Available light [theatre]

Well, it's not quite ready, but for you, our loyal readers and patrons, it's time to take a look at the website for the 01 Festival.

I'm particulary happy about the big match and the slideshow.

So, check it out, bookmark it, and come back soon!

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We're gearing up for our solo performance festival. Well, maybe "mini-festival" is more appropriate. I'm working on a web-site, Dave is pumping out schedules left and right.
We have 3 great one-person shows lined-up. They're all from friends of ours.

1) The Absurdity of Writing Poetry
2) I Will Make You Orphans
3) VIRTUE: Did She Fall or Was She Pushed?

More on this as it develops. Dates are July 13-16.

This is a repeat of something I posted on the Cincy Fringe blog. I'm re-posting it here, because it's just THAT important.

From the transcript of a speech given two nights ago by Eduardo Machado at the ART/NY event at the American Airlines Theater.
(Eduardo Machado is artistic director of INTAR Theater, head of the Columbia University playwriting program and a frequently produced American playwright.)

I have seen the theatre change so much... Just since the early 90's... from the feeling of being delinquents of society and feeling proud of that. To this farce where we believe we are all entitled to talent and success. No one is entitled to that. All we can hope for is the joy in the work, the joy of expression, the joy of creativity.

We are the theatre ... We're not supposed to be proper. We're not supposed to be corporate. We need only love creation. Finding value in true talent. In harsh criticism. In hard work.

We're supposed to belong to each other.

I hope you still feel this. This sense of community.

I feel it less and less. Maybe after years of being called difficult I have made myself invisible. Yet I still want to be a part. I want to scream with all of you. ... In this theatre.

But I will risk that inclusion. Because as Ms. Hansberry says, "The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely."

Let's forget about budgets and grants and is the audience happy. Let's create. Let's find that part of us that got us here in the first place. The part that does not feel like the rest of the world. The part that wants to rebel.

That part is on the other side of the wall.

And if we can prove that it's worth the struggle of climbing over, the theater ... will again be something to reckon with.

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This made me laugh out loud.

Matt Slaybaugh's rapping is especially awesome - where did that come from??).
-Jen Spillane, on the Cincy Fringe Blog

Jen has an awesome show, too. I saw it Tuesday, and I hear it's gets better every night, so get over to InkTank. It's called VIRTUE: did she fall or was she pushed?

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One of official Fringe photogs, James Czar, or Jimmy Z, as I will now call him, posted some pix from our show on the Rosetta Stone website. Thanks, Mr. Czar.

Check them out!

There's a rumor going around the Fringe that the Enquirer won't be reviewing the Festival shows that are in "non-professional" environments - like Kaldis. There's also a rumor that City Beat won't be reviewing all the shows.

So far, this has added up to NO REVIEW for The Absridty of Writing Poetry. That stinks. It's not that I care so much about reading what one individual has to say about the show, but a decent review is good publicity, which brings more bodies into the space to see the work. And that - getting people to see the work - is what I care most about.

So - if you've seen the show, please help me out.
1) Tell everyone you see - everyone you know, everyone you can reach - about the show.
2) Post to the Fringe blog. Just head over there and let people know what you think of The Absurdity of Writing Poetry.
3) Write to the papers. A good letter to the editor is just as useful as, if not more useaful than, a good review.

Thanks for your help. The Festival has been a blast so far. I'm really looking forward to seeing some more shows, and talking to everybody out there about what we're seeing and doing.

UPDATE: I got a review.
Thanks, City Beat. It's here.

Dan W. has provided a large number of great pictures from opening night at Kaldis in Cincinnati. Here are just a few.

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Due to popular demand, the script for The Absurdity of Writing Poetry is now available as a PDF file for your viewing and downloading pleasure. All that we ask is that you give credit where credit is due, and share it with your friends.
Click here for the script.

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Well, here's the place. What did you think of the show? What did you think about it? Any questions for us? Any comments? Anything words of wisdom? Anything you'd like to share?
Please post comments. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!! FORREAL!!!

Wow. We opened. Hooray!

First I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who came out to support us last night. You were an AMAZING crowd. You really did your job well, and I can't express how much I appreciated it. It was a great way to kick off our time in Cincinnati this year. Thank you Thank you Thanx.

The show itself also went really well, I was changing a few things as I went along, to adjust to the depth of the seating. I was quickly realzing that a lot of people in the back couldn't see me when I lay down on the platform. Also, anytime I went stage right, the light were blocking some people's view. I only forgot one tiny, little bit of text. However, it was an important bit, because it contains the (essentially) title of the play. Duh! So, for those who saw the show last night, let me reproduce it here.

Below is Wislawa Symborska's poem "Possibilites". I don't do the whole poem in the play, but I do about ten lines.

I prefer movies.
I prefer cats.
I prefer the oaks along the Warta.
I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky.
I prefer myself liking people
to myself loving mankind.
I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case.
I prefer the color green.
I prefer not to maintain
that reason is to blame for everything.
I prefer exceptions.
I prefer to leave early.
I prefer talking to doctors about something else.
I prefer the old fine-lined illustrations.
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems
to the absurdity of not writing poems
I prefer, where love's concerned, nonspecific anniversaries
that can be celebrated every day.
I prefer moralists
who promise me nothing.
I prefer cunning kindness to the over-trustful kind.
I prefer the earth in civvies.
I prefer conquered to conquering countries.
I prefer having some reservations.
I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order.
I prefer Grimms' fairy tales to the newspapers' front pages.
I prefer leaves without flowers to flowers without leaves.
I prefer dogs with uncropped tails.
I prefer light eyes, since mine are dark.
I prefer desk drawers.
I prefer many things that I haven't mentioned here
to many things I've also left unsaid.
I prefer zeroes on the loose
to those lined up behind a cipher.
I prefer the time of insects to the time of stars.
I prefer to knock on wood.
I prefer not to ask how much longer and when.
I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility
that existence has its own reason for being.

And again - THANK YOU.

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Ahhh ... the life an artist. I barely have enough cash to make it to Cincinnati, so we're foregoing programs this weekend. It is, however, important to me to give credit where credit is due, so ... here's what would be in the program (and hopefully will be next weekend).

Available light [theatre]

The Absurdity of Writing Poetry

Featuring Matt Slaybaugh
Sound by Dave Wallingford

The following authors are quoted extensively:
James Kochalka
William Ball
Anne Bogart
Fernando Pessoa
Annie Dilliard
Margaret Atwood
Jonathan Franzen
George Saunders

The poems used in the piece, in order, are:
I Wanna Hear a Poem ? Steve Colman
Mein Kampf - David Lerner
Who Is a Poet ? Tadeusz Rozewicz
Manifesto ? Lawrence Felinghetti
Hip-Hop ? Mos Def
Americus I - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Hard Rain ? Tony Hoagland
Howl - Allen Ginsberg
Coded Language ? Saul Williams
Possibilities - Wislawa Szymborska
The Pioneers ? Kele Okereke

See also:
The Writing Life ? Marie Arana, editor
Bookmark Now ? Kevin Smokler, editor

And, especially:
The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers ? Vendela Vita, editor

Big thanx to:
King Ave. Church, Lauren Hines, 1/2-Price Books Lane Ave., Kathy & Allen Burkman, Geoff Martin & the Columbus PAC, Cincy Fringe and the Best Team in Town (Jason, Jeff, Gina, Sean, Sarah, Steph, Gabe, Lindsay, Jay, Liz, Jaquelyne, Rachel, & Cincinnati Advance), John Dranschak, Ian Short, Dan Welsh, Acacia Duncan, Michelle Schroeder, Robert Duffy & weColumbus.com, Brant Jones, John Kuhn & Actor's Theatre of Columbus, Matt's Family, Dave's Family.

Matt dedicates his work on this show to two of his favorite poets - Sean C. Lewis & Jenn Fawcett. ?If anything comes of this, it's your fault.?

A couple of weeks ago, when Jenn Fawcett was in town, we sat down and taped interviews with each other about out respective shows.

Dan Welsh shot the footage and has been kind enough to edit my interview down to a palatable 8 minutes. Thanks Dan, you totally rock.

You can view the video by clicking here.

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Time is almost up. Fringe is here, it opened tonight in the Nati. Wow. How did I get into this?

I'm maybe a little bit scared. We added two elements to the show tonight that I had almost forgotten about. Well, one I had completley forgotten about. But, it's kind of good to do that. It guarantees a little extra energy to push you through to opening night. Anyway, that's what I'd say if I was directing. As it is, it's two more things for me to worry about. As if I didn't have enough, since our tech was pretty much a disaster. I'm pretty sure I'm going fall off the platform. It's the walking backwards part that'll do it. So, I have two big problems. I may die, and even if I don't I'm going to look timid as hell. Alas and alack.

It's been a harried process getting this show together. The worst part of it, I think, has been the fact that Dave and I have been doing it primarily on our own. We've had great help at some moments (John, Ian, Dan, Brant, Acacia). But, for the most part, there hasn't been anyone to turn to when we've been tired or scared or too busy with other things to make this a priority. For that reason, I do miss the Group.

On the other hand, it's my turn to get my picture in the paper. Woo-ha!

Just kidding.

I'm really excited to open tomorrow. I hope some people are there to see it. I hope you are.

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