just a tease...

edited by Joey Williamson. filmed by some guys in Edinburgh.

Knighthawk

Tommy Smith is a magical human being. He is writing the body of The Minstrel Show. He went to Juilliard. He programs a night at Galapagos (actually, does he still do that? Hey Tommy, do you still do that?) He makes performance pieces with Reggie Watts. He drinks whisky. He has a family house in Ireland. He writes plays in verse and he likes to rap. He is wearing the blond wig in the video below. Please watch it.



Knighthawk Director's Cut from Tommy Smith on Vimeo.

STAGE AWARDS

US theatre triumphs at The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence
Published Wednesday 29 August 2007 at 11:45 by Matthew Hemley




Shalimar Theatre Company: Laura Lee Anderson, Kim Gainer, Jen Taher, Marissa Lupe, Craig Peugh, Joey Williamson, Shoshona Currier, Atticus Rowe and Justin Donham won Best Ensemble for La Femme Est Morte or Why I Should Not F**k My Son at the Pleasance Dome.
Photo: Chris Watt


American visitors to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe might have been fewer but US performers scored one of their best results at this year’s prestigious Stage Awards for Acting Excellence.

Performers from New York-based theatre company Shalimar were crowned Best Ensemble for their production of La Femme Est Morte or Why I Should Not F**k My Son at the Pleasance Dome. Compatriot Madi Distefano won Best Solo Performer for her production Popsicle’s Departure 1989 at the Assembly Rooms.

Distefano, who beat competition including Linda Marlowe, Elisabeth Gray, Alexander Campbell, Iris Bahr and Joanna Swain, said: “This is such a major international award. I never planned on touring the piece as I am a full-time Philadelphian actor, director and mother, but now I would be honoured to go to some other festivals.”

The two shows were among only three US productions to reach the shortlist of 23 nominees for the awards, now in their 13th year, which celebrate the best theatre at the fringe.

Shalimar artistic director Shoshona Currier said: “It’s a really great honour to win the award. It’s been a slow festival and we’ve struggled with audiences but it’s an amazing honour to be recognised by a group of critics and our peers.”

Other winners at this year’s event include Garry Cooper, who won Best Actor for his role in Long Time Dead at the Traverse, beating competition from James Baxter in Scarborough, Daniel Pirrie in Sting for Nolte and Merryn Owen for World’s End.

Colleagues Eugenia Caruso and Janet Bamford walked away with a rare joint award for Best Actress for their performances in Truckstop at the Zoo, beating competition from the likes of Stage columnist Dillie Keane, who appeared in Frank and Dolly at the Gilded Balloon Teviot.

Nominees are selected by The Stage’s team of critics, who review more than 300 professional shows.

Jeremy Austin, who heads the reviews team, said: “It’s been a great year for drama. None of us has seen a bad play.”

He warned the programme for this year’s festival had been “bigger than ever” and said: “There are not enough audiences to sustain something this size.”

Check out this magical video on non other than...BROADWAY BABY!

See this show!

the voice that launched a thousand ships...

I did a podcast for nytheatre.com with a bunch of truly fun artists. Check it out.

Read about indie theater now on the nytheatrecast blog!

If you are pressed for time and want to only hear the sultry sounds of Shoshona Currier expounding thoughts on war and theater, I start chattering at minute 17. But I suggest listening to the whole thing. It's pretty fun.

Especially fun, was seeing my friend Jack Ferver, who I haven't seen or spoken to in...hm...four years? I seem to remember running into him in a yoga class a while back, but we haven't made anything together in ages.

What? You don't know Jack Ferver? Oh I think you do! Maybe from this:



Or this:



But really, these don't do justice to Jack's talent. I first saw Jack in a reading at New York Theatre Workshop and was drawn to his impeccable timing and snarky wit. Soonafter, we met through our friend Glynis and in person I was drawn to his impeccable timing and snarky wit. As well as the slightly crazy look in his eye. We did some little reading-ish projects with the now defunct Black Cat Group and then sort of fell out of each other's lives, which is how it goes in New York City.

It was so great to see him, and ride the train with him, and laugh with him again. So please listen to his part of the podcast as well (he's first!) and maybe even go see his show called When We Were Young and Filled With Fear. I'm going to.

Also, my friend Ed is on this podcast too. He's second, chatting about his play Nosferatu and I suggest you also go see that. Ed's a strange fun guy who makes strange fun plays.

Actually, you should see all the shows we talk about in this podcast! It was a really fun roup of artists all slogging away in various festivals around the city. Getting together to chat about theater felt like a friendly little showing of community...I'm glad I was there.

Me talk pretty one day...

...but not on a 90 degree day when I'm drunk and in a mermaid costume.

Luckily Kim has plenty of experience trying to make sense while drunk and picked up me and Joey's slack...of which there was PLENTY.

research

I felt I should point out that besides frantically raising money, The Shalimar also makes plays. In case I haven't physically shaken you in hopes that money will fall from your pockets and screamed in your ear how great this show is, let me tell you a little about LA FEMME EST MORTE or Why I Should Not F!%# My Son. It's about America. And celebrity. And the fact that our country is at war yet we obsess over Shilo Jolie-Pitt and whether or not Lindsay Lohan has fucking died yet. Seriously, when will she just die? The play is based on Phaedra, so there is also some good old fashioned incest and religious guilt. Really it's about what happens here in America when our men go to war. So here are the videos I'm watching as inspiration. I will warn that they are not all for the faint of heart.

(Sidebar. It's pretty interesting to me what people post on youtube. It's interesting that I can't see the war on the news but anyone, including my seven year old brother, can watch it on the fucking internet.)

MONDAY NEWS

Clearly you should come to our prom. And our Whisky Tasting. We like when people drink and dance!