As usual there are a lot of great theatre happening right here in the Bay Area… Want some hot tips on what to see? Excellent, it seems you came to the right place…

The Hundred Flowers Project, running from now until 11/17.

This past summer I saw a reading of The Hundred Flowers Project by Christopher Chen, with Playwrights Foundation’s Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Let me tell you, my socks were knocked right off. And from this review, and this review, I know it’s only gotten better. Tickets go up as the run goes on, so go early! I also have a feeling that theatre this exciting will sell out, so buy your tickets ahead of time!

SF Olympians Festival, runs 12/5 – 12/20.

The festival includes twenty five brand new one acts from twenty seven bay area playwrights. This years theme is TITANS VS. OLYMPIANS; and each show will consist of a staged reading about each, and all shows will be at The Exit.

Don Reed’s THE KIPLING HOTEL, running from now until 12/16.

I got to meet Don Reed this past Saturday at Play Cafe’s panel this past Saturday. Not only did he supply us with great advice, he also had some great stories to tell. I am confident that you will enjoy this show.

SUPERIOR DONUTS, running 11/2 – 12/2

Custom Made Theatre Co. is presenting the San Francisco premiere of SUPERIOR DONUTS by Tracy Letts. The show is a comedy set in a donut shop, and if it’s half as good as the last two shows I’ve seen from Custom Made Theatre Co. (THE PLAY ABOUT THE BABY by Edward Albee, and THE MERCHANT OF VENICE by Shakespeare) it’ll be worth the effort!

Alright, you have your orders! Go see theatre! Maybe I’ll see you there…

If you hadn’t heard, I’m applying for an MFA from SFSU in playwrighting… And, I fully intended on being complete with the application process by October 15th. Best laid plans, you know. And here I am, it’s almost November and I haven’t done a damn thing. I have until December 15th, so I’m not too stressed, but starting one of the applications today I already hit a road bump. I need my old SFSU transcripts, and I need my SFSU password to get those, and since I don’t have it I need to go to the bursar’s office to show them my ID to get it. I just forgot my GPA! Oy. But, this is a nice reminder of what I’m getting myself back into…. So much bureaucracy!

But the good things in life are never easy… At least that’s what everyone says. And since everyone says it, I can’t see how it isn’t true.

This will be the biggest submission so far, I think too. I’ve publicly declared that I am applying, and it will be so very sad to announce on my blog that I wasn’t selected. Plus, you know… I do want to go and learn the things they’re teaching. So I am left with buckling down, gritting my teeth, and getting it done. I have 50 days from today, be sure and send me good focusing vibes!

The fun never ends! Right now I’m working on submissions around the clock; submissions that I’m reading for the 31 Plays in 31 Days’s anthology and staged reading and submissions of my own work.

We have 96 plays to consider, and I plan on reading them all. I’ve nearly made it through the F’s (I’m going in alphabetical order from last name). And while I’m not going to tell you how I feel about the writing at all, I will say that it’s a lot of fun thinking about how this little silly project of mine and Tracy’s has transformed into what it is today. I’m incredibly excited about both the internet reading and the anthology. Once we announce the plays on December 1st we’re going to set to work on both… Telling everyone right now, we’ll be needing actors and directors. So if you know me and your’e one of those two things don’t be surprised when you get an email from me asking you to participate!

And yes, quite a few submission deadlines are looming ahead of me and so I’m trying to get to those as well. I won’t be submitting 30 plays this month, but I’m still getting my work out there. These are the things I’m trying to get things ready for:

1. Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, deadline 11/1.

2. Dayton Playhouse, deadline 10/31. Also snail mail only.

3. Dragon Productions Theatre Co., deadline is 11/1. There is a $10 fee with this submission.

4. Bay Area Playwright’s Festival from Playwrights Foundation, the deadline is 10/31. And there is a $20 fee.

5. Sundance Theatre Lab, which has a 11/15 deadline and a steep $35 fee.

What are you submitting to right now?

As I posted earlier, Love Creek Productions is including my short play GHOST STORY in their evening of one-acts for next month! The show has three performances; November 16th at 8pm, November 17th at 8pm, and November 18th at 7pm. And the performances will take place at The Producer’s Club in New York! This will be my first work done in New York, and I’m pretty excited. If you’re in the neighborhood, check out the show! Tickets are $15, and you can call 212-769-7973 to make a reservation.

For all of those folks who missed the great show put on by Playwrights’ Center of SF last night, don’t worry! You can still catch MY BODY (my 10 minute play dealing with woman’s rights) tonight! That’s right, and it’ll be really easy if you already happen to be in the Washington DC area.

If you can’t make it out, but would like to help, The Disreputables are taking donations here. They’re less than $500 away from their goal! Be sure and help them reach it, if you can!

Click here for all the details on the show tonight.

Tonight is the night for Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco REPRO RIGHTS!. I wasn’t able to make last night’s rehearsal, but I heard from the producer that the show is going to be amazing. Remember, we’re raising money for Planned Parenthood, all the money raised tonight is going directly to them!

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Here are the details for the show, in case you’ve forgotten:

Playwrights Center of San Francisco is sponsoring “REPRO RIGHTS,” a timely, entertaining, and thought-provoking evening of staged readings of original short plays and monologues on the topic of reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.

Our benefiting organization is Planned Parenthood.

This event is driven by Bay Area playwrights, producers, directors, actors, volunteers, sponsors, and donors.

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WHY

The last two years have given rise to an alarming trend in challenges to women’s reproductive rights.

• In 2011 state legislatures introduced more than 1,100 anti-abortion provisions.

• Seven states either fully defunded or made moves toward defunding Planned Parenthood, which provides basic health care, contraception, breast cancer, and STD screenings to millions of low-income women each year.

• On a federal level, Republicans in Congress used abortion and Planned Parenthood funding as a bargaining chip during budget negotiations and almost shut down the government in the process.

• Mandatory ultrasound bills were introduced that tried to narrow the definition of rape to include only “forcible rape” and barred the District of Columbia from being able to use its own locally raised funds to help low-income women pay for abortions.

• In addition to witnessing dozens of ongoing state challenges, in what some have called a “war on women,” 2012 saw a House hearing on birth control that did not include a single woman.

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THE PLAYS:

• “My Body,” by Rachel Bublitz (directed by Brady Brophy-Hilton)

• “Prisoner of Love,” by Dana Sack (directed by Neil Higgins)

• “Lunch at the Cafe Ova, by Margy Kahn (directed by Michaela Goldhaber)

• “Snip Snip,” by Ignacio Zulueta (directed by Brady Brophy-Hilton)

• “A Cry in Ramah,” by Jeremy Cole (directed by Michaela Goldhaber)

• “Factory Farm: A Documentary,” by Jennifer Lynne Roberts (directed by Brady Brophy-Hilton)

• “It’s Good to Know,” by Megan Cohen (directed by Neil Higgins)

CAST

Jenn Bates

Chelsey Little

Valerie Fachman

Tessa Koning-Martinez

Alysha English

Don Hardwick

Valerie Fachman

Wes Cayabyab

Roneet Rahamim

Vonn Scott Bair

Peter Towsnley

Wesley Cayabya

Don Hardwick

Heather Kellogg

Megan Briggs

Heather Kellogg

Peter Townley

Thanh Ta

Heather Kellogg

KEY PLAYERS

Producer: Tracy Held Potter

Associate Producer: Chelsey Little

Dramaturg: Christine Young

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Last night I took both kids to Disney On Ice: 100 Years of Magic. And I will give this to the ice capades… THEY HAD A WHALE ONE STAGE! Oh yes.

They also captivated my kids, which is a slight miracle. Although it must be said that they do a horrible job of mashing up scenes from their own movies. They should hire me, I’m awesome at that. I adapted ALICE IN WONDERLAND in high school for our drama department from five or six different versions and it was awesome.

On Wednesday the Ten Minute Play Workshop read my short play GHOST STORY and then had a critique session. To hear the podcast, go here.

It was a lot of fun, I hope that I have the opportunity to participate again in the future. You can also sign up to give feedback on the sessions, if you’re interested.

Last night was the night I’ve been waiting for for months; ever since I saw that SF Opera was putting on MOBY DICK, the opera. That’s right, I got to see Moby Dick, the opera. Overall, it was well done. Some of the performers were brilliant (particularly Morgan Smith (playing Starbuck) and Jay Hunter Morris (playing Captain Ahab)) and the music was fabulous, which is to be expected… The set was brilliant, and the use of lights and projections was incredibly creative. But I had one big problem… There was no whale. All these months I’ve looked forward to the whale! I couldn’t wait to see what they came up with for Moby Dick himself! And when it came right down to it, we had to use our imaginations like suckers.

Now, I understand that a whale would be incredibly challenging to have on stage… I totally get that. But it’s the main point of the story. It’s called MOBY DICK for a reason. Also, this wasn’t a small company’s production, this was the San Francisco Opera. If anyone can figure out how to make/pay for a whale, it’s them, right? Sigh. I had some other issues as well…

The first 30 or 40 minutes or so drag. Big time drag. I kept saying to myself, “Stay awake, you can do this. Just hold on and you’ll soon see a whale.” Good thing I didn’t know the truth or I might have left early. After you get past most of Act 1, it picks up a lot, and I found the second half much more engaging. That could be because we were getting closer and closer to see the whale that wasn’t showing up, but who knows.

I am also not 100% sold that MOBY DICK was meant to be an Opera at all. I feel like there was a lot of the story that was missing because we couldn’t be inside anyone’s head. For example… How the hell were all the whalers cool with Ahab after cruising around the ocean for over a year not catching whales, but going after some phantom? I imagine that’s dealt with better in the book. They seemed super chipper to me.

All that being said, I do think it’s worth seeing. Funny, as much as I don’t like musicals… I think I have a soft spot for Operas. Go figure! It closes this Sunday, so hurry up if you want to go!

I know, every week is theatre week… But this week I seem to be running the gamut on the theatre experience so I thought I’d share…

Last night I saw Theatre Pub’s show LOVE IN THE TIME OF ZOMBIES at Cafe Royale in San Francisco. It’s a very fun show that’ll put you in the Halloween spirit, so don’t miss it! There are still 3 more performances; Mon. 10/22, Mon. 10/29, and Tues. 10/30.

On Thursday, I’ll be pulling out my pearl necklace and fancy dress to go to the Opera! Yes! I’ll be heading over to The San Francisco Opera to see MOBY-DICK! I am more than a little excited for this. It’s Moby Dick the opera! I can only imagine how epic this show will be. The tickets are crazy expensive, but if you’re still interested it runs this week and next.

And finally this Friday I’m taking the kids to see Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic (is it clear now why I said this week runs the gamut on the theatre experience? Does ice capades counts as theatre???). I have no idea what to expect having never seen a show on ice before. Audrey (my four year old) thinks that there will be glittery dresses and that they will ballet dance on the ice. We shall see my young one, we shall see. There will be $35 ice cream cones, that’s for sure…

Next week is busy for me as well! I have a reading with Pacifica Table Readers on Sunday (they’re reading TERRIBLE PEOPLE), REPRO RIGHTS! is on Monday night (buy tickets today if you haven’t already!), Tuesday night there’s a reading in Washington DC (I won’t be there) called SLUT (both REPRO RIGHTS! and SLUT feature my short play called MY BODY), AND Playwrights Foundation’s Rough Reading Series continues with a reading of REPARATIONS from Dominic Orlando and I will be there as the associate producer. Yes, that was all one sentence. I’m glad you lived through it. Do I have anything else next week? YES! I have the panel with Play Cafe, How To Get Your Work Produced… That should be a helpful afternoon.

So yes. Go see some shows! I am.