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1100 Playwright Interviews
1100 Playwright Interviews A Sean Abley Rob Ackerman E.E. Adams Johnna Adams Liz Duffy Adams Tony Adams David Adjmi Keith Josef Adkins Nicc...
Jan 30, 2006
Jan 27, 2006
diction
I admitted in class that I feel like I am addicted to playwriting. Then I became somewhat embarrassed. I felt like I was taking myself too seriously, making myself look ridiculously tragic as if it's something I can't stop doing, which of course I really can't. Not if I want to keep on an even keel. Don't get me wrong--It's not an addiction I'm trying to kick or anything but definitely something that needs to be fed. Because if I'm not writing, I'm kind of on edge, moody, angry at myself. Although I'm not ever too long not writing.
And I'm not trying to say I'm at a computer all the time actually typing. The planning stages is 2/3 of the process for me generally but it's a time when I'm jonesing to get into the world and start the typing.
Mostly it's just that I never really am not writing something. I'm always rewriting something or trying to figure out something new. And it wasn't like this when I started. It was college and it was a play on summer break. Then a play winter break and summer break and then school ended and work descended and it was all the time like it is now. I've written two full lengths in the past 7 or so months which is fast for me but I'm also not seeing a new one directly in front of me. It'll be a little bit for this next one--whichever one it turns out to be. And I have to say that's getting under my skin a little. I know if I start just writing something long without figuring most of it out it will be bad but I'm so jonesin to do it.
But I bide my time with this discovery of this and that discovery of that until one of the ideas comes close enough that I can make it out. And then I can look at it a bit but soon I'm getting up early and putting in my time--loving every second when it's going well and pissed off when it's not, but all the time wanting to get back to that escape of a place and sort it out and live it out. Until it's over and I'm depressed and maybe at the same time elated but then needing it again not too much long after.
When I first discovered playwriting I was looking for others like me, but most people are not like this. They don't have this problem. I don't know what problems other people have. But not this one. Other people have real problems. This isn't even a problem, really.
I don't know that I want to continue to write like this in a public forum. But how many people actually read this anyway? Until fame and fortune comes, (tomorrow probably) I'm safe.
Ok, here is the explanation to my bizarre emails
The junk mail senders are sending me these poems to try and trick the spam getter ridder machines:
Often appended at the end, in an attempt to flummox the filters, is a scrap of Dadaist poetry - "feverish squirt feat transconductance terrify broken trite fascist axis stultify floc bookshelves. " Sometimes this "word salad," as it has come to be called, is rendered in invisible ink - white letters on a white background - or hidden inside an embedded formatting command.
I still find it fascinating. How does one get the job of writing the poem at the end of the spam? Can I be hired for this?
The next bulk message was this from "Salter Nellie"
must ask take
yes hurt work
false run spend
him run forget
not take listen
He wakeup make
right finish swim
place work leave
It fill study
for hurt talk
morning teach count
Today I received this email
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To take Advantage of this Limited Time opportunity all
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cocoon may colosseum the ain't on bad the.crane try biennium be artemis see daughter ! attribution ! blithe on colloquia it camden be classificatory , bract be diamond it's.cutout be clothesman some crossword not bateau some bourgeoisie be bursty and baneberry !.councilwoman be bicep see bhoy and conception ,.disturbance try courtney on bedpost not collateral try canary but compilation but apparel not candlelit on aristotelian some columbus see captious and.della but aggression or cognitive it's crow some derail try bissau see buy may.crewmen the chamberlain may contrary may ar or.carboxy and anywhere but collectible may briggs try benson be clique but circular be digestive be clout or bartend see anaheim or.baneful try causation but constituent but cult not alia some cowpea not balky see.
Jan 26, 2006
Am I the only one who gets crazy bulk mail…or am I the only one who reads his bulk mail?
This one was from someone called “Bird Gerald”
you comb drink
then eat fall
evening draw find
you watch forget
Of speak think
awake believe believe
Have translate change
sleep drink turnoff
somewhere understand allow
it open say
she count spend
Jan 24, 2006
Pre-writing
Ok, so all these pics below are just for me for tone purposes for idea purposes, as I think about writing a play about an elf in the North Pole. The details are fuzzy so I imagine this one will be a while coming. And I'm an impatient person sometimes so I like to dig up source material to get my self into a world quicker--it sometimes works--especially if it's the right material. In some cases, the colors are as important as the content. I wish I could wrap this blog up in colored lights--got some next to my desk now.
Hey, if I think they help, then they help.
Dramaturgy
Jan 23, 2006
Jan 20, 2006
other other possible titles
Limp Cowboy Blues
The Unrepentant One-Eyed Bastard
The Flailing Cowboy Revenge Play
Shooting Out of a Ten Gallon Hat
Village
Settlement
Blood Loss for Herbie
Unrepentant
Repent Lest Ye Take Two in the Brain
Tarnation (melon's contribution)
Bullet Spray
Cowboy Legs
Cowboy Hands
A Cowboy Knows
Out of the Saddle
Splayed
Contrived "Comedic" Cowboy Play Using Hamlet in the West as a Metaphor for American Manifest Destiny Dominance, Extermination, and Ruthless Need For Material Satisfaction
Dirt
Pushing Lead
Leading a Horse to Water
I can mail merge with the best of them
and I can rattle off a fast memo or speedy haiku
I photocopy like a demon with hands
the fax machine is like part of my body
the word processing I do all by hand
and the proofreading seems to take care of itself
although I can't make coffee
Jan 19, 2006
other possible titles
lil help?
The Unwilling Cowboy
Dead Cowboy
Dead Cowboys Tell No Lies
The Unhappy Cowboy
Herbie, the Unwilling Cowboy
Saddle Sores
Whiskey and Sand
Herbie and the Great Shootout
Gunfights Always End By Sunset
Sundown
Herbie, Son of the West
Vultures Ain't Picky 'Bout Dead Cowboys
Herbie's Showdown
Herbie's First Showdown
Big Cowboy Showdown
Even a Catus Dies Without Love
The Cowboy
Ain't No Cowboy in Heaven
Cowboy Surprise
A Cowboy For All Seasons
Bootful of Whiskey
The Firewater Diary
A Cowboy Dies in His Boots
A Dead Cowboy Walks Alone
The Poet
The Cowboy Poet
Desert Rose
looking for a title. anyone?
Jan 18, 2006
Jan 17, 2006
Last Words of My Mentor, Dr. Warren Smetwarter
I’ll probably never forget what he said to me, but just in case I could someday, I’ll write it down before I do. He sat in the leather chair by the hearth and glanced at me with a look of slight disdain, then took a pull from his old man pipe and sighed.
“As for my former lovers, yes I can forgive the ones I didn’t love who still sort of love me, those blue haired ladies with the manicured hands worn like wood. I can forgive them for most anything and we can be friends, although I don’t really want to.” Here he stroked his beard and again he sighed. “But the ones who never loved me, the ones who once loved me, the ones who stopped loving me, I will never forgive them. I will never forgive them for not seeing how spectacularly wonderful I truly am. They just have no taste whatsoever. And that, I cannot abide.”
Then he turned away and immediately died.
At his funeral I remember watching the gray-haired mourners in their black dresses and veils and I couldn’t help but wonder from which camp these former lovers had emerged.
Jan 16, 2006
details on Pick of The Vine in San Pedro
Well, opening night for Pick of the Vine 2006 is upon us. This Friday
and Saturday, January 20th and 21st, we will present our 4th annual
presentation of shorts with an Evening A and an Evening B running through
February 18th.
Evening A: Friday nights and Sunday 2/12
30 LOVE by Terry McFadden
SAD by Kristen Palmer and Adam Szymkowicz
RED ROSES by Lisa Soland
THE RIDE by Greg Romero
intermission
QUARKS by William Borden
TRUE LOVE by Christopher Wojtylko
KEEPING PACE by Robin Rothstein
SOPHISTICATED BARFLIES by Kristen Lazarian
Evening B: Saturday nights and Thursday 2/16
THE LICENSE by Fred Sahner
QUESTIONNAIRE by Claud McMillan
FEMALE FLYERS by Elizabeth Cava
SPEED DATE by Carol White
intermission
DEAD SERIOUS by David Patterson
UKIMWI by Tom Coash
BORDERLINE by John Lane
Jan 13, 2006
every friday like this friday is like this friday most every friday
This is from an email trying to sell me viagra. Below the viagra pitch and presumably links reads the following. Can anyone explain this to me?
atelier keep, and then fell on Miss Millss neck, sobbing as if her tender
wipe Chinese inscriptions of an immense collection of tea-chests, or the
palace After tea we had the guitar; and Dora sang those same dear old
mismatch If I had not guessed this, on the way to the coffee-house, I could
accept there then appeared a procession of new horrors, called arbitrary
see stood, for my dear affectionate little Dora, embracing her, began
renter which quite affected me. He was so peaceful and resigned - clearly
spoil over-starched himself - I was at first alarmed by the idea that he
lark of nature. She is a thing of light, and airiness, and joy. I am
withstand night, almost every night, for a long time, we had a sort of
finish not render it necessary for me to open, even for a quarter of an
cirque up - that he was a man to feel touched in the contemplation of. I
intramural inconsistency and recklessness of Traddles were not to be exceeded
canal Very well, Mr. Copperfield, said Mr. Spenlow, I must try my
toilet observed that he carried his head with a lofty air that was
lilac childhood, that shut up like a bite. Compressing her lips, in
cashier a quarter of an hour, grave affairs long since composed.
subscribe Chancellor of the Exchequer, would occasionally throw in an
mommy suggested that he should dictate speeches to me, at a pace, and
evenings pious sentiment, and slowly shaking his head as he poised himself
Jan 12, 2006
I don't know if it's the change in weather or my change in caffeine or maybe I offended and angry deity but in any case I have got myself a HEADACHE. Sorry to bother you with such trivialities. Please go back to whatever you're doing. OH MY HEAD!!!! Don't mind me. MY HEAD!!! AHHHHHH!! Please, forget about me. Everyone else always does.
Jan 11, 2006
not writing at all right now but reading John Irving. He's really good. I've never read his stuff before. Supposedly many years ago in the 60's my uncle and John rode across Europe together on their motorcycles. Perhaps if I hadn't known that, I would have read some Irving before now. Perhaps not.
----
Just found out that Sad, a play Kristen and I wrote together, will be done later this month by Little Fish Theatre Co in San Pedro, CA. If you want to see it, we're in Evening A.
OPENS FRIDAY, JANUARY 20 Runs Fridays and Saturdays through February 18 .
Jan 10, 2006
up next: my short play Snow at Elephant Theatre Co in Los Angeles and Blue Box Productions in NYC, both in Feb.
Jan 6, 2006
introductory nonsense before the story which will be the play or something like the play I must write next
I feel the pain migrating again and the loss of fight undulating groans in homespun action characters on long trips out of winged carriages who knows the places all can see the sites of massacres and flights of kites in two bit raindrops accustomed to long nights tearing into me like butter knife through very tender beef or mutton that feels on the tongue like a loves palm salty mixed with heaven and just the right fake grass and bushes, merkins, underwear models and rock formations and dust clouds understood if you can you will I know I go inside of wants I want I need I sigh I bleed I smoke I choke I hooked the rope to the skyhook a goodbye hook for slow necked travelers like me and long grained bulls caught in the headlines grab the horn as it goes bye. Bye.
The waitress in short dress told the boy all she could but it was not, as you would think, the story he’d been longing to hear. He had two friends, both of them like him, cheerleaders for the worst high school team in the world. Unlike him, they were girls. It was hard to cheer hard, sometimes hard to even show up to get showed up by the much larger teams, much stronger, more angular mega warriors with laser hands. If it was hard for the teams, it was harder for the cheerleaders who broke their backs to be cheerful and optimistic, crazy though that surely is. Because insanity is trying out to be a male cheerleader to cheer for the worst team in the world.
Jan 5, 2006
Madcap
Also my play Film Noir which has been done in NYC, CT and Toronto will be done in DC this month. Details below.
Madcap Players presents theWinter Carnival of New Works
January 19-21 and 26-28, 2006 at 8:00 PMJanuary 22 and 29, 2006 at 2:00 PM
H STREET PLAYHOUSE1365 H Street NE, Washington, DC
CAUTIONARY TALES FOR ADULTS
music and lyrics by Shawn Northrip, directed by Shirley Serotsky
DANCE WITH ME, ABUELITA
written and performed by Terry Nicholetti,directed by Paul-Douglas Michnewicz
THE DRAGONS PROJECT: POWER PLAY (END GAME)
choreographed and performed by Stephen Clapp andLaura Schandelmeier with contributions by Jessica Hirst
FILM NOIR
by Adam Szymkowicz, directed by Paul Takacs
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
by Steven Schutzman, directed by Patrick Torres
JETSAM
by Chad Dubeau, directed by Alexandra Hoge
OUT OF TIME
by Patrick Gabridge, directed by Christopher Snipe
THE PATIENT
by Rich Amada, directed by Scott Stanley
Jan 4, 2006
Which Woman's Work?
This Woman's Work Theatre Co., Inc. will be doing my short play Save as part of their show "Awakening" later this month. Save has already been done in Idaho, Los Angeles, Michigan, and Arizona. Now it makes it's NY debut.
Details below:
Next Big THING, a division of TWWTC, proudly presents:
"AWAKENING"
...reflections on birth, death and everything in between
Directed by Christopher Goodrich
Lighting Design by Christopher R. Hoyt
An evening of collected monologues, written by emerging male and female plawrights from across the country, performed by a diverse group of exceptional local actors
Premiering at Chashama (217 E. 42nd Street)
January 26-28, 2006, 7:00 p.m.
Reserve tickets NOW at: 212-502-8630
"AWAKENING" stars:
Mollye Asher *Bonnie Lee Barrios Candace Reid
Aaron J. Fili *Maybeth Ryan
*Debra Anderson Troy Hall
*Tawanna Brown *Mary Hodges
*Jack R. Marks Mando Alvarado
Frank Juliano Kevin Logie
*Courtesy Actor's Equity Association
TWWTC congratulates the following playwrights, whose monologues were selected for inclusion in "AWAKENING":
Adam Szymkowicz
Laura Lewis Barr
Karin Williams
Peter Langman
Christina Pippa
Dan Trujillo
Lia Romeo
Dale Andersen
Christine DiGiovanni
November Dawn
Catherine Zambri Riggs
Jim Dunleavy
Elizabeth Canavan
Depressing
From London with love--
THEY can’t judge a book without its cover.
Publishers and agents have rejected two Booker prize-winning novels submitted as works by aspiring authors.
One of the books considered unworthy by the publishing industry was by V S Naipaul, one of Britain’s greatest living writers, who won the Nobel prize for literature.
The exercise by The Sunday Times draws attention to concerns that the industry has become incapable of spotting genuine literary talent
Jan 3, 2006
from floyd
Hamnet
This is a scene from HAMLET, PRINCE OF THIEVES. I hope you love it!!!!!!! XXXOOOOOOXXXXOO
A dark and stormy night. The sound of cats can be heard, howling andpurring loudly.
Hamlet
Psst! Friends! Thieves! Where are you?
Friend 1
i'm here. Under the storm drain.
Hamlet
come out! you needn't hide yourself under the drain.
Frien 1
but I, like you, am a wanted thief. I must hide for protection.
Jan 2, 2006
Happy New Year!!
Finished first draft of cowboy play a day early and was honored the following day by inclusion in "Please Explain" over at Dup's Blog.
Something exciting may be happening with Pretty Theft. I'll let you know how it pans out.
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