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

boom boom ka

I'd be biting my nails in anticipation of many things, except I just got them "did" today, and don't care to ruin them.

Packages were mailed off today - to a Dad, a producer, and a rock star. Foxfire stood with me in line at the Post Office and helped me to imbue each package with "good juju." One moment I will never forget about Foxfire as long as I live: when I brought the Axl Rose belt to her apartment on the day of the Allies reading, she wrapped it around her neck in a coil. She then writhed around on her bed, ecstatic smile on her face, cooing about the "good juju" Axl was giving her. Hilarium. The process of good-juju-ing the packages was not as involved (since we were in public), but I feel it was still worthwhile.

Speaking of the Lady Foxfire, check out the totally badass Diva Talk interview she gave for Playbill! It features a mighty sweet shoutout. In fact, it's so sweet, I'm just gonna repost it here:

"I was handed [another] project by my friend Maggie Levin, who is Tony Levin's daughter. Tony Levin is a very famous bass player— he's Peter Gabriel's bass player. I had booked this reading over a year ago to star in this new Peter Gabriel musical, and the funding had dropped out. The writer and I had become really good friends because I had asked her to help me write the Heart musical. Finally I was just like, "Look, I'll produce the reading of your Peter Gabriel musical because it needs to happen because it's really good." So I produced that reading, and it went really, really well. We're actually talking to bigger producers. I'm just a baby producer. I'll do readings and stuff like that and get things going."

Mail and shoutouts aside, she & I got to chill a bit today and talk about new projects, weddings, Rock-Offs and whatnot. All good stuff. 2009 has been a killer year for our collaboration, and I see only good things in the future.

------------

Tomorrow I head off to LA to see Rusty. A much needed visit. We're in the beginning stages of a project that's been on my mind for a number of years; one that's sure to be filled to the brim with rock tunes and explosive epic-ness. And because it's my thang, there're already roles written in for Daisy, Foxfire and Rooney (from Allies!). I'm psyched to have ten days away in which to work on this and other pieces floating in my creative hemisphere. I get kinda bogged down with silliness and time-wasting busywork on the homefront.

Also continuing development with Ryan on "One Angry Dwarf," with Stephen on The Wall, and with Daniel on a bunch of things.

Meeeeeeep. Bedtime.

u got the look

Today's post is sponsored by the Purple One himself.
Not for any particular reason - one should never need a reason for more Prince in one's life.

So, UPDATESKIS.
Last I spoke was still somewhat in the ALLIES-reading aftermath, which resulted in some partying and hobnobbing around NYC as Foxfire's winglady. The advantages? I'm actually paying attention to the clothes I wear - a long overdue step in my Becoming a Grown Up. As a teenager, I was ultraconcerned with clothes...in the sense that I took great pains to be the weirdest/flashiest dressed person in the room. Lots of leopard print, stripes, ripped up fishnets, and white eye makeup. In fact, observe interesting fashion choices Exhibit A - age 17, at Not Back to School Camp in Oregon:


Yeah...I was wearing a pair of tights as a shirt. Not that they look so terrible, but that was like dressing down for me in 02. I wish there were pictures of me during my vinyl-or-neon-or-both-midriff-shirt-period. I had a midriff shirt for every day of the week.

I think I wore that tight-shirt on my first date with Man, actually. I know why it was originally created - Valentine's Day date with Boy, also in 02. We both wore lots of red and saw Chicago. Having a gay boyfriend wouldn't really work for me nowadays, but back then, it was a lot of fun.

Getting back to 2009 - I'm learning to dress nice, on a budget, since ALLIES and US are not, you know, on Broadway or in Vegas or touring internationally. Yet. And I'm finding that my guy friends are strangely more aware of how to dress than I am. Especially, lifesaver of all lifesavers, Mr. Plaid from all plaidout. He helped me out majorly today, so I encourage you...my little base of blog-followers (I know there are a few of you!)...if you haven't already, pay plaidout a visit.

Foxfire and I took a trip to Calli-forn-ya to talk ALLIES with some folks. The talking went quite well; I saw Jeff (who took an old NP reference about taco salad literally and met me at a Mexican restaurant) who looks better than ever, and most significantly, I (re)connected with a friend from the aforementioned Not Back to School Camp - Rusty. And he rocks, in oh so many ways. He is supposedly building a blog for his glamtastic band over the next few days, so I'll link it up once there's an address.


Aussie has joined the creative team for America, and we're FINALLY FINALLY casting that this week - since the playwright (K) got it into the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival. Performance on May 15th, huzzah! Choreopoeming here I come! The piece is also the kickoff artistic event in a larger thing that K is organizing, called The America Project, which will organize and connect all varieties of humanitarians in North & South America.

Expect updates to the Real Theatre website very soon. We're working on an event for the School of Visual Arts in May, right before America happens, and co-producing "Songs for a New World" with Kalish, the amazingly tenacious chick who was our SM for Hair (round 1, at NP).

Til next time,

xoxo
Maggie

review on piercingmetal.com

Man, long time no update!

The ALLIES Concert went so so well. Our friends, family, and plenty of industry came out to support. Amongst them, Ken Pierce of Piercing Metal.com, who wrote an awesome review which you can check out here:

ALLIES Review

OTHER NEWS...

-Foxfire and I are continuing our work with ALLIES, and working on new collaborations and old ones as well. Which leads me to the following news item...

-There is also finally some movement on Peter Gabriel's US - I've just begun to set up for a private reading of the script in the spring, and should be meeting with Monsieur Lepage in April to discuss.

-I'm currently casting a reading (readings readings readings!) for America. Dates to follow.

-Just finished casting a video for my bread job at Orphmedia. This will be the first industrial script I've written, ever. And also the first non-youtube video I've completely production-managed. I'm proud of myself, cuz the team assembled is pretty killer.

-My life is one big MEETING, interspersed with hours of online research and web design.

on the road home

Well, it's been two days, and though I thought I'd be living a somewhat Heart-free existence, I can't seem to get those Wilson sister-tunes outta my head. Perhaps it was because Ms. Carvajal, Mr. Rooney & Mr. Hall sang the bejeezus out of them on Monday night. Maybe it's because "Cardiac Arrest," lead by our musical director Paul Leschen, played each one to absolute perfection.

Maybe it's because Heart songs just make me happy.

Foxfire (is it silly to keep on using her blog-alias when everyone knows it's Celina? eh, for funsies, I'll keep up the name-game) is off in the mountains, taking a load off after the tremendous task of producing the reading. When she gets back, I should have clearer news about the future of ALLIES. For now, I am content having been a creative participant in one of the most fun, kick-ass collaborations I will probably ever experience.

Thank you to everyone that came to see the reading! I was delighted to see you all!

Much love,
Maggie

ALLIES Press!

The press release for ALLIES went out this Friday! Check us out on:

•Variety
•Playbill
•Broadway World
•Theatre Mania

And if you haven't already, please visit the ALLIES site to reserve tix for our concert reading!


P.S. For you oldtime blog followers (all 3 of you), what most amuses me about the press release is the synopsis (which I wrote myself), featuring the full name of the character I named after Numbers...'seductive,' and 'secretive' ol' Numbers...sounds more like Swank, actually.

grounds for divorce

The Rock of Ages Set. From the THIRD time I saw this show. How is it that I've seen this show 3 times? Everytime the Castaway kids come into NYC, they wanna see this hairbandy bit of ridiculous. But I keep going with. Cuz I like them. And now, I'm afraid the thing has grown on me, somewhat.

It's only 6 days deep into January, and lemme tell ya, what I've seen of 2009...is fantastic!

I heart 2009.

Firstly, an ALLIES update: please check out Allies the Musical.com, and reserve your seats now for our concert reading at the Zipper! The script is totally revamped and pure rock n' roll melodrama. I'm sure in the process of developing this thing, it'll go through a million other incarnations, but after this last draft, I feel like we're reading to kick it out in front of a live audience.

I am so grateful for Foxfire for bringing me on the project, and trusting me with her brainchild. I've never written as part of a team before, and it's been an altogether wonderful experience thus far.


Later on this month comes the NBR Award dinner, another Baby Bear shoot, Infernal Machine-ing; Later on this week comes an outing to the midnight madness Rocky Horror Picture Show (haven't been to one in ages!), possible Fuerzabruta, a Young Playwrights reception (haven't been to YPI in ages either!)...and who knows what else. Exciting times.

Plus, Obama! Obama! Obama!

Yeah, the economy sucks. Life's tough. But I'm in the mood to say yes, and to accept every invitation. To be boldly optimistic, and stop letting the weight of the world prevent artmaking. So half of Broadway's gone dark. So what. I'll do a show in my living room.

between love and hate

I had a weekend.

Such a weekend.

I've been ruminating and renovating my life, as well as repainting everything the color of a purple My Little Pony. Mom and I shuffled all the stuff around and now this place looks...well...very different. All that's left to do is walk around with a smudge stick, and I may have the aura of Man fully removed from my living space.

Love is such a strange experience. I am grateful to the universe for teaching me what it has, so far, about the L-Word, and I am grateful to whatever gene I got that allows me to fall so hard. I like feeling like I've dropped from a deathly height into a puddle. I'm still a little shocked that Man and I are DONE DONE and DONE. One expects that after a hard fall and a six year journey together, that it will not end in such an ugly, common fashion. But hey, it's all been real interesting. And I wish him major well-ness.


Back to the regularly scheduled Fledgling Director news. Which does relate to above item, regarding Love.

First off, Allies is coming along very well. First official table read is coming up December 2nd, and I will meet these lovely actors Foxfire speaks so highly of. Prior to that, I've invited Sessoms, Jive and Nelly over on Wednesday for an unofficial table read so I won't be unpleasantly shocked by anything read aloud in December. I had enough nasty moments during the table readings of US - realizing some deep, heartfelt monologue in your head sounds like absolute crap in the mouth of a great actor...well...sucks.

Saw a reading at the Lark last night with Stormy. It is definitely reading season - last week, Marty from At Hand hosted a reading of his show (which I can't help but call "School Shooting - The Musical!" in my head, but in truth, is title-less at the moment), then upcoming there's the Allies reading, Sessoms' play reading, the America reading (more on that later)....it's a readathon, folks. This reading was part of a Mexican playwright exchange thing, and the play itself was kinda like The Wire on the water (as Stormy's fella put it) or a Tarantino movie in boats. Afterwards, there was catch-up, good food and margaritas with Stormy & the entire production. Good times.

I carried on from there to meet up with Boss, and carried on...and carried on...until some ungodly hour.


I must speak of 'America' - this choreopoem I was given by a playwright named Kim Yaged. This woman is absolutely awesome, and I love this piece like I haven't loved a new work maybe...ever. It might be a years-and-years undertaking, but awesome. Bring it.


And since I haven't yet posted, please check out The Good Idea Gang in Paper Planes!

all grown ups are pirates

Where have I been?

I don't know.

Life's been a little on the topsy turvy side.

But what you should know, dearest blog readers (do I have those? I'm not even sure.), is that ALLIES is set for a concert reading at the Zipper on January 26th, 2009! Wicked exciting.

Also on the horizon - costumes for Firebird at Talent Unlimited, another show at Norman Thomas. Lots of readings and stuff for RTC, although that definitely requires some extra assembly. Every night this week, I'm at a reading or a meeting or a discussion about a new show. Exciting, but I'm ready to be out of Phase One. Done talkin. Let's DO somethin.

xoxo
M

how do we ever keep this secret?

ROCK N' ROLL!

Just finished the last scene in the "Allies" script. I sent the magical Foxfire a copy of Act I. I hear the ticking of the clock/I'm lying here, the room's pitch dark..

So, with every just finished comes a just started:

Just started putting together a readthrough for La Machine Infernale.


Times is tough. It's a fight to stay rockin and rollin. So fight on, and fear not, my bloggy friends.

i've been working on a cocktail

Standoff with Bugs.
Hour 4.
Have killed one nasty hairy spindly water-centipede I found in Brother's room.

Have not killed any of 3 Roaches (or perhaps the same one, swapping locations throughout the evening to fuck with me), coming out and staring at me and twitching their antennae and looking generally huge and shiny and horrible.

WHY. WHY WHY WHY. Because I live in New York, yes, that's why. But really, my house is decently clean. Sometimes the dishes linger, but it's certainly not grounds for infestation.

I blame the new neighbors below. The bugs no longer have a big empty apartment to scuttle about in, so tonight, they're checking out the penthouse.



My pest problem aside, I am actually working on some projects worth a mention, since this is supposedly a blog about directing. On the directing front, Baby Bear Productions is a scant 2.5 weeks away from the Paper Planes shoot. On the writing front, been plugging away at the Heart show w/ Ms. Foxfire (met her at the US auditions; she's slated to play Brooke whenever that gets-a-goin again). On the design front, I'm doing costumes for a show called "What a Life," with a company I've never worked with before - and THAT is always exciting! And on the (GASP) acting front, I'm actually reading something aloud with MORE people that I've never worked with before. My friend Kindred (who brought me to a lovely goth-trash-rock show and encourages me to co-write letters to Guillermo del Toro with him) invited me and Daisy and some other folk to read a new play aloud next Friday.

And Gorey Stories co-author Stephen Currens dropped me a line last week, asking about the RTC production! I told him we've postponed, so we'll be meeting for a drink & discuss when he visits NYC in October.

Just putting this into the blagosphere, as a wish, since I've sent the letter (gloriously translated by Daisy's stepmom) to Pierre Bergè, asking for permission to perform it: La Machine Infernale.