This week in playwright-er-ing

Earlier this month, I learned that my play, WILLIAM WEATHERSBY, will be given a workshop/reading in Theatre Exile's new X-hibition Series. Brenna Geffers is scheduled to direct. The public reading will be May 3rd, 2010.

I actually completed the current daft of this one long before WHISKY NEAT. So it's a little strange to work on the rewrite. It's like being introduced to myself from five years ago. And, let me tell ya, what a confused little shit this kid is.

At the time, I worried that this play would have a short shelf life. Without being fully able to articulate it, I think I was attempting to tap into a notion that I was sensing in those around me -- a sort of subconscious grieving for the end of the American middle class. I felt that my generation was perhaps the final representatives of this particular tribe, and I wanted to sing a beautiful elegy for us all. Well, unfortunately, for obvious reasons, the play feels even more topical now than when it was written. One thing I'm going to try this time out: not being the cynical bastard I used to be. I'll be looking for possibilities of redemption, both in me and in the play. You have to look in both places to find it in either one.

[LEFT: the Theatre Exile staff. I hear they have impeccable taste in new plays.]
Just for kicks, my three favorite Theatre Exile productions:
1. VALPARAISO (2004)
2. RHINOCEROS (2000)
3. KILLER JOE (2006)

Theatre Exile
1340 S. 13th St.
Philadelphia, PA
www.theatreexile.org

Deadlines in review

[Balloon sculpture by Jason Hackenwerth]

Last week I accepted an assignment to profile Jason Hackenwerth, a pretty well-known artist in the modern art world, for those of you that travel in those circles. I do not. And that's what makes it such a joy to write about. In a certain sense, I feel that every feature should be written from the perspective of the dumbest guy in the room. The writer is our conduit in this strange land, and we want him to ask the questions that we are too polite to utter: Is that thing right-side-up? You'd be surprised at the great quotes that can be launched from something as silly as that. The more sophisticated my questions, usually, the less I get in return. I don't remember that enough when I'm on the other side.

Primarily, Hackenwerth creates massive sculptures out of balloons -- you know, the long, skinny ones used for balloon animals. I've never seen anything like it.
Ran on November 6 in the Philadelphia Metro



The first year I worked for the Metro I wanted to cover street musicians. This was problematic, though, since they usually didn't have specific shows to promote. And without that, the story wasn't time sensitive for my editors. They sat on them forever, and I didn't get paid until it ran. I made sure all my pieces related to specific shows from then on.

One of the first musicians I covered was 20-year-old Anna Christie (yes, real name ). At the time, she was playing her heart shaped melodies in Suburban Station on a regular basis. Well, now she really does have gigs, lots of them, and she's working on her second album with her band, Sisters 3. They grow up so fast! What fun to write about her for the second time. Someday I'm going to find the right venue for the street musician profiles -- would be a blast.
Ran on November 20 in the Philadelphia Metro



I always have a good time interviewing choreographers. They are the kindred spirits of playwrights, I think. Young dancer Scott Park recently created a dance especially for Halloween. It's based on "white lady stories" -- ghost stories involving betrayed women.
Ran on October 30 in the Philadelphia Metro



Wrote a piece on local playwright Seth Bauer last week. He has two plays running at once -- New York and Philly! "Don't wait around for something fancy [big budget production]. Work with whose in the room." Great advice for any playwright, I think.
Ran on November 13 in the Philadelphia Metro



Four more career pieces for Metro: bartenders, IT technicians, social workers and HVACR repair. I love to get into the nitty-gritty of other people's jobs. I don't know why. I've never been particularly good at the nine-to-five myself. I have a feeling I'm a better listener to HVACR repairmen than the wives of HVACR repairmen.
These pieces generally run Mondays in the Boston, New York and Philadelphia Metros