selling guns to those found to be mentally deranged

thanks to Freeman

http://matthewfreeman.blogspot.com/2007/04/student-arrested-for-writing-essay.html

for this New Yorker article

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2007/04/30/070430taco_talk_gopnik

"Reducing the number of guns available to crazy people
will neither relieve them of their insanity nor stop
them from killing. Making it more difficult to buy
guns that kill people is, however, a rational way to
reduce the number of people killed by guns. Nations
with tight gun laws have, on the whole, less gun
violence; countries with somewhat restrictive gun laws
have some gun violence; countries with essentially no
gun laws have a lot of gun violence."

and

"Semi-automatic Glocks and Walthers, Cho's weapons,
are for killing people. They are not made for hunting,
and it's not easy to protect yourself with them. (If
having a loaded semi-automatic on hand kept you safe,
cops would not be shot as often as they are.)"

farm bill

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22wwlnlede.t.html?em&ex=1177819200&en=012aaa4af05f033c&ei=5087%0A

"A public-health researcher from Mars might
legitimately wonder why a nation faced with what its
surgeon general has called "an epidemic" of obesity
would at the same time be in the business of
subsidizing the production of high-fructose corn
syrup. But such is the perversity of the farm bill:
the nation's agricultural policies operate at
cross-purposes with its public-health objectives. "

our lord and saviour

Jesus's blog (from daisey)

http://www.jesuschristscoolblog.blogspot.com/

new scene from Temporary Everything

a first draft as always

FIFTEEN

(BRIAN is dressing in all black in his apartment.
TODD watches)

TODD
Brian. Brian. Brian. Brian. Brian. Can you hear
me? Brian. Brian. Brian. Brian.

BRIAN
Todd.

TODD
Oh, good.

BRIAN
What do you want?

TODD
Nothing. (Pause) Brian? Brian. Brian. Brian.
Brian.

BRIAN
What?

TODD
You told her about me didn't you?

BRIAN
Umm…

TODD
Didn't you?

BRIAN
Yes.

TODD
Well, did it get you laid?

BRIAN
No, Todd it's not like that.

TODD
What a waste.

BRIAN
I guess so. I didn't really think about it. She's
been having a lot of inappropriate sex. I don't want
to contribute to that or anything.

TODD
Oh. OK. Is sex with you automatically inappropriate
or do you do something particularly inappropriate like
during it.

BRIAN
Umm . . . neither . . . I just . . . what do you want?

TODD
Where are you going?

BRIAN
I have to go to work.

TODD
It's nighttime.

BRIAN
I need to help Miranda stop capitalism.

(He puts a ski mask on and then lifts it back up so
his face can be seen.)

TODD
Oh. Oh, well then. That explains it I guess. Oh,
OK. Well, good luck with that. I'll stay here if
that's OK.

BRIAN
That's fine.

TODD
Good.

(TODD stares at BRIAN.)

BRIAN
What?

TODD
She made you crazy.

BRIAN
No, she didn't.

TODD
That's what women do.

BRIAN
That's just not true.

TODD
Just tell me this. Should I be worried?

BRIAN
Should you be—

TODD
Should I be worried?

BRIAN
Look at me. You need to let me go.

TODD
What?

BRIAN
Release me. Release me.

(They stare at each other. BRIAN pulls down the
facemask and exits.)

welcome to the information age.

we know everything.

collectively.

just ask.

monday

monday

my friend Larry's play

http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/guy5028.htm

bad hamlet

Gaby blogging about production of First Quarto Hamlet

http://badhamlet.blogspot.com/

last weekend for Pretty Theft in Seattle

http://seattleperforms.com/component/option,com_nathevents/action,details/show_id,2634

First Weekend for Food For Fish in Los Angeles

http://www.theatreofnote.com/

and on monday reading of my play Incendiary

http://arsnovanyc.com/out-loud/

So K and I are trying to figure out how to spend 2
weeks in a writing retreat sometime this summer.
preferably somewhere quiet and nice. Anyone know of a
place? We didn't apply anywhere so it can't be one of
those places we had to have applied to months ago.

Vermont calls for Bush to be impeached

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3060355

Dream Project

http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/drea5149.htm

the first half of my scene adaptation for the Dream Chain

Life is a Dream
Adam Szymkowicz

Act 1, Scene 1

(SEGISMUNDO in a spotlight wears heavy chains that
restrict his movement. He is shackled, weighed down,
and sad.)

SEGISMUNDO
Misery! Woe am I! Woe! I have seen from the jail
window the calm water, the laughing children, the
flowers in bloom, birds of many colors—I don't know
their names—if they see me with a book, they take it
away before I can learn the difference between a
sparrow and a hawk. They don't want me to know things
in case . . . in case I might do something. You don't
know what I could do. Misery! All I know is misery.
Woe. Woe. Woe-Woe. The day I was born they knew to
put me in shackles. Before they washed me off even,
I was in irons. Cleanliness don't come before public
safety. I'm a menace, you see. Look real close.
Can't you see I'm a menace? They could see it in my
eyes. They could hear it when they pressed their ears
up to the womb. They learned something then I guess.
Don't get too close. I'm not safe. I'm evil. They
tell me I'm evil.

(ROSAURA rides in on CLARIN's back, a riding crop in
one hand and reins in the other. She is dressed as a
man. CLARIN wears a clown nose and, besides ROSAURA,
carries two heavy suitcases. They do not see
SEGISMUNDO.)

ROSAURA
Whoa! Whoa! Hold up there, horsey!

CLARIN
I'm not a horse. I'm Clarin.

ROSAURA
I'll say you're not a horse. A horse is quick and
intelligent and brave and strong.

CLARIN
Right. I'm none of them things. I can't even neigh
proper.

ROSAURA
You should have thought of that before you shot our
horses.

CLARIN
They were moving too slow.

ROSAURA
They're moving much slower now.

CLARIN
I hate Poland. Remind me again why we came to Poland.

ROSAURA
I have business.

CLARIN
Right, what does that mean? And why are you dressed
like a man?

ROSAURA
It's better to dress like a man.

CLARIN
Yeah but no one will believe you.

ROSAURA
Everyone will believe me.

CLARIN
No one will believe you.

ROSAURA
Clarin!

CLARIN
I mean you're not very manly.

ROSAURA
Is it because I'm so beautiful?

CLARIN
No, that's not it.

ROSAURA
You don't think I'm beautiful?

CLARIN
Are you propositioning the help?

ROSAURA
Clarin!

CLARIN
Because I heard rumors, sure, but I never thought--

ROSAURA
Let's look for a place to stay.

CLARIN
I guess I could sleep here and you could sleep over
there. Or I could sleep over there and you here. Or
I guess if you wanted me to sleep with you I guess I
could make an exception because it's only you and me
here alone and I'm lonely and you're lonely and I'm a
man and you're a woman and your hair looks quite nice
in this light if I squint, like this.

(The rustling of chains.)

ROSAURA
Shh! What's that?

CLARIN
I don't know. Don't let it ruin the mood.

ROSAURA
Is this a building?

SEGISMUNDO
Woe! Woe is me! Misery! Sadness! Oh-Woe!

ROSAURA
Did you hear that?

CLARIN
No. Take off your pants.

(ROSAURA enters the building and CLARIN follows,
undoing his belt. They stop when they see
SEGISMUNDO.)

SEGISMUNDO
Why was I built like this? Why? I was born this way,
don't you see? My heart they say is the largest heart
ever found in a person's chest. When it beats, it
shakes the walls. They are terrified of it, which is
why I'm here. Or it is my eyes. My eyes they say are
more destructive than any hammer ever made. Birds
fall from the sky if they chance to look at me
head-on. Or my voice. The wild beasts I the
forest, in the ground, in the ocean all tremble when
they hear the sound that can come from the back of my
throat. Or it was these fingers.

ROSAURA
Fingers.

SEGISMUNDO
Or this skin.

ROSAURA
Skin.

SEGISMUNDO
Or this tongue.

ROSAURA
Oh!

SEGISMUNDO
What was that?!

ROSAURA
He's so beautiful.

CLARIN
He's OK.

SEGISMUNDO
What's that? Who's that? A spy? Who sent you? Have
you come here to beat me?

ROSAURA
(stepping forward)
No.

(SEGISMUNDO grabs her in his large arms.)

SEGISMUNDO
I can't let you live.

ROSAURA
No!

CLARIN
Let her live!

SEGISMUNDO
What, another one?

CLARIN
No.

ROSAURA
Please, sir.

SEGISMUNDO
You shouldn't have heard me.

ROSAURA
But, your voice. It made me feel—

(Romantic music begins to play. ROSAURA touches his
face.)

SEGISMUNDO
I've never been touched like this.

ROSAURA
Your skin is so rough.

SEGISMUNDO
I've never felt like this.

ROSAURA
Your body is so warm.

SEGISMUNDO
I don't understand what's happening.

ROSAURA
Your eyes are so strong.

SEGISMUNDO
I feel a rising in my chest, a swelling of my throat.
It's like the first moment of something unexpected.

ROSAURA
I feel it too.

SEGISMUNDO
It's like something I can't explain.

ROSAURA
I can't explain it either.

SEGISMUNDO
Stay here with me.

CLOTALDO
(Offstage)
Intruders! Intruders!

(The music stops)

CLARIN
Oh, shit!

ROSAURA
What's going on?

SEGISMUNDO
You're not supposed to be here. No one is supposed to
see me.

ROSAURA
Not ever?

SEGISMUNDO
They will kill you.

CLARIN
They will what?!!

(CLOTALDO enters shouting followed by armed GUARDS.)

CLOTALDO
Intruders! Seize them

part 2 of the Daisey saga

http://www.mikedaisey.com/2007/04/aftermath-and-confrontation.sht

another play you should know

Everything Will Be Different: A Brief History of Helen of Troy by Mark Schultz

come see it

Incendiary
By Adam Szymkowicz
Directed by Kip Fagan

Apr 30 at 7:00PM
at Ars Nova
511 West 54th Street, just west of 10th Avenue

The event is free but rsvp's are a must. Rsvp at
rsvp @ arsnovanyc.com

Incendiary is the comic tale of a combustible group of
people. Elise is a pyromaniac fire chief. Jake is the
police detective investigating her fires. Carrie is a
therapist who's trying to get a client to quit some
truly destructive behavior, and Gary is leading the
life of a somewhat ineffective corporate spy. As the
smoke begins to billow and the sparks begin to fly,
they're all about to find out that love is the most
incendiary thing.

----------------

SEATTLE, one more week of Pretty Theft

LA, Food For Fish starts next week

from monologist Mike Daisey on his show in Cambridge

Last night's performance of INVINCIBLE SUMMER was
disrupted when eighty seven members of a Christian
group walked out of the show en masse, and chose to
physically attack my work by pouring water on and
destroying the original of the show outline.

If you'd like the full story, it's at the top of my
site:

http://mikedaisey.com/

md

Theatreforte

Check this out (if you haven't already)

Pretty much all the theatre blogs around organized by
location (although they believe Travis is writing from
Texas)

http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/

shows to see

go see a Guy Adrift

http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/131140

and Suburban Peepshow

http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/131444

please sign this petition. It will only take a
minute. Stop Time Warner from crushing the little
guy.

http://action.freepress.net//campaign/postal

hack hack, sniffle

I am home sick so I did not see the Pulitzer
announcement as I did last year, however was still
aware of what time it was being announced because it
took place in the building I work in.

Got two rejection letters. they were both very nice
rejection letters. the kind you want to get if you
are going to be rejected. I'm getting a lot of these
lately. It's both encouraging and discouraging. I
was swearing to give up playwriting forever and then
immediately sitting down to work on my new play--both
in a dayquil haze.

It's so hard. Why is it so hard?

Pulitzer

Winner is Rabbit Hole.

http://www.pulitzer.org/

Matt Wells

blogger looking to revitalize LA theatre and create a
new RAT/national indie theatre collective.

http://needtheater.blogspot.com/

you tube advert for food for fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Rv3oCAocQ

coming soon 1 and 2

1


2

I don't want to live in a celebrity culture

Sometimes I can't stand it.

When will it be over?

the list

thanks to Daisey for the link

http://www.mikedaisey.com/

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/10/treasury_depts_250pa.html

"The list is 250 pages long. If you do business with a
person on the list, you can pay $10 million in fines
and go to jail for 30 years. "Doing business" can be
as simple as selling one of those people a sandwich.
Not an anthrax sandwich -- like a roast beef on rye. "

four chairs play opens today

http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/131140

Class

At a union meeting yesterday we were to ratify the
agreement the union and university made (I'm an office
worker at a university). I haven't had an increase in
pay since October 2005. I will be getting an increase
finally and it will be retroactive to Feb of this
year. But it's 3 percent. Looking at the schedule
for the next five years according to the agreement,
there is no way we will ever get ahead of inflation.

I mean part of the reason I have this job is to pay
off student loans. It's not a job I have because I
love my work--it's a job for the money. And as jobs
for the money, it sucks, quite frankly.

I am able to pay the monthly installment on my huge
loans and buy food and see occasional plays but I have
nothing left over. I am breaking even. The only
money I have been able to save was the small amount
I'm making from royalties.

So that's my life right now. How are you?