Blogging Bloodworks: Conkel Edition

My play, The Sluts of Sutton Drive, is a dark comedy about a working mom who enrolls in a stripper-cise class only to realize that she hates men. A lifetime of awful sexual experiences come to a head in explosive ways when she becomes addicted to drinking household cleaning products and finds herself involved in a grisly crime.

I'm crazy, coo coo, insane right now doing the rewrites, and to be honest I'd like to take a break from thinking about it directly. I thought for this blog entry I'd share some of my inspiration points with you in a tidy list. I'm a man with exquisite tastes!

• Gossip. I was obsessed with riot grrl when I was fifteen and have been rediscovering it lately thanks to Gossip. I grew up in Washington State and all the cool, tough, brassy girls and arty gay boys (re: my people) were listening to bands like Bikini Kill, Seven Year Bitch, L7 etc. I'd all but given up on ever having bands this empowering and tough in the age of Miley Cyrus, but then there was Gossip. Portly lead singer Beth Ditto TURNS. IT. OUT. Their album, "Music for Men" is basically all I listened to while writing this. If you ever get the chance to see them live, RUN DON'T WALK.

• This is kind of vague but I don't know how else to say it: banal lady things. Shit that gets sold to women. Stupid shit that women actually buy. Like yogurt commercials, Sex and the City, Cathy comics, and women who pretend to be addicted to shoes. I hate and love these things so, so much. I was once presented as the only dude writer in a feminist theater festival. I was so saddened to find that all of the plays were basically about, like, weddings and yoga and babies and shitty things like that.
  

• The S.C.U.M. Manifesto by Valerie Solanas.
• All my friends are sick of me talking about Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, the 1970's sitcom/soap opera hybrid that I'm obsessed with. I'll just say this: it is amazing. The set is gorgeous in its ugliness, the lights are way too bright, and the all the actors are covered in pancake make-up. Plus, a sitcom with no laughter? Sign me up. It also doesn't hurt that the actors and writing are both brilliant. In a perfect world my play would look exactly this. So what if it doesn't take place in the 70s?

• This is going to seem really weird, but I read the complete works of Sarah Kane while I wrote this. That was probably influential. I hope people don't take this the wrong way, but am I crazy for thinking that Blasted is a little campy?
• The brilliant Roseanne Barr/Meryl Streep movie She-Devil.

• Your mom. Obviously.

Directed by Lila Neugebauer

Featuring Megan Hill, Nicole Beerman, Frank Harts, Paco Tolson and Curran Connor.

Thursday, May 20th
7:00 PM

Pace University
41 Park Row, 10th Floor
Schaeberle Studio Theater

FREE! FREE! FREE!