Histriomastix

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Brooke Berman

Exactly how powerful is my writing? A good question, one I often ponder in the thin hours of the morning, as I put the finishing touches on a particularly deft palindromic sestina or as I carve out another hefty chunk of my semiautobiographical verse epic in alternating terza rima and iambic pentameter. Exactly how much force per square syllable does my writing contain? Well, let's put it this way: This week's profile of the wonderful playwright Brooke Berman (whose witty living-space comedy Hunting and Gathering is now in previews) has already gotten me an e-mail from some creepy reader, asking about how he can get a date with her.

Yes, it's true. My profiles will get you a date. With a creepy stranger.

It's simply that…puissant.

Go see her show. Or Richard Foreman's.

I thought you'd like to know…

The following phrases:

"Outrageous theater snob"
"Ridiculous theater snob"
"Appalling theater snob"

when searched on Google within quotation marks, produce 0 results.

Until now, I suppose.

Does that mean that such snobs never existed, have become extinct, or nobody on the Interweb cares?

Maybe that should have been "theatre."

Where the hell I've been

Although some bloggers can't keep their mouths shut, I've had trouble in the last few weeks opening my trap. Sure, I've been crazy busy ever since the Clarinatrix and I got back from Russia late November, but somehow not blogging became more fun than regular posting. Trouble is, I have a weekly sounding board; anything more becomes a chore. At some point I need to write about Russia and specifically the two excellent shows I saw brilliantly staged by rising director Dmitry Krymov.

Naturally, my return from La Russe prompted the spontaneous resolution of the stagehand strike. Since then, I've been busy reviewing various fine offerings, including August:Osage County and The Seafarer.

The Homecoming and Beckett Shorts were uneven but worth catching.

I picked my top shows of 2007 here.

In other news, 2008 promises to be a busy one, with a new book in the works about Spring Awakening and a book proposal for St. Martin's Press that an editor requested. Plus the regular freelancing at NY1. This June the new Best Blays Yearbook comes out with an essay on Blackbird by yours truly.

On the creative side of the ledger, I'm immersed in a libretto for a one-act opera in collaboration with this guy that will premiere in the U.K. this summer, courtesy of this company. Also, I'm sketching out a full-length play that Project Shaw commissioned. All very exciting & terrifying.

Otherwise, um…go Obama and Huckabee!