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1100 Playwright Interviews

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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Jul 30, 2008

today



All my things that fit are in one of these now on the way to MN. The things that don't fit are no longer my property. Thanks Herbert, Isaac and Larry, and parents of min!!

Jul 29, 2008

McCain and Big Oil

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/29guesses.html?r=3987&id=13350-6686652-e1zlBqx

the thing that people don't understand is that drilling is not going
to make our gas prices go down. It will only affect the world supply
of gasoline. And it will not affect it in a significant way.

Jul 26, 2008

wow

this article (h/t Daisey) blew my mind. As someone who went to public high school, and then a state school and then went to Columbia and Juilliard for grad school, I have noticed some of this first hand and then not noticed other parts of it that have been insidiously working inside me unaware. I am aware working at Columbia that despite all the bluster, many of our work studys are rather dumb, and I've noticed with envy the connections and support the rich kids have. I've seen the talented not succeed and the untalented but connected succeed in ways I don't understand. Adn now, as someone with feet in both worlds, with a day job that has prevented me from being the intellectual I've wanted to be, I feel both sad for what i can't have and triumphant on what I have allowed myself to be. Anyway read this article about class and Ivy league and the vast gulf that we see today in economics and class. and ask the big questions. (whatever they are) because if you don't, who will?

WTDWYHAYF

Looking forward to this. Have you seen it yet? From Variety: "The worst thing about this silly, stellar production is that it's puttering along at a tiny theater off the beaten track in Midtown. Kunofsky has an intensely theatrical gift for comedy, and his cast and crew have risen to the challenge of his smart, heartfelt play. Why then isn't this play at a great big nonprofit Off Broadway house? Kunofsky and Krueger should see if they can at least get a grant to hand out bullhorns to the audience so they can spread the word as they leave, massaging their aching sides."

saturday is packing boxes day



I just came back from Bennington College in Vermont where I had a reading of Incendiary with the LAByrinth folks. It went extraordinarily well. It was an amazing cast and they fed off the audience and the whole thing was a love fest. I'm still buzzing off it. All the readings of this play have gone well, but this one especially so. It's one of those things where I know it works. I'm just waiting for a theater to realize it and put it up.

So now I'm back and I need to pack up the apartment and get ready to pitch my pilot. So that's what I'll be up to.

Here is a monologue for you (with bonus song) that may or may not be in a new play:

SANDY
Hello everyone. Thank you for this interview. I am a traditional girl. I believe in the separation of church and state. I am a strong believer in fair treatment for everyone and a workplace free from sexual harassment and all other kinds of harassment. I think harassment has no place in the workplace. Or anywhere else actually.

There are times when you can’t stop harassment in life, but we think of a workplace as a utopia of sorts, even our workplace, so we think harassment can be stopped. Identified and stopped. Really the identifying is the problem. One person’s harassment is another person’s good time.

But the bigger problem is, I think, a lack of respect. When people are ignored or talked down to or looked down on by other people those people become unhappy and it leads to a non-productive environment for everyone. It makes everyone assholes. The people who don’t respect the other people are assholes and then the people who are treated badly become assholes to the original assholes in response to the assholic treatment they receive.

For that reason I come here today not to get this job but to get Eric fired. Eric is an asshole. Like the biggest asshole around. You may not know that but it’s true. He yells at me for things I have nothing to do with and then doesn’t apologize when he’s wrong. He tries to foist off his work on me and then when I complain, Elizabeth tells me to just do it. Well, that won’t happen anymore, because Elizabeth got away from him but that doesn’t change the fact that Eric is a big asshole and you need to recognize that and fire him.

In addition, because I have you here and you’re a captive audience, I would like to take this opportunity to sing you a song. Up until now, I have been to scared to get in front of people and sing, even though deep down I think I’m talented. I figure I can do it now and then if it goes badly, it’s no big deal. This is a song I wrote when I was commuting to work. It’s called commuting to work.

Commuting to Work

SOMETIMES I’LL LOOK UP
AND I’LL SEE A FRIENDLY FACE
IT MIGHT BE A HOOK UP
IF WE WERE IN ANOTHER PLACE

BUT WE’RE ON THE TRAIN
UNDERGROUND
THIS LIFE IS A DRAIN
ALL AROUND
OH, WE’RE ON THE TRAIN
I FEEL I’M GOING TO DROWN

COMMUTING TO WORK
ERIC IS A JERK
COMMUTING TO WORK

SOMETIMES I FEEL ALARMED
WHAT’S THAT DIGGING INTO ME
IS THAT YOUR ARM
TELL ME IT’S YOUR KEYS

OH WE’RE ON THE TRAIN
UNDERGROUND
THIS LIFE IS A DRAIN
ALL AROUND
OH, WE’RE ON THE TRAIN
I FEEL I’M GOING TO DROWN

SOMETIMES I CAN’T BREATHE
IT SMELLS LIKE SOMETHING DIED
IS THAT A DISEASE?
ARE YOU EATING SOMETHING FRIED

BUT WE’RE ON THE TRAIN
UNDERGROUND
THIS LIFE IS A DRAIN
ALL AROUND
OH, WE’RE ON THE TRAIN
I FEEL I’M GOING TO DROWN

COMMUTING TO WORK
ERIC IS A JERK
COMMUTING TO WORK

Thanks for listening. You guys have been great. Give me the job. Fire Eric. Thanks a lot!

Jul 18, 2008

Al Gore's speech

Read about it here. or here. “Our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges – the economic, environmental and national security crises,” Mr Gore said. “We are borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.”

Jul 17, 2008

also

check out my plays

http://www.amazon.com/by-Adam-Szymkowicz/lm/R3K2ERA2M01VQ1/ref=cm_lm_pdp_title_full

transition part 2

I've seen a lot of bloggers come and go. Remember that surge a while back when everybody you knew suddenly had a blog? (Everyone I knew anyway.) And there were some vastly entertaining posts, great stories, cool new points of view, and then one by one they all stopped writing. At the same time of course, new people are constantly popping up. And some people do stick around. I got so many blogs right now on my google reader I can't keep up.


I feel myself fizzling out right now like so many bloggers before me. Mostly I just link to other people's stuff now. My readership is down. There are other things to do. Things like facebook and youtube. Also, I feel like my writing here has become less vital. I am disenchanted with theater. I haven't been involved in a show in over a year (though some of my plays are happening in various places). But I feel like I have nothing more to say really about theater except that I'm not enough a part of it and I'm frustrated my plays aren't getting done more by larger theaters. but that gets tiring to read and tiring for me to write. So I've been only half here on the blog this past year or so.


And I've stopped sharing my writing so much. Which is something that kept me coming to the blog. But this is partially because I've been working on TV and film stuff and wasn't sure it was a good idea to share that stuff. I mean, who wants to read my 30 Rock spec really? And the screenplay should be shrouded in secrecy as should the pilot stuff I'm working on now. Because it's still evolving and I don't want to say it's this and have it be that.


Which is all just to say that if this blog is to continue, it will have to change. Maybe from now on, it will be a blog that is solely photos of donkeys.



I don't know. Maybe I'll start reporting on the Minneapolis theater scene. Maybe I'll spend next year writing that novel and that's all you'll hear about. Maybe I'll only write about TV and/or film. (If that is even allowed) It's really hard to say. stay tuned. or, you know, watch youtube instead. I'll have a youtube video or two coming out soon.

Jul 15, 2008

transition

K is at this moment driving across the country to our home base for a year--Minneapolis. Our cat is riding shotgun in her '91 honda station wagon. The apartment is very quiet without them. Work is also very quiet right now. The new guy we hired is doing all the work I would normally do. I'm working on my pilot pitch. I have to say, I'm getting kind of excited about it. I hope someone will pay me to write it. I've also figured out how to revise a lot of things that need revising. I wonder when I'll get to that. Soon, I hope. So much to do. Here's a song for you: The world's about to end You're my only friend There's not much more we can carry And the light go down on this bombed-out town I don't know how much more we can carry So I look at you We've done all we can do and I say to you Let's get married Let's get married Let's get married The morning sun creeps in over our loss or win There's not much more we can carry But I grab your hand and we cross the sand I don't know how much more we can carry And I look at you There's much more we can do Let's get married Let's get married Let's get married

US terrorist watchlist now has more than 1,000,000 names

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/15/us-terrorist-watchli-1.html

two more about working in the arts and making a living

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2008/07/rehtfa-i-making-a-living.html

http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/07/featured_post_writers_need_act.html

vow of poverty?

Lots of theatrosphere talk about making a living making art. Mark has
a nice post here:

http://mrexcitement.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-defense-of-artistic-director.html

Jul 11, 2008

Many good friends of mine, all super-talented individuals are involved in this new show: http://www.hateallyourfriends.com/ James points us to this interview of Larry and Jacob, the writer and director. Larry was the best man at my wedding. For our ceremony, I asked him to give a speech on friendship. I thought it was funny that the person I asked to represent me as my friend and speak on friendship now has a play going up called "What to Do When You Hate All Your Friends." I'm very excited to see it.

Pilot's butter knife confiscated in airport

http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2008/07/11/askthepilot283/print.html

h/t http://www.boingboing.net/

Jul 7, 2008

surplus on Jollyship

I loved this if you remember. Go see it if you can.

http://fishunderwater.blogspot.com/2008/06/ten-more-second-chances.html

this spam poem showed up in my inbox today

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more mojo

http://www.mojotheatre.com/

Daisey responds to American Theater article

http://www.mikedaisey.com/2008/07/response-to-how-theatre-saved-america.sht

attention playwrights! Public Theater Emrging Writer Group

http://www.publictheater.org/content/view/88/155/

Katrina theater project

http://www.katrinathekword.com/

Jul 5, 2008

how it is

I had a nice but short vacation. We went camping in the Catskills and came back with smoke in our hair and a cooler full of water. Tomorrow I go back to work for two weeks. Then I'm off for two weeks. During that time I have a quick retreat at Bennington College with my play Incendiary which I'm working on with the LAByrinth folks. I also have to I have to pack up whatever in the house Kristen hasn't already packed for our big move to Minneapolis. (for a year. She got the Jerome, you see.) I plan to be back as much as possible and if things go well I'll be jetting off to a bunch of other places during the year as well. Also on monday I have to pitch my TV idea to my agent. wish me luck. I'm kind of terrified of the whole pitching thing. I like to just write things. So I'm back at work for two weeks, off for two weeks, must vacate my apt, go back to work for two days and then fly to MN. Anyone recommend good theaters in MN?