EXTRA CRITICUM

Print Magazine Death Watch: Entertainment Weekly, safe for now, but how long?

As the print publishing industry caves in on itself, Entertainment Weekly (one of the few mags I subscribe to and read voraciously every week) has announced that they are letting go of a few staffers and naming Jess Cagle of PEOPLE as the new editor.

How to Have a Nervous Breakdown Before Your Opening Night

So after realizing that I am producing my solo show a scant two days before the first performance, I had to go into overdrive. I have produced before, but when I am broke, I really don’t prefer it.

One of the theater company’s shows was performing the night before and so I was not able to enter the space and rehearse in it until the night before my show. In a few hours, I would have to rehearse, do my tech and dress rehearsals all in one. To add to my pain, my director booked a gig in London and could not be there at all. So I was doing it alone.

The Craziest 2 Months of my Life!

I am about to embark on the two most maddening, artistically fruitful months of my life. Perhaps I should explain.

I am an actor-writer. In reality, I do a lot of artistic things, just not all at the same time. I often tell people that artistically, "I go where the check clears."

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:

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.

Cleveland Plain Dealer to Music Critic: You're Too Critical!

An incredible story on the front page of today's New York Times Arts Section. [See: Music Critic vs. Maestro: One Loses His Beat]

In an astonishing development, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has just removed their top music critic Donald Rosenberg from the symphony beat because of his somewhat harsh view of the Cleveland Symphony's conductor, Franz Welser-Möst.

This raises serious questions, to put it mildly.

The Sorry State of (most) Film Festivals Today

Most film festivals promote themselves with some variation on the following sales pitch:

Come to the Brand X Festival where you can discover a wealth of cinema from all over the world, the likes of which rarely, if ever, grace the screens of your local multiplex.

Trouble is, the come-on's no longer true.

Getting Back to the Meaning of "Ensemble" at Ensemble Studio Theatre

If Artistic Director William Carden has his way, the future for Ensemble Studio Theatre may be bright again. In what can only be taken as a gutsy move that swims against the tide which flows toward smaller and smaller casts, Carden is quoted as follows in E.S.T.'s most recent email to members:

One of our goals this season is to reinforce the 'Ensemble' part of our name by presenting larger cast plays. Close Ties will allow our member actors, with their shared history, the rare opportunity to play three generations of the same family in this wonderful play.

Playwrights, directors and actors everywhere should receive this as welcome news in an environment of shrinking revenue in which more and more companies are turning to inferior scripts simply due to their smaller cast sizes. Kudos to William Carden for taking a bold stance on this issue and for having the guts to take E.S.T. on a different course. Hopefully the gamble will pay off as audiences respond to the unique quality offered by a true repertory company, something akin to an endangered species these days.

Sexism vs. Homophobia? Clyde Fitch Cuts Through the Bull

In the spirited and often eye-opening blog, Clyde Fitch Report, Leonard Jacobs proves once again that he has a gift for cutting through the layers of muck that other writers seem to miss.

On the recent brewing controversy over playwright Theresa Rebeck's Guardian piece in which she revives the "old boys" complaint against Broadway, see this Clyde Fitch post.

Every Producer's Wet Dream — An Audience Fighting to See a Show

This item caught my eye from Thomas Cott's daily email, "You've Cott Mail."

From The Stranger [Seattle weekly], issue dated 9/3/08

Last week, a piece of performance art almost literally drove a woman crazy.  Some performers were doing something secret in a gigantic, silvery box that filled the small stage of [Seattle’s] Rendezvous Theater. The woman wanted in. 

Street Theatre: Pass The Kool Aid...

I'm usually "just" the entertainment guy and while I work in news, and I'm an avid news junkie and political beast, I always thought I wasn't versed enough to write ABOUT politics.

Then, as a long time AOL member and reading what some of their so-called experts post about the political scene, I figure I'm the second coming of Tim Russert compared to some of these people.

And the people writing posts and reader commentary for the Republican right? The ones so enamored of Sarah Palin? Well, at least the ones who can SPELL Palin. Let me start there with the first gnomic truth...for ALL the people who had the gall to say Barack Obama wasn't qualified, just what makes Sarah qualified after giving ONE speech ... that, oh, for the record was written FOR HER.

Director Calls Himself a Whore

This item caught my eye from Today's New York Times:

Critics may not be allowed an early peek at 20th Century Fox’s “Babylon A.D.,” but one person close to the film has already given his assessment. In an interview with AMCtv.com, the movie’s director, Mathieu Kassovitz, called the film “pure violence and stupidity,” Variety reported. Mr. Kassovitz, who also directed “Gothika” and appeared in “Amélie,” apparently delayed production on “Babylon A.D.” for three weeks for personal reasons. He also failed to meet many press obligations, according to the studio. The film includes Gérard Depardieu and Vin Diesel. Mr. Kassovitz said in the interview that parts of the movie resembled “a bad episode of ‘24.’ ” Fox declined to comment on Mr. Kassovitz’s remarks, but did say that it was still planning to release the film in the United States on Friday.

You gotta love a guy who's willing to put it out there like that. Of course, it does beg the question: "Did somebody put a gun to your head and force you to accept this job?"

"Intellectually disabled"?

From the New York Times:

LOS ANGELES — A coalition of disabilities groups is expected as early as Monday to call for a national boycott of the film “Tropic Thunder” because of what the groups consider the movie’s open ridicule of the intellectually disabled.

What was wrong with "mentally disabled"? It doesn't have enough syllables, I guess. Must be the same syndrome that, as George Carlin explained, turned "shell shock" into "post-traumatic stress disorder."

Ladies & Gentlemen, Please Behave Yourselves!

Last night my boyfriend and I had the pleasure of seeing Taylor Mac perform his The Young Ladies Of... at HERE Performing Arts Center. Now, boys and girls, I am old enough to have directed a show at HERE back before HERE was fancy enough to assume the "Performing Arts Center" suffix. I remember the HERE where before each night's performance,

Endgame to Broadway?

There's talk of the recent BAM production of Beckett's Endgame following in the footsteps of Patrick Stewart's Scottish King. If this talk is true, this would be some coup. How long has it been since we've seen Beckett on a Broadway stage?