Farewell to 2008

2008 was the year that the United States elected our first African-American President.

I think that's worth a toast or two.

Happy New Year everyone!

New Sarah Ruhl Essays at Device

Read her torrent of rhetorical questions about hatred, chimpanzees, initials, scariness, "rhapsodic states of pure emotion" and other subjects...here.

Gran Torino Reaction

Saw Clint Eastwood's new film Gran Torino last night. I can't understand, at all, the generally positive reviews this film has received. It's not just a misfire, it's a mess. It's cliche, largely acted with almost comic ineptitude, and it's message is mystifying.

My friend Matt, who saw it with me, noted, also, that if Eastwood's character said the n-word as often as he says gook in this movie, it would be considered impossible to release in major markets. Somehow, there are racial epithets we've come to find comic, and others we accurately think of as racial slurs. Gran Torino says that some kinds of racism (the kinds that are married to squinty charming grumpiness) are more acceptable than other kinds. Eastwood's old war veteran with a heart of gold is about as realistic as life as a prostitute in Pretty Woman.

It's also remarkably tone deaf compared to the better, more nuanced conversations about race that are taking place in the popular culture these days. It's portrayals of poverty, immigration, gang violence, prejudice...they're naive, simplistic, childish. If this is Dirty Harry updated, maybe the lesson here is that Dirty Harry belongs to the 1970s.

Butz in the Seats!

When I read about the hoopla about Norbert Leo Butz being thrust on-stage with the occasional script in hand or prompt, I think...

Slow news week!

This guy had no time to rehearse (especially by Russian Standards TM!) and he's working hard. It isn't a favor, it's his job, and it's not always an easy job. Tremendous pressure on the guy. Better him than me.

Bravo, Norbert Leo Butz! You have balls the size of Neptune!

That is all.

While I'm on the topic of "The Wrestler"

Darren Aronofsky has suggested publicly that he thinks professional wrestlers should be in the Screen Actor's Guild. Hey, SAG members...what do you think of that?

Might I add...

Screw the Dallas Cowboys! 44-6 Baby!

Merry Christmas

Harold Pinter died yesterday.

There's something perfect about that. Pinter dying on Christmas Eve.

Happy Holidays!

The year comes to a close for this blog. 2008 was a pretty good year for me: I wrote a couple of well-received shorts (The White Swallow, Brown Group, Last Words and Carbon Footprint); When is a Clock had a nice run mid-year and garnered lots of response; and I've got another publication on the way. I also completed, besides the shorter plays, the current draft of Bluebeard, and had two staged readings of In The Great Expanse of Space there is nothing to see but More, More, More. Worked with a grand mix of wonderfully talented people all year, too.

Not too bad, all told.

I'm looking forward to 2009. I feel like things are moving in the right direction.

Until then, I've got all sorts of Christmas-esque stuff to think about and take care of. My Mom's coming to visit. Trying to make sure everyone gets gifts. Also, I'm trying to make sure I actually take time off while I'm taking time off. Harder than it looks, it seems.

I hope all of you are enjoying the holiday season. I'll be back to blogging next week or so.

If you want to share any of your favorite moments (blogosphere or otherwise) of 2008 here...I'd be happy to read them in the comments. Otherwise, onwards and upwards!

"The Wrestler" Response

I went to see The Wrestler this weekend. Instead of critiquing the ins and outs of the plot (which is serviceable, if cliche)... I think I'll begin my response to it with a few names:

"Ravishing" Rick Rude
The Big Bossman
"Mr Perfect" Curt Hennig
Eddie Guerrero
Chris Benoit
Owen Hart
Yokozuna
Davey Boy Smith (of The British Bulldogs)
Miss Elizabeth (Randy "Macho Man" Savage's valet)
Bam Bam Bigelow
Junkyard Dog
Andre the Giant
Flyin' Brian Pillman

That's a list of wrestlers who have achieved some public notoriety, or have wrestled for the WWE at some point. If you were a kid growing up in the 80s, chances are you've heard of some or all of these wrestlers.

All of the people listed above are dead. And all of them died before they reached 50 years old.

This isn't even a very big list. There are lots of lesser known wrestlers who have died at a young age that you've never heard of. There are also tons of wrestlers you've probably heard of who simply have fallen apart from drug abuse. If there was an epidemic like this of young deaths in baseball, or football, or even among Broadway dancers... we'd all be calling our Congressperson.

Let me tell you another story.

Bret Hart, for years, was my favorite wrestler. His character began as a part of a tag team, and his whole gimmick (besides wearing the outfit of his favorite hockey team, the Calgary "Hitmen"), was being an exceptionally good "wrestler." He wasn't the biggest guy, he wasn't the most impressive looking. He was charismatic, "over" with the fans, but he was the sort of guy that Vince McMahon would never put the belt on. Not in an era of guys like Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior.

Then, one day, Bret Hart won the belt. It was in 1992 at a "house" show (not televised). One morning he just showed up on Wrestling Superstars as champion. I can tell you I was not only thoroughly shocked, but thrilled. I always like Hart, and it was nice to see someone like him being given a chance to be the face of the company.

As an in-ring performer, Hart was brilliant. He was, maybe, the Robert DeNiro of pro-wrestling. The matches all played out with a sense of real competition and realism. You never felt like Hart was simply an entertainer (like Hulk Hogan or the Rock); you felt like he was really wrestling. He was a great actor. You always knew it was a show, but he was good at making you believe in it. That was his job, just like the job of any actor.

Hart had a rather public falling out with Vince McMahon in 1997, live during a pay per view (the now infamous "Montreal Incident"), which permanently broke the contract between the real world and pro wrestling that the two should never meet. Hart later moved on to WCW. During a match with then star Bill Goldberg (a flash in the pan, stiff, green wrestler who has since retired) Hart was kicked in the head and given a severe concussion. He will never wrestle again, because of this legitimate injury.

Hart's brother, Owen, was killed during a mishap with a ring entrance, again during a live televised event. This was years before Hart quit. It was a wrestling tragedy for the Hart family, and wrestling fans across the world. Owen Hart, for his part, was as good as his brother. I was in the crowd when Bret and Owen wrestled at Wrestlemania X: the best live match I've ever seen.

A protege of Owen and Bret Hart was Chris Benoit. Benoit, when Hart retired, took his place as the wrestler I followed most closely and cheered for the loudest. Benoit had started off training with the Harts, then moved to Japan, and wrestled all over the world, from ECW to WCW, before finally making it to the WWF in 2000. He was considered the best wrestler in the world by most "smart fans," but also not flashy, funny, or even particularly handsome. Still, he was totally beloved, his matches were always the best on any show, and the storyline that he was playing out, throughout his life, was similar to Bret Hart's: the best 'wrestler' in the world, in a world of showmen. As if to drive their connection home...when Bret Hart wrestled a "tribute match" to his brother Owen... he chose Benoit as his opponent.

Benoit fashioned his wrestling style after The Dynamite Kid, who was one of the British Bulldogs in the 1980s (the British Bulldogs were Canadian, and they feuded with the Hart Foundation in the wrestling storylines.) Dynamite Kid was small, tough, and impressive: his finisher was a sick looking flying headbutt from the top rope. He'd often walk off with nosebleed he clearly gave himself.

The Dynamite Kid is permanently in a wheelchair to this day. (He didn't die at 39 like his former tag team partner Davey Boy Smith, though.)

I was in the crowd at Madison Square Garden when Chris Benoit wrestled in the main event at Wrestlemania XX. He was wrestling in a three-way matched which also included Triple H (Vince McMahon's real-life son in law) and wrestling legend Shawn Michaels. Lots of fans, including myself, knew that the three-way had been put together because the company didn't think Benoit could sell PPV buys on his own. They were probably right.

But I will say this: when Benoit locked Triple H into his finishing hold, and the entire place went insane with happiness when he won, it wasn't because he won a "match." It was because the industry had finally acknowledged his excellence, his hard work, publically. The fact that his friend, and a person with a similar story, Eddie Guerrero, had won the "other" World Title (don't ask) on the same show meant that the two of them had reached the top of the business at the same time. When they hugged in the ring that night, everyone knew why: because of years of hard work inside a tough business. Fans were cheering professional accomplishment, because they knew just what it meant to these guys to win.

Eddie Guerrero died of heart failure in November 2005, just over a year after that moment.

Chris Benoit infamously went mad, killed his wife, his children, and himself in June 2007.

I say all this in order to express why I liked The Wrestler so much: it understands the world that it's occupying. Wrestling is full of real life professionals, striving to succeed, in an unhealthy place. They get killed, permanently injured, they work hard, and are treated like second-class citizens for the most part. The parallel the film draws between wrestlers and strippers is remarkably apt. Frankly, if it gets people to acknowledge the problems that exist in this bizarre industry, I'd be a very happy guy.

Wrestling is fake. So is "The Wire." So is "Star Trek." So is "The Little Mermaid." But...wrestling embarrasses people. They find it juvenille, silly, stupid, violent; something that kids care about. All the while, it's a multi-million dollar industry, with massive television presence and its a major part of the popular culture, whether we like it or not. It's also controlled almost entirely by a single family (barely in competition with the smaller independent promoters) and is entirely without union protection. Professional wrestlers are dealt with like independent contractors, who have to protect themselves from being crippled, whose careers are held together by a thread, and who have an excellent chance of dying young. It's notable, if you look at the credits of this film, that Ring of Honor (a real promotion) is all over this picture, but there's not a hint of help from the WWE. This isn't a story they want to see told. They're a monopoly, simply put, they've bought all their competitors, and wrestlers are at their mercy. Randy "The Ram" might be a bit of an exaggeration in places, but in some ways, it doesn't go far enough. His story is nowhere near as bad as Chris Benoits, for example. If anything, the real thing is no where near as heartwarming as The Wrestler is.

If there's something else that stands out to me about the film, outside the response I have as an actual fan of the product, it's that The Wrestler is one of the best movies about acting I've ever seen.

Thoughts about Rick Warren

Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration has sparked a lot of controversy, and rightly so. Warren comes from a religious tradition and culture that has some pretty bizarre views about the right to life and gay rights. In fact, he's remarkably off-base about those things. There are, though, ways in which he has broken with right-wing orthodoxy and promoted a more complex relationship with politics than "the left is always wrong." That's important. He's a doorway into a less divided America, and I think Obama knows that.

I think that the Times They Are A-Changin' when it comes to the voice of gay activism in this country. After Proposition-8, I think the world woke up to the last great civil rights battle in America... the battle for same-sex couples to not only have the same rights as others, but to be protected from hate.

Growing up Episcopalian, and working every day in the Episcopal Church (I work in an office that serves the Episcopal Church's finances, etc), I've seen just how terrifying that "out" gay people are to certain sectors of the population. But I've also seen just how fruitless their efforts really are. A handful of Episcopal Dioceses have broken from the great American Episcopal Church, primarily because of Gene Robinson. But the number of true believers in this cause is far smaller than the news coverage would show: compared to the number of self-identified Episcopalians, the number of now "Anglicans" is tiny. In fact, aging is a far greater threat to the Episcopal Church's future existence than is bigotry.

I see a similar problem of perspective here. Warren is a popular and populist priest, but he's there to support Obama. And Obama has publically stated his support for gay rights. Isn't it a larger concession of Warren's to attend, than it is for Obama to invite him? Could it not be considered a coup for gay activists that Warren is publically supporting a candidate that publically supports them?

What this is about, in the short term, is fear. We're afraid that this shows that Obama isn't as committed to the rights of same sex couples as he's said in the past. I don't think that's the case. I think he is, by publically stating his own support for same-sex couples, and then bringing Rick Warren to the table, winning the argument. If anything, Warren is conceding to Obama here, not the other way around.

Obama's message seems to be "Stop fighting the culture war and start having a cultural conversation." If we do this, in the long term, we may see the change we want. If we don't, we'll wind up propping up the dying far-right, just because we want someone to fight.

On the other hand...

I would rather be shot in the d*ck than see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Very excited to see...

Aronofsky's The Wrestler as I am an unabashed lifelong actual pro wrestling fan.

Theatre is Territory

Great post about blogging and such.

Tis the Season

Once again, it's time for giving. Before the end of the year, it's a perfect time to give a little something to your favorite small theater companies. As we're all focused on the state of regional theaters and the relative health of corporate donations... we shouldn't forget that the fortunes of smaller companies are unchanged.

Small companies fight for every opportunity, and make good use of every little bit of support, encouragement, and help. Just giving $25 to a theater company sends them a message that their work matters. And you can bet that a small donation (or a large donation) will be put to immediate use.

As I've been doing over the past few years, I'm going to suggest a few places that I'd love to see get a few of those gifts. (I encourage my fellow bloggers to do the same!) If you're reading this blog, chances are you work in the very world I'm describing. Giving a gift like this is a gift to your own community, a vote of confidence in the continuing health of small theater. For less money than you spend on after-show beer, you can make an easy, online gift to any one of these companies, or all of them, and it will make a world of difference.

Here are a list of incomplete suggestions. I'm sure I'll leave some companies out. This is just to get you thinking. In the end, everyone needs help, and appreciates your support.

-----

Blue Coyote Theater Group - my home for the past few years, and a fantastic smaller company that produces the work of many of your favorite playwrights. This past year, they produced my own play, When is a Clock; the presented Happy Endings; and they are currently presenting Philip Taratula's one-man show Call Me Anne. They also presented a reading of my newest play. They work their asses off; I see it every day.

You can give to them online here. I highly encourage you to do so. It's also, if this matters, the closest thing to supporting my own career, directly.

Nosedive Productions - the home of fellow blogger James Comtois. They've had a great year, producing Colorful World, Speed Demons, and Blood Brothers: The Master of Horror. A great team, inventive, and always producing a badass mix of pop culture and theatrical fun.

You can give to them online here.

The Brick Theater - C'mon. It's the BRICK! Give them money, or else.

Folding Chair Classical Theater Company - a company I became aware of this past year. I love their work - pared down, actor focused, ambitious. They did Cymbelline with 6 actors. All of it. If that's not worth a gift from you, I don't know what is.

Here's how to give to them online.

Flux Theatre Ensemble - They've had quite a year, which recently closed out with a repertory production of the full Angel Eater's Trilogy by Johnna Adams. Definitely a company I'll be keeping my eye on, and clearly a crew with their eyes on bigger and better things.

Give!

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That's just a few. Who else should be getting some extra love this year?

Alexis Soloski on "The Big See"

Over at the Guardian Blog, Alexis Soloski writes about how to make America a nation of theatergoers. Or at least, see more plays than they do now, for fuck's sake.

It might sound patronising, if not positively undemocratic, to suggest that people who don't want to see plays should be instructed otherwise. But that's precisely what the NEA proposed after its 2004 survey Reading at Risk disclosed that fewer than half of American adults read fiction or poetry. When the study noted that 4 million fewer Americans read fiction in 2002 than in 1992 (the same number who have apparently ceased attending drama), Gioia declared a "national crisis" and established the Big Read, a programme that sponsors literature-related activities in 400 communities.

Gioia, a poet, didn't suggest that people had stopped reading poetry because the supply of stanzas had outstripped demand. Rather, he argued that this was a problem not merely for authors and publishers, but for all Americans. He warned that the decline in "engaged literacy" would result in a nation "less informed, active, and independent-minded. These are not qualities that a free, innovative, or productive society can afford to lose."

Similar arguments could be made for drama. The idea that theatre enables catharsis is rather musty. But few would deny that the immediacy of live performance encourages empathy more immediately than television or film. Unlike reading or watching TV, theatre is a communal exercise, encouraging interpersonal exchange – if only at the theatre bar. A compassionate and socially adept populace should be as welcome as an active and independent-minded one.

The NEA already sponsors some theatre outreach, but why not launch a Big See?

Take a look. Very good thoughts here.

UPDATE:

In service of equal time, George Hunka wrote his perspective on this same issue and comes to, unsurprisingly, a rather dire conclusion.

NYtheatre.com's People of the Year for 2008

Read their list here.

Thoughts on the list?

I am a Mac. I am a PC.

I am City Opera.

In the Great Expanse of Space Reading on Wednesday

For those interested, we're going to have an informal, free reading of a leaner, meaner version of In the Great Expanse of Space there is nothing to see but More, More, More at the Brick Theater on December 17th, 2008 at 7:30pm.

If you'd like to come check it out, drop me a line at mattfr - at - gmail.com.

Rod's House of Senate Seats

Starring Sean Kenin!

Rod's House of Senate Seats - watch more funny videos

Instead of discussing the merits of the Critic-O-Meter

I am looking at this.

Call me lazy. Go on.

Question: Getting published

I got this in my inbox, from a friend and writer. I'll leave her name off the e-mail, and leave the question for the other readers.

"I don't know if you ever take suggestions about what to write about on your blog, but if you do, I'd love to hear from you and other readers about the process (and value?) of getting your plays published. I know that the conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't even bother submitting until your play has had a "major" production, but I'm not even sure what that means anymore. Are people actually getting published based on cold submissions, or do you need an agent? What experiences have people had with different drama publishing companies? Does being published actually lead to more productions of your work?

Those are some of my questions. I haven't made much of an effort trying to get my stuff published, and I feel like I could use some mentorship in the area from other "emerging writers" or whatever we're called who are actually doing it."

Well...I can't really offer any words of wisdom. I've been published a few times, and both of the plays that were published as stand-alone editions received excellent Showcase Code productions that had very good reviews in the NY Times. I'm sure that helped. I don't see that there's any trick to it other than working hard and sending scripts out and being persistent. I DO think the reviews matter, so if you're getting produced, even in a small venue, I think it's worthwhile to invest in a press agent that shows they can bring in reviewers, or lobby your producer to do so.

I don't have an agent (still! no! agent!) so I'm not entirely sure what an agent would add to the mix. I'm sure they'd be a help, but again, no experience with that.

I don't think, though, that everything I see published over at Playscripts.com, for example, has to pass a "major production" litmus test. I'm sure (and I only have my own intuition for this) that any company that makes its living licensing productions and selling books has to think about how any particular play would be marketable. Why, for example, would Playscripts pass up an excellent play for high school students or colleges simply because it's never been produced in New York? That wouldn't be very smart, if they make a lot of their income from high schools and colleges.

Not to imply that all decisions are profit-driven: I'm sure there are editors who find a text, love it, and champion it at a publishing house.

I would also say that getting a play published is certainly valuable, it doesn't automatically mean the play will sell. It just means you're in a better position to be read by those beyond the narrow confines of your community.

Any other thoughts from other playwrights out there? Or those in the industry? Or just...you know...anyone?

Top Ten Plays - New York Magazine

Who knew Fela, South Pacific, Gypsy, On The Town and Hair were "plays?"

From the "Reasons to Quit Giving A Sh*t" Department...

Shrekster.

Think about this, why don't you

David Hare was asked by George Lucas to co-direct The Phantom Menace.

Call Me Anne - Reaction

This past week, I attended a performance of CALL ME ANNE at the Access Theater. Starring Philip Taratula, it's a one-man show based on the autobiography of Anne Heche.

I highly recommend it.

First of all, Taratula is brilliantly gifted and you really should come and see him before he's whisked away to stardom of some sort. There are just so many little moments in the performance that shine, as well as the to-be-expected vigorous moments that characterized any worthwhile one-man. Sure he plays a bunch of parts flawlessly and nailed Heche perfectly...but it's the little things that Taratula does right.

For example, there's a moment when he is, as Anne Heche of course, acting for the camera, taking direction, flirting between takes, and taking a cell phone call from Ellen Degeneres, whom Heche is stringing along. It's so deftly executed that you forget...how...very... hard... it is.

The play itself, though, isn't perhaps the straight up camp tribute/send-up you'd expect. Instead, the play moves between the expected mockery of this self-important starlet, and a rather difficult portrayal of someone who clearly has mental illness, in an industry that either ignores or absorbs this as eccentricity. The post show conversation was, shall we say, spirited.

Best to let you see for yourself. Get some tickets right away.

Birthday

Today I turn 33. Yesterday, my fabulous girlfriend threw me a surprise... funeral.

Totally. Awesome.

The Brick Theater announces its Summer Festival Theme for 2009

Update: Shorter Version.

Ivo van Hove on New York Theater

"I think a lot of interesting artists are living in New York, and I think that really changes their art. When you see people like Peter Sellars have to come to Europe to get their work seen, that's really a pity. I think it's also because there are no subsidies in America, so you are totally dependent on economics. Economics ruin art...It's always very difficult, that combination, I think."

Read the rest of this interview on Gothamist.

Opening Night

Saw "Opening Night" at BAM last night.

Three words: F*ck. Right. Kickass.

Critic-O-Meter

Added to the blogroll, which is chaotically maintained.

Great Holiday Gift - A Little Fruitcake

If you're stumped for gifts to buy this holiday season, or just want a very good read, might I suggest A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays? It's author is David Valdes Greenwood, a former professor of mine and a fantastic playwright.

David is one of the best writers around, and his work on the front-lines of the fight for civil rights that Proposition 8 put into focus for so many. Work like David's is still revelatory to many Americans (your relatives?) and that's why his books are not only entertaining, but important. His subjects tend to be pure Americana, and as he's a gay, married man raising an adopted daughter, it's his wonderful lack of self-consciousness, his lack of "otherness" that I think makes his work so recognizable, fun, and truthful.

Synopsis:

For one Maine boy--the indomitable "little fruitcake" at the center of these tales--nothing is sweeter than the promise of the holidays. A 1970's Tiny Tim, he holds fast to his ideal of what Christmas should be, despite the huge odds against him: Sub-zero Maine winters. A host of eccentric relatives. And his constant foil: a frugal, God-fearing Grammy who seems determined to bring an end to all his fun. A book that's filled with funny, charming Yuletide memories (from building a Lego® manger to hunting for the perfect Christmas tree), A Little Fruitcake will inspire even the biggest Grinches around.

Sample Reviews:

"The perfect stocking stuffer…in the vein of David Sedaris."—The Today Show

"A little beauty of a book…Fun, funky, and fa-la-la-liscious, A Little Fruitcake is joyous reading for a joyous season."—Louisville Courier Journal

"David Valdes Greenwood has spun a silver-tinsel upbringing in a small Maine town into a glittering chapter book stuffed with precious memories.'' Portland Press Herald

Links:

Order from Amazon

Order from Barnes & Noble

Order from Powells

In the Great Expanse of Space

Completed a new, shorter, meaner draft of that oddball text today, hopefully for a reading this month. Happy about that. More details to come.

Tonight, I'm seeing CALL ME ANNE at the Access. Looks like a great show!

Essay Questions for Bad Poetry

Today's edition of Essay Questions for Bad Poetry (see others here, here and here) features film star and all-around man-about-town Michael Madsen. Madsen is an accomplished poet. His work has appeared in Solider of Fortune Magazine, prison newsletters, and at Shakespeare & Company retailers. The poems have that hard-boiled style one might find at the bottom of a can of Old Milwaukee after a long day of phoning in a performance of a B-Movie.

He also has a collected works published. Buy it now!

His poem, for your educational enjoyment, is entitled Bullshit.

BULLSHIT

by Michael Madsen

Mankind's refusal to accept the result of their own folly

The Superego that thinks they know everything

about everything...

Based on theory, right?

The end of the bullshit would be welcome!

The empty eyes you see everyday on TV

and the quest for validation,

But it's validation of ignorance.

Loss of love,

Loss of reason,

Loss of Leave it to Beaver.

Major Nelson had a Jeannie, but we don't.

Question # 1 - Madsen begins this poem with the word "Mankind." He exempts women from this criticism. Explain how this advanced technique gets Madsen dates.

Question # 2 - He announces that the "end of bullshit would be welcome!" as the poem's centerpiece. Using Madsen's performance in the film BloodRayne as a foudation, mine this statement for irony.

Question # 3 - Madsen's tears TV a new one here. I mean, holy f*ck. Seriously, ouch, right? I mean, really...how can TV survive this brutal takedown? Instead of answering this rhetorical question, use this space for a diagram.

Question # 4 - Clearly, Madsen feels TV validates our ignorance. Then, he uses a reference to I Dream of Jeannie. Explain, in 50 words or less, what this says about the poem, the poet, and about I Dream of Jeannie?

Question # 5 - Respond to this statement: Madsen understands the Superego.

EXTRA CREDIT - Name Madsen's last five feature films without looking at IMDB.

EXTRA EXTRA CREDIT - Create a new word to describe the sensation of reading a poem by Michael Madsen.

...and we're back

Well, back-ish. Monday morning. I assume we all feel the same way.

I like to assume you think like I do, oh invisible, imaginary reader.