| The Godot Variations |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|12:30 am] |
(gesture towards the universe) - a stage direction from Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
The Godot Variations, consisting of three short parodies of mine, Whining for Godot, Waiters for Godot , and Call Waiting for Godot, will be performed as Preludes for select performances of The Orfeo Group's production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) later this summer.
My pieces will be directed by David Gram.
More details coming soon. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|11:34 am] |
I've just confirmed that I'll be teaching a workshop and fight directing for Lyric First Stage again this summer.
The shows we'll be doing are Romeo & Juliet (with puppets!) and It's a Bird, It's a Plane... It's Superman!. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|12:10 pm] |
I'd like to call some attention to this NPR opinion piece about Twitter and Tehran.
Here is a quote:
"One of the most discussed online initiatives of the last 24 hours has been a campaign to change users' Twitter location to Tehran. This has been done in order to confuse the authorities about the real users tweeting from Tehran and thus make it safer for them to continue operating. Nice in theory, but I am not sure it works in practice. The Iranian authorities already have lists of probably a hundred sensitive bloggers and Twitter users that could snatch easily; I don't think they would go after those who have just started doing this."
The idea behind the initiative that the article refers to would have been enough to get me to create a Twitter account had I found sufficient evidence for it, but unfortunately it sounded too easy to be real.
This is not to dismiss the obvious and real impact of those brave people on the ground over there who are using new media to organize themselves and communicate with the rest of the world.
On a lighter and very distantly related note, looking into this made me think that if there were a version of Twitter that only allowed communication via haiku I would sign up in a second. Our daily lives need more poetry. |
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| The Devil Went Down to New Hampshire... |
[Jun. 5th, 2009|04:24 pm] |
Infernal world! and thou profoundest Hell,
Receive thy new possessor - one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. - Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I
The Yellow Taxi Productions staged reading of The Devil's Own Game will be on Friday, June 19 at 8pm at their current venue located at 5 Pine Street, Extension in Nashua, New Hampshire (about an hour outside of Boston).
The director will be Phil Allen. The cast consists of Yellow Taxi Artistic Director Suzanne Delle, Casey Preston, and Dawn Tucker.
I recently worked with Suzanne and Casey in YTP's production of Burn This. I'll be excited to see their work on my play. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 31st, 2009|09:26 pm] |
I am recently returned from the wedding of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dreams_of_wings and aatish2, which was lovely.
I've already written this to them, but it bears repeating that they are a wonderful example of what two people can be to each other and for each other. |
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| Two Plays Coming Up Next Month |
[May. 27th, 2009|03:44 pm] |
I've just been informed that my play, Culty-Mates (A Ritual), has been selected to be performed as part of Gi60 U.S. Live Edition.
Performances will be at the New Workshop Theater, on Brooklyn College campus in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday June 12 and Saturday June 13, at 8:00 pm.
This is my fifth year in a row having a play included in this event.
In other writing news, that was followed by an email informing me that The Devil's Own Game will be given a staged reading by Yellow Taxi Productions in Nashua, NH on Friday, June 19th. More news on that it becomes available. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 18th, 2009|02:40 pm] |
I've just received confirmation that I will be an OSHER Scholar through a grant from CELT at Tufts next fall (with a possibility for the spring as well).
This essentially means that I get a part time job teaching really cool classes based on my research and interests to really smart people. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 16th, 2009|12:44 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Lecons de Tango | ] |
Last night I attended nerdnite - Boston with _saint_cecilia_ and nvrlnd.
It was a really good time and an event I'd highly recommend.
It's also not unlikely that I'll be presenting some of my research there at some point. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 7th, 2009|01:56 pm] |
Burn This opens tonight in Nashua, NH with Yellow Taxi Productions. I made an actor look like a martial arts expert in two rehearsals. Or rather, one composition rehearsal and one brush up rehearsal during tech week. I'll be writing about that in my dissertation. It runs until the 16th.
My poem, "Handiwork (Or, The Beating of a Heart)" will be part of Fort Point Theatre Channel's Performing Poetry event in Boston on Friday evening. (I wrote it when I was 19!) My director is Bevin O'Gara, my piece will be performed by Philana Mia. This event is free and open to the public. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 6th, 2009|01:43 pm] |
Last night I saw a performance of the national tour of Spring Awakening: The Musical. The producers gave a pair of comps to everyone involved in the Zeitgeist Stage production of the play, which was a really great gesture.
I enjoyed it a lot. I am still processing the adjustments made to the story in adapting it to a musical. The play is a lot darker. The musical does a lot of 1890s Germany meets modern rock concert, which was theatrically effective. The expressionist elements of the end of the play are absent from the musical, though musical theatre by nature tends to take on abstract staging as a matter of course. Most of the book scenes are nearly identical to the play.
This is a CD that I'm going to want.
In the small world department, the fight director was one of the people who originally trained me back in New York, and one of the props people was in the MFA program at Brandeis with me.
Both productions have been getting quite a lot of press. And both productions have been getting additional press because of the existence of the other (a brilliant move by Zeitgeist). Now that the musical is in town I'll be curious to see if there is much compare and contrast going on in the press and blogosphere. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 25th, 2009|01:32 pm] |
I am starting to figure out the logistics of getting to Brazil for my birthday.
It is sort of ridiculous that I have not been there yet. |
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| EP!6: Performing Poetry |
[Apr. 24th, 2009|02:20 pm] |
Come see
Exclamation Point!6
PERFORMING POETRY
New Writing, with Music, Video, and a Few Surprises
at Bob's Your Uncle/Front
25 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston
Friday, May 8, 7-9 pm
FREE
Contributions from: Cynthia Bargar, Sarah Bayer, Leslie Clark, Martin Cockroft, Victoria Cyr, Mary Driscoll, Kurt Cole Eidsvig, Leora Fox, John Gayle, Christie Lee Gibson, Frederick Farryl Goodwin, Silvia Graziano, Amy Demus Grunder, Stacey Lane, Meron Langsner, Mark Harvey Levine, Ellen Margaret Lewis, Marc S. Miller, Loyda Navarro, Bevin O'Gara, Larry Pitt, Steven Rumpler, Ed Stever, Nick Thorkelson, Douglas Urbank, Joanna Vogel . . . and more!
Coordinated by Silvia Graziano
Information and directions at: www.fortpointtheatrechannel.org |
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| On Fighting So That I May Write About It... |
[Apr. 19th, 2009|02:23 pm] |
"I should have mentioned, Burt teaches Aikido at the 'Y'" - Anna, from Burn This by Lanford Wilson
I am about to go into rehearsal for Burn This with Yellow Taxi Productions in Nashua, NH.
This is especially exciting as it's a play that figures prominently in my dissertation. It's not clear at this point whether my work on this production will lead to a chapter section or a footnote, but this is sure to be extremely useful in my process.
I recently had the opportunity to interview the original fight director and I just returned from a research trip to the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library where I saw the archived recording of the Broadway production. The timing of this opportunity is rather good.
And now, I go back to being excited about my reading later today :) |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 16th, 2009|10:44 pm] |
THIS IS NOT A PLAY, being this semester's final scene showcase for my Intro to Acting students at Tufts University, will take place on April 23rd in the acting classroom of the Aidekman Arts building.
It will include selections from:
Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches
Don Juan in Chicago
Essential Self-Defense
Fool for Love
In the Blood
Jitney
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Mr. Marmalade
I've been having a lot of fun directing these. |
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| "Where am I?" - "You're at a crossroads. Tres' metaphoric, no?" |
[Apr. 15th, 2009|10:47 am] |
Like a gift from the heavens it was easy to tell
It was love from above that could save me from Hell
She had fire in her soul it was easy to see
How the Devil himself could be pulled out of me - Santana, "Into the Night"
There is a staged reading of The Devil's Own Game planned by Bare Bodkin for this Sunday, April 19th at 7:30PM at the Zamparelli Room of the Student Center at Tufts University.
The director is Tom Fish, who is one of my colleagues from the graduate program and who has staged my work before.
The cast includes Tasha Milkman, Sabrina Karczewski, and Joe Pikowski. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 14th, 2009|09:21 am] |
I've just been given official notification that my poem "Handiwork," will be presented in Fort Point Theatre Channel's Exclamation Point 6! Performing Poetry event on May 8th.
My director will be M. Bevin O'Gara.
"Handiwork" was published in the Spring 2003 edition of the literary journal, Laurel Moon, though I had originally written it several years earlier. |
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