Still On The Road -- additional screening

In you case you missed it at Lincoln Center, you have a second chance to catch a screening of COItc director Sara Wolkowitz's film Still on the Road:

Twelve actors bring classical theater to America in The Acting Company’s 37th season. A classical touring ensemble founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley, The Acting Company originated with select individuals from the first graduating class of Julliard’s drama division. Kevin Kline recalls Houseman declaring, “We couldn’t just let them go out and do garbage.” The actors spend seven months on a cramped bus, lose one of their leading men, play 71 roles, and learn to work in spaces that won’t hold their set, all while reconnecting with their passion for performing, receiving praise from the New York Times, and teaching students a new way to look at Shakespeare. Through conversations with Acting Company alums Kevin Kline, Rainn Wilson and Harriet Harris we come to learn that, with the exception of Xbox and Wi-Fi on the bus, not much has changed – and that is just as it should be.

Still on the Road, Sara Wolkowitz, dir. [Q&A to follow screening]
Fri, Jun 3, 2011 - 8:00pm Irvington Town Hall Theater | 85 Main Street | Irvington, New York 10533
General Admission $8.00

[Irvington Theater]

great and puzzling news...

The good news:

Thanks to a radical shift in thinking among independents and Democrats during the past year, for the first time in Gallup Poll tracking a clear majority of Americans now approves of gay marriage.

A new Gallup Poll released this morning finds that this month 53% of Americans say same-sex marriage should be recognized in law as equally valid with traditional male-female marriages.

It's always great to see the populace ahead of its leaders; but with the Strom Thurmonds of equal marriage rights John McCain and Rick Santorum still going strong, we'll probably get federal recognition for same-sex marriage in about thirty years. After all, we found out about Thurmond's mixed-race shame-child a few decades late. How long before we discover Messrs. S & M's secret rentboys?

And speaking of hypocrisy, here's the weird part of the study:

Support for gay marriage is higher among Catholics than Protestants, among the unmarried and among those who attend church less frequently.

Seriously, Catholics: is there anything your leaders say that that you actually follow? Or is the built-in guilt like an invitation to flout church doctrine? Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[ToTT]

Diary of a Chorus Girl -- new episode (finale!)

The season finale is live for the Sara Wolkowitz-directed and -edited web series Diary of a Chorus Girl. Watch below...



[the YouTubes]

Brooklyn Labyrinth in June

This is your weekly reminder that tickets are on sale for Brooklyn Labyrinth, our latest production in the 3rd Annual BoCoCa Arts Festival. More than in productions past, we're eager to get a good sense of our audience ahead of time, so pre-sales are of primary importance. Book 'em now!

[BL @ BPT]

All's Fair (Six Western) reading in June

It's official -- your first peek at our production of All's Fair (Six Western) will come in June 13, when we head back for the third Planet Connections Theatre Festivity.

Monday, June 13 at 2:00PM (90 mins)
The Robert Moss Theatre 440 Lafayette Street New York, NY 10003
440 Lafayette St. [betwn Astor Place / 4th St., across the street from The Public Theater]
Subway: N, R, W, and 6

Some things you can do:

1. 'Like' us on the Festivity Page 
2. Join us for the reading, of course 
3. Join the post-reading talk-back 
4. Donate to the af(sw) campaign for the fall full production

[af(sw) at the PCF]

[af(sw) campaign]

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 & Janet Isquith, M & M Kohlman, Steven Leshnower, Esq., Katie McKenna, Jackie Miller, Cristian Ossa, and Laura Rubin.



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.

atlas judged

It's during moments such as this that I have trouble with what passes for mainstream libertarianism these days.

The newest announced Republican presidential candidate, Ron Paul, wasted no time inserting himself into the international scandal involving the arrest of the head of the International Monetary Fund on sexual assault charges. 

The 12-term Texas Republican representative is no friend of large financial institutions, be it the IMF or the Federal Reserve. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday" 48 hours after announcing his candidacy, Paul sought to paint the removal of Dominique Strauss-Kahn from a departing international flight and his arrest on suspicion of attempted rape of a Manhattan hotel maid as the kinds of high-handed things to be expected of such authorities.  

"These are the kinds of people who are running the IMF," Paul told Chris Wallace, "and we want to turn the world's finances and the control of the money supply [over] to them?"

My problem is quite simple: if you believe that the intervention of the state leads to a subjugation of the capable by the ineffectual, then morality has no place in your world-view. In short, it shouldn't matter whether Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a sexual predator or not, because the institution he heads distorts and usurps the natural order of things.

But if there is a better candidate to run the IMF, then you're not in favor of its abolition -- you're favor of its reform.

You can't say the state is the source of all evil, except in cases where you like the rules or the individuals who happen to be in charge. Libertarianism is an all-or-nothing proposition.

[ToTT]

should have sent a poet

There are no words. No words at all.



This is just outstanding stuff, and there's so much to parse here -- although we know that within the week, Gingrich will give us more -- but a couple things stick out. I'm just not sure what is most striking about two minutes in the abyss.

• Maybe it's the fact that his hair doesn't move, 
• Or that he smiles -- grimaces, really -- at completely inappropriate moments, 
• Or that a 1.4 percent decrease in unemployment -- a statistical margin of error -- is supposed to be significant when he wants it to be, 
• Or that he can claim ownership of economic bona fides while Speaker of the House, and then turn around an claim that "No One Man" can turn everything around, 
• Or that a serial adulterer asserted the need for honest, straightforward talk, 
• Or that there were some nasty veiled threats towards the enemies of whatever he's actually proposing. 

But actually it's none of those things. Nope, not a one. The most striking thing about that video? Definitely the fact that he just uttered a two-minute-long paragraph that consisted of a single sentence. Fantastic.

[Newt.org <-- This is a real thing now.]

new podcast episode

A new episode of the COI podcast is ready for download as we continue our series of live podcast recordings: Jason Andrew Updike performs "The Sausage," a short work by Friedrich Durrenmatt.

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

Diary of a Chorus Girl -- new episode

It's time for the penultimate episode of "Diary of a Chorus Girl," directed and edited by COItc's very own Sara Wolkowitz.

You can watch below:



[the YouTube]

announcing our next production -- Brooklyn Labyrinth

(c) 2011 Eunice Inquimboy

Whatcha doing in June?

Just so you know, we'll be returning to the BoCoCa Arts Festival with three new plays. So ... plan accordingly.

Brooklyn Labyrinth 
These three interwoven narratives, retelling the Minotaur myth with a contemporary voice, show us that monsters are rarely who we expect—and that safety might not be outside the maze looking in, but the other way around...

DUMBO by Kate Kertez
A powerful family uses unusual means to protect their reputation after one of their own does the unspeakable.

Bensonhurst by Isaac Rathbone
Unable to escape the choices from their past, a working class family must survive amidst their own chaos and dysfunction.

Daedalus at the Navy Yards by Sergei Burbank
With salty contemporary language, this reworking of the Minotaur myth is told through the prism of Daedalus’ point of view, and reveals that much of what is received as the truth of the story has, in fact, been distorted over time.

FOUR SHOWS ONLY
Friday, June 17@9:00pm
Sunday, June 19@6:00pm
Monday, June 20@7:00pm
Thursday, June 23@9:00pm
Ceol Irish Pub, 191 Smith Street, Brooklyn
Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door

This is exciting. Brooklyn Labyrinth is a full co-production between COItc and Oracle Theatre Inc. We're also very happy to be back for a third time with the fine folks at the BoCoCa Arts Festival and all the exciting Brooklyn-centric arts work they do. But this year, it's essential this year that you buy your tickets in advance. We need a strong box office showing before we hit the ground to make this show a success. Won't you help?

[Brooklyn Labyrinth Tickets]

Diary of a Chorus Girl -- new episode

Sara Wolkowitz's series, "Diary of a Chorus Girl," continues. Outtakes this episode. Watch below:

[the YouTube]

[af(sw)] Dear potential sponsor:

Hey, temporary Advertising Firm Intern:

Yeah, you. I see you sniffling over your desk there, inconsolable. You came to the big city with big dreams the summer before your senior year in college, and you were going to make your mark. "Watch out, World," you said (to the World), "here I come. TO MARK YOU."

You arrived for your first day at the ad agency of That Guy Who Your Dad Knows at the Country Club, and he brought you back into the cubicle farm, introduced you around. "This is The Intern," TGWYDKatCC said, "show him the ropes this summer."

You realized it should have been a bad sign that he had forgotten you were coming. You should have taken note that he needed some prodding before recalling your father's name correctly.

In your youthful exuberance, you thought it didn't matter, because you were making it happen.


And so now, here you are, sniffling over your thirteen-dollar-lettuce salad, wondering how you're going to eat for the rest of the weak, while front and center in your mind, the minions of the cubicle farms had looked you over, Fresh Meat, and decided the only thing to be done with you was to shove the most disgusting, unappealing, low-paying and impossible account squarely into your lap.

"Only way to learn is by throwing the babe into the deep end of the pool," Tormentor Number 1 (of who knows how many) had said, before clapping your a bit too hard on the shoulder and stalking off, hopefully never to be seen or heard from again.

But here you are, trying to decide how on the Lord's Good Green Earth you're going to sell Dr. Stinkfoot's Rectal Cream and Herpetic Powder.

Fear not, brave soul (and open the salad dressing, it had valuable calories, you'll need those)! Even though you think no one would want to come within fifty yards of that execrable product, you're wrong -- oh, how you're wrong, child!

We do. All's Fair (Six Western) would happily embrace Dr. Stinkfoot's balm and the $7.16 that comes with our endorsement! For another $0.75, the playwright will even work in some product placement.

That sound? Oh, that's the current cast storming out the door, but don't you worry. That was before they heard about the lifetime supply of the stuff you'll offer. They'll be back.

[af(sw)]

questions answered

I started to watch this video, but realized that if the answer wasn't microbial gremlins or extraterrestrial life, I was likely to be disappointed by the answer.

[the Today show. yeah, I know.]

Diary of a Chorus Girl -- new episode

It's two-for-one this week, because we've been remiss in keeping you updated. "Diary of a Chorus Girl," the documentary series directed and edited by COItc's Sara Wolkowitz, continues with episode seven. You can watch below...



[the You Tube]

real estate Rorschach

I try keep this blog well-insulated from my all-abiding interest in baseball -- and compulsive obsession with the Los Angeles (nee Brooklyn) Dodgers -- but sometimes things are too good to keep to myself. Dave Zirin's Edge of Sports blog had an excellent take on MLB's repossession of the LA Dodgers last week that I devoured when it was written, and am only now getting around to sharing:

Two years ago, Michigan's then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm described automakers as "a healthcare provider that happened to make cars." For a generation now, baseball has been a highly leveraged real estate urban development plan in which men happen to play a game.

The unravelling of the Dodgers is equal parts delightful (as they deserve every misery they encounter west of the Rockies) and heartbreaking (if I had couple billion dollars, I'd spent it all on bringing them home).

But Zirin's insight is relevant to the theater industry, because it challenges our perspective on what, exactly, baseball is. One assumes that the incentive for owners is to sell as many tickets and official merchandise as possible -- but in the age of television advertising revenue, this isn't necessarily so. For theater practitioners, it's good to remember that the empty space we need to practice our art can look quite different if you flip the picture on its head -- and we must make sure to make a partnership with those who control space as appealing to them as possible. It's harder than ever to find affordable performance/rehearsal space, and that's a situation that's likely to get worse before it gets better.

The whole thing is worth a read.

 [Edge of Sports]

Diary of a Chorus Girl -- new episode

"Diary of a Chorus Girl," the documentary series directed and edited by COItc's Sara Wolkowitz, continues with episode six. You can watch below...



[the You Tube]

new podcast episode

A new episode of the COI podcast is ready for download as we continue our series of live podcast recordings: James Bentley performs "The Question" by Stanley Ellin.

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