EXTRA CRITICUM

Achtung Playwrights! National Playwriting Month '08 Begins Nov. 1

Write a play in one month! That's the clarion call from NaPlWriMo (National Playwriting Month) founder Dorothy Lemoult who was inspired by the National Novel Writing Month. To get in on the fun, visit the NaPlWriMo official website. it's fun, it's kinda crazy and you may end up having written one more script!

What's not to like?

Street Theatre: The Crush on Kushner

Overheard from two snarky playwrights at the Drama Book Shop on Friday:

“You read about Kushner?”

“Yeah. Unbelieveable. Two-hundred thousand dollars. Like he needs it. Like Angels in America isn’t floating him for the rest of his life. AND, his movie work for effin’ Speilberg. That musta got him several hundred thou right there. If they’re gonna give a prize for playwriting, how about giving it to people who really need it?!”

I wanted to smack you guys with the back of my hand, or at least thump your heads with the thick Lillian Hellman anthology I was holding. I just hope you guys are Loopers [ed. note: this was originally published in the Loop, an essential newsletter for playwrights founded by Gary Garrison] so I can set you straight on a couple of things. First, the back story for the rest of the readers:

Houses of the Holy

Ten years ago this week, Matthew Shephard died. That night, Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi opened at Manhattan Theater Club, with police dogs and metal detectors, and ugly violent threats. The profound show of the worst side of human nature surrounding those two events shared a common cause: hate.

While the odious Fred Phelps still pickets funerals (of soldiers killed in Iraq these days), Corpus Christi's reception has undergone a sea change; last May, when we were in Dublin for the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, I had a chance to see Los Angeles's 108 Theatre's production of the McNally play. In an ancient building, first a theatre in the 1600s, then a Roman Catholic church, now once again a theatre, I got to see an achingly beautiful work that moved me in many ways: the part of me that's a theater artist; the part that's a lesbian; and the part that's still very much a Christian (and who is NOT "intrisincally disordered" thank you very much).

Critic on the Spot: Matthew Gilbert v.6

As our 3rd Critic on the Spot, we welcome Matthew Gilbert, television critic for the Boston Globe. Among the shrines at which he has worshipped during his tenure: The Sopranos, Freaks and Geeks, Six Feet Under, Scrubs, Lost and The Office. He has written celebrity and author interviews for the Globe, served as literary and managing editor at Boston Review, clerked at a number of local bookstores, and gotten his MA in Literature. He has had other jobs and assignments, too, but he can no longer remember them because TV has destroyed his brain. Today: more questions from Andrew Altenburg.

Q:
It was disheartening to find out that Chris Carter never had any real back story to back up his elaborate mythology on the X FILES.. and quite frankly aside from the absurd gay subplot, this is what kept me from seeing the movie. If the creator of the series doesn't care about his own story, why should I? I bring this up because I wonder, as a TV critic, it's your job to keep track (to some degree anyway) of all the various storylines on various serialized shows.. which leads me to a few questions:

David Picker and Scott Rudin on Movies—Past, Present and Future

This evening I attended a fascinating event sponsored by the Producers Guild of America—a conversation between two enormously prolific movie producers, who between them can lay claim to many of the most important films of the past several decades. If you're not familiar with the names Scott Rudin or David Picker, click on their names here and you'll jump to their respective imdb pages. Odds are good they've each had a hand in a film that you experienced as profoundly moving. Picker is most well-known perhaps for having run United Artists during its heyday.

What I found so astonishing about what they had to say today was that, in large part, they managed to both confirm so many of the disheartening features of the current landscape and yet, in spite of this, both men project an entirely convincing optimism about the future of American filmmaking.

Critic on the Spot: Matthew Gilbert v.5

As our 3rd Critic on the Spot, we welcome Matthew Gilbert, television critic for the Boston Globe. Among the shrines at which he has worshipped during his tenure: The Sopranos, Freaks and Geeks, Six Feet Under, Scrubs, Lost and The Office. He has written celebrity and author interviews for the Globe, served as literary and managing editor at Boston Review, clerked at a number of local bookstores, and gotten his MA in Literature. He has had other jobs and assignments, too, but he can no longer remember them because TV has destroyed his brain. Today: The first 2 of 5 questions from Andrew Altenburg.

Q:
It was disheartening to find out that Chris Carter never had any real back story to back up his elaborate mythology on the X FILES.. and quite frankly aside from the absurd gay subplot, this is what kept me from seeing the movie. If the creator of the series doesn't care about his own story, why should I? I bring this up because I wonder, as a TV critic, it's your job to keep track (to some degree anyway) of all the various storylines on various serialized shows.. which leads me to a few questions:

Thanksgiving in Berlin

If you find yourself in Berlin over Thanksgiving, and you're in the mood to see a dance film festival, why not stop by the POOL 08 Internationales TanzFilmFestival. On Sunday, November 30 at 20:30, they will  screen my film, Tango Octogenario. With any luck, and by that I mean, if I can score free accommodations, I'll be there to greet you in person. If you have any leads on the accommodations front, please feel free to share. I'm a very good guest, if I do say so myself.

For more info on the fest click here.

For more info on the film click here.

Critic on the Spot: Matthew Gilbert v.4

As our 3rd Critic on the Spot, we welcome Matthew Gilbert, television critic for the Boston Globe. Among the shrines at which he has worshipped during his tenure: The Sopranos, Freaks and Geeks, Six Feet Under, Scrubs, Lost and The Office. He has written celebrity and author interviews for the Globe, served as literary and managing editor at Boston Review, clerked at a number of local bookstores, and gotten his MA in Literature. He has had other jobs and assignments, too, but he can no longer remember them because TV has destroyed his brain. Today's question comes from John Yearley.

Moonlighting in Vermont...

One of the cool things about working in Burlington is that you get to work with local folks. Like the state representative for Burlington! He's one of the 4 other actors in my show from Burlington. They are all so funny and just so grounded and all have these other lives that are so interesting! It's a very different experience. It's reminiscent of high school sometimes, when you had the lead and everyone in the cast wanted to be your friend. Not only that, but there is a gleeful joy reminding me of that time when theatre was fun and about playing and not about focusing on how it will get you your next gig. [ed. note: for related post see: The Big Break Syndrome]

We do a preview on Tuesday and I'm still not off book, nor is "Mom", and we're just a tad nervous about grey matter retention. I don't stop talking. The good thing is... there's a bar, and folks can bring their cocktails to their seats. Tech tomorrow!

Defiance trailer now online

Edward Zwick's latest film, Defiance—a film I am proud to say I co-produced—opens December 12th in the U.S. and in January in most markets abroad.

The latest trailer has just gone live and, like the film on which it's based, is pretty darn amazing. (not that I'm biased or anything...)

Check it out here:

Vote with Your Dollars - Boycott Batman at the Quad!

Several so-called Art Houses that have traditionally played independent and foreign films are responding to the economic crisis in an extraordinarily short-sighted and bizarre manner. They are playing Hollywood movies on their screens.

Wait...you want me to do ANOTHER one?

No, I'm just kidding. I've been fussing about what to blog about next since the first post. It's a damn good thing I don't keep a personal blog. I'd be writing about deciding between cereal and toast in the morning. (Toast, blueberry jelly, give a piece to the bearded dragon).

Then I had to pick categories for the post; by Kathleen Warnock is easy, the others not so much. But it feeds right into what I've been mulling about for the last several days: genre.

Critic on the Spot: Matthew Gilbert v.3

As our 3rd Critic on the Spot, we welcome Matthew Gilbert, television critic for the Boston Globe. Among the shrines at which he has worshipped during his tenure: The Sopranos, Freaks and Geeks, Six Feet Under, Scrubs, Lost and The Office. He has written celebrity and author interviews for the Globe, served as literary and managing editor at Boston Review, clerked at a number of local bookstores, and gotten his MA in Literature. He has had other jobs and assignments, too, but he can no longer remember them because TV has destroyed his brain. Today's question comes from Robert David Sullivan.

A 2nd Look at... New York, New York

This is Martin Scorsese's much-maligned 1977 masterpiece starring Robert DeNiro and Liza Minnelli, with Mary Kay Place, Barry Primus, Lionel Stander, Georgie Auld, Diahnne Abbott and Clarence Clemons. During the heyday of location shooting and gritty documentary-style filmmaking, nobody wanted to see a "Method musical" shot on soundstages. (Milos Forman's adaptation of Hair, shot mostly on location in New York City and released two years later, was much more appealing to critics and audiences.) But there is so much to adore in Scorsese's film, an hommage to Liza's parents with elements of Doris Day's life story. Outstanding art direction, cinematography, score, costumes, film editing, make-up.

I Should Be So Lucky

I should be so lucky! Shouldn’t I? I mean, I myself, Sara Pauley. Have a steady day job. …but it is nowhere related to theatre. Which is a huge bummer. Now, I realize that there is a rough economy that’s on the brink of falling apart and I realize that a full time day job would be the answer to a lot of out of work theater artists’ dreams. I know it was to me when I couldn’t buy groceries and was maintaining all of my sustenance from popcorn because that was all I could afford. Not to mention trying to make it work by cater-waitering and pasting some restaurant / temping / babysitting jobs up there to even things out while I did my day auditions.