“I should raise your ass… but I’m just going to call. My marker’s good for a moment?”
“What is this ‘marker’. Where are you from?”
“Where am I from? I’m from the United States of Kiss My Ass…”

I’m a big fan of playwright and screenwriter David Mamet and have featured his work (specifically Glengarry Glen Ross) previously in the Monday Movie feature.

There can be few mainstream writers who so polarise opinion and create so much controversy.

The 1987 film House of Games was his directorial debut, after almost two decades of increasingly succesful and acclaimed work writing plays and movie scripts.

It’s the first of two films he has written and directed that deal specifically with con artists and their victims (though deception and cheating are recurring themes in much of his work), the other being the also excellent The Spanish Prisoner (1997). But while The Spanish Prisoner is about a high-end, multi-million-dollar corporate con, House Of Games is rooted firmly at the sleazy, small-time end of the swindlers’ scale.

The set up for the scene below is as follows. A psychiatrist (played by Mamet’s then wife Lindsay Crouse) has written a successful book, about obsession and compulsion in everyday life, that has made her wealthy

She is disturbed when a young patient tells her he owes a shady gambler (Joe Mantegna) $25,000 and will be killed if he doesn’t pay it back, so she decides to intercede on his behalf. She visits Mantegna at a seedy pool hall, where she finds him in the middle of a game of poker.

He tells her the debt is actually only $800 and offers to cancel it if she pretends to be his girlfriend to help him fleece one of the other players at the table (played by Mamet regular Ricky Jay (left)). Mantegna explains that Jay has a “tell”, an involuntary action he always performs when he is bluffing. He tells Crouse he will leave the table in the middle of a big hand, so that Jay drops his guard, leaving Crouse to look for the tell, tipping him off about whether to call or fold.

The scene concludes (with the first of the film’s many twists) at the start of this video:

ARE THE STARS OUT TONIGHT?: Yes, and most of ‘em are working on and off Broadway. Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson are currently in

JOHANSSON: room for A View

rehearsals for the revival of A View From The Bridge, still regarded in some circles as Arthur Miller’s most passionate drama. They start previews right after Christmas, then open at the Cort Theatre on Jan. 24 … Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury are the hot-ticket duo in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music down the street at the Walter Kerr Theater. Previews start tomorrow night, less than three weeks before their Dec. 13 opening … Emmy Award winners James Spader and Richard Thomas are already in previews for David Mamet’s

ZETA-JONES: opening tomorrow night

new sizzler, Race, directed by Mamet himself, for a Dec. 6 opening … veteran New York broadcaster Pat Collins calls her the funniest woman on Broadway, and audiences must agree, because Carrie Fisher’s one-woman show, Wishful Drinking, originally slated to close Jan. 3, has been held over another two weeks, to Jan. 17… Victor Garber will celebrate New Year’s Eve, then go right into previews for the revival of Noel Coward’s Present Laughter, set to premiere Jan. 21 at the American Airlines Theatre … 2001: A Space Odyssey alumnus Keir Dullea, who actually worked with Noel Coward, will return to Broadway this spring in a revival of Robert Anderson’s

SPADER: Race card

I Never Sang for My Father. Years ago Dullea and Coward co-starred in a London-made thriller called Bunny Lake Is Missing. After shooting a difficult scene together for director Otto Preminger, Coward turned to the young actor and chirped, “Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow!” Happily his ad-lib was not prophetic … and Tony Award owner Matthew Broderick has taken his act off-Broadway. He opens tonight at the Acorn Theatre in Kenneth Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger, about an astronomy teacher’s affair with a younger woman.  Academy Award nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace) plays the younger woman to Broderick’s married academic.

SMITH: backing B'way newbie

ANOTHER OPENING, ANOTHER ADOPT-A-SHOW: It took volunteer executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry to put Precious on the map — and did they ever. Now Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and Will & Jada Pinkett Smith have become first-time Broadway producers, putting their considerable showbiz weight behind the new Broadway musical Fela! which opens tonight at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre after a month of previews. Directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, Fela! portrays the extravagant world of controversial music pioneer and Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in a hybrid of concert, dance and musical theater. Will audiences buy in? Stay tuned … and Tony winner Susan

BRODERICK: opening tonight

Stroman will direct the first-ever production of The Scottsboro Boys, an unproduced Kander & Ebb musical, off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre. The show will begin previews on February 12 and open on March 10. The Scottsboro Boys explores the infamous Scottsboro case of the 1930s, in which a group of African-American teenagers were unjustly accused of attacking two white women, and the boys’ attempts to prove their innocence.

And yes, it’s a musical.

TOMORROW:

Fangs for the Memories.

EDMOND
Dirigida por Stuart Gordon
Con William H. Macy, Julia Stiles y Mena Suvari

Si “Taxi Driver” fuese una comedia, quizás sería “Edmond”. En apariencia, las dos pelis van de lo mismo: del afán de sexo/comunicación de un hombre bueno perdido en la jungla urbana. Pero Stuart Gordon no es Scorsese, sino el director de “Re-Animator”. Así que este drama realista es también relato de terror. El terror del cuarentón confuso en su decadencia; el de quien confunde el subidón de adrenalina de la violencia/sexo con la revelación de su destino. Esto pasa mucho. A William H. Macy, en esta peli, tras acuchillar a un negrata y echarle un kiki a una camarera cariñosa. Hay que tener el talento de David Mamet para reproducir en la ficción la palabrería metafísica del hombre corriente, ésa que todos hemos practicado: para poner verosímilmente en boca de un necio los interrogantes manoseados sobre el sentido de la vida. Macy está genial en su perplejidad. Quería cambiar su vida, y lo consigue. Vaya que sí. Al final de la peli, se cuestiona sobre el infierno y besa a su amante, antes de acostarse a su lado, sin comprender que vivir es lo que ocurre, no lo que se medita.

“Fabulous performances . . . a great play” was the accolade given to  Speed-the-Plow on Radio Centre-Ville 102.3 FM Montreal’s Arts Notebook this morning.  Listen to the station here.

Get your tickets now because only three Montreal performances remain: Saturday November 21st at 2pm and 8pm Sunday November 22nd at 2pm. Call Theatre Ste Catherine at (514) 284-3939 for tickets and information.

Speed-the-Plow was selected as one of the top shows to see in Montreal this week by The Hour.  Theatre blogger Davyn Ryall praised the performances, lighting, and set design, saying ‘Go see it.’

You’ve got only three more chances to do just that: Speed-the-Plow plays Saturday Nov 21 at 2pm and 8pm and Sunday Nov 22 at 2pm.  Catch this riveting dark comedy about movies, money, and the battle of the sexes while you still can.

Speed-the-Plow premieres tonight at Le Nouveau Theatre Ste Catherine.

Catch Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet’s gripping comedy-drama for the first time ever in Montreal tonight at 8pm.

The Pardale Players are setting up and settling in at Theatre Ste Catherine for the Montreal premiere of Speed-the-Plow tomorrow night.  David Mamet’s no-holds-barred look at the cutthroat world of the Hollywood film industry starts Wednesday November 8 at 8pm.

Admission is $12, $10 for students. For group rates, please call the theatre at (514) 284 – 3939.

I had an idea for a television show that was basically a cross between Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Kevin Smith’s Clerks (“I’m not even supposed be at the apocalypse today!”) About midway through the third season, the protagonists would get to New York City only to find that Lady Gaga was the law. Big white-furred felines all around, irregular shaped sunglasses for everyone, gyroscope uniforms, the works. Lady Gaga on a throne, ruling over New York with an iron Disco Stick.  I imagine I would have to end the show after this, because as we saw last night, GaGa is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega.

The show starts out with Dan Humphrey walking around without a care in the world because he just fucked his girlfriend and his best friend AT THE SAME TIME. High fives all around, dude! (Not).  I haven’t seen someone walk around New York City like this since

And, well, look how that shit turned out.

Meanwhile, Blair and Serena are fighting again because Serena is close to becoming Amy Fisher/ Monica Lewinski/Insert Your Own Political Mistress or Home wrecker here. Let Blair be clear: She does not heart adultery.

Blair focuses on impressing an elite group of students at NYU, namely those enrolled in the Tisch School of the Arts.  All of the Tisch students dress like the boyfriend from Legally Blonde that is not Luke Wilson.  These kids are also really set on getting a private show from Tisch alumna Lady Gaga. First though, a CABARET.

In a far less interesting turn of events, Jenny is tired of swinging single, so Lily is trying to set her up with some society types. The best part of this scene rules involves the term “Gonorrhea of the throat” being said about twelve times. Rufus asks what that is, but he is like throat gonorrhea Patient Zero. Speaking of throat gonorrhea, Chuck Bass walks in with a strapping young lad. Chuck is involved in some business that has him entertaining the son of a diplomat from Belgium or something. Get out of Jenny’s dreams and into The Hague.

Jenny and this boy go off and try to divert the audience’s attention from their glaring height difference. Jenny is excited to show off her potential beau to the maddening crowd of teenagers in Central Park but she freaks out when all he wants to do is play with kiddy boats. Au contraire, Mon Jenny. The boats are a front for drug dealing since the most efficient way for exchanging drugs and money is floating them across a pond in a miniature schooner.

Eventually, Jenny and her new dangerous Napoleonic friend go out to an illicit club where Jenny keeps getting her knee felt up by some old dude. Creepy mostly because Jenny is still sixteen.  In his defense, he was just stunnin’ with his love glue gunnin’. Still ew.

Before things can get too icky, Chuck Bass saves the day. He’s like Wolverine and Jenny is like Jubilee/ Kitty Pryde. Chuck doesn’t want Jenny going to the dark side of life but Jenny is all screaming, “I’m a freak bitch baby!”  She is totally going to go back to the club with the creepy old guy and creepy short dignitary in future episodes.

Speaking of Chuck Bass, pot kettle black sir? I would have accepted Chuck being pissed that the Belgian kid was moving in on his drug territory (because I want GG to slowly turn into The Wire) but due to past events, it is hard  to accept Chuck just looking out for Jenny. You know, since he used to be LOOKIN’ out for Jenny if you know what I mean, in the roofie sense.

Back to Dan Humphrey and the threesome, we get more glimpses of what happened last week through fuckbacks (flashbacks + fuck). Nate tells him that he messed up majorly. The first rule of threesomes is that the third person is always a stranger! That sounds dangerous but remember Nate’s been to Europe! His best friend is Chuck Bass! He’s a loner, Dottie, a rebel.

Dan sees Vanessa for the first time since the threesome and to make sure that things are still cool, they decide to go to a Morrissey show. It’s a tradition. They’ve been doing it since seventh grade. Dan was the worst seventh grader.

Lizzy McGuire is not pleased by the whole Vanessa/ Dan going out on a date thing.  I think they can go wherever they please but to Lizzy McGuire everything depends upon how near Dan stands to her (and if the people stare, if the people stare? Lizzy really doesn’t know and she really doesn’t care). So, she sort of forces Dan to do the Tisch kids’ Cabaret. Dan’s cool with this because he’s going to be a playwright now due to literary whimsy (The title of his first play is going to be called Glengarry Glen Ugh). Dan also keeps dropping not at all subtle hints about having another threesome. This guy is like the anti-Dr. Pepper Cherry.

So, Dan/ Lizzy/ Blair/ and eventually Vanessa work on a cabaret based on fairy tales and Lady Gaga songs. One of the GG nerd dudes shows up to play keyboard. Cherry cherry boom boom, I guess. It goes well, but not for Ms. McGuire who makes her boyfriend kiss Vanessa to show him that he loves Vanessa and should also stop wearing hats. Lizzy McGuire goes off to film Bitches of Eastwick. Vanessa also decides to start dating the Tisch guy from before who, if GG were a movie, would be played by Bradley Cooper. Dan Humphrey will not have any fun despite the beat being sick. No one wants to ride his disco stick.

Oh yeah and Blair gets Lady Gaga to play a concert for the Tisch students which consists of the Ga playing the same song for twenty minutes with an incredibly elaborate set. Blair pulls this off because “Poker Face” turns out to be about her stepfather. I thought it was about this guy

Nate and Serena are also around. Serena still works for Tripp Van Der Bi Lt’s office despite being the epitome of inappropriate.  She confesses to Nate that she doesn’t want to get involved with Tripp because he’s married. Nate’s all for this and decides to get Serena DRANK. Nate wants to roll with Serena. What a hot pair they will be!

Newsflash #1: Everyone finds out that Tripp’s wife Maureen was responsible for the stunt that won Tripp the election. So everyone hates her and Tripp takes this as license to fuck an 18-year old.

Newsflash #2: Nate’s in love with Serena and has been since the first season? Ok. By my records (accurate records) Nate has been romantically involved with every other regular female character, a grad student from Columbia, and a countess, even though he has been in love with Serena the whole time? This is probably just a set up for the fourth season when Rufus is off cage-fighting and Nate reveals to Lily that he only dated Serena in order to get closer to her.

So yeah, Nate tells Serena he’s in love with her while they are drunk but then Tripp comes in and cock blocks Nate. Then Tripp says to Serena, he says “Hey Serena, wanna get some blue Gap dresses and make some bad decisions?” Serena wanting to be caught in a bad romance decides to go.

Remember when television characters had to have chemistry? Serena and Tripp say fuck that.  Despite any chemistry or lack thereof, it is possible for any two characters on this show to get together romantically if given enough time together. This way of viewing makes all the Jenny/ Dan scenes really weird.

At the end, we find Gaga just being Gaga, Nate and Dan being lonely, and Serena getting down with Tripp. Total downer ending, Gossip Girl.

NEXT WEEK: No Gossip Girl. Next new episode is in two weeks and involves Thanksgiving and Tripp being creepy.

Luis Fernandes, who stars as Bobby Gould in the Parkdale Players’ production of Speed-the-Plow, will be interviewed November 12th at 6:30pm on CKUT 90.3 FM Montreal.

With Luis will be Alain Mercieca of Le Nouveau Theatre Ste Catherine.  Together they’ll be discussing upcoming plays, comedy shows, Speed-the-Plow, and theatre in Montreal.

Listen Online to CKUT, Montreal’s alternative music, news, and spoken word station, here.

The hilarious 2-Man No-Show dropped in for a surprise improv set at the at Speed-the-Plow Office Party! Fundraiser, a raucous evening that included gut-busting comedic performances from Accidental Company and the Action Slacks sandwiched between musical sets by DJ Adverb and Jason Cochrane.

Cochrane created beats on multiple Nintendo DS systems while revelers enjoyed beverages from our friendly sponsors at Steam Whistle brewing.  Lucky winners took home tickets to August: Osage County, My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, and The Thistle Project’s highly anticipated upcoming production of Peer Gynt.  Also snapped up were a dinner for two at Hair of the Dog and a stay at the luxury suite at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, a $350 value!

A huge thank you to all who donated, attended, and had a great time!  Money raised will go to pay for rights acquisition and production expenses for the play.

Catch Accidental Company and 2-Man No-Show at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival running Nov 10-15.  The Action Slacks at play regularly at the Bad Dog Theatre.

On offer at this Sunday’s Office Party! Fundraiser will be a dinner for two at Hair of the Dog, upscale neighbourhood pub and restaurant voted one of the best patios in the city by Now Magazine.  Learn about the pub’s unique history here and see menu highlights here.

Mirvish Theatre has kindly donated tickets for two hot upcoming shows.

The first is My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, a 2009 Toronto Fringe Hit that received four stars from Eye Magazine and four Ns from Now.  It’s a comedy for “every mother who has ever come out to her children as a lesbian… and a Jew. It is for every girlfriend who has met her future lesbian in-laws… at Hooters. And it’s for everyone who’s ever been in love.”  More info here.

The second is August: Osage County, 2008 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Drama and 2008 Tony Award Winner for Best Play.   “Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s August: Osage County is a grand, gripping new play that tells the story of the Westons, a large extended clan that comes together at its rural Oklahoma homestead when the alcoholic patriarch disappears. Forced to confront unspoken truths and astonishing secrets, the family must also contend with Violet (played by Academy Award-winner Estelle Parsons), a pill-popping, deeply unsettled woman at the centre of this storm. August: Osage County is a rare theatrical event – a large-scale work filled with unforgettable characters, a powerful tale told with unflinching honesty.”

The Office Party! Fundraiser happens Sunday November 8 at 8pm at the Unit 102 Theatre in Toronto and is sponsored by our friends at Steam Whistle Brewing.

Les Voyeurs #86 – Les Arnaques

Diffusion le : jeudi 5 novembre 2009 à 18h sur RGO / vendredi 6 novembre 2009 à 18h sur Radio 16.
Rediffusion le samedi 7 novembre 2009 à 10h sur RGO.
En téléchargement pendant une semaine ici.
Et en écoute permanente là.

Actualité

Avant-premières aux Arcades : A l’origine de Xavier Giannoli mardi 10 novembre à 19h30 (tarif unique : 5€) 2012 de Roland Emmerich mardi 10 novembre à 21h30 (tarif unique : 5€)
Aux Arcades d’Alès : Mademoiselle Chambon de Stéphane Brizé, Irène d’Alain Cavalier, This is it de Kenny Ortega en VO, Mission G de Hoyt Yeatman en 3D, Micmacs à tire-larigot de Jean Pierre Jeunet.
David Lynch présente un documentaire sur son film Inland Empire et l’Interview project au Festival Les Inrocks Dimanche 8 novembre au Comptoir général.
La Révélation en avant première le 6 novembre à Bordeaux, St Étienne… Sortie en février 2010.
Raymond Depardon en Languedoc-Roussillon : dernière étape de cette opération commencée le 14 mars dernier au 27e Festival Cinéma d’Alès – Itinérances du 6 novembre au 31 janvier à Montpellier. Le programme ici.
24e Festival International du Cinéma d’Animation de Baillargues du 8 au 25 novembre a comme invité d’honneur Bill Plympton. Le programme ici
Thor de Kenneth Branagh : Odin sera joué par Anthony Hopkins il rejoint sur ce projet Natalie Portman et Robert de Niro.
Action de la fédération nationale des cinémas français “Pour manifester leur vive inquiétude auprès des pouvoirs publics face à leur situation économique dégradée, les 2100 cinémas de France s’unissent pour une opération symbolique en éteignant leurs enseignes lumineuses le mercredi 4 novembre de 18h à 19h” Article de La Marseillaise du 6 novembre ici

Dossier de la semaine : Les Arnaques

Arnaques de voleurs
A l’origine de Xavier Giannoli sortie mercredi 11 novembre
Neuf reines de Fabian Bielinsky
Cash d’Éric Besnard

David Mamet : passionné par l’arnaque
Engrenages (Bienvenue au drive-in)
La prisonnière espagnole

Faites vos jeux :
Las Vegas 21 de Robert Luketic
Maverick de Richard Donner
Les Joueurs de John Dahl
L’Inconnu de Las Vegas de Lewis Milestone

Ocean’s 11 (et 12 et 13) de Steven Soderberg
L’Arnaque de Georges Roy Hill
Les Arnaqueurs de Stephen Frears

Guy Ritchie : arnaques alambiquées
Arnaques, crimes et botanique
Snatch : Tu braques ou tu raques
Revolver
RocknRolla

La bande originale de la semaine :

Générique par Miles Davis.
Extrait de la bande originale du film Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (1957) de Louis Malle.

Chronique : La Carte postale sétoise

John Huston de Patrick Brion éd. La Martinière

Musique :
Miserable lie par The Smiths

Extraits :
A l’origine
La Prisonnière espagnole
Maverick
Ocean 11
L’Arnaque
Snatch

Présentation : Erik Antolin, Jérôme Bauzon
Carte Postale : Jan Jouvert
En quarantaine : Cédric Cance
Réalisation : Jérémie Adrian

A luxurious stay at the The Fairmont Royal York Hotel – a $350 value – will be on offer at the Speed-the-Plow fundraising party thanks to a generous gift from Fairmont Hotels.  Boasting one of the finest cocktail bars in Toronto and a stunning array of extravagant amenities, the Fairmont Royal York will provide the perfect getaway for yourself or someone you love.

Click here to learn more about the fascinating history of this Toronto landmark, and here to learn about the affluent accommodations on offer.

The Office Party! Fundraiser happens Sunday November 8 at 8pm at the Unit 102 Theatre in Toronto.

What a great line! It comes from a review of one of the best books I read about Jewish identity, David Mamet’s “The Wicked Son” here If you are looking for good old fashioned ethnic pride, this sophistcated rant against assimilation is a must read!

Hey people, sorry I missed last week… if you care at all. But it was a busy week for me! My Halloween show, the original adaptation of “The Monkey’s Paw” went swimmingly with great feedback. Now here we are, in a brand new week, whatever that might mean. This week, I’m going on an audition for an Equity (Union) production of “A Lie of the Mind” by Sam Shepard. This is great. Not that I’m going to be cast in it, but it’s great that this show is going to be produced. Since the recession came into being, the theater scene has kind of been castrated. All you saw for a long time was musicals, musicals, nothing but musicals. Now, musicals are great, but they’re there because they are the big money makers, they are huge spectacles. But the strait plays (non musical plays) fell by the wayside for a while. These are the plays that really dig into issues and topics and characters, and where the whole theater community can really create something for the sake of what is going on on-stage, and not really worry about the spectacle of it, and if the songs are catchy enough.
Not only this, but playwrights I love (Sam Shepard, David Mamet, Martin McDonagh, Harold Pinter) have not been produced in a long time (I feel like), but now we’re starting to see them come back. Oleanna (Mamet) is on Broadway now (with Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman; break out that student ID and score yourself some student rush tickets!), A Lie of the Mind (Shepard) is being produced, and McDonagh is releasing a new play through the Atlantic Theater Company later in the season.
You might find me lame, but I find this quite exciting.

www.stephenmedvidick.com

Director: David Mamet

After the success of his first two features, “House of Games” and “Things Change”, acclaimed writer/director David Mamet released “Homicide”, based on the novel “Suspect” by William Caunitz, in 1991. The film is an oddity – by combining elements of both a police procedural thriller and a soul-searching drama, “Homicide” has an intoxicating narrative quality unlike many films of it’s seemingly typical genre.

The film stars Mamet’s favorite actor, Joe Mantegna, as a hardened cop named Bobby Gold. His career is of greater contribution to his identity than his Jewish heritage, although Gold has certainly far from figured out who he is.

Gold, along with his partner, Tim Sullivan (William H. Macy), are put on a prestigious case involving a cop killer and drug pusher named Randolph (Ving Rhames). While on patrol, however, Gold finds himself assisting a rookie officer and getting tangled up in a whole new investigation. An old Jewish woman was shot while behind the counter of her candy store, presumably only because of her race. Gold, however, learns that the murder was attributed to far more than pure anti-Semitism.

Just as Gold undergoes an identity crisis, the film itself is wildly uneven in tone. Although Mamet does a commendable job of balancing his ideas, the two genres he’s working with seem to conflict, much to the detriment of his unifying film. A film studying cultural identity in the world of crime would be an interesting film on it’s own, but the standard police procedural that also lurks behind “Homicide” takes away from the intrigue of the central character study.

Mantegna didn’t have to exemplify much range in his collaborations with Mamet, but he is terrific at what he does. Mamet’s dialogue is often parodied, but Mantegna speaks Mamet’s poetics so fluently that it feels almost genuine. “Homicide” is not quite “House of Games”, but it’s an absorbing effort with some intense performances.

To raise funds for rights and travel expenses, we’re throwing an ‘Office Party’ at the Unit 102 Theatre.  And we’ve gotten Steam Whistle Brewing to help us out.  So get professional, bring your resume, network, and have drinks around the water cooler  for a night of music, comedy, dancing, and prizes!

A $5 entry gets you a stellar lineup of comic acts including Kristian Reimer, Accidental Company, Action Slacks, and Ferny and Burt, plus screenings of short films BLT and Jenkins, with music by DJ Adverb.  Items up for grabs include tickets to Steppenwolf’s August Osage County at the Canon Theatre.  And of course, drinks will be provided by our good friends at Steam Whistle Brewing!

All proceeds go towards The Parkdale Players’ production of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, playing in Montreal from November 18th – 22nd.  Funds raised will go towards rights aquisition and production expenses for the play.

It all happens on Sunday November 8th at 8pm. So come out, have fun, win some nifty swag, and help support your local theatre!

• Map to the Unit 102 Theatre
• Visit the Office Party! Facebook Page

Here is the Alec Baldwin scene in David Mamet’s ‘Glengarry Glen Ross‘. It’s his only scene in the film, but wow, is it great. He also looks so young compared to his ‘30 Rock’ self.

This is close to the beginning of the film, so if you haven’t seen it you may still enjoy it, though it’s not as effective out of context.

Note: Clip is definitely NSFW.

What’s great is Baldwin’s commanding presence in the room. He’s definitely younger than all of the salesmen but with arrogance, humor, and what can be boiled down to true sales-talk he takes what can almost be called a “cameo” and makes it awesome.

I was a grad school drop-out.

Half way through graduate school, I realized I didn’t want to write about writing as much as I just wanted to write. I didn’t want to “chase David Mamet around the table,” which is how I once described what my thesis on the playwright felt like. Ironically, Mamet was telling me (via Writing in Restaurants, I think, but maybe it was True & False or Three Uses of the Knife or maybe all three; it’s a blur now) if I wanted to be a writer, I should get the hell out of school and get to writing.

Mamet drove taxis so he could write.

The University of Texas at Austin has acquired the papers of playwright, writer and film director David Mamet

In the days before the Internet offered online communities and education, the local university was the only option for me, who had few resources. It wasn’t bad; it just wasn’t the best place for me since the school offered only an MA in English rather than an MFA in creative writing. When I started writing poetry and taking poetry workshops, that was the beginning of the end of grad school for me.

The thing is, my poetry had an audience. A dozen people around a conference table was better than the audience of one that was the college professor grading my essays/thesis. Even better was when I started collaborating with musicians and taking my poetry to the community.

My love of writing didn’t begin with my writing. It began with reading others’ work, with me being spoken to of other worlds by some narrator. I was a lonely child, and I fell in love with my solace: books. And all the years of composing secret poetry, of talking to no one, impressed upon me deeply. I yearned for approval from my instructors when I turned in papers. The comments were the most gratifying part of an assignment: I had a reader, someone who had listened.

I tell you this now because you are a writer, too. And I bet you’d give your  (insert a beloved body part here) to have an audience who really got you, really appreciated your writing, was (insert desired reaction) by your work, and couldn’t get enough. It is the dream.

One of the things that has kept me writing is that I don’t write to a void. I actually have a reader in mind. Sometimes its an exboyfriend who thought he loved me because he loved my writing or the girl who I watched pick up an article of mine in a bar and then kept returning to it even after she’d been many times distracted. Sometimes it’s my daughter and other college newbies.

What motivates me is the audience, which is why I tend to be most prolific and creative when I’m on assignment and I know a piece will be published.

But it’s not a perfect world full of eager editors who value creativity (but thanks to those who have and do!). So I motivate myself by finding calls for submissions, which provide (much like my editors used to) assignments and deadlines.

The Internet now provides a mind-boggling number of  forums for publishing work in communities of other writers. For instance, now I’ve found an MFA program that suits me, and my fellow Antioch University students decided to take the book annotations that we are required to do for the program and publish them at annotationnation.wordpress.com. This is a forum where writers of fiction discuss how books have been helpful to them in their craft. Since I’d read and annotated some books of fiction, I sent over what I’d written, just to be in community with other writers and readers.

Look for those opportunities. It’s how we create our niche, claim our craft, and contribute to a community. In essence, having an audience means that our writing matters to someone besides ourselves.