Marathon

Okay guys, I’ve been doing some calculations.

So the official distance for a “Marathon” is 26.2 miles.

Currently, there are seven Youngblood members/alums included in EST’s 34th Annual Marathon of One-Act Plays.

Here they are, listed in alphabetical order, according to surname:

Rob Askins
Clare Barron
Joshua Conkel
Ryan Dowler
Eric Dufault
Jon Kern
Chris Sullivan

(What an attractive list of people! I would consensually date each and every one of them.)

Here’s what we’re going to do.

I’m going to go ahead and say that these plays are, on average, 20 pages long.

A typical sheet of paper is 11 inches tall and 8.5 inches wide.

So, if you laid out one of the playwright’s pages on the ground, they would stretch out 220 inches (18.3 feet).

If you laid out all of the playwrights’ pages, they would stretch to 1,540 inches (128.3 ft.)

Including scripts for actors, directors, playwrights, stage managers, etc, I’m going to say that about 50 final drafts of these plays will be/have been printed.

So, if you laid out all of these scripts on the ground, put on your sneakers, pinned a number to your shirt, and ran beside them, you would run... 6,415 feet, or 1.2 miles.



(I’ll be honest, I was really hoping that this number would be closer to 26.2 miles, thus allowing me to make the “Marathon” connection or something.)



Okay, I have a new tactic.

Hopstop tells me that, to get from my apartment in Astoria to Ensemble Studio Theatre, I walk approximately 1.17 miles.

I really like attending rehearsals for my play. I have attended 16 rehearsals, and will be able to attend five performances. That means that, all in all, I’ll have walked... 24.7 miles.

Which is still less than the distance of an actual Marathon.

What the fuck.

Guys, Marathons are really fucking long.


Whatever. Come see Youngblood members’ plays in the Marathon. Unlike my math, they won't disappoint. Information below. Series A begins Saturday.

Ensemble Studio Theatre presents
The 34th Marathon of One-Act Plays
May 18 - June 29, 2013

Series A: May 18 – June 2
Previews: May 18 & 19 @ 2pm & 7pm
Opening: May 21 @ 7pm

Poison by John Patrick Shanley*, directed by John Giampietro* with Jacqueline Antaramian, Alicia Goranson* & Aaron Serotsky

Kandahar to Canada By Dan O’Brien, directed by Mark Armstrong* with Lily Balsen, Jay Patterson* & Abraham Makany

You Belong to Me by Daniel Reitz*, directed by Marcia Jean Kurtz* with Scott Parkinson & Patricia Randell*

Curmudgeons in Love by Joshua Conkel*, directed by Ralph Peña* with Veronica Cruz, Nina Hellman, Alex Manette, David Margulies* & Martin Shakar*

Something Fine by Eric Dufault, directed by Larissa Lury
with Lucy DeVito*, Diana Ruppe* & Catherine Curtin*
June 1 & 2 @ 2pm
May 22, 23, 31, June 2 @ 7pm


Series B: May 28 - June 16
Previews: May 28, 29 @ 7pm
Opening: May 30 @ 7pm

Love Song of an Albanian Sous Chef by Robert Askins*, directed by Moritz Von Stuelpnagel*
A Sunrise in Times Square by Sharr White, directed by Claudia Weill*
The Favor by Leslie Ayvazian*, directed by Leslie Ayvazian*
Something Like Loneliness by Ryan Dowler, directed by Colette Robert*
Waking Up by Cori Thomas*, directed by Tea Alagić
Daddy Took My Debt Away by Bekah Brunstetter, directed by Jamie Richards*
June 8, 15, 16 @ 2pm
June 1, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16 @ 7pm


Series C: June 8 - June 29
Previews: June 7 & 8 @ 7pm
Opening: June 9 @ 2pm

Existence by Murray Schisgal*, directed by Peter Maloney*
Zero by Tommy Smith*, directed by William Carden*
Hate the Loser Inside by Jon Kern, directed by R.J. Tolan*
Carry the Zero by Christopher Sullivan, directed by Robert Saenz de Viteri
Solar Plexus by Clare Barron, directed by Nelson Eusebio
June 10, 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29 @ 7pm
June 29 @ 2pm
Tickets: $18
Student/Senior: $15
Previews: $10

2 Series Pass: $30
3 Series Pass: $40

Bonds Bloodworks : this is the biggest play I've ever written

Hi guys. 

Tuesday marks my last big Youngblood hurrah.  For I am old now.  And they must cast me from the group and feed me to the wolves.  There will be a big farewell Brunch, yes, in June, but I have to be in rehearsal in Philadelphia and very sadly won't be able to attend.  So my Bloodworks reading feels like my official graduation.

SWIMMERS is a big play.  It's the biggest play I've ever written.  Not just in cast size, but in structure...it's a bit of a departure for me.  I had a lot of fun writing it and I've had a lot of fun working on it over the past several months with director Portia Krieger.  She is busy next week with Clare Barron's lovely play at Clubbed Thumb, so I'm making my directorial debut with this reading...

I hope to see you on Tuesday.  I'm really really really really excited about the cast.  Since the beginning of my awareness of Graeme Gillis' existence, I have wanted to have Graeme Gillis in one of my plays.  So this is a momentous moment.

SWIMMERS

written & directed by Rachel Bonds

In which we travel up every floor of an office building in an industrial park in the Research Triangle Area.  No one does any work.  There are coyotes.  And Russian accents.  And Altoids.  

And it might be the end of the world. 

Featuring!: Tim Cain, Graeme Gillis, Megan Hill, Dylan Dawson, Lucas Kavner, Charise Smith, Annie Henk, Mahira Kakkar, Stephen Stout, Michael Chernus, and Denny Bess.
 

TUESDAY, MAY 21st, 7PM

Ma-Yi Studio Space

260 West 35th Street, Suite 203  

ps. it's kinda hot in there, so don't wear a lot of clothes but do bring a lot of water.

Cheers to Bloodworks!

In honor of Youngblood's upcoming full-length reading series BLOODWORKS, here's a look back at some fun times we had during the year.

Lucy Teitler and Lucy Gillespie read the EST Sloan commissioned play Lucy. Predictable. In the background, Co-artistic director of Youngblood, Graeme Gillis, wishes he were named Lucy.

From left to right: In the Ensemble Studio Theatre lobby, Youngblood playwrights Cory Finley, Patrick Link, Leah Nanako Winkler, Lydia Blaisdell, Willie Orbison, Chiara Atik and Mary Hamilton wait with Budweiser for inspiration.

 Chiara Atik and Clare Barron live it up at Youngblood's favorite bar, McCoys.

Graeme Gillis and Patrick Link enjoy RJ Tolan's favorite game.

Darcy Fowler and Dylan Dawson are graduating from Youngblood this year cause they're so damn old. If you want to make an award for all-around awesomeness, we recommend sculpting the faces of these two and using that as the trophy.

It's been a great season. And now the best part - the Bloodworks batting order:

TONIGHT WEDNESDAY MAY 15

7pm - Leah Nanako Winkler 9pm - Lucy Gillespie At the MA-YI STUDIO 260 West 35th Street, Suite #203 between 8th and 7th Coming up: Tue 5/21 7pm Rachel Bonds Wed 5/22 7pm Tony Meneses 9pm Will Snider Wed 5/29 7pm Krista Knight 9pm Cory Finley Mon 6/3 7pm Willie Orbison 9pm Dylan Dawson Wed 6/5 7pm Christopher Sullivan 9pm Alex Borinsky Mon 6/10 7pm Mary Hamilton 9pm Lucy Teitler Wed 6/12 7pm Lydia Blaisdell 9pm Patrick Link and Eric March Mon 6/17 7pm Emily Chadick Weiss 9pm Zhu Yi Wed 6/19 7pm Chiara Atik 9pm Brendan Hill Mon 6/24 7pm Jen Silverman 9pm Darcy Fowler Wed 6/25 7pm Clare Barron 9pm Eric Dufault

Readings are FREE No reservations necessary SPECIAL THANKS to our friends at for hosting BLOODWORKS 2013!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Hark!  

Blooming cherry blossoms!  

Snow-white legs in sundresses!  

AC in the Subway!  

It must be May!  

(How the f%&k did that happen!?)

From every corner of New York City* the sounds of tap-tap-tapping rise to a fierce crescendo as Youngblood writers scramble to finish their Bloodworks Drafts.

Will they succeed and triumph and go on to successful, fabulous careers filled with artistic gratification and recognition and commissions and money and accolades and CB2 furniture, purchased brand new and paid for in cash?

Or will they fail, and, you know, just keep it small, not invite too many people because I really just want to hear it out loud anyway, and see how people react and figure out my next steps because I'm at this new stage in my process and this is a real left-turn for me artistically anyway, so you know.  It's like, it's not a big deal.  I'm not worried.  It is what it is, you know?.....................

COME FIND OUT on WEDNESDAY 15th!  

THE GLORIOUS OPENING NIGHT OF YOUNGBLOOD BLOODWORKS!

@  Ma Yi Studio Space
260 West 35th Street, Suite 203

Free Admission!!

Cheap Beer!!

Leah Nanako Winkler's COPE @ 7pm!

Directed by Morgan Gould
Featuring Eugene Oh, Katie Broad, Allison Buck, Stephen Stout, Jason Liebman, and TBA
 

Risa, a young journalist, spends three weeks observing and studying the COPE clinic- a research center for young adults with prodromal symptoms to schizophrenia. As she gets to know the patients living on the edge of reality, she begins to wonder at what cost the decent of madness can be predicted.

Lucy Gillespie's THE FORUM @ 9pm!

Directed by Luke Harlan

Featuring Graeme Gillis, Ethan Hova, Bob Jaffe, Britt Lower, Allyson Morgan, Christopher Burris, Hanna Cheek and TBA

A group of idealistic strangers gather in a city park to protest the disparity of wealth created by their country's malevolent corporate culture. Will they prevail, or will too many cooks spoil the revolution?

  * Except Staten Island.  Why would anyone live in Staten Island?

Drink with us this Saturday!

EST/Youngblood is having a benefit & party this Saturday, May 11 @ 7pm!

with Music from

THE SPRING STANDARDS

LAPLAND

NORTHWOOD

POOR REMY  

and CHRISTINA COURTIN!

and Plays by

CHIARA ATIK

DYLAN DAWSON

ERIC DUFAULT

DARCY FOWLER

And then, maybe, probably, a dance party will break out.

Saturday, May 11 - doors at 7pm
@ Loft227 | 227 W. 29th Street
New York, NY 10001 

For more info and tickets click here!

All proceeds benefit EST/Youngblood

Not convinced yet?

Mike Lew Knows What To Do

Yougnblood alum Mike Lew, who carried this blog through some of its toughest times, has some wonderful ideas that deserve to be posted. This one in particular.

6. The Blacklist - In Hollywood, as in the theater, there is a huge volume of screenplays that are highly praiseworthy but for whatever reason can't be produced. So someone created The Blacklist, an annual list of the best screenplays that were neglected that year. I believe the same thing exists for TV pilots. At any rate, we could very easily do the same thing for theater, and pair up with American Theatermagazine or The Dramatist to publish the results (or blog-publish them). This would be a great way to highlight plays that haven't yet gotten their due, as well as unsung writers.

Let's say we survey a diverse group of around 300 people - mostly playwrights and lit managers - and ask them to create a list of their top 5 favorite (other people's) plays that have been kicking around for a while but haven't yet found production. We then tabulate the results and highlight a list of frequently-mentioned plays. We could also ask high-profile playwrights to write up a short testimonial about their #1 pick, in the hopes of bringing more attention to lesser-known writers.

Read his full post here. This is very much a concrete, actionable initiative that could big a big boost for some great plays. Don't let this idea pass us by. Hop over to his site, write a comment, and help get this fire started.

Uncertainty in Boston

My friend Danny loaned me a book the other night, Life Within Limits, by an anthropologist named Michael Jackson. A few pages in, I found this:

...beginnings are different from origins. One can date or determine a beginning, but origins are like the succession of low hills that blur into the bluish haze of the Loma Mountains beyond Firawa. Origins are like echoes -- antecedent events that continue to make their presence felt in the here and now, or recollections sparked by a piece of music only to fade when the music stop.

I like that, I though. I like that we get to have "origins," as individuals, or as a culture. It makes intuitive sense, but I don't know if I had a word for it before.

...this difference between beginning and origin resembles Gabriel Marcel's distinction between a "problem" that admits of a solution, and a "mystery" that can never be entirely solved. "A problem is something met with which bars my passage. It is before me in its entirety. A mystery, on the other hand, is something in which I find myself caught up, and whose essence is therefore not to be before me in its entirety. It is as though in this province the distinction between in me and before me loses its meaning."

And it struck me that the distinction between problems and mysteries is in some ways a great rule of thumb for what (I think) makes a great play. Great plays deal with mysteries, not problems. Willy Loman's problem may be that he's unemployed, and that he can't support his family, but his unemployment is really just a piece of the larger mystery that has swallowed him. He's so tangled in some bigger mystery called "America" that he can't tell where he ends and where it begins.

So: forget characters with problems. I'm interested in characters who struggle with questions that have no solution. I'm interested in characters who are driven towards the thing that's eating them up with the same violence they're running away from it.

I spent most of today in a car, driving through the rain, listening to radio reports from Boston. It was deadening, magnetic, terrifying, heartbreaking, weirdly repetitive. The announcers kept narrating the few details they knew, emphasizing how little they knew for certain. They took calls from people shut up in their homes in Boston, recounting what glimpses they'd seen out their windows and heard through the walls -- police, police, swat teams, police, empty streets, police, gunshots, police, nothing... nothing...

They also took calls from young people who had known Dzhokhar -- "Suspect Two." "I just don't understand," they all essentially said. "He was such a nice guy, he had friends, he was quiet, but funny, and well-liked..." The announcers did the radio equivalent of shaking their heads in disbelief. "And did he ever talk about Chechnya? Or religion? Or... Do you know, can you imagine, what could have happened that could have radicalized him, and made him do what he and his brother have done?"

I understand the impulse, but the line of questioning felt pretty cheap, pretty lacking in empathy or imagination. Especially as our car crawled along through gray and drizzle and traffic, I felt like these questions had nothing to do with the strange mud of emotion I was feeling, listening to the details of the bombing, of the chase...

As playwrights, we're in the business of exploring why and how people act. What do people do? And how do their actions affect them and those around them? And -- maybe most importantly -- how are we to make sense of actions we can't quite understand?

It's not a perfect fit, but I think Jackson/Marcel's distinctions between beginning and origin and between problem and mystery is relevant here. "Why did he do that?" is the wrong question, I think. It treats actions as the end-results of problems, rather than the (often unexpected) fruit that grows out of the soil of a mystery.

Why did he build a bomb? Because he wasn't held enough as a child.

Why did she join the army? Because her husband had just left her.

I think it's our job as playwrights to reject these kinds of answers to questions about human action. They may be accurate in a literal way, but they're besides the point. There's a more interesting -- and, I think, a more honorable -- which is to say, more dignifying, more humble, more just, more honest -- answer to be had in beginning with a recognition of the mystery before which each of us stands, and which each of us has within herself.

We begin with the mystery, and go from there.

Why does King Lear insist on his bizarre love test?
Why does Yelena marry the Professor?
What's in the heart of a nineteen year old kid, covered in blood, lying in the belly of a boat, in a shut-down city crawling with cops, with most of the country wondering where he is?

Who knows. In the words of another (Biblical) fugitive, in the belly of something else entirely:

I called out of mine affliction unto the LORD, and He answered me; out of the belly of the nether-world cried I, and Thou heardest my voice.

For Thou didst cast me into the depth, in the heart of the seas, and the flood was round about me; all Thy waves and Thy billows passed over me.

And I said: 'I am cast out from before Thine eyes'; yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple.

The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the deep was round about me; the weeds were wrapped about my head.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars closed upon me for ever; yet hast Thou brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.

When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thy holy temple.

They that regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

But I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving; that which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is of the LORD.

And the LORD spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Meet Will Snider

Whether by accident or design, New York playwrights sometimes find themselves living in places other than New York. Five months after joining Youngblood, Lucy Teitler and Will Snider now temporarily reside far from the bright lights and free beer of EST, but their hearts still burn for new work. From the snowy streets of Cambridge, MA, to the muddy hills of Kisii, Kenya, these are their stories. Will’s turn.

Lucy Teitler: What do you write?

Will Snider: Plays, sometimes short stories.

LT: When do you write?

WS: Mornings and afternoons. Never nights.

Meet Lucy Teitler

Whether by accident or design, New York playwrights sometimes find themselves living in places other than New York. Five months after joining Youngblood, Lucy Teitler and Will Snider both temporarily reside far from the bright lights and free beer of EST, but their hearts still burn for new work. From the snowy streets of Cambridge, MA, to the muddy hills of Kisii, Kenya, these are their stories. First up is Lucy.

Will Snider: What do you write?

Lucy Teitler: I write -  and I sort of feel like I'm advertising myself as a gadget right now with all of my little capabilities -  plays, fiction, TV scripts, screenplays, and poems, though I don't really write poetry anymore. For me, writing poetry was a kind of a right of passage. It’s the most difficult kind of writing, and the standard for it is the highest, so I think all serious writers should try it. But ultimately, my main interest in writing is character. There are some great characters in poems - Prufrock, Wordsworth in the Alps, the husband and wife in Louise Gluck's Meadowlands, to name a few that I thought of throughout the day just today - but for me and my interests and skills, narrative is the way.

Krista and Brendan Two-In-One Combo Interview Spectacular

 



 







 
New Youngblood Members
KRISTA KNIGHT & BRENDAN HILL
Use Technology to
Speak From Opposite Coasts
At Serious Length About
Ayn Rand, Family Mottoes, Ska Band Names, Desired Hair Height and Theatre, Eventually

Brendan Hill: Arright.
Okay. So! How do you think we should do this?
Also, how are you?

Krista Knight: Hi! good
I liked the idea of personas but maybe we just want to interview straight up
and then try to catch each other online when we're drunk and addendum something wacky :)
I mean I'm not saying I'm NOT drunk now - just, on guard.

BH: Considering your answers and their influence on your google results.

KK: oh dear
then again - the other Krista Knight is a porn star - so there's really nothing I can do to soil the name

BH: It could also be a super hero name. It sounds like a secret identity kind of name.
I'm the drummer in Blues Traveler.

KK: Who is winning on google search?

Happy Birthday John Guare

From The Paris Review, 1992.

Interviewer: Why do I always feel there's something blasphemous about your work?

Guare: I don't know why you feel that way. Are you all right?

I Believe In This

A Theater Manifesto by Taylor Mac, ladies and gentlemen.

I was going to post my favorite bits, but just about everything is my favorite bit.

Even the bits I'm not sure I agree with are my favorite bits.

Good God Taylor Mac.

Taylor Mac Taylor Mac Taylor Mac.

Taylor Mac.

Link on Links - Galileo

If you want to play Link on Links at home, simply take the text of a favorite play and add hyperlinks as you see fit. This week let's take a look at the opening of Bertolt Brecht's Galileo.

(Galileo's scantily furnished study. Morning. Galileo is washing himself. A barefooted boy, Andrea, son of his housekeeper, Mrs. Sarti, enters with a big astronomical model)

Galileo: Where did you get that thing?
Andrea: The coachman brought it.
Galileo: Who sent it?
Andrea: It said "From the Court of Naples" on the box.
Galileo: I don't want their stupid presents. Illuminated manuscripts, a statue of hercules the size of an elephant--they never send money.
Andrea: But isn't this an astronomical instrument, Mr. Galilei?
Galileo: This is an antique, too. An expensive toy.
Andrea: What's it for?
Galileo: It's a map of the sky according to the men of ancient Greece. Bosh! We'll try and sell it to the university. They still teach it there.

__

The Newest from THE SHARE Starring...

One of the best parts of being a Youngblood Playwright is getting to work with some of the finest and funniest actors in town. After reaching a saturation point with these actors, I decided I HAD to write a Sitcom Pilot for some of these folks.

This Sitcom is called "The Share" and it stars The Ensemble Studio Theatre's Steven Boyer, William Jackson Harper, Lucy DeVito, Julie Fitzpatrick, Robert Askins, Megan Tusing, Scott Sowers and Maureen Sebastian. It's about a bunch of people crammed into a Crown Heights apartment trying to make ends meet.

The 22 minute Pilot was released spring of 2012 and following that, Webisodes about all of the characters. Check out the newest Webisode starring the Obie-award winning Steven Boyer right here:

And the TRAILER, PILOT and other WEBISODES from "THE SHARE" at TheShareSitcom.com

Thanks for Liking The Share on Facebook and following it on Twitter @TheShareSitcom

And thanks, Actors, for saying yes to us Playwrights.

An Interview With Unfiltered's Stage Manager Eileen Lalley

Eileen Lalley is the Stage Manager for Unfiltered. With only 3 shows left in the 21-performance run, she kindly used her lunch hour for a little GChatting about what she's learned in the process.

Chiara: Okay: You just opened 5 (!!) Unfiltered shows. HOW DO YOU FEEL?

Eileen:  like i just ran a marathon! proud, exhausted and ready to do it again....after sleeping for a month straight

Chiara:  it's been the same crew, right? for all 5 shows? same design team?

Eileen:  yep- we had two costume designers that alternated shows and the rehearsal SMs have been different but other than that

Chiara:  are you sick of each other yet.

Eileen:  i'm not? they might be sick of me

Chiara:  lol

I have to say that

I feel like there's an enormous sense of relief, from the writers and the director, when you step into the process? Cause you sort of come in right when things are starting to get really stressful

And you just have a REALLY calming and authoritative presence in rehearsals

is that something you're aware of/try to cultivate?