When I was in Arkansas

for my 10-year college reunion last month, I saw a church sign on the side of the road and had a small crisis over whether to be late to dinner in order to turn around, pull over, and take a picture with my camera phone. Luckily my sister snapped one and emailed it to me.

I have things to report

One is that you should try and see Hillary Agonistes at Studio/Stage. It's a clever, thoughtful play and it's full of good performances, not the least of which is by one of my favorite L.A. actors, Ms. Rebecca Metz. I found the script by Nick Salamone really interesting, and he's great fun in all the roles he plays.

Two is that you should go see He Asked For It by our friend Erik Patterson at Theatre of Note. It's tough, funny, and daring.

Three is that you should check out IAMA Theatre Company. I saw their production of Leslye Headland's Surfer Girl, featuring Il Bidone alum Sarah Utterback; Headland's play Assistance has gotten good reviews as well. Unfortunately my schedule won't allow me to see that one, but after Surfer Girl, I'm most certainly curious.

All three of those shows are by L.A. writers, by the way. And two of the plays are all or partially L.A.-based. I love that. More premieres by L.A. writers please!

Four is...and this is completely unrelated to theater, but I'm loving that Santogold album.

I'm off to NYC tonight! Chat ya later.

A few things

1. Monday night's reading at Celebration went really well. I had super sharp actors and I even got to direct it, which was quite satisfying. For those of you who didn't get to attend, the world premiere from last spring is on Youtube in two parts: here and here.

2. I gave a little money to Unicef and Episcopal Relief and Development for Myanmar. Feel free to do the same.

3. I've been trying to write a 10-minute play for this festival I'm being considered for, and for some reason I've felt the urge to write a southern play. I got about 6-7 pages, and I even think it kinda works, but just this afternoon I decided to abandon it. It's intended to be a comedy about two sisters, one of whom is trying to fix up the other with the new Episcopal priest named Wanda who she presumes must be a lesbian, because "honestly, how many straight Episcopal priests are there anymore?" Well as you can probably discern from that snippet of dialogue, even if they're a little lavender, these two sisters are basically variations on the brassy southern belle archetype. It felt so hackneyed I just gave up on it. I've written a lot of southern stuff, and I can churn out some characters that sound like they walked out of a Del Shores play or an episode of Designing Women if I want (nothing against either...I am still gay, after all), but I like to think my experience of the south is a little more particular than that.

4. Oh, and tonight I was addressed as "dude" for the second time in a week. This time was by a concierge at a hotel desk. After he had my name in front of him no less. This is almost an exact quote: "Your cell phone's breaking up, dude."

Not to sound like a stick-in-the-mud, but can we ban that word from all discourse that occurs outside of high school hallways and haze-filled dormitories? At the very least, I think customer service professionals should receive proper training on its appropriate usage, which should be never.

5. Off to New York in less than a week! Anything I should check out while I'm there?

A dialogue

between me and David Mamet's new movie Redbelt:

REDBELT: So what'd ya think?

ME: What'd I think? What'd I think about what?

REDBELT: About what? You know what about. About ME.

ME: Oh, well I guess--

REDBELT: What do you guess?

ME: What I'm saying is I--

REDBELT: Spit it out, man.

ME: I decided I'm kind of over David Mamet.

REDBELT: You're OVER David Mamet? Who's OVER--

ME: Well except when it counts, but--

REDBELT: When it COUNTS? When does it count?

ME: The early stuff.

REDBELT: Of course with the early stuff....

ME: And that House of Games.

REDBELT: Yeah, that one's good.

ME: It's just cuz Joe Mantegna--

REDBELT: Joe Mantegna? I got Joe Mantegna!

ME: It's just the DIRECTING!

REDBELT: DIRECTING? Are you saying I'm poorly directed?

ME: I'm saying that the pattery dialogue--

REDBELT: Pattery?

ME: Needs more than the stiff line readings he gets from--

REDBELT: But what about?

ME: About who? Emily Mortimer? Okay fine. She was fine.

REDBELT: Not just her, what about?

ME: Who, the lead?

REDBELT: He has a name! Say his name.

ME: Chiwetel Ejiofor.

REDBELT: Yeah! That guy!

ME: That guy was good too. Mostly.

REDBELT: MOSTLY? MOSTLY? What are you?

ME: And HOT.

REDBELT: HOT? What are you, some kinda?

ME: Oh COME ON, like there's no homoeroticism in your jujitsu shit AT ALL.

REDBELT: Hey man, I dunno what you're talking about.

ME: (laughs) He doesn't know what I'm talking about! HE doesn't KNOW what I'm TALKING about!!

REDBELT: (changing the subject) But Mamet's a--

ME: Mamet's a what? A GENIUS? A MASTER? What is he? Come on! What? What, so you think because he came up with YOU that he must be--

REDBELT: No! I'm not saying! I'm just saying--

ME: What are you saying?

REDBELT: I'm just saying that I'm, you know, I mean, for a genre movie--

ME: Oh, genre? Genre? So you're a genre movie? So you're all film school now?

REDBELT: Fuck film school! You think you know film school? You think cuz you're what? Some kinda BLOGGER, you can talk to me like you know what I think? Cuz what I think is I'm a kickass genre film by some smart tough guy from--

ME: Tough guy? Tough guy? Tough guy playwright? A PLAYWRIGHT?

REDBELT: Hell YEAH a playwright!

ME: Tough guy playwright my ass.

REDBELT: Plus I've got all those twists and turns and--

ME: Twists and turns! Hah! A bunch of loose ends plus a coincidence or two is all you got. And what was with that lawyer and the pills and the pharmacy and--

REDBELT: She's TROUBLED! And with the drinking and smoking and jumping around and--

ME: Okay, so fine, so--

REDBELT: So come on, I wasn't THAT bad, was I?

(beat.)

ME: You do have Tim Allen getting his ass beat.

REDBELT: And DRUNK. Tim Allen DRUNK the whole movie and getting his ass beat.

ME: Yeah, but all that moral code stuff, all that--

REDBELT: THERE'S ALWAYS AN ESCAPE, man. Deep stuff! Admit it.

ME: Admit what? What does that? I mean, what does that even MEAN?

REDBELT: It means you can deflect or you can engage man, but there's no point in opposing my butch ass.

I highly recommend

The Lost Plays of Tennessee Williams at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center Davidson/Valenti Theatre. A link for more info is here.

JW and I saw the evening last night. It's a collection of three "recently discovered one-acts," but the real treat of the evening is the final play and Williams' most overtly gay play, "And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens."

I read this play back during my temping days when I was concerned about money. In those days I used to go to Barnes and Noble, buy a cup of coffee, and pull a play off a shelf to read and return when I was finished. Now I wish I'd bought it, and I'll surely do so.

When I read it, I remember being struck by the matter-of-fact presentation of these gay characters and its lack of excessive sentimentality. I say "excessive," because, come on, it is Tennessee Williams, after all. Still, seeing it last night I felt a certain proud defiance in the main character's reading of his upstairs neighbor's "lovely poem" about queer life. These were not the weepy, self-pitying queens you might expect in a play written in 1959. There were the typical concerns of such a play, loss of youth and beauty, struggling in vain to maintain a fantasy in a marginalized culture, but there's not much tiresome self-pitying or self-loathing to muck up the proceedings. If it's dated, it's gorgeously, fascinatingly so.

It's also great to see the classic Williams animal / artifice dichotomy played out by a man in drag after he's picked up a sailor for rough trade. As much as I love Streetcar, seeing its themes play out so free of the coding that his masterpiece required for the masses is refreshing, to say the least.

The production is solid too, with funny, balanced performances that manage neither to overdo the familiar Williams emotionalism nor to neglect the quite intentional camp of the piece. I guess you could overdo its camp elements as well, but not to worry. They got the tone of this show just right. The trickiest performance of the show goes to Chris Rydell, who plays Karl the sailor. As I watched I was imagining the rehearsal process and the challenge it must've been to work out his odd, closety shifts in intention. It's all there in the text, but I'm sure it took some work, and it definitely shows.

Anyway, go check it out! I think it's playing through June.

More of Hayes Carll in the LATimes

There's a nice feature article about Hayes Carll in today's Times. Holly Gleason calls him "one of the most talked about emerging artists in the country arena," and "one of the must-see performers at this weekend's Stagecoach Festival at the Empire Polo Field in Indio." Here's a longer bit from her article:

After graduating from Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., Carll fell in love with the work of the Beat writers and the music of John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan and Todd Snider and was inspired by daydreams of life as a wandering folkie. "There's a certain magic to the life," he says. "I had to be part of it, whether writing, traveling, drifting or exploring."

Those explorations took him to the entertainment low-water of Crystal Beach, Texas, where, with a handful of original songs, he staked his claim. "It's a long way to here from there," he says. "Asking to play for free to three shrimpers, taking it one show at a time. It was fierce: me and the karaoke guy, battling it out for the entertainment dollar in Crystal Beach. They'd run food specials at my bar: All You Can Eat Fried Chicken and Hayes Carll, $4.99."

The whole article is here.

Back from Coachella

And I'm a bit bummed that I left my digital camera at home. I bought a couple of disposables and I MIGHT have some pictures to post if anything turns out, but I'm not holding my breath. I was going to post a youtube vid of Prince playing "Creep," but I can't find one with both good video and audio. Feel free to go search for it if you want; there are a lot of them on there.

Honestly, I ran hot and cold for Prince, but he's still Prince. "Musicology" was probably my favorite performance of his, which I didn't expect. He lost me during the screamy "Come Together" cover, I'm afraid. I listened to "Purple Rain" and "Let's Go Crazy" from the parking lot.

Other highlights:

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings -- I WAS SO CLOSE FOR HER. I LOVE HER. And her cover of "What Have You Done for Me Lately?" was CHOICE.

Santogold -- I had no idea who this performer was and only wandered over to her tent when I got bored by Goldfrapp (which didn't take long). Santogold was a great surprise; she's cool and cute and gets the crowd moving. And I want to be one of her dancers.

Yelle -- I heard a whopping ONE song by this French singer, but it was a great one. Also really cute and put on a fun show (at least on that one song...we wandered over too late to catch more of her set).

Metric -- I heard about 1/3 of their set and really liked them live, sound problems and all. Emily is a good front person and sports a shiny silver hotpant jumpsuit thingy with ease. I was baking in that late afternoon sun and didn't mind; I only got pulled away to see an only semi-coherent Sean Penn lecture the youth of today about volunteerism.

My Morning Jacket -- The upside to catching Sean Penn was it had me in place for My Morning Jacket. They're one of those bands I've always been curious about but never heard much of. That lead singer is phenomenal though. His track on the I'm Not There album is the best one -- this side of Bob Forrest's "Moonshiner," of course.

The Raconteurs -- I caught the beginning and end of this show when I wasn't bored by Goldfrapp and surprised by Santogold. These guys are total rockstars; I know you all knew Jack White was, but the whole band sounds really solid live and puts on an engaging show without having to rely on Roger Waters-style spectacle or even running around the stage (like My Morning Jacket...not that I mind running around the stage...that can be fun too). And stage presence is really important when you're playing to a bunch of tired, sweaty freaks with heatstroke. And 32-year-old theater geeks just looking for a performance that'll make them forget about their sore feet for a little while. It's part of why I'm being a little hard on Goldfrapp; I might not have given her a fair shake, but she just wasn't reaching me way in the back....

Kraftwerk -- Mostly for their visuals, but the music was cool too.

"Cannonball" and "Divine Hammer" by The Breeders. The rest of their set was just okay, and the sound frustrated me. But it's hard to beat those two songs.

And I know you're expecting me to say Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, but I was kind of hot and not into the new stuff in that environment. "Real Emotional Trash" is great live, though, as I expected. I just look forward to them playing The El Rey again so I can see a proper show and get a little closer to the action.

Date shakes at both Shields and Hadleys were also highlights of the weekend. And the t-shirt I bought at the GayMart USA in Palm Springs. I love it almost as much as the fact that I bought it at GayMart USA.

Come see my play

So "A Little Light Roleplay" was all set to go in an evening of ten-minutes with a fun group in Culver City, but casting proved difficult and the evening fell through. The consolation prize has come in the form of a presentation at Celebration Theatre on Monday, May 5.

It's more than a consolation prize, though; I'm actually really excited to have my writing at Celebration. I've seen more than one show there this year and planning to see Coffee Will Make You Black soon; I have to say they're doing really fine work!

Anyway, details below:

The Celebration Theatre literary committee proudly presents…
theSALON
STORIES: Short, Sweet & Simple


Make a date to join Celebration Theatre’s new works program: theSALON
This month, we will be featuring new works written by some of Southern California’s finest writers. Witty, intelligent and thought provoking, these pieces are sure to inspire, entertain and tickle your artistic bones!

Frontiers Magazine: “The best gay artistic event in LA!”
WestHollywood.com: “A go!”
RealGayLA.com: “Not to be missed!”


Monday, May 5th 2008
Doors open 7.00pm ~ Show promptly at 8.00pm


Featuring the Talented Work of…

Allain Rochel
Michael Anthony
Rick Heintz
Andy Black
Michael Carrier
Ellen Lewis
Brian Polak
Kyle T. Wilson
& Celebration Actors

Admission: Suggested $5 Donation
Bottomless Wine Glasses: $5
Dessert Buffet: Complimentary
Reservations Suggested ~ theSALON2008@hotmail.com


Celebration Theatre
7051 Santa Monica Blvd, WeHo
(1 block east of
Santa Monica Blvd & La Brea)
www.CelebrationTheatre.com