What I'm impressed with

Theresa Rebeck's new book: Three Girls and Their Brother

Fanfuckingtastic. A novel about celebrity culture. highly readable. fascinating characters. And it's really well constructed, such that you get to the end and you see how all sort of innocuous seeming details added up to something more.

I highly recommend it.

new

Great post from Isaac on the NEA

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/nea-funding-now.html

Last Night

Last night I read for 15 min or so from the novel that I am trying to write in fits and starts with long stops where I am interrupted by plays, a tv spec, a film script, etc. I do plan to finish one of these days. Except writing one novel is like writing 3 or 4 plays. It's hard to find the time. All of this is just to say that I really enjoyed reading my fiction in front of a crowd and that I thought it went well. I know I can write plays but the jury was still out on fiction. Last night was encouragement to go forward. Not sure when, but eventually. I also forgot how much I liked to perform. I used to act, yes but it made me anxious and it stopped being fun and so I went to writing instead. So I've been hiding behind actors. But when it comes down to it, acting is fun. Being up in front of people, feeling them facing you, responding in front of you, instead of around you. It's kind of a high. I forgot about that. Also, I'm good at reading my own stuff. I know how it's supposed to sound and I can often get near what I want it to be. I don't want to go back to acting or anything, but I hope I do get this book written and published just so that I can read in front of people. It was fucking fun.

nice post from melon

"Is it such a strange thing to believe that artists be paid for their job? It speaks to the entire question of the necessity of art. Try as people might to debate that question, it is fairly irrelevant, being that art does exist and has since the beginning of man, hence confirming that there is some innate need for it. Why we need it, is what makes it so damn interesting. Conversely, there is also an artist's need to do it. Doing great art is like doing crack. An addictive, supreme high. So you go searching for more." http://middleofthemelon.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-also-juggle.html

NYTW codes The Sound and the Fury

this is Elevator Repair Service who did Gatz as you will recall Tickets for all performances April 15 – May 18 are just $40 each (reg. $55). Use code SDFBLG7 when ordering. To purchase tickets, call (212) 947-8844 or visit http://www.broadwayoffers.com/ New York Theatre Workshop also offers both Student Tickets and CheapTix Sundays. CheapTix Sundays: All tickets for all Sunday evening performances at 7pm are just $20 each! Tickets are available in advance but must be purchased at the NYTW box office on a cash-only basis. Student Tickets: Full-time students with a valid student ID may purchase $20 tickets for all performances (subject to availability). Limit one ticket per ID. Tickets must be purchased in person and require an ID at the box office. The NYTW box office is located at 79 East 4th Street (between Second Avenue and Bowery) and is open Tuesday - Saturday from 1pm - 6pm.

Download a free ticket for the Women's Project's new play

For the preview period (April 11 through 19) of Women's Project's new show, Catherine Trieschmann's comedy crooked directed by Liz Diamond, 1000 free tickets will be downloaded from the Women's Project web site, www.WomensProject.org.

Matty F writes a new play

I'm going to go see When Is A Clock. Are you?

www.bluecoyote.org

f4f

more photos from the Albion college production of Food For Fish. photos by Robert Starko.

LA

So I'm back from my LA trip, spending the day recovering and trying to not be jetlagged. I had 20 meetings with TV folks while I was there. No, really. It was a culture shock but it was a lot of fun. I met some cool people. What else? Jeffrey Emerson took me to a rave or something like that. I saw a Circle X reading of Scarcity--I had missed the show in NYC and was glad to see it. It's a pretty terrific play. I'm pretty sure I saw a reading of it at MCC like 5 years ago. I also got to hang at SCR a bit. Saw the Kate Robin show which I really enjoyed. It was a lot about what it is to be an artist and brought up a lot of stuff I'm thinking about a lot right now. Met Kate, another playwright Sharr, hung out with Megan and my friend David from Columbia. Had some drinks with Mandi and Terry from Note. Spent a lot of time with Jen K and David V who I'm crazy about. They let me crash at their pad in echo park and David introduced me to some new comic books. What else? I don't like to drive, but I can do it. Flying is also not so much fun. There was a heat wave over the weekend. 90 or hotter in April. I wanted some of that moderate weather they are famous for. Ah well. next time I guess.

tomorrow, come see me read something

I'm planning to read from the beginning of my as yet unfinished novel.
swing by if you can.

Drunken! Careening! Writers!
Thursday, April 17, 7pm
KGB Bar
85 E. 4th St., NYC/www.kgbbar.com
FREE
“April Showers: It’s Raining Men! (Hallelujah)”
Andrew W.M. Beirle
Tim W. Brown
Paul McComas
Adam Szymkowicz
with your hostess, Kathleen Warnock


Drunken! Careening! Writers! is a reading series
dedicated to the proposition that readings should be:
excellent, well-read pieces that have at least one
thing in them that makes people laugh (nervous
laughter counts), and don't run more than 15 minutes
each.

For more information, or to be added to the mailing
list, email CareeningWriters at aol.com. 

F4F in ND

http://www.dickinsonstate.com/digest.asp?ArticleID=2312

I'm

in LA, driving around all day from meeting to meeting. Getting
sunburned. See you when I return.

support flux

http://fluxtheatreensemble.blogspot.com/2008/03/support-flux-buy-raffle-ticket.html

I'm at work and I'm sick right now but read Matt's post.

http://matthewfreeman.blogspot.com/2008/04/building-and-dismantling.html

What I'm doing

Working late every day this week and much of the weekend at the day job. It's that time of year again where I have to work twelve hour days for three days in a row. Then I'm taking a plane to LA where I will spend a week and a half meeting with TV people and sleeping on couches. Somewhere in there, I hope to get some writing in too.

wise words from Jaime

"We lament the demise of American theatre. American theatre is demising, if it is, because theatres are making safe, staid choices. It's not that exciting, brilliant plays aren't being written. It's that they aren't being produced. Because producers (again, I'm talking nonprofit here) are terrified of not making enough money through ticket sales to be able to continue to operate."

I''m doing this next--a riff on Midsummer

http://fluxtheatreensemble.blogspot.com/2008/04/imagination-compact.html

Bush resigns!!

Apologizes to nation. Sorry. That's not true at all. Alas.

in June

Nerve going up here:

ARENA PLAYERS
East Farmingdale, N.Y.

http://www.arenaplayers.org/pages/ss/ss-p1.html

money for somebody

Good news for one playwright every year

200,000 for a mid career in Sept

50,000 for an emerging a year later

and so on every year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a9BsRxLL0Qgc&refer=muse

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/theatre/story/2008/03/29/playwright-prize.html

NYTR 08

New York Theater Review 2008 at Drama Book Shop Friday, April 11, 6-8pm Free Readings and Reception The third edition of the New York Theater Review continues its celebration of downtown New York theater with the official release of the 2008 edition at Manhattan's Drama Book Shop Friday, April 11 from 6-8pm. Drawing from among the best and the brightest in contemporary NYC alt-theater, NYTR's 2008 edition contains three new plays, three original commissioned essays, an extended roundtable chat with six leading NYC theater and performance bloggers, and a sit-down give and take with that singular sonic performance onslaught also known as Reggie Watts. NYTR's evening at the Drama Book Shop will feature excerpts from the 2008 collection of new plays and essays. In plays, Taylor Mac's funny, deeply personal and visually stunning The Young Ladies Of ... seeks out the macho, Texas farm-boy father he never really knew; 2008 P73 Playwriting Fellow Tommy Smith's explosively visceral White Hot rips the calm exterior off a bourgeois couple's seemingly placid existence to expose the despairing core festering beneath; six Asian-Americans from widely different backgrounds share their stories of immigration, migration and cultural identity in Ping Chong & Sara Michelle Zatz' Undesirable Elements. In essays specifically commissioned for the 2008 edition, Victoria Linchong of NYC's Direct Arts, Zachary R. Mannheimer of Brooklyn's Subjective Theatre Co., and Marya Sea Kaminski of Seattle's Washington Ensemble Theatre contribute fresh takes on the NYC alt-theater of today, and a look back fifty years to where it all began. A reception will follow.

Alex Freeman talking about playing Barbara in Albion College production of F4F

http://asfreemanblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-barbara.html

a nice note from Ruben about Waldo in WI

http://avltheatre.com/ruben/2008/03/racinians_milwaukeans_yes_even.html

My short play Snow just won a contest in the UK. Read it here if you like. If you recall, this is the play that had a reading which starred Jon Bon Jovi and other heavy hitters last year. Details below for the upcoming show.

or in North Dakota

info here.

coming to Wisconsin

learn more here.

name the song

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/diversions/and_great_lyrics_quiz_rock_roll_the.php

this week's rapid response team can be heard here

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2008/03/latest-rrt-podc.html

Albion College Department of Theatre and Dance

Here are some photos from the Albion College student production of Food For Fish. Photos by director Keith Medelis. The run starts tomorrow. Look at the size of that stage. Luxurious, no?

tommy

Tommy Smith

http://www.vimeo.com/user159246

h/t P73

http://www.p73.org/