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 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
Sep 28, 2008
Sep 27, 2008
Sep 26, 2008
Lab Readings
October 23 - November 15, 2008
BARN SERIES
Don't miss LAByrinth's ninth annual
festival of free staged readings!
FREE TICKETS will be distributed 30 minutes before curtain
on a first come, first served basis. No reservations necessary.
All readings take place at The Public Theater (425 Lafayette St)
Oct 23 & 24 at 8pm
Objects Are Closer Than They Appear
A new play by Megan Mostyn-Brown
Directed by Carolyn Cantor
A raging thunderstorm. A dumpy motel. Charlie wants to escape from the chaos of his life. Evan just wants to deliver a pizza. A play about what happens when who we were finally catches up with who we are now.
Oct 25 & 26 at 8pm
The April Hour
A new play by Jonathan Smit
Directed by Scott Illingworth
Writing, drinking, screwing—it’s a writer’s life—old school. No distractions, no kids, no compromises. And that’s the way Henry Slanger likes it. Trouble is, his wife’s bored with the great man routine, his protégé is pregnant, and when a gothy fifteen-year-old shows up from nowhere, Henry’s the last to see the writing on the wall.
Oct 27 & Nov 3 at 8pm
Night Train
A new play by Mel Nieves
Directed by Felix Solis
At the crossroads of the world, on a dark rainy night, a boy and girl will meet, take a ride into the wee small hours, and perhaps forever change the course of their tomorrows.
Oct 28 & 29 at 8pm
7 Captiva Road
A new play by Andrea Ciannavei
Directed by Michele Chivu
7 Captiva Road explores the pervasive and secret sickness of one family as they gather for their matriarch's final hours and later for a grim birthday party. Through it all they go about their rituals with glee even as they crumble under the weight of their past.
Oct 30 & Nov 6 at 8pm
Incendiary
A new play by Adam Szymkowicz
Directed by Damon Arrington
Incendiary is a noir romantic bedroom police sex comedy. Elise is a pyromaniac fire chief who falls in love with Jake, the detective investigating her fires. Carrie, Elise's therapist, is trying to get her to stop lighting fires, and Carrie's husband, Gary, is leading the life of a somewhat ineffective corporate spy.
Oct 31 & Nov 5 at 8pm
A Life Time Burning
A new play by Cusi Cram
In a perfectly decorated mid-century modern apartment on Mulberry Street, one sister has written a memoir. Another sister claims that not one word of it is true. Both may be right. Is memory ever what really happened—or, in these reality obsessed times, is it possible to rewrite one’s life?
Nov 1 & 2 at 8pm
Bus Accident Play
A new play by Raúl Castillo
Directed by John Ortiz
A look at a Border town through the eyes of a New York photographer. After the loss of her lover, a woman visits his estranged family in search of the truth about his past.
Nov 7 & 14 at 8pm
The Transparency of Val
A new play by Stephen Belber
Directed by John Ortiz
Val is born. Within minutes he learns part of the entire history of the world. Then, having finished college, he has to actually live. It's not quite the coconut he was taught, what with all the twisted Buddhists, sexually amorphous mates and frighteningly friendly Nazis. But Val's a survivor and he'll endure. Unless he first goes insane.
Nov 8 & 11 at 8pm
Burning, Burning, Burning, Burning
A new play by David Bar Katz
Directed by John Gould Rubin
Poland, 1666. A small village community is thrown into chaos when one of their own returns home as the prophet of the messiah, Sabbatai Zvi. Infusing the people with messianic zeal, he coerces them to break every holy law they once held dear, to hasten the End of Days.
Nov 9 & 10 at 8pm
Thinner Than Water
A new play by Melissa Ross
Directed by Mimi O’Donnell
Martin is in debt. Martin has three ex wives. Martin is a pain in the ass. Martin is dying. Martin needs help. So Martin turns to the people who hate him the most. His family.
Nov 12 & 13 at 8pm
Face Cream
A new play by Maggie Bofill
Directed by Mimi O’Donnell
No man should ever get between a woman and her face cream.
Nov 15 at 7pm and 9pm
The Motherf**ker with the Hat
A new play by Stephen Adly Guirgis
The Motherf**ker with the Hat is a new work in progress about frailty, faith, fidelity, and a defiant act of depraved indifference perpetrated against a male fashion accessory.
THE PERFORMERS INCLUDE:
Betsy Aidem, Carlo Alban, Maggie Bofill, Eric Bogosian, Elizabeth Canavan, Monique Carboni, Raúl Castillo, Maria Cellario, Beth Cole, J. Eric Cook, Cusi Cram, Alexis Croucher, David Deblinger, John Doman, Jamie Dunn, Kat Foster, Kevin Geer, Yetta Gottesman, Gerardo Guidino, Sarah Nina Hayon, Lauren Heisler, Greg Keller, Florencia Lozano, Sandie Luna, Megan Mostyn-Brown, Didi O'Connell, Kelley O'Donnell, Wilemina Olivia-Garcia, John Ortiz, Melissa Paladino, Gina Maria Paoli, Richard Petrocelli, Paula Pizzi, Portia, Michael Puzzo, Joselin Reyes, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Andy Scully, Maureen Sebastian, Felix Solis, Matt Stadelman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Ed Vassallo, Yul Vázquez, Aaron Roman Weiner, Elanna White, Sidney Williams, David Zayas
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