Ya Voté!

It's done.

8:30AM, walked into city hall, down to the basement where a long line was already waiting to be processed by the election folks and get ballots. The line moved quickly and soon I was in my booth with my votin' pen, making my selections.

I voted for the trains because I love trains. Also voted for the gays, the treatment programs, the hospitals, and against the majority of the props.

San Francisco had over twenty propositions of their own. This annoys me. My default is to vote "no" on a proposition especially when i get to letter j and up. I thought we voted for Supervisors or something to legislate for us?

I decided to abstain from the Community College board race.

As I departed, a just-married lesbian couple was taking pictures on the steps of the Rotunda, their two little kids at their legs. C'mon California, don't let me down.

Eastern Travels

Holy goodness, back in SF after a whirlwind

Washington DC -
Woolly Mammoth's boom production is looking good and in full swing. It was a delight to be there for the first 10 days of rehearsal in a room full of good people doing a play about a small room full of a couple people. Very excited to return to see the previews and opening in early November. See it, Capitalists!

What do people in DC do on election day? I want to know.

I departed "The District" (as they call it) and engaged in a whirlwind 36 hours in New York City (I got to take my favorite mode of transportation, the train. Trams are a close second). Majorly hugely profuse apologies for everyone I did not see, which was the majority of my friends. I ran about saying hello to many theater folk (including a 3/4 reunion at Ars Nova of the boom cast and director. Missed you Susan!), had my customary Adam Bock sighting at the Westway (as well as multiple Nicholson/Beck sightings), stayed at a hotel where I'm pretty sure the person in the room next to me was either on a drug bender or dying, and went to Maura Madden's sweetass Crafternoon reading at word books in Greenpoint. Check out the book and it was great to see Maura and Rufus and Erin Bradley as well, three important stops on my "I'm so damn sorry I missed your wedding this summer" tour.

And then it was off to Louisville, Kentucky for some bourbon. Oh and some playwriting. I'm one of six playwrights developing the annual Humana Festival anthology
performed by the Apprentice Acting Company of twenty two supremely talented individuals, and directed by the venerable and unstoppable Sean Daniels. Our theme is "rites of passage." We workshopped, listened to stories, wrote, and engaged in lots of eating and beverages. It was incredibly fun and inspiring and I left extremely energized and ready to write my ass off. Which I have to do in order to survive this fall.

I'm only home for a couple weeks and then it's back out into the rest of the world.

A shout out to the folks up in Seattle who are on the verge of rehearsing boom as well! And Yahoo to the Cleveland Public folks who must beginning soon too. Yeah? YEAH!

actually overheard on a plane yesterday

"just sit tight, there's a lot of money to be made here"
"I want to you run a check on him. Don't go through normal channels. This call never happened. I'll call you back when I'm on a secure line."

Was I sitting next to a spy? A criminal? Or do we have an escaped convict from cliche island?

Hey guys, I'm doing ok!

A few people have told me in recent days that they read this blog to check in on my general well being. I'm doing well, thanks!

Washington DC - highlights so far

(pictured, Kimberly Gilbert (jo), John Vreeke (director) and Aubrey Deeker (jules))

Greetings from the "District" where I have been working with the fine folks at Woolly Mammoth Theatre on their production of boom. I blog to you whilst procrastinating on deciding what to do about the part right after the "I wish I had a Mannequin" line and before the kiss. There are a few other changes in the script since the superawesome Ars Nova production but I won't tell you what they are, mostly because who cares really. The cast and crew are a bunch of fierclely intelligent and talented people.

And I'm enjoying DC as much as I can in my small amounts of free time. Some non-rehearsal highlights:

• Steak Dinner after first rehearsal
• Meeting scientists who worked on the same tropical research station that I worked at for four months back in my pungent youth (That's the San Blas station of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institue). They will all be speaking on a panel after one the performances, which I am sadly not in town for. It is a little gratifying that the only error that I've made in the script scientifically was referring to a scientific name as latin when in fact it is greek.
• Staring at the White House lawn attempting to take self portrait with iPhone
• The falafel I had at the Amsterdam Falafel Shop
• Rediscovering GoLean Crunch as a cereal
• The Tryst Coffee Shop and Adams Morgan neighborhood in general
• The entrance to the Dupont Circle subway (see Zannel pic)
• Accessing the internet less often during economically turbulent times
• being able to use the iPhone's gps feature (iPhone works better in DC than at home imho)
• 
  

Who is this genius?

Washington DC - first images

Should I go upstairs or downstairs?



I think this image shows how hard it is to remember to stick your chin out while taking a cameraphone self portraits.

The best summary of the VP debate I've seen

Thanks to Anne U for posting this on facebook

Three booms in November: DC, Seattle and Cleveland

Yes folks, there may be some big election or economic thing happening but I am super excited about the fact that my play, boom, is getting 3 (3!) productions this fall! Woo! Go go three character post-apocalyptic date plays!

I'm off to DC on Saturday for the first of two trips so I'll be doing some blogging from the road to describe the various processes. Plus be sure to check out my zannel feed on the right there for exciting photos beamed straight to the world thanks to my new unlimited data plan.

OK! Where YOU can see boom:



Washington, DC
presented by Woolly Mammoth Theatre
Directed by John Vreeke
featuring company members Kimberly Gilbert and Sarah Marshall, with Aubrey Deeker
November 3 – November 30, 2008
Tickets and more info

The Woolly blurb
“Sex to change the course of the world…” A grad student’s personal ad lures a randy journalism coed to his subterranean lab, where he studies fish sleep cycles for signs of the apocalypse. Will their “intensely significant coupling” lead to another big bang, or is mankind’s fate in the hands of someone watching from outside the fishbowl?"

(I will be there for performances Nov 5-9)




Seattle, WA
presented by Seattle Repertory Theatre
Directed by Jerry Manning
with Nick Garrison, Gretchen Krich and Chelsey Rives
November 13 – December 14, 2008
Tickets and more info

The Seattle Rep blurb:
A nerdy marine biologist calculates that the end of the world is near and posts an online personals ad, hoping to romance the girl that will help him ensure the survival of the species. But when push comes to shove, saving life on earth on the first date proves to be a bit of a challenge. Exciting new playwright Nachtrieb brings us this funny, slightly warped and ultimately hopeful look at the apocalypse.

(I will be there Nov 13or14ish -19)




Cleveland, OH
presented by Cleveland Public Theatre
November 28 - December 20 2008
Tickets and more info

The CPT blurb:
"Sex to change the course of the world..." In Boom, something is about to explode and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. CPT presents the regional premiere of this exciting work that premiered at Ars Nova in NYC in March 2008. In this hilarious new work, female journalism student Jo answers male marine biologist Jules' casual- encounters ad seeking "intensely significant coupling." She gets stuck in his makeshift lab-turned-shelter and finds herself surrounded by bourbon, fish tanks and a bunch of scary levers. It's the end of the world as we know it and this is the date to end all dates!