EXTRA CRITICUM

Today's Cacophony of 'Original Voices' is Almost Deafening

Just saw Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and, well, if it hadn't already been said by so many others before me, I might be running around letting the world know that Rajiv Joseph is certainly one original voice. In fact, I spent much of his play with that moniker running through my head. Like fireworks going off moment to moment to breathtaking moment, my brain kept remarking: "Oh my! What an original voice!" Even, "What a gorgeous original voice!"

Unfortunately, an original voice does not necessarily guarantee an enduring work of Art.

A Crazy Way to Live? Please Elaborate.

This morning on my way back from the gym, I shared the elevator with two silent women. As I turned to get off at my floor, one of them remarked to the other: "This is a crazy way to live."

What do you suppose she meant, exactly?

Wedding of the Century - in Hudson

Tonight at TSL in Hudson, NY:

Linda Mussmann and Claudia Bruce are excited to announce that they will be married at the last stroke of midnight on Saturday July 23 / Sunday July 24, 2011.

The ceremony will be held at Time & Space Limited, located at 434 Columbia Street, Hudson, NY, 12534. The Honorable Richard Scalera, Mayor of the City of Hudson, and The Honorable Cheryl Roberts, Town Justice, Austerlitz, New York, will preside.

House of Blue Leaves (and the magic of less critical viewing)

When I was a kid, I saw the PBS telecast of The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare on American Playhouse. The production, a Lincoln Center revival, starred John Mahoney and Swoosie Kurtz. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was one of the seminal moments of my theatre life. There was something in that play, the combination of mad comedy and deep despair, that expanded my sense of what theatre could do. Later, when I became a playwright, I think I spent most of my early career trying to write my own House of Blue Leaves.

So when the recent Broadway revival was announced, I was thrilled. A friend of mine worked for the production, so I got free tickets to a preview.

Street Theatre: Not Just Any Old Street Light

This morning a guy climbed up to the top of a street light at the intersection of Broadway and 44th. After about 15 min., the cops arrived, followed by EMT. And for nearly an hour thereafter, they tried unsuccessfully to talk him down.

A crowd gathered. And then his real purpose became clear.

A Big Fish Lands On Stage

Earlier this month there was quite a bit of teeth-gnashing about playwrights working in film and TV because they can’t make a living from their playwriting.  Tony Kushner set off this latest wave of groans in an interview in Time Out New York.  Amidst all the sackcloth and ashes, I glimpsed two other events out of the corner of my eye.

New York State Legalizes Gay Marriage

Here's a bit of Streisand that seemed apropos. Enjoy!

4th Graders Don't Have Writers Block...

4th Graders don't have writers block... They don't.  Their imagination overflows.  It's non stop.  It's a torrent.

Today I volunteered over at 826LA.  An organization:  dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

It's an incredible organization.  It was started by Dave Eggers, who is a purty good writer himself.  One of the exciting things about each of the locations (look them up!) is they all come with a special kind of store front... in the case of the one in LA, it's a Time Travel Mart.  The one in Brooklyn is a Super Hero supply shop...  But, the real business is in the back rooms, helping kids with papers and creative writing.

Today's project was Choose Your Own Adventure day.  A group of 4th and 5th graders were going to make their own Choose Your Own Adventure book.  It started with the kids creating the location and what "You" were after.  Then the group divided for more pages (and choices) and once more, before finishes by writing the last four pages of the adventure.

The New York Times Provides Free Ad Space to Casting Directors

Imagine you're in real estate and your specialty is leasing store front properties to restauranteurs. You lease storefronts with big plate glass windows, some with a stoop, others with outdoor seating, etc. etc. Many varieties. One day you look around and you notice that you and a few of your buddies seem to have cornered the supply of all the storefronts with outdoor seating. An idea hits you. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could convince the world that the only restaurants with a fighting chance of success were those with outdoor seating? Never mind that this is New York and it's too cold to dine outside for 7-8 months of each year. You happen to have the direct line on all those storefronts, so, dammit, you're going to do whatever it takes to convince everyone of your axiom that without outdoor seating, any new venture is surely doomed.

"Aladdin" Cast Rings Director's Doorbell

The cast of Aladdin all dressed up as Mormon missionaries earlier this week to greet their director Casey Nicholaw.  The director had just returned from New York, where Sunday evening he and co-director Trey Parker had been honored with the Tony Award for “Best Direction of a Musical” for their work on the hit The Book of Mormon.  (Nicholaw is fourth from R. in front row.)

Relative Interruptibilty

Okay. First off, let me clarify one point. I do not understand Latin. I never even took it in High School. Although I did take Spanish, the cognates are limited and I cannot claim to be able to decipher most Latin phrases. I mean, I can figure out what "lux aeterna" means, but that's the extent of it. So, the point I'm making, I think, has nothing to do with language or text, but, rather, entirely with music.

Frequent readers of E.C. know that I generally use my iPod only at the gym and when there, it is usually full of pop music. [ed note: See From Bach to Gaga and Lady Gaga's been bumped off my iPod by Athena Reich] This week I decided to try something new. I emptied my little device and filled it with one thiing only: Mozart's Requiem.

Gary Garrison & David Dower on the PBS NewsHour

Hey, Kids! Our very own member of the E.C. family, Gary Garrison, wearing his Dramatists Guild Executive Director hat, recently made an appearance on the PBS NewsHour.

Check it out:

Cartoon: Masterclass in Self-Production

Late casting additions to Kennedy V

These actors just added to the primo cast lined up for tonight's reading of my play, Kennedy V.

P.J. Sosko, Patricia Noonan and Jason Odell Williams. Plus the following cast, directed by Jeremy Dobrish:

Playwrights in Mind: A National Conversation. Wow.

I've been to a lot of conferences. I've presented at a fair number. Many have involved writers, as did this one. Never before have I attended one at which I was moved to tears so many times. There was an electricity in the air in Fairfax. Maybe it has something to do with where we are in the history of American theatre and its relationship to new work and those who write it. I'm not sure. But for the 350+ writers who gathered from all corners of the U.S. (and a few from abroad, too), these past few days were transformative. Here's a bit of video from Julia Jordan's heartfelt keynote address: