The Question for Those of Us Who Might Find this Alarming is: Are We Too Late to Claw Our Way Back to the Core of Who We Are? Continue reading

The five monologues we'll be presenting for you Monday are a rather eclectic bunch. Now that we're starting each Some1Speaking evening with a song performed by a singer-songwriter of heft, I invariably have some sort of a conversation or email exchange with the songwriter to try and select a song that will complement the collection of characters and struggles on display in the hour of Zoom mini dramas. This month as I described the five wonderful (and so richly varied) plays (and they really are short solo plays) to Anke Summerhill, I found myself landing on this: Dispatches from a Troubled World. But I don't know if that quite captures it. Continue reading

Beginning June 1, 2023 (and continuing with a new entry posted here each Thursday) I will be publishing a long and winding essay building an argument (brick by tiny brick) for a global decoupling from social media Continue reading

I was treading water through one of the darkest times of my life when I really didn't know if I would ever make anything again. And my ex-boyfriend Andrew Altenburg bought me a present for no reason other than a desire to simply remind me that I was loved. The gift was this simple black notebook, beautifully bound inside a black vinyl cover, about 100 pages of loosely ruled paper. No big whoop, right? Au contraire! Continue reading

When Jennifer Garner Asks Her Children to Present Her With Evidence of Social Media's Benefits to Adolescents She's Effectively Winning the Argument. Because of course there is no evidence that it's beneficial. But here's the thing. We all know it, deep down. Social media is more poison than nutrition. And if Jennifer Garner wants to protect her children from it my only question is: Why Stop There? Isn't it Time We All Ended Our Addictive Relationship with these Platforms? The Grim Truth (that no one wants to admit) is that we are drained of far more than we gain. Continue reading

Calling on the Hive Mind: Help Me Find a Way to Take My Seat Blind A Tony Voter friend has invited me to the theater... and she won't say what show it is... So... I'm actually trying to imagine a way in which I might join my friend and take my seat and wait for the curtain to rise, all without even a hint or a clue as to who wrote it, what it's called, whether it's a play or musical and who's in it. Do you suppose that such a thing is even possible? Continue reading

During a recent session of my Self-Production Boot Camp for Playwrights and Screenwriters, I interrupted the flow to pose a question that I don't think enough of us have ever even considered. Who is the greatest subsidizer of the Arts in the United States? or put another way: From which sector does the mother lode of Arts underwriting come from? One of the things that's most thrilling about teaching Self-Production Boot Camp is that I get to swim in the current of where the newest work is taking shape these days. The motivated, focused and endlessly inventive creative artists who are drawn to even consider the possibility that they could and maybe even should produce their next new work give me hope for a better future. Continue reading

Somehow it feels like Zoom is the perfect sandbox for me to play in when exploring various aspects of what the hell we've all just been through. I first presented one of these in August 2021 when I premiered Danger Round This Corner at Some1Speaking. And it felt cathartic creating a character who felt as stuck as I did—albeit in different ways unique to him—in a new reality defined by pandemic isolation. And because we always have the audience unmute in the Hear Me Out Black Box it was seriously fun performing and riding the waves of laughter. Continue reading

I've personally grown as an artist, at least in part, as I've learned to value my own role as an audience member. The most powerful work I've produced as a writer or performer can be directly linked to lessons I've learned watching, listening and responding to the work of others in our Hear Me Out Black Box. And I know this is true for so many of you. Still, it saddens me how for some out there, old habits die hard. There are some who only show up on nights that they themselves have work of their own to present. Continue reading

Because let me tell you! It's one thing to review a video of one's teaching after the fact as a means of improving and refining how to communicate more effectively... But.... boy oh boy oh boy! It is quite a bit more eye-opening to confront a solid paragraph of word-for-word transcription of what I actually apparently just said in class. Especially when that solid paragraph almost fills an entire page and is comprised of a few endlessly spinning run-on sentences which lack any discernible beginning, middle or end but instead seem to be constructed out of a stream of every random urgently-tossed opinion, reminder or warning that seems important to share in the moment. Syntax be damned! Continue reading

Has this happened to you as often as it seems to happen to me? Some friend who I respect for their taste in culture or their wisdom in general will feel compelled to recommend I watch the latest film or television show that happens to contain an apocalyptic zombie storyline and as they embark on an inventory of all that makes it a must-see they fold in this line: Of course, it's not really about Zombies. Continue reading

I would say that Janet Kenney is certainly one of my favorite playwrights for a simple reason. She writes characters she loves and wants to understand and so she tells the truth. Her ego doesn't get in the way of her characters. There's always something at the heart of her writing that needs to get out and it has nothing to do with a writer's ego and everything to do with her awe and wonder at the human condition. Continue reading

CoVid has fucked with all of us, specifically with our ability to self-modulate. Now would be a time for us all to hit PAUSE before ending any relationships. Because, honestly, I don't know about you but lately I find myself feeling like certain social interactions are my first bike ride without training wheels. I feel a bit wobbly, unsure of my balance and bracing for an imminent fall. Continue reading

Pinching myself at all this talent: Barbara Kessler, Rev. Yolanda, Ann Klein, Anke Summerhill, Patrice Haan and Sloan Wainwright! (What?!) Our first Monday of the month monologue series Some1Speaking has been running almost three years now. It began as our finalist judges arrived at the very first slate of prize winning monologues for the Hear Me Out Monologue Competition and I took a look at the dozens of brilliant pieces that hadn't won and realized we needed you all to experience the magic of a few minutes in the presence of these unforgettable characters for yourselves. Continue reading

Too many artists are killing their own careers by not obsessing over the details. God is in the details. And no matter your budget -- whether you're working with a team of volunteers or the entire publicity department at Paramount -- if it's your work that's being sold, you have an obligation to see to it that every detail is handled efficiently, thoughtfully and effectively. Nobody's going to care that nobody came to see your show as much as you will. So do whatever you can to make sure that doesn't happen. Continue reading

Bacharach is like the 20th C. Mozart. His craft was impeccable. His compositions all held together so beautifully without any need of duct tape or super glue. Like the finest furniture maker whose tongue and groove construction just holds together on its own, his songs were the closest thing to perfect construction since Mozart. And he was almost as prolific as Mozart. Continue reading

Several years ago, at a Producers Guild Conference, I had the opportunity to sit at a small round table with David Eick, Executive Producer of the brilliant television series, Battlestar Galactica. And I asked him how it happened to be that a TV show was able to weave in so much truly profound and deep thinking on the subject of what it means to be human. His answer surprised me. "Simple," he offered without skipping a beat. "We were on the SyFy Channel. No one was paying attention. So we did whatever we liked." Continue reading

So... take it from me. Everyone cares whether you remember to acknowledge collaborations from your past and it matters that you use the most complete language. If you co-wrote a musical with two other people, make sure you always remember to mention them both when you list the work in your press materials. Continue reading

I'm not saying avoid mass media entirely. But I am saying a diet consisting of nothing but mass marketed culture will do much to mold you (slowly over the years) into an easy uncritical consumer of whatever it is the machine would prefer you consume. And, let's face it, when you accept such a bland and safe role for yourself the Algorithms and the corporations who control them will reward you immediately and handsomely. Continue reading

No, you don't own that monologue. It's not your turn to have your say. The monologue only has any business being a part of your script if it's there to serve the whims and agendas of the person out of whose mouth it's coming. Dialogue is Action. Any work we do in this December's Advanced Monologue will be based in this core truth. Characters in your play speak in service of intention. Until you get out from in between your characters and their intentions, your plays will feel dead inside and no one will give a damn no matter how clever, perceptive you are and no matter how gorgeous your prose. Continue reading

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The skill of good (or great) writing starts with listening. Listening to the deepest part of you where the truth of your intentions lives. Sometimes there's a lot of noise coming between a writer and the successful execution of the idea. Continue reading

For any writer preparing work to submit to a seriously competitive opportunity of any kind, these 6 flaws could make the difference between taking home the gold and barely seeing the light of day. I suggest you copy this list and hang it somewhere in your workspace as a reminder so that every time you’re prepping a submission, you take some time to at least eliminate these obstacles to their success. I like to think of these as six guests you really don't want crashing your party cause they will work against your ambition for your submission by distracting the judges from the power and brilliance of what you've created. Show them the door and your chances of success will greatly improve. Continue reading