Sep 13, 2008
Sep 12, 2008
Sep 11, 2008
Sep 10, 2008
Sep 9, 2008
free preview tix
1000 Free Tickets to Previews of Women's Project Production of
The World Premiere Dark Comedy:
Aliens with Extraordinary Skills
By Saviana Stanescu, Directed by Tea Alagic
Previews September 22, Opens September 30 at 7:00pm at Women's Project
Are Downloadable Via the Web
The World Premiere Dark Comedy:
Aliens with Extraordinary Skills
By Saviana Stanescu, Directed by Tea Alagic
Previews September 22, Opens September 30 at 7:00pm at Women's Project
Are Downloadable Via the Web
If I was in NYC right now, I would go see this:
SWIMMING CITIES OF SWITCHBACK SEA
An installation by SWOON
with a performance written by Lisa D'Amour,
created with the crew
Music by Dark Dark Dark
3 Nights Only
Thurs-Sat, Sept 11-13
Long Island City, NYC
September 11, 2008, 8pm at Deitch Studios
4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City
7 train to Vernon Jackson (First stop in Queens)
www.deitch.com
An installation by SWOON
with a performance written by Lisa D'Amour,
created with the crew
Music by Dark Dark Dark
3 Nights Only
Thurs-Sat, Sept 11-13
Long Island City, NYC
September 11, 2008, 8pm at Deitch Studios
4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City
7 train to Vernon Jackson (First stop in Queens)
www.deitch.com
Sep 6, 2008
my travel plans
After my temping gig ends here in October, I take off to Independence, KS to see Kristen and stay in William Inge's house. The Dark at the Top Of The Stairs was written about this house. I was in that play in high school. I'm interested to see it.
Then we drive back to Minneapolis for an event at the Playwrights Center. That next weekend I fly to Baltimore to do a talkback after the last weekend of performances of Single Carrot's production of Food For Fish. (Oct 25) If you're a DC or Baltimore person I hope to see you there.
Then back to MN for a short respite before a New York trip for another reading of Incendiary in Nov. Come if you can, Nycers.
Then what? I'm not sure. I'd like to not stay on the ground too long. An LA trip? Prague? Paris? If so, I'll have to figure out a way to get some money before now and then.
Sep 5, 2008
Sep 4, 2008
Sep 3, 2008
Sep 2, 2008
MN musings
I have seen the MN state fair and bought a bucket of cookies there for 14 dollars. I also saw Al Franken and Garrison Keillor and I'm going to vote for them both. Oh and Matt Freeman was there too. I will also vote for him. I've been bowling twice at Bryant Lake Bowl. I've been biking like nobody's business.
I've been writing a novel and a play and a pilot. And revising another play and that pilot.
Yesterday I went to a take back labor day concert sposored by a labor union. The Phar Cyde was there and Billy Bragg was supposed to be there but I think we missed him. K saw a boat boarded and turned around for flying a banner bemoaning torture. The swat team holding machine guns on the shore looked on. A boat without a banner went by without incident. No one knocked down my door to arrest me yet but the RNC isn't over yet and I am only protesting on this blog.
What else? Except for today the weather has been sunny and in the 70s and 80s. Like a dream, really. A minneapolis dream where the beer is always cheap.
Aug 28, 2008
question
Ok, so what ever happened to all the talk about voting machines. Has anything been done to prevent McCain from stealing the election in the same way Bush did twice?
If you recall, a lot of votes in Ohio weren't counted. And on the electronic machines people would put in one person and it would count for the other person. There was no paper trail and the company who made the machines was owned by a good friend of W. So were any of these problems ever solved. Anyone?
Aug 27, 2008
Aug 26, 2008
from this month's Dramatists magazine
FROM THE FRONT DESK of Gary Garrison
In the May 15 E-newsletter, I detailed a trip I’d taken to Seattle that culminated in one of the most open, honest and frank panel discussions I’ve ever witnessed on large, named theatres producing (or not producing, as is often the case) unknown playwrights that live in the very communities these theatres do business in. Just to catch you up to speed, here is the original narrative:
The Backyard Syndrome
Like a lot of you, I’ve heard about the perpetual and perennial misting rain of Seattle, the we-did-it-first-Starbucks phenomenon and the almost legendary theatre scene that builds an uptown aura with a downtown sensibility. My Guild visit to Seattle this weekend was a tremendous success: yes, there was the steady rain; sure enough, there was enough coffee to float a small country (but isn’t that now true everywhere?). But it was the gorgeous spirit of the theatre community that just knocked my socks off.
A dinner with the Seattle Rep Dennis Schebetta combined with a Town Hall meeting with local artists/administrators and passionate Guild members quickly articulated a common concern among a lot of our members: dramatists can’t get produced in their own backyards. I’ve heard this serious concern announced in Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and San Diego. Let me be clear: it’s not about just getting produced in your own backyard, it’s about getting produced by one of the named theatres that’s in your own metropolitan neighborhood.
What was extraordinary and different (and incredibly positive) about members talking about this issue in Seattle was the almost instant call – by representatives of the three large theatres: The Intiman, A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) and Seattle Rep – for playwrights to stop focusing on something that’s probably not going to happen for a variety of predominantly economic reasons, and instead to channel that passion and energy in to either co-producing (like 13 P in New York or Playwrights 6 in Los Angeles) or self-producing. To hear representatives of the three big theatres in town say in a straight-forward, no-nonsense but kind way: “Look, we love new writers. But we have twelve-hundred seats that we have to fill or we’ll go under. And base-line economics suggest big commercial names of plays and playwrights are going to sell those seats.”
They said it. Out loud, even. They said what other theatres won’t or can’t or don’t want to say in a public way for a variety of reasons (that have to do with mission statements and grant writing, I’m sure). There was something liberating, for everyone in the room, in the truth being spoken out loud. More importantly, there was something very empowering in dramatists realizing that if they want their stories told to a local audience, they’d most likely have to figure out for themselves how best to do that. And they should. They should figure it out because every voice should be heard, and every story desperately needs to be told.
Once that ice was broken, all the bigger questions came out: who are we writing for? Is our effectiveness as dramatists determined by the size of the audience and the theatre that serves them? Are we writing for the prestige of an association to a large theatre? To Broadway? To a published anthology? Or are we writing because we have a desire to change the world, be that in front of a crowd of fifty or five-hundred? Where do you want to be: sitting in a small, dark theatre where your story is unfolding in front of an appreciative audience or staring at your manuscript that won’t be produced by a theatre you’ve defined as worthy and successful?
Hmmmmm. That’s a tough one. I know.
I usually count on twenty or thirty members to always respond to my columns in the E-newsletter, depending on what area of craft, career or spiritual journey I’m writing about. When I receive over a hundred responses from members (like my column on agents, and then this Seattle column), I know that something in the content is resonating in a lot of people. More importantly, I know there’s wisdom, opinion, passion and argument to share with you. Here, then, were some of the responses:
(omitted. Check the magazine for them.) I'd love to hear your responses, however.
more here
Aug 22, 2008
here is a short film
This started out as a play commissioned by Clubbed Thumb the summer of 2006. (Sam directed that too.) it was subsequently produced by Howling Moon Cab Company and Marisa Viola in New York then by my friends at Theatre of Note in LA and my other friends at Bluebox in New York.
the film is directed (and filmed) by Sam Buggeln and stars Susan Louise O'Connor and Michael Chernus.
Aug 21, 2008
now, i bike everywhere I go
This week I read White Teeth, Neverwhere and the Confessions of Max Tivoli. I did some writing on the novel, turned in a draft of a pilot, visited the Walker Art Space during the day. Next week I start temping. My life of leisure had to end eventually. And then later that week, Freeman comes to town to show me how to party down at the state fair. What are you up to? I need a new book to read. any suggestions? How about a Gaiman recommendation? I loved Neverwhere.
Aug 16, 2008
Aug 15, 2008
scotland
Oh and if you're at Edinburgh, I have a short play there now:
http://www.fringemediacentre.com/theatre/bitesize/index.php
August 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, 20th,23rd
Friday I'm getting old
I finished the first draft of a pilot today. Last night K and Adjmi and i wandered around the sculpture garden at night. Here are some visuals--none of these photos were taken by me though.
Tonight there is talk of bowling.
I'm reading 13 ways of looking at a novel by Jane Smiley. It's a cool book. Anyone else read this? She basically got stuck while writing a book and read 100 novels and then wrote about them and about novel writing in general. It's specific to the novel but much of what she says is relevant to all artforms.
Tonight there is talk of bowling.
I'm reading 13 ways of looking at a novel by Jane Smiley. It's a cool book. Anyone else read this? She basically got stuck while writing a book and read 100 novels and then wrote about them and about novel writing in general. It's specific to the novel but much of what she says is relevant to all artforms.
Aug 13, 2008
in new york
http://www.ps122.org/performances/a_day_in_dig_nation.html
I saw it last year and it was really cool. You should check it out if you can.
Aug 10, 2008
attention music lovers like Travis
Minneapolis has like the best radio station I have ever heard. I generally get annoyed with all radio pretty fast, but they play a good selection of good new and old stuff.
Head over here to stream it:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/
It's called the Current. Up top on the right.
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