Nov 20, 2006
Nov 19, 2006
http://www.dramatists.com/text/newplays.html
I may never again see my name next to John Patrick
Shanley or David Ives. Sorry if that's annoying I
keep bringing it up. I'm just so fucking psyched.
Nov 16, 2006
where it's at--right here bizatch
I am of late hugely optimistic about what's going on
in theatre. I've seen some great plays lately by
Julia Cho, Anne Washburn, Adam Bock, Mike Batistick.
I've heard some great plays in class, at Ars Nova, in
my writing group. I read a book of awesome plays by
Sarah Ruhl recently and am very excited by what my
friends are writing and the energy in general at the
moment around new theatre.
in theatre. I've seen some great plays lately by
Julia Cho, Anne Washburn, Adam Bock, Mike Batistick.
I've heard some great plays in class, at Ars Nova, in
my writing group. I read a book of awesome plays by
Sarah Ruhl recently and am very excited by what my
friends are writing and the energy in general at the
moment around new theatre.
and tonight and Sat there is this:
SIX FIGURES THEATRE COMPANY'S ARTISTS OF TOMORROW
FESTIVAL presents
ALL THE GIRLS LOVE BOBBY KENNEDY
by Kristen Palmer
directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde
In the spring of 1968 Gracie dreams of Bobby and he
dreams back to
her. A play about young love, idealism and Robert F.
Kennedy.
with
Deborah Knox*
Marielle Heller*
Travis York*
Presented as a Staged Reading with Sound
Thursday, November 16, 7:30pm
Saturday, November 18, 8:00pm
Festival Tickets, $15
smarttix.com
Equity Actors free with AEA Card.
The West End Theatre
Located upstairs in the Church of St. Paul and St.
Andrew
263 West 86th St. between Broadway and West End Ave.
accessible via the 1 train at 86th St.
Handicap accessible.
scales of living
I'm having trouble balancing the novel writing and the play writing and my playgoing and my life in general. What i want to do is write a play and a novel at the same time and also go to plays regularly. This is not easy. If I could only take the day job out of the equation--but perhaps you've heard this theme from me before. it would be nice to have an extra hour int he day. if i coud have one hour dedicated to the novel and one to whichever play i'm writing, that might work out ok.
I have to figure this out.
Take Back the Criticism From the Man
Other bloggers pot about the Internationalist:
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/inte3817.htm
http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2006/11/happy_internati.html
http://obscenejester.typepad.com/home/2006/11/in_praise_of_de.html
http://jasongrote.blogspot.com/2006/11/tough-crowd-or-tale-of-two-audiences.html
http://www.ghunka.com/index.cgi/2006/11/15#internat
http://playgoer.blogspot.com/2006/11/reviews-thugs-internationalist.html
Nov 15, 2006
The Internationalist
Ok, so i've never really written a review on my blog
before but here is the first in what might be more
than one blog review.
before but here is the first in what might be more
than one blog review.
I saw the Internationalist at the Vineyard. If you
have never seen this play, you should go see it. This
is actually the third time I saw it. (I saw the 13p
production in New York and then I saw it when it went
to CT as well.) i have to say I had a renewed respect
for this play and for Anne Washburn. I really enjoyed
it the last couple of times but usually if you see
something more than once, you can start to see the
holes. This play stands up to scrutiny and more than
that, is just as entertaining and thought provoking
the third time around.
As for the production, the set was outstanding, the
lights kept the magic the play needs. In fact
visually this incarnation is more magical than the
previous ones. it was a different experience seeing
it with a mostly older cast. They were also more
grounded which at times i liked and at times I didn't.
i had the odd sensation of watching Liam Craig play
the parts Travis York had played in a near identical
way although Craig is older and like the other actors,
the dial was turned down. Sometimes I wish Schmoll
had turned the dial up a bit more. Gibson Frazier was
the only actor that made it over on the transfer to
the Vineyard stage. He was excellent then and he is
excellent here too. Zak Orth who takes on the main
character, is likable, fumbling. It took me a while
to warm up to him in this part but his performance was
ultimately satisfying and the notes he hit were right
within the score of the overall show Schmoll created.
The problem with this show, and it is a problem, is
that Heid Schreck is sorely missed. Now, Heidi is a
friend of mine I should probably say. That said, she
brought an energy to this play in the first two
incarnations that could have made this production
transcendent. Annie Parisse, try as she might, is
just not able to fill these shoes. I don't know that
I can even put it into words exactly what Heidi
brought to the part that Annie didn't. I want to say
that Annie is not a character actor and when she put
on a wig to play an old woman it didn't work. But
that's just a small part of it. An Annie is a capable
actress but her storyline fell back a little for me
wheras Heidi brought it forward which is more what i
think the play needs.
That said, if you have not seen this play go see it.
The Vineyard made a good choice when they programmed
Anne's play.
Nov 14, 2006
my website is finally updated
http://www.adamszymkowicz.com/
new scripts, new photos, newest resume
good times.
Nov 13, 2006
a scene
here is a scene from my new play. first draft as
always. this time it's in response to the joshua
james challenge.
always. this time it's in response to the joshua
james challenge.
http://playwrightjoshuajames.com/dailydojo/?p=225
(In the desert, JONES and SARAH)
JONES
I've been wanting to talk to you?
SARAH
Oh?
JONES
Yeah.
SARAH
What about?
JONES
I've seen you looking at me.
SARAH
What do you mean?
JONES
You know what I mean.
SARAH
What do you mean?
JONES
It's OK. You don't have to pretend. I know how you
feel and I dig it.
SARAH
You dig it?
JONES
Yeah, because I have a soft spot for you. This kind
of thing happens to me over and over in my life.
People fall in love with me. I'm used to it. It's
become a bit of a theme for me. Although it never has
worked out. Sometimes it will work out for a while
but in the end, it never works out because when it
comes down to it, I never feel the same way about them
as they feel about me. Which is how this is different
though. Because I have strong feelings for you.
SARAH
You do?
JONES
I want you to know however strongly you feel about me,
I feel just as strongly about you, or almost as
strongly in any case. It's the way you laugh… more
than anything it's that. The way you laugh, I feel
that all inside me. And I just know. I'm not really
sure why. It's the volume of your laugh maybe or the
snide thing you say before it that adds to it. The
way your face crinkles up. I'm not sure what exactly
but it grabs me by the throat and squeezes everything
out of me. You could kill with that laugh.
SARAH
Thanks.
JONES
Yeah, so I just though you should know. You don't
have to hide the way you feel. Because I feel that
way too and maybe from now on we could find more ways
to spend time together alone like this getting to know
each other better.
SARAH
Yeah, see . . .
JONES
You don't have to say anything. I can see it in your
eyes.
SARAH
I think I should say something though.
JONES
You don't have to though. Don't say a word. Just
close your eyes.
SARAH
Um.
(JONES kisses SARAH)
SARAH
Oh.
JONES
You can do better than that. Let's try that again.
(JONES leans in and SARAH pushes him away.)
SARAH
I don't think so.
JONES
What? Too much tongue?
SARAH
No. Yes. The thing is that I don't really feel that
way about you.
JONES
You don't have to pretend.
SARAH
I'm not pretending. It's just that you're not really
like the kind of guy I usually date.
JONES
Well I am one of a kind.
SARAH
That's not what I mean.
JONES
You aren't serious that you're not into me.
SARAH
There's someone else I have feelings for.
JONES
What, like back home? Because back home is far far
away.
SARAH
Here.
JONES
But I'm the only man around any woman could seriously
consider.
SARAH
Except Hank.
JONES
Yeah but . . .
SARAH
And I'm sorry it won't work out for us but I have to
say I am impressed with your confidence. It's
inspiring. In fact, I think I should follow your
example.
JONES
Yeah but—
SARAH
I've waited long enough. I need to tell him how I
feel. Don't you think?
JONES
Yeah, but he's gay.
SARAH
No, he's not. Hank?
JONES
Oh, come on, you seriously don't know that he's gay?
SARAH
But gays aren't allowed in the military.
JONES
Sarah, seriously. You don't know that he's gay?
SARAH
I know the way he looks at me.
JONES
I know the way he looks at me.
SARAH
You're wrong.
JONES
OK.
SARAH
You just see. He's going to marry me and then you'll
see.
JONES
Oh, like that will prove it.
SARAH
You'll see. I will tell him how I feel about him and
then he and I . . .
JONES
Listen, the only way either of us is going to have any
sex is if we're fucking each other.
SARAH
I'm going to go find Hank.
JONES
If you're honest with yourself, really honest, I think
you'll find that you're really into me.
SARAH
I don't feel that way about you.
JONES
Really?
SARAH
I just don't.
JONES
I think you do.
SARAH
(Exiting)
No.
JONES
(Following her out)
Oh, come on. Really? Well, we can still have sex.
Hey, Sarah, we can still have sex! Come on!
Nov 11, 2006
plays written
>From time to time i like to write down all the plays
I've written. I feell like I may have forgotten one
but for the life of me i can't remember what it is or
when I wrote it.
I've written. I feell like I may have forgotten one
but for the life of me i can't remember what it is or
when I wrote it.
i started writing plays sometime in college. i think
it's safe to assume I've been writing plays for about
10 years now, 7 or 8 of them seriously. i guess i
average somewhere in the realm of 2 full lengths a
year although there are years with only one and last
year there were 3. Here is my list.
Long Plays
1. The Backstage Camel
2. Hotel West
3. Deflowering Waldo
4. Cats and Dogs
5. The Relationship Game
6. Someone I Don't Know
7. Open Minds
8. The Art Machine
9. Anne
10. Nerve
11. Pretty Theft
12. One Wednesday at West Haddam High
13. Food For Fish
14. Herbie: Poet of the Wild West
15. Incendiary
16. Bee Eater
17. Never Again
Plus 6 one acts, 25 or 30 short plays, 1 screenplay
and another co-written screenplay. Not to mention the
reams of started and discarded plays.
Some people think i write a lot. It feels to me
always that I'm not writing fast enough.
Nov 10, 2006
Nov 6, 2006
PLAYWRIGHT
I've discovered something recently. My subconscious mind doesn't register the novel I'm trying to write. All the time it wants me to work on plays. It doesn't think I'm a novelist and so it is not impressed with time spent working on the novel.
i'm not sure what to do about this. i could try and convince it i guess that novel writing is writing too but it may be a hard thing to convince it of. Especially since noveling doesn't offer the form of thearapy that writing plays does. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's more work or maybe somewhere so deep in me i have told myself i have to be writing a play all the time adn now that's all I can accept. It's like there is an invisible tattoo on all my organs that says playwright and subsequently the novel writing does not feel like progress.
Or maybe I'm just in a funk again because I just finished a play and i forget that i always have this moment of happiness followed by a funk that the play is over and exists and by existing some of the doors of what it can be have been closed and it just is something now.
in any case, i want to start another play right this second to get out of this funk and that may be what i do. because writing a novel is not helping. although i don't want to stop the novel so i may take on the dubious task of trying to write a novel and a play at the same time.
i'll let you know how it goes.
from Chris Durang
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-durang/you-must-watch-hacking-d_b_33271.html
"By creating machines with a security flaw that
includes the ability to change vote tallies with NO
SIGN THAT SOMETHING HAS BEEN CHANGED -- that's one
helluva security flaw -- Diebold shows itself to be a
truly dishonest company. One could decide they're just
incompetent - they're only receiving billions from our
tax dollars for these fraudulent machines - but I
think it's fair enough to say they're dishonest.
I have no idea if my vote on Tuesday will register
properly. And if the votes in my area don't match
"exit polls" or national Pennsylvania polls, there's
no way to do a recount without the paper trail. No
way. "
from ny times Ted Koppel
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/opinion/06koppel.html?hp
"We are left with the impression that the grown-ups in
Washington would prefer to make the difficult
decisions for us without involving the courts,
Congress or the press. That is precisely the wrong way
to go about winning this war. Back when the United
States was widely admired, it was for all that was
most cumbersome about our democratic process.
America's efforts to transplant democracy elicit none
of that admiration. How can they, when we appear to
have lost confidence in fundamental aspects of
democracy here at home? What has historically
impressed our allies and adversaries has been our
often flawed, but ultimately sincere, determination to
operate within the law — if not always abroad, then at
least within the United States."
from ny times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/opinion/05rich.html?em&ex=1162962000&en=8a1ab164161ba7af&ei=5087%0A
"On the same day Mr. Kerry blundered, the United
States suffered a palpable and major defeat in Iraq.
The Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, once again
doing the bidding of the anti-American leader Moktada
al-Sadr, somehow coerced American forces into
dismantling their cordon of Sadr City, where they were
searching for a kidnapped soldier. As the melodramatic
debates over how much Mr. Kerry should apologize
dragged on longer, still more real news got short
shrift: the October death toll for Americans in Iraq
was the highest in nearly two years. Some 90 percent
of the dead were enlisted men and nearly a third were
on extended tours of duty or their second or third
tours. Their average age was 24. "
I didn't get a chance to work on the novel this
morning. What I did do however was finish a first
draft of the play about Bush and Cheney and the War in
Iraq. At the moment it's called "Never Again, a
Fantasy Play."
morning. What I did do however was finish a first
draft of the play about Bush and Cheney and the War in
Iraq. At the moment it's called "Never Again, a
Fantasy Play."
I don't quite feel the sense of accomplishment I
always think I'll feel when I get to the end of
somtthing. Perhaps it's because I know in some ways
it's just the start of the process and I still have to
hear it out loud and revise it and then try to talk
someone into doing it and then that makes me tired to
think about.
Maybe I can come home and work on the novel after
work. In any case, happy Monday.
Nov 5, 2006
Warrantless
Blue Box Productions has a radio play of mine alog
with some others up here in protest of Bush's illegal
wiretapping.
with some others up here in protest of Bush's illegal
wiretapping.
http://www.blueboxproductions.net/operation%20liberty%20tap.html
If you check back again on the 15th there will be more
plays up.
Nov 3, 2006
oh and also
I meant to say. The reading of Incendiary went REALLY
well. I was kind of shocked how well it went. I hope
you can come see it when we do a workshop production
of it in Feb at Juilliard with 2nd year actors.
well. I was kind of shocked how well it went. I hope
you can come see it when we do a workshop production
of it in Feb at Juilliard with 2nd year actors.
batistick
Saw a fantastic show last night--Mike Batistick's Port
Authority Throwdown at 45 Bleecker/Culture Project
produced by the Working Theatre.
Authority Throwdown at 45 Bleecker/Culture Project
produced by the Working Theatre.
All four actors were terrific, the set design was
gorgeous in a port authority way and the direction was
out of sight. Most of all though it was a smart well
written play about something important delivered in an
entertaining way with humanity and truth and humor.
Can't recommend enough.
only got a bit of writing done today. see me here
babling in the early morning hours.
Oct 31, 2006
tomorrow
Tomorrow I will start a novel. I finished a first
draft last night of my dog play. I know I haven't
mentioned it at all yet or posted anything from it
really because it's different kind of play and I'm not
sure how much more work I need to do on it before I'm
ready.
draft last night of my dog play. I know I haven't
mentioned it at all yet or posted anything from it
really because it's different kind of play and I'm not
sure how much more work I need to do on it before I'm
ready.
I was hoping to finish the political play as well by
today but I guess I will have to just write both it
and the novel. because deadlines are important
people.
So for the next month or two month or three months, I
may be blogging less, or i may be blogging more or you
may find me here instead.
http://szymkowicznaked.blogspot.com/ or not. It's
hard to say.
Oct 30, 2006
ny times article
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/business/worldbusiness/30energy.html?hp&ex=1162270800&en=0aec92e4764ed849&ei=5094&partner=homepage
"Most of these experts also say existing energy
alternatives and improvements in energy efficiency are
simply not enough.
"We cannot come close to stabilizing temperatures"
unless humans, by the end of the century, stop adding
more CO2 to the atmosphere than it can absorb, said W.
David Montgomery of Charles River Associates, a
consulting group, "and that will be an economic
impossibility without a major R.& D. investment.""
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