plugs (not the type referring to balding men making feeble attempts to appear like they have hair.)

bEgInNinGs. so i have a friend whose first new york solo show opens tomorrow and another friend who has his new play 6969 opening next week and i am going to, without shame or reservation, plug both of them. (i also happen to be in 6969, but this post is not about that, it is truly about jordan and his play.) it occurred to me that in many ways it's like two moments of greatness being born that we have the chance to be a part of. both are already exceptionally talented young men and those of us who have had the opportunity and the gift to know their work before now have known this, watched it grow and develop, and waited as anxiously as they have for the rest of the world to take note. i feel as though these openings will be milestones in their careers, when, decades from now, we look back at them. for peter, certainly, his first new york solo show will be a defining moment, and, i'm certain, the first of many and the start of something great. his abilities as a painter are remarkable and attempting to describe them would be futile, truly you need to get yourself down to chelsea before june 24th in order to fully understand and appreciate what i'm talking about. for jordan, this play is a turning point, this script a leap into maturity that definitely marks a whole new chapter in the life of this young playwright. since i first read it, i have been reminded of sitting in modern drama with scott edmiston back at boston university. the class was structured so that we would discuss both the playwright and the play and allow the knowledge and themes of each to inform the other. and every major modern playwright has a "first great play", a piece of work that defined them as the playwright they are. there are usually plays that exist before this, that were never or rarely produced, that failed in some way, that contained themes or characters or elements that made it into later works, but they don't necessarily stand on their own and are often best understood and produced when approached as an exploration of a young and developing playwright. and i honestly feel with jordan that if we were sitting in modern drama discussing him, or when 50 or 100 years from now some students of the future are, 6969 will be jotted down in notebooks as his first successful play. the themes, plot, characters, and structure are all that solid and consistent and mature. there is brilliance in this play and i am excited for its future.

so go check this stuff out and be able to say you were there when...

pEteR hAlaSz. you should go and see this show at the atm gallery, 511 west 20th street (www.atmgallery.com). the show opens tomorrow, may 25th and runs through june 24th.




jOrDaN sEaVeY. you should go get your tickets now for 6969, with only 4 performances they are sure to sell out. the show will run june 1st & 2nd @ 8pm and june 3rd @ 2pm & 8pm at manhattan theatre source, 177 macdougal street. it is being presented by collaborationtown, directed by matthew hopkins and filled with a buttload of really talented designers and actors.

stating the obvious.

dUh. hi. can we file this in the "no shit sherlock" category?:
from the associated press, saturday, may 13th 1:51pm: "abuse scandal has changed views of priests"
what? oh my god! are you serious? the fact that there has been widespread sexual abuse by catholic priests has changed the way they are viewed by catholics and the world at large??!? well, jesus h. christ, i'd hope so. i would hope that it would make people see them as the flawed and fallible human beings that they are. i would hope that knowledge would make people uneasy, would cause them to question, would denegrate trust. and i would also hope that this scandal has caused us all to pause and reflect on the unwarranted level of protection we tend to offer our leaders, without question, without reason, without justification. because someone is in a position of power does not mean that person is above judgment, is above making mistakes, is above being capable of being at fault. think about it, if anything, there are times when being in a position of power would actually make an individual more capable of abusing that power, that privilege, and doing something reprehensible, for which they should be held responsible and accountable. and while we are talking about leaders abusing their power and betraying trust, why doesn't the associated press spend a little more time telling us honestly what is going on in iraq and all the other crap george w. bush is screwing up and a little less time numbing us with obvious and unnecessary headlines like this?

raindrops keep fallin' on my head.

cAuGhT. i just got caught in a downpour. a surprise downpour. it was a lovely sunny early evening when i left the east village and as i stepped above ground after getting off the L train in williamsburg the sky turned gray and it started to pour. one of those contained showers where you can see clearly where the dark rain clouds end and the blue sunny skies are waiting to reappear as soon as this passes through. at any rate, i love that. getting caught in the rain like that. partly, it makes me feel like a kid again and gives me the urge to splash around in puddles. it also feels purifying. and it's also in some way romantic. it was such a pleasant little surprise on my saturday evening. i'm much happier now than i was an hour ago. lovely.

to sleep, perchance to dream.

aY, tHeRe'S tHe RuB. so this play i'm working on has these dream and nightmare sequences. and yesterday's rehearsal was devoted to them. dreams fascinate me. as do nightmares. the things our mind tries to work out while we sleep. the things we avoid during the day that announce themselves to us at night. or those times when you don't dream at all . . . or, if you do, you awake in the morning with no memory of it whatsoever. i went for a rather lengthy period of time having no dreams at all. for nearly a year after a pretty life altering break up i could count on one hand the number of times i woke up in the morning and remembered having dreamed. and most of those were actually something that felt like a night terror, but i am assured by friends that it was probably something more like sleep apnea. each time it felt like i was awake and conscious of a very real outside presence in the room that was exerting weight on my chest, pinning me down and making breathing extremely difficult. at any rate, somewhere along the line my sleep pattern changed again and dreams started slowly coming back to me. though i still feel like i rarely wake up remembering my dreams, i just am somehow cognizant that i am having them. in general lately my mind has been going a mile a minute during the wee hours of the night and morning. often to the point that it wakes me out of sleep, i realize that i have been pondering or analyzing or brainstorming about something and i either get up and follow the train of thought or, foolishly, think that it is so vivid and clear in that moment i will surely remember it in the morning and go back to sleep. and of course i never do.
i have this impression, and perhaps it is totally unjustified, that some people have these wonderful and happy dreams. dreams that are fantastical, enjoyable, lighthearted and end well. i have never been such a dreamer. sure, in my 27 years, i have had some pleasant dreams, i have had mornings that i've woken up and thought wow! that was fun or i wish that had really happened. but, mostly, dreams are strange and full of weird emotions for me. as a child i had a lot of recurring dreams. including one where my parents left my sister and i (we were toddlers at the time, no more than 3 or 4) home alone on a very eerie, gray saturday morning to go get married and it was unclear if they would ever return for us. not only was that dream terrifying, but it also felt like a real memory and i never knew if it was something that had actually happened to us or not. eventually, i became old enough to suspect that it was a dream and articulate it to my mother, who assures me it is absolutely not a memory of a real experience. i also dreamt a great deal about being in danger and preparing for it, like lying as still as possible under covers or under a bed as an intruder broke into the house through a window or door downstairs. some people live out fantasies in their dreams, i, on the other hand, clearly use my dreams to worry.

collaborationtown presents a new play by jordan seavey, directed by matthew hopkins. june 1-3.

6969. this is what i am currently in rehearsals for at the moment and it runs june 1-3 at manhattan theatre source on macdougall street in the village. come see it or, well, you're dead to me.






*graphic design by meghan carey, photography by anna tucker

it's not the sky that's falling...

nO CrAp. hi. a bird just shit on my coat. how is your day so far?