Piece of Cake

Hi.

Long time, no see.

Or write.

As promised in my last post over a year ago, I've spent a lot of time focusing on learning rather than creating. At times, it's been really hard not to jump at opportunities to put work out there (I'm looking at you, SoLow Fest), but honestly, most of the time, it's been refreshing.

I've taken writing and acting classes with Walnut Street Theatre and PlayPenn. I did an Artists U workshop, and even started up with an awesome accountability triangle. I've gotten back to some poetry. And eventually, I started a new script.

An actual script.

With more than one character talking.

With A BOY talking.

Because sometimes, boys are smarter than you think. They say smart things. And you creep out of bed in the middle of the night to take notes on your phone in the bathroom. And that is when you know it is time for a new play.

CAKE

an in-progress excerpt

featuring Sarah Schol and Wyl McCaul
directed by Christina May

January 28th, 6:30-8:30 PM

4 Weeks in January

1fiftyone gallery + performance space*

151 N 3rd St, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106

other artists presenting awesome new work in progress include

Sam Tower, Anna Zaida Scannell Szapiro, and Christina Gesualdi

*Please read the directions on Facebook, or it will be impossible to find this place. Also, be ready for stairs.

Bad Ideas / Good Ideas

In honor of being done with what turned out to be an amazingly simple show, a list of all the awful things I almost did:

• me shouting certain lines from the audience or balcony
• puppets (not a bad idea in itself, but something I know nothing about)
• inserting pauses after lines I think you should laugh at
• making the music as loud as the speaking, thereby cancelling out all words
• advertising the show on OkCupid

THANK YOU!

Many thanks to my creative team Megan Slater and Joo Won Park, to everyone who offered their own artistic input or support, including Sarah Gladwin Camp, Jen Cleary, Julius Ferraro, Katherine Fritz, Brian Grace-Duff, Liz Green, Dustin Hurt, Lisa Rothstein, Amy Scheidegger, Julia Taus, Meg Williams, JJ Tiziou, Rebekah Zhuraw's Sound of Words class, and Alison Hicks's Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio, to the wonderful women of Hybridge Arts Collective, and to all our Indiegogo supporters:

Thomas Blum, Jennifer Ann Cleary, Robert Emanuele, Maisy Grassie, Kathrine Hanna, Alison Hicks-Greifenstein, Babette Jenny, Jaime Konowal, Lisa Kraus, Janice Longo, LaNeshe Miller, Whitney Postman, Nava Szwergold, Julia Taus, Michael Tedeschi, Jacques-Jean Tiziou, Meghann Williams, and Anonymous.

I'm so thrilled with the support you've all given this project. We couldn't have done it without any of you. THANK YOU!

Fundamental Frequencies
premiered as part of the Blueprint Breakout Series

at Broad Street Ministry
October 28 & 29, 2013

Photos from Tech

We had a blast in tech this weekend. (Kelly says this is the first time in tech history of the world that anyone has ever said that.) We also managed to capture a couple moments that'll give you a sense of what things will look like tomorrow and Tuesday. Try to get as hype as I am. Just try.

Megan's view from the stage. You'll see the front of her.

A Selected Annotated Bibliography for Fundamental Frequencies

You know the drill.

"Tell All The Truth" by Emily Dickinson

This short poem begins "Tell all the truth but tell it slant, / Success in circuit lies." Uh, duh. I live for this shit. Fundamental Frequencies is my first presented work that doesn't claim to be 100% fact, but that doesn't mean it's not true. And if you saw True Stories, you know I find truth in repetitions and rehashings. Side story: I recently told Megan that the last line is the only true thing in the story. If you're looking for a sure-fire way to nearly lose an actress, that's it. Side side note: I recently read that writers direct because it's "easy." Like "the hard part is over." Ha.

Fundamental Frequencies: The Playlist

Well, this is kind of shameful for a project where I'm working with an actual musician, but I promised you an ungodly number of music puns. And boy, did I deliver. Happy final script to me.

Art is Hard

Okay, we're admittedly still figuring out what the hell this show is, which makes it especially hard to share and promote. This week, we came to the earth-shattering realization that the show is a response to the sort-of question, "Tell me about King."

This was after a whole conversation about how maybe Lucy, the narrator, is in a recording booth, or maybe things are set up tennis court style, or maybe there are a bunch of stuffed animals. (I perhaps wisely kept my previous idea about shouting out lines from the audience to myself.)

Art is hard, guys. But somehow JJ Tiziou managed to capture it visually.

This is a story about communication, how you don't actually know what other people are thinking if you don't tell them what you're thinking. How sometimes language can feel like a second rate method for getting anything across. What it feels like to find out you're not the only person manipulating a relationship, or the only person being manipulated. It's about being in control, or thinking you're in control, and how the words we use fit into that.

We've got roughly two weeks to make that all clear.

Fundamental Frequencies
will premiere as part of the Blueprint Breakout Series

October 28 & 29, 2013
tickets available at the door or in advance on Indiegogo