Extra Criticum

Oy veh! Can someone please tell me what the word "dramaturgically" means?

I hear this word batted around constantly. Everywhere I turn I hear this sentence, or some variation on it.

We really tried to understand the piece dramaturgically.

Art vs. Commerce: Two world views collide within 12 hours of each other

Last night, we had our first Brevity Fest, at which about a dozen writers and musicians shared new work for an audience of roughly 75, who filled a cozy venue called El Cid where drinks and food were served and lots of people were moved.

This morning I took a meeting with a publicist who told me that nothing I've done is even worth discussing (or his time) unless and until I have a breakout hit.

Both are real. Both are valid. But one of these things moves me deeply while the other leaves me cold.

Die Fledermaus - a New Year's Eve tradition all 'round the world

Our opera company celebrated the New Year with a tradition that has lasted at our company for more than two decades and, if operaworld legend is to be believed, has been around almost since the late 1800s when Johann Strauss wrote the charming operetta in which Act II ends with a company-wide champagne toast.

Opera companies all over the world regularly offer a performance of this old standard on New Year's Eve as a special perk for special subscribers and, at least in our case, the result is a great fundraiser and a really fun party at which supporters of our company get to reconnect with each other and with their loyalty to us and our mission. Naturally, this got this gal thinkin...

Why do we (dramatists) swallow star casting without question?

My sister’s visiting the city and she asked me if I could snag her a pair of tickets to A Little Night Music. This charming little show has always been a success and I fully expected to have to work a bit to find good seats but I didn’t expect to be faced with wall-to-wall sold-out performances all week long. Of course it’s never bad news when theatre is sold out in my book but, still, I couldn’t stop wondering if the crowds were lining up for the show or for the cast.

Don't light up the stage in Colorado

Law Week Colorado reports that it's now illegal to smoke in character on a Colorado stage (HT: Don't Tase Me, Bro!):

Public health concerns trumped freedom of expression in a Colorado Supreme Court ruling this morning. In a 6-1 decision in Curious Theatre v. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the high court held that the state’s indoor smoking ban, enacted in 2006, bars actors from smoking onstage as part of plays.

Lady Gaga: "This song is about the one thing I hate more than money... the truth."

Just saw the first concert on Lady Gaga's new tour, which begins in Montreal. I was invited to attend this concert as a lark. I actually didn't really know much about her music before I went. This may be the best way to go to a concert. No expectations of any sort!

All I knew was that I was going to see a performer who has enjoyed the kind of meteoric success that encourages comparisons to Madonna.

Note to board: Please don't recline during board meetings!

This post'll be short.Apologies for being absent from the blog for awhile but the Fall production schedule here has been brutal.

But something happened this past weekend that really got my panties all in a knot. (is that the expression? well, you know what I mean).

Are openly gay actors stranded in sitcom land?

In LA Weekly, Patrick Range McDonald wonders how Hollywood, so vocal in favor of gay rights, still keeps actors in the closet:

In 2009, this situation seems incredible to those who have watched the tremendous success of Neil Patrick Harris, who became a star on Doogie Howser, M.D. Harris came out nearly three years ago. His recent widely accepted and positively reviewed hosting of the Emmys seemed almost like a globally televised message from one side of Hollywood to another: It’s okay to cast leading men who are gay, so get over it, studio heads. Harris continues to win audiences over, playing womanizer Barney Stinson on the CBS hit show How I Met Your Mother.

I love NPH, but his post-coming-out career has been limited to comic roles;

In a country without real govt. funding of the arts, this is what a project announcement looks like

As a big fan of my friend Taylor Mac's work, I eagerly opened the latest email from HERE Performing Arts Center announcing his latest show. What struck me about the following text is how much of it is devoted to financial support.

Check it out. It's mind-boggling. To make it simpler I've color-coded everything that has to do with funding in RED and everything else in GREEN.

A Paranoid Conspiracy Theory of 21st C. PR: Could the Jackman cell phone video have been manufactured?

So most loyal readers of this blog know that it was here where the September 13, 2009 incident involving Hugh Jackman and a rude and oblivious Broadway ticket-holder first broke. So, I can tell you here that this really happened and I witnessed it and thought it worthy of sharing with y'all. [see: Hugh Jackman Talks to Woman in Row P]

That said... I couldn't help but wonder about the odds of something quite similar happening again not two weeks later at the same Broadway show but this time well within the sightlines of a hand-held videocamera so that within hours the video had gone completely viral.

Other Cities Take Note: It's no accident that so many recent New York successes have come from Chicago

Seeing A Steady Rain recently reminds one of the panoply of stunning shows both on Broadway and Off that have originated in Chicago in the past few years. This got me thinking. It certainly cannot be mere coincidence that's bringing all these shows to NYC direct from the windy city.

Are we to conclude that the playwrights in Chicago are simply more talented than those in, say, Boston?

I don't think so.

Who Makes You Speechless?

Sometimes, when people who don't know me very well find out that I've made a couple of films, they  ask, "So, you must have met some famous people then?"

Like Robert DeNiro? Or one of those kids from Twilight? Sorry, no. But if I'm in a particularly goofy mood, I'll tell them about meeting John MacKay.

Who?

I Live in New Jersey or My Inner Snob

I arrived in Brooklyn when I was 22. It was the presidency of George Bush the Elder (remember him?). I was as naïve and frightened as any boy who has spent his entire life in school would be.

For me, it all happened there. I became an actor. I unbecame an actor. I found my calling as a playwright. I married twice - once badly, once well. My son was born there. Hell, I was practically born there. And now I was leaving. For NEW JERSEY (Rolo, please add ominous organ sound).

Yes it's true I'm a Certified BCAT TV Producer and I need YOUR HELP

Firstly, I am thrilled to be a BCAT (Brooklyn Community Arts Television) Producer and am now about to live a vision I had 10 years ago on public access television.

My actor/comedian/musician friends and I are working on a "Talk/Variety" show with me as the Host - hoping it will be a cross between Chelsea Lately, Craig Ferguson (The Late Late Show) and, yes it's true, Howard Stern (I am known for my potty humor and mouth).  There's only one major difference and we're not ready to reveal that just yet.