SlowLearner

SUSTAINING

UPDATE: George won't disappear altogether.

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Crap, I'm gonna miss the daily Hunka. For a couple years now, George has been the undisputed heart and soul of the theatrical blogosphere, and it's such a pleasure to see something new on his site every morning. His output has never failed to amaze me. Every morning he basically posts something of a quality that you could hand in to your college professor. For someone like me, who's really not even a blogger at all, this level of energy has always been astounding, and it's hardly surprising that it's not endlessly renewable. God love the guy if he wants to take a break; I couldn't be George for as much as a week.

I haven't always understood the theater that George dreams of and writes about, but I've never felt that I needed to, at least not through reading about it on Superfluities. My plan was just to keep watching George Hunka plays until I figured it out. That's still my plan.

The notion that the failure of his upcoming plays is (as he writes) "certain," is, of course, preposterous, and I'm not going to indulge it. I was there when his last play went up. I watched it with a packed house and then went out to the nearby bar with everyone after it was over. Most of the audience was there. You know what the audience doesn't do when the play sucks? They don't go to the bar afterward. They want to get away from you and your suckiness as fast as possible. If they go to the bar, your show kicked ass.

That's what In Public/In Private did, and George'll do it again. He's sweating it, but I'm not.

It'll be a bummer not to have Superfluities for a while, but I'm fortunate enough to live in the town where George puts on his plays, so I'll just get my fix at the next one. I can wait.

--SlowLearner

MOVIECALS

Yeah, I know, I only write for other websites.

I'm a little scared I might make some musical theater people mad at me with this. I used to get really exhilarated when I was pissing people off, but I'm way more of a doormouse these days and now I just find it traumatizing.

Also, like a dick, I congratulated Jason Grote on getting in New Dramatists but not Sheila Callaghan, who I've even met. Late congratulations from a dick, Sheila!

There's a new Rapid Response Team tonight!

--SlowLearner

GETTIN' NERVOUS

Check it out! Next month I'm in this awesome new play by James Comtois, as the titular character no less. We've been having a lot of fun in rehearsals. It's been an extremely challenging role, but at the same time it's incredibly relaxing to only have to worry about the acting and leave the writing/production concerns to others.

Congratulations to Jason Grote!

Sean demonstrates Air Dramaturgy.

--SlowLearner

STAGE BLOOD

Last month Isaac wondered whether Slate was going to start writing regularly about theater.

Well this is a good start.

Full disclosure: I have written for Slate about theater-related matters and hope to again.

Damn, this article is interesting. This bit in particular has my attention:

Plays can be emotional, intellectual, uplifting, depressing, titillating, romantic, or cathartic. But, as McDonagh's plays helped me realize, rarely are they exciting, thrilling, or scary. Rarely do audiences witness a moment in which a person could either live or die. Such scenes typically take place behind closed doors or are staged as if the outcome is symbolic or inevitable.

(Emphasis mine.)

Let me figure out how to respond. In the meantime, here's the third part of my conversation with James Comtois. Enjoy!

--SlowLearner