My computer crashed so I didn't get to tell you but I had a great time in Baltimore. Single Carrot Theatre is a cool bunch of people and I hope I have an excuse to go there again soon.
Oct 31, 2008
F4F at SCT
My computer crashed so I didn't get to tell you but I had a great time in Baltimore. Single Carrot Theatre is a cool bunch of people and I hope I have an excuse to go there again soon.
A post for LAB--posting and cross-posting
about Incendiary. Mostly stuff compiled from this blog.
Here.
reading last night
I thought it went well. For those of you who came, feel free to leave comments here.
If you didn't make it, don't forget we're doing it again Nov 6 also at 8 pm also at the Public Theater
Oct 29, 2008
Today
Woke up in Travis' bed. He wasn't there. He gave me the bed and managed to hurt his back today, probably because he was sleeping on his floor.
Had a great rehearsal of Incendiary at the Public. It was one of those rehearsals that was a good time. They are so rare where you're not constantly trying to figure out the right thing to say to make it work. It was just fun to watch the actors play. It helps that most of them were in the reading up in Vermont so they know what world the play sits in and can fool around in that world now. And I think most of them know each other really well. Anyway, I laughed a lot, they laughed a lot, it was fun for me. It was low stress for me.
Come if you can. tomorrow (30th) and Nov 6, both at 8 at the Public Theater.
After the rehearsal, I went to drop stuff off at my friend Larry's and we had dinner and then I had a roundtable reading at MCC of my new play. It's in better shape than I thought and I came away with a clear idea of what to do with it which is always nice. I can see the trap one can get in of getting lost with a play--getting dragged down not knowing which direction to go in. It has happened to me a couple of times. I'm glad I'm not there right now.
So anyway, in New York again. Loving it and hating it. ahh.
Oct 27, 2008
our cast for Incendiary
Oct 30 and Nov 6 at 8pm
at the Public Theater
Felix Solis
Beth Cole
Joselin Reyes
Sidney Williams
Michael Puzzo
Kelley O'Donnell
Carlo Alban
I have asked fpr Philip Seymour Hoffman to read stage directions
but this may not happen.
Oct 23, 2008
off to baltimore
I voted beforehand. Because I will be in nyc on election day. and I saw Nick and Norah. Which made me miss New York even more. Finally this generation gets their own Say Anything. I highly recommend it.
I will be away from my computer for most of the next three weeks so I suppose blogging will be light or not at all. but i hope I'll see some of you instead in Baltimore or NYC.
Oct 20, 2008
update
I'm getting to the end of the new play I'm writing which might be called American Manifesto or might be called The Fat Cat Killers.
Charles Fazzino blogged about me. I used to work for him in shipping and receiving.
Later this week the Single Carrot folks are flying me into Baltimore to give a talkback after Food For fish there. Come if you can.
And then I'm back to MN for a couple of days, then flying to NYC for a reading of Incendiary. Come if you can. Oct 30 and Nov 6 at 8pm at the Public.
Plays I want to see in new york include the 13P Crawl Fade to White, Flux's Angel Eaters Trilogy, Mike Daisey's If You See Something Say Something, the other readings at LAB, the Studio 42 Halloween party, Bluebox's Sticky, and probably five things I'm forgetting.
Oct 16, 2008
Oct 15, 2008
F4F review in City Paper
http://citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=16863
I don't love all of this. But it's posititve overall. some samples:
"And second, despite the lame conceit, Szymkowicz is a gifted young
playwright with an imagination on overdrive."
"The plot is almost impossible to follow."
"Szymkowicz and Single Carrot truly offer a plate of characters and a
tribute to the powers and the prisons that we live in as we
desperately try to find dates, sneak kisses, get published, and work
magic."
Oct 14, 2008
in my news
Someone is trying to sell my $7.50 play for a thousand dollars.
We got into a car accident in Tulsa. A jeep hit us from behind, flipped over into oncoming traffice lanes and ended face up in the oposite side gutter. We're fine, the other driver was fine, no one else was injured, but now we have to figure out how to get the car in shape for the trek back to MN.
Staying in William Inge's house. There is indeed a dark at the top of the stairs. It's quiet here. I like it. Wish it would stop raining.
Examiner review of f4f
http://www.baltimoreexaminer.com/entertainment/Food_for_Fish_challenges_audience_to_think_.html
The director gets credit for the cross gender casting for some reason
but apart from that...
Oct 11, 2008
Oct 10, 2008
Oct 9, 2008
Oct 8, 2008
Will Eno
Slay points us to this:
http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/10/will_eno_in_the_believer.html
I love it!
Oct 6, 2008
What is your definition of success?
This sounds like a question Isaac would ask, and maybe has. If so I apologize.
But I'm interested in your answer. Playwrights, what makes you a success? A play on Broadway? A play of yours made into a film starring Robert Downey Jr? Writing a new play every year? A production a year? Critical success? Working with people you love?
For me, right now, I want my work to be done all over the country by lots of small theaters. I want them in colleges. I'm excited about the idea of actors being introduced to theater through my work.
Do I want large productions of my plays? Absolutely. But partially this is because only the plays with big productions get done all over the country.
Do I want to reach a larger audience? Yes. Do I want to work in TV and Film. Yes. But I'm sort of blurry on what that entails. An off broadway show is success for sure. A staff job on a good show is success of course. Then what comes next? It all depends where you're standing what is ahead and what is behind and what is irrelevant.
but please, tell me. What is success for you. Actors, Directors, Artists of all types, feel free to chime in.
Oct 3, 2008
photo from Food For Fish in Baltimore
Wendy Gaunt and Elliott Rauh star in Single Carrot’s provocative “Food for Fish”
Along with this. I think it's a review, but I'm not postitive. But if it is a review, it's positive.
Oct 2, 2008
cast from Nerve in Long Island
link
Sept 26 - Oct 19.
Fri/Sat 8:30, Sun 3pm
Tickets $18 Fri/Sun, $22 Sat
The Cast:
Elliot...John Leone
Susan...Lucia Curatolo
Nigro's advice to the playwright
Advice to the playwright: Never let anybody alter your work. But if they do, and it happens to make it better, be prepared to take credit for it. Never allow directors to intimidate you, but have some sympathy for them. They are professional cat herders and you are why they drink. Strive to be kind to actors, even when they're being impossible. They have a difficult life, and without them, you're a novelist. Praise and blame are illusions. Never take kind words for granted, but do your work. Just do your work. Don't let anybody stop you. Keep writing no matter what. Direct, act, build sets, earn your right to be in a theatre. This will give you insight into the absurdly difficult tasks you set for others when you write. Help other playwrights when you can, even if they don't like you. Jealousy is poison. We're all in the same sinking ship. Calm down. Hysteria is contagious in rehearsal, and life is short. Break the rules. Trust your own instincts. If your instincts now and then betray you, learn from it, but don't stop trusting them. Experience can deepen and fine tune your instincts, but in the end, you have nothing else. It's better to be hated for what you wrote than for what you let somebody else talk you into writing. Write without fear. Love without hope. Never take advice.
--- DON NIGRO
Oct 1, 2008
update
My bike ride to my temp job this morning was cold. My fingers felt wind burned or frost kissed. Winter comes early to Minneapolis it seems.
I've been writing a new play. I'm trying to keep the cast size down this time so it won't be one more play that requires 7 actors. It looks like it will just be three people. I'm writing a lot of two person scenes. I haven't done that in a while. I kind of like it. I hope it works out. It could be good, I think, if I do it right. Anyway, I'm enjoying get up at 5 and writing. (6am new york time)
I'm also enjoying (sort of) having the apt to myself. Although it gets lonely. Kristen was saying that 2 weeks is like the limit for her. I think that's true for me too. I'll see her on the 11th which is not so far from now. And I do have people here to hang out with, but damn! If you told me you wanted to get married and then move to minneapolis and then be apart from your spouse for a couple months, I would advise against it.
But I'm ok. Thanks for asking.
Sep 30, 2008
go see my short play Snow in East Haddam, CT
(The town next to the town where I grew up)
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20142648&BRD=1635&PAG=461&dept_id=8613&rfi=6
ht Daisey
many outright lies of Palin
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/the-lies-and-li.html#more
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