Occupational Hazards

So I wrote this play, "In Memory of Julie Simmons" that is currently running as part of Unfiltered at EST. If you haven't seen it yet, you should come see it tonight or tomorrow at 7:00 before it is gone forever.

It's been a really great process. My actors and director and designers have made this thing into a really beautiful play and I am super proud of it.

But there's been one sort of horrible side effect to the process. And that is this: This play is about teenage girls, and the dialogue is very teenage girly. At some point a lot of my rewrites turned into saying things like: "um. maybe we should have her say 'like' here instead of here."

And then suddenly I realized I was using like in my writing outside of this play, like, ALL THE TIME. And I can't stop! I mean, I'm not going to pretend I didn't SAY like way too much before working on this play - but until recently it had stayed out of my written communications. But not anymore. Here, I'll show you what I mean via excerpts from a selection of emails and facebook comments and chats from today. Just today. This is just some of what has come out of my fingers in the last three hours:

Posted on facebook: that shit is like, affordable!

Via interoffice chat: I would just do yoga and write and maybe like, cook.

Via interoffice chat: she like, didn't even say hi to me

Via email: apparently i was like, less than 24 hours too late.

Via email: Just in case I hadn't like totally confirmed that it sounds great - I am confirming that now.

Anyway. That's like, something that's going on with me right now.

I've clearly sacrificed a lot for this play. So please come see it!

Unfiltered 2012: YEAR OF THE ROOSTER by Eric Dufaut

UNFILTERED 2012 WILL KILL THE SUN!

Year of the Rooster by Eric Dufault
directed by John Giampietro
with Denny Bess, Delphi Harrington, Thomas Lyons,
Bobby Moreno, and Laura Ramadei

Odysseus Rex is a champion.
He is his trainer’s greatest hope.
He is his opponents’ worst nightmare.
One day he will destroy the sun.
He is a rooster.

Come see it: 1/26, 2/3, 2/4 @ 7pm & 1/28 @ 2pm
Tickets $20. Buy them here.

(Also if you come to this show you will get a limited edition "Masters of Gamecocking" trading card. This is an impossible-to-believe deal, but I encourage you to believe it. Believe in us.)

Now playing:

• In Memory of Julie Simmons by Erica Saleh, directed by Tamara Fisch. Two performances left: 1/27 & 1/28 @ 7pm

All shows at Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street, 2nd Floor (between 10th & 11th Aves).

Did you know that! You can! see 2 Unfiltered plays for $30!
Also there are $10 student and senior tickets available, just show ID at the door.

When this is over you will write a book about it. I'm not going to tell you what you will do with the book after you have written the book. But if you come to these plays, you will know. You will absolutely know.

Masters of Gamecocking: Erica "Sly" Saleh

Erica “Sly” Saleh named her rooster after a dead teenage girl.

The girl’s family has pressed legal charges. It’s a big courtroom drama thing. But Erica doesn’t give a shit.

Some say the spirit of the young girl has gone on to inhabit the gamecock’s body. Julie Simmons preens itself for long hours, its crows sound disturbingly human. And then, when it’s thrown in the pit, Julie Simmons goes NUTS.

After all, teenage girls are MEAN.

And when they grow into women like “Sly” Saleh, they get even meaner.

It’s a popular legend that it’s impossible to kill Julie Simmons. Beat it, burn it, drown it, it’ll keep on crying its teenage cry.

The thing leaks an endless supply of blood! Break its neck and it’ll snap itself back into place! The thing doesn’t die! Maybe it’s already dead? Is this a rooster-girl-ghost?

Spooky, man.

See Julie Simmons: Friday and Saturday! In all honesty, it’s emotionally honest and structurally compelling!

Creating an artistic home

In the spirit of Borinsky's Defense Mechanisms series, here's an excerpt from a post by Todd London from the Howlround.

What makes an Artistic Home?

A place to rest, think, find common language and family feeling. You can help shape environment in your artistic home, or at least decorate the space. You’re a host there, not a guest. You can invite friends, colleagues, maybe your own audience. People sense your belonging. And you can sometimes lose your shit there, and know there’ll still be food on the table and some loving looks when you sit down to it. And they have to take you in. That’s baseline; you don’t question your welcome. You don’t have to earn it again and again. They take you in, or you’re already in. Probably you’ve got a key. You are, say it again, a host not a guest. No pleading through the crack in the door, no applications through the slot.

The whole post is available here.

Youngblood's ideal artistic home would have Legos, weekly cockfights, picklebacks, and may or may not be the HMS Youngblood.

Masters of Gamecocking: Ry Dowler

I once asked Ry Dowler why he named his rooster “The Gratification.”

He punched me in the face.

And as I was trying to keep the blood off my shirt, he said: “Cause it’s the only thing that still gives me satisfaction in this world.”

And then he punched me in the face again.

The Gratification is an intimate kind of beast. It circles its prey. It steps in, then out, and then in again. His rivals and detractors try and say that Ry loans out The Gratification for weird farm yard pornography. But anyone who knows The Gratification knows this animal knows it would never put up with that.

A week or so ago, Ry claimed he tore his carotid artery. We all know that’s bullshit. It was The Gratification, refusing to be tamed.

Come see The Gratification this Friday or Saturday.

It’s likely though, that you’re gonna end up in the hospital.

Unfiltered 2012: IN MEMORY OF JULIE SIMMONS by Erica Saleh Opens JANUARY 18TH

Unfiltered 2012 has a resting heart rate of never giving in. Up next?

In Memory of Julie Simmons by Erica Saleh
directed by Tamara Fisch
with Cathy Curtin, Dylan Moore,
Emma Galvin, and Megan Tusing

After the suicide of their best friend,
three girls try to reconcile
who they thought she was
with who she might have been.

Come see it: 1/18, 19, 23, 27 & 28 @ 7pm
Tickets $20. Buy them here.

All shows at Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street, 2nd Floor (between 10th & 11th Aves).

Now playing:

• The Gratifications by Ryan Dowler, directed by Andrew Grosso. Two performances left: 1/20 and 1/21 at 7pm.
  

Up next:

• Year of the Rooster by Eric Dufault, directed by John Giampietro (Opening 1/25)

You can! see 2 Unfiltered plays for $30!
Also there are $10 student and senior tickets available, just show ID at the door.
I strongly encourage you not to sleep on this.

Masters of Gamecocking: Angie Hanks

Let’s imagine an alternate universe, okay?

In this universe, the members of Youngblood never sat down in front of a keyboard or set foot in a theatre. Instead, they devoted their time and energy to becoming world-class gamecockers.

Every Wednesday they gather in the seedy basement of some dilapidated Hells Kitchen building, show off their latest birds, and proceed to tear each other apart.

Let’s also say that the same qualities that made these people damn good playwrights also shines through in the breeding/training of their gamefowl. So each of their birds is imbued with the same qualities that make their plays really fucking good and distinct. A Ryan Dowler gamecock is a lot different from a Chiara Atik gamecock. Cool?

Anyway. This is probably what that world would look like.

I heard that Angie Hanks has been convicted of a number of minor to major felonies and doesn't dare return to the Dallas streets she once ruled over. Angie must miss the place, though, cause she shoved the state of Texas into the skin of a rooster, and she named that thing Big Tex.

At first, maybe you think Big Tex is a little cute. Because, I mean, look at that crown, and look at all those funny little feathers around its neck, right? And as it’s dancing around the pit, you smile and think: “This is a nice bird. This is a bird I wouldn’t mind sending a postcard of to my granddaughter.” But then, fuck! When you least expect it, Big Tex rears up to its full 14.1 inches and starts launching itself at its opponent! Its spurs are all red; the audience is in shock! And when its opponent’s down, Jesus, it goes right for the crowd! I heard Big Tex broke a kid’s nose once. Seriously.

And after the fight, you wake up at 4 AM thinking, “My God, what kind of monster is Big Tex? That thing is scary as all hell.” Big Tex haunts you, man; it haunts you like a cowboy’s ghost.

Big Tex closed up shop last Saturday; you, sir/ma’am, are a fool if you missed it. More Unfiltered to come! Do yourself a favor and keep up!

Unfiltered 2012: THE GRATIFICATIONS by Ryan Dowler Opens January 11th!

Youngblood is staying hot. Unfiltered 2012 rolls on.

The Gratifications by Ryan Dowler
directed by Andrew Grosso
with Michael Cullen and Chet Siegel

Lailia considers her sex life liberated,
but her father Ken sees things differently.
When he refuses to cosign on a loan
she desperately needs,
Lailia sets out to prove that
she’s the one in control of her life,
even if it costs her the relationship she values most.

Come see it: 1/11, 1/12, 1/20, 1/21 @ 7pm & 1/14 @ 2pm
Tickets $20. Buy them here.
Use code GRAT for 2-for-1 tickets.

All shows at Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street, 2nd Floor (between 10th & 11th Aves).

Now playing:

• Big Tex by Angela Hanks, directed by José Zayas. Two performances left: 1/13 and 1/14 at 7pm.
  

Coming up:

• In Memory of Julie Simmons by Erica Saleh, directed by Tamara Fisch (Opening 1/18)
  
• Year of the Rooster by Eric Dufault, directed by John Giampietro (Opening 1/25)

You can! see 2 Unfiltered plays for $30!
You can! see all 4 Unfiltered plays for $40!
Also there are $10 Student tickets and Senior tickets available, just show ID at the door.
Don't even miss it.

Ryan Dowler Presents The ESTeen Youngerblog: Wisdom on Life, Love, and the Theatre from My Junior High Diary

Part Four: On Religion

With The Gratifications opening this Wednesday as part of the EST/Youngblood Unfiltered Series, I'm not exactly sure to whom I should be praying. I wasn't always so unsure:

I found my Junior High diary.

This is what's in it:

1-17-96

I think the word GOD is too common and too overrated, so from now on I will refer to GOD as KURT. It makes communication more equal/personal. No, I'm not saying that Kurt Cobain is GOD. That is SO far from what I'm saying. So from now on when I address KURT in my journal, I'm referring to GOD.

KURT, please help me to have more faith. Please help me with the girl thing, do I like Anne, do I like Amber, I think maybe both. I think I'll send off signals to both AND Megan and see what I come up with. Thanks for listening!

Defense Mechanisms, Part Two

Or, "Hog-tying Despair with the Daisy-Chains of Radical, Starry-Eyed Idealism"

(Or, "Can You Tell That Alex Really Likes Posting Emma Goldman's Face?")

Today's Facts: I don't always like everything I see in the theater. I find myself getting cranky -- about the "bad" work that gets celebrated; about the "good" work that doesn't; about how no one "gets it"; about the muddle I find myself in over how to communicate to the rest of the world, once and for all, my correct opinions on art, truth, life, and everything.

Today's Reasons to Despair: Some "bad" work will always be celebrated. Some "good" work will always be ignored. I'll never actually have correct -- let alone coherent -- opinions on art, truth, life, and everything.

Fuck.

Today's Act of Radical, Starry-Eyed Idealism (ARSEI): Theater is a bunch of people sweating in a room together. No matter the theater, no matter the people, there's inevitably a lot of heart, a lot of wisdom in that room. Be a craftsperson, sure, and know your craft -- and make the best damn plays you know how to make -- but when it comes down to that moment when the magic is happening, clumsy or exquisite, don't forget to be a person in the room. We don't get anywhere, as people or as artists, if we're nothing but cranks.

Source of today's ARSEI:

We may agree on the premise that each work of art is at least in part perfect, while each critic is at least in part imperfect. We may then look to each work of art not for its faults and shortcomings, but for its moments of exhilaration, in an effort to bring our own imperfections into sympathetic vibration with these moments, and thus effect a creative change in ourselves. These moments will of course be somewhat subjective, and if we don’t see one immediately, we will out of respect look again, because each work contains at least one, even if by accident. We may look at the totality of the work in the light of this moment – whether it be a moment of humor or sadness, an overarching structural element, a mood, a personal association, a distraction, an honest error, anything that speaks to us.

~

(Matthew Goulish, the guy on the right)

BONUS BOOST THIS WEEK: Another balm for this week's Reasons to Despair is to go see the Unfiltered plays at EST. All of 'em. It'll be very easy to avoid feeling cranky about the future of American theater. Trust me.

UNFILTERED 2012: Hanks Edition

Ofttimes, I will email or text myself play ideas/snippets of dialogue/ characters-in-waiting.

On January 14, 2009:

I emailed myself the idea for Big Tex.

Subject line: Voice of Big Tex

Body: black man wants to become the voice of Big Tex. Readybreak!

As a child growing up in Dallas, Texas, my family and I would go to the State Fair of Texas each October. Mrs. Johnson, my first grade teacher, is the person who first enlightened my ass to Big Tex. I dragged my family to view this huge ass cowboy centered in the middle of the State Fair of Texas. I waved to him. He waved back (because he does that all day long. It's the robot's job). But kids are in awe of anything bigger than themselves. So I was much excited that he even acknowledged me.

Young Angela wrote her first book in the first grade. It was all of 6 pages long. Laminated and bound by a plastic spiral. Published by her elementary school's press, Pacesetter Publications. It told the story of the birth of her baby sister, Ava. Young Angela never thought to write a story about Big Tex. For some reason, Older Angela thought it would be a good idea for a play.

I hope folks can come out to see how that idea evolved!

Here's an image:

Here's some more info (provided by the very lovely Meghan Deans):

Big Tex by Angela Hanks
directed by José Zayas
with William Jackson Harper, Geany Masai, Nedra McClyde, and Shawn Randall

At the State Fair of Texas, a young bus driver trains to become
the voice of the main attraction:
his childhood hero, a 52-foot cowboy.

Come see it: January 5th, 6th, 13th, and 14th at 7pm.
Buy tickets here.

(They're $20.
Get 2-for-1 tickets for the first three performances by using code BIGTEX.)

All shows at Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street, 2nd Floor (between 10th & 11th Aves).

*Please also enjoy new plays by Ryan Dowler, Erica Saleh, and Eric Dufault!

Unfiltered 2012: BIG TEX by Angela Hanks Opens January 5th!

It's a new year, people. Shake off the last one. I know it wasn't so bad. But this one's gonna be better. And we've got something for you.


Unfiltered 2012! Four new plays in studio productions. How's it gonna start? It's gonna start big.

Big Tex by Angela Hanks
directed by José Zayas
with William Jackson Harper, Geany Masai, Nedra McClyde, and Shawn Randall

At the State Fair of Texas, a young bus driver trains to become
the voice of the main attraction:
his childhood hero, a 52-foot cowboy.

Come see it: January 5th, 6th, 13th, and 14th at 7pm.
Buy tickets here.

(They're $20.
Get 2-for-1 tickets for the first three performances by using code BIGTEX.)

All shows at Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street, 2nd Floor (between 10th & 11th Aves).

Coming up:

• The Gratifications by Ryan Dowler, directed by Andrew Grosso (Opening 1/11)
  
• In Memory of Julie Simmons by Erica Saleh, directed by Tamara Fisch (Opening 1/18)
  
• Year of the Rooster by Eric Dufault, directed by John Giampietro (Opening 1/25)

You can! see 2 Unfiltered plays for $30!
You can! see all 4 Unfiltered plays for $40!
Also there are $10 Student tickets and Senior tickets available, just show ID at the door.
See you out there.