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.

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

a millie

ROCKY was incredible fun. I don't want to go deep into it without the photos available online. There are millions. The magic, the makeup, it must be seen to be believed.

I shall soon return to my reality in NYC. I look forward to the COMPLETION of Paper Planes (finally!), the continued work on Allies, and to one day, hopefully soon, seeing Man when he returneth from Arkansas, where he's been taking care of his Dad. However, I'm sticking round one more night to go roller skating with the Creatures of the Night.

We're pretty tame Creatures. Post-show, we went to a diner. But that's basically what there is to do after 2 AM in K-Town.

I'm very very excited about meeting Linus, the guy who ran lights for the show, who's also a photographer & a filmmaker. His site, which should be featuring some Rocky photos soon, is here. He can crip-walk. (Crypt-walk? Krip-walk? I dunno, I live in El Barrio, but sometimes I'm still just a white girl.) Mostly excited because he's also into the music video thing, and perhaps he can teach me some stuff about it.

more soon

xoxo
M

win/fail/shame

And here we are, in our full freakish glory. Ready to rock. Myself, Riff-Raff, and Columbia. Riff-Raff's traditional nickname amidst this group of people is Cooch, so thusly, it becomes his blog name. I think I'll keep Columbia for the lady.

Life, she is good. And I am a major procrastinator. I have spent the majority of the day, sitting about, being useless, and reflecting on the loveliness of the weekend. It was hardly productive - most of it was spent hangin out with the Castaways, talkin smack and cracking off-color jokes - but it was totally lovely. At Frankie's show in Woodstock, I ran into some faces from the way past - kids I worked with back in the Out of the Nest days, who I miss like the dickens. Miss Anna Rexia among them! O, how my life is lacking in Anna Rexia and the Mon Kee girls! A sigh for times gone by...

The highlight of the weekend, besides Rehearsal in General, had to be the four hours spent at a diner in K-Town, where we took up two booths to eat and blather and play Never Have I Ever. A game whose presence I haven't been graced with since quite some time ago.

Real Theatre benefit is next week. I have my fingers crossed so hard for a decent turn out. We need it. Bad. In these frightening times, making money for the arts is even more tricky than usual. But I believe very strongly in what we've got to offer for 2009, so we must must must achieve something with this event. Just a little something.

with held breath and crossed toes, I remain yours ever,
Maggie

it's just a jump to the left (and then five steps to the right)

I am tres tres fatigue.

Yesterday's 8 hour Rocky rehearsal didn't feel so hard at the time, but boy. After a 5 AM bus ride back to Manhattan, a script drop-off, a creative meeting with the guys at At Hand Theatre Co., and finally getting to my bread job at 1 PM...sitting here, I can feel rehearsal. Especially in my neck. Or maybe that's the weird position I slept in for part of the bus ride. Whatever it is. Time Warping and Hot Patootie-ing all day in spike heels will mess with you. But I'm pretty psyched about it nonetheless.

Tonight is the first informal readthrough of La Machine Infernale. The RTC staff plus a number of actors we don't typically work with (ok, Judy and Metro are 'old hat' I guess, but I love them so...), and Monsieur Jean Cocteau.

EQUUS was phenomenal. I was so excited about it, I bought a mug. Which they claimed was $15 dollars. The charge that showed up on my statement was $20. What the hell? Either way, it's a lot of money for a mug. But that beautiful EQUUS publicity photo is on it, so, oh well.

BOYS' LIFE was fun. Man & I sat right by Michael Grief, the designer, and their assistants, so we got to hear the little whispers of final dress notes throughout the show. It made me feel excellent that there are things that even Michael Grief has to whisper about on final dress.


This week, because I am blessed with awesome people being awesome and generous in my life, I will be seeing ROCK OF AGES (starring Constantine...!) on Thursday. Words cannot describe the joy...!