Libations to Drama
Praise For Plasticity
Plasticity Opens January 27th
In this multimedia production, a comatose man recreates his identity by delving deeply into his memories, while a hovering circle of doctors and loved ones populate the medical and legal drama, forming scheming camps over grave […]
The Dope on Ancient Olympians
As the Rio Olympics captivate us with fantastical feats of athleticism, it’s hard not to reflect on the glorious origins of the Greek Olympiad, dating back to 776 BC, and […]
Donald in Dismaland
It should be a relief to artists everywhere to see that international notoriety and its accompanying wealth hasn’t dulled the creative blade of Banksy. The bête noire of the gallery […]
Missive From Morocco #6 – Anatomy of an Assassination
I died last night. Literally… “General Yuya” bit the dust and that’s what you get when you refuse loyalty to a child king. Tutankhamun may have been the chosen pharaoh of […]
Missive From Morocco #5 – critical crew
Making television is a high pressure gig. If you’re in a crucial position, one mistake will have you packing your bags– fired and replaced– before the footage gets downloaded from the camera. The […]
Missive From Morocco #4 – movie magic
Movie magic… it’s what keeps us seated in front of luminous screens, large and small, for countless hours on end. When you’re behind the scenes of a large scale production like SpikeTV’s Tut, […]
Missive From Morocco #3 – tug of war
One of the most evocative symbols in hieroglyphics is the Eye of Horace, god of the pharaohs, often depicted as a human with a falcon head, which is a nice head […]
Missive From Morocco #2 – allies & enemies
5:30 am and I’m ferreting in the dark for a snooze button. My alarm is weaker than usual. Maybe I forgot to kick the volume up before I hit the sack. What’s […]
Missive From Morocco #1 – the adventure begins
Week one of working on Tut, Spike TV’s maiden drama series, directed by David Von Ancken and starring Sir Ben Kingsley. I’m playing a general in King Tut’s army and I’ve been knee […]
The Agony/Ecstasy of a Solo Show
The most disheartening question you will ever hear from an actor friend is “Will you come see my solo show?” We’ve all cringed in our seats, eyeing the cell phone […]
Tellin’ It Like It Should Be
Discerning what’s real and what’s not in our increasingly byte-sized reality is becoming a savagely challenging task. Add a home address in Hollywood, CA. and it can become downright surrealistic. […]
The Magic Bowl Part 1
Private Ritual, Public Display There’s no better immersion into the vast canon of classical music than an al fresco, starlit night at the Hollywood Bowl. It’s a testament to Los […]
The Magic Bowl, Part 2 – Madness and Musical Creativity
Grand Tours, as they were known in the 17th Century, were responsible for educating and ultimately inspiring our most famous composers. The idea is believed to have originated in England. After an […]
One-Man Shows and the Woman Who Perfected Them
Even though I’ve been the only person on stage for five original theater pieces, I never tell people I’m doing a “one-man” show. There’s no faster way to turn […]
How To Get Filthy Rich In The Theater
Exactly how does one compete with a film like Avatar? Box office grosses have surpassed a billion dollars at this point, and eager spectators are still flocking. When your average […]
The One Man Odyssey
The history of the one-person show is likely as old as language itself. Maybe older. It’s not unreasonable to imagine an overly animated, pre-linguistic Australopithecus grunting out story points in […]
The Air In Ojai
I did not recognize the 805 area code, but after answering my reliably spotty iPhone, I was surprised to learn it was an equity theater in Ojai, California who wanted […]
Unfriendly Skies
The pleasure of doing anything on stage is who might be in the audience that night, and I don’t mean celebrities. Exiting the theater last night, I was greeted by […]
The Topography of an Audience pt 1
From the stage, it’s never boring figuring out what type of audience you‘re performing for. Audiences are limitlessly fascinating. They’re living organisms. They may act as a whole, but like […]
The Topography of an Audience pt 2
Once they settle into their seats, the topography of an audience is a fascinating thing to measure. Bleecker 45 is a 300 seat house with a thrust stage, meaning the […]
Control, Alt, Repeat
“How do you remember all those words?” It’s a common question civilians often ask of actors. And the basic answer, save horse-sized pills of Ginkgo biloba, is brutal repetition. […]
You Asked For It
Whenever you produce a play, you can be sure there’ll be a confluence of conspiracies awaiting you prior to opening that will insure the maximum amount of stress and anxiety […]
My Creative Genius
People often ask me, “How do you do it? How do you continually create such timelessly inspiring oeuvres of sesquapedalianism?” I laugh, sometimes to myself, because in truth, there’s really no […]
Review: Criticising the Critics
There’s nothing quite like being reviewed in the city of Manhattan. Whether it’s art, food, theater or design, the reviewers in this town pride themselves on never being impressed. They […]