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. 

An Interview with the Author

My friend Anthony Cardno inteviewed me for his blog, about the making of MOTHRA IS WAITING,  and the upcoming CONEY.

Memo to Brazilian Writer Paulo Coelho

Up yours, pal. 

CONEY Coyote

I started working on this play several years ago.  (The indispensable Adam Szymkowicz did an interview with me three years ago, and I was talking about this play then.) I worked on it at Marshall University two summers ago and developed it a bit more.  And the guys at Blue Coyote and I had talked and talked on it, and I dragged my feet and whined "it's not ready" whenever they said the scary "production" word.  (That's my default. Nothing's ever ready.)

But they booked a theater for October and here we go.  Rewrites will be wrestled from my cold, recalcitrant grip and actors will have at it.  There are a shitload of characters and it all takes place at Coney Island.  (Except for the emergency room scene, I'm still working on that one.)

We're raising money for the production, and you can give at Indiegogo.   I know, I'm hitting you up for money a lot these days.  But I don't do it often, so I'm not going to apologize.

Hope to see you there.

UPDATE!  The press release went out.  You can give it a gander at Broadway World.