biz update!

Here's the regular news: what's goin' on in Maggie Moon's "Professional" Life

-I've been invited to return to Not Back to School Camp this coming August, to teach the "Make a Musical" workshop with my partner Zen Zenith, as last years' effort was such a success. Exciting!

-There's finally some motion on US, and there will most definitely be a reading, or workshop, or several of both happening in California this year.

-I'm going out on auditions again; rather unusual for me, and nice to be acting a bit.

-I just wrapped up a huge costume gig at the Playhouse for their Shetacular. Utter madness, and classic NP fun. 5 nun costumes, 10 Grease jackets, all from scratch in 2 days. Thank heaven for my talented crew girls!

-In LA, I took a writing workshop with Miss Pamela Des Barres, author of I'm With the Band (among many other books!), and a huge personal hero. The workshop absolutely rocked, and it was SO cool to chill in that environment, with other super chill ladies, and write from the heart for four hours. I was allowed in for that one night only due to the generosity of one of Rusty's pals, Nichole, who I imagine will become a much closer friend should I go West this spring.

It was also something of an anniversary gift from Rusty. :)

-There's an inkling of movement on ALLIES again, as well!

-I'm kicking off a collaborative project with Minnie this week, aiming to perform in the Figment festival on Governor's Island this summer. Based on Peter Pan, and highly interactive, it uses 12 actors in a multitude of ways to turn a classic tale inside out, upside down and backwards...

-There's more! I'm just too tired to get to it all. Updates in the daylight.

xo
Maggie Moon

don't cry; mary ann (this is a long one, ya'll)

Hello. I'm feeling mighty bloggy tonight.

Back in the day, I had a livejournal I would pour endless novels worth of ramblings about my own life, while remaining just as prolific with a paper journal, and almost just as personal. Now livejournals have been replaced with photos and 140-character snippets of social networking; I think I've even begun to think in status-update-length vignettes.

Most of the time, when I come to Retroscena, it's for patter about my professional life, or muse about how lucky I am, or how moody I feel. At the moment, I'm feeling moody AND lucky. And very "take the gloves off," regardless of whoever is or isn't reading.

I went to a preview of "The Temperamentals" at New World Stages last night. A friend invited me, it was very enjoyable, the suits were impeccable. Afterwards, we gorged ourselves as a pair of happy carnivores should in the middle of a blizzard in the theater district: at 5 Napkin Burger. We caught up on life in general, old gossip, and the dark cloud of a Man that still hangs over my existence from time to time. It was around Man's grand exit period that I stopped the personal aspect of Retroscena, and while I keep it honest, I try to keep it business.

Man works a lot in the NY Theatre scene. Oddly, the NY Theatre scene is a place I sort of dance around the outskirts of - I think of myself as something of a theatrical bandit. I think I'm about to launch a project WAY beyond my 25 years. I'm sending proposals out left and right and doing all manner of weird performance things as usual. But when I come face to face with real NY Theatre community folk, I recognize that I am definitely an outsider. So, I don't run into Man at all. And we don't speak. So I hear these grapeviney things, and they are like twisty twisty knives in my gut. Because I know he's out there, probably hurting someone else really badly.

Minnie and I had ourselves a decent, if tumultuous time, on semi-intertwining paths in Los Angeles last week. We are planning a potential coast-hop for a long stretch - maybe 3 months, 6 months, or a year. Depending on work of course. One of the not-so-fine features of this journey was Miss Bensky getting EXPERTLY effed-over by a thoughtless young rocker. I feel somewhat personally responsible - I introduced the two of them back in November, having no idea how truly shallow this dude was. Is.

These points connect, I promise. Right here.

I don't think that it's worthwhile to go around spewing your opinion all over the internet. I also don't think that I am going to solve the age-old question of: Why do men cheat? John Patrick Shanley did a whole (awesome) MOVIE on the subject, didn't get to an answer. I think there are a thousand reasons.

I also know that now I am a deeply, almost religious believer in Strict Monogamy. I am not gonna force my belief on anybody else, nor do I think that there aren't people out there in the world making Open Relationships and Sleeping Around and Polygamy work. I'm sure it all works for someone, and makes somebody happy. But I will definitely express my extreme sadness and anger that our world practically promotes infidelity, and that it is absolutely acceptable shrug-off-able behaviour, especially in young men, especially young men in 'glamorous' professions.

Heck, I personally know (and work with!) an actor & a director who are collaborating on a whole film dedicated to an astrological excuse for treating women as disposable. Yeah. Dude can't help himself, cuz of his star sign.

Sleeping with as many people as you can doesn't make you a rock star.

It just makes you prone to VD, and responsible for a lot of hurt feelings.

I am really amazed and inspired by a lot of the love I see spring up around me. So encountering crap like this - that brings the whole realm of my friends that work in music & theatre down to some common Lifetime drama - is super disappointing. And I can't not take it personally. I went to the Neighborhood Playhouse, where we are taught to take everything personally.

This is a cause, my blog-readers, whoever you might be. A big addition to my grand but short list of

Things that Really REALLY Bug Me.
#1: Wasted Talent
#2: Wasted Talent
#3: Hurtful Infidelity
#4: Obstinate Ignorance



Rant concluded.