Congratulations to Kirsten Greenidge and Kristin Baker!

Kirsten (right) with Cherise Boothe, who won for her performance
in Milk Like Sugar (Photo: Cherise Boothe)

In an amazing week full of major events and honors, more terrific news: Boston’s own Kirsten Greenidge (her play The Luck of the Irish recently closed at the Huntington after a successful run) won an Obie Award Monday night, for her off-Broadway debut Milk Like Sugar. The play was a co-production of Playwrights Horizons, Women’s Project, and the La Jolla Playhouse.

A few things that have been on my mind this week

And if that title didn’t scare the bejesus* out of you and you kept reading, good for you! Here goes:

We will only be talking about this more, as the year (which is already flying by) goes on: The 2012 TCG National Conference is going to be in Beantown, y’all*. In less than 150 days! Read Teresa Eyring’s Weekly Update, which focuses on the event and ways she hopes Boston will “Model the Movement.”

I was thrilled to learn that Mike Daisey’s excellent, excellent show The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs will be returning to The Public next week. In the meantime, take a listen* to the adaptation of the monologue on NPR’s This American Life.

And, in case you missed it: As a follow-up to our [very un-scientific] look at feelings about tweet seats in Boston, playwright Jason Grote weighs in on the issue in this article from The Washington Post.

* Note the Southerness coming through in this post. Why here? Why now? No idea.

Tweet seats: Yay or nay?

In order to reach new audiences, theatres around the country are employing a range of social media tactics, among them "tweet seats" -- designated sections of the house reserved for patrons who want to tweet during the show. Locally, Lyric Stage is one theatre considering implementing such a section, and when our own Rick Park wrote this post for the One-Minute Play Festival blog last week (just the other day, John Greiner-Ferris weighed in as well), I began to wonder how we feel about this issue. I sent out an e-mail asking, How do you feel about the notion of designated "tweet seats" at live performances? Here's what some of us had to say:


Gregory Fletcher
@Fletcher10027
Perhaps for a specific production that had something to do with social networking or asked for up-to-the-minute comments, "tweet seats" might be a fun gimmick to fill some seats.  But if I'm watching a performance, the last thing I would want (as a playwright or audience member) is someone near me distracting me with movement and the light on their phone.  Despite the fact that I sometimes tweet, there's a time and place for tweeting like everything else.  And in a dark room, sitting with a tight group of people, all focused on a world we are observing or stepping into--this is not a place for tweeting.  

Dohrn's 'Outside People' set for world premiere Off-Broadway

Alum Zayd Dohrn’s play Outside People will receive its world premiere – a co-production of the Vineyard Theatre and Naked Angels – at the Vineyard Theatre, starting in December 2011. The play was developed in Naked Angels’ ‘Angels in Progress’ series, and the production will be directed by Evan Cabnet.

Synopsis from the Naked Angels Web site: A dark, comic look at China-U.S. relations – economic, political, and sexual. In modern-day Beijing, a young American guy falls for a Chinese girl and then struggles to understand where she’s coming from. A play about loneliness, culture-shock, language, and trying to make connections across borders.

For more information, visit www.vineyardtheatre.org or www.nakedangels.com.

Diamond's 'Stick Fly' Broadway-bound!

BPT alum (and CFA professor) Lydia Diamond's play Stick Fly will open on Broadway this fall! CONGRATULATIONS, Lydia! Wow!

From the press release:
Grammy Award-winner Alicia Keys with Reuben Cannon & Nelle Nugent are proud to announce the Broadway premiere of Stick Fly, the critically-acclaimed American play by Lydia R. Diamond and directed by Kenny Leon, opening on Broadway on Thursday, December 8, 2011 at the Lyceum Theatre (149 W. 45th Street). Performances begin Friday, November 18, 2011. Tickets are now on sale through Telecharge.com.

Stick Fly follows the LeVays, an affluent African American family who come together to spend a summer weekend at their Martha’s Vineyard home. The adult sons, aspiring novelist Kent and golden boy plastic surgeon Flip, have each brought their respective ladies (one Black and one White) to meet the parents. Food, drink and Trivial Pursuit tangle with class, race and identity politics in this contemporary comedy of manners.

Bauer headed to Sewanee

Bauer

Alum Monica Bauer has been selected for this summer’s Sewanee Writers' Conference.

The conference is hosted by the University of the South, and supported by the Walter E. Dakin Memorial Fund established through the estate of the late Tennessee Williams. Each year, a group of accomplished writers, critics, agents, and other visitors take part.

Read more about this prestigious conference here.

Congrats, Monica!

Award-winning playwright also reigns playwriting Q&A

Playwright Szymkowicz

Last weekend, playwright Adam Szymkowicz announced he has interviewed 350 playwrights on his blog. 

For the uninitiated, Adam is, like, the King of the Q&A. At least to me. This 350 milestone is a pretty impressive feat – take a look at the comprehensive list of playwrights here, and you'll immediately be among friends. Adam's subjects have included BPT alums (Playwright #9 and Playwright #186) and other Boston-area folks (Playwright #17, Playwright #193, Playwright #74, Playwright #134). The interviews are funny, insightful, and chock full of lessons in playwriting (and in life, actually!).

But that's not all: I make a habit of checking in on this blog from time to time because in addition to his mini-interviews, Adam posts about his own experiences as a playwright. The blog is full of really terrific, spot-on advice like this post. 

This is a great one to add to your blogroll!

steady falling (mercy droppeth)

Great thoughts from playwright Erik Ehn on today's top news story.

Play by Shea featured in The Somerville News

John Shea’s The Painter, which is playing at Unity Church in Somerville through May 1, is featured in The Somerville News. Read the story here.

When an Irish-American painter and his African-American employer come face-to-face in a battle of wills, the result is a crime that will change both of them forever. Was it anger? Madness? Or something deeper?

Tickets and additional information: http://www.playsbyshea.com/

Guest blog: Alum Colleen Hughes responds to 'The Millennials Project'

I recently read Michael Kaiser’s Huffington Post article “The Millennials Project,” in which he claims that those of us under 30 are culturally illiterate and in need of some remedial training in “high art” (or, more specifically, what he defines as high art).

First off, I don’t consider myself a Millennial. I’m 29, and I often feel like those of us born in the late 70s and early 80s are in sort of a subgenerational gap. But that is a topic for a whole other blog post. I am, however, still “under 30” and take offense to several of Kaiser’s key points.

He begins by saying that “we in the arts face a major problem” about young people who have little to no exposure to theatre. “We”? Apparently “we in the arts” doesn’t include young people, and all the amazingly talented up-and-coming theatre artists I know and went to school with just don’t exist. He claims that young people have no interest in seeing “our” performances or visiting “our” art galleries—and maybe that’s a major part of the problem. He views theatrical performances, indeed any “higher art,” as an “ours,” as belonging to a select group of individuals privileged enough to be “in the arts.” The original point of regional theatre was that it was just that—theatre for the region, for and belonging to the community. It would speak to and address issues that were important to its community. Theatre is not just for the select few who know who Verdi is, yet Kaiser seems intent on creating a divide between the makers of theatre and its audience. And he feels that it must be the audience’s problem for not appreciating the theatrical gift he is bestowing upon them. He never considers that maybe the problem, or at least part of it, is with the theatre itself.

MCC budget update

From the Massachusetts Cultural Council Web site, an update:

The Massachusetts House Committee on Ways & Means proposed a budget that would cut funding for the arts, humanities, and sciences by $1.65 million, or 18 percent.

Thanks to your advocacy, more than a quarter of the Massachusetts House of Representatives signed on to an amendment to stop further cuts to state funding for the arts, humanities, and sciences through the MCC.

What you can do now:

Contact your Massachusetts House Representative before April 25:

    * Urge him/her to support Amendment # 417 and stop the cuts to arts and cultural funding through the MCC!

House Ways & Means Budget Proposes Another Significant Cut to Arts & Cultural Funding

From the Mass Cultural Council Web site yesterday -- budget cuts would mean an 18% cut to MCC funding.

(Boston, MA) - The House Ways & Means Committee today released a proposed state budget for the coming fiscal year that would significantly cut support for the arts, humanities, and sciences through the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC).

The House panel recommends $7.5 million for MCC for fiscal year 2012. That would cut $1.65 million, or 18 percent, from the agency's current budget. If enacted, this budget would represent a cumulative cut of 41 percent to MCC's budget since 2009.

The Governor's proposed budget had cut cultural funding by $700,000; the House Ways & Means version represents a cut of nearly $1 million on top of that.

LBD in NYC: Update

As reported in this space last fall, our very own Ronan Noone’s Little Black Dress (which debuted at BPT last season) will open Off-Broadway at The Exchange next month. The production is helmed by The Exchange’s Artistic Director Ari Edleson, who also directed the production here. The play is beginning to get some press, including this blurb from Theatermania and a longer article on OffBroadwayWorld.com.

Ronan has promised to keep us all in the loop as the play nears opening, and had this to say: Tuesday [April 5] was the first day of rehearsal and due to all sorts of madness I couldn't be there so I was Skyped in. I strained to hear a third of the play before the Skype blew up and I got to hear the rest of the play through iPhone on speaker. Regardless of the ingenuity on board here, I could tell the changes I made to the piece didn't work. In truth, I sensed they wouldn't work. All along the way I found the play pushing back at my attempts to clean it up.

Ronan has been very candid about LBD's wild -- and fascinating (if you're not the playwright living through it!) development history; I, for one, can’t wait to see the next step in the evolution of this terrific play.

Get tickets here.

Globe calls Ti-Jean "fresh and compelling"

Read the full review here.

Click here for tickets, related events, and additional information.

Ti-Jean Heralded "not to be missed"

Read the full review here.

The BPT/Underground Railway Theater production of Ti-Jean & His Brothers runs at Central Square Theater through March 13. Click here for tickets, related events, and additional information.

Kuntzie discusses new play in The Globe

Here's Johnny!

John Kuntz's The Hotel Nepenthe, part of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project's Winter Festival, opens this week and runs through March 6. Read the article here.

Also, check out Kuntzie's blog for some great photos! 

Tickets: 866-811-4111, www.actorsshakespeareproject.org

The angel is in the details...

As a follow-up to my post earlier this week about Angels in America, read Ben Brantley's review of Signature Theatre's revival here.

Read others' thoughts on Angels -- including playwrights Tony Kushner, Christopher Shinn, Sarah Ruhl and Romulus Linney -- on the Signature Theatre blog, too!

Plays by Noone and Bauer slated for productions in NYC

Ronan Noone’s Little Black Dress will be produced Off-Broadway in May 2011 by The Exchange. Little Black Dress received a workshop production at BPT last season; read more about the play’s intense development history here, in Ronan's program note.

Off-Off-Broadway, Monica Bauer’s Balls: The Testosterone Plays of Monica Bauer, features two short plays about men, ‘Two Men Walked Into a Bar’ and ‘Made for Each Other’. The plays will run Nov. 19-Dec. 5 at the Workshop MainStage Theatre. For more information, visit www.TheatreWithBalls.com.

Alums, share your news with us.

In case you missed it...

Ellen McLaughlin and Stephen Spinella

...an article from yesterday's New York Times about the enduring impact of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, and the play's current revival at Signature Theatre.

I share this because Angels is a play that continues to inspire me to write. It's everything, really -- the complete theatrical package, full of big and small moments that are funny, sad, bombastic, beautiful, brutal, political, fantastical, and true. No matter how many times I read it or see it, it is always soul-stirring. When I was an undergrad, I carried around my copy of Millennium Approaches long after I finished reading it, like Linus with his blanket. (And later, watching the inimitable Kathleen Chalfant deliver that opening monologue from my seat in the second row of the Walter Kerr Theatre -- feeling like she was talking to me -- still stands as one of the most breathtaking theatrical memories of my life.)

Read the article here