Just Wrought

My Last Play Reading

You might rightly judge that title to be half fib, depending on how you read it.  The upcoming public reading of  Philosophical Zombie Killers, happening on September 14 at 7:30 pm at Freehold Theatre, will certainly, and happily, not be the last public reading of a play of mine. The Sequence is scheduled to be read on October 12 at 2pm at the Bathhouse Theater at Green Lake.  (More details here.)  But Philosophical Zombie Killers is indeed my last full-length play. I have no plans to write another, and no great prospects for future full production of this, or any other play I have written. On September 15, the day after this reading, I will officially step away from the theatre. I have no plans to return. Of course threads of sadness run through this decision, but it is also interwoven with hope, and anticipation of new adventures. I hope you’ll wish me well. And if you can, I hope you’ll come see this reading. Here, below the fold, is the press release with all the info:

Falling Behind on Sandbox Radio Live

I am here to assuage your guilt for falling behind on Sandbox Radio Live, because the sad fact is I too have been slacking. Of course, in my defense, I have caught every single show live in the theatre, just as you can and should catch the upcoming Episode 9: The Naked Truth  on Monday, July 29 at West of Lenin in Fremont (tickets available here). I also usually listen to the podcast recording of each show as soon as it comes out. This time, however, between SOAPFest and vacation, I only got around to it yesterday. It’s brilliant; stocked full of goodies like:

• Susan Corzatte, my recent SOAPFest cast-mate, reading poems by Dorothy Parker.
• Another episode of “Cousin Katie” by Scot Augustson (featuring special guests Cliff Mass and Nancy Pearl! Favorite book recommendation: “Try The Pussy Brushers of Bristol”.)
• Another all new super-fun, super-hard-rocking blues original from Charles Leggett. Listen to the tart, exquisite interactions of lead and back-up singers.
• Then of course there’s my latest Markheim episode. Read along with the script below the fold. (Didge has joined the Seattle Super Hero scene, and Markheim’s realizing that the renegade clockwork’s more complex that he first thought.)

• And absolutely do not miss, my very favorite of all these favorites, Wayne Rawley’s blast from everyone’s middle school past, “Portable 5 & the First Day of the Rest of Our Lives”.

Give the podcast a listen!

Get your tix for the upcoming live show!

And get caught up on the amazing original awesome sauce that is Sandbox Radio Live!

 

Local TV Gives Local Theatre a Glance

I have not been on television since my brief, ill-fated appearance  on Romper Room in Baltimore, circa 1972. Miss Sally was asking the circle of kids what their favorite drink was and when she got to me, I said, “Whiskey”. Even Mr. Do-Bee looked shocked. (In my defense, my dad had once given me a sip and I wasn’t as horrified by the taste as everyone expected me to be.) When the broadcast was done, my mom yanked me out of WBAL’s studio so fast I thought she was going to dislocate my shoulder. Oddly, I was not asked back.

 

 

Happily, last week I made my triumphant return, along with Amy Love, to talk about Sandbox One-Act Play Festival (or SOAPFest, as the kids are calling it.) The festival opens tomorrow night and runs for only this weekend.  It features brand new plays by  Scot Augustson, Emily Conberre, Elizabeth Heffron and myself , presented by some of Seattle’s very best directors, designers, technicians and actors.

Now that Amy and I are tv stars, tickets to the three night run are unlikely to last long.  I recommend getting some while the getting is good. (Order tickets here.)

And if you’re wracking your brain for a gift to bring to celebrate these world premieres, just remember: whiskey’s still my favorite drink

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The SOAP Poster!

The SOAP Poster!

 

I have said it before: one of the most exciting moments for this playwright is when the posters for a world premiere drop into circulation. Something about it says, “Yup, this is happening all right.” And I really love this one for SOAPFest. (Thanks to Sean Williams of Gigantic Planet for the evocative design.)

I plan on writing more later about why this upcoming festival of short world premiere plays is particularly special for me, but for now, let me simply share SOAPFest’s press release below the fold so you can have all of that important information now.

Remember, SOAPFest is three nights only in a small venue.  Tickets are on sale here, now!  So . . . you know what to do.

 

 

And the Celebrity Guests will be . . .

I am cleared for PR take-off by my fearless producer, Leslie Law, and can now confirm that our special Seattle Celebrity guest stars for Sandbox Radio Live! 8 : Fools Rush In, one night only, this coming Monday, are . . . 

. . . Nancy Pearl and Cliff Mass!

NOW will you get your tix?

 

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Markheim Collides with the Seattle Superhero Scene

Markheim Collides with the Seattle Superhero Scene

In the upcoming episode of Markheim, to be recorded live, next Monday, April 29 at West of Lenin as part of Sandbox Radio Live!

 

MARKHEIM:  Is that Didge up there?

STANK:  He doesn’t go by “Didge” anymore.

MARKHEIM:  That’s some get up he’s got on.

STANK:  That’s his superhero gear.

MARKHEIM:  And that thing on his face?

STANK:  His mask. He made it from his hair.

MARKHEIM:  Charming.

DIDGE (over the bullhorn):  Many of you knew me by my street name. But I’m wanna tell you today “Didge” is dead. This is someone new. Someone stronger. In the bible the greatest hero was a man with long hair named Samson. He was invincible.

MARKHEIM:  Kid needs to read that book a bit more closely. . . .

Get your tickets here,  now, while they last.

 

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"Markheim" - Robert Louis Stevenson

A Super Skip Ahead Sneak Peek

This from Markheim, two episodes ahead.

IOPHIEL: Welcome, friends from Hell. I know it seems a little cramped, but you’re actually inside the globe. Not the globe some call “the Show”, but rather a 3-D neon map of it. It was placed on top of this building as a beacon of truth, because beneath us human beings used to work at finding out the truth and then sharing it by printing it on folded sheets of cheap paper so their fellow human beings could read and know it.

I’m sort of a truth history trivia buff, in case you couldn’t tell.

Sadly, this globe we’re in, well, it’s not really a beacon any more. The truth-tellers that used to work below, are all gone: sacked and scattered. And once again humans will have to struggle to find another way. But that’s not what we’re here about tonight. Tonight, we’re about fighting fire with fire.

 

Tickets are on sale now for Sandbox Radio Live! Episode 8: “Fools Rush In”.  Reserve yours at Brown Paper Tickets here.

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Do You Believe in Sound?

Calling all Meat Fans of Markheim! 

Here’s the link to the latest episode podcast. And in keeping with tradition, I am posting the script below the fold, ‘cuz I know how you just love to follow along, right?

 

 

 

Mythical Reasons for Not Listening to Sandbox Radio

 

 I Hate Theatre

“I heard I had to see Sandbox Radio in the theatre to get the full experience.”

Hey, listen, as a playwright, let me  assure you that I hate theatre more than you do, and in ways you have never even thought to think of; but just because Sandbox Radio Live! is recorded at West of Lenin’s intimate but fabulous black box in front of a live audience, that doesn’t make it theatre anymore than Mike Daisey reading from his notes in the Bagely Wright makes what he does a play.  (You can delve more deeply into this distinction here.)  The podcast of Sandbox Radio is the full experience. The bonus of going to see it live is like getting to watch Chef Tom Douglas cook your dinner at Dahlia Lounge. Witnessing the prep’s a super-cool extra that only a few people are ever going to get to experience.

 

Prairie Home Companion sucks

“Another “old-timey” radio show?  Been there, listened to that. Next.”

Uh… you’re high.  Give just one of these podcasts a listen and you’ll see how far from Garrison Keillor our Mistress of Ceremonies Leslie Law takes these recordings. The band ain’t folksy, it’s thumpin’!  And the dialogue is distinctly R-Rated. You can listen to Sandbox Radio Live! on headphones at work, safe in the knowledge that what you’re doing is secretly and securely NSFW.

 

It’s Too Late Now

“If I try to plug into Markheim at this point I’ll be totally lost.”

Admittedly, listening to a randomly selected episode of my noir-angel-detective serial is sort of like picking up a comic book mid-volume and trying to figure out what’s going on.  In other words… it’s awesome!

 

Isn’t this a Seattle thing? 

“I don’t live in Seattle.”

Congratulations. I wouldn’t wish living here on a roving band of  Uruk-hai. Lucky for you, each podcast gives you ~90 minutes of rich Seattle experience while you can still bask in the sun and/or snow and/or hurricane conditions common where you currently live.

 

Isn’t this a Seattle thing? 

“I already live in Seattle.”

Congratulations! Don’t tell anybody else how awesome it is here, please! If you need put-off material, I have a great little geeky LOtR-insider joke about a roving band of Uruk-hai you can use. But here’s the thing, fellow Seattleite: even if you’ve lived here all your life, you don’t know this city like the writers of Sandbox Radio do. We’ve found the places, stories and people that make Seattle—hmm, what’s a kind way of putting this?—“unique”, yeah, that’s it. Witness this delicious morsel of real-life dialogue captured and then re-staged from Seattle’s moveable epicenter of danger-tainment, the 358 metro route to Aurora. (All dialogue guaranteed overheard on the back of the bus.)

GUY ONE: You wanna talk about John Lennon? Shit, that shit
wasn’t even meant for him.

GUY TWO: What?

GUY ONE: That bullet. S’posed to be Paul McCartney, yo.
That’s who dude wanted to shoot.

GUY TWO: Really. McCartney?

GUY ONE: That’s a fact. And dude will never get out of prison.

GUY TWO: Well, you know, they were all Irish.

GUY ONE: Sure.

GUY TWO: And I always thought that must’ve been weird, growing up Irish in London. Must’ve been hard for them. Where the music came from, you know?

 

 None of these writers are Davids Mamet or Sedaris.

“Sure, I’ve seen some of Sandbox Radio’s actors on Seattle’s Big House stages.  But if this ‘Scot Augustson’ is so great, why haven’t I seen anything of  his produced  at the Rep.”

Uh… you realize that question answers itself, right? A regular and relentlessly versatile contributor to Sandbox Radio, as well as other great companies throughout Seattle and beyond, Scot Augustson is without question one of the best artists currently living and writing for the stage. (At least I think he’s still alive.  Homey lives hard up in Rat City.) Scot’s always doing something new for Sandbox, ranging from an original poem, to a hardboiled detective story for forest animals to the new sure-to-be-a-hit Seattle serial, Cousin Katie from Ketchikan. The only reason I don’t consume myself with jealousy for Scot’s talent and accomplishments is that his stuff is far too much fun to watch, or, in the case of Sandbox Radio, listen to.  Every time I want to hate him he makes me giggle. Giggling is death to hate. You’d think someone would have put that fact to good use by now.

 

It’s too hip.

“My tux is at the cleaners.”

This bon mot comes from friend and colleague, Mark Handley, best known for his play Idioglossia, which was later produced as the Jodie Foster film, Nell.

It’s okay, Mark. I just pulled your thong out of my dryer.  You can wear that while you listen.  We’re  casual.

 

• Listen to the most recent episode of Sandbox Radio Live! here.
• Select from all the earlier recordings here.
• And if you really feel strongly about seeing it live, well our next show’s at West of Lenin in Fremont on April 29.

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A Few Things Wonderful about "Something Wicked..."

A Few Things Wonderful about “Something Wicked…”

You’re not crazy. You’re just overdue. There hasn’t been a new episode of Sandbox Radio Live! in over three months! 

Relax. 

Episode Seven: Eye of the Beholder  is on its way, packed with the sort of goodies you’ve grown accustomed to: plays by Elizabeth Heffron and Vincent Delaney, music by Jose Gonzales and the astounding Sandbox Radio Orchestra, my own noir-angel detective series, Markheim (word has it Sam’s due for a drop in), all tied together by Leslie Law’s expert, effervescent direction. Plus you can expect some brand new stuff like a poem by Elizabeth Austen read live by the author, or a brand new comic serial by Scot Augustson set in Seattle. (You’ll want to order your tix quick, since we always sell out.)

But before we get to all that, I need to make up for a deleterious omission. With all the crazyness of the holiday season, plus world premiering my first full-length play in four years, Ballard House Duet, I neglected my self-appointed duty of telling you the things I love about the previous episode of Sandbox Radio Live! -  Something Wicked This Way (available for download here.)

 

“Backscatter” by Vincent Delaney

Vince never disappoints with his sharp suspenseful writing, but this turn at modern horror would make Rod Sterling go goggle-eyed.  All props to the Sandbox Radio sound fx team.  Give a listen and tell me they don’t make it sound exactly like an airport. (This brings up a larger fascination for me when listening to these podcasts: how the live audience participates in and fuels the recording. There’s this extraordinary recursively looping sensation as you listen to them listening to you listen to the show in the future.) My favorite character in this one had to be Big Stu.  Somehow Eric Ray Anderson manages to add 300 pounds through the sheer suggestive power of his voice.

 

"The Back of the 358 -  #7" by Paul Mullin

Not much I want to say about these since I wrote them, except maybe that Kathryn Van Meter utterly nails the drunk chick.  Oh, and also, the likelihood that there will be any new pieces in this vein is slim,  given how King County Metro’s elimination of the Free Ride Zone has completely flattened the floridly diverse ecosystem that was once the back of the #358.

"Muscle Memory" by Omar Willey

This chillingly smooth and nasty pastoral will captivate you into a skin-crawling reverie.

 

“Quinceñera of the Damned" by Scot Augustson

What do you get when Mexican kitsch culture collides with Austrian Alpine snobbery in a fairytale context?  Something you can be pretty sure Scot Augustson conceived. Favorite line (impeccably delivered by the peerless Annette Toutonghi): “Gunter will think I’m a crazy clown gypsy whore.”

 

“The Back of the 358 - #8" by Paul Mullin

It’s never not unnerving to have to relive my #358 adventures as staged by some of Seattle’s finest actors.

 

 "Here it Comes" by Charles Leggett with the Sandbox Radio Orchestra

Chuck and friends rock another original blues number, this time folding some astro-physics in, cuz… ya know... Chuck rolls like that.

 "The Back of the 358 #9" by Paul Mullin

Please tell me this trip is almost over. If this woman punches or pukes on me, I’m gonna be highly irked.  (Favorite line {which I can say in modesty because I overheard it}: “At least in jail I get three meals a day and someone to love me.”)

 

"The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe

No one intones the American classics like Richard Ziman.  And his sweet spot is Poe. 

 

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Paul Dukas, arranged by Bruce Monroe

A mind-crackingly original arrangement: the kind of blastingly cool cut you can only get at Sandbox Radio.

 

"Markheim - Episode 6" by Paul Mullin

Per custom, I’m including the script for this below the fold.

 

"The Back of the 358 #10" by Paul Mullin

So long shirtless drunk chick!  May you find the peace that eludes your every semi-lucid thought.

 

"Shadow of Agnes" by Emily Conbere 

I raved about Emily’s first Sandbox Radio outing, “Sound Thieves” here, but who knows?  She could’ve fluked her debut success. She didn’t. This piece seals the deal and is quite possibly one of the creepiest short pieces I’ve ever heard.

Again, don’t take my word for it.  Go to the podcast and listen.  And then get your tickets to our brand new show, available here through Brown Paper Tickets.