolutely yes! The Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ is very choosy when it comes to picking people to live with Him for eternity. Why else would He refer to His followers as the chosen people if He wasn't choosy? The fact that He initially chose the Jews, who, out of all the folks on the planet, were the ones who winded up killing Him, only underscores that the Lord has learned the hard way that it pays to be even more selective in picking folks to be nice to!"

At the NYTR benefit last night, (not the NYTR benefit) finally got to meet George and MattJ. Also in attendance, Dan, Mac, James, Mark, The Talented Actor Jason Grote, and the Sheila "the Voice" Callaghan and probably a bunch of other people. Thanks to Alexis and Jason for a tremedous job in my little play and thanks to Kip for outstanding direction. Parties like this should happen every night.

see you at the brick tonight.

someday again

I'm going

isaac's post

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2006/10/do_your_part.html

bad news

Thanks to Mike Daisey for this

Legalizing Tyranny

Andrew Sullivan

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/09/legalizing_tyra.html

"How do I put this in words as clearly as possible. If the U.S. government decides, for reasons of its own, that you are an "illegal enemy combatant," i.e. that you are someone who

"has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States,"

they can detain you without charges indefinitely, granting you no legal recourse except to a military tribunal, and, under the proposed bill, "disappear" and torture you. This is not just restricted to aliens or foreigners, but applies to U.S. citizens as well. It can happen anywhere in the U.S. at any time. We are all at potential risk."

For the upcoming New York Theatre Review benefit (Oct 2 starting at 8pm at the Brick--seeya there.) I was asked along with some other playwrights to write a 2 minute play on the subject of critics.

Kip Fagan will direct my piece and if all goes well, it will star Jason Grote and Alexis Soloski.

This is the play. Please do come out I think it will be a fun time and fellow bloggers George Hunka and Sheila Callaghan will be in attendance, the latter performing a song. (both of them also having written pieces for the show.)

MIND OF THE CRITIC By Adam Szymkowicz

MELINDA Welcome to the mind of the critic. He sits in his designated seat. He checks to make sure his shoes are tied. He checks his fly to make sure it’s closed. He glances through his press packet.

CRITIC Why did I get stuck reviewing this play?

MELINDA --he thinks. He knows it will be bad. He knows it. Yet he has hope. A tiny glimmer. So small it’s almost not there.

CRITIC Why did I get stuck with this one?

MELINDA He’s trapped. He can’t leave. The play begins.

CRITIC Oh. This could be ok. Oh, ok. It’s fine.

MELINDA Ten minutes in.

CRITIC How long is this play?

MELINDA Thirty minutes in.

CRITIC Is there an intermission? I could leave at intermission.

MELINDA He looks at his program.

CRITIC No intermission.

MELINDA Forty minutes in.

CRITIC Eggs Butter Milk Toilet Paper Orange Juice Frozen Pizza Ummm Eggs

MELINDA Fifty minutes in.

CRITIC Kill me. Please kill me. I want to die. I can’t watch this. I can’t be here one more minute. I want to slash my wrists. I want to disembowel myself with a garden trowel. Pull out my insides. Scrape out my heart. Rip out my lungs from my newly cracked-open chest. I’m going to vomit. This is unbearable. Unconscionable. Stab me. I want to die.

MELINDA Fifty five minutes in.

CRITIC I can’t . . . I can’t . . this is. Oh, God.

MELINDA He has a realization.

CRITIC She doesn’t love me. She never loved me. How could she lie to me all that time? (Pause) Shit! I forgot to call Michael.

MELINDA Sixty-five minutes in. He suddenly sees something. An actress doing something true and painful and sad and funny and terrible and lovely all at once. He looks through his press packet. Who is she? She’s amazing. He is rapt.

CRITIC How are you doing that? Don’t stop. You’re charming. You’re wonderful. You make being alive feel ok.

MELINDA Then she forgets her line. Awkward silence. He wants her to recover. He hurts for her. Another actor tries to cover but fails. They are not making sense anymore. The actress runs off the stage. The Critic is crushed.

CRITIC My girl—

MELINDA The play continues. Or something like the play. The critic sighs, takes notes. Checks to see if his shoes are tied. One hundred and three minutes into the play. The actress returns. She is humbled. She is hunched. She is terrified but says her lines or what the critic assumes her lines are. The critic has a realization. He looks at the actress and sees himself.

CRITIC I love you.

MELINDA And then the play is over. He claps politely. Gathers his notes. Goes home to feed his cats and to write his review.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/world/middleeast/24terror.html?ex=1159416000&en=a2ca3fabce5ec328&ei=5087%0A

Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat By MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

money

I just read an article by Doug Rand in The Dramatist, a publication put out by the Dramatist Guild. i guess my dues have not expired quite yet. Anyway, the gist of the article is that in 1966 the royalties a high school or college or community group paid to produce a published play was about 50 dollars. Today, it's still the same amount. Or it could be as high as 60 or 75 but the point is that it should be more like 300 if we take inflation into account.

As someone who has a play being published who is just beginning to see a little bit of money from this playwriting thing, this is very upsetting to me. i mean I knew it was near impossible to make a living as a playwright but to have it spelled out so plainly (by the founder of Playscripts) is disheartening to say the least.

Basically it's telling me that the royalties i receive should be almost 6 times what they are. i don't know what that would do to an equity contract not to mention where these theatre companies would get this money. A lot of them expect you to work for free anyway. but Christ, after the summer i had, if i had been paid 300 dollars per performance, for my full lengths, I would have made 12,000 dollars. You know what I could do with 12,000 dollars? quit my job to start so i could write for real (for four months or so perhaps and just pray I dont need the health insurance) Christ. I will never make a living at this. time to write that screenplay.

Preview

The bloggers got together and decided to post a three play preview of what they want to see in the fall. I am participating.

I took a look at the major theatres and there are two plays I’d really love to see. I’m sure there are tons of downtown or indie theatre shows that I will want to see and I’ll get the email and go but I have to say I could only find 2 off broadways shows I was interested in seeing.

Sarah Ruhl’s Clean House—a play that I want to see but can’t really afford. 70 bucks! Maybe they have student rush.

In this poignant comedy, Matilde, a young Brazilian woman, is hired by Lane and her husband Charles—two busy, high-powered physicians—as the housekeeper of their suburban home. Unfortunately, Matilde hates to clean. She prefers trying to dream up the funniest joke in the world. Lane’s sister, Virginia, however, loves to clean and, in a secret deal with Matilde, arranges to take care of the cleaning behind Lane’s back, an arrangement just too perfect to last. At the same time, Charles meets the free-spirited Ana, whose passion evokes a soulful grace in everyone it touches, and casts a wonderfully surreal spell over The Clean House

http://www.lct.org/calendar/event_detail.cfm?ID_event=80195535

Adrift in Macao at Primary Stages

Receiving its New York premiere is the hilarious and irreverent new film noir musical parody, Adrift in Macao with book and lyrics by Christopher Durang (Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, The Marriage of Bette and Boo) and music by Peter Melnick. Mixing together farce, camp, and tongue-in-cheek wit, Adrift in Macao spins the tale of five quirky characters stranded in a Casablanca-like locale in the Far-East. Complete with intrigue, silliness and a playfully melodic score, it is the newest work from a gifted theater composer and one of America's funniest playwrights

http://www.primarystages.com/22season.htm

Oct 2

*PARTY!!!*

*COME ON DOWN! * *and join NEW GEORGES Artistic Director * *SUSAN BERNFIELD* *(Producer, Sheila Callaghan's hit play, DEAD CITY)* *as she hosts *

*The First-Ever * *NEW YORK THEATER REVIEW* *FUNDRAISER!!!! * *www.nytr.org*

*Monday, October 2, 2006* *8pm* *The Brick Theater* *575 Metropolitan Avenue* *Williamsburg, Brooklyn* *$20* *Directions <http://www.bricktheater.com/Directions.html>*

*The New York Theater Review was launched to help increase recognition of downtown New York theater artists and productions. Our debut release features new plays from Sheila Callaghan (the critically-acclaimed New Georges hit Dead City), August Schulenburg (Riding the Bull) and Ken Urban (The Female Terrorist Project ) plus essays and reviews ranging from Julian Beck's Living Theatre to SoHo's own legendary Wooster Group.*

*Go Ahead: Take A Look At Our Debut Edition

<http://www.amazon.com/gp/sitbv3/reader/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-7487563-4136065?%25255Fencoding=UTF8&asin=1411664833 >

*In 2007, NYTR is looking to expand its reach in distribution and visibility, and this kind of stuff takes DOUGH! *

*PLEASE COME OUT AND HELP SUPPORT * *DOWNTOWN NEW YORK'S* *EXCITING NEW THEATER PUBLICATION!*

*Booze!* *A Silent Auction of Cool Stuff!* *More Booze!* *Cool People!* *Hot Tuneage!* *Prizes!* *Mystery Guests!* *Even More Booze!*

*PLUS*

*THE SIZZLIN' SHORTS:* *Original Tiny Plays Specially Commissioned for This Evening* *From 3 of Downtown Theater's * *Hottest Playwrights!*

*www.nytr.org*

inch by inch

I've been stuck on this new play stuck stuck stuck but i managed to get a little more done today so i don't feel so bad and i read over what i have so far and i actually like it. this could actually work.

Here is a piece I have to take out because it doesn't fit the world I'm trying to create. i kind of like it, and it also makes me cringe at the same time. in any case it's just not going to work.

DOG I want to believe in evolution. Dogs are getting smarter. We are working on having opposable thumbs. So we can pick things up. And write things down. It is so hard to read books now. But we are getting smarter and we are working on developing technology. Actually we may just take your technology and make improvements. Like the Japanese. Or the dolphins.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/books/review/Buruma.t.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&en=03f0fda2ce6b8f7f&ex=1158724800

From review of Frank Rich Book on NY Times

"THERE may be one other reason for the fumbling: the conventional methods of American journalism, marked by an obsession with access and quotes. A good reporter for an American paper must get sources who sound authoritative and quotes that show both sides of a story. His or her own expertise is almost irrelevant. If the opinions of columnists count for too much in the American press, the intelligence of reporters is institutionally underused. The problem is that there are not always two sides to a story. Someone reporting on the persecution of Jews in Germany in 1938 would not have added “balance” by quoting Joseph Goebbels. And besides, as Judith Miller found out, what is the good of quotes if they are based on false information?"

from the Onion

Bush: 'History Cannot Judge Me If I End It Soon'

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/52331

"WASHINGTON, DC—Despite, or perhaps because of, rising fuel prices, the unpopularity of the U.S. presence in Iraq, and mounting legal problems surrounding his administration, President Bush informed his Cabinet Monday that he is unworried about his place in history, White House sources said. "I'm telling you, pretty soon some things are going to develop so that I won't have history to worry about any longer," Bush said. "History may be written by the winners, but it doesn't get written at all if all of human language is lost in, say, fire storms, right? So I can still get off the hook." Although troubles faced by his presidency have been relatively recent, sources said they believed Bush's plan had been put into motion long before he had even taken office.

This was pointed out to me by someone on one of the many lists I'm on.

http://www.improbable.co.uk/show_example.asp?item_id=17

It's a discussion in England about theatre.

DEVOTED AND DISGRUNTLED What are we going to do about theatre?

From new Chris Durang Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-durang/

" . . . they excerpted an ad from incumbent Nancy Johnson, running for her Congressional seat in Connecticut.

The ad they showed was this: against the background of ominous music and a sickly green computer screen with pictures of suspicious men on it, the voiceover says gravely: "A terrorist plot may be unfolding. Should the government intercept that call or wait until the paper work is filed?"

That is a LIE. The FISA law NEVER makes you wait to intercept the call. If the government has suspicions, it is allowed to tape that call INSTANTANEOUSLY, you do not have to file any paper work BEFORE doing so. If you have suspicions you just tape away, the FISA court gives the government the benefit of the doubt, and the government has THREE DAYS to file for the warrant. (This law only covers calls involving taping an American citizen's phone call.)

The government can certainly manage to file by the end of three days, can they not? Do we pay their salaries to do things, or not? The FISA court is notably accepting of the government's point of view and in the past has turned down very, very few requests for a warrant."

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?