Another blog - many months late. Oh Well!
IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME AGAIN! AIN'T IT?
Hey all ya'll shouting out from my new city of residency, Atlanta, Georgia! I know that the few of you who actually look for my new rants on my slower than molasses blog are wondering if I'm locked up in an institution for the mentally retarded or am just showing signs of early senility in all these drastic choices I've been making lately. Well I might be slow or growing crazy, but this "move" was a move that needed to be done for the sanity of my belief in the Theatrical Art. (We'll get to what that means some other day when I'm really pissed off and don't care how my words get out there on the damn internet). :) Well...anyway, here I am in the "dirty" south. Never in my West coast rearing would I have ever believed I'd be volunteeringly setting down roots in the SOUTH!!!??
I'm actually acclimating myself to this new place. There is amazing and positive black theater going on here. And they PAY too. Damn what a surprise. And I'm seeing great artistic freedom, promise, and possibilities already. I've been here five weeks now and I do miss New York City (Brooklyn) but I have determined to make my style of serious theater work; like some male dog leaving my "mark" by pissing my scent on the footsteps I leave in my wake. I got my damn nerves, don't I? :) Any of you who know me, have an idea of what I mean when I say serious. Most of my actor/writer friends think I don't like any theater that I've seen in the eight years I lived in N.Y. And they were right; 90%. Too much melodrama, psycho babble, and self-indulgent boring throw-shit-on-the-wall-and hope-some-of-the-shit sticks, and suddenly "respectable" chitlin circuit, buffoonish-melodrama that some producers are pushing as new black drama...oh my! But when I see something good, it's like the "ultimate climax"! Let me stop with the early ranting. I'm in a "happy" place right now. Haven't had to get up at 6:00 and head off to the "damn" job. Getting up late in the morning. I am sort of getting a little bored from having so much free time. No car in a city where a car is a necessity. Walking down dark roads to the complex where I'm staying. Walking 2 miles to the bus. But that's all good. A little exercise might kill someone but it ain't never hurt somebody.
I'm here in ATLANTA! I've seen two plays, one written by a very famous black female playwright (Boring!) I was ashamed of the pedestrian way in which she wrote this play. It wasn't even Playwrighting 101. Then I saw a play at the SouthWest Art Center (fabulous building) entitled "El Hadj Malik". What a wonderful fulfilling surprise. The actors were great, the direction was professional, and the price was only $7. I ended up getting there late and couldn't get in because the show was sold out. But, the brother who runs the center and directed the play, got permission from the actors to add a final late show. Then they let the fifty of us who waited around in for FREE!!! Would that have happened in New York?! And I went there with low expectations. ($7 for an adult ticket and a title that sounded like a "throwback" play from the seventies) Surprise, surprise!!! The play was 30 years old (I had never heard of it before) I think I'll have to keep my normal pre-negative expectations in check while I'm here.
From the "Center of the black theater Universe" to Atlanta... Good impression on this doubting soul so far. But I'll be back in New York for the weekend to see my play below. Hurrah!
Carol London, Sharisma Simmons, Candice Myer
Also Featuring: Larry Floyd, Mark Maples
PROMETHEUS' FIRE presents a dramatic concert reading of:
"LAST DANCE OF THE PANTHER WOMEN"
Written by Jamal Williams
Directed by Ray Aranha
Sound Design by Billy Gagliano
Dates: Saturday Evening, March 29; 7:30 PM Sunday Matinee, March 30; 3:00 PM Location: Leonhardt Studio, Rich Forum 307 Atlantic Street Stamford, CT 06901
Hey all ya'll shouting out from my new city of residency, Atlanta, Georgia! I know that the few of you who actually look for my new rants on my slower than molasses blog are wondering if I'm locked up in an institution for the mentally retarded or am just showing signs of early senility in all these drastic choices I've been making lately. Well I might be slow or growing crazy, but this "move" was a move that needed to be done for the sanity of my belief in the Theatrical Art. (We'll get to what that means some other day when I'm really pissed off and don't care how my words get out there on the damn internet). :) Well...anyway, here I am in the "dirty" south. Never in my West coast rearing would I have ever believed I'd be volunteeringly setting down roots in the SOUTH!!!??
I'm actually acclimating myself to this new place. There is amazing and positive black theater going on here. And they PAY too. Damn what a surprise. And I'm seeing great artistic freedom, promise, and possibilities already. I've been here five weeks now and I do miss New York City (Brooklyn) but I have determined to make my style of serious theater work; like some male dog leaving my "mark" by pissing my scent on the footsteps I leave in my wake. I got my damn nerves, don't I? :) Any of you who know me, have an idea of what I mean when I say serious. Most of my actor/writer friends think I don't like any theater that I've seen in the eight years I lived in N.Y. And they were right; 90%. Too much melodrama, psycho babble, and self-indulgent boring throw-shit-on-the-wall-and hope-some-of-the-shit sticks, and suddenly "respectable" chitlin circuit, buffoonish-melodrama that some producers are pushing as new black drama...oh my! But when I see something good, it's like the "ultimate climax"! Let me stop with the early ranting. I'm in a "happy" place right now. Haven't had to get up at 6:00 and head off to the "damn" job. Getting up late in the morning. I am sort of getting a little bored from having so much free time. No car in a city where a car is a necessity. Walking down dark roads to the complex where I'm staying. Walking 2 miles to the bus. But that's all good. A little exercise might kill someone but it ain't never hurt somebody.
I'm here in ATLANTA! I've seen two plays, one written by a very famous black female playwright (Boring!) I was ashamed of the pedestrian way in which she wrote this play. It wasn't even Playwrighting 101. Then I saw a play at the SouthWest Art Center (fabulous building) entitled "El Hadj Malik". What a wonderful fulfilling surprise. The actors were great, the direction was professional, and the price was only $7. I ended up getting there late and couldn't get in because the show was sold out. But, the brother who runs the center and directed the play, got permission from the actors to add a final late show. Then they let the fifty of us who waited around in for FREE!!! Would that have happened in New York?! And I went there with low expectations. ($7 for an adult ticket and a title that sounded like a "throwback" play from the seventies) Surprise, surprise!!! The play was 30 years old (I had never heard of it before) I think I'll have to keep my normal pre-negative expectations in check while I'm here.
From the "Center of the black theater Universe" to Atlanta... Good impression on this doubting soul so far. But I'll be back in New York for the weekend to see my play below. Hurrah!
Carol London, Sharisma Simmons, Candice Myer
Also Featuring: Larry Floyd, Mark Maples
PROMETHEUS' FIRE presents a dramatic concert reading of:
"LAST DANCE OF THE PANTHER WOMEN"
Written by Jamal Williams
Directed by Ray Aranha
Sound Design by Billy Gagliano
Dates: Saturday Evening, March 29; 7:30 PM Sunday Matinee, March 30; 3:00 PM Location: Leonhardt Studio, Rich Forum 307 Atlantic Street Stamford, CT 06901
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