Updates.

It’s been a while since I blogged.  Might be a while until I blog again.  (I’m hopefully creating a new personal website soon, and will be moving my blog there.  Hopefully.)

I figure I’ll fill this space with an updated calendar of what lies ahead this year.

May 25 — Hibernating Rattlesnakes at the Nuyorican: I perform alongside a bunch of other playwrights, poets, performance artists at the world famous home of spoken word.  Last time this year.

May 27 — Ars Nova Play Group: it’s a closed event, but of note as the first ever reading of my new moderately absurd baseball play VORP: Value Over Replacement Player.  Assuming, of course, I can write it this week.  More on VORP shortly.

May 28 — Brooklyn College graduation (I receive my MFA in Performing Arts Management), which I will not be attending because of…

May 28 — The Lark roundtables: first ever readings of my new plays Tyree and Violenter, or Aurora and The Army.  Amazing casts made up of amazing women (one dude in two plays — imagine that!), and a no pressure to see how much of a mess I’ve made in trying to write the last two plays of The Guernica Trilogy.

June 4 – 11 — The Orchard Project:  A week in the Catskills to work a lot more on VORP (and maybe, if I’m lucky, a little on Rebecca Oaxaca Lays Down a Bunt, the second of at least two, maybe three, baseball plays I’ll be working on this year).  I’ll be alongside a pretty exciting group of companies and artists, and I might even be productive.  This trip is also personally exciting because it will be the first real test for Baby Computer, the HP mini I bought earlier this year.  She’s a tiny little netbook, and she’s going to make a week like this way easier than ever.

June 19 — Minneaopolis.  But not for good.  Just a quick few days of stopover to survey the scene before…

June 22 — International Thespian Festival: I’m usually here as a dramaturg and workshop leader, but this year, we’re trying something different.  I’ll be selecting, teaching, and leading a small group of student actor/writers in the  creation of a brand new piece of theater.  I’ve got no clue what it’ll be, but it’ll be amazing.

July 9 – 12 — Something that I’m not sure I can say yet.  It’s not a big deal or a huge secret, but I don’t know if there’s an official announcement.  I can say that I’ll be serving as a dramaturg on the project, and that I’ve worked on this project before, and I’m very proud of it.  I’ll update as soon as it’s announced.

At some point in here, I’ve also got a short piece in a Chicago festival, starring two actors that I’ve worked with before and am big fans of, and directed by one of my former stage managers.  More news when it’s announced, but for now, I’ll say it’s a long road ahead.  That’s a terrible hint.

August 8 — Specifics are still hazy, but I’ll be in town to participate in a panel discussion about a book in which a play (of mine) will be published.  Which play?  Why, Welcome to Arroyo’s, thanks for asking.  I’ve spoken about the book before (it’s the first critical anthology of hip-hop theater, and I’m honored to be a part of it), but there are apparently some name changes and other goodness in the works, so updates will come as they come.

And then…the big stuff.

September 25 – November 1 — The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity at Chicago’s Victory Gardens (with Teatro Vista): Part one of what’s being called a “rolling world premiere.”  I’m not one for hyperbole, but this might be the coolest production of anything anywhere ever.  For me, at least.  Directed by the amazing Eddie Torres, starring actors who are awesome but not yet announced, and featuring all kinds of cool pro wrestling goodness.  Part

October 23 – November 22 — The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity at Philadelphia’s Interact Theatre Company.   Part two of the rolling world premiere.  We’re still in the early stages here, but I’m feeling awfully good.  AND…it’s close to NYC!  So come on down.  Directed by Artistic Director Seth Rozin, starring Philly’s own Juan Pacheco, and awesome.

There’s also some Jerome Fellowship stuff all mixed in here, but I’ll save that.  There’s also (and I’ve buried this here as a reward for sloshing your way through) the possibility of a third (and fourth?) Chad Deity production somewhere in these United States in the months after Philly (all part of this rolling world premiere thing), but no info until there’s info.  And finally (for now):

April 15 – May 16, 2010 — Welcome to Arroyo’s at Chicago’s American Theater Company.  Nothing rolling here.  This is the world premiere of my baby, the very first full-length play I ever wrote.  Directed by Jaime Castaneda, starring ATC company members Joe Minoso and Sadieh Rifai (along with a great group of actors that I know but can’t announce), and featuring DJs, graffiti, the whole nine yards.  Chances are, this will make me cry.

There’s some other stuff mixed in here, but yeah.  this is plenty.  I’ll update as updates exist.

I’m Back…for The Tonys.

Quick thoughts on the nominations this morning…my list is coming from the New York Times blog after watching on NY1:

Play Revival | 8:42 a.m.

“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”
“Mary Stuart”
“The Norman Conquests”
“Waiting for Godot”

No surprises here. I’ve only seen Godot, and was definitely impressed.  I think Mary Stuart is more likely to win in the acting categories, and I think that Norman Conquests is too much  of an amorphous monster (three shows? six hours?) to really garner votes.  I’ll call it between Joe Turner and Godot for now.

Musical Revival | 8:41 a.m.

“Guys and Dolls”
“Hair”
“Pal Joey”
“West Side Story”

Two horse race, much as we’d suspect. Guys and Dolls and Pal Joey were critically reviled. The other two were loved.  I still think West Side is the show to beat — it’s West Side after all.

Leading Actress in a Musical | 8:39 a.m.

Stockard Channing, “Pal Joey”
Sutton Foster, “Shrek the Musical”
Allison Janney, “9 to 5″
Alice Ripley, “Next to Normal”
Josefina Scaglione, “West Side Story”

Next to Normal is going to be a mini-juggernaut. It still looks and sounds like something I’d hate, but it’s gathering momentum. I feel confident about Ripley here — theater folks love her.  But the interview she’s giving on NY1 right now is a little bizarre. Pat Kiernan looks a little miserable  and lost.

Leading Actor in a Musical | 8:38 a.m.

The Three Billy Elliots, “Billy Elliot”
Gavin Creel, “Hair”
Brian d’Arcy James, “Shrek the Musical”
Constantine Maroulis, “Rock of Ages”
J. Robert Spencer, “Next to Normal”

It’s hard to imagine voters not being overwhelmed by the three Billys.

Score | 8:38 a.m.

“Billy Elliot”
“Next to Normal”
“9 to 5″
“Shrek the Musical”

If Next to Normal sneaks in here, it’ll be a real interesting night.

Leading Actress in a Play | 8:37 a.m. 
Hope Davis, “God of Carnage”
Jane Fonda, “33 Variations”
Marsha Gay Harden, “God of Carnage”
Janet McTeer, “Mary Stuart”
Harriet Walter, “Mary Stuart”

Jane Fonda will garner support, but McTeer seems like the frontrunner here.  Will the two Mary Stuart actors cancel each other out?

Best Play | 8:26 a.m. 
“Dividing the Estate”
“God of Carnage”
“resons to be pretty”
“33 Variations”

I’m going to bite my tongue.

Best Musical | 8:26 a.m. 
“Billy Elliot”
“Next to Normal”
“Rock of Ages”
“Shrek the Musical”

Congrats to David Lindsay-Abaire and company for the Shrek nod,And the Rock of Ages nod is a bit of a shocker — big congrats to them for pulling this whole Broadway run out – but this is down to the Billy monster and the little show that could. I think the monster is going to win. 

 

There are lots more awards, of course, but I’ll say this: I’m not very excited about most of this year’s nominees.  Except for Karen Olivo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Interview With Me.

On The Inexplicable Dumb Show podcast.  From Humana.

RIP Kenny Rivera.

I lost my cousin yesterday. I miss him.

The Pulitzer.

We’re 18 minutes away from, by all accounts, Ruined winning the Pulitzer. In The Heights seems to be the closest contender. Lydia would be right up there, based on everything I’ve heard, but without a New York production, it’s an uphill battle.

UPDATE: Yep. It’s Lynn. Congratulations. Heights was a runner-up, along with Becky Shaw.

UPDATE: Here’s an article on why this all matters (from the perspective of women writers — people of color aren’t mentioned, but the same all applies):

This season, according to American Theatre magazine, the most-produced play at regional theaters (barring “A Christmas Carol” and Shakespeare) is John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt,” which won the Pulitzer in 2005 and has since been made into a movie. At number 3, trailing Joe Mantello’s David Sedaris adaptation, “The Santaland Diaries,” is the 2007 Pulitzer winner, David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Rabbit Hole.” Also on the list are non-shortlisted plays by former Pulitzer winners (August Wilson, Tennessee Williams) and finalists (Sarah Ruhl, Theresa Rebeck). Ruhl and Rebeck are the only women in the top 10 aside from Harper Lee, whose Pulitzer-winning novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” was adapted, not by her, into a play.

It’s a bit of a rout, really, and the reasons for it remain fuzzy. Women make up half the population; surely they have half the stories to tell, don’t they? Surely they’ve been writing plays all along, haven’t they? The first woman to win a Pulitzer for drama was the long-forgotten Zona Gale, whose “Miss Lulu Bett” was the third play to win the prize, in 1921, a year after Eugene O’Neill was honored for “Beyond the Horizon.” Granted, women in the past encountered greater obstacles to education and professional success than they do these days, thus clearing the way for their male contemporaries to crowd the repertory and become today’s classic American playwrights. But one would have thought we’d be further along by now.

The Public Keeps Trying to Make Me Watch Shakespeare.

Look at the cast for Twelfth Night this summer.  I swear, I’m sick of Shakespeare, but stuff like this keeps pulling me back in.

Lily Allen.

It takes me a while to catch up to pop music these days.  This past week, I’ve become obsessed with this:

From My Google Alerts.

Here are some articles and other good stuff about , well, me.

My little show in Texas. The description of my piece is a little misleading: it’s actually a young girl playing me telling a personal story about becoming a man.

I’m doing a panel in Chicago…via Skype. It’s a true miracle of technology — the hosts of the panel read one of my posts here on this very blog, tracked me down on Facebook, and will patch me in via Skype.

And here’s a report from Humana. Seems they loved Brink!.

Notes From the 24 Hour Musicals.

1. $50 isn’t that much when you drink five vodka tonics.

2. Someone needs to get Nellie McKay into a Broadway musical ASAP.

3. Cheyenne Jackson, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Roger Bart, and the woman whose name I didn’t catch kind of stole the show, thanks in large part to Rinne Groff.

4. Rachel Dratch is inherently funny.

5. I talk a lot about Karen Olivo, but Mandy Gonzalez is just as much of a star. And just as beautiful. And took the subway home right after the show.

Congrats to Ari and everyone involved with the 24 Hour Musicals and the Orchard Project.

African-American Audiences.

I got a great bunch of articles in my inbox today as part of Thomas Cott’s You’ve Cott Mail newsletter. If you’re interested in the business side of show business, and you like news story aggregation, you should absolutely sign up. I’m going to make a post for each of these articles, and I’ll spread them out throughout the week.

First up: why aren’t black audiences supporting black theater artists?  That’s the question posed by this Minneapolis Star Tribune article.  The first of two really important ideas that jump out at me (emphasis mine):

“I get uncomfortable counting black faces, because we are not a monolith,” said Penumbra founder Lou Bellamy, who staged “Raisin” at the Guthrie, the first time since its 1959 Broadway debut that the show has been staged at the theater. “I wonder if affluent blacks [who are most likely to go to nonprofit theater] don’t have more in common with affluent whites than they do with the majority of blacks. We are a tricky people. You have to do work that honors that.”

We’re not quite post-racial, as many folks like to say in the After Obama era, but Mr. Bellamy has a great and important point.  Class is the real dividing line here.  We see this deeply in art, where the question of high vs. low culture is, I believe, at the heart of what most theater companies are struggling to solve, even if they don’t frame the argument in those terms.  The best illustration of this schism, I think, is this:

In at least one type of theater, blacks here and elsewhere are voting with their feet. The touring morality musicals and plays, popularized by actor/impresario Tyler Perry, consistently sell out runs at the State or Orpheum theaters, and do so without relying on traditional advertising.

I’ve talked about this before, but probably never blogged about it: when I worked in Cleveland, I’d go to public grade schools and high schools just about once a week.  I’d ask “who here has ever gone to the theater before?” In predominantly African-American classrooms, the situation was always the same: I’d get about 25% of the hands going up immediately.  I’d ask what plays those children had seen.  Some would mention Shakespeare, some mentioned musicals — and then someone would mention Madea (Tyler Perry’s famous alter ego). Instantly — INSTANTLY — virtually every hand in the room would go up.  Students would start shouting, sharing their memories of seeing the Madea plays — they were universally loved.  There was a disconnect though, even for the kids — somehow, this didn’t register as theater.  It didn’t register as the same kind of art form as Shakespeare — the latter was something stuffy and formal, while the former was fun and communal.  Low art vs. high art had a hold, even on fifth-graders.

Definitely check out the article.  Lots of great stuff there, and a good groundwork for everything I’ll be talking about this week.