Bruins parade, maybe. How about a parade for the arts?

We've seen the pictures and the video of the Vancouver hockey riots on the night of the Stanley Cup final game. There's no need for me to repost them or even go through Blogspot's clunky procedure for posting rich media onto this blog. (Though, Blogspot, it has gotten better.) We've all gawked. It's embarrassing for Vancouver. Move on. Show's over.

Wow. All over a hockey game. Scenes we saw from that night are usually reserved for places that are trying to overthrow a dictator or win civil rights. I'm not even sure what it was all about. I'd be willing to bet they didn't even know either. Were they mad? At whom? Frustrated? By a hockey team? You're kiddng? By the economy? By their spouses? Man, there is some deep-seated anger in Vancouver. Who knew?

Still, deep, deep, deep in one of my darkest places, I might be mildly thrilled if I wrote say, a play, that infuriated or touched people so deeply they were compelled to storm out of the theater and riot. Turn over a few cop cars and set them on fire. But that ain't going to happen. Not in the United States, at least. That only happens with sporting events. And in Europe.

And I would love if I, or maybe I and a group of fellow artists, were given a huge Duck Boat parade through Boston like the victorious Bruins were. Or if I was given a trophy, maybe. A trophy would be cool. I could put M&Ms in it, to show I was still just a regular guy. Or I think it would be neat if people held up signs with my bespectacled face reading, JGF for president. Or I'd even take an on-camera interview by a blonde Barbie of the like who interview middle-aged, fat coaches, who I resemble more than just a little, on ESPN. I'd nonchalantly mumble some cliches, because if we've seen one thing from this Bruin victory, these guys can't really say anything articulate. Sorry, they can't. Maybe they are star athletes and really nice guys to boot, but they effing flunk public speaking. Hey, take it from a word guy.

We're too sports-crazy in this nation. We are. And I know it sounds like sour grapes, but we don't value artists--at all. I even heard someone in my current class ejaculate (yes, it means something else beside that; what are you?--a hockey player or something?) that she is tired of hearing about artists. And she was sitting in a room with artists and I'm assuming self-professed that she was the same. Talk about your low self-esteem.

When my kids were little and I'd sit in an auditorium watching a school play, it would amaze me what parents would put up with. Those very same parents and relatives who would groan at a dropped pass on the football field or a miffed play on the baseball diamond were willing to put up with the sloppiest productions. Excruciating-long set changes, missed lighting cues, mixed up sound cues, bad blocking were totally acceptable, yet these same people would blow a gasket if a team didn't perform up to snuff. I figure they a) didn't know any better, and b) didn't care.

What's up with all this? I'm not saying nixed sports. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying we should, like the ancient Greeks, embrace the arts equally with sports.

Funding for the arts is one of the first things to get cut. But in my opinion, given the economy and general disarray of the country, the fractured nature of our country for years, we need the arts more than ever. Politician every election year say they are going to bring the country together, but politics divide. Politics promotes debate, which can be good, but I'm not so sure it's what we need right now. We need dialogue--something completely different, and I'm a word guy and if you don't believe me look it up--but the arts promote dialogue. Conversation. That's what we need now.

Yeah, dialogue. Conversation. That's worth a parade.

myentertainmentworld-theatre Has Some Nice Things to Say About Me and My Friends

When you have invested as much time and energy as I have into a new career in the theater, I can't tell you what it's like to get up, pour yourself a cup of coffee thinking to yourself, Lordy, what's today going to bring, and see this: Playwrights to Watch.

First of all, congratulations to both Heather Houston and Peter Floyd, who are classmates of mine (well, Heather just graduated.) They both wrote terrific plays and it was a huge part of my education so far to watch the plays' development.

And it's nice that the blogger had good things to say about my play, Highland Center, Indiana:

"...one of the most moving nights I’ve spent at the theatre in a long time."

"Highland Center, Indiana speaks to the greatest strengths of the human spirit and the worst failings of human beings, a story more honest than any I’ve seen."

As I near graduation--hopefully in August if I can just get through two more lit classes taught by two extraordinary professors and somehow hurdle my language requirement--the realization that I'm going to have to cobble a living in the theater becomes this looming, scary problem. After the thrill of being accepted to the Boston Playwrights' Theater program, then experiencing the roller coaster ride of the curicculum, you reach the point where the reality of the real world starts to come into play. Was I nuts to pursue something that I love so much?

And then here's the answer. Here's why we all do it. To touch someone with our art. You can't do it any other way and some of us reach the point that we have to do it. There is no choice. It literally is do our art, or die, at least metaphorically.

Theater as Church: The Search for Community

Just noticed that StageSource ran a short piece I wrote on theaters trying to build community.

Give it a read here.

To live is to fly

A Sunday. Hot. Humid. Just the way I like it. I think I'm cashing in on my alleged father's Italian genes. I love hot weather. It doesn't bother me the way it seems to bother others. I hate the cold and the wet and the dark. When it gets this hot, all I have to do is think about snow, and I just settle down. I always joke and say I'm solar-powered.

So, sitting on the porch this morning reading the New York Times and trying to figure out what to do with this beautiful day, I finally decided not to go to a play and spend money even though I should--(should!--that awful word rife with guilt)--even though I should stay on top of the local theater scene since I'm going to school and spending so much money and time (did I mention so much money?) to be a part of local theater scene. I always say that an artist has to live life, and then bring what he or she finds in life to the stage or the canvas or to music, so today I decided to to stay at home and live a life and write and read for my class and play guitar. And not spend a dime. I'm reading everywhere about the Great Recession. (I don't know why we keep dancing around this and wonder when we're just going to realize it's probably even worse that the 1930s.) I learned a while back how to enjoy simple and cheap and free. Sue and I have so much in this apartment, and people don't really understand what we do all the time since we don't have a television. (So, what do you do?)

A mockingbird moved into our neighborhood, and is the last bird heard as night falls.

Today in the Times I read how important Facebook and Twitter is to our diplomatic effort. Please, people falling into the trap (again) that technology will save the day. With people, you have to continue to do the human thing.

Yesterday I spent a glorious day on the beach with my oldest, who has seemed to have adopted Rhode Island for her home. It's a beautiful place, all that coastline with such a deep sailing history. We get along, after all these years of being apart. In my counterculture class we read how so many people want to turn back the clock, revisit a time when things were "better." That's a natural human response but it's impossible. And it's a response that I think is ruining this country right now. We have to embark on new paths; learn from the past but the times call for a new way of life.

With my daughter I know I can't turn back the clock, I can only go forward from here, and that's probably the right and true thing to do anyway. I know, if she could, she'd turn back the clock to when she was happier, when there was a regular family with a mom and a dad and a sister and a dog living in a house in the suburbs. She needs me right now, needs my advice to help her move toward the future. I think there are some people in her life who'd she'd be a lot better off without. Not bad people; just nothing great about them--they're the hoi polloi, though I'm sure they think otherwise about themselves; I'm sure they've been told all their lives how great they are, how smart, funny, intelligent, witty, good-looking (on the outside, maybe) by doting parents and superficial friends. And I know I'm prejudiced, but Allison is a catch. She's a terrific person who has a fragile side thanks to her father and there are those who are too damn clumsy, stupid, or just plain uncaring to deserve her company. And I feel it's my responsibility to protect her. I told her yesterday that she deserves to have the kind of friend that she makes for others.

I've turned into a crusty old SOB; someone who doesn't suffer fools. I've wasted too much time (Livin's mostly wastin' time/I waste my share of mine/But it never feels too good/So let's don't take too long). I've always heard the clock tickin' and always tried to live my life knowing that it all could end tomorrow. It's too precious. And I hate wasting anything much less time.

Check out these Boston theater productions: Farragut North, Family Stories, Betrayal, and Boston Theatre Marathon XII

Have been seeing some really good theater in the Boston area that I'd like to pass along to you.

Lately I've been sitting in the audience thinking back to my old days in school as a photography major. Back then--and this was just as this weird new technology called video was just on the rise--photography was the hip visual technology, and the people who majored in things like printmaking were sort of the anachronisms of the art world.

As a writer, I'm always curious about the structure of the different pieces I've been watching, and the subject matter, and I'm curious about theater's role in society, and if it currently has a real and important and persistent place.

That all aside, here are a few shows that are still up and running that I suggest you see.

I'll start with Farragut North, produced by Zeitgeist Stage Company, in its final week at the Plaza Black Box theater at the Boston Center for the Arts. At some point I heard someone describe Farragut North as The West Wing on crack. Farragut North is a very approachable show in terms of its topic, and mirroring a lot of characteristics of popular television: very fast pace, in your face drama, broadly defined characters facing extraordinary moral questions. It depicts the descent of a political press secretary during a modern presidential campaign, with hard-hitting Mametesque dialogue, and all the misplaced ambition, paranoia, and gluttony for power that we've all come to expect from our leaders. In short, its something we all can quickly identify. Right up to the end there's a moral battle that entices the audience. Always a good sign, after the production I found myself on the sidewalk talking about the story and the characters as if they were real. For someone in theater, to shuck your theater facade and actually become a participatory audience member is high compliments for a show. This is definitely a must-see.

Second on my list is Family Stories, produced by Whistler in the Dark and running for two more weeks at the Factory Theatre. After seeing the show I said to both director and Whistler artistic director Meg Taintor and actress Mellisa Barker that I have no idea what I had just seen, but I loved it. Set in Belgrade in 1998, the country is wracked by violence, civil war, paranoia, famine, and all the other accoutrements of war and civil strife that would plague the citizenry. Jarring emotions and actions play out on the stage, and Family Stories presents an abstract and fragmented view of what life was like during those times. A magnificent piece of theater that will challenge you, and answered the question I had halfway through the production: What kind of life caused someone to write all this? If you're curious about the world, outside of the safe little box most of us live within, go see this.

Last night Harold Pinter's Betrayal opened at the Calderwood Pavillion at the Boston Center for the Arts last night. I'm house manager for the first week (so if you come this weekend you'll get a cheery greeting from me; be sure to say hi), and last night I was lucky enough to be able to see the entire show from the second row. The kind of opening night that I saw last night, where all the tech comes off smoothly and the actors are connecting in a very deep and real way means that this show has nothing else to do but keep getting better and better. Of course, like the other shows I mentioned, I know a few of the actors and technical people. And sometimes that's a problem because you know the actors on stage as people in the "real world." That didn't happen last night watching Lyralen Kaye and Wayne Fritsche (and I'll also say the same for Victor Shopov in Farragut North and Melissa Barker in Family Stories.) Wayne tears your heart out as Robert, the culkhold husband of Lyralen's Emma. Lyralen is the founder and artistic director of Another Country Productions that espouses and promotes Meisner training. Quoting the promo piece, "It’s not about star power so much as it is about ensemble and connection. Betrayal, with its nuance and levels of emotional complication, could not be better served than by this technique." Good acting is simply about human relationships, that spark that jumps across the synapses that exist between all of us. This production of Betrayal is about that and so much more. Again, go see this one.

Finally, a heads up that Boston Playwrights' Theatre is presenting the Boston Theatre Marathon XII this Sunday, May 23 from 12 noon to 10 pm.

50 ten-minute plays by 50 New England playwrights presented by 50 New England theatre companies in 10 hours.

Plus, like last year the Boston Theater Marathon will include The Warm-Up Laps on May 22 featuring free staged readings. These readings are presented in association with the Boston Center for the Arts and their resident theatres.

All net proceeds benefit the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, a non-profit organization that provides financial relief for theatre artists and organizations who face dire need and require financial assistance.

Why I Act

I'd like to share part of an email I received from someone I know from a past life. He and I worked at a software company together. He lives in England and he's talking about his feelings about a community theater production he's helping with:

Though I have been chaperoning my little 9 year old boy whilst he and my daughter (17) perform in a musical "Blitz".

My God! Attending the relentless rehearsals, and then running around backstage supporting the costume changes and ensuring they are ready for their cue is harder than I thought. But that is nothing compared to the conceptualising, project management, coordination, team work and sheer bloody-mindedness needed to actually produce, direct, and give the performance. This is just amateur, and its 'Total-War' the way the WWII countries fought. What you go through must be crazy, and yet...

The excitement, even in the wings before the curtain rises, and the camaraderie is tremendous. That plus the mental, physical, and social development for the kids has made it more than worth it. Though I have little idea whether they will do sign-up when they are next asked.

It's all that, and more. People who aren't in the theater (though this particular man has performed) find it all so exciting and stimulating.

The costumes, the scenery, the makeup, the props
The audience that lifts you when you're down

Yes, it's all there, and it will continue entice and thrill and delight. But I've found that if the theater is going to mean anything at all to you, eventually all the glamor (ha!) and excitement and camaraderie gives way to other things. Because guess what? It's not always thrilling and exciting. Some day you find yourself working with a director with whom you simply can't connect, for whom anything you do is wrong, no matter how hard you try. You'll work with people who don't share your creative vision--or have no vision at all. You'll work with actors who are self-centered and egotistical (the theater seems draw this particular personality) who, in character, you have to show love and concern for on the stage but in the dressing room you want to hit between the eyes with a 2x4.

But strangely, masochistically, you continue to work in the theater. For through it all, hopefully, you're growing as a person and an artist.

But there is something you can do to increase your chances of doing good work and having an enjoyable experience, and that's simply find the people who bring out the best in you and work with them as much as you can. I know for me, that means working with actors who are open, and if you don't know what that means, it's a level of intimacy that only certain people are capable of reaching. I'm not interested in actors who prescribe to the "remember your lines and don't bump into the furniture" method of acting. Who reduce acting to "just telling a story." Actors who are afraid to risk showing who they are on the stage, who hide behind the character, instead of actively living inside the character and within the character's world.

I first got an inkling of this way back when a director by the name of Jim Barton cast me as Freddy in a production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile at The Vokes Theatre in Wayland. He told the night of the read through that we all have been cast because of who we were. Interesting, no? Subsequent rehearsals left me floundering until one night I mentioned to Jim that I was struggling with character. What does he sound like? I anguished. How does he walk? Jim just smiled and said he talks like me. Walks like me. Me. I was Freddy. And I'm the Reverend Muncie in Looking for Normal and tonight I'm Victor in The Wonderful World of Dissocia. Acting is being. Acting is living truthfully in an imaginary world.

In a director I need one who has a strong vision for the script and the production, but also is a collaborator, one who looks to the actors for their contribution in terms of developing the characters and understanding the script. The word that best fits this kind of director--and the actors, too--is organic. Not wedded to their own specific preconceived ideas, open to exploration and discovery in the rehearsal process, more interested in internal motivations than outside gestures, inflections, or line readings.

As for the environment, I need one that actors call "safe." One where you feel free to explore and take risks. To put it in simpler words, an environment where you won't feel you're making a fool out of yourself if you try something. A place where the creative process is understood to mean that every idea is valid, every participant is respected for their talent, and together they have the power and potential to break new ground.

The excitement of an opening night, the allure of the makeup and costumes, will continue to attract people to acting. But it is the process and the promise for creative growth that keeps me.

October 30 theater openings: some good stuff going on

Tonight there are a few good shows opening in and around the Boston area.

Company One's The Overwhelming is opening at the BCA.

Company One presents the Boston premiere of THE OVERWHELMING, an exotic thriller from award-winning playwright J.T. Rogers (Madagascar, White People). Seizing the opportunity to do research for his new book, Jack Exley uproots his family and moves to Rwanda in early 1994. As Jack, his wife and his teenage son encounter foreign culture and eye opening politics, they each find their own brand of trouble. Realizing that in this place no one is exactly what they seem, his family begins to unearth unexpected truths about this tiny, troubled nation... and about themselves.


October 30 – November 21, 2009
Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre
Wednesdays + Thursdays @ 7:30 pm
Fridays + Saturdays @ 8:00 pm
Sundays @ 2:00 pm

Holland Productions'Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh opens for a three-week run at The Factory Theater.

Moll, a girl who invents things, wins the science fair with a machine for hearing sounds that can't be heard. But when a shape-shifting Mercenary steals the invention (and her heart), she must embark on a quest to save noise as we know it. In a quirky fable of innocence and experience Moll crosses chasms and rafts rivers into a world where sound is always more than what meets the ear. Get tix here.

Apollinaire Theatre's The Wonderful World of Dissocia opens tonight in Chelsea (c'mon, drive over the bridge; it's not that big of a deal) for five weeks.

Lisa Jones is on a quest. She must retrieve one lost hour that has tipped the balance of her life. Her hour has been traced to the State of Dissocia, a wonderland ruled by its own eccentric logic, delirious delights and darkest danger. Will the curious inhabitants of Dissocia help her retrieve the lost hour, or are there reasons more complex for them to lead her astray?

This is a hugely original play, both magical and moving, that confirmed Anthony Neilson as one of the major voices in British theatre. Produced originally for the 2004 Edinburgh International Festival, The Wonderful World of Dissocia wowed critics and audiences alike, cleaning up at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland.

And don't forget SlamBoston this Monday and Tuesday at the Factory Theatre.

Also, The Sparrow continues at The Stoneham Theatre until November 8.

After garnering critical and popular acclaim with The Sparrow's debut in Chicago, writer and original director Nathan Allen will direct the East Coast Premiere of this riveting fable.

Orphaned teenager Emily Book returns to the town she once called home to finish her final year of high school--but this time, she's carrying a secret. An ordinary teenager with extraordinary abilities, Emily must embrace her supernatural powers and confront the truth about her past. An exciting tale of teens and telekinesis.

And finally, if you've never checked out The Gold Dust Orphans, you don't know what you're missing. During the non-summer months they perform over The Machine in the Fenway. They just opened The Valet of the Dolls. I'll fit it in somehow.

The Theater Offensive presents: Come As You Are! Celebrate Queer Sex

40 years after Stonewall, what are queer sexual values? In an evening of quickies, sex takes center stage and your ideas take the floor. Check out what diverse Boston artists have created on the topic to kick off your conversations.

Come As You Are: Celebrate Queer Sex! is our nationally coordinated, locally produced performances series. The Boston run of Come As You Are is the world premiere of the project and it will go on to be produced in 9 cities (and counting) across the country.

Discuss diverse queer sexuality with others around the world, follow the progress of the project, and see the work created in other cities at www.ComeAsYouAreOnline.org.

World Premiere!
Oct 25, 7:30pm
Oct 26, 7:30pm
Club Café
$15


Project Directors:
Abe Rybeck
Eugene Tan

National Producer:
Eve Alpern

Directors:
Diego Arciniegas
Sean Edgecomb
Renee Farster
Summer Williams

Featuring works by:
Adult Children of Heterosexuals: The Band
Xray Aims
Toni Amato
Leo Cabranes-Grant
The Five Lesbian Brothers
Renita Martin
Chris Meffert
Caroline Prugh
A Street Theater Named Desire
Adam Sussman

Get tickets here.

Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh

Here's the latest from the good people at Holland Productions. They're productions are always fun, quirky, and thought-provoking.

Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh
by Jordan Harrison

Directed by, Krista D'Agostino

Oct. 30th - Nov. 14th
Co-Produced by Holland Productions and The Factory Theatre
$15 Adult & $12 Student/Senior

www.theatermania.com
www.hollandproductions.org
www.thefactorytheatre.org

New Urban Theatre Laboratory debuts tonight

Jackie Davis's new group debuts with a fund raiser tonight. I'm so bummed I'm going to miss this. I'm loving all the new groups that are putting out all the new work in Boston. But alas, I'm be struggling once more on six-inch heels tonight.

But do check it out if you can.

Here's the skinny on the next SlamBoston

HOLLAND PRODUCTIONS

presents

SLAMBoston: Diverse Voices in Theatre
(a trademark of Another Country Productions)

Monday, November 2nd @ 8:00 p.m.
&
Tuesday, November 3rd @ 8:00 p.m.

The Factory Theatre
791 Tremont Street
Boston, MA
www.hollandproductions.org
www.thefactorytheatre.org

Tickets: $17
www.theatremania.com


FEATURING:

ABSOLUTION by Thom Dunn
Directed by Bevin O'Gara

CHRISTMAS VISITS by Charles Watson
Directed by Megan Atkinson

MINOT LIGHT by John Greiner-Ferris
Directed by Vicki Schairer

A FAG'S LIFE by Kyle Walker
Directed by Dawn Simmons

ZOOLOGY by Emily Dendinger
Directed by Bob Mussett

HER DYING WISH by Philana Mia Gnatowski
Directed by Catherine Bertrand

ORI AND ADDISON by James Ferguson
Directed by Kenny Fuentes

With Dosha Ellis Beard, Santio Cupon, Michael Dewberry, Derek Fraser, Erika Geller, Christie Lee Gibson, Zach Handler, Catherine Hirsh, Daniel John, Rory Kulz, Rachel Kurnos, Chris Leon, Joan Mejia, Maria Mendes, Stephen Radochia, Scarlett Redmond, and Eric C. Rollins.

About SLAMBoston: Diverse Voices in Theatre
SLAMBoston: Diverse Voices in Theatre was developed by Another Country Productions to bring the diversity and excitement of the poetry slam format to live theater in Boston. In keeping with its conception, a slam is always rowdy, is always facilitated by an emcee, is always scored, and is always as fully diverse as possible.

About Holland Productions
Holland Productions was founded in 2006 by three Boston College graduates looking to promote the female voice on Boston’s stage. The company opened that July with co-founding member Emily Dendinger’s Swimming After Dark; a story of love, literature, and ownership. Now in its second season at The Factory Theatre, Holland Productions continues its commitment to the advancement of female artists in the theatre. The company produces plays by contemporary female playwrights and those by males which feature substantial and challenging roles for women. Holland Productions strives to advance females in all disciplines of the theater and encourages the participation of female designers and staff on every production.

SLAMBoston Auditions Saturday, Oct. 3

I've acted in the Slam maybe four times now. Every time a great time. Great, crazy audience. Judges that judge you Olympic-style--9.5; 9.8; 9.3...I've won the Slam once (a great thrill, because the Slam really is ten minutes of getting shot out of a canon) and yes, one of my plays, Minot Light is entered in the upcoming Slam.

So, get out there and audition.

Here's the scoop:

Holland Productions Audition Announcement

SLAMBoston: Diverse Voices in Theatre (trademark of Another Country Productions)

Holland Productions is seeking actors for the November production of SLAMBoston: Diverse Voices in Theatre (a trademark of Another Country Productions) to be held at The Factory Theatre

Casting Breakdown

CHRISTMAS VISITS by, Charles Watson Malcolm: 19 M; African-American; Lorine: 48 F; African-American; Malcolm's mother

ZOOLOGY by Emily Dendinger Maggie: 29 F; working woman Luke: 30 M; Maggie's husband

A FAG'S LIFE by Kyle Walker 5M Ellis: Early 30s, African-American, someone effeminate visual artist Buff: 40s, Caucasian, publisher of a gay men's style magazine; an Australian accent that may or may not be real Todd: 20s, Caucasian, trick, "gangsta" wannabe Rick: 20s, Caucasian, character in Ellis's comic Tyler: 20s, African-American, character in Ellis's comic

ABSOLUTION by Thom Dunn 2M Donnelly: 50s/60s; a clergyman Simon: mid-20s

MINOT LIGHT by John Greiner-Ferris 3W Stephanie: 20s-30s; a lesbian Andrea: 30s/40s; a lesbian Susan: 20s/30s

HER DYING WISH by Philana Gnatowski 2W Jess: Mid-20s Jillian: Early-30s; Jess's sister

ORI AND ADDISON by James Ferguson 2M Ori: 30s; nervous new father Addison: Slightly younger than Ori

Audition Dates: Sat. October 3rd
Audition Times 12-5
Audition Location: The Factory Theatre, 791 Tremont St., Boston
Aud Requirements: 1 minute monologue
Rehearsal Start Date: October
Production Start Date: Monday November 2nd & Tuesday Nov 3rd
Audition Contact Name Victor
Contact Email hollandproductions@gmail.com
Please email Hollandproductions@gmail.com to request a slot between 12-5 pm.
All performers including those of color, seniors, women and performers with disabilities are encouraged to audition and will be given full consideration.

Save Oct. 19 for New Urban Theatre Laboratory

The New Urban Theatre Laboratory exists to use the experimental power of theatre to investigate the stories and voices of those who exist on the margins of society. We seek to bring the stories of the underrepresented to the forefront using the active ingredients of honesty and insight mixed in with equal parts sadness and joy, myth and mysticism, farce and cynicism and above all, truth.

Based in Boston Massachusetts, The New Urban Theatre Lab is also dedicated to exploring new ways that theater can build relationships with local business, and help promote the health of the economy.

Exquisite Corps Theatre opens tonight with Infiinite Story

I'm hoping to check this out. Exquisite Corps is one of the many new theater groups that have sprung up in Boston. Infinite Story is their second production, if memory serves right for me, and the process of making the show, was very organic, much like NXR did for Shhh!.

Four playwrights and 13 theater artists met for a weekend of brainstorming to put together four original plays. Tonight's production of four plays is the result of that collaboration.

You have to hurry. The production runs just this weekend.

Here's the scoop.

Not doing anything Thursday?--check out Holland Productions' kickoff

Got this from Krista.

Holland Productions is kicking off their 2009/2010 season with a benefit at Kitty O'Shea's. I can't make it, I have rehearsal that night, otherwise I'd be there. (Okay, now there's a reason right there to go!) If you're not doing anything and want to hang with some really good people and support live theater and new voices in Boston, here are the details.


Kitty O'Shea's
131 State St.
Boston, MA US

Thursday, September 24, 7:00PM

Help Holland Productions kick off our 2009-2010 season and raise money for our upcoming show, Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh by Jordan Harrison (October 30th - November 15th at The Factory Theatre)! Join us for a night of food, fun, and live entertainment.

Raffle on great items including those donated from The Friendly Toast, Good Vibrations, Rotary, Hypothesis, and the SpeakEasy Stage Company!

Bid in our live "Date Holland Productions" auction.

$10 at the door (includes a raffle ticket)
Cash bar

We'll see you there!

About Holland Productions: Holland Productions believes in honest theatre; theatre that engages the heart, cultivates creativity, and dissolves boundaries. We believe that theatre is truly a collaborative process and we strive to create work where all those involved, from actor to audience, can bring individual experiences to explore. It is our goal to provide a forum for the ideas of contemporary playwrights and a channel for the female voice. Through smart, sensitive, and stimulating theatre Holland Productions is committed to challenging the complexity of reality.

About Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh: Moll, a girl who invents things, wins the science fair with a machine for hearing sounds that can't be heard. But when a shape-shifting Mercenary steals the invention (and her heart), she must embark on a quest to save noise as we know it. In a quirky fable of innocence and experience Moll crosses chasms and rafts rivers into a world where sound is always more than what meets the ear.

Whister in the Dark staging a reading of my play!

I got some great news Friday night in an email.

Whistler in the Dark, as part of their Whistler Wednesdays stage readings, accepted Red Dog for a staged reading, scheduled for March 3, 2010.

I'm so excited (and honored) to have my play accepted by a group who is giving new voice to theater in Boston.

Stay tuned.

Don't keep NXR's Shh quiet. Great new theater in Boston.

I checked out Shh!, New Exhibition Room's latest production, free at Playwright's Platform. Go see it, and not just because it's free, which is amazing. Normally you'd be shelling out somewhere around 25 bucks for theater of this caliber.

Shh! examines censorship. It's all, as they say in this Web 2.0 world, original content. NXR auditioned an ensemble and together they collaborated to write and make this show. Original content, to my way of thinking, is the way to go in this world. I mean, do we really need another production of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas? How about breaking some new ground, people?

Shh! is not the end-all word on censorship. I don't think they meant it to be that. Shh! is a series of skits that are very fast-paced, high-energy, and very entertaining with the idea of censorship sometimes obviously and sometimes-not-so obviously holding them together. Sometimes the role of censorship in our society is right out there, as when Shh! lays out the history of censorship in America. And sometimes it's a bit more subtle, as with a series surrounding a nudist, that seem to address the idea of self-censorship. Almost always, though, Shh! goes for the humor, which makes for a very entertaining night. Shock isn't the intent here at all.

Since it is theater and it was written by the cast and producers, Shh!, as you'd expect, has quite the liberal viewpoint toward censorship. Except for one skit where a conservative suburbanite gives a quiet, impassioned, serious argument towards censorship, never does Shh! explore whether censorship has its place in our lives, which might have been an interesting take, given the obvious talent that appears in the show. One wonders what the ensemble, given its obvious intelligence and creativity, would have come up with when challenged with that question.

Bottom line? Go see it, and not just because it's free. At the very least, Shh! is highly entertaining. Prepared to be entertained (there's that word again), and maybe shocked or challenged depending on your own sensibilities.

NXR represents some of the new, younger voices in theater that seem to be growing in the Boston area. Just like years ago when young comics like Jay Leno, Steven Wright, Denis Leary, and Lenny Clark were honing their skills at area clubs and later defined the Boston comic, groups like NXR seem to be doing the same with their performances. If anything, for free, you just might see a bit of Boston theater history in the making.

Shh! is free, but you still need a ticket to get in. Get them here.

New Exhibition Room: Shh!! -- orignal theater in Boston

From Nora Long, one of the founders of New Exhibition Room in Boston.

Hey Everyone I know (pretty much)

I wanted to take this opportunity to personally invite you to my theatre company’s first show. We’ve worked fairly hard over the last 6 weeks to make a quirky, frenetic exploration of censorship. Everything in the show is true or an abstraction of something true, so I think the show is equal parts hilarious and terrifying. There will likely be nudity, gratuitous violence and definitely adult language and content, so this might not be the best show to bring grandma to. It would be great to see you. For those of you who are too far away to come, I thought you might be interested in what I’ve been up to.

Also, it’s free, it’s T-accessible, and there will be cookies afterwards – what more could you ask for in a night at the theatre? Get tix here.

You are, of course, welcome anytime, but it would be particularly awesome to have some friendly faces (and voices) in the house opening weekend (July 9-11). A few members of the press will be coming, so we want to make sure they see the best possible show, which is, in large part do to the audience.

In addition to the show, there will be a reading of a new play each Saturday at 4PM. The writers include John J. King, Theo Goodell and Rachel Kelsey. These readings are also free, and a great opportunity to hear some new work by some of the most talented local writers we know.

Feel free to forward this email around.

Hope to see you there.

Lots of love,
Nora

PS. If you haven’t seen it already, my baby sister made a couple of killer videos of our rehearsals. Check them out.





New Exhibition Room presents Shh!
July 9-25, 2009
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/69085

New Exhibition Room: Shh!!

New Exhibition Room is the company that producing the project, Shhh! being developed by A. Nora Long and Dawn Simmons, two really creative, "thoughtful" theater people in Boston. FYI, that "thoughtful" crack is an inside joke in the play that I'm writing.

Anyway, check out their video, create some buzz, and then go see the production when it comes out in the summer.


"Since we can't tell you what the play is about, we thought we might show you the first few hours of rehearsal. Maybe that will help. Video shot & edited by Kendra Long."

Shh!: It Begins