Entries from May 2005 ↓

Things are happening at work that make leaving more desirable every day. First, my supervisor called me into her office Monday and told me she has given notice, to go get her doctorate. She’ll be gone in two months. Then Tuesday, our funders called and put our whole program on hold while they rethink its purpose and objectives. This is the second holding pattern they’ve put us in this year, and it’s only May. We’ll wait for them to get their act together as we surf the web each day.

My new headshots are done and already starting to circulate. Good timing too, with the lull at work, I may be free to steal time to audition or hopefully get some work.

Repositioning myself to utilize the culinary and acting skills while shedding the 9-5 might also be facilitated by a contact made Wednesday night. The manager of a new jazz club/restaurant spoke at school. Many of their staff, including one front-of-the-house manager, are actors. The company actually sees an advantage to hiring them. They are a little more well-rounded and interesting than the career foodies.

I don’t know what message the universe is trying to send me, but I’ve had two “exes” pop back into my life recently. The first pushed me away when I wanted to move closer years ago. I am indifferent even towards being a friend now. The second was always better as a friend anyway, and it was pleasant running into him.

I caught the Complexions dance company at the Joyce last week, after reading a NY Times article about co-founders and co-artistic directors Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, who were up until recently, also life partners. Their personal relationship has ended, but their professional collaboration continues. Perhaps the backstage instability translated to the stage, because while the company is quite technically adept—all of them capable of leaping and jumping and stretching and moving with great ease and creativity—the entire show lacked an emotional center. “Ok…” was my first reaction, “So what” was my second.

Finally made a face-to-face meeting with an online friend I’ve known for 15 years. It was good to finally make that acquaintance. We hung out briefly last Sunday while he was in town. Took in the Basquiat exhibit in Brooklyn. A second viewing, especially with someone else to bounce opinions off, has a way of making you see things differently. I now believe it is absolutely appropriate and necessary for people to say, “I don’t get it” or “I think this is crap” even if the so-called experts tell you it’s high art. Some of his work is good and genuinely thought provoking. Other paintings remind me of second grade arts and crafts class with Mrs. McAloon. Damn, if only I’d saved that stuff.

Weather is getting nice here in NYC and more reason to get out and about this weekend.

Nominations for the 59th Annual Tony Awards®

Best Play

Democracy
Author: Michael Frayn
Producers: Boyett Ostar Productions, Nederlander Presentations, Inc., Jean Doumanian, Stephanie P. McClelland, Arielle Tepper, Amy Nederlander, Eric Falkenstein, Roy Furman

Doubt
Author: John Patrick Shanley
Producers: Carole Shorenstein Hays, MTC Productions, Inc., Lynne Meadow, Barry Grove, Roger Berlind, Scott Rudin

Gem of the Ocean
Author: August Wilson
Producers: Carole Shorenstein Hays, Jujamcyn Theaters

The Pillowman
Author: Martin McDonagh
Producers: Boyett Ostar Productions, Robert Fox, Arielle Tepper, Stephanie P. McClelland, Debra Black, Dede Harris/Morton Swinsky, Roy Furman/Jon Avnet, Joyce Schweickert, The National Theatre of Great Britain

Best Musical

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Producers: Marty Bell, David Brown, Aldo Scrofani, Roy Furman, Dede Harris, Amanda Lipitz, Greg Smith, Ruth Hendel, Chase Mishkin, Barry and Susan Tatelman, Debra Black, Sharon Karmazin, Joyce Schweickert, Bernie Abrams/Michael Speyer, Barbara Whitman, Weissberger Theater Group/Jay Harris, Cheryl Wiesenfeld/Jean Cheever, Clear Channel Entertainment, Harvey Weinstein, MGM on Stage/Darcie Denkert and Dean Stolber

The Light in the Piazza
Producers: Lincoln Center Theater, André Bishop, Bernard Gersten

Monty Python’s Spamalot
Producers: Boyett Ostar Productions, The Shubert Organization, Arielle Tepper, Stephanie McClelland/Lawrence Horowitz, Elan V. McAllister/Allan S. Gordon, Independent Presenters Network, Roy Furman, GRS Associates, Jam Theatricals, TGA Entertainment, Clear Channel Entertainment

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Producers: David Stone, James L. Nederlander, Barbara Whitman, Patrick Catullo, Barrington Stage Company, Second Stage Theatre

Best Book of a Musical

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Book: Jeffrey Lane

The Light in the Piazza
Book: Craig Lucas

Monty Python’s Spamalot
Book: Eric Idle

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Book: Rachel Sheinkin

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Music & Lyrics: David Yazbek

The Light in the Piazza
Music & Lyrics: Adam Guettel

Monty Python’s Spamalot
Music: John Du Prez and Eric Idle; Lyrics: Eric Idle

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Music & Lyrics: William Finn

Best Revival of a Play

Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Producers: Elizabeth Ireland McCann, Daryl Roth, Terry Allen Kramer, Scott Rudin, Roger Berlind, James L. Nederlander, Nick Simunek, Joey Parnes

Glengarry Glen Ross
Producers: Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Jam Theatricals, Boyett Ostar Productions, Ronald Frankel, Philip Lacerte, Stephanie P. McClelland/CJM Productions, Barry Weisbord, Zendog Productions, Herbert Goldsmith Productions, Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Ellen Richard, Julia C. Levy

On Golden Pond
Producers: Jeffrey Finn, Arlene Scanlan, Stuart Thompson

Twelve Angry Men
Producers: Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Ellen Richard, Julia C. Levy

Best Revival of a Musical

La Cage aux Folles
Producers: James L. Nederlander, Clear Channel Entertainment, Kenneth Greenblatt, Terry Allen Kramer, Martin Richards

Pacific Overtures
Producers: Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Ellen Richard, Julia C. Levy, Gorgeous Entertainment

Sweet Charity
Producers: Barry and Fran Weissler, Clear Channel Entertainment, Edwin W. Schloss

Best Special Theatrical Event

Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance!
Producers: Creative Battery, Harley Medcalf and Boxjellyfish LLC

Laugh Whore
Producer: Showtime Networks

700 Sundays
Producers: Janice Crystal, Larry Magid, Face Productions

Whoopi, the 20th Anniversary Show
Producers: Mike Nichols, Hal Luftig, Leonard Soloway, Steven M. Levy, Tom Leonardis, Eric Falkenstein, Amy Nederlander

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

Philip Bosco, Twelve Angry Men
Billy Crudup, The Pillowman
Bill Irwin, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
James Earl Jones, On Golden Pond
Brían F. O’Byrne, Doubt

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

Cherry Jones, Doubt
Laura Linney, Sight Unseen
Mary-Louise Parker, Reckless
Phylicia Rashad, Gem of the Ocean
Kathleen Turner, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical

Hank Azaria, Monty Python’s Spamalot
Gary Beach, La Cage aux Folles
Norbert Leo Butz, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Tim Curry, Monty Python’s Spamalot
John Lithgow, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical

Christina Applegate, Sweet Charity
Victoria Clark, The Light in the Piazza
Erin Dilly, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Sutton Foster, Little Women
Sherie Rene Scott, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

Alan Alda, Glengarry Glen Ross
Gordon Clapp, Glengarry Glen Ross
David Harbour, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Liev Schreiber, Glengarry Glen Ross
Michael Stuhlbarg, The Pillowman

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play

Mireille Enos, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Heather Goldenhersh, Doubt
Dana Ivey, The Rivals
Adriane Lenox, Doubt
Amy Ryan, A Streetcar Named Desire

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical

Dan Fogler, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Marc Kudisch, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Michael McGrath, Monty Python’s Spamalot
Matthew Morrison, The Light in the Piazza
Christopher Sieber, Monty Python’s Spamalot

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical

Joanna Gleason, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Celia Keenan-Bolger, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Jan Maxwell, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Kelli O’Hara, The Light in the Piazza
Sara Ramirez, Monty Python’s Spamalot

Best Scenic Design of a Play

John Lee Beatty, Doubt
David Gallo, Gem of the Ocean
Santo Loquasto, Glengarry Glen Ross
Scott Pask, The Pillowman

Best Scenic Design of a Musical

Tim Hatley, Monty Python’s Spamalot
Rumi Matsui, Pacific Overtures
Anthony Ward, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Michael Yeargan, The Light in the Piazza

Best Costume Design of a Play

Jess Goldstein, The Rivals
Jane Greenwood, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
William Ivey Long, A Streetcar Named Desire
Constanza Romero, Gem of the Ocean

Best Costume Design of a Musical

Tim Hatley, Monty Python’s Spamalot
Junko Koshino, Pacific Overtures
William Ivey Long, La Cage aux Folles
Catherine Zuber, The Light in the Piazza

Best Lighting Design of a Play

Pat Collins, Doubt
Donald Holder, Gem of the Ocean
Donald Holder, A Streetcar Named Desire
Brian MacDevitt, The Pillowman

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

Christopher Akerlind, The Light in the Piazza
Mark Henderson, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Kenneth Posner, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Hugh Vanstone, Monty Python’s Spamalot

Best Direction of a Play

John Crowley, The Pillowman
Scott Ellis, Twelve Angry Men
Doug Hughes, Doubt
Joe Mantello, Glengarry Glen Ross

Best Direction of a Musical

James Lapine, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Mike Nichols, Monty Python’s Spamalot
Jack O’Brien, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Bartlett Sher, The Light in the Piazza

Best Choreography

Wayne Cilento, Sweet Charity
Jerry Mitchell, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Jerry Mitchell, La Cage aux Folles
Casey Nicholaw, Monty Python’s Spamalot

Best Orchestrations

Larry Hochman, Monty Python’s Spamalot
Ted Sperling, Adam Guettel and Bruce Coughlin, The Light in the Piazza
Jonathan Tunick, Pacific Overtures
Harold Wheeler, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Based on a recommendation by the American Theatre Critics Association, the Theatre de la Jeune Lune of Minneapolis, MN will be the recipient of the 2005 Regional Theatre Tony Award, accompanied by a grant of $25,000 sponsored by Visa USA. This award is given to a regional theatre company that has displayed a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theatre nationally.

A Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre will be given to Edward Albee.

The 59th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by Hugh Jackman, will be broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall, Sunday, June 5 from 8:00 - 11:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

I felt like a kid again.

In a throwback to a bygone era, I took a day off from work Thursday and went to a baseball game. A not-so-guilty pleasure I’ve never experienced before, but one I certainly hope I can repeat.

In past times, the national past-time scheduled most games during weekday hours, causing the gainfully employed to choose between work and play on a regular basis. Kids skipped school, with or without their parents’ permission, to sneak off to games and sit in then affordable bleacher seats. But round about 30 years ago, Major League Baseball shifted more games to the evenings to capitalize on a larger television viewing audience, ticket prices started creaping ever upward, and a great tradition was nearly lost.

Thankfully, some teams keep an occasional mid-week day game on the calendar. With the tickets I won at a charity auction in February, my buddy Mark and I made the trip out to Queens to see New York’s best baseball team–the Mets, in case you haven’t looked at the standings lately–take on the visiting Philadelphia Phillies. The tickets belong to a season ticket holder who has great seats. No, I mean GREAT seats. The blue section, right behind home plate, Loge level. You can see everything close up, but with the perspective that comes from being up higher than the field level seats. But we were also close enough that when foul balls came ripping back, as at least three did, you had to stay alert. This was the no napping section.

Interestingly, and probably understandably, seats in this section don’t see many Black faces. We got there in time to catch the tail end of batting practice, when fans typically move closer to catch a glimpse of their favorite players. When it had ended and the grounds crew was getting the field ready for the start of the game, an usher came down to tell us we needed to move up to where he assumed we belonged. We weren’t having it. First, I showed him my ticket, then Mark and I gave him the third degree about why he immediately assumed we were someplace we weren’t suppose to be. It was fun watching him sweat for a few minutes, making up his flimsy excuses. Sad part, he was an older Latino, not much lighter in complexion than I, who I guess we hoped should have known better than to engage in such profiling.

Nevertheless we didn’t let it spoil our enjoyment of the day. The game, covered over in the Sports section, was a success for the Mets. They won 7-5 to take 3 of their 4 games with the Phillies. In the all important Jimmy Rollins vs Jose Reyes battle of the hot shortstops, Rollins went 2-4, including a three run home run to win the on-field competition. But both of them fill out a baseball uniform so well as to make it too hard to declare a clear winner.

The characters in that section of the stadium are a trip. There was a woman to our right sitting by herself, who can best be described as a real broad. A big woman with a mop of blond hair, who mentioned she had been in the Marines, she was chatty and had one of those real hard, New Yawk dialects. She kept a scorecard, was charting every pitch and had something to say about most every player.

To our left, a few seats over, were “the guys.” Four men who looked like co-workers maybe, in some blue collar environment. The type of guys who like to have 3 or 4 beers…an inning! Think drunk and loud by about the 7th. They were amusing yet harmless, but I hope there was a designated driver.

This was my first trip out to Shea since 1973, and the game that marked Willie Mays’ return to New York as a Met. They went to the World Series that year. The way they’ve improved since last season, perhaps this trip was an omen. I can hope, anyway.

For the most part, I got a clean bill of health, although my doctor had suggested a 30 day heart monitor. That would be too inconvenient I felt, so we’ll hold off another month and see how things go.

I admit to being a typical male, i.e., I have a built-in aversion to seeing doctors about what I consider “little” things. For more than a year now, I would occasionally have these little heart flutters, murmurs, fluctuations, whatever you want to call them. It would feel like my heart was either speeding up or slowing down. Sometimes they’d be accompanied by a moment of lightheadedness, sometimes not. They’d only last about a second then go away, and they were so infrequent and irregular as to have no pattern of trackability. I shrugged it off.

Then I had bad news about some friends, and another guyI knew, and then just other guys my own age and it made me realize I might need to take this stuff seriously.

Back in April I had my annual physical and told my regular doctor about it. He referred me to a cardiologist—who ironically has the same last name as my mother’s maiden name—who first asked a battery of questions, then ordered a 24-hour heart monitor. For a day I was wired for sound and carrying a little device on my hip just bigger and similar looking to an iPod. Co-workers even thought it was until I told them about the ten wires attached to my chest. I turned that in a day later and while there, got an echo cardiogram, kind of like a sonogram for the heart. Lying on my side on an examination table, they took pictures of my heart beating for several minutes. Then I left and lived my life for a month, until Tuesday.

The results showed nothing too out of the ordinary. My heart size and functioning are all within the range of what is defined as normal and the monitor and cardiogram showed no abnormalities. But I do still occasionally get lightheaded moments, which is why the doc wanted the extended wear monitor. But I’m just not ready to have my life that disrupted at the moment.

I’m concerned, but not worried. I recently heard it said that the older you get the more death becomes a part of your life. That does not mean an obsession with death, just an awareness of its inevitability. I have more years behind me than I do in front of me. Physiological changes are happening all the time at this point. I note all this and move on.

From Newsday.

A Queens mother who crusaded for tougher drunken driving laws after the death of her 11-year-old son won a bittersweet victory on May 2, as she stood with the state’s top lawmakers while they announced a deal on legislation named in the boy’s honor.

With Gov. George Pataki and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Monique Dixon praised lawmakers for reaching agreement on “VaSean’s Law,” named after her son VaSean Phillip Alleyne, who was killed by an alleged drunken driver in Kew Gardens Hills on Oct. 22, 2004.

“My son’s time on this Earth was short,” said Dixon, who lobbied in Albany for six weeks to close what she called “loopholes” in current anti-drunken driving laws. “The name of VaSean is going to live longer than all of us.”

The proposed law would crack down on drunken drivers who kill or seriously injure pedestrians, bicyclists or other motorists. The Assembly passed it unanimously and the Senate is also expected to approve it.

If it becomes law, killing or seriously injuring a person while driving drunk would become a felony. The legislation would remove a hurdle that requires prosecutors to prove negligence - a missed stop light, speeding, or other infraction - for a felony conviction to be reached.

Joining Dixon in support of the law was Diana Reyes and her 12-year-old boy Angel, VaSean’s best friend who suffered neurological damage in the incident and who will have to undergo treatment for years to come.

“It’s been a difficult road, but our journey is almost at an end,” said Reyes, who described a process of bonding in a common cause with Dixon, her neighbor in Kew Gardens Hills. “This man didn’t take both of them from us,” she said of the children.

Pataki said he would sign the legislation after it clears both houses. “I hope no other parent has to bring their pain to these offices,” he said.

The two boys were on their way to a sleep-over at VaSean’s house when they were hit. Under current laws, the driver charged in VaSean’s death, John Wirta, 59, faces a misdemeanor and a maximum 1-year sentence for striking the two with his van while allegedly driving with a blood-alcohol level 1 1/2 times the legal limit. Under VaSean’s Law, such a charge would carry up to 7 years in prison.

Still, Pataki said the bill in its current form is weaker than an initial version first introduced by the State Senate, because the Assembly wanted to remove provisions requiring drunken drivers to serve consecutive sentences for killing or injuring more than one person. Under VaSean’s Law, defendants can still beat a felony conviction but it will be more difficult because defense lawyers will now have to prove their clients were not negligent.

During a separate news conference with Dixon, Silver (D-Manhattan) countered Pataki’s jab with the answer: “Every piece of legislation is the result of compromise.”

Meanwhile, an expansive six-point package of tougher DWI bills supported by Pataki and proposed by various legislators is still being considered.

They would include consecutive sentences for killing or injuring more than one victim; raising vehicular manslaughter in the second degree from a Class D felony to Class C felony; enhancing charges for leaving the scene of a deadly accident; automatic revocation of a driver’s license for violating rules of the road during an incident of serious injury or death; tougher laws against repeat dangerous drivers; and the establishment of a crime called aggravated aggressive driving.

“That’s a battle for another day,” Pataki said of the other proposals.

Dixon said she supported the tougher rules but seemed to forgive Silver yesterday for Assembly opposition. She credited him with opening discussion on the issue and raising awareness of the human toll of drunken driving.

“We’ve made DWI and causing death or serious injury equal a felony,” she said at the Silver news conference. “This is one of those crimes that can totally be eliminated if people make the right choice.”