Adam Szymkowicz

Mar 31, 2008

money for somebody

Good news for one playwright every year

200,000 for a mid career in Sept

50,000 for an emerging a year later

and so on every year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a9BsRxLL0Qgc&refer=muse

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/theatre/story/2008/03/29/playwright-prize.html

New York Theater Review 2008 at Drama Book Shop Friday, April 11, 6-8pm Free Readings and Reception The third edition of the New York Theater Review continues its celebration of downtown New York theater with the official release of the 2008 edition at Manhattan's Drama Book Shop Friday, April 11 from 6-8pm. Drawing from among the best and the brightest in contemporary NYC alt-theater, NYTR's 2008 edition contains three new plays, three original commissioned essays, an extended roundtable chat with six leading NYC theater and performance bloggers, and a sit-down give and take with that singular sonic performance onslaught also known as Reggie Watts. NYTR's evening at the Drama Book Shop will feature excerpts from the 2008 collection of new plays and essays. In plays, Taylor Mac's funny, deeply personal and visually stunning The Young Ladies Of ... seeks out the macho, Texas farm-boy father he never really knew; 2008 P73 Playwriting Fellow Tommy Smith's explosively visceral White Hot rips the calm exterior off a bourgeois couple's seemingly placid existence to expose the despairing core festering beneath; six Asian-Americans from widely different backgrounds share their stories of immigration, migration and cultural identity in Ping Chong & Sara Michelle Zatz' Undesirable Elements. In essays specifically commissioned for the 2008 edition, Victoria Linchong of NYC's Direct Arts, Zachary R. Mannheimer of Brooklyn's Subjective Theatre Co., and Marya Sea Kaminski of Seattle's Washington Ensemble Theatre contribute fresh takes on the NYC alt-theater of today, and a look back fifty years to where it all began. A reception will follow.

Alex Freeman talking about playing Barbara in Albion College production of F4F

http://asfreemanblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-barbara.html

a nice note from Ruben about Waldo in WI

http://avltheatre.com/ruben/2008/03/racinians_milwaukeans_yes_even.html

My short play Snow just won a contest in the UK. Read it here if you like. If you recall, this is the play that had a reading which starred Jon Bon Jovi and other heavy hitters last year. Details below for the upcoming show.

Mar 28, 2008

or in North Dakota

info here.

Mar 27, 2008

coming to Wisconsin

learn more here.

Mar 26, 2008

name the song

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/diversions/and_great_lyrics_quiz_rock_roll_the.php

Mar 25, 2008

this week's rapid response team can be heard here

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2008/03/latest-rrt-podc.html

Albion College Department of Theatre and Dance

Here are some photos from the Albion College student production of Food For Fish. Photos by director Keith Medelis. The run starts tomorrow. Look at the size of that stage. Luxurious, no?

Mar 21, 2008

two songs

1. for rapid response team this weekend.. “By some measures of economic performance, the United States has been in a recession since 1975” http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5622455.html 33 years Christ was a carpenter, lived to be thirty-three I work in an office and I have a pHD Now I’m not the son of God but sometimes I just don’t see What’s wrong with me Christ fed his disciples with bread and with fish Don’t ask me out to dinner. I can’t afford a dish Unless it’s made by chef boy ar dee What’s wrong with me? I’m two hundred thousand dollars in debt Last week I was so poor I had to eat my pet Next week I’m gonna have to sell the television set What’s wrong with me? All my life I’m feeling less than Now I know it’s been recession It’s not my fault I’ll quit my second guessin’ All my life it’s been recession I can’t afford to live here no more I don’t have enough money for my very own floor Nevermiond the walls or the heat. What’s wrong with me? All my life I’m feeling less than Now I know it’s been recession It’s not my fault I’ll quit my second guessin’ All my life it’s been recession 2. this is something I just wrote for Flux Theatre Ensembles' Midsummer project. I got Puck who I once played in 8th grade. It turns out he's sort of a dick. warning: explicit content. PUCK In the woods in the woods We play in the woods Where the wine runs like rivers And all the sex is always good. Where the dancing is delicious And prancing all auspicious It’s fine if you dine With the wine and the bitches Don’t sort it out too mortal With your head like an ass People make me chortle Always rolling on the grass First you loving that one Then you’re loving that Snap of my fingers You be switching dick for twat It’s systemical, chemical, Polemical It ain’t none of that I find you hysterical Your love is clerical, empirical Not a miracle Here one day then whereitgo? Don’t tell me about your love “It’s true as can be” Love’s not from above Ain’t no destiny Don’t mess with me I can put my finger on it Hell I’ll put in three You’ll forget who you love When you’re rubbing up with-- “Oh, Puck you so horny.” All the elves and the faeries Be staying up all night Oberon says bend over You say iz this right? You branded with Titania But you’re standing in the clover And if Oberon’s in the clover on you Then you better bend right over. And your lover Where’s your lover When your shins are in the grass? He’s under someone other With his dick in someone’s ass Is he thinking bout you? No, he’s thinking bout some lass But listen up I’ll school you And I don’t mean I’ll tool you But if you’re hot from this lot Hear me out, I’ll cool you Your sucks and your fucks are always in flux Get your rocks off on cocks Or your socks off with bucks but you know where flux stops It stops with Puck. Puck Puck Puck Get in the car. Lord what fools these mortals are

Mar 20, 2008

RRT this wekend--I wrote a song

Dearest Friends,

We're back for some Easter Sunday mayhem, and to sweeten the deal we
have totally rad Slam Poet Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz AND a special
2-for-1 coupon. If you present this coupon at the door!

http://www.rapidresponseteam.org/offers/032308_coupon.pdf

Here's all the info:

THE RAPID RESPONSE TEAM
Sunday, March 23rd
8PM
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery (at First)
$10.00 at the door!

And don't forget to check out our website for archives, past shows and more!

Isaac

salaries

Ken breaks it down again

http://kendavenport.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/the-price-of-be.html

How much does the AD of your favorite theater make?

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked This week, Bernanke’s Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks’ mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure. Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers’ bordello: Eliot Spitzer. h/t daisey http://www.mikedaisey.com/

value of theater

http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/03/today_we_blog_about_value.html

Mar 18, 2008

WOW

If you only ever follow one of my links, let it be this one. A speech by Obama. But much much more than that. Someday your grandchildren will ask you about this.

Ken points us to this post by Marsha Norman An anonymous comment there struck me: I’m a playwright who has recently had a number of high profile productions. I’m considered a reasonably “hot” “emerging” talent. One play of mine was savaged by a reviewer in this this very paper just a few months ago. Not to be grousy or precious but I have in fact sacrificed an enormous lot for the American Theatre. I have virtually no security — financial or otherwise. I don’t have a permanent home. I live like a monk, basically. I endure routine humiliations in the development circuit, by Artistic Directors who foist lots of bad ideas on me - the list is pretty endless. So to finally get to the point where i actually GET a production — in a country that has virtually no support for the arts and a pretty paltry theatre culture overall — and then be flicked off like a bug by the only paper with “power” was enough to send me packing to L.A. — where critics actually have relatively little power, and you can make more than three thousand dollars per production (!). The critic may not be able to keep Journey’s End open, but he can sure disrupt the careers of the best and brightest talents out there: Itamar Moses, Rinne Groff, Anne Washburn, Francine Volpe, Lucy Thurber, Ann Marie Healy, Jason Grote, Jordan Harrison…and the list goes on and on. In another era or country these people would be the future of theatre — but we may never get to see their best works, because they’ll all be writing for movies and television. The system is broken and it is very sad. — Posted by X I can't help but agree. These people (and more) are the future of theater. And theater is a place where there is no longer even the hint of a living and where if you do finally get a play up, you are most likely going to be torn down in the paper of note. I have been very lucky in the reviews I have received, but I have not had a high profile production yet. I am hungry for such a production, but at the same time I'm dreading what I've seen happen over and over to playwrights, especially young playwrights. This is not something new. I've heard it said over and over. Playwright X could be almost anyone. And it is enough to cause you to pack it up and head to LA where it might be possible to feed and clothe yourself, maybe buy a house one day, have some money saved so you don't have to hustle forever.

finally!

House Rejects Eavesdropping Immunity

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/washington/14cnd-fisa.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Mar 17, 2008

what economy?

Bush not making a good impression

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/opinion/15collins.html?em&ex=1205899200&en=4f3bd43ae3506781&ei=5087%0A

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/opinion/16dowd.html?em&ex=1205899200&en=2056931c3e3f8cd6&ei=5087%0A

Mar 16, 2008

recession since '75

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5622455.html

"But the most important step may be the first one: Recognizing that
the United States is mired in a 33-year-old quality-of-life recession
and that our continued national focus on growing GDP is blinding us to
the way out."