I’m thrilled that there’s an excerpt from Pretty in this month’s Los Angeles Magazine. It’s on newsstands now, or you can subscribe online.
Exactly a month until the release. I’ll keep you posted about tour dates as I get the schedule nailed down.
Archive for July 2011
I had a jolt of recognition upon reading Adam Gopnik’s “Life Studies: What I Learned When I Learned to Draw,” in the June 27 issue of the New Yorker. It’s a great piece about the creative process and about being a beginner. I’m stumbling through a new project right now and this passage resonated for me.
It was the best thing I had ever drawn, and I realized that I hadn’t drawn it as I had imagined, God’s hand finally resting on mine to steal a true contour from the world. No, I had made it up out of small, stale parts and constant reapplications of energy and observation, back an forth.
No matter what I’m working on, I always feel like a beginner. I’m always piecing together fits of energy and awkward efforts and praying that in the end I’ll somehow give voice to something whole and true.
This is a pic of D.J. Mendel and me, from one of the Cattywampus rehearsals. I’m fortunate to spend my days surrounded by outrageously talented people.
One week until we open…
Most of the time, I think that Scott and I have professions that are great for parenting. We work hard when we work, but we’re also home a lot and have odd hours and periods of down time that most people with 9-5 jobs don’t have. But I’ve got to be honest with you and say that this summer has been a rough one.
Last summer we were both working like mad, but some stroke of good luck staggered our calendars. This year we’re both going with all guns blazing and Scott has been out of town more often than not. T has been dysregulated and anxious and has regressed into some of his more aggressive behaviors.
With this as a background, the sweet and connected moments (even when they’re few and far between) really come to the forefront for me. I try to stay emotionally present for them when they happen.
Today, for instance, T actually got into our friend’s pool with me. Usually he just stays on the stairs and splashes. When he put his arms around my neck, he said, “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
Which leads me to believe that once in a blue moon, I actually say the right thing to him.
The other pic is from the circus. T’s first! It was hectic but it was a hoot.
Scott just sent me this pic. He says that at the moment this picture was taken, I was the happiest he’s ever seen me. I think the plane was about to take off and we were finally going to be on our way home from Ethiopia with T. It may well be the happiest I’ve ever been. I thought I’d share it.
CATTYWAMPUS
Written and directed by Robert Cucuzza
With DJ Mendel, Jillian Lauren and Jenny Greer
Composer: Juli Crockett
Choreographer: Jordana Che Toback
Designers: Dorothy Hoover, Alice Tavener, Ellie Rabinowitz
August 5th at 8:00
August 6th and 7th at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.
Da background n’at:
The housing crisis in America is blurring class distinctions, forcing the rich to scale down and live with less. As wealth is lost, the ‘haves’ teeter on the edge of becoming the ‘have-nots’; the ‘have-nots’ are terrified of becoming the ‘have-nothings’ and many fear becoming the ‘never-have-anything-agains.’ Cattywampus (a middle American slang term for ‘crooked’ or ‘chaotic’) theatricalizes that fear, focusing on a moment where rich and poor both stare into the inescapable void of poverty. Using the characters and dramatic action of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie as a leaping point, playwright/director Robert Cucuzza strips the revolutionary classic play down to its impulsive core, sets it in modern-day Appalachia and reconstitutes its essence to give new illumination to The American Dream—a myth that, within the last three years, has been shattered beyond repair.
Da story:
A wealthy housewife, Julie, and her husband, The Count, are on the verge of losing their once-lucrative car dealership. Fearing that she is about to be catapulted back to her humble beginnings, Julie unhinges and goes on a desperate and paranoid tear—drinking, dancing, then flirting with and sleeping with Donnie, their unsophisticated groundskeeper. Donnie smells an opportunity to unleash lower class revenge on his boss, Julie, and penetrates her—physically first and then psychologically—recklessly convincing her first to run away with him, then to commit suicide.
Da team: (Nawt da Picksburg Stillers, but we’re rilly good anyhoo.)
Cattywampus physicalizes this story through a multi-disciplinary orchestration of distinctly American aesthetics—country-western music, line dancing, backwoods Pennsylvania speech and dialect, and a more-Method-than-Method acting style. The artistic team—veterans of Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the infamous Velvet Hammer burlesque troupe, Mark Morris Dance Company, Fischerspooner, and recent CalArts graduates—will rigorously collaborate to create a singular vision of power struggle; to rise above stereotypes and caricatures and offer up a deeply textured, abstract and heartfelt voice of the American lower class.
CATTYWAMPUS
Written and directed by Robert Cucuzza
With DJ Mendel, Jillian Lauren and Jenny Greer
Composer: Juli Crockett
Choreographer: Jordana Che Toback
Designers: Dorothy Hoover, Alice Tavener, Ellie Rabinowitz
August 5th at 8:00
August 6th and 7th at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.
Da background n’at:
The housing crisis in America is blurring class distinctions, forcing the rich to scale down and live with less. As wealth is lost, the ‘haves’ teeter on the edge of becoming the ‘have-nots’; the ‘have-nots’ are terrified of becoming the ‘have-nothings’ and many fear becoming the ‘never-have-anything-agains.’ Cattywampus (a middle American slang term for ‘crooked’ or ‘chaotic’) theatricalizes that fear, focusing on a moment where rich and poor both stare into the inescapable void of poverty. Using the characters and dramatic action of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie as a leaping point, playwright/director Robert Cucuzza strips the revolutionary classic play down to its impulsive core, sets it in modern-day Appalachia and reconstitutes its essence to give new illumination to The American Dream—a myth that, within the last three years, has been shattered beyond repair.
Da story:
A wealthy housewife, Julie, and her husband, The Count, are on the verge of losing their once-lucrative car dealership. Fearing that she is about to be catapulted back to her humble beginnings, Julie unhinges and goes on a desperate and paranoid tear—drinking, dancing, then flirting with and sleeping with Donnie, their unsophisticated groundskeeper. Donnie smells an opportunity to unleash lower class revenge on his boss, Julie, and penetrates her—physically first and then psychologically—recklessly convincing her first to run away with him, then to commit suicide.
Da team: (Nawt da Picksburg Stillers, but we’re rilly good anyhoo.)
Cattywampus physicalizes this story through a multi-disciplinary orchestration of distinctly American aesthetics—country-western music, line dancing, backwoods Pennsylvania speech and dialect, and a more-Method-than-Method acting style. The artistic team—veterans of Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the infamous Velvet Hammer burlesque troupe, Mark Morris Dance Company, Fischerspooner, and recent CalArts graduates—will rigorously collaborate to create a singular vision of power struggle; to rise above stereotypes and caricatures and offer up a deeply textured, abstract and heartfelt voice of the American lower class.
CATTYWAMPUS
Written and directed by Robert Cucuzza
With DJ Mendel, Jillian Lauren and Jenny Greer
Composer: Juli Crockett
Choreographer: Jordana Che Toback
Designers: Dorothy Hoover, Alice Tavener, Ellie Rabinowitz
August 5th at 8:00
August 6th and 7th at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.
Da background n’at:
The housing crisis in America is blurring class distinctions, forcing the rich to scale down and live with less. As wealth is lost, the ‘haves’ teeter on the edge of becoming the ‘have-nots’; the ‘have-nots’ are terrified of becoming the ‘have-nothings’ and many fear becoming the ‘never-have-anything-agains.’ Cattywampus (a middle American slang term for ‘crooked’ or ‘chaotic’) theatricalizes that fear, focusing on a moment where rich and poor both stare into the inescapable void of poverty. Using the characters and dramatic action of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie as a leaping point, playwright/director Robert Cucuzza strips the revolutionary classic play down to its impulsive core, sets it in modern-day Appalachia and reconstitutes its essence to give new illumination to The American Dream—a myth that, within the last three years, has been shattered beyond repair.
Da story:
A wealthy housewife, Julie, and her husband, The Count, are on the verge of losing their once-lucrative car dealership. Fearing that she is about to be catapulted back to her humble beginnings, Julie unhinges and goes on a desperate and paranoid tear—drinking, dancing, then flirting with and sleeping with Donnie, their unsophisticated groundskeeper. Donnie smells an opportunity to unleash lower class revenge on his boss, Julie, and penetrates her—physically first and then psychologically—recklessly convincing her first to run away with him, then to commit suicide.
Da team: (Nawt da Picksburg Stillers, but we’re rilly good anyhoo.)
Cattywampus physicalizes this story through a multi-disciplinary orchestration of distinctly American aesthetics—country-western music, line dancing, backwoods Pennsylvania speech and dialect, and a more-Method-than-Method acting style. The artistic team—veterans of Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the infamous Velvet Hammer burlesque troupe, Mark Morris Dance Company, Fischerspooner, and recent CalArts graduates—will rigorously collaborate to create a singular vision of power struggle; to rise above stereotypes and caricatures and offer up a deeply textured, abstract and heartfelt voice of the American lower class.
CATTYWAMPUS
Written and directed by Robert Cucuzza
With DJ Mendel, Jillian Lauren and Jenny Greer
Composer: Juli Crockett
Choreographer: Jordana Che Toback
Designers: Dorothy Hoover, Alice Tavener, Ellie Rabinowitz
August 5th at 8:00
August 6th and 7th at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.
Da background n’at:
The housing crisis in America is blurring class distinctions, forcing the rich to scale down and live with less. As wealth is lost, the ‘haves’ teeter on the edge of becoming the ‘have-nots’; the ‘have-nots’ are terrified of becoming the ‘have-nothings’ and many fear becoming the ‘never-have-anything-agains.’ Cattywampus (a middle American slang term for ‘crooked’ or ‘chaotic’) theatricalizes that fear, focusing on a moment where rich and poor both stare into the inescapable void of poverty. Using the characters and dramatic action of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie as a leaping point, playwright/director Robert Cucuzza strips the revolutionary classic play down to its impulsive core, sets it in modern-day Appalachia and reconstitutes its essence to give new illumination to The American Dream—a myth that, within the last three years, has been shattered beyond repair.
Da story:
A wealthy housewife, Julie, and her husband, The Count, are on the verge of losing their once-lucrative car dealership. Fearing that she is about to be catapulted back to her humble beginnings, Julie unhinges and goes on a desperate and paranoid tear—drinking, dancing, then flirting with and sleeping with Donnie, their unsophisticated groundskeeper. Donnie smells an opportunity to unleash lower class revenge on his boss, Julie, and penetrates her—physically first and then psychologically—recklessly convincing her first to run away with him, then to commit suicide.
Da team: (Nawt da Picksburg Stillers, but we’re rilly good anyhoo.)
Cattywampus physicalizes this story through a multi-disciplinary orchestration of distinctly American aesthetics—country-western music, line dancing, backwoods Pennsylvania speech and dialect, and a more-Method-than-Method acting style. The artistic team—veterans of Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the infamous Velvet Hammer burlesque troupe, Mark Morris Dance Company, Fischerspooner, and recent CalArts graduates—will rigorously collaborate to create a singular vision of power struggle; to rise above stereotypes and caricatures and offer up a deeply textured, abstract and heartfelt voice of the American lower class.
CATTYWAMPUS
Written and directed by Robert Cucuzza
With DJ Mendel, Jillian Lauren and Jenny Greer
Composer: Juli Crockett
Choreographer: Jordana Che Toback
Designers: Dorothy Hoover, Alice Tavener, Ellie Rabinowitz
August 5th at 8:00
August 6th and 7th at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.
Da background n’at:
The housing crisis in America is blurring class distinctions, forcing the rich to scale down and live with less. As wealth is lost, the ‘haves’ teeter on the edge of becoming the ‘have-nots’; the ‘have-nots’ are terrified of becoming the ‘have-nothings’ and many fear becoming the ‘never-have-anything-agains.’ Cattywampus (a middle American slang term for ‘crooked’ or ‘chaotic’) theatricalizes that fear, focusing on a moment where rich and poor both stare into the inescapable void of poverty. Using the characters and dramatic action of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie as a leaping point, playwright/director Robert Cucuzza strips the revolutionary classic play down to its impulsive core, sets it in modern-day Appalachia and reconstitutes its essence to give new illumination to The American Dream—a myth that, within the last three years, has been shattered beyond repair.
Da story:
A wealthy housewife, Julie, and her husband, The Count, are on the verge of losing their once-lucrative car dealership. Fearing that she is about to be catapulted back to her humble beginnings, Julie unhinges and goes on a desperate and paranoid tear—drinking, dancing, then flirting with and sleeping with Donnie, their unsophisticated groundskeeper. Donnie smells an opportunity to unleash lower class revenge on his boss, Julie, and penetrates her—physically first and then psychologically—recklessly convincing her first to run away with him, then to commit suicide.
Da team: (Nawt da Picksburg Stillers, but we’re rilly good anyhoo.)
Cattywampus physicalizes this story through a multi-disciplinary orchestration of distinctly American aesthetics—country-western music, line dancing, backwoods Pennsylvania speech and dialect, and a more-Method-than-Method acting style. The artistic team—veterans of Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the infamous Velvet Hammer burlesque troupe, Mark Morris Dance Company, Fischerspooner, and recent CalArts graduates—will rigorously collaborate to create a singular vision of power struggle; to rise above stereotypes and caricatures and offer up a deeply textured, abstract and heartfelt voice of the American lower class.
First of all, I swear I’m going to post new Tariku pics soon. Every time I go a few posts between cute kid pics, I inevitably get the emails that say, “Yeah, yeah, that’s great about your creative endeavors, now can we see more of the real star of this family?”
BUT
I’m way excited about the project I’m doing right now and I want to tell you about it. Robert Cucuzza, the outrageous director of Mother Tongue (I was lucky to have known him for a couple of decades, so he agreed to help me out) has written a new play called Cattywampus and we’re rehearsing fast and furious to get it up at Son of Semele Theater in L.A. on August 5,6, and 7. Cattywampus is a contemporary riff on Strindberg’s Miss Julie and is described as offering: “a deeply textured, abstract and heartfelt voice of the American lower class.”
We’ve got an indiegogo campaign going on right now to make the show truly awesome (and to keep Bob’s kids in peanut butter). There are all kinds of great perks for donating, including a signed advance copy of my novel Pretty. Be the first on your block to have one!
And I’ll do one better. I’m going to do a giveaway here of a fantastic anthology that features an excerpt from my memoir along with stories by Jennifer Tress and David Henry Sterry, among others. If you just go to the indiegogo site and take a look at it (you don’t have to donate, just check it out- it’s funny!), then come back here and leave a comment telling me what city the show is set in, I’ll throw your name into the hat to win a copy of Pinchback Press’ Tarnished: True Tales of Innocence Lost.
I’m overwhelmed and deeply touched by all the love and support of the people who came out to see Mother Tongue this week (and by that of all the well-wishers from afar). The last month has been full of hard work and big laughs and panic and hope, of course, good ol’ fashioned mom-guilt. In the end, I’m truly proud of the show we made. I’m relieved and a little depressed that it’s over. And I’m looking forward to figuring out what’s in store for Mother Tongue in the future.
That last pic is my fantastic team- Ellie Rabinowitz, Hector Machado, Alice Taverner, Jacob Loeb and Robert Cucuzza. Because not even a solo show is a solo endeavor.
Mostly, I’m happy to have a proper weekend to spend with T. And daddy comes home tomorrow! Smack into the middle of “carmageddon” with the L.A. freeway closures. Hopefully we’ll see him before Monday.
Here are some pix from rehearsal.
Mother Tongue opens on Tuesday, which means the last week has been full of total panic, alternating with moments of that glorious, quiet click that you feel when a moment finally falls together on stage.
I have no idea how the show is going to go, but I do know that this has been a wonderful few weeks. I spend my days laughing and bouncing ideas back and forth with a group of really creative and talented folks. Bob’s direction is a revelation and Jacob’s live score is so gorgeous.
It’s a welcome change from sitting at my desk and bouncing ideas off my wall. I’m not giving up the solitary writing life, but it does feel good to alternate it with actual human interaction.
I hope to see some of you there! I promise you won’t be bored.
Tariku’s first time on skates! I like to imagine this video set to the theme song from Xanadu. Watch through to the end to hear some baby profanity.
Seriously, this was the most fun we’ve had together in months, it seems. It was a really connected and special afternoon.
If you’re reading this on a feed, go to my blog to see some serious cuteness.
