Understatements. (________was right.)

Next September The Ohio will no longer be a theater. You can read about it here.

It could rain all day everyday for a year and I couldn't feel any worse.

To say that the Ohio is an irreplaceable home for NYC theatre artists would be an understatement.

To say that the Ohio is one of the few places left in NYC where theatre artists who took big, grand scale risks were encouraged, nourished, and rewarded by both the space itself and by the good people of Soho Think Tank would be an understatement.

To say that the Ohio is my favorite theatre (or maybe even just my favorite place) in NY would be an understatement.

To say that I was always both giddy and inspired when I got the chance to work there would be yet another understatement.

I'd say that this September, NYC is going lose another big piece of what makes this city special.

But that would be just another understatement in a long list.

Well, NYC let's just keep this going. We let the Provincetown Playhouse (the birthplace of all of Eugene O'Neill's plays) be remade into another part of NYU Inc.' s image***, we're going to let the Ohio become god only knows what (a Banana Republic? Condos?), and we've let theaters and other homes for artists close down by the dozen in the last decade.

You know, I can't help but wonder when I read about soulless moneysuits that ruin people's lives, the welfare of entire nations, the physical health of entire communities, and the livelihoods of their own countrymen all for the sake of making more money...if maybe it's because we're creating these people.

When we deaden the soul of our city, our community, our home--how are we not deadening our own souls?

A dead city of chain restaurants, condos, corporations, and banks.

Dead cities breed dead people.

Two good things to come out of this.

The movement to get the tax credit for landlords that rent to non-profits is an important one. As disheartening as loosing the Ohio, we must strengthen our resolve and not lose the new found power we've created in working together.

The unity and dedication that is taking hold in the Indie/Off-off community is a good, good thing.

A lot of people are a part of that, but I have to to give a big, big shout out to the NY Innovative Theatre foundation. I feel like they're really doing so much to help the community--Keep it up guys.

United we will grow; divided we will wither and die.

The other positive is that theatre is going to have to evolve and adapt to new spaces and venues. It's going to have to become "immersive" or as I've started calling it "3-D".

But I can't help remembering the hyperbolic graffiti slogan of my good friend scrawled everywhere they went, ___________(name left blank for their protection), and how it used to infuriate me.

But maybe it's time to call a spade a spade. Without a proper diagnosis, we can't fix this.

And fix it we must, because we're fighting for our lives now.

Two quotes today.

One to remind us why the work we do is so important.

'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. "
(Maya Angelou, Professor of English Literature Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC )

The other because it's time to call it like it is.

"New York is Dead"
(_________)




***Correction: NYU did not tear down the Provincetown Playhouse entirely as I originally wrote. They are"building around it." Thanks to Joshua Hill for correcting me.

I assumed they were tearing it down because the last time I walked by it they were obviously tearing down one of the walls. Which as it turns out they did even though they weren't supposed to.

I'm not trying to nitpick here or play the inconsolable extremist. But whatever the "reconstruction" of the playhouse is or is supposed to be, the fact remains that I personally have very high doubts that any real remnant of what it was and what it represented will remain. Some old bricks and a plaque on the wall just isn't quite the same thing. At the end of the day, NYU bought it so it could tear it down and build more office space. If they keep 3 of the old walls and the floor and build an office building around it, it's not really gonna be the Provincetown Playhouse in spirit anymore. Not that it has been for years. I hope I'm proven wrong.

Back from the Future

Hi there!

Been a while.

Over a month actually.

Why the gap? Well, I have actually had a little more employment, plus my Bday, plus my childhood favorite football team finally went to the big dance and won it all, plus....

I can't write 9,000 word essays all the time.

So now I have to actually restrain myself and talk less and say more. I don't know if this is possible yet. I'll do my best.

Oh yeah.

One other thing happened.

One other little time eating distraction....


Dan Kitrosser (you remember Dan, he of the "AWESOME conversation?) and I are starting a company.


Theatre for the People


We're doing a show this summer in Bryant Park.

A Grimm Reality

Modern adaptations of Grimm's fairytales, in Bryant Park, free of charge.

We have a ton of of work to do.

But yeah. It's on.

So I guess this just became my actual Work/Company blog.

Thanks for reading my long rambling rant and giving me a place to turn my thoughts into something real. Who'd have thought that a blog of all things would have given rise to a whole new company.

Guess it's time now for me to walk the walk. Time to put up or shut up.

Man, I am excited. I have no idea how to do what we're going to try and do, but it's gonna be fun figuring it all out.

Click on the subscribe to this feed button and you'll get a notice when the new shorter (I promise, I promise) entries show up.

Well, that seems long enough.

Time to go actually work on the future.

(Cue the quote)

Be the change you want to see in the world--Gandhi