another nice review

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_313/stealinghearts.html

more reviews

Neighborbee "I’ve never been involved in a bank heist but if I were, I could never be tasked with the role of Getaway Driver. I can’t navigate with any certainty when the car is required to do above 30 mph on a city street. Ask me to drive at break-neck speed through urban obstacles and then set you down at the end safely and I assure you: I can’t do it. But Adam Szymkowicz can … and in his new play Pretty Theft directed by Angela Astle he shows us how he navigates those narrow streets and dark alleys like a pro." Just Shows To Go You “…quirky-funny but generally unsettling play which is distinguished by a playful Mee-like collage surface and unifying undercurrents of sadness and of danger. I mean no disrespect to the theatrical economy of Angela Astle’s clarifying direction nor to the playwright when I say that the material could be easily shaped into a screenplay: it has indie-movie sensibilities and attitude.” Flavorpill “a sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and at times nostalgic coming-of-age story.” nytheatre.com “Adam Szymkowicz has written a play full of interesting people…The dialogue and humor in this play are excellent…It runs a lean, intermission-less 90 minutes and is very satisfying… This would be good theater for young women not only to see but also to perform.”

the breakdown

Pretty Theft, Flux Theatre Ensemble, New York, NY, April 23-May 17 Nerve, Echo Theatre, St. Louis, MO, June 5-June 20 Food For Fish, Essential Theatre, Atlanta, GA, July 5-August 1 Herbie: Poet of the Wild West, Doorway Arts Ensemble, Washington DC, July 15-July 26 I expect to see you at all the performances.

Early Reviews...more to come

NY Times "disturbing but touching ... Mr. Szymkowicz writes quirky plays about contemporary topics like online dating and gender roles, but there always seems to be something — a knife, a rope, a dead body — in an unexpected place. In “Pretty Theft,” the undercurrent of danger goes beyond quirkiness; it’s more subtle and ultimately more horrifying. The play takes place in a terrifying world where reckless people get hurt, and so do more or less innocent bystanders." Theatre Knights (& Daze): News & Reviews "a near-flawless production that kept me spellbound from start to finish. Indeed, as the play ended, I found I needed several minutes to both dry my eyes and process the elegant beauty of what I had just witnessed." Blogcritics Magazine "To go with its jigsaw-puzzle structure and precision dialogue, Adam Szymkowicz's fine psychological comedy-drama Pretty Theft has pathos, sharp humor, a dash of horror, dancing, and many scene changes. It's the kind of play that demands an exceptional production, and that's just what it gets at the Access Theatre on lower Broadway."

photos from dress rehearsal

all photos Isaiah Tanenbaum www.fluxtheatre.org

PT

Preview tonight!!!!

Broadway Bullet interview

here

interview over at nytheatre mike

http://nytheatremike.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/adam-szymkowicz-examines-some-pretty-theft/

Todd Olson to Daisey--Balance my budget

http://www.mikedaisey.com/2009/04/todd-olson-american-stage-theatre.sht

extremely arresting mini interviews with Pretty Theft folks

http://fluxtheatreensemble.blogspot.com/2009/04/trailer-for-pretty-theft.html

Matt Freeman interviews me at nytheatre.com

about Pretty Theft and about stealing.

http://www.nytheatrecast.com/episode.php?t=282

what is up.

So I'm in New York, rehearsing Pretty Theft. I'm very excited about this one. There are a lot of elements that have to come together but from what I'm seeing at rehearsal, it's going to be a production I'm very proud of. Which is good because it seems like a lot of people are coming to see it. I myself will be there the 23, 24, 25 so if you're coming then we should have a drink after. I've been catsitting on Staten Island and this weekend my parents are having their 40th anniversary up in CT. Kristen flies in tomorrow. A reading with Packawallop Monday. And I have interviews and meetings next week I'm trying to figure out how to fit in to my days. All good things. What are you up to?

Listening to Susan Louise O'Connor talking here

http://www.broadwaybullet.com/?p=659

where I will be tomorrow night

http://fluxtheatreensemble.blogspot.com/2009/04/poetic-larceny-april-13th.html

I'm in New York

rehearsing.

That is all.

reading of a new play of mine

Packawallop Productions is proud to kick off The Lounge Series. Monday, April 20, 2009 7:30pm - 9:30pm The 14th Street Theatre 344 East 14th Street, 2nd Floor New York, NY The Lounge Series is a program of new works of film and theater presented throughout the year in the style you've come to expect from Packawallop - stylish, sassy ... and, naturally, with some cocktails. Please join us at our first Lounge on Monday April 20th where we will present Adam Szymkowicz's new play "Elsewhere" which was specially written for Packawallop Community Artists Susan Louise O'Connor, Polly Lee and Travis York. It will be directed by Scott Ebersold. "When Teddy comes to Celia’s house to deliver a package, he doesn’t expect to be invited for dinner. When he comes to dinner, he doesn’t expect to be invited to live there. When he starts to live there, he doesn’t expect to be drugged or buried. And he certainly doesn’t expect Amanda, nor she him. A play about the unexpected, unearthed and elsewhere." Reservations are essential, please email info (at) packawallop.org to secure a seat. We look forward to seeing you there! Cheers!

Don't be so boring

Found Via Matt J

Don't make Boring Theatre--

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2007/mar/21/features11.g2

What is commercial?

From Daniel Kuney: "At the end of the day, I think producers, like Mr. Rudin, and artists, like Duncan Sheik and Lin-Manuel Miranda, achieve success by pursuing their own visions, and not by trying to conform to someone else’s idea of what makes a good movie or musical. For those of you who are sitting down at the piano for the first time or who are contemplating a career as a producer, I would encourage you to do the same."

New York Theatre Review

Event May 6.  I have a short play in the book and in the event, I think.

NYTR events are always a lot of fun.

Mark your calendar.

http://www.bowerypoetry.com/#Event/71093

Flux event

Poetic Larceny ...because inspiration is the sincerest form of larceny... A play reading series where playwrights steal three things from the playwright before them, only to have three things stolen from them by the next shifty scribe. A staged reading series inspired by the themes of our Spring production of Adam Szymkowicz's Pretty Theft. $10 Tickets for Pretty Theft available at the door of the April 6th Poetic Larceny! Or use the code Larceny1 for tickets online here. This limited time offer is good for the 1st week of performances, opening excluded. Poetic Larceny The dates: Mondays, April 6th and 13th at 7PM At Primary Stages Studio A, 307 West 38th Street, Suite 1510 And Mondays, May 4th and 11th at 7PM At Access Theater's Gallery, 380 Broadway, 4th Floor $5 suggested donation The playwrights: Rob Ackerman, Johnna Adams, Bianca Bagatourian, Jeremy Basescu, Erin Browne, Chad Beckim, Bekah Brunstetter, Katherine Burger, James Comtois, Corey Ann Haydu, David Ian Lee, Jeff Lewonczyk, August Schulenburg, Crystal Skillman, Isaiah Tanenbaum The directors: Michael Davis, Jessi D. Hill, Kate Marks, Kelly O'Donnell The actors: Ryan Andes, Havilah Brewster, Tiffany Clementi, Nick Gallegos, Mariam Habib, Ian Heitzman, Kitty Lindsay, Elise Link, Nick Monroy, Matthew Murumba, Gretchen Poulos, Carolyn Ratteray, Isaiah Tanebaum, Daren Taylor, Gregory Waller, Shannon Michael Wamser, Anthony Willis Jr., DeWanda Wise, Cotton Wright, Travis York More information here on the Flux Blog.

Rebeck on plot

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-theresa-rebeck29-2009mar29,0,2065069.story

coming soon

Matt Freeman and I do a podcast at nytheatre.com

http://www.nytheatre-i.com/2009/03/some-nyte-good-news-updates.html

new monologue books for actors and those who like monolgues

I have one monologue in each of these books. They are both from Food For Fish. So if you wanted, you could just read Food For Fish, but then you would miss out on the other cool monologues contained within. There are some heavy hitters in these books, including many people that you or I may know personally. See below: Women: And Her Hair Went With Her (2), Zina Camblin And We All Wore Leather Pants, Robert Attenweiler Beauty of the Father, Nilo Cruz The Beebo Brinker Chronicles (2), Kate Moira Ryan and Linda S. Chapman Boats on a River, Julie Marie Myatt A Body of Water, Lee Blessing Boom (3), Peter Sinn Nachtrieb The Butcher of Baraboo, Marisa Wegrzyn Christmas Belles, Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten Chronicles Simpkins Will Cut Your Ass Off, Rolin Jones The Conscientious Objector, Michael Murphy Custody of the Eyes (2), Anthony Giardina The Drunken City (3), Adam Bock Earthquake Chica, Anne Garcia-Romero Eat the Runt, Avery Crozier Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, Quiara Alegria Hudes Fall Forward, Daniel Reitz Food for Fish, Adam Szymkowicz Fuck Tori Amos, Caitlyn Montanye Parrish Giftbox (2), Francine Volpe God's Ear (2), Jenny Schwartz Great Falls, Lee Blessing Guardians (2), Peter Morris The Hopper Collection, Mat Smart Hunting and Gathering (2), Brooke Berman In Our Name, Elena Hartwell In the Shadow of My Son, Nadine Bernard Joy, John Fisher Love-Lies-Bleeding, Don DeLillo Marvelous Shrine, Leslie Bramm Mauritius, Theresa Rebeck Men of Steel, Qui Nguyen Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, Jennifer Haley None of the Above, Jenny Lyn Bader 100 Saints You Should Know (2), Kate Fodor Property, Rosary O'Neill Regrets Only (2), Paul Rudnick School of the Americas, Jose Rivera A Small, Melodramatic Story, Stephen Belber Smoke and Mirrors (2), Joseph Goodrich Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, Young Jean Lee Spain, Jim Knabel Tea, Valina Hasu Houston tempOdyssey, Dan Dietz This Beautiful City, Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis Unconditional, Brett C. Leonard Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, Julie Marie Myatt What Shall I Do For Pretty Girls?, Don Nigro When The Messenger Is Hot, Marisa Wegrzyn White People, JT Rogers Men: The Actor, Horton Foote Adopt a Sailor (3), Charles Evered Boats on a River, Julie Marie Myatt Cagelove, Christopher Denham The Conscientious Objector (2), Michael Murphy Darwin in Malibu, Crispin Whittell Digging Eleven, Kia Corthron Down and Dirty, Lee Blessing Eagle Hills, Eagle Ridge, Eagle Landing, Brett Neveu Echoes of Another Man, Mia McCullough The Emperor of Ice Cream; or, Thirteen Ways of Looking at Donald Rumsfeld, Matt Moses Fall Forward, Daniel Reitz Food for Fish, Adam Szymkowicz The Four of Us (3), Itamar Moses Gary, Melinda Lopez November (2), David Mamet Good, Clean Fun (2), Lee Blessing Great Falls, Lee Blessing Hunting and Gathering, Brooke Berman The Last Good Moment of Lily Baker, Russell Davis Massacre (Sing to Your Children) , Jose Rivera Mauritius, Theresa Rebeck Men of Steel (2), Qui Nguyen 100 Saints You Should Know, Kate Fodor On the Line (2), Joe Roland Property (2), Rosary O'Neill Rats, Ron Fitzgerald The Rules of Charity (2), John Belluso School of the Americas, Jose Rivera Screw Machine/Eye Candy, CJ Hopkins Songs of the Dragon Flying to Heaven, Young Jean Lee Spain (2), Jim Knabel The Sunset LTD, Cormac McCarthy The Thirteenth of Paris, Mat Smart This Beautiful City, Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis Unconditional, Brett C. Leonard Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, Julie Marie Myatt White People, JT Rogers Willy's Cut and Shine, Michael Bradford Wittenberg (2), David Davalos Yemaya's Belly, Quiara Alegria Hudes

PT

Last Chance for 1/2 Price Tix to Pretty Theft Offer expires this Sunday March 29th at midnight, so buy now! Use the code PICKPOCKET for $9 tickets the 1st week of performances (opening excluded) Preview: Thurs, April 23rd, 8PM Opening: Friday, April 24th, 8PM Pretty Theft runs Thurs-Sat at 8PM And Sun at 7PM From April 23rd - May 17th Patron's Night with Pre-show Reception Sat, May 2nd! Access Theater's Gallery 380 Broadway, 4th Floor New York, New York 10013 2 blocks south of Canal St N,R,Q,W or 6 trains to Canal St Flux's 2009/10 season begins with Adam Szymkowicz's Pretty Theft, a play about ballerinas, boxes and the dangers of beauty. After losing her father, Allegra falls under the wing of bad girl Suzy, only to find an unexpected friendship with Joe, an autistic savant. When things between them take a violent turn, Allegra and Suzy escape cross country and befriend Marco, a mysterious thief who claims he cannot be caught.

Ken of the Producer's Perspective publishes his 1st year of blogging as a book

http://www.theproducersperspective.com/my_weblog/2009/03/kindle-or-not-books-will-never-go-out-of-style-so-i-published-one.html

evolution of a one-man show

I wrote this one person (one dog actually) show called Bee Eater while I was at Juilliard. I thought it was 40 minutes long and I kept trying to write short 20 min or so one person shows to go before or after it. I wrote two of these and attempted another before scrapping it. We put up Bee Eater for a couple of nights in Minneapolis and I can tell you it's actually 50 minutes long. (I had two 10 min pieces go on before it) While rehearsing Bee Eater I came up with another idea-- a short one person piece to go after it played by the same actor and I think it's the right one this time. I finished writing it today. It'll still have to be tested but I think it brings out the things that people are glossing over in Bee Eater and hopefully does so in a cool way. I'll have to see. I wrote Pretty Theft in '04 sometime and it's finally being done in nyc this April. Who know how long this play will take to go up. Could be next year, could be five years from now or ten. In any case I can add it to my list of my plays I want to see produced. That list is getting longer. And as I sit here, having just finished a new play all I can think of is that I better start another one soon.

notes about the play

I was asked to write playwright notes for Pretty Theft. Here they are-- In 2004, I took a class with Chuck Mee at the Flea. He was writing what would become Hotel Cassiopeia about the life of artist Joseph Cornell. Cornell is probably most famous for his boxes—dioramas created from collages of found objects. He lived his whole life in the house he grew up in and probably died a virgin. He also had many friendships with ballerinas and sometimes gave his art to them as gifts. In Chuck Mee’s class we were supposed to all write our own play about Joseph Cornell and in the spirit of Mee, we were all supposed to steal from one another. Every scene everyone brought in was on the table to potentially become part of our own pieces. I did not end up writing a play about Joseph Cornell but instead wrote a play about an autistic guy named Joe who is obsessed with ballerinas and likes to collect things in a box. Likewise, I took my character of the Waitress from a café scene someone brought in where a character said “If you live in New York long enough you will eventually fall in love with a waitress” and I took my main character Allegra from an interview someone brought in of the dancer Allegra Kent. Although I didn’t end up stealing scenes or dialogue, I instead wrote a play about stealing. I wanted to figure out why I was so opposed to taking lines from people’s scenes when that was what we were supposed to do. Ingrained in me still was the idea of theft as an unallowable taboo. So I wrote about it. I was interested in showing different versions of theft—the serious and less serious, emotional theft and physical theft and what theft means in America and to us as individuals. Why do some people compulsively steal? When something vital is taken from us, how does it affect us? That was the initial impulse to write this play. I also looked at Chuck Mee’s theatricality and tried to make my version of a Chuck Mee play. In Pretty Theft, ballerinas dance between scenes and wrenches fall from the ceiling. And above all, I wanted to make something beautiful, maybe terrible, hopefully funny but also emotionally resonant.

Half Price Tickets to Pretty Theft

Pretty Theft in New York at the Access Theatre 1/2 price tickets Use the code PICKPOCKET for $9 tickets for the 1st week of performances (opening excluded) - this is a limited time offer - so click here now to save! Preview: Thurs, April 23rd, 8PM Opening: Friday, April 24th, 8PM Pretty Theft runs Thurs-Sat at 8PM And Sun at 7PM From April 23rd - May 17th Patron's Night with Pre-show Reception Sat, May 2nd! Cast Allegra: Marnie Schulenburg Suzy: Maria Portman Kelly* Joe: Brian Pracht Bobby: Zack Robidas Marco: Todd D'Amour* The Ballerinas: Waitress, etc: Candice Holdorf* Supervisor, etc: Cotton Wright* Psychiatrist, etc: Lynn Kenny *Appear courtesy of Actors' Equity Association Director: Angela Astle Choreographer: Ashley Martinez Scenic Design: Heather Cohn Costume Design: Becky Kelly Light Design: Andrew Fritsch Sound Design: Kevin Fuller Prop Design: Kelly O'Donnell Stage Manager: Kate August Flux's 2009/10 season begins with Adam Szymkowicz's Pretty Theft, a play about ballerinas, boxes and the dangers of beauty. After losing her father, Allegra falls under the wing of bad girl Suzy, only to find an unexpected friendship with Joe, an autistic savant. When things between them take a violent turn, Allegra and Suzy escape cross country and befriend Marco, a mysterious thief who claims he cannot be caught.

in Minneapolis

This Thursday, come see my show.

Lark has a blog

http://larktheatre.blogspot.com/