The First Ever Caption Contest on this blog

My nephew and their cat. Please leave LOLcats captions of your invention in the comments. I mean, unless you're chicken.

...Or it could be LOLbabies.

something new

A new blog by a playwright friend set up to showcase writing.

http://gettheguests.blogspot.com/

A piece of my play is the second post.

new scene, 1st draft as always

(NURSE 2 enters the room. DR. X is handcuffed to the bed. They look at each other for a long time. Neither of them moves. Then, finally, NURSE 2 approaches.) NURSE 2 I have medication for you. It’ll allow you to sleep. DR. X It’s you. NURSE 2 Yes. DR. X It’s really you. NURSE 2 Yes. DR. X I can’t believe it. NURSE 2 I didn’t know if you’d know me. DR. X I couldn’t ever forget you. NURSE 2 I thought you might. DR. X I thought I’d never see you again. NURSE 2 Me either. DR. X You’re all I think about. Day and night. Afternoon. Morning. When I’m dreaming. When I’m awake. When I’m loading my syringe or washing the dishes. When I’m thinking about getting a cat, really I’m thinking about you. I do it all for you. NURSE 2 I wish you would stop. DR.X If I can’t have love, no one can. NURSE 2 That seems unfair. DR.X Tell me--What is your name? NURSE 2 You don’t know? DR.X No. NURSE 2 Well, let’s keep it this way. DR. X Why is it I can’t remember your name, yet all I think of is you? NURSE 2 Maybe it’s because I hit you on the head. DR.X You did? NURSE 2 Before I left. DR. X Oh. NURSE 2 You were sleeping so peacefully. I wrote the note and I put it where I thought you would see it. DR. X You didn’t sign it. NURSE 2 I thought it was a very polite note but I thought maybe you didn’t necessarily understand polite based on my past experiences with you. So I hit you over the head with a frying pan just to be sure you got the message. You didn’t wake up so I hit you again just to be sure. Then I checked your vitals and everything was OK so I went to work. And I never saw you again. Now it turns out you’re Dr. X. DR.X And you’re, Molly? NURSE 2 No. DR.X Sylvia? NURSE 2 No. DR.X Gertrude. NURSE 2 No. DR.X Betsy? NURSE 2 Listen, I’m not going to tell you. In fact I’m thinking of hitting you over the head again just to make sure you don’t remember that I work here. DR.X Why didn’t it work out between us? NURSE 2 It just didn’t. DR. X Your face. NURSE 2 Please don’t say it. DR.X It’s like a plate. NURSE 2 Oh, God. DR. X I may be handcuffed to the bed right now, but that won’t always be the case. We can run off together. You could even help me escape. NURSE 2 I’m going to transfer to a different hospital. DR. X Don’t do that. NURSE 2 I might move to a different state. DR. X We could move together. NURSE 2 This is the last time you’ll see me. DR. X You don’t know that. No one ever knows that. NURSE 2 I’ll make sure this time. DR. X No. NURSE 2 It was good to see you. I think I had to see you. I had to know. Now I know I made the right decision. DR. X No! NURSE 2 Good bye Dr. X. DR. X Nooooo! (NURSE 2 exits.) DR. X Noooo! Come back! Come back.

you can too

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/

"No Impact Man is my experiment with researching, developing and adopting a way of life for me and my little family—one wife, one toddler, one dog—to live in the heart of New York City while causing no net environmental impact. "

I recommend

Amazons and Their Men

https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/23881

I saw this show over the summer. It's well worth seeing.

why

do i wink at myself in the mirror?

article

on the amazing Adam Driver:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/theater/10driver.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=theater

language

I've been thinking a lot about things that you can do onstage that don't work on TV or in film. Definitely there is a theater spectacle that won't work in the small box or the big screen and this usually asks for the audience's imagination to play a role. There are pieces missing from the set perhaps or the staging is not literal and we must imagine that actors are in places they are not actually. Sort of like a blue screen when the audience is asked to create--which can make for a much more amazing setting because when one creates it oneself, it is much realer on an individual level. But that's not what I want to talk about, because that is the realm of the director and we writers rely on their genius to create beautiful things and we all rely on the audience to make little leaps with us. And I don't have the vocabulary to discuss it nor can I create it myself or understand why it is so pleasurable to watch a hint of something instead of have everything filled in. What I want to talk about is the current movement that might be called language-based expressionism that I find exciting on the stage. Often a vocabulary of stage imagery and spectacle is also there. Chuck Mee does this a lot or think of Ruhl's house of string in Euridice. But what is just as exciting in my opinion is the non-naturalistic language that characters use. Sheila Callaghan does this. Sarah Ruhl does this. Adam Bock, Anne Washburn, some of Mac Wellman's students. Many of the poets of the stage from Brown do this. And a lot of other people dabble in it. It's become a movement of sorts. When TV and Film are catching up it's one of the last things we have left. (although you might argue that Deadwood or even the Sopranos sometimes leave the realm of naturalism, they don't do it to the extent that it can be done on the stage.) I'm not sure why this works exactly for the stage. And it doesn't always, but when it does, it's amazing. Perhaps it is because we are more willing to suspend disbelief. Perhaps it has something to do with the space between the stage and the people. Some kind of energy transformed through the air. But enough of that. What am I talking about that I'm so excited about? Here are some examples: Some Adam Bock Sheila Callaghan here or here. The blogosphere's own Matthew Freeman here. I can't express this movement as well as I'd like. I'd love to hear what others have to say about it. What it is, where it's going. Here is a site about Mojo Theater, a much more specific delineation. I do think that a playfulness of language and a flexibility of it is necessary to the future of our great American theater. And I'm looking forward to seeing where it will take us.