Center Theatre Group Blog

Mike Sablone is CTG’s Literary Associate, starting left fielder and third-string shortstop for Dark Monday, the CTG softball team.

We start, Saturday morning, with 6 brand new plays by 6 playwrights. We then pack ten incredibly talented actors into a room and ask them to take part in cold readings of all 6 over the next 2 days. Sound thrilling?

If you said yes, let me tell you more. Each year Resident Dramaturg/Literary Manager Pier Carlo Talenti and I coordinate CTG’s Writers’ Workshop. We ask 6 to 9 local playwrights and tell them that we’d like to give them space and support to work on a new play over the next 9 months.

The first step is a weekend Salon. Each playwright decides on a topic she’d like to write about. She then interviews 2 experts on that topic, in an attempt just to get the creative juices flowing. By the end of the weekend our brains are stuffed.

From there we meet once a month and listen to scenes from 3 of the playwrights. Then we spend a few minutes giving feedback and answering questions the writer might have about her pages.

Six or so months later, Bonnie Grisan, our Associate Casting Director, gathers together a company of actors to read the scripts over the weekend-no matter where they are in the process. There is no rehearsal, no director.

And it’s one of the most thrilling weekends of the year. The scope of the new work is impressive–the actors are making fearless choices, speaking languages they don’t normally speak, playing across gender, across race, singing songs that haven’t been written yet, and in general finding the heart at the center of each piece.

For anyone who thinks that new work isn’t being supported in Los Angeles, I have terrible news for you. You are completely wrong. Watching these plays over the weekend is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s enlightening to see just how much work is being written. And it’s a shame to just use the word “work.” No one is saying it isn’t difficult, but it’s more than that. More importantly, it’s art. And the breadth of it is inspiring.

I’d like to personally recognize our 6 writers that I had the privilege of working with over the last nine months. These are incredible artists and incredible people. May you all have the pleasure of working with them very soon.

Mickey Birnbaum
Michael John Garces
Donald Jolly
Evangeline Ordaz
Matt Pelfrey
Adriana Sevan

Mike Sablone is CTG’s Literary Associate, starting left fielder and third-string shortstop for Dark Monday, the CTG softball team.

So you know how I go on and on and on and on and on and on about how the new plays and musicals we work on are in development, and just because we’ve had the world premiere doesn’t mean that our work is done?

(If the answer is no, punch yourself in the face, and then go along with me. Harsh? Yes! Fair? I think so!)

Two weekends ago I had the distinct pleasure of seeing the second production of a show that is near and dear to my heart.

BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON.

When we closed the show here we were thrilled with how the production looked and very happy with where the script was. Happy because we knew which parts were working the way we wanted them to, and which parts weren’t working as well as we wanted them to. By the time the show had closed, Alex Timbers (director, book writer), Michael Friedman (music and lyrics) and I had had numerous conversations about the next draft, cut chunks of the show, rearranged where musical numbers went, and generally were chomping at the bit to get it up again.

Saturday, May 16^th, 2009, I saw the show again at The Public in New York.

And I was blown away. The script is tighter, the jokes funnier, the exposition clearer. It was the show I always knew was there.

I am so incredibly proud of the work that Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman have done on this show. Two of the funniest, smartest, and most talented artists I’ve ever encountered continue to amaze me with this piece.

I’d be lying if I said to you that five minutes after the show ended, still grinning and elated from seeing the show, Alex and I didn’t talk about two or three moments that we still wanted to tweak.

Which is what makes this piece so thrilling. Even when it’s working the way we want it to, there are still small tweaks that we feel can make the show even better.

This show is everything I want theater to be. It’s young, it’s smart, it’s effing hilarious, it uses actual contemporary music to help elevate the story when it needs it, and it’s got a message, but most of all? It’s fun. Theater shouldn’t have to be work. Theater doesn’t have to be boring, bland vegetables all the time. Theater shouldn’t be something young people and kids should dread.

It can be so much more.

It can be BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON.

Mike Sablone is CTG’s Literary Associate, starting left fielder and third-string shortstop for Dark Monday, the CTG softball team.

I told myself like I always do: it will be a quick weekend of shows in New York. I’ll go in, catch BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON at the Public, see two more shows, then fly back, refreshed.

Per usual, that plan got thrown out immediately once I looked at what else was playing.

The thought process went something like this:

“Jesus! CORALINE is in previews?!?! David Greenspan, Stephin Merritt, Neil Gaiman AND Leigh Silverman? Did they design this show specifically for me? I have to see this. Right away. In fact I’ll land Friday at 5, go directly to the theater and then my trip will be off to a great start (which proved to be true)…”

And then it’s:

“Jenny Mudge! I’ve got to see her in THE PHILANTHROPIST! I’ve known her forever! We go way back! I can catch a Saturday matinee of that show…”

Which was then chased by:

“Wait, I can see all three of Tarell McCraney’s plays at the McCarter under the title THE BROTHER/SISTER PLAYS on Sunday? His plays are hauntingly beautiful and I can only hope that the productions do his vision justice (I was not let down. They are gorgeous productions of stunning plays, especially IN THE RED AND BROWN WATER.)…”

Which was quickly followed by:

“Wait, they added a Monday evening performance for 33 VARIATIONS? Written and directed by Moisés Kaufman, featuring much of the design team for our BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO? Regardless of all of that (which was enough for me to see the show), it has an old friend of mine, Scott Barrow, in an ensemble track. I mean he was my roommate for two years in New York. We shared a one bedroom apartment that had a shower in the living room which was also the kitchen. And two years earlier I had to go on for him in a show I was stage managing when he sliced his knee open on tour. Why would I not see this show? Plus if I go on Monday I can tell them about the (justifiably) good reviews for BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO…”

And then it’s Tuesday and I’m seeing JACKSON for the second time. Five days. 8 shows. Not sleeping. But seeing talented people in wonderful shows back to back to back to back to…well you get it.

Which equals me arriving back in Los Angeles this past Wednesday. Satiated, but frigging exhausted.

It was completely worth it.

Next week I devote an entire blog entry to BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON: THE CONCERT VERSION.

Here’s a sneak preview: it’s frigging awesome.

Mike Sablone is CTG’s Literary Associate, starting left fielder and third-string shortstop for Dark Monday, the CTG softball team.

I was working on a blog posting of the favorite rap and hip-hop tracks/videos from the creative team of VENICE, but along that way got distracted by various YouTube videos. I mean, how could I not watch the extended “Fight The Power” video over and over again?

But it wasn’t just old Public Enemy videos that got me excited. It was a handful of remixes. That I shall share with you.

Just because. Stop asking so many questions. Jeez.

I start, first, with the Auto-Tune The News guys, Michael and Andrew Gregory. Their newest: Obama Flashback, is pretty great, but to me nothing matches “Auto-Tune the News 2: Pirates. Drugs. Gay Marriage.” Good god I love this video.

Before you watch, a warning: It’s insanely catchy. Seriously, I’ve had it in my head for the past two weeks. Mostly because Katie Couric is a genius. The other parts are great, but better once you understand the lyrics. Helpful hint: download the mp3, specifically for that Angry Gorilla section which is unintelligible in the video.

I’m thinking about telling the guys for VENICE that if we need more laughs, we kick up the auto-tune. Because, frankly, everything does sound funnier with auto-tune.

Case in point. Who doesn’t love Vince Shlomi? Who is Vince Shlomi, you ask? Do the words ShamWow and Slap-Chop mean anything to you? They don’t to me. But you know what does mean something to me? Rap Chop.

Side note, if anyone knows where the kid is that shows up 1:18 into the video wearing the Nike sweatshirt, please tell me. I need him to teach me his sick dance moves.

You know what the songs in VENICE are not like? This Domino’s Pasta commercial:

Dominos Pasta DUDE!

The best thing about this is not the terrible, terrible “rapping pasta” but the families justifiably frightened response to a rapping piece of pasta. It’s like the ad execs had an idea, then were so mortified by it that they had two of the people in the ad revolt. Good work Domino’s, good work.

This last one isn’t auto-tuned, or rap, but the spirit of cutting and pasting and remixing is brought to another level with “Thru You: Mother of All Funk Chords”:

What Kutiman (the artist) does here and in seven or so other videos available on YouTube is phenomenal. Sampling, remixing, cutting and mashing-up these video and audio snippets to make not only his own song, but a clever video as well, is a rare talent.

I’ll have more hip-hop postings soon, but those will have to wait a bit. I’m heading to New York next weekend to see BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON and need my brain to switch from hip-hop to post-punk power-pop.

I’m hoping this mashup will help me put the nail in the coffin of the bastardization of the rap/rock genre by creating JUDGEMENT NIGHT: THE MUSICAL.

Mike Sablone is CTG’s Literary Associate, starting left fielder and third-string shortstop for Dark Monday, the CTG softball team.

Highlights from my weekend in Kansas City! Missouri! Not Kansas! Like I originally thought! Me = terrible at geography!

Things I did in Kansas City:

- Experienced a snow and ice storm! We started with a nice layer of freezing rain, followed by a few inches of snow, added another layer of freezing rain, then more snow. I was excited about all this as I grew up in New England and haven’t really been around crappy weather for the past three years.

- Went to Oklahoma Joe’s, one of three suggestions from multiple natives for the best barbeque in town. Of course we decided to go during the snowstorm, which helped as there was no line. You know it’s a good restaurant when it’s in a converted gas station (er, at least I hope it’s been converted), and the only other people there are cops. 22 of them. I had not one, but two sandwiches (brisket and smoked turkey) which were pretty frickin awesome.

- Had three days of great script work with Matt Sax (writer, actor), Eric Rosen (writer, director) and Josh Horvath (music producer/sound designer) on VENICE.  (Technically this is the most important, but I’m not going to lie that the snow and brisket were pretty phenomenal.)

- Was introduced by Matt to Charles Hamilton’s track “Windows Media Player,” quite possibly the only thing that I’ve liked that Microsoft has (inadvertently) produced.

The four of us flew back to LA on Sunday to start rehearsals for the workshop on Monday in Culver City.

Luckily I was able to trade in my barbeque obsession for fried chicken. My Oklahoma Joe’s is Honey’s Kettle Fried Chicken in Culver City (the main aim of this post is to get free food. I’m not going to lie.). If only, somehow, we could have barbequed the fried chicken I might have died.

Literally.

Of a heart attack.

I managed to stay alive, and am glad I did, as I didn’t want to miss the work that Matt, Eric, Josh and an incredibly talented cast of ten (I’ll include Matt twice) put into the show. At some point later (uh huh) I’ll explain exactly what a workshop entails, but for now I’ll give this statement: By the end of the three weeks there wasn’t one page that didn’t have a rewrite on it.

As expected, we learned a ton from the audiences we had for our three presentations. We had a day off in-between our second and third presentation and took that time to completely rework the first 40 pages of the piece. We’ve now have a script that’s in really great fighting shape to go along with songs that, I’m not going to lie, were stuck in my head for a solid three weeks, and a clear road ahead for how the piece can get even better.

The main thing that keeps us going is Charles Hamilton and barbequed fried food.*

*Nothing about this statement is true unless person reading it is Charles Hamilton or from Honey’s Kettle or Oklahoma Joe’s.**

**At one point in my life I considered myself a journalist. Really! I worked for a real newspaper and everything. When I write something like this it makes me think of the days when I attempted to have journalistic integrity. I, obviously, gave up on this pretty quickly, including writing an article for my college newspaper entitled “I’ll Give You Journalistic Integrity.” Which was one of my favorite titles, along with “Something Has Sabloned,” which manages to sound dirty but was just a review of Jurassic Park 2.

Mike Sablone is CTG’s Literary Associate, starting left fielder and third-string shortstop for Dark Monday, the CTG softball team.

Note: This blog posting got lost in the blogosphere (another word I hate) and since it is part one of my two part exploration of VENICE, I reprint it here, a few weeks after the fact. Stay tuned for part 2. SERIOUSLY, STAY TUNED.

Two days from now (June 26) I head out to Kansas City.

Why Kansas City you ask?

What’s that? You weren’t asking that?

Huh. Ok then. Well, let’s just say, HYPOTHETICALLY, that you were to ask. I would say “Aww. Thanks for asking! That was so considerate of you! I like it when you allow me to give these blog entries forward momentum! It means a lot!”

Then I’d tell you that I’m going out for the first part of our VENICE workshop. About a year ago, after their run of CLAY ended, Matt Sax and Eric Rosen were commissioned to write a new piece for us, and that is VENICE. It’s a musical loosely based on the characters and themes of OTHELLO using a hip-hop score.

Now. First tangent. Note in my last paragraph that I didn’t use the term “Hip-Hopera.” Or “Hip-Hopsical.” Why? Because these are terrible names. I find them demeaning. And useless. And meaningless. So you will never hear me say them. It’s a musical that just happens to use the varied music stylings of hip-hop, rap and spoken word. I’m sorry that I haven’t given you a cute one-word phrase to capture that. I’m wordy. Deal with it.

Back on topic.

Since Matt and Eric no longer live in the same city (Matt in Brooklyn, Eric in Kansas City), they’re joining forces in KC to take a week to work on the script, which is where I come in. So for a few days I’ll hang out with them, listen to what they’ve got so far, and offer (hopefully) constructive feedback.

I will also pretend I’m a voracious meat eater and kill a few plates of barbeque.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the most important aspect of dramaturgy.

Pier Carlo Talenti is the Resident Dramaturg/Literary Manager for CTG.

I saw Euripides’ Orestes at the National Theatre of Hungary in Budapest.  That’s right.  Ancient Greek drama in Hungarian.  It was très moderne, modern-dress, a pit full of discarded clothes, enormous mirrored flats dominating the scenery.  Orestes has been sleeping in a rusty pickup truck.  The chorus is five Hungarian housewives.

Very committed acting.  But it all got a little too obvious for my tastes, especially when Elektra shoved her tongue down her brother’s throat.

Strange thing about Hungarian audiences, which was also true at the ballet and at the opera.  During curtain call, they all applaud in their own rhythms.  But then gradually they all start applauding in unison.  It’s a bit like standing ovations on Broadway nowadays.  You can’t tell how heartfelt it is.  I don’t know.  It just felt a bit pro forma.  So I as an obnoxious American tourist was the only one who was applauding in my own time.  If I’d liked the play more, I might have subsumed my individuality to the clamor of the group. 

As for other theatrical experiences while I was on vacation in Europe, I experienced my first meal at a French Michelin-three-star restaurant.  Paul Bocuse’s restaurant in Lyon.  A whole other kind of theater:  The presentation of dishes.  Dramatic and alluring!

Mike Sablone is CTG’s Literary Associate, starting left fielder and third-string shortstop for Dark Monday, the CTG softball team.

I’m often asked, “What do you do?” And, often I stammer for a few minutes, look at the floor, shuffle my feet and then look up, brightly saying, “I’m a dramaturg!”

Except without the exclamation point. That makes me sound like I’m five years old.

It’s more like a question with italics: “I’m a dramaturg?” The question not being “Am I?” but “You’re not going to know what this word means, are you?” I’m assuming you’re not, which means there will be confusion and then you might get mad at me for making up a word. Or you might have only heard the word “turd” in which case you’re thoroughly confused, and still mad that I managed to turn the simplest of icebreakers into an irritating exchange.

So the follow up question comes: “Huh? What does that mean?”

Well, friends (meaning CTG employees who read this blog), today is the day . . . that I do not answer that question.

Sorry.

Today is the day that instead I skip that and provide a snippet of research that I stumbled upon a few weeks ago.

Fine. Brief explanation of one part of the job of a dramaturg. At times it involves doing research on specific topics pertaining to plays I’m working on.

Recently I’ve been reading books for background research on PALESTINE, NEW MEXICO. Which means reading books about women in the military. Right now I’m reading Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy’s memoir “Generally Speaking.” I was particularly horrified when I came across this excerpt, a mere 32 pages in:

Next came an enticing proposal to be interviewed for an assignment as the junior aide to the Commander-in-Chief-Pacific. “It’s in Honolulu, Lieutenant,” the captain at Branch told me on the phone.

Now that did sound exciting. “What about training?” I asked.

“Not necessary.”

“Why did they pick me?”

“Well,” the captain said in a confidential tone, “they saw you in LSD file.”

“What’s that?”

She explained that the Little Sexy Doll file contained just the photo of junior WAC [Women’s Army Corps] officers — no records of professional attributes — a system that was sometimes used to choose women for prestigious positions as aides to senior officers solely on the basis of their looks. I was not interested in the job.

There are times when I’m researching something new that I’m horrified. Just horrified. And I’ve got the feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg with this subject.

Mike Sablone is CTG’s Literary Associate and plays starting left field and third-string shortstop for Dark Monday, the CTG softball team.

I see my coworkers have blogged about the website, a Danny Hoch event, renovating tiny bathrooms, and their first kiss.

Angrily, I note that all of these were going to be included in my first post.

See I was going to write about my first kiss (take that Leslie!), which happened in a carpeted bathroom (take that Ritchie!) in my apartment in non-gentrified Greenpoint (take that Danny! Well, actually he shouldn’t take that. If I actually lived there then some form of gentrification was already happening.) while my roommate’s cat slept in our bidet (uh, I’m not sure who should take that one, perhaps my Polish landlord?). So now that that preposterously absurd story is out, what do I have left?

Ah, I see Mandy Ratliff has discussed the website design. Hmm. Yes. Our website. Any questions about that? Hmm. Ok. Let’s see … how about why can’t our website have an easier link to how to submit a new play to CTG? Right now we’re under “Employment Opportunities.” Which is a little too close to equating playwriting with data entry if you ask me.

So in order to skirt my responsibilities with my blog posting, I shall mock our organization’s website (zing!) and then re-post our submission guidelines. Because that’s where I’d go. Directly before “Employment Opportunities.” The blog.

I am nothing if not helpful, people.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present, Center Theatre Group’s New Play Submission Guidelines (Caps Added For Effect):

Before you send a play to us here at Center Theatre Group, we ask that you submit a brief description of the work and from five to ten sample pages. If the piece is a musical we also request that you include a CD with samples of the music.

As always, please include a SASE for all correspondence and, should you desire it, the return of your materials. Please note that we discourage multiple submissions.

Your description need not be a full synopsis of the plot. Describe the play — the world, the characters, the conflict, your reasons for writing it. The sample pages, of course, will be most helpful to us in deciding whether or not to request the full manuscript.

You may also include any supporting materials — such as a résumé and/or reviews of your play — that might allow us a broader view of you and your work.

Send all submissions to:

Literary Department
Center Theatre Group
601 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Please allow us approximately four to six weeks to review your submission.

See? It totally makes sense to find these here.

Of course I blame Mandy Ratliff for this entire thing.

YOU’RE ON NOTICE, RATLIFF.