Thursday, March 31, 2011

Noooooooooo

After I was handicapping the Republican primaries, someone said I sounded like I was talking about baseball. It's just as well baseball season opens today, because this is some depressing stuff, as far as I'm concerned:
In an unusual move, the coveted first debate of the 2012 presidential primary season is being rescheduled. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation announced that it is moving its "Reagan Centennial GOP Presidential Primary Candidates Debate" from May 2 to Sept. 14, 2011.
But where can I find a televised train wreck that is as excruciating as it is pleasurable to watch this Spring?

Oh, wait... never mind.

[CBS News and Meet the Mets, Meet the Mets...]

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

aww...but we like YOU

Did Radiohead totally dis North America back there? This went out this weekend to their subscriber list:



"all good record stores ... and the USA&Canada" -- what is this, 1770?

 (I know we deserve it, but what did Canada ever do to you?)

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

"Diary of a Chorus Girl" -- episode two is live

Episode Two of the Sara Wolkowoitz-directed and -edited series "Diary of a Chorus Girl" is now live. We couldn't be prouder of our Managing Director of Film. Take a look below:



[the YouTube]

Monday, March 28, 2011

your weekly af(sw) update



We've reached a major milestone this week, as we are now 1/8 of the way to our fundraising goal! Thanks to all of our donors for giving -- if you haven't yet, you should join the movement!

All’s Fair (Six Western) is made possible through the generous support of the Puffin Foundation, Centrum, Anonymous, Leonardo Giadone, Andrew Grosso, Becki Heller, Barbara Hohlt, Eunice Inquimboy, Aaron Isquith, Janet Isquith, Steven Leshnower, Esq., Katie McKenna, Jackie Miller, Cristian Ossa, and Laura Rubin.

Donate now!



Conflict of Interest theater company (COItc) is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of COItc may be made payable to Fractured Atlas. The value of various goods or services is variable depending on contribution level. Any contribution above amounts specified on the campaign page is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

the crown aiming at the heart of Lenin. Makes sense.

Decades after its official end, the Cold War continues to yield outstanding drama with high enough stakes (it could have incinerated the world after all) that ended with a damp squib.
Nearly a century ago, Britain was accused of masterminding a failed plot to kill Lenin and overthrow his fledgling Bolshevik regime. The British government dismissed the story as mere Soviet propaganda - but new evidence suggests it might be true.
[BBC News]

when appealing to people's better nature doesn't work...

appeal to their wallets.
Arizona established itself over the past year as the most aggressive state in cracking down on illegal immigrants, gaining so much momentum with its efforts that several other states vowed to follow suit. But now the harsh realities of economics appear to have intruded, and Arizona may be looking to shed the image of hard-line anti-immigration pioneer.

In an abrupt change of course, Arizona lawmakers rejected new anti-immigration measures on Thursday, in what was widely seen as capitulation to pressure from business executives and an admission that the state’s tough stance had resulted in a chilling of the normally robust tourism and convention industry.
Who said the business lobby only works for evil? Apparently, sometimes greed can spur wins for the ethical side as well.

[NYTimes]

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Sara Wolkowitz directs

A note from our managing director of film:
I was recently hired to direct and edit a new webseries. "Diary Of A Chorus Girl" is about Alex Ellis making her broadway debut in "Catch Me if You Can" the new musical opening on broadway in April. There will be 9 more, one premiering every Wednesday.
What are you waiting for? Watch it right now!



[YouTube]

Monday, March 21, 2011

question

As a Western nation engaging in its third concurrent war in a Muslim country -- and clearly leery of any more open-ended engagements -- do we really want to call this "Odyssey"?

something about chickens and roosts

One wishes this was surprising. As it becomes clear that the wave of democratic movements sweeping the Middle East was little more than a narrow window of opportunity, it's equally clear that leaders in the West might be more than a little relieved:
The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has alleged that his country helped finance Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential election campaign. "We funded it and we have all the details and are ready to reveal everything," Saif al-Islam said.
This makes the Economist's chronicle of European leaders' moral equivalency make all the more sense:
IMAGINE your awkward neighbours across the street. You befriended them, drew them into the neighbourhood-watch scheme and even made some nice trades. All of a sudden they are exposed as criminals, or maybe brutes with women enslaved in their basements. Would you feel guilt about your friendship? Remorse about having ignored the telltale signs? Or would you feign outrage, like Captain Renault’s in “Casablanca”: “I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Such are the emotions that Europe’s leaders feel as their friends across the Mediterranean are toppled by long-suffering subjects. True Europe has had little choice in its neighbours. Good relations were a necessity of life, particularly for countries with oil and gas, or those that guarded against terrorists and illegal migrants. Yet some European actions now seem craven indeed. Remember Gordon Brown’s dissimulation about the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan jailed for life in Scotland for his role in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing? Or the sight of Silvio Berlusconi kissing the hand of Muammar Qaddafi? In the grab for a share of Libya’s oil wealth, many others have been stained. Libyan petrodollars, moreover, have found their way into companies and institutions across Europe, from the Juventus football team to the London School of Economics.
Understandable, if still shamefully craven. And no wonder Sarko has been so eager to lead this operation -- beyond just trying to purge the nasty taste of Tunisia's collaborationism -- he's trying to clear his election debt!  [BBC, Economist]

Friday, March 18, 2011

Dancing at Lughnasa -- Next Week

Timothy Roselle in War Crimes
Friend of the company and brilliant lead in War Crimes Tim Roselle is appearing next week in a revival of Dancing at Lughnasa at the Amateur Comedy Club. Information is below; check it out!

Dancing at Lughnasa
by Brian Friel
March 21-27, 2011
Mo-Sa @ 8p
Sa-Su @ 2p
The Amateur Comedy Club
150 East 36th Street

Reservations:
212-414-5172
thesnarksltd@earthlink.net

Thursday, March 17, 2011

why politics matter

Take the time to read this article. It explains in excruciating detail why the closing of Guantanamo Bay matters; why policy decisions taken on the highest level need to be considered for its minutest consequences; and why we thought we were voting for Barack Obama -- so that callous dismissals of stories like this as inevitable collateral damage ("stuff happens") was an inexcusable disregard for the sanctity of universal human rights.
Eight years ago, an [REDACTED] Afghan kid—some say he was [REDACTED] years old, others say he was 12—was grabbed in a Kabul marketplace after a grenade attack on two American soldiers. He was interrogated, [REDACTED], and then taken to Guantánamo. He spent his teenage years there, seven in all, confined in a [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] with the supposed "worst of the worst." But then, thanks ot the superhuman efforts of his defense team and one intense [REDACTED] military lawyer, the government's case against him disintegrated. Now he's back in Afghanistan, free as a badly damaged bird, in a [REDACTED] country he barely recognizes, wondering where you go when you grew up nowhere
[GQ]

your weekly af(sw) update


We kind of buried the lede in our last post, so the news gets its own entry: All's Fair (Six Western) will be offered up as a reading at the 2011 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity in June. Get excited...

[af(sw)]

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

COItc in CT


War Crimes hits the road.

Our offering at the 2010 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity will be revived at Tunxis Community College, Farmington, Connecticut, on April 8-9. In addition, the playwright will be participating in Tunxis' Eighth Annual Writers Festival on April 13. You can read more about the festival here.

[Tunxis]

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Where is Equity?

As Keith Olbermann notes on FOK News Channel, when AFTRA -- "not the most belligerent nor plugged in of outfits" -- is stirred up, you know you've gone too far.

Welp, I've found someone yet milder, Mr. O.

In the Wisconsin conflagration, we have heard from every corner of the union movement in terms of news releases and messages to membership. I haven't heard much from my union, Actors' Equity, but I was able to dredge this up from their website, in the form of an open letter/monologue/diary entry from President Nick Wyman:
I can understand why Governor Walker and thousands of employers around the country would like to get rid of unions. They usually make employees more costly by negotiating salaries and benefits employees wouldn't be able to achieve on their own. They mandate work rules that not infrequently add to the costs of doing business. They limit flexibility by insisting on a say in or approval of changes in working conditions. We unions can be a pain in the butt.

Forgive me, however, if I shed no more than crocodile tears for the poor, put-upon employer. Unions exist to redress what is historically and consistently an imbalance of power between those who hire and those who do the work. We have moved beyond the most egregious abuses of the late 1800's - dehumanizing sweatshops with their if-you-don't-come-in-Sunday,-don't-come-in-Monday attitude - but the constant pressure to improve the bottom line leads to coal mining companies ignoring safety protocols and school districts putting sixty students in a class. The cards are still stacked in favor of management, and that disparity will only get worse as a result of the "Citizens United" ruling giving corporations the ability to give unlimited funds to candidates. Unions are the best and nearly the only
zzzzzzzzzzzz...hmm? Wuzzat?

Are you kidding me? We have the occupation by citizens of a public space for weeks on end, half a state legislature flees across state lines, phone stings where elected officials admit to totalitarian shenanigans, physical altercations between protesters and right-wing media, and the best my union president can do is come kind of mealy-mouthed history essay.

I have more vociferous debates WITH fellow union members ABOUT Equity. A clear existential crisis has galvanized the entire labor movement, and my union parks this shit on their homepage -- without even a red TAKE ACTION label, because, hey who cares about Wisconsin?

Disgraceful.

new podcast episode

A new episode of the COI podcast is ready for download as we continue our series of live podcast recordings: Wendy Merrick Burbank reads various original works.

As always, there are three ways to listen:

(1) Stream the episode below
(2) Visit our podcast page and listen online: conflicttheater.podOmatic.com
(3) iTunes users can click this link



Monday, March 14, 2011

speaking truth to power (from the seat of power)

Dear (Former) State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley: Fucking Good On You.
Debate over the controversial treatment of alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning apparently has cost State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley his job.

[...]

Manning’s treatment since being arrested last May and charged with providing thousands of classified documents – many of them diplomatically embarrassing – has been the subject of considerable debate.

He’s being held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day in a windowless 6-by-12-foot cell, and for a time he was stripped naked at night – due to concerns about the possibility of suicide, according to defense officials.
If only someone with the government was willing to put morals above their career when it came to Guantanamo Bay.

[CS Monitor]

Friday, March 11, 2011

more about Clarence

Sharing because, clearly, we hate our readers:
Congratulations to Lillian McEwen, that woman who was finally able to overcome years of terrible embarrassment about having sex with Clarence Thomas to write a book about it. D.C. Unmasked & Undressed is the title of this newly released memoir, because the people who write tell-all memoirs are weirdly terrible at this part of marketing. Obviously this book should be entitled What Clarence Thomas’ Dick Looks Like and How He Uses It, as that’s the only reason why anyone would buy it.
Want to know exactly how he uses it? Read on.

[Wonkette]

Thursday, March 10, 2011

new podcast episode -- next week


Just in case you're Jonesin' for more, it's on its way. Watch this space -- or, more to the point, this space -- next week for the latest.

And if you haven't listened to the current episode -- Corinthians -- shame on you! Get on that right away...

[the coi podcast]

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

you say potato...

Representative Peter King wants to hold hearings about Un-American Activities Amongst the Mohammedans on these shores. Does the fact that he supported the IRA make him a hypocrite? Maybe
For Representative Peter T. King, as he seizes the national spotlight this week with a hearing on the radicalization of American Muslims, it is the most awkward of résumé entries. Long before he became an outspoken voice in Congress about the threat from terrorism, he was a fervent supporter of a terrorist group, the Irish Republican Army.
But more importantly, as we've pointed out before, the search for domestic enemies gets real messy, and real fanciful, real fast.

[NY Times]

your weekly af(sw) update

The waters keep rising.

Our friends and family keep coming through, helping us build a base of funds to continue our campaign into the fall. Of course, we need you to join up sooner rather than later.

There will be some chances for you to join us before the main event. We are an official selection as a staged reading in the 2011 Planet Connections Theater Festivity, and keep tuned to this space for more details on that and other opportunities for you to rub elbows with our spectacular cast and crew.

In the meantime, toss a couple nickels our way, wont you?

All’s Fair (Six Western) is made possible through the generous support of the Puffin Foundation, Centrum, Anonymous, Leonardo Giadone, Andrew Grosso, Barbara Hohlt, Eunice Inquimboy, Aaron Isquith, Janet Isquith, Steven Leshnower, Esq., Jackie Miller, Cristian Ossa, and Laura Rubin.

Donate now!

Conflict of Interest theater company (COItc) is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of COItc may be made payable to Fractured Atlas. The value of various goods or services is variable depending on contribution level. Any contribution above amounts specified on the campaign page is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.


[af(sw) campaign]

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

TRUTH WILL OUT

As I am sometimes convinced that the powerful without scruples are completely shameless -- here's some heartening news. John Ensign apparently has a grain of shame left:
The decision to be announced in Nevada reverses Mr. Ensign’s stated determination to run again despite an ongoing ethics investigation into his admitted affair with the wife of a former staff member. Mr. Ensign’s parents eventually provided nearly $100,000 to the family of the aide, Doug Hampton, and Mr. Ensign also faced questions about helping with the lobbying career of his one-time chief of staff.
File under This is EXACTLY what it looks like

[NY Times]

Monday, March 7, 2011

your ad here

We're looking for a few good partners.

All's Fair (Six Western) is entering into long-term advertising partnerships for the duration, from now until our Fall 2011 premiere. If your business would like to raise its profile with vibrant, off-Broadway theater audience -- or if you know of a business that is -- drop us a line. We have slots available in our program, website, blog, podcast, as well as on-site academic and business residencies.

(We also do birthday parties.)

[af(sw)]

Thursday, March 3, 2011

your weekly af(sw) update


Let's keep it going, everyone!

Slow but steady wins the race, and our campaign for all's fair (six western) is a tortoise -- which is why the status bar for our graphic is green. (Uh, no. But it sounded good.)

It's early days, so we understand that it's hard to get excited about a project with very little to see. We're working on that; some visual and aural goodies are coming your way. (For now, you can go here, though.)

Come join the party; it's not a party until you get there...

All’s Fair (Six Western) is made possible through the generous support of the Puffin Foundation, Centrum, Anonymous, Leonardo Giadone, Andrew Grosso, Barbara Hohlt, Eunice Inquimboy, Aaron Isquith, Janet Isquith, Steven Leshnower, Esq., Jackie Miller, and Laura Rubin.

Donate now!

Conflict of Interest theater company (COItc) is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of COItc may be made payable to Fractured Atlas. The value of various goods or services is variable depending on contribution level. Any contribution above amounts specified on the campaign page is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.


[All's Fair (Six Western)]

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

your weekly dose of something awesome

I think it's pretty safe to say all our work as a theater company is only trying to replicate this brilliance:



NSFW if your co-workers have any imagination while looking at that monster.

[via Boing Boing]

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

new podcast episode

A new episode of the COI podcast is ready for download as we continue our series of live podcast recordings: Tatiana Gomberg performs Sam Schreiber's "Corinthians."

As always, there are three ways to listen:

(1) Stream the episode below
(2) Visit our podcast page and listen online: conflicttheater.podOmatic.com
(3) iTunes users can click this link