Curse the Darkness in the Boston Theater Marathon, May 12

Posted on May 3, 2013 by admin

That’s right, it’s marathon time again!  This year’s Boston Theater Marathon will take place on Sunday, May 12, from noon until 10pm, at the Boston Center for the Arts/Calderwood Pavilion Theatre..  It’ll feature 50 (yep, 50!) ten-minute plays by 50 New England playwrights, produced by 50 different theatre companies.  It’s my very favorite theatrical event of the year.

I’m fortunate to be included yet again–this will mark the 10th time I’ve had a play in the Marathon.  New Rep will produce my short, goofy play, Curse the Darkness.  Bridget O’Leary will direct Robert P. Murphy, Lisa Tucker, Erica Spyres, and one other actor (TBA).  My play will appear in the 3-4pm slot, but take the challenge and come for the entire day.  (I will be on hand to watch all 50 plays.  You can do it, too.  Pack a snack.  Dark chocolate is my secret.)

Not only is this an amazing way to see a huge cross-section of amazing Boston theatre, it’s also a fundraiser for a good cause–the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, which provided grants to members of the theatre community facing unexpected crises and dire needs (floods, fires, medical emergencies, theft, etc.).  So come have a blast and do some good at the same time.

Share
Posted in good news, productions | Leave a comment

Save the date: Distant Neighbors will be read at New Rep on May 19

Posted on April 22, 2013 by admin

My play, Distant Neighbors, will receive its first public reading from New Rep on Sunday, May 19, at 7:30 p.m.  The reading will be part of their New Voices Festival, which will feature readings by me, Peter Floyd, Deirdre Girard, and Alexa Mavromatis, from May 19-22.  All the readings will be in the Black Box Theatre at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, in Watertown.  Admission is free.

Distant Neighbors is a fun space-age love story about a group of suburban neighbors who don’t know each other until an alien spaceship crashes into their backyards.  After its arrival, they get to know each other a lot better, and a lot faster, than they ever expected (or wanted to).

We’ve got a terrific director, Judy Braha, and a fabulous cast lined up:  Ken Baltin, Steve DeMarco, Christine Power, Omar Robinson, and Dakota Sheppard.

I hope you’ll come check it out!

Share
Posted in good news, readings | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Measuring Matthew in Boston International Film Festival tonight!

Posted on April 14, 2013 by admin
Measuring Matthew poster

a small version of the Measuring Matthew poster

Tracy and I will be at the Boston International Film Festival for a screening of Measuring Matthew.  Our director, Gul Moonis, and the producer Jean Shapiro, and some of the actors and production team will be there, too.  We had a blast making this film (though it was a lot of work, too).  I’m psyched to have it in front of my home town on a big screen, even if just for one night.

Measuring Matthew screens at 7:45 pm at the Boston Common.  You can buy tickets ahead of time, through Fandango (I don’t know if these screenings tend to sell out or not).

Share
Posted in good news, productions | Leave a comment

some final reflections on the Fire on Earth production

Posted on March 1, 2013 by admin
1884194_orig

Brett Milanowki and Omar Robinson in Fresh Earth. Photo by Jeff Mosser.

Over on the Fresh Ink blog, I’ve got a post up about my final thoughts on the fantastic production they put together of Fire on Earth.

Here’s the start of it:

It’s been almost two weeks since Fire on Earth closed, and I suppose I’ve recovered from the inevitable slump that follows being in rehearsal for weeks on end and then obsessively attending performances and watching the audience. (And mourning the loss of two shows to Blizzard Nemo. Curses!)

As a playwright, I’m especially interested in the role of audience as the final collaborator in any production, and especially in a world premiere. Everything we do in rehearsal has an air of the theoretical. We can have fun (and believe me, this group of five actors was a lot of fun to be around), and we can experience moments of great intensity, but we have no idea what it adds up to until we’re in front of an audience. It’s only then that the play and performances begin to breathe and fully grow. Every night, the audience was a little different, and thus so was the performance. As the run moved forward, the audience pushed the performances, and the actors developed and led the audiences further into the play. As a writer, part of my job, looking forward to future revisions and productions, is to try to understand, based on the different audiences (I saw the show six times), what this play that we’ve created really is, and how can I keep on shaping it into what it should be.

click here to read the rest:

Share
Posted in productions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Measuring Matthew in Milwaukee

Posted on March 1, 2013 by admin

My short play, Measuring Matthew, opens tonight as part of Milwaukee Rep’s Rep Lab program, featuring short plays directed by their interns and apprentices.    If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll check it out.  Should be a fun evening of theatre (and tickets are only $10).  The short play fest will run through March 4th.

Share
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fire on Earth Opens Friday! (oh, and a cool video about it)

Posted on January 29, 2013 by admin

Yep, Fire on Earth opens this Friday at the Factory Theatre in Boston, produced by Fresh Ink.  Come check it out.  Oh, and check out this cool video that they put together of interviews with folks involved with the show (including me).

Share
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fire on Earth opens soon (and runs Feb 1-16)

Posted on January 20, 2013 by admin

Picture

My play, Fire on Earth, about the men behind the creation of the English Bible, opens February 1 at the Factory Theatre in Boston’s South End.  The show is produced by the fabulous Fresh Ink Theatre and will run from February 1 – 16.  You can get your tickets here.

I am super excited by this production.  I’ve been at most of the rehearsals, and it’s been an absolute joy to work with director Rebecca Bradshaw and our very talented cast (Omar Robinson, Bob Mussett, James Fay, Brett Malinoswki, and Scott Colford).  This is a play about three men whose faith and friendship face the most extreme tests, and I’ve loved watching the real-life friendships grow between everyone involved.

I’ve been working on this play for a super long time, with readings of the early version from Rough and Tumble in Boston, the Lida Project in Denver, and the Cotuit Center for the Arts on Cape Cod, and then developed with most recent version with the Huntington Theatre Company, Rhombus, and Fresh Ink.  Now it’s finally time to see the results of all the development, fully produced, on stage.

Did I mentioned that I’m excited about this one?  I hope you’ll check it out.

(Look for more photos here soon, as we get some promo and production images.)

 

 

Share
Posted in good news, productions | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

My novel, Moving (a life in boxes), is now an ebook!

Posted on January 8, 2013 by admin

cover for MovingMy newest novel, Moving (a life in boxes), has just been released as an ebook.The story is about a married couple, Jed and Lila, who are compulsive movers. For them, moving boxes, packing tape, and open houses are the ultimate aphrodisiacs. They meet on a moving day, Jed proposes on a moving day, and they end up moving 18 times in 18 years. They move for fun, to recover from tragedy, and for new opportunities—until Lila decides she wants them to put down roots, in Boston.  Her decision pushes their marriage to its limits.

This is a novel about a marriage challenged by wanderlust, regular old lust, obsession, infertility and adoption, and race. Really, it’s a book for grown-ups about marriage and what happens when you and the person you married aren’t the same people you were at your wedding.

Moving (a life in boxes) is available from Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble, for $2.99.  (You don’t need to have an e-reader to read the book–at Smashwords you can buy a pdf that you can read on your computer, or you can read Kindle books on your PC with a free app.)

I hope you’ll check it out and help spread the word.  Any actions you take–rating the book on Amazon or Goodreads, reviewing the book on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords, or mentioning it to your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter–will help this book find an audience.  Word-of-mouth from my friends and colleagues will be the single most important factor in the success of this book.

Share
Posted in good news, publications | Leave a comment

Christmas Breaks on the radio

Posted on December 19, 2012 by admin

Playing on Air, Bringing great american short plays to the radio

You can now listen to the radio version of my play, Christmas Breaks, on the Playing on Air site (along with new plays by David Ives and Sheri Wilner)!  The piece has a terrific cast in Zach Appelman, Steven Boyer, and Halley Feiffer.

Back in 2001, Christmas Breaks was my first play to be produced in Boston, thanks to CentaStage, and starred Helen McElwain, Nathaniel McIntyre, and Brian Abascal.  It’s continued to be a popular play and is now published by Playscripts.

Share
Posted in good news, productions | Leave a comment

My Current Juggling Act

Posted on December 4, 2012 by admin
Pat juggling clubs

Juggling takes a lot of focus, whether it's clubs or writing projects.

Now that farming season has ended, my writing season has picked up full speed.  I’ve got a whole bunch of projects that I’m juggling at the moment, as well as upcoming productions.  Here is some of what I’m up to:

  • My latest novel, Moving (A Life in Boxes), will be coming out as an ebook in about two weeks.  I’ve got make sure people know about it and finish getting it proofread and formatted.
  • I’m about to do revisions on the book for a musical (a commissioned work) adaptation of Penny Noyce’s novel, Lost In Lexicon.
  • I just finished a first draft of a new full-length play, Distant Neighbors, and am working on it in Rhombus and in the New Voices @ New Rep program.
  • We start rehearsals for Fire on Earth with Fresh Ink. on Monday, and I’ll be making revisions fairly steadily until we open on February 1 at the Factory Theatre in Boston.
  • I have a couple short plays in the One-Minute Play Festival coming to Boston Playwrights Theatre. Rehearsals start soon, but revisions are quick on short plays.
  • I’m supposed to write a ten-minute play, set in a garden, for production this spring in London by a small company there.  (They performed Pumpkin Patch last year.)
  • If I can clear the decks a little, I’m ready to finish the next draft of an historical novel about Civil War hero Robert Smalls.
  • And I have two short plays in the upcoming New Works Festival at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport (but shouldn’t have to do rewrites on them).

It’s a good thing I’m not farming over the winter.  It seems like a lot of balls to have in the air, but I actually find myself more productive when I’m juggling a lot of projects at once.  It forces me to stay disciplined.  And one thing I’ve learned over my years writing is that I never know which project might suddenly catch fire and find the right people at the right time and have a chance to leap forward to find a larger audience.  Maybe it’ll be one of these.  Maybe it’ll be the next one.  Or the one after that.

And sometimes I miss a ball and they all come crashing down for a while.  But like in juggling, it’s just a matter of picking them back up and starting over.

Pat picking up fallen clubs

Yep, every juggler drops the balls sometimes. There's nothing to do but pick them up and start over.

 

Share
Posted in productions, readings, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment