radio silence

Deep into Kill Me Now this week and traveling like a bastard, little time for the Museum.

But kudos to the Film-Makers Cooperative. Good to see that there are still good people in the world and Charles S. Cohen is one of them.

working man

I'm back on the Chinatown bus this week, going down to Philly every day to work on Kill Me Now with Melanie Stewart and crew. We're putting up a little teaser at the nEW Festival next weekend.

And I just read that we've lost the great Brooks McNamara, dead at 72.

good news from soho

I heard last night that the Ohio Theater's new landlord has given them the green light to book shows for the fall.

So it ain't over yet.

There are a lot of slots to fill and it's coming right up, so if you're interested in performing at the premiere downtown venue this fall, contact Robert Lyons at thinksoho@aol.com.

And tell him Scrappy sent you.

Good holiday weekend to all.

wise words

This is Feingold writing in the Voice yesterday:

The Internet and its attendant activities—e-mailing, Googling, Twittering, social networking, chatting, IM-ing, downloading-on-demand—have changed and are changing every aspect of human relations. Our civilization has become "virtual." The majority of our one-on-one contacts are now computerized, carried on in the absence of each other's bodies, faces, and often even voices. The theater—a place of three-dimensional solidity that, by its transience, links us to the spirit's invisible world—has to be both more than virtual and less. It has to build, each night, a context in which an audience wants to live for a time, and it has to fit that context into some larger sense of aliveness that all the virtual contacts and all the downloadable data on the Web can somehow never supply. Its immediacy, its defiant reality, the ultimate invisibility that makes it mysterious—taken together, they make the reason we do it, the reason we remember those who did it well, the reason we so look forward to those who will come to amaze us next, by the way they give meaning to the vanishing moment.

Michael Feingold, VV, 5/20/09

Really struck a chord with me.

small steps, right direction

There's a new Basic Showcase Code going into effect in New York on Monday:

http://www.actorsequity.org/docs/codes/Basic_Showcase_09.pdf

Essentially it raises the allowed budget up to 35K and gives an extra week of rehearsal.

Reacting just as an independent artist, not speaking for the League of Independent Theater or anyone else, I think this is a positive sign and a good first step.

But.

The two most important issues, number of performances and the ability to videotape, remain unchanged.

What we really need is the creation of a new code, something like an Extended Showcase Code, that allows successful shows to stay alive and be seen.

I have no doubt that these Code revisions are a direct result of the advocacy we've all been engaged in and I'm heartened to see these changes, small though they may be.

Step by step.

kudos

To all of the Obie winners last night.

Especially glad to see Sarah Benson get the nod, she's done amazing things down at Soho Rep.

And a new streak begins for the Lampshade Queen.

best laid plans

You know how some mornings you head out of the house for a quick errand and one goddamned thing turns into another which becomes a third and then a fourth and you wind up limping your befuddled ass home at five?

Yeah.

One of those.

Still have time for a MEMQ, so here's a golden oldie:

Who, in fact, wrote The Book of Love?

1. The Hollys

2. The Monotones

3. The Sliders

4. The Drifters

or

5. God His Own Self?

Winners remember the meaning of romance, losers get their reading privileges revoked.

when words fail

Looking for some help here.

The folks in Edinburgh are looking for press release for The Event pretty soon.

I can usually bang these things out in my sleep, but I'm having trouble nailing this one down in a couple of sentences.

So, loyal readers, if you caught the show anytime over the last year, send me a few lines.

Thanks and enjoy the weekend.

sick day

Canceled a morning meeting and stumbled back to bed.

It's not the Death Suck, just some low-level nastiness.

Interesting stuff over at 99 seats:

http://99seats.blogspot.com/

new blood

At the LIT board meeting last night we officially voted in our three new Artist/Professional board members.

Welcome Amanda Feldman, Chris Harcum and Chris Heath.

And thanks to the outgoing board members, Michael Goldfried, Moira Stone and John Pinckard.

That big wheel keeps on turning.

iron man

Chained to the desk prepping for a LIT board meeting tonight and trying to figure out how to rehearse the same show with two different actors.

Had my annual physical this morning and once again was astonished to hear the doctor say:

"You're in great shape."

Man, if I quit smoking and drinking I'd be a triathlete this time next year.

Thanks for the genes, o mighty ancestors.

And a fabled streak has ended, friends. The Lampshade Queen has stumbled, bringing sweet Rose down with her. Elliot's older brother Mike is an Elvis Costello fan, singing Accidents Will Happen in the kitchen while the alien waits above.

Deeply obscure, I know. Sorry, ladies.

double act

Looks like we're doing a one-man show in two different Fringe Festivals at the same time.

Hmm.

Dave Calvitto will be doing The Event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August while Matt Oberg will be doing the show at The New York International Fringe Festival.

I'll be directing both while balancing a chair on my chin.

Just keeping things interesting around here.

Last week for some inexplicable reason I watched E.T. The Extraterrestrial from beginning to end. And so to our deeply obscure MMMQ.

Elliot's older brother Mike comes home from football practice after school, rummages through the fridge and sings which song?

1. Psycho Killer

2. Accidents Will Happen

3. In the Flesh

4. I Don't Like Mondays

or

5. The theme music from E.T. The Extraterrestrial?

Winners get the Reese's pieces, losers get left behind.

hot off the presses

UPS dropped off my ten complimentary author copies of Fatboy last night.

Every writer will tell you it's a surreal thing to hold in your hand an object that began with a few scribbled words on a yellow legal pad.

Yup.

Pretty cool.

And this has been bothering me:

Dom Deluise made me laugh my ass off when I was a kid and he seemed to be a decent man and it's a sad thing that he died, but let's stop calling Space Balls a classic, all right?

A funny guy is dead, but let's keep some perspective.

Great weekend to all.

fine televised viewing

Just heard from the good folks at New York Theatre Experience, Inc. that the first episode of Indie Theater Now! will be showing on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network:


Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00PM on channel 56

Monday, May 25 at 11:00PM on channel 67

Sunday, May 31 at 11:00PM on channel 56

You can hear me and Kirk Bromley and Elena K. Holy and Ellie Covan pretending that we know what we're talking about.

Right there on your TV.

O, brave new world...

traveling

On the road today, back to Rat City and the Fat Bunny.

Check out Don Hall's post from yesterday about technique:

http://donhall.blogspot.com/

Couldn't agree more.

robbed

Tony nominations are out and I got overlooked again.

It's like you have to have a show on Broadway to even be considered.

It's all politics.

Kirsten and Ann split the imaginary prize (and it's a good one this week)and Rose gets the imaginary consolation prize just for playing.

So everyone wins.

monday on the road

Family business has taken us to Greenfield, MA, Spitfire's hometown and drum major stomping grounds. Nestled here in the Berkshires, the town hasn't changed in the 20 years I've know it. Beautiful.

We had the Super Hits of the 70s cranking on the way up here, so here's an easy MMMQ:

In which song will you hear the bizarre but immortal chant

"Ooga-ooga-ooga-chakka"?

Is it

1. Jungle Boogie

2. Boogie Fever

3. Hot Child in the City

4. Hooked on a Feeling

or

5. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring?

get LIT

Put it in your calendars:

Monday May 4th at 7pm
Free for LITNY Members
$5 for non-members

@ the Red Room 85 EAST 4TH STREET Between 2nd ave and Bowery.

This month's guest is Phillip Matthews, Director of Audience Programs with TCG

Get Lit with LIT! is a monthly Cocktail Salon hosted by LITNY board member Leonard Jacobs. Each month the League will invite an important VIP from our sector to join our membership for cocktails and intimate question and answers.