Finally.

I have cracked the egg. well, proverbial egg.

I finaly figured out how to blog with my phone. This website isn't as compatable with my phone as I would like.

Now keep in mind...i'm doing this on my phone so typos WILL abound.

It's been a while, hasn't it? yep.

the show went we'll, but it certainly made me reaize how hard this business is. it is tremendously difficult. harder than one would think. and it's all so intangible...there's no clear path other than keep doing it. keep running into the wal over and over agin.

and while I'm not old, it gets harder to do this as I'm getting older.

But still, I'm not sure what else to do.

so what else? I got a new show coming up...a clown show! I'll be in it. two nights only!

more details to come!

now, i'm gonna go buy some pens.

Opening Night....

Just a friendly reminder:
It’s OPENING NIGHT for On the Night of Anthony’s 30^th Birthday Party…Again…and I hope you have tickets for tonight or some future date.

I wrote the first draft of this play two years ago. A particular moment in my life. And it’s curious and strange feeling to see this play coming to life, it’s a little bit like looking back on my own history—it’s like a diary entry from its moment of first creation.

And because it takes a time to bring a play to the stage (through the rewrites, the readings, the development, the rehearsals, etc.) that moment of first creation gets further and further away, until…I don’t know….well, it feels curious and strange to see a play that WAS you that maybe NO LONGER you.

The author’s relation to material is always different than an audiences. An audience is experiencing it for the first time, but the author has experienced it so many times, in so many different ways.

Last year, I had a show called Umbrella produced. The piece is very critical about what urban life does to the human soul…not the comedy my mom was hoping for…and the piece was first started in a dark period of my life. An audience member came up to me and told me how much they were moved by the play, which was great, and I knew that intellectually, but, in a weird twist, I was surprised. I think it was because I had moved on. I wasn’t…invested…emotionally in this play anymore. I wanted it to succeed, I still do, I think it’s a good piece of work, as is On the Night of Anthony’s 30^th Birthday Party…Again (buy your tickets now: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/643085) but the work seems outside of me now—something I did, not something I’m doing.

What am I doing? I’m working on a new play: New Horizons Through the Interplanetary Medium. I just had a reading at Potluck Plays, thanks to Heidi Handelsman. And it was great to hear and to find myself in this spot now. Whatever spot that is...

The show run March 11^th through the 28^th, Wednesday to Saturday at 8 PM.

Tickets are $18

Manhattan Theatre Source

177 MacDougal Street

New York, NY 10011

www.Theatresource.org

www.whirledpeasproductions.org

For Reservations: 212-501-4751

For Tickets: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/643085

On The Night of Anthony's 30...in rehearsals!

My play On The Night of Anthony's 30^th Birthday Party…Again has gone into rehearsals, and I'm very excited.

Produced by Whirled Peas Productions at the Manhattan Theatre Source, directed by Megan Demarest, produced by Montserrat Mendez, On the Night…opens March 11^th

On the Night of Anthony's 30th Birthday Party, Again is a single door farce about that moment in your in your life where you need to make a choice about your future: do you embrace it or stay where you are? Ben faces a decision of a lifetime. He must choose between his fiance and the girl who got away while surrounded by his closest friends. Plans are created, mistakes are made, and everything happens after the cake in this bittersweet comedy.

Featuring:

Tom Everett Russell* as Charlie, was always a good listener and a nice guy, too.

Tyler Hollinger* as Ben, the coolest guy you knew.

Synge Maher as Kate, the coolest girl you knew and you always wanted to be around her.

Stephanie Lovell as Beth, that smart sarcastic girl who was loud and spoke her mind.

Kate Grande as Jenny, that girl who was quiet in class but knew the answers.

Brandon Potter as Max, that guy who knew everything but you never knew his name.

Carsey Walker Jr.* as Otis, that guy who was always a blast at parties.

Andrew Glaszek* as Anthony, that guy that was always together and always the center of attention.

* denotes members of Actors Equity Association

The show run March 11^th through the 28^th, Wednesday to Saturday at 8 PM.

Tickets are $18

Manhattan Theatre Source

177 MacDougal Street

New York, NY 10011

www.Theatresource.org

www.whirledpeasproductions.org

For Reservations: 212-501-4751

For Tickets: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/643085

I did it.

I did it. When I made the decision to do it, I was just fine with it. But then, about an hour later, I started questioning whether or not it was the right choice.

I walked out of a show. A friend of mine was in it. He was great, lovely...I had never had a chance to see him perform.

But.

I did not like the play. I was bored out of my mind. I just didn't want to sit there any more. If it had been on TV, I would have changed the channel. And I'm sure there were people who loved the play, great. And it looks like it is selling well, great. I just couldn't. Sit. There. Any. More.

But, it's always the great dilemma, right? I want to support theatre. I want to support my friends. But sometimes...

I don't think it makes me any less of a supporter of theatre...we shouldn't be blind supporters, right?

I used to live in Minneapolis and there was this independent coffee house I went to...it was close, it was independent, and I felt good. Until, I began to realize...I didn't really like the place...to much smoke, slightly over priced, and the greatest sin: the coffee wasn't all that good.

I don't like walking out. When I sit in a theatre, when I pay my money, I want the show to be great, good, whatever. I want to be in love with theatre. And it kills me when I just...when I just can't sit there anymore.

My Wife's Documentary Of Our New Year's Eve...

New Year Eve, Times Square, 2008-2009 from Deepti Gupta on Vimeo.

New Years Eve--Times Square...we survived...

So. I'm working at the Dramatists Guild of America, and the office overlooks Times Square, and so, Deepti and I were able to watch the New Year come in from the office.

On our way...



Deepti was video taping everything, so, I am photographing her videotaping...in the elevator...



Our view out the window, towards North...



And across the street...



And of the ball...



Which changes color....



See.



For all the 12 year old girls out there...The Jonas Brothers and Ryan Seacrest....



And at the one hour mark...we celebrate New Years in Nova Scotia...



Yep. Seriously.



And for the Baby Boomers...Dick Clark...



A cop doing his job...hanging out...



Deepti keeping it real...



At the 30 minute mark...already sending in the clean up crew...



And finally...













And then we wait a little bit for it to clear out...



And that was the night...back down into the subway, a taco from the taco wagon, and then a freezing walk back home.

Happy 2009, and let's hope it's a better one than 2008...

Speeding towards the big finish

I'm working on a new play. It's a big play and it's not following a...well...a dramatic structure. In a lot of ways, it's more novelistic. It's the stuff that's happening in between two events. Whereas a dramatic thing writes a little faster, we're heading towards a climax, the character may get what they want, etc, etc. This one, this novelistic one, is taking it's time, it's moving slower in it's development.

...but wait, didn't I just say that I'm speeding towards the big finish?

Yes. I have a reading on Sunday, and I want to get this puppy totally written. Even if it's bad, I want it to be done and done.

It's that time of year when you look back AND look forward...

I've written quite a bit this year...I reworked a play in production, I did a draft of an old play, I'm writing a draft of a new play, I wrote a short play, and I wrote a screenplay for a tele-film (coming to a pakistani TV network in your area...) AND, I've co-written stuff with my friend Mozz....he and I worked on a screenplay together...

That's a lot of pages.

Which is good.

So, what about next year. I want to write AT LEAST the amount I've written this year. Not sure what though. I've toyed with only writing comedies. That could be fun. Or just doing adaptations.

Not sure. Must ponder.