tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355965633709393432024-03-25T07:06:08.591-07:00ATTACK OF THE THEATER PERSONMarc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.comBlogger527125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-78577430875288602742012-05-09T10:43:00.002-07:002012-05-09T10:43:31.303-07:00Etiquette for an Apocalypse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-THszifwMPxo/T6qq8rpfluI/AAAAAAAACIo/lq3_j5wAuIk/s1600/apoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-THszifwMPxo/T6qq8rpfluI/AAAAAAAACIo/lq3_j5wAuIk/s320/apoc.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
I want to highly recommend ordering Anne Mendel's <i>Etiquette for an Apocalypse </i>when it comes out May 18th (it'll be on Amazon and at your local bookstore). Anne's book concerns a family living in 2020, after the world has ended. It's full of warmth, humor, wisdom, and practical survival tips (seriously!). You'll be missing out if you don't pick it up.Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-736818197056275822012-04-25T14:44:00.002-07:002012-04-25T14:45:02.000-07:00Matter of Life or Death<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Even though it's been pointed out to me that bison are herbivores, I still stand by my thesis here. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://theatrewashington.org/content/matter-life-or-death">An essay on why theatre matters. </a></span>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-11164975481003510072012-03-14T14:44:00.001-07:002012-03-14T14:46:56.508-07:00More Coverage for 'Room'<span style="font-style: normal; font-family: verdana; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium; "></span>"The most alluring feature of <i>A Room with a View</i> is that, despite the obvious issues of morality, it never takes itself too seriously. Italians are painted as passionately indecent creatures who see and feel everything for what it is. This is a reality that George can accept willingly but not Lucy, at least at first, and certainly not Charlotte or Reverend Mr. Beeber (Edward Staudenmayer), but it is a fact of nature, a culturally primal element that will slowly have its effect on these British folk, who will soon be forced to come to terms with transformation in their daily living."<br /><br /><a href="http://losangeles.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-Reviews-Old-Globe-San-Diegos-A-ROOM-WITH-A-VIEW-is-an-Elegant-Theatre-Experience-20120313">Read More</a><span style="font-style: normal; font-family: verdana; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium; "><a href="http://losangeles.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-Reviews-Old-Globe-San-Diegos-A-ROOM-WITH-A-VIEW-is-an-Elegant-Theatre-Experience-20120313#ixzz1p87zVFqq"></a></span>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-53608032107877267272012-03-11T16:14:00.003-07:002012-03-11T16:29:06.667-07:00"Globe's charming 'Room' musical a sweeping, funny romance"<span style="font-style: normal; "><span>Th lead up to the premiere has made me too exhausted - physically, emotionally, intellectually (sexually...) - to give a proper run down of the show myself, but some other people did. </span></span><div><br />From <i>UT San Diego</i>: </div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span><br />"Witty writing, appealing actors, a gorgeous and well-orchestrated score: “A Room With a View” has just about the full monty (and that’s not even counting the naked dudes who plunge into a pool onstage)."</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span><a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/mar/11/play-review-room-is-beautifully-turned-out/">Read more. </a></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div>From <i>North County Times</i>:<br /><br />"Many of the novel's best lines and scenes have made it into the script and score, with each well-developed character given a moment to shine. Schwartz finds comic and poetic ways to emphasize the story's clashes of culture, class, faith and generation. And Judtih Dolan's gorgeous period costumes reflect the restrictiveness and freedom the characters taste at different points of the story."<div style="font-style: normal; "><b id="internal-source-marker_0.6525605251081288" style="font-family: Times; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span></b></div></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span><a href="http://www.nctimes.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/theatre/theater-review-globe-s-charming-room-musical-a-sweeping-funny/article_e9e43683-fc17-5869-a0c3-1f11646dced2.html">Read more. </a></span></span></div>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-4917785291986314682012-03-07T05:42:00.006-08:002012-03-07T05:45:23.998-08:00'Room,' a first view<div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">A glimpse of the upcoming '<a href="http://www.theoldglobe.org/pressphotos/Room_with_a_View.html">Room with a View</a>':</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xbEDeu2t04o/T1dmMXehQ3I/AAAAAAAACIg/osMMmdYCz7Y/s1600/Room19_web.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 286px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xbEDeu2t04o/T1dmMXehQ3I/AAAAAAAACIg/osMMmdYCz7Y/s400/Room19_web.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717150614616621938" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d8dbqMv4PwU/T1dmI7BAh2I/AAAAAAAACIU/hsqjaCy2hlQ/s1600/Room24_web.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d8dbqMv4PwU/T1dmI7BAh2I/AAAAAAAACIU/hsqjaCy2hlQ/s400/Room24_web.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717150555437041506" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0HVFSk31Yy8/T1dmEZsaaeI/AAAAAAAACII/ze4iIYfJIh4/s1600/Room27_web.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 286px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0HVFSk31Yy8/T1dmEZsaaeI/AAAAAAAACII/ze4iIYfJIh4/s400/Room27_web.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717150477772810722" /></a><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.theoldglobe.org/pressphotos/Room_with_a_View.html">See more here. </a><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div></div>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-86241945732797041242012-02-29T13:03:00.003-08:002012-02-29T13:14:06.616-08:00Power Players and Premieres<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span></span></span><span>My latest guilty pleasure is this list of <a href="http://www.broadwayspotted.com/broadways-50-most-powerful-people-2012/5/">Broadway's 50 Most Powerful People</a> that Broadway Spotted put together. It's like high school all over again, except I actually find it, like, fun. I think it's unfair, though, that they declared the #1 spot a tie (Philip J. Smith and Robert E. Wankel). I suggest a fight to the death.<br /><br /></span><div>I was happy see Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the producers of <i>Smash,</i> get "honorable mention." Incidentally, <a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/28/theater-preview-musical-sealed-with-a-yes/?page=1#article">James Herbert recently compared</a> the path my very own <i>Room With a View</i> took to the stage with <i>Smash</i>. I think one difference is our creative team isn't sleeping with the entire cast.<br /><br /></div><div><span><span>I don't know if we'll have a smash in San Diego, but with actors actually skinny-dipping in real water onstage, we'll certainly make a splash.</span></span><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "></span></div></div>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-48650287191091044712012-02-28T12:26:00.003-08:002012-02-28T12:40:45.891-08:00Helen Hayes Nomination<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_fcecYM3ekw/T007aoYp30I/AAAAAAAACHw/eCLVfYsWn3I/s1600/birdsofafeatherfeature.jpg" style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 223px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_fcecYM3ekw/T007aoYp30I/AAAAAAAACHw/eCLVfYsWn3I/s400/birdsofafeatherfeature.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714288830906490690" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Birds of a Feather, my gay penguin play, has been nominated for </span><a href="http://theatrewashington.org/content/2012-helen-hayes-awards-nominees#C25" style="font-size: 100%; ">Best New Play</a><span style="font-size: 100%; "> by </span><a href="http://theatrewashington.org/content/helen-hayes-awards-events" style="font-size: 100%; ">the Helen Hayes Awards</a><span style="font-size: 100%; ">. I'd like to extend a warm thanks to the four immensely talented actors--Dan Crane, Matt Dewberry, Eric Messner, and Jjana Valentiner--who really brought this play alive at </span><a href="http://www.thehubtheatre.org/" style="font-size: 100%; ">the Hub</a><span style="font-size: 100%; ">.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">Incidentally, Pale Male, the red-tailed hawk who is one focus of the play, recently suffered a tragedy. <a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/pale-males-mate-lima-is-found-dead-in-central-park/">His mate, Lima, was found dead in Central Park</a>. The working theory is that she ate a rat that had eaten poison. I suspect fowl play. </div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--EAmUrc_O8o/T007oLJTYBI/AAAAAAAACH8/ItSbGQ6oWb0/s400/29lima-cityroom-blog480.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714289063575642130" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px; " /></div><div><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div></div>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-69624264007203537562012-02-27T17:16:00.007-08:002012-02-27T17:48:30.519-08:00Stage Write<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ocwnJ8sKSco/T0wtSwySPDI/AAAAAAAACHk/u1SONlebr98/s1600/stage.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 297px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ocwnJ8sKSco/T0wtSwySPDI/AAAAAAAACHk/u1SONlebr98/s400/stage.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713991827583024178" /></a><br /><span>So I have to put in a brief plug for my friend Jeff Whiting's new iPad app <a href="http://stagewritesoftware.com/About-Us.html">Stage Write.</a> </span><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>No so much because I'm a good friend--I don't pretend to be--but because Stage Write is pretty nifty. It's like a modular diorama inside your iPad; you can block out entire productions with number lines, grid lines, etc. </span><span style="font-size: 100%; ">It's super useful, basically, and those who work in theater will all be using it soon</span><span style="font-size: 100%; ">.</span></div> <div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>So, congrats, Jeff--and I'm sorry about New Year's party, I didn't realize he was with you. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-16419583908339939242012-02-22T14:42:00.001-08:002012-02-22T14:44:41.229-08:00Two Bobs: No Waiting<span ><span style="font-size: 100%;">A rave review in <a href="http://www.cabaretscenes.org/cabaret_reviews/2012/jan12/englehardt_malone_1-12.html">Cabaret Scenes</a> for the wonderful <a href="http://www.coldfoot.net/Amy/">Amy Engelhardt</a>, my collaborator on <a href="http://bastardjones.com/">Bastard Jones</a>. </span></span><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; ">From the review: </div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "><span><br />As Amy Engelhardt was ending her set at The Duplex (the first half of a show she was sharing with Bob Malone), a cabaret performer sitting next to me grabbed my pen and scribbled on my notepad, “She’s amazing!,” with a very large exclamation point for emphasis. She wasn’t influencing my review because I had already come to that conclusion a few songs before. Later, as Malone was banging out yet another awesome piano riff during his set, I leaned over to my cabaret friend and whispered, “This guy’s terrific,” with a very large exclamation point in my voice. </span></span><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "><span><a href="http://www.cabaretscenes.org/cabaret_reviews/2012/jan12/englehardt_malone_1-12.html">Read the full review here. </a></span></span></div>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-37433430291921951582012-02-17T15:05:00.000-08:002012-02-17T15:16:59.679-08:00'Room' in the News<div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><b><a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/16/room-went-zoom-to-the-globe/">'ROOM' WENT 'ZOOM' TO THE GLOBE</a></b></div><div style="font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; "><b style="font-family: Times; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><br /></span></b></div><b id="internal-source-marker_0.46784323174506426" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">World-premiere musical's creators marvel at how fast show has developed</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Written by James Hebert</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">On the NBC-TV show "Smash," a new musical seems to go from the germ of an idea to a full-fledged production in the blink of a Broadway producer's eye.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">In real life, "musicals can be in development for five years, 10 years sometimes," points out Scott Schwartz, a seasoned stage director who has worked frequently at the Old Globe.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">One exception: "A Room With a View," the musical adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel that Schwartz is directing at the Globe right now...</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/16/room-went-zoom-to-the-globe/">READ MORE</a></span><br /><a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/16/room-went-zoom-to-the-globe/"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span></a><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">...</span></b>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-72452382404866078542012-02-13T12:42:00.000-08:002012-02-13T13:12:55.256-08:00Commencement Address at Whidbey Writers Workshop<span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%;">In 1812, the year Charles Dickens was born, 66 novels were published in England. In the US in 2011, 30,000 novels were published. </span></span><div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "><br />Why bother writing? </div><div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; ">Here's the commencement address I gave recently at the Whidbey Writers Workshop <span style="font-size: 100%; ">graduation. I try to answer that question, as best I can.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b id="internal-source-marker_0.23706406517885625" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Thank you, Wayne. After that introduction, I can hardly wait to hear what I have to say.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">I learned in Keynote Speechifying 101 that one should commence a commencement speech by thanking the distinguished faculty, who are distinguished primarily by the fact they are wearing silly hats and dresses. Speaking of, is it just me or does this gown make me look fat? Because I think it makes a little hippy.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Next I’m supposed to acknowledge you, the students – of Hogwarts, all of the people on the board, all of the bored people, honorable guests, dishonorable guests, and all creatures big and small that crawl upon the earth.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Like all of you, I’m a storyteller. So I’m going to tell you a story. A true story, except for some of the facts, which I made up – because I write fiction – otherwise known as lies. Like Wikipedia and Fox News, I don’t have to verify my facts. Or, as my Italian ancestors would say, “Si non e vero, e ben trovato.” Which essentially means “If ain’t true, it should be.”</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">This is a story about storytelling: where it came from, where it went and where it’s going.</span></b></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">In the beginning, there was the word, and the word was with God. That’s the first lie. In the beginning, the word was more likely “Ow!” or “ “Look out for that wooly mammoth.” Or perhaps “Who farted?” or “Is it all the way in?”</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Then a lot of stuff and things happened. Storytelling was mostly oral, except when it wasn’t. Because somebody said, “Y’know, Sophocles, that thing about Oedipus and his mother – that’s hilarious – you ought to write that down.” Or, “I hate to tell you Matthew, but Mark, Luke and John beat you to it.”</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">More stuff and things happened and then Gutenberg invented the printing press, which changed the world and left him bankrupt, which is true. Gutenberg’s invention began the first Information Age, and prevented a lot of Bible-scribing monks from getting carpal tunnel. So that was good, right?</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-weight: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Sort of. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">On the one hand, the easy dissemination of information accelerated major social change. For instance, Martin Luther was able to canvas the doors of churches with his </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">95 Theses</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">, giving rise to the Protestant Reformation and, as you know, forever ridding the Catholic Church of corruption. The printing press allowed Thomas Paine to help bring democracy to the world with </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Common Sense</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">, </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Rights of Man</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> and </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Age of Reason</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">, the latter causing him to be shunned and ostracized. Only six people came to his funeral, but because of the printing press, we have this account:</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Even those who loved their enemies hated him…with all their hearts. On the 8th of June, 1809, death came – Death, almost his only friend. At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead – on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head – and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude – constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Bummer, huh?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Another downside to democracy and revolution was that it hastened the end to noble patronage of the arts. Because it’s hard to patronize the arts when your head’s been cut off. The system of artists being supported by royalty gave way to a new system of artists being supported by royalties. But it took a century for that new system to take hold, particularly in the young United States, which was </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">notorious for copyright infringement.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">By way of example, as late as 1878 Gilbert and Sullivan’s </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">HMS Pinafore </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">scored such a sensation that more than fifty unauthorized productions of the operetta were produced across the US, with eight versions playing simultaneously within five blocks of one another in New York City alone. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">From these </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">pirated</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> productions, Gilbert and Sullivan received exactly bupkus, inspiring them to write their next operetta, </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Pirates of Penzance. </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">That’s totally true, and I can verify it because I wrote an article about it for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">But with the advent of 20th century, copyright law straightened things out more or less and thus began a golden period of American literature: a time of editors who sat at their writers’ elbows and actually edited, of leisurely three-martini lunches, of novelists being culturally relevant (well, white male novelists) and of short stories being published in magazines that ordinary people actually read. Everyone and their Uncle Harry didn’t seem to think they could write or publish a book, so it was largely left to the pros.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">It didn’t last.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">You see, another revolution was also happening, begun by perhaps the most culturally influential novelist of the 20th, century – anyone want to guess – here’s a hint – she’s not a dead white male – woman by the name of Ayn Rand, whose cinder-block sized book </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Atlas Shrugged</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> has become the manifesto of the right-wing, despite reading like an interminable three-way between Nietzsche, L. Ron Hubbard and Judith Krantz. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Rand’s theories, let me give you the Twitter version: She also wrote a book called </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Virtue of Selfishness.</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> ‘Nuff said.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">So </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Atlas Shrugged</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> gave rise to an economic philosophy of profit-by-any-cost, which gave us Ronald Reagan and the world in which we now live, where the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are now considered people. I would say that Tom Paine is rolling over in his grave, but his remains were exhumed and then lost. What it does mean is that the term Supreme Court Justice is an oxymoron. Or just plain moron.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">It also means that writer Paddy Chayevsky nailed it. In the 1976 movie </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Network</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">, he not only predicted the birth of reality television, he laid out the rise of the corporatocracy. “There is no America,” he wrote. “There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.”</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">So books became big business. Corporate chain stores gobbled up independent booksellers while corporate media empires gobbled up imprints. Luckily, nobody knew what they were doing, so some fledgling writers received absurd six-figure advances for ideas scrawled on cocktail napkins. It’s always been hard for writers to make a living, but here was a brief, shining moment when they could </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">make a killing.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">And then came the internet, or, as I like to call it, the blabosphere. So now everyone including your Uncle Harry is a publisher competing for attention, if only with a photo essay on his gall bladder operation. We are living not so much in an Information Age—as an Age of Too Much Information. And we writers now find ourselves at a time not unlike the 18th century, when writers got stuck between royalty and royalties. Like the writers of that period, we find ourselves with one business model disappearing while the other one is still being created. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">No one’s quite sure how to make money right now, or even what it means to publish. And anyone who says they do is guessing.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Consider this—25 years ago I had a personal computer the size of a dorm fridge, with either amber or green letters, with a dot matrix printer that churned like the old mill down at the crik. When I studied abroad I communicated on tissue-thin air mail stationary to keep the cost down with the occasional phone call from an American Express office.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Today, I could reach into my pocket right now and see live streaming video of naked people all over the world. Twenty-five years from now I’ll probably be able to summon their life-size holograms right next to me.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The model for traditional publishing was that a handful of huge bestsellers were able to offset the losses of newer or more niche material. That entire business model hangs in the balance, particularly as J.K. Rowling prepares to start her own media content company. If big-name authors follow her example and cut out their publishers entirely, the industry as we know it is over.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">But that is not necessarily a bad thing for writers. The internet has also democratized content, making it possible for independent content providers to eliminate all those pesky middle men.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">So far, success with independent publishing has been about speed and volume. The best-selling e-books tend to be genre books, particularly romance, thriller and erotica and, to a lesser degree, sci-if, fantasy and YA. Stand-alone literary fiction is lagging, but that was true of traditional publishing, as well.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The readers downloading e-books read one and want another right away. The books are cheap – sometimes as little as 99 cents – so readers are willing to take a risk in a way they won’t for a book printed on paper. As a result, quality can definitely suffer. Take for instance the work of John Locke—not the philosopher—but the John Locke who is the first self-published author to sell a million downloads on Kindle and only the eighth author in history to do so. His writing is so insufferably juvenile it makes Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series look like </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Illiad</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Currently, independent books do not qualify for awards, nor will they be reviewed by the traditional media. Even if they do a print-on-demand print run, bricks and mortar bookstores will not carry them. Of course, with the demise of Borders, the future of the bricks and mortar bookstore is an open question, as is the future of the traditional media.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Moreover, without a publisher you will need to do the work of a publisher yourself, hustling your book through social networking relentlessly without seeming like you’re hustling because that’s considered bad online manners. In addition to being your own PR department, you’ll also need to oversee the creation of an eye-catching cover, which must look fantastic the size of a postage stamp.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-weight: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">If this all sounds like an incredible amount of work it’s because it is. So what’s the upside?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">For starters, you cut out the agony of waiting to get published and the soul-killing rejection that comes with it. You’re empowered, in the driver’s seat of your own destiny. The endeavor can be satisfyingly entrepreneurial. I say can because I have yet to try it myself, though I am considering it.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-weight: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The publishing of my two books were two distinct experiences. Some of you may know the Cinderella story of how I got my start—how Chuck Palahniuk recommended me to his agent who recommended me to his editor, who bought my book in two days. Two weeks later I had a six-figure movie deal. This almost never happens, but it happened to me. When the book came out, I had my picture in People Magazine the week of my 20th high school reunion.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-weight: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">My sophomore effort, which I think is a better book, was like a tree falling in the forest. I guess since it was printed on paper, it was several trees.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">As a result, the third book in my series got orphaned during the downsizing of the aptly named Random House. I still haven’t decided what route I personally want to follow. I’m not interested in getting on the hamster wheel of cranking out low-quality novels. And neither I nor the marketplace have yet figured out how to sell thoughtful, well-written fiction. So I don’t have an answer for you on how to navigate this not-so-brave new world. All I can say is that I advise to do as I’m doing and stay up-to-date on the trends and innovations in the publishing industry, which is changing monthly.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-weight: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Personally, I’ve turned to writing for the theater, but not because I’ve grown disenchanted with publishing, but because I had a midlife crisis and decided to reinvent myself. After being a writer of books about musicals, I seem to be finding a place as a book writer of musicals.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">If there’s anything you remember from this speech, I’d like you to remember what I’m about to tell you. That as you attempt to monetize your educational investment, as you seek an audience for your work, ask yourselves some simple but profound questions:</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">- <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>What matters most to you? What gets you up in the morning and keeps you awake at night?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">- <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>What would you do if you won the lottery?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">- <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>What would you do if you knew you had a year to live?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">- <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>What would you do if you weren’t afraid?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Now write about that. Don’t just write what you know, write what you really know. Write what you want to know. Write what you want others to know.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">I’d like to explain why I’m saying this by doing a little math. You see, one of the many advantages of the Too Much Information Age is you can research such arcane trivia as the bestseller lists of the last 110 years.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">So I know that of the 95 novels that made the top ten list between the years of 1900 and 1910 (because 5 of them repeated), I recognized just seven titles. They are:</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Virginian, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Clansman, The House of Mirth, The Jungle</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> and something called </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">which I only knew because it was made into a W.C. Fields movie. I’ll mention here that I only recognized the names of three of the authors—Conan Doyle, Edith Wharton and Upton Sinclair, a point that’ll be clear in a moment.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Let’s compare those figures with the 94 books on the Top 10 Bestseller list a hundred years later between 2000 and 2010 (because six repeated). Of those 94 books, I recognized 13 titles. Nearly twice as many as a hundred years later, but still a surprisingly small percentage. That’s because on the bestseller list, the author is the brand. Remember what Bill Dietrich said last night about his name being bigger than the title? Those 94 books were written by just 32 authors, of whom I’d heard of 28. By comparison, of the 66 authors on the bestseller list between 1900 and 1910, I’d only heard of the three I mentioned earlier, plus four more, one of whom didn’t count because it was Winston Churchill. Which just goes to show you you never know where your writing career may lead.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-weight: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Okay, being literary types, math isn’t probably your strong suit, but let’s compare these bestseller lists to the Modern Library’s list of 100 best novels of the 20th century. According to the Modern Library, the Top Ten are: </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Ulysses, The Great Gatsby, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Lolita, Brave New World, The Sound and the Fury, Catch-22, Darkness at Noon, Sons and Lovers</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">and </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Grapes of Wrath</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Now here’s the thing – of those ten, only one made the bestseller list in their day—</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Grapes of Wrath</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">My point—if it isn’t self-evident—is that there seems to be an inverse relationship between what sells and what lasts. And one of the beauties of the internet is that a book can never go out of print if it was never in print to begin with. So personally, I look at those numbers and I say to myself, “Self, write for posterity. Write everything like it’s the last thing you’ll ever write. Then work like mad to get someone to read it.”</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">I’ll be honest, my writing career pretty much died with the recession, my income dropping to 25% of what I’d been averaging, and much of that from teaching. But I never saw my career as completely dead—rather I envisioned my career as passed out on the bathroom floor, resting its head awhile on the cool porcelain before summoning the fortitude to rise again.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Since then, I’ve been pleased to say there have been some encouraging signs of life. This year I moved to New York and prepared a presentation of a musical adaptation of</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">A Room with View</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">. In attendance was theatre legend Hal Prince, who directed many of Stephen Sondheim’s original musicals, as well as </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Phantom of the Opera</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">. And in a moment I will never forget—and which felt very similar to the moment I met Chuck Palahniuk—he took me in both hands and told the work was superb.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">That very afternoon, the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, one of the major incubators of Broadway musicals, committed on the spot to a million dollar mainstage production this coming season of a show that’s not even done yet. This almost never happens, but it happened to me. And it restored my belief in what’s possible—with persistence.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">And now I will say the most cherished words of any graduation speech: In conclusion…</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-weight: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Let me tell you one last story. It occurred the first time I came up to Whidbey. I was on the ferry. Being summer, the day was cold and gray, Puget Sound was unsound, cresting silver and rocking the boat. So I was the only idiot outside on deck enjoying the rough, temperamental beauty that is the Pacific Northwest.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">As the ferry lurched, I turned and saw I’d been joined by a kid of about sixteen–all floppy hair and skinny limbs–his face alive with wonder as he gazed into the wind.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Pretty astonishing,” I said, gesturing to the elements.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">He nodded.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“This your first crossing?” I asked.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“No, I do it all the time,” he said. “I live on Whidbey.”</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">In an instant, I liked this kid, because I saw that he was the kind of person who takes the time to notice something spectacular on a routine journey. I glanced down and noted that he was carrying a copy of </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Great Gatsby</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> in his arms. Which, I hasten to remind you, did not make the bestseller list in its day. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“How are you liking Gatsby?” I asked.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“I love it,” he said, smiling. Sincere.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Why?” I asked, being pedagogical. “What do you love about it?”</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">He didn’t hesitate. “Fitzgerald’s descriptions are so vivid. There’s this scene where two windows are open and a breeze blows through and he describes the women on the couch as being buoyed up. It’s amazing.”</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Later that night, I found the passage online and read it. Here it is:</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">We walked through a high hallway into a bright rose-coloured space, fragiley bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up towards the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-coloured rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The only stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The kid was right. It is amazing.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">He and I talked of books for a few minutes more–about Huck Finn, Holden Caufield and Lenny and the rabbits. “After reading </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Of Mice and Men</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">,” he said, “I can’t look at a single soft thing without </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">thinking of poor Lenny. “ He said he loved </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Old Man and the Sea </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">and tried to read </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Ulysses</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Ulysses</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">! This kid is a junior in high school. On an island in Puget Sound. In what has been described to me as a substandard school system.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">We parted as the boat continued to, in the words of Fitzgerald, “beat ceaselessly against the current.” And whenever I feel discouraged because I’m afraid I’m misunderstood or inadequate or, worst of all, </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">irrelevant – I remember this island and that kid.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">And I write for him.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: normal; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: 10.5pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; "><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";color:#34444C"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment--></div>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-71878280223084150052012-02-09T13:23:00.000-08:002012-02-09T17:00:16.388-08:00Submissions Only<div><p class="p1" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">Can't get enough of SMASH? Check out my other total guilty geeky musical theater pleasure from the delightfully warped minds of Kate Weatherhead and Andrew Keenan Bolger - SUBMISSIONS ONLY.</p> <p class="p2" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">SUBMISSIONS ONLY is to SMASH what an understudy is to a star - every bit as good and really bitter about it.</p> <p class="p2" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">Favorite moments are the reading of an insipid new musical - which is, sadly, no exaggeration of many navel-gazing shows about nothing. Check out "A Trip to D'Agostino's" in Episode 3, Season 1, starting at 14:00:</p> <p class="p2"><a href="http://broadwayworld.com/videoplay.php?colid=265100">Watch here.</a> </p> <p class="p1" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">and the brilliant Michael Urie and Kristen Johnson at the start of Episode 5, Season Two:</p></div><div><div><a href="http://broadwayworld.com/videoplay.php?colid=334889">Watch here. </a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div></div>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-47791250558546719622012-02-06T19:00:00.000-08:002012-02-06T19:05:31.100-08:00'Room' on the NAMT blog<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E51fM7yqgAY/TzCUUvCXhEI/AAAAAAAACHA/OrEJhdNqhis/s1600/room250x200_02.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E51fM7yqgAY/TzCUUvCXhEI/AAAAAAAACHA/OrEJhdNqhis/s400/room250x200_02.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706223811823109186" /></a>Eric Louie was just <a href="http://namtblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-work-in-progress-room-with-view-at.html">interviewed by the National Alliance for Musical Theater</a>. He calls the book for 'Room with a View' "witty and sophisticated." I'm grateful for his kind words and support. <div><br /></div><div><a href="http://namtblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-work-in-progress-room-with-view-at.html">Read More</a></div>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-56021155110509626682011-11-24T08:22:00.001-08:002011-11-24T08:22:30.768-08:00<a href="http://ping.fm/p/vVmuW"><img src="http://pingfmmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/img/YrVPvY8g/QrmvRIMt1EqhAaKg.jpg" width="300" alt="The view from underneath." /></a><br />The view from underneath.Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-54527863983610744542011-11-24T07:50:00.001-08:002011-11-24T07:50:27.386-08:00<a href="http://ping.fm/p/QzRpi"><img src="http://pingfmmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/img/YrVPvY8g/jimyFFwi8NiuPqc1.jpg" width="300" alt="Our balloon "pilot" - who walked two and a half miles backwards" /></a><br />Our balloon "pilot" - who walked two and a half miles backwardsMarc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-74110877834671935052011-11-24T04:36:00.001-08:002011-11-24T04:36:32.573-08:00I guess that's why his pants are square.Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-30245336045673555192011-11-24T04:34:00.001-08:002011-11-24T04:34:52.821-08:00<a href="http://ping.fm/p/KDNWt"><img src="http://pingfmmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/img/YrVPvY8g/l0hkBKdGa9qzRsAb.jpg" width="300" alt="Guess which part of sponge bob this is?" /></a><br />Guess which part of sponge bob this is?Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-77170756880919920102011-11-24T03:53:00.001-08:002011-11-24T03:53:38.719-08:00In the macy's parade, that is.Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-39432411781047447852011-11-24T03:46:00.001-08:002011-11-24T03:46:49.395-08:00<a href="http://ping.fm/p/yfg5a"><img src="http://pingfmmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/img/YrVPvY8g/KgTAcgGyyOCz9NKE.jpg" width="300" alt="Suited up and ready to march under sponge bob" /></a><br />Suited up and ready to march under sponge bobMarc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-83608763295205699512011-11-22T13:45:00.001-08:002011-11-22T13:45:24.220-08:00Geeking out to the cast album of Follies on NPR - <a href="http://ping.fm/qFrUP">http://ping.fm/qFrUP</a>Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-22107926164106538472011-11-14T06:51:00.001-08:002011-11-14T17:15:29.811-08:00A Room with a ViewTwo years ago today was the last day of my mother's life. I was performing a tiny role in Philip Glass's <i>Orphee</i> at Portland Opera - the role of the Glazier, the first dead soul Orpheus meets when he enters the underworld. The set was two parallel apartments. I left the show, went back to my mother's apartment, where I was staying in the parallel apartment next door, then slept on the floor next to her as she drifted in and out of wherever it is you go when you die. She fell into a coma that morning.<div>
<br /></div><div>At the same time I was buying an apartment in NYC with my father, our main goal being to have a view. In yet another life is stranger than fiction situation, the apartment I was buying looked remarkably like the one in <i>Orphee.</i> Stranger still, Glass's opera casts Orpheus as a mid-career writer in New York.</div><div>
<br />
<br />Fiction:
<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_2Au00VqsTw/TsEs_OAIboI/AAAAAAAACGE/agNCIsMQBsQ/s1600/orphee-glimmerglassjpg-8b4825ed3a832d76.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_2Au00VqsTw/TsEs_OAIboI/AAAAAAAACGE/agNCIsMQBsQ/s400/orphee-glimmerglassjpg-8b4825ed3a832d76.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674866470065565314" /></a>
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<br />Life:
<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cl9cknezQvs/TsEtP45nMdI/AAAAAAAACGQ/fxQfxmQumnI/s1600/1156246.9212051.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 206px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cl9cknezQvs/TsEtP45nMdI/AAAAAAAACGQ/fxQfxmQumnI/s400/1156246.9212051.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674866756458852818" /></a>
<br /></div><div>Two years later I'm in a new apartment, my father having bought us out of that other one, but we still have a view.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hpCY7Vium_8/TsEwAfZALPI/AAAAAAAACGo/8Bgr8eNA3Pw/s1600/IMAG0135.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hpCY7Vium_8/TsEwAfZALPI/AAAAAAAACGo/8Bgr8eNA3Pw/s400/IMAG0135.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674869790448037106" /></a>
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<br />And, in the ain't-life-strange-department today is the first day of auditions for my first musical, premiering this spring at the Old Globe in San Diego:</div><div>
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aUxMNpFQPdM/TsG9F9xriEI/AAAAAAAACG0/DOw-NCiw148/s1600/room650w.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 292px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aUxMNpFQPdM/TsG9F9xriEI/AAAAAAAACG0/DOw-NCiw148/s400/room650w.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5675024915643467842" /></a>
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<br />Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-11242294262747570572011-11-13T17:04:00.001-08:002011-11-13T17:04:23.636-08:00Note: is using your middle name or initial a requirement for success on broadway?Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-62950051957789431672011-11-13T17:02:00.001-08:002011-11-13T17:02:36.803-08:00<a href="http://ping.fm/p/wHc0J"><img src="http://pingfmmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/img/YrVPvY8g/AhYnI8vZSn7h2UPu.jpg" width="300" alt="Panel discussion including samuel l. jackson, douglas carter beane, david henry hwang." /></a><br />Panel discussion including samuel l. jackson, douglas carter beane, david henry hwang.Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-61280732392134337912011-11-12T11:50:00.001-08:002011-11-12T11:50:14.277-08:00<a href="http://ping.fm/p/L5Hc4"><img src="http://pingfmmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/img/YrVPvY8g/BK1dC8MaxDo0c4UI.jpg" width="300" alt="The set for the gay marriage plays is so simple, yet elegant." /></a><br />The set for the gay marriage plays is so simple, yet elegant.Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-835596563370939343.post-64092430133779759142011-11-08T08:39:00.000-08:002011-11-09T11:06:13.946-08:00Godspell Revival on BroadwayDon't listen to the naysayers. I was at opening night of <span style="font-style:italic;">Godspell</span> on Broadway and found it uplifting, hilarious and moving. To quote another show, "these are a few of my favorite things. "<br /><br />Full Disclosure #1: Floyd and I invested a thousand bucks to become "People of Godspell." So, yes, I have a vested interest in the show's success. But we did it not because we had any certainty whether the show would be any good, but just so we could get our names on the poster, which, due my alphabetical advantage, put us directly underneath the "ELL" in the title.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5F8vXEjRGE4/TrldsO6UqhI/AAAAAAAACFI/lSC1NLI3MJc/s1600/POG.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5F8vXEjRGE4/TrldsO6UqhI/AAAAAAAACFI/lSC1NLI3MJc/s400/POG.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672668220148197906" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We were also interested in having access to all the investment documents because, sooner or later, we're going to be Broadway producers ourselves.<br /><br />Full Disclosure #2: I'm friends with Stephen Schwartz, whose son Scott is directing the world premiere of my adaptation of <span style="font-style:italic;">A Room with a View</span> at the Old Globe in San Diego this spring.<br /><br />Here we are at intermission, after I blathered compliments about the new song arrangements, which totally rock in a way that's totally of the moment.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9skjObbtzzQ/TrlcrjOm0-I/AAAAAAAACE8/JwTUiL-8KPw/s1600/Acito_Schwartz.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9skjObbtzzQ/TrlcrjOm0-I/AAAAAAAACE8/JwTUiL-8KPw/s320/Acito_Schwartz.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672667108910486498" border="0" /></a>So feel free to discount anything I say, but the fact is, my connections to the show made me all the more leery about it. What if it sucked? I'd heard mixed things in previews and I was worried the whole thing would feel like college theater games. If the show was lame, I'd have to play the "Choose a Euphemism" game: ("That was really something" or "You did it again!")<br /><br />I was hugely relieved to discover <span style="font-style:italic;">Godspell</span> on Broadway was the polar opposite of sucky. For starters, it's the kind of theater I love best - simple, evocative, imaginative. I'm not a fan of kitchen-sink realism; I think theater should do what it does best - create live magic. The Greeks invented theater as we know it as a religious ceremony, a transcendent experience. I'm all for low humor (no surprise there), but theaters are temples for me, doing for me what church is supposed to, but never does. And what better story to experience than the Greatest Story Ever Told - with jokes?<br /><br />And this production is funny - very funny. Family friendly funny. Which doesn't matter to me personally, but I thought you'd like to know. I got my seat through the lottery (cushion on the floor for thirty bucks - highly recommended), so I had a perfect view of the alumni members of the 1972 Toronto production in the audience: Victor Garber (also Jesus in the film), Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Martin Short and Paul Schaeffer, the musical director. Like me, they had grins from ear-to-ear. Honestly, my cheeks hurt so much from smiling I was relieved when Jesus finally got crucified.<br /><br />As I sat watching those familiar faces beaming at the young cast, I imagined a time 40 years from now when we reflect on how many people in this production went on to become stars. Every member of <span style="font-style:italic;"></span>Godspell<span style="font-style:italic;"></span> sweats talent. It's been a while since I've seen anyone literally stop a show, but it happened twice with Lindsay Mendez and Telly Leung's full-throated renditions of "Bless the Lord My Soul" and "All Good Gifts." And Hunter Parrish is so unbelievably beautiful - like his skin is made of a different substance than the rest of us - he really does look like, well, a god.<br /><br />The show strives (and succeeds) to absorb the audience - the band is actually spread out among the seats, and the audience was invited to drink wine onstage during intermission. Here I am proving that I knew outrageously talented Telly Leung when:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ggx9V6SgeZk/TrlcmN6b8LI/AAAAAAAACEw/WHPvIm-S8_0/s1600/Acito_Leung.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ggx9V6SgeZk/TrlcmN6b8LI/AAAAAAAACEw/WHPvIm-S8_0/s320/Acito_Leung.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672667017289396402" border="0" /></a>During intermission, I also spoke with my fellow cushion sitters, one of whom was back for her sixth time with a friend she'd made when they were frequent fliers at <span style="font-style:italic;">Spring Awakening</span>. I've always wanted to talk to one of these die-hard fans, who, as much as I appreciate from a box-office standpoint, freak me out a little. Particularly when my cushion-mate told me she'd seen <span style="font-style:italic;">Spring Awakening</span> 175 times.<br /><br />"Why?" I said, trying not to sound judgey.<br /><br />"Because it's different every time."<br /><br />And with just five words, she shut me up - no easy feat. I mean, here I am this theater snob, endeavoring not to sneer at a truly fanatic fan, and she schools me in the transformative power of theater. It's an experience I'll never forget.<br /><br />Producer Ken Davenport has shrewdly marketed the show heavily toward people with a <a href="http://www.godspell.com/">"Godspell memory." </a> The show is woven into the fabric of so many people's lives - here's <a href="http://www.mygodspellmemory.com/#watch">mine</a>, for instance. Indeed, at the summer drama camp I went to we said grace at dinner by singing "Day by Day."<br /><br />So it seems to me the show would play to busloads of Christian groups. I don't know if Ken's reached out that segment (I'm not on those mailing lists), but he should.<br /><br />If you ignore the critics and go, the one thing you won't see when you go is me onstage, which was for Victor Garber and Friends only. You see, because I was on the floor, I was a prime patsy to be chosen for the audience participation segment of the show - in this case, playing Lazarus.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BRB7l-xN-cE/TrmuiqlsJ6I/AAAAAAAACF4/lYv2Hh6mlcQ/s1600/scanpic.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BRB7l-xN-cE/TrmuiqlsJ6I/AAAAAAAACF4/lYv2Hh6mlcQ/s400/scanpic.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672757116221007778" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Getting to act onstage in a Broadway show on opening night wasn't just a dream come true, it resounded on multiple levels. When Floyd and I left New York in 1986, Broadway was dying, along with all the people who made it. So, like the prodigal son, we fled, taking our time in the wilderness, if you will. It wasn't until my mother died two years ago that I felt ready to finish what we'd started back then. Like someone waking from a slumber in a fairy tale, her death released me to live in a whole new way. Our feeling was "if not now, when?"<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Godspell'</span>s opening night was the eve of her birthday. And I got to celebrate it by playing Lazarus, who comes back from the dead.<br /><br />So, yes, I'm totally biased toward this show. But I think there are a lot of people who feel the same way.Marc Acitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05308790905794774874noreply@blogger.com1