Page 56

This from Kip--on facebook. Do it on your blog or on your facebook wall. Rules: * Grab the book nearest you. Right now. * Turn to page 56. * Find the fifth sentence. * Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note to your wall. * Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST. mine is: "In fact, Keith was displeased."

revelations and waiting

I think I've discovered that the way to write a pilot for me is to try and write the scenes like I would write a play first. Otherwise, the spark is gone somehow. I'm going to try this next. I think it will work. What else? Kristen and I went walking out in the cold yesterday to the big Central Library on Nicollet. PostSecret has an exhibit there. (Yes, Kristen has finally returned from her teaching/playwright gig in Kansas.) Earlier in the week I saw the Workhaus production of Trista Baldwin's new play. That was pretty great. I also passed in my commission this past week. I read it over this play called Hearts Like Fists and I have to say I kind of love it. I hope other people feel similarly. So now I need some work--a temp gig or a real gig. Writing things I love doesn't pay the bills . . . yet.

Olbermann on prop 8

an open apology

to everyone whose script I lost. I asked you for your script and then it sat on my computer desktop for weeks, months, possibly years. I was going to read it. Now though, my computer crashed and it's gone. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

another Nerve review from Miami

This one is a bit bizarre. It doesn't seem like a negative review but I disagree with a lot of it. (though I haven't seen the production.) I'm also not sure why the writer keeps comparing it to Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. A couple of quotes: "Nerve's protagonists are not only more profoundly unbalanced than those in Danny, but also arguably the most fucked-up people ever to swap spit on a stage." Really? That can't be true. I mean perhaps flattering if true, but that statement just makes me think the writer hasn't seen too many plays. another one: "In Nerve, Elliot and Susan will not save each other; they will poison each other. This is not reciprocal healing, but the promise of infinite and eternal sickness. They will never call each other out or tend to hurts. Without the hurts, they might not need each other at all." and "Everybody who leaves the theater feels a little more naked, a little more vulnerable, and at least a little frightened. And anyone who denies that is either single, stupid, or hopelessly deluded." Wow, that seems just a little crazy. All the individuals in the audience have to respond the same way? With fear? I mean if that's true it's kind of cool, but I do think my play is a little more hopeful than that. Like these people will be okay someday despite everything. But that's just my opinion.

ok, I'm at it again

My question for you is what are the necessary pirate films to see. I got about 12 on netflix in various times and tones. but what am I missing? Suggestions?

nice review of Nerve in FL

http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/arts/theater/story/764703.html

7 strange

Isaac, who generously let me crash while I was in nyc, tagged me with a meme. Thanks, Isaac! Seven strange things about myself: Haven't I done this before? Like twice? I'm trying to think of things I haven't already said. 1. I have a Salicylate Sensitivity. If I eat too many of certain vegetables and fruits or processed foods or drink too much tea or wine I get hives. I first noticed it last November. I now take a Zyrtec every day. 2. I am very allergic to chicken and turkey. Like, have trouble breathing allergic. (I know I've said this already but it might be the most unusual thing about me.) 3. When I was a little kid I used to sleep with a stuffed Ernie and a red plastic hammer. I remember thinking that Bert was a woman for some reason. I guess that was before I understood about homosexuality. I mean if they lived together, one of them must be a woman, right? And Ernie was the one I identified with so he must be the guy. 4. I was an Eagle scout. 5. All my notebooks are covered with collages. I also have a couple of canvases with layers and layers of paint and things. From time to time I add to them. I hope to make huge sculptures some day in a barn or a back yard or desert. 6. I once had blue and green hair. I've been thinking recently about tattoos or a piercing. But that may have to wait until my mid life crisis. 7. When I was 11 or so, I caught a sand shark with a fishing pole in a saltwater marsh in South Carolina. Per usual, the tagging ends here. Anyone who would like to, please blog your 7 strange things.

Sarah Ruhl blogs

http://device.papertheatre.org/?p=18

Nerve in Miami this weekend

http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/story/758884.html

yay

YAY OBAMA!

F4F at SCT

My computer crashed so I didn't get to tell you but I had a great time in Baltimore. Single Carrot Theatre is a cool bunch of people and I hope I have an excuse to go there again soon.

A post for LAB--posting and cross-posting

about Incendiary. Mostly stuff compiled from this blog. Here.

reading last night

I thought it went well. For those of you who came, feel free to leave comments here. If you didn't make it, don't forget we're doing it again Nov 6 also at 8 pm also at the Public Theater

Today

Woke up in Travis' bed. He wasn't there. He gave me the bed and managed to hurt his back today, probably because he was sleeping on his floor. Had a great rehearsal of Incendiary at the Public. It was one of those rehearsals that was a good time. They are so rare where you're not constantly trying to figure out the right thing to say to make it work. It was just fun to watch the actors play. It helps that most of them were in the reading up in Vermont so they know what world the play sits in and can fool around in that world now. And I think most of them know each other really well. Anyway, I laughed a lot, they laughed a lot, it was fun for me. It was low stress for me. Come if you can. tomorrow (30th) and Nov 6, both at 8 at the Public Theater. After the rehearsal, I went to drop stuff off at my friend Larry's and we had dinner and then I had a roundtable reading at MCC of my new play. It's in better shape than I thought and I came away with a clear idea of what to do with it which is always nice. I can see the trap one can get in of getting lost with a play--getting dragged down not knowing which direction to go in. It has happened to me a couple of times. I'm glad I'm not there right now. So anyway, in New York again. Loving it and hating it. ahh.

our cast for Incendiary

Oct 30 and Nov 6 at 8pm

at the Public Theater

Felix Solis
Beth Cole
Joselin Reyes
Sidney Williams
Michael Puzzo
Kelley O'Donnell
Carlo Alban

I have asked fpr Philip Seymour Hoffman to read stage directions
but this may not happen.

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.

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.

one more Baltimore F4F review (Sun)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-li.fish16oct16,0,5706343.story

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."