Hot Playwrights: Euripides

Like Dionysus!

Oh, Good.

'Cause this is what the American theatre needs.

A Playwright’s Guide to the Post Office or how to mail your script without going broke

I thought I’d pass along a handy tip for mailing scripts. If it weighs more than a pound, you can save by sending it “Media Mail”. It’s not advertised at most post offices, but if you present a package and say with confidence “I’d like to send this media mail, it’s bound” you will pay about half what you would have paid otherwise. The script I sent today would have cost my $5.20 to send via ordinary methods. But instead I only paid $2.80.

But wait, you’re thinking, I don’t bind my scripts before I send them out to this or that play contest/literary manager/residency program application. Not to fret dear playwright, you are still within your rights to send it media mail as the list of eligible materials clearly includes “Playscripts and manuscripts for books, periodicals, and music”. Though for simplicity's sake I would stick with the trusty “it’s bound” unless you enjoy public arguments with post office workers.

Unworthy of His Love

I'm always glad to see any sign that Stephen Sondheim still picks up a pen from time to time, but I was really glad to see this.

I wasn't glad to see it because I feel one way or another about Porgy and Bess (although his letter made me more excited to see it than I was before) or the team behind this particular production. In a way, I feel for them. They're just trying to get some people interested in their show by giving an exciting interview. I mean, what are they going to say, talk about how little they're going to do? Nobody conducts an interview thinking "I wonder what Stephen Sondheim will say about this..."

But he did say something!

Most folks of his stature grow too old and too rich to write any letters. I like that Sondheim still has things to say (coherent things, David Mamet), still seems to care about what kind of shows are done (not just in New York, but regionally), and puts his thoughts down on paper, rather than tweeting them into the ether.

Sondheim! What would we do without you?

Rock on, Philip Levine

Philip Levine is our new poet laureate. Very cool. And how great is this quote of his from The Times on becoming poet laureate:

“How can I put it? It’s like winning the Pulitzer,” he explained. “If you take it too seriously, you’re an idiot. But if you look at the names of the other poets who have won it, most of them are damn good. Not all of them — I’m not going to name names — but most. My editor was thrilled, and my wife jumped for joy. She hasn’t done that in a while.”

If you're like me, you don't read poetry much but wish you did. Well, how about you and I read a poem of his right now, together. This is a good one, courtesy of the internet:

The Simple Truth

I bought a dollar and a half's worth of small red potatoes,
took them home, boiled them in their jackets
and ate them for dinner with a little butter and salt.
Then I walked through the dried fields
on the edge of town. In middle June the light
hung on in the dark furrows at my feet,
and in the mountain oaks overhead the birds
were gathering for the night, the jays and mockers
squawking back and forth, the finches still darting
into the dusty light. The woman who sold me
the potatoes was from Poland; she was someone
out of my childhood in a pink spangled sweater and sunglasses
praising the perfection of all her fruits and vegetables
at the road-side stand and urging me to taste
even the pale, raw sweet corn trucked all the way,
she swore, from New Jersey. "Eat," she said,
"even if you don't I'll say you did."
Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker,
the glass of water, the absence of light gathering
in the shadows of picture frames, they must be
naked and alone, they must stand for themselves.
My friend Henri and I arrived at this together in 1965
before I went away, before he began to kill himself,
and the two of us to betray our love. Can you taste
what I'm saying? It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, the metal we call salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live on it.

Ah, poetry. My summer is complete.

Youngblood's Summer Vacation: The Talls & The Pillow Book

Hello Youngblood faithful! I hope you are having a wonderful summer, and that maybe you are reading this on an island somewhere, or someone is reading it to you, and someone else is fanning you with a banana leaf, and something something frosty beverage.

While you have been sitting on that beach, wiling away the hours, Youngblood has not rested! Much! Okay we have rested a little! But two of us...specifically The Annas...have not rested at all. Ms. Kerrigan and Ms. Moench have productions going up in August, and you should absolutely check them out. First up...


The Talls
by Anna Kerrigan
Directed by Carolyn Cantor
With Gerard Canonico, Timothee Chalamet, Shannon Esper, Lauren Holmes, Michael Oberholtzer, Peter Rini, and Christa Scott-Reed

August 1st - 27th
At Second Stage Theatre (Uptown)
McGinn/Cazale Theatre 2162 Broadway (at 76th Street)

The Clarke family is dealing with some very tall problems. Just ask 17-year-old Isabelle Clarke. Negotiating Catholicism, politics and virginity in the 1970’s can make the tallest girl feel really small. A comic drama about coming of age when life’s lessons come in all sizes.

Click here for tickets & more information.

(PS you may remember The Talls as Anna's Bloodworks 2010!)

Next/almost simultaneously up...


The Pillow Book
by Anna Moench
Directed by David F. Chapman
With Eric Bryant, Julie Fitzpatrick, and Vanessa Wasche

August 4 - 20th
Presented by Firework Theater at 59E59 Theaters
59 E. 59th Street, Theater C

Deb and John are married. Deb and John are strangers. Deb saves John's life on a mountain. John blinds Deb on the Serengeti. John works at an office. John works at a different office. Deb is a doctor, or an exterminator. The Pillow Book is a journey through the real, the imagined, the impossible, and the parallel—because who you were when you got married might not be who you are now.

Click here for tickets and more information.

Go, Annas, go!

Summer Vacation

What an amazing season it's been! Now is the time Youngblood heads off to The Hamptons and Fire Island and Provincetown and St. Lucia (all of which are probably euphemisms for, like, Brooklyn or mom's house in Virginia or whatever.)

Hopefully people will continue to blog here over their vacations, but Youngblood itself is off until Fall. If you're a playwright under 30, you should apply. There are four slots open since me, Michael Lew, Sharyn Rothstein and Mira Gibson are all outty.

Goodbye, Youngblog! I leave you in the hands of Patrick Link and Meghan Deans. It's been real!

Theatre Breaking Through Barriers - Some of Our Parts with a play by YB's Emily Chadick Weiss

Hi!

If you haven't yet, come check out my play "Good Dancer" in Theatre Breaking Through Barriers' festival of plays about disability called SOME OF OUR PARTS.

Featuring new plays by Bekah Brunstetter, Samuel D. Hunter, Neil LaBute, Kate Moira Ryan, Diana Son, Jeff Tabnick & Emily Chadick Weiss

JUNE 22-30, 2011 · 9 PERFORMANCES ONLY!

SOME OF OUR PARTS 7 TEN-MINUTE PLAYS ABOUT DISABILITY DIRECTORS Kimothy Cruse, Christina Roussos, Ike Schambelan, Nicholas Viselli COMPANY* Mary Theresa Archbold, Melanie Boland, Tiffan Borelli, Kimothy Cruse, Shannon DeVido, Stephen Drabicki, Brooke Elsinghorst, Alden Fulcomer, David Harrell, Anita Hollander, Kenneth Kimmins, John Little, J.M. McDonough, Gregg Mozgala, Melanie Nicholls-King, Pamela Sabaugh, Nicholas Viselli *appearing courtesy of Actor's Equity Association

Tues, Wed & Thurs at 7 · Fri at 8, Sat at 3 & 8, Sun at 3 Clurman Theatre 410 West 42nd Street · www.theatrerow.org All Tickets $19.25 $18 plus $1.25 restoration charge For more info call 212-239-6200, or visit www.telecharge.com

"SOME OF OUR PARTS contains some really excellent plays. The acting is flawless! This fascinating commentary on the state of disability in America proves exactly why Theater Breaking Through Barriers is as vital as it is! - David Gordon,nytheatre.com

"People with disabilities take center stage in SOME OF OUR PARTS. Well-acted. Provocative and Moving. - Dan Bacalzo, Theatremania.com

"An eye-opening experience! SOME OF OUR PARTS is fast, heartfelt and sometimes very funny. Each play is concise. performed with spunk, determination, resilience and humor. Excellent!" - Oscar Moore, Talkentertainment.com

"Emily Chadick Weiss' Good Dancer is nicely done, telling the tale of an African-American woman named Erica (Melanie Nicholls-King) who is getting ready to introduce her boyfriend Rich (Gregg Mozgala) to her parents for the first time. His being white is not the primary concern; she's more worried that she hasn't told her parents that Rich has cerebral palsy, and walks with a slight limp. The tone of the piece is wisely kept light, even as the situation exposes fissures in the couple's relationship." - Dan Bacalzo, Theatremania.com

Come check these plays out and let me know if you need assistance with the price of your ticket. Emilycweiss@gmail.com

Thanks! Have a terrific Tuesday.

I saw your play. What happened?

Stick around any Youngblood celebration long enough...give any playwright one too many cans of beer...ask a writer what she really thinks about her own production...and eventually, we all get to this point.



"These are people...who are alive...on the planet...until they dry off."

If you see it happening, do the right thing. Just walk away. Or give us a shoulder massage. That also works.

Short Plays and Bands Tonight in Williamsburg

Tonight marks the second installment of Pony Show's PLAYS/BANDS series in Williamsburg's Death By Audio situated near the Domino Sugar Factory and the East River at 49 S2nd St. It's an attempt to bring theatre to those who are too lazy/broke to cross the river and find the many possibilities of theater that are in this city. So we'll just throw it in their faces before a bunch of awesome bands. It's just 7 bucks, and we've got three ten minute plays from YB alum Rob Askins, and current Yoblo's Emily Chadick Weiss and myself. Not to mention performances and direction from EST favorites Dylan McCullough, Steven Boyer, Lucy Devito, Megan Tusing, and Jake Aron.

If you've got a spare 7 bucks and are looking for some theater that's a little more rough around the edges and don't mind getting served PBR by a dude who's beard is probably longer that your girlfriend/wife's haircut, come on out. The more folks we get to come out to these the more we can keep spreading great theater by young playwrights around Brooklyn.

Here's the DL on the playz...


THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE WE KISS
by Rob Askins

Joe's a dumpster punk who likes to beat the shit out of hippies. Jenny's got the perfect dress on for a first kiss, but there's something he should know first...

Directed by Dylan McCullough
With Steven Boyer and Lucy Devito

COSMIC BROOKLYN (or HOW JOHNY FUCKED UP THE VIBES)
Written and Directed by Christopher Sullivan

Friends in a Williamsburg loft try to summon their dead friend via a Ouija Board made from the advice of an occult-based fashion blog written by a girl in Bushwick who fucked a ghost once.

With Jake Aron, Eric Goldberg, Emma Jane Gonzalez, and Erica Lutz

THE LAST PARTY
by Emily Chadick Weiss

A tsunami is about to hit New York City and everyone's trying to live it up before their lives are over. But what if the last person you'd want to party with is the only person who comes to your party?

Directed by Dylan McCullough
With Steven Boyer, Lucy Devito, and Megan Tusing

Followed by
GIRLFRIENDS - picking up speed like lonesome drivers pursuing foxy hitchhikers - http://girlfriendstheband.com/

TALL FIRS - dishing out harmonized soliloquy to the last syllable of recorded time - http://tallfirs.org/

THE HOUSE FLOOR - offering the sincerity of your oldest friendships with the tempo changes of your time-lapsed lifeline - http://www.myspace.com/thehousefloor

$7 Death By Audio
49 South 2nd Street
8:00 doors, plays 8:30

Green Cheese in Cyberspace

Silly playwright. What are you doing? You know you can't making a living writing plays. There's no money in theatre. You know where the money is? Grilled cheese.

That's right. Don't you read, playwright? According to the New York Times, The Melt--which will one day allow users to order grilled cheese sandwiches from their mobile phones--has raised 15 million dollars. It's not even up and running yet and they have 15 million dollars. No users, no sales. It's just an idea on a page. Sort of like your play. But this idea has 15 million dollars behind it.

You see, silly playwright, this is how the world works. I saw that reading of that new play of yours. I would invest, but it seemed...I don't know...like it needs a bit more development before I take it seriously.

But this guy, Jonathan Kaplan, he came up to me and told me about how I could order a grilled cheese sandwich from my mobile phone with his app and I decided to give him 15 million dollars. Because that would be so sweet if I could order grilled cheese from my phone--so much cooler than using my phone to call a restaurant to order grilled cheese and so much cooler than going on a website via my phone to place an order. And I'm never at home when I want a grilled cheese, where'd I'd have to use a lame computer. No, I want an app for that. A grilled cheese app.

How is The Melt going to do it? I haven't a clue. Not for me to say. But I trust that it will work and be popular. Meanwhile, I felt like the ending of your play wasn't really earned. I mean, what was with the juice? She drinks it? She doesn't drink it? I mean...??

But can I tell you about color? I gave color 41 million dollars. I'll be honest, I'm not even sure what it is. It's this app...with pictures? You know how kids share pictures? They'll be doing that with color soon--somehow unlike they do on facebook or twitter or flickr. It's going to be big. The CEO told me, so it must be true. So he's rocking out with $41 million just because! Because what if this thing is the next facebook? I'd be stupid to not give them $41 million! And who am I to tell them what's going to be popular? I mean, they're the tech people. They know what they're doing. So I'm keeping my mouth shut and writing checks.

Meanwhile, where does your story take place? Yeah, they're in a house...but where? What was the time period? Yeah...see, that's your problem.

Silly, playwright. It needs to be clear for me to invest. As clear as scvngr.com.

The HMS Youngblood

Meghan Deans and I have a very real, very serious artistic goal: one day, Youngblood needs to own a ship.  The natural synergies between a young playwrights group and a large expeditionary vessel are so obvious it's amazing nobody has put it together yet.

So with some regularity, we look for ships for sale online and send them to each other.  Sometimes the conversation goes like this:

Meghan:  Okay well let's not kid ourselves. That first one, that goddamn catamaran (CATAMARAN!!!) is wonderful. For chrissake, it has a massage cabin. A MASSAGE CABIN. And I love the tableau in picture B, where you could sit on the deck and... look... at... instruments? Like a guitar just hanging out? That's pretty fantastic

RJ: This is a heck of a ship but note the fuel consumption - 650-700 gallons PER DAY.  At probably $5+/gallon for marine fuel.  WHAT THE WHAT?  Clearly we're going to need a REALLY successful Kickstarter.

Meghan: But, here's what I also like, all of these "research vessels." You know how we get a "research vessel"? A Sloan grant, obviously. And if they're not going to play ball, I say, let's go all the way to the National Science Foundation. What, do they have something better to do?

My brother was on a research vessel for a couple months this spring (so jealous) and the ship itself had a website for kids, one that was clearly made to get some sweet sweet NSF funding. Education and whatnot. (They interviewed him, like, "hey kids! this is what a scientist does!" and their explanation of his research, the explanation written explicitly for children, is the first time I've actually understood what he does.)

RJ: "Pirate Ship (New)" - has the best disclaimer ever, "Pirates not included!"

Meghan: I don't even know what to say about the pirate ship. Except, what the: "Details include 6 bronze functional cannons, handmade canvases and ropes, a handmade metal-tipped anchor and also the sheathing impregnated by hot blood from oxen." OH GOOD. Because I was running low on SHEATHING IMPREGNATED BY HOT BLOOD FROM OXEN. HOT. BLOOD.

RJ: Maybe we've been aiming too high.  This one you don't dock, you park it.  Liveaboard would be a little spartan, true.

Meghan: So yeah, maybe you're right, maybe we want to go with the LARC Amphibious Vehicle. At least that one could also double as something that helps us get our IKEA furniture home.

Blogging Bloodworks: Link/March Pt. 1

People often tell me that they can't imagine me as a child.

I don't really know what this means, but more than one person has said it to me. In fact, even I have trouble remembering myself as a young boy. But I know I didn't always speak in the baritone that I do now. I was once a child. And while I'll never be one again, I briefly felt like one while writing The Bone Wars.

I didn't have many toys growing up, but I did have dinosaurs--an awesome T-Rex and a pretty sweet Brontosaurus. I think there was a Triceratops in the mix too. Boy, did we have some crazy adventures! I even had an awesome book called Patrick's Dinosaurs--how frickin' cool! I couldn't believe there was a book that not only had my name as part of the title, but was ALSO about dinosaurs. Life was complete.

Yet, I grew up too quickly. Hollywood was calling, or at least the local community theatre was, and I had myself some musicals to be in. That's right. When I was nine I was a triple threat. I acted, I danced (4 years tap--oh yes!), and I believed that I could sing. While Jordan was winning NBA Championships, Link was making a name for himself in local musical theatre. And I was very, very serious about it.

But, again, I grew up too quicky. When I was 15, I "didn't want to pretend anymore." So I put these musicals away in the dark closet of my soul, right next to Patrick's Dinosaurs. I locked the key. Never to return.

Until I started writing a musical about dinosaurs with Eric March and Jeff Bienstock--a musical you can experience for the first time ever on Wednesday, June 22 at 8:30pm on the 2nd floor of EST. The Bone Wars is a musical adventure about two leading paleontolgists of the 1880s and their conflicting ambitions. It's also about fame, survival, and science!

But for me (and maybe just me) it's about other things, too. Like finding fossils not just in the ground, but in the caverns of your mind; fossils that form the child you once were--a strange distant creature that once ruled the earth.

The Bone Wars

Music and Lyrics by Eric March and Jeff Bienstock

Book by Patrick Link

Wednesday, June 22 at 8:30PM

Directed by RJ Tolan

Featuring Chris Hoch, Anthony Holds, Sarah Corey, Joel Rooks, Catherine Jones, Josh Davidson, Lance Rubin, Aaron Phillips, Steven Boyer, John Bennett, Shawn Randall, Matthew Baldiga, and Nate Weida.

FREE

Shut Up, David Mamet*

Shut up, David Mamet. STFU. Be quiet. No, seriously, shut the fuck up, David Mamet. * You don't know what you're talking about when you say things like:

On Phil Spector:

"I don't think he's guilty... They should never have sent him away. Whether he did it or not, we'll never know but if he'd just been a regular citizen, they never would have indicted him."

Oh, really? Phil Spector wore a fright wig and kept Ronnie Spector prisoner. That's not something regular citizens get the chance to do.

On unions:

"I realized I had been screwed by unions as much as I'd been helped by them."

So much for minimum wage and five day work weeks.

On Sarah Palin:

"I am crazy about her. Would she make a good candidate for president? I don't know but she seems to have succeeded at everything she put her hand to."

Like shooting wolves from a helicopter. I can't even.

Read the whole thing if you want your brain to die a painful death. Ugh. Everything is the worst.


*The opinions expressed in this post are Conkel's only, and not necessarily the opinions of Youngblood as a collective.

Hear Them Roar!

According to Isherwood, this Broadway season has been a tad low on significant roles for women. This got me thinking about how Youngblood treated our female characters during the 2010-2011 season. I think Isherwood would have been pleased with our ladies (until they address the audience).


Unfiltered 2011 gave life to three new plays (Sweet Forgotten Flavor, In Quietness, and The Sluts of Sutton Drive) all of which had hefty leading roles for women. Featuring the talents of Kristin Griffith, Julie Fitzpatrick, and Megan Hill, these women were on the Verge of a Glorious Takedown of all the male characters trying to share the stage with them. These plays also showcased from some phenomenal supporting females (Diana Ruppe, Clare McNulty, Katie Atcheson and Amy F-ing Staats).

As for The Ladies Who Brunch, who could forget Eric Dufault's Defensive Driving with Molly Carden and Cathy Curtin? Or Anna Kerrigan's In Transit with Julie Leedes and Diana Ruppe? Not to mention Mira Gibson's infamous short Skandal Skank with Lucia Brizzi, Jenny Gomez, Allyson Morgan, Amy Staats, and Megan Tusing? Sure, we had the Sloan Brunch which somehow only provided one female character (rock on, Kristen Harlow!), but I swear that was a fluke.



I imagine Asking for Trouble had some good female roles, but that whole weekend is a blur to me, so I'm just going to give a shout out to Kelli Lynn Harrison and Abigail Gampel in Eric March's musical tribute to Arbor Day.

And while Bloodworks ain't over yet, we've already had Erica Saleh's In Memory of Julie Simmons and Alex Borinsky's Unpleasant Men, both boasting all-female casts.

We'll never have enough female characters, so we'll continue to write them. In the meantime, I'm glad to be part of a theatre where the women are strong, the men are above average, and the kids are from 52nd Street.