Radiohead in Rainbows Disk 2

Just downloaded it. Have you heard this? It's fantastic.

Garvey, Sands (and Butler)

Isaac takes umbrage with this post by Thomas Garvey, which pugnaciously plays a game of 'gotcha' with Emily Glassberg Sands.

I, personally, don't have much problem with Garvey's approach here. It's uncouth and ugly, but I'll be honest: I find it refreshing. If there's anything I've found a bit dull in the blogosphere lately, it's the lack of real argument or criticism. Sands has been showered with attention for her paper, and the report makes some bold claims. That's fair game. If Sands believes she's being lied about, or falsely represented, then she can answer it. Or she can choose, with her far greater reach, to ignore it and let her paper stand on its own. I've no urge to defend her character. Not because I'm heartless, but because the role she has assumed is one of authority. Authority has to be earned, sometimes under fire.

I took utterly mild, entirely ineffectual note of one small problem I could see here, from a layman's perspective. I admire Garvey's honesty and his fearlessness. Do I think he might be unfair at times? It's likely. But Sands has received the benefit of the doubt elsewhere. He doesn't give it to her, and there's nothing at all wrong with that.

We are often distracted by the nature of an argument, as a manner of dismissing the argument itself. We are also are incredibly disengaged from argument in the blogosphere as of late. It's not only on the blogosphere. The US is a place of enforced rules of public conversation. The media asked pre-approved questions. The harshest debates are often sound bite factories, with no blood drawn and not an honest moment to be found. When we see someone actually questioned, even in a mild and harmless way (see Katie Couric and Sarah Palin) we are practically in shock. It's an event all by itself.

I know for me (and this is why my blogging has been remarkably insubstantial at times) that it doesn't behoove me to criticize major news outlets or colleagues or even people I hope to work with someday in this space. Why would I do that? I am not an aspiring journalist: I'm a playwright. It's bluntly foolish for me, in the midst of establishing a career for myself, to make mock of the people whom I hope will review my work, risk offending fellow writers, or other professionals. That's why I often don't review what I've seen here, or write much at length about the work of others. Even if I like it very much, it can come off as overly kind and disingenuous. If I'm tough on another artist... to what end?

It's a conundrum, and I hope to be as transparent as possible about it. My name is on this site, and I don't use a pseudonym. I'm attaching my posts and thoughts to the public record. I am, therefore, cautious.

Here, we have essentially a report by an undergraduate, and still, the urge is to be careful of her, as if she's made of glass. I don't really understand it. I don't see what benefit there is to calling for unilateral disarmament of edgy, even tough, criticism. Garvey isn't cautious. Which is what makes it, for me, so unusual.

More please. Not less.

My stepmom and her Senator

Odd note in the Times today

In this article about Rufus Wainwright's opera "Prima Donna" there's this tidbit:

The initial commission for “Prima Donna” came from a joint venture of the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater to generate new work. The Met withdrew from this project partly because Mr. Wainwright insisted on writing the opera in French, and Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, wanted to foster works in English for American audiences. This seems senseless. A Philip Glass opera in Sanskrit is an American work, but not a Wainwright opera in French?

Good question. The primacy of the non-profit model means that all creative efforts are now tied to the lawyerly instincts of grant writers and development professionals. Now, plays and operas receive funding because they fall in line with stated tertiary goals, like the advancement of a certain narrow type of work. As Anthony Tommasini points out, this is senseless on its face. But isn't even the discussion slightly absurd? Shouldn't institutions like the Met and Lincoln Center fund work because of their desire to see quality?

Frankly, if any institution should be free of goals beyond simply "good opera" you'd thin it would be these.

I think the Nation needs to be assigned

Richard II as homework.

Even if there is no God

That doesn't mean you shouldn't see this. (If you are in DC!) Break your legs, Dan, Jennifer, Abe and Daryl!

on the Sotomayor hearings

While at work today, I'm reading the liveblogs of the New York Times and Talking Points Memo of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings.

Two thoughts so far:

1. This conservative idea that judges should not "make law" is a nonsensical appeal to a base that clearly doesn't understand watch the Supreme Court actually does. The idea that the law is fixed, settled by the framers of the Constitution, is false on its face. Furthermore, conservatives have strict litmus tests for judges about Roe v. Wade (among other things) that reveals their true understanding about how judges "make the law." This is why Harriet Miers had to withdraw her nomination. It was because the base of the party didn't believe she was a reliable vote against Roe. Conservatives won't accept a justice that isn't ideologically pure. Which is why Sen. Sessions statements about how "politics have no place in the courtroom" are dark comedy.

There has been no greater judicial activism than that of the conservative movement towards turning the Supreme Court to the right since the 1980s. So far, they've done a terrifyingly good job of winning that fight.

2. Sotomayor will be replacing a liberal vote on the court. So she will not change the "balance" of the court. Essentially, her nomination won't change the status quo of the Court at all. Except that it will have a more diverse face.

Psychoville rocks!

Just watched the fourth of the 7 part series online. It's the new show from Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, two of the four League of Gentlemen. This show is stellar. I can't wait for it to officially hit the States, as it's currently only running in the UK.

If you haven't seen The League of Gentlemen's three seasons about life in Royston Vasey, you pretty much have to. Some of the best comedy of the last decade.

iPhone users

Did you see that nytheatre.com has a new webpage designed for the iPhone? Cool beans.

Could someone tell me...

the last time either party ACTUALLY filibustered? And what is it about a filibuster that is so painful? If there was a filibuster, would it cause Harry Reid to, um, die?

The real question for today

Has "Weird Al" Yankovic gone on record about the death of Michael Jackson? Because his opinion is one that, frankly, I would like to hear.

Only if you love it enough

Have you ever heard, or said: "If you can imagine yourself happy doing anything besides [acting, writing plays, directing] go do it" or "Write plays only if they must be plays. If you can write it as a movie, don't write it as a play." The sentiment is less meant to instruct than warn: theatre is a hard life, with few rewards. New and aspiring artists are told to look into their hearts, and find absolute certainty that they are dedicated to the stage. They're often told things like this in college. Or even earlier.

I never gave this meme much thought. It seemed, especially when I first heard it, as good advice.

Lately, I'm not so sure. What cachet is there in dissuading the amateur from becoming an auteur?

My father, who recently retired from being active Episcopal clergy after 40 years of service, once told me of a similar purity test. He noted that around the late 70s and early 80s, young men who wanted to go to seminary were turned away. It was thought that, in your twenties or younger, that you simply didn't know enough to commit yourself to a life as a Priest. "Go away," they were told. "Live a bit more, and when you're ready, come back." This was meant to be progressive, careful and wise. Young people are creatures of whim and impulse. They really should know what they're getting into.

The problem became apparent recently with that line of thinking. First of all, many who were sent away didn't come back. They simply left the Priesthood, having had their interest discouraged. Second of all, you wound up with a narrower number of new Priests, many of them starting their careers at 45 or 50. This meant you have first year clergy who were nearing the age of retirement.

Now, it's not a perfect analogy, but I think the issue is clear: to scare off those who aren't sufficiently dedicated is self-defeating. Would it be a tragedy if more people fell into playwriting as a hobby and wound up making a life of it? Or found themselves good at it because they enjoyed it? Or if the unsure writer, who dipped his or her toes in the water of an Off-Off Broadway play, wound up making good friends, writing more plays, and happily and unpretentiously becoming a playwright for reasons that had nothing to do with his or her initial dedication to the cause?

To be fair, I'm sure some of this meme is driven by a desire to see good work. There are quite a few playwrights, young and old, who seem to have trouble distinguishing the dramatic from the theatrical. By telling those people who would rather write television to just go do it, perhaps we hope to be spared the hardship of sitting through lousy plays. But what if, instead, we said "If you're writing a TV script, how do you think you can turn it into a play?"

What if we encouraged as many people as possible to embrace what's fun and intangible about the stage, as opposed to warning the young people who aren't sufficiently "dedicated" to stay away? I think we'd find ourselves pleasantly surprised by an influx of new energy in what can be an insular community.

Might I recommend

That you see Tales from the Bordertown?

Metaphors aren't for amateurs

Sarah Palin:

On quitting her job:

"A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket... and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I'm doing that - keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities - smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it's time to pass the ball - for victory."

Still hilarious

Aaron's invitation

Take note, Indie Theater Companies looking for an honest, thoughtful, public appraisal.

Dear Artist,

Are you involved in a new, full production--as a writer, director, actor, stagehand, &c.--that you think is good? Is it running for at least a week (four performances)? If so, feel free to send me information and an invite to your show. If I am not already booked, I will come and write about it here. (Be forewarned: I will not pull punches that are squarely deserved.)

Sincerely,
Aaron

New York Innovative Theatre Awards

After a chat last night with Shay and Nick, I can announce that I'll be writing the presenters text for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards this year. Absolutely an honor to be invited to do this. I've never done anything quite like it before.

Because I care about each one of you personally

I give you this, found here.

NY Innovative Theater Awards

I've got a very interesting meeting with the New York Innovative Theater Awards crew tomorrow. I'll keep you posted about the details. Suffice to say, I'm excited.

Summer Movies

I am an unabashed fan of summer movie season. Screw the Oscars. I want giant robots, guys hanging off of cliffs, and cartoons.

Here, for my own edification and your amusement, is my rundown of this year's summer flicks. I do not count Public Enemies (it's not a summer movie, it's a Michael Mann movie in the 4th of July slot while Will Smith is on vacation) and Harry Potter. Harry Potter has too many spoilers in libraries and bookstores. Also don't count Away We Go, because come on. Come. On.

I have not seen: The Hangover, Night at the Museum, or Angels & Demons.

1. UP

If you haven't seen UP, you're a fucking imbecile. Are you busy being a good citizen? Fuck you. Go see this incredibly sad and beautiful movie. Or I'll cry all over your so-so important friggin' shoes. This is the best Pixar film to date, better than Wall-E (which I loved).

...are you still reading this? Go cry and watch UP. GO! Now. The rest is hogwash!

2. STAR TREK

I know a lot of people would put Drag Me to Hell above Star Trek. I thought it over a fair amount. For me, they're both pieces of genre hackery done by directors and writers who know the form backwards. Star Trek edges out Drag Me To Hell, for me, because it simply does more tricks that are hard. It allowed for a completely new cast of actors and deviations for the original Star Trek, without tossing out the existing mythology. Here's a reinvention that doesn't have to pretend George Clooney never wore the batsuit. It was funny without being lunkheaded, exciting without being confusing, and the cast is appealing and fresh. It truly made something that felt new from something we all know well.

3. DRAG ME TO HELL

Did the opposite. It did exactly what we wanted it to do, with gusto. It's a playful and raucous, if modest, return to horror for Sam Raimi. What more is there to say? It made me wince and holler. Did it surprise me? Not a lick. I knew it would be solid, and it was.

4. TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

Yes, I put this above the two below. And yes, it's a racist, endless, headache inducing, over-indulgent mess. About half-way through the movie, a giant robot that was apparently stolen from Douglas Adams tossed out notes gives our main characters an exposition scene that changes the plot entirely for no reason. The only character anyone wants to see, Optimus Prime, spends 3/4th of the movie under a tarp.

Why is this better than the two below?

Because it is, in its ultimate unending crass monstrous idiocy, a sort of high-water mark for summer movies. It was apparently made by the US Army, a toy company, some computers, and a set of explosive devices. Not that you can even tell. Whenever there is more than one robot on screen, Michael Bay pulls in really close so you can't tell what the fuck is going on. Half the movie is a blur with the sound of a jet behind it.

It has moments of such beautiful awfulness. When "The Fallen" looks up and pronounces "NOW I WILL TAKE YOUR SUN!" to no one. When our heroes look up to see the arrival of the cavalry and say "It's the Jordanians!" It is, by all reasonable standards, dreadful in so many ways that it transforms into a metal monster, roars, crushes you beneath its truck-feet, and leaves you for dead.

I mean, seriously. Seriously. This is the kind of movie you can talk about with your friends for hours. "Why can the Decepticons turn into college girls?" "Why couldn't Starscream talk in the last one?" "Why are the Trees from Lord of the Rings in Shia's heaven?"

I still want to see a movie just with Kevin Dunn and Julie White. They are great in both of these movies, as, um characters. Clearly actors who were just told "Have fun." And they did.

5. TERMINATOR: SALVATION

Man, I wanted this to be good. It does try, here and there, to walk and talk like a Terminator movie. It even has a crowd pleasing moment or two. It is, though, the shell of a better movie, with a few rather bad ideas and editing that seems to say "100 minutes long or die!"

Sure, it's not as actively offensive as Transformers, but it seems so inoffensive as to be forgettable. Transformers rises to heights of absurdity yet unheard of. Terminator: Salvation doesn't bother. The ending is sticky sweet (a strange choice) and John Connor's struggles become the generic struggles of Apocolypse Hero #45. No one makes an impression. Sure, there are a few good robot scenes, and one rockin' cameo. But it's the shadow, the echo, of far better movies.

And Helena Botham Carter? Yeowch.

6. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

This movie sucked my hog. Think about this: in X2 (a really good movie) they show us Wolverine's past in a series of cool flashbacks, and then we wind up in the very room where he was turned into a metal boned freak. Then, he battles another victim of the same program.

In this endless movie, that appears to have been shot with the budget of a TV movie, we see the exact same ground covered far worse. We also meet Sabertooth again, even though we're never told why he is now a Shakespearean actor, and not a hulking pro wrestler. Ryan Reynolds? Will.i.am? Some dude with long hair playing Gambit? All of this made me want to bleed in my popcorn.

Wolverine was awesome in the Bryan Singer movies. He's not even offensively treadful in X-Men: The Last Stand. In Origins he is empty of all that was once cool. He chats with old people. He gets gushy with girls in cabins. He is a little boy in a frilly outfit.

To top it all off, the movie ends with him losing his memory because he is shot in his unbreakable head. I was waiting for someone to say "Have the protocol droid's mind wiped."

___

Here endeth my self-indulgence.

New Wilco Album Tomorrow

Lookin' forward to it.

Thanks

To everyone who came to see GLEE CLUB!

Update: A few extra seats!

The Brick has kindly added a row to our seating for the Sunday performance, opening up a handful of seats.

Here's the link to purchase tickets for Sunday 6/28 at 3pm.

Glee Club final performance is sold out

Well...Sunday is the final performance of Glee Club and it is, as of now, our second sold out show. Thanks to everyone who has seen it, and those who are coming on Sunday. The cast and staging and music are all exceptional, I'm proud of the work being done, and to have my name attached to it.

We may try (not sure) to add a few extra seats if we can, so watch this space if you're planning on walking up and trying to get a seat.

We are looking into a possible extension, but with a large cast to schedule, it's hard to say if we'll be able to add dates. There are some talks about maybe just bringing the show back for a full run next year, on its own. We'll see. That's a long way off.

The important thing right now is for us to live up to expectations and deliver a great show on Sunday. Thanks to all the great reviews and comments about the production!

The Antidepressant Festival continues on until July 4th. Lots of great shows to go and see! So go and see them!

Michael Jackson

If there wasn't a bigger example of how our society will publicly mutilate someone, it must be Michael Jackson. Here is a person who was made a star at the age of eleven, and never properly assimilated into normal life and society. His life was tragic: he paid too high a price for being talented.

What always struck me about his defense against charges of pedophilia was that instead of simply saying nothing ever happened, he attacked the idea that what he had done was pedophilia at all. The man simply did not see (it appeared to me) how his actions could have been seen as sexual. Here is the loneliest person on Earth, trapped in Neverland (literally) trying to be loving to children. I don't think it takes much expertise to understand how his wires were crossed.

The press, of course, ate it up. We all did. He was a freakshow, a good joke. No matter that he'd given his entire adult life, and most of his adolesence, the the happiness of other people.

What about his plastic surgery. In this, I'm afraid, he was just ahead of his time. Today it's strikingly common to see plastic surgery among some of the most famous and beautiful people in the world. Hell, Megan Fox (the Transformers pin-up model) is...what? 22? And she has already had plastic surgery. Nora Ephron, that bastion of good taste, goes on public radio to rail against aging and defend cosmetic surgery. Looking at the carved and bleached face of Michael Jackson is looking in an unforgiving mirror.

I don't really know what to say, really. His life was just incredibly sad.

We ask too much of each other.

Is it possible

That Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson just died on the same day?

Is it also even POSSIBLE that Michael Jackson is actually, literally dead? I can't even imagine that. Even if it's currently reality.

nytheatre mike closing up shop

It seems as if he has to prioritize having a career, as opposed to blogging. Perish the thought!

See you soon, Mike! I'm sure I'll be seeing tons of your creative output elsewhere.

For fun

When's the last time you read Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses by Mark Twain?

You should again.

"I may be mistaken, but it does seem to me that Deerslayer is not a work of art in any sense; it does seem to me that it is destitute of every detail that goes to the making of a work of art; in truth, it seems to me that Deerslayer is just simply a literary delirium tremens.

A work of art? It has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; its characters are confusedly drawn, and by their acts and words they prove that they are not the sort of people the author claims that they are; its humor is pathetic; its pathos is funny; its conversations are—oh! indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the language."

On another note

Once I've absorbed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I will write up my summer movie round up. Because I love friggin' summer movies.

$64,000 question - Which is the better piece of pure genre love? Star Trek or Drag Me To Hell?

The NY Times covers the gender bias a bit more

"Artistic directors of theater companies have maintained that no discrimination exists, rather that good scripts by women are in short supply. That claim elicited snorts and laughter from the audience when it was repeated Monday night, but Ms. Sands declared, 'They’re right.'"

Provocative, no? Read on!

The Times piece notes reasonable trepidation about the use of doollee.com as a main source of data. Nothing against doollee.com, but it's a catch-as-catch-can database and I'm not even entirely sure how it's updated.

For example, here's my own doollee.com page.

I've never personally updated this. I assume because of the blog, whomever is updating my page does so by pulling information from here. (Thanks if you're reading this!) Since it's no one's full time job, and since I don't get involved, there are discrepancies.

- They don't include the small production that I had in NH in 2000 of a play called The Message. (Long forgotten!)

- They don't include the currently running Glee Club.

- They don't include What To Do To A Girl but instead include The Standards of Decency Project, the festival in which it ran.

- They don't note the short play I ran at the Metropolitan about five years ago called 465.

- Trayf, which ran at the Brick, is missing.

- They don't have an accurate theater or producer for the original production of Reasons for Moving. (It was the Local Productions, at HERE Arts Center.)

Is it wildly inaccurate? Not at all. In fact, it's rather good. All of the above are minor omissions. As a place to obtain good, clean data, though, it's not perfect or authoritative, by any means.

Patti LuPone defends her treatment of cellphone abusers

"Do we allow our rights to be violated (photography, filming and audio taping of performances is illegal) or tolerate rudeness by members of the audience who feel they have the right to sit in a dark theater, texting or checking their e-mail while the light from their screens distract both performers and the audience alike? Or, should I stand up for my rights as a performer as well as the audiences I perform for?"

Fight Girl Battle World...returns!

Are things changing for the better?

This isn't to say there isn't such a thing as gender bias. That would be idiotic. But... when I thought about the significant and talked about female writers and teachers moving into (or already in) places of prominence on or around American stages right now... I came up with this list (in no particular order)

Sarah Ruhl
Suzan Lori Parks
Lucy Thurber
Marsha Norman
Gina Gionfriddo
Theresa Rebeck
Paula Vogel
Young Jean Lee
Jenny Schwartz
Yasmina Reza
Sheila Callaghan
Lynn Nottage
Eve Ensler
Anne Washburn
Ann Marie Healy
Heck, I'll throw Jessica Dickey on there just because The Amish Project has buzz.

It's honestly reassuring. Things do seem to be shifting significantly.

Right Wing Plays

Dug this post about "right wing" plays over at Parabasis.

For all the hoopla about the lack of right wing voices on stages, I just don't see a concerted effort from the right wing to write exceptionally good plays that everyone begrudgingly admits are fantastic. It's not like there's some right wing Leni Riefenstahl out there, who, despite her belief that George Tiller was a baby killer, has written these incredibly compelling characters.

I know, I know... I just compared the right to Nazis. Sue me. It's my blog.

Just to play devil's advocate with myself for a moment... is it possible that the reason we see so few playwrights of this persuasion is that they are socially discouraged early in their development? I know I wasn't exactly writing the world's best plays when I was in college, but I had people that believed in me and encouraged me. Could, in my academic settings, it be hard for a conservative to find the same social support in a college focused on theater?

Though, as Isaac puts it, does this really bother anyone? Well, not me. But I'm sure if I were a Republican, it might strike me as particularly frustrating.

Health Care Reform is stalling?

I've read over the past few weeks that Health Care might be DOA, that it's already stalling, that the Republicans are digging in for a fight, that Obama's already lost the healthcare fight.

Even though the majority of Americans want health care reform, support the public option, and Obama is presiding over a majority?

How...is this.. failing? Exactly?

NY Magazine on Female Playwrights

Read this!

"In three separate studies — which Rouse calls a "triple play" — across 170 pages, [Emily Glassberg] Sands finds gender bias on the part of both men and women in script selection and production, and shows that it hurts theaters economically.

Her first analysis, derived from crunching data about plays and playwrights from the website doollee.com, reveals that women tend to write plays about women, but plays featuring female protagonists are produced less often than those starring men. And, while the proportion of scripts that get produced is fairly equal between men and women, the total number of productions is inequitable since fewer women write plays (one informal study of nonprofit theaters by the playwright Julia Jordan found that 17 percent of their plays were written by women). One way women have compensated for writing female stories is to write fewer roles, which make their plays accessible to more theaters."

A really thoughtful post on GLEE CLUB

Sean Williams writes a really heartfelt reaction to GLEE CLUB, and I'm terribly grateful for it.

GLEE CLUB final performance on Sunday 6/28

Hey everyone -

Glee Club's performance today was sold out (and great!). If you're planning on seeing the final performance, on Sunday the 28th, I highly recommend you buy a ticket in advance.

American Theater Web shutting down?

Aw damn. I love that site.

Tonight

Looking for something out of the ordinary to do this evening? Why not stop by Observatory, in Gowanus? Tonight features:

An inconography of the Industrial body: Fritz Kahn, popular medical illustration and the visual rhetoric of modernity

Looks crazy cool.

A ringing endorsement for Glee Club

"It made me want to mouthf*ck Freeman."

Thanks Qui! I think!

Helen Shaw on the Amish Project

Helen Shaw, a regular contributor to Time Out New York (who, in the interest of full-disclosure, has given me reviews that made me duck and cover), gives a review to The Amish Project that I think warrants some thought. It's insightful and complimentary towards the work and the performer, but takes center aim at Jessica Dickey's disclosed liberties with her subjects.

The question is a very good one: is Dickey being unethical or taking shortcuts? Or are all paths to good drama justified? Shaw herself says that Dickey's craft made her "weep" and that The Amish Project "artfully asks serious questions about our limited capacity for charity, an exercise that spares us from the piece’s unremitting sadness." But Shaw doesn't let her reaction to the material keep her from asking key questions about how the piece was made.

It's at moments like these that I find star systems so frustrating. The review is three stars, so incredibly reductive. Shaw here says "This work is moving and powerful, but its origins make it suspect." I'm trying to think of another work that's got similar ethical issues. Or if it would have been preferable for Dickey to remove ALL real characters and fictionalize the entire event. Or if the blending of real and fiction is somehow truly experimental. Or if it is, at its core, a way to have her cake and eat it too: a trick of the playwright to fill in the holes in her experience with her the force of her imagination.

I think about theatro-journalism like Anna Deavere Smith's work, but wonder... isn't there control of the material there too? Even though the words are exact, the imitations perfect... the editing of this one-person documentary style is a form of control? What we see is carefully and certainly politically constructed. But if Smith added, even with total disclosure, a single fictional character into the work, wouldn't the entire enterprise fail? Or would it, in a way, allow the voice of the writer to be less tricky, less hidden? Perhaps what Dickey's done is just remove the pretense of objectivity. Or unlocked her ability to comment on the material by refusing to marry a play to a literal re-telling of the facts.

Has anyone reading this seen the production? If so, were you troubled by what Shaw makes note of? What concerns you about the mixture of truth and fiction? Or is there a limit? Is the use of both, in equal measures, more challenging than a completely new fictionalized world, or the pretense of pure objectivity?

Personally, I find the idea of cracking open history with fiction exciting. I like the idea of putting the audience into a place of discomfort this way. But, I can't be sure Dickey's trying to actually cause discomfort, or simply pave the way to an emotionally powerful work, by adding elements that serve her purpose.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

"...the feel-good tragedy of the year"

James Comtois on Glee Club. Thanks for the good word.

I, in turn, saw Infectious Opportunity, which I also read before seeing the production. In performance, the play is grim as hell. There's something unnerving, chilly and perverse about the main character. Not just because he's telling a terrible lie, but because he seems so removed from it. It's a real portrait of what it means to be a successful sociopath. Definitely check it out.

A new nytheatrecast on the way

We're currently working out the schedule so that I can interview Mac Rogers about his new play Viral on the nytheatrecast.

If you haven't yet, definitely listen to the previous two interviews. I think they're a lot of fun.

With James Comtois

With Adam Szymkowicz

Lower Manhattan Theaters united

This article highlights some of the efforts going on downtown, of which Blue Coyote Theater Group and the Access Theater are a part.

"...his comedy is pitch perfect."

A review of Glee Club! You've really got to see the cast. They're phenomenal.

Glee Club tonight at 10pm

Just a reminder that GLEE CLUB performs again tonight at the Antidepressant Festival. The show is at 10pm this evening, following BIG GIRLS CLUB (THE HAPPY DANCE DANCE PRINCESS SHOW). See both!

Our tickets have been moving quickly, and I'm expecting a fair number of walk ups. If you're planning on coming tonight, definitely buy your tickets in advance.

See you there, dear blog readers.

Support the NEA funding increase

From Jason Grote.

____


This morning in Congress, the House Interior Appropriations
Subcommittee, which sets the initial funding level for the National
Endowment for the Arts (NEA), approved a $15 million increase for the
NEA in its FY 2010 spending bill, setting it on a path towards final
House consideration. Chairman Norm Dicks (D-WA) has once again
championed the arts and culture and proposed an increase in funding.
Please send a message to your Members of Congress telling them to
support this important funding increase!
http://capwiz.com/artsusa/utr/1/EUAYKQOEMA/LHNOKQOFBF/3464869781

Currently funded at $155 million, this increase would bring the
agency's budget to $170 million. In his statement, Chairman Dicks
referenced the Arts Advocacy Day hearings the subcommittee held as
demonstrating that "the endowments are vital for preserving and
encouraging America's arts and cultural heritage." On Arts
Advocacy Day, Americans for the Arts presented a panel of witnesses
before Chairman Dicks' Appropriations Subcommittee calling for a
significant increase in funding for the NEA. Witnesses included
Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center Wynton Marsalis, renown
singer-songwriter Josh Groban, legendary singer Linda Ronstadt,
Reinvestment Fund CEO Jeremy Nowak and Americans for the Arts President
& CEO Robert Lynch. Pictures from the hearing and further details
including the witnesses' testimony are available online here:
http://capwiz.com/artsusa/utr/1/EUAYKQOEMA/MYYRKQOFBH/3464869781

Thanks to all of the grassroots advocates for your letters and calls to
Congress and for attending Arts Advocacy Day. We're seeing the results!

Next Steps:
The FY 2010 Interior Appropriations bill will next go to full committee
and then to the House floor for final consideration where your help may
be needed to defend against floor amendments attempting to cut this
increase. We must now put pressure on the Senate to match this funding
level. Please take two minutes to visit the Americans for the Arts
E-Advocacy Center to send a letter to your Members of Congress letting
them know that the arts are important to you!
http://capwiz.com/artsusa/utr/1/EUAYKQOEMA/AWNBKQOFBI/3464869781

Please help us continue this important work by becoming an official
member of the Arts Action Fund. Play your part by joining the Arts
Action Fund today -- it's free and simple:
http://capwiz.com/artsusa/utr/1/EUAYKQOEMA/BHVTKQOFBJ/3464869781

Revolting

What could be in poorer taste? Operation Rescue is disgusting.

Glee Club's review on nytheatre.com

"Matthew Freeman's new play for the Antidepressant Festival, Glee Club, is a hoot. It's stylishly mean and funny, and a fine dark comic showcase for the eight actors who perform it."

Thanks!

Kind words from David Johnston about Glee Club. Thanks David. He may not be impartial, but he's a ridiculously terrific playwright and his encouragement means the world to me.

Schadenfreude

Thy name is hipster recession.

As usual

You won't see much here about the Tony Awards. I don't usually watch them and I didn't last night. It's not that I've got too much Indie Theater-cred for them. I just find them a little depressing on a variety of levels. Also, after GLEE CLUB opened so well (thanks to all of you who came to the opening!), I felt like celebrating. So I watched professional wrestling and hung out with Pam.

Professional wrestling, for the record, is just like the Tony Awards: at the end of each segment someone has their hand raised in victory, some of those victories are entirely unfair, everyone is really mean to each other. Plus, the whole thing is scripted to get the desired result for those rich shareholders with the greatest interest. It's just that instead of jsinging, wrestlers just hit each other with empty trash cans. Sure, it ain't Oscar Wilde, but neither are Shrek jokes.

Frankly, if the Tony Awards had even one ladder match, I'd tune in. How about Neil Patrick Harris versus James Gandolfini? I mean, it sounds like a mismatch, but that's the fun. Who would win?

The three kids from Billy Elliot could be the special referees.

Glee Club Opens on Sunday

I'm well aware that I've been plugging my show hard over the last few weeks. That ends soon. GLEE CLUB officially opens on Sunday at 2pm. If you are planning on seeing the show, and haven't decided when to come, I'd be thrilled to see you at our first show.

If you saw WHEN IS A CLOCK and nothing else of my work, you're likely to find this quite different. If you're used to my shorter pieces that pop up in festivals periodically, you'll find this has a lot more meat on its bones.

If you've never seen a play of mine before, this is as good a time as any to give it a try. I mean, you're reading my blog right? How come you've never seen one of my plays?

You can find information here. You can buy tickets here.

You can read about us getting name-checked on Gothamist here. Happy about that.

It's all better now.

Adam returns the favor

And interviews me!

Cote vs Teachout

Now HERE's something fun to read. I have $10 on Cote.

Corlaine discussion

Over at Critic-O-Meter, the comments section of the Coraline round up is a very good read. Aaron Riccio and Elisabeth Vincentelli engage about her review.

Sometimes, I guess, people can discuss differences in a mature and constructive way on the internet. It does the heart good.

Glee Club Promo Video #6

Tom Waits on the Bob Dylan Theme Time Radio Hour

This shit is so good it's absurd.

I mean, Holy F*ck.

I'll be the last

...to say that the Obamas seeing Joe Turner's Come and Gone make me want to sing.

Speaking of singing.

Dr. George Tiller

The evangelical anti-choice movement speaks in terms of life and death, of war. They instigate exactly this sort of tragedy. I fail, at times like these, to see the real difference between the evangelical anti-choice leadership, such as Operation Rescue, and the KKK. They intimidate, both speak in religious terms, both want to oppress, and both are willing to kill for their beliefs.

I hope other doctors, in honor of this man, take a second look at their willingness to practice medicine for women with some backbone.

Up!

I just saw UP which, like Wall-E, is this perfect mix of exciting and heartbreaking. It's a fantastic movie. And beautiful. And actually about something.

Can't wait to see Drag Me To Hell, as well.

Quite the weekend for pop entertainment at the movies.

LITNY responds to changes in the basic AEA Showcase Code

Here is their press release:

League of Independent Theater Responds to New AEA Basic Showcase Code

After many years of determined advocacy in the Off-Off, Independent community with the terms of the Actors' Equity Association Basic Showcase Code, Equity has announced a new Code to take effect Monday, May 25, 2009. The new Code increases the allowed budget of a production from $20,000 to $35,000 (exclusive of AEA actor stipends) and increases the allowed rehearsal period from 4 weeks to 5. Other core issues, such as the number of performances allowed and the inability to videotape a Showcase production, remain unchanged.

The League of Independent Theater New York (LITNY) Executive Director John Clancy responds, "We applaud the efforts of AEA in addressing the critical issue of Code reform and see this revised Code as a small but important step toward their recognition of Off-Off Broadway as a legitimate sector of New York City's cultural landscape. We will continue to advocate for a new Code that recognizes the economic reality of our environment, protects the AEA actor, and allows Off-Off and Independent Theater to flourish and continue its tradition of providing the foundation of theatrical artistic culture to New York City."

LITNY is the advocacy group for Off-Off Broadway, organized to promote the artistic and economic interests of theater professionals working in New York City in theaters of up to 99 seats; to organize and protect its members to ensure that independent theater is economically viable for all of its practitioners; and to advocate on behalf of the decades-old tradition of off-off Broadway theater to ensure that it remains, and grows, as a thriving artistic and economic sector in New York City.


Visit the League of Independent Theater on the web at www.litny.org

Gotta say

This review is pretty funny.

I interview James Comtois

James Comtois and I recently recorded a podcast for the "nytheatrecast." You can listen or download the MP3 directly here, or read a bit more about it here. It will also be available on iTunes. We chat about antiheroes, HBO, lying to get attention, the Antidepressant Festival, and of course, his new play Infectious Opportunity.

The conversation was certainly a lot of fun, and I think that comes across. Hope you enjoy it.

Glee Club Tickets!

Pictured: (from the bottom clockwise) Tom Staggs, Matthew Trumbull, Gary Shrader, David DelGrosso, Robert Buckwalter, Stephen Speights, and Carter Jackson. Not pictured is cast member Bruce Barton.

Have you got your tickets yet for Glee Club?

Read more about the show on the Blue Coyote website.

Survey

Hey everyone - check this out -

NYC Performing Arts Spaces, a program of Fractured Atlas, has put together this survey to assess the current economic situation for artists, facilities and arts admin – and also one for cultural facilities and performing arts venues. We’d love to get your feedback. If you have additional questions on this information, email davidj@nycpaspaces.org

Click the link below for the blogpost with the surveys. It's very short. Should take less than five minutes.

http://nycpaspaces.org/blog/postShow/id/26

How to win votes

The Republican party is now pro-torture and anti-empathy. I call that a winning political message.

99 seats

This post is good reading for those of us committed to adjustments in AEA's rules for small theaters in NYC.

"I liked the whole thing!"

Maybe it's just because I know the little reviewer in question...but this review made me smile.

Cosmic Brew!

GOP Talking Points against Obama's Pick - Whoo Hoo!

I'm excited by Obama's pick for the Supreme Court. What's got me more excited is this piece from TPM, which lays out the GOP lines of attack.

• Liberal ideology, not legal qualification, is likely to guide the president's choice of judicial nominees.

...

• Justice Souter's retirement could move the Court to the left and provide a critical fifth vote for:

• Further eroding the rights of the unborn and property owners;

• Imposing a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage;

• Stripping "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance and completely secularizing the public square;

• Abolishing the death penalty;

• Judicial micromanagement of the government's war powers.

They just listed all the things I WANT her to do! I hate the rights of the unborn especially. They don't pay taxes.

In all seriousness, I would like the government's war powers more closely monitored, I'm pro-choice, I'm not a fan of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance; I'm in favor of full equality in the marriage laws (screw you California); and the death penalty is barbaric and ineffective.

I've been reading The Nine by Jeffery Toobin lately, which is a fantastic book about the Supreme Court and timely reading. If there's any lesson I can take from it, it's that judges, no matter how they look upon appointment, are unpredictable, eccentric, and never a sure bet. The right's insistence on being the party of obstruction isn't substantive or even warranted: it's just all they've got left.

A new song

We've been rehearsing Glee Club for a few weeks now, and the cast has been rehearsing "The World Will Make You Smile." The song, written by Stephen Speights (with a few small contributions from me) is a very traditional sounding, terribly earnest chorus number.

It sounds terrific. I can't wait for you all to hear it.

Theatre Ideas is moving

To a new blog, as Scott Walters focuses on his next project. Read the announcement here. Good travels!

Waterboarding

Memorial Day

Think hard. What didn't you remember until just now?

I remember my Big Wheels. Remember those? I loved that damn thing.

On Cheney

The least popular politician in years stands at a podium to say 9/11 made it okay for us to torture, kidnap, lie and murder.

It's a no-brainer: the man's entire philosophy has been rejected by the American people, many in his own party, and the world at large. Also, it's been proven in practice to be a staggering failure. Why his prescriptions and opinions aren't met with more straightforward outrage is really the biggest surprise. This man is publicly defending torture, and saying that any action taking by America in its own defense is, regardless of the action, justified. It's a revolting argument that should be met with resounding silence. He should be in prison, not on CNN.

nytheatrecast upcoming with James Comtois

I'll be chatting with James Comtois, recording another podcast for the Nytheatrecast. This will be similar to my chat a few weeks ago with Adam Szymkowicz. That podcast proved very popular and I think it was a good first effort. If you haven't listened, Adam and I talked about theft as a concept, in preparation for his successful run with Pretty Theft at the Access Theater, produced by Flux Theatre Ensemble. You can download that podcast here.

James and I both have productions upcoming at the Antidepressant Festival. His play, Infectious Opportunity, should provide quite a bit of fodder for post show drinks and debate.

When the interview is online, I'll be sure to post a link here!

The Knife Paintings of the Ultimate Warrior

Everyone loves art.

Roommate needed in Astoria for June 1st!

Hi there folks--Matthew Trumbull, Freeman Blog Lieutenant, here.  Great news!  There's an opportunity to live with me opening up on June 1st!  Here are the details!  Get it while it's hot!

Location: The apartment is on 37th Street, between 30th Ave and 28th Ave in Astoria. 

Your Rent: $770 a month, $770 security deposit. 

What you get for that: Really big room. 156 sq ft. Great light. Living room and kitchen are also very spacious. Your room, if you so choose, comes with a bed. I have Time Warner basic cable + HBO and utilities to split with you, and high-speed internet. The apartment is in a 3 unit building, on the 2nd floor, up one flight of stairs. 

Me: Pleasant, relaxed guy on the quiet side--charming with witty, slightly nerdish qualities. Nothing too crazy. Not a neat freak, but responsible and interested in having pleasant, hygienic living conditions.

You: Also pleasant/relaxed, with a stable income, and a preference for as much of a drama-free existence as you can manage in this life. Someone who doesn't smoke, or is content to do it outside on the stoop. Someone who is also content with living pretty quietly here, and not having loud gatherings, parties, or the usage of illegal drugs in the apartment. A family with young kids lives below me, so I try to keep the noise down at night. 

Pets--Rico and Boris live here. They are cats. They are super wonderful creatures. I keep their litterboxes clean and odor-free. If you are cat-adverse, this probably isn't the place for you. If you come with a creature that is a dog, cat, rabbit, ferret, or anything that doesn't live in an aquarium, same thing. 

Look forward to hearing from you: matthew.trumbull@gmail.com--and thanks!

Showcase Code Modifications!

Some changes have been made to the Showcase Code! You can read about them here.

Movement on this front is good, encouraging, and welcome. Still, the extended weeks for rehearsal, with no change in hours, seems odd. I don't see how that will really change much for producers and actors who are working under tough time constraints anyhow. In fact, as Tim Errickson notes in the article, it will likely just be an extra budget item without a concurrent raise in the basic code's ticket cap.

The increase in budget, though (up to $35,000, exclusive of AEA stipends) does seem to accept the premise that "showcase code" productions aren't the sort of operations that the Code was meant to regulate, i.e. limited runs that actors would self-produce in order to get industry attention. If that message is getting through, more reform is definitely possible.

On the Seasonal Code front, there has been an increase in top ticket price (up to $25 from $20) and now companies can spread there 20 to 24 performances out over six weeks, up from five. This will help companies on the press front, and maybe gather audiences more effectively. With an extra week and a higher ticket price, that's a very positive development.

I'd love to hear readers' thoughts about this. This has been something I've written about often in this space. I'm extremely encouraged to see changes being made. I also don't see the changes here that could truly help New York's small theaters in a fundamental way. It's, as they say, a step in the right direction. Baby steps, perhaps.

Either way, this can't be seen as anything but good news.

UPDATE: I'd like to add that what it all comes down to, in the long run, is that we need more performances. That's the bottom line. Everything else is playing on the fringes of the actual issue. Obviously, all of the above is good. It'll help in small ways. But most of the main problems with the Code remain, even with these positive alterations.

UPDATE: Definitely read the excellent commentary here. Some of the comments seem frustrated and I can see why. Still, I think Nick Micozzi notes that there are some rather substantive roadblocks to true change. Reasonableness and patience are a virtue here. AEA seems to have some rather hard to turn wheels. The fact that they are acknowledging changing circumstances is a large concession to OOB.

Buy your tickets now for GLEE CLUB

GLEE CLUB opens June 7th. We have a large cast and very few performances, so I'd suggest getting your tickets well in advance.

You can purchase tickets here.

10 Years of Darth Maul

Today is the 10 year anniversary of the release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. I saw it three times on opening day. With Liza. I had just arrived in NYC. I guess it's something close to my 10 year anniversary living in New York City as well.

This movie, now almost universally considered the meaning of the word "letdown," carved an 0dd place in my skull: an odd mixture of denial, determination, happiness and comfort. I can speak the entire film to you from memory. I've always been the only person in the room defending it. Now, long after anyone gives a damn, I somehow still am.

All of this may not be my fault. Genetics are the last refuge of those of us with compulsive loves. Last weekend, my father was at Serial Fest. All the movies he loves are what my favorite movies all used as their models or aspired to mimic. Dad and I spent a fair amount of time last year talking about The Phantom Empire, a Gene Autry-science fiction serial from the 1930s, that undoubtedly inspired the name of Episode I.

Perhaps I just have my father's midichlorians.

Either way, today I will be watching this movie again, of course. And sobbing. May the Force be with you!

Glee Club Promo # 5

Some TV show

Apparently, there is some TV show coming out called GLEE or GLEE CLUB. I am now aware of this. I resent the television in this instance.

I promise that if you attend a performance of GLEE CLUB by yours truly, you will hear a great deal of language that the FCC would disallow on Fox or wherever. This should be a selling point.

We sing like goddamn angels. Like motherf*cking angels.

Question for a Monday Morning

What gives you the right?

NYTE goes to TV

Exciting news from NYTE. Make sure to tune in!

Life is complicated and challenging

Which is why watching this is important.

Rocco Landesman as Chairman of NEA

Rocco Landesman, the colorful theatrical producer and race-track aficionado who brought hits like “Big River,” “Angels in America” and “The Producers” to Broadway, has been nominated as the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, the White House said on Tuesday.

Cool!

Surprises

Wanted to share this poem by Louise Glück. Reprinted here entirely without permission, because that's how I roll. Read it this morning on the train. It contains all these perfect, biting surprises.

LABOR DAY

Requiring something lovely on his arm
Took me to Stamford, Connecticut, a quasi-farm,
His family's; later picking up the mammoth
Girlfriend of Charlie, meanwhile trying to pawn me off
On some third guy also up for the weekend.
But Saturday we still were paired; spent
It sprawled across that sprawling acreage
Until the grass grew limp
With damp. Like me. Johnston-baby, I can still see
The pelted clover, burrs' prickle fur and gorged
Pastures spewing infinite tiny bells. You pimp.

The White Swallow

I've published the full text of THE WHITE SWALLOW, a brief play from early 2008, online for your fun and profit. It's been affectionately dubbed "The Egg Play" by friends and those who saw it.

Enjoy!

Note: This play contains adult content.

Returning from Vacation

Still in the glow of a drowsy, absolutely fun vacation. We went up to Buttermilk Falls Inn and Spa in Milton, NY; had a good few days of no computers, not answering phone calls, and eating great food. Went to Storm King, wandered the grounds of the Inn, saw llamas and chickens and peacocks, and drank wine and read on big comfy couches. Pam got her tarot cards read by Rachel Pollack. I ate lobster. We bought books in New Paltz. I saw Star Trek, which is a total blast. Grand, grand, grand.

Now, we're back.

As you might have noticed, my blogging muscles have gone a bit flabby. I'll continue to write when it moves me; but you may get a fair amount of linking and promotion over here. I may even tell a few jokes. One never knows.

Glee Club is going to be a great show, and I urge you to get your tickets well in advance, as there are only four performances and we have a relatively large cast.

I started working on something new, currently titled "That Which Isn't," and I'm enjoying that. I'll say more about that in the coming weeks, I hope. The Bull Crime is still being worked over and beaten up and turned into a play, whether it wants to or not. Bluebeard may have a public reading relatively soon. I'm pretty excited about it.

Have you purchased a copy of When is a Clock? No? Why not? Is ten bucks too much for you, cheapskate?

Anyhow, I hope all who bother to read this blog are well, and happy, and looking forward to a summer filled with theater festivals.

Onwards and upwards!

Glee Club Promo # 4

On Vacation

Pam and I have taken the week off from work, and we'll be out of town Tuesday - Thursday. Not that I've been blogging up a storm lately or anything, but I will definitively be unavailable for the next few days.

Hope everyone's out there having fun and kicking ass.

Glee Club Promo # 3

Fundraiser!

For the BRICK!

You should go! If you don't, you fail! FAIL!

_____

Dance around in your barrel
at
THE BRICK'S
SHANTYTOWN BALL!
May 2, 8pm to Midnight

A Costume Party where the
Hoity-Toity meets the Down 'n' Doity!
At Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO.
A Fundraiser for The Brick!

Limited time ticket discounts below!

FREE BEER!
from Global Brewer's Guild and
2-For-1 Drink Specials from 8-10p.m.!!
Great Raffles!! - One free raffle ticket with every admission!

Hosted by Richard P. Scatman and
Graspy McTakeItAll (Ten Directions)

Dance to JC Hopkins and his Hopkins Hawkes Quartet featuring Queen Esther!

Rock out to Supermajor!

Then DJ blackkorea keeps you dancing in the afterparty until 3:30am!

Special attractions including:
Fortunes Told by Pelligrina Leoni and Madama Amore!
Lunatic Fireside Chats with Boxcar F.D.R.!
The Hobo Kissing Booth!
Fish-for-a-Bum Competitions!
A Hobo-Flapper Smackdown!
And more!

Come visit Hobohemia, where the Flappers get goofy with the bums! Doll up and party down! Or dress down and party up! We want to see your best Little Tramp fashion and It Girl-Chic! We're Equal Opportunity! Hoboettes and Dapper Dans will not be turned away!

Raffle prizes galore! Tickets from Playwrights Horizons, an actual Depression-Era Cast Iron Skillet from The Brooklyn Kitchen, a Surprise-For-Two from Surprise Industries, silkscreen prints from Desert Island Comic Book Store, gift certificates from The Drama Book Shop, Hudson River Massage, Solo Italian Restaurant, Music Lessons from Sarah Engelke, Yoga Instruction from Jenny Schmermund and more! Not to mention the chance to walk away with half the clams in the raffle monies pot!

May 2, 8pm to Midnight
at Galapagos Art Space
Only $40!
$30 if you come in costume!
Early Bird Special!: $20 for the next 7 days! (Enter the discount code "EARLYBIRD")

https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/performance.html?method=showPerformance&reset=user&perfId=7151075&code=earlybird

Glee Club's Press Release Materials

For your viewing pleasure:

Blue Coyote Theater Group Presents

GLEE CLUB
by Matthew Freeman
directed by Kyle Ancowitz
as a part of
The Antidepressant Festival
June 5th - July 4th at The Brick

The eight misfit members of Romeo, Vermont’s glee club are on the verge of meltdown after their soloist makes the disastrous decision to save his own life. Will they be ready in time for the big recital? And isn’t music the most important thing? GLEE CLUB is a comedy about singing. Singing makes people happy.

GLEE CLUB, written by Matthew Freeman. Music by Stephen Speights. Lyrics by Matthew Freeman and Stephen Speights. Directed by Kyle Ancowitz. Featuring: Bruce Barton*, Robert Buckwalter, David DelGrosso*, Michael Colby Jones*, Gary Shrader, Stephen Speights, Tom Staggs*,and Matthew Trumbull*. Produced by Blue Coyote Theater Group and The Brick Theater.

GLEE CLUB will play as part of The Antidepressant Festival, June 5-July 4 at The Brick (575 Metropolitan Avenue between Union and Lorimer). Performances: Sunday June 7^th, at 2pm, Friday June 12^th at 10pm, Saturday June 20^th at 5pm and Sunday June 28^th at 3pm. Tickets ($15) are available through www.theatermania.com (212-352-3101 or toll-free: 1-866-811-4111).

Only a vessel

Scott Walters, on his blog, shares with us his recent lecture to his students here.

In it, I find this passage:

So the theatre is a process of invocation: “To call upon a god or goddess to ask for their presence.” And also invocation is a form of possession which I’m using in its neutral form to mean "a state in which an individual's normal personality is replaced by another.” Plato writes about poetic inspiration in his dialogue Ion: "God takes away the mind of these men and uses them as his ministers...in order that we who hear them may know that it is not they who utter these words of great price when they are out of their wits, but that it is God himself.”

Wearing a mask, the actor as an individual is erased and replaced by that of another. This is important to understand, because it is an orientation that informs all of the arts that we have studied this semester (Greeks to Spanish Golden Age) And it is the orientation that is most difficult for us, as modern artists, to get our heads around. The play, the performance, is not about the artist themselves. The artist is a conduit through which a story is spoken. In other words, it’s not about you.Whether you are an actor or a playwright, it’s not about you. You are a conduit, a vessel through which the gods speak. Your job is to make yourself transparent, to offer no resistance to this possession.

I know there are plenty of people that are going to find this inspirational. It's intended to be, and in parts, I think it's a striking vision of theatrical history. If you read my blog often, you know that I don't usually write much in the way of grand sentiment about what I believe about theater. I'm not someone who believes, most of the time, in there being one way to look at the arts, or one way to make them happen.

That being said, what I find in this passage a scolding idealism: a sense that theater is beyond the artist, more powerful than an individual's voice, and that an ego-less artist becomes a conduit to gods. The argument is a seductive one because it offers the reward of a transcendent experience. What artist wouldn't love to find himself or herself speaking in this mythical, mystical way; in a way that is bigger than his or her personal experience can express?

I have, to say the least, mixed feelings about this. I'm certainly not a person who believes entirely in the supremacy of the rational: I'm a lover of the spiritual and the unknowable. I don't though, like the idea of illusion as practical guide. To discount the importance of the individual and replace it with the importance of submission to a higher purpose seems a bit more like Abraham and Isaac than makes me comfortable.

What I read above is a veiled attempt to corral the ego of creative people. When I read about God "taking away the mind of these men and using them as his ministers" I can't help but wonder why we, in the modern era, would prefer mindlessness to active thought.

This isn't to say that there haven't been moments that I've seen on stage that didn't feel inspired by something greater than the sum of its parts. We've all felt, I would imagine, something that seemed otherworldly. I've found, though, that 9 times out of 10, those moments are the product of equal parts craft and inspiration. Craft, hard work and knowledge are not replaced by inspiration: they are the tools by which inspirations are communicated.

When reducing the talk to its basic message, Walters states: it's not about you. He implies that all around an artist are important things. The culture, the Gods, the society at large, history. The artist is, on this list, not present. In Walters' view of how artists should be (i.e. humble vessels) he leaves them at the mercy of greater forces. They are choice-less, inactive, voiceless, and somehow, through this process, become divine. In this vision of theatre, that is their best state and true purpose: to be spoken through... not to speak for themselves.

I'm sure some of this is his reaction to the worst excesses of ego. We have all seen theater that is self-indulgent, inaccessible, poorly constructed, or off-putting. I don't believe, though, that the cure for the occasionally incompetent artist is to prescribe, like medicine, emptiness to all artists. Here, a collective's sense that it is more important than the individual, the 'Collective Ego' maybe, is perfectly justified. The Gods, and the society that they watch over, must be served and spoken for by the lucky few ministers open enough to be chosen.

I believe in the importance of the individual human voice, seen and heard as unique, in the face of great institutions, religions and communities. If an artist believes in something divine, then he or she should speak with and for that. If they imagine themselves reaching out into the ether to pluck strange poems, then let them. But I hope that this process will always lead them back to something true in themselves. We have plenty of voices for God, plenty of voices for Culture. What we need is the voice of one person, even at its most irrational and seemingly useless.

Walters' lecture tells us that we are not enough: that one person who assumes that his or her own voice is important is committing the sin of pride. His message is that to speak for yourself, to speak about your own experience, to reach inside yourself and find something that is only yours is folly. Worse, it's unwanted. This is a massively distrustful statement. He doesn't trust human beings to know what to say. He asks us to outsource our voices.

Human beings are flawed. We fail. We inadequately express ourselves. We have limits. We have, though, in my estimation, proved no better or worse than anything 'divine' at creating beauty and truth. At our best, we show our generosity when we share our secret, wicked, monstrous and gorgeous selves. Our best work is created when we, as individuals, have a conversation with our own experience, with our beliefs, and share that conversation with others. We're not vessels for voices beyond our control, we're giving the idea of singularity credence. Artists are, at their best, evidence that humans, all by themselves, are whole and sublime. I don't hold much faith in the idea that it's best for artists to 'not exist' in their work. Instead, we should exist as fully and uniquely as we are able.

There are many roadblocks to creating good work. Creativity is mysterious. It can feel like it comes from outside of us. It can also feel like the product of hours and hours of labor. Maybe somewhere between the two is what's true. But I would never go so far as to believe that it is human beings themselves, something inherent about self-expression, that is the problem.

Is all art 'about you?' Perhaps it's not solely 'about you.' But it also is about you. About one human being expressing himself or herself, as fully as possible. That's the theater I want to see, the theater I want to make, and the theater that I would encourage any student, peer or even hobbyist to strive towards.

That's why the study of literature and art is called often called The Humanities. We have been godless and we have been faithful. We have believed in Zeus and we have believed in Jesus and we have believed in the free market. Behind it all, it's always been us. Just us.

And we're enough.

Arlen Specter switches parties!

Huge! HUGE! Hooray!

Glad to know that the Republican Party can still find new and exciting ways to implode.

Glee Club Promo # 2

Blogging Lightly

What can I say? It's warm out, I'm working on getting GLEE CLUB up and running, working a full time job (that's Assistant Director Freeman to you!) and all that fun stuff. Also, lately, I've had a few thought here and there about theater, but mostly haven't felt compelled to write about them. That, like all things, will likely change down the road.

You can rely on getting Glee Club info here in the short term, some linking, stuff like that. I'm not gone. Just got my head elsewhere. I still love each and every person that reads this blog as if you were my own family. If you were all physically in front of me, I'd hug you.