how about seven grand?

Got this this morning and so I share it with you:

Artists' Fellowships

2010 Application Guidelines
Artists' Fellowships are $7,000 cash awards made to individual originating artists living and working in the state of New York for unrestricted use. Grants are awarded in 16 artistic disciplines, with applications accepted in eight categories each year. Since the awards began in 1985, NYFA has awarded over $22 million to over 3,688 artists. In 2009, NYFA awarded 131 Fellowships to 134 artists, with six of them working in a collaboration.


The deadlines for NYFA's 2009-2010 Artists' Fellowships will be:
November 2, 2009
Fiction
Playwriting/Screenwriting
Photography

November 3, 2009
Painting
Music/Sound

November 4, 2009
Architecture/Environmental Structures
Choreography
Video

See the whole application at www.nyfa.org

that goddamned blank page

Some mornings I just sit and stare at that blank page.

I still write everything on a yellow legal pad with a number 2 pencil, everything except this blog, and some mornings putting pencil to page is like bench-pressing 300 pounds.

I get more coffee, I smoke another cigarette, I stare at the page.

By the end of the day the page is filled and others as well. Some of it survives and actually turns into something worth saving.

But the actual act of starting to write, some mornings it doesn't seem physically possible.

Ann regains the crown, or in her case the lampshade, and Rose joins her on the victory lap. Well done, ladies.

the boys are back

Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann, who gave the world Urinetown about ten years ago, are kicking some Chicago ass with Yeast Nation (The Triumph of Life).

Early reviews are great, some one here in NYC should have the balls to bring it in.

On the home front, Spitfire got tangled up with some poison oak and I got tangled up with her, so we're itching and scratching here at the Museum. All rashy and red.

Which suggests our MMMQ...

Who sang the Leiber and Stoller classic Poison Ivy?

1. The Clovers

2. The Coasters

3. The Drifters

4. The Dixie Cups

Winners look but don't touch and losers are going to need an ocean of calamine lotion.

something fun

This came across my desk, looks cool:

Union Square Free Night of Theater Celebration October 15, 2009 12-6pm

Calling all Costume Designers and Actors to participate in a massive

costumed flash mob and Runway Show! Costume Designers are invited to

open their wardrobes and/or visit The Costume Collection who is opening their doors with more than 75,000 costumes. The objective is to costume volunteer actors who will then descend on Union Square to mingle with the

public and strut their stuff in a runway show hosted by a celebrity VIP.

Make-up artists are also called to offer their services to the General Public and to the many children who will be invited.

If you are interested in participating:

Actors - send headshot & resume

Costume Designers - send a resume

Make-up Artists - send a resume

Send an email at fashionfreenight@gmail.com.

Great weekend to all.

Jekyll and Hyde

So I signed on to provide the text for a Jekyll and Hyde inspired piece that will be devised by Scottish director Peter Clerke for Rowan University this fall.

It's always a little strange when you write this way, you put out some ideas and then the director and the actors thrash around on the floor and then you go home and try to translate their work into re-writes.

I couldn't come up with a thing to start with and then a couple of nights ago something clicked.

What if it's 2009 and the drug that Jekyll comes up with, something that erases all guilt and sense of conscience, becomes a huge commercial success? It's the number one anti-anxiety drug on the market. People are gobbling it down, the world is becoming over-run with amoral monsters, but everyone's happy.

Jekyll's working away like mad on an antidote, but no one seems to want it.

Haven't figured out the ending yet, but I think it's a place to start.

congrats

To all the winners at the New York Innovative Theater Awards last night, especially my LIT compadre Robert Honeywell and his partners at the Brick Theater.

First day of fall today, my favorite time of year.

Rosie aces the MMMQ, it was the White Stripes sitting next to Jon.

Ann needs some Zen, so Rose, you're going to have to share.

monday, monday

Running and gunning today, kids, so let's just cut straight to the MMMQ.

Who was/were the first musical guest on The Daily Show?

1. The White Stripes

2. Kanye West

3. Eric Clapton

4. Black Eyed Peas

Winners get a moment of Zen, losers don't.

to tweet or not to tweet?

At the end of a business dinner last night, our partner Nate Brochin starts in on the necessity of Twitter.

Nate's always right about this stuff. He hectored me into starting this blog years ago. But Twitter?

And he says you have to tweet four, five times a day to get anyone to follow you. And you have to get like a thousand followers for it to be worth anything.

It all just sounds so strange.

Why would anyone want to hear from me four or five times a day?

"Hey, just finished another cup of coffee and thinking about smoking a cigarette!"

"This book about the battle of Shiloh sure is interesting!"

"Boy, my cat is cute! Such a cute cat!"

But, like I say, Nate is always right about this stuff.

Strange, strange days...

Happy New Year tonight, have a safe weekend all.

random thursday

Halfway through September and I still haven't caught a rhythm to the fall. Summer was so busy I'm feeling like I should be on vacation, but of course there's no rest for the wicked or the freelance.

Been wanting to write something about how I can't seem to get excited about either Twitter or Mad Men, but there's really not much more to say about it than that.

Need a haircut.

Random.

Today's the anniversary of the battle of Antietam.

Look it up.

More coffee and back to work.

lucky man

Just another day when I realize my great good fortune. Health, family, friends and the chance to do what I love every day.

Just heard someone's interested in a French adaptation of The Event. What would that be, Le Fait? Le Coup?

It would definitely be in French.

Ann knows her people who died. It was Teddy, sniffing glue, age 12, who fell from the roof.

Carroll was before your time, Rosie. But FYI, when Herbie asked Tony if Tony could fly, Tony couldn't fly, Tony died.

Get LIT tonight

Here's the info, MMMQ at end of post.


Get Lit with LIT is coming to you TONIGHT September 14 at 7pm at FANFARE 100 E 4th St buzzer 1 between 1st and 2nd Ave with special guests Ruth Eglsaer and Phillip Matthews of TCG's Free Night of Theater Program! So bring a friend and get the inside scoop on this exciting program.

What does Free Night of Theater 2009
mean to you?

Find out at the next Get Lit with LIT! event!

By now you've heard about the Free Night of Theater initiative. But what is it really? Why is it important? And how can you get involved?

Get the inside scoop directly from Philip Matthews and Ruth Eglsaer of Theatre Communications Group. LIT is going to be a big part of the event this year, it's a chance for us to connect with new audiences, particularly people who don't normally go to the theater.

Here's what you need to know:

Get Lit with LIT!
Topic: Free Night of Theater 2009
Monday Sept 14
7-9pm
FANFARE - 100 E. 4th Street Buzzer 1
between 1st and 2nd Ave.

Our MMMQ is a sad one, R.I.P. Jim Carroll, our favorite Catholic Boy.

Who fell from the roof on East Two-nine?

1. Eddie

2. Teddy

3. Bobby

4. Cathy

Winners get the Angel, losers fight that Wicked Gravity.

eight years on

This is always a hard day, but I noticed something different this morning.

With Bush out of the White House, it's a simpler day for me. There's just sorrow and a bit of wonder that such a thing happened. Every year before this the sorrow was mixed with and usually overwhelmed by anger and frustration at the enormous and destructive folly that followed.

Today, I'm just sad. And that feels better than before.

think it through

Came across this while flipping through Time Magazine. Calling out Jay Leno is shooting a shark in the bathtub, but this struck me as beyond strange:


“We don’t gather anymore,” he says. “It’s the difference between standing outside a comedy club and looking through the window and standing on the other side of the wall in the room. The experience is a hundred times better when you’re in the room because you’re part of a communal thing with other people. And that’s what TV is to me, a gathering place.”

Emphasis mine, logic his.

good news from downtown

THE OHIO THEATRE IS OPEN FOR ANOTHER SEASON

This from the stalwarts on Wooster Street:

Thanks to the generous support of friends and supporters like you.
and the hard work of people like Joshua Babbit at Paul Weiss)
We have managed to step back from the abyss at least for another season.
Including ICE FACTORY 2010)

And so it is with particular pleasure that we announce
the Fall '09/Winter 2010 season.

SEPTEMBER
25 + 26
(Soho Think Tank presents the return of)
Conni's Avant-Garde Restaurant
One of the monster hits of ICE FACTORY '09
Click here for Tickets

OCTOBER
1st-18th
Hip-Hop Theater Festival
hhtf.org
"The Hip-Hop Theater Festival is making an evident connection between the performers and the audience members, both of whose numbers are almost certain to grow. The atmosphere they have created is celebratory, a welcoming party for a language that hasn't often been heard in the theater their own." - Bruce Weber, The New York Times

NOVEMBER
October 27th- November 21
NEW GEORGES and PAGE 73 PRODUCTIONS
CREATURE by Heidi Schreck


DECEMBER
Working Man's Clothes Productions
SHE LIKE GIRLS by Chisa Hutchinson

DECEMBER 31
STT NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY!
with the legendary DJ Silky

JANUARY
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
adaptated and directed by Stephen Earnhart
windupbc.com

Stay tuned and check our website for further updates on this amazing season.

You will also be hearing from us on ways you can help us
hold on to our home at the Ohio Theatre.

In fact, feel free to "quantify your love" now and again.

code of ethics

Daniel Talbott shared this with me, it's from www.lastageblog.com.

Check it out, a 1945 Code of Ethics for Theater Workers, written by Equity member Kathleen Freeman:

Foreword to the Code

“A part of the great tradition of the theatre is the code of ethics which belong to every worker in the theatre. This code is not a superstition, nor a dogma, nor a ritual which is enforced by tribunals; it is an attitude toward your vocation, your fellow workers, your audiences and yourself. It is a kind of self-discipline which does not rob you of your invaluable individualism.
“Those of you who have been in show business know the full connotation of these precepts. Those of you who are new to show business will soon learn. The Circle Players, since its founding in 1945, has always striven to stand for the finest in theatre, and it will continue to do so. Therefore, it is with the sincere purpose of continued dedication to the great traditions of the theatre that these items are here presented.”

The “rules” follow:

1. I shall never miss a performance.

2. I shall play every performance with energy, enthusiasm and to the best of my ability regardless of size of audience, personal illness, bad weather, accident, or even death in my family.

3. I shall forego all social activities which interfere with rehearsals or any other scheduled work at the theatre, and I shall always be on time.

4. I shall never make a curtain late by my failure to be ready on time.

5. I shall never miss an entrance.

6. I shall never leave the theatre building or the stage area until I have completed my performance, unless I am specifically excused by the stage manager; curtain calls are a part of the show.

7. I shall not let the comments of friends, relatives or critics change any phase of my work without proper consultation; I shall not change lines, business, lights, properties, settings or costumes or any phase of the production without consultation with and permission of my director or producer or their agents, and I shall inform all people concerned.

8. I shall forego the gratification of my ego for the demands of the play.

9. I shall remember my business is to create illusion; therefore, I shall not break the illusion by appearing in costume and makeup off-stage or outside the theatre.

10. I shall accept my director’s and producer’s advice and counsel in the spirit in which it is given, for they can see the production as a whole and my work from the front.

11. I shall never “put on an act” while viewing other artists’ work as a member of an audience, nor shall I make caustic criticism from jealousy or for the sake of being smart.

12. I shall respect the play and the playwright and, remembering that “a work of art is not a work of art until it is finished,” I shall not condemn a play while it is in rehearsal.

13. I shall not spread rumor or gossip which is malicious and tends to reflect discredit on my show, the theatre, or any personnel connected with them-either to people inside or outside the group.

14. Since I respect the theatre in which I work, I shall do my best to keep it looking clean, orderly and attractive regardless of whether I am specifically assigned to such work or not.

15. I shall handle stage properties and costumes with care for I know they are part of the tools of my trade and are a vital part of the physical production.

16. I shall follow rules of courtesy, deportment and common decency applicable in all walks of life (and especially in a business in close contact with the public) when I am in the theatre, and I shall observe the rules and regulations of any specific theatre where I work.

17. I shall never lose my enthusiasm for theatre because of disappointments.

In addition, the document continued:

“I understand that membership in the Circle Theatre entitles me to the privilege of working, when I am so assigned, in any of the phases of a production, including: props, lights, sound, construction, house management, box office, publicity and stage managing-as well as acting. I realize it is possible I may not be cast in a part for many months, but I will not allow this to dampen my enthusiasm or desire to work, since I realize without my willingness to do all other phases of theatre work, there would be no theatre for me to act in.”
All members of the Circle Theatre were required to sign this document. And they must have-because the theatre, and the group into which it evolved, was successful for many years.

good ideas and another award

Thanks to Alaina for pointing this out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/arts/design/01stores.html?src=tp

Why wouldn't that work here?

Forgot to mention yesterday that The Event won a FringeNYC Outstanding Solo Show award Sunday night.

Truth be told, just found out about it this morning. We cut out of the awards ceremony early, school night and all that.

Congrats to Matt and Darlene and Kathleen and all others involved in the enterprise of the event.

Ann ducks and dodges, but the answer to the MMMQ is Mean Gene. Scorpio (or Mr. Ness) was one of the original five.

And the beat goes on...