Hot Playwrights VIII

Lucy Prebble. Enron might still be open if she were on the poster...

Hot Playwrights VII

Ashlin Halfnight, hockey hunk turned playwright edition:


"Dude, coach says if I don't get an A in Anatomy he won't let me play in the big game this weekend. You gotta help me! I'll do anything for a passing grade."

Sinking Hearts: Episode One

You should go see the first episode of Sinking Hearts, a Gothic soap opera I wrote, as part of the HOT! Festival at Dixon Place tomorrow. One night only and Youngblood's own Patrick Link is ACTING in it!

Sinking Hearts is a gothic soap opera in the tradition of Dark Shadows, Twin Peaks and True Blood. Except that it incorporates drag, gay sailors and the work of Kafka, so… there’s that.

In Sinking Hearts a psychic Navy wife named Misty Nagel moves to a secluded submarine base in Washington State with her sailor husband and bitch daughter. There are lots of questions to be answered, and with the help of her alcoholic neighbor and new BFF, Crystal Firby, Misty intends to answer them. Questions like: Is Misty's husband, Chuck, a total fag? Will Misty's 12 year-old daughter Madison beat her to death with a brick? Where are all the neighbors disappearing to and what's with all these giant insects, anyway? Find out the answers to these questions and more on Sinking Hearts!

Directed by Meg Sturiano

Featuring Nicole Beerman*, Patrick Link, Katherine Scharhon*, Joshua Conkel, Anthony Johnston and DeVon Jackson.

9:00 PM-ish Monday, July 12^th

$10 Advance tickets

$15 at the door

https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/748485

Dixon Place

161A Chrystie Street
New York, NY 10002

*Actors appear courtesy of Actor’s Equity. Equity approved showcase

Hot Playwrights VI

Sam Shepard. Not even fair.

Hot Playwrights V

Let's discuss Harold Pinter.

I stole this Cecil Beaton photograph (another, not too shabby), just flat stole it like this is the Internet or something, from a New Yorker profile written by John Lahr a few years back. It's an incredibly foxy photograph and it accompanies a really great profile that you should definitely print out and take with you on your July 4th Holiday Vacation, or your Canada Day Holiday Vacation, or Whatever, because how better to celebrate a long weekend than to read about a dude who used his Nobel lecture to drop the following science:

You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

Then he quoted Neruda! Grrrrrrowl. I think I need a glass of water.

And I Am Telling You.

None of us, not one, will ever be able to create theater this vital and affecting.

I've watched this video several times a week for several months now and it never gets old.

A Cameo from Lucy's Dad

Hey Y'all!

"Beasts" wrapped principal photography in the bayou last week, and now we're in New Orleans shooting miniatures and special effects until July 3. I still don't have words to process how special and beautiful this experience has been.

My father, Baya--the man whose life and words inspired much of the story, had a chance to visit set and make a cameo. Again, one day I'll have words to talk about this but right now I don't. So I'm sending along a letter he wrote to his best friend John about the experience. He bcc'd me on it, because he's a business man and doesn't have time for foolishness.
So without further ado, my dad, on making art:

John, here are some pictures from Lucy's movie. I did not get into this earlier when we spoke about it, but our trip to see Lucy/Nathan was a highlight of my life, maybe the biggest besides the birth of the three kids.

This current project, "Beasts of the Southern Wild," is deep, very symbolic, very political and just a great piece of art. It is hard to say what it is "about." It chronicles to some extent the challenges poor Bayou people faced in Katrina and subsequent storms, but it is a lot more than that.

The lead actor, Mr. Henry, pictured above with me, is incredible. He is just as nice and down to earth as one could be yet very talented. Court 13 “discovered” him operating a bakery across the street from their studio. During Katrina, he fed hundreds of displaced people.

What amazed me was that there are at least 80 young people involved in making this movie. They are all located down in the Louisiana Bayou, near Houma, LA, down near the coast, most of the places where they film/work/live are closed to fishing because of the oil spill, they are right there where all the action is regarding this spill. We actually saw the cops making people get out of the water. Obama was right near there last week.

They have a headquarters in an abandoned gas station -- it is like a movable feast, groups of kids sitting around a table with lap top computers doing graphics, editing, still photography, accounting, just everything associated with making a movie.

Then there are set designers -- they build these incredible sets, decorate boats, cars, etc., just make this whole world of things up.

What is incredible is all these young people seem to know exactly what they are to do -- and they do it well. In other words, there are no slackers, they appear to be laid back in conversation but when their part of the overall effort is up, they deliver. They start early in the morning and don't stop till around 10:30 at night.

Making a movie is an incredible complicated thing.

I was just one of the extras but it sure did not seem like that to me. I was one of three old men who are on life support. Mr. Henry’s character, Wink, is in the hospital with us and decides to break out.

I saw the incredible organization of the thing in some of what appears to be the simple things, but they were far from that.

They have a costume and makeup group, they have people who deliver you to the place you need to get made up, they have it all timed out so that what needs to be done is done on time, and they are serious.

The guy who did my makeup was deadly serious about it, he spent about thirty minutes with me, getting my hair just right and putting stuff on my face to make me look almost dead. When it came time for our scene, we were taken over to the set in a van and put in a holding room, then we were put in the beds and hooked up to what looks like life support equipment, with the monitors, the bells, whistles and the whole nine yards. I was surprised at how democratic the thing was -- there are no egotists -- I was treated just as well as the stars were treated.

I was on camera for maybe 20 seconds if that. I am lying there and Mr. Henry pulls the plug on me. His daughter then comes by and listens to my heart. She was only about six years old but is a trooper. They shot the scene maybe six times. There is incredible attention to detail.

Some of it was funny. Benh told me that after the guy running the scene said "action," I was to take five breaths then hold my breath. But he forgot a few times to say "action." So I just lay there. Again, my part was so minimal that it did not matter., But I almost have the star's lines down that he said when he was talking to his daughter about the first guy he pulled the plug on -- I do because Lucy used one of the lines that I have used over the years when I talk to her about dying.

Mr. Henry comes to the first guy and he tells his daughter "Look at him, look at him, that is no way to live, he was once a real person, now he's nothing, no one should live like that, once he was somebody, I ain't going to let him live like that no more" -- then he says, "OK partner, it's check out time," and he pulls the plug on him, then continues down the line to the other two geezers, me included. Lucy says that she got that line from me when I talk about my heart operation.

They are something. I am thrilled for them and for me.

Take care and stay left.
The Boss Man

Blogging Bloodworks: Kern edition

A few days after the Times Square bomb scare in April when I was watching a hella lot of tv news, in my despair and terror and confusion I thought of a joke about terrorists. Really, less a joke than a funny scenario, but let's call it a joke for the sake of anecdote. After a week, I wondered if I could extend that joke into a scene. And after some mental tests, I got mind-seized by the question "can I extend that one, flimsy scene into a two-act play?"

And that's how I arrive at a comedy about suicide terrorists.

Modern Terrorism, or
They Who Want to Kill Us and How We Can Learn to Love Them
by Jon Kern

That's the title followed by my name.

It's meant to evoke Dr. Strangelove but people keep asking me about Chrisopher Durang. I've never seen or read Durang, so I can't say much about that.

The play follows a crew of Muslim terrorists plotting to attack New York. The play makes the assumption that terrorists are just people - people with homicidal ambitions - so again, just people. From talking with my mom, I'm worried that this view is empty provocation. From talking with the talented playwright Rey Pamatmat, I'm concerned that this view is trite and obvious.

The play looks at the characters from the same perspective I use to consider all people: they're fucked up loser-dreamers who inflate fleas into monsters and heartbeats into epic loves. My affection for humanity lies in our ability to endure humiliation and defeat. I think of terrorists as shame-burdened losers. I mean, you can't really win by just blowing shit up. All you can do is make sure the other guy also carries scars. And if you're desperate an vicious enough, that can seem like victory. Not that the Pyrrhic nature of the terrorist really matters when you're measuring by body counts or psychic trauma. You must balance out the validity of the emotional response to this threat with the rational considerations of what it materially achieves which says nothing of how the generated fear and hate manifests in behavior and . . .

And such are the wordy cul-de-sacs that I fall into when I discuss terrorism or, as I prefer to spookily pronounce it, TERRORISM! Ooooooooooooo!

It's easy to fear something that is different from you.
It's even easier to fear something different that also wants to kill you.
It's easy to fear and hate this something when this something has different values and attitudes,
Carries with it an animated intolerance toward groups you defend,
Professes opposite opinions on women, homosexuals, dogs, music, art, cartoons, raincoats, golden apples, paradoxes, haircuts, who would win a fight between Superman and Batman, foot attire, turtle races, giraffe ascots, the Mets, and many more concerns.
It's easy and it might even be right,
And I hate it.
Because once I feel afraid or vengeful or compassionless,
I already feel like I've lost.
And then somehow,
Even though all terrorists do is blow shit up,
They somehow win.

Motherfuckers.

In some sense, I want to care about them just out of spite.
You could say,
It's the Jewish mother in me. [Okay, as the English would say, off colour.]
Okay,
It's the Chinese mother in me. [That one I can get away with.]
But really it's just the obstinate comedian
Who refuses to believe you can't find a reason to laugh,
Even if the cause for the reason sucks,
And who has steadfast faith
That following laughter
Must come understanding.

Does my play accomplish all this?
I have my doubts.
I am more certain of my doubts than I am of my certainty.

At this point, all I really know is that I am skipping out on my buddy Tom and his awesome, blow out, paintball war bachelor party this weekend to try to finish and polish but mainly finish this play. Tom is a great, kind, humorous friend, who's had a tragic year and yet will end it in style with a lovely September wedding. I'm supposed to be a groomsman. And I'm missing most of his bachelor party.

I'm doing so in order to sit in a hot room with a burning hot laptop resting on me to bang out an noncommercial play that I'm not sure succeeds artistically on a subject that makes me uncomfortable. And at this moment, I wonder if I'm making the right choice. Choosing to sacrifice the loyalties that matter and the experiences you treasure and the people you love to obsessively pursue a dark, frustrated, tortured goal that most likely - all the odds say - ends with a flopping, unproduced failure.

Sacrifice: that's one thing I greatly respect. On that level I can relate to, even empathize with terrorists, or any dank-enclosed miscreant dedicated to an impossible and unhealthy ambition.

Their sickness is not my sickness,
But in the end,
We are both sick.

Modern Terrorism, or
They Who Want to Kill Us and How We Can Learn to Love Them
by Jon Kern

directed by Kel Haney

featuring Steve Boyer, Vedant Gokhale, Nitya Vidyasagar, and one more.

Monday June 28th
8pm

Schaeberle Studio at Pace University
41 Park Row (across from City Hall)
10th floor

Hot Playwrights IV: Annie Baker Edition.

Real talk express: Annie is a Youngblood alum, so hopefully it's not too uncouth to post this. Let me just state the obvious right up front: straight dudes in theater LOVE Annie Baker. Like, a lot. I don't know Annie personally, but she looks just like this girl named Brenna who sat next to me in A.P. English.

Arty dudes loved Brenna too. She dated Gabe who was one of the hottest arty, rocker boys in school. She was soft and kind of quiet, which belied a ferocious intelligence. Because she was so smart she was hard to get close too, which undoubtedly drove boys crazy. Few people got to know how hilarious she was. Most of those boys didn't know that Brenna had better taste in music and books than they did either. But she did. Brenna went on to become the valedictorian and Gabe went on to... well, who knows? He was never really good enough for her anyway.

I'm into dudes, but even I can admit that Annie is hot. Look how pretty her hair is! Also, she's always wearing cute stuff in press photos. I mean, it probably doesn't hurt her cute quotient that she's really talented or whatever. I guess she's written a couple of plays that people kind of liked or something? But who cares about dumb old plays? Something tells me that Annie, like Brenna, makes incredible mixed tapes. I wonder if she was ever into Sonic Youth.

At any rate, I'm certain- CERTAIN- that there must be heart broken arty boys all over New York because of Annie and to them I dedicate Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby."



Keep dreaming, boys!

Blogging Bloodworks: Saleh Edition

 

Once upon a time, I wrote all of my plays to Do Make Say Think. The songs are a perfect mix of inspiring and easy to ignore. Also, the band name is totally encouraging. If you put "it" and an exclamation point! after every word it's like you have your own little cheering section every time you look at your itunes: Do it! Make it! Say it! Think it!

But I have matured. I have evolved. And I have found that spending hours compiling a playlist to write to for each new play based on what the characters in said play would listen to and/or the overall theme of the play, is a really great way to procrastinate. It's also a great excuse to download songs that your dedication to liking only obscure indie music and mainstream hip hop would not otherwise allow you to download.

Warning: if this sounds like a good idea, beware of shuffle if you want to maintain your indie cred in front of your roommates/friends/boyfriend.

At the end of this post is the playlist I created for my Bloodworks piece "Where Dreams Come True". Some of these have something to do with the play. Some of these have something to do with my ideas of the characters. And one of them has nothing to do with either. I just wanted an excuse to download it.

So if my ridculously talented EST all-star cast (Julie Leedes, Polly Lee, Paco Tolson, Cathy Curtin), my superstar director (Kel Haney), and my intriguing teaser ("Emma and Julie used to be best friends. Then Emma moved to New York and got boring andJulie moved to Orlando and got crazy. Tonight they reunite. Along with a bag of weed, a coupleof guns and some unwanted guests...”) don’t make you want to come hear this play, maybeknowing that I wrote it to the following tunes, and that you might hear a song or two from this very playlist before or after the show, will:

1. Cotton Eyed Joe (Bob Wills

2. A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes (Cinderella)

3. Hanging on the Telephone (Blondie)

4. Friends in Low Places (Garth Brooks)

5. Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed)

6. I Got a Feeling (Black Eyed Peas)

7. Just Like a Woman (Bob Dylan)

8. Part of Your World (The Little Mermaid)

9. You Don't Send Me (Belle and Sebastian)

10. I Will Remember You (Sarah McLachlan)

In Conclusion: Come see my play.
Wednesday June 21, 2010 at 7pm
Shaeberle Studio Theatre at Pace University, 41 Park Row, 10th Floor

Blogging Bloodworks: March Edition

When you write a musical, you usually have to resign yourself to the following:

1. Your musical will have a main character with dreams.
2. About 10 minutes into the musical, he will tell you what those dreams are, in song.

Dreams in musicals are DREAMS. Mama Rose wants to get up, out and into showbiz. J. Pierpont Finch wants to climb from the mailroom to the boardroom. Eliza Doolittle wants to have a eunuch draw her a lavender bath. Big, important stuff. But what if your character's dream is pretty straightforward and easy to obtain? Like, what if he just wants to make a really good sandwich.

That's the question at the heart of The Great American Deli Musical Part 1. What do we do when are dreams are kind of stupid and not really all that unreasonable? Also, how do you kill a cyborg wolf?

"But wait," you say. "You can't get 90 minutes out of that."

Nope. But I tried.

So you should still come see:

THE GREAT AMERICAN DELI MUSICAL PART 1

by Eric March
directed by Kel Haney

Monday, June 21 at 7:00pm

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

Blogging Bloodworks: Weiss Edition

DESERT ISLAND DAYS

by Emily Chadick Weiss

directed by Kel Haney

Starring: Steven Boyer, Robert Askins, Polly Lee, Maureen Sebastian and Ryan Karels

Thursday June 17th at 6:00pm

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

The idea of being stranded on a desert island by oneself is frightening. But the idea of being stranded on a desert island with one or two more people could be an interesting opportunity.

I originally wrote the one act of Desert Island Days in March of 2009. I wanted to explore what it would be like to be stuck on a desert island with someone who one was attracted to and what would happen if the two parties made something of that attraction. It was originally and brilliantly read in a Youngblood meeting by Nikole Beckwith as Melissa Finkelstein and Graeme Gillis as Craig Townsend. It was then read during The Ensemble Studio Theatre's OCTOBERFEST directed by the effervescent Debbie Lee Jones. (I think only three people saw that one; all the more reason to check it out Thursday night.)

Anyway, after that, a desert island play with three people kept popping into my head. So I wrote it. It's two guys and one chick. Meanwhile, that other guy and that other chick are still stuck on that other desert island. See what happens.

Nikole's Tick Parade!

Last night was a terrific event: a benefit variety show for Nikole Beckwith, Youngblood playwright extraordinaire, sufferer of chronic neurological Lyme disease and holder of inadequate medical insurance.  (Illustrated at left: Eric Bogosian doing the first of his two signature character monologues).  Congratulations to Eric Cook and everybody involved for putting together such a great night, and big thanks to Dixon Place for hosting.

Among the amazing roster of jugglers, aerialists, burlesque, spoken word, live music, burlesque, unicylcists, strippers and burlesque, Youngblood stepped up with a heartfelt power ballad in the WE ARE THE WORLD mode, created by Eric March and featuring additional lyrics and performances from a host of Youngblooders.

It's not the same as being there, but here are the lyrics:

Eric March:
SOMETIMES
IF YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK STATE
OR CONNECTICUT, LIKE HARTFORD OR MAYBE DARIEN

SOMEONE YOU KNOW AND LOVE
GETS LYME DISEASE
AND YOU TELL HER, "I WANNA HELP IN ANY WAY I CAN"

SO SHE SAYS "GREAT
THAT'S SO GREAT TO HEAR
HERE'S MY DOCTOR'S BILL. IT'S 90 PAGES LONG"

AND YOU'RE LIKE "OH...
UH... OH
"UM, FUCK. TELL YOU WHAT, HOW 'BOUT I WRITE A SONG?"

Chorus:
SO LET'S HELP NIKOLE
CURE HER LYME DISEASE
BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
SHE NEEDS A LOT OF MONEY
AND SHE NEEDS IT REALLY FAST
SO IF YOU ALL COULD COME UP WITH IT, THAT'D BE GREAT

Josh Conkel:
I KNOW
THAT YOU GOT SOME CASH TO GIVE.
YOU'RE WEARING SKINNY JEANS, QUEEN. DON'T TELL ME THAT YOU'RE BROKE.

NIKOLE, WHO WE KNOW AND LOVE
HAS LYMES DISEASE
GIVE HER YOUR MONEY OR I'LL PUNCH YOU IN THE THROAT.

LYMES DISEASE OR NO
SHE LOOKS LIKE ZOE DESCHANEL
BUT PRETTIER. AND WITH A LESS FUNCTIONAL NERVOUS SYSTEM.

(SPOKEN: Nothing rhymes with "Chanel," sorry...)

SHE'S MY BEST FRIEND.
WE'RE TWO WOLVES IN THE SAME PACK.
SO DIG DEEP. PUT YOUR WATCHES AND JEWELRY IN THIS SACK.

Meghan Deans:
LYME DISEASE
IS PRETTY MUCH THE WORST
WE'RE NOT DOCTORS, BUT WE LOOKED IT UP ONLINE

AND JUST BECAUSE WE DIDN'T
GO TO MEDICAL SCHOOL
DOESN'T MEAN WE CAN'T SAVE THE DAY THIS TIME

SO ANYWAY
A REALLY GOOD WAY TO HELP
WOULD BE TO BUY A DRINK, WHICH YOU WERE GOING TO DO ANYWAY

WE'RE NOT CALLING YOU A DRUNK
WE'RE SERIOUSLY NOT
PLEASE DON'T FIGHT US, WE WERE JUST TRYING TO SAY

Chorus:
LET'S HELP NIKOLE
CURE HER LYME DISEASE
BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
SHE NEEDS A LOT OF MONEY
AND SHE NEEDS IT REALLY FAST
SO IF YOU ALL COULD COME UP WITH IT, THAT'D BE GREAT

Emily Weiss:
NIKOLE
IS TOO TALENTED FOR LYME… DISEASE
HER COMICS ROCK AND SHE ACTS REAL WELL

FUCK YOU TICKS
NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOU (spoken: UNLIKE NIKOLE!)
YOU ASSHOLES SHOULD ALL ROT IN HELL

Erica Saleh:
POOR NIKOLE
SHE HAS REALLY BAD LUCK (spoken: WITH INSECTS!)
FIRST IT’S BED BUGS, THEN IT’S LYME INFESTED TICKS

THOSE INSECTS WANT TO WIN
WANT TO DESTROY HER BED AND BRAIN
BUT WE CAN’T LET THEM, WE GOTTA STOP THOSE LITTLE DICKS!

Kyoung Park:
SO PRETTY PLEASE DON'T MAKE US
RESORT TO THREATS

Anna Kerrigan:
GIVE UP YOUR CASH
NO EXCUSES, NO REGRETS

Kyoung:
SOME OF YOU ARE ON TV
AND WE KNOW THAT MEANS YOU'RE RICH

Anna:
SO IT REALLY REFLECTS POORLY ON YOU
IF YOU DON'T PITCH... IN...

Chorus:
LET'S HELP NIKOLE
CURE HER LYME DISEASE
BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
SHE NEEDS A LOT OF MONEY
AND SHE NEEDS IT REALLY FAST
SO IF YOU ALL COULD COME UP WITH IT, THAT'D BE GREAT

R.J. Tolan:
THESE ARE PLAYWRIGHTS
AND WE WANT TO HELP NIKOLE
BUT WE’RE STILL EMERGING, AS ANYONE CAN SEE

AND WE’D MARRY NIKOLE OR ADOPT HER
IF THAT WOULD GET HER TO A DOCTOR
BUT WE’RE BROKE UNTIL WE START WRITING FOR TV

IN THE MEANTIME
HERE’S OUR FRIEND NIKOLE
WITH HER PROGRESSIVE NEUROLOGICAL DAMAGE TO SOLVE

AND THE NEXT THING WE’D BE PROPOSE-IAN
SHE SHOULD MARRY ANNIE BAKER OR BOGOSIAN
BUT THAT’D BE AWKWARD FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED

Chorus:
LET'S HELP NIKOLE CURE HER LYME DISEASE
BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
SHE NEEDS A LOT OF MONEY, AND SHE NEEDS IT REALLY FAST
SO IF YOU ALL COULD COME UP WITH IT, THAT'D BE GREAT
[FUCK YOU TICKS]
IF YOU COULD KICK IN FOR THE REST OF US, THAT’D BE GREAT
[FUCK YOU TICKS]
IF YOU WOULD MAKE UP FOR THE BUNCH OF US, THAT’D BE GREAT

Blogging Bloodworks: Park Edition

HEARTBREAK/INDIA

This is a picture of me, taken in the Himalayas during the summer of 2008, during my spiritual journey to the temple of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. HEARTBREAK/INDIA, though, is not about religion, and it definitely wasn't a theme, or subject, I sought to write about when I first started writing this play.

HEARTBREAK/INDIA is a play I began writing, and failing to write, since 2005. The play was really an attempt to write about my frustrations finding a stable, romantic relationship. Failure after failure, the plays deteriorated into these never-ending dramas that really bored the shit out of me. One of them was called "A Fairytale: Full of Beautiful Meaning but No Practical Use" and it was a three-hour long, whiny, whiny play. Thanks Youngblood--for bearing with me.

In 2007, I started rewriting the play during a workshop with Tim Crouch. I told him I was writing a play about a relationship I had had with a foreign, UN, diplomat in Korea while I was pursuing my MA in Peace and Global Governance. Tim asked me: "Do you know what you're doing?" and I said yes. I wrote a first act, called it "The Little Bitch Play" and then never wrote the second act.

The second act was never written, because a month later I was dumped right before Christmas and I went into the most horrible depression in the world. I experienced the worst winter in my life, was totally broke, and took teaching jobs left and right to keep myself distracted. Somehow, these two break-ups had blended themselves in my mind into this one, horrific experience and the core values I believed in went to the shitter. Peace and love had become impossible to believe in when everything just seemed to be going wrong.

I knew I had to do something about this so I applied to a fellowship in India, went to New Delhi, and started writing again. I re-titled the play "The Problems of Dating Me" and using the work I had done in "The Little Bitch Play," I quickly rewrote the first act.

Then, I was stumped and didn't know what to do, so in some desperate attempt to find a story to tell, I started reading novels about spiritual journeys. Some of them, like Paulo Coelho's The Pilgrimage, were really about that, but I also read stuff like On the Road and Eat, Pray, Love to widen the scope of what I was reading.

During that time, I realized that His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, lived in exile in the Himalayas and when I checked out his website, I found out that he was holding a teaching for Korean Buddhist monks the following week. It was a sign! I took at 12-hour bus ride overnight to Dharamsala and found myself taking a teaching with the Dalai Lama for a week. I converted to Buddhism, which was a total shocker, and returned to New Delhi to finish the play. I called it "Unexpected Vows" and it SUCKED.

By this point, I should have given up and said to myself that this was never going to happen, but I started rewriting the play, trying to more honestly write the story I wanted to tell. This new version of the play, HEARTBREAK/INDIA, is hopefully the end of this weird, five year obsession with issues concerning peace and love. What remains on the page now is the closest approximation to what happened to me during this time.
HEARTBREAK/INDIA Written and directed by: Kyoung H. Park

Performed by: Samrat Chakrabarti, Natalia Miranda Guzman, Lanna Joffrey, Angela Lin, Matt Hurley, Chris Larkin, and Bobby Moreno.

HEARTBREAK/INDIA tells the story of ONE, a high-ranking UN diplomat who falls in love with his Korean-Chilean-American intern, "X,Y,Z." As their common love for power and politics intensifies, ONE decides to leave his Korean-Chilean-American wife "A,B,C," putting in jeapordy a new UN framework for world peace.

Thursday, June 24th. 7 PM.
Schaeberle Studio Theater @ Pace University.
41 Park Row, 10th Floor
Free Admission!

Youngblood on The Road: Ft. Lauderdale

I traveled down to Ft. Lauderdale to see a production of my play, MilkMilkLemonade. It was a weird and thrilling experience. The theater, Empire Stage, was just my style. It was down by the railroad tracks and "Deceptacon" by Le Tigre was blasting as I pulled up in my rental car.

The show itself was so different than the New York production, but really, really good. I was pleased to see that they had found things we hadn't discovered in the play. I had a wonderful time and I thank director Nicole Stodard and my wonderful Florida cast.



It makes me feel bad for hating Florida so much, because you know what? South Florida is AWESOME. I lived in Northern Florida when I was a kid which should really just be Georgia or Alabama or whatever (sorry, Lucy!) Central Florida, where my gay fiance is from, is the pits. But seriously, it's really, really beautiful in Southern Florida and the people are gorgeous and sophisticated. Nicole was nice enough to put us up in a gorgeous boutique hotel, Villa Venice, which also happened to be all gay and clothing optional. Plus, complimentary mai tais by the pool all day long. We strutted around all day like the leathery old Florida queens we were meant to be. Thanks, Nicole!

Then we went to Orlando and I got gay bashed at a Chick-Fil-A and then got a stomach virus. But it was worth it. You win some, you lose some. I still have Ft. Lauderdale!



Read an interview with Nicole and I here.

MilkMilkLemonade has three more regional productions in the next few months and I'm hoping it's not unrealistic to go see them all. Watch out, Texas! Here I come, California! Yay, travel!