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1100 Playwright Interviews A Sean Abley Rob Ackerman E.E. Adams Johnna Adams Liz Duffy Adams Tony Adams David Adjmi Keith Josef Adkins Nicc...

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Nov 29, 2008

playlist for Incendiary

Ring of Fire --(Cash or cover) Fire and Rain --Me First and the Gimme Gimmes cover This Fire--Franz Ferdinand Firestarter--Prodigy Light My Fire (Doors or Cover) There's a Fire--OK Go Fire On The Mountain (cover?) Dig For Fire --the Pixies Fire--Hendrix or cover Bath of Fire--Presidents Of The United States... Fireball Stomp-- Amazing Royal Crowns Vampire Forest Fire --Arcade Fire Living in an Abandoned Firehouse --Magnetic Fields The Roof Is On Fire --Bloodhound Gang Piano Fire --Sparklehorse This Heart's On Fire --Wolf Parade Love-Building On Fire --Talking Heads Burning Down the House --Talking Heads If You Love Somebody, Set Them On Fire --Dead Milkmen Down In Flames --Reel Big Fish Burn --The Cure Felt Good To Burn --Flaming Lips Burning Too --Fugazi Burn, Don't Freeze --Sleater Kinney anything to add?

photos from Nerve at Naked Stage in FL

Don't forget, it closes on the 30th. Go see it now! Photos by Michael Paul.

Nov 27, 2008

something new

this is the beginning of something new. It is very much a first draft. LOUISE (on the phone) Physics has a name for the things you can’t see. Elsewhere. Like if I’m transmitting something light years away, the time it’s in transmission, we lose it. During that time it’s elsewhere. It’s unknowable. My sister used to bury my favorite toys when we were kids. It took me a while to figure out what was happening. I would get a new doll and I would express my love for it and its yarn hair and it’s jagged smile and before I knew it, it was gone. When I finally figured it out, I was able to unearth some of my toys. Never the ones I wanted most, but I found a few by digging all day long, day after day in randomly chosen places. Eventually the adults got involved and my excavations were shut down. Maybe I should have become an archeologist. Are archeologists lonely? Do they stay up at night thinking about civilizations they wish they could have been a part of? You know, loneliness is the only thing I can’t get over. I accept that he’s dead. I accept that I’m terrified of leaving the house, but I can’t stand how much it hurts to be alone. It burns with lack. The emptiness. I could take all the rest if there wasn’t such an emptiness. Sometimes I order things I don’t want just so the delivery man will show up and talk to me for a minute. But he just hands me the package and leaves again. What about you? Is your job lonely? It must be nice talking to people all day. No, I know, but still. Oh, right. I’m sorry I wasn’t letting you talk. Oh, well I don’t have a car so no, I don’t need car insurance. Hello? Hello?

Nov 18, 2008

Page 56

This from Kip--on facebook. Do it on your blog or on your facebook wall. Rules: * Grab the book nearest you. Right now. * Turn to page 56. * Find the fifth sentence. * Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note to your wall. * Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST. mine is: "In fact, Keith was displeased."

Nov 17, 2008

revelations and waiting

I think I've discovered that the way to write a pilot for me is to try and write the scenes like I would write a play first. Otherwise, the spark is gone somehow. I'm going to try this next. I think it will work. What else? Kristen and I went walking out in the cold yesterday to the big Central Library on Nicollet. PostSecret has an exhibit there. (Yes, Kristen has finally returned from her teaching/playwright gig in Kansas.) Earlier in the week I saw the Workhaus production of Trista Baldwin's new play. That was pretty great. I also passed in my commission this past week. I read it over this play called Hearts Like Fists and I have to say I kind of love it. I hope other people feel similarly. So now I need some work--a temp gig or a real gig. Writing things I love doesn't pay the bills . . . yet.

Nov 13, 2008

Olbermann on prop 8

an open apology

to everyone whose script I lost. I asked you for your script and then it sat on my computer desktop for weeks, months, possibly years. I was going to read it. Now though, my computer crashed and it's gone. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

Nov 12, 2008

another Nerve review from Miami

This one is a bit bizarre. It doesn't seem like a negative review but I disagree with a lot of it. (though I haven't seen the production.) I'm also not sure why the writer keeps comparing it to Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. A couple of quotes: "Nerve's protagonists are not only more profoundly unbalanced than those in Danny, but also arguably the most fucked-up people ever to swap spit on a stage." Really? That can't be true. I mean perhaps flattering if true, but that statement just makes me think the writer hasn't seen too many plays. another one: "In Nerve, Elliot and Susan will not save each other; they will poison each other. This is not reciprocal healing, but the promise of infinite and eternal sickness. They will never call each other out or tend to hurts. Without the hurts, they might not need each other at all." and "Everybody who leaves the theater feels a little more naked, a little more vulnerable, and at least a little frightened. And anyone who denies that is either single, stupid, or hopelessly deluded." Wow, that seems just a little crazy. All the individuals in the audience have to respond the same way? With fear? I mean if that's true it's kind of cool, but I do think my play is a little more hopeful than that. Like these people will be okay someday despite everything. But that's just my opinion.

Nov 9, 2008

7 strange

Isaac, who generously let me crash while I was in nyc, tagged me with a meme. Thanks, Isaac! Seven strange things about myself: Haven't I done this before? Like twice? I'm trying to think of things I haven't already said. 1. I have a Salicylate Sensitivity. If I eat too many of certain vegetables and fruits or processed foods or drink too much tea or wine I get hives. I first noticed it last November. I now take a Zyrtec every day. 2. I am very allergic to chicken and turkey. Like, have trouble breathing allergic. (I know I've said this already but it might be the most unusual thing about me.) 3. When I was a little kid I used to sleep with a stuffed Ernie and a red plastic hammer. I remember thinking that Bert was a woman for some reason. I guess that was before I understood about homosexuality. I mean if they lived together, one of them must be a woman, right? And Ernie was the one I identified with so he must be the guy. 4. I was an Eagle scout. 5. All my notebooks are covered with collages. I also have a couple of canvases with layers and layers of paint and things. From time to time I add to them. I hope to make huge sculptures some day in a barn or a back yard or desert. 6. I once had blue and green hair. I've been thinking recently about tattoos or a piercing. But that may have to wait until my mid life crisis. 7. When I was 11 or so, I caught a sand shark with a fishing pole in a saltwater marsh in South Carolina. Per usual, the tagging ends here. Anyone who would like to, please blog your 7 strange things.

Sarah Ruhl blogs

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