My Friend Scott Covered Ayn Rand with a Post-It that Said Tennessee Williams, and I Still Couldn't Finish It

I'll  admit it. I'm at a bit of a disadvantage in the whole Ayn Rand discussion.  I have never ever ever made it through any of her books.  And I've tried.  But fifty pages of that gasping earnest humorless prose hitting you on the side of the head over and over like a metal folding chair.. I mean, life is short, you know?

So I love this quote from President Obama in Rolling Stone:

“Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we'd pick up. Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we're only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else, in which we're considering the entire project of developing ourselves as more important than our relationships to other people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity – that that's a pretty narrow vision. It's not one that, I think, describes what's best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a "you're on your own" society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party.”--Barack Obama, ROLLING STONE interview.

Hell yeah.  I was reading Herman Hesse at that age.  Because I was sensitive as shit. 

Matt Freeman Makes Me Say Terrible Things

My friend Matt Freeman interviews me on his indispensable blog. 

Zack Calhoon's People You Should Know

Zack Calhoon has posted a series of e-interviews on CONEY with myself, Amy Staats, Tracey Gilbert and Boo Killebrew on Visible Soul.  Take a look.

Step Right Up

Tickets are available now for CONEY!

Here's the Blue Coyote page.

Here we are on the New Ohio site.  

Here's the press release with the cast.

Here's my interview for NYTheatre.com. 

And here is a link to strange and disturbing stuffed animals, courtesy of my friend Brian.  I have no idea how he finds this stuff.  

Quote of the Day

DOMIN: What sort of worker do you think is the best from a practical point of view?
HELENA: Perhaps the one who is the most honest and hardworking.
DOMIN: No; the one that is the cheapest.
                                                                           --- from R.U.R by Karel Capek

You Can Now Have "A Number on the Roman Calendar"

Well, it's out.  My short play, "A Number on the Roman Calendar" is now out in the Best American Short Plays 2010-2011.  You can own it and it can be a part of your life.  Many thanks to Carter, Sarah, Jonna, Jimmy and Thomas.

Arch

I met Arch Brown in 2002, in Los Angeles.  He had flown me there to accept an award from his foundation for my play, "Candy & Dorothy."  Arch was in poor health then, but he was raunchy, grouchy, funny and generous.  (He told me I could order room service since the foundation was paying my expenses out there, but "don't go crazy with it!," he barked.) He gave me a grant for the play, gave me a socko intro at the LAMDA Awards in LA,  later gave a production grant for the play when we produced it in New York in 2006, and then produced the play himself in Palm Springs a few years later. He came to New York to visit a few years ago, and I had lunch with him and some friends.  He was irascible and hilarious and full of plans for his theater and his work.  That was the last time I saw him.

Arch had come from the first post-Stonewall generation, and supporting gay and lesbian artists and writers was his passion and his joy. 

He passed away - peacefully, I hope, without pain, I hope - on Labor Day in Palm Springs.