Lorraine reads at the BWS series

Strapped in?

Helmet on?

BROOKLYN WRITERS SPACE READING SERIES PRESENTS

**MARIAN FONTANA ** MARCIA LERNER ** ERIK LEWIS ** LORRAINE MARTINDALE**
MAY 19 — UNION HALL 7PM
Union Hall (Downstairs) 702 Union Street @ 5th Ave
*FREE*


Marian Fontana
Marian Fontana is a writer and comedienne whose plays and one-woman shows have been performed at Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theater, Variety Arts and more. As a writer, her work has appeared in The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Marian's memoir A Widow's Walk was published in September, 2005 by Simon and Schuster and was chosen by People Magazine for the top ten great reads of 2005.

Marcia Lerner
Marcia Lerner writes fiction and has just completed a novel. She lives in Brooklyn.

Erik Lewis
Erik Lewis is a television producer, writer, documentarian and videomaker. He co-produced and co-directed the documentary "Signed, Sealed and Delivered" that won First Prize for Video Documentary in 1982 at the U.S. Film and Video Festival (what became the Sundance Festival). Mr. Lewis has written several stage and screen plays (one of which was optioned) and is currently enrolled in the Creative Writing Masters Program at City College of NY. Mr. Lewis is currently the Director of a public access television station in Westchester County.

Lorraine Martindale
Lorraine Martindale recently received an MFA from the New School in Fiction Writing. She is at work on a novel entitled A Geometric Circle of Notes, and on a collaborative project for zingmagazine. She lives in Brooklyn.

From Witness for Peace

Urgent: Stop "Plan Mexico"

Congress to vote this week on Merida Initiative
Witness for Peace, Mexico
May 12, 2008

One bill. Two wars.

As early as tomorrow,
Congress will vote on a bill
to continue funding two failed wars:
Iraq and the "war on drugs."

This week Congress will likely vote on a supplemental appropriations bill dominated by Iraq war funding. The bill, in addition to pouring billions more into the devastating occupation of Iraq, would include the notorious Merida Initiative. This security assistance package, popularly dubbed "Plan Mexico," would provide hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars to Mexican and Central American security forces in the name of combating drug trafficking and crime. Proposals thus far would spend the bulk of the money on military equipment for Mexican forces known for consistent human rights violations.

We at Witness for Peace know that arming foreign militaries will not solve our drug problem, a fact now painfully obvious in Colombia. After eight years and over five billion dollars of Plan Colombia, the massive anti-drug experiment has failed remarkably. The single goal of U.S. drug policy in Colombia was to see a 50 percent reduction in the production of coca, the raw material for cocaine. Today there is as much coca growing in Colombia as there was the year Plan Colombia began. There is no reason to believe that sending helicopters to stop drug traffic in Mexico will work any better than sending helicopters to stop drug production in Colombia. Let's learn from our mistakes instead of repeating them. (For further background and analysis please see the talking points below.)

TAKE ACTION: The Time is Now!

To prevent passage of this senseless military package, we need to pressure our Congressional representatives NOW. With the vote just days away, this may be our last opportunity to stop it.

Call the offices of your representatives and ask that the Merida Initiative funding be eliminated from the supplemental appropriations bill. Use the talking points below. To reach your representatives' offices, call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Ask to be connected to your House or Senate member (give your state and zip code if you're not sure who it is).

Call the office of Howard Berman, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs committee, to say you oppose authorization of the Merida Initiative: 202-225-4695. If your representative is on the committee, also ask them to oppose Berman's steps towards authorization. Click here to find out if your rep is a member.

Talking Points for Opposing the Merida Initiative

A. The initiative would not effectively combat drug-trafficking

The Merida Initiative would fail to have a lasting impact on drug trafficking for three key reasons:

1. Military interdiction efforts have a "balloon" effect. In Colombia, U.S. military efforts to stop coca production and trafficking in key locations have simply shifted production and trafficking to new locations. The resulting proliferation is evident: the number of coca-producing states in Colombia has jumped from 8 to 24 over the course of Plan Colombia. The Merida Initiative would likely have a parallel effect on drug trafficking. As stated by the Centro Pro, a national human rights organization in Mexico City, "History has proven time and time again that such law enforcement efforts merely divert trafficking routes, creating a geographic shuffle of social and criminal problems."

2. The Merida Initiative ignores a root cause of the problem: U.S. demand. Widespread drug use in the U.S. makes drug trafficking a lucrative business. Colombia has taught us that so long as demand remains high, even a multi-billion dollar military solution will fail. Even the right-wing RAND Corporation has concluded that far-flung attempts to stop drugs at their source is 23 times less cost effective than domestic drug treatment at home. Yet, according to the current budget, the Merida Initiative destines not a single penny of its funds to state-side drug demand reduction programs.

3. The Merida Initiative model also fails to recognize poverty as another root cause of drug trafficking. Fifty million people in Mexico live in poverty, creating conditions for intense migration and powerful black markets. Minimum wage is barely five dollars per DAY, which is by all standards unlivable, and many people don't even make that. The U.S. has played a role in shaping this desperate reality through structural adjustment and trade policies that have exacerbated unemployment and added to the cost of living for many. So long as such poverty persists in Mexico, some Mexicans will continue to choose drug-running as a lucrative alternative to migration or unemployment. So long as the U.S. implements policies that perpetuate Mexico's poverty, it will be working at odds with its own counter-narcotics initiatives.

B. The initiative further threatens human rights

Numerous Mexican and international human rights organizations have expressed concern that counter-narcotics aid for Mexico's military and police constitutes a recipe for unchecked human rights violations. According to Centro Pro, "Past experience has shown policies like the Merida Initiative to be financially costly and to broaden the mandate of military operations, violating the human rights of civilians, all the while failing to achieve sustainable gains in human security." At root is the fact that counter-narcotics operations in Mexico have a recorded history of human rights abuses. Amnesty International reports that over the last decade it has documented "abuses committed by military personnel in counter-narcotics operations in Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Tamaulipas and Coahuila." Espacio Civil, a civil society coalition comprised of 52 Oaxacan organizations, adds that in 2007 "the army committed severe human rights violations in their supposed counter-drug operations. We are concerned that the funding from the U.S. government will ultimately make this situation worse."

C. The initiative could likely be used to suppress legitimate political expression

Many Mexican groups fear, with good reason, that the US military hardware and training in the Merida Initiative would be used directly against citizens participating in acts of legitimate political expression. Mexican military and public security forces have consistently been deployed to stop and often brutally repress popular protest. Perhaps the most alarming example of late is the crackdown of the Oaxacan social movement that began with a teacher's strike in 2006. Both federal and state security forces brought an iron fist down on the demonstrations, leaving a wake of human rights violations that include over 20 assassinations (including U.S. journalist Brad Will), hundreds of arbitrary detentions, and torture. The cases against the security forces, which have been well documented by Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, remain unresolved in Mexico. A sizeable portion of the money from the Merida Initiative would support the very security forces responsible for these violations. Many in Oaxaca fear that with this support, legitimate protest in Mexico will continue to be answered with repression.

Our representatives urgently need to know what you now know. Please do not delay in contacting them. Thank you for calling for a more just U.S. policy towards Mexico. Feel free to contact the Mexico team with questions (mexico@witnessforpeace.org).

WFP Mexico
Witness for Peace
202-547-6112
www.witnessforpeace.org

I'm back!

Here I am in lovely Pasadena, after having seen the beautiful West Coast premiere of 1001 at Boston Court. It was a great night, milling around the lobby semi-anonymously, jet-lagged, overcaffienated, and a little drunk. I wonder if that's why I and others get so down on theater so often - it's impossible to reproduce that triumphant endorphin rush when one isn't at an opening night, so the whole thing feels ephemeral and a little depressing. I'm sure other artists feel this too, but instead of being left with a film, book, album, or whatever when it's all over, all I'll have left is the script and some reviews. Speaking of the script, I think I heard the last few things I can cut (one of them a joke I've cherished for years because it made Erin Courtney crack up in the Soho Rep Lab back in 2005 and I hear her great laugh every time the line is spoken - but, unfortunately, I never hear anyone else's laugh, great or otherwise). Time for publication? We'll see!! I also had an interview with L.A. Weekly's Stephen Leigh Morris, one of our better theater writers, whose work I've read on and off for a while now. Hopefully I made sense.

Also got to see Lorraine's awesome thesis reading at the New School two nights ago. I didn't like it. I LOVED IT!!!

Plus Michael Feingold just friended me on Facebook, which is kind of great.

Anyway, I'm feeling on top of the world this morning, in a gorgeous apartment, listening to Benjamen Walker's show on WFMU, and I'm ready to take on the world again. You hear that, world? Your ass is mine!

Probably My Last Post on the NYT for a While

Via Mike Daisey, I discovered this pretty good Charles Isherwood piece about collaborations between Off and Off-Off-Broadway. It's a little bit condescending in all of the predictable ways, but I'm heartened to finally see some acknowledgment (both by Isherwood and the theaters themselves) of the large, vibrant, and young theater scene that I believe points the way to the future of the art form.

Last night, I saw Mike's monologue How Theater Failed America (and loved it, though I wish I didn't know so many of the details - of the monologue, not of how theater failed America - going in), and he began it with a very funny joke. I won't spoil it, but one of the targets of the joke is people who think Charles Isherwood and the NYT are ruining everything. I'm not so narcissistic as to think that Mike was referring to me (and it was in fact a great joke), but I also know the people tend to skim things on the internets, so I just wanted to clarify, for probably the last time, that I never thought that the NYT, or Isherwood, were capable of ruining everything. What I have been saying is that the NYT are the 500-pound gorilla of theater coverage, and as such have a responsibility (not to artists, but to their readership), to be intelligent and well-informed. I don't think they've been living up to that repuation, for reasons I've enumerated throughout the blog, and have felt a responsibility to state this. My voice is part of what is already a fairly sizable chorus. What my actions result in is largely immaterial to me. I would be perfectly happy to see Isherwood becoming a better reviewer, or getting fired, or to put a dent into the NYT's perceived omnipotence. Most likely nothing at all will happen, and so what? I don't have a particular vendetta against the guy. Sometimes freedom of speech should be exercised for its own sake. One of the reasons I have this blog, aside from self-promotion and posting funny videos, is to raise my voice about things that I feel are important but that few others are saying, for whatever reason. However, I don't think that will include the NYT after today. Here's a short list why:

1. W.H. Auden once said that a critic who talks about his or herself is like a guest toasting themselves at someone else's wedding. My main problem with the Isherwood obsession (my own as well as others') is that it only solidifies his position; he is seen as "controversial," rather than just unqualified or mediocre (or, to be more charitable, in need of improvement), and most importantly, he - and not the work he is reviewing - becomes the center of the narrative.

2. I am not sure how much I really care anymore. I have stopped reading the NYT Arts section entirely (except maybe skimming some front-page bit about Iron Man), because, look, life's too short for me to walk around angry all the time. Plus, if I keep talking about all the great theater coverage elsewhere, why not just read that instead? Also, with the environment, the economy, and the geopolitical scene all melting down around us, and the possibility that we might face another four years of disastrous right-wing policies, complaining about theater feels absurdly trivial. It bears mentioning that this also speaks to a greater malaise on my part. Don't get me wrong, my career is going gangbusters and plenty of people are treating me very well, but part of me feels like it's too little, too late. I sort of fell into a playwriting career, and part of me genuinely loves theater an art form, but just it's one interest among many. I know that, hidden beneath all of those greener pastures are just different minefields of frustration and disappointment, but theater, like most fine arts, occupies a marginal position in the culture. I might be relegated to the margins despite my best efforts anyway (and indeed, much of the work I like in any medium lives in these margins), but why volunteer for obscurity?

3. I've gotten close enough to the fire to feel the heat. When the press agent for 1001 contacted the NYT about a feature, he received a curt reply from the person he contacted - someone I've slagged on the blog - that said person was not interested in my work, full stop. While I wish that this guy had just been frank about our history (assuming that the version of events that trickled down to me was the correct one), this isn't a scandal; I knew going into this that journalists are notoriously thin-skinned, and when you publicly insult someone, they probably will not want to interview you - but it's another thing to actually experience it. I really don't think that I am self-censoring, though; like I said in No. 2, the rewards of a career in theater are so meager that I no longer care about who I piss off. Even the highest reward in theater isn't worth the smallest shred of my or anyone's dignity (now Hollywood, however, might be another matter; I might still wind up a whore, but I'm determined to be a high-priced one). I still try to conduct myself with some degree of professionalism and common decency, but really, it's tremendously freeing to not be careerist, or even worry about being liked. Anyway, I don't think this is my primary reason for laying off the NYT, but if I'm being honest here, I've got to acknowledge it as a factor, albeit a small one.

4. In the past year, I've gotten to know a number of people who write or work for the NYT (mostly the Magazine and the Book Review, actually the only sections I read anymore). This is what it is; I don't think any of them are particularly offended by my ranting about the NYT (or that many of them are even aware of it, for that matter), but it has served to make me more aware of the fact that there are actual human beings behind all of those bylines. Of course, if the person in question is Judith Miller or Michael Gordon then who cares about their feelings, but again this is a minor factor.

5. To a certain degree, we - to the extent that there is a "we," defined herein as people who care enough about new plays, risk-taking, and intelligent work to fight for them - have won. While theater is still facing numerous crises, there are more productions of new plays happening now than have happened in years, and the Isherwood piece linked above indicates that institutional theaters have begun to recognize that "alternative" work, and the younger audiences who enjoy it, are worth the risk. While Mike's monologue might have ruffled a few feathers here and there (mostly those of people who haven't seen it), what he says is, for the most part, the mainstream narrative, not a marginalized one. Theater blogs differ wildly in quality and relevance, but they're proliferated to such a degree that anyone working in theater under 30 (the future of this medium, assuming there is one) reads them as a matter of routine. When I compare the environment at New Dramatists today, as a member, to 2003, when I was an intern, it's as if an entire generation has passed in five years. In 2003, the general complaint was that theaters were developing new plays to death and never actually producing them; today, there are so many new plays being done that no one has time to see them all. Finally, the general outrage over Charles Isherwood has advanced to such a point of cliche that it can provide the butt of Mike's very funny joke. And, as anyone who reads this blog should know, if there's one thing I hate it's cliches.

Some Cute Stuff

Mostly from Cute Overload:







And this last one is for anyone who's shown up here looking for any comment on that ridiculous non-fight over on the NPAC blog:

Friday Random 11

Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me
Thom Yorke - Harrowdown Hill
Apsci - Tirade Highway
The New Pornographers - The Bleeding Heart Show
Funkadelic - I Miss My Baby
Switches - Killer Karma
The Wedding Present - Shatner
Leonard Bernstein: New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Mahler: Symphony #10 In F Sharp Minor - 2. Andante Come Prima
Los Amigos Invisibles - Cachete A Cachete
Blur - Out Of Time
Public Enemy - 911 Is A Joke

R.I.P. Oni Faida Lampley

Oni was a gifted actress and writer, and a New Dramatists' colleague, who recently succumbed to a long battle with cancer. She will be missed.

Luc Sante on Columbia

Click here for "Who Owns New York," a meditation and personal history in light of the 40th anniversary of the 1968 takeover of Columbia University. In an amazing display of childlike frankness, this is also the university's fight song.

Eugene Mirman, Scientologist

Prince Covering Radiohead's "Creep" at Coachella

Sometimes rock and roll music is just the best thing ever.

Luke Maxwell Strikes Again

Luke Maxwell, you may remember, is the brilliant emerging cartoonist that I encountered over at Friendsoftom.com. He's got two new projects - one, a daily strip called Early Conan, and the second, Desert Blues 2, a hilarious and depressing unauthorized sequel to what was evidently a Johnny Knoxville vehicle (I dind't know about it either, but knowing that before you read it makes it even funnier).

Critical Art Ensemble's Steve Kurtz is Cleared of Mail and Wire Fraud Charges

From Interactivist.net:

Artist and University of Buffalo Professor Steve Kurtz was cleared of charges for mail and wire fraud today in federal court. U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara ruled that criminal charges brought against him by federal prosecutors were “insufficient on[their] face.”

Kurtz’s College Street home in Buffalo, New York was raided by FBI agents wearing spacey-looking white biohazard suits only hours after his wife, Hope, died of a heart attack in May of 2004. Buffalo police who responded to Kurtz’s 911 call alerted the FBI that they’d found bacteria cultures and other strange items in the house. Kurtz had obtained the cultures and other biological materials for use in his artwork that criticized the government’s food policies.

Shop the Hermenautic Circle!

The Hermenautic Circle, an organization that does not exist, has an Amazon store. Do your part to support secret societies, and get shoppin'! There's some great stuff there.

Speaking at the PEN World Voices Festival

May 3 | NoPassport: Writing and Political Responsibility in Theater

When: Saturday, May 3
Where: Segal Theater, CUNY Graduate Center: 365 Fifth Ave.
What time: 2:30–3:50 p.m.

With Migdalia Cruz, Jason Grote, Chiori Miyagawa, and Fiona Templeton; moderated by Caridad Svich

Free and open to the public. No reservations.

Cosponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theater Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY

A conversation that explores censorship, self-censorship, and the dramatist’s voice in relationship to the state. What stories do we choose to tell and why? How can the stage liberate visions that are personal, political, and conversant with disparate ideologies while honoring the fictive and real lives they portray? This is a NoPassport Theater Alliance conversation, moderated by NoPassport founder and playwright Caridad Svich.

Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab Now Accepting Submissions

Download an application here.

Information
The Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab was founded in 1998 to explore and develop the work of a new generation of theater artists, and to foster collaborations between writers and directors in the beginning stages of the creative process.

From October - April, the Lab meets on alternate weeks. Writers agree in advance to bring in work three times during the six-month cycle. At each meeting, Lab members read the plays aloud, writers and director serving as actors, then together discuss the work. There is an expectation that the writer and director will collaborate outside the meetings, at their own discretion.

At the end of the cycle, each of the plays born from the Lab is presented in a public reading series at Soho Rep.

Writers and directors must apply separately. At the start of the cycle, each writer invited to join the Lab is matched with a director.

Writers interested in participating are asked to apply with a project proposal. Ideally, this is a project you feel will benefit from both group input and close work with a director. The proposed project must be a play in the earliest stages of development, one you have recently begun or would like to begin work on in the coming months.

Interested directors are asked to provide a one-page statement of purpose outlining their theatrical sensibilities and concerns. We consider these statements carefully when pairing writers with directors, so please be specific.

In selecting Lab members Soho Rep has a policy of favoring new applicants and forging new artistic collaborations. While we value some degree of continuity, we wish to place emphasis on providing this opportunity for new members, and expanding the circle of artists associated with Soho Rep. Please note that we do not accept applications from students engaged in full-time programs.

For more information contact Writer/Director Lab Co-Chairs, Maria Goyanes and Daniel Manley at writerdirector@sohorep.org

Application
The deadline for the 2008-2009 Lab is Friday May 30, 2008 - 5 p.m.

R.I.P. Aimé Césaire

From Democracy Now!:

"Aimé Césaire, 1913-2008: Remembering the Life and Legacy of the Black Pride Poet and Anti-Colonial Activist

Aimé Césaire, the esteemed poet, writer, politician and anti-colonial activist from Martinique died on Thursday at the age of ninety-four. Césaire is revered in the Francophone world as a leading figure in the movement for black consciousness and pride, which he called "Negritude." His use of culture to fight colonialism and racism influenced generations of activists and writers around the world."

Bill O'Reilly's Favorite Pavement B-Sides

Who even knew he was a fan?

Secretive Summit on NAFTA

Secretive Summit
Today on
NAFTA Expansion!

Call Congress!

Witness for Peace, Mexico
April 21, 2008

Today and tomorrow, President Bush will be meeting in New Orleans with Mexican President Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Harper to discuss implementation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a backdoor NAFTA expansion deal. The SPP has never been brought to Congress for debate or vote. It has never included input from civil society, and no civil society representatives will be present at the talks in New Orleans today. Those who will be present at today's summit include representatives of thirty of the largest corporations in Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. To protest, a plethora of organizations opposed to the deal are holding a People's Summit in another part of New Orleans.

While details of the SPP have not been disclosed, the stated objective is to "keep our borders closed to terrorism yet open to trade." Doing so would likely mean an expansion of the failed NAFTA model that has sacrificed US jobs, Mexican farms, consumer protections, and environmental laws to boost corporate investments and exports. In addition, the security component of the SPP calls for further militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and a renewed "war on drugs" at the expense of civil liberties. For more information on the SPP, see below for a just-released organizational SPP sign-on letter.

Call your members of Congress today to stop this anti-democratic process! Dozens of organizations have signed the letter below to demand transparency. The letter is being delivered to Congress today. We need you to add your voice by calling your House and Senate representatives and asking them to:

Require the Bush administration to immediately halt SPP implementation and submit the process to Congressional oversight and vote.

Hold congressional hearings in which the process and goals of the SPP are thoroughly aired and input is invited from a broad cross-section of the public.
Oppose the Merida Initiative, the first concrete manifestation of the SPP model, when it comes up for a vote in Congress. See below for background info and talking points.

To reach your members' offices, call the US Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your House and Senate members (give your state and zip code if you don't know who your representatives are).

Plan Mexico: Chapter 1 of the SPP

While the SPP is not yet subject to congressional review, Congress now faces the first concrete manifestation of the SPP model: the Merida Initiative. Popularly known as "Plan Mexico," the initiative would destine $1.4 billion dollars to Mexico and Central America, mostly in military aircraft and drug interdiction equipment, with the stated purpose of fighting drug trafficking and organized crime. This is a step in the wrong direction:

Arming a foreign military won't curb our drug problem. After over eight years and five billion dollars of equipping the Colombian military through Plan Colombia, just as much coca is grown today in Colombia as was grown before Plan Colombia. There is no reason to suspect that repeating this failed model in Mexico would produce different results.

Supporting Mexican security forces would seriously endanger civil liberties in Mexico. In response to the 2006 civilian protest in Oaxaca, Mexican security forces arbitrarily detained hundreds, tortured many, and killed 23 unarmed people, including US journalist Brad Will. With no one held accountable yet for these abuses, the Merida Initiative now proposes to finance these same security forces.

For more background on the Merida Initiative, check out our new factsheet

Say NO to Plan Mexico

Click here to sign on to a growing call to defeat the Merida Initiative.

Organizational Sign-on Letter Against the SPP

April 21, 2008

Dear Member of Congress,

On the occasion of the 4th Leaders Summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), to be held in New Orleans on April 21-22, we take this opportunity to call on all members of Congress to educate themselves on the SPP, which was never brought to Congress for debate or vote. Our concerns include the opaque and undemocratic nature of the SPP, its definition of "prosperity" as the expansion of a failed trade model, and its definition of "security" as the expansion of military force and the restricting of civil liberties. Congress has been entrusted with oversight on such issues of trade and security. It is imperative that they exercise their responsibility on this matter by examining what prosperity and security really mean. Rather than proceeding along the failed path of NAFTA, all efforts should be made to implement a trade agenda that focuses on the needs of communities and people. That agenda should include the voices of those populations most affected, as well as their advocates in civil society. Therefore, as civil society advocates, we call upon the U.S. Congress to:

Require the Bush administration to immediately halt SPP implementation and submit the process to Congressional oversight.

Hold congressional hearings in which the process and goals of the SPP are thoroughly aired and input is invited from a broad cross-section of the public.
Make subject to congressional vote the decision of whether SPP implementation should proceed.

The SPP is an executive-level, tri-national pact between Mexico, the United States and Canada, agreed upon in 2005 by the chief executives of the three countries. According to the official website, the SPP seeks to "provide the framework to ensure that North America is the safest and best place to live and do business. It includes ambitious security and prosperity programs to keep our borders closed to terrorism yet open to trade." What differentiates the SPP from other security and trade agreements is that it is not subject to Congressional oversight or approval. The SPP establishes a corporate/government bureaucracy for implementation that excludes civil society participation. As at past SPP summits the New Orleans meetings will be open only to government officials and representatives of the corporate sector. Civil society will be kept on the other side of the fence, their voice silenced. The leaders will hear reports from the various SPP working groups and receive advice and input from the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC). The NACC is made up of 30 large corporations, 10 from each of the three countries. Their interest is in maximizing profit and removing all impediments to such profit by lowering or removing "non-tariff barriers to trade." In common language this includes local and state regulations such as food safety and environmental laws, labor rights and other measures designed to protect and enhance quality of life. The SPP aims to reach its goal of economic growth by facilitating the flow of goods and capital, while ignoring the needs of people and communities. This translates to a further expansion of the neo-liberal agenda manifested through free trade agreements such as NAFTA and DR-CAFTA, except that approval from Congress is neither sought nor required. These trade agreements, while boosting investment and exports, have failed the vast majority of citizens in participating countries. NAFTA's impacts have been well documented: the loss of over a million decent US manufacturing jobs to exploitative Mexican factories, the decimation of Mexico's small-scale agriculture and subsequent rise in migration, the subordination of environmental law to investment rules, and the annulling of consumer protections in the name of corporate protections. After 14 years of such devastating legacy, the SPP now proposes to move even further in the same direction. Meanwhile, the security side of the agreement seeks to "develop a common security strategy" and to create a common security perimeter for North America. The recent agreement between the U.S. and Canadian militaries (without Congressional approval) to allow cross-border, domestic military action can be viewed as integral to the SPP. In addition, the announcement last fall of the Merida Initiative, a U.S. program to provide $1.4 billion in training, intelligence and military aircraft to Mexico has been linked to SPP by critics of the agreement. Though not officially a part of SPP, it is a manifestation of the "deep integration" that is the core of the SPP strategy. Through implementation of the SPP, the U.S. is also exporting its War on Terror to Canada and Mexico through agreements on the sharing of intelligence, airline passenger lists, border surveillance programs and the further militarization of the border between the U.S. and Mexico-leading to erosion of civil liberties. As New Orleans prepares to host the SPP summit, recent changes in the city foretell the SPP's security objectives. In a move that could only be described as opportunistic the disaster resulting from Katrina is being used to alter the character and demographic makeup of New Orleans. The city has been highly militarized, with both National Guard and private military firms providing "security." Documented cases of abuse and violence directed at residents of the city by these "security" providers show that the interest is not in protecting the residents, but in "securing" the city for developers. In this respect New Orleans is the perfect backdrop for the SPP summit, put forth as a model for the future of North America. Facing a worrisome pact pushed forward in secrecy, it is time for Congress to halt this undemocratic approach and establish a process based on openness, accountability, and the participation of civil society. While civil society may be kept away from the SPP summit, their voices will still be heard in New Orleans at the People's Summit. This gathering of residents, activists and other concerned people will link the Gulf Coast struggle to the fight for the survival of communities in Mexico, Canada and the rest of the United States.
Signed by the following members of U.S. civil society,

Alliance for Democracy
Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART)
APEN (Asian Pacific Environmental Network)
ASOCOL (Association for the Sovereignty of Colombia)
Campaign for Labor Rights
Center of Concern
Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America
CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador)
Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras
Democratic Socialists of America
Fellowship of Reconciliation Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean
Global Exchange
Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Institute for Policy Studies, Global Economy Project
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC)
National Network for Immigrant Refugee Rights (NNIRR)
New York CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador)
NYC People's Referendum on Free Trade
Nicaragua Network
Portland Central America Solidarity Committee
Portland Jobs with Justice
Quixote Center
SHARE Foundation: Building a New El Salvador Today
United Church of Christ
Vermont Workers' Center
Witness for Peace

For additional information regarding the SPP please contact Jon Hunt at 202.550.7025 (cell) or Kathy Ozer at 202.543.5675 or 202.421.4544 (cell)

Yours Truly on the National Performing Arts Convention blog

Watching The Watchers: Gaging Audience Response

Here's a little sample:

"Collectively, an audience is very intelligent, but not necessarily in a way that individual members can articulate - often I can better tell whether or not a play is working by observing body language. When are people laughing, crying, shifting, on the edge of their seats, dozing off, walking out? And who are they specifically, and when do I want or not want them to be doing each of these? This tells me much more than most of the feedback I get at 'talk-backs,' which is usually more about giving the audience a greater sense of involvement (a perfectly laudable goal in itself) than about soliciting 'notes.' Indeed, I am often very eager to interact with my audience, and make myself very easy to contact via email, Blogger, MySpace, and Facebook. But this is not because I intend to use feedback to make changes to my work, but because
increasingly, people see their relationships with artists as interactive (I have often corresponded with my favorite novelists and rock musicians myself), and because I deliberately set out to write plays that foster arguments and conversations. I am very happy when these discussions take place, but I see them as parallel to the artistic experience, not part of it."

Interesting Mike Daisey Post

...Right here. Who could this newly-rude playwright be?

I especially liked, "I also have a vested interest of lowering the politeness level in theatrical discourse—which, I hasten to add, is not the same as throwing away civility."

Fire Island at Three-Legged Dog

Like a lot of us, I get offers for blogger comps, and I sometimes take them, though I try to be up front about the fact that I'm not a reviewer. My policy is, if I like something, I'll plug it, and if I don't, I'll maintain a respectful silence. On occasion, I'll get an email breathlessly claiming that, after reading my blog, some producer is convinced that I'll just LOVE something that I will quite obviously despise (you hear that, karaoke murder mystery spammers?). This probably means that they haven't read my blog beyond the URL, but I like to pretend that it's some sort of weird demented misreading of my past three years of ramblings.

But that is not what I'm here to talk about today! No! I am here to talk about a show that I liked, Charles L. Mee's Fire Island at Three-Legged Dog, directed by Kevin Cunningham. I liked it, and if you like fun, you'll like it too (this being theater, I understand that many of you might not like fun in any form). Like Mee's other work, this is a non-linear collage, and though there are actual characters undergoing emotionally rooted (though often distanced, literally and figuratively) human experiences, you shouldn't expect a narrative. The piece does tend to be overstimulating at times, with stuff happening in every direction, leaving an audience unsure where to look and when, but that's secondary to the experience, which is basically that of recreating a beach party in lower Manhattan. This is not to trivialize the event, which does manage to explore human sexuality in some profound ways; but work about the beach, even by the most erudite and ponderous writers tends to possess a lighter-than-air quality (see: Sayles, John; Sunshine State).

Even more exciting, the event contains live music from Albert Kuvezin & Yat-Kha, the world's only Tuvan-throat-singing rock star, or at least the only one that I'm aware of. Here's a sample (culled from Salon.com's Daily Downloads back in 2005):



Anyway, if you, like me, enjoy live music, environmental theater, happenings, free beer, wine, and hamburgers, non-linear narratives, beaches, gratuitous nudity, and planetariums, you should check this out.

Urgent: Exxon, We Drink Your Milkshake!

From friend Beka in Williamsburg:

---

Friends,

Apologies for the short notice but we just found out that ExxonMobil is sponsoring tomorrow’s Go Green Earth Day Festival in McCarren Park. ExxonMobil is also responsible for the largest oil spill in America's history, larger than the Exxon Valdez, just meters away from where the festival will be taking place!

Other festival sponsors include BP America, Waste Management, and Forest City Ratner Company (responsible for the Atlantic Yards project). These companies are no friend to our community, and no friend to the environment.

Please join the Greenpoint SuperFUNd SuperFriendz in taking immediate action.

NOW: Send an automatic email letter expressing your outrage to the powers that be: http://stage.citizenspeak.org/node/1268

SATURDAY (tomorrow): Join us at McCarren Park for a protest rally. We’re calling on YOU to help reclaim Earth Day from the greenwashers and reclaim the oil from McCarren Park!

Reclaim the Oil!
Saturday, April 19, 11am
Meet at Driggs and N. 12th
By the dog run

There’s oil a plenty underfoot and we oil men will be on hand with rig, drills, and buckets to reclaim our oil and our earth (day).

Dear Exxon, We Drink Your Milkshake!!!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
About Greenwashing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwash
The term is generally used when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being green (that is, operating with consideration for the environment), rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices. This is often portrayed by changing the name or label of a product, to give the feeling of nature, for example putting an image of a forest on a bottle of harmful chemicals. Environmentalists often use greenwashing to describe the actions of energy companies, which are traditionally the largest polluters.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
About the Greenpoint ExxonMobil Oil Spill:
http://www.greenpointvexxon.com/

Between 17 and 30 million gallons of oil lie beneath North Brooklyn. See here for oodles of press coverage: http://www.greenpointvexxon.com/index.htm#press

News from Minnesota and Connecticut

Exciting news! But, "hip-hop style?" Yikes! ;-)

From Variety:

Playwrights conference unveils slate
Eight plays set for summer schedule
By FRANK RIZZO, GORDON COX

New scripts by Craig Wright, Regina Taylor and Jason Grote are among the eight offerings at the National Playwrights Conference this summer at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn.

Newly anointed Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts ("August: Osage County") and Lisa Loomer ("Living Out") will be artists-in-residents at the high-profile developmental conference, running July 3-27.

***

From TheaterMania:

Grote, Letts, Loomer, Meadow, Taylor, Wright, et al. Set for 2008 O'Neill Conference
By: Brian Scott Lipton · Apr 17, 2008 · Connecticut

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut has announced the participants for its 2008 National Playwrights Conference.

Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts and playwright Lisa Loomer will be this year's artists-in-residence. Eight plays will be given workshop productions between July 3-27.

***

From The Twin Cities' Pioneer Press:

Mixed Blood and Mu deliver diversity, new works
By Dominic P. Papatola

Two local theaters announced their seasons this week, lineups that will plumb the depth of the local theater community's diversity pool and offer audiences a blend of new works, classics and fresh looks at the canon.

MIXED BLOOD

Mixed Blood Theater's 2008-09 season is highlighted by the world premiere of "Red Ink," another of the company's collations of theater assembled by a team of script writers.

This time around, the company gathers nine Native American playwrights to create a "play-within-a-powwow" that examines issues from gaming to sports mascots to sovereignty. The show ends the Mixed Blood season in a production that runs April 23-May 17, 2009.

The theater, founded to honor the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr., has expanded its definition of diversity beyond race in recent seasons to tell the stories featuring characters who are deaf or live with physical or developmental disabilities.

Mixed Blood kicks off its new season with "Distracted" (Sept. 25-Oct. 19), a play by Lisa Loomer that addresses the issue of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Other plays in the season include:

Jason Grote's "1001," a contemporary re-imagination of the "Arabian Nights" story, centering on an Arab woman and a Jewish man, told hip-hop style (Oct. 30-Nov. 23).

Carlyle Brown's "Pure Confidence," a historical drama about Simon Cato, a slave who was also one of the most successful jockeys of his day (Jan.
Advertisement
15-Feb. 8, 2009).

"Sweet 15," Rick Najera's play that uses the Latino tradition of the quinceanera coming-of-age party for girls as a jumping-off point for a domestic comedy (staged at the History Theatre in downtown St. Paul, March 13-22, 2009).

1001 and Marin

Thanks to everyone who sent notes of support about this little news item, noting that The Seafarer is set to replace 1001 in Marin Theater Company's 08/09 season. It's true, though it leaves out a significant chunk of the story. What's weird is, nobody seems to know how the item made it to press; it blindsided both the theater and myself.

Anyway, allow me to clear the air - 1001 is getting postponed until the 09/10 season for entirely pedestrian reasons having to do with production, scheduling, etc. This is a real postponement, not a "My Name Is Rachel Corrie" postponement, and I'm on board for it. I'm disappointed, of course, but so is the company - we all want the production now. In the end, however, it's the right decision for both the theater and the play. They've been good to me the entire time (not to mention they've already paid me for the rights). So don't worry, folks, this has nothing to do with Middle East politics (to my great dismay, 1001 has yet to actually offend anybody anyway). Nor does it have anything to do with a fear of programming unconventional work, unless by "unconventional" you mean "big and hard to produce."

In contrast, a few months ago another mid-sized regional theater had selected 1001 and unceremoniously dumped it. The way they handled that was so shitty that I briefly considered leaving theater altogether (something that still crosses my mind every now and again), and I'll certainly think twice about working with them again (I won't name them on the blog, but if you're really curious you can email me). This is not that. Marin Theater Company has been nothing but good to me throughout this whole process, and I'm still really excited about seeing the play go up in 2009.

So, yes, it's a bummer, and I am genuinely touched by those of you who had my back, but you can sheath your broadswords. 2008 continues to be an incredibly busy and productive year, with 1001 at Boston Court in LA and Mixed Blood in Minneapolis, Hamilton Township at Salvage Vanguard in Austin, This Storm Is What We Call Progress at Rorschach in DC, Box Americana at the O'Neill, and Maria/Stuart at Woolly Mammoth. The move to 2009 gives me a little breathing room. Don't cry for me, Blogentina!

Mixtape #1

Flux Benefit

From the Flux blog:

2008 Spring Benefit

”A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Benefit Party

April 14th, 2008

6:30pm to 10:30pm (arrive anytime)
The White Rabbit
145 E Houston St., NY, NY 10002 US
Door Price: $15

We are delighted to invite you to our Benefit Party for our production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” held at the White Rabbit. There will be drink specials, light hors d’oeuvres and a Raffle at the end of the night with excellent prizes. If you are unable to attend, but would still like to participate in our raffle, please go to our blog where you can view the prizes and buy your raffle tickets. More information can be found HERE.

All of the money raised will go directly to supporting our production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. We hope to see you there!

13P Benefit

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You are cordially invited to join us for a dizzying evening of wine, theater, and song, featuring unproduced work by four lions of the American Theater…

13P
Sheila Callaghan, Erin Courtney, Madeleine George, Rob Handel, Ann Marie Healy, Julia Jarcho, Young Jean Lee, Winter Miller, Sarah Ruhl, Katherine Ryan, Lucy Thurber, Anne Washburn, & Gary Winter

presents our
SPRING BENEFIT

13P: UNDONE
an exciting, eclectic evening of theatre featuring unseen songs and scenes by a stellar group of award-winning playwrights including
Christopher Durang
John Guare
Michael John LaChiusa
and Stephen Sondheim

Directed by Anne Kauffman
(2007 OBIE Award Winner)

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Joe's Pub – 425 Lafayette Street, NYC

5:30pm – 6:30PM – VIP cocktail hour in our v.i.P-Lounge
6:00pm – Doors to Joe's Pub open
7:00pm – Performance begins
8:30pm – Silent Auction and reception with the cast and Playwrights of 13P

TICKET PRICES
Tables: $1,000-$2,500
Individuals: $100 - $250

__ $2,500 Premium table of 8, VIP cocktail hour, priority bidding at the silent auction, post-performance reception with the cast and Playwrights of 13P, and recognition in the Benefit Program as an Epic Personality.

__ $1,500 Preferred table of 6, VIP cocktail hour, priority bidding at the silent auction, post-performance reception with the cast and Playwrights of 13P, and recognition in the Benefit Program as a Glowing and Magnetic Individual.

__ $1,000 Table of 4, VIP cocktail hour, priority bidding at the silent auction, post-performance reception with the cast and Playwrights of 13P, and recognition in the Benefit Program as a Fascinating Guy/Gal in Corner, Winking.

__ $250 VIP seating for 1, VIP cocktail hour, priority bidding at the silent auction, post-performance reception with the cast and Playwrights of 13P, and recognition in the Benefit Program as a Secret Crush.

__ $100 Seating for 1, access to Silent Auction, post-performance reception with the cast and Playwrights of 13P, and recognition in the Benefit Program as an Intriguing Neighbor.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO PURCHASE TICKETS:
Please call 212-613-3119 or go to www.13p.org!

13P was formed in 2003 by 13 mid-career playwrights concerned about what the trend of endless readings and new play development programs is doing to the texture and ambition of new American plays. We took matters into our own hands, saying: "We don't develop plays—we do them." Since then, we have mounted six fully-produced plays and changed the conversation about how new work should reach the stage.

SPRING BENEFIT COMMITTEE:
Raymond DeMarco
Rita & Burton Goldberg
Diane Krausz
Michael Morley
Lisa Timmel
Wendy vanden Heuvel

INVITATION COMMITTEE:
Scott Adkins
Ami Armstrong
Renee Beaumont
Beth Blickers
Colleen Cole
Bob & Dorothy Courtney
Yasmine Falk
Jenny Gersten
Gina Gionfriddo
Jason Grote
Mandy Hackett
Elliott Holt
Jay Jennings
Rebecca Josue
Anne Kauffman
Katherine Kovner
Yasmine Lever
Lisa Loeb
Bradford Louryk
Janet Neipris
Estelle Parsons
Adam Rapp
Scott Shepherd
Laura K. von Holt
Morgan von Prelle Pecelli

Community Radio Activists Murdered in Oaxaca

April 7th, 2008. Oaxaca, Mexico.

Two indigenous triqui women who worked at the community radio station La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (The Voice that Breaks the Silence), in the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala (Mixteca region), were shot and murdered while on their way to Oaxaca city to participate in the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of the Peoples of Oaxaca. Three other people were injured.

According to the State Attorney General, the victims are Teresa Bautista Merino (24 years old) and Felícitas Martínez Sánchez (20 years old).

Francisco Vásquez Martínez (30 years old), his wife Cristina Martínez Flores (22 years old), and the