It takes courage to be an artist. Or stupidity

fascinating story on sleep and schools

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/opinion/14kalish.html?em&ex=1200632400&en=546e61aa52ea3027&ei=5087%0A

In 2002, high schools in Jessamine County in Kentucky pushed back the first bell to 8:40 a.m., from 7:30 a.m. Attendance immediately went up, as did scores on standardized tests, which have continued to rise each year.

Huckabee Wants A “Faith-based” Constitution

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/15/huckabee-wants-a-faith-based-constitution/

h/t Joshua

http://writerjoshuajames.com/dailydojo/

the News

I signed a contract today so I think it's safe to say that the amazing people at South Coast Rep have in fact commissioned a play from me. I'm very excited!

Reduced price on Brooke Berman play

As we gear up for our next production, Hunting and Gathering, we are searching for a new audience. The vital theater audience that everyone is searching for – younger people! In honor of this dubious task, we created $20 tickets for all preview performances, available to anyone 35 and under. And, these tickets can be purchased in advance! We see no reason to make you stand in line just because you’re physically able to. Purchase online by clicking here, by phone (212.279.4200) or at the 59E59 Street box office on 59th Street . All you need is the code (PS35), a valid ID, and you’re in.

reprinted with permission

From Jeffrey Sweet on why he's a playwright: I'm not going to speak for all of us. I do this because it's cool to stand at the back of the theatre and listen to hundreds of people laugh at something I thought was funny maybe a year or six years or twenty-five years ago. I do this because I can't run a multi-billion dollar company so I need to find some sphere in which I can run something. I do this -- or did this -- because, since I was lousy at sports, I needed some other way to make girls think I was cool. And it worked -- the lady I've been with for the last 17 years looked me up because she liked my plays and was particularly struck by how sensitively I wrote for women. (Oh, that's a tip -- if you're straight and write well for women, a lot of actresses will indeed want to meet you.) (If you're gay, odds are you write well for women anyway. How's that for a sweeping generalization? ) I do this because the world is chaotic and my experience of the world is also chaotic, so to make this a safer place to myself I take chunks of it and organize it into plays that have shape and coherence. Does this really make the world safer? No. But, as O'Neill has told us, illusion is sometimes necessary to keep functioning. I do this because I have a mostly screwed-up family and I needed to put something where a healthy family should be, and that's turned out to be the community of actors, writers and directors I've gotten to know (except for the hostile, psychotic ones, who remind me too much of my family). I do this because it's a way of tricking myself into finding out what I'm really thinking. I usually don't know when I start a play. By the time I've finished a play, I get to ask, "OK, why did I write this?" And sometimes I come up with responses that are surprising. A little like a burst of fireworks over a battlefield at night. I do this because I want to be fabulously wealthy and see my picture in the paper and meet and get compliments from famous and accomplished people. Obviously I have a firm grasp on reality. Jeff

this evening

We had a roundtable reading of Temporary Everything at MCC. It went well but I could still work on it some more. This is the second reading of the play. The first reading was about 8 months ago--the last thing read at the last class at Juilliard. Perhaps in another 8 months there will be another new draft of the play. There are only a couple more scenes left to write of Hearts Like Fists (which is what I'm calling it now). I kind of want to drag it out. I'm not ready to let it go.

must read

Must read on Daisey show, a must see when it returns this spring:

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2008/01/how-theater-f-1.html

It makes me want to form a theater company on the Ridiculous Theater model:

i.e. one that does plays (preferably my plays) in rep for months and months.