coming soon 1 and 2

1


2

I don't want to live in a celebrity culture

Sometimes I can't stand it.

When will it be over?

the list

thanks to Daisey for the link

http://www.mikedaisey.com/

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/10/treasury_depts_250pa.html

"The list is 250 pages long. If you do business with a
person on the list, you can pay $10 million in fines
and go to jail for 30 years. "Doing business" can be
as simple as selling one of those people a sandwich.
Not an anthrax sandwich -- like a roast beef on rye. "

four chairs play opens today

http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/131140

Class

At a union meeting yesterday we were to ratify the
agreement the union and university made (I'm an office
worker at a university). I haven't had an increase in
pay since October 2005. I will be getting an increase
finally and it will be retroactive to Feb of this
year. But it's 3 percent. Looking at the schedule
for the next five years according to the agreement,
there is no way we will ever get ahead of inflation.

I mean part of the reason I have this job is to pay
off student loans. It's not a job I have because I
love my work--it's a job for the money. And as jobs
for the money, it sucks, quite frankly.

I am able to pay the monthly installment on my huge
loans and buy food and see occasional plays but I have
nothing left over. I am breaking even. The only
money I have been able to save was the small amount
I'm making from royalties.

So that's my life right now. How are you?

Vonnegut's gone.

Long live Vonnegut

ny times article

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/health/10gene.html?em&ex=1176436800&en=931923a564fed9e9&ei=5087%0A

"It is a misconception that the differences between
men's and women's brains are small or erratic or found
only in a few extreme cases, Dr. Larry Cahill of the
University of California, Irvine, wrote last year in
Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Widespread regions of the
cortex, the brain's outer layer that performs much of
its higher-level processing, are thicker in women. The
hippocampus, where initial memories are formed,
occupies a larger fraction of the female brain."

and this:

Such experiments do not show the same clear divide
with women. Whether women describe themselves as
straight or lesbian, "Their sexual arousal seems to be
relatively indiscriminate — they get aroused by both
male and female images," Dr. Bailey said. "I'm not
even sure females have a sexual orientation. But they
have sexual preferences. Women are very picky, and
most choose to have sex with men."

these times

thanks to Lucas for this

http://lucaskrech.livejournal.com/

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/04/another-enemy-of-people.html

"I confess to having been furious that any American
citizen would be singled out for governmental
harassment because he or she criticized any elected
official, Democrat or Republican. That harassment is,
in and of itself, a flagrant violation not only of the
First Amendment but also of our entire scheme of
constitutional government. This effort to punish a
critic states my lecture's argument far more
eloquently and forcefully than I ever could."

Please mark your calendar

My play Incendiary will be read at Ars Nova Monday
April 30th at 7pm. Kip Fagan will direct. Hope to
see you there!

http://arsnovanyc.com/out-loud/

2007 nytr

The 2007 New York Theater Review is out and I have a
piece in it. Check it out. It's a very cool book!

http://www.nytr.org/

plugs for other people

First, Matt Freeman's Show With Matt J today and
tomorrow

http://matthewfreeman.blogspot.com/2007/04/dream-of-ridiculous-man-tonight.html

Second, see James Comtois dance around without a shirt
on. Really.

http://jamespeak.blogspot.com/2007/04/opening-tonight.html

Third the soho rep writer director lab.

http://jasongrote.blogspot.com/2007/04/soho-rep-writerdirector-lab-reading.html

class

Interesting post from Isaac on class

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2007/04/whatever_happen.html

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. As a
playwright, I am writing from a certain point of view
which is MY point of view. It comes from where I grew
up and how I grew up and the people I know and how I
see all those factors. I was raised Catholic. My
father's family was Polish Catholic. My mother's
family was all sorts of English, Dutch, Scottish but
basically the culture she came from was a Protestant
American culture, though she herself was not praticing
Protestant.

Both my parent were teachers who taught in public
schools, my mother high school math and my father 5th
and 7th grade--specializing in science. My father
also started a series of businesses while teaching
full time. He built picnic tables then he opened a
video store in the mid eighties, then he started
buying houses. Basically he's a workaholic. Both my
parents are now retired but he is still buying houses
and working on them and then trying to resell them.
And so through lots of hard work and smart investment
he is doing quite well financially right now, or at
least much better than a teacher is expected to be
doing.

So basically my point is that I grew up in a house
that was a hard working house and also not exactly
working class and not exactly not working class.
(I've spent many hours roofing). I went to a public
school and a public university. I grew up in a small
town in Connecticut, which is something that is hard
to explain unless you too grew up in a small town in
Connecticut. And I think a lot of my small town view
of the world remains as well as the idea that I have
to have a day job (not to mention the grad school debt
that I'm currently saddled with, which makes my day
job necessary.)

Based on the way my parents worked and worked, I am
likewise working a day job and doing my best to write
plays as my other job. It's what I'm expecting myself
to do and it's also incredibly tiring. And while I
know that I do tend to write more when I have a full
time job, I also have a lot less time to write.

I know I would be more focused on my playwriting if I
didn't have a 9-5 job. And I know that it would have
been helpful if I had gone to undergrad at Princeton
or Yale or somewhere that had had a theatre major--
course when I was applying to school I didn't know I
wanted to be a playwright. But if I had gone to an
Ivy league school I think I would have a clearer
picture of the wealthy people that make up New York
audiences. Six Degrees of Seperation is a fantastic
play but it's not a play I am equipped to write
because I am not of that world.

And so sometimes I wonder if the wealthy theatregoers
are interested in what I have to say. Is my point of
view something that would interest them? I am not
Jewish. I'm not writing about people living on the
Upper West side. I have a certain unique point of
view and some of that has to do with growing up where
and when and how I did.

Considering the price of theatre tickets, the off
broadway and broadway audiences are and have to be
wealthy these days.

At the same time, I want my plays to be produced in
small theatres throughout the country. I want my
plays to mean something to the actors in Michigan who
are holding down day jobs and then come to rehearse at
night.

And I want to find a way to make a living writing.
Because I'm so very tired. Especially on a Monday.

explain this to me

OK, so I'm not like checking this all the time or
anything and I do do work at work. i swear. Just ask
the pile of completed work. but someone please
explain to me how my amazon sales rank was around 2
million yesterday and now is at 126,643. I mean I
know it doesn't mean I sold a couple thousand books
yesterday but what does it mean exactly? How is it
possible for something to fluctutate like that?

OK, sorry for bothering you. Go buy my play.

http://www.amazon.com/Deflowering-Waldo-Adam-Szymkowicz/dp/0822221365/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1699331-0565554?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175865671&sr=1-1

A show I'm looking forward to

It's by "blogger" Larry Kunofsky and it's a riot. I highly recommend. I'm going opening night. There's a party after. You should go.

Dying City discounts

The following discount codes work on
broadwayoffers.com:

With a student I.D., up to two tickets @ $10/ticket:
DC4TONY

Up to 6 tickets @ $45/ticket, open to anyone: DC45LCT

I have a play in this

I'm in good company. the other plays are by Anne Washburn and Quiara Alegria Hudes. The book also includes an intro by George Hunka and essays by Caridad Svich, Garrett Eisler, Alan Lockwood, and Brook Stowe.

Also photographs from all the productions and from the benefit at the brick featuring some other great theatrical luminaries.

In Seattle very soon

wow

Columbia Journalism student from Iraq on Bush's
decision to go to war:

http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/news/nuridoc.pdf

Plays you should know

Dead City by Sheila Callaghan The Internationalist by Anne Washburn Clean House by Sarah Ruhl Tragedy: A Tragedy by Will Eno Mr Marmalade by Noah Haidle The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow by Rolin Jones

interview of David Cote

http://praxistheatre.blogspot.com/2007/03/10-questions-david-cote.html

"7) How much do you think artists should be changing
their work or their creative direction based on
critics' feedback?

Well, if the quality of critics were high, I'd say
that they should. But generally, theater critics are
almost as irrelevant as theater is to the average TV
and film-addicted booby. My younger colleagues are
smart and talented, but the most influential critical
posts in this city are jealousy guarded by a wizened
knot of nostalgia-drenched mediocrities who have no
idea what the next generation is doing and can barely
stay on top of what's happening on Broadway. They are
advocates of nothing but their own pathetic memories
of musicals or plays in the 60s and 70s; they have
about as much vision as the bureaucratic philistines
we call artistic directors."

noveling or playing

Remember that novel I was supposedly writing? Well I
got sidetracked I guess and am working on this play
now. I was about 16 thousand words in which is about a
full length plays worth and I do plan to go back to
it, and hopefully still have a draft before my 30th
birthday in August if at all possible. But damn it was
so hard. So hard. But yeah maybe after this play is
done, or after the next one...or once i find some time
to sit down.

Anyway, here is a post from Patrick about writing
novels vs. plays:

http://writinglife3.blogspot.com/2007/03/why-writing-novels-is-harder-than.html

soon

watch this site for your chance for your very own copy of the 2007

ny times article

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/nyregion/30poverty.html?bl&ex=1175659200&en=a6986c5fe5b6802d&ei=5087%0A

"What is troubling is the focus on personal behavior
as the solution to what is at least in part a problem
of the economy," she said. "Given what we know about
the growth of low-wage jobs and the shrinking of the
middle class, it will be, in fact, impossible to bring
more people into the middle class unless we improve
the labor market as well."

Food For Fish Tix now on sale

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/14109

Book for Sunday

I'm halfway through this book by Chuck Palahniuk
called RANT which I highly recommend. It's really
fantastic. This is his seventh book, but I never read
any of the others, although I may start now. He wrote
Fight Club which I thought was a pretty cool film and
based on what I'm reading now, must have been a great
book.

I picked up this book for free outside a book store
and I just realized by looking at Amazon that it is
not available until May. I count myself lucky in that
I get to read it now and didn't even have to have a no paying or low paying job in publishing or retail. Sometimes it
helps to be at the right place at the right time.

blogroll please

also please welcome Scott McMorrow http://friedchicken-gasoline.blogspot.com/ and Alexis Soloski over at the village voice http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/sightlines/ and Wendy Seyb who choreographed Nerve http://www.everymanadventures.blogspot.com/

From the Dramatists Guild newsletter

I'm very impressed with what is going on over at the
Guild right now. Now might be a good time to join if
any of you playwrights don't belong. Wise words from
Mr. Garrison in the recent Guild newsletter:

From the Desk of Gary Garrison
JONES-ING FOR IT:

"I had THAT moment the other day. You know the one I'm
talking about: you're at a dinner party, all the
guests are seated at the table and you're desperately
trying to stay focused and engaged in the conversation
even though (1) you can't remember the person's name
to the left of you, (2) you can't remember the
person's name to the right of you, (3) you've dropped
the metal napkin ring in the middle of the plate,
making a noise that sounds symphonic and (4) you've
left your glasses at the office so you don't know if
you're eating the salad with the big fork or small
fork and does-it-really-matter-even
though-your-mother-said-it-did? In your chaotic haze
of self-consciousness you think you hear your name and
then the following: "Oh, he's a writer, aren't you
Gary?" Instantly, you feel every pair of eyes on you.
Instead of something that should resemble a
straight-forward, "Yes, I am," you manage to gurgle
something that vaguely sounds positive but is actually
a thin apology for not being famous.

Why do I do that? Simple: I know the question that's
just waiting to fall out of someone's mouth is, "What
have you written?" or worse, "Have you written
anything I know?" And let's be honest, unless you're a
writer that's had a healthy, visible career, chances
are they haven't heard of you or your work and the
whole moment is awkward. From that tiny little
question, all my insecurities can rise up and choke
the sense right out of my language. I stumble, bumble
and fall (and don't want to get up), and I end up
talking and talking and talking and sounding like
something I never want to be: a critic of my own
career. But quietly, here's what I know the real issue
is: I'm caught off guard to account for my success (or
sadly, what I perceive as the lack thereof). And
that's where it all goes wrong.

What is success? Is having one production in six
months or three productions in two years a success? Is
a reading, a workshop or a showcase of my work a
success or is it something to easily discount because
it's not a production – in a theatre – with over
ninety-nine seats – and a water fountain -- with real
ushers – and a real curtain – and actors performing
who are paid a living wage – and myself getting a
royalty – and a good review. No! Five good reviews!
No! TEN! Okay, five good reviews and my father's
approval! When is it ever enough? Honestly, how much
success does it take to stop jones-ing for it? Or do
you ever stop that almost-narcotic need?

I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that a
number of us have an over-inflated definition of
success for ourselves. And if we don't seriously
reexamine that from time to time, and yes, recalibrate
it, we'll stop writing and we'll blame it on the
specifics of "I could never get an agent. I could
never get published. I could never get a regional
theatre to produce my play. I could never get a grant.
I could never get a Guggenheim. I could . . ." That
list goes on and on.

Sitting down to write this column today was a success.
Finally making a scene work that I've rewritten
countless times is a success. Having a reading of my
play where the story is clear and engaging is a HUGE
success. Having a director ask me to read more of my
work is a glorious success. I know, I know. It's
simple-minded. But I've thought all the other kind
thinking, and simple is beginning to look better and
better."

Gary
ggarrison at dramatistsguild dot com

coming soon

http://www.myspace.com/food_for_fish