Sale on eBooks until Dec. 30

My two theatre works I BROUGHT HOME A CHUPACABRA and DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN are available for the reduced price of $1.99 each (normally $2.99) until the end of December. Own and read my twisted little stage works. Get one or both for your Kindle today!

I BROUGHT HOME A CHUPACABRA... here

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN... here

A Very Nouveau Holiday 2016

For the last three years I have participated in Nouveau 47 Theatre's annual collection of short seasonal plays called A Very Nouveau Holiday. I'm pleased that once again a play of mine has been accepted.

Here's a blurb about the evening as a whole.

The production is made up of eight short plays about the holidays. As in previous years, the plays are from local, Texas playwrights and every one is a new work! The plays cover a wide range of topics, from send ups of popular holiday images (what if snow globe figures could talk?) to somber pieces that express how the holidays can make us question what we believe.

My piece this year is called CRANDALL ON PLANET X-16. It is set on an alien world as we join a group of galactic troopers mid-invasion. One of them is having a debilitating case of homesickness at the worse possible time. Directed by Chris McCleary.

CRANDALL ON PLANET X-16 in rehearsal

Here's the details:

Nouveau 47 presents A Very Nouveau Holiday 2016, playing December 9th-23rd, 2016. Playwrights include: Justin Locklear, Jim Kuenzer, Erin Burdette, James Burnside, Bill Otstott, Brad McEntire, Greg Silva, Christopher Soden and Chris-James Cognetta. Playing at the historic Margo Jones Theater in the Magnolia Lounge at Fair Park (1121 1st Ave. Dallas, TX). Performances are at 8:15pm on Fridays, 5:00 on Saturdays, 6:30pm on Sunday with pay-what-you-can performances on Mondays at 8:15pm. Tickets are $20 Fri.-Sat. and $15 on Sundays. More details can be found at Facebook.com/N47Theatre.

I am acting again

DREAMING ELECTRIC a tthe Ochre House

I was in a play. It was called DREAMING ELECTRIC. I played a rather fictionalized version of the real-life inventor/businessman George Westinghouse.

It has been nearly a decade since I was solely an actor in a production outside of my own projects.

The play was a drawing room dramedy about the inventor, Nikola Tesla. He throws a birthday party for himself and invites some friends over to unveil his most recent invention, wireless technology. His friends arrive, but so do some of his fiercest competitors such as Thomas Edison and J. P. Morgan.

DREAMING ELECTRIC was written and directed by Kevin Grammer. I had never worked at the Ochre House before and hadn't seen a production there in ages (the last thing I saw was UMLAUF'S BICYCLE, their weird, barely-coherent mash-up of the Marx Brothers and the Myth of Icarus, back in 2010).

I was surprised when I arrived at the first rehearsal that the script was not finished. In fact, we "rehearsed" every weeknight for two weeks by sitting around a table and reading through the play-in-progress. We'd read it out loud twice each night, incorporating rewrites and the few added pages. It was "finished" about a week before we opened and we put the play on its feet and added the tech over the course of about six rehearsals. This seemed incredibly ineffecient to me, but, hey, I was just a hired gun on this one. Not my place to mess with the process. I did not criticize or complain. I went along with it.

The play hit a decent stride about a week after opening. Reviews were positive, the production team was happy and audiences seemed to dig it.

The experience was ultimately very rewarding for me because of the people involved. I've always enjoyed Justin Locklear (who played Tesla) as a performer and as a person and I was grateful he thought of me for the play. I never audition for stuff anymore because 1.) very few things appeal to me as an artist and 2.) plays take a lot of time and energy, so I might as well do my own stuff. The rest of the actors were also really nice folks and decent to really good performers. And even though I didn't quite dig Kevin's methods of writing and directing, he proved to be a really nice guy as well.

The thing wrapped up November 19th. 

Problem Solvers of the World

I had a screenwriting teacher one time call artists "The Problem Solvers of the World." Seems about right. And means the work of artists is needed more than ever in the world right now...

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/dribblefunk

Just Say Thanks After the Show

Theatre people, particularly actors, are not always great at taking compliments/feedback/criticism/etc. from audience members after a performance. In the lobby, post-show, one can find actors making excuses, leaning into a compliments, becoming defensive or pleading for a second chance. These are not a great responses. I have found the best policy is just to say "thank you," and then, you know, live your life. 

A little stream-of-conscious talk in the local park. Got a tiny mic. Trying to minimize the sound of wind...

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/dribblefunk

Off the Grind...

I have retreated a bit from the grind. The grind is what I call the ever-present need to keep getting work in front of people, to keep my name out there, to try to move the ball that is my career further down the field ( a very crowded, continually difficult, and perpetually younger field).

I am now nearly a year into my 40s and my wife and I are expecting our first kiddo this coming winter. I feel a change in my perspective, a shifting in my outlook and ambitions. I look back on the last 25 years of making theatre and realize I have accomplished some of the things that I really wanted, some things I thought I really wanted and a lot of just wheel-spinning achievements that ultimately didn't really move me very far in the direction I wanted to go.

And part of that dilemma is that I never really settled on what direction I actually wanted to go.

Starting out I just wanted to do. I wanted to make stuff, particularly theatre, of any kind, as most young artists do. Then, after some time, I wanted to see what I could pull off. I pushed hard against the limits of myself. The trick wasn't to do something of super high quality or of super high originality, but just to do it. To actually pull it off.

As I began to develop an original voice and explore different directions my artistic bent would take me, I leaned towards things I began to wear as badges of identity... solo performance, weird plays with kitsch factors, long-form improv.

Since the new year, I have produced two projects. I co-wrote (with my friend Jeff), designed, directed and produced a full-length play called NIGHT OF THE TARANTUBEARS. It ran for two weekends, had a great cast of actors that I genuinely enjoyed working with, was reviewed by one media source (positively) and was seen by very few people. It will probably not go anywhere. The other project this past June was the 3rd Annual Dallas Solo Fest. I brought in eight solo performers from around the country showcasing a variety of different kinds of one-person shows. It was marginally successful. Some shows kicked ass, some not so much. It had a solid opening weekend and then a pretty over-looked second weekend. It lost money. I will do it again next year... mostly out of spite. I refuse to end the DSF on a note of semi-failure.

As far as the amount of activity I have turned out, on average, year after year for the last two decades, this past year has been paltry. Paultry in the extreme.

I have one 90% finished play I wrote last year that was commissioned by a local theatre. I pulled it after the first few production meetings. It was too big for the organization, which was partly my fault for not keeping the scope of the organization in mind and partly their fault for not having their shit together. I don't know quite what to do with the play (except, you know, fine tune it and do some readings somewhere). I think about producing it myself for my small company Audacity, but I fear another world-premiere being overlooked again (i.e. in playwriting circles this means "wasted").

This summer I completed two other plays. I attended a writing retreat and worked up a full-length reboot of the first play I ever wrote, a one-act from 1996 called ARSENIC & ROSES (this new version doesn't have a name yet). It, too, is about 90% complete. Again, I'm not sure what to do with it. The other play is a ten-minute piece for a collection of holiday shows a tiny theatre group does every year. I've had a piece presented in it for the last three years. It is a fun, easy, low-stakes thing. There's a chance it won't be selected this year, but I hope it is.

I have two ideas that I will develop into works for the stage percolating in my brain. One a solo piece and the other a contemporary full-length tragedy. The tragedy has the potential to be part of the New Play Circuit, since it will tackle race, class, and other social-economic things that theatres seem to salivate over nowadays. It might be great or it might be crap. If it is great, it may put me on the map, or it might just be another in a long line of things I create that make absolutely no impact on the larger cultural landscape. 

This raises the question: do I want to be part of the larger cultural landscape? I have been playing the "maverick theatre artist" so long, I can't even see the cultural mainstream any longer. I can't see why it is valuable, why I should go after it. 

The thing is, I can't see any growth on the indie level any longer. I have practically self-exiled myself away from the bigger game. I have the chops now and the knowledge of my craft, but I'm tired of making things that make no ripples. But without getting in the game at all, I'm just that guy who "used to do stuff." 

I'll just be on the sidelines, with all my chops and knowledge, not even using it.

I wish I knew what other theatres artists did, particularly playwrights. How and why they decided to enter the arena of American Theatre. Was that the goal, or was it a stepping stone to ultimately being a show runner for television? How'd they get an agent? How'd they get into residencies? Did they all go to Yale or Brown or Columbia? Did they all do the route of South Coast Rep, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramtists and so on? If so, how'd they get on that route?

Most of all, I'd wanna ask them, was it fulfilling? Did adding plays to the world, even if they are done Off-Broadway, Regionally or even on Broadway itself (they still do that, right?), did it give them the feeling that they were actually making a difference?

I can't tell anymore.

So, I'm taking this time to reflect, to settle under myself, to reformulate what I want to do in the theatre. What direction do I want to go? 

I can't stay where I am.

I'm sure I'll get restless again. I'll get that itch to create, to get out there. I'll jump back into the grind. Until then, Imma just gonna try to figure some stuff out...

Sundown's 5th Annual Drunken Mixed Tape

Two years ago, Sundown presented my extremely short work LIZARD BOY EATS A DORITO. This year, they are doing a sort of "Best of..." and LIZARD BOY was chosen.

Here's the details:

SUNDOWN COLLABORATIVE THEATRE PRESENTS…
“WE ALL (STILL) MAKE MISTAKES, THE B SIDES: A DRUNKEN MIXTAPE
SUNDOWN’S 5TH ANNUAL(ISH) SHORT WORKS FESTIVAL”
SEPTEMBER 9-11, 16-18, 23-25, 30- OCTOBER 2 @ 8PM

GREEN SPACE ARTS COLLECTIVE
529 MALONE
DENTON, TX 76201

We All (Still) Make Mistakes, The B Sides: A Drunken Mixtape features a variety of stellar acts ranging from the scripted and linear to the devised and absurd. This year’s festival explores how some of our biggest mistakes may inspire breakthroughs both personally and artistically.

In a new festival format, each night of performances will feature a different line-up of acts. 12 nights, 14 works, 1 festival!

Tickets are $12 general admission, $10 students/seniors.
Side B Special: Bring your program back to an additional performance and receive $8 admission.

To reserve tickets or pay in advance, call 940-220-9302 or email boxoffice@sundowntheatre.org.

info@sundowntheatre.org
http://www.sundowntheatre.org/

Bike Soccer Jamboree Episode 52 - YouTube Tricks

In Episode 52 of the Bike Soccer Jamboree Podcast I explain how  and why I shot this YouTube video. If you want a behind-the-scenes breakdown, give it a listen... HERE

Kathy George Indie Artist Residency

An ambience conducive to creativity

A few weeks back (August 12-19), I served as the first theatre-artist-in-residence at the Kathy George Indie Artist Residency in Ashford, Washington. Sponsored by Seattle's Minion Productions, this week-long retreat offered me a chance to get away from my regular routine and concentrate on my writing in the isolated and idyllic setting of Ashford, Washington, right next to Mount Rainier National Park.

Grant Knutson of Minion Productions offered me a great cabin. Tucked a bit off an access road in dense woods, it was a perfect place to focus. Just me, alone, with the work that needed to be done. I went up specifically to finish a full-length play. The play in question is a reboot of the first play I ever wrote, Arsenic & Roses.

I wrote the one-act Arsenic & Roses in 1996 while I was in college studying acting. It had its first production at the College of Santa Fe in the tiny Weckesser Studio black box. I directed it myself. Over the years the play has been presented a number of times. With every production I tweaked it and tried to make it better.

As the 20 year mark approached (geez, I've been writing plays now for 20 years!), I wanted to stop fiddling with Arsenic and Roses. But I was not happy with it. Like most early works, it falls so far short of the current work I do. So, I figured I'd just rewrite the thing. From scratch.

Sitting down in the tiny A-frame cabin the first full day I was there was so difficult. After staring at the void for nearly forty minutes, I gradually began to put words to page, then to keyboard and screen. I wrote the first few pages and then let the piece take me forward. Everyday, I would tally the page count. Some days I only created 7 pages. On one particulalrly prolific day during the week, I completed 15 pages.

I would alternate two roughly two or three hour work sessions each day with walks outdoors, or the occassional cigar on the deck out front. It was really kinda nice once I settled into a routine.

Afternoon walk

The goal wasn't perfection, only completion. And it worked. After a full week, I had a 62 page, full-length reboot. I might rename it Que Sera, Giant Monster. I will, of course, keep working on it.

This was the first arts residency/retreat I have been a part of. It was hugely beneficial. Much gratitude to Grant at Minion. I will be taking a second pass at the first draft I completed at the cabin later in the month and then begin the arduous task of play development readings and workshops, submissions and then eventual productions. I will rename this new version of the play (I just don't know what yet).

Bike Soccer Jamboree Episode 51 - Work Habits

In Episode 51 of the completely unnecessary podcast Bike Soccer Jamboree, Jeff Hernandez and I discuss living the creative life. We go over productivity routines, doing a few big, important things vs. lots of small projects and, most of all, how to maneuver daily life to get shit done.

Oh, and the glory of $0.17 spiral notebooks.

Here’s an excerpt:

I’ve really started to see through things I consider bullshit. For myself, I have to consider, am I doing this so-called ‘creative work’ for real or am I just bandaging over my feelings, trying to feel creative, by doing something easy and short-handy? So I can tell myself I’m a creative person? What I’m saying is, you have to chisel out the time to do the important stuff. It has to be important enough to you to make you want to do it. You don’t makeyourself do it, you just are organically gonna do it.

I don't always give a shout out to the BSJ podcasts, but this one is totally worth a listen... HERE.

Camp Cooking Backyard Test

For the last few days I've had a hankering to go camping. Two things: 1.) I don't have a bunch of money to sink on buying gear and 2.) it is too hot here in Texas to actually go camp out for a while.

To remedy the first, I am frugally gathering equipment, some of it DIY. For the weather, I'll just have to wait until the wort of the summer dies down.

Here's me testing a Mainstay "Grease Pot" I got from Walmart for under $7. It should work out pretty well considering I won't be using it too terribly often.

Watch more of my videos at: http://youtube.com/dribblefunk

My history in comedy

Over the years, since the early 2000s, I have performed in a variety of comedy troupes and related acts. There was sketch comedy then improv. Ensemble work, then solo improv. Live shows now podcasts. I have learned a great deal from each troupe, even (or especially) when the troupe featured volatile interpersonal dynamics. I have discovered over the past 20 years that I like to be in charge, that I like virtuousity and experimentation and that I am comfortable not being the "funniest guy on stage," but the most dependably skilled craftsman. 

Below is an overview if the many comedy troupe/acts I have been involved with...

ESTRANGED BEDFELLOWS
Santa Fe, NM (1996-1998)

In college, me and a classmate named Walter Wong put together a sketch comedy troupe on campus. We had about seen members and ran for three years (I left after 2 to study abroad in London).

I had my first taste of running a performance troupe as well as writing and performing comedy. As a group, we clashed internally a few times, but the shows were always awesome.

MOLOTOV COCKROACH
New York, NY (1999-2000)

Started by Erin Scott, this troupe originally performed sketches in the back room of the Telephone Bar in New York City. I liked the people involved quite a bit. It was me, Erin, Todd, Lydia and Jacqueline. I remember we rehearsed a lot, usually in the backyard of Erin's apartment, which was a teeny tiny backyard.

We also rehearsed several times in the downstairs space of a Dean & Deluca coffeeshop south of Union Square, which felt like a very chic place to rehearse.

I wrote a lot of sketches. I designed the posters.

This troupe eventually started doing improv because, Erin just declared one day that we would be an improv troupe and would stop doing sketch. I performed another time or two, but having no interest in improv at the time, I gradually pulled away from this troupe.

A few months later, I moved back to Texas from New York.

MILD DEMENTIA CONTINUOUS-PLAY VARIETY HOUR
Dallas, TX (2000-2005)

Founded by my friend Vikas Adam and myself, this little troupe specialized in "experimental" comedy.

Final MD show at 2005 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, Austin TX

FRENCH CLUB DROPOUTS
Dallas, TX (2004-2006)

Last show of FCDs... March 25, 2006 at the Pocket Sandwich Theater

In 2004 Mild Dementia was performing at the West End Comedy Theater in Dallas. A Canadian guy named Brandon Enriques was working there as a bartender and approached me about being in an improv group he was putting together. Since I hadn't performed much improv up until that point, I said "sure."

It was a lot of fun at the beginning, though I quickly grew to hate the short form games. Brandon proved to be an inefficient leader and was often high while doing the actual sets. He drifted off after a few months and I kept the troupe performing under the same name for another year, expanding our gigs to the Pocket Sandwich Theater and to the Out of Bounds Festival in Austin. 

French Club Dropouts at the 2005 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, Austin TX

The troupe was composed of Brandon, me, Victoria Hines, Angie Epley, Jeff Swearingen and John Rawley. The French Club Dropouts came to an end with a show at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre in March of 2006. Brandon came back to do the final show.

FUN GRIP IMPROV
Dallas, TX (2004-2014)

Fun Grip at the 2010 Big Sexy Weekend of Improv (Addison TX)

Jeff Swearingen and I had worked together for several years and as Mild Dementia wound down, we decided the put together an improv duo. We also did French Club Dropouts on top of this, but they came a bit later.

Originally, we were called Fun Dip, but changed it a few years in. Jeff and I look like a comedy duo: he's wiry and short, I'm tall and heavy. We morphed into a good team over the decade we performed together. We would give each other a hard time on stage or try to crack each other up, all while maintaining a reasonable forward-moving narrative filled with off-kilter characters.

We traveled and performed widely. Unfortunately, we didn't do well when it came to workshops. Jeff and I differ on our teaching methods and our views on storytelling. Eventually, the thing ran its course, precipitated by a disasterous weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma where we missed the first night, taught a confusing and aggressive workshop and then bombed during our final show. To top it off, there was an ice storm on the drive back to Dallas.

We just kind of stopped booking gigs (well, I did. I was the organizer of the troupe. Jeff just showed up and performed). This was 2014. I also started turning way from improv around this time period as well, no longer finding it as fulfilling as I once had.

Jeff and I performing as Fun Grip at the 2013 Improv Festival of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City OK)

DRIBBLE FUNK SOLO IMPROV
Dallas, TX (2005-2014)

Dribble Funk is a completely improvised (i.e. NOT scripted) solo performance format I developed starting in early 2005. The piece usually lasts anywhere from 20 to 50 minutes - sometimes longer. It starts with either a short, informal Q and A with an audience member or a one-word suggestion. This chat or suggestion becomes the fodder for a spontaneous act of theatre. During the Dribble Funk, the solo performer portrays multiple characters in a cascading, interrelated network of improvised scenes, songs, monologues, abstractions and audience interactions that evolve into an unexpected multi-arc storyline. The structure and techniques of the format continue to evolve with each performance, but the Dribble Funk essentially surfaces in that crossroads between traditional theatre, long-form improvisation and storytelling.

A HISTORY (of sorts)...
Before I performed improv, I did a great deal of sketch comedy. Booking sketch groups into festivals and venues around the country became a pain in the ass. Sketch involved coordinating rehearsals with everyone, supplying travel and lodging for multiple troop members, including transporting and storing props, setting up tech rehearsals, and a hundred other logistics that had nothing to do with the actual performance. Improv groups were the same (except for the props). People inevitably complained, caused friction or refused to pull their weight and the shows suffered. I began searching for a very portable alternative that would also offer more challenge for me personally. What could I do with no props, and for that matter, nobody else on stage? I began doing traditional scripted solo theatre work around this time. I'd heard of Andy Eninger and his Sybil format in 2003 or 2004 (I later directed one of his plays). I never saw him perform solo, but I figured hey, if someone is doing it... About this same time, my friend Bearded Lamb also began doing solo improv. Then, a few years later I stumbled upon Jill Bernard and her wonderful format Drum Machine. I discovered the actual sub-arcana of solo improvisation is pretty scarce. After all, who'd be crazy enough to actually do this stuff? Improv is rough enough with a whole group of people. But to do it alone?!

Solo improv brought with it lots of technique/performance problems regular actors/improvisers never have to deal with. I figured the best thing to do was workshop it. I believe in process and experimentation and by running the beast in front of live audiences I could constantly tweak, rearrange, re-develop and whittle away at it. 


I had the opportunity to work on Dribble Funk over the course of numerous performances in order to create a completely original solo-improvised format. This format includes multiple characters, multi-pronged story arcs, unique interactions with the audience, live music, and interactive artworks. The goal was to develop a fast-paced, utterly original hybrid theatrical event: a unique celebration that is an abstraction of ordinary long-form improvisation and traditional static (i.e. storyteller sits in chair) storytelling. This new hybrid would be a pure and true act of theatre! 

---

A TOE IN THE WATER...

For a time, in late 2005 and early 2006, I teamed up with a kick-ass guitarist, Mr. Jaymes Gregory (who's a performer in his own right). Mr. Gregory accompanied the performance with an improvised score as I unfolded a refracted, cascading improvisation. Mr. Gregory and I took this version of the Dribble Funk to various venues in the Dallas area. Then, Mr. Gregory bailed on a show and I realized in order for it to be truly solo improvisation I'd have to keep developing the format. The addition of live music, especially as an opener to the evening, however, proved fortunate. In the summer of 2008 I finally had a chance to work with Andy Eninger at Chicago's The Second City and absorb some of the techniques of his format Sybil. Sybil shares some performance techniques with the Dribble Funk. There seems to be some necessary overlap, though enough differences to make them each distinct formats (Dribble Funk for example, uses a Narrator/Presenter character that is separate from the other characters or the performer of the piece, while Sybil focuses exclusively on the characters themselves relaying the incidents of the scenes). 

I have had the pleasure to perform Dribble Funk in places as disparate as Tulsa, Oklahoma and Hong Kong, with many venues in between.

As of autumn 2008 development of Dribble Funk has slowed considerably as other projects have popped up to fill my plate. Then, a concentrated focus on Dribble Funk re-emerged in mid-2010. Currently, I perform the piece occasionally, as it fits in with a wider body of artistic work I am pursuing.

In 2013 I performed a 380 minute (over 6 hours) Dribble Funk set alone onstage, in celebration of my 38th birthday. It was called Dribble Funk 380. 

In the summer of 2014, I performed the Dribble Funk for the last time (for the foreseeable future).

THE VICTIMS IMPROV
Dallas, TX (2007-2008)

I joined John Rawley, Ben Bryant and Jeff Swearingen in the improv troupe they put together a few months before a returned from living for a year in Hong Kong.

The troupe did short and long form improv. Over time, I disagreed with the direction I wanted the work to go. I wanted more "giant robot" scenerios and absolutely NO short form. Rawley, who was acting as makeshift leader, preferred grounded, realistic interactions and a mix of short and long form. Also, they expanded the troupe to nearly nine people at one point. Stage time became minimal with so many people. 

I parted ways with the troupe amicably and occasionally still perform with them. They are good people, just weren't doing the kind of improv I wanted to do. Coincidentally, they dropped short form and leveled the troupe at five members later on (Ben also moved on, but James Chandler, Kyle Bradford and Brian Kinkade stepped in). They also leaned more and more towards bizarre and non-realistic scenerios in the years that followed.

MONOLOGUE JAM
Dallas, TX (2011-present)

Here's the idea: a lone performer on the stage takes a suggestion given by the audience and then simply tells a compelling story or monologue, in character, based on that suggestion. I have been interested in this precisely because of the apparent simplicity.

Anyway, before the holidays in 2010, I brought the idea up to my friend John Rawley, who runs the Alternative Comedy Theater as a possible project and new format to work on. He liked it, so we gathered up our friend and colleague (and all-around improv guy) Jeff Swearingen and rehearsed the format a a few times.

The Monologue Jam is a simple (perhaps new?) format presented in two possible sections. 

Section one involves individual performers taking a stab at improvised story-telling based on an audience suggestion.

Section two - the optional one - is a "round robbin" (or "jam") session where the performers tag in and out continuing a single storyline based on an audience suggestion.

The Monologue Jam continues to evolve. In 2014 & 2015 it became its own stand-alone evening with the addition of games, contests, give-aways, etc. Tyler Bryce ended up hosting it in Austin at the Institution Theater as a monthly gig in 2015 and 2016, expanding the concept with monologue workshops and even (on one occasion) puppetry.

MONOLOOGUE JAMS:

» February 2011 at Cafe Bohemia (Plano TX) First Annual
» January 2012 at Cafe Bohemia (Plano TX) Second Annual
» June 2012 as part of the Big Sexy Weekend of Improv, Dyer Street Bar (Dallas TX)
» July 2012 at the Cafe Bohemia (Plano TX) as part of a fund-raiser
» January 2013 at Cafe Bohemia (Plano TX) Third Annual
» May 2013 as part of the Big Sexy Weekend of Improv, Pocket Sandwich Theater (Dallas TX)
» March 2014 at Cafe Bohemia (Plano TX) 4th Annual » July 2014 as part of the Big Sexy Weekend of Improv, Margo Jones Theatre (Dallas TX)
» November 2014 at the Margo Jones Theatre, Fair Park (Dallas TX)
» June 2015 as part the Big Sexy Weekend of Improv, Pocket Sandwich Theater (Dallas TX)
» Starting in January 2015 thru late 2016 the Monologue Jam branched out to Austin, Texas as well, at the Institution Theater, hosted by Tyler Bryce.

» The Monologue Jam made a return as part of the 2018 and 2019 Big Sexy Weekend of Improv presented by the Alternative Comedy Theater.

» July 9, 2022 saw a return of the Monologue Jam, hosted by founder Brad McEntire at the 12th Annual Big Weekend of Improv presented by the Alternative Comedy Theater.

THE RUMBLESHANKS TAPES
Online improvised podcast (2015-present)

New place to get work done

Found a great little coffee shop in my neighborhood. Good place to get some work done. # WritersLife

My Home in Dallas

Two years ago, I left this comment on a post by Will Power in regards to his article on HowlRound. He had recently moved to Dallas with his family so he could be the Artist-in-residence at the Dallas Theater Center. I have tweaked it a bit and reposted it here. It sums up what I set out to do and why I chose Dallas to do it in...

#   #   #

Will, great post! You know, I'm operating on the fringe-size/indie side of things and I discovered the same thing about Dallas (which was a surprising revelation because I grew up around here).

I lived and worked in NYC. And I have visited Chicago for long stints at a time. When I finally committed to a career as a theatre-maker and turned my attention to specializing in my own idiosyncratic stage creations, I considered moving a bunch of different places: Minneapolis, Seattle or joining the bulk of my playwriting colleagues who have nestled in Brooklyn. 

Then I started thinking about what I actually wanted to do.

I had some concrete aims:

I wanted to create theatre where it didn't cost an arm and leg. Simple things like getting rehearsal space or building sets didn't have to be logistical nightmares. I'll admit, 24 hour places like Walmart, Kinko's and CVS are handy when you are producing theatre. So is having mega hardware stores like Lowe's nearby. After trying to move a couch across several boroughs in NYC one time for a play I realized I liked having space and easy transportation (heck yeah to harnessing the power of a pick-up truck for theatre!). These are all practical considerations of the actual "making" process that I took for granted until I went to other big cities around the country. I have lived in New York, but also in London and Hong Kong. Making theatre in these cities was difficult.

I didn't want to spend a fortune just to maintain a sustenance-level lifestyle. Dallas is comparatively inexpensive and the standard of living is super high. I have rented those four bedroom houses you talked about, complete with huge backyards and plenty of space, central air and heat, etc. for less than the amount I used to spend to sublet a *room* back in NYC. With space comes a surprising level of freedom (for rehearsals, meetings, thinking, building, etc.)

I wanted to travel. My wife casually pointed out on a map one time that Dallas is centered literally in the middle of the entire country. With a giant international airport here and no aversion to driving places (hell, it takes more than 12 hours to drive across the state... so pretty much anywhere in the midwest or south seems pretty close by Texas standards) Dallas makes a great "homebase." I consider the whole country my "field of operation" and keep coming back to Dallas as my welcoming HQ. From here I've taken pieces to festivals and venues all over North America.

Lastly, I didn't realize southern hospitality was an actual thing until I went other places. Dallas is a welcoming place. The arts patrons here are curious, sophisticated and actually pretty open-minded. Dallas, like Austin, is a little dash of blue in a mostly red state, politically. I like that. It is a good mix. I'm not saying there is more audience than other places, just that most of the time, the audiences here in Dallas are pretty engaged and smart. 

I'm producing my first large arts festival - the Dallas Solo Fest - at the historic Margo Jones Theatre in Fair Park later this month and I have solo performers coming in from all over the country. As the lead up to the fest is underway, it has been a pleasure to begin to show off Dallas to them. I'm hoping they leave with a good impression of the place and community here.

Anyway, great write-up, Will. Glad you and your fam are here. Glad you have experienced the positive side of Dallas for a working theatre artist.

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I am about to move into a new chapter in my theatre career, with a new focus. But I am still gonna be here around Dallas. It is still my home and my artistic HQ.