Okay, so eight playwrights walk into a city...

...and what happens?

Actually what happens is Open City, a project dreamed up by PlayGroup, Portland Center Stage's ongoing playwriting workshop. In short, we all nominated eight locations in Portland, wrote them on paper, tossed the paper into a hat (or a mayonnaise jar...I can't remember), drew our locations, then drew our number of players. And wrote. And it's freakin' cool. (Except my piece.)

The playwrights are: Althea Hukari, Shelly Lipkin, Ellen Margolis, Steve Patterson (I just wandered in from the street, looking for beer), Andrea Stolowitz, Patrick Wohlmut, Nick Zagone, and Matthew B. Zrebski. Matt's directing. The cast is: Deirdre Atkinson, Ben Buckley, Timothy M. Hill, and Lara Kobrin.

It's Monday, February 2, 2009, at 7:30pm at The Gerding Theater, Portland Center Stage at The Armory (that's the big stage, folks). Admission is free. Plus it's the cherry on top of the fabulous Fertile Ground City-Wide Festival of New Works, which means there's a party afterwards. With beer. So wander in.

Expect Moonwalking

Mill Mountain Theatre hangs it up....

Theatre de la Jeune Lune already has. Lack of sufficient funding.

Madison Repertory Theatre says so long...

But don't worry! Broadway plans to do a musical adaptation of Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

S

Updike Dead at 76

John Updike died today at age 76. He wasn't one of my favorite authors, but I had tremendous respect for him and his accomplishments. He came from a generation of authors that now seems a little larger than life, even though his specialty was observing the small gestures and hanging moments that comprise our lives.

S

Why do we stay?

My friend and colleague, Ami Sallee Corley (a superb actress who's played the leads in my plays "Waiting on Sean Flynn" and "Delusion of Darkness" at Tampa's Jobsite Theater), has been invited to begin blogging on the arts for Tampa's Website "Creative Loafing." Her first column asks a question that I think artists in Portland...and in Minneapolis, Seattle, Austin, etc., can identify with, which is: when it's so tough to make a living from your art in your community, why stay?

Why do we stay?

(Possible Answer: It's Tampa. The cigars, of course.)

Next weekend, representatives from the Dramatists Guild are coming to Portland to hold a Playwrights/Theatre Town Hall Meeting, and this may well be a pertinent question to ask, given that they have members in communities across the country and are privy to this dilemma and the many ways artists have found to address it.

Steve

Disappearing Act

This one's for my friends at Portland Center Stage....

Dig this...

Obama's at the parade today...a Hawaiian marching band goes by...and what does our new Hawaiian Shark God do?Mahalo, baby. Even Bill Clinton couldn't pull that one off.

We have met the president, and he is Lono.

Welcome...

...to the 2st Century.