A Brand New Hand to God Testimonial

And here's yet another brilliant Hand to God testimonial.  Snag your tickets here, performances continue until December 18th.

Hope to see you at today's brunch. I'll be the one hunched over the bacon.

Brunch Blogging: Mary Anning Wasn't Humble on Purpose

I first read the name Mary Anning at the end of this marvelous cartoon by Kate Beaton (seriously, go read it, espesh if you saw Photograph 51 last fall!), where Kate laments that reading about awesome women of the past is awesome--until you realize that almost all of them got screwed in some hugely frustrating way (cf. also Kate's cartoon about Ada Lovelace). It's a pretty exhausting narrative, and it is often told exhaustingly. Look at this woman, who beat the odds! (And then, in smaller type:) But she never got any credit. Over and over, junior high textbooks straining to find role models for the modern girl. No, seriously, you can do science. Look at how well it went for Marie Curie. Wait, how did she die? DAMMIT!

Mary Anning fits right into the pantheon of depressing heroines. She lived in England during the early 19th century and was born into the family business of fossil hunting. As a kid she'd go out on the cliffs with her dad and her brother and they'd find small fossils to sell to tourists. Except then it turned out, Mary was really good at this. And not just good at finding little fossils. She was good at finding fossils that no one had ever seen before, and she was really good at constructing the skeletons. Should be famous scientist material, but because she was uneducated, and because she was of the lower class, and because her family needed to eat, she had to settle for selling her finds to wealthy gentlemen scientists, who would then publish on her findings.

What's unique about Mary is that she didn't have her work stolen from her, really. She sold it. But she didn't sell it out of ignorance, she sold it out of need. Her family was always in the hole. Once or twice, a prominent scientist in London would raise money and send it to the Annings, but fundraisers aren't sustainable, and so she struggled. And although Mary was proud of her work and the connections she made with those London scientists, eventually she came to resent them and the credit they received. She died young, at age 47, of breast cancer (after, it should be noted, twice before dodging death--she was almost hit by lightning as a baby, and nearly killed by an avalanche as an adult). Charles Dickens wrote a kind but vaguely patronizing magazine article about her, winding up with:

"Her history shows what humble people may do, if they have just purpose and courage enough, towards promoting the cause of science.... The carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself, and has deserved to win it."

You don't say.

Reading about Mary reminded me of some of our recent discussions here on the Youngblog, in particular, our discussions about privilege. Although I'm sure Dickens thought he was being a total mensch when he patted the late Mary's head for being humble, purposeful, and courageous, I couldn't help but think, okay. Then why'd she have to sell everything she worked for? All the time? Why did she only get credit as an afterthought? Oh, right. Privilege. A woman of lower class: damn, girl. You did good with nothing.

Ain't nothing wrong with being humble, purposeful, and courageous. Ain't nothing wrong with working your rear end off, either with your marathon Mat Smart days or however else it works for you. But it's all just treading water upstream if the system stays broken, and that's why we've been beating drums here on the Youngblog. Because all us Mary Annings in the world, we already plan on working. We already plan on getting up at the crack of dawn, to dig up fossils or write ten pages before we have to go to our survival jobs. So long as we're holding up our end of the bargain, I think it's only right we keep an eye on the other end.

Oh also, I wrote a play about Mary Anning, and it's called She Sells Seashells, because also did you know that tongue-twister is totally about her?, and it's in Youngblood's SCIENCE BRUNCH, and that is happening this Sunday, April 3rd. A brunch buffet, an open bar, and five awesome plays about the most sciencey things we could think of. Buy your tickets here. See you soon.

The Long and the Short of It

Every month, Youngblood playwrights write 5 brand new 10-minute plays and produce them at the Brunch series. As a member, I think it feels like we live in some strange theater garden and our tomato plants produce 10-minute plays and it's perpetually August and we've got two canning pots going 24/7 but we still can't keep up. (For those of you who aren't old timey homesteaders, I just mean there seems to be no end to the new short plays that this group produces.)

I think I need to get some tips from everybody else though, because I have a hell of a time writing short plays. I do. It's why in my 3 years of being a member of Youngblood I have written exactly 3 brunch plays. I always feel like I have to do at least one per year, and then after I do that I'm all like "Well, I don't have to do another one this month, because I wrote one x months ago..." and then it's summer and I get to breathe easier till the fall when Asking For Trouble punches me in the face.

The thing with short plays is they're just as hard as long plays. It's so deceptive. You think because it's short it'll be easy. Ten pages? Please. Right? WRONG! You have to do all the structural and character work of a full length but rapid fire and super clear, so you can't cheat or fake anything. It's the exact same amount of stress and self doubt that comes with writing a full length but condensed into a size that lets you look at the whole process at once and see just how crazy it is that you're even doing this because surely other people are more qualified and you really aren't that bad at math and accounting is a very comfortable profession. I cannot tell you how many scrapped brunch plays I have on my hard drive. Seriously, I have a whole folder labeled "Aborted Brunches." I've already scrapped three short plays for the Sloan brunch, and that deadline is today.

Somehow, the other Youngblood writers seem to handle all this just fine. There's never a lack of awesome new brunch plays. Clearly, I am just missing some critical secret. Is it acai berries? Cayenne pepper? Yoga? Tell me!

Anyway, we're going on retreat this weekend, and I'm hoping they'll sit me down for a master class.

Brunch of the Living Dead.

If you think the weather outside is FRIGHTFUL...

What better way to spend the very first Sunday of the New Year than cowering under your seat, clutching your bloody mary in abject terror. Welcome [creaking door noises] to the BRUNCH OF THE LIVING DEAD...

Six (it's a bonus pack!) brand new short plays in the horror/thriller/slasher genre. Laughs, chills, thrills, creepy voices, a new musical -- we've got it all. Kick baby New Year right in the diaper with the YOUNGBLOOD SUNDAY BRUNCH.

SKIING WITH JESUS

by Lydia Brunner
directed by Lila Neugebauer
with Lucia Brizzi, Darcy Fowler and Nedra McClyde

PASS IT ON
by Joshua Conkel

directed by John Giampietro
with Loren Brown*, Molly Carden and Maya MacDonald

THE HORROR
by Darcy Fowler
directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel*
with Geneva Carr*, Frank Harts and Seth Kirschner

BYE BYE VERONICA
by Patrick Link
directed by Jason Bruffy
with Dylan Dawson, Julie Leedes* and Shawn Randall

MURDERTOWN
a new musical by Eric March
directed by Abigail Zealey Bess*
with Robert Askins, William Jackson Harper* and Bobby Moreno

THE INNOCENT
by Erica Saleh

directed by Kel Haney
with Jackie Chung*, Jared McGuire and Megan Tusing

* member of Ensemble Studio Theatre

Five brand new plays, plus our fabulous BRUNCH BUFFET of pancakes, eggs, bacon, pastries and our fiscally irresposible open bar - all for just $18! Special holiday beverages may be had!

Reservations are ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!
boxoffice@ensemblestudiotheatre.org
or call (212) 247-4982 x105

Sunday, January 2
doors open at 12:30pm for the buffet (food goes fast so get there early!)
show starts at 1pm


PLEASE NOTE: We usually have a waiting list, so any reservation not picked up by 10 minutes before curtain time can NOT be guaranteed.

Ensemble Studio Theatre
2nd Floor
549 West 52nd Street (bet. 10/11)