Physics of a Pie-angle

1. Attend Death of American Centaur at Ars Nova featuring Youngblood luminary Alex Borinsky. 
2. Do not leave the theater when an actor announces that he will pay you back for your ticket if you’d prefer to take a walk outside.
3. Enjoy the scene where the company uses two whipped cream pies to induce tension into a heart to heart between Biff & Happy (seriously, the other brother in Death of a Salesman is named Happy?). Realize that every play could probably be better with two actors standing by with pies waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
4. At intermission, when the actors lay down a tarp and announce that the audience is welcome to pie actors or each other, turn to RJ Tolan and newly minted YBer Clare Barron and nod in unison. Attempt to convince Meghan Deans. Fail.
5. Clamber onto that tarp and stand in a rough triangle.

6. On the count of three, smash that pie into your assigned person’s face.

7. Realize that the whipped cream is actually shaving cream when you accidentally taste some.
8. Try to clean your face. Fail.
9. Turn back to see Meghan Deans from her pie-free seat in the audience with a Cheshire cat grin and an absurdly clean face.
10. Watch the rest of the play knowing that this evening was well worth that crumpled ten dollar bill.

Meet Leah Nanako Winkler

Photo by Chase Voorhees

Questions by illustrious new member Mary Hamilton! To learn more about Leah and her writing, you can visit her website or everywheretheatre.org.

What was the first thing you remember getting in trouble for as a kid?

When I was about five, I hid from my mom while she was using the bathroom at a Daiei in Kamakura (which is a sort of like a Japanese Target). I remember getting really happy seeing her look for me and then getting really sad when I lost track of her. I started roaming around for what seemed like hours until a woman grabbed me by the hand and took me to my mom who was super angry and frightened. I still remember the horrible look on her face.

What is the worst job you've ever had or done?

I can't go into the worst job due to legal reasons but the second worst job I've ever had or done is the time I worked as an auto-show model for a well known car company. I traveled to different cities every month with a team of girls and literally stood next to cars for six hours at a time. Sometimes I had to stand on a rotating platform and talk about the said cars, which was really embarrassing and especially awful because I am terrified of cars and driving. Most of my coworkers were ex-beauty queens (literally- I worked with a former Miss Teen USA) which I was first excited about, but the atmosphere ended up being stereotypically catty, despite some truly nice people I met. Although there were a lot of glamorous aspects like staying in nice hotels and free make-up, I thought it was a pretty degrading job, which is saying a lot considering all the awful places I've worked at. Also, I was fired.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a roommate?

Passive aggressive notes.

If you had to describe your writing to my grandma in three sentences or less, what would you say?

Dear Mary's Grandma,
I write from my heart and try to stay as true as possible. That’s all I can say.
Who is the most famous person you have ever met?
Once I was working background as a fake prostitute on the movie "Fighting" for a week starring Oscar nominee Terrance Howard.  Oscar nominee Terrance Howard would always hit on all the fake prostitute girls in between bouts of crying and looking really high. One night, he came up to me and asked me what my nationality was. I replied, "half-Japanese, how about you?" and he said "I'm Terry" and then told me that I would have to give him my phone number if he rolled snake eyes over the poker table. He then magically rolled a snake eyes over the poker table . I gave him my number. He then called me while I was on the shuttle back to Chinatown and asked me to come over for sex. When I said "I'm not like that", he said "hey I was just playin' girl" and told me to call him when I got home. I did. He didn't pick up. We never spoke again. I hope he reads this because he made me feel kind of special.

What would you be if you couldn't be a writer?
I have no idea.

Any plugs?

Yes a few! This Saturday 11/5 at 9 pm @ Cake Shop, my short play "I Don’t Want To Read Your Blog" ( written originally for A4T ) will be a part of Slow Animal + Heaven's Gate + Perfect Teeth + 3 Short Plays. Some text I wrote will also be a part of Forth, A Live Rock N Roll Radio Documentary Theater Experiment arranged by Tommy Smith at Magic FutureBox from Nov 9-12 ( tickets) Also, my theater company, Everywhere Theatre Group, has a show called FLYING SNAKES IN 3D! (Text by leah winkler and teddy nicholas until teddy nicholas left the proeject and then leah took it over and then they got into a fight about credit) at the Ars Nova Ant Fest on November 16th at 8 pm ( one night only). It's a play about a theater company that tries to make an impossible play to stage about mutant flying snakes engineered by two scientists and the heroes that fight them to save the world. Not only is it going to be hilarious, it will touch on several uncomfortable topics about the state of next generation theater in America such as class division and it's relationship with cinema. Check out the trailer here.



Lastly, if you are in Florida, a play of mine called Death For Sydney Black, will be produced by Thinking Cap Theater at the Empire Stage in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida from Nov 10-26. Purchase tickets online at http://thinkingcaptheatre.com Cash only at door.

Sad Playwright

In case you're wondering what Youngblood does on retreat, it looks a lot like this.

Jen Silverman Delves Into The Dangerous Mind of Chiara Atik

While an unseasonable snowstorm raged, new Youngblood Jen Silverman met other new Youngblood Chiara Atik deep below-ground in an abandoned soviet bunker to interrogate her for top secret information. As helicopters and byplanes and drones hummed aboveground and musclebound Siberian bodyguards stood by the doors with their uzis clutched in hand, Ms. Atik revealed the following. Burn after reading, ladies & gents. And know that you have been one of the select few entrusted with this knowledge.


—How would you describe your style?

I just spent like 20 minutes agonizing over this question. Impossible. I just asked a friend. He said "lightly formal." Oy.

—What's the strangest situation you've ever been in?

Ahh, the one thing that pops into my mind right now is that when I was a kid, I accidentally saw Shari Lewis topless. As in, Lamb Chop's Sing-A-Long's Shari Lewis. She had a house in my Grandparent's neighborhood in California, but for some reason I was under the impression that she had moved out. So a neighborhood kid and I snuck onto the property to "explore" ... I think I literally thought we would find some discarded Lamb Chop puppet or souvenir. Instead, we found Shari Lewis sunbathing topless in the backyard. Her husband was like "Can I help you??" and we were like "oh....we wanted to see Shari Lewis?" (not true.) and he was like "Well, you found her....". And then we ran away.

—Is there anything that MAKES YOU SO ANGRY about/ in theatre?

No, actually! Surprising, as it is fairly easy to make me SO ANGRY about something.

—If you could say something to your teenage self, what would you say?

You were totally right: homework is busywork. Making a poster board is not a skill that denotes intelligence. 50 math problems to understand a single concept is ridiculous. As an adult, I feel like most of my teenage indignation was justified. But I should have been sweeter to my mother.

—What are you really grateful to your family for?

Oh, what a nice question! My parents are both supportive in their own hilarious ways. My dad is probably the one person on earth who won't get bored of listening to the mundane details of my life, and happily comes to any show or production, no matter how small. My mom is great for brainstorming and fun to bounce ideas off of. During the work-day, she's one of my favorite people to chat with on GChat, so I'm grateful to have a Mom who's hip with technology in that way. My little brother is so smart and funny and just the best company. And my entire extended family -- aunts, uncles, grandparents -- is wonderful and fun. So I'm grateful for all of that!

—Who/ what are you inspired by?

I think nearly every play I've written can be directly traced back to a trip. Traveling and seeing new places. Also books. But, yeah, mostly travel because the physical act of going someplace new sort sort of opens up my imagination and lets my mind do the same.

—Is there a place in the world that feels like home? Where is it?

My aunt's house in Philadelphia, which for the past 7 years has been a cozy refuge from New York whenever I've needed it, is definitely the place that most feels like home.

Leah Winkler Asks Mary Hamilton Some Hardcore Questions

Hi! I'm new member Leah Nanako Winkler who interviewed fellow new member Mary Hamilton. Isn't she pretty?

LEAH

How do you feel when you write?

MARY

Highly caffeinated and scared.

LEAH

Have you ever failed anything?

MARY

Of course. In the third grade i wanted to be a boy. Not just any boy. I wanted to be Huck Finn. So for a week i sported a straw hat and a pipe, and went around without a shirt on. My cousin and I tried unsuccessfully to fashion a raft out of some styrofoam cubes and logs. Then the neighborhood boys came over. They didn't believe i was huck finn. So, to prove it to them (my logic here gets a little fuzzy) I went and peed in a bush. Needless to say this didn't work out too well for me. Neighborhood boys can be cruel. I'd definitely call my attempt to be Huck Finn an overall failure. I also used to want to catch for the new york yankees, but i was too afraid of the ball.

LEAH

What do you consider your best and worst qualities as a human being?

MARY

Wow! Okay. My worst quality as a human being...I sort of compulsively lie? But not about anything too important. and not to anyone I know or like. I guess it's more that I subconsciously and compulsively alter details about day to day life to strangers. Maybe that is my best quality too. I try to keep things interesting and not stay married to reality. But it can be fairly problematic I think.

LEAH

Who do you look up to?

MARY

My grandfather, my husband and Harpo Marx. not necessarily in that order.

LEAH

What was the last thing you bought?

MARY

A cup of coffee.

LEAH

What was your first play about and do you think it was a good play?

MARY

My first play was called "the pirate and the bunnies..." or maybe "the pirates and a bunny..." or maybe just "pirate and bunny." I was six. It was definitely not a good play. That said, many of its larger themes (desire; betrayal; the questionable morality of slaughtering small forest creatures) carry into my writing today.

LEAH

What was the last life-changing experience you've had?

MARY

Giving birth to my daughter.

LEAH

Describe your hometown to me.

MARY

My hometown was on the beach in new jersey. So, in the summer, lots of wealthy Italian undergrads (think the cast of Jersey Shore, but less muscular and self-reflexive) in bikinis doing shots on the boardwalk. In the winter: quiet, calm, and smelling vaguely of salt and dead fish. Apart from the summer tourism the town was not all that exceptional, I don't think. There were the kids who lived in "the hills." These kids had designer backpacks and drove BMW's to high school. then there were the rest of us, whose parents didn't commute to Manhattan. We were literally separated by railroad tracks. The railroad tracks ran behind my house. Every year in elementary school they showed a film about playing chicken on the tracks. These two kids are standing there in the middle of a track, holding hands, and a second before a train runs them over they dive onto the parallel track. They lie there together, breathless with excitement over their near death experience. If it were an 80's movie they'd start to make out. then another train comes from the opposite direction and runs them over. They actually show them being carried off in body bags at the end of the movie. Which needless to say sent us all straight out to play on the tracks. I have a lot of memories there actually.

LEAH

What excites you about theater?

MARY

Its endless possibility for change.

LEAH

Describe a typical day in Mary Hamilton land.

MARY

Okay...well...on weekdays: my phone alarm goes off at 4:30. I hit snooze. I get up at 4:36 or 4:42...or sometimes 4:48. I make a pot of coffee. I brush my teeth. If there is time, I write. My daughter wakes at 5 or 5:30. I change her diaper. I put on her shoes. At 6 I carry her around the corner where we help a volatile six year old get ready for school. The six year old watches sesame street and eats frozen eggo waffles. She will not eat them cooked. Only frozen. My daughter and I play with her toys. We walk the six year old to school at 8:30. We walk home. My husband takes my daughter while I ride my bike to the coffee house down the street to write. I return home at 11:45. My husband goes to work. I read "the very hungry caterpillar" ten or eleven times to my daughter until she falls asleep. On an ideal day I write for 2 more hours. On a less than ideal day I am distracted by searching the internet for better jobs or re-reading "the very hungry catepillar" to myself in spanish ("la oruga muy hambrienta"). My daughter wakes up from her nap. I prepare her lunch. i chase her around and attempt to feed her. I clean up all, or most, or some, of the food that has fallen from her mouth and scattered around the house. We read "the very hungry caterpillar" or maybe "the little blue truck" or "mr brown can moo, can you?" A few more times. Sometimes we go to the park. Sometimes other mothers are there with their babies and sometimes I bond with the other mothers about teething and the consistency of our children's feces. We return home. I pack a bag with goldfish, diapers, two bottles of milk and "the very hungry caterpillar." We get on the bus, where strangers give me advice on child rearing. I pretend I speak Spanish. I tell them that on Tuesday, the very hungry caterpillar ate two plums, but he was still hungry. We get off the subway and walk half a mile to St. Anne's elementary school where we pick up two pre-teenagers and take them to the park for soccer practice. We play on the astro turf at the park. I try to teach my daughter not to eat cigarette butts. Soccer practice ends. I argue with the pre-teenagers about whether to take the bus or the subway. They prefer the bus. Less homeless people, they say. I prefer the subway. Less advice on child rearing. sometimes they win. Sometimes I do. I take them to piano lessons and Hebrew School and guitar and tae kwon do. We go home. I put my daughter to bed. Depending on the day I: write; go to a play; watch a movie; go to rehearsal; come to a youngblood meeting! Fall asleep in my clothes. There might be a glass of whiskey or 2 in there somewhere...repeat. On weekends: I write a lot. and we go to the park. Sometimes a play. That's mostly what I do on weekends. oh and we've been watching the wonder years obsessively now that it is on Netflix. It's amazing. It's like nostalgia porn.

Raise a Hand to God

Late spring, 2010. No. Actually, early summer, 2010. The playwrights of Youngblood were elbows-deep in their annual end-of-the-season reading series, Bloodworks. The final reading of the series was a little number called Hand to God, by Robert Askins. And friends, it was a good reading. It was a very, very, very good reading. Eyewitness reports used phrases like "doubled over laughing" and "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"; experts predicted the play would permanently change the face of American theater. "Yes," said the experts. "The face of American theater is definitely changing." The experts took a deep breath. "It is becoming the face of a hand puppet."

EST/Youngblood presents
Hand to God

by Robert Askins*
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel*

“The funniest play about faith, hands down,
on the contemporary stage.”
- Solange on Theater

Christian Puppet Ministries are a great way to teach children about the Bible. Each child gets a puppet, and each puppet gets his own personality. But children can be fooled by Satan’s tricks. For even within the sanctuary of the Christian Puppet Ministry, the devil lurks. The people of Cypress, Texas were good Christians. Until one day at Puppet Ministry, a boy named Jason, and his puppet Tyrone, let the devil in. This is their story.

Jason / Tyrone – Steven Boyer*†
Margery – Geneva Carr*†
Timothy – Bobby Moreno*†
Jessica – Megan Hill†
Pastor Greg – Scott Sowers*†

Assistant Stage Manager - Joshua Hernandez
Sound Design – Chris Barlow
Lighting Design -Matthew Richards
Costume Design – Sydney Maresca
Set Design – Rebecca Lord-Surratt
Puppet Design – Marte Johanne Ekhougen
Fight Choreographer – Robert Westley
Props Manager – Deb Gaouette

*denotes EST member
†denotes Equity Member

Dates: October 27 - November 20
Thursday - Monday @ 7pm, Sunday @ 3pm
Sunday, November 6 @ 5pm

Tickets: $25
Pick Your Price Previews: October 27 - 30
Opening Night Performance & Halloween Party Reception: October 31 (come in costume and get a free bottle of Robert Askins' home-brewed beer!)

Do not sleep on this one.

Also you can watch some exclusive video interviews with the cast! Here! Do it!

You see that? That's a frickin' movie poster highlighted in this article that you should really read and designed by this guy who is all kinds of awesome.

The article makes the point that movie posters aren't what they used to be, as in this:

and some independent movie houses are doing something about it by making their own posters by commissioning artists. Not only are the making awesome posters, by they're making bank selling them.

Theaters, take note. Commission artists. Get results.

New Straight Play on Broadway Alert!

CHINGLISH - while it is not our practice to review plays in Youngblood, I must advise everyone I know and do not yet know to see this new comedy by David Henry Hwang. Without saying how thoughtful, funny, and clever it is, I recommend it to anyone looking for something extremely fresh and now. I won't go on to say how extremely well cast it is, how excellent the production value is, or how I hope this is a new turn for Broadway in producing globally relevant new plays.

I will just say that I have seen it and could not have enjoyed myself more. Thank you Broadway and all involved in making Chinglish available to theatre folk and tourists alike.

Hot Playwrights - XII

Katori Hall. A mountaintop of hot.

Death of American Centaur

One night, in McCoy's, a couple of Youngblooders were bemoaning the endless series of readings and reading workshops that stud the new play landscape like ghost towns in a Western desert. You can "read" a play to death, can't you? Sometimes you just need to do the play.

This is an early pitch for Youngblood's Unfiltered series, and it's also a reminder that Rob Askins' Hand to God is happening soon.

But there's a second part of the story. "What if we did readings of classic plays, y'know? Just as a weird kind of revenge." "Yeah, we could do Death of a Salesman." "Yeah!" "Yeah. Yeah. Let's workshop the hell out of that play. You know? Cause in the end it'd be... it'd be.... Yeah. It'd be a really good play, still. Hm." And then we trailed off.

Well, Youngblood was smart enough to stop there. American Centaur, the company that's remaking American theater and human life as we know it, was dumb enough to keep going. Death of American Centaur is revenge and tribute -- a desperate plea from the pimply guy at the middle school dance, asking the gorgeous cheerleader (Arty Miller) on a date.

Also, American Centaur is the beloved group of lovely people I spend a lot of time making theater with. We have a lot of fun together, and want to include you.

Come check it out -- Death of American Centaur @ ArsNova's ANT Fest, Saturday, October 22nd, 8 o'clock. Tickets are $10.

LinkThinks - What Would You Say?

Say that I'm a wealthy business man with some money to spend. I've retired (early) to a small town in the American South. You wouldn't recognize the name if I told you, so I won't tell you the name of it.

So say for a moment that I'm rich, retired, and living in this small little no-name town. I grow to like the town and become curious about its history. I become so curious that I decide to put a full page ad out in all the papers, including the local paper as well as The New York Times. The ad has no pictures, simply this text:

Wanted: Playwright to compose a play that depicts the history of this town. If not the entire history, at least a critical moment that allows me to relish in some of the complexities that have made this town what it is. Generous pay with generous living. Play must be complete and performed for me within three years with various milestones along the way. Content can be rated G or X, depending on what your topic dictates. Cast can include 1 to 100 characters and cannot be any longer than 120 minutes.

Now say I did all of that and I really wanted a quality play to be written about this town. Ideally, I'd want a play that could be performed every year of my life (and maybe after) that would be free for all the town to see. Now say I came to you with the following questions:

1. Should I hire a local writer or writer from somewhere else (for an outside perspective) to pen this play?

2. I only have time to look at their script samples or their resumes. Which should I look at?

3. When I interview this writer, what's the most important question for me to ask?

What would you say?

Adam Szymkowicz interviews playwrights

And most recently he interviewed a personal hero of mine, Daniel Alexander Jones. This man is one of the most inspiring minds and voices I have ever encountered and I think you should all read this interview:

http://aszym.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-interview-playwrights-part-390-daniel.html

It stokes a fire that we (or, at least, I) sometimes forget to tend to.

We Got What We Asked For

In the end, who knows how many were there. How many beers were drunk, how many moves were busted. Who knows what props were misplaced, what lines reimagined. What laughs were got, what tears, what gasps. What songs were danced to, what cheers went up. When we staggered out of Ensemble Studio Theatre at 2am, at 3am, at 4, 5, 6am, did we see stars above us? Or were those just tears, reflecting the light of true happiness?

Yeah it was all of those things.

One of the appeals of Asking for Trouble is that although all start in the same place (on the 6th floor of EST, suddenly realizing we have no idea how to pronounce anybody's name ever) we end up in wildly different places. This year's plays were set in bars, on cruise ships, in apartments, on rooftops, in the ocean, in minor league baseball stadiums, on strange communes, and more. Our characters were creepy, funny, old, young, sweet, romantic, edible, high, squids, pilots, klutzes, and French. And yet--and yet!--there were convergences. The collective unconscious of Asking for Trouble, the river of panic that we all drew from drew forth:

- Two plays that featured body-swapping of a sort
- Two plays that featured headlamps
- Two plays requiring ridiculous mascot costumes
- Two plays with dance numbers
- 2 Carols
- 2 Sashas
- And lots and lots of partial male nudity

Asking for Trouble 2011 was a blast. Thank you, so much, to everyone who made it possible and to everyone who showed up and supported. See you next year.

Video Promos Gone Wild

Darcy Fowler can not stop making ASKING FOR TROUBLE video promos.  This one represents a new high water mark.

Now We're Asking for Trouble

When we found out that Youngblood musical genius Eric March had written an (hilarious, but) non-musical play for Asking for Trouble, we got so mixed up that we locked him in an office and forced him to come up with a charming song that would make us all happy and un-mixed-up. And you know what, we're not even sorry! Because we got this:



NIGHT TWO of Asking for Trouble BEGINS IN something like TEN plus HOURS! Plays! Premiering! Actors! Acting! You! Drinking! Here's the full schedule! Don't let Eric March down!