EXTRA CRITICUM

Love TV Lands in The Big Apple

From the moment I heard about Love TV, creation of performance artist, Rebecca McIntosh, I knew I had to know more. Fortunately for the E.C. community, she was kind enough to grant me an interview.

Q:
First of all, for those with their heads in the sand, could you give us the basic 411 of what you’re doing with Love TV?

A:
Love TV is a unique, bold and engaging interactive live art project that is winning hearts globally.  The project sees local legends as well as celebrities sharing their most intimate stories in the most public of spaces.  Interviewees share their tales of life and love within the private confines of my booth which are then broadcast live onto large screens for the local public to view and engage with. 

Come watch me wright August 23rd

OK. I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm really shy. Especially about my writing. But Micheline Auger is a very convincing force of nature and I couldn't say "no" so on Thursday August 23rd from 5PM to 6:30PM I will be planted in a storefront window writing (wrighting) a play (or tinkering, perhaps) on a laptop hooked up to a screen above for all to see from the street. Odd. Scary. Thought-provoking. Just the sort of thing I can't resist.

Here's a LINK to more info, including a list of the 75 other playwrights taking part.

Pulled from the Archives: Biz & Money Questions

Every few months or so, the editors at E.C. take a stroll through our archives and pull a group of interesting posts that are loosely related in theme to offer up to our readership for a second read. If you have a favorite post you'd like us to "pull from the archives," just email us and we'll try to locate it for you. Or, you could also just use the handy Search box in the right sidebar.

 

$146,500 for a Development Consultant?! by Rolando Teco

A Brave ACT at the Box Office by Duane Kelly

The Future of Independent Film Financing by David Licata

I Should Be So Lucky by Sara Pauley

There's a downside to operating "in the black." by Rolando Teco

New Straight Plays Bleed Red Ink on Broadway by Duane Kelly

Neighbors Say He Kept to Himself

A lot of the facts pouring in from Aurora, CO sound familiar. Neighbors say he kept to himself. Wasn't this true of the Virginia Tech gunman? And the Columbine gun-boys?

It's ironic that a group of total strangers gathered in a public space to share an entertainment experience were gunned down by a young man whose mental illness was most-likely amplified by his social isolation and subsequent alienation from others.

Broadway Jackpot Not Total Mirage for Writers

The Washington State Lottery identifies the odds of winning its Lotto jackpot as one in 6.99 million. That’s one of 6.99 reasons why I never buy a lottery ticket. The odds of writing a play that will have a successful run on Broadway are probably in the same statistical stratosphere. Fortunately, getting to Broadway is not a reason that I grind it out at my desk every day.

In theatre circles the author of a straight play (non-musical) is advised to forget about Broadway.  “Artistic merit is a minor consideration there anymore” and “it’s no longer the pinnacle of playwriting success” are views commonly heard. (In this vein top TV comedy writer Ken Levine has blogged about how Broadway aspirations have waned for TV writers.) Persevere locally and focus on craft, we are told. I’ve heard this counsel loud and clear, and I follow it.

Gwydion Suilebhan on Artistic Peacock Communities

Fascinating talk given by activist-playwright-blogger Gwydion Suilebhan on the need for communities to tip the scales in favor of locally-grown art over imported art.

How Steely Dan Is Helping Me Edit My Film

A while back I was chatting with a friend about A Life’s Work and I said music influenced  it, and all my work, in a big way. My friend asked me to elaborate and I couldn’t really articulate it at the time, but here’s an example of what I mean, with apologies to those of you who can't stomach Steely Dan. (I do understand why some folks hate this band, I really do.)

In May I stumbled upon a TV show called Classic Albums  and watched an episode devoted to Steely Dan’s Aja album. (My relationship with Steely Dan has been tumultuous: loved them in the 70s, hated them in the 80s, 90s, 00s, appreciate them now.) When it came time to talk about the guitar solo in Peg, my ears perked up. The studio solo by Jay Graydon is possibly my favorite rock and roll-fusion-jazz-whatever 26-seconds of guitar ever put down on vinyl. I would have said that no matter what decade I was in.

The Guthrie: Big, Expansive, Expensive, Seductive

There's been a lot written about the way in which America's regional big boy theatres have spent the past few decades building up their physical plants and thus taking on the heavy burden of sizeable mortgages to cover the roof over their heads. Ben Pesner and Todd London's Outrageous Fortune probably does the best job of articulating and highlighting the various ramifications of this trend.

And still, in spite of all of that understanding of what it means for American Theatre that our theatres have become expansive and expensive pieces of real estate, on a recent visit to the Guthrie in Minneapolis, I have to admit I couldn't help being swept up in the beauty, grandeur and bravado of the place all over again. Here are 4 snapshots I took, in an efffor to capture what I felt.