Oh Whoops Sorry Website Didn’t See You There

So the last few months have been a little crazy, from my True Believers reading in New York through our million-dollar fundraiser gala at the Huntington and our receiving the regional Tony Award and OH YEAH horrible attacks on Boston and in my response to Amanda Palmer’s narcissistic response to that event getting picked up on BuzzFeed and my latest comic book getting published with my story on the cover and also writing/recording some music for the world premiere of John King’s From Denmark With Love and then occasionally sleeping and then now I’m in Alaska for the Last Frontier Theatre Conference and another workshop reading of True Believers and then we have our production of Rapture, Blister, Burn starting previews at the Huntington this Friday and then it’s Alumni Weekend at Emerson plus I have a wedding to attend that I still need to write some things for and then there’s the Tony Awards themselves where I plan on armwrestling Alec Baldwin and so basically I’m sorry that I’ve been neglecting this website but I really really swear that I will try to be better about it going forward so that I’m not either back-dating blogposts en masse to pretend that I’m sharing everything in a timely manner or giving off the impression to all 3 of my loyal readers that my constant doing of things has come to a grinding halt or that I am dead or somehow disappeared or maybe that The Doctor has come and stolen me away in his TARDIS and I know this is getting pretty ramble-y right now but I’m kind of enjoying seeing how much I can vomit from my brain without stopping or using any commas but I should probably get back to the theatre conference because holy crap a bald eagle just flew past my window so I’m gonna go okay bye.

20130521-181355.jpg

A Raisin In The Sun Preview

I spoke with a few of the cast members of A Raisin In The Sun about their experience working with director Liesl Tommy and what it’s like trying to find a fresh and relevant take on such a well-known classic. Fortunately for me, they had a lot of good things to say:

Previews start this Friday, March 8 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre (plus we’ve got a cool little pre-show party with cheap tickets that night if you’re interested)

(also? One of the actresses was totally in Batman Forever! Also The Abyss. But more importantly Batman Forever!)

T3h Intarnetz! Jokez!

A quick, fun piece on Five By Five Hundred today, fleshing out a tweet I made the other day that I thought was particularly clever. That’s all!

“The Book of Sega Genesis” on FiveByFiveHundred.com

Drag Queens and Puppets and Murder, Oh My!

For the past 20 years, Ryan Landry has been making these crazy queer-mash-up-parody plays full of puppets, drag queens, and all kinds of offensive brilliance, and he’s established quite a reputation for himself in doing this, consistently selling out 4 or more shows a year which he typically performs in the basement of a gay bar in the Fenway. We’re finally teaming up with him at the Huntington to bring his irreverent theatrical style to a larger stage, and give him the opportunity to collaborate with different artists (and hopefully help him to continue to grow as an artist, you know). I spoke with our Artistic Director, Peter DuBois, about the wild works of Ryan Landry, in anticipation of his upcoming adaptation of Fritz Lang’s German child murder film noir M, which plays March 29 through April 27 at the Huntington. Check it out:

Good News, True Believers!

I’ve got two new exciting bits to share with you about your favorite nerdy theatre experience. First, The Hive Theatre in New York will be presenting a staged reading of True Believers on Monday, March 18 at 7pm at the Lee Strasberg Film & Theatre Institute on East 15th Street near Union Square. The reading is being presented under an Equity showcase contract, which technically means that they’re all professional actors who probably aren’t being paid, but that’s okay, because hey, cool, professional NY actors! I’ve met with the company once so far, and they’re incredibly excited and supportive about the show. I by no means feel that the script is perfect, but when I asked them about a few of the concerns I had about it, they all pretty much answered, “Nope, it’s great, don’t worry about it,” so, ya know, that’s nice. If you’re in New York, or have any friends in New York, please tell them to come (especially if they’re important agents/editors/producers/superheroes/billionaire philanthropists/the real-life inspiration for Avenger because oh God I want to see his face).

The other great news I received this same weekend (which also pertains to True Believers) is that I’ve been invited to participate in the Last Frontier Theatre Conference at Prince Williams Sound Community College in Valdez, Alaska, which is apparently a 6 hour drive from Anchorage. It’s a week long conference full of panels and workshops all focusing on new works for American theatre, and another staged reading of True Believers will be presented under my adept direction. But mostly, it’ll be cool to go to Alaska in May when it’s not a frozen tundra and there’s only like 3 hours of darkness and then suddenly I’m Al Pacino and I’m going crazy trying to catch a killer and hey that could be plot of my next play (he says, already working on 2 more simultaneously instead of focusing on finishing one UGH).

So in conclusion: The Cyborg Head of Stan Lee was right.

Domestic Terrorism In Brightly Packaged Haikus

I had bigger plans for this that I might revisit when not under deadline (I got back from NYC around 2am last night so UGH), but I was thinking about the idea of “selling fear” and, well, just kind of went with it for this week’s Five By Five Hundred post. So here it is!

“Selling Fear” on FiveByFiveHundred.com

Just Dance, Mother&$%#ers!

In case you missed out on seeing Boston’s premiere all-male hard rock Lady Gaga cover band at the Midway this past weekend, you’re in luck: we got the whole thing on tape! Well, technically on built-on digital flash hardrive but, you know, whatever. The audio quality is a little rough (because isn’t it always?), but you get the gist. You can watch a playlist of the full set over on YouTube, but here are a few gems from the night:

“You & I”

“Bad Romance”

Plus we had a few surprises this time in the form of non-Gaga female pop artists (because frankly, Gaga’s catalog is kind of limited, and we needed new material). Like this: