November 14, 2012

  • To Do List


    Because a list will always remind of you the stuff you should be doing instead of watching tv.

    1. Finish the staged-reading version of American Triage: MUST do tonight!
    2. Pay bills.
    3. Clean my bathroom and living room.
    4. Start on the NALAC grant application that's due in a month.
    5. Join NALAC.
    6. Join Dramatists Guild: Yes, I know, it's long over due.
    7. Shopping for Christmas.
    8. Decide on whether or not you are cooking a Thanksgiving meal.
    9. Yoga: must, must, must get back into routine so I can deal with all the stress.
    10. Possibly shop for Thanksgiving meal this weekend.
    11. Garden: are we doing that this next year, cause you better buy those bulbs and plant them asap.
    12. Finish those puppets for your sobrinos: at least it will be relaxing to sew.
    13. Write: Should be higher on the list, but this isn't in order of importance.
    14. Find some quiet time to meditate or nap. 
    15. Emails: you have a lot of emails to write and reply to.
    If you find yourself not doing something on this list during your free time. Look at this:



    ...and get back to work.

    -M

November 13, 2012

  • Prepping American Triage

    I'll you'll recall I have a reading of American Triage on November 27th (6:30 pm for those of you in NYC and who are interested) at Repertorio Español. It's the final play to be presented in their 2012 Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Competition Reading Series.

    Last night I was trying to get a staged-reading version of the play prepped to send along to my director. What's a "staged-reading version" of a play? Well, essentially I'm highlighting the stage directions I think should be read aloud. The rest are still in the script to inform performance and direction. I tend to highlight stage directions that set location and begin the scene, important action that they will likely not block or mime. Though I do leave in some action that I figure they may be able to get across in their performances. And of course, it's all up for discussion once my director sees what I'm sending him.

    I was trying to just highlight the script, but realized about 2/3's way in that I'll need to do more than that. I'll have to re-write/adjust some of the stage directions. Which aren't edits I necessarily want to preserve in my final draft of the script, sooooooo hence having a staged-reading version of the play.

    And my deadline is November 15th so I gotta finish this a.s.a.p.

    -M

November 8, 2012

  • Three Directors in Three Days Redux

    A phone call.

    Why did I stay up so late Friday night? Why did I schedule this phone call so early? Why did I schedule anything on the day I was celebrating my birthday--I have so much prepping to do.

    The call was short and sweet. We are on the same page about characters. I'm glad to hear the rewrites I did last year appear to have improved the play. More later…I suppose.

    A video chat.

    Why did I schedule a video chat on the night of the election? Though it was nice to take my mind off the sudden nervousness I was experiencing. I took notes. Lots of notes. There will likely be more video chats as the project moves forward. The chat ends and I turn my attention back to the election results which  means I forget to pour myself a drink.

    A coffee date.

    Actually I had hot cocoa. We sit and talk for an hour and a half. It's great. A getting-to-know-you kind of meeting. We talk theatre. Local. A teeny bit on the national scale. Personal philosophies about collaboration, playwright support. It was great. No. It was fantastic.

    -M

November 2, 2012

  • Three Directors In Three Days

    Albeit, not back to back. Not quite.

    What's all this?

    Well, I have a phone call with director Tlaloc Rivas to discuss my upcoming NYC reading of American Triage at Repertorio Español (as far as I know it's still happening and hasn't been postponed due to Hurricane Sandy).

    Then I have a video chat lined up with another director (I won't say who because details are just congealing) but it has to do with a 2013 reading of Heart Shaped Nebula is a certain windy city. I am really looking forward to that reading.

    Lastly I have a chat/coffee/hang out in person with a director who recently friended (yes, Spell Check I know that's not a real word) me on Facebook just so they could tell me how much they "LOVED" Nebula--which was very nice to hear and the kind of shot in the arm this playwright needed to keep forging ahead.

    Forge on, playwright. Forge on.

    -M

October 24, 2012

  • When You Burn The Candle At Both Ends

    ...you double your chances for getting burned and burned out.

    Perhaps you've noticed. Perhaps the fact I haven't been blogging as regularly as I have in the past may have been an indicator.

    This has been a particularly hard year for me. And we're not at the end of it.

    I know that no artist has an easy go of it, even if you're lucky enough to only concentrate on your writing. But like most artists out there I have a day job so that I can pay my rent, payback college loans, oh and you know I sorta like eating, so there's that.

    Having a 9 to 5 job means I have to use my evenings and weekends for playwriting, as well as do all the other stuff that people still do like laundry, housework, hanging out with friends, working out. Only it feels like I have two full time jobs (yes, playwriting is a full time job).

    This year the 9 to 5 job has been upping the ante with stress. I can't even begin to tell you how overwhelmed and slightly terrified I am at the work lately. But using the word "terrified" should be a big clue.

    Then there's the playwriting. This has been a good year (a reading in Chicago, an upcoming reading in NYC, finished a play, a play got recognized, expanded my network in meaningful ways), but I feel I could do more, need to do more, need to see more movement, momentum.

    Add to all this the emotional tumult that death brings. Twice this year it's crept in and pulled my feet out from under me.

    I am so ready for this year to be over.

    I think that if I can make it through this year, I can endure as a playwright. That is, I won't give up what, at the moment, feels like a Sisyphean task. I love Greek tragedies, but Universe, can we keep them on the stage and out of my life?

    My birthday is this weekend. I almost didn't want to celebrate it and if you know me that's completely out of character. But I will. Not this Saturday (since it's also the default Halloween party night), but the following. And if I could have one birthday wish it would be to turn this corner.

    -M

October 19, 2012

  • Bereft

    in a single moment
    a call on the phone
    the distance seemed at once
    to expand
    as if grief
    could stretch the miles
    further apart
    to make the rooms
    more empty
    to turn
    the sound of crying
    into a wail

October 15, 2012

  • Deadlines, Deadlines Everywhere...


    and not a lick of sleep.


    A wood-engraved illustration by Gustave Doré inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

    There! That's it. I've been riffing off that Coleridge line for years. YEARS. And while I've had some great lines. This is probably my favorite. 

    Okay. Self congratulations aside, the title is accurate. There are deadlines everywhere that I'm trying to meet. Some have snuck up on me, some are the result of procrastination and others are on my radar with a far off deadline. Here they are:
    Phew! As you can see. Lots to do. Plus, I have to get back into a writing groove. I have two plays to write...

    and miles to go before I sleep. Miles to go before I sleep.

    -M

October 8, 2012

  • American Triage: 2012 Met Life Nuestras Voces Finalist


    I've had this news under my hat for a few weeks now. I wanted to have my Storify on American Triage finished so I could link to it here, but it will have to wait. In the mean time...

    Hooray!

    American Triage is my second play (well, it ties for second as I was writing it and Woman on Fire at the same time--something I don't advise doing). It was a commission for Marin Theatre Company way back in 2006. I wrote it in 2007 and it received a workshop production in 2008 at MTC. Since then I did a round of rewrites and East LA Rep down in Los Angeles put on a public reading of the play in the spring of 2011.

    And now American Triage is headed to NYC for a reading on November 27th as part of Repertorio Espanol's Nuestras Voces competition. Director Tlaloc Rivas will be returning to NYC to direct my reading, for which I'm very grateful that he's juggling in teaching schedule to come in and do this for my play.

    In early 2013 they plan to announce the winner, right now there are 9 finalists whose plays will be presented beginning October 23 and ending with mine.

    So if you're in NYC this November and looking for something to do, you can check out one of my early plays. Here's the synopsis:

    Teens Lalo and Fatima struggle to keep their family and faith in tact when their parents are deported after immigration raids sweep through their city. But when Lalo turns to his guardian angel for help he sets into motion events that threaten to further fracture his family.

    More soon,
    M

September 27, 2012

  • The River Bride is Ready

    It's been a little quiet here on the blogging front. Meaning, my blogging hasn't been as regular as usual. Well, it's been plenty stressful at the 9 to 5 job (and it's not about to let up any time soon), on top of which I have lots of irons in the old theatre fire.

    Needless to say I'm sure you've gleaned from recent posts a slightly overwhelmed feeling/theme running through them. In fact, about two weeks ago I fell completely off the face of the world and landed on my futon where I didn't move for about three or so days. I needed that down time.

    Okay, enough preface.

    I'm back. And I'm trying to refocus my energies on a few things: 1) rewrites and writing (two very separate endeavors, but I'm putting them here together); and 2) getting The River Bride out there.

    That's right. The River Bride is ready to send out into the world. It's my first play in a cycle of what I'm calling Grimm Latino Fairy Tales and per my dramaturg possibly her favorite play of all I've written.

    What's it about? Well, en lieu of a synopsis here's a poem I wrote when the play was just an idea first taking root in my mind.

    photos liek this one by Toni Frissell were an early inspiration for me


    Prelude to The River Bride
                            for Kathy Roberts

    In the Amazon time stands still, as if this river wrapped its long body around it and contracted. The only time here is once, once upon a time somewhere between dream, between myth, between the shores of reality and folklore.

    Like all the old ones this fairy tale will end in tears, tears spilling off the edge of a pier. It will end with two sisters, one constrained to land and one to the Amazon's timeless embrace. Two sisters, two sisters and a man fished from June waters just three days before a wedding.


    Reflecting on it now it makes sense that this poem came first, considering that the play is lush with poetic language. And if that poem isn't enough for your inquiring mind, you can learn more about The River Bride here.

    Where am I sending it? Well, I do have a few people/theatres in mind, but am always open to recommendations.

    -M

September 22, 2012

  • F is for Fail

    Kennedy Center President to Latino Organization: 'Go F*ck Yourself.' That was the headline that burned up my Twitter feed Friday afternoon. 

    Long and Short of It
    Felix Sanchez, chairman of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts called John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President Michael Kaiser to discuss the fact that no Latino artists are among the recently announced Kennedy Center Honor recipients. In fact, in the past 35 years only 2 Latino artists have ever received a Kennedy Center Honor.

    "Politico reports, the call didn't go over too well, because Sanchez claims that after hearing his complaints, Kaiser responded in that most Cheney-esque way. "Go fuck yourself," Kaiser said, before hanging up the phone."

    Pause.

    Let that sink in.

    I’m disappointed. Angry, yes that too. Believe me, that was the first emotion I had. But I lead with disappointed for a reason.

    Why?

    Because I expect more from my arts leaders. So should we all.

    Now I don’t expect them to be perfect. People aren’t. But you know what I do expect? I expect those leaders to be willing to engage in dialogue. I expect them to be curious. To be open. To be willing to examine themselves and their institutions.

    And “Go fuck yourself,” is a far cry from that.

    So very far.

    It’s dismissive. It’s rude. It’s unwilling to listen. It’s unwilling to consider alternate perspectives. It shuts down. It excludes. It fails.

    Is this the caliber of leadership that a national arts organization should aspire to?

    -M