BOOK!

So, Exit Press has published a book containing five plays from the first year of the Olympians Festival- including my play!

“Songs of Hestia” edited by Stuart Bousel and Marissa Skudlarek, will feature an introduction by Skudlarek and five fantastic plays from year one of the festival: “Juno En Victoria” by Stuart Bousel, “Hermes” by Bennett Fisher, “Aphrodite” by Nirmala Nataraj, “Hephaestus and the Golden Robots” by Evelyn Jean Pine, “Demeter’s Daughter” by Claire Rice.

The best part? You can get this book sent to you no matter where you are!

http://www.amazon.com/Songs-Hestia-Francisco-Olympians-Festival/dp/0977468453/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337637619&sr=8-1

Get your copy today!

MERCHANTS

Long-running San Francisco indy theater troupe, No Nude Men Productions, brings you the debut work of exciting new playwright Susan Sobeloff.

"Merchants" tells the story of a performance artist (Maura Halloran) and her finance consultant sister (Ariane Owens), two young women trying to find the modern Holy Grails of financial stability and career satisfaction. As the economy collapses around them one finds herself unemployed and pregnant while the other is suddenly the center of a quickly growing business venture that soon proves to be as unsustainable as it is lucrative. Also staring Tony Cirimele and Trish Tillman, this intimate, intense show is the perfect storm of the problems facing so many Americans today.

Directed by Stuart Bousel, with a design team including Julianne Fawsitt, Linda Huang, Cody Rishell, Wil Turner IV, Joshua Saulpaw, the show plays Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Exit Stage Left, March 1-24. All shows begin at 8 PM.

March 1 & 2: $10.00
March 3, 8 & 15: $15.00
March 9, 10, 16, 17: $20.00
March 22, 23, 24: $25.00

or $20.00 cash at the door (all performances)

tickets can be purchased online at

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/221334

Opening Night Party after March 3rd!

Press inquiries can be made at sfolympians@gmail.com.

OLYMPIANS

In the month of July in 2010, No Nude Men Productions, one of San Francisco’s longest running indy theater troupes, rolled out twelve new full-length plays written by fourteen local writers, each one focusing on one of the twelve Olympian gods of Ancient Greece.

Now the San Francisco Olympians Festival is back, and bigger than before! This year the festival features thirty-two new plays including nine new full lengths, the coll...ective work of twenty-nine local writers! Over the course of twelve nights each play will be given a staged and rehearsed reading at the Exit Theater by some of the best and brightest of the San Francisco acting scene. Additionally, the theater itself will contain an ongoing exhibit of thirty-nine original, themed art pieces being generated for the show’s publicity by twelve local artists. Door prizes themed to each night will round out the evening’s entertainment.

Truly an unusual event, this year’s festival has been themed around the celestial myths and deities, with the planets, constellations and various sky gods as the themes of the evening. Performances run Thursday, Friday and Saturday, October 6-29, 8 PM at the Exit Theater (156 Eddy Street, San Francisco). Admission is $10.00 a night, with a “buy four, get the fifth one free” option (and yes, we had lots of people who saw as many as ten shows last year). Every night is unique and draws a new audience, so reservations are not necessary but more information can be found at www.sfolympians.com.

Additionally, we have an Opening Party at the Café Royale (800 Post Street) at 8 PM on October 1st, with free food, a sneak peak at what shows are happening at the festival, and the unveiling of the this years artwork, which will hang at the Café Royale for the month of October. Food will be provided by Mezes, www.mezessf.com.

The artists whose work is represented are: Christopher Bauman, Molly Benson, Liz Conley, Brett Grunig, Chelsea Harper, Emily C. Martin, Adam Miller, Kelly McClellen, Cody Rishell, Celeste Shulte, Gintah Tran.

The plays, dates and authors are as follows:

Week One (Thursday, Friday, Saturday): STAR-SPANGLED HEROES

October 6: HERACLES AND THE THINGS HE’S KILLEDby Team Thunderbird (Bryce Allemann, Dana Constance, Kathy Hicks, Sang Kim, Kai Morrison), directed by Kai Morrison
The story of Heracles receives a few much-needed corrections from the only man who would know: his twin brother. You knew he had one, right?

October 7: HUNTER AND HUNTED

Orion by Meg Cohen, directed by Claire Rice
Joe "Orion" Ryan is a neo-noir cop drama set in the landscape of gritty
1970s cinema classics, where the men wear moustaches and the women wear
guns.

Canis Major by Claire Rice, directed by Claire Rice
It's the dog days of summer ,and man's best friend is a beat poet.

Scorpio by Seanan Palmero, directed by Claire Rice
Good old fashioned revenge and new age technology clash as Scorpio, an embittered short order cook, and Antares, his smart phone, track Orion through the desert.

October 8: PERSEIAD SHOWER

Perseus by Bryce Duzan, directed by Bryce Duzan
A warrior and a prince fight against royalty, society, and the gods themselves to defend their love for each other.

Andromeda Bound by Helen Noakes, directed by Stuart Bousel
When a hero meets a damsel in distress, bondage takes on a whole new meaning.

Pegasus by Daniel Heath, directed by Stuart Bousel
Pegasus and Bellerophon must defeat the Chimera, but can a legend really die?

Cetus by Kirk Shimano, directed by Stuart Bousel
It’s just your average, ordinary high school reunion for mythical whales.

Cassiopeia by Christian Simonsen, directed by Stuart Bousel
It's not easy being a beautiful queen and a loving mother... so Cassiopeia chose one out of two.

Week Two (Thursday, Friday, Saturday): LORDS OF LIGHT

October 13: Uranus by Evelyn Jean Pine, directed by Rik Lopes
1956. Rock and roll is tearing apart The First Family of Country Music. Mama kinda likes it, but Daddy’s agin it, and the boys are ready to rip everything apart.

October 14: Chronus by Bennett Fisher, directed by Jessica Holt
A play about how we make gods and monsters out of our politicians.

October 15: A DAY IN THE LIGHT OF…

Hyperion to a Saytr by Stuart Bousel, directed by Stuart Bousel
A romantic comedy meditation on status, glamour and identity in post-modern San Francisco where status has become the ultimate goal and lifestyle has very little to do with what’s important in life.

Eos by Kendra Arimoto, directed by Stuart Bousel
True love? Check. Immortality? Check. Eternal Youth? F*@$k.

Nyx by David Duman, directed by Stuart Bousel
Before there was Earth, there was Night. She hasn't left since.

Week Three (Thursday, Friday, Saturday): FAMILY AFFAIRS

October 20: Gemini by Tom Darter, directed by Karen Hogan
An overly ambitious trope on Plautus and The Comedy of Errors: It has three sets of twins! That's right: three! Plus: Zeus (King of the Gods) and Hera (Queen of the Gods)! More fun than humanly possible!

October 21: FALLING STARS

Icarus by Jeremy Cole, directed by Jeremy Cole
In this tale of two Icaruses - one mythical, one actual - the sky is (quite literally) the limit.

Phaethon by Ashley Cowan, directed by Ashley Cowan
Tortured by talent, the reality of time passing, and the need to be forever remembered, steer this story of Phaeton; a one act about a boy trying to find his place among the stars.

Eosphosphorus by Sean Kelly, directed by Claire Rice
Things get explosive when the Night demands Eosphosphorus either stop his tilting at windmills or start looking for a new place to live.

Hard Pack by Lise Catherine Miller, directed by Lise Catherine Miller
The rivalry between partners of a snowplow dealership in the snowy Northeast reaches epic proportions.

Zephyrus by Neil Higgins, directed by Claire Rice
A love triangle and sibling rivalry lurk the halls of a British university with dangerous results.

Hesperus by Claire Rice, directed by Claire Rice
An uneasy peace comes to a breaking point on the boundary between heaven and hell.

October 22: Pleiades by Marissa Skudlarek, directed by Liz Anderson
It's 1971 and the seven daughters of an industry titan are caught between the patriarchal past and the feminist future.

Week Four (Thursday, Friday, Saturday): LADIES OF THE NIGHT

October 27: Selene by Nirmala Nataraj, directed by Amy Clare Tasker
Memories, dreams, premonitions, gods and mortals intersect in a Northern California facility for Alzheimer's patients.

October 28: ORBITING JUPITER
Metis by Maria Leigh, directed by Emlyn Guiney
How does a relationship alter the identity of the individual? How does a cycle get broken and at what cost? Can anything good come from swallowing your wife?”

Io by Christian Simonsen, directed by Emlyn Guiney
What happens to a mortal woman when she reaches an age where legends no longer
have a use for her?

Europa by Claire Rice, directed by Neil Higgins
She's been carried away by the man of her dreams, but who is he by the light of day?

Leda by Kirk Shimano, directed by Neil Higgins
Who knew bestiality could be so educational?

Callisto by Seanan Palmero, directed by Neil Higgins
Artemis and Zeus are treed by an angry bear.

Ganymede by Neil Higgins, directed by Neil Higgins
A Republican Senator and his new aide discover controversial feelings for each other and the senator must choose between his longings and his political ambitions.

Elara and Himalia by Alison Luterman, directed by Emlyn Guiney
When you’re a wife of Zeus your duty isn’t just to him, but his new wife too.

October 29: Hecate by M.R. Fall, directed by Julia Heitner
Question: What do Hecate, Copland's Hoe-Down, a bunch of horse references, and your period have in common? Answer: This play.

The phenomenal acting company includes:

Teresa Attridge, Maggie Ballard, Timothy Beagley, Jerry Blair, Tonyanna Borkovi, Sara Briendel, Megan Briggs, Xanadu Bruggers, Nick Brunner, Kirsten Broadbear, Kat Bushnell, Sarah Rose Butler, Brianna Calabrese, Tony Cirimele, Megan Cohen, Benji Cooper, Robert Cooper, Kevin Copps, Lisa Darter, Tom Darter, Elijah Diamond, Nicholas Dickson, Siobhan Doherty, Julianna Egley, Alisha Ehrlich, Maria Fe Picar, Rachel Ferensowicz, Jeff Fisher, Jennie Gebhardt, Jan Gilbert, Kelley B. Greer, Maro Guevera, Matt Gunnison, Anne Hallinan, Eric Hannan, John Lennon Harrison, Neil Higgins, Dashiell Hillman, Travis Howse, Michelle Jasso, Dan Kurtz, Stewart Kramer, Charles Lewis III, Carl Lucania, Jennifer Lucas, Jan Marsh, Brian Martin, Gabrielle Motarjemi, Kai Morrison, Tonya Narvaez, Meg O'Connor, Karen Offereins, Allison Page, Sunil Patel, Allison Payne, Jason Pienkowski, Keshuv Prasad, Shane Rhodes, Cynthia Roberts, Paul Rodrigues, Stacy Sanders, Sarah Savage, Lauren Spencer, Analisa Svehaug, Brian Thomen, Leota Tisdel Rhodes, Nicholas Trengove, Vahishta Vafadari, Richard Wenzel, Lily Yang

AD

I recently participated in a survey of artistic directors of theater companies, which was kind of cool as it gave me a chance to think about aspects of this life I had never really put into words. So, for what it's worth, here are my answers...

Describe your job. In particular, please list and prioritize your key responsibilities as Artist Director.

My company is very small, so my job probably entails more than the usual Artistic Director. Mostly, I keep the company together. We’re more a confederation than a typical theater company, so the name of the game is “loosely organized”. I pick our projects, negotiate with spaces and venues and set up our schedule. I then appoint directors to helm each project, and over-see them (they are free to pick their own casts, designers, etc.), provide opinions when asked and make myself as available as I can as a resource. The bulk of public relations and marketing tends to also fall into my lap, as do vendor negotiations, event planning and other elements of the production which are not show specific.

What are the primary factors/considerations that go into determining a season for your company?

Every play we decide to do has to run a gamut of questions, namely (1) Why do we need to tell this story and why now? (2) How will this play challenge us? (3) Is this play something we can actually pull off successfully? (4) Have we done this kind of play before and if so, how long ago and has enough time passed to justify us revisiting a genre/theme/style if we’re inclined to do that? We’re always trying to find a balance between offering a consistently good and challenging product, and also never doing the same thing twice in a row.

“The play’s the thing.” Agree? Explain how much of the commercial, artistic and critical success a theatrical production is the play itself verses the contribution of the creative team that stages it.

I think the commercial success of a play is impossible to predict, and when people go about trying to “manufacture a success” they are basically going to shoot themselves in the foot. Doing anything for the money is the wrong reason- you do it for the art, and if that just so happens to make money- fantastic. Generally speaking, I think audiences respond to sincerity and enthusiasm in productions, to good stories told by people who care about those stories. The most successful shows of my career, critically and financially, have almost always been one where I put the artistic values first, the financial concerns second, and picked a team of people who I knew believe in the work that we were doing- whether that was an experimental play or an established hit, a new work or a classic. The people behind a production are what make it worth watching; a good script is very important of course, but it’s just the starting point and ideally the playwright is one more person who is part of that team putting a show together.

What is most valuable and most difficult about collaboration in theatre?

The things which are the best part of collaborating are also often the most difficult: namely managing personalities and finding ways to get so many different people- writers, directors, producers, staff, designers, crew, actors, musicians, dancers, etc.- to work together and to all buy into the project at hand. Watching people break down boundaries between people and bring people together is my favorite thing in the world. But it’s tricky, sometimes, because in order to work in this art form you definitely need some ego- after all, you’re asking people to come watch something you made or help make, and you’re asking them to love it, pay for it and tell everyone else to come see it too. That takes a certain degree of pride and that same pride can sometimes create walls that make it hard to really connect with one another and a good show relies on connection between everyone involved- onstage and off stage. It’s why the theater is infamous for intense, prolific and productive relationships… and also for dramatic falling outs, vindictive grudges and internal politics of Machievellian proportions.

TWELFTH

I know it's been a while. I've been incredibly busy. I'm about to open my third show with Theater in the Woods and as usual it's been an incredible labor of love and exhausting as could be- especially coming after a full spring season. Below I have pasted the full version of my director's note, which will appear in our programs starting with this Saturday's preview. For more information on the production, head to http://www.atmostheatre.com/welcome.html.

The only thing I am going to say about TWELFTH NIGHT is that it's more dangerous than it looks from the outside. Sure, it's not HAMLET, but that's kind of like saying a hippo isn't a great white: true, the later is bigger and more famous for ripping you to shreds, but the former is arguably more treacherous, possibly because fewer see it coming, essentially because they think it's cuddly and adorable. TWELFTH NIGHT surprises us in a way that HAMLET no longer has the ability to do; we know we're supposed to take THAT play seriously, but we haven't collectively agreed to recognize TWELFTH NIGHT as a the little Pandora's box of anxiety and violence that it actually is, and so it can still haunt us, subversively, in way that HAMLET has maybe lost. Our guard is up when we watch HAMLET, but it's down when we watch TWELFTH NIGHT. And while we're busy laughing at it is exactly when it gets us.

I have long maintained that Shakespeare's comedies are darker than his tragedies and I think that is most true here, in Ilyria, a world of pirates, thieves, drunks, liars, incompetents and pretenders, ruled by a pair of good-hearted but ineffectual aristocrats who have both become victims of their own mania: one obsessed with the dead who have abandoned her, the other obsessed with a romantic ideal he can't attain. The sanest person is a wandering musician who speaks almost entirely in riddles and despite being called "fool" never offers much in the way of comic relief- that being the job of the above mentioned drunks, thieves and liars. Into this wild coast Shakespeare sends his twins- compassionate, resourceful Viola, and dashing, loyal Sebastian- who must survive in a strange land without even the comfort of one another to cling to. It's an exciting story, for sure, but it's not a pretty one, and there is an air of despair in the many songs that anchor the play, a bitterness to the love poetry, and an undercurrent of violence and desperation to the comic sub plot about two status jumping servants who declare war on one another. Most markedly there is a fear of magic and yet a yearning for miracles- because people in Ilyria really need them. That's probably why I chose to set our production at the dawn of the New World. Social misfits trying to eek out some small handful of happiness in a hostile environment they really know nothing about is pretty much the one liner I would use if someone asked me to sum up this play, and I remember my American history teacher used much the same wording to describe the first wave of New Englanders.

And yet there is so much joy in TWELFTH NIGHT too, as there must have been for any settler who walked out of their log cabin some spring circa 1700 to find their garden growing at last, or came home one Christmas night to find a long-lost friend waiting at their fire with tales of places inconceivable. I think the human heart, still a formidable frontier itself (and Shakespeare sets his play on a strange coast because he's going to tell us about the strangest parts of our desires), must have been so alive in those days when the woods were still endless, the seas virtually impassable and entertainment restricted to camp songs and heavy drinking. Laughter, often in the face of pain and loss, must have felt so truly medicinal, just as the sun is warmest in those last October days before the frost coats the pumpkins and the nights become long and filled with ghosts. As the fool's final song tells us, the rain is as inevitable to life as aging, failure and hangovers. But then doesn't that make these moments when we sing about it all the more precious and beautiful? Isn't have the fun of drinking knowing you're going to pay for it later so you really do have to enjoy it while you can? If youth is something that will not endure, it probably tastes all the sweeter for that. Embracing the moment is a lesson we need to learn in modern times but something I suspect only real fools didn't comprehend back in such harsh times and places. But that's the trick of TWELFTH NIGHT: everyone is a fool in Ilyria. Well, almost everyone.

What you will. I'm sure I will convince nobody this play isn't a comedy and I hope you laugh enough as you watch it to doubt me. Everything in this story is something we need to laugh at so we don't cry about it. But I'm warning you, this play is full of teeth. This play has jaws that will cleave you straight to the heart. And it runs faster than you do.

BOAX

So, it's BOA time again, or rather has been for two weeks now, and I have a little play called "Speak Roughly" in the festival this year, excellently directed by Kate Jopson. Tonight I get to see the show for the third time (it's actually like its eighth performance but I have been really busy) and do a talk back with the audience. In honor of that, I'm reproducing an interview I did with the festival dramaturge, Ignacio Zulueta. Many thanks, once again and as always, to the amazing Jessica Holt who organized this year's festival and without whom "Speak Roughly" would never have happened.


IGGY: What’s your working relationship with director Kate Jopson of Woman’s Will? How does your collaboration for BOA X compare to your normal playwriting and production process?

STUART: I only met Kate Jopson, at a completely unconnected event at Theater Pub, about a week before I found out she was directing my show for BOA. I had seen her in a Threshold show, but didn't even know she was a director. Woman's Will was started by an alum from my college, Reed, but that's really my only connection to them and I confess I've only seen two of their productions. As far as how this process is different... for me, it's not really. Kate and I met for coffee and she gave me some feedback and asked some questions about why I had made some of the choices I made when building my story and characters. I made two small cuts at her suggestion and put a couple of ideas in her head to mull over after getting a sense of what drew her to the piece and what her take on it would be. As a writer who is also a director, I know how important it is for a director to be given space and freedom to make their own artistic voice heard in a production. You want them to get the piece and you want it respected and well-interpreted, but I believe that if you're going to collaborate you really collaborate and that means, at some point, letting go of the piece as a writer so it can live as a play. Kate and I have communicated a few times over e-mail as she's made her choices about casting and I suspect we'll keep communicating throughout the process but I'm really letting this be her show. I did the same with Claire last year- I only came to two rehearsals- and it worked out brilliantly. It's an exciting moment on opening night to be re-introduced to your own piece.


IGGY: Short plays are the rage nationally – what opportunities will become available to you as a result of producing SPEAK ROUGHLY at BOA?

STUART: BOA itself is an opportunity. And yes, short plays are currently in vogue. I suppose if you're asking what my plans are for SPEAK ROUGHLY after BOA it's pretty much going to depend on whether I feel the show works or not. If it does, I have some ideas of where I'd like to take it next, including making it part of an evening of similarly themed shows, but like all plays I hope it has a life of its own and that other people/companies want to do it. I guess, my answer, is "we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"

IGGY: I recall seeing your play about the disobedient piano last year. How many Bay One Acts have you participated in previously? Who directed and produced, and what has become of the piano scripts and others?

STUART: HOUSEBROKEN was my first time having work performed at BOA. It was directed by Claire Rice, who I designated as No Nude Men's representative at BOA when we decided to be a producing partner last year. Claire was actually offered a number of scripts but she ended up choosing mine because she really liked it and it called to her the strongest out of what she was given. I was actually mildly embarrassed at the time because I felt like it would look like we'd "arranged" the whole thing but when I saw what she did with it and my excellent cast I was so happy it had happened. Since then I have shown the script to a couple of people. There is always talking of turning it into a short film, but it never seems to happen, partly because I'm so busy with other projects that it's hard find time to really push that one. But I'd like to see something done with it. Other than HOUSEBROKEN I was actually in BOA as an actor in 2005. I was in FUTURE OF THE FEMALE, which was directed by Scott McMorrow. That was actually one of the best acting experiences I've ever had in San Francisco. Scott's a good director.

IGGY: BOA X the premiere of this production? What does that mean for SPEAK ROUGHLY in particular and your corpus of work as a writer?

STUART: BOA X will be the first time SPEAK ROUGHLY is performed, outside of a reading context. To me, that means this is the test drive to see if it actually works, or needs more work. As a writer, this marks my 35th time being fully produced. Or 33rd if we don't count the films.

IGGY: Fans of Lewis Caroll, and viewers of the Tim Burton film, will find your cast of characters quite familiar. What’s it like reimagining canonical characters from Victorian children’s literature into a contemporary meditation on intimacy and abandonment?

STUART: Actually, Caroll fans will probably be displeased with my take on his characters- but since I'm not really a Caroll fan, I kind of shrug and say "oh well" to that. I tried to capture the mood and style of Caroll's Wonderland with the patterns of the dialogue and the way the story reveals itself, but the characters probably have more in line with the Burton film, which I see as a fantasy film- and a fairly good one- while Carroll's book is really more absurdism/da-da. The play is largely inspired by having played the frog footman all summer in a production of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, watching Geoffrey Nolan and Karen Offereins as the Duchess and Cook, respectively, and becoming so familiar with the Duchess scene that I couldn't resist the temptation to explore it, especially after Geoff said to me one day, "You know, I don't think this is her first pig baby." I've done a lot of adaptation work over the years and I've really come to understand that you have to make every adaptation your own. One way to do that is to follow those elements of the material that most appeal to you, down a rabbit hole (if you will) to some new place the previous author hadn't gone. For me, the gothic elements of the duchess scene- its frightening pig babies, the violence of the cook, the frog-headed servants, the house in the woods, the dangerous and omniscient cat- were the most intriguing and I built the world of the play out of that. I sort of revamped things so that the Duchess is the new Alice- the part that doesn't fit in to the askew logic of the whole- and thus she really isn't at all the way Caroll envisioned her. Or the way Geoff played her, though I couldn't have written this play without his performance. Interestingly enough, I wrote this play as a birthday present for Karen, who is a big Carroll fan.

IGGY: In three words, not including Lewis Caroll: who or what influenced you during the creation of this play, or inspired you to write it in the first place?

STUART: Geoff. Karen. Despair.

IGGY: In two words: what unforeseen change or collaboration is taking place in your show?

STUART: Sexual Tectonics.

IGGY: Why is a raven like a writing desk, anyway?

STUART: Because Poe wrote on both.

SALON

So, Nicole Gluckstern just published an article today about Theater Salons and performing in people's homes instead of traditional public performances spaces or theaters. It's a really good article (http://www.sfbg.com/pixel_vision/2011/02/09/performant-homing-instinct) and not just because she mentions my own theater company's little living room salons that we've been doing since October of 209.

We get about two lines of the article (and that's about what we deserve) but Nicole and I had exchanged a number of e-mails. Below you can read some of what I told her about what No Nude Men has been up to over the last few years:

Attendance at a NNM salon really varies depending on the time of year and the play chosen. At our first one, which was in October 2009, we read Clive Barker's COLOSSOS and Sherezeda Kent screened her short zombie film- we had probably 40 people at that (I have, thankfully, a massive living room). Since then we've done ten salons, with out next happening on Tuesday, actually (we're readig Synge's PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD) and attendance has ranged from 10 (PERICLES) to 30 (BECKET). Usually it's in the 15-25 range. So far we haven't had to turn any one away- or deny participation on some level to whoever is there.

When we started our salon the objective was to broaden everyone's reading list. We're theater people, so in the end, theater and acting are the forms which interest us the most, though we have read a short story together and there are occasional short films thrown in if they tie in with the play of the evening. We're essentially a book club, but the book is read right there and then with, as one actress once said, "Everyone having to make their choices in that moment." But since everyone is reading along in their own script, everyone can see how they might have done it differently, or the reader may have gotten it wrong. Most importantly, it allows us all to closely watch how an author is laying out their story dramatically. After the reading we usually talk pretty extensively about the play as a group- some plays obviously inspire more disucssion than others. In the end, we started this group to be better actors, writers and directors, looking to the established cannon for what it does right- and what it does wrong.

We also established this salon as a way to interact with each other socially and network, etc. The best thing about a living room performance is there is no audience there to judge YOU- we're all there to have fun, and maybe judge the work we read, but the atmosphere is very supportive and egalitarian. The equity actors hang out with the non-equity actors. The directors and producers of rival theater companies can drop their bullshit and just enjoy one another company. Both before and after the salon there is a lot of shop talk but it's in the fun, comparing notes way, not the borderline aggressive pissing match way. Best of all- the writers who attend can talk openly about another writer's work- without worrying about offending anyone in the room because none of us have written the play in question.

The most challenging thing is finding pieces that have a broad enough scope to let everyone participate. Also, finding people to host, who have a place to host. This can be tough. Theater people are always busy, and most of us can't afford to live without roomates. Luckily, I have one who is pretty tolerant of these things but I also try not to abuse that good relationship.

And yes, I do think more theater companies should cultivate the local scene in ways that are fun and informal- whether that's with a salon, or a drinks night, or a living chess game- which we tried to do once, by the way, and it bombed. Practically no one showed up. All a salon is, is a gathering where people of a discursive and intellectual nature can share ideas, argue and appreciate or depricate something together- but no matter how you look at it, it's a celebration. Artists could use more celebrations, especially ones that bring them together with other artists. I've been in this city for almost a decade and while I love the scene here I also get very frustrated sometimes at how it can just be a bunch of warring fifedoms. And warring over what? We're all in this together and we're all in this because we love it. Even at the top in theater you rarely make a ton of money- most the theater professionals I know have more than one source of income- so while money is important and fame and prestige are nice, in the end, if you're not in this field- or any art- because you love it and you believe in it then I sort of question everything else about you and everything you do. The salons were actually first started in 2006 by one of our long-time company members Cassie Powell and when she started them she called it "Obsessed with a Fairy Tale" because that's kind of what every artist is: obsessed with the fairy tale that not only will you make something magic, but that anyone else will give a shit. Finding ways to unite us in that struggle, no matter what our differences, is pretty essential to keeping art and it's most important byproduct- intellectual and spiritual exploration- alive.