Interview with the Author - Advertising

Let's be clear about blogging: It is a way for those of us with computers to elegantly express our importance.

I have a computer. That is as plain as the nose that you can imagine on my face. I am expressing my importance, and the importance of What I Am Doing and Why You Should Care.

So, I will not pretend as if we are both fools, you and I, dear reader.

You are reading this blog because you are interested in watching people argue; you are interested in me, personally, because you thought I was the bass player for Rancid; you love the Stage; you have developed a sort of habit of reading it you cannot explain; or, perhaps, you harbor a secret crush. Nonetheless, you do not come here seeking advertising.

I, though, would argue that I am an advertisement for myself. Aren't we all? Isn't that painfully true, what I have said?

Therefore...

I am about to advertise to you. I am about to, as you read this, sell you a "ticket." Isn't that word so inadequate for what it means? I am going to sell you permission to view my Art. "Ticket" simply doesn't do the thing justice.

Ahem.

Either way...you could stop reading at any time. You are currently being Sold to. Advertised upon and at. It might disgust you. It might hypnotize you. It might confuse you. You might say "Why does the bass player from Rancid talk like an 8th Grader writing in his diary after reading a text book about philosophy he found at a street sale?" You might say that, and I wouldn't blame you.

Now that you have gone through that little crisis, and find yourself still reading, you'll find that I haven't lied to you. In fact, I've helped you. You're now saying to yourself "Sell to me." I mean, why wouldn't you? You know what's coming. You want to get it over with.

I'm just preparing us both for the inevitable. That way I feel less like a pathetic Willy Loman; and you feel like you're being respected. I'm respecting you, as hard as I can, with this advertising.

This is, in its way, the most respectful advertising you probably have ever received.

It begins:

I am a playwright, and not a bass player. That should not be held against me. A play of mine, called "An Interview with the Author" was seen in June as a part of the terribly entertaining Pretentious Festival at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn, NY. If you did not to attend any of the performances that were held in June, you have not entirely failed yourself. "An Interview with the Author" will go on, but only four more times. If you do not see one of those four performances, its likely you will never see it.

So see it.

The "tickets" are inexpensive. You'll likely spend more money afterwards on whatever liquor keeps you from killing yourself. The performance is not terribly long. In fact, I spend more time convincing myself that I am not fooling myself, than I do performing this particular play on-stage. A short play and inexpensive "tickets" adds up to one thing: More time to drink so that we all do not kill ourselves.

Or, if you are in AA, more time to look at those of us drinking, happily remembering that time you almost killed yourself with a bottle.

Christ, this has gotten off-track.

Anyhow...the play has been acceptably reviewed by websites and bloggers. It has been ignored by the print media, because they are busy forgetting how to find their own asses with their hands.

Attend a performance. The performances, in July, are:

7pm Friday the 13th (Oooh, some idiots find that interesting!)
7pm Saturday the 14th
7pm Friday the 20th
7pm Saturday the 21st

Why shouldn't you see it at this point? You've actually invested a fair amount of time thinking about it. Because you are being Advertised To. I mean, you knew that, but let's just all be upfront about it.

Now that this dirty business is over with, you will purchase a ticket or e-mail your friends and say "Hey Let's All See This Young Upstart Writer Who Will Entertain Us."

Thank you for your kind attention.

Showcase Code Reform

Never to late to sign this.

There's a meeting from 6pm - 8pm at the Classic Stage Company on Sunday. Stop by.

It's my view that, in the end, it's only AEA members that can make this change happen.

It would be wonderful, frankly, to hear of an AEA actor with a bit of name recognition throw their weight behind Showcase Code Reform.

Jamaica Farewell at the NY Fringe

A reader of this here blog has a show going up at this year's Fringe Festival. It's my pleasure to direct readers to her show:

Jamaica, Farewell

Meadowbrook Entertainment
Writer: Debra Ehrhardt
Director: Monique LaiJamaica.
Revolution. Visa. Impossible. CIA. Seduction. Desperation. A dream. Heartbreak. Handsome. American. Customs. Million dollars. Duffel bag. Machetes. Goats. Prostitutes. Bullets. Adrenaline. Kerosene. Run for your life.
A true story. 1h 30m
Kingston Jamaica
Drama Solo Show
myspace.com/jamaicafarewell

Planet Unicorn

This girl got this thing stuck in my head. Now, this wonderful song will be the ruination of us all.

Nosedive Fundraising

Contribute here to Nosedive Productions (home of James Comtois.) I just made my donation!

This is evidence

That the universe is not entirely unjust.

An Interview with the Author - Now Even Longer

Please note this page, wherein you shall find evidence of my extension. I have been extended.

There are performances

Friday 7/13 7pm
Saturday 7/14 7pm
Friday 7/20 7pm
Saturday 7/21 7pm

Note these evidences of our excellence:

Nytheatre.com
James
Aaron

Respect us. Attend. Purchase tickets.

Movies

Yup, I saw a bunch of movies. Quick reviews.

Ratatouille - Just stunningly animated and conceived. Maybe the best Pixar movie I've seen.

Sicko - Will someone please give Michael Moore the key to the city already? Those who nitpick Sicko just sort of make me scratch my head. It's as if to say "Oh, sure there's a massive Healthcare Crisis and it's enslaving the American People and denying them their basic rights...but the way he uses EDITING really burns me."

I've heard it said that Sicko doesn't give the Health Insurance Industry a chance to respond. Well, we're living in their version of America. That's their say. One two hour movie of a completely different vision, I think, is fair game.

Transformers - (Just saw this with friends at a late night screening) Giant. Robots. Blow. Things. Up. So, yeah, if you like that sort of thing, you will love this movie. I, for one, loved Transformers as a kid, and I felt like they made it just to make me happy. You actually say "How many more things can blow up?! Oh! MORE!?" Crass, but perfect.

No Prison for Scotter, Convicted Felon

The list of offenses against what we once politely called Democracy by George Bush has grown out of control. With this statement, he humiliates us.

What, exactly, does it take to cause rebellion in the streets? Or at least, impeachment proceedings? The President, and his wards, are overtly criminal.

Most Understood

Last night, I was given a citation of failure at the Closing Night and Awards Ceremony of the Pretentious Festival. My award: Most Understood.

I apologize to all my Pretentious compatriots for writing work that garnered laughter and nods of understanding from the audience. It was not my intention to to be "understood."

In other news, An Interview with the Author has been extended by the Brick Theater. We will have four more performances in July. Which proves the old adage: "Integrity is for artists; Extension is for Matthew Freeman."

Back from Arizona

We stayed in Sedona. Amazing. Great time. Back in NY.

So what's up theatrosphere? Anything I should be reading?

National Premiere

UPDATE: Tomorrow I'm heading out to Arizona for a week-long vacation with Pam's family (and Pam of course), so, more than likely, I won't be updating until next Friday.

I invite everyone to use my comments section to hammer things out; to read Slay's posts on the subject (like this new one) and comment over there.

I've received a few e-mails at this point from interested companies (which is wonderful and thanks to all who contacted me) and I invite more. (Mattfr at gmail.com). Slay's also invited interested parties to contact him, so I suggest that as well. I'm sure he and I will compare notes.

I hope that other bloggers chime in (especially Art, who was a part of the initial conversation and really helped spark the idea) and that readers connect companies they know with this concept. Let's see if we can turn conversation into action.

Well the "theatrosphere" has become a very active place, no? After the Tonys, there was a fury of postings about theatre and television and how they compare. I posted this, which sparked some fantastic comments which brought to the fore, for me anyhow, the idea of simultaneously opening a single play, on the same day, all over the country.

Read more about this, and a great distillation of the discussion, here.

Here's the reasoning:

One of the challenges of theatre is that it is an art that takes place at a single place, at a single moment, with live performers. That is its strength, but it is primarily a technological challenge. Film and television can distribute their work on multiple platforms (theaters, in your home, on DVD, via rental, downloads, iPod, Netflix) and plays simply don't work that way. How, then, to create a sense of national awareness and national conversation about a single production, outside of the niche of theatre fans and New York-o-files?

What currently happens, for the most part, is that a play opens in a single location (New York for example) has its run, and then either tours afterwards, or is picked up by individual companies. This happens in a very traditional way: the playwright tries to use reviews of the initial run to garner interest in other companies. This work means that productions after the original require a sort of repeated effort each time on the part of the playwright to get a production to happen.

Here's how a National Premiere might work, and help to move theatrical distribution of new works to a more modern model:

A series of smaller budget theater companies, who work at a professional level but have, say, less than 99 seat houses, agree to open, on the same day, a single work by a single writer. Let's say March 1st, 2009. Each company would pool resources for marketing, but essentially mount separately cast and directed productions of the single work. That means the resources these companies usually put into any given production would remain the same, but they would be a part of a national event, announcing a new work to the country, as opposed to their region. In some ways, it mimics the model of film distribution.

Why not larger institutions like The Public? Frankly, it would take years for companies of this size to come together with other companies of comparable size. They benefit from having a World Premiere in a variety of ways, but in terms of clout and finance. The sheer number of lawyers it would take to get the Goodman and the Public and the Guthrie to share a premiere would shut it down relatively quickly. That's my assumption, from the outside.

Furthermore, smaller companies are just more agile. They can make decisions like this more quickly, gather resources more quickly, and a loose affiliation is probably a more easy way to make a National Premiere work.

The playwright in question, of course, would have massive benefit. If each company paid standard royalties (which they would do if the show was not a part of this type of model anyhow) then the playwright would be looking at a substantial royalty check at the time. The playwright would also be seen by more eyeballs in the event of a single-month run at one time, than they likely would be in a six-month run in a single city.

Smaller companies would benefit from having immediate access to the cutting edge work, and also be a part of something that would raise not only awareness within the theater community of their work, but also potentially bring new audiences to their doorstep.

It's an idea, I think, that has legs. The problem, of course, is that there is a large gap between online activity ("That's a great idea!") and action in the real world. So...what would need to happen?

First of all, I, personally, would be happy to hear from any company that would find this interesting. I would also be happy to contact companies myself on the recommendation of others. Basically, this is the starting point... connecting companies with one another and gauging actual interest. Speaking to artistic directors about how possible this is.

All the real logistics would come afterwards. Which play, what date, how many companies. The first step is interest.

The make it simple, I'd like to focus on these areas:

Illinois
California
Washington State
Washington DC
Minnesota
Florida
Massachusetts
Pennsylvania
Texas
Georgia
Ohio
New York
North Carolina

That's a start. I'd love to hear from at least ONE company that's interested (or about what company that should be informed) from each of those states. If that can happen, I think it might be possible to add more. If you're not in an urban market, that's just fine. If you are, sweet. It would be fantastic to be able to post a series of companies that have specifically raised their hand to say: "I want in."

E-mail me at: Mattfr at gmail.com


Love to hear more thoughts and more ideas. I've read that some think colleges should be involved. I've read the idea of a "dinner theater" model that brings standard programming to a variety of cooler art spaces. Sort of a franchise version of this idea. There's been discussion of existing networks that do this, on some level, already. Could those networks be used as the framework to make this happen?

Exciting stuff. Let's see where it might go.

Mac on Me

Evil? You think your puny armies of Good can stand against me?!

Kris Vire

Blog I just was introduced to today. Pretty great stuff, out of Chicago.

National Premiere - A Challenge

Hey there...read this. Run a theater company and want to get involved? Know a theater company that should be involved? Contact Slay.

Looks like this has taken off a bit. I'm actually very excited by the idea.

Show Showdown on "Interview with the Author"

Thanks Aaron! (Flubs, on that night, there were. Therein lies a tale...)

Christopher Shinn on Blogging

"I don't blog much, but I think that's important to have a presence online these days. I put most of my energy into my work and my personal relationships and frankly find that the internet inspires a pretty regressive and limited dialogue. But it's enough a part of our lives that one can't ignore it completely. Still, what interests me most is live interaction among real human beings."

- Shinn

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the bloggers that seem to so support Shinn's work, is it? Ah well. One can't ignore the internet completely, try as one might.

Update:

I got a very fair e-mail from Christopher Shinn, explaining that while he stood by his statements that live experiences, real life and "deep reading" are far more valuable to discourse than is the internet; he was thinking more about political blogs than theatre blogging, and meant no disrespect to bloggers that support (and don't support) his work. He was intending to speak more to "electronic media" than the day-to-day discourse we may find here.

I appreciate his explanation. It's more than I deserve, to be honest. He didn't ask for an apology, bu I owe him one. My first instinct, upon waking up this morning, was to remove this post.

On second thought, I'd like to explain a little bit about why I think this posting was wrong-headed and maybe, instead of "deleting" or getting defensive, act like a grown-up about why I was just acting like a child.

What's unique about this medium is its immediacy. If I read something, I can speak to it. I can interact with it. I can interact with other bloggers, and the news media, and my artistic work. There's no substantive process that takes place between my typing this and you reading it. The only thing that controls what I say and when I say it and how I say it is...me. Purely. I play this game alone, and other people get to watch, and we, as a community, sort of self-regulate. What's good about me can be carefully presented and constructed, and used to promote my ideas and my work. What's bad about me, what is careless, thoughtless or self-aggrandizing, can be highlighted and distributed pretty quickly too.

What I just did to Christopher Shinn, therefore, was irresponsible for a few reasons. First of all, it's precisely the sort of limited conversation he's criticizing. It's shrill, it's glib, and it lacks substance or context. It doesn't actually respond to what he's saying. If I disagree, or I don't understand his statement, I think it's perfectly acceptable to use public space for it. Just to give him heat, though, is school yard silliness.

Second of all, it's bullying. Christopher Shinn writes something I disagree with, and I use my forum to force him to explain himself. Why should he feel it necessary to send me an explanation? I don't personally know the man, and my statement was unfair. I demanded (in a roundabout way) some sort of response. Bullying, in a sense, as opposed to public discourse.

The essential question that should be asked, when using spaces like this is...what am I hoping to accomplish? Will this further discussion? Will this alienate, needlessly, another artist? Will this create debate, or just create a sense of snippy superiority. "Here," I say, "I think Shinn misspoke and I'm not going to let him get away with it!"

If I were to act this way to him in person, it wouldn't be any better. The fact that I'm doing it from the safety of my office, or the computer I use it work, makes it worse. It assumes a moral authority that is granted to me by...whom? Blogger.com?

In short... I don't think that all posting needs to be carefully constructed, or an essay, or a news article. Part of the fun of blogs can be the glib humor and the quick jabs and the playfulness. But the jab I just took at Christopher Shinn was unneccessary, inaccurate and pretty much confirms the worst part of the immediacy of the medium. Instead of deleting it, I'd rather leave this up as reminder to check in with myself before criticizing someone else publically.

Is it really that big a deal? On the surface, no. It is to me, I think, because my own behavior is one of the few things I can control. If I want to see gentility and fairness, the first thing I can do is act with gentility and fairness. If I'd like to see, for example, another blogger or commenter occasionally say "My mistake" I should be willing to do so myself.

So...I apologize for using this space to give Christopher a hard time. I certainly hope to be a bit more careful about it in the future.

Jesus CHRIST!

Ok, ok, Isherwood. We get it. You love Sarah Ruhl. Ok!? Fine. Why? Because she went to Brown? Is that it? Is that it?!

I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me.

Monday Morning Notes

Good morning, true believers.

1) Interview with an Author's performance on Friday was a great success and I'd like to thank everyone who attended any of the performances. Remember that the Brick has many more shows over the next few weeks as a part of the Pretentious Festival, so check them out. $10!

2) Ever watched Slings & Arrows. God, it's good!

3) Note here the discussion of "Nation-wide Premieres." Great comments here, and I think it's all worthy reading, both pro- and con-. I'll do a full posting about this to follow up as soon as I am able.

Final Performance Tonight

Wanted to remind everyone, for the 300th time, that the final performance of An Interview with the Author will be tonight at 7pm at the Brick Theater, as a part of the Pretentious Festival.

Love to see everyone there.

Take a look at these links for great things that have been said about the piece:

Johnna
Cat*
James
Nytheatre.com

You can purchase advance tickets in the link on the sidebar or step right up to the Brick itself before showtime.

Make sure you check out the other great shows as a part of the Festival as well!

For more conversation, and less plugging, there has been a run of fantastic comments and ideas on this post. Do check it out. The post itself seems to have sparked some great discussion about "nationwide" play openings.

Tony versus The Tonys

So the ratings are in and of course 11 million or so viewers watched the Sopranos Finale, against about 6.2 million who watched the Tony Awards on Sunday night. Because of the ubiquitous Salon article, these figures are of interest. Some have used it as confirmation that Theatre is failing to reach audiences, and use it to point to what they see as flaws of playwrighting and producing the medium.

I've said, in a bit of a rambling way, that I found the article to be indicative of stereotypes and also a misunderstanding of how development affect theatre as a whole. Jason Grote speaks well to a lot of this here.

Let me get a little more to the point and sort of bring my thoughts on this together.

Over at Superfluities, George Hunka threw his hat into the ring regarding the debate about Howard Barker and the sudden lack of funding that his company is receiving. The argument can be reduced to this (I'm sure it's more complex, but bear with me):

We have a responsiblity to fund and support significant artists as a public, because simply applying the standards of commerical viability to them does them a disservice. Not all value can be reduced to dollars.

What struck me as a bit paradoxical in George's argument, and in the arguments of some others, is that while he was supporting Barker's right to public funding, he has also noted that he felt that one of the reasons that audiences haven't been attending the theatre, is because theatre artists are lacking something. They are making trite, uninspiried works that fail to communicate something of merit, or that fail to reach audiences. In this respect, George and Scott Walters are in a sort of agreement: They both seem to believe Theatre is broken and needs fixing. One way or another. Either because modern theatre lacks the desire to adventure in form, or content, or because it is too beholden to the marketplace, or because it refuses to abhor the marketplace, or because plays are using old forms, or because the new forms aren't new enough, etc. etc.

This, oddly enough, is the logic of the marketplace. It might be the marketplace of ideas, but it's still a marketplace. It says that audiences follow and find good works because of their quality. That seems to contradict the idea, of course, that the Arts need public funding. If Barker needs public funding, does it mean that his work fails to attract an audience, and therefore is of low quality?

The answer, of course, is no. How does this connect to the Sopranos versus Tony Awards discussion? The same principle is at work here.

No single factor brings audiences together, just as no single factor creates quality artistry in any medium. The Arts do need public funding, because the value of a dollar does not equal the value of an actual thing. If it did, public school teachers would be paid more than NBA Basketball players.

They aren't, of course, because the value of a dollar is merely reflective of a revenue stream. What goes in must come out. Basketball players are necessary members of an industry that uses a game to sell labels, products, tickets, t-shirts, television adverstising, the works. They have a revenue stream that supports thousands of people and hundreds of products. Public school teachers do not create a revenue stream. They create (ideally) intelligent, responsible citizens.

That is why public school teachers should not be held to the same market standard of basketball stars. They are not in the same business. It's simply not an apt comparison. It might indicate that the society's standards for the value of a dollar are skewed. It might also, simply, indicate that dollars move in certain ways around a market economy and the function of government, and public funding, is to stress the importance of things that are not immediately reflected by the sale of a t-shirt.

Now, the comparison between television and theater is a bit different. They have the outward appearance of similarity. They both have characters, writers, directors, storytelling. They share, often, themes and structures. Even talent. It is not a question of sports and school. It's a question of one medium of storytelling and another. That's why it's tempting to see the rise of one as the fall of the other. It's tempting to see 11 million viewers versus 6 million viewers as an damning indication that television is more popular because it speaks to audiences more effectively than theatre does.

That conclusion is wildly off-base.

The major difference between television and theater (of the many) is simply technological. That technological difference transforms not only the way in which each tell stories, but the way in which those stories are absorbed, by whom, and how often.

How does one watch The Sopranos? Spend the money to get a TV, cable, and a subscription to HBO. How many times does one watch The Sopranos? If you're a fan... 86. There are 86 episodes of this television show. Even if you watch only half of them, you are viewing it 43 times. A single episode is also rebroadcast throughout the week of first-run. That is not counting re-runs. Or rebroadcast on A&E.

So... one of the revenue streams of the Sopranos is subscriptions to HBO. What else? DVD sales. The box set of Season 1 of the Sopranos costs about $45 on Amazon.com. If you paid $45 dollars, yourself, for each season that's $270 you just spent, personally, to own 86 hours of television. That's just a single person. Millions of these individually packaged Seasons are sold.

What else does this provide besides a revenue stream? Knowledge. What if you didn't watch the first season of The Sopranos? You can buy or rent the DVDs, or get the mailed to you via Netflix, catch up, get HBO and watch with everyone else. Audiences can be built. They can go away and be replaced. They can be educated to the story. There is a deliverable.

The Sopranos is rebroadcast on A&E. A&E sells advertising during the edited episodes. More revenue, more audiences.

I want to take note of something. I have yet to speak about the quality of The Sopranos. I'm talking logistics. How does this show reach 11 million people and cultivate a fan base? How does it speak to so many people? How come a kid in the middle of Kentucky and I, living in Brooklyn, can have precisely the same experience with this television program? Technology. Revenue streams.

Theatre, by its nature, cannot do this. Theatre is performed live. It is performed in certain locations at certain times. Videotape it and e-mail it to a friend and you are not, actually, experiencing it as Theatre. Theatre reaches fewer people. That is not an indication of its quality, it is an indication of its nature.

Is this a flaw? No. It is a fundamental difference. Wicked is a smash hit on Broadway. Last week's grosses were about $1.4 million or so. It played at the Gershwin. That's with a $100.00 ticket price. Wicked will run for years, and sell its cast album.

Knocked Up made about $30 million dollars at a $10 ticket price in its opening weekend. It played on 2,800 screens. It will play on those screens several times a day for a few months. Then, we can all buy it for $30 on DVD until the stop making DVDs. It wasn't even Number One at the Box Office last weekend.

Is Knocked Up, therefore, of higher quality than Wicked? It makes no difference. Even the worst movie will outgross Wicked simply because it is capable. That does not mean, of course, that Wicked is unprofitable or without value. Any given production of Endgame will have substantially fewer viewers than any single showing of American Idol. There's no remedy for that, unless we believe that simple exposure is akin to a value judgment.

What does this all mean? None of this is a question of quality or value. We can argue the merits within the purely subjective context of merit itself, certainly. I see lots of quality theatre and I hope that I create quality theatre. That's an entirely different issue, one that has its own ups and downs. It is a question of technology and logistics. Theatre, perhaps, can do more to market itself to new audiences (I've raised that flag often) and certainly we should never stop seeking to innovate or strive in our art. But to compare Tony Soprano to the Tony Awards is like comparing the NBA to the Opera.

It's fundamentally unfair and misleading to use the differences in audience as the foundation for an argument about the merits of what is seen on the stage.

Living Dead in Denmark

Vampire Cowboys are in the midst of a short run at the Clurman at Theatre Row of Living Dead in Denmark. $18 admission. You should go and see it.

Two more nights. Tonight and tomorrow.

Now... tomorrow, of course, I have my own show at 7pm.

You must choose who love more: Qui or Me.

Vote with your hearts.

(My show is cheaper. His has more fights.)

"Total Eclipse of the Heart"

Thanks Devore, for sharing this.

Take a break from deep thoughts, won't you?

Interview with the Author

Final performance on Friday at 7pm.

Yes, that means you will have to leave your job at 5:30pm, immediately grab a bite to eat and head out out to Williamsburg.

...but you WANT to do that. Otherwise you'll miss an incredible performance by a prominent artist.

How could you live with yourself?

Tickets here!

Support Feed The Herd

Hey everyone:

Feed The Herd is coming to 3LD with Doppleganger, which opens June 23rd. Ever been to a show at 3LD? It's friggin' cool, crew.

Anyhow, you can get tickets for this production here.

If you buy a ticket for any of the first two weeks of the performance before July 1st (get that) and use the code herdlet2... tickets are $18 as opposed to $25. That's a pretty good deal to me.

Apparently, also, they're throwing a party after the June 23rd show. Go to the show and stay for the party.

You can also directly support this company here.

Just to let you know: Right now Feed the Herd is about 30% to their goal in a 10K campaign. Buying a ticket is good for everyone (you and them), making a donation will just plain help them out.

Look at all those lovely links! Click 'em!

Stolen Chair Theatre Company Fund Drive

Stolen Chair Theatre Company is currently seeking to raise money for the last half of their 2007 season. They're specifically seeking to broaden their small donor base, so your contribution of $10 - $24 bucks will go a long way. They're halfway to their $10,000.00 goal.

One of the fantastic things they've done to make generous support easier, is set up a monthly payment option. You can give this company $120 a year at $10 a month. Like NPR or PBS. Your dollar, though, will go a lot further. Maybe they'll share with other companies how that was set up, so that others can follow suit. It's a very, very good idea.

Read up on it here. Set up for a $10 a month payment. You won't notice it, but they will.

Anyone familiar with their work who would like to expound on its virtues? That's what the comments section is for!

Now this is easy!

Mark notes a modest fundraising endeavor that could easily be achieved by all of us before 5pm today. For a library! Who doesn't love libraries?

Go here, read about it, donate. Donate $25. Seriously, you can afford that.

UPDATE:

Hey, now this is a very nice thing. I posted that at around 11:00 am or so. It is 11:22 am by my watch. The goal has been met already. Great job Mark and Isaac and all others who put this out there.

Let's face it: this could be a very real and important part of blogs for theater.

I'll go a step further. Here's my little pledge:

If you are a theater company in the midst of a campaign to raise funds, and you e-mail me with you goals, needs and the way to donate, I will direct people to your efforts and post about it.

NAATF / The Edge of the World

A good friend of mine, F. Omar Telan, is involved in this. Sounds like a fantastic evening, and I suggest you check it out.

Omar was involved for a very long time with Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind.

Join the Asian Arts Initiative in New York for the first-ever
National Asian American Theater Festival!
THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (Tickets here)
A night of 5-minute-or-shorter plays about Asian American artists & culture

LaMaMa, e.t.c.
74A East 4th St. New York, NY 10003

Featuring Regie Cabico, John Castro, Royd Hatta, Robert Karimi, Traci
Kiriyama, Dan Kim, Michelle Myer, Gary San Angel, Anula Shetty , Ryan
Suda, F. Omar Telan, and Kristina Wong

Friday, June 15, 10:00 PM
Sunday, June 17, 5:30 PM
Thursday, June 21, 10:00 PM
Saturday, June 23, 10:00 PM


$20 at the door, or on-line
$15 if you purchase in advance through the Asian Arts Initiative:
215-557-0455 (ask for Jo)

Stereotypes and Development

Currently involved in the Pretentious Festival. Reading things about Howard Barker. Reading about the Tony Awards. Reading about that piece in Salon (have you read it?) that basically says theatre is unpopular because TV has passed it by. (And because theater has been hijacked by development.)

What I'm hearing sounds something like this:

People in the theatre are pretentious snobs who write by candlelight, even though the rest of us are using lightbulbs. If you go to see a Broadway show, you're going to see a cheap, Circus-like knock-off of a movie or you're going to see a play that sounds like they had to blow the dust off of it before they put it on stage.

I'm also hearing, out there:

Theatre is high art, a landscape for the mind, a sort of spiritual happening that is ceaselessly compromised by the desires of the revolting marketplace and its progeny.

What I'm thinking:

Stereotypes.

The idea that playwrights sit in their Ivory Towers and write distantly dull museum pieces is an idea that can only be held by someone who hasn't seen very much new theatre, and is equating a few lousy productions (or productions that weren't their taste) to the entire theatrical community. Saying "Playwrights aren't good because I don't like Richard Greenberg" is inoffensive, but it's almost precisely the same logic that says "I don't like guys in frats because I frat guy once hit on my girlfriend" or "Blondes are stupid. I knew a stupid blonde woman once."

Note in the Salon article that Birkenhead (who is this guy again) says that if you want to know what theatre is like, take a look at Three Days of Rain. He says Angels in America and Doubt are pretty good, but MAN... A Fair Country isn't his thing. Excuse me?

Essentially, it's picking out examples of bad tendencies and applying them to a whole. There are tons of people out there with very cool music on their iPods making punk rock theater that deserves to me seen. It's reductive to paint plays and playwrights with a "you guys are out of touch" brush.

That is NOT to say that many of us who are banging away on the country's stages aren't guilty, often, of similar thinking. Other mediums, because of their popularity and commercial aptitudes, are dismissed as somehow inherently corrupt. American Idol does not equal the The Sopranos does not equal Veronica Mars does not equal Fox News. Just as Mary Poppins does not equal Long Days Journey Into Night.

There is a seduction is sequestering ourselves and attacking others. Film, television and theater seem like natural rivals, in some ways. They certainly act that way. That's, though, the thinking of children. There's no need for three different mediums to compete. They can learn, acknowledge, grow, exchange. They can simply be themselves.

As a playwright, I don't have to compete with The Sopranos. I have contend with the stereotypes that my work is obscure, or high-brow or "not for people who watch TV." That, my friends, is a far tougher opponent than David Chase.

Let me say one last thing.

I'm no huge fan of development, but the argument that development is the reason that TV has be allowed to be creative and theater is stuck in 1918...that's patently absurd. In fact, I can say without reservation that the average television show and is approved of, tinkered with, rehashed and developed by far more paid executives and marketing gurus than any play that was recently seen at Playwright's Horizons. If television shows are, very recently, being given more creative freedom, it's not as if they are somehow doing so by way of deep experimentation.

The Sopranos is a perfect example: it is absolutely derivative of an already popular pop culture staple. It just happens to add layers to the Mafia stock characters that are unavailable to a two-to-three hour film. It's excellent, but it's not groundbreaking. Lost (one of my favorite shows) is a combination of existing and popular elements, and was pitched to the networks as a fiction version of Survivor. The Simpsons is hilarous (though not as good as it was years ago, by far) but it's just a very funny family comedy. It's wonderful, but it's not exactly the TV version of Marat/Sade.

Development is not unique to the stage, by any means. If there are things on stage we don't like to see, let's get some perspective: it's not because of readings.

Tonys

Hey there! I didn't watch them! I was busy getting drunk! Seeing old friends! Being happy!

If you want to talk about the Tonys, I'm certain there are lots of places to do so.

If you, like me, didn't watch the Tonys...why didn't you? Do you have an aversion to them? Were you watching the Sopranos? What's your excuse?

Pretentious Festival Shill for Friday

Interview with the Author has two more performances. Tickets can be purchased online at the link below or the link in my sidebar.

Sunday 6/10 at 6:30pm
Friday 6/15 at 7:00pm

Nytheatre.com praises the piece here.
James Comtois and Mark Armstrong also posted their commendations and thoughts, for which I'm very grateful.

Come check it out!

UPDATE: Thanks also to Johnna and Cat*!

James on Me

I deserve this praise!

Martin Denton on Neil LaBute

Take a look at the nytheatre i for Martin Denton's brief posting. The story is Neil LaBute's claim that, if casting is truly color blind, then white actors should have access to "roles of color."

I'm not sure if LaBute is aware of the very long tradition of Othello being played by various white stars. Claims of "reverse racism" in our society are toothless. They ignore long-standing systemic inequities in favor of a few choice desires on the part of the powerful.

Rinde Eckert's "Horizon"

I got opportunity to go check out Rinde Eckert's "Horizon" last night at the New York Theater Workshop, which I can recommend without reservation. I don't usually feel comfortable using this blog as a forum for reviews, so I'll eschew that format. The performers, songs, direction will all get professional reviews all over the place. In fact, I'm relatively certain Ben Brantley just said some very nice things over at the New York Times.

To start with, the whole evening was worth the allegorical story of the paper flower. You'll see.

What I found most compelling about the evening was that it portrays a Christian scholar as a formidable intellectual. In the current cultural climate, the political right has inspired a sort of rubbernecking instinct when it comes to public Christian 'representatives.' It goes without saying that the tradition of religious scholarship has taken a bit of a beating in both the press and in the political realm. Hackneyed phrases such as "I look to my faith" are so pat from politicians (on both sides of the aisle) that they've taken on the tone of placation. The idea, for example, that the parables and allegories in the Bible still have some heft, some ethical power, is a rather stunning one to see on the New York stage.

"Horizon," in this climate, would seem to be political. It isn't. It is concerned only, it appears, with humankind and its resistance to, or misunderstanding of, its own search for underlying meanings. Christianity here is beside the point, in a manner of speaking. More to the point is the desire for a religious human being to embrace reason, and to seek to inspire reason in others. It speaks to a large tradition and contigent of religious people who use their faith to find understanding, as opposed to using faith to dispel their responsiblity as seekers and thinkers.

Interview with Kirk Wood Bromley

Check it out. See what he has to say about Moliere. That's begging for a fun discussion.

Barker Wrestles the Olympics

His words about it and the posts thereafter are a fantastic read. Especially for those of us living in a country where public funding is already a battle we barely fight.

Discount Code for "Horizon" at NYTW

Hey crew... this is a Discount Code for Tickets to "Horizon" at the New York Theater Workshop.

Thanks to NYTW for giving us the heads up!

Promotion! It benefits the consumer! Occasionally! Like now!

______

Tickets for all performances June 1 - July 1 are just $35 each (reg. $50).

Use code HZ4TTRE when ordering.

To purchase tickets, call TeleCharge at (212) 947-8844 or visit

http://www.broadwayoffers.com/go.aspx?MD=2001&MC=HZ4TTRE

New York Theatre Workshop also offers both Student Tickets and CheapTix Sundays.

CheapTix Sundays: All tickets for all Sunday evening performances at 7pm are just $20 each! Tickets are available in advance but must be purchased at the NYTW box office on a cash-only basis.

Student Tickets: Full-time students with a valid student ID may purchase $20 tickets for all performances (subject to availability). Limit one ticket per ID. Tickets must be purchased in person and require an ID at the box office.

The NYTW box office is located at 79 East 4th Street (between Second Avenue and Bowery) and is open Tuesday - Saturday from 1pm - 6pm.

An Interview with the Author: Review

Check out our review from nytheatre.com!

John Walsh on Jeopardy!

One of my favorite people, John Walsh, was on Jeopardy tonight and won! He's on tomorrow night as well. Everyone tune in to cheer him on.

I met John as a part of Gorilla Repertory Theater back in 2000. One of the straight up nicest guys that I met in the city, a great writer and a lover of Shakespeare. When I played Flute in Washington Square Park, John was Bottom.

Go Johnny!

For a better look at this fine gentleman and his distinguished career...see below!

Blogging, Interviewing, Drinking

That's what I did on Sunday.

The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event...happened. You can read about what happened here.

An Interview with the Author opened yesterday as well. Seems to have gone well, judging by the general responses. Thanks to all who attended, and I look forward to seeing the rest of you there. Yes, the rest. All of you. The entire internet.

Friday Random Shill

Yes, I am continuing to use this space for shilling my work. What do you expect? Journalistic integrity? If you'd like to read a discussion, you could try here.

1) Interview with the Author opens on Sunday June 3rd at 5:15pm. This is a part of the Pretentious Festival. It features yours truly interviewing yours truly about my Art with a capital "A." You will be completely floored by how important I am. Look here if you doubt me.

To buy tickets and/or check the schedule, go to the Brick Theater's webpage and scroll down to the lovely picture of me. The tickets are $10.

2) The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event is on Sunday, June 3rd at 9pm.

Yes, you could simply read all of our blogs and this central blog live as it happens... but then you'd be just doing what you clearly do anyway. Which is reading blogs from somewhere comfortable or, more likely, from work. Instead, come out and see the bleary-eyed bloggers in the flesh.

Think of it this way: If you are reading these very words, you are the core audience for this one-night only performance. Think of it as, um, a happening. Of non-happening. Think of it as watching people participate in a silent conversation, in fake space, while you watch. I mean seriously, how could you pass that up?

3) The Sophisticates. If you're a reader of blogs, check out the reading of John Devore's new play. I've read a draft of it and it made me want to pee. With joy. Read more ringing endorsements of it here.

Jason Grote's Obie Follow Up

Jason Grote, a while back, wrote a bit of a diatribe about his experiences at the Obies. To follow-up, he's written this piece (which I think is necessary reading) after a conversation with the publicist.

I think he's pretty clear here that his initial criticisms were not intended in any way as against the concept of the Obie Awards and what they provide for the theatre community as a whole. Criticism is not the same thing as calling for public execution.

The Obies are a part of the institutional memory of Off and Off-Off Broadway. Let's hope whichever corporate parent that now holds the purse strings understands that the Village Voice's strength is its connection to the New York community, and its voice (no pun intended) would be hindered by a reduction in its role as unifier and advocate for the arts in New York City.

The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event

The Brick Theater, Inc. presents

The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event

at

The Pretentious Festival


Tickets are FREE!


Sunday, June 3, 9pm-10pm.
At The Brick Theater

The New York community of Theater Bloggers blog about blogging as a theatrical event, live, at The Brick Theater or anonymously at a undisclosed locations. Audience members are encouraged to join the blogosphere conversation on laptops provided at the theater for this event. Experience a conversation about the current state of theater and the web from some of the city’s sharpest writers and artists. Live and online at the same time!

Announced participants include
• Aaron Riccio for Theater Talk, That Sounds Cool and metaDRAMA
• Ian W. Hill for Collisionworks
• Isaac Butler for Parabasis
• Jaime for Surplus
• James Comtois for Jamespeak
• Leonard Jacobs for The Clyde Fitch Report
• Ludlow Lad for Off-Off Blogway
• Matt Johnston for Theatre Conversation and Political Frustration
• Matthew Freeman for On Theatre and Politics
• Moxie the Maven
• Rocco for What's Good/What Blows in NY Theatre
• The Playgoer

and many more!

For reservations, visit www.bricktheater.com.

Digs?

God I love it when the Times says "digs." It's so now.

The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event (Two for the Price of Two)

Heed!

On Sunday June 3rd at 5:15pm, Interview with the Author takes the stage. It shall bring you great joy when you look upon it. It is at the Brick Theater, as a part of the Pretentious Festival.

On that same evening, at 9pm, I shall take part in The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event as a part of the Pretentious Festival as well. This event will feature a gaggle of theater bloggers, all blogging onsite and off-site, at the same time, as a theatrical event. It will be...well...whatever it is. You'll love it. You have no choice.

If I were a wise person, I would attend Interview with the Author, stick around for Bric-a-Brac at 7pm (or go grab a beer at the Alligator Lounge up the street) and return for the Impending Theatrical Blogging Event at 9pm.

I would be filled to the brim with Freeman. Yes, I do mean that the way it sounds.

...like I am a cup of coffee.

So:

Sunday June 3rd

5:15pm Interview with the Author (buy tickets now!)
7 pm Bric-a-Brac
9pm The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event

Monday Morning: Hungover from the majesty of introspection and beer.

Need I say more?

Genre

Recently, I was having a late-night chat with a few friends, and we were discussing the term "experimental." The consensus was that the term simply brings up a series of genre images: actors speaking in chorus, disconnected images, naked people hanging from scaffolding, Richard Foreman, The Wooster Group, multi-media, etc. The term has become, for the most part, divorced from its roots, which is to experiment with the form. It's become a genre term, much like Alternative Music was in the 1990s. Foreman, for example, isn't experimenting, one could argue, but is presenting the sort of theatre that he has established as his style for a very long time.

Theatre has a limited palette of descriptors. Drama, Comedy, Tragedy, Experimental, Absurdist. Noh Theatre. Kabuki. Puppet Theater. One-Act, Two-Act, Three Act, Five-Act. Ten-minute play. Monologue. Musical. Improv. Comedy Sports. When we get creative we take a few terms and shove them together. Dark Comedy. Tragicomedy. Dramedy. Play with Music (as opposed to musical.)


There is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway or Indie Theatre. There is Chicago's Off-Loop, so-called Regional Theater.

Think, then, of the vast array of descriptors in music. Classical and Neo-Classical. Jazz (Smooth Jazz, Fusion Jazz, Dixieland, Traditional). Rock (Hard Rock, Acid Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk Rock, Grunge). Hip Hop (Grime, Crunk, Hardcore, Trip-Hop, Gangsta Rap), Blues...need I go on? Endless derivations and schools of thought and music, all with their particular audience, all easy to find, all easy to quantify and identify.

Thinking about even the term experimental, we still use that term to describe the aesthetic of the 1960s... the Open Theater and the Living Theater.

As we try to reach out to new audiences or consolidate our relationship with existing audiences... perhaps part of our challenge is to more adequately describe our work. The irony of language is that it creates rather firm limits on our imagination if single words are allowed to describe too many things (that is "good" that is "interesting.") As one of the mediums that embraces word play, we can do far more to create new genres or more accurately explain the many types of theater that are present in today's world.

We can stop describing theater by region or size of house or general outcome (Tragedy shall make you cry, Comedy shall make you laugh), and describe the actual feel. Think about words like Crunk, or Funk, or Smooth Jazz. They are Onomatopoeia. They make us immediately imagine what it is that we are going to hear. What we are about to pay for, perhaps.

Think of Elevator Repair Service. From their website:

"The group's theater pieces are built around a broad range of subject matter and literary forms. They combine elements of slapstick comedy, hi-tech and lo-tech design, both literary and found text, found objects and discarded furniture, and the group's own highly developed style of choreography. "

and

"Since its first production in 1991, the company has received frequent high praise in the New York, national and international press. New York Magazine has called ERS "the best experimental theater group in town," while New York Newsday has called the group's work "wacko enough to be truly inspired." Reviewing its 1996 piece, "Shut Up I Tell You" ArtForum noted that "in an admittedly spotty theatrical season E.R.S. . . . stands out not only for its humor and intelligence, but also for its defiant theatricality . . . one of the most intriguing theatrical events I've experienced in some time." The Village Voice says of "Total Fictional Lie," "The work, here, has integrity, intelligence, and precision as well as imaginative skill; and its actors have talent for days." And The New York Times praises TFL for its "fresh and surprising perspective."

That's a very long description, unspecific, and hardly fitting a company with so unique a voice and perspective.

Here is The Wooster Group from its website:

"For over thirty years, The Wooster Group has cultivated new forms and techniques of theatrical expression reflective of and responsive to our evolving culture, while sustaining a consistent ensemble and maintaining a flexible repertory. Wooster Group theatre pieces are constructed as assemblages of juxtaposed elements: radical staging of both modern and classic texts, found materials, films and videos, dance and movement, multi-track scoring, and an architectonic approach to theatre design.

The Wooster Group has played a pivotal role in bringing technologically sophisticated and evocative uses of sound, film and video into the realm of contemporary theatre, and in the process has influenced a generation of theatre artists nationally and internationally. The Group's work is unique because it attracts not only the theatre-going community but also artists and enthusiasts of many other cultural disciplines, such as dance, painting, music, video & film. "

It would take a bit of an effort to see, quickly, the similarities or differences between ERS and Wooster from these descriptions. These are two of the most distinctive theatre companies in country. How do they describe themselves? "Ensemble-based, multi-media, experimental."

I'd take Crunk any day.

Anyone have a better name for what these two do?

Here's a little brainstorm of in-no-particular order genre names for new plays and genres:

Atomic
Bourbon
Cult
Dreck
Electric
Faux
Glamour
HackJob
Iron
Jarhead
Kool-Aid
LitUp
Mnemonic
Non Cents
Opposition
Pop
Qui Nguyen
Ransack
Saturated
Troubadour
Unison
Vox
Wartime
Xenomorph
Zipper

What can I say? I'm no expert. Anyone have some other ideas? Hit me. Anyone recently seen a play that you would called "Vox?" Or "Unison" Theater? or "Pop?"

UPDATE: George Hunka responds to this post here. Or, at least, he appears to. As usual, George and I don't see eye to eye on this subject.

Blackbird is a Librarian

Love this. I take it that we should not only be overjoyed that the British Invasion Mark 2.0 has brought us so many wonderful plays, but grateful they can tame our rowdy, Blackberry obsessed, plebian audiences.

Cindy Sheehan

This is tragic.

Memorial Day

Monday of a long weekend.

In order to keep this solemn day in our hearts, let us remember the tragedy of spending $300,000 on a workshop of a Broadway musical. A musical that was already relatively well-tested as feature film ("Cry-Baby").

Apparently, this beats spending $25,000.00 for a reading.

This kind of waste would make the Department of Defense salute.

Star Wars Animated - Tales of the New Republic

Great. That's a whole lot more money and time I'm going to spend trying to relive my childhood. I thought I was free! I thought I was free!




UPDATE!

Apparently this is a very good fan trailer. Whoops.

This, though, isn't. And, um, it's much better.

Fare thee well

Theatre Conversation and Political Frustration. A shame, but it happens. Blogs are self-generated content. Sometimes the need for that sort of expression just isn't there anymore for an individual. Matt (and I can say this 'cause I know the guy) is doing quite well.

Scott Walters Interview

Scott Walters, in the theatre blogging community, is pretty essential. Here's why: He's aching for a fight and he has a strong point of view. I might not agree with him at all times, but I respect his right to have his say. That's the wonderful thing about the internet: it's Democratic.

He is quick on the draw, at times. He can get people pretty riled up. But that's ok with me. He's not New York-Centric, and he has a unique perspective.

So I'd suggest you read the interview with him here. Watch as the Comments Section over there grows.

Star Wars Turns 30

May 25th, 1977 the original Star Wars was released in theaters.

I love today.

Do you see more productions because you read theatre blogs?

Trying out this polling stuff, which I always find a bit fun. Here's a question I've been curious about.



Of course, the comments section is open for further depth about the polling results.

Presidential Candidates on Arts Funding?

Shouldn't the arts community (there are a lot of us after all) be requesting a statement from each presidential candidate about their arts funding priorities?

Of the major Democratic Candidates for President, only Dennis Kucinich mentions the Arts on his website, with basic and supportive platitudes and no hard pledges.

Of the Republican Candidates, I found not a single mention of the Arts on their websites.

Now, I'm not a simpleton: I know that the candidates are simply responding to and framing the issues they realize will sway voters in a national election. Iraq, Immigration and Healthcare will get these people elected, the NEA won't.

I'd be curious, as things move foward, what, if anything, is mentioned in interviews, debates and public statements about the arts and arts funding. Am I missing something? Has anyone heard the arts mentioned? If so, where?

NOTE: This from Playgoer, along these lines.

"His stomach ached with loneliness."

Thanks to Phantasmaphile for showing me this image, which makes me giggle with mirthful despair

She found it, I'm told, herein.

Dear readers...Admit you love the Sea Monster. Admit it.

"Legally Blonde" Unfairly Judged

The Broadway-Musical-Based-On-A-Movie-About-How-Hard-It-Is-To-Be-A-Pretty-Stick-Thin-Blonde has been...disrespected? Because it wasn't actually nominated for a Best Musical at the all-important Tony Awards?

I weep for the integrity of Broadway Producers and Television Executives. What is the world coming to?

Spoiler Alert! - Interview with the Author

- Interview with the Author has been noted here, here and of course here.

- You can get your tickets here. They're only $10.

- It will feature not only the Author, but playwright David Johnston (Candy and Dorothy, Busted Jesus Comix, The Oresteia) and actor David DelGrosso (who played Jack, the Gentleman Caller, in The Most Wonderful Love). In what capacity? You'll have to come find out, won't you?

- It will be directed by Kyle Ancowitz and produced by Blue Coyote Theater Group.

- I would like to apologize, in advance, to Sarah Ruhl and Paula Vogel.

The Obies

Jason Grote gives a first hand accounting of attending the Obie Awards last night. Check it out.

Around the Theatrosphere Today

Over at Parabasis, more on Class.

Mr. Excitement asks for your Obie predictions.

Playgoer puts Brantley and Hilton Als in the Crossfire, with competing views of August Wilson's legacy. (Gotta love that picture of Brantley!)

George Hunka quotes someone I've never read about someone I've never heard of.

And, of course, Matt Freeman generously sends you links to them all. You're welcome.

Copyright Mash-Up

This one's for Isaac.

On Class - Mr. Excitement

Mark Armstrong begins a series of posts on Class. (Something I took a crack at myself last month.)

The first post is here. Check it out. Great stuff.

RadioLab!

More episodes of my favorite WNYC radio show...RadioLab! Whoo-hoo!

Check this stuff out if you haven't. Jad. Oh Jad. Let me buy you a beer.

How do you make your choices?

As the brother of two adopted siblings, one of whom has Downs Syndrome, this piece in the Times interested me.

I'm pro-choice, and I'm a great believer in Science. What I find odd about living as a Progressive in the United States, now, is that the people I find most carefully moral, who believe firmly in being good to others, who donate their time and speak eloquently about a society that takes care of the needs of its citizens...are often people who proclaim themselves atheists or at least agnostics.

I believe there is something essentially faithful and spiritual about the belief that human beings have a responsibility to take care of one another. One could argue, of course, that if a species is to survive, it does so best by sharing and caring for all its members, i.e. altruism has an evolutionary foundation.

One could also say that we see and feel something greater than ourselves, even if we are unconvinced by the specifics of any particular organized religion.

I am less outraged by the current cultural climate than confused by it. There were days when the union organizers, folk singers and inspirational leaders freely used Jesus as their model. It was Woody Guthrie who wrote "Jesus Christ for President," after all. Now, the people who follow in his footsteps...those who believe firmly in collective bargaining and the power of music and words to transform the world, have had his religion stolen from them by fascists and racists and union busters.

This isn't to say that I believe one needs to be a Christian, or any a member of any particular established faith, to have a moral code or a set of values. It just seems to me that the lineage of these moral codes have come from a religious tradition.

The woman noted in the article above believes in the right of women to have abortions, but felt morally opposed to making a genetically selective abortion. She had the right, and she exercised her right. That's as it should be, I believe. One shouldn't be guided by what they are allowed to do...one should be guided by what they feel is correct and good and right for himself or herself.

As we move into an era where science can create both powerful dangers and amazing breakthroughs, where science can both cure us and kill us with increasing efficiency, the question becomes less what we are capable of, and more what what we choose and why.

I know that I have found myself, out of a desire to reject the Religious Right's clear disdain for science, speaking with approval about things that actually give me pause. I also know that those who are deeply faithful occasional take stands against things like Stem Cell Research (healing the sick seems to be a fundamentally religious impulse) because of some legal wrangling with the Left.

There are fewer and fewer limits on what we can do and how many people we can cure and how many people we can kill. With most Progressives rejecting religion as a moral guideline as we move into that future...the question becomes...from where do we get our moral compass?

Thoughts on this?

Tony Award Nominations Announced

For those that are interested in that type of thing...here is the list.

I'm sure that there will be some excellent discussion about the Tony Awards here. As it is, the biggest news is that Legally Blonde didn't get nominated for Best Musical and Mary Poppins did. If you really, really care about that... you are probably not a regular reader of this particular blog.

Awards shows require an almost religious zeal to enjoy: You have to believe in and love the meaning of entirely symbolic gestures; ignore reasonable pleas that cast doubt upon your enjoyment; and accept blissfully rules that seem arbitrary and unfair.

It's exhausting. Have some dip.

Hey...I'm the Jerk!

I realize that this prominent and active Theatre Blog is not on my Blogroll. What gives Freeman? What gives?

Fixed!

Left Nut, I Would Give To See This - Yoda

Obi-Wan is Iago? Sweet!

Perhaps he'll slice Othello up and leave him burning beside a river of lava?

Learn What A "Play" Is!

Click here, my minions. Click, click, click!

Within these links you shall find one true destination. I hold court on the Pretentious Festival blog.

Behold!

Also...

BEHOLD!

An Interview with The Author - Questions?

Worked on my play for the Pretentious Festival late into the night last night. My fingers are ink-stained, my eyebrows filled with pools of my own worksweat. I disgust myself, and that is why I expect you to buy tickets.

I ask myself...what would the readers of this blog like to know? What answers could I give that will satisfy your lust for Freeman-Truths?

If you have any questions you'd like to see me answer on-stage, fire away in the Comments Section. You may well hear them in the show.

Season 4 Battlestar Galactica's Last?

Say it ain't so!

Mamet's Presidential Satire

David Mamet returns to Broadway later this year with "November."

I have to say... Mamet is sort of late to the dance on satirizing the now lame duck Bush Adminstration on the stage (if that is, in fact, what he's doing.)

Sure he's done some stuff for Huffington Post (so I read). Maybe he's been too busy doing car commericals and writing a show about covert government operatives to make some sort of significant statement about current politics?

It's interesting how few of the more significant US playwrights seemed interested in tackling Bush, even though this White House is clearly the most corrupt in our nation's history.

So...what happened? Where were the American playwrights? Why did we need David Hare to write "Stuff Happens" and "The Vertical Hour?"

Mamet's never been a political writer, per se. But to write this now is almost an afterthought. We got 8 years of Bush, and now we get a satire?

Sicko

Coming June 29th! Sooner than I thought.

Excited for it.

Times Today

"The state of American drama is always being lamented, but the situation isn’t quite as bleak as it seems from the seats of Broadway and our major nonprofit theaters. Look downtown and you will find a new generation of adventurous writers like Ms. [Jenny] Schwartz, Anne Washburn, Will Eno, Young Jean Lee and Sheila Callaghan who aren’t trying to compete with the realism of television. Instead, in their very modern way, they are making a rather old-fashioned case for the power of the written word." - Jason Zinoman, The New York Times from his review of God's Ear

George's Modest Proposal

Yes, he thinks we should eat babies. It's amazingly persuasive.

No, no. Take a look.

Personally, this doesn't seem remotely like my cup of tea. I feel very much like it's a misreading of what bloggers do. It's very easy for print media to treat truth-telling as sour grapes... but I think bloggers should enjoy their independence and embrace being a loose affiliation of independent voices.

Pop Culture Fluff

Ah the pop culture. I shall indulge, for the sake of my own relaxation on this Tuesday morning, in a bit of mixed media hackery. It's a lovely day, I've got a cup of coffee, Summer Movie Season (lame as it may be) is super dumbass fun and I go down for it. I go down for it hard.

My thoughts on my favorite TV show, and Spider Man 3. I know you were all just waiting for my opinions. They are very, very important.

LOST

Yes, that's right. LOST. Utterly ridiculous, oft decried and oft ballyhooed LOST. I love that goddamn show and I don't care who knows it.

Phantasmaphile and I got the Season 1 DVDs just before the start of Season 2, watched 'em all, and then watched Season 2 (oddball scheduling and all) straight through. Now we're in the midst of the Third Season and it's gotten really fun. Season 2 was ambitious and a bit overreaching and sometimes not-so-good and sometimes really very, very good. Season 3 has really picked up the pace and if you 1) stopped watching in Season 2 or 2) have never seen the show, now's a pretty good time to check it out.

Now... there are a bunch of valid criticisms for the show ("No one acts like that," "It's like a bunch of models were trapped on an Island," "This makes no sense" and "They're making it up as they go along.")

Here's why I don't honestly care that much: The show is about as ambitious a Sci-Fi series as I've ever seen on TV (excluding, maybe Battlestar Galactica.) It also, so far, actually has the ability to surprise me with some rather bold choices. It's model is clearly far more Stephen King than The Prisoner, but it's mixed in elements of sort of all of the above. It presses all my happy geek buttons. It's got all sorts of great little reveals and a sense of mythology that I personally love in long-form storytelling. Maybe it's tone is more X-Men than The Wire. So be it.

(Speaking of comics...LOST recently hired Brian K. Vaughn as a staff writer. He's responsible for Y: The Last Man. His episode this season, called "Catch-22,"was pretty goddamn cool.)

Now, they've done something wonderfully unthinkable: They've announced an end-date for the show and reduced the number of episodes per season. The first three seasons had 23 hours in them (including a two hour season finale.) The next three will have 16 episodes each.

Nice to know it won't just keep running on forever. It also means they can definitively plot the entire series out: No More Running in Place. LOST is not going to wind up as the X-Files, and that's a relief.

Either way, I'll be watching the end of Season 3 blissfully on every Wednesday until it's over. And it pleases me to no end.

SPIDER MAN 3

I love summer movies. I am incredibly forgiving. I do not expect Oscars.

I also grew up on comics and things like Secret Wars (where the black symbiote stuff originally came from, crew) and Crisis on Infinite Earths and The Watchmen and Batman Graphic Novels, etc. etc. Movies are different: I'm not a purist. Give me something that works as a film.

Spider Man 3 doesn't really. It's not, as you might have read, impossible to watch and I wasn't pissed off. It's a movie about Spider Man. Frankly, even THIS movie was unthinkable to guys like me when I was growing up. So I'm freaking grateful.

That being said...Spider Man 3 is essentially three very good movies squished together to make one big sort of rushed movie.

1) A movie about Peter Parker discovering the true identity of his Uncle's killer, the Sandman, and discovering that it wasn't just being bad that made the guy a criminal, but circumstance
2) A movie that concludes the Peter-Mary Jane-Harry Osborne story and closes out the series arch of best friends with a blood feud
3) A movie about Peter competing with a sort of mirror of himself: a photographer who is far more immoral than he is. Black alien Stuff comes down, makes everyone his worst self, and eventually Spider Man battles Anti-Spider Man.

Each of those movies would have been possible for a director like Sam Raimi to make. Right now, it's like a mix-tape of those three movies, and therefore, it features some very good scenes from one of those movies at a time, and then has an obligatory, TERRIBLE scene to tie them together. Scenes where Venom literally says "Hey! Sandman! Let's team up!" Because honestly, without something that patently absurd...they never, ever would.

These are my thoughts. Thank you for indulging me.

---

I feel guilty. Donate to this theatre company to make me feel better.

Back in December 2006....

I posted this.

Now I see this and this (to which I contributed).

It warms the cockles of my heart. I say... let this trend grow.

Maybe a monthly list? Or, perhaps, any time an arts organization is mentioned on ANY blog, we try to post a link to how to contribute?

Like...so.

Or like THIS!

Tickets on Sale Now

Tickets for all the shows in the Pretentious Festival are now on sale. $10 a show, crew. $10. That's right.

So... click on the top link to your left to find order tickets.

I would hope, of course, you'd find a way to check out "An Interview with the Author."

Noteworthy, for those who are calendar-happy, is that the opening performance of "An Interview with the Author" (on Sunday 6/3 at 5:15pm) precedes the ""Impending Theatrical Blogging Event" which happens just a bit later that evening. The latter includes yours truly and many other bloggers around the 'sphere.

Dreams to the Highest Bidder

Not long ago there was some discussion of class around the 'sphere. Recently, I became aware of a worrisome trend that puts the inequities of economic opportunity in high relief for me.

Many non-profits make very good use of unpaid internships. They're an opportunity for a young, inexperienced artist or professional to make connections and get real-life experience in their field. Unpaid interns provide many companies with free labor and a steady supply of enthusiastic hands, ready to do things like take out the trash, their eyes on being hired or building their resume.

While there's nothing wrong with this specifically (people are free to volunteer however they might choose) it does depend on a certain amount of economic freedom. If you're able to work for 30 hours unpaid during your week at a not-for-profit, chances are you've got sources of income that allow for that to be possible. I'm sure there are many who simply never sleep, and I've got no hard facts that these opportunities go only to affluent people. It's just common sense that affluence helps one take unpaid work.

That being said... as internships become more and more necessary in order to secure actual work in any given field, capitalism has found its way to the world of the volunteer worker. Organizations like University of Dreams locate internships for students for a fee.

(According to their website $500 dollars for domestic internships, $1000 for international internships.)

What will this mean? Where once it was a question of the ability to support oneself while working for free, it will increasingly become a question of paying for the opportunity to work for free. Who will get squeezed out of this? Those with limited financial resources. There are, according to the University of Dreams, loans available to cover the cost of the unpaid internship placement firm, (on a website horrifically titled www.myrichuncle.com). Further debt for those who, I would assume, are already taking on a great deal of debt just to attend four years of college? Why not? Without spending the money, they'll be passed over for those able shell out.

What's the solution here? Not entirely sure.

First of all, my understanding is that these search firms are servicing larger industries at the moment (music production is what was discussed when I first heard about this.) That doesn't mean a trend such as this stays in that stratosphere forever, but it doesn't seem to have hit things like Theater as of yet. (Correct me, someone, if you know better...)

I'd hope that no arts organization would use a firm like this to locate its interns. We should resist the urge to reward those who might pay for opportunities that they haven't, by way of merit, earned.

I would also hope that Arts Organizations consider that a heavy unpaid mid-afternoon schedule might punish those who need to take full-time work simply to pay rent. It's a discussion worth having internally. For the sake of inexpensive (or free) labor, one should consider how available your organization is to those who must make money elsewhere.

James about Media Violence

I liked this post very much. It also links to the posts that got the conversation rolling.

Personally, I think the debate can be self-serving on all sides. Parents blame the media for not controlling their content, the media blames consumers for encouraging the product by purchasing it and the media claims the parents should take more responsibility, artists claim freedom of speech and then decry a decaying culture in which we take part.

The cure is more speech, not less. If I were a parents (and I'm not) I would be very careful and aware of what sort of media my child is exposed to, of course. But I also don't think that violence and sexuality in the arts and the media are unique to the culture at present: they may have taken different forms in the past, but the ideas were always present. Perhaps MORE present in behavior than in popular entertainment... systemic oppression is a form of violence and it was pretty much standard practice for women and minorities until only recent history began to tackle it. Still, humankind made its strives and good people emerged despite what they were being shown.

Let's remember, we're all thinking creatures. We are not simply a product of what we see. Or even what we make.

Obama and the Internet

Isaac posted to some of the common "issues" that are coming up for Barak Obama lately. The biggest one (hilariously in my book) is some drama with his Myspace Page.

There's more about this at the Daily Kos.

My take...this is utterly absurd.

Now, I am not about to say I'm completely sold on Obama of late. I think he's a pretty brilliant person, and is a fantastic speaker. I also think that in the recent debate, he came off as overly cautious. Of course, as one of the frontrunners, it would absolutely idiotic of him to make statements that could be easily attacked, especially a year away from the actual election. But John Edwards certainly comes off as more passionate and plugged into the Healthcare issue, and Hillary Clinton comes off as far more versed in actual Policy with a capital "P." Like it or not, the next President will be inherenting a disasterous war, and so her command of the issues (whether you like the way she's voted) means that Obama will have to show more than an inspiring message and the desire to build bridges.

That being said: He has substance and there's tons of evidence of it. He just needs to step up to the plate, which I'm confident he will do.

Whether or not the Campaign mishandled a fan of Obama's who had an unofficial Myspace page has, well, no weight. It's just self-conscious silliness on the part of the internet community for anyone to care, beyond sympathy for the guy who got caught up in serious politics and feels screwed.

The country is in the midst of a moral crisis. Healthcare, Immigration, Terrorism, Social Security, Violence, Education, Gun Laws, Abortion Right, Minority Rights, Gay Rights: these are the things on which any discussion of a candidate's ability should be hung upon.

Barak Obama is an actual candidate to be on of the most powerful human being on Earth.

It's the height of sophomoric silliness to propogate any "scandal" about myspace as an issue worthy of discussion under those circumstances.

Iron Claw! Iron Claw!

Giving the Iron Claw to the American Theatre!

I'd give important parts of my anatomy to see this.

Rule Britannia?

This posting from the Guardian (thanks Mark) takes stock of the American Playwrights' Plight.

Noteworthy to me is that Dying City is rightly noted as a British Import, even though it's by a young American-born writer, Christopher Shinn.

What does this tell us? We all need to start producing further East, maybe? Maybe the next Arthur Miller should write a play about Minnesota and have it produced in London?

Four Years After Mission Accomplished

This is worthy reading. It's a distillation of the coverage from the New York Times of the now-infamous press event.

Via TPM.

Oil Sharing Legislation

While the War in Iraq rages with no clear end in sight, and civil war continues unabated despite the "Surge" of Troops...

It's good to know that the Iraqi Parliament and their whipmaster, the Bush Administration, have their priorities straight.